BAKING

Cheesecake with Caramelized Apples

Cheesecake with Caramelized Apples

I serve this cheesecake cold with warm caramelized apples. It’s so good together! The contrast of flavours and textures in this dessert are heightened with the warm apples that have been slowly cooked.  It is not a sauce, but like a side dish of caramelized...

Pumpkin Shaped Alfajores

Pumpkin Shaped Alfajores

Melt in your mouth Alfajores get a bit of autumn flair when they are shaped like a pumpkin. The comfort of these cookies filled with dulce de leche seemed perfect with just a bit of cinnamon. Not everything fall has to have pumpkin in it, sometimes it is enough just...

Peach Filling

Peach Filling

Peach filling to make ahead and keep so you can enjoy baking with summer peaches longer. It is wonderful to have peach filling have on hand because it is so versatile and a nice unexpected surprise to have when it is not peach season.  Peach filling is also a...

Cherry Frangipane Tart

Cherry Frangipane Tart

Cherry Frangipane tart is a classic combination of cherries and almonds. This is glistening whole cherry compote set upon a buttery almond filling called frangipane in a crisp shortcrust tart shell. Cherries are one of those beloved fruits whose season is too short,...

Brioche Bread

Brioche Bread

Brioche bread is soft and fluffy, made with a slightly sweet enriched dough of butter and eggs.  You will find yourself marvelling that you made this, as you slowly pull layers apart.  I always do! “What can I say about Brioche?'' I said out loud. My...

Biscotti with Brazil Nuts

Biscotti with Brazil Nuts

Biscotti is a twice baked cookie.  It is shaped long, then baked, cooled, then baked again after slicing on an angle. Adding Brazil nuts with the biscotti batter shows very nicely in these slices and have a similar crisp texture. A little chocolate never hurt a...

Chocolate Candy Cane Christmas Cookies

Chocolate Candy Cane Christmas Cookies

Also known as the Christmas go big or go home cookies.  Not to mention Santa’s favourite.  Well, one of them. Minty red and green flecked cookies drizzled with dark chocolate.  Wait, and white chocolate too! My, how festive! You can buy crushed candy canes at bulk...

Cuccidati Italian Fig Cookies

Cuccidati Italian Fig Cookies

These beautiful little bites have a rich fruit filling that has the popping crunch of dried figs. The filling is wrapped in a sugar cookie drizzled in a bit of icing that has been sprinkled with nonpareils, ideally red, green and white, for Christmas (and Italy) but...

Orange Cream filled Sandwich cookies

Orange Cream filled Sandwich cookies

More than just a cookie! Orange brandy cream filling sandwiched between melt in your mouth cookies.Something a little different for the cookie tray. And they go quickly.I used a large star tip to pipe the filling in a light swirl on one cookie, then gently pressed...

Whipped Shortbread Cookies

Whipped Shortbread Cookies

These are always good. Melt in your mouth, delicate, delicious and versatile shortbread cookies that have the butter whipped instead of creamed or kneaded into the dough.This recipe for Whipped Shortbread Cookies ran in my daily newspaper over 40 years ago as "Star...

Mini Jam Tarts

Mini Jam Tarts

Mini Jam Tarts are a nice change for the cookie tray.  These are sweet and simple to make with a perfect crisp buttery pastry. Making an assortment is easy.Miniature muffin tins are ideal. Mine had a base of 1¾” (4.5cm). I used a fluted 2½” (6cm) cookie cutter. A...

Chestnut Flour cookies, Wheat Free

Chestnut Flour cookies, Wheat Free

Chestnut flour gives these cookies a richness and a natural sweetness, they go well with chocolate and are wheat free.  This is a really nice and easy “introduction to chestnut flour” recipe. Just a few ingredients and mix it up like any other chocolate chip cookie,...

Pumpkin Scones with Maple Glaze

Pumpkin Scones with Maple Glaze

Pumpkin scones are always appreciated as the temperature starts to drop. Dipped in a maple glaze and you’re ready for an autumn walk.Get your big scarf and a coffee and fall becomes the best season.Everyone needs a pumpkin scone recipe.  This is mine. Quick and easy...

Coconut Raspberry Jam Tarts

Coconut Raspberry Jam Tarts

Break time does not get much better than with these Coconut Raspberry Jam tarts.  They seem like they would take much longer than they do. The delicious pastry can be made in a food processor.  The filling is made as the dough chills. This is a classic recipe.  There...

Pound Cake like from the Store

Pound Cake like from the Store

This is a buttery soft pound cake that melts in your mouth. Keep some frozen, sliced for coffee break or an ice cream sandwich.It’s really quick to make fresh any time though. Make simple desserts with fruit and ice cream, or simply spread with jam and top with...

Sugar Plum Almond Torte

Sugar Plum Almond Torte

This sugar plum torte is so full of flavours and textures.  It's like an almond torte, with a sugar pie plum topping and a base like a thick soft almond cookie cake of a crust. It is best served at room temperature, the same day.  The top gets soft because of the...

Plum Ricotta Cheesecake

Plum Ricotta Cheesecake

Cooked Italian Plums and Ricotta cheese are classic together. Scatter some almonds, and a drizzle of honey and you will have this elegant, not too sweet Plum ricotta cheesecake.Italian Plums, or Prune Plums are best used for cooking.  The flesh is firm and not as...

Rhubarb Swirl Cheesecake

Rhubarb Swirl Cheesecake

This light textured cheesecake has a refreshing sweet tart swirl of rhubarb sauce baked in, cutting through the delicious creaminess. It is mouthwatering and delicious with a thinner crumb crust, because that is the way I like it. Rhubarb is stringy, like celery, so...

Homemade Cherry Pie recipe

Homemade Cherry Pie recipe

Fresh cherries have a short season, so a fresh Cherry Pie is very special.  Most baker type people will be making their cherry pie hoping they might be able to make another before the season ends. Cherries are such a good source of so many things, you can feel...

Scones and Biscuits, some information

Scones and Biscuits, some information

We were just talking about scones and biscuits- again.  I have gone through a biscuit, tea biscuit, scones phase so many times. Dried Blueberry Tea Cakes, above All so similar but all subtly different.   Some would say not subtle at all. They are all similar to me...

Basic American Coffee Shop style Scone

Basic American Coffee Shop style Scone

Here is a delicious Basic American Scone recipe and by basic I mean the base, the grand foundation on which to build on if you want to, or not. It has no eggs and is a good start for any add-ins. It is plain, yet hearty, cakey and crunchy and on the sweeter side like...

Plain Cream Biscuits

Plain Cream Biscuits

Difficulty: NO Some people say Southern biscuit baking is an art. And then there’s this traditional Southern Plain Cream biscuits recipe which is crazy stupid easy. The only trick to these is how fast you can make them because you know with making biscuits, speed is...

Vegan Chocolate or Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

Vegan Chocolate or Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

This is a smooth frosting that is useful not just for those who do not consume eggs or dairy, but for those with specific allergies as it does not contain vegan butter.The base of this frosting is called a butter roux frosting (but without butter.)  Also known as an...

Hot Cross Buns

Hot Cross Buns

Don’t make me sing One a penny, two a penny...most people don’t know much more of the song.  Ha ha. (I do). Hot Cross Buns are made from an enriched dough which has basic good bread ingredients with the addition of sweetener, fat and usually milk.  Brioche, Cinnamon...

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Flourless Chocolate Cake

This melt in your mouth Flourless Chocolate Cake hits all of the senses.   It is rich and decadent, but not heavy.  It has structure but is held together by nothing but some good chocolate, butter and eggs, and sugar. It is not too sweet and barely needs a small...

Flourless Lemon Meringue Roulade

Flourless Lemon Meringue Roulade

Lemon Meringue Roulade with raspberry pureéLemon Meringue Roulade is mouthwatering, lemon cream rolled up in a wheat free, light and soft meringue that is crisp on the outside. A creamy lemon filling made of lemon curd, which is like a thick spreadable concentrated,...

Baked Guinness Stout Cheesecake

Baked Guinness Stout Cheesecake

This Baked Guinness Stout Cheesecake is incredibly good.  I eat it slowly savouring every delicious, melt in your mouth bite and when I finish, I have to tell myself that that is enough cheesecake for today and I look around hopefully that I have hidden a bite...

Irish Apple Cake with crumb topping

Irish Apple Cake with crumb topping

Irish Apple Cake, as most fruit desserts, are about the fruit. Crisp cooking apples that are on the tart side. If the fruit isn’t right, make something else. It is a simple toss together cake but can be fancied up with a streusel-like topping and a rich custard sauce...

Chocolate Guinness Stout Cake

Chocolate Guinness Stout Cake

You do not have to make a Chocolate Guinness Stout cake just for St. Patrick’s day.   Another plus for baking this outside of St. Patrick’s Day, besides the obvious is, if you choose to make it any other time of the year, you will have a better chance of finding...

Hobnobs with Chocolate Wheat free

Hobnobs with Chocolate Wheat free

This is my Hobnobs blog. Next to the chocolate chip cookie, Chocolate covered Hobnobs are the best everyday, anytime cookie if there be an everyday, anytime cookie. If someone comes over and you offer a Chocolate covered Hobnob, wheat free or not, they will accept....

Whole Wheat Biscuits

Whole Wheat Biscuits

I put in my notes, “These are the puffy ones!” I suppose any biscuits can turn out puffy with the right ingredients at the right temperature, so I guess I did them right.It's important to use a high enough temperature so they rise quickly in the oven but not so high...

Triple Layer Chocolate Cake

Triple Layer Chocolate Cake

Everyone has a chocolate cake.  This is mine. Triple layer chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and a lighter creamy chocolate filling. I had a Pepperidge Farms cake in mind, same as for my Banana cake. Their chocolate cake had a lighter creamy filling, not just the...

Bran Muffins

Bran Muffins

We all need a little help sometimes. Each one of these fluffy delicious bran muffins is made with wheat bran and will give you at least 4 grams of fibre (5 grams is considered an excellent amount). Why do I say made with wheat bran?  It is not made with Bran cereal. ...

Valentine Heart Mini Cakes

Valentine Heart Mini Cakes

Valentine Cakes, you know, for Valentine’s Day! These are cute too, because they are Valentine heart Mini cakes!We have a vanilla cake made with egg whites, using the yolks to make a not too sweet, almost custard-like French Buttercream filling. A thin layer of...

Vanilla Swiss Roll Cake

Vanilla Swiss Roll Cake

After all the egg beating, it comes together quickly, and you will feel very satisfied to see what you have made! Quite fool proof really, especially with the addition of a bit of baking powder to make sure it bakes evenly and nicely risen.The Vanilla Swiss Roll Cake...

Matcha Cake Roll

Matcha Cake Roll

For a luncheon, Family Sunday dinner, Christmas or Valentine’s day. So go bake yourself a cake sweetheart!This beautiful Matcha Cake Roll is like one of your most versatile pieces of clothing.  You can dress it up or down.  A picnic or party, or they used to say,...

Orange Shortbread Cookies

Orange Shortbread Cookies

I love these cookies. I love lots of cookies, but the texture of this shortbread, with the mouthwatering glaze, it is a crowd pleaser that I share often.Oranges will have more acidity which is nice in the glaze, but tangerines or other mandarins have more colour.  Use...

Chocolate Ganache Cream Filled Shortbread

Chocolate Ganache Cream Filled Shortbread

These chocolate filled shortbread cookies are not too sweet because they are filled with a ganache based cream filling for a very sophisticated and mature treat that completely melts in your mouth.Everyone will ask the other if they have tried those delicious little...

Chocolate Shortbread

Chocolate Shortbread

This is an absolutely delicious chocolate shortbread that I like to cut in a traditional bar shape. Simple for everyday but tastes elegant enough for any cookie tray. It is buttery and sweet with a touch of bitterness that cocoa brings with a pinch of salt.   Add an...

Lemon Loaf Pound Cake

Lemon Loaf Pound Cake

My Lemon loaf pound cake has sour cream and lemon juice in the cake for extra moistness and taste as well as the lemon zest. If you are watching your sugar, you won’t miss the glaze too much if you were to say, skip it.Using cake flour gives it the fine texture I was...

Chocolate Chip Cookies, soft

Chocolate Chip Cookies, soft

Blog post title, "What makes a chocolate chip cookie crispy, chewy or big and soft?" Or "What's the deal with those big chocolate chip cookies?" I have been working on my own recipe like those big cookies, but smaller. You can’t really improve on the chocolate chip...

Chocolate Caramel Millionaire Shortbread

Chocolate Caramel Millionaire Shortbread

My sister went to Leith’s Cooking School of Food and Wine in London. After she graduated, one of the best things she produced when she came to visit me was from her purse, wrapped in cello wrap.“You can get these at any corner shop”, she said. Oh.  my.  goodness. It...

Banana Triple Layer Cake

Banana Triple Layer Cake

This recipe came about by accident. I’ll fess up, no one knows this but you. I was making a carrot cake for the restaurant.  I popped 3 pans into the oven, turned around and I saw my bowl of grated carrots on the stainless steel counter. I spun to the oven. Ah yes, I...

Wheat Free Baked Banana Pudding Cake

Wheat Free Baked Banana Pudding Cake

I was going to make my baked lemon pudding, but I had all of these bananas. So Wheat Free Baked Banana Pudding!Bright yellow bananas, but only on the outside. The inside is a nice off-white, that should show nicer once this is baked, but it doesn’t.   It is still that...

Banana Bread

Banana Bread

When bananas are too ripe for much else, they are perfect for banana bread!I have seen many recipes for “The best banana bread”. I won’t make that claim, because I honestly don’t know, but this one is pretty darn good. I did see in my notes, “don’t try to cut the...

Blueberry Layered Oatmeal Squares

Blueberry Layered Oatmeal Squares

This is another recipe where you could use convenient year-round frozen blueberries if you wanted to.  I would add an extra teaspoon of cornstarch for the filling though because frozen berries seem to make extra liquid. Either way, for thin skinned fruit like...

Blueberry Cream Layer Cake

Blueberry Cream Layer Cake

I usually decorate it in a way that suggests that you cut it in 12.  That is because it is easier to divide into 12 than into 10.  I could easily have a piece without blinking.   I only blinked after because I wondered where it went.  Don’t you hate when you eat...

Blueberry Cheesecake Coffee Cake

Blueberry Cheesecake Coffee Cake

The sum of the parts sounds like a quote by a cook, but it actually has to do with math. If you have a whole and take it apart, any of those parts, no matter how brilliant, tend to be less than the whole.  Makes sense.   Remember the short lived deconstructed dishes? ...

Oatmeal Irish Soda Bread

Oatmeal Irish Soda Bread

Irish Soda Bread is a type of quick bread.   This is a rustic and crusty bread. The kind to serve with a chunky vegetable soup, or, well, Irish stew. As soon as it comes out of the oven, wrap it in a clean, dry towel to soften a bitThe next day is best, I think, when...

Oatmeal Hemp Bars

Oatmeal Hemp Bars

These oatmeal hemp bars taste really great and have a soft chewy texture. I use organic butter flavoured coconut oil, but I have used butter, or solid at room temperature coconut oil. I often use half butter and half coconut oil. If you substitute the honey with other...

Oatmeal Brown Sugar Shortbread

Oatmeal Brown Sugar Shortbread

These are buttery and a bit chewy but crisp on the outside. Very unfussy to just press the dough into a pan, bake, then cut in pieces. My parents used to take me to a bakery that made many memories for me. Things that I have had to try to recreate over time since they...

Oatmeal Date and Walnut Cake

Oatmeal Date and Walnut Cake

My mom made something like this when I was little.  After we would all go to school, she and the other moms on the street would exchange sewing tips and cookies or recipes. This is quite close to one of them as I remembered and I still liked it so it was also served...

Oatmeal Scones

Oatmeal Scones

Scones? Biscuits?  Well, off the top of my head, scones are more Scottish, or English tea time, although a biscuit could be as well, but biscuits are more American, as in sausage and biscuits or dumplings.   Biscuits tend to be savoury (but not always) and scones are...

Overnight Oatmeal bread

Overnight Oatmeal bread

I found a recipe years ago that used leftover oatmeal and I thought it was brilliant.  Hmm, I have this leftover oatmeal in the fridge and I don’t want to eat it like this.  What can I do with it to make it lovely again?   This does make a lovely oatmeal bread and has...