Tag Archives: holiday dessert recipe

Make It A Miso & Nutmeg Custard Pie Kind of Holiday

Not your ordinary custard pie.
Not your ordinary custard pie.

Me and custard pies go way back.

Back to when I was a tot and my dad would tote home pink boxes of pale yellow custard pies from San Francisco’s Chinatown.

And back to when my older brother started a family of his own and began baking them for his signature Thanksgiving Day dessert.

But I’d never had one that had a sneaky smidge of white miso in it.

Until now.

And boy, is it fabulous.

“Miso & Nutmeg Custard Pie” takes that homespun dessert — and gives it a little more oomph.

The recipe is from the new “I’ll Bring Dessert” cookbook (Hardie Grant), of which I received a review copy. It’s by Benjamina Ebuehi, a recipe developer and food stylist based in London.

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Chocolate-Almond Pear Tart

Treat yourself to this beautiful chocolate-almond-pear tart. You deserve it.
Treat yourself to this beautiful chocolate-almond-pear tart. You deserve it.

Who needs one last blowout, showstopping dessert for the year?

We all do.

I mean, it has been that kind of year, right?

But deep, dark chocolate combined with fresh, juicy, sweet pears will set just about anything right.

“Chocolate-Almond Pear Tart” is from Pastry Chef Kristen Hall of Bandit Patisserie in Birmingham, AL. The recipe was published in the Sept. 14, 2021 issue of Bon Appetit magazine.

Red Anjou pears are fanned over the top of this tart.
Red Anjou pears are fanned over the top of this tart

With pear slices fanned out just so over the top, a rim of sliced almonds, and a light dusting of powdered sugar, it’s a beaut, isn’t it?

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Rosemary Pear Pie (And It’s Gluten-Free)

Poached pears worthy of your holiday table.

Poached pears worthy of your holiday table.

 

A friend of mine once rolled her eyes at her then-boyfriend for ordering poached pears for dessert at a restaurant.

In her mind, she couldn’t fathom why one would waste perfectly good dessert calories on simple, cooked pears, of all things.

I can see her point. After all, if you’re going to venture out to a white-tablecloth restaurant for dinner, you want to live it up. You want to eat with abandon, and finish it off with decadence. You want chocolate. You want butter. You want fluffs of cream, ganache and mousse — preferably in a take-your-breath-away form.

Pears don’t immediately muster that kind of response.

But transfer them to the finale of a comforting, home-cooked dinner, and I think even my friend would have a hard time passing them up.

Juicy, sweet, wine-y pears fanned out across a rustic tart that’s put out in the center of the table is just the type of dessert made for entertaining at home.

That’s what you’ll get with “Rosemary Pear Pie” from the new cookbook, “Home Baked” (Abrams), of which I received a review copy. It’s by Yvette Van Boven, a food stylist and recipe writer in Amsterdam.

Home Baked Book

The book is filled with more than 150 recipes for sweet and savory goodies such as “Poppy Seed Popovers,” “Verbena Cake with Fresh Fruit & Verbena Gin Syrup,” and “My Favorite Chili with A Thousand Beans, Chorizo, Chocolate, and Corn Bread.”

One glance at this pear pie in the book and I was enthralled. Who wouldn’t be with the pears arranged just so prettily atop a simple, smooth, custardy filling?

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