Category — Dessert + Sweet Recipes

I have been on the hunt for a chocolate cookie that’s crispy on the outside and chewy-gooey-fudgy on the inside. I’ve tried quite a few recipes, but this one is the best I’ve found - I love the crisp, crackly outside that yields to a soft center. All you need is a tall glass of milk.

What’s extra great is that there is no flour nor butter in them, just egg whites for binding, so they are practically health food. (OK technically it would be more accurate to say they are practically candy, since the bulk is made up of sugar and chocolate.)

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And now I am going to tell you what to make for breakfast on Christmas morning. With a mere 5 ingredients, 5 minutes of prep, and 25 minutes in the oven, you can have a rich, custardy, puffy, wonderful breakfast on the table.

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Every year a small group of dedicated friends gets together to make an epic gingerbread project that takes a cue from whatever this year’s Christmas party theme happens to be. Two years ago, for a Casbah Christmas, the tradition was born with a Middle Eastern-style courtyard house of gingerbread. Last year, we celebrated Christmas in Summer and put Santa in the pool, surrounded by a beachy scene. This year’s party theme was Christmas in the Future, so we took a few hints from The Jetsons and put Santa on the moon.

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It’s gray and dull outside, so I felt like sharing a colorful rainbow today.

I don’t understand why, but if you make rice krispy treats with Fruity Pebbles cereal instead of Rice Krispies, people will act like you are a genius. Kids, adults, whatever- it amazes them that you thought of this. And I think they taste quite a bit more exciting than run-of-the-mill krispy treats!

Here’s how you make them: Make the original, standard Rice Krispy treats recipe, but use Fruity Pebbles instead. That’s it. I stacked these wedding cake-style with parchment rounds in between to make them seem fancy. You can use Cocoa Pebbles if you prefer, or even a mix of Cocoa Pebbles and Rice Krispies, but they won’t have quite the visual wow factor that only a sugary cereal’s neon food dyes can offer!

Lately I’ve been cuckoo for hot cocoa. Maybe it’s the fall chill in the air, maybe it’s the dewy nights, or maybe I just like milky, sugary, chocolate bombs delivered in hot liquid form. No matter the reason, I decided it would be wise to stop spending 3 bucks a day on ho-hum coffee shop cocoa and just make my own. This is cheaper and better, it’s not nearly as cloyingly sweet, and it takes all of about 2 minutes. It’s quick without the Qwik!

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These cookies are the result of a happy accident. My nephew and I made some cream cheese frosting for a banana cake, and we had quite a bit left over. So we did the only thing we could possibly do. We made chewy gingersnaps, frosted them, and topped them with a little bit of candied ginger. What would you have done?

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Are you from a picky family? I am. My Mom won’t touch any nut (besides an almond) with a 10 foot pole, while my Dad thinks that candy without nuts is like a body without a soul. There are lovers and haters of white, milk, and dark chocolate. And don’t even get me started on raisins.

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I don’t often make desserts with cherries, unless it’s a special request. There are 2 reasons: 1) I don’t like cherries that much, and 2) cherries have troublesome little pits that must be removed prior to baking them into a dessert. But it turns out a lot of people’s favorite pie is cherry pie. Why, people? With options like blackberry, apple, and sweet potato, how could you pledge your love to cherry? To me there is perhaps nothing less appealing than one of those gummy, syrupy open-crust cherry pies. So I have tried to figure out how to honor the unceasing drumbeat of requests for cherry pie while making something that I, myself, actually find palatable and worth the calories, which has resulted in this recipe for cherry raspberry pie.

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This weekend, I went to meet a friend’s adorable twin baby girls for the first time. Somehow I knew they’d be sweet as sugar, so I wanted to bring the new parents a homemade summer dessert to reward them for all of their hard work in these first few months of parenthood.

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Last night I had an esteemed guest for dinner–the mayor of Palo Alto, Sid Espinosa. With his impressive pedigree, I was expecting someone very business-like and maybe even a little straight-laced… but he took one bite of these brownies and started saying utterly obscene things about them. This blog is strictly PG and I want to make sure he comes over for dinner again, so I’m just going to leave it at that.

Another esteemed guest emailed this morning and referred to me as “maker of the most wonderful brownies known to man.”

Simply put, I don’t think I’ll ever make another kind of brownie. I think you’d be hard pressed to find a brownie that tastes better than these!

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