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
Cherry Clafoutis
The arrival of cherries, for me, marks the true arrival of summer. Summer is a fleeting season that should be celebrated with equally bright and ephemeral berries and fruit. Cherries, raspberries, blueberries, peaches, plums, all should be unapologetically brandished in tarts, pies, galettes, or even simply macerated and adorned with a dollop of whipped cream.
Pistachio Chocolate Chip Biscotti
While summer has just begun, the warm weather is begging for seasonal delights. The pistachio harvest won’t start until August or September, but pistachios, lemon and chocolate are a fun, fair weather combination. While these cookies are well-known outside of Italy with the name biscotti, meaning ‘twice cooked,’ in Italy they are more commonly called
Blueberry Lavender Scones
Does scone rhyme with “tone” or with “gone”? Most of the UK, Canada and Australia will argue that it rhymes with gone, while southern England, the Republic of Ireland and Americans argue that it rhymes with tone. Scones are an important part of the anglo culture. They can be anything from a rushed convenience food
Sablés Bretons: French Butter Cookies
Sablés are wonderfully buttery and crumbly shortbread cookies from Brittany. Sable in French means sand, and these cookies get this name from the texture of the dough when blending the cold butter, flour and sugar together. Sablés Bretons, use sea salted butter that is typical of Bretagne. These cookies are crumbly, buttery and blur the