Pam and I developed a hankering for cheesecake. It’s surprisingly straightforward to make. The crust is just graham crackers, butter, and a little bit of sugar: And the filling consists of cream cheese (~2 pounds of it), eggs (6), vanilla, and a bit of lemon. It turned out great.
Category: dessert
Custard
Surprisingly easy, and delicious. Cinnamon and cayenne on top.
Cinnamon rolls: REDUX
What is life but a series of repetitions?
Buttermilk Biscuits
The first time I ever ate a biscuit was at the Petaluma Lions Club, when I was probably 8 or 9. At the time, I was a very picky eater, and my dietary preferences could be summed up as “carbohydrates + butter”, with an optional addition of cheese. A biscuit, then, with its incomparable tenderness… Continue reading Buttermilk Biscuits
Eclair
Harboring both a desire to consume a chocolate baked good and to test my mettle in the crucible of small-kitchen pastry-baking, I decided to prepare an eclair. I particularly enjoy the eclairs offered at the Hopkins Street Bakery, on Hopkins and Monterey in Berkeley, CA. My first attempt at making eclairs was, generously, disastrous. When… Continue reading Eclair
Lemon Bars
Lemon bars are probably my favorite dessert, though I also enjoy cheesecake, fruit pies of various kinds, and …. (Me.) For a first pass at lemon bars, I was quite happy with how these turned out. I don’t have a food processor, so I prepared the crust by manually kneading in chilled butter with flour… Continue reading Lemon Bars
Blueberry Muffins with Streusel Topping
As mentioned in another post, I’ve recently become fascinated with baking. In fact, I sometimes feel in moments of existential uncertainty that I’d be happiest working in a bakery. I baked 12 blueberry muffins. Some ended up better than others. The muffin below was quite photogenic. I based my recipe on the one provided in… Continue reading Blueberry Muffins with Streusel Topping
Banana Bread
Old bananas mushed with butter, mixed with flour, some salt and sugar, poured in pan, baked: banana bread. It turned out pretty well.
Cinnamon rolls
I prepared my second batch of cinnamon rolls today (October 11, 2015) at my Petaluma home. The quality of this batch considerably exceeded the quality of the first batch – particularly the consistency and flavor of the cream cheese icing. There’s a kind of layered, systematic nature to the preparation of cinnamon rolls that I… Continue reading Cinnamon rolls