Apple pie’s harder than it seems I’ve always had trouble with apple pie; I’m not willing to use cornstarch as a regular ingredient because I don’t understand how to make cornstarch. My apple pies tend to come out saggy like this one in the picture, and runny. You can solve both those problems with this …
Tag Archives: hazelnuts
Chocolate bark
A great Christmas present… Chocolate bark looks very luxurious when you put it in a fancy box or bag with curled ribbons, but it’s cheap and very easy to make, and only takes a few minutes of work (plus a couple of hours to cool). And, like chocolate mousse, it doesn’t even use the stove. How …
Chocolate chip cookies
With some shortcuts to make it easier I’ve cut some corners here over the usual recipes, and it doesn’t hurt the cookies at all! I think these are about the best chocolate chip cookies you’ll find anywhere. How to make chocolate chip cookies: Preheat the oven to 375 F. Put two sticks of butter in …
Cherry pie
Finally some fresh fruit! Cherries are the first local fresh fruit to come ripe in the spring – if you’re really eating local, this will be the first fresh fruit that’s not apples or pears you’ve seen since the huckleberries last August! By May, you’ll be really glad to see cherries! This is a sweet …
Celery ice
A fancy early-spring dessert The first edible plants that grow in the spring are stems – because stems are what plants grow first – like chives and celery. This is a simplified version of a New York Times recipe: a dessert made out of nothing much more than celery and sugar. It requires practically no …
Baked apples
Fairly healthy dessert Baked apples aren’t health food – if you want that, just eat an apple, which is also good! But they are better for you than pie and certainly better than cookies or ice cream. And baked apples only take a few minutes to put together, cook while you are eating dinner, and …
Beet salad
Pink Rice One summer, volunteering on a low-budget project to restore the castle of the Dukes of Guise in northern France, we had the worst food I have ever eaten in France. The French kids eventually rebelled, complaining that we were starving. The project director responded by mixing up a huge cauldron of white rice …
Oatmeal in seconds
Better than my mother’s oatmeal My mother was a good mother and she made us good hot bowls of oatmeal every winter morning and we hated it. Her oatmeal was terrible: gloppy stuff like jello. Then I got married, and my husband made oatmeal, and it was nothing like hers at all – this oatmeal …
Squash with fennel
A more sophisticated taste for squash Most squash recipes end up being pretty sweet, close to pumpkin pie. This is a more savory recipe, and it’s also gluten-free and vegan. It looks dramatic on a platter, and can take the place of a roast for a vegan holiday dinner. How to make squash with fennel: …