If this pie were a wedding cake, it would be perched on a silk-covered table surrounded by orange blossoms and set under an arbor on a vast lawn by a river. So if you’re single, you might be thinking that this is not the recipe for you. On the contrary, with enough Chambord, you can […]

They seem like an unlikely couple: peanut butter and chiffon. And yet, like any successful pairing, they bring out the best in each other. And anyway, people said the same thing about peanut butter and bananas, and today they’re practically a food group to fifth graders, not to mention families with camping compounds in the […]

Melting chocolate properly is really important because, in the words of Chuck Williams (although he was talking about stale cookie crumbs at the time), a weird burnt taste can “haunt” your pie. And there’s nothing worse than a haunted pie, even on Halloween.
Most recipes say, “If you’re using a double boiler, make sure the […]

It’s not just the combination of fruit and berry, but the dark, rich spices that make this deep dish pie something Sinatra would have sung about. You know, a song with dimension and depth. Something slightly lascivious to indulge in when no one was supposed to be looking, but probably was. And if they had […]

The same way a new pair of jeans shrinks the first time you wash it, tart dough also gets smaller as it bakes. So just like you might buy your jeans a little bigger to adjust for size, press your tart dough up the sides of the tart shell, making it thicker at the […]

“Ultrapasteurized” cream won’t whip up to the same amazingly fabulous heights as regular pasteurized cream, so going the extra mile (or for the extra money) isn’t necessary. And if you overpay for the cream, you might be the type to over-whip it, too. If that happens and the peaks get too stiff, just fold in […]

This may seem like stating the obvious, but to avoid feeling like Stan Laurel in the middle of a recipe, when you’re using the same lemon (or orange, or lime, you get the picture) for both zest and juice, do the zest first.