american desserts

American desserts have been weaving their way into my baking lately. You know the ones I mean. They're the desserts you had as a kid growing up in Ohio... or the ones your grandmother made... or the ones you remember were so luscious at some diner in the next town over. Nothing fancy, nothing elaborate... just simple baking with pure flavors.

I've been baking the past few months at Della Fattoria (http://www.dellafattoria.com/), a bakery-cafe in Petaluma. Besides their incredible bread, which is baked in a wood-fired oven at the family ranch, there is a cafe in town where pastries are made. I've been playing with some all-American classics, like fresh pineapple upside down cake.... it's caramel-y goodness makes it no wonder it's been a favorite ever since Jim Dole found a way to can pineapple in the 1920s!

It was also a little slice of heaven to make butterscotch pudding and homemade oreos....

But the afternoon I pitted a case of spring cherries and made individual cobblers may have been my favorite.

We were planning to serve them for Friday night dinner at the cafe... but the minute they hit the case at lunch time, people started ordering them with homemade vanilla bean ice cream. I think it struck some nostalgic nerve!

Meanwhile... I offered an American Dessert class at Tante Marie Cooking School. Students spent the afternoon baking lemon meringue pie, apple pies, cherry pies, big fat chocolate layer cakes, carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and pecans, peanut butter cookies, chocolate chunk cookies, coconut cupcakes..... whew!

Some people had a favorite memory of the dessert they chose to bake... for others, it was a chance to bake something they had always wanted to try.

I think I'm going to keep going down my list.... I can envision a summer full of grunts, slumps, crisps and bettys!