Category: baking

Widen the Gap With Homemade Bread

If you’ve read my book, “7 Money Rules for Life,” you know that rule No. 1 is so simple it would be easy to overlook it as being too elementary. Here it is: Spend less than you earn. Now, let’s think about this. “Spend less than you earn” is not the same as “Don’t spend…


How to Make a Proper Eggplant Parmigiana, Italian Nonna-Style

Summer isn’t officially over until I make a few trays of eggplant parmigiana to freeze for the colder months. The rich, cheesy layers are a joy to eat warm, even in the hot summer months. But nothing beats the utter pleasure of biting into a thick, piping hot, intensely savory slice of it on a…


Chewy, Fudgy Brookies Are for Dessert Lovers Who Want It All

My husband and I live in opposite-ville when it comes to dessert. Give me a rich, gooey chocolate brownie with a shiny, crackly top any day. My husband loves crispy-chewy chocolate chip cookies with a passion that verges on a new religion, but he’s positively “meh” about brownies. The solution? I glued my favorite brownie…


The Family Table: A Grandmother’s Legacy of Love, Home Cooking, and Coffee Cake Mornings

Submitted by Terese Luikens, Sandpoint, Idaho For the first eight years of my life, I lived near my grandma and enjoyed partaking in the feasts she served for memorable holiday meals. Uncles, aunts, and cousins sat shoulder-to-shoulder around tables laden with tender beef roasts, smooth brown gravy, fluffy mashed potatoes, and always a choice of cream…


Say Goodbye to Summer With a Peach Melba Buckle

A buckle is one of those early American country desserts, like a pandowdy, grunt, or cobbler, that combines fruit with biscuits or cake. The source for this recipe idea is Florida chef Clair Epting, who prepared a blood peach-raspberry crisp with a peach-honey sauce for dessert one evening at the Cakebread Cellars in Napa Valley….


Summer Breakfasts in Salento

During most of the year, I’m an advocate of breakfast at home. I can toast my home-baked sourdough bread until slightly charred on the edges, wait until it’s just barely warm, then top it with what I fancy the most that day: almond butter and jam, scrambled eggs, smoked salmon, cucumbers. Along with my toast,…


An Ice Cream Cake Sweet With Childhood Nostalgia

If some of your fondest childhood food memories include packaged snack cakes—Devil Dogs, Yodels, Swiss Rolls, and the like—as well as store-bought ice cream cakes (Baskin-Robbins’ mint chocolate chip cake, I’m looking at you), I guarantee this ice cream-filled Swiss roll cake will rock your world. The cake is inspired by one I created for…


Potato-Lover’s Pizza

When potatoes are sweet and in season, this is a great time to make this carb-loaded pizza. The key is to slice the potatoes and onions very thin so that they fully cook by time the pizza crust is golden brown. I prefer to use a mandoline, but a slicing wheel attachment for your food…


Have Vegetables for Dessert in These Sweet Italian Cakes

It took years to convince me that vegetables could belong in desserts. But Italy’s cucina povera, or peasant cooking tradition, is actually full of cakes with vegetables that perfectly embody the cuisine’s spirit: They use whatever is abundant and in season—not just fruit, but vegetables, too—in an inventive way, turning poor ingredients into rich treats….


Torta Di Verdure Coi Becchi (Swiss Chard Tart)

The sweet dessert torta coi becchi, made with Swiss chard, was born in Lucca, Tuscany thanks to locals’ knowledge and expertise about the many herbs that grow spontaneously throughout the area. Chard is categorized as a sweet herb, along with nettle and borage, opposed to bitter herbs such as dandelion or chicory. It is a…