After making this dang-easy mango panna cotta, I realized that we (quite unintentionally) have NO OTHER mango recipes!! Which is something that I’m going to need to remedy pronto because we’re both big fans of the creamy, bright, sultry depth of this orange fruit. It happens to pair very well with custardy treats like this elegant and deceptively simple panna cotta too, so I’m at least glad we have this first stab at a mango creation. Props to Kendra for cutting all the mango halves into little hedgehogs (probably a better name for them but hey it’s cute) for the photo shoot – especially because it meant that I got…
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Gluten Free Buttermilk Panna Cotta with Italian Pine Bud Syrup
This may be one of the easiest, simplest, and most elegant desserts you ever make. Looking for a show-stopping, dressed-to-impress post-dinner treat you can wow your quarantine date with? Wanting to spice dinners up after nearly (exactly) a year in semi-lockdowns? This is for YOU. It’s the ever-classic, ever-indulgent Panna cotta, an Italian gift to the world (in addition to so many others), that needs only a handful of ingredients, as many minutes as you can count on two hands, and some lead time. Yes, the only down side is that it needs to set in the fridge for at least 8 hours…but that just means that you won’t have…
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Best Gluten Free Canelés
The first time I ever saw a canelé was on the menu of Dominique Crenn’s new upscale wine bar in Cow Hollow. San Francisco has a number of fantastic wine bars, but this one was particularly special because Dominique Crenn is a local, and now global, celebrity. After wowing restaurant-goers at her original Atelier Crenn, she graced the screen in an episode of Chef’s Table with her ethereal and utterly perfect dishes of ginger foam and lobster tartar, caviar with cream sauce and the tiniest slivers of pickled pearl onions, seared abalone under a crackling shell of seaweed and so many others, she opened a second stunning locale, and a…
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Gluten Free Parsnip and Ginger Tart
Parsnips are far and beyond one of the most over-looked root veggies when it comes to sweet dishes (anything, really, or maybe we just haven’t gotten the memo), and they’re AWESOME. They look like white carrots, and taste similar, with less bitterness and more sweetness which makes us wonder… why did carrot cake overtake parsnip cake as one of the top 5 most common cake flavors in the US? It’s a mystery to us, so we’re making it our mini-mission to find great and wonderful reasons to start picking up these colorless carrot cousins more often on your grocery runs. And they’re just as good on the savory side! We…
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Mini Gluten Free Cinnamon Roll Pavlovas
These were definitely one of the messiest desserts I’ve ever made. So much so that I nearly thought the photoshoot was going to be one giant, dripping disaster. But they’re decent! And they taste fantastic. I’d never made cinnamon meringue before so was worried how it was going to turn out, flavor wise, but with a light cinnamon touch in the pavlovas themselves, and a heavier cinnamon glaze, it balances out. The cream cheese custard is perfectly satisfying – much heavier and creamier than the airy, marshmallowy pavlova, and creamier than the heavily-spiced glaze. They’re a bit of work, but worth it for a messy treat. And! They’re part of…
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Gluten Free German Chocolate Cupcakes
I distinctly remember scooping giant spoonfuls of Betty Crocker German Chocolate Frosting out of the plastic tub it comes in, and eating it gleefully when I was maybe eight or nine. Prying off the red plastic top to find perfectly-solidified caramel custard, pecan and coconut goop was like finding buried treasure. How I got my hands on the tub of frosting in the first place is the real question – either very impressive childhood sneaking into the kitchen and up into the baking cupboards, or maybe we all just indulged after making a cake or cupcakes or something more reasonable. Overall, this penchant for German Chocolate topping aligns with what…
