Archive for the ‘Desserts’ Category
Everyone at some point finds themselves with some bananas that are past their prime and without the heart to throw them out. Banana bread is the perfect vehicle for these over ripe fruits. Despite my distaste for strong, ripe banana flavor, this recipe has a way of mellowing out that flavor. The original recipe is my go to (regular flour and dairy) recipe for banana bread but it has successfully been modified here to be gluten and dairy-free. The gluten free version is a bit crumblier than the conventional version but is tasty nonetheless.
This recipe works as muffins (shown here) or a loaf. Makes 12 muffins or one standard loaf. Can easily be halved.
Sirniki are a staple of a traditional Russian childhood – whether as a breakfast treat or as part of the mid afternoon snack (полдник). It’s challenging to describe exactly what these are and so I struggled to translate the name – a direct translation would garner something like “cheese things”. These soft, pillowy creations are made with farmers cheese and resemble a pancake but the inside is more cheese-cake or ricotta-like than dry, dough-y pancakes. I am not going to pretend that these are healthy but the occasional indulgence made from scratch sure beats any store bought product or even restaurant made brunch food.
Kugel, I will admit, is not the healthiest, or least caloric of foods, but its delicious, comforting, and a great way to dress up any holiday table. For me, it conjours up memories of synagogue brunches and care free, delicious childhood. Kugel is a traditional Ashkenazi Jewish dish typically served on Shavuot and other Jewish holidays. But it’s versatility extends far beyond that. It is a perfect combination of sweet and filling to serve at a brunch, but delicate enough to serve as a dessert. Regardless of your background, kugel deserves to be enjoyed by all.
What do you do when your local grocery store is giving away free sugar pumpkin on thanksgiving eve and your lactose-intolerance prevents you from enjoying pumpkin pie? You make pumpkin souffle of course!
I never imagined starting my blog with a dessert – here I am preaching about healthy food but its Valentine’s day and I love a sweet indulgence just as much as the next person. My sincere hope is that you will stick around to learn more about the food I so adore and the philosophy with which I prepare it. But tonight, just (barely) in time for this holiday full of treats, I bring you this playful, and slightly more sinful, personal creation (appropriate color scheme and all): Chocolate Dipped Red Velvet and Cheesecake Bites, or as my husband has named them, “Chocolate Covered Lasers”.
I made these for his company holiday pot-luck and they were a huge hit among the all-engineer group. To be fair, I originally envisioned these to be completely enrobed in chocolate but realized quickly that this would be far too rich and takeaway from the lightness of the ch
eesecake. Why lasers you ask? Because apparently the red velvet looks like the ruby tube and beam, and the cheesecake looks like one of the mirrored surfaces of a ruby laser (don’t ask me what that means, I am just quoting my husband for the sake of all you engineering folk out there).
I searched far and low for a red velvet cheesecake bite recipes and to my surprise, given the vastness of today’s culinary internet community, no such thing existed. Think about it, we put cream cheese frosting on red velvet cake – how is cheesecake and red velvet not a
match made in heaven?
I ended up combining a red velvet recipe I found online that uses yogurt (because I love yogurt and use it in everything), with a reduced but basic cheesecake recipe. You are welcome to use any red velvet recipe you like.
Disclaimer – this recipe may seem lengthy and overwhelming – don’t be afraid, its fairly simple it just has a lot of steps and requires an overnight refrigeration. Not all of my recipes will take this long – I promise!
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