coming soon - strawberries and cream scones

Scones are dry, hard, and tough to eat. But Strawberries and Cream Scones are fluffy, creamy, berry-y and delicious. They're also really quick and easy to make. 

the best lemon bars in the world - a classic perfected

Lemon Bars are one of those classic desserts you can find in about any of the supermarkets these days. What's different about my lemon bars is they actually taste good. I know, surprising (not the part about my lemon bars tasting good, the part about lemon bars tasting good at all). Sweet without being cloyingly so, buttery without being too rich, and certainly not dense. If I were to use one word to describe these lemon bars it would be, perfect. The dilemma chefs have always had when making lemon bars, was getting a firm enough top, without sacrificing a crispy bottom. With this recipe you won't have to give up any of that. This is the perfect summer dessert, gift, or picnic item for your next special occasion (or just for everyday eating). It's absolute perfection in a bar, so let's get started (before I go off on one of my tangents). By the way, did I tell you that I finally got a twitter account. @chefchowblog #awesome #madcookingskills #i'mnotmadatyou #i'msorry #don'tcry #nowyou'remakingmecry. Why didn't you stop me!

Like many of our recipes we'll start with the butter. You want to cut the butter into small chunks and put it on a plate in the freezer to harden. Whenever you're baking, often times the temperature of your butter will dictate the success of whatever you're making. Recipes that call for melted butter (i.e. cookies) are intended to have a chewy outcome. Desserts that require the butter to be cold (i.e. pies, pastries) mean the end product will one of these three, crispy, crunchy, or flaky (it could even be all three, oh my). The more you chow.

raspberry jam swirled buns - a surprising experimental success!

Imagine splicing one of these in half and spreading warm butter on its toasty side. Actually, that's a good idea, and it's breakfast, hold on one second...

okay I'm back. If there are any typos it's because I have a roll in my left hand. I love sweet rolls, in fact before this blog I used to make all types of bread, baguettes, brioche, pita (I'll try to put out more yeast based recipes in the future). But I think my favorite in terms of the all important simplicity to reward ratio has to be the humble roll. Not only are these easy to make, but everyone craves over these. Unlike the store bought rolls which are dense and cakey, my buns are perfect - pun intended. These are fluffy, airy, full of flavor, and most of all you'll look like you spent hours to make these. Well actually you did but it's not a lot of work just waiting, I'll get to that below. 

candied lemon slices - more like lemon rings

These days the shelves at the stores are inundated with rows and rows of processed overly sweet crap. You want to be able to feed your family delicious sweets that you know they'll love, but more than that, you know what's in them. That's why these Candied Lemon Slices are exactly what you've been waiting for. Well, they started out as slices but turned into rings. Later I'll show you how you can avoid this. They're naturally sweet, chewy, and you can be sure that they taste like the real deal because they are the real deal. Not only will the kids love these, but you'll love them too because they are just so easy to put together. You literally only need sugar, water, and a couple lemons. Heck, it's even easier than going to the store to buy them. So let's get started. 

First you need to obtain some lemons, obviously. Try to pick lemons that are round so all of your slices turn out the same. Although it may seem like common sense, you should also use lemons that have no blemishes or dried parts because remember we'll be eating the rinds as well. Rinse your lemons thoroughly and using a very sharp knife, cut an inch off both ends. 

lemon blueberry ricotta pound cake

I made this on Thursday and I s#!t you not when I woke up the next day, the plate was in the sink and all was left were crumbs. The lemon is so fresh and fragrant, being so abundant in this peak lemon picking season. The blueberries are also perfect, juicy and plump studded throughout this moist cake. And we'll talk about this more down below but the ricotta cheese gives this cake such a moistness, which also lets us cut on the butter. Moist, tasty, and low-fat, what more could you ask for. 

Ah, lemon, blueberry, and ricotta, such a classic flavor combination and it works beautifully in this cake. But you may be thinking, cheese in a dessert? Well do you like cannolis? Of course you do, and you can thank the italians for figuring out that ricotta is the secret to creamy, rich, delicious desserts.