And finally, his birthday dessert.
Joel loves peanut butter. He also loves ice cream. I asked him which one he loved more and after some thought, he answered peanut butter. With that, I knew I’d finally make the peanut butter pie–the one that moved so many people to make pies for their loved ones.
This pie was so simple, didn’t require any baking and wasn’t too sweet for my tastes. I really enjoyed putting it together. The morning after his birthday party, I topped a piece of pie with sliced bananas. He looked at me and said I have to make this again next year. I’d say that’s a success! Read more…
Across the street from our neighborhood bar, there’s a bakery that sells super delicious cinnamon snap cookies. However, they cost $1.25 per small, albeit appropriately sized, cookie. Because I find myself thinking more and more like my mom, I balked at the price (though I truly do understand the high costs of doing business in San Francisco). I figured I could make dozens of cookies myself for a fraction of the price that were just as good…and I was right!
If you love gingersnaps, you’ll also love cinnamon snaps (recipe from Simply Recipes). The dough is easy to put together, doesn’t require any specialty ingredients and freezes quite well. My log wasn’t very uniform…in fact it kind of looks like a turd, but I assure you it tastes much, much better! Though my frozen dough slices weren’t round, the cookies came out of the oven a little roundish (aka just fine). Keep an eye on your cookies as they bake because they seem to burn more easily than other cookies. Read more…
This isn’t a recipe or even a pretty picture…but its a damn good dessert, especially right now. I’ve been singing about peaches for several weeks and will continue to do so! Sliced, fresh peaches at their peak from (where else?) the farmer’s market with a scoop of honey cinnamon custard (found at Whole Foods). Often, the sugars in ice cream overpower the natural sugars of fruit, but somehow we hit the perfect balance with this one.
I think my midwestern boy’s opinion of fruit as a dessert is slowly changing…
I made these for our 4th of July BBQ with fresh blueberries from the farmer’s market. I don’t usually eat a lot of blueberries but Joel buys a quart every weekend from the same vendor. I really liked watching the blueberries explode in the oven! Not too sweet (for me) and well received by those with sweet tooths! They were great as is, but I’m sure they’d also be awesome hot out of the oven with some ice cream or a big dollop of whipped cream.
The recipe is directly from Smitten Kitchen. Note: my only modification was to use 5 cups of fruit for a fruitier bar. Head over there for step-by-step instructions. Read more…
Shortcakes served the next day with fresh berries, figs & longans
I love stone fruit season! Peaches have been amazing at the farmer’s market and I’ve been eating at least two peaches a day. For dinner last weekend, I wanted to serve a dessert that would highlight these perfect peaches.
While the peaches & shortcake aren’t pictured as originally served (I don’t usually pause for good photos at restaurants or when we have guests over), I made deliciously not-too-dry and not-too-sweet shortcakes to go with fresh peaches and a little orange sugar. This is a simple recipe that takes very little time and is so much better than those spongy shortcakes at the grocery store. Next time, I’ll make a candied ginger sugar instead of an orange sugar to top them!
Orange zest sugar to top the shortcakes…I used the extra to flavor the peaches
Shortcakes fresh out of the oven. I only ended up with six but would make them half the size next time.
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