Baking at the cottage: raspberry pie

Raspberries are special.

They’re intricate. Think of that hive of tiny, hair-studded spheres that slips off its torus when perfectly ripe.

They’re delicate. Eat them from your cupped palm, and streaky stains of their crimson juice will be left behind.

They’re luscious. Deeply flavoured with tart and sweet and floral notes all at once, they taste exactly what you’d ...
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Marmalade and dark chocolate tart

This recipe was born of necessity.

While recently reviewing a cookbook, I tried a recipe for Seville orange marmalade that, while extremely delicious, had the consistency of cement. (I suspect the recipe neglects to instruct followers to top up the water level after the oranges go through their first boil.)

Since it was clear that this marmalade ...
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Pastéis de nata (Portuguese custard tarts)

I say “natas”; you say “custard tarts.” We’re both right and they’re one of the simplest, most delicious pastries around. You’ll find a little history behind this popular sweet and tasting notes on natas from some Toronto bakeries in my “A Tart for All-Comers” piece published over at TasteT.O. this ...
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Red Haven peach poached in rosé wine with blueberry-basil garnish

What you do: Boil rosé wine with some sugar and a cinnamon stick until mixture becomes syrupy. Add peeled peaches and simmer about 10 minutes, until they are tender but still hold their shape. Cool. Serve a peach in a pool of the rosé syrup garnished with blueberries and basil (cinnamon basil ...
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Lime tart with fresh raspberries

I know. I know! It’s yet another dessert post.

I’m just as surprised as you are, as I’ll gladly side with savoury over sweet every single time. But what can I say? There are worse things in which to revel than sweets, and revelling in them I have been indeed if my recent food writing is ...
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Gingerbread cupcakes with lemon cream-cheese frosting

Today’s my birthday, and I’m turning thirty-six. I’m now closer to being forty than I am to being thirty. How did that happen?

Cake is good on birthdays, and I plan to have some at one of the little cafés on main street in Peterborough, where Michael and I are heading for a day of ...
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Frozen strawberry-vanilla swirl

Hope you saved room for dessert.

It’s been a while since I’ve featured something sweet here in the food category, and considering that we are in the most difficult part of winter — snowbanks are dirty and grey; sidewalks are minefields laid with dense, glacial ice; temperatures hang immovably below zero — I thought it particularly appropriate to ...
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