Dessert Recipes

This was supposed to be a fancy French-style strawberry sorbet. I had the egg yolks separated, the simple syrup cooling, and my brand-new ice cream … Read more

My nephew Leo asked why I couldn’t just use a box of cake mix for the cookies we were making. I started to explain why … Read more

The Friendsgiving potluck was in twelve hours and I’d completely forgotten. Everyone else would be bringing elaborate casseroles, slow-roasted turkeys, and those fancy charcuterie boards … Read more

My older brother, Mark, had claimed to hate birthday cake for about fifteen years. Fifteen years of watching him politely push slices around his plate … Read more

I was standing in the frozen foods aisle last Tuesday, staring at the rows of premium ice cream tubs, when a woman next to me … Read more

There used to be this little bakery tucked away on a side street in Portland, Oregon—the kind of place with mismatched chairs and a chalkboard … Read more

I was standing in the checkout line at our local hardware store—honestly, I was just there for a new garden hose—when the cashier, a woman … Read more

My sister swore she hated chocolate chip cookies. For years. The woman would stand at a bakery counter and order a plain sugar cookie while … Read more

The neighborhood pie contest was in three hours and I’d completely forgotten. Everyone else would be bringing their grandmother’s legendary lattice-topped apple masterpiece or that … Read more

I was standing in the middle of a hardware store aisle last Tuesday—looking for a new showerhead, of all things—when a woman walked past me … Read more