From the category archives:

Cookies • Bars • Brownies

Emergency Cookies

05.19.2010
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BEST LAID PLANS often go awry, especially in a house that shelters a seven-year-old boy. Well, let it be said: a seven-year-old boy plus a forty-something man, plus me—the only one here with double-X chromosomes and plummeting estrogen levels. Sometimes the plan is for nothing other than a calm morning or evening, and yet . . [...]

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Kokkinopefti: Red Eggs and Koulouria

04.01.2010
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THE RED FALLS. In Greek you say Kokkinopefti, and this very literal, symbolic description serves as one popular name for the day, Holy Thursday. The red comes down, washing what it may. In this case, eggs for Easter.
In Greece on Great Thursday—what some call Maundy Thursday in English (and which, when I was little, I heard [...]

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Sweet Matcha Ladyfingers (Savoiardi)

02.27.2010
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Steep some lady’s-fingers nice in Candy wine [ . . . ] And sponge my forehead,—so my love doth make me pine.
— John Keats, “The Cap and Bells; or, The Jealousies: a Faery Tale – Unfinished” (1820)
LADYFINGERS: remedy for the lovesick heart? Perhaps, if you’re a fairy king enamored of a mortal lady, as is [...]

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O Canada! O Nanaimo!

01.27.2010

PASS THE TORCH. There’s a new Daring Baker in town, and she’s on her way to British Columbia, Canada. Well, not really. Armchair (or kitchen) travel is the only kind I’m doing at the moment. I’d say “unfortunately,” except that there’s nothing unfortunate about today’s culinary excursion—a gooey, creamy, chocolatey, crunchy foray into bliss—no, nothing [...]

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Gluten-Free Grahams

01.27.2010

I EAT WHEAT. Despite what I know about the detrimental effects of too much “white stuff,” I really can’t imagine ever giving up wheat. Ditto for the other two members of the nutritionist’s axis of evil, sugar and salt. Thankfully I don’t have to imagine it, not for the foreseeable future. My body has no [...]

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How a Baker Says Thank You

01.19.2010

MY MOTHER ALWAYS SAID it’s bad luck to return an empty container. Or if not bad luck, then bad form. If you end up with someone’s loaf pan or pie plate in your kitchen, then wash it carefully and find a way to fill it—with gratitude, but also with a treat to pay back the [...]

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Kudos (& Brownies) for MastihaShop

12.20.2009
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I LOVE ANNIVERSARIES—any excuse to celebrate a milestone, light a candle, or bake something sweet in which to stick said candle. The year draws to a close, and it’s time to do two things: articulate plans for the future, yes, but not before putting the workaday world on hold just long enough to honor yourself [...]

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Anise-Orange Biscotti with White Chocolate and Fennel Pollen

10.24.2009

ANISE AND ORANGE. They place me outdoors in a patch of sunlight, glass of ouzo at arm’s length on a marble-topped table. In Athens’ public squares, the scent of orange blossoms hangs heavy in the air after spring rain slakes the trees. Few things (besides olives and figs) call up my visits to Greece—layovers in [...]

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