Wintertime is baking season and this easy Pumpkin Caramel Poke Cake combines a luscious caramel, pillowy whipped cream, and crunchy pecans with a simple pumpkin sheet cake. Simple to make and a breeze to take along to potlucks or delight guests at home. I love the rich, sunny color of pumpkin, and keep canned pumpkin puree in my pantry all ...
Desserts
Pumpkin Cheesecake with Pecan-Gingersnap Crust
If you're looking for a fabulous, can-do, beautiful and luscious holiday dessert, Pumpkin Cheesecake is the answer. This recipe makes the best one I've ever had, right down to its Gingersnap-Pecan Crust! Sweet and yet tangy, simple and yet complex, familiar and yet endlessly variable, cheesecake is a glorious dessert which is easy for cooks to ...
“Cake: I Love You!” Is One Brilliant, Beautiful, Must-Have Cookbook
If you love sweet treats, beautiful irresistible desserts, simple home-made goodies, and elegant expressions of the professional pastry chef's genius, you will love Jill O'Connor and her latest cookbook. Entitled Cake, I Love You: Decadent, Delectable, and Do-Able Recipes, this bright, delight-filled book is a whimsical valentine to the pleasures ...
Apple Pear Persimmon Pie
This year I followed through on my long-time intention to find out about the many National (fill-in-the-blank-with-an ingredient or dish) Day which occur throughout the year. Intention? Perhaps not, since I did not act up on it for a long time. But then, I did! Early in January I looked up resources on these declared days, and wrote some onto my ...
Turtle Mocha Brownies
My friend Nicolette shares my love for cooking and baking, and tracking down irresistible recipes which she kindly share with me. This one comes from a whole entire book of brownie brilliance, entitled The Brownie Experience: A Cookbook for Brownie Lovers, by Lisa Tanner. Nicolette adds a little espresso powder to make these mocha rather than ...
Ricotta Custards with Persimmon-Ginger Compote
My first instinct when an occasion calls for dessert is to think of pies, cakes, puddings, and other whole confections, which are divided up into servings when it's time to eat. Individual desserts make sense for pastry chefs preparing goodies for special occasions, but seem fussy and challenging to me at home. Until one like this comes along, and ...
Galette Des Rois : French-Style King Cake for the Twelfth Day of Christmas
Happy Twelfth Day of Christmas! We are still celebrating here, and I had the best time making my first Galette des Rois, the traditional dessert enjoyed on January 6th, the Feast of the Epiphany. I love this cake, and was delighted with the recipe on the King Arthur Flour website. It was clear and easy to follow and came out beautifully. Delicious, ...
Persimmon Upside-Down Cake
I love persimmons and the feeling only deepens as their long cold-weather season continues. No matter how many I bring home, whether we eat them outright or in pound cake, cookies, pies or persimmon pudding, I keep wanting more. My latest adventure is starring this uniquely lovely fruit in an old-time favorite, upside-down cake.The two kinds of ...
Persimmon Cookies – Simple, Seasonal, and Delicious
I didn't grow up with persimmon cookies, though old-timey persimmon pudding was standard on my grandmother's table and at farmers' markets when I moved back to Greensboro, North Carolina after my Peace Corps service. While researching my cookbook on Southern fruit, I found persimmon cookie recipes in abundance, and not only from Southern sources. ...
My Thanksgiving Pies in Southern Living Magazine
Since I love fall so much, this time of year always brings me joy, but this particular year, autumn has been providing an extra-special delight. As a longtime reader and fan of Southern Living magazine, I have dreamed of seeing my byline and recipes among its pages. This year my dream came true, when the November issue arrived, full of beautiful ...