Napa and Sonoma + Bing Cherry and Almond Tart

Please excuse my absence from blogging – I know, two weeks away is a long time, but I did have a darn good excuse.  I spent an extended Memorial Day Weekend with some good friends in Napa, eating and drinking my way through California wine country.  The Napa/Sonoma area is now officially my favorite part… Read More Napa and Sonoma + Bing Cherry and Almond Tart

Almond Cornmeal Biscotti

This month there has been lots and lots of baking in my life.  I just returned from a weekend at King Arthur Flour in Vermont, where I took a class with the amazing and talented Gesine Bullock-Prado.  She recently published a new cookbook called Pie It Forward, which is all about pies, tarts, galettes, and other delicious… Read More Almond Cornmeal Biscotti

Devil’s Food White-Out Cake

I have a love-hate relationship with celebration cakes.  You know what I’m talking about – those tall, multi-layered, gorgeous, frosting-covered works of art that are meticulously decorated and, if all is right in the world, elicit a chorus of oohs and aahs from the crowd.  I love making them, I do; but I don’t have a… Read More Devil’s Food White-Out Cake

Salted Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Or, Chocolate Chip Cookies Revisited.  Yes, this is the third recipe for chocolate chip (or chunk) cookies I’ve posted, in about a year and a half of doing this blog.  There were Alton Brown’s Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies, Jacques Torres’ Chocolate Chunk Cookies, and now these.  And these – Salted Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies, courtesy… Read More Salted Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies (or, “The Greatest Low-Fat Cookies in the World”)

When it comes to dried fruits, raisins are my least favorite.  Remember when we were kids, how our parents would give us raisins as a “healthy” snack?  Lame.  I will eat raisins, but I’ll only eat them 2 ways: covered in chocolate, and baked into oatmeal cookies.  And sure, oatmeal raisin cookies sound like a healthier… Read More Oatmeal Raisin Cookies (or, “The Greatest Low-Fat Cookies in the World”)