From the Vault: Desserts
A food writer of my acquaintance believes that everyone, no matter what they say, has a sweet tooth. I don't know if I can agree with the literal statement, but I certainly agree with the sentiment. Most bakers know that, no matter how some may protest for every reason from diet to appearances, no one ever really wants to refuse dessert. People may waive dessert because they're on a date or counting calories, but there is no mistaking the wistfulness in their eyes as the dessert cart wheels away.
Of course we all have to manage our cravings (most of the time), but too much sublimation is likely to emerge as secret vice. Nothing else we eat or drink except, unfortunately, for booze, is as open to furtive consumption as are sweets. So before you read this From the Vault and before I write it, let us all link hands sticky with jam filling and powdery with dusting sugar and vow to manage our indulgences responsibly, so that we have the right to enjoy them.
Now, on to business. At last count I have published over 100 recipes on Urban Home Blog and there is no question that, after weeknight dinner, the most popular are desserts. As anyone working their way through the halls of domesticity at the county fair will verify, baking is its own specialty in the home arts, and it is a very popular one. Books about baking are their own category among cookbooks, and for that matter, websites. Just as there are shelves of cookbooks just about baking, so are there numerous websites, especially blogs, devoted to baking.
General homekeeping websites (known as shelter publishing, in case you didn't know) include baking as part of their content. That is how I write Urban Home Blog not just from an organizational point of view but because it is my point of view as a homekeeper. Baking is as much a part of everything I do in the home as is anything else. I bake cakes for special occasions, cookies at Christmas, pies if the fruit looks good enough to place it under a crust. That's how I live it, so that's how I write it.
Anyone who's been a guest in my home either through my blog or in person divines that much of my homekeeping aesthetic comes from my grandmother. This is as true at the dessert board as it is in all other areas. To me, an old-fashioned dessert is always the most special and the most satisfying, and I encounter very little argument about it. People always appreciate a dessert that came out of Grandma's kitchen. Among visitors to my urban home, my grandmother's spice cake is among the most requested recipes. Likewise her banana cream pie. But old fashioned desserts rule at Urban Home, from a bowl of fluffy banana pudding to one of intensely flavored peach ice cream, from a pan of good ol' brownies to a batch of peanut butter cookies.
One serves dessert because it's appropriate to the occasion or just because one feels like it. I do appreciate showy desserts. One of the first dessert recipes I published was one for pumpkin cheesecake; this was because it was among the first fancy-pants desserts I mastered. We've also made batches of fussy maple creams, jewel like fruitcake biscotti, foamy divinity. We've welcomed spring with a tray of show-stopping baklava, Valentine's Day with an aphrodisial panna cotta and a decadent chocolate hazelnut tart, and the winter holidays with the treat of toffee bars. And we've taken our brandy with one of the most indulgent desserts of all: pears and stilton.
We've celebrated California cooking with key local ingredients like strawberries and dates. But then a quick bread is a great dessert; try a lemony pound cake or a festive cranberry-walnut bread. If we're serving brunch we get to start the day with dessert; try pear coffee cake. And while we're cooking with fresh local ingredients, how about we end our meal, and our column, with a freshly sliced apricot bar, a scoop of green tea ice cream, or the original dessert: a bowl of fresh fruit salad.
Of course we all have to manage our cravings (most of the time), but too much sublimation is likely to emerge as secret vice. Nothing else we eat or drink except, unfortunately, for booze, is as open to furtive consumption as are sweets. So before you read this From the Vault and before I write it, let us all link hands sticky with jam filling and powdery with dusting sugar and vow to manage our indulgences responsibly, so that we have the right to enjoy them.
Now, on to business. At last count I have published over 100 recipes on Urban Home Blog and there is no question that, after weeknight dinner, the most popular are desserts. As anyone working their way through the halls of domesticity at the county fair will verify, baking is its own specialty in the home arts, and it is a very popular one. Books about baking are their own category among cookbooks, and for that matter, websites. Just as there are shelves of cookbooks just about baking, so are there numerous websites, especially blogs, devoted to baking.
General homekeeping websites (known as shelter publishing, in case you didn't know) include baking as part of their content. That is how I write Urban Home Blog not just from an organizational point of view but because it is my point of view as a homekeeper. Baking is as much a part of everything I do in the home as is anything else. I bake cakes for special occasions, cookies at Christmas, pies if the fruit looks good enough to place it under a crust. That's how I live it, so that's how I write it.
Anyone who's been a guest in my home either through my blog or in person divines that much of my homekeeping aesthetic comes from my grandmother. This is as true at the dessert board as it is in all other areas. To me, an old-fashioned dessert is always the most special and the most satisfying, and I encounter very little argument about it. People always appreciate a dessert that came out of Grandma's kitchen. Among visitors to my urban home, my grandmother's spice cake is among the most requested recipes. Likewise her banana cream pie. But old fashioned desserts rule at Urban Home, from a bowl of fluffy banana pudding to one of intensely flavored peach ice cream, from a pan of good ol' brownies to a batch of peanut butter cookies.
One serves dessert because it's appropriate to the occasion or just because one feels like it. I do appreciate showy desserts. One of the first dessert recipes I published was one for pumpkin cheesecake; this was because it was among the first fancy-pants desserts I mastered. We've also made batches of fussy maple creams, jewel like fruitcake biscotti, foamy divinity. We've welcomed spring with a tray of show-stopping baklava, Valentine's Day with an aphrodisial panna cotta and a decadent chocolate hazelnut tart, and the winter holidays with the treat of toffee bars. And we've taken our brandy with one of the most indulgent desserts of all: pears and stilton.
We've celebrated California cooking with key local ingredients like strawberries and dates. But then a quick bread is a great dessert; try a lemony pound cake or a festive cranberry-walnut bread. If we're serving brunch we get to start the day with dessert; try pear coffee cake. And while we're cooking with fresh local ingredients, how about we end our meal, and our column, with a freshly sliced apricot bar, a scoop of green tea ice cream, or the original dessert: a bowl of fresh fruit salad.
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