Recent Posts

Candied Pink Grapefruit

Around the holidays you find many recipes that call for candied fruits. I use them in my Panettone recipe from Artisan Bread in Five, in a chocolate ginger biscotti, a Trinidadian rum cake, for my granny’s maple brown-butter shortbread cookies or just dipped in bittersweet chocolate.

Aebleskivers

This fall I met Chad and his partners at the Mill City Farmer’s Market in Minneapolis. My co-author and I did a bread presentation from our book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. When I came off the stage, there was Chad and these funny round pans, which were […]

Maple Brown Butter Shortbread Cookies

Order my new cookbook, Zoë Bakes Cookies, now! When I was growing up I looked forward to Christmas morning at my Granny’s house. It seemed like magic how I’d go to bed at night and wake up with a stocking stuffed with goodies at the foot of my bed. Later […]

Cream Puffs and a Nest of Nuts!

It is my birthday and I decided to make myself something fun to celebrate. Now that I am squarely in my 40s I find it especially important to make this occasion a special one. I was in the mood to play with sugar. It has been years, many years, since […]

Milk Chocolate Cinnamon Mousse Cake

Last week I made a Génoise, the classic ethereal cake that is the perfect base for so many desserts. It is a cake just begging to be flavored with a syrup. If left all alone it can be a bit on the dry side. In fact, it is also known […]

Genoise with the word basics on it

Basics: Génoise and Homemade Rolled Fondant! Part 1

I’m gearing up for my one year blog-iversary next week and I’m making myself a cake. On the way to that celebratory occasion, I’ve made a few of the basic elements in the pastry kitchen: génoise and homemade rolled fondant. As Sherry Yard says in the opening of her génoise […]

Mocha Chip Cookie with a bite out of it

Mocha Chip Cookies

Order my new cookbook, Zoë Bakes Cookies, now! For those of you who have been visiting with me on Twitter, you already know that my day doesn’t begin until my first, or sometimes second, cup of coffee. It was a happy day for me when my local Costco started carrying […]

Tuile garnish

Tuile Garnish

Tuile garnish is a very versatile garnish to use on cakes or plated desserts. The only enemy to tuile is humidity, keep them in an airtight container and don’t even try these in the sultry days of late August in MN.

Pear Pomegranate Tarte Tatin

I’m dying to go apple and pear picking. I’ve decided that it is fall and my mind has shifted to the autumnal fruit. Well, there is nowhere to pick yet, so I went to the co-op and bought some seckel pears, from who knows where? I like to bake with […]

Chai Cheesecake or Pot de Creme

Creamy Chai Cheesecake (or is it Pots de Crème?)

As some of you know my oven blew up last week, literally! I am still waiting with bated breathe for the UPS driver to deliver the new heating coil, so I can resume doing the thing I love most. It should finally come tomorrow and believe me I am regretting […]

Plums

Sugar Plums with Fresh Ginger

These California Sugar Plums showed up at our market, like a little gift at the end of summer. They are so sweet and lovely that the first bunch I bought were gobbled up, pure and simple. I returned and bought two more quarts of them with the intention of roasting […]

Wild Blueberry Tart

The end of August brings a shift in everything from the weather, to the fruit and our schedules. This week we went to meet my sons’ teachers and visit their classrooms, a day filled with excitement and a touch of dread. They are excited to reunite with all of the […]