When my friend Ruby called me the other day and told me her mom’s apricot tree was overflowing and that we each had a bag of fresh-picked fruit waiting for us, my first thought was apricot cobbler.  But then I remembered the tart pan I purchased last year that still hadn’t been used and decided an apricot tart was in order.

At first I was planning on making this simple apricot tart at Orangette.  I’m sure I’ll still make that one someday, but my original plan changed after a friend on Facebook shared a link to Tartelette’s Apricot Almond Tart. Not only was the tart beautiful, it was a perfect excuse to bake with some of the local honey I had just picked up at The Vineyard Farmer’s Market. Plus, I knew the almond cream filling would be perfect with the tart-sweet apricots. Continue reading →

Welcome to Food Blog Friday!  I’ve decided to start a series dedicated to sharing recipes that I’ve tried from other food blogs.  I plan on tempting you with a fantastic recipe from a different food blog each week.  This is how it will work:  I’ll try out the recipe myself, show you a photo of my results, then send you over to the featured blog for the recipe.  It will be a great way for all of us to learn more about what’s happening in the food blogosphere.

This week I reached way back into the past and dug up Alpineberry’s recipe for Luscious Lemon Bars. Alpineberry is a wonderful baking blog that I’ve been following for a few years now.  In addition to tempting us with her own creations, Mary has been an active member of The Daring Bakers since early 2007.  That’s a lot of daring baking! Continue reading →

Last summer I made my first batch of homemade jam – peach jam, to be exact.  While not difficult, the process was a bit labor-intensive:  I sterilized jars, peeled and chopped fruit, boiled down the fruit and sugar, and even processed the filled jars in a water bath.  It was well worth the effort and I was quite proud of myself for successfully preserving that small bit of the summer’s bounty.  And with that first batch of jam under my belt, I had been making plans to can all kinds of jam this summer. Continue reading →

When my friend Ruby tossed me the plastic baggie filled with pearl tapioca from the bulk bin at WinCo and asked me if I knew how to use it, I immediately knew that my next blog post would be about tapioca pudding.

You might have noticed that I haven’t been writing much lately and the truth is that I still don’t feel much like cooking or writing.  But today is a good day to talk about tapioca pudding because today is my Uncle Jim’s birthday and he loved tapioca pudding. Continue reading →

I’m sure you’ve heard me say that I prefer a somewhat healthy muffin.  I know that I’ve told you before how I feel about overly sweet muffins – that if I wanted dessert, I’d rather just have a cupcake.  But I did it anyway.  I made these sweet, delicious muffins that offer very few nutritional benefits and really can’t be classified as anything but dessert.

You know what?  I don’t regret it one bit.

These are the best muffins I’ve ever made and I wouldn’t change a thing about them.  The banana and white chocolate are perfect together and the tart cherries help to balance the extra sweetness from the white chocolate.  The streusel topping, perfect. Continue reading →

Remember my first madeleines from the beginning of the year?  Well, I decided to give them another try – this time with a completely different recipe.  The result?  Madeleines that are even better than the first batch!   I used this recipe from Bitten, and the only real change I made was to substitute lemon zest for orange zest.

I didn’t bother piping the filling into the molds, a spoon worked just fine.  Just make sure you don’t overfill them like I did!  The recipe says it yields 12 to 15, but I think you could probably get up to 18 full-size madeleines if you scrape the bowl (and don’t overfill the molds like I did). Continue reading →

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!

On a whim, I decided to try making heart-shaped cinnamon rolls for a fun Valentine’s Day treat.  I had no idea if it would work, but I was thrilled  with the results.  They turned out so cute, I had to share the technique with you even if it’s a bit late to make them for today’s Valentine’s breakfast.

But who says you can only eat heart-shaped food on Valentine’s Day?

You can make heart-shaped rolls from any regular cinnamon roll recipe, but I happen to really like a dough made with buttermilk.  I improvised the dough for these rolls from the cinnamon bun recipe in The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.  Enjoy! Continue reading →

I have a confession to make.  Before making them myself, the only madeleines I had ever tasted were from Starbucks.  No one had ever made them for me, I’d never had a special pan to make them myself, and somehow I managed to spend a weekend in Paris once without tasting either a madeleine or a macaron—sad, but true.

I’ve always been curious about madeleines.  I mean, is there really anything special about them other than their shape?  Obviously Proust thought so.  But what makes them so magical?  And the big question—are they cookies or tiny little cakes?  Well, curiosity got the better of me one day so I bought a little package of madeleines at Starbucks.  And even though I knew that what I tasted out of that little plastic package was probably not a great representation of the classic French cookie (or is it cake?), I fell madly in love with the madeleine. Continue reading →