Cranberry Pecan Bread

Aside from turkey, on any given holiday table, my least favorite thing is very often the cranberry sauce. Perhaps I had one too many cloying canned versions as a kid, or the ones I had were simply too tart; for whatever reason, I usually pass the cranberry bowl to the next person swiftly. But then […]

Earl Grey Shortbread Snowflakes with Blood Orange Glaze

We’re all still eating cookies, yes? This has been such a fun cookie year for me, and I keep happily finding reasons to make more. In this hazy week between Christmas/Chanukah and New Year’s, I find that “lunch” consists of grazing on cookies throughout the afternoons on most days, and I can’t really say that […]

Sicilian Cuccidati (Christmas Fruit & Nut Cookies)

As you might remember if you’ve been following this blog for a while, I have a deep affinity for Italy, and while it took me a while to come around to Italian desserts, they’ve really grown on me over the years. These are my favorite Italian holiday cookies, called Cuccidati (coo-chee-DAH-tee), as requested a few […]

Baked Sunday Mornings: Bourbon Chocolate Pecan Pie

You win some, you lose some. Pie has never been my baking strength, nor is it my favorite genre in the realm of baked goods, but I will begrudgingly make one when needed. I’m sure that like anything else, it just takes practice; I have made countless loaves of babka in the past year because […]

Baked Sunday Mornings: Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Autumn in the Middle East is… different. This is the first Fall season of my life (okay, since I was a toddler) not spent somewhere that gets the familiar pre-holiday chill in the air, at least a little color on the leaves, and the beginnings of Christmas gearing up. In Israel, temperatures are still in […]

Pumpkin & Cookie Butter Sheet Cake with Toasted Meringue

You’re already preparing for Thanksgiving dinner, aren’t you. On the off chance that you haven’t started on dessert yet, I highly recommend walking over to the pantry and pulling out the jar of speculoos that you’ve been saving for something special. (Or is that just me??) Let’s all stay cool and calm and collected– Pumpkin […]

The Sweetest Form of Flattery: Faux Cranberry Bliss Bars

If I had to make a choice between dark chocolate and white chocolate, there would be absolutely zero contest; dark chocolate always wins. But every once in a while, there’s a treat that captures the heart and may not fit in the box of other preferences. Such is the case for me with Starbucks’ Cranberry Bliss Bars. […]

Baked Sunday Mornings: Chocolate Espresso Tapioca Pudding with Kahlúa Whipped Cream

Don’t you love it when things just work out? I was apprehensive about this week’s Baked Sunday Mornings recipe, Chocolate Espresso Tapioca Pudding with Kahlúa Whipped Cream from Baked Occasions, because my puddings have historically been hit-and-miss. (This is our Black Friday recipe, a little ahead of the “holiday”.) I have never made tapioca pudding from scratch, but […]

Baked Sunday Mornings: Wintermint Cake

Gone are the days that I used to dread making layer cakes. When a layer cake would come up on the Baked Sunday Mornings schedule, I used to feel a mixture of elation, anxiety, and mortal fear; but thankfully the latter two have eroded as my experience with BAKED‘s cakes and frostings has yielded more successes than failures in recent […]

Baked Sunday Mornings: Date Squares… with Toffee Sauce

Let’s begin with a quote from the illustrious Ms. Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen: “Prior to last month, I had spent exactly zero minutes of my life thinking about date cake, craving date cake or noting the absence of date cake in my life and/or site archives.” This precisely sums up my feelings about baked goods […]