Easy Sweets

The fall bake sale was in twelve hours and I’d completely forgotten. Everyone else would be bringing elaborate layer cakes with buttercream rosettes, perfectly piped … Read more

The neighborhood fall potluck was in six hours and I’d completely forgotten. Everyone else would be bringing their signature dishes—that famous pecan pie from the … Read more

My sister swore she hated pumpkin bread. For years. Every fall, she’d make a little face whenever I mentioned it, claiming it was too dense, … Read more

I was standing in the produce aisle last Tuesday, staring at a bin of Honeycrisp apples, when a woman next to me dropped a bag … Read more

By the third time I made this bark in a single week, I knew I had something special. Not because it was fancy — it’s … Read more

It was just past midnight on a drizzly October night, and I was alone in my kitchen with a bowl of egg whites that needed … Read more

My neighbor Pat wasn’t trying to impress anyone. I’d stopped by to borrow a ladder—ours had a wobbly leg—and the smell hit me before I … Read more

There used to be a tiny bakery tucked between a laundromat and a used bookstore on the corner of Elm and 4th called “The Gilded … Read more

I figured the most important part of making Pan de Muerto was getting the dough to rise perfectly—light and airy, just like the bakeries in … Read more

This was supposed to be a pumpkin pie. I had the can of pumpkin, the evaporated milk, the whole production planned out for a friend’s … Read more