One of the tough things about writing a recipe column for a magazine is doing things way in advance. I originally made this cake recipe in March...way before cherries graced the shelves of the supermarkets in my area. So I came up with a solution, and bought a package of cherries from the freezer aisle. Well, that's a good solution for making this fabulous cake year round, but now that it's summer and delicious fresh cherries are abundantly available, there's only one way to make these properly, and it involves fresh cherries, and a handy cherry pitter sent to me by my friends over at OXO! This is one of my favorite new bundt cake recipes - fresh, bright, light, and simply delicious. Try … [Read more...]
Cheesecake Recipe Roundup!
I don't know about you, but I love cheesecake. All flavors, all shapes, all varieties. If it's creamy and cheesey, I. Am. In. Well the holiday of Shavuot is coming (for those of you who aren't familiar with it, click here). If there's ever a time to go crazy making cheesecake, it's for a holiday where it's traditional to eat cheesecake (among other dairy treats!). So whether you are celebrating this holiday, or just love a good slice of cheesecake, I have gathered up over 65 of the best cheesecake recipes from all over the internet. I've divided the recipes up into catergories, so scroll down, click over, and enjoy! (Links to the recipes in the photos are directly below the picture.) And … [Read more...]
Mini Chocolate Pomegranate Bundt Cakes with Pomegranate Glaze
Before we talk about the recipe I'm posting tonight, can we discuss the most amazing thing that happened? Two weeks ago, I published a recipe in the Ami magazine for a butterscotch bundt cake. I've been writing the column for more than half a year now, and have gotten some nice feedback before, but I was completely unprepared for this. Emails poured in from all over the world. People had made my cake and loved it, people who wanted to make my cake and had questions, and people who just plain love my column. My ego is still a little swollen, so bear with me because I'm still bragging. Turns out, the cake was popular enough to cause butterscotch chip shortages in Kosher grocery stores all … [Read more...]
Homemade Strawberry Lemonade
You know how they say that some of the world's best discoveries have come about through accidents? Well, I wouldn't quite equate this with turning moldy bread into penicillin, but it was a pretty lucky- and awesome- discovery. It started on a day like today, when it felt like it was a million degrees outside, but in actuality, it was only about a hundred. Either way, it was the kind of day that makes you want a tall glass filled with ice- and some refreshing drink poured over it. I walked into the house, grabbed a glass, and discovered that there was no ice in the freezer. Oh, the horror. After searching the freezer and determining that there were, indeed, no ice cubes, I started to look … [Read more...]
Homemade Cherry Pie and a Lattice Crust Tutorial
When I was growing up, there was a store my family frequented that had an amazing bakery section. They baked everything fresh on premises, and it was all super delicious. My parents still shop there often, and they never leave the store without a loaf or two of their amazing homemade bread, or maybe a couple of bagels. There's one treat we often used to buy from this bakery that stood out in my mind above all else. Their cherry pie never looked very elegant. It was wrapped in saran wrap that often stuck to the top a bit, and the "lattice" crust was made from a cutter, not an actual lattice. But nobody could care about that, because it was just so delicious. We didn't get this pie often, and … [Read more...]
Healthy Cottage Cheese Pancakes
If you have been reading my blog for any length of time, you know already that I work long days, plus I commute. I generally leave my house at 7:30 am, and return at about 7:30 pm (on a good day). You can, therefore, imagine that my typical weekday breakfast isn't very glamorous or post-worthy. I generally get to work about a quarter to nine, and use that time to make coffee. That's the glamorous part of my breakfast, trust me. I try to gulp down a few drops of it before the clock strikes nine and the phone starts ringing. On a good morning, I can drink about half of my coffee before I get distracted by my first phone call. On a bad day, the phone rings at 9:01, and the poor, unknowing … [Read more...]
Glazed Raspberry Cookies
I don't know if you've noticed, but I am kinda sorta..alright very into how things look. A delicious cookie is a delicious cookie, and don't anyone get the impression that I undervalue a delicious cookie, but a delicious cookie that looks nice...well, that's a winner on every front. I know, some people read: guys absolutely wouldn't know the difference between a pretty cookie or a non-pretty cookie if it bit them in the nose. Just the other day, one of the guys I work with, a big fan of my cookies, invited me into his office to taste a cookie that his wife had made. And probably to get my expert opinion. It only seemed fair, he reasoned, that after all of the cookies I had given him, he … [Read more...]
Apple Cherry Layered Crumb Cake (Kugel)
Remember the Kugel Quandary I had recently? Well, in case you were not yet confused about kugel, here we go. Honestly, I am highly uncertain about posting this recipe as a kugel. It's a cake, really. But when it comes down to it, a sweet kugel (such as this one) is really nothing but a great excuse to eat dessert halfway through your meal. And how can anyone not like that? To avoid confusion, I am going to call this a cake, going forward. Call it a sailboat if you want. The important thing is that you make it and thoroughly enjoy it. Now, a little bit of background on this cake. A number of years ago, just before a holiday, my father came down with a nasty infection and had to be … [Read more...]
Puff Pastry Apple Pie Cups with Crumb Topping
Lets try a little pop quiz, shall we? 1) Are you one of those people who is terrified of making real old fashioned pie crust? 2) Do you simply not have time to make a pie crust, roll it out, and prepare a proper pie? 3) Do you have an over-abundance of delicious fresh apples this fall, and need a great way to use some? 4) Do you enjoy simple, easy and seasonal desserts? If you answered yes to one of more of the above questions, you will love this recipe. It's as simple as buying some puff pastry, peeling and dicing some apples, and making a simple crumb topping. Really, it's that simple. Besides, who doesn't love single serve desserts? Puff Pastry Apple Pie Cups with Crumb … [Read more...]
Strawberry Chocolate Cream Cups
I am the kind of person who will spot a beautiful little cup, buy it, then try and come up with something to use it for. That's not an example; it's what I did last week. I saw these gorgeous little pedestal cups, and couldn't leave the store without them. They will look so good on the buffet table at the party I am making in honor of my sister's new baby. So I bought a couple packages, and started to think. The party being for a little girl, I decided to strawberry would be the way to go. Then I decided to go for the contrast- so chocolate would have to be involved. At first I thought I would crumble some leftover chocolate cake I had stashed in the freezer, but I didn't have enough, so … [Read more...]