Dessert Recipes

I was folding laundry last Tuesday—a truly mindless activity—when the smell hit me. It wasn’t coming from my kitchen. It was coming from somewhere outside, … Read more

I had refused to bake shortbread cookies for years. A solid decade, maybe more. Then I found myself standing in my tiny kitchen last December, … Read more

The checkout line at the community center holiday market last December, I was staring at a table piled high with the most ridiculous, wonderful, glitter-dusted … Read more

The church Christmas potluck was in three hours and I’d completely forgotten. Everyone else would be bringing their showstopper desserts—the kind with seven layers and … Read more

My neighbor Marta watched me struggling with a piping bag one rainy October afternoon. I was trying to get the perfect swirl on a batch … Read more

This was supposed to be a cranberry-orange loaf cake. I had it all planned out—a simple, rustic thing to bring to a friend’s holiday brunch. … Read more

I was standing in line at a tiny, slightly chaotic bookstore café, the kind where the floorboards creak and the air smells like old paper … Read more

My neighbor asked why I couldn’t just use brown butter instead of creaming the butter and sugar separately. I started to explain why that wouldn’t … Read more

It was 11:47 PM on a random Thursday in late October, and I had a desperate need for something that tasted like autumn in a … Read more

This was supposed to be a proper Halloween party—the kind with a bubbling cauldron of chili, scary music playing from the speakers, and maybe even … Read more