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Poppy Seed Coconut Cherry Cake –A five-layer plyatsok from Ukraine

Leave a Comment / Cakes, Cookies, Bars & Brownies, Custards, Desserts, Dining & Travel, Fruit Desserts, Jams, Jellies & Preserves, pastry, Tarts and Pies, Ukraine /

This elegant Poppy Seed Coconut Cherry Cake is a perfect holiday dessert for a large gathering. Poppy seed and coconut layers filled with cherry-flavored pastry cream and cherries, topped with chocolate glaze, are worthy of celebration. This creation is based on plyatsok, a sweet pastry beloved in Western Ukraine.  What is a plyatsok? Plyatsok (plyatsky, […]

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Alfajores,  Argentina’s Most Popular Cookies

Leave a Comment / Argentina, Cookies, Bars & Brownies, Desserts, Dining & Travel, pastry /

On a recent trip to Argentina, I expected to eat large portions of meat and drink wine at every meal. Still, I was surprised by the culinary diversity offered in restaurants, which dispelled the all-meat stereotype of Argentinian cuisine.  Beef and other meats, of course, are on all menus, but so is seafood, an amazing

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Medovi Pryanyky – Ukrainian Honey Spice Cookies

Leave a Comment / Cookies, Bars & Brownies, Desserts, Dining & Travel, pastry, Ukraine /

These Medovi Pryanyky–honey spice cookies — have been an integral part of Ukrainian holiday traditions for centuries.  Also called medianyky, medivnychky and medovyky, these names stem from the Ukrainian word for honey, med, meaning “made from honey” and announce that the dough contains honey, which makes sweet, long-lasting, easy-to-shape cookies. The word pryanyky (plural, pryanyk

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No-bake Mocha Almond Waffle Torte –Pischinger, Andruty or Wafer?

Leave a Comment / Cakes, Cookies, Bars & Brownies, Desserts, Dining & Travel, Jams, Jellies & Preserves, Ukraine /

This Mocha Almond Waffle Torte is made with thin, waffled-wheat-flour wafers.  Ukrainian cooks layer these versatile wafers, round or square, with an assortment of buttercream fillings, jams and sometimes almond or other nut pastes pressed together as a no-bake dessert.   Some versions are served as a torte; others are cut into bars as cookies.   I

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Cherry Tart, Ukrainian Style — Vyshnevyi Pliatsok

Leave a Comment / Cakes, Cookies, Bars & Brownies, Desserts, Dining & Travel, Fruit Desserts, Tarts and Pies, Ukraine /

  This Cherry Tart, Ukrainian Style (vyshnevyi pliatsok – вишневий пляцок) is a popular summer dessert in Ukraine where the cherry season runs from June through July.  The Ukrainian word pliatsok describes a flat pastry, sweet or savory.  The English word tart is the closest translation since the finished product more closely resembles thin European

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Mazurok — Lemon Glazed Almond Raisin Cake

Leave a Comment / Cakes, Cookies, Bars & Brownies, Desserts, Tarts and Pies, Ukraine /

This Mazurok — Lemon Glazed Almond Raisin Cake is a pastry baked just before Easter in Ukraine.  It is one of several sweet treats often included on the Easter table. We are a week away from Orthodox Easter, usually the most joyous and uplifting holiday of light and resurrection, but for many Ukrainian refugees this

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