Van Gelder Dutch Baby

A warm souffle-style soft thick pan-cake, made from simple ingredients you probably have in your cupboard already. Perfect for a quick and easy meal or snack when you don’t feel like shopping. I make these for company or just because. They are so easy, delicious and lovely to look at, they are a completely satisfying snack, breakfast or dessert anytime. Also extremely versatile! I sometimes leave out the sugar and lemon and add a teaspoon of savory herbs and salt, then add grated cheese and sausage as a topping/filling at the end for a more hearty breakfast. My recipe is for a 12″ skillet, if you use a regular 8″ or 9″ pie pan, reduce servings to 6 above (or just cut recipe to 3/4).

Belgian Cinnamon Cookies

We fell in love with these cookies when our friend Patricia at La Chatte Gitane (see www.lachattegitane.blogspot.com for her recipes) baked a batch for us. They are so soft and full of cinnamon taste. When I finally got the chance to make them for myself, I couldn’t find dark brown sugar so had to use cane sugar instead. This worked out pretty well, but I would recommend sticking with the muscovado sugar if you can find it. I also left out the almonds as we just didn’t have any in the house but they do make the cookies look extra special. Reduce the cooking time if you are baking these in a fan oven. The last thing you want to do is overcook them because then they’ll lose their charming softness.

Buche De Noel / Yule Log Cake

A traditional dessert served during the Christmas holidays in France, Belgium, Quebec, Lebanon and several other Christian-populated francophone countries as well as in the UK. As the name indicates, the cake is generally prepared, presented, and garnished so as to look like a log ready for the fire. The traditional bûche is made from a Génoise or other sponge cake, generally baked in a large, shallow Swiss roll pan, frosted, rolled to form a cylinder, and frosted again on the outside. The most common combination is a basic yellow sponge cake, frosted and filled with chocolate buttercream; however, many variations on the traditional recipe exist, possibly including chocolate cakes, ganache and espresso or otherwise-flavored frostings and fillings. Bûches are often served with a portion of one end of the cake cut off and set on top of the cake or protruding from its side to resemble a chopped off branch, and bark-like texture is often produced in the buttercream for further realism. These cakes are often decorated with powdered sugar to resemble snow, tree branches, fresh berries, and mushrooms made of meringue.

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