Dark Chocolate Tart with Espresso Whipped Cream

I totally fan-girled last week when I realized my pastry chef crush David Lebovitz had pinned my Earl Grey Lavender Lemon Tart.  To celebrate, I wanted to create a fresh take on the cream-topped tart.  You know those amazing dreams you have when you can fly?  This Dark Chocolate Tart with Espresso Whipped Cream is what your morning coffee dreams it can do.  A chocolate crust, not-too-sweet dark chocolate filling topped with luscious swirls of deep espresso flavored whipped cream.  It’s rich and it’s elegant.  In my house, it’s also breakfast. Continue reading “Dark Chocolate Tart with Espresso Whipped Cream”

Realistic Rock Cookies

These realistic rock cookies are so fun and surprisingly straightforward and forgiving to create! Once your cookies are baked and dipped in royal icing, you dilute food gel dye in vodka and just sweep, dot and stripe the cookies willy nilly. The surface of the icing is eaten away by the vodka, roughening the surface. These would be a great gift for the rockhounds in your life, or people you secretly think should eat rocks. Win-win!

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Chocolate Ganache and Red Currant Tart

Fancy Foraging

I love to forage in my urban neighborhood for yummy things I can bake up into an elegant dessert. I’ve foraged violets, spruce, dandelions, and maple leaves in an area of just a few blocks of my home. My mom, who lives on a wonderful piece of land with oodles of amazing edible plants, had some red currants growing and offered some to me. I made them into this simple jam used it to cover a foolproof chocolate tart. Topped with a just-right layer of stabilized whipped cream and dusted with cocoa, this Chocolate Ganache and Red Currant Tart has lovely visual appeal and tastes incredible. I shared with the neighbors and received several texts that simply said, “Grooooaaannnnn” and “Good Lord!” I think that means they liked it.

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Bourbon Butterscotch Pie with Molasses Whipped Cream

Thanksgiving Pie Perfection

My quest for the perfect Thanksgiving pie is over. This Bourbon Butterscotch Pie with Molasses Whipped Cream is going to make you a dessert table hero. Rich and buttery with deep butterscotch flavor, the brown sugar and molasses help cut the sweetness and a crust sturdy enough to resist sogginess. If you’re looking for a non-pie Thanksgiving dessert check out this Cranberry Curd Tart with White Chocolate Mousse, but if you want pie, this is your new best friend.

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Cranberry Curd Tart with White Chocolate Mousse and Biscoff Cookie Crust

Cranberry curd tarts have been all the rage since a recipe was posted on NYT Cooking last fall. I wanted to try the curd for my Thanksgiving dessert this year but didn’t want to eat an entire tart full of curd. That just seems like overkill for Thanksgiving.

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Pumpkin Pie with Chocolate Ganache

This super sexy fall pie is half pumpkin pie and half chocolate ganache tart. Graham cracker crust, spicy pumpkin filling, and rich chocolate ganache, all topped with real chocolate leaves. This pumpkin pie with chocolate ganache is “the one.”

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Dandelion Lemon Bars

I have been very impatient for spring this year. It’s been exceptionally cold in Chicago and everything has just been talking for-ev-er to come up.  So when I saw the first bursts of yellow dotting the yards of the lazy I got super excited!  I could almost hear Oprah announcing her next guest.  Please welcome, Spriiiiinnnnnggg!   Continue reading “Dandelion Lemon Bars”

Easter Egg Cookies-Pussy Willows and Speckled Eggs

These simple and beautiful Easter egg cookies are dipped in royal icing and speckled with edible metallic paint. The pussy willow design is made by piping tiny chocolate branches and sprinkling little drops of white icing with sparkling sugar. They look all fuzzy!

Pussy Willow Speckled Egg CookiesMan do I hate making royal icing.  I hardly ever do.  Most of the cookies I make, I just work the designs around what colors are available in Betty Crocker cookie icing.  But a friend of mine whose family ran a bakery posted some pics of cookies she had dipped in icing and they looked so lovely I thought I’d give it another try.  Royal icing is a simple mix of egg whites, powdered sugar and extract or lemon juice.  No big deal, right?  Am I not the Master Of All Baked Goods?  Do I not bleed icing?

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Easy Chocolate Bird Nests

Chocolate Zero to Chocolate Hero:

I accidentally made the best little chocolate bird nests!  Last week I was trying to make some chocolate curls with butterscotch chips to decorate the top of a chocolate and salted caramel cake.  I usually make chocolate curls by spreading melted chocolate onto the back of a cookie sheet and freezing it for about 1 minute.  Then I take it out and scrape it off with a wide spatula to create big lovely curls.  Sorta like this.  But because I’m always trying to do too many things at once (As I write this I am making a phone cake and eating lunch) I forgot about them in the freezer and when I took out the cookie sheet, the butterscotch mixture was frozen solid.  Because I am an optimist, I thought I’d try to make curls anyway.  This is what happened: Continue reading “Easy Chocolate Bird Nests”

Glazed Gingerbread Cookies

Glazing your gingerbread cookies is a deceptively simple way to create delicate and impressive patterns on your gingerbread cookies. The textured dough, once baked, gets brushed with a simple powdered sugar glaze and allowed to dry and crystallize.

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