dessert Archives - Page 6 of 7 - Anali's Next Amendment

Freshly Baked Cookies @ Work!

March 6, 2025August 27, 2015 by Lisa Johnson 2 Comments

It’s impossible for me to write too many posts about chocolate chip cookies. When you’re gathering the good things, they should be included on the list.

The current place where I am working is undergoing construction. I read a sign in the cafe saying that there would be cookies at 3pm every Wednesday. That made me glad.

It’s a new space for me and my co-workers, so I told them. We were all giddy like kids as the time approached yesterday. Then 3:00 came and went. No cookies. I investigated the situation and found that there would be none because of the construction in the kitchen. That made me sad. The promise of something, but then having none is far worse than just going without.

Then today, there were cookies! Otis Spunkmeyer cookies. Which I had not heard about in a long time. But they are still around!

What a perfect idea for an office! I remember hearing about Otis Spunkmeyer years ago and wondering about the name.

The founder, Ken Rawlings, let his 12-year-old daughter come up with it. It’s certainly a name that you never forget!

They were warm, gooey and delicious. They were even delivered to us in our office.

All is forgiven.

So Delicious Dairy Free Frozen Desserts: A Taste Test

July 30, 2020July 20, 2015 by Lisa Johnson

Soooo, this taste test. It wasn’t planned. But I found myself trying several flavors of So Delicious Dairy Free frozen desserts over the weekend and decided to blog it. Because why not?

I visited a few stores and kept noticing an ever expanding array of So Delicious Dairy Free products. I had no idea this brand included so many varieties of frozen treats! I definitely plan to try more. Especially with the weather heating up over the past few days. It hit 90 degrees in the Boston area for the first time this summer!

A few years ago, I had eliminated a great deal of dairy from my diet. First eliminating milk, then trying dairy free cheeses and making my own dairy free ice cream.

Since yesterday was National Ice Cream Day, I had ice cream on my mind. But recently I’ve realized that I’ve added a lot of dairy back into my diet. I love it, but feel like I need to dial it back a bit.

Since I don’t eat most meat, much of my protein comes from cheese and yogurt. I bought some dairy free cultured, but haven’t tried it yet. So let’s get to the taste test.

The first of the frozen desserts that I tried was the Creamy Cashew Cashew Milk. Hands down it was my favorite. Cashews are one of my favorite nuts. The texture and taste were perfect. I will definitely buy this again and try more of the cashew milk products.

Next up, the Vanilla Bean Coconut Milk. The texture wasn’t as creamy as I would like and the flavor was kind of bland. It wasn’t bad, but I don’t think I’ll buy it again.

The last that I tried was the Vanilla Almond Milk. The texture was very good, but again, the flavor was kind of bland. I think I’d try this product line again, but in a different flavor. The butter pecan looks like a good one.

So there you have it! If you’re looking for some dairy free frozen treats, you can definitely find one that you like. Just sample a few.

Happy Monday to you and stay cool!

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Tatte Bakery and Cafe: A Favorite Place

July 30, 2020July 9, 2015 by Lisa Johnson

Five years ago, I blogged about finding one of the best bakeries in the world.

Since then, Tzurit Or, the founder and owner of Tatte has expanded to five locations, including the newest space on Charles Street on Beacon Hill.

Being at Tatte Bakery is like stepping into a little piece of heaven. If heaven has a bakery. Everything is pleasing to the eye and the palate.

I had never seen anything like a nut box before. Aren’t they beautiful?

That high level of detail and perfection flows through each location and even the Instagram feed. While baked goods and desserts are the specialty, you can also buy food to eat in or take out. Tatte Bakery also caters. I’d like that for an event!

I told two co-workers about Tatte Bakery and we visited one day after work. Sitting outside in the warm summer air and enjoying the beauty of Beacon Hill is a perfect way to wind down.

There are so many choices of what to eat, but I decided on a cherry clafoutis. It was so good, I gasped out loud. Not exaggerating here.

I’d like to try and make a cherry clafoutis at home. I’ve been buying a lot of cherries recently and now have a recipe, so maybe it will happen. For now, I will savor the memory.

Beard Papa’s in Boston

July 30, 2020May 14, 2015 by Lisa Johnson 2 Comments

Back in 2006, when I was a wee baby blogger, I read an article about a place in San Francisco that sold the most amazing cream puffs called Beard Papa’s.

It was was one of my first blog posts about food and when I noticed a trend with food and lawyers. In the article, an attorney named Jordan Goldstein, gave one of my favorite quotes ever about food.

It was one of the best days of my life, said Goldstein, who returned with his friend 24 hours later to procure six more pastries. “These are like eating air.

I never forgot that quote and always remembered thinking about the cream puffs that inspired it.

So last week I was at work and we were talking about food. Like always. We were saying how bringing food to employees, inspires so much goodwill and that we would all like a sweet snack. By the way, we have been bringing in snacks to share just about every week.

Then one of our supervising attorneys, who was not in the room while we were talking about wanting gifts of food, brought us some mini cream puffs. We were so happy!

Come to find out, he got them from Beard Papa’s! They just recently opened in Chinatown, which is just around the corner from my current office.

After work last night, I decided to stop by and see the place for myself. There was a line of people and a bit of a wait for the cream puffs. By the way, the scent inside was thrilling and intoxicating.

The bakers fill each cream puff as you wait. I got two regular sized puffs so that I could share one with G.

We both inhaled them! The cream squishes out all over the place and the puff is delicate and crunchy. They are messy. But messy in such a playful way that you will need to lick your fingers and juggle keeping the puff together. Then you realize that you have eaten the whole thing in 5 seconds!

Ha! It’s wonderful. Now I know what Jordan was talking about.

Recipe: Spring Strawberry Cake

July 30, 2020April 5, 2015 by Lisa Johnson

This past week was one of the first where it was pleasant to be outside. Most of the piles of snow are gone. The sun is shining brightly. The temperatures are warming. We will have Spring after all!

Since today is Easter, I baked a cake to share with my family. One of my favorite go to recipes is Magnolia’s Vanilla Cupcakes. I just half the recipe to make a single layer cake.

This cake is a total experiment. But that’s the only way to come up with something new! For the topping, I didn’t measure anything so all these amounts are estimates.

I took 3/4 of a cup of strawberry preserves and combined in a small bowl with 1 tsp. vanilla extract and 1/2 tsp. almond extract. Then I spread the mixture over the top of the cake. I baked the cake last night, then left it in the freezer overnight and let it thaw out for a few hours this morning.

Then, I sprinkled about 2 T of powdered sugar over the the cake. I cut about eight strawberries in half, rolled them in about 1/4 cup of sweetened flaked coconut, then placed each strawberry on top of the cake. Then I put maybe 1/4 of white chocolate chips between the strawberries.

The plan is to serve the cake with some ice cream. Hopefully it will be good. My philosophy is always, “Just how bad could it be?” If you combine a bunch of stuff that you like, it can only taste so terrible. And should taste quite excellent actually.

Happy Easter and Happy Passover to all who celebrate!