Gourmet Magazine’s Chocolate Hazelnut Crinkle Cookies

This week I am forwarding to you a recipe I discovered last year in Gourmet magazine and just got around to trying. Yes, even professional recipe developers cook from other people’s recipes on occasion!
I want to pass along this recipe because I know many of you will be baking batches of cookies for holiday gifts [...]

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Apple-Cranberry Crunch Pie

If you haven’t guessed already, I’m on a pie kick at the moment. I’m not one to cook desserts all that often in my free time, but the holidays have really got me hankering for some serious sweets!
This pie was my ticket out of cooking an entire Thanksgiving dinner this year. Instead of spending hours [...]

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Saveur’s Cardamom-Buttermilk Pie

photo credit: Larry Nighswander, Saveur Magazine’s website
I saw this recipe for Cardamom-Buttermilk pie in November’s issue of Saveur and had to try it. This was the first time I’d ever eaten a buttermilk pie, and I absolutely loved it!
It was the perfect dessert to eat after the mushroom curry I made the other day, since [...]

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Flakey Pie Crust, Laurie’s Way

Let’s see a show of hands: How many people cooked a Thanksgiving pie last week? Now, here’s the tougher question: How many people thought their pie crust was a flakey, tender masterpiece? If you’re not among those who had a successful crust experience, read the following tutorial and see if it doesn’t get you geared [...]

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HOME-BREWED COFFEE SYRUP

I was raised a Yankee and, therefore, live my life with an undertone of frugality. Although my family wasn’t poor growing up, we preferred to stock our book cases with 25-cent garage sale paperbacks and drive each family car until it sputtered to a standstill or the rust on the undercarriage threatened to dump us [...]

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Cinnamon-Apple Caramel Sauce

Tarte Tatin is one of my favorite desserts to eat during the fall. In the French brasserie where I worked, we oftentimes made 40 or 50 individual tartes in a day. I still remember the way we arranged the caramelized apples on the bottom of the tarte tins, fanning them out around the edges and [...]

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Summer Berries with Honey Zabaglione and Candied Almonds

This is my version of the Italian classic. Honey is a perfect complement to the heady flavors of Muscat, and strawberries with honey are entirely magical. I serve this zabaglione cold, with a little whipped cream folded in for a luscious texture. The candied almonds offer a contrasting, definitive crunch.
I’d like to [...]

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Rhubarb Compote and the Basil Blush

I’ve been eating this rhubarb compote for a week now - I love it so much. I’ve started eating it straight from the fridge, like scarfing down ice cream from the cardboard container instead of scooping it into a bowl. I got a peculiar look the other morning when I was discovered eating granola [...]

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