Brutti Ma Buoni Cookies (Ugly but Good)

These are so good. If you like meringues and Nutella and Ferrero Rocher, these are for you. (If you don't like those, you're nuts, but you won't like these.) These are Italian cookies that mean ugly but good, and oh man, they live up to the name, at least the latter half. Mmmm. I brought them into the office and they're a big success. Also, they don't have any butter or flour so are healthier than most other cookie options - but there is a lot of sugar, so not that healthy. This is perfect for if you make cinnamon rolls or ice cream or other egg yolk-heavy recipes and have some extra whites to use! I used the Smitten Kitchen recipe but made it a little bigger and cut back on the chocolate a little.

Makes About 40 cookies
Ingredients:
2 cups hazelnuts
1 1/2 cups sugar, divided
1/3 tsp salt
6 egg whites
8oz semisweet chocolate, finely chopped

Saltine Toffee Chocolate Peanut Ice Cream Sandwich

This is such a treat - a fancy, grown up ice cream sandwich. They're incredible messy (especially if you don't let them firm up enough) but oh my goodness, they are so good! I saw this recipe on Smitten Kitchen and had to try it. Yum! The saltine/toffee/chocolate/peanut combo is amazing and so crunchy. If you want want to go through the trouble of making the sandwiches, you could also just crack it up and sprinkle it liberally over vanilla ice cream. It's addicting. I recommend making these the day before you want to eat them so they have a lot of time to firm up in the freezer - makes them a lot easier to eat. 

Ingredients:

36 saltines

1/2 cup butter cut into chunks

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/3 cup dark chocolate chips

sea salt (or kosher salt if you don't have sea salt)

2 cups vanilla ice cream, slightly softened

Big handful roasted peanuts (or any other nut of your choice)

Strawberry Blueberry Crumble

Yum! This is a delicious and easy summer dessert. We used strawberries and blueberries, but it would be great with any mix of fruit. The crumble topping is delicious and it's so easy because you don't have to make crust - the whole thing takes about an hour start to finish. The baking soda in the crumble is from Smitten Kitchen. It really makes it puff up and get nice and crunchy. Will definitely make this again, maybe in individual ramekins. 

Mini Berry Tarts

This is a great, quick little dessert. If you can't find speculoos (delicious French/Belgian cookies that taste like a mix between a graham cracker and a ginger snap) you can use graham crackers, or ginger snaps. The crust with the speculoos and browned butter is delicious, and perfect with the tart berries and slightly sweet whipped cream. 

Serves 2

Ingredients:

Berries

About 1 cup mixed berries

3/4 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla

squeeze of lemon

Tart

6 speculoos cookies

1 tbsp butter

1/4 tsp sugar

Whipped Cream

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 tbsp powdered sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla

Butterscotch Bourbon Ice Cream

This homemade ice cream is so creamy and perfect. I stupidly forgot to take a picture of it scooped out, so you'll just have to take this one of it churning. A few summers ago, the New York Times came out with a fantastic ice cream article and recipe with a basic base and a whole bunch of ways to customize it with different flavors, aptly titled, "The Only Ice Cream Recipe You'll Ever Need." They had a butterscotch bourbon flavor that I tried last weekend - yum! It's really, really good and I will definitely make it again. It's rich and creamy and has just a hint of bourbon - it's not overwhelming at all. (I don't like my desserts to taste like booze).

Maya's Coconut Tart

There's a great restaurant in St. Barth called Maya's that my family goes to every year. One of my favorite parts of a night at Maya's is finishing off with a slice of coconut tart. It's so delicious and crunchy and caramelized. We were having friends over for dinner last weekend and I was trying to think of something new to make for dessert. I googled around wondering if Maya's recipe had made it online, and it had! Jean-Georges published it for Food & Wine! (You can see it here.) It was so good and tasted just like how Maya makes it. Coconut fans will love it. Definitely get fresh coconut and shred it yourself - do not get the pre-shredded coconut. It will be too fine.

Ice Cream Cake

This ice cream cake is delicious. The crushed up Oreos mixed with magical shell make the perfect crispy filling. So decadent and sweet. Who doesn't love ice cream cake? It takes a while to make it with all the freezing, but if you're home for most of the day it's not bad. You can do it over the course of a couple of days, too. It's so good! I ate mine and half of Jamie's.

Ingredients:

2 quarts ice cream, whatever flavors you want (I used chocolate and Oreo)

1.5 sleeves Oreos, filling removed (or if you can find them, chocolate wafers)

A few tbsp magic shell

Hot fudge (I used Hershey's but you can also make your own)

Whipped cream

Cherries and sprinkles (optional)

Mini Skillet Chocolate Chip Cookie with Ice Cream

Yum! I want to eat this again right now. It's a big, gooey, melty chocolate chip cookies covered in vanilla ice cream. What's not to love? This serves two in a 5" inch skillet, but there's leftover dough. You can also do ramekins to make individual servings. 

Ingredients:

6 tbsp unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

½ cup granulated sugar

½ cup packed dark brown sugar

1 large eff

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp kosher salt

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Vanilla ice cream

Snickerdoodles

If you want your house to smell amazing (a la Clueless), bake these. The cinnamon sugary goodness wafts out from the oven and will make anyone in the house come to the kitchen for a sample. Also, you probably have most of these ingredients in your kitchen already. These are simple cookies but they just taste so, so good.  You do need to know about an hour in advance just to be sure your butter and shortening are nice and soft.

Makes about 24 cookies

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups sugar

1 tbsp cinnamon

2 1/2 cups flour

2 tsp cream of tarter

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

8 tbsp butter, softened

8 tbsp vegetable shortening (like crisco)

2 large eggs

Pumpkin Cheesecake

I have never been a big cheesecake person (unless it's like this). I don't think I've ever ordered it at a restaurant. It always seems too rich and heavy, and that says a lot coming from me. Pumpkin cheesecake is the exception to the rule. It's a hybrid of pumpkin pie and cheese cake; lighter than cheesecake and with warm, aromatic pumpkin pie spice. I got the recipe from Martha Stewart. My advice - drench the batter bowl in water before you can eat too much of it because it is fantastic.

Ingredients:

Crust

1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs (from about 6 full graham crackers)

1/4 cup sugar

4 tbsp melted unsalted butter

Pinch of salt

Apple Pie

Jamie loves apple pie and I had a free Sunday, so I whipped this one up. Yum! The maple syrup is a nice touch. I like to use a mix of different apples, this time I did Granny Smith, Gala, Fuji, Honeycrisp, and McIntosh. I used the recipe from Four and Twenty Blackbirds for Salt Pork Apple Pie but ditched the salt pork.

Nutella Ice Cream

I wanted to make banana ice cream, but the grocery store had no ripe bananas. I made a quick decision to grab nutella and just add it to a basic ice cream recipe, and add some hazelnuts. It's so rich and creamy, and who doesn't love nutella?

Ingredients:

2 cups milk

2 cups heavy cream

8 egg yolks

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup nutella

1/3 cup chopped hazelnuts

Directions:

Whisk the egg yolks in a bowl until a little bit frothy.

New Pie Book

Isn't that the most beautiful pie? It's from my new cookbook, Four and Twenty Blackbirds - thanks Palmer and Austen! This particular pie was salt pork apple pie. It was really tasty, but it's an odd one and I think it would have actually been better sans pork. I can't wait to make another pie from the book, though, because the crust was so, so flaky and buttery and crisp on the outside and soft on the inside, and there are so many great looking recipes and helpful tips.

Raspberry Sorbet

After all the gluttony of Thanksgiving, this week I've been looking for light, fresh things to eat. Raspberry Sorbet sounded perfect and I found a very simple recipe. I used frozen raspberries and it turned out really well. As long as you have an ice cream maker, it's a great, not too complicated dessert.

Ingredients:

4 cups frozen raspberries

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

Browned Butter Rice Crispy Treats

These are delicious. I didn't think rice crispy treats needed fixing, but wow, just by browning the butter first and adding a little salt you really bump up the flavor. They did not last long - my friend Elaine did some major damage. These are perfect if you need something to throw together quickly and cheaply to bring to a party or work or anything.

Ingredients:

1 stick unsalted butter

1 10 oz bag marshmallows

heaping 1/4 tsp coarse sea salt

6 cups Rice Krispies

Butter or nonstick spray for the pan

Directions:

Blueberry-Blackberry Tarts

Jamie loves blackberries, and when he had all of his friends over to do his football draft (taking over our living room/TV) I needed an activity. We had this great tart pan that I still hadn't had a chance to use, so I thought it was a perfect time to try a tart. Yum! It was really great. Super fresh and summery, and the crust is incredible. You have to make it yourself instead of buying premade pie crust because the tart crust is different than pie crust. It's more like shortbread. It's a little tougher to work with, but it's so tasty. Jamie brought some to work and it was gone within half an hour. It's a bit of a labor of love, but well worth it. It's not too sweet and really concentrates the berry flavor.

Ingredients:
Crust
1 large egg yolk
1 tbsp heavy cream
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
2/3 cup confectioner's sugar
1/4 tsp salt
8 tbsp butter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces and chilled

Tart
6 tbsp unsalted butter
1 large egg plus 1 large white
1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp grated lemon zest, plus 1 1/2 tsp juice
2 tbsp corn starch
2 tbsp heavy cream
12 oz (or more) mix of blueberries and blackberries

Fresh Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

I was lucky enough to visit the stunning One&Only Palmilla for work a few weeks ago. It's such a beautiful spot, and the food is really incredible. We peeked into the kitchen at Market one afternoon and saw Sean, the pastry chef, create this beautiful dessert that consisted of mint ice cream, made that morning with mint picked in the herb garden, topped with dehydrated chocolate mousse, these pretty flowers, and some chocolate shavings. Basically, the fanciest mint chocolate chip ice cream around. It was amazing.

I've been dreaming about it. It inspired me to make my own fresh mint chocolate chip ice cream. I used this recipe from Isaac Mizrahi on Epicurious. Yum! It has a completely different flavor than store bought mint chocolate chip ice cream, more akin to a mojito. It's such a treat, and if you have an ice cream maker, I highly recommend it. Also, the chocolate chunks can be as big and as good a brand of chocolate as you want.

Ingredients:

6 lark egg yolks

3/4 cups sugar

2 cups whole milk

2 cups fresh mint leaves, loosely packed

1 cup heavy cream

4 oz semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

4 oz bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used Cote d'Or 86% - I looove Cote d'Or)

Berry Ice Cream Sauce

 

Jamie loves berries, so I made some berry syrup to go over vanilla ice cream. Wow! Huge success. This is simple and makes for an incredible dessert.

Serves 2-4
Ingredients:
1/2 bag of frozen berries
Sugar (about 1/4 cup, to taste)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp butter
(vanilla ice cream)

Lara's Chocolate Mousse

My sweet friends gave me a cook book at my wedding shower and everyone put in a recipe. For my first one, I tried Lara's chocolate mousse. She had told me about it before and it sounded delicious, and also easy. It was fabulous! Thank you for the recipe, Lara! It's so easy and so rich and chocolatey. I only wish I could find the amazing Belgian Cote D'Or chocolate in the US, but maybe she can bring me some next time she's in Belgium...

Ingredients:
Cote D'Or dark chocolate (or another kind - I used Ghirardelli)
Eggs (one egg per bar)
Milk
Sugar (one small spoon per bar)

Directions:

Plum Torte (aka best summer dessert)

My mom has always made plum torte at the end of the summer when the little sugar plums come out. (She said the New York Times used to run the recipe every summer but stopped several years ago.) It's bittersweet because I'm so excited for it, but it also means summer is coming to an end. I made one this weekend after finding the little plums at the farm stand. It's just the best - the batter is sweet and fluffy, the top is crusted with cinnamon sugar, and the plus are juicy and tart. It's also pretty simple. If you can find these plums, make this torte and watch it disappear. I love it with a little vanilla ice cream, or in the morning for breakfast!

Ingredients:

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder