Category Archives: Recipes (Sweet)

Secret Ingredient Brownies & A Food Gal Podcast

Fudgy brownies with a sudsy ingredient.

Monday night, as the featured speaker at the Sunnyvale Public Library, I thought I’d have some fun with the audience members.

After all, if you’re going to talk about food writing, people are bound to get hungry, right?

So, I baked home-made fudge brownies for everyone, using a new recipe I recently came across. As folks nibbled away, I asked if anyone could guess the secret ingredient in these brownies.

Don’t even think it was some kind of controlled substance, though one guy did venture that guess. Other folks struck out with guesses of avocado, tofu, prunes, vinegar, black beans, red bean paste and even soy sauce.

In the end, after giving folks a hint that it was a “liquid” ingredient, one woman finally guessed the correct answer to win one of my very snazzy Food Gal aprons.

Of course, you guys reading this post have it easy. The photo above is a complete giveaway. The secret ingredient in these brownies? Guinness Stout.

“Guinness Brownies” is a recipe from the new cookbook, “Tate’s Bake Shop: Baking for Friends” (self-published), of which I recently received a review copy.  The cookbook, which features more than 120 recipes, is by Kathleen King, the owner of Tate’s Bake Shop in Southhampton, NY.

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Gail Simmons’ Plum Tart

Whenever I’ve interviewed anyone who has been a contestant on “Top Chef” or any of its spin-offs, they’ve invariably described judge Gail Simmons in the exact same way:

A total sweetheart.

So, it’s only fitting then to take a moment to enjoy a sweet tart from a sweetheart.

This simple yet spectacular dessert is from Simmons’ memoir, “Talking With My Mouth Full” (Hyperion), of which I received a review copy.

The book is a fast, delightful read about how this Canadian grew up to be one of the most recognized people in food TV. Like so many of us, she had no clue what she wanted to do after graduating from college. Fortunately, a family friend, suggested she make a list of what she enjoyed doing, in hopes that would give her some direction. Simmons sat down with pen and paper, and wrote down exactly four words: Eat. Write. Travel. Cook.

And how.

Now, as a judge on “Top Chef” and host of “Top Chef: Just Desserts,” not to mention being special projects director at Food & Wine magazine, she’s more than carved out a career that encompasses all of those passions.

But the path was far from easy.

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Angelo Sosa’s Cured Watermelon Crudo

It resembles tuna sashimi, but it's really watermelon in disguise.

Bing. Bam. Boom.

Done.

That’s how easy and fast this recipe comes together, making it a dream dish for hassle-free summer entertaining.

“Cured Watermelon Crudo with Thyme” is from the new cookbook, “Flavor Exposed” (Kyle Books) by “Top Chef” alum, Chef Angelo Sosa.

Sosa may be best known for his tight, skinny jeans that prompted endless razzing from his fellow contestants. But the man can cook, having worked with heavy-weights, Alain Ducasse and Jean-Georges Vongerichten. He’s now executive chef of Social Eatz in New York.

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Apricot Muffins with a Topping of Crunchy Goodness

Sweet, salty, tender and crunchy -- that's what these apricot muffins are like.

Sweet, gooey caramel with a sprinkle of sea salt.

Skinny jeans with a billowy top.

And the gregarious jock with the shy, bookish girl next-door.

Plain and simple, opposites attract.

Why? Because in the immortal words of Tom Cruise to Rene Zellweger in “Jerry Maguire,” they complete one another.

The same can be said about the best baked goods. If there’s soft, there ought to be crunchy, as well, to provide added contrast and greater interest.

When I decided to bake a batch of muffins the other week, using summer apricots fresh from the farmers market, I knew I wanted the tender treats to sport not only a crunchy top, but one that was both a little sweet and a bit salty.

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Cantaloupe in Cake? You Bet!

Yes, you can bake with cantaloupe. Who knew!

I’ve enjoyed berries, peaches, plums and all manner of other fruit in baked treats.

But cantaloupe?

Not until now.

Don’t get me wrong. I love that beautiful netted fruit with its sunny orange flesh. But cantaloupe in a cake seemed as farfetched to me as watermelon or honeydew in one.

That is until I spied a recipe for “Cantaloupe Cake (Torta di Melone)” in “Dolci: Italy’s Sweets” (Stewart, Tabori & Chang), of which I received a review copy. The book is by Francine Segan, a food historian and New York City cookbook author. The cookbook boasts more than 125 recipes for Italian specialties such as sweet ricotta crepes, rosemary semifreddo, angel hair pasta pie, and even an unlikely chocolate eggplant dish.

Because the melon chunks are soaked in Asti Spumante, a glass of the Italian sparkler makes a nice accompaniment to the cake.

I couldn’t let a chance to bake with cantaloupe pass by, so I gave it a whirl.

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