Candy and Confections

Espresso Chocolate Truffles

November 24, 2019

Elizabeth David, writing her magisterially grumpy Elizabeth David’s Christmas, tackles edible gifting with her usual verve, writing: Those bottles of indeterminate sherry and port, Christmas puddings and tins of tea and fancy biscuits are survivals from the days when such things were distributed by Ladies Bountiful to old retainers, retired nannies…

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Halvah Brownies

February 10, 2019

Every night after dinner I ask John what he wants for dessert. And every night, he asks if we have any brownies. By brownies he means: do we have any home-baked brownies? Specifically, David Lebovitz’s recipe for Dave And Kate’s Remarkable Brownies? Fortunately, the recipe requires little by way of skill…

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Apologies for the delays between posts. Until last month, I managed a long-term case of patellar bursitis with regular cortisone injections. My doctor warned these shots would eventually become refactory. Eventually has arrived. It means delays between posts. — Let’s talk about cherries. They are in season, and of course,…

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After years of loathing white chocolate, I realized the trouble lay not with the ingredient itself, but with the disconnect between expectation and reality. Once I stopped expected white chocolate to taste like the stuff that with geographical pedigrees and percentage points, I stopped loathing it. A parable for hard-won…

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