desserts recipes

mediterranean fruit cake with brandy glaze
mediterranean fruit cake with brandy glaze

The chilly winter months (I feel like it’s freezing here and I don’t remember November being so cold in the past !) lend themselves to and actually encourage, denser, darker cakes filled with sweet dried fruits and a touch of alcohol of course, to better warm your bones !  Here’s a version with at least 7 varieties of...

27.11.2021
perfectly square tiramisu semifreddo blocks
perfectly square tiramisu semifreddo blocks

Is “tiramisu” a dessert classic ? For my generation, perhaps not, since it only appeared and was most probably first prepared in the early 70’s in Italy, then was modified and reinterpreted over time until today, 50 years later, everywhere. This dessert is a simple assembly of repeated layers made of ladyfinger cookies,...

11.09.2021
traditional «tsoureki» for the 21st century
traditional «tsoureki» for the 21st century

… an updated & foolproof version with a logical approach for making an even better traditional Greek sweet bread for the Orthodox Easter festivities.  The idea behind this recipe and instructions, after meticulously analyzing my own family’s traditional recipes and comparing it to other existing and successful recipes was...

24.04.2021
3 kings crown cake with chestnut cream & chestnut syrup & candied chestnuts
3 kings crown cake with chestnut cream & chestnut syrup & candied chestnuts

This is one of those modified pastry or brioche dough and yeasted cakes you only make once per year, after the New Year festivities and for Epiphany on January 6, especially in francophone countries and regions or for Mardi Gras in February, in many countries overseas. Because it’s a multi-step cake, even when initially mixing it and a...

09.01.2021
rolled apple & filo baklava crown
rolled apple & filo baklava crown

When an unintended but quickly modified and rather easy dessert idea becomes perfection in its simplicity ! Yes, I am proud of this accident, which is why I tested it again and why I’m sharing this crunchy, fruity and gooey baklava-style apple dessert with you.  I had planned to prepare something different. It was going to be a small...

07.11.2020
chocolate & peanut chewy amaretti cookies
chocolate & peanut chewy amaretti cookies

Let’s prepare a Halloween version of this reinterpreted amaretti recipe together, but without the almonds. Once again, it’s still as easy as 1-2-3 but with 1 part egg white + 2 parts sugar + 3 parts ground peanut (not almond) powder and a few extras like cocoa powder, mini-chocolate chips and chopped roasted & salted...

23.10.2021
lemon & lime & olive oil cakes
lemon & lime & olive oil cakes

A new & improved, easy summer dessert classic, with lemon of course and good quality olive oil, but also lime (for a more complex flavor) and buttermilk (for extra fluffiness and moistness), but you’ll have to work fast because of the reactive chemistry of the mixture but I’ll explain ! As you all know, this is one of the...

03.07.2021
carrot & clementine cake with cream cheese frosting & candied carrot ribbons
carrot & clementine cake with cream cheese frosting & candied carrot ribbons

Quite obviously, everyone that we know has their very own "best carrot cake recipe ever" that they’ll stick to forever and never change and that’s all fine and dandy, of course. But just in case somebody would like to try out another version, perhaps to be kindly adopted in your family of recipes, then here’s a fresher...

27.03.2021
holiday meringues with extra garnishes
holiday meringues with extra garnishes

After 1 day and 2 nights of still eating all sorts of leftovers, I’m quite certain that you still have small unused, uncooked or unbaked ingredients as leftovers to use up too ! Little bits and pieces of stuff, here and there and everywhere, as well as little jars of stuff in your pantry and refrigerator too, like EGG WHITES most probably...

26.12.2020
halloween (at home) sweet & salty chocolate clusters
halloween (at home) sweet & salty chocolate clusters

I’m so sorry kids (from the youngest to the less young too), but there will be no door-to-door trick-or-treating this year, so all you older and wiser parents and grandparents or closest friends and neighbors, be troopers and protectors and not sourpusses and party-poopers and make it an in-house close proximity event with your own...

24.10.2020
tropical banana bread (with pineapple & coconut & lime & ginger & vanilla & cardamom)
tropical banana bread (with pineapple & coconut & lime & ginger & vanilla & cardamom)

Do you have any over-ripe and mushy bananas on your kitchen counter or already frozen solid in your freezer in the hope of using them one day soon ? Do you also have other tropical ingredients like pineapple, coconut, ginger, lime, cardamom and vanilla ? Perhaps it’s time to make a very tropical banana bread. And even...

10.10.2021
almond & citrus soft amaretti cookies
almond & citrus soft amaretti cookies

One part egg white + two parts sugar + three parts ground almond powder, with a few extras. What could be simpler ? But I realized that most people were doing it all wrong ! This is the better and much easier way for perfect and flawless results … It’s such a pity that I only make these when I have leftover egg whites and often...

22.05.2021
crispy filo & creamy egg custard tartlets
crispy filo & creamy egg custard tartlets

A feeling of déjà-vu ? Well, here’s a reinterpreted Greek version of the famous Portuguese “pasteis de nata” custard tartlets as well as the French “flans pâtissiers” and the British “custard tarts”. It’s an easier and crispier version because the crust is made with 10 layers of...

06.03.2021
spiced orange & hazelnut christmas cookies
spiced orange & hazelnut christmas cookies

I have extremely fond memories of shared winter holiday meals, but many actually took place before or after or in between the official Christmas and New Year’s festivities. They weren’t the fanciest nor the best prepared meals, and to be honest, many were whipped up at the last minute. And yet I remember them more fondly, perhaps...

05.12.2020
frozen strained yogurt / sweetened labneh ice cream
frozen strained yogurt / sweetened labneh ice cream

… with only 2 main ingredients : triple-strained and thickened Greek-style yogurt (as thick as Lebanese labneh but not salty) combined with sweetened condensed milk and a few little extra hints of the flavorings that you choose to use, whether it’s fresh lemon or lime juice, vanilla extract, floral waters such as orange blossom or...

15.08.2020