Easy Sweets

The first weekend of November, when the sky goes gray at four in the afternoon and the house gets that particular kind of quiet, I … Read more

“Wait, you can make sourdough taste like pumpkin pie?” My sister-in-law, a self-proclaimed pumpkin spice skeptic, said that the first time she walked into my … Read more

That first whiff of browning butter — the kind that hits you before you even pull the pan off the stove — still takes me … Read more

I want a Neapolitan layer cake right now. Not the ice cream version, though that has its place. I want the real thing—three layers of … Read more

Late July in Georgia, the air so thick you could spoon it, and the only thing I wanted was a bowl of warm, bubbling peach … Read more

That first crackle of butter hitting a hot pan — the sound that promises something good — still takes me straight to my tiny New … Read more

“This tastes like summer in a bowl, but with a little more class,” my neighbor Linda said, taking a second spoonful of the cobbler I’d … Read more

The crackle of that top crust—thin, sugary, shattering against your teeth before giving way to something impossibly soft—that’s the whole point of this banana bread. … Read more

Pulling a baking sheet out of the oven when the butter had already started smoking, realizing I’d forgotten to set a timer. That was the … Read more

My niece showed up at my door the Saturday before Halloween, dressed as a black cat (complete with whiskers drawn on with eyeliner), and announced … Read more