Triple Layer Cheesecake

A cake sitting on top of a wooden board.

This cheesecake, from Maida Heatter’s Book of Great Chocolate Desserts is one of her creations where one wonders – how did she do that?   How did she get the layers to stay apart during mixing and baking?  It all begins with a basic vanilla-flavored cheesecake batter. I use my classic Cheesecake recipe, which is based…

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Budapest Bundlettes

Four donuts on a wooden tray with icing.

Among Maida Heatter’s many contributions to the American dessert repertoire was her recipe for Budapest Coffee Cake. It appeared in her first book in 1974, and by the late 1970’s and early 1980’s it was on the counter, under many different names, in specialty food stores across the country.  The original Budapest was baked in…

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Budapest Coffee Cake

A bundt cake with icing on top.

Budapest Coffee Cake features layers of a luscious sour cream cake batter with a brown sugar and chopped walnut filling. In the original recipe, from 1974’s Maida Heatter’s Book of Great Desserts, there were four layers of cake and three of the filling. To achieve the four layers of cake batter, meant spreading the layers…

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Chocolate Mousse Torte

A white plate with a cake on it.

This torte, from legendary baking book author Maida Heatter, was awarded the New York Times Dessert of the Year Award in 1972. Much has changed in the world of food since then, but this torte remains a wonderful dinner party dessert for chocolate lovers.  In this unique creation, part of the mousse is baked in…

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Instructions for Budapest Coffee Cake

A bundt cake with icing on top.

Print Chocolate Mousse Torte Yield: One 9†pie pan # of Servings:  8 to 10 Ingredients8 oz chocolate1 tsp instant coffee (optional) ¼ cup boiling water2 8 egg yolksâ…“ cup sugar (2.4 oz / 68 g)1 tsp vanilla extract 8 egg whites Pinch saltâ…“ cup sugar (2.4 oz / 68 g)  1 ½ cups heavy cream …

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Budapest Bundlettes

A tray of blueberry bundt cakes on a wooden table.

Print Budapest Bundlettes Yield: 6 bundlette cakes # of servings:  6 Method: Creaming Ingredients Nut filling:    ¼ cup + 2 tbl (5.25 oz / 149 g) firmly packed dark brown sugar 1 tsp (.15 oz / 4 g) ground cinnamon  1 ½ tsp (.1 oz / 3 g) cocoa powder 1 ½ tbl (.6 oz…

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The Friday Baking Project Kugelhopf

PRINT Yield: 1 9†Kugelhopf  # of Servings: 10 Ingredients: ½ oz (2 envelopes / 5 tsp) active dry yeast ¼ cup warm water, 102 °F to 108 °F 4 cups less 2 tbl (18 oz / 510 g) bread or all-purpose flour ¼ cup + 1 tbl (2.3 oz / 65 g) sugar1 ½…

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Kugelhopf

A bundt cake sitting on top of a black plate.

The April Viennoiserie series finishes with Kugelhopf, a wonderful yeast bread whose exact European origins are as unclear as the name itself.  Looking through various old Austrian, German, and French baking books one sees Gugelhupf, Gugelhopf, Guglhupf, Kouglof, and Kugelhupf. While the “correct” spelling remains a mystery, it became clear during my research that there…

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Brioche

A basket full of pastries sitting on top of a counter.

Brioche and croissant are both Viennoiserie (breakfast pastries) but the preparation is quite different. Croissant dough calls for multiple folds of a simple yeast dough and butter (lamination) for its distinctive flakiness, while Brioche owes its softness and tenderness to the butter and eggs that are added directly to the dough. It is an extremely…

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Pain aux Raisins

pile of pain raisins on black plate

Before opening my retail pastry shop in Vineyard Haven, I baked for an extended summer season out of the porch of my house in Chilmark. In addition to producing desserts for several island restaurants, a daily assortment of Viennoiseries came out of my commercial convection oven. While they were primarily sold at Alley’s General Store,…

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