Browsing Category Desserts

Deep Dish Apple Pie

As the leaves turn from yellow to brown, the smell of homemade apple pie fills permeates my house. I love opening the door to the smell of butter, cinnamon, apple, and sugar. Apple pie lends a level of nostalgia to the holidays that makes the endeared Thanksgiving pumpkin pie jealous. I’ve heard what sound like fairy tales of my grandmother Ruth’s fried apple pies and her homemade apple pies. I never got to taste these fabled treats, but my mother has kept their memories alive. Unfortunately, she does not have the recipes to pass along – since no one expected her to die so young. The dollops of butter carefully placed on the top of this pie are an ode to the memory of my grandmother Ruth. According to my mother, I still haven’t perfected the amount of cinnamon.

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Pie Crust

A picture is worth a thousand words, or 774 to be exact, generated by the discovery of a cat wandering through the corner of a photo I accidentally took when learning how to use my tripod.  After Thanksgiving 2021, I remember fiddling around with my new tripod and struggling with the 90-degree arm.  I must have been testing the setup and lighting when I snapped this shot.  After taking hundreds of photos while preparing a recipe, I troll through the kaleidoscope of images in Lightroom.  I delete the pictures that are out of focus, to dark, or feature my son’s latest lego construction project.  How this photo was not deleted, I do not know.  But now that our beloved Bella has crossed the rainbow bridge, this photo has taken on new meaning.

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Cannoli Cheesecake

“Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.” This is my favorite movie quote – ever – from the 1972 classic The Godfather. As the daughter of a Sicilian immigrant, I cannot think of a more iconic Sicilian dessert than the cannolo. The process of making cannoli is somewhat laborious. But don’t worry – this cheesecake is super easy and has all the flavors of a cannolo.

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Sugar Cookies

There is something magical about Christmas themed treats.  For me, sugar cookies are the epitome of Christmas sweets with Italian flag cookies taking a close second.  And now, what birthday party or baby shower is complete without themed sugar cookie?  I’m not talking about the Pillsbury sugar cookie rolls that you slice and bake.  Although, these do evoke a certain childhood nostalgia since they had to fill in the gap years when my mom went on a sugar cookie baking hiatus.  I’m talking about the painstaking make-from-scratch sugar cookie dough that you hope might roll out correctly.  Then, you pray that the dough will hold its shape as you press the copper or steel cookie cutters into the soft sugar dough. 

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Cherry Almond Scones

I first had scones in London when I was in college. It was at high tea at a nice hotel, and I was hooked. Of course, my Southern brain said, ”It’s just a sweetened biscuit.” Well, back then, you couldn’t find scones in the South and finding anything black currant was near impossible. So, cherry almond it is! Sometimes I make them for a special breakfast, and I always make them for tea parties. They are a satisfying accompaniment for tea or coffee. Of course, a dollop of clotted cream takes them over the top!

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Almond Cake

No one will ever think this cake came from a box. I had Christina fooled for years! She would rave about this cake, and I was so intimidated by her cooking skills that I wouldn’t give her the recipe. I didn’t want her to know it came from a box! I was afraid I’d lose all credibility since it wasn’t totally from scratch. Well, obviously we have come past that point in our relationship.

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White Cake (aka the Cake Mix Hack)

Let’s face it. We are all busy. You know, there is something about a cake mix that takes the pressure off of making a scratch cake. But, we still want it to taste like scratch. It is easy enough to “doctor up” a cake mix, as my grandmother would say. Real butter and buttermilk make everything taste better. Even the crust is more authentic with this hack. We had the trimmings for breakfast with coffee just this weekend. It was good even plain!

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