Now that we are in the height of the summer fruit season, and there are fresh plums in the supermarket, I made this old favorite. It has an interesting and complex flavor since, as the name says, it uses three kinds of plums, fresh plums, prune juice, and plum brandy. Fruit brandies are the real Read More …
I was recently in Houston and spotted a bottle of peppermint oil at a supermarket, and decided to make a batch of peppermint patties, which I had not done for many years. It is essential that peppermint oil (which is very strong) be used rather than peppermint extract. The easiest place to find peppermint Read More …
Rice pudding is a real comfort food dessert, and is easy, although a bit time-consuming to make. This is the way I usually make it, which is an adaptation from Cook’s Illustrated’s book, The Best Recipe. The rum gives a lot of flavor to the final pudding, but it can be omitted if you do Read More …
This simple apple crisp is good for camping since the ingredients are quite stable. It was popular for dessert on a canoeing trip to the Boundary Waters in northern Minnesota last September and I will be serving it to the adults at the Henry’s Farm campout this coming weekend. This recipe will serve 8. 5 Read More …
This is an adaptation of a recipe which appeared in Gourmet magazine in March 1999. It is a sweet and gooey pecan filling on top of a shortbread base, and it has been popular whenever I have made it. Hot Shortbread Base 2 cups all purpose flour ½ cup packed light brown sugar Read More …
This cake was my first introduction to the virtues of cane syrup. It is an adaptation from an article in the New York Times on Steen’s Cane Syrup, which is from Louisiana and is available at the better supermarkets in Houston and on line. A similar (but lighter product) is Lyle’s Golden Syrup, which is Read More …
Before Christmas in 1984, the New York Times published a great article entitled “Baker’s Half-Dozen Recipes: Cheesecake to Buche de Noel”. I made half of those recipes over the years, and the one which turned into a family tradition for Christmas was the Linzer Torte. This is a bit different from the usual Linzer Tortes Read More …
This chocolate cake is a classic in Carol’s family and she recently made it for her brother’s birthday. It may sound strange to use mayonnaise in a cake until you recall that the two principal ingredients in mayonnaise, oil and eggs, are common cake ingredients. 3 cups cake flour 1-1/2 cups sugar 1 Tbs. Read More …
This is an adaptation of a recipe which won a cook-off at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo some 4 years ago. The photo shows it ready to be baked with fancy sugar used in the topping. As will be explained at the end of this post, the recipe can be easily adapted for Read More …
This recipe is an adaptation of a pie crust recipe from Serious Eats and a pecan filling recipe from Steen’s website. The crust preparation includes some useful tricks to get a flaky crust. This is the first pie dough where I felt that the crust itself was worth eating, and was not just as a Read More …