Recipes

Apple strudel consists of a pastry jacket with an apple filling inside. The filling is made of apples, sugar, cinnamon, and raisins.

Black Forest Gâteau, a chocolate cake, Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte, made in Bavaria during the summer. The fame of this rich gateau has risen since the early years of the 20th century. It consists of dark chocolate sponge layered with sweetened whipped cream and sour black Schmidt cherries. The cherries are macerated in kirsch.

Warm, gooey, rich and luscious- need I say more?

Traditional Rice Treat with a flavorful layer of California Raisins.

Coconut Ice is also known in Puerto Rico as Dulce de Coco and not only eaten in England but also South Africa, Mexico, and Argentina. This is a delicious and attractive candy snack for any coconut lover. While there are many ways of making this candy, here is my simple version of "Coconut Ice".

Even though the cake may not look done, pull it from the oven when an instant-read thermometer registers 140 degrees. It will continue to firm up as it cools. If you use a 9-inch spring form pan instead of the preferred 8-inch, reduce the baking time to 18 to 20 minutes. We like the pure flavor of chocolate. However, coffee or liqueur (choose something that tastes like nuts, coffee, or oranges) can be added if desired. In any case, choose a high-quality chocolate that you enjoy eating out of hand.

A sweet seduction of sugared pancakes and strawberry sauce.

This innovative dessert will increase sales and variety on any dessert menu and shows another creative way to use baking powder.

Kourabiedes are traditional Greek shortbread cookies coated with powdered sugar. This is one of the two kinds of confection that are generally consumed in high quantities in Greece during the holiday season (the other is melomacarona), but they are made for all festive occasions. As a quick lesson in Greek, "kourabiedes" (pronounced "kou-ra-bi-ETH-es") is the plural of the word "kourabies" (kou-ra-bi-ES). Round "thumb print" cookies and crescent shapes are commonly known.

Leche frito (literally fried milk) is a Spanish sweet typical of northern Spain. It is made by cooking flour with milk and sugar until it thickens to a firm dough which is then portioned, fried and served with a glaze.

Forget about an occasional dessert, this flan will boost everybody's satisfaction. With around 40 million Hispanic people living in North America, whom cannot afford to offer at least one Mexican dessert or baked good? Many Hispanic food items have become mainstream. Some of them, however, have been Americanized. Here is an authentic Mexican/Latin American dessert, easy to prepare, which has its proof in the "pudding".

A South African specialty with a twist. Properly the most well known dessert in the “Afrikaner Kombuis” is the “Melktert” or Milktart. African cuisine has remained almost unknown. Try this easy to make dessert pie, good for any “great finale."

Who doesn’t love spaghetti? But for dessert? A small shift in my paradigms made this happened. Here was the idea: By pushing the ice cream through the potato ricer, the ice cream gets aerated, developing a smoother mouth feel. The mint resembles the herbs in the marinara sauce and the grated white chocolate the parmesan cheese, respectively. By adding a couple drops of red food coloring to the pineapple sauce, it turned into marinara sauce.

Tres Leches means three milks and gets its name from the three different kinds of milk added to finish the cake. It is a popular dessert in many Latin American countries. Pastel Tres Leches (“three-milk cake”) appeared in Mexico perhaps a generation ago. It swept through the social scene and soon became the thing to serve at fancy parties. A cake soaked in three kinds of milk and most often topped with billows of meringue, sweetened heavy whipping cream, fresh fruit, or a combination thereof. It is sweet and insanely rich. Nobody knows where this confection came from. Mexican cooking authority Maria Dolores Torres Yzabal (the co-author of The Mexican Gourmet cookbook) thinks it might have originated in a Mexico City bakery whose name is now lost. In her cookbook “The Taste of Mexico,” Patricia Quintana says that it first appeared in the state of Sinaloa, Mexico. To complicate matters further, Guatemalans and Nicaraguans swear the cake is native to their countries. One pet theory is that it came from a promotional recipe once distributed in Latin America, perhaps on cans of evaporated milk. This is believed because it was thought that locally produced milk was not as safe or as good as canned milk, a luxury item. While there are many versions out there, the following formula is an authentic version from my Mexican co-worker Hector Martinez.