Are you a kiwi skin on or skin off type of person? I was always a skin off, slice in half short ways, around the equator of the fuzzy brown fruit, and scoop out the electric-green kaleidoscope with a spoon type of person. It wasn’t until I got the chance to travel to Australia when I was 13 that I first encountered a faction of skin-on folks. What a world this is. The trip was with People to People Student Ambassador program, started by Eisenhower in hopes of promoting cultural exchange and friendship through sending teenagers in delegations abroad to learn and meet people and generally foster greater awareness of…
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Gluten Free Strawberry Rose Cream Tart with Pistachio Crust
Amongst the anxiousness and worry that abounds in every city across the globe this weekend, let us eat things that make us happy, and while we’re at it, spend time making creative baked goods that do the same (and then, eating those too). After making a tough call to not to do our first farmers market booth as Sisters Sans Gluten (live! out in the real world!) in an effort to keep those most vulnerable around us safe, I realized today is/was Pi Day, and that was definitely something worth celebrating. Next, I realized that if I were to exit our downtown San Francisco apartment and make my normally-easy trip…
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Cranberry Apple Crisp
Crisps are those lovely fall desserts that are absolutely delicious but look less than appealing with spooned out and schlopped on a plate…so we tried our best to give this one a glamor shot and add a few accompanying goodies to make it look as appealing as it tastes. You’ll be the judge of whether or not we succeeded, but I think this one is having a pretty good hair day. It’s also amazing with a scoop of ice cream, which I know for a fact because after shooting the above and below plate of goop, I dug right in and ate the entirety of it. Two thumbs up, guys.…
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Classic Pumpkin Pie
All hail the North American fall classic, the sweet squash sensation, the origin of Starbuck’s fall drink line up and the simplest of Thanksgiving desserts: PUMPKIN PIE. How could we not include our own take on this incredible contribution to the American Culinary Tradition? Pumpkin pie is undoubtedly the sweetheart of the US and Canadian (I’m assuming) fall dessert table, maybe tied with apple pie of course. But it’ll certainly be the star of the show this Thursday when (for all of our non-US-or-Canadian followers) we’ll be tucking in for a massive feast of turkey, gravy, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, green beans, dozens of other side dishes, and about 8…
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Cheesecake Pecan Bars
You may notice a theme here: fall treats laden with hazelnuts, walnuts, pecans, almonds…autumn seems to be the perfect season to celebrate the brilliance of the nut. Buttery and rich, a touch sweet, and with an earthy variance in flavors as subtle as the gradient in fall colors. These cheesecake pecan bars simply jump on that nutty bandwagon, with the added bonus of a creamy, vanilla-packed layer of cheesecake to balance out the sticky sweetness of corn syrup and brown sugar caramelized around the pecans. What’s extra fun about this recipe is the magical switch that seems to happen after popping them in the oven: when you pour all of…
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Cranberry Clafoutis
Cranberries are the deceivingly beautiful but unfortunately tart fruit of fall. I grew up on Costco bags of dried Ocean Spray cranberries, grabbed by the handfuls for after school snacks or tossed together with almonds or cashews for a between-class snack. I remember the revelation that took hold of my sister and I the first time we witnessed the marvel of a cranberry harvest on PBS: millions of marvelously smooth rubies floating in washes of flooded fields. It was practically the red sea, waters parted by wader-clad farmers in checkered flannels and baseball caps. As a proud Pacific Northwesterner, it was another shining example of the quiet gloriousness of the…
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Classic Pecan Pie Bars
Sometimes a baked good just exudes coziness. Oozes curled up evenings under the covers with a good book (or four) or with the projector on and a Harry Potter movie playing out on the canvas of your apartment wall. These pecan pie bars do just that, with a kick of wickedly sweet corn syrup custard and the nutty fall crunch of caramelized pecans held together by the flakiest of shortbread crusts. If this sounds like the perfect Saturday evening, then by all means, read on. And, if you toss them in the oven before dinner, they’ll be done just in time for that movie night, or start them on the…
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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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Blue Ribbon Blueberry Cobbler
Does it ever bother you that blueberries aren’t actually blue? Sure, they appear so from the outside, but deep down they’re just a purple mess masquerading as royal blue perfection. Aren’t we all. There’s nothing a good-quality coat can’t hide. This cobbler, though, celebrates the internal mess – it’s actually quite lovely to Jackson Pollock your plate in the deep, runny purples and red-tinged violets of blueberry guts or gaze at the ethereal glow of a fuchsia stained glass pie plate. The neat little circles of topping that crown the entire mess just furthers our affinity for this self-reflection-in-cobbler: lighter, slightly crunchy clouds of biscuity dough that tuck everything in…
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Peach + Plum Crumble
Crumble, crisp, cobbler, a rose by any other name would smell (and taste) as sweet, and while crumbles and crisps and cobblers are actually quite different, they all celebrate the caramelized glory of fresh fruit and buttery toppings in all forms and flavors. This peach+plumb crumble is no exception. Honestly, this one may be toeing the line between crumble and cobbler, though cobbler does specifically distinguish its topping from all the rest as “biscuit” dough, so I think we’re safe here with crumble. While this is a great way to add one final hoorah to stone fruit season, it can be done year round with frozen (and thawed) fruit options.…
