Extreme Cooking Blog

An easy, light dessert for a potluck lunch that will probably be loaded with heavy foods.

Peter Reinhart, in his Brother Juniper’s Bread Book, claims that these are the kind of sticky buns they make in Philadelphia. I would have no way of knowing. But I can tell you that these are sensational – so much better than the empty, fast-food versions.

Reinhart’s book is much more than just a collection of recipes. It includes essays about baking as a metaphor for many aspects of our lives. In the case of sticky buns, which are loaded – really loaded – with unessential ingredients,  the profound satisfaction from eating them converts them to something which is totally essential. I agree!!!!!

The shell has some toasted almond flour in it. Just because.

From a Williams-Sonoma recipe. The recipe calls for 1 1/3 bottles of expensive pecan pumpkin butter. I simply made my own from scratch. Outstanding. I was just improvising the pecan pumpkin butter and wasn’t paying attention to the final amounts, so I hope can reproduce it.

A light and delicious dessert for a mild autumn day. It was served with crème anglais and pieces of glazed chestnut.

Lunch today was miso-glazed sea bass with sticky rice and skillet-roasted broccoli. Dessert was Key Lime Meringue Pie:

Is anything better than a steaming hot popover just out of the oven, slathered with jam and butter?

Sugar cookies and Morello cherries steeped in liquor – who would have thought such a combination would taste so amazing?

These rich, little, sweet, round breads flavored with anise are from the Repostería book previously described. Perfect with a cup of coffee or tea. I’m betting that frying this dough in oil would yield some killer donuts.