desserts recipes
Here’s a versatile cake recipe that I seem to be able to remember how to make without even looking at the written recipe, because the measurements are easy and I modify some ingredients each time, depending on what I have available. The cake shape never changes though and it’s always a “ciambellone”, which is the name of...
These spicy and aromatic Greek Christmas cookies, (sometimes loosely translated as honey macaroons but rather resembling a syrup-drenched Mediterranean version of gingerbread or a softer speculoos cookie, but without the ginger and with lots of orange), exist in as many variations as there are villages in Greece and cities around the world where...
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...
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...
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...
A little crown-shaped yeasted brioche-like cake with a hole in the middle, that is baked then allowed to dry out and later soaked with a sweet aromatic syrup to which you add a strong alcohol and perhaps glaze it too so it could be shiny and then fill it up with pastry cream or just top it off with a flourish of whipped cream and then decorate it...
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...
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,...
… 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...
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...
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2 ALL !!! … with a multi-layered, multi-glazed puff-pastry creation, filled with a chestnut cream mixture and topped with a candied chestnut, but not for today of course but rather for the days around Epiphany coming up on January 6, which is when people most often enjoy a traditional “galette des rois” in...
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...
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...
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...
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...