Nutella Chocolate Chip Pie

Last month, my home community had a "childhood favorites" potluck. The house was filled with mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese with cut-up hot dogs, and Nutella.

Now, I never liked Nutella as a child. We were strictly a peanut butter family, but this "weird" brown spread showed up at friends' houses after school. I thought it was gross.

Thankfully, as I grew up, I came around to this delicious hazelnut chocolate spread. And, even though I didn't like it as a kid, I still deemed a Nutella dessert appropriate for the theme "childhood favorites." I am certain I was the anomaly.

So, here we have Nutella Chocolate Chip Pie. This cream cheese-based pie has a buttery chocolate chip cookie and hazelnut crust and is topped with fresh whipped cream. It's good. It's really good. And I'd like to think that even my 8-year-old self wouldn't have been able to resist it.

Maple Banana Nut Muffins

I know that the last post I did was on both breakfast and my love of real maple syrup. But I am a creature of habit. I have an obsessive personality (I am obsessed with a good gluten-free breakfast pastry. I am obsessed with good maple syrup). And this is my blog. But, repetitive nature or not, this recipe is pretty kick-butt.

Packed with butter, maple syrup, pecans, and bananas, these muffins are wonderfully sweet and comforting. With warmer days fast approaching, I suggest you soak up the few rainy April days that remain with these comforting muffins and a good cup of coffee :)

Buckwheat Pancakes (for real maple syrup lovers only)

A couple of months ago, I took a last minute trip home to New York. The weekend was full but we managed to find time on a dreary Sunday morning to go on a road-trip for pancakes . . . an hour-long road-trip.

Now, if you think it sounds absurd to drive an hour for some pancakes, you are not alone. This is what I thought as we drove through the smallest, most desolate towns you can imagine. But people don't drive an hour and wait hours more in line for just any pancakes with just any syrup.

We New Yorkers take our syrup seriously. Vermont gets all of the credit for real maple syrup, but, in my totally-biased opinion, New York maple syrup is even better. Since you can't get in in Utah, my wonderful mother regularly mails me bottles of it to adorn my homemade pancakes and waffles.

Praline Pecans

With these last little (unwelcome) bouts of winter-y weather in the beginning of Spring this year, I've been yearning for anything that reminds me of warmer weather. I grumpily took the dog for walks, stomping on freshly laid snow and cursing myself for getting a pedicure and pulling out my Summer footwear. And then I remembered! Hidden behind way too many jars of honey, and some jams that I had canned, was the final jar of summer peaches, canned at the peak of perfection!

I waffled for awhile, wondering if it was too far from peach season and if I'd be sad if I didn't have any next month by opening them now. But I had to. And, in spite of the cold weather, I drove to the store and bought some of my favorite vanilla bean ice cream--the perfect pairing to Summer peaches. But something else was needed (texturally) to add to this pairing, and thus I decided to make praline pecans.

Dangerously delicious eaten by the handful, these pecans are even better atop some vanilla bean ice cream and fruit. Enjoy :)

Gluten-Free Sugar Cookies!

 I did some math today. I figured out that in the two-and-a-half years that I've worked at the bakery, I've mixed, rolled, and cut-out an estimated 10,000 pounds of sugar cookie dough. And I've frosted even more than that. 10,000 POUNDS!! It is because of this absurdity that I spent those two-and-a-half years baking just about every pastry possible after work except sugar cookies.

Browned Butter Vanilla Bean Cake with Butterscotch Frosting

This cake is so good that I can't even talk about it.

OK, I'll talk about it so that you guys can feel the same way about it that I do.

You see that box of butterscotch chips in the picture below here? That box, full of 30 pounds of butterscotch chips, was given to me a few months back by my boss, who accidentally ordered much MUCH more than we needed at the bakery. In that time, I've been thinking of creative ways to use them. It takes a lot of brainstorming to use up 30 pounds of butterscotch chips. And, to be quite honest, nothing I've made has impressed me much . . . until now.

White Chocolate Raspberry Crepe Cake

Happy Shrove Tuesday! Today is the day that people eat some of the things they will be giving up for the next 40 days that make up the lenten season. And a lot of people eat pancakes for dinner.

Crepes are the very thin cousin of pancakes and what could be a better way to celebrate the start of lenten season, than making them into a cake?

This cake is super light and satisfying, composed of soft crepes between layers of sweet white chocolate mousse and raspberry jam. It is even better eaten the next day (really, eat it for breakfast), after the crepes have soaked up a bit of the mousse and the jam and the flavors are all wonderfully blended together.

In addition to it being a delightful end to Shrove Tuesday, this cake is also wonderful for Valentine's Day. It's a much lighter alternative to the rich and fudgy desserts that usually accompany the holiday (not that there's anything wrong with these), so it can be eaten for breakfast and dessert. What could be more lovely than that?