Category Archives: Recipes (Sweet)

Pumpkin Spice — But Make It Ice Cream

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Pumpkin spice ice cream to make and enjoy at home.
Pumpkin spice ice cream to make and enjoy at home.

It’s amazing how something so cold can taste so warm.

That’s the delectable dichotomy of “Pumpkin Spice Ice Cream” that’s frigid enough to give you brain freeze yet suffused with the autumnal fervor of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, ginger, and mace.

When Adagio Teas sent me samples of its seasonal offerings of Pumpkin Spice tea, Honeybush Pumpkin Chai, and Pumpkin Spice Honey, along with its Pumpkin Pie Spice Blend by its sister spice company, Selefina, I couldn’t wait to enjoy them for an afternoon pick-me-up, as well as in recipes.

The Pumpkin Spice Tea ($3 for a sample bag or $9 for 3 ounces) is a robust black tea with pumpkin spice notes, as well as pretty marigold flowers for a subtle floral note.

The Honeybush Pumpkin Chai ($4 for a sample bag or $10 for 3 ounces) blends the honey taste of herbal, non-caffeinated honeybush tea with the expected cinnamon, cardamom, and ginger, but also cocoa nibs for a touch of earthiness that lends depth. This is a smooth, soothing, and relaxing sip that you’re going to want to enjoy every day this fall and winter. You don’t even need to add milk, if you don’t want to, in order to appreciate its chai-like taste.

A pot of Adagio Pumpkin Spice tea with its Pumpkin Spice Honey.
A pot of Adagio Pumpkin Spice tea with its Pumpkin Spice Honey.

Stir in a touch of Pumpkin Spice Honey into either cup of tea, and the pumpkin spices will come even more to the forefront.

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Salt & Straw’s Wild-Foraged Berry Slab Pie Ice Cream

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You're sure to flip for this dreamy "Wild Foraged Berry Slab Pie'' ice cream recipe by Salt & Straw.
You’re sure to flip for this dreamy “Wild-Foraged Berry Slab Pie” ice cream recipe by Salt & Straw.

A loaded, buttery berry pie a la mode — but remade into pure ice cream form.

That’s what this dreamy “Wild Foraged Berry Slab Pie Ice Cream” tastes like with its ripples of jammy berries and chunks of sugary crust throughout.

Of course, it can only be from the new “America’s Most Iconic Ice Creams: A Salt & Straw Cookbook” (Clarkson Potter), of which I received a review copy.

With more than 75 recipes for ice creams, sherbets, and sorbets, it was written by Tyler Malek, co-founder of Salt & Straw, one of the most boundary-pushing and wildly successful ice cream companies in the country; and James Beard Award-winning food writer J.J. Goode.

Malek hones in on America’s most beloved ice cream flavors, and provides not only his best versions of them, but uses them as a springboard to create even more fanciful riffs.

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Not Your Usual Blondies

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A whole tablespoon of toasted sesame oil really adds an irresistible flavor to these blondies.
A whole tablespoon of toasted sesame oil really adds an irresistible flavor to these blondies.

Brownies and blondies are classics that always satisfy.

But rarely do they offer up a surprise.

“Toasted Sesame Blondies” definitely does, though.

These have all the portability plus chewy texture you love about blondies. But they also sport a splash of toasted sesame oil and a profusion of black and white sesame seeds overtop that give them a whole new personality.

One that tastes as if butterscotch and sesame had a love fest.

This fabulous recipe is from “100 Afternoon Sweets” (Chronicle Books, 2024), of which I received a review copy.

It’s by Sarah Kieffer, a Minneapolis baker and creator of the award-winning The Vanilla Bean Blog.

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Scaling the Heights of Lofty Peaches and Granola Galette

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As tall and majestic as a deep-dish pizza, that's what this peach galette is like.
As tall and majestic as a deep-dish pizza, that’s what this peach galette is like.

If a classic galette were a ranch house, then this baby is a high-rise for sure.

“Lofty Peaches and Granola Galette” lives up to its name, with a girth and stature like pizza that’s extra deep-dish.

This statement-making galette is from the new cookbook, titled — what else — “Galette!” (Artisan), of which I received a review copy.

It was written by Rebecca Firkser, a Brooklyn-based writer and cook, whose recipes have been published in Bon Appetit and on Food52.

I have always loved a good galette, especially because it requires rolling out only one round of dough, and its free-form nature means no matter how you crimp or fold, it will still end up with a lovely rustic look.

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The Nostalgic Taste of No-Churn Yuen Yeung Ice Cream Cake

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Sara Lee Pound Cake goes fancy and sentimental.
Sara Lee Pound Cake goes fancy and sentimental.

As a Chinese American kid growing up in San Francisco, I would peer into our family freezer to spy not only bamboo leaf-wrapped sticky rice dumplings and on-sale bags of shrimp for future stir-frys, but plenty of Swanson Salisbury steak dinners, boxes of Banquet boil-in-bag chicken a la king, and Sara Lee Pound Cake.

The latter of which I much preferred to eat still frozen.

Apparently, I wasn’t alone in that, either.

Not if the cookbook, “Salt Sugar MSG: Recipes From A Cantonese American Home” (Clarkson Potter), of which I received a review copy, is any indication.

That’s because deep within its pages is a recipe for “No-Churn Yuen Yeung Ice Cream Cake” made with — you guessed it — a Sara Lee Pound Cake, but one gussied up with layers of a fluffy whipped cream-and condensed milk flavored with Lipton tea and a dash of coffee.

For me, it is as if old-school Chinatown milk tea and that buttery dense pound cake decided to skip joyously together down memory lane.

The cookbook was written by Calvin Eng, chef and owner of Bonnie’s, a well-regarded Cantonese American restaurant in Williamsburg in New York. who is also a Food & Wine “Best New Chef,” with assistance from Phoebe Melnick, a New York video journalist.

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