Star Anise Rum Raisin Bread Pudding

This easy elegant pudding is our favorite for a mid morning treat!  Usually we'll make it on a relaxed kinda day when we can all sleep in a bit (a weekend day!)  Once we get up it's the quickest and easiest thing to mix up and slip this pudding into the the oven for a midmorning scrummy and most comforting sweet treat.  This Star Anise Rum Raisin Bread Pudding is golden crispy on the top, soft and creamy on the inside, dotted with plump rummy raisins, and touched with just a hint of sweet and licoricey star anise.  So yummilicious...

Beautiful Baklava

Picture this, dear readers.  Nutty aromatic roasted nuts soaked in sweet scented syrup enveloped in devastatingly crispy thin as a whisper pastry layers.  Sound enticing?   This is Baklava!

This baked treat has a history going all the way back to ancient Assyrians of Mesopotamia in 8th century BC, around 2800 years ago!  From then and there the idea of the baklava has spread, appearing in different permutations as a dessert in many cultures throughout in Asia and Europe.  

Delicately crisp layers of phyllo dough packed with roasty chopped nuts, all clung together through the application of a thick sweet scented syrup, a tray of golden baked Baklava is a beauteous thing to bring to a party, sure to get a lot of wows and yummies!  I’ve wanted to make this for a while now but hesitated, thinking that it looked kinda complicated.  Well it’s true, it does look complicated and fancy but it’s actually quite easy to make!  And ever so impressive to show off and munch on after!

Pistachio Almond Biscotti

Tis the season...for cookies!  One of my absolute favorites is this elegant Italian Pistachio Almond Biscotti cookie studded with nuggets of almonds and pistachio making for a subtly sweet, nutty, and oh so satisfying flavor.  The Italian word 'biscotti' means 'twice cooked', a baking method that creates dense, crunchy textured cookies that are perfect for slow yummy nibbling or for dunking into a hot coffee.  These biscotti are not only super yummilicious but also gorgeous to look at with their flecks of pistachio green.  Just the thing to add to a cookie box!