Cake Batter Ice Cream Cake

Zeke’s favorite ice cream flavor is cake batter. Whenever I drag him to Carvel, he gets the same flavor – sometimes he gets it in a milkshake, though. So for his birthday, I decided to surprise him with a second birthday cake! A colorful ice cream cake that tastes like cake batter. It was awesome. Continue reading

Thin Mints

Who doesn’t love girl scout cookies? My professor was selling them out of her office, which made me get a craving for some thin mints! I knew I had to try to make some of those well-loved cookies in my own kitchen, so when I saw Heidi Swanson’s recipe using whole wheat pastry flour, I had to give them a try! Continue reading

Vanilla Ice Cream

Or, the best ice cream base ever.

What’s your favorite ice cream flavor? I’m sure we can make it work…

May is ice cream season! Of course, that means that summer is around the corner and baby and I will be frequenting the Lighthouse for soft-serve strawberry ice cream. But it also means that I can serve ice cream for dessert whenever I have company. And although I love going out for ice cream (even though Zeke doesn’t, despite his love for cake batter ice cream), homemade ice cream often tastes better, especially when you use as many egg yolks as I did in this recipe. Plus, I know exactly what the ingredients are. That’s always a plus for me. Continue reading

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

On the rare occasion that I buy sour cream, I really need to use it before it goes bad. That means a lot of cake and muffins are baked in my house, then frozen for future breakfasts. I mean, I don’t want to waste a perfectly good ingredient. In this case, I decided to bake coffee cake, because it’s classic New York cuisine and easy to make for breakfast. I found a recipe in an old issue of Bon Appetit I had lying around, and it was perfect! A thick crumb topping and a nice moist cake.

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Kaak, or Syrian Bread Sticks

I have a confession to make. We made kaak a really long time ago. Probably more than 6 months ago, actually. We just never got around to writing up the post because the pictures were stuck on Adele’s camera, and because we had so many other interesting things to share with you. Better sooner rather than later, right?

Now that Passover won’t be back for another year, maybe we’ll make a giant batch of kaak for our freezer.

Kaak are bread sticks, but instead of being actual stick shapes, they are formed into rings. They are flavored with kemun, kizabrah, mahlab, and yansoon. Or cumin, anise, and cherry pit. I wouldn’t say that they’re hard to make, just time consuming. You need to shape each ring, then bake at two different temperatures. If you have two ovens, then this might be a little easier than it was for us. Anyone want to buy me a double wall oven? I promise you a batch of kaak! We baked these in Adele’s not-so-giant Manhattan kitchen. And hey, if we could do it there, then it can be done anywhere. You just have to have some patience. Continue reading

Macaroons

What’s Passover without a macaroon? I always thought I didn’t like macaroons. I mean, why would I? They’re dry, kinda tasteless, and come in a can. Not to mention they were probably from LAST passover. At least at Grandma’s house…But then I realized that you can make macaroons at home. They don’t have to be store bought. And they’re very simple to make, especially if you follow Mark Bittman’s recipe. Continue reading

Passover Marshmallow Nut Log

This has to be one of the easiest desserts I’ve ever made. And with the reaction it got from my seder crowd, I think I’ll have to make it for every holiday meal. Not only are they simple to make, especially if you have the ingredients on hand, they also don’t involve an oven, so you can make them on the actual holiday if you forgot to prepare something in advance. Continue reading

Burnt Caramel Pudding

Happy Chol Hamoed! You’re probably stuffed, but I think you can make room for some dessert:

I’ve been known to browse the internet for hours, reading recipes and adding them to my ever-growing Things To Make list. Most things are on that list forever for a long time, but not this recipe!

Right after I read this recipe, I was invited to a friend for Shabbat lunch, and excitedly replied, “I’ll bring dessert, hope you’re serving dairy!” She confirmed that she planned on a dairy lunch, and I didn’t stop talking about this pudding all week. Poor David. Continue reading

A Passover Dessert: Flourless Chocolate Cake

Passover is next week! Who is busy cleaning, looking for hametz and menu-planning!? Everyone? I thought so! We tend to skip the typical Passover dessert. Cakes made with potato starch and matzo meal just aren’t good; we’ll wait a week for the real thing. But this is different. It’s supposed to be flourless, but it’s not one of those rich, dense flourless cakes. The whipped egg whites and cream make it light and airy. Not only is it delicious on Passover, but it’s beautiful! Continue reading

Orange Sherbet

I don’t know why sherbet is spelled like this but pronounced sherbert. I do know that it is different than sorbet because it has dairy in it – in this case, whole milk. I’ve made many different flavors of sorbet before (my favorites being raspberry and cranberry), but I’ve never tried to make sherbet. After buying the citrus juicer for my kitchen aid, I decided I needed to make some recipes with juice, and orange sherbet was the perfect thing to try! I love freshly squeezed orange juice, so combining it with sugar and milk and freezing it must taste good, right?! Continue reading