Plumcake alle Carote (Italian Carrot Cake)

Set aside everything you ever thought you knew about carrot cake. The American version could not be more antithetical to Italian-style pastry: ultra-sweet, dense, slathered in cream cheese frosting. Now, before I go any further, lest you think I’m a carrot cake heretic, I’d like to offer my full support and advocacy for American carrot […]

Cannoli Sandwich Cookies

Happy 2023, friends! Do you have bright, colorful, nutrient-rich salads and soups on deck for January? ME TOO, and I am so excited about them. And alsoooo… I’m still baking. A lot. See, my baking tends to roll with my breaks from school, and our winter break started so late this year, just two days […]

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 […]

Basilicata: Crostata al Caprino (Italian Goat Cheese Tart)

If you’ve read this blog in the past, you may have a vague recollection that I was writing a series about Italian desserts at one point. As I’ve been less active in the past few years, I sort of trailed off, but it’s always been something I wanted to return to. The premise was that […]

Cannoli Sheet Cake

What a bizarre time these (how many?) months have been… When everything locked down in mid-March and life shrunk down to me and my apartment walls, I found myself in the kitchen much more than usual– I was positively delighted at this silver lining of the unfathomable global crisis that had suddenly taken hold. Of […]

Baked Sunday Mornings: Almond Granita

Please pardon this interruption of my regularly scheduled hamantashen posting. I’m pausing to bring you… a little sliver of Italian summer. Among our very last recipes for Baked Sunday Mornings is Almond Granita from BAKED: New Frontiers in Baking, which is not a recipe I would have made on my own. As I’ve said countless times, […]

Baked Sunday Mornings: Chocolate Chip-Orange Panettone

Happy Holidays, friends! I hope you’re enjoying warm company, relaxy times, and lots of yummy treats this week. 🙂 The thing I love most about baking, besides cramming delicious foodstuffs in my cake hole (duhhh), is that it never ceases to amaze me. There is never an end to the learning and trying and tweaking […]

Puglia, Again: Pistachio Soufflé Cakes

I know I already told you about Puglia, the part of Italy located at the heel of the “boot”. I already told you about its intoxicating wildness and its foreign influences and some of its incredible food. And I already said that it feels like a different country than the rest of Italy, and that […]

Emilia-Romagna: Torta di Riso Bolognese

Buongiorno, amici! After a bit of a hiatus, I am so happy to be talking with you about Italy again. On every trip to Italy, we try to visit somewhere new, in addition to sentimental favorite locations. Last time, we skipped the Emilia-Romagna region– too many other places to go! We just couldn’t cram it […]

Torta Sbriciolata alla Sicilia

What I wouldn’t give to celebrate the holidays in Italy one of these years! Italy celebrates countless festivals all year round (religious, cultural, national, regional, local– you name it), but I think nothing matches the merrymaking around December/January. In addition to various feasts before and during Christmas, Italians celebrate New Year’s in a big way, […]