Search Results for: pound cake

The Best Chocolate Pound Cake | My Mom’s Recipe

Watch my chocolate pound cake web story here. So far I’ve made Jenni’s chocolate pound cake twice. What a great recipe! I followed Jenni’s instructions all the way through and now I have a recipe I am proud to serve.Reader and Pound Cake Lover Susan And here's a photo of Susan's cake, used with permission. Look how beautiful! What Makes This Recipe So Great This was my Aunt Charlotte's favorite cake. Mom used to make her one every year, and every year, this sainted woman hoarded ... continue reading...

Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pound Cake | Like a PopTart, But Cake!

Brown Sugar-Cinnamon Pound Cake I developed this brown sugar cinnamon version of my master pound cake recipe because I have always liked the idea of brown sugar cinnamon Pop-Tarts. But then I'd eat one and it would be dry and stupid, and I'd be sad. This cake has all the flavor of a brown sugar cinnamon Pop-Tart, but it's so much better. It is moist and tender and wonderful. Before I get to the recipe, I want to make sure you'll have success making it. Please watch the video ... continue reading...

The Best Whipping Cream Pound Cake Recipe

Watch my best whipped cream pound cake recipe web story here. Modifications to My Master Pound Cake Recipe Should you care at all, I wanted to let you guys know that this is the second version of my famous-in-my-own-mind pound cake. The first version of my pound cake recipe is pretty excellent as is, but I made a couple of modifications: I used a mixture of 2 parts white sugar and 1 part brown sugar (I used Summer Dessert Week's sponsor, Dixie Crystals Brown Sugar)For the original 1 ... continue reading...

Lemon Corn Buttermilk Pound Cake | The Best Summer Pound Cake

A Love Affair with Pound Cake I love pound cake. I mean, really love it. I have a whole category dedicated to pound cakes on the blog, and I like to come up with new flavors almost every time I make it. My two most recent pound cake updates are my whipping cream pound cake and brown sugar cinnamon pound cake. A few years ago, I toyed with the idea of writing a cookbook all about pound cake, and while I have since decided I don't think I have a cookbook in me right now, I have quite a few ... continue reading...

Chocolate Espresso Pound Cake

Pound cake. I have made so many that I have my standard formula memorized. I will show you. 13 oz cake flour18-20 oz sugar (depending)12 oz (3 sticks) butter5 large eggs10 oz some combination of dairy or other liquids1 teaspoon baking powder plus a bit of soda if I'm using acidic ingredients1 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt The rest is just flavorings and/or add-ins. You don't technically even need the leavening, but I do like to use just a bit as insurance. For reference, when making a ... continue reading...

Thai-Inspired Blueberry Lemongrass Pound Cake (Nancie Cake)

I am pretty sure you need to make this blueberry lemongrass pound cake. A mash up of Southern and Thai flavors, it's my ode to my friend Nancie McDermott. If you love the lemon/blueberry flavor combination, you may also enjoy this Blueberry Lemongrass Ice Cream or these Blueberry Lemon Clafoutis. Celebrating Nancie The brightest eyes, the biggest heart, the best laugh, the widest smile. This is Nancie McDermott.1 Traveler, writer, baker, cook. Student, teacher, maker, friend. We gathered in ... continue reading...

Citrus Explosion Pound Cake for the Peoplehood of the Traveling Swirly Pan Project

This is a fantastic citrus pound cake bursting with orange and lemon flavor. The post definitely needs updating, but the cake is fantastic. And for you pound cake super fans, I've rounded up all my pound cake recipes in one place on the blog! It has been dreary and overcast for four days here. I am enjoying the cool weather while it lasts, because I am very aware of how stifling and uncomfortable it will be when the thermometer gets pinned to 100F for a few weeks in the summer. It is Spring, ... continue reading...

Mocha Caramel Pound Cake for The Beloved

NOTE: This post contains a story about how I met my husband. I will never remove this section of this post. If you'd prefer not to read it, please scroll on past it or use the "Jump to Recipe" button at the very top of the post. Or just click here. Thanks! When Jenni Met The Beloved When I saw the boy with the Odd Hair sitting by himself in the dining hall the first day of freshman year, I had no idea that one day he would become The Beloved. Maybe he already was The Beloved and I ... continue reading...

The Best Lemon Pound Cake | For Serious Lemon Lovers

Watch my best lemon pound cake web story here. Hi Jenni, I love this recipe so much. Thanks to you I got the highest grade for my external exam using this recipe.Reader and Culinary Student Donna Learning the Basics Allows You To Be Creative You guys know that I'm all about the basics, right? How ingredients function, how to get them to do what I want them to do, how to mix them properly---all of these Science-y things that most folks find intimidating, I find fascinating. And once ... continue reading...

Espresso Spice Pound Cake

This espresso pound cake recipe is excellent even though the post could use a bit of a touch up. I do hope you'll try it, and I will be updating the recipe soon. Another good on to try is my mocha caramel pound cake recipe. And for you pound cake super fans, I've rounded up all my pound cake recipes in one place on the blog. Thanks for stopping by! Close your eyes. OK, not really, because then you won't be able to read. So, Pretend close your eyes and listen to ... continue reading...

Strawberry Moscato Cake | The Perfect Summer Pound Cake

Sometimes Ideas Start on Twitter Right?! How can you say no? The lovely Terra from Cafe Terra said, "Hey, we should make that thing." So I went to look. And was a little sad, because the recipe started with Yellow Cake Mix. I'm not a cake mix person, so no thanks. But still. Moscato Cake. How good does that sound?! And I make pound cakes. A lot of them. What's to stop me from putting some wine in my pound cake? Nothing. I tweeted back to Terra--I don't wanna make a box cake. And she ... continue reading...

Coconut Banana Pound Cake with Nutella Glaze (or The Perfect Cake for #NellysBigDay)

I promise this is a most excellent recipe for banana pound cake even though the post needs some updating. Still, the recipe is delicious, and I hope you give it a try. And for you pound cake super fans, I've rounded up all my pound cake recipes in one place on the blog! Weddings are wonderful, joyous occasions, and most brides plan and plan until their eyes bleed--choosing just the perfect venue, the Most Fabulous flowers, the Awesomest first dance song, and of course, the ... continue reading...

Delicious Pineapple Upside Down Pound Cake

Variations on the Classic Pound Cake The pound cakes that I make are not traditional in the sense that they don't contain equal parts of flour, sugar, butter, and eggs. But they are traditional in the sense that all my pound cake recipes start with one main recipe that I then alter to make other flavors. Here are the ingredients and amounts for my (perfect) pound cake recipe: 12 oz butter19 oz granulated sugar1 slightly rounded teaspoon sea salt2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla (best quality)5 ... continue reading...

Cinnamon Orange Pound Cake–Pushing Back the Darkness with Pure, Simple Goodness

This cinnamon orange pound cake recipe is excellent. I do hope you give it a try. And for you pound cake super fans, I've rounded up all my pound cake recipes in one place on the blog! The first week in August, 2011 is behind me, and I was enjoying watching it recede in my rear-view mirror. It was a rough one, what with losing Woods and my friend's daughter's diagnosis with leukemia, a disease with which my family is achingly familiar. As I turned on the computer this morning to check email, ... continue reading...

The Anita Bryant Sunshine Pound Cake: Every Pound Cake I Bake, I Bake It For You

Okay, I might be the only game in town that revisits the humble pound cake on a regular basis. But, you'll thank me. Honest. Soon, all of you I Don't Bake people will be riffing on the basic pound cake and coming up with All Manner of Variations because I refuse to let the subject go. You're welcome. So, here's how this most recent pound cake came about. You guys heard about my lovely Auntie Ev, right? Well, she passed away last Thursday morning, and The Beloved and I went to Pinehurst to ... continue reading...

Creamsicle Pound Cake: Pound Cake Certification Class

One of the many pound cake recipes on my site, this wonderful creamsicle pound cake post needs a bit of an update, but the recipe is really good! If you're a pound cake fan, you can find all my pound cake recipes in one place on the blog! Yes, The University of Pastry Methods and Techniques (Mascot: Sta-Puft Marshmallow Man) is now offering another class. No more pussy footing about with Van Halen Pound Cake here and Sammy Hagar Pound Cake there. Oh, no--today, it's The Whole Enchilada. So, ... continue reading...

My Perfect Pound Cake Recipe | We Call It “Van Halen” Pound Cake

Patsy's Famous Pound Cake Recipe, Re-imagined by Me I told you guys I would be reporting on the making/baking/de-panning/eating of Miss Patsy's famous pound cake recipe, sent to me by friend and reader Cindy. I have been sworn to secrecy about the exact recipe, so I can't print that, but I can print my modifications. And where does Van Halen come in? I was invited to Mary Lou's house for New Years Day. She told me to bring something sweet. I told her, via facebook, that I would bring ... continue reading...

Basic Vanilla Pound Cake

Back to front: lemon, vanilla and cinnamon pound cakes. If you haven't noticed, I am a huge fan of pound cake. Huge! Other countries have their own versions, but I was raised in the American South, so for me, Southern Pound Cake is Where it is At. Baked in a tube pan or Bundt pan. I don't want my pound cake to look like a loaf a bread. It should make a Statement. There are pound cake variations all over this site, and you can read all about how Van Halen Pound Cake got its name here. But here is ... continue reading...

The Best Chocolate Stout Cake Recipe

Watch my best chocolate Guinness cake web story here. The Time I Made This Cake for My Culinary Hero In 2007, I was on the opening team at The Ravenous Pig, a gastropub in Winter Park, Florida. One Saturday a month, we'd have a pig roast for lunch with a set menu including roasted pig (obviously), collards, cornbread, a pint of beer, and a small square of chocolate stout cake for dessert. I was in charge of making the cornbread and the cake. In March of 2008, we got wind that ... continue reading...

Easy Rocky Road Cake Recipe | Rocky Road Sheet Cake

See my chocolate mayonnaise cake web story here. Cake, I Love You Jill O'Connor is one of my favorite people in the world. Not only does she write swoony cookbooks and a column for the San Diego Union-Tribune AND give talks to the Culinary Historians of San Diego AND appear on Home & Family, she is also Very, Very hilarious and a wonderful person. I love her. And I love cake. So when Jill's most recent book, Cake, I Love You, came out (it's now celebrating its first birthday!), I ... continue reading...

Easy Mint Chocolate Sheetcake Recipe

Watch my easy chocolate mint sheet cake web story here. Why Not a Layer Cake? Hey, I love a good layer cake. I'm all about a beautiful 3-layered red velvet cake or even a birthday ice cream cake, but sometimes, sheetcake is what is needed because it is: Easy to make--no dividing the batter between pansNo turning out of the panNo stacking or icing the sidesTakes less time Mint Oil or Mint Extract? This is a personal preference, but I like to stick to mint oil. Mainly because the ... continue reading...

Chocolate Chestnut Torte | A Sleek and Sexy Alice Medrich Cake

Cookbook Clubs Do you guys remember the cookbook clubs you could enter back in the late 80's and 90's? They'd send you a Thing in the mail and let you buy 8 cookbooks for a penny. When their mailing to Resident of the little blue house near the airport hit my hot little hands, they had found their target market. Keep in mind I was not a cook or a baker at the time. But I loved an oversized, glossy-paged cookbook full of sumptuous photographs and rules for making their dreamy subjects. ... continue reading...

Roasted Corn Cheesecake with Cranberry Blueberry Compote

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, please see my Disclosure Policy. Ken's Korny Corn Maze Party Every year, we hold a party to celebrate the fact that we live very close to a corn maze. We don't actually go to the corn maze. We just celebrate its profximity to our home. Everybody brings something to share, and the only rule is it has to contain corn in some fashion. With such a restriction, you'd think we'd end up with nothing but a bunch of corn pudding and ... continue reading...

The Best Nutella Cheesecake Recipe

...this was one of the most decadent desserts I have ever made, completely worth the effort and cooking it in the water bath makes all the difference!Pinner Lindsay What You'll Learn If You Read the Whole Post In this post, I'm going to tell you about how cheesecake is a custard, and how to make one that turns out smooth and dreamy with no cracks on top. I'll also tell you why lower heat is better than high heat when it comes to baking cheesecake, and why a water bath is so ... continue reading...

Brown Butter Blueberry Buckle | Easy Blueberry Coffee Cake

What Is Blueberry Buckle? Blueberry buckle is a blueberry-filled coffee cake with a fairly thick streusel topping. When it bakes up, the streusel sort of slumps in and some of the fruit bubbles up and the top generally has a buckled appearance. Like other old fashioned fruit desserts named for the sound they make while cooking (mixed cherry berry grunt, for example) or for how they look when they come out of the oven (cherry blueberry slump, plum cobbler), a buckle is a descriptive ... continue reading...

Chocolate Eclair Cake from Scratch

The Inspiration An eclair is a classic French pastry that traditionally has 3 components: pate a choux (or choux paste) that is baked up into crispy, hollow tubesrich vanilla pastry cream as the fillingchocolate glaze on top You would think that a "chocolate eclair" has chocolate filling, but nope. Folks call them chocolate eclairs because of the chocolate glaze on top. Two Types In the United States, there seem to be two main types of eclair cakes or eclair desserts. The first, ... continue reading...

Birthday Ice Cream Cake | Ice Cream Tuesday | Pastry Chef Online

As I surf around on facebook and instagram, and sometimes on twitter or Pinterest, I often find recipes and photos that inspire me. I will file away a a particular flavor profile or presentation to incorporate into a dish somewhere down the line. Other times though, a post will inspire me to stop what I'm doing and make something right away. While I rarely make anything exactly like the original, there are a few times I've stayed pretty close to the lines. This is one of those times. On ... continue reading...

Chocolate Cake Fillings | Tips, Techniques, Recipes

(Almost) everything you could want to know about chocolate cake fillings, all in one place! This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosure policy. Hi all. Elise asks, What is the difference between chocolate truffle, ganache, and chocolate mousse cake fillings? How do I know which to choose for my cake? This is a great question, partly because it's a question, and I love answering questions, but also partly because it illustrates an issue of semantics. And here ... continue reading...

Individual Pineapple Upside Down Cheesecake | Gluten-Free Cheesecake You Don’t Have to Share

Pineapple Upside Down Cake Pineapple Upside Down Cake is one of my beloved childhood desserts. Mom could whip one up very simply. Usually a two-egg yellow cake, but with pineapple juice in place of the milk in the recipe. A bed of brown sugar with rings of pineapple nestled in along with a neon red cherry in the center of each one. It was easy to portion and serve--everyone got a square with a circle of pineapple in it. I love the pineapple/brown sugar/cake combo so ... continue reading...

What Eggs Do In Baking | Function of Eggs In Cakes

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, please see my disclosure policy. What Eggs Do In Baking The egg is quite possibly the most versatile basic baking ingredient on the planet. I think it has to do with its having two parts: a fatty yolk and a proteiny, watery white. You can also use: just yolksjust whitesa combination of the two. Where to begin? Like Maria, I say let's start at the very beginning... Photo by Kelly Neil on Unsplash Egg ... continue reading...

1-2-3-4 Cake with Chocolate Ermine Frosting

The Best Birthday Cake Recipe The Beloved's lovely boss emailed a few days ago asking if I would make a small birthday cake for one of their coworkers. Of course I said "sure," because what's a birthday without a birthday cake? And what's better for a birthday cake than a 1234 cake? For me, not much at all. The magical 1-2-3-4 cake bakes up into the most delicious cake that falls somewhere between a pound cake and a "regular" cake in texture. The cake is sturdy enough to stack and frost ... continue reading...

The Creaming Method for Making Cakes and Cookies

I taught a cake class at a local cookware shop one time, and I demonstrated both genoise using the egg foam method and a 1-2-3-4 cake using The Creaming Method. Several people said that they had no idea that they should cream the butter and sugar for so long, and few were really aware that the temperature of the ingredients is almost as important as the ingredients themselves. Today, I'm going to go through the steps in detail, making sure to be as explicit as possible. If you can master the ... continue reading...

All the Cake Mixing Methods in One Place. You’re Welcome!

Why It's Important to Know the Mixing Methods Welcome to your page for finding information about all the cake mixing methods. Each short discussion of each mixing method also links to a longer, more in-depth discussion about each mixing method. I hope you find it helpful. Welcome to the PCO Hub for mixing methods for almost all cakes, cookies, and baked goods you can think of. No matter how good your recipe is, if you don't truly understand the fundamentals of how the cake mixing ... continue reading...

Naked Cake | Links to Naked Cake | 7-Minute Frosting

I originally wrote this post back in 2009, back before anyone was making "naked cake," or the new(ish) trend of barely skimming frosting onto a cake so the layers show through. Some naked cake only has frosting between the layers and none on the sides. I wrote this post to give you some quick ideas for frosting a cake rather than letting it be frosting-less. Tongue in cheek, you know? But now that naked cake is a Thing, I have actually made a couple, and I expect I may make more before the trend ... continue reading...

English Trifle Ice Cream for Ice Cream Tuesday

With its creamy custard base, raspberry jam swirl, and bits of sherry soaked cake, this English Trifle Ice Cream is a nod to our Auntie Ev's English trifle, but in ice cream form. Don't miss my round up of all my ice cream recipes. Our family lost our Auntie Ev four years ago. While we miss her every day, she is always in our hearts, and we know we can bring her spirit even closer by making the foods that were her signatures. Lemon pound cake. Plum pudding. Angel slices. Trifle. Oh, how I ... continue reading...

The Best Classic English Trifle Recipe

Watch my English Christmas trifle recipe web story here. What is a Trifle Trifle is a dessert dish made from thick (or often solidified) custard, fruit, sponge cake, fruit juice or jelly, and whipped cream. These ingredients are usually arranged in layers. --Wikipedia.org Why You Should Make This Trifle Recipe For me, it's the combination of flavors that make this particular English trifle work so well. Layers of sherry-soaked lemon pound cake drizzled, brushed, or splashed with ... continue reading...

French Vanilla Ice Cream Recipe (No-Churn)

Watch my French Vanilla No-Churn Ice Cream web story here. This ice cream is another winner for Miss Jenni! Brava!Reader Jane Why You Should Absolutely Make This Recipe First of all, French vanilla ice cream is fantastic. Rich, dense, creamy and perfectly vanilla-y. Plus custard-based ice cream is so dreamy. Even though this recipe is far from diet food, it does contain fewer egg yolks than most standard recipes. I call for 2 yolks in the whole batch, and many other recipes ... continue reading...

Fudgy Cocoa Powder Brownies Recipe

How Chocolaty Is Your Chocolate? When I want brownies, I want them now. But I also want real brownies. Boxes are for shoes, not for brownies. Or cakes. Or cookie mix. Shudder. I knew I didn't have enough unsweetened chocolate to make my Favorite Ever Brownie Recipe (thank you, kind folks at Cook's Illustrated). Since I didn't have any unsweetened chocolate, I opted for cocoa powder brownies. And that's what you should do, too. Why not substitute semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate? ... continue reading...

Peach Panzanella Recipe| Dessert Panzanella

My First Original Dessert This dessert was the first that I created myself when I was promoted to pastry chef at Luma on Park (now closed after almost 20 years. Alas.) I had had input on recipes before, and I had created what the chef or pastry chef had suggested, but this baby is all mine. And now it's yours, too! Dessert Peach Panzanella is obviously a play on the wonderful Italian salad, Panzanella which features torn bread, juicy tomatoes and sometimes other vegetables, a ... continue reading...

The Best Caramel Chocolate Pudding Recipe

Caramel + Chocolate = The Best There is something about caramel and chocolate that just works so well. Chocolate dipped caramels are wonderful for that reason. The smooth creamy chocolate is a lovely companion to the bitter edge and chew of the candy inside. And once you start chewing and those flavors meld in your mouth, well, you know what I'm talking about. That's why this chocolate pudding recipe starts with caramelizing the sugar, to get that complex, bitter edge as a base for ... continue reading...

Organic Caramel Vanilla Ice Cream | With Homemade Dulce de Leche

Make This Immediately! Friends, I am generally excited about food, but I have to tell you, you really must drop whatever you're doing right now and make this ice cream. That is how excited I am about this particular food. I will admit there is a bit of a process since you have to make homemade organic sweetened condensed milk first. It's made with organic palm sugar. Sweetened Condensed Milk or Dulce de Leche? If you cook your organic milk and sugar together to reduce the volume by ... continue reading...

Cranberry Fool with Grand Marnier Whipped Cream

What is a Fool? A fool is an English dessert, and it's one of the easiest desserts you'll ever make. But unlike mixing an egg into a cake mix and calling it cookie dough, this fast and easy dessert is made from all real food. All you have to do to make your fool is cook some fruit in a bit of sugar until it gets jammy, let it cool, and then fold it together with either some custard or some whipped cream. That's it. You're done! And you don't even have to fold completely--in fact, a fool ... continue reading...

Creamy Coffee Panna Cotta Recipe

The LBD of Desserts Seriously, panna cotta is a great dessert recipe to have in your back pocket. It only requires a few ingredients to make it, and once you get the procedure down, you can flavor it in tons of different ways. Flavors Aside from the lemon corn, cream cheese, and chocolate versions I mention in the introduction, here are some other flavor ideas for you: MatchaCaramelRaspberryStrawberryBlackberry (okay--all the berries)AlmondHazelnutLavenderRoseOrange ... continue reading...

Lemon Corn Panna Cotta | Light, Summery, Easy!

What Is Panna Cotta? Panna cotta is an Italian cream-based, gelatin-set dessert. Panna cotta means "cooked cream." Panna cotta can be served in bowls or jars as pictured, or you can turn them out to serve on a plate in a pool of sauce or garnished in any number of ways. The amount of gelatin you use has an affect on the texture of the dessert. Less gelatin will give you a very "wobbly" panna cotta that is very delicate and softly set. Using more gelatin will give a firmer set. If ... continue reading...

How to Make Hand Whipped Cream| It’s Easier Than You Might Think!

Watch my how to make whipped cream by hand web story here. Why whip cream by hand? I've whipped gallons of cream by hand (a little at at time!), and I promise you that it's not hard to do. Hand whipping allows you to control the speed at which you whisk and to vary that speed as your cream gets closer to being done. Since you build up all the bubbles more slowly, this will result in a more stable whipped cream. Reader Rave I just used this recipe for a topping for ... continue reading...

Pudding Chomeur Recipe | Sweet Dumplings in Maple Cream

What Is Pudding Chomeur? In all the years I took French in high school, I never learned the word chomeur. I learned words for window and bird and cow and school. Verbs to be, to do, to go. I learned places to work: Usine. Boulangerie. Bibliothèque. Hôpital. But never the word chomeur. So when I chose to make pudding chomeur after seeing a recipe for it on Food 52, I just thought it was some fancy Canadian dessert. And then I looked it up. And chomeur means unemployed. Friends, ... continue reading...

Spicy Succotash with Bacon and Fava Beans for Progressive Eats

Playing Catch Up with My Southern-ness I was born and raised in the south, but since my parents were both from Queens in New York City, I ate as a northerner at home. Southerners ate biscuits. We had soft dinner rolls. Southerners ate cheese grits. Mom served cream of wheat. Southerners ate chicken and flat or "slick" dumplings. When we had dumplings, ours were big and puffy and sat atop a fricassee. Don't get me wrong, friends. I love rolls, and I even like cream of wheat. ... continue reading...

Lazy Peach Sonker | A Cobbler by Any Other Name

I received a review copy of The Gluten Free Instant Pot free of charge. Thank you, Sara, and Jane! What Is a Sonker? A sonker is really pretty much the same thing as a cobbler. After doing a lot of research and eating a bunch of sonker in the home of sonkers--Surry and Wilkes Counties in North Carolina--there doesn't seem to be one standard for this homey fruit dessert. For my purposes, and mostly based on the best sonkers I've tried, sonker tends to be juicier than cobbler and made in ... continue reading...

Buttery Mini Brioche Buns with Idaho Potatoes

I have partnered with the lovely folks at the Idaho® Potato Commission to bring you this post and recipe for Buttery mini brioche buns. Thank you for giving consideration to the brands I work with. Considerations for Making Brioche with Potatoes For bread, brioche is delicate. For a cake, it is best described as a not at all sweet pound cake with a fine-textured crumb that is almost too buttery to be believed, but never too buttery to be enjoyed. Since the dough is so rich, yeast takes its ... continue reading...

Favorite Christmas Recipes | From My Kitchen to Yours

Hi, friends. I'm off to the hospital tomorrow, so today, I'm putting out this round up of favorite Christmas recipes in the hopes you will find something delicious to make for your holiday entertaining. Since I won't be doing a lot of sharing over the next few weeks, I am hoping that you will share any of these recipes that sound wonderful to you. Some of these recipes are recent and others are from the past couple of years. Some are sweet, and some are savory. All, I promise, are Very Tasty, ... continue reading...

Grilled Patriotic Pizza | Roasted Red Pepper, Blue Potato, and Goat Cheese

Full disclosure, this is the first time I have ever grilled pizza, and I think it went quite well. For a first time. I do suggest that, unless you have a (affiliate) gas grill with special zones, put all the coals on one side and grill your pizzas on the other. This prevents Black Bottom Syndrome (what? It's a thing.) as well as Cursing. Once I moved the coals over to one side, things went much more smoothly. And the pizza was fantastic, so there's that. Worth just a bit of cursing, I ... continue reading...

Smoked Caramel Pineapple Ice Cream | Progressive Eats

I really hated summer camp. And when I say I hated it, I am not kidding. I loathed it. I was the least sporty girl there, I'm sure. If I'd been a Spice Girl, my nickname would have been Anti-Sporty Spice. I was made to attend day camp for at least a handful of summers, and my camp experience culminated (nadir-ed?) in a one-week sleep-away camp called Camp Occoneechee. I have been reading all the comments from girls who camped at Camp Occoneechee for years and years and apparently ... continue reading...

How to Fix Broken Ganache (without changing its texture)

Why Does Ganache Break? Before we learn how to fix broken ganache, let's look at why it breaks in the first place. (And as an aside, here's how to make dark chocolate ganache in the first place.) Ganache is an emulsion of fat (both cocoa butter from the chocolate and the butterfat from cream) and water (from the cream) with wee bits of dry particles (the cocoa solids) evenly distributed throughout the mixture. When ganache breaks, it's very similar to what happens when chocolate ... continue reading...

Short-Cut Desserts for Unexpected Company | What Can I Do For You Wednesday

This week, Gwen poses a Scenario and asks for some ideas. I have a couple hours or unexpected guests are coming. What is a quick easy sweet something to make? I love this, because it means I get to put on my thinking cap and come up with some short cut desserts for unexpected company. For some more ideas and ease of browsing, here are all of my dessert sauces. If any of you guys would like to add to the list, please leave your ideas in the comments. Short Cut Desserts for Unexpected ... continue reading...

Must-Own Baking Cookbooks To Make Your Library Complete

Here is my list of the best, must-have baking cookbooks. These five cookbooks make my list because of the focus on technique in all of them. I have long said that a recipe is just a list of ingredients married to a list of techniques, so if you learn the techniques, you can make almost anything you can think of with nothing but an ingredient list. Grab copies of these incredibly instructive cookbooks for the bakers in your life. How is This List of Must-Have Baking Books Different ... continue reading...

Madagascar Bourbon, Mexican or Tahitian: Comparing Three Types of Vanilla

The Magic of Vanilla I am always amazed when people use the word vanilla as an adjective to describe something or someone who is plain, boring or lackluster. Vanilla is one of the most complex flavors around, containing upwards of 200 different flavor compounds. Due to the labor-intensive nature of its cultivation, harvest and processing, vanilla is also second only to saffron in cost, and the price has risen quite a bit over the last few years due to difficult growing conditions, ... continue reading...

Dessert Speaks for Itself: Blood Orange Caramel Sauce

Sometimes a dessert, or in this case a dessert sauce, feels so confident of its awesomeness that I have to let it speak for itself. This one thinks very highly of itself indeed. Take it away, blood orange caramel sauce. Allow me to introduce myself to you. I am the best caramel sauce ever. People say I have an Extremely High Opinion of myself, but they say it as if it were not the compliment that I know that it is. Of course I have an Extremely High Opinion of myself. ... continue reading...

I’ve Been Guest-Posty Lately. Wanna See?

Sometimes I help out a bloggy friend or two by writing a guest post for them when they're going to be away for awhile. It's a nice thing to do to help out a friend, plus I can maybe meet some new folks, and I like to meet new people. Since my guest posts might be the first and only thing of mine that my friends' readers have seen, I try to get across my Main Raison d'Etre sur Hinternets: techniques. I've written a couple of these technique-y posts that I just realized I haven't let you know ... continue reading...

My Kitchen Philosophy

I'm out here on the Internet for a reason. I don't want to be the Recipe Lady or the Cake Lady. Or even the Awesome Desserts Lady. I want to be the Lady That Helps People Feel Comfortable In the Kitchen. It's kind of a long title, but I really mean it. I want you to come here and find what you need to empower you to Go Forth and Bake, fearlessly. Or at least a little less fearfully. To that end, I've assembled all my crazy posts about my philosophy on cooking, baking, recipes, crazily expenisve ... continue reading...

Restaurant Style

Looking for ways to up your pastry game from homey to restauranty? You've come to the right place. Click on one of the categories below to find ways to take that dessert off the kitchen table and onto the chef's table at a fine dining restaurant. Or at least to your dining room table. At the end of the day, all of these categories are all about dessert plating. To get Really Good at it, you have to learn to look at desserts as an assembly of components. I hope you find this helpful when it comes ... continue reading...

Dessert Components: Pastry Dough, Part Deux

Click to read Part 1, addressing pie crust and laminated dough. Finally, I am getting around to Part 2 of the Big Old Subject of pastry dough. As I mentioned in Part: The First, this subject is much broader than One might think. When considering pastry dough, most folks think of pie crust and then call it a day. But there are so many more types of doughs out there than just "standard" pie crust. I loosely categorized them thusly: pie crust, laminated dough, yeast doughs and pate a choux. ... continue reading...

Sunday Suppers: Alton Brown’s Corn Dogs (Among Other Things)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHwasrpAx88&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b] [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wdjqXnixIY&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b]I am a sucker for a theme party. So, with Ken's Korny Corn Maze right around the corner from our new house, we knew that we'd eventually have to have a Ken's Korny Corn Maze Extravaganza. We did that Very Thing two weekends ago. The only rule was that every dish had to have ... continue reading...

Dymystifying Mona

Thanks to Niko from Damn Cute Bunnies (I love that) for sending in her particular Mona Lisa, Double Chocolate Layer Cake. Apparently, some have claimed it to be the Best Cake in the Hinternet. Not that she's mystified necessarily, but she wants to know if this will turn out to be a good cake--if it is balanced and all the ratios are correct and all the other Cakey Scientific things. Well, I am quite a fan of Cake, so I thought I would Go the Distance and check out this Storied Gateau. I won't ... continue reading...

What Does Salt In Baking Desserts Do (And Can I Leave It Out?)

This post is part of my ingredient function series and answers the question, among others, "What does salt do in baking?" This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see my Disclosure page. A few years ago, I went The Beloved and I went to dinner at a chain restaurant that shall not be named, and I ordered creme brulee for dessert while The Beloved ordered chocolate cake. Both desserts tasted very "flat," without much flavor or dimension. Why? Because they either did ... continue reading...

Seven Cool Whip Substitutes | Alternatives to Cool Whip

Why You May Want To Use an Alternative to Cool Whip The easiest way to illustrate why it's important to have a wide array of Cool Whip substitutes on hand is to answer some questions about Cool Whip. Then you can decide for yourself if you still want to buy it or make your own alternatives. So, while Cool Whip is indeed an alternative to whipped cream, it has a few marks against it. It isn't non-dairy, which also means it won't work for vegans.There are WAY too many weird ... continue reading...

Ingredient Function | Fat: What It Does and How It Works

NOTE: Originally posted in 2008 and updated on 2/6/2018 with photos and expanded information on coconut oil and lard. Why Is Fat Important? As far as I am concerned, fat is essential, both in cooking and in baking. Even a ludicrously fit person has maybe 10% body fat, so I am comfortable with this statement. We all need to consume a certain amount of fat. And no, the most healthy way isn't in a piece of cake or a slice of pie, but if you are going to occasionally make cake ... continue reading...

Honey Peanut Brittle Recipe

Watch my best peanut brittle web story here. Why This Recipe Works Peanut brittle is an easy candy to make, and this recipe is no exception. It's also easy to vary. Add extracts at the end of cooking, add spices, or change up your nuts. You can even make a mixed nut brittle. This recipe makes the perfect amount to spread out onto a half-sheet pan. The candy weighs in at around 2 pounds, which is a generous amount. Even so, you can double the recipe if you'd like with no issues ... continue reading...

Easy Mixed Berry Jam Recipe | No Added Pectin

What Makes This a French-Style Jam? The short answer is that this jam is packed with fruit, is lower in sugar than a traditional American-style jam, and doesn't have extra pectin in it. It's thickened only with the natural pectin present in the fruit and the thickening you get from reducing the jam on the stove. NOTE: By and large, traditional French jams are made using just one type of fruit, so this mixed berry version is a hybrid, but it's a delicious hybrid! So What Makes This ... continue reading...

What Does Yeast Do In Bread Baking?

What Is Yeast? Yeast are single-celled little fungi. Yeast live to eat sugar, make alcohol and produce gas. Oh, and reproduce. And that's pretty much their whole raison d'etre. Important Things to Know Please don't be intimidated by yeast. They are much smaller than you, and you have opposable thumbs and a forebrain. You are smarter than yeast, so fear not! There are a couple of Things to Know about yeast: 1)Like people, yeast doesn't like to be too hot or too cold. If ... continue reading...

The Best Sprouted English Muffins | Sprouted Whole Wheat Muffins

Lindley Mills Super Sprout™ Flour What do you think about when you hear "Whole Wheat English Muffins?" If you're anything like me, I'd think, "Ew. Dry. Quick, heap on the butter and drown it in jam!" Plus, store-bought English muffins are so thin that, by the time you split them, you can practically see through them, or one side is smaller than the other. I am here to tell you I have become a whole wheat English muffin convert thanks to Lindley Mills. They very kindly sent ... continue reading...

The Best Boston Brown Bread Recipe

Watch my best brown bread recipe web story here. Reader Rave Holy Moly this is good! Great recipe. Turned out perfectly. I did not let it cool for 2 hours. Are you kidding me with that one? Next time I will make it early in the day so I have the patience to let it cool. Perfection, JenniReader Susan I have long wanted to make a Boston brown bread for the blog. When I was little, my mom tells me I used to put on dress up clothes, grab a pocket book, and then tell my mom I was ... continue reading...

Apple Butter Vs Applesauce | Similarities and Differences, Recipes, and More!

As I was making apple butter for the second time in recent days, I wondered to myself, "What is the difference between applesauce and apple butter?" I figured if I was asking that question, maybe some of you were, too. What Is the Difference Between Applesauce and Apple Butter? After reading copious numbers of applesauce and apple butter recipes, I think I can narrow down the difference between applesauce and apple butter, at least a little bit. I think it's safe to say that applesauce ... continue reading...

Gluten-Free Chocolate Yule Log with Cran-Raspberry Filling

Watch my chocolate yule log web story here. A Brief History of the Yule Log The Yule log originally comes from Nordic tradition and was an entire tree that was burned during the winter solstice. And since some Scandinavians were Vikings who traveled far and wide to trade and to raid and eventually to settle down and farm, the Yule log tradition traveled with them. The history of the actual yule log cake--or buche de Noel in French--is a bit murky, but since hearths where the Yule ... continue reading...

What Is the Difference Between Butterscotch and Caramel?

Before we look at the difference between butterscotch and caramel, I'll take a minute to define butterscotch and caramel. Feel free to use the table of contents to jump down to sections you are most interested in. What is Butterscotch? Butterscotch in its purest form--candy--is similar to caramel but differs in three main ways. It does not have contain dairy (except for the small amount of milk solids in butter),it contains more butter than caramel does, which strictly speaking ... continue reading...

Champagne Yeast Brioche Bread | Progressive Eats

Friends, hi! It's Progressive Eats day, and this month, Jane from The Heritage Cook is hosting! Come see what we have going on for a New Year's Eve Blowout Celebration! (Spoiler Alert: I made champagne yeast brioche bread.) A New Year's Eve Extravaganza Welcome to another edition of Progressive Eats, our virtual version of a progressive dinner party where each course is held at a different home. With Progressive Eats, a theme is chosen each month, members share recipes suitable for a delicious ... continue reading...

Sweet and Spicy Marinated Grass Fed London Broil | #GotToBeNCBeef

Friends, have I got a treat for you today! I visited one of North Carolina's (surprisingly) many beef farms a couple of weeks ago, and I am here to tell you all about it in this sponsored post and offer you a wonderful, holiday meal recipe featuring NC Beef: Sweet and Spicy Marinated Grass Fed London Broil! Let's get on with it, shall we? Another beef recipe you might like are my beef carnitas. For ease of browsing, here are all of my meat recipes in one place. Thanks for stopping ... continue reading...

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Soft Buttery Dinner Rolls and More

As promised, here's a cheat sheet of ingredients you can steep in scalded milk to add flavor, and I've also included some ideas for what to make with your infused dairy. This cheat sheet is what I promised, but I have some more BONUS stuff for you, too! Click NEXT for another downloadable! A recipe for Perfect Soft, Buttery Dinner Rolls. Yum! ... continue reading...

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The Best Spaghetti Pie is Bucatini Pie!

Spaghetti Pie: Love at First Sight I first encountered spaghetti pie on Martha Stewart's cooking show years ago. It was a recipe ostensibly developed by Martha's friend Eleanora. Martha told us Eleanora came up with it as a way to use up leftovers, but I don't know anyone who calls 12 oz of sopressata "leftovers." Regardless, I dreamed about making this pie for years. I have no idea what took me so long to finally get around to making it. It's not hard to make. In fact, it's ... continue reading...

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