Emily Luchetti’s “Torta Regina” is not photogenic (in my kitchen, anyway, with the lack of fancy china) but is so delicious and different that it deserves a post. It has only four main ingredients (chocolate, hazelnuts, eggs, sugar) and two flavorings (orange and lemon zest). Although it is a “flourless cake,” it is not at […]
Memories of New York: Rhubarb-Strawberry Soup
I have many fond memories of my first long trip to New York City. It was the mid-90s, I was in graduate school, and the week I spent there was an adventure: walking up and down the avenues, crosstown on the streets, my first trip to the original Balducci’s, getting lost in Strand Books, gazing […]
Cocoa Wafers
Alice Medrich, chocolate expert and cookbook author, wrote “Chocolate and the Art of Low-Fat Desserts” during the height of the low-fat craze of the mid-90s. In the book, she tried to completely rethink her recipes to achieve deliciousness with fewer calories and less fat, instead of simply writing a pamphlet that consisted of a few […]
Eating the Whole Thing: An Orange Cake Recipe
[Updated below] My contribution to the amazing Goose Dinner was a cake I have started calling the “whole orange cake.” When I ran across the recipe on the Singapore-based blog Kuidaore (a blog with phenomenal photography and complex desserts), it immediately caught my attention because it uses the whole orange. Zest, rind, membranes, juice. Everything […]
Ethereal Orange Sabayon
Inspired by citrus, I made an ethereal dessert: orange sabayon with satsuma mandarin sections and sliced almonds. It was light, flavorful, and a beautiful contrast to the sharpness of the mandarins. Sabayon is a relative of the classic Italian zabaglione, which is a light, foamy dessert made with sweet Marsala wine, egg yolks, and […]
SHF 13 – Yeasted Chocolate Cupcakes
It was pretty late when I started the Sugar High Friday # 13 – The Dark Side project (dark chocolate), so one of my criteria was that I would not need to use my KitchenAid mixer. I found something interesting in Pastries from the La Brea Bakery, by the amazing Nancy Silverton. Called “Crotin de […]
Apricot Souffle Recipe for IMBB #20 – A Souffle that Was Years in the Making
(Updated 10/2/16: fixed broken links) Many years ago I came across a beautiful set of prints of recipes written by Alice Waters in 1968. This was before she opened Chez Panisse (1971) and before she became Alice Waters. The printmaker was the masterful David Lance Goines, creator of posters for Chez Panisse’s annual birthday celebration […]