desserts recipes

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...

We’re living in interesting times. Everything seems backwards, topsy-turvy, inside-out, but life goes on and it’s my sister Stella’s birthday today ! Despite the worrying situation and anxiety, everything has slowed down and almost stopped for almost everybody. For me so far, it’s been 1 workless month of partial...

HAPPY NEW YEAR wishes with a sunny brunch recipe to better kick it off and perhaps a few resolutions to at least try everything once in your life, before it’s too late, because until you do or try something yourself, you’ll never realize the efforts it required to achieve it and hence may never learn to appreciate it enough...

It’s a treat, like a candy bar, but more sophisticated than that. What is often called a «millionnaire» shortbread is now a «billionnaire» shortbread (perhaps because of inflation and all that) but moreso because of our evolving palates and taste expectations. We always want more. Like when we were kids and...

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",...

I’m almost certain you all have APPLES ! Right ? Along with some citrus fruits and maybe bananas too … the basics in the world of fruits. Let’s make an easy and modifiable apple cake that’s perhaps a little bit healthier too, but that’s up to you and your taste buds, because I’m sure you’ve all become top...

These cookies truly look like SNOWBALLS so the flavors should remind you of winter, whether it’s the colder and crisper smells outside or the warmer more domestic smells inside of a warm oven or a chimney fire, comforting your bones as you’re eating them. KOURABIEDES are like buttery shortbreads, but less crispy and more...

What do you get when you combine mixed roasted nuts and a milk caramel filling made with sweetened condensed milk and some eggs, and you place it inside a sweet shortcrust pastry pie shell ? You get this amazing autumn tart (or pie) ! You have the recipe & instructions for the sweet shortcrust pastry pie-shell because I posted that too...

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...

Or the “1-2-5” COOKIE since all the main ingredients each weigh 125 grams and are easy to remember, even the little added extras measure 1¼ tsp each which is also 1,25 teaspoons right ? And the baking time is 12 ½ minutes too.  I also tried baking them at 125°C and then let them sit in a turned off oven but...

The secret to their "domed" shape is not just due to using a mini ice-cream scoop. The cookie dough must be chilled and then baked in a very hot oven (just at the beginning) so that they retain their shapes and don’t flatten and spread out ! And the rest is easy : 1 cup of flour and ½ cup of everything else and 1 egg,...

It’s a double-post weekend with 2 recipes so you can make a very autumnal mixed roasted nuts & milk caramel pie, right after reading this !  Shortcrust pastry can be prepared following the simplest equation : 2 to 1 or twice as much flour as butter as opposed to puff-pastry that is 1 to 1 or equal amounts of butter to flour, and...