Fruit Desserts Archives - Kitchen Epiphanies

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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Plum Mascarpone Tart

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This Plum Mascarpone Tart continues a family dessert tradition, incorporating spectacular dark plums from the farmers’ market and pairing them with luscious mascarpone cheese. Each year, as a child at summer’s end, my Aunt Hanna made the best plum tart. She prepared it from memory, recalling happier times when she baked plum tarts as a

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Light Brandied Fruitcake

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The holiday season is fast approaching, and baking is on my mind. This year, I will avoid a December baking crisis and follow my mother-in-law’s practice of spreading holiday baking over two months, baking those items that can be preserved or frozen before Thanksgiving and baking more delicate cookies and tarts in December. I am

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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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Apple Babka or Zapikanka or Sharlotka? – Ukrainian Apple Cake

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This post presents a delectable apple and bread dessert known by various names. I call it Apple Babka, but similar recipes also are called Apple Zapikanka (pudding) or Apple Sharlotka (charlotte). The names often are confused because the recipes include similar ingredients: apples, bread or flour, butter, sugar and some also add eggs and/or milk.

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Cherry Almond Solozhenik — a Rustic Ukrainian Dessert

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This Cherry Almond Solozhenik (вишнево- міґдаловий соложеник in Ukrainian) is a vintage rustic dessert now regaining popularity as Ukrainian cooks highlight their culinary traditions and practices, refuting Russia’s repeated declarations that Ukraine is an invented country, and has no distinctive ethnic culture or traditions. The name “solozhenik” applies to a range of traditional Ukrainian sweets.

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Cherry Tart, Ukrainian Style — Vyshnevyi Pliatsok

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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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Strawberry Corncake with Labneh and Cream

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This Strawberry Corncake with Labneh and Cream is my re-creation of a menu description I imagined but never tasted. On a recent trip to Louisiana, the New Orleans Museum of Art was advertising a fundraiser in City Park with food catered by Pat White, a local chef. The inspiring four-course dinner menu was filled with

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Deep-dish Peach Pie with a Sweet Shortcrust

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When I inhaled the aroma of perfect summer peaches at the local market last week, I knew I had to bake this Deep-dish Peach Pie in honor of my mother-in-law Solveig (Solie) Johnson. She baked the best pies. On one of my early trips to the Pacific Northwest as a young bride, Solie introduced me

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Strawberry Charlotte Russe

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We didn’t entertain much during the three years I studied law, but reading recipes provided a needed break from legal treatises and fueled fantasies about when and how I would prepare them. I was a pent-up hostess and when the last semester was ending, I invited friends for dinner I planned in my mind for

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