Classics
…according to The Husband- because it’s our ten year anniversary today (it’s okay, I know it might have slipped your mind. You can overnight us something silver, like a dessert platter; it doesn’t have to arrive today, per se.) Well, this is the list of what I think are his Top 10 ‘More Sweets, Please’ desserts, […]
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Fair warning: I have extolled the virtues of simplicity time and time again, and I’m going to wax on about it again in this post. So if you’re not up for a soliloquy on the beauty of a simple thing like vanilla cake with vanilla icing, skip to this post on the Fudgy Orange Brownie […]
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Chocolate chip cookies are fiercely competitive with one another. And why blame them? Everyone likes a good chocolate chip cookie, so cookies have had to step up their game. In a cut-throat cookie world where Google lists about 11 million links to “best chocolate chip cookies”, how does a binge-seeking baker separate the Toll House “please the masses” […]
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I was made aware of some profoundly disturbing news the other day through a one-liner email from my friend Sharon:
“Did you hear about the world wide vanilla shortage?”
I swallowed hard. I hadn’t heard the news.
As a baker who goes through a significant amount of vanilla (the good vanilla, the Nielsen-Massey Madagascar Bourbon vanilla bought by the quart), this was not a happy, smiley-face-emoticon kind of email to read. So what’s a girl with a penchant for the good stuff to do, when it’s on the brink of extinction? You do what they did during the days of prohibition- you go hogwild. You make the most special vanilla recipe you have, and celebrate every last tiny bean before the pasty chefs start bootlegging vanilla into the country (and carrying guns).
So- what special dessert to choose? Crème brûlée is special, and not just because it has three different accents in its title.
No, this dessert tops the favorite list for many (other than raging chocoholics) for many delectable reasons:
* It’s one part creamy, one part crunchy. This stunning juxtaposition of textures makes for some serious cravings.
* It’s fun. Breaking through the caramelized sugar crust with a spoon is unexplainably entertaining. (It helps that the custard waiting for you underneath the crunchy roof oozes a bit through the sugar shards that are left behind.)
* It tastes freaking amazing. That might be the only reason that matters, folks.
Be prepared to swoon, chocolate lover.
This is the chocolate cake recipe that you will adopt as your own, so you might as well print it out right now and laminate it. You’ll bake this cake for your own birthday parties (tacky, but worth it), you’ll start eating it for breakfast (if you happen to have a piece left over in the morning), and you’ll find yourself craving it in the middle of the night when you get up to go to the bathroom (explaining why you might not have any left for breakfast).
This is the chocolate cake that’s decadently dense and rich- so much so that I was told “I love these brownies!” when serving last week (don’t get me started on brownies- I am forever married to the World’s Greatest Fudge Brownie recipe and can’t fathom a cakey brownie as an acceptable dessert experience). And how appropriate is it to slather a fudgy cake with an even fudgier icing- one that literally pours over the cake in a strangely seductive fashion? Oh, it’s appropriate, and it’s happening in this recipe.
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I am a believer that no better smell can come from an oven than a perfectly-baked plain-jane shortbread cookie. This is a very big statement. And yet it’s surprising to me, because the basic shortbread is nothing more than butter, sugar, salt and flour creamed together into a seemingly innocent dough. How is this possible?
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Carrot cake has always held a special place in my heart. (It has also been known to hold a special place on my belly over the years, but that’s another story.)
When playing the “If You Were on Death Row and Had to Choose Your Last Meal, What Would It Be?” game, carrot cake would make the cut. (Carrot cake or a deep, rich pecan pie. Or something caramelly and chocolatey, oozing together. Sorry- carried away there for a sec.)
The 4 Keys to a Kick-Ass Carrot Cake:
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This one’s a winner.
If you like your banana bread dense and bananaey and amazing, then get yourself ripening a bunch of bananas pronto. The riper the banana, the better the bread. Truer words have never been spoken.
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This one amazes me.
I like to think that the most popular desserts are the ones that you have to work hard for, but I’m amazed every holiday season when I make this pantry standby. People go nuts for this easy-to-make dessert (seriously- they are just about as easy to make as Rice Crispy treats- another shocking crowd-pleaser), so who am I to argue with an easy recipe? Easy + loved by all = More Sweets, Please favorite.
(Oh, and give the recipe a shake up this year like I did… use a crumbled cookie as the base instead of a Saltine. It screws up the name of the dessert, but I can overlook that.)
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I’m a little bit embarrassed to post this recipe, but screw it.
Maybe I’m a teeny bit snobby when it comes to desserts (something I don’t work at being, but when you learn the merits of baking things from scratch… it happens?). I was raised on (glorious) birthday cakes that my Mom taught me how to make from an early age. Her inspirations were Betty Crocker & Duncan Hines- so clearly I wasn’t brought up to be a sweets snob. As much as I think the right thing to do these days is to bake a cake with an old-school recipe from a grandmother, let’s be honest- Betty & Duncan have their s*@t together.
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