BAKING
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
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 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...
Blueberry Store Bought Muffins
Big fluffy, moist and tender blueberry muffins with a crunchy streusel topping, like you bought from the store. The kind to sell at the bake sale. These have an extra large muffin top, welcome only on muffins. Unlike store bought blueberry muffins, these are...
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 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...
Strawberry Custard Tart
A classic fresh strawberry and custard dessert layered over a chocolate coated, crisp, melt in your mouth shortbread tart crust. Such an easy treat to eat! Oh the flavours and textures of the Strawberry Custard Tart! I made it in an 11½” (29cm) tart, or flan pan...
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...
Oat Flour Banana Bread
Delicious Banana Bread with a few changes like substituting satisfying oat flour for all purpose wheat flour and reducing the fat becomes something more people can enjoy! Oat flour banana bread with chocolate chips I think everyone has a favourite banana bread recipe,...
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
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
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
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 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...
Sweet Potato Pecan crunch Pie
This sweet potato pie has a smooth light texture from the cream and a buttery brown sugar topping with toasted pecans. You can substitute pumpkin seeds if you would like to confuse anyone.Most of the sweetness is in the topping and most of the butteriness is in the...
Chocolate Covered Mint filled Chocolate cookies
A crisp rich dark chocolate cookie, not too sweet with a minty cream filling coated in chocolate of course.I felt like a fresh mint cookie. I like my desserts, especially cookies, but I don’t like things too sweet. I like to be able to have another and not feel...
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 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
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
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
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
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...
Oven Dried Strawberry Muffins with Streusel
Adding just a little bit of sugar to strawberries and baking them in the oven gives the strawberries a stronger flavour when used in this muffin, pairing well with the buttery streusel. Oven Dried Strawberries When cut, they present a bit more like a candied jewel...
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...
Strawberry Rhubarb Pie with Crumble Topping
This Strawberry Rhubarb Pie is so delicious, with it’s crumble topping of oats and butter baking into the sweet tart ruby filling. Strawberry Rhubarb pie is always a favourite and those who like it, like it a lot! I think this pie with a buttery crumble topping is...
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
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
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
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...
British style Scone recipe
A British style scone recipe is different from a North American style scone recipe in that it has less sugar and less fat, at best, in the form of butter. This is because they would be served between breakfast and lunch with sweet and buttery or creamy spreads on the...
Chocolate and Cinnamon Babka Bread
This beautiful Babka needs a lot of rising time and a stand mixer or a regular one and a love of kneading, but as something you have been meaning to make, or need to make, a challenge, that is great because you will have Chocolate and Cinnamon Babka Bread that is...
Vegan Vanilla Cakes with Vegan Buttercream Frosting
This is a light and moist vegan vanilla cake that again, you won’t need to make any apologies for or explain that it’s because there aren’t any eggs.The vegan vanilla cake batter is strengthened by an emulsion of the vinegar and oil being combined and maybe the sugar...
Easy Classic Pizza Dough recipe
Making fresh classic pizza dough is much easier than it seems, and worth it. With this Easy Classic Pizza Dough recipe, a stand mixer is never needed. In fact, pizza dough doesn't really need a stand mixer. This is an all senses food. Watching the yeast bloom,...
Strawberry Loaf Cake
This is such a beautiful loaf cake. I love to watch this simply spiced Strawberry Loaf rise. As with all baking with fruit, use your best local, ripe, I would suggest organic, strawberries. I originally made this, to make strawberry bread pudding.I rarely have the...
Vegan Chocolate Layer Cake
You won’t have to explain to anyone that you didn’t use eggs or butter or sour cream, etc. unless you wanted to brag about it.I always do! It's a beautifully risen, moist cake and I will make it even if I have eggs. It is requested by people with all preferences and...
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...
Carrot Cake with White Chocolate Cream cheese Frosting
This is the tastiest Carrot cake with a most delicious white chocolate cream cheese frosting. I do not add raisins, nuts or coconut, but I have added measurements if you would like to add them.The first Carrot Cake I made was with my Aunt in her apartment. We used a...
Chocolate Hot Cross Buns
I recently saw Chocolate Hot Cross Buns and thought, what a great idea! Same soft yeasty bread and inviting aroma, with chocolate replacing some or all of the dried fruit, lighter on the spice, maybe, and chocolate marking instead of white.Is that ok? There is a lot...
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
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
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,...
Chocolate Coconut Candy bar Cookies
I have been known to mess with my own recipes, like adding extra chocolate bar. I have also been known to eat the chocolate bar before adding it.Chocolate covered coconut candy bars baked in a delicious cookie batter that's good enough on its own! You'll have to hide...
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 Oat Flapjacks wheat free
Irish Oat Flapjacks are crisp and chewy oatmeal bars, not unlike a granola bar, because it has oats, and very similar to my Oatmeal Hemp bars that I love for their taste and texture, but are slightly different. Granola bars tend to use sugar and honey as a sweetener....
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
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
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....
Cream Scones
These are delicious, on the sweeter side, melt in your mouth cream scones. I cut in diamonds because they are fine and rich, and sparkly if you sprinkle with sugar! Any cut shape will do though.They are flakey, almost like pastry. Cream Scones would work very well for...
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
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...
Dulce De Leche Brownies
Melt in your mouth brownie, soft dulce de leche and chocolate chips give texture Someone said to me, “This is the best dessert I have ever eaten!” Yeah, thanks, it is pretty good, I must say!And easy to make, cuts beautifully, freezes well and great for sharing. Wrap...
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 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
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
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
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
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
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...
Cranberry Scones with Lemon Glaze
Fresh cranberries are so good for you. They are full of fibre, vitamin C and antioxidants and anthocyanins, those flavenoids that keep our blood vessels healthy and keep us youthful and our eyesight strong. We usually have to consume them dried with cherry essence...
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 Mini Mochi Cakes
These chocolate mochi cakes are nice and softly chewy. Squishy like a “squishmallow”. (Those plush cute, simply shaped toys). -You’ll see me playing with food at the end of the video. It made me laugh enough to share it! They do not really make that noise. These just...
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 Marshmallow Soy nut or Peanut butter Bars
This is SO easy and SO good. If you forgot you were supposed to take office snacks or bake for a party and you had 10 minutes, you could actually do this.This is where you don’t need to make any apologies for using a microwave to prepare something. It is the best...
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
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
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 Cream Pie with Oatmeal Crust
This is not the place for your overripe bananas. This is where you will need just ripe bananas. Firm, no green on the peel, just-ripe, bananas.Overripe bananas will get brown and soft quickly once they are sliced, and they start to liquify and slide around your...
Buckwheat Banana Muffins sweetened with Dates
This tastes like a soft, fluffy, moist, buckwheat flour muffin. It does not taste like it is deprived of anything, like sugar or wheat.This is one of my “It would be better for you to eat this than if you didn’t”, recipes.Smaller, Deglet Noor, or Nour dates and larger...
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...
Dried Blueberry Teacakes
We have Biscuits and Scones, And tea biscuits and Teacakes. A teacake, well, it could be anything really. I have had some that are yeast risen and more like a sweet dinner roll, like a hot cross bun. I also remember getting a package from Marks and Spencer that...
Blueberry Scones
Blueberry scones? Blueberry biscuits? Unlike biscuits, scones usually don't use baking soda with an acid to activate it, like buttermilk or sour cream. They also tend to be on the sweet side, rather than savory. Commercial scones are most often triangular, but not...
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
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
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? ...
Blueberry Buckle
The blueberry buckle is a variety of cobbler, but much more lovely than it's cousins, "Betty" and "Pan Dowdy". As I share my blueberry recipes, some can be made with either fresh or frozen blueberries. This is possibly one, especially since I encourage using organic...
Blueberry Brie Phyllo Pastries
These are so nice because you can prepare them in advance and pop them in the oven like nothing when it’s appetizer time. They are much easier to eat as a guest, I think, rather than one piece of Brie in one piece of phyllo which tends to be awkward. -Still good, but...
Blueberry Afternoon Dessert Bread
Or Afternoon Tea, Second Breakfast, or First. I don’t really know what else to call it. Until I think of something better, because that’s what it is. It has a beautiful dough that is a pleasure to work with. It freezes well and toasts nicely. There is a lot of rising...
Oatmeal White Chocolate & Cranberry cookies
Cranberries are considered a superfood, and are naturally less sweet so they won’t cause your blood sugar to spike, but who can eat a handful of fresh cranberries? Cranberries contain quercetin, an antioxidant found in the ruby red pigment. Quercetin helps to reduce...
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 Muffins
When does streusel not make something better? I have made these without the streusel though and used a scant cup of raisins. I have also used both.How to Make Oatmeal Streusel MuffinsINGREDIENTS Makes about 16 muffins Prep Time - 25 minutes Oat Soaking Time - 30...
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 Wheat Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
These are light and crisp and the chocolate chips shine in the texture of the cookie. You don’t have to call them “wheat free” they just happen to not have wheat in them. You also don’t have to look for oat flour, you can just whizz some oats until mostly fine in...
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...
Black Bean “Brownies” with Oatmeal flour and Avocado
These are wheat free and can be made vegan if you don’t use honey. You could use maple syrup instead, or just cane sugar. I really like the taste of honey but sometimes it can be overpowering so I add some cane sugar which has a neutral taste. I really don’t think...
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
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
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...
Oatmeal Pudding – Donegal Irish Oat Cream
Donegal is on the shore of the west side of Northern Ireland, full of beaches, castles and history. I think I’d like to go there. Traditionally it is served with berry preserves. I like to use Mandarin oranges because the...