desserts recipes
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...
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...
… 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...
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...
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...
In the olden days, whether in Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, the Balkans, and also in further away Romania and some Middle-Eastern countries, every guest visiting any home, no matter how rich or poor the household was, could expect a cup of hot coffee, a cold glass of water and a small plate of room-temperature home-made "spoon sweets",...
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...
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...
It’s like biting into a piece of a cool and light summer morning, before the sun has had time to heat up the surroundings and scramble its crystal clarity. Or with less imagery, it’s like a munching on a thick, crumbly, crunchy cookie topped with fruit jam and big pieces of juicy fruit, except that this fruit-topped crunchy cookie is...