Kitchen Epiphanies

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

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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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Melopita –Greek Honey Cheesecake in Phyllo-Nut Crust

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Easter is cheesecake time at our house.  I prepare Ukrainian cheese desserts for the holiday each year and experiment with cheesecake recipes from other cuisines. This year, I am adding melopita to my dessert repertoire. Its Greek name, comprised of two words – mela, which means honey, and pita, which means pie, implies that it

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Pumpkin Noodle Babka or Kugel

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This Pumpkin Noodle Babka is my recreation of a fall dish Babunia, my Ukrainian maternal grandmother Julianna Bulawka, improvised for Didunio, my grandfather Vasyl Bulawka.  It unites sweet cheese, sour cream custard with egg noodles and pumpkin, Ukraine’s favorite fall ingredient, in a noodle bake (she called harbuzova babka* or kugel (гарбузова бабка or куґель)

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Portokalopita – Greek Orange Cake

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At the end of a recent seafood dinner in Washington, my dining companions and I were presented with a splendid arrangement of Greek desserts.  The assortment was familiar:  baklava —caramelized phyllo pastry, filled with chopped nuts, and sweetened with syrup or honey, ekmek kataifi –crispy, golden shredded phyllo with creamy custard, soaked in lemon scented

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Rhubarb Tart with Crème Anglaise

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When I was a kid, rhubarb dishes appeared on our family menu each May, confirming unequivocally that spring had finally arrived. Seeing a basket of bright red rhubarb at the local market enticed me to try this Rhubarb Tart with Crème Anglaise recipe that I’ve saved just for this occasion. Rhubarb is a perennial plant

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Pistachio Napoleon Torte – a Twist on a Ukrainian Classic

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This Pistachio Napoleon Torte is my twist on the traditional Ukrainian Napoleon. In my childhood, Napoleon Torte was the epitome of a fancy dessert made only for special occasions by my aunt Titka Maria or Mama. Years later, when I began working in Ukraine, I learned this torte was adored by other Ukrainians and prepared

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Strawberry-glazed Rhubarb Yogurt Cheesecake

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The annual appearance of firm red and green rhubarb stalks in farmers’ markets heralds that winter is finally over. Knowing rhubarb season is fleeting, I usually buy enough to fill my baking and cooking cravings.  This year, it’s time for a Strawberry-glazed Rhubarb Yogurt Cheesecake. My affinity for rhubarb started early.  In our first small

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Cranberry Cream Tart

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I created this Cranberry Cream Tart to highlight cranberries, an underutilized fruit which plays a secondary role to savory dishes and rarely in desserts.  Since learning about the importance of wild cranberries to the diet of Native Americans in my third-grade lesson on the first Thanksgiving and their use by Pilgrims as a ubiquitous condiment,

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