Buttery strawberry shortbread cookies filled with a strawberry Italian meringue cream-cheese buttercream. Freeze-dried strawberries make these dainty little cookies pop with strawberry flavor. Why use freeze-dried strawberries? For a couple of reasons. One, freeze-drying removes moisture from the berries, which would compromise the structure of recipes like shortbread and buttercream. Two, freeze-drying concentrates the fruit’s […]
Pumpkin cream cheese-filled gingerbread bundt cake. This recipe is a molasses-y spiced cake wrapped around a slightly sweet pumpkin filling. This cake is fairly simple to make and has a generous amount of filling. But like any bundt cake, the challenge lies with getting it cleanly out of the pan. To aid this, I use […]
Cream cheese, almond cookie dough spiraled around seedless raspberry jam. These are simple cookies with simple flavors, but the rolling and shaping process can get a bit tedious. There is a lot of in and out of the freezer/refrigerator, and the jam can become a sticky mess. Just be patient and remember that as long […]
Chocolate sugar wafers filled with peppermint buttercream and old-fashioned peppermint pieces. These yummy holiday cookies look similar to Oreos but taste like thin mints. The dough for these cookies is a basic butter-sugar dough. Due to the amount of butter used in the recipe, freezing the dough before transferring the cookies to bake is essential. […]
Warm cranberry citrus cider spiced with cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. This recipe is a cross between hot apple cider and Russian cranberry Mors. It is spiced and served hot like cider, but without the apples. Instead, as in Mors, fresh tart cranberries and citrus are simmered with sugar and water to release their flavor. I […]
Shiitake and black garlic filled steamed buns with crispy fried shallots. Tender steamed buns filled with a rich black garlic mushroom filling and garnished with crunchy shallots. Making steamed buns may seem like a laborious task, but they are surprisingly easy. The mixer does most of the work with the dough. While the dough is […]
