by Brian | Jun 10, 2014 | Dessert Digest, Recipes
Ordinarily, I want my cake made with butter and not oil. It’s a personal preference matter. I just find oil-based cakes to be less attractive in terms of taste and texture. Except for olive oil cakes. Somehow a good olive oil seems to shine in creating a very special...
by Brian | Jun 1, 2014 | Dessert Digest, Recipes
It’s now, at long last, June and our herbs have survived a winter of deep snows and deeper cold. Our mint beckons. How to use it? Frosting, of course. Here the mint flavor comes, not primarily from our garden, but from liquor and extract. But your spring mint...
by Brian | May 22, 2014 | Dessert Digest, Recipes
Some food items are simply hard to photograph. Soup. Drinks. Flourless chocolate cake. The taste of this cake is exceptional but photographing it is hard. The side is one solid slab of darkness. No grain or texture. Just a mass of dark something. This could probably...
by Brian | May 20, 2014 | Dessert Digest, Recipes
“I’m making this cake,” Suzen announced last Sunday morning. She had a book in her hands, cleverly hidden, and I was not shown the recipe. Three hours later I was presented with the dish in the top picture: a dense coffee cake with streusel topping and...
by Brian | May 18, 2014 | Cookie Jar, Dessert Digest
What if you could make an astonishing desserts in five minutes with just three ingredients? Too good to be true? No, not at all. This is an astonishingly good cookie. I tested it last night on two good friends. “What do you taste?” I asked. “Coconut? Peanut...
by Brian | May 14, 2014 | Dessert Digest
At Cooking by the Book, we do a lot of baking. Whether it is a corporate client or a private party, dessert is on every menu. Often a cake is requested. If the party is for a birthday or anniversary, you can be sure that a cake will be on the table. I thought...
