I like to bake and make desserts in my spare time. This is a journal of my experiments.
We’ve been getting weekly deliveries of rhubarb in our weekly produce box. The usual baked crisps we make with strawberries have been a hit, and I even tried making a syrup to mix into sparkling water. But this ice cream really stood out.
Our last few mangoes from Iqbal Foods were past their prime, so I had to act fast. I combined the mushy insides from the remaining fruit with an unsweetened Kesar puree that I found at the supermarket. With a few other ingredients stirred in, I was able to make a classic Hong Kong dim sum dessert.
A big birthday bash for a milestone anniversary: my wife and her BFF were planning a joint party earlier this year. I happened to read this article about a dinner party concept where guests don’t initially introduce themselves, but just collaborate to make a meal. That sparked the idea to have an epic cooking gathering at our house.
A conversation at The Good Egg, a wonderful cookbook store in Kensington Market in Toronto, led me to learn that Samin Nosrat’s first book, Salt Fat Acid Heat has a granola recipe. I was in the store picking up some books about candied fruit, unusual cookies, and creative cakes. At the cashier’s desk, the topic of granola somehow came up!
For this year’s Passover meals, we were in Montreal, and I made two different desserts ahead of time while in Toronto. One was an old favourite based on a Claudia Roden recipe involving boiling a whole orange. But this time, I used a mix of navel orange, clementine, and frozen yuzu peel. For night two, I tried something new.
Sometimes, we end up with too much milk that has to be used. What to do? Well, we’ve enjoyed making our own condensed milk, especially a variation that my daughter loves for making a quick, hot drink.
For a bake sale at my daughter’s school, I went with one tried-and-true item, marbled tahini cookies, and also made something new, a more sophisticated variation on Key lime bars.
I came across this stunning dessert on the America’s Test Kitchen website, and it was definitely calling to me. After a shopping trip at Sanko, I was all set to go.
A friend brought over some mishloach manot containing, among other things, hamantaschen, the traditional cookie for Purim. This inspired me to look for something for my daughter and I to make also.
As part of the 2025 NYT Cookie Week, we mentally bookmarked this brownie. Personally, I have a take-it-or-leave-it attitude to them: they’re often very one-dimensional. But the thought of a condensed milk and cream cheese swirl was irresistible.