Food and Crafts for All Occasions

The King of Pancakes: Dutch Baby

Dutch baby is an amazingly versatile, super delicious and astonishingly easy to make oven-baked hybrid of pancake and popover. It can be made sweet or savory and topped before or after baking with all sorts of tasty things. It’s good for breakfast, br/lunch or dinner and is suitable for both everyday meal or special occasions.

Nectarine and Blueberry Crisp with Almonds and Rolled Oats

Here’s one more delicious dessert to make with nectarines and blueberries. Hurry up while the nectarine season still lasts! It’s almost almost over!

My nectarine crisp is not super sweet and has a nice crunch that comes from rolled oats and almonds. You can whip it up in 5 minutes and cook in 20, which makes it a perfect weekday dessert. Put it in the oven before you sit to have dinner - with cooking and cooling it will be ready right about you’ve finished your meal.

Vanilla, Lemon and Honey Semifreddo

Semifreddo is an Italian dessert that literally translates as half(semi) cold(freddo). What it really is, is ice cream without ice cream machine. It is frozen and it has the same smooth, creamy, airy texture, though it’s done using absolutely different technique than ice cream.

In fact, the method* of making semifreddo is very much the same as for mousse. So, you may say that semifreddo is frozen mousse. Whereas in ice cream light airy texture comes from ice cream being churned, in semifreddo it comes from the ingredients being whipped before combined together. In my recipe, I separately whip all three major ingredients – cream, egg yolks, and egg whites. The result is a super light semifreddo.

Super Topping: Baked Nectarines and Blueberries

To continue on nectarines and blueberries, here’s the simplest recipe you can cook with them and it makes an awesome topping for ice creams, semifreddo or yogurt parfait. I myself can eat them plain, especially when they are still slightly warm. So make sure to cook plenty - I guarantee you will find yourself sneaking them in your mouth right from the baking dish again and again, so delish they are!

Puff Pastry Tarts with Goat Cheese, Blueberries and Nectarines

Here’s another delicious recipe for the nectarine and blueberry combination. And almost as easy to make as the clafoutis if you use a store bought puff pastry.

Nectarine and Blueberry Clafoutis

Now is the season for my all-time favorite fruit combination: nectarines and blueberries. I like it anytime, anywhere and anyhow. Raw and cooked. In tarts, pies, crumbles, clafoutis, roasted with honey and goat cheese or baked and used as a topping for ice cream or semifreddo.

Roasted Figs with Goat Cheese, Herbs and Lavender Infused Honey

While figs are still in season, hurry up to make this easy and delicious recipe. It makes a great light dessert and an amazing finger food party dish.

Rich and Airy Chocolate Mousse

This mousse is everybody's favorite. It's so light and fluffy and creamy and velvety and melting in your mouth and so deliciously chocolaty, it will make you go 'wow' and squint your eyes until the last bite.

Sharlotka, an Easiest Ever Apple Pie

 

This simple apple pie was a great hit in Russia in late 80s and 90s. It take minutes to put together and about an hour to bake, so it would be a first choice when one was pondering what to make for dessert. It seemed like everybody was baking this pie nonstop. It was ubiquitous.

Chocolate Salami (or A Little Chocolate Never Hurts, part 3)

Even though this salami is made of chocolate and cookies, it looks indistinguishable from the real one, doesn’t it? Besides being a great conversation piece, it’s also absolutely delicious and ridiculously easy to make.

Flourless Chocolate Soufflé Cake or A Little Chocolate Never Hurts 2

This recipe is on February page of my 2013 calendar, which I made with Mixbook for Christmas and New Year’s presents. For those who are not lucky enough (hehe) to have received my calendar, I decided to post this soufflé cake here as well.

A Little Chocolate Never Hurts: Chocolate Mousse Tiramisu

I’m not big on sweets, never was. The only thing I’m partial to is chocolate.  So when it comes to dessert making for my guests, my first choice (besides a cheese plate) is always something chocolaty. But then, even if a particular dessert doesn’t regurlarly contain chocolate, it wouldn’t hurt to add some anyways, would it?

Like traditional Italian tiramisu which, to my taste, becomes even better with a luscious layer of chocolate mousse on top.

Dulce de Membrillo, Last Call on Fall Harvest Preservation (continued)

As a devoted cheese lover, I’m always looking for new ways to make my cheese plate more fun. One of my most favorite finds is dulce de membrillo, a quince paste of Spanish origin.

Chocolate Strawberry Jam

I’m not a particularly zealous fan of strawberry jams. When I need to preserve fresh strawberries, I puree them in a food processor with sugar, pour into containers and store in the freezer. However, this rich and luscious chocolate strawberry jam is an exception.