Category Archives: dessert

Orange Mousseline Buttercream

12 June 2010 by local kitchen

Because once you have filled your chocolate cake with Valencia Curd, you need something to frost it with – I give you Orange Mousseline Buttercream. Deliciously light and silky, flecked with orange zest and a gorgeous pale apricot color, this buttercream frosting is a show-stopper on any cake. Like many of Rose’s recipes, this particular frosting recipe is finicky: butter temperature is critical, the simple syrup must be added in just the right way, and the whole time you are holding […]

Categories: cake, citrus, dessert, eggs, wine, beer & liquor, year round • Tags: baking, cake, cooking, dessert, food, local, recipes

Valencia Curd

10 June 2010 by local kitchen

Here I am in South Africa and while citrus season is long past back home in the States, it’s just beginning down here south of the equator. So what better way to celebrate the season than with a tangy, brilliantly orange dessert curd? In this curd recipe, you do not strain out the zest, in order to maximize the orange flavor, and while it does not produce the silky smooth texture of other curds, that is more than made up […]

Categories: citrus, dessert, eggs, winter, year round • Tags: cooking, dessert, food, recipes

Quadruple C Cookies

4 May 2010 by local kitchen

Chocolate, cherries, cashews, coconut. Yum. I’ve been tweaking my chocolate chip cookie recipe for a while, trying to achieve the ultimate combination of texture (crispy outside, soft, chewy inside), sweetness (enough to satisfy the sweet craving, but not so much that you actually taste the sugar) and a good balance of flavors for all of the stuff that I can cram into a cookie. In this batch I eliminated granulated sugar altogether and repaced it with brown sugar; I also dialed back on the amount […]

Categories: baking, cherries, chocolate, dessert, quick & easy, snack, whole wheat flour, year round • Tags: baking, cherries, chocolate, cookies, cooking, dessert, food, local, recipes, whole grain

Boozy Baby Chocolate Cake

6 April 2010 by local kitchen

Because sometimes, summer is right around the corner, and you don’t want a whole cake sitting around the house for just the two of you. And because, the slices will be so virtuously small, you are perfectly justified in drowning them in booze. Happy Spring, everyone! Adapted from Whole Wheat Pastry Flour Chocolate Cake ————————————————————— Boozy Baby Chocolate Cake EQUIPMENT one 6-inch X 3-inch high cake pan (for the tall & small cake pictured here) OR one 8 or 9-inch cake pan (for a regular-sized […]

Categories: baking, cake, chocolate, dessert, eggs, spring, whole wheat flour, wine, beer & liquor, year round • Tags: baking, cooking, dessert, food, local, recipes

Gingery Almond Biscotti

2 April 2010 by local kitchen

I made a batch of these the other day, to send off as gifts: one as part of a belated birthday present, and another as a thank-you present to our wonderful friend Stan, who does our taxes. Of course, along the way there were several that were ‘mishapen’ or ‘too short’ or ‘too ugly’ to go in the gift packs (yet clearly not too short, ugly or mishapen to be eaten). Now I wish I had made a double batch. […]

Categories: baking, breakfast, chocolate, citrus, dessert, nuts, whole wheat flour, winter, year round • Tags: baking, cooking, food, local, recipes

Heidi’s Peanut Butter Cookies

19 March 2010 by local kitchen

Quick & easy yet delicious and healthy peanut butter cookies. Twenty minutes from bowl to stomach – so you can get back outside and enjoy this amazing Spring weather! Happy weekend, everyone. Adapted from Peanut Butter Cookies by Heidi Swanson at 101 Cookbooks ————————————————————– Heidi’s Peanut Butter Cookies INGREDIENTS 1 cup (4.5 oz) whole wheat pastry flour 1/2 tsp baking soda 3/8 tsp salt 1/2 cup peanut butter 1/4 cup maple syrup 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed 3/4 tsp vanilla 2 […]

Categories: baking, dessert, quick & easy, vegetarian, whole wheat flour, year round • Tags: cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, vegetarian

Vanilla Bean Sugar Cookies

23 February 2010 by local kitchen

I was in the mood for something a little sweet, a little crunchy. We had some orange glaze leftover from Tai’s Valentine cupcakes, so I thought a simple sugar cookie was in order, something that would go nicely with the intensely orange-flavored glaze. Humph, simple she says. Even I, advocate of the “quality ingredients make the simple special” school, sometimes forget. A “simple” cookie of buttter, sugar, flour, eggs and vanilla bean becomes magical when your butter is from Ronnybrook, your […]

Categories: baking, dessert, non-local luxuries, year round • Tags: baking, cooking, dessert, food, local, recipes

Orange-Kissed Chocolate (cup)Cake

14 February 2010 by local kitchen

Of all the dessert flavor combinations, orange and chocolate is by far Tai’s favorite. Anything orangey-chocolate, or chocolaty-orange, is sure to rate high with his tastebuds. Since it is Valentine’s Day (our first as an ‘official’ married couple) I wanted to make him something special and use his two favorite flavors. My first thought was of a Cointreau chocolate cake with Burnt Orange Buttercream. I’ve made the Burnt Orange buttercream before, and he loves it; I figured I could sneak some […]

Categories: baking, cake, dessert, eggs, whole wheat flour, year round • Tags: baking, cooking, dessert, food, recipes

Glazed Berry Tart with Sweet Ricotta Filling

8 February 2010 by local kitchen

This tart is a riff on my standard Glazed Blackberry Tart recipe, with an added sweet cheese filling and 100% local ingredients for our Northeast Dark Days gathering (Dark Days post to follow- stay tuned!). This is a lovely tart to make in the winter, when fresh berries are still months away, yet you can relive the taste of summer with berries from the freezer. It can easily be made with any frozen berries you have on hand, and a variety […]

Categories: 100% local, baking, berries, cheese, Dark Days Local, dessert, pastry, winter • Tags: baking, cooking, dessert, food, local

Sweet Ricotta Tart with Honey-Spiced Peaches

6 February 2010 by local kitchen

I’ve been dreaming of summer lately. Don’t get me wrong, I love the seasons, winter included. I love snow (and I wish we were getting the blizzard that DC is enjoying today, but we didn’t get a single flake). Despite my love of snow, I, like everyone else, get tired of the cold, the dark, the dry indoor air, the wearing of layers and layers to keep warm. That feeling that your core is always twisted into a tight little […]

Categories: 100% local, baking, cheese, dessert, pastry, peaches, whole wheat flour, winter, year round • Tags: baking, dessert, food, local, recipes

Cranberry Apple Pie

23 January 2010 by local kitchen

Another riff on Rose’s famous apple pie. Having served many versions of this pie to friends over the past couple of years, I think I can say with confidence that this one is the crowd favorite; one of the first to disappear and the first to earn talking-with-your-mouth-full praise. This version I made in a 7-inch, deep-dish pie pan for a really stacked and fruit-packed slice o’ pie (it also uses less pastry for the carb- and butter-o-phobic). I also cut […]

Categories: apples, baking, cranberries, dessert, fall, pastry, pie, whole wheat flour, winter, year round • Tags: cooking, dessert, food, local, recipes

Can Jam: Lime Curd for Water Bath Canning

19 January 2010 by local kitchen

Apparently it is Citrus Curd Week on the Interwebs – and no one told me! I’ve been thinking for a couple of weeks now about what I was going to make for Tigress’ January Can Jam; citrus is a lovely and broad category and there are so many choices! There are a couple of marmalades that I make each winter that Tai loves; one a pink grapefruit version with bourbon vanilla bean, the other a spicy orange marmalade with Arbol chiles. […]

Categories: Can Jam, canning, citrus, dessert, eggs, winter, year round • Tags: cooking, dessert, food, local, preserving, recipes

Ginger & Orange Scones

29 December 2009 by local kitchen

It’s very cold here today, with temps in the teens and gusty winds up to 50 mph making it feel like 1 degree F. Brrrr! Wind is howling around our little cottage, but we are snug as bugs in a rug with the oven warming up the kitchen and the tropical flavors of orange and ginger making us dream of sunny beaches and warm breezes. This is another variation of my basic sweet scone recipe, with the added bonus of […]

Categories: baking, breakfast, citrus, dessert, non-local luxuries, whole wheat flour, year round • Tags: baking, breakfast, cooking, dessert, food, local, quick & easy, recipes

Rose’s Apple Pie

5 December 2009 by local kitchen

It’s a cold, grey drizzly day here in New York. What better time for an old-fashioned apple pie? As you may have noticed, Rose Levy Beranbaum is one of my baking heroes, and she doesn’t disappoint with this classic apple pie. The apples are macerated in sugar to release their juices and the sweetened and spiced apple juice reduced, with butter, to make a thick, caramel-like sauce to coat the apple filling. The pastry crust stays crisp, the apples have […]

Categories: apples, baking, dessert, fall, holiday, pastry, pie, whole wheat flour, winter • Tags: apple pie, baking, cooking, dessert, food, holiday, local, pie, recipes, rose levy beranbaum, whole wheat pastry

Pepita Brittle

1 December 2009 by local kitchen

Candy making is not my forté. I’ve experimented many times in the past, usually while attempting holiday gifts, with toffee, pecan caramel turtles, candied orange peel, hard candy lemon drops, and I can’t tell you how many batches I’ve ruined and how many serious stovetop messes made me contemplate simply moving rather than facing the clean up. I seem to be forever overcooking the sugar/syrup, probably due to a cheap, inaccurate candy thermometer, resulting in caramels that would break your teeth and hard […]

Categories: candy, chocolate, dessert, non-local luxuries, nuts, year round • Tags: cooking, dessert, food, local, quick & easy, recipes