Sugar Savvy

I can’t believe I’ve never made caramel apples before. I’ve eaten them, surely, and their candied cohort, although I prefer the caramel to the faux-lollipop texture of candied apples. With one of my favorite varieties of apples in full swing right now — honeycrisp — I decided it was time to remedy this situation.
Many recipes […]

Some classics shouldn’t be messed with. However, since we’re in September and it’s our National Holiday Month, I decided to take some liberties. We were holding an “Antojito” dinner and besides other things, I was in charge of dessert. I didn’t want anything too complicated, so I decided to go for a Chocolate Millefeuille.
I started […]

There has been a lot of discussion online recently regarding what makes for a great chocolate chip cookie in the aftermath of the NY Times article: “Perfection? Hint: It’s Warm and Has a Secret.”  The article explores the secrets to making a great chocolate chip cookie with various bakers and includes a recipe adapted from […]

Ever since I started writing for Sugar Savvy, I’ve wanted to include something about Mexican candy. I’ve done the eating part, but I haven’t gotten around to the writing. Until now. Just recently, I obtained a recipe for one of my favorite candies: cocada.
The name cocada refers to many different kinds of coconut-based sweets. Depending […]

Summer is a wonderful season for all things sweet, as nature bestows upon us the very best fruits of the year.  But even though it’s ending, it’s not too late to take advantage of what the season has to offer.  Take a trip to your local farmers market one day and you are likely to […]

We’ve already covered one essential cookie — the sugar cookie — but today we move on to the peanut butter cookie. The perfect peanut butter cookie cookie recipe eluded me for a long time. Every attempt was either too dry or too cakey. Then, one day, I checked out the Magnolia Bakery Cookbook from the […]

The cover to “The Farmer’s Wife Comfort Food Cookbook” reminds me of the type of home and family Norman Rockwell made famous, where the wife is in the kitchen, the husband is relaxing with a pipe and the paper, and Johnny and Jane are carelessly playing outside. It’s no wonder that the recipes inside are […]

There are many cupcake devotees out there, but I think my heart will always belong to the cookie. The number of cookie recipes is inexhaustible, but as much as I like to try new things, I often find myself whipping up a batch of the basics. For me, there are seven essential types of cookies: […]

Many of us know that eating chocolate with 70% chocolate solids does the body good, helping the body fight against heart disease and high blood pressure. The particular chocolates I have been using the most lately, unsweetened chocolate and bittersweet chocolate, have led to desserts that have been popular choices by my chocolate eating friends.  In fact, I rarely […]

A while back I had some cocoa financiers that just didn’t go anywhere. I got the idea of using them as breadcrumbs on something, and remembered a cake that was the rage around here about 10 years ago. It went by different names: Diplomat, Choco-flan, Impossible Cake and even Better than Sex Cake. Call it as […]