One of my favorite things about baking is tinkering with flavors in recipes that I already love. When I was a kid, and if I asked very nicely, my mom would make almond poppy-seed muffins as a special breakfast treat during the week. I got the urge to recreate them after flipping through Dorie [...]
Big City, Little Kitchen
Baking —
Category Archives: Baking
Mini Chocolate-Banana Breads
Sometimes a creation comes about as a result of guilt: in this case, I had two pitiful, overripe bananas that, despite their brown skins, I was loathe to throw away–it just seemed so wasteful. As such, they finally met their fate, mashed and baked into mini versions of Dorie Greenspan’s Coco-Nana Bread. As luck would have [...]
A Note on Buttermilk
If you find yourself without buttermilk, try adding one tablespoon of vinegar (white is probably best) to one cup of milk. In many cases, you can also substitute yogurt for the buttermilk, as it possesses a similar acidity level.
The Best Banana Pudding Ever!
Getting a cupcake at Magnolia Bakery is SO cliche–the next time you are roaming Bleecker Street* with a nagging sweet tooth, try Magnolia’s banana pudding. Essentially a Southern-style trifle, this sugar-bomb is composed of layers of vanilla wafer cookies, ripe banana slices, and rich vanilla pudding. It is absolutely one of my favorite treats to [...]
Coconut Cake, A Southern Classic
Although I grew up in North Carolina, our dinner table was never furnished with those Southern classics like shrimp and grits, hoppin’ john, or fried chicken (save for my mom’s fairly impressive biscuits). Nevertheless, I feel a particular affinity for those traditional recipes that call to mind big, breezy front porches and tall glasses [...]
Nutella-Swirl Cheesecake
At home over Christmas, my mom and I were tossing around ideas for embellishing cheesecake when it hit me: Nutella, of course! Long a part of my repertoire (please see Nutella Hot Chocolate and Nutella Cake), it seemed a natural candidate for the job. Rather than blending the spread into all of [...]
