From the category archives:

Desserts

Chocolate Walnut Fig Cake With Grappa & Cardamom Cream

02.12.2010
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FORGET THE KIDS. They’re sleeping (maybe at Nona’s house). Or there aren’t any. My Friendship Day Marshmallows post was for them. This, though . . . This is for adults only.
For all my soapbox talk about how anyone—coupled, single; young, old, or in between—should be able to celebrate Valentine’s Day, it is still true that [...]

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Friendship Day Marshmallows

02.10.2010
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WHAT’S WRONG WITH KIDS celebrating Valentine’s Day? Despite having an adequately tuned radar when it comes to inclusive and “politically correct” language, I confess that I don’t understand the problem with using the term “Valentine’s Day” in elementary school. Maybe the taboo is particular to my son’s school; if not, then I guess it’s a [...]

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Crêpes Not Groundhogs

02.03.2010

YESTERDAY I WAS FRENCH. Double nationality is nice that way: you can opt in and out. Sort of. If not in all bureaucratic matters, then at least culturally. Certainly in terms of cuisine. Yesterday, the second day of February, provided the perfect opportunity for me to jump the American ship, don a beret (no, not [...]

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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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Epiphany: the Galette des Rois

01.05.2010

I ALWAYS ASSUMED that Christmas ended a minute past 11:59 on the night of December twenty-fifth. I grew up, probably like most American children, thinking that the Twelve Days of Christmas started in mid-December and built to a climax on the day we opened gifts and (not always) dragged ourselves out in the cold to [...]

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“Blue Grey” Chocolate Truffles

12.27.2009

‘TWAS THE NIGHT before Christmas, and all through the house . . . Or at least in the kitchen, I was stirring up the scents of simmering cream, bittersweet chocolate, and black tea with bergamot.

It’s been four or five years since I last made these Earl Grey truffles. The recipe (which I will loosely describe [...]

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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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Holiday Tea Donation

12.12.2009

TODAY I DELIVERED two large grocery bags of homemade treats to the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church (FAPC), here in New York—the culmination of many hours of baking with the aim of bolstering the buffet at the annual Women’s Association Holiday Tea. During the past few weeks, the apartment has been perfumed with ginger, cinnamon, orange, [...]

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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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