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Category Archives: Desserts/Sweet Things

A slice of zucchini bread lies next to the rest of the loaf, all resting on a checkerboard wooden cutting block, which itself contrasts with the blonde wood counter and a bright green painted wall.

Super-rich zucchini bread

September 2, 2018by Mike Bierschenk 5 Comments

This is, by far, the densest zucchini bread I’ve ever made: it’s chock-a-block with fruit and nuts, almost like a fruitcake in texture. It’s also delicious, and I’m super happy to have stumbled into it.

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Breakfast, Desserts/Sweet Things
A slice of pepper-ginger pound cake sits on a small plate, topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a light yellow cascade of pawpaw puree. Two pawpaw seeds sit on the plate as garnish.

Pepper-ginger pound cake with a pawpaw puree

September 28, 2017by Mike Bierschenk 3 Comments

A great example of flavors combining in exciting, unforeseen ways: spicy cake, delectably sweet pawpaw, and simple vanilla ice cream come together in a harmonious dessert.

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Desserts/Sweet Things
Rows of pale pink pussyhat cookies (blood orange glazed sugar cookies) line up on a white platter, specks of red and orange zest adorning each one.

Blood orange glazed cookies for the Women’s March

January 25, 2017by Mike Bierschenk 3 Comments

Inspired both by a friend’s recipe and by the Women’s March on Washington, these vegan cookies are the real deal; rich and sweet and toothsome, with a tart, sweet cap of simple citrus glaze.

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Desserts/Sweet Things, Veg*n or veg*n-possible
In focus in the foreground, a tawny brown curried pumpkin mini-muffin, split and spread with cream cheese frosting in the middle. Behind it, out of focus, part of a mound of those muffins on a turquoise enamel plate.

Curried pumpkin mini-muffins with cream cheese frosting

November 21, 2016by Mike Bierschenk Leave a comment

These little gems are basically everything I want to eat in the fall, all packed into a tiny two-bite package: pumpkin, curry, coconut, cream cheese frosting — I tell you what.

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Desserts/Sweet Things
Peach-blueberry cobbler with a spiced biscuit crust, one perfect portion spooned onto a white, blue-bordered plate. The blueberry-stained peaches peek out from under a golden crust, and a few drops of deep magenta juice spot the plate.

Peach-blueberry cobbler with a spiced biscuit crust

September 2, 2016by Mike Bierschenk 4 Comments

A fitting way to celebrate late summer: sweet peaches and blueberries melded in to a bright magenta filling, topped with sweet spiced biscuits. Great for Labor Day, or just for Thursday.

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Desserts/Sweet Things
A rhubarb buttermilk scone, split in half, rests on a small plate, small pats of butter melting on each upturned face. A pale pink syrup is drizzled over both halves. In the background, we see the rest of the pan of scones, waiting.

Rhubarb buttermilk scones

May 27, 2016by Mike Bierschenk 2 Comments

For breakfast, tea, or midnight snack, these treats pair spring’s earliest fruit with buttery, biscuitlike scone. Quick, easy, and delightful.

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Breakfast, Desserts/Sweet Things

Rum & coffee banana nut bread

March 4, 2016by Mike Bierschenk 4 Comments

This isn’t a light, delicate banana bread: it’s dense with molasses and coffee, packed full of nuts, and redolent of deep, dark rum. A nice broad wedge with a mug of black coffee will keep me going all morning.

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Breakfast, Desserts/Sweet Things
A square of Cola cake sits on a plate dusted with cinnamon and powdered sugar. A forkful has been taken off, and sits on the fork in the foreground.

No-Cola cake

January 28, 2016by Mike Bierschenk 2 Comments

No-Cola cake? What? Simple: this cake tastes like it was made with a commercial cola (e.g. Coke, Pepsi), but without any actual soda at all. It’s culinary sleight of hand: lime + cinnamon + molasses = cola flavor. Dessert magic.

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Desserts/Sweet Things
Pick-me-up peppermint mocha, a closeup on the mound of whipped cream with green and red sprinkles

Pick-me-up peppermint mocha

December 9, 2015by Mike Bierschenk Leave a comment

A quick-fix fancy coffee drink for the days when the world gets to be just the teeniest bit too much.

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Desserts/Sweet Things, Drinks
One pristine Abject apology bar is propped up in the foreground, with others, unfocused behind, and canisters of sugar and flour still further behind.

Abject apology bars (with dates, chocolate chips, pecan, and coconut)

October 13, 2015by Mike Bierschenk Leave a comment

Sticky-sweet dates, rich pecans, crowd-favorite chocolate chips, and fragrant coconut come together to sweeten a co-worker’s soured disposition. Obviously, do your best not to mess up. But if you do? Abject apology bars to the rescue.

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Desserts/Sweet Things

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avocado bacon banana beans broccoli buttermilk cabbage cake cardamom carrot casserole celery cheese chicken chickpeas chiles Chinese chocolate cilantro citrus coconut coffee cookie cranberries easy egg fall ginger grapefruit green beans greens hearty honey jalapeño kale lemon lime Mexican Mexico: The Cookbook noodles nuts oats orange orange juice pasta peaches peas pecan pinto beans potato pumpkin quick quinoa raisins rice sausage scallion seitan simple spinach steel-cut oats summer summer squash sweet potato tacos tahini tex-mex Texas Thanksgiving tomato tortillas turkey walnut winter squash zucchini

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Flickr Photos

Shredded chickenThose peppers are just so redBroccoli MountainAlarmingly giant spoon handleLet’s just pretend that’s a snowscape, not a blown-out car windshield
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All text and photos © Mike Bierschenk, 2014-2016
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