From the moment I saw these sticky buns on the cover of the latest issue of Food & Wine magazine, I knew I had to make them.  It’s fairly rare that I follow an exact recipe from a magazine—or cookbook, for that matter—but every once in a while a photo calls to me in a way that I just can’t deny.  If you’ve seen the magazine cover, you know which photo I’m talking about.  The lofty, light-as-air cinnamon bun drizzled with the perfect amount of sweet and salty butterscotch sauce is like something out of a dream—if one has a tendency to dream of baked goods, that is.

But just as most dreams quickly blur then slowly disintegrate upon waking, my hopes for butterscotch sticky bun perfection were diminished as I attempted to recreate the ethereal treat in my all-too-real kitchen.  It just didn’t work.  My sticky buns weren’t lofty or light-as-air.  They were squat and dense and the brown sugar filling had bubbled up and out of the swirls, blackening and burning on the muffin tin and oven floor. Continue reading →

To me, nothing tastes more like Christmas than these sweet, salty and crunchy butterscotch candies.  They aren’t much to look at, but they are super simple to make, and I guarantee that your friends and family will rave about them.

For as far back as I can remember, my Nana always had a plate of these butterscotch corn flakes on the Christmas snack table.  One year, my mom got the recipe and started adding them to her plates of Christmas cookies, and so the butterscotch corn flakes got spread around to even more friends and family.  After I moved away from home, I started making them for my own friends and, after I got married, my husband’s family.  I’ve made them in Oregon, Florida, Sicily, and now southern Callifornia, and the recipe has been passed from friend to friend all across the country.   I have yet to meet a person who doesn’t love them, and if you make these for your friends, be prepared to share the recipe!

With only three ingredients, and no baking required, these are probably the simplest holiday treat you will ever make.  Enjoy!

Butterscotch Corn Flake Candy

1 package butterscotch chips (11 oz.)
3/4 cup dry-roasted salted peanuts
4 cups corn flakes cereal

1.  Pour butterscotch chips into a large microwave-safe bowl and heat in the microwave, checking and stirring every 30 seconds, until chips are melted.  It took about a minute and a half in my microwave.  Be sure not to cook them for too long, or the butterscotch candy will seize up.  If you prefer, you can melt the chips in a double boiler, then scrape the melted butterscotch into a large bowl.

2.  Add corn flakes and peanuts to the melted butterscotch and stir until everything is thoroughly coated.  Line a counter top with waxed paper and drop spoonfuls of the warm corn flake mixture onto the waxed paper.  Allow to cool for 15 minutes. Candy may be stored in an airtight container or large zippered plastic bags for two weeks.

Yield: 2 to 3 dozen pieces

This simple, delicious apple cake may be my new favorite fall dessert.  It is moist, tender, packed with tart apples and cinnamon, and very easy to prepare.  What’s not to love? Continue reading →

Although this was my first time making them, I’m beginning to think that these warm and spicy pumpkin doughnuts are going to become a fall tradition around here.  Filled with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and even a hint of cardamom, these doughnuts will warm your soul on a crisp autumn morning.

Have you ever made doughnuts from scratch?  The closest I had ever come to making doughnuts was back in my college days when I learned how to make faux doughnuts (fauxnuts?) by poking holes in refrigerated biscuit dough rounds and frying them up in a skillet.  They were pretty good if you dipped them in sugar and ate them warm, but not quite the real thing.  Ok, not even close.

I have memories of the real thing, though.  You see, my mom made homemade doughnuts for us once.  They were yeast-raised doughnuts, the kind which are lightly glazed or sugar-crusted on the outside, but only slightly sweet and impossibly soft and fluffy on the inside.  Though I was small, and the recollection is a bit fuzzy, I know in my heart that they were the best doughnuts I’ve ever tasted.  While the “hot now” sign at Krispy-Kreme may make your heart flutter, I’m telling you that nothing compares to a doughnut fried up in your own kitchen.  My mom only made doughnuts once that I can recall, but that one memory fills me with so much warmth, I know that I have to make doughnuts from scratch one day for my own children.  Yes, food memories are powerful. Continue reading →

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Did you know that cantaloupe and ginger pair well together?  I didn’t, but I do now!

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about chilled soups.  I like to eat them, but for some reason I’ve never made one for myself.  I keep buying vegetables thinking I’m going to throw them into my fancy new blender and create some amazing new soup, but then I forget and use the vegetables for other things.  The most recent example is celery.  I was thinking about making a light cream of celery soup and chilling it.  But then I had this bizarre celery craving and literally ate the entire bunch of celery in two sittings.  Yes, there was homemade blue cheese dressing involved, so perhaps that had something to do with it.  Regardless, the celery was gone and I had no soup.

So when I heard on twitter that another virtual lunch was planned, this time centered around chilled soups, I knew I had to jump in.  Do you remember our virtual BLT Lunch from a while back?  Well, the usual suspects are at it again today.  Cheryl, who resides in New York, is today writing from Singapore about her Mum’s Green Bean Soup Recipe, while Ellise writes from Paris about Zucchini-Cilantro Soup.  And of course there are many more.

My original plan was to create a cucumber cantaloupe soup with fresh ginger and mint.  But, as you might have guessed, I accidentally used all my cucumber and mint making something else (tzatziki, to be exact).  So when I remembered last night that I needed to create a soup for today’s lunch date, I didn’t have much to work with.  But there was no need to worry, this ‘minimalist’ Cantaloupe Ginger soup is delicious and refreshing and I’m kind of glad that I didn’t add the extra ingredients.

I think this soup would work equally well as a starter or a dessert if you want to serve it in the evening.  But today, it will be lunch.  As with all of my recipes, this one should be customized to suit your own taste.  I added a bit of half & half at the end and felt that it smoothed out the flavors nicely, but feel free to experiment and see what works for you.

Chilled Ginger Cantaloupe Soup

1 cantaloupe, seeded and cut into chunks
1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger (or to taste)
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1 tablespoon of honey (or to taste)
small pinch of salt
1/4 cup milk, half & half, or cream (optional)

Put cantaloupe, ginger, lemon juice and honey in a blender, and process until completely smooth.  Add half & half (if using) and blend until combined.  Taste and adjust amounts of honey, ginger or lemon juice if desired.  Serve well chilled.

Yield: 2 servings

Other Chilled Soups from the ‘Let’s Lunch!’ Crew:

• White Gazpacho from Serve it Forth
• Chilled Poached Pear Soup from Blog Well Done
• Chilled Strawberry Soup from The Naptime Chef

Don’t forget to search Twitter for #LetsLunch to see what the rest of the group is bringing to the party!  And I just have to tell you one more time:  I love my blender!

As you all know, I am a huge fan of simple recipes.  What you might not know is that buttermilk is a staple in my house and I am almost never without it.  I even keep powdered buttermilk in the pantry for those rare times when I don’t have the fresh stuff in the fridge.  It adds such a nice flavor and texture to baked goods that I’ll often adapt recipes to include it even when it’s not originally called for.  So when I saw a recipe in last month’s Gourmet magazine that was simple, included buttermilk on the ingredient list, and looked absolutely delicious, of course I had to try it.

The recipe I’m referring to is Raspberry Buttermilk Cake.  I didn’t have any fresh raspberries on hand, but I did have a handful of blueberries and a pint of strawberries in the fridge, so I decided to adapt.  Although I know the raspberry version is probably delicious, I’m really glad I opted to use the berries I had on hand.  Not only was it a great combination, but this would be a perfect Red, White, and Blue Cake for a Fourth of July barbecue.  Served with whipped cream and extra berries, it would be both festive and delicious. Continue reading →

With today’s modern ice cream makers, frozen fruit mixtures like granitas and sorbets can be whipped up in no time! Usually containing only fresh fruit, water and sugar, Sicilian granita is one of the simplest frozen desserts breakfasts you can make.

We moved back to the California from Sicily a year and a half ago and one of the things I miss most is the granita from Catania. I can’t believe that it took me this long to figure out how simple it is to make granita at home!

My first attempt at granita was a few weeks ago, when I made brioche for The Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge.  Since I was making brioche for the first time, it only made sense that I attempt some homemade granita. In Sicily, granita and brioche are eaten together for breakfast during the hot months of summer.  It might sound strange, but don’t knock it til you try it!  You’ll also see Sicilians eating ice cream sandwiches of brioche and gelato, another tradition of which I highly approve! Continue reading →