Vanilla & Rooibos Biscotti
Happy 2025! I hope many of you enjoyed a thoroughly satisfying holiday baking season like I did. I didn’t get to bake at all in November/December 2023 because I was mired in the hellscape of packing and moving to Florence, so I was positively thrilled to break out my rolling pin and sprinkles this year! […]
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 […]
Cardamom-Pistachio Carrot Cake
I’ve been MIA for a long time… I can explain. I kind of, ummm, moved to Italy. I really did it– I’ve been dreaming about it for about a decade in various forms, and some days I still can’t believe I’m here in Florence. Preparing for the move was quite literally all-consuming for months, on […]
Funfetti Coconut Macaroons
Did anyone else feel like Passover snuck up on them this year? Maybe because it’s on the early side this year, it just didn’t dawn on me, say, last week to stock up on matzah, and there I was yesterday, mad-scrambling to multiple supermarkets in desperate search of a few boxes. At one Safeway, the […]
Cocoa Halva Sesame Hamantashen
Every year since I did 10 Days of Hamantashen in 2020, I keep telling myself some version of, “I don’t need to make a bunch of flavors this year”, or “Remember how stressful that was last year?”, or the ever-favorite “Stop creating more work for myself.” But then the “Wellll, it doesn’t take that long […]
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 […]
Cinnamon-Eggnog Scones with Blonde Chocolate
I must say that I love the lazy “holiday hangover” days between Christmas and New Year’s, when you don’t know what day it is without thinking about it for a sec, when you’re still snacking on holiday cookies, and when most of the events are over. Let me preface this next bit by saying that […]
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 […]
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 […]
