Tag: chocolate chips

The names people choose for recipes often crack me up. There’s the embarrassing-to-talk-about “better than sex” or “sex in a pan” variety of dishes, followed by “blue-ribbon” and “award-winning” options, and of course, there are a million recipes purporting to be “Mom’s” or “Grandma’s,” although few identify which matriarch those actually belong to. So you’ll …

Continue reading “Get lost in a piece of amazing cake”

We had an early Christmas celebration this past week, and of course, I volunteered to make dessert. I knew I wanted to make a cranberry orange tart that I first tried last Christmas (check out my website for that one), since I had a full bag of cranberries in my crisper drawer, but I was …

Continue reading “You’ll be ready to poke into this chocolate-filled cake”

I learned something new this week that totally blew my mind: how to create muffins with perfectly domed tops. It’s been a mystery for me for a long time how bakeries and other super bakers manage to get their muffins to rise so tall, puffing perfectly over the edges of their cupcake liners. This week’s …

Continue reading “New baking technique delivers ‘dome sweet dome’ for muffins”

When I was little, my dad would wake up early every morning, pack his lunchbox and head out for work. I probably wouldn’t have cared at all about what was in that black plastic box if it weren’t for the Tupperware bowl of sandwich cookies in the pantry. Dad would normally toss a couple into …

Continue reading “‘Micro’save yourself some time baking fresh cookies”

This weekend, I stumbled on an article by Gabrielle Drolet called, “In Defence of Garlic in a Jar: How Food Snobs Almost Ruined My Love of Cooking.” It’s a long read, but Drolet makes the point that cooking shortcuts are a great way to make the kitchen more accessible to people who have disabilities. She …

Continue reading “Make ’em go ‘coco’nuts for fudgy, layered brownies”

I am and always have been a rule follower. I rarely if ever got in trouble in school, and I still read instructions before completing a form or assembling a piece of furniture. For years, I was that way with recipes, too. I followed the directions to the letter. But I have had the good …

Continue reading “You’re fine ‘pudding’ whatever you want in these cookies”

I don’t get a chance to listen to the radio much on the weekends, but when I do, I try to catch the public radio show “The Splendid Table.” It’s a fun listen, if you’ve never heard it. The show isn’t just about sharing recipes. They tend to jump into all aspects of food—the culture, …

Continue reading “Pastries are dish worth ‘scone’ing on about”

Joey and I were watching TV once, early in our marriage, and an advertisement for a brownie pan that would let you have all edges brownies came on. I reacted to it by laughing. “Who would want only edge brownies,” I said. “The middle brownies are the best ones.” Joey looked at me like I …

Continue reading “Banana cookies extend past partisan’chip’”

Over the seven years since I started writing this column, my family has gotten very used to being guinea pigs for new recipes. So much so, that when I showed up with a dish of still-warm brownies for a board game night with my sister and brother-in-law last weekend, my sister looked at me and …

Continue reading “Cherry Garcia brownies makes friends ‘Grateful Fed’”

Every time it was our family’s turn to bring snacks for any event—youth group, school functions, you name it—my friends would immediately ask, “Is your mom going to make cookies?” When my sister or I would announce that we needed to bring something yummy to share, Mom didn’t need to ask us what we wanted …

Continue reading “Baking Mom’s cookies makes me a chip off the old block”