All posts tagged: Holiday Baking

Pumpkin Mascarpone Pie

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With the holidays in full swing, I have pie on my mind. It’s the only time of year I actually make pie. It started when my mom and I would tandem in the kitchen to prepare Thanksgiving dinner. I would find a recipe for some new dessert each year. One year it was caramel apple pie, the next year was chocolate pecan pie, and so on. Then one year I was invited to dinner with my extended family and asked to bring a pumpkin dessert.  As usual, I couldn’t make just a regular pumpkin pie, so I found an enticing recipe from Epicurious for a Pumpkin Mascarpone Pie. Unknown to me at the time, this would become my new tradition. As it turned out, I’ve spent almost every Thanksgiving since with my wonderful extended family, and have brought that pie every time.  However, the pie has evolved! The Pumpkin Mascarpone pie I make now changes slightly each year, depending on my mood. As usual, I never stick to a recipe for long, and this one …

Macarons – Those Temperamental Little B!+(#es

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French macarons have been a long-time favorite dessert of mine.  I love the colors, flavors, and that slightly chewy, tender cookie with a fragile crust.  I heard they could be fussy, so I never tried to make them.  Instead, I left them to the French pastry experts. That is, until I caught a video on making macarons.  It looked so easy!  What could go wrong? Well, as it turns out, a lot of things. Let’s start with this:  If you read my blog or know me in person, you know I am very bad at sticking to the recipe.  I enjoy “cooking with love.”  In other words, I like throwing things together and making something yummy. The first time I made macarons, I followed the directions of the video I had watched.  These were very tasty, but the video left out a very important step: Sift, sift, sift.  Then sift again.  If in doubt, sift. As I said, the first macarons I created were delicious.  However, they were grainy.  They were completely the wrong texture.  …