One day, I will throw my dream party, at which I will serve just three things: Champagne, appetizers and desserts. That way, the sweet confections will get their due instead of being picked at by overstuffed guests who wish they had room for more.
Quince 101
Quince can be a hard sell because…well, everything about quince is hard. The fruit itself isn’t just firm, like a pumpkin. It is dense and murder-weapon hard. (It could easil [...]
Santiago Almond Cake
Once in a very rare while, a recipe found via internet search resonates in such a way that it seems Fate has guided the algorithms and web crawlers to bring it to you. That’s [...]
Rhubarb Tart with Fresh Goat Cheese
I have found the secret to the universe, and it is 8 oz. (200 g.) of fresh goat cheese and 2 eggs. Yes, that is an exaggeration, but when an easy-to-remember ingredient combi [...]
Extra-Buttery Crust Dough
All credit for this ultra-buttery, easy-to-work-with dough goes to my friend Donna Meadows, the best pastry chef I know. In addition to being extra rich and flaky without any [...]
My All-Time Favorite Chocolate Cake
Dense, rich, not too sweet...this is the chocolate cake I have requested for my birthday ever since I can remember. The original version (more on this distinction below) is c [...]
(Irish) Scones
I’m taking the liberty of calling these ‘Irish Scones’ after they got the ‘Just like my Granny’s!’ seal of approval from my Irish friend Janet. (I also think of them as Irish [...]
Persimmon Pudding
The recipes for persimmon pudding I’ve come across are all very enticing to food historians. They go on and on about its old-fashionedness, its popularity in Indiana (There’s [...]
Apple Tarte Normande
The French apple tart most people have heard of is la tarte Tatin, a caramelized upside-down creation that is the stuff of culinary legend. Less attention is paid to la tarte [...]
Whole Apple Applesauce
The very best applesauce is made with whole apples. This I discovered when making apple butter. The process calls for cooking quartered, unpeeled apples—cores, seeds and all— [...]
Rhubarb Tarte Tatin
Take two classic French tarte recipes and what do you get? This rhubarb tarte tatin, which is so very easy... and effortlessly beautiful. The French are BIG rhubarb fans. The [...]
Chocolate Biscuit Cake
When my friend Elodie asked for a recipe that would use up leftover Easter candy, I knew just what I wanted to make: Chocolate Biscuit Cake. Chocolate biscuit cake got a lot [...]
One-Banana Bread
This recipe is proof positive of why every cook should know how to make—and use—a vegan egg. I always seem to have one over-ripe banana. There it will sit, on my counter, get [...]
Teurgoule (Norman Rice Pudding)
What is the matter with Mary Jane? She's crying with all her might and main, And she won't eat her dinner - rice pudding again - What is the matter with Mary Jane? From ‘Rice [...]
Green Rhubarb Lattice Pie
As I do my best to get through the hungry gap, I’ve been digging into my freezer to see what treasures I stashed there last summer. And….score!! Two pounds of frozen rhubarb [...]
Spice (Nutmeg) Crinkles
Tender and buttery, this old-fashioned snickerdoodle cookie recipe is ideal for trying out new flavors like nutmeg in baked goods. Cardamom, long pepper, and black pepper can [...]
Lemony Lemon Cake
...because you can never have too much lemon in a dessert. Little motivates me more than a dessert that should have been better than it was. It wasn’t even a complicated cake [...]
Le Financier (Almond Tea Cake)
Everybody’s always going on about macarons and madeleines, but if you ask me, the real superstar of the small pastry world is “le financier." Financiers (pronounced fee-nahn- [...]
Wine-Poached Pears
Now that I've worked out this recipe, my goal is to have wine-poached pears in my fridge all winter long so that I can serve them and cook with them regularly, the way I did [...]
Homemade Apple Butter
Each year, I make more. I have not yet reached the apple butter output of nearby villages in Brittany where le pommé (the local term for apple butter) is simmered and stirred [...]
Breton Buckwheat-Apple Cake
It is so very, very rare that a recipe one imagines turns out just right the very first time that it’s important to call it out, celebrate it, tell everyone about it. ‘Cause [...]
Real Brownies
I would have KILLED to have had this brownie recipe when I first arrived in France. Back in the dark ages before internet shopping gave expats access to Reese’s Peanut Butter [...]
Wild Plum Compote
I have been wracking my brain for a way to make ‘compote’ sound sexy. Exciting. Like something you want to jump out of your chair and make immediately. And I keep coming up w [...]
Strawberries and Cream Tiramisu (with Elderflower Liqueur)
So pretty. So tasty. So simple…and with a secret ingredient that knocks the socks off everyone who tastes it. What else could you want from a summer dessert? All I’ve done he [...]
Homemade Custard
This is the pitcher I picked up at an antique gallery (Christian La Brocante) in nearby Saint-Coulomb. I say ‘picked up’ because when I went to pay for it (for a mere 2 euros [...]
Marc’s Chocolate Custard Tart
One of the bright spots during an otherwise dark time in my cooking career was working with Marc, a pastry chef from Tours. Marc had been brought into the French bakery/resta [...]
Rhubarb Muffins
Still reeling from the jacked-up rhubarb prices in the US, (FIVE DOLLARS A POUND! That’s almost as much as organic strawberries—for a perennial that grows like a weed whereve [...]
Spicy Gingerbread
When and why did gingerbread get pigeonholed as a *strictly* holiday treat? Sure, I get that all things gingerbread are a holiday tradition, but must that mean that they vani [...]
Pumpkin Purée
In France, pumpkins, like other winter squash, are sold by weight. This can make a great big Halloween jack o’ lantern prohibitively expensive (I know. I’ve blown my wad on t [...]
Gingery Pumpkin Bread
The first time I made pumpkin bread in France was for an English class I taught in a sunny ground floor room of a small town community center. The class ran from 2:30 to 4 in [...]
True Caramel
These days, when I dream of dessert, I dream of the caramel profiteroles at L’Ormeau restaurant in Cancale. Sure, the rest of the food at Christophe and Julie Wasser’s restau [...]
The Only Muffin Recipe You Will Ever Need
I am not often given to hyperbole (or to preciously placing a single muffin on a china saucer...see below...), which tells you just how highly I think of this recipe. From th [...]
Chocolate Chip Cookies Fit for a Marquis
My Fourth of July weekend was quite the Franco-American extravaganza. It started on Friday with a trip out on the high seas to go meet the Hermione, a replica of the frigate [...]