Posts Tagged ‘Pastry’
Strawberry Cream Cake
Strawberry Cream Cake is a love song to fresh strawberries, just-picked! So fragrant and light, similar to strawberry shortcake, this dessert is a crowd-pleaser. On a drive up north here in Michigan, we recently heard a TED talk about the Blue Zones. These are the few communities around the world that have something important in…
Read MoreChristmas Breakfast Wreath
This Christmas Breakfast wreath is glorious to behold and to eat. A buttery dough is filled with cherry almond filling scented with rose water, cut and twisted to form a wreath, and finished with a rose water glaze. Also see the beautiful Brioche Star with Strawberry Rose Jam. At Tante Marie’s, where I went to…
Read MoreStrawberry Rose Cheesecake Recipe, with labneh
I was on the hunt for strawberries for all kinds of reasons. Number one: the presence of strawberries at the farmer’s market Up North would mean that the soil, the air, the sun and sky were, at long long last, generous enough to give us a taste of summer. Secondly, last Friday was the first…
Read MoreFavorite Things: Coconut Extract (the real deal)
When you love coconut, you want to taste coconut. It took me years to understand that my coconut cream pies were just okay, and tasted more like vanilla custard pie with a little bit of coconutty chew rather than like truly tropical coconut cream. With all of the time I’ve spent in Florida (read: piña…
Read MoreZa’atar Croissant Recipe, a worthy project
The first morning of my first visit to Lebanon, two years ago now!, a beautiful platter of pastries was presented at our table for breakfast. I wasn’t surprised to see French pastry in Lebanon—because the country was a French protectorate for so many years, French culture and language are part of who we are. And…
Read MoreFavorite Things: A roller rolling pin
Unlike my mother, I have never been much of a collector. Her mind takes just about anything she loves and turns it into a collector’s odyssey, a search-and-find presence of mind that is always with her. She’s done it with antique teacups, with her Fostoria glass, a slew of teapots, flow blue china and porcelain…
Read MoreIngredient: European-style butter (for our Za’atar Croissants)
Happy spring—it feels official now, even in Up North in Michigan, where it snowed as recently as last week. While we are far from the first crop of anything here, there is still the sense that the place is waking up and good things are coming our way. There are daffodils, and the cows are…
Read MoreFavorite Things: Angled Measuring Cups
Measuring is serious business, especially when you’re baking. Most of us don’t use our Salter scales every time we add an ingredient to the mix, so the right measuring cups are important. My mom was the one who first started using the angled measure, and once I got a hold of them, well, she had…
Read MoreSour Cherry Galette with Cream Cheese Crust
This cherry galette is a free-form pie that is easy to roll out with my cream cheese crust, and easy to assemble into a rustic round. Use tart or sour cherries for classic cherry pie flavor. The possibilities for sour cherries are endless. They’re a natural for Lebanese recipes, fitting right in with our penchant…
Read MoreMy Mom’s Best Pie Crust
My Mom’s no-butter pie crust is heavenly…ultra flakey with a hint of salt. And the kicker: no butter! Perfectly vegan. Use the 10-inch double crust recipe for single-crust pies (more dough to work with for crimping the edges; tuck the extra under the perimeter). Everyone who knows my mother knows that the hallmark of her character…
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