A pie topped with swirls of whipped cream on a glass plate.

Banana Cream Pie

03/14/2024

In this version of Banana Cream Pie, a chocolate wafer crust adds a delightful chocolate element to an American classic. A vanilla bean custard, fresh banana slices, and lightly sweetened whipped cream complete this luscious dessert. The old standby cookie for chocolate crumbs, Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers, is no longer…

A dusted bundt cake with a fluted design on a green glass plate.

Cream Cheese Vanilla Bean Pound Cake

02/26/2024

This cake epitomizes the essence of a kitchen cake – one you bake to keep around your kitchen, ideally under a glass dome, for snacking, tea time, or to share with friends who may drop by. It’s my favorite cake (so far) from the delightful book The Bundt Collection. Moist…

A tray of heart-shaped chocolate cookies decorated with white icing.

Chocolate Madeleines

02/07/2024

These delicious Chocolate Madeleines are rich and brownie like in taste. When baked in a heart-shaped madeleine tin (source below) they make an excellent dessert for valentine’s day. The filled molds can sit in the refrigerator for several hours prior to baking allowing you to get all the work done…

Three chocolate covered pastries on a plate.

Profiteroles

12/27/2023

Profiteroles, small choux puffs filled with vanilla ice cream and draped with a bittersweet chocolate sauce, are a fabulous dessert to have in your repertoire. They are equally wonderful for a large dinner soiree as they are for an intimate dinner for two. The puffs, crafted from the same P¢te…

A stack of doughnuts on top of a counter.

Croquembouche

12/19/2023

Croquembouche is one of the many classic French pastry dishes attributed to Antonin CarÃªme, known as the â€œking of chefs and the chef to kings.â€ He served as chef to French, Russian, and English royalty and aristocracy in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s. A recipe for this unique pastry…

A trifle with raspberries and whipped cream.

Raspberry Orange Trifle

12/13/2023

Trifle can be traced back to mid-nineteenth-century England as a dessert consisting of biscuits soaked in wine, layered with custard, and topped with whipped syllabubâ€“a sweet cream with added acid. Today there are countless versions of Trifle, many incorporating fresh berries for color and taste. In the place of the…

Gâteau Favorite

12/05/2023

This wonderful g¢teau is an example of how the addition of a single element to a classic cake elevates it to another level. In this case we add a layer of flourless Chocolate Souffl© Sheet to our Dacquoise, serving two purposes. One, it provides additional complexity, with the soft and…

Donuts with chocolate and white icing on a plate.

Black and White Cookies

11/29/2023

For those who grew up with the occasional bakery treat of a Black and White Cookie, this recipe should bring a smile to your face. There is something about this cake-like cookie, with the sweet vanilla and chocolate icing, that is simply fun to eat. In my version below, the…