Tis the season for all things orange! And get ready for the onslaught of pumpkin recipes (which have undoubtedly already inundated your Instagram feeds, we’re a bit late on our side). Pumpkin pie, pumpkin cookies or cakes or muffins have an enduring comfort to them that other baked goods may fall short on. The warmth of the color, quite simply, lends itself to cozy evenings and afternoons or time curled up on the couch next to a fire after a brisk walk down the street to crunch leaves and admire the brilliantly-hued trees. What I would love after such a walk, is to come inside and be met with a…
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Pumpkin Saffron and Cardamon Crumb Cake
After trying a few modifications on Kendra’s pumpkin coffee cake recipe (which will be up here soon!), I ended up with a cake that was infinitely denser, a layer of crumb that could serve as a paperweight, and an eggy, almost pie-like center. At first slice, I deemed it a failure – but lo and behold, the texture and hint of sweetness was a resounding hit at the office! So, armed with a personal recommendation from my CMO for a few key ingredients to add, I returned to the modified recipe a few weeks later and concocted this ethereally spiced, hazy-sweet ode to so many spectacular Persian and Indian treats.…
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Spiced Apple Crisp
Apple crisp is one of my enduring fall favorites. It exudes warmth (quite literally but also figuratively), the coziness of spices, the sweet, soft abundance of homey apples, and the crunch of an earthy, deeply spiced crumble. It’s a humble dessert that melts me back into worn couches, a cracking fire, and cousins and family members teasing and laughing over plates and plates of food. Or to after dinner instant apple crisps that my grandma would whip together in about 10 minutes (without measuring a single ingredient much to the lament of me, who wanted her recipe) and that we would dig in to once the dishwasher was rumbling away…
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Raspberry Drops with Chocolate Caps
It’s October, and in October, all sorts of clever, colorful Halloween-themed treats abound. These were entirely a mistake – made because I discovered that if I blitzed up freeze dried berries, I got something akin to berry powder that could easily be subbed in for a bit of flour and which lends brilliant color to anything oven-bound. The chocolate caps on these tiny raspberry drops just happen to look a bit like the Harry Potter sorting hat or other seasonal costumes, so I’m dubbing them a fine entry into the spooky sweets category. They’re a bit of an oddball: deep dark chocolate ganache (or something akin to ganache) with a…
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Gluten Free Brondies (Blondies + Brownies)
Brownies are the saving grace of gluten free baked goods. If nothing else quite works out, you can always make amazing brownies and no one will know they’re gluten free. They truly are the magic marker of the dessert realm. You can throw in beans, avocado, pumpkin puree, applesauce, anything! And brownies still turn out to be the most indulgent, gooiest, fudgiest treats you could ever ask for. How they manage this, I don’t know. It’s one of those baking secrets we all strive to uncover. But while we’re puzzling over the versatility and consistency of brownies, why not make some? And while you’re at it, make some cakey, buttery…
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Gluten Free Vanilla Almond Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Buttercream
Food could sincerely be an entirely new love language. Aside from the other ways people express their affection, making food for that special someone, or someones, is truly one of the greatest pleasures in life. At least for me. It’s a love that was instilled in me and my sister at a very young age by our mother, who takes her southern roots to heart whenever anyone new walks in the door or someone expresses the tiniest hint of hunger. Food is where the home is and where the heart can share its deepest and most inexpressible fondness for others. This gluten free carrot cake is one of those simple,…
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Gluten Free Vanilla Raspberry Pancakes
I’ve tried a million different gluten free pancake recipes. It seems like pancakes should be one of the simplest breakfast items to make gluten free, but you’d be surprised how sneakily dense or crumbly some turn out. Or that telltale taste of rice flour just is a bit too noticeable and you need a different combination of starches, powders, and flavorings. These are not the end all be all gluten free pancakes, because there are so many different variables to optimize for in pancakes: fluffiness, taste, chewiness, size, etc. But! These are some of my new favorite pancakes, and they have a twist that most other recipes do not: the…
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Chewy Almond Cookies
Being gluten free can lead to strange cravings – I never knew I could miss the sensation of chewy so much! Or flaky! Or fluffy! And while most of these textures can be replicated, with some effort, in gluten free baked goods, it can just seem daunting to try. Why not just plop down on the couch with a a bucket of highly unsatisfying store bought GF cookies to temporarily numb your sweet tooth? Because you deserve better! And these cookies are better! Honestly though, these chewy almond cookies are divine. If you’re not an almond extract fan, take it out and you should still enjoy the light, delicate, but…
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Gluten Free Tres Leches Cake
Heavenly would not be an overstatement for describing this gluten free tres leches cake. Thank you to centuries of globalization for the dissemination and ultimate perfection of this milk and cream soaked cake. Apparently, after a grand total of five minutes of digital research, I’ve discovered that soaked cakes were popular in Europe in Medieval times (more likely soaked in alcoholic liquids), and that recipes for such cakes were then seen in Mexico starting around the 19th century (though with such an easy cake to begin with, undoubtedly soaked cakes were made by people throughout the Americas after the mid-1400s and recipes were passed down orally). More interesting still, the…
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Graham Cracker Toffee Bars
I have vivid memories of laying out trays full of graham crackers (glutinous ones at the time – this was pre-Celiac-diagnosis and pre-anything-other-than-cardboard-gluten-free-snacks) to make these heavenly graham cracker toffee bars. Toffee has always been that guilty pleasure treat for me – though the real stuff always sticks in my teeth or just about breaks them with that first glass-shattering crunch. That’s why these graham cracker toffee bars are the answer to my life-long desire and the most dangerous cookie-sheet full of goodness you could put in front of me. I definitely almost ate the entire bowl of butter+brown sugar while making them, every time. Now that I’m an adult…
