Baked Sunday Mornings: ‘Drowning’ in a coffee dessert

I can’t remember which cooking maven (it was either Ina or Nigella) I first saw make affogato. But I never forgot this dessert — as simple as they come — where piping hot coffee or freshly brewed espresso is poured over a creamy mound of freezing cold ice cream. The version I saw used vanilla . . . → Read More: Baked Sunday Mornings: ‘Drowning’ in a coffee dessert

Baked Sunday Mornings: Deepening a joy for ice cream-making

I love to make ice cream. But when I bought my first ice cream maker, just several years ago, I had dueling ideas about where things might go from there — would I be making all sorts of the ice creams, gelato and sorbets of my dreams, or would the ice cream maker sit, unused, . . . → Read More: Baked Sunday Mornings: Deepening a joy for ice cream-making

Yearning to churn pumpkin ice cream

Is it strange to crave ice cream in the fall? Is it odd that, as everything is cooling off (sort of), I want cold, cold items, as if to hasten my beloved chilly temperatures? Apparently not. Recently Saveur magazine posted an array of autumn-inspired flavors imbued with apple, ginger and spices (even pepper!). Ice cream . . . → Read More: Yearning to churn pumpkin ice cream

Aligning against odds with Baked Alaska

“On a table cluttered with empty cups stands a small typewriter with a sheet of pink paper stuck in the roller. Although at the moment the page is utterly blank, I am convinced that someday, there will be a message for me there. I am waiting.” — Jean-Dominique Bauby, “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.” . . . → Read More: Aligning against odds with Baked Alaska

Lifting the senses with lavender

We all know of lavender’s aromatherapeutic and cosmetic advantages. Try pulling yourself away from a lavender-scented candle or just dare yourself to be stressed out when you have the soothing fragrance of lavender on your skin. It’s heavenly. But if you have never tried eating lavender in some form, now’s the time, as culinary lavender . . . → Read More: Lifting the senses with lavender

Taking a foray into sorbet

Time was – and maybe for some still is, making homemade ice cream was a near daylong feat of strength. This ordeal involved a huge contraption with a hand crank; a 50-pound bag of something called rock salt, a clear to grayish gravel that had the diametrical abilities to both melt snow on the highway . . . → Read More: Taking a foray into sorbet