Baking | Gourmandistan

Cherry Chambord iced chocolate cake makes Valentine’s Day darkly delicious

February 12, 2018 by Steve

Gourmandistan is not a nation inclined to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Instead of an excuse to exchange candy, flowers or cards, we generally see February 14th as the midpoint of the most miserable month of the year. Left alone during a recent snow day demonstration of February’s disheartening weather, Michelle combined chocolate, coffee, cherry and Chambord, creating this delightful cake with pink-hued icing, a moist crumb and layers of rich chocolate ganache. While inspiration came from Ina Garten and Shirley Corriher, […]

Categories: Baking, Cake, Chocolate, Cooking, Desserts & Sweets, Food, Jams & Preserves, Recipes, Valentine's Day

Combining caramelization with a bit more crunch creates a quite nice apple crisp

November 2, 2017 by Michelle

In Gourmandistan it is once again the season for apples (or as Michelle likes to say, “It’s decorative gourd season, motherfuckers“). Steve has begun his tradition of hauling home about as many GoldRushes (along with Stayman Winesaps and the end of the Paula Reds) as he can carry, while Michelle continues her habit of figuring out better things to do with apples than simply eat them out of hand. Steve, who likes snacking on apples, would like to say that’s at least […]

Categories: Apples, Baking, Desserts & Sweets, Food, Fruit, Fruit Desserts, Recipes

Chunky crispy peanut butter chocolate layer cake totally fit for totality

August 30, 2017 by Steve

Too many things in our hype-infested world seem to overpromise yet underwhelm. Superlatives are attached to every service, product and event. However, we’re happy to report that, should you be lucky enough to experience a total eclipse of the sun, it is one of the few things actually deserving of the word “awesome.” And while we will say this chocolate cake is quite good, it in no way matches an eclipse—but it did help make the experience even more exceptional. […]

Categories: Baking, Cake, Chocolate, Desserts & Sweets, Family, Food, Recipes

Blackberry bounty brings some beautiful blackberry bars

July 25, 2017 by Steve

It has been a banner year for wild blackberries in Gourmandistan. We had enough for several batches of blackberry jam plus some blackberry cobblers (including several cups frozen for a future cobbler at Michelle’s mother’s request). Even after Steve spent many mornings gleaning the patch, there are still more berries available should he feel like hiking out to get them. (He will most likely hike out to get them.) With this sort of surplus available, Steve has been urging Michelle to make […]

Categories: Baking, Blackberries, Cookies, Desserts & Sweets, Food, Fruit Desserts, Jams & Preserves, Recipes

Hand jive, hand pies, doin’ that crazy good sour cherry hand pie

June 13, 2017 by Steve

While we do host both felines and poultry, Gourmandistan does not have a cat named Way-Out Willie, or a cool little chick named Rockin’ Billie. We’ll let others do that hand jive all over town. We’ll keep scarfing sour cherry hand pies down. We spotted sour cherries at the market a while back, and once again bought every last remaining carton from the farmer. Steve sat down and made an afternoon out of pitting cherries, reserving most of the fruit for […]

Categories: Baking, Cherries, Cooking, Desserts & Sweets, Food, Fruit Desserts, Pies & Tarts, Recipes

St.-Paul de Vence walnut tart requires new pan, rewards much work

April 5, 2017 by Steve

Maida Heatter, in Maida Heatter’s Cakes, first published in 1982, says this walnut tart is “really a fancy cake.” While Gourmandistan is not about to jump into the fray between cakes and tarts (yes, we’re looking in your direction, tortes), we will say this walnut dessert is delicious—though somewhat of a pain in the ass. The tart (or cake, whatever) recipe caught Michelle’s eye ages ago because it supposedly came from St.-Paul de Vence. In 2007, during a wonderful splurge side trip from Provence, we spent some […]

Categories: Baking, Cake, Desserts & Sweets, Food, France, Nuts, Old cookbooks, Pies & Tarts, Vacation

The somewhat delayed satisfaction of sesame sticks

February 28, 2017 by Steve

Perhaps it was the miso caramel ice cream we’re still working on. (Trust us, Whole Foods’ so-called “mellow” miso is not white and is way too salty.) But, for some reason, these nutty, buttery sticks did not appeal to Michelle at first. While she initially found them kind of “meh,” Michelle grew impressed by the sesame sticks’ staying power along with their flavor. Alice Medrich, who once again led us to something delicious, calls these cookies “addictively crunchy yet delicate” and […]

Categories: Baking, Cookies, Desserts & Sweets, Food, Recipes

Tahini chocolate chip cookies saltily show the sweeter side of sesame

February 11, 2017 by Steve

While we’re not unfamiliar with sesame paste candies, they weren’t the sweets Gourmandistan usually looked for. It may have been our jealous guarding of tahini stocks for use in Middle Eastern-style dinners. Or perhaps it was Steve’s shuddery childhood memories of the dusty, dried out bars of Joyva Halvah he was forced to sample out of politeness. Whatever the reason, we’re now re-evaluating our search parameters. Michelle found this Danielle Oron recipe in The New York Times (which is obviously popular as it keeps making the rounds […]

Categories: Baking, Chocolate, Cookies, Desserts & Sweets, Food, Recipes

Fruitcake icebox cookies for a traveling holiday

December 12, 2016 by Steve

Gourmandistan will be on the move for the upcoming holiday season. With stops planned in Madisonville, Memphis and Jackson before pushing on to New Orleans, Michelle wanted some sweets that could survive the trip, were good enough to gift, and non-messy enough for snacks on the road. Along with a few other selections (do not ask about the sugar cookie decorations gone horribly wrong), these icebox cookies made the cut. Michelle has been baking from Maida Heatter’s Book of Great Cookies since around […]

Categories: Baking, Christmas, Cookies, Desserts & Sweets, Food, Holidays & Events, Old cookbooks, Recipes