Category: Desserts

  • The easiest way to turn a whole pumpkin into food

    I know you. Because you’re like me. You pulled out all the stops for Halloween, but now there’s still a few uncarved pumpkins sitting in your front yard. They’re okay there for awhile. (Maybe people will think you’ve decorated for Thanksgiving. Riiiiiight.) Most pumpkin varieties will even endure sub-freezing temps for a few nights, so…

  • One-Bowl No-Mixer Pumpkin Muffins

    So it’s no secret that I’m enamored with pumpkin, and I have dozens of pumpkin recipes that get busted out in the fall.  But for many folks, the idea of setting up the stand mixer to cream butter and sugar…or having multiple bowls and measuring cups to clean up afterward…it’s just too much to contemplate…

  • Perfect Homemade Fortune Cookies

    Makes 12-18 fortune cookies depending on size and thickness. Fortune cookies are remarkably easy to make…IF…you have the right recipe.  Many of the recipes on the net call for fat in the form of butter or oil.  The problem there is that you end up with greasy fortunes.  The remaining recipes, at least the ones…

  • Hatch Green Chile Peach Pie

    It’s that time of year again!  Grocery stores all over Texas have the unmistakable spicy-smoky aroma of roasting Hatch chiles out front, and the big chile roasters are rolling almost nonstop during open hours.  It’s my favorite culinary time of year. While most recipes for Hatch chiles are savory, I decided to post a sweet…

  • Laughably-Easy Lard (or Bacon Fat) Pastry Crust

    The perfect pastry crust eludes most of us…seemingly thousands of infinitely-thin layers that are tender, but shatter in your mouth while still remaining moist and succulent.  It usually involves massive amounts of butter cut into the flour at just the right temperature to just the right texture…then a chill in the fridge…then the addition of…

  • Tobacco Chocolate Ice Cream

    Tobacco is little-used in cooking, which is a shame, because it has a marvelous flavor.  Tobacco contains nicotine, a stimulant that is deadly in the right dose, most folks shy away from cooking with it.  But the National Institutes of Health has done plenty of research about nicotine toxicity, and I published an article that helps consolidate…