Chocolate Angel Food Cake
This recipe is something of a triumph for me. I have long suffered with an inability to make a light and tender angel food cake. The cakes always, without fail, fall in the oven or just after removal from the oven. It drove me mad! Now I am confident those days are behind me with this recipe! It is adapted from a recipe on Baking Bites which sounds lovely as is, but I tinkered, and added chocolate … which can’t be...
Cheddar and Gruyère Gougères
When I was in my Laminated Dough class in culinary school we made gougères. I have never been the same since. After reading what gougères were I was certain they would be awful. I mean, a gougère is nothing more than pâte à choux with cheese mixed in, but I always associated pâte à choux with cream puffs. With trepidation I mixed in the cheese, piped them out into little mounds, and slid them into the oven. One taste and I was...
Lemon Cherry Cake
When I buy fruit I find that I almost always buy more than I need. In fact, I would go so far as to say I do that with most food. That isn’t to say I am forever throwing away perfectly good food, but I plan for a dessert or salad and then overbuy with abandon and have to come up with a second, and even third recipe to use it all up. That is what happened when I bought cherries for my Cherry Cheese Tart. I bought loads of...
Croque-Madame Panini
What is better than a ham and cheese panini? How about a ham and cheese panini topped with a fried egg and some creamy mornay sauce? While dining out at a local French cafe I had a Croque-Monsieur which was quite nice. I promptly went home to research what went into this sandwich when I discovered a recipe for a Croque-Madame. A croque-madame has a sunny-side, or over-easy, egg and mornay sauce on top. You can’t imagine...
Jalapeno Bacon Cheddar Cheese Burgers
A well grilled burger is a thing of beauty. Add jalapenos, sharp cheddar cheese and thick cut bacon and it is the stuff of dreams. I have a few requirements for a good burger. It must be made with fairly lean meat (around 90%), it must have salt and pepper, and it must remain moist after grilling, even if cooked to well-done. The first two requirements are fairly straight forward, but the last can be tricky. My trick to moist...
Cherry Cheese Tart
I love fresh cherries, and at this time of year they are plump and sweet. When the cherries hit the produce section I grab them up for cherry pies, cherry sauce, and for eating ice cold on a hot day. However, I must warn you, cooking with fresh cherries in season will spoil you for any other kind of cherry. Even the frozen kind, picked and preserved at their peak, pale in comparison to fresh. I also love cherry cheese danish...
