A cake sitting on top of a wooden board.

Triple Layer Cheesecake

05/16/2023

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…

Four donuts on a wooden tray with icing.

Budapest Bundlettes

05/10/2023

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…

Chocolate Mousse Torte

05/04/2023

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…

A bundt cake sitting on top of a black plate.

Kugelhopf

04/26/2023

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…

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

Brioche

04/19/2023

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…

Pain aux Raisins

04/11/2023

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…

Pain au Chocolat

04/05/2023

Pain au Chocolat combines two of the world’s best food creations; croissant and chocolate. Pastry shops use a 3-inch piece of chocolate, called a baton, for their pain au chocolat. For the home baker, slivers of chocolate cut from your favorite semi or bittersweet chocolate bar work fine. A warm…

Croissant

04/05/2023

When someone would ask me to name my favorite thing to bake at my Martha’s Vineyard pastry shop Seven Layers, the answer was easy – Croissant. I absolutely loved the process of making croissant as well as the time of day they were produced. I would arrive at the shop…