Tosca cake is a rich sponge cake topped with crunchy, buttery almond caramel. The cake is partially baked, then covered with brown-butter toasted almond caramel sauce, and put back in the oven to finish the cake and darken the caramel. It’s a simple and rustic cake that can be made in about an hour, perfect
Tarte au Citron: French Lemon Tart
Tarte au citron is a classic of French cuisine. You can find lemon tarts everywhere in France, from the elegantly designed displays of elite pâtisseries to humble bistros, as well as in the home. Tarte au citron can be dressed for any occasion: topped with whipped cream or fruit, decorated with Italian meringue and toasted
Quatre-Quarts: French Pound Cake
Quatre-quarts, meaning four quarters, is a French pound cake from Brittany so named for the equal proportions of four ingredients: butter, sugar, eggs and flour. This recipe has a simple formula and won’t leave you searching for exotic or hard to find ingredients. It is technique-focused, so do take your time in each step. Traditionally,
Brunsviger: Danish Coffee Cake
Brunsviger is a yeasted coffee cake covered in a brown sugar topping. The cake is rich, but fluffy, almost like brioche and the topping is like crunchy-gooey caramel. This as a great alternative to cinnamon rolls on cold Sunday mornings. The History of Brunsviger Brunsviger originates from the Danish island of Funen, the birthplace of
Brutti ma Buoni: Italian Hazelnut Meringue Cookies
Brutti ma Buoni, meaning “ugly but good” in Italian, are crunchy-gooey meringue cookies with nuts; usually hazelnuts, but sometimes almonds. I don’t find them to be particularly ugly, but they are definitely good and addictive. While I intended to have just one with a strong batch of moka pot coffee, I swiftly finished 3 or
Appelvlaai: Dutch Apple Tart
Vlaai is a traditional tart from the Limburg province of the Netherlands. It is a bit of a strange tart because of the dough that it uses. Normally, a pie will use some variation of pâte brisée, a flaky shortcrust dough, or a tart will use a pâte sucrée, a sweet shortcrust pastry with the
Lusikkaleivät: Finnish Spoon Cookies
These cookies took me by surprise. While I was expecting a sandwich cookie in a fun shape, I was amazed by the complexity of such a simple cookie. These are similar to shortbread, buttery and “short,” but made better with toasty brown butter. With the crisp, nutty cookie, sandwiched with fruity jam and covered in