Tag: nut free

Is it just me, or are coconut chips, particularly chocolate coconut chips, more difficult to come by these days? My younger son loves coconut and used to regularly ask me to buy the chocolate covered coconut chips as a special snack, while I was partial to the cocoa coconut...

With it being Mother’s day this weekend, I wanted to share this recipe for my blueberry cheesecake French toast casserole a bit earlier than my usual Sunday evening time frame. If anyone is planning a special breakfast or brunch for mom this weekend, this dish would make an excellent...

Before moving to the Southwest, I think my only exposure to prickly pear was the reference in “The Bare Necessities” song from Disney’s The Jungle Book. In the song, Baloo warns Mowgli not to pick the prickly pear by the paw or you’ll “prick a raw paw” – very...

Snickerdoodles are ranked among the well known classic and nostalgic cookies, such as chocolate chip, oatmeal, peanut butter and sugar cookies. They have a soft chewy texture (imparted by the addition of cream of tartar) and a warm, comforting, cinnamon flavor. For me, I would say that snickerdoodles are...

As much as I enjoy food, cooking and baking, I’m not the biggest fan of grocery shopping. Even before Covid, I availed myself of pick up and delivery options whenever and wherever possible. While there were definitely some issues and hiccups early on, over the years the services have...

For a very long time, I found blondies to be uniformly disappointing. I wanted to like them, I liked the idea of them. Blondies are basically chocolate chip cookies in bar form, what’s not to like? But, without fail, they failed to impress. They were cakey, or bready. They...

Speculoos (or speculaas, Spekulatius, or Dutch windmill cookies) are a spiced short bread or short crust cookie (or biscuit, if you prefer). They have a crisp texture and a rich, warm, comforting spicy flavor imparted by cinnamon (mostly) as well as nutmeg, clove, ginger, cardamom, and pepper. My kids...

The word “truffle” can be traced back to the Latin word “tuber” or “tubera” meaning hump or swelling and is the name applied to a genus of lumpy mushrooms or fungi which grow underground and have long been prized as a culinary delicacy. By long, we are talking thousands...

This recipe was inspired by the cream cheese half of my Red Velvet Fudge. Every time I make my red velvet fudge, I can’t help but think how much I really enjoy the cream cheese portion of the fudge. Sometimes, I will actually hunt for pieces that have a...

Apple desserts are far and away my favorite fruit based desserts. Apple pie is pretty much the only fruit based pie I will eat (willingly and happily) and the only one I make somewhat regularly. I like apples on top of cheesecakes, waffles, vanilla or caramel ice cream and...