This is the last week of classes! Hurray! Hurrah!

Yes, in answer to your question. Teachers are much more excited about the end of school than the students. For two months, we can keep normal hours and not spend our days talking kids into learning. Sounds like a win to me! And let’s not forget the ice cream.

My summers are spent with ice cream. Whether I’m eating it straight up or incorporating it into another dessert, life is grand. This frozen peanut butter ice cream pie is made with Blue Bunny® Homemade Vanilla ice cream, and you will not want to miss one bite!

The first time I ever tried Blue Bunny® ice cream was at summer camp. School was out and I was feeling free and easy, but that all changed when I went to a sleep-away camp full of kids I didn’t know. It was really intimidating, and it threw my 12 year-old world into chaos.

I’d like to say that it was the best summer ever, because that would be a good ending, right? The truth is always more complicated than that, but I did learn a lot. And I can totally credit some of my more introspective summer moments that year to Blue Bunny® ice cream.

See, we got to have a scoop of it after dinner, and it was probably my favorite part of the day. I’d take my bowl of ice cream down to the lake (which was, of course, freezing to swim in) and sit on the edge. I’d savor the ice cream slowly, staring at the water and having all the idealistic summer dreams that a girl can have. You know, about what life will be someday, when we’re all grown up and have the perfect life. All that kid dream stuff.

Summers are for dreaming, after all. The school year makes it hard to do anything but work nonstop, but in the summer, anything is possible. The evenings are full of pinkish gold sunsets, and the mornings dawn bright and full of promise. How can anyone not love that?

For that matter, how can anyone not love ice cream? There are some pretty incredible flavors that I couldn’t resist buying when I was at Walmart this past week, like Blue Bunny® Salted Caramel Craze and Blue Bunny® Peanut Butter Party. The packaging is clear so that you can actually see the swirls in the ice cream flavors, so start swooning now. I’m totally hosting an ice cream party with my kids to celebrate the end of school this week. We’ll have to turn the sprinkler on, too.

This pie incorporates the timeless simplicity of Blue Bunny® Homemade Vanilla ice cream with my two loves, chocolate and peanut butter. Set in a chocolate cookie crust, the ice cream is mixed with peanut butter, filled with chocolate chips, and topped with irresistibly fun Smucker’s Magic Shell Chocolate Fudge Flavored Topping. I don’t know about you, but the creamy ice cream combined with the crunch of the chocolate is my version of heaven.

School is finally out, and we’re celebrating with ice cream. Is there any better way to do it? Bring on the fun with Blue Bunny® ice cream and awesome summer memories!

Ideally, the voting process should be nothing but exciting, but it’s harder this year than usual. Looking toward November is a worrisome occupation, at least for me. I want to believe that everything will turn out okay, but I’m in a negative frame of mind these days.

Whenever I feel overwhelmed, I bake. There’s a mindful mindlessness about baking that lets my brain fall away a bit as I make ganache or press tart dough into a pan. The motions are repetitive, soothing, and exactly what I need sometimes. When the result is this mind-blowing linzer tart smothered in ganache and almonds, I can banish all the negativity and just think about the rich flavors exploding in my mouth.

It’s not like me to be incredibly negative, or at least, not in my head. But recently I’ve sustained a series of failures, and so I’ve had to work harder to focus on the good stuff. Whenever I’m in this frame of mind, it’s hard to see all the people who are seemingly more satisfied and successful displaying their good fortune right and left. The rational part of my brain is thrilled for them, but the emotional part is resentful. That’s human nature, after all.

So in times like these, I’m shifting the focus where it should be. On my family, of course, which affords me great joy. On the part of my job that takes place in the classroom, where I work with the best students a teacher could ask for. On the changing season, letting sunshine and fresh air into the house. On having an awareness of purpose. There’s so much to be thankful for.

When I get thankful, I think of pie. Really. It’s some kind of Thanksgiving trigger. But it’s April. What to do?

Well, make a tart. It’s gluten-free for my beloved Kenny and kosher for Passover for the rest of us. We don’t get normal food until Sunday! Yes, that counts liquor. Happy hour is going to have to wait a bit.

This is one of the best desserts I’ve made in the GF category. The crust (adapted from Paula Shoyer’s The New Passover Menu) is mainly almond meal with some walnut meal thrown in for good measure. Once the crust is baked, I spread raspberry jam over the top and filled it with ganache. I made this tart non-dairy by using fake coffee creamer and margarine, but the recipe will list heavy cream and butter because that’s more standard. They both work, though!

I’m looking out the window as I write this, where the leaves on the trees have become rich and green. There’s a lot that’s good to focus on. During a time that’s less than easy in some ways, I need to see all the beauty and savor it. And I also need to savor this tart, so get on that train with me!

I. Love. Grapefruit. I know it must come as a shock that a sugar-addicted fiend like me actually eats fruit, but my diet is reasonably healthy. And I eat half a grapefruit every day.

In fact, I love grapefruit so much that I’ve specifically avoided going on a medication because it would ban grapefruit from my diet with some awful chemical reaction. I can’t do that. Every day I need my fix, and if I bake it into a tart, well, so much the better. This is a tart for the ages! You’re going to love it.

A few days ago I wrote a post complaining about my body aches and pains, and I’m happy to report that I can once again move my head from side to side. Last week my neck and shoulders went, and I had to go through my day moving like a robot. My students found it hilarious. Well, until I reminded them that if they continued  to mock me, I’d have my revenge when I was all better. That stopped them pretty quick.

The act of staying healthy is a delicate balance, one that most of us struggle with. It’s not just about what you eat, or how much you move. It’s about how you see yourself. And I gotta say, mass media is working against women pretty strongly these days.

Before I had daughters, I would mindlessly read magazines on weekends, enjoying the endless (and repetitive) tips they offered up each month: how to be happy, why eating breakfast is so important, ways to organize my life, and the ever-present cover headline: drop five pounds in two weeks! Or something along those lines.

I never used to think about magazines or their covers much, but now that I have girls, I’m paying attention. I’ve gone through life being far too much of a perfectionist about my own physique, and I don’t want to pass that on to my girls. I’m careful on all sorts of levels on that front, and one way to make positive change is to get the magazines out of the house.

Really. Next time you’re in a grocery store line, read the covers. They’re demeaning. And despite the fact that the magazine industry claims to be embracing more realistic body types, they’re still classifying women in a healthy weight range as plus-sized, and associating that with shame. And their cover models are still unrealistically photoshopped.

I’d like to put this tart on a magazine cover. That’s how splendid it is, and how opposite of anything horrible I find it to be. This is one of those times that I get obsessed by my own dessert. It doesn’t happen all the time, so when it does, you can bet I’ll tell you.

It’s so easy to make, too. The base is my white chocolate graham cracker crust, and the filling is just a mixture of fresh ruby red grapefruit juice, condensed milk, zest, and egg yolks. That’s all, folks.

Trying to raise kids with a healthy self-image is really hard. Trying to be a balanced, healthy eater is also hard. So make it as easy as you can on yourself, and incorporate some of those lovely fruits into dessert. They make for real showstoppers!

That’s right, kids. Monday, March 14th is the happiest of all national holidays, the day Americans celebrate what is truly important in life: PIE!

My school is having a pie extravaganza today, and this baby here is my contribution to the effort. Somebody stop me before I eat it all up. On the other hand…nah, don’t. Let me do some damage here. We’ve got an Oreo crust, mint chocolate chip ice cream, and crushed Thin Mints. It’s the easiest pie ever, and might be the most delicious.

Now that DC has soared into spring (and summer, might I add, with 80-degree temps), I’m all about the ice cream again. This past week I hit up the fro yo shop across from my work three times. THREE. Honestly, not much beats a giant cup of frozen yogurt covered in chocolate and candy.

I was, however, dumb enough to mention my excursions in the presence of my five year-old. The second she learned I’d been fro-yoing with out her, she got really upset. I totally get it, because I would, too. But how do I explain to her little self that (to loosely quote the all-knowing Sex and the City) Mommy needs two hands to eat her six-dollar dessert?

It’s not just two hands. There is little more rewarding than sitting outside in the sunshine with birds twittering everywhere. Tweeting? Twittering? Social media has confused my knowledge of bird sounds.

Most people hate Monday, but I’ve always been a fan of new beginnings, new hope. By the time the week ends, all I want to do is stagger toward my bed and take a break. But by Monday, I’ve forgotten the sleep deprivation and exhaustion of the work week and I’m raring to go again.

That is especially true in warm weather. It’s so much easier to go out when it’s not freezing and dark. Though with springing forward this weekend, it’s dark again.

But hey, who cares about that when it’s Pi Day? Pi. Day. I’m so excited!

This pie is purposely simple. Who wants to be working hard in the kitchen on such a happy holiday? Aside from the Oreo crust (which is simplicity itself, really), this pie is just about the assembly. You soften the ice cream, add some Thin Mint pieces, put it into a crust and put more Thin Mint bling on top. The end.

Happy Pi Day, everyone! Be sure to enjoy the day, whether you’re having an early spring or not. It’s going to be a great week!

As long as the holidays keep coming, I’m going to keep baking pie! How can I not? Crust is just such a happy thing.

One of my favorite pies of all time is Dutch apple, and this pie goes to a whole ‘nother level with salted caramel on top. This kid’s a showstopper.

It’s funny, but I can pass up regular apple pie any day of the week. When it’s covered in crumb topping, though, just give me a giant serving fork and watch me dig in. I really can’t hold back. And ever since salted caramel became a thing, I just can’t get enough.

When I was growing up, we had dear family friends in the neighborhood. The oldest son was my brother’s best friend, and it was fairly common for our two families to get together for holidays and other occasions.

One unforgettable day, we were having dinner at their house and dessert was served. It was a Dutch apple pie, and I’d never seen one before. Hearing that it was apple pie, I took a small portion to be polite, but I wasn’t that excited. Until, that is, that first bite hit my taste buds.

I was pretty shy as a kid, but I went up to the mom and asked her how to make this pie. Mind you, I’d never baked anything. This was the first recipe I actually made.

She taught me how to do it, writing the recipe out in detail on an index card and walking me through the process by showing me how it was done one sunny day. I’ve never forgotten that this adult was willing to pay attention to me and teach me something, and that’s why Dutch apple pie will always hold a special place in my heart.

This recipe is the exact one she gave me on that index card, except I’ve drizzled Smuckers salted caramel over the pie. As a big fan of caramel and apple together, this was just a natural next step. Besides, I can get the salted caramel at my local Target, and they’re running a cartwheel deal on it now! Hello, holiday baking.

The pie itself is a miracle. Both the crust and the topping are the same dough, so you only have to dirty one bowl for that. Plus, there’s no fancy food processing or mixer action necessary. This is made with just you and your spatula!

The filling is super quick, too. I just slice up a few granny smith apples, toss them with some cinnamon-sugar and vanilla, and that’s it. For not a crazy amount of effort, you have a beautiful holiday pie!

This season, share a recipe you love with someone else. I will always cherish this pie because it was shared with me, and now I want to spread the joy. Here’s to making beautiful baking memories!

Over the past several weeks, I’ve given you quite a few Thanksgiving pie options. But I couldn’t resist adding just one more!

As a baking blogger, the holidays provide inspiration and ideas. I love having the time of year do the recipe brainstorming for me, especially when a tart like this is the result. Guys, I kept my very favorite for last. Yes, I’ll play favorites today.

This past weekend, Kenny and I got away overnight to a posh hotel in historic Old Town Alexandria, Virginia. We’re lucky to live near all kinds of little getaway spots, and even though it was chilly, it was really lovely to walk on the waterfront and see the boats and pretend it was a lot warmer.

The best part of the hotel was the pool. It was a heated indoor pool, and getting in was like being enveloped in a warm water hug. Maybe I’ve never told you this before, but I love baths. Baths are a daily thing for me, even if I’ve showered too. I love the bubbles, the scalding water, the jets (yep, my tub is tricked out), and the music playing softly in the background as I let all the stress melt out of my tired muscles.

Other  than dessert, I have these other material loves in life: a good book, a great workout, and a hot bath. So as I chugged back and forth in that heated pool, I realized that my life would be pretty luxurious if I could come home from work every day, jump into a heated pool, swim for a while, and then dry off in a lounge chair with a book and some truffles.

I just heard Steven Tyler in my head shrieking “Dream On.”

If the pool fantasy can’t come true, I’ll take this tart instead. It’s all my favorite things. Maybe not everyone’s on the marzipan bandwagon, but I really don’t care. This is the best.

The crust is buttery and light, with some almond meal thrown in for kicks. Piled into the crust is raspberry jam, a baked marzipan layer, and thick chocolate ganache with toasted almond flair. If you want an elegant but totally doable dessert to present tomorrow, this is your girl.

Okay, kids. I’ve got more baking to do tonight, so I’ll catch you later. I’m pretty excited to get all those pies lined up on the table, and I hope you are, too. Have a safe, joyful, warm and cozy Thanksgiving with family and friends. From JAB and me to you, happy holiday season!

This crust, fellow dessert lovers, is the one. While traditional key lime pie has graham cracker crust, this one is made of ground almonds and white chocolate. Do you want to guess which crust is better?

If you guessed graham cracker, you are just plain wrong. This pie crust is just beyond all my wildest expectations and dreams. It’s such a perfect base for tart, creamy key lime filling. That’s what I get for thinking creatively!

You can look at gluten-free desserts in one of two ways. One way, they’re a lesser version of an original recipe, often higher in sugar and ultimately disappointing. I don’t truck with that. I never have, and I never will.

The other way makes much more sense. Use natural ingredients (the less processed the better), don’t add extra fat or sugar, and come away with a dessert that’s not trying to be a faded copy of its gluten-laded counterpart. In other words, change the script. Change the rules. Be inventive. It might involve more thinking up front, but it sure does pay off.

Whenever I eat key lime pie, I think about the first time I ever tasted it. I was all of 25, dating Kenny, and we’d gone on our first vacation together to Florida. Our rationale was that if we went to a town full of retirees, we’d be the hottest people there. And it kind of worked!

Our flight was massively delayed (we were dumb enough to go on December 26th), so when we finally got to the hotel, we were exhausted. All we had energy for was the hotel restaurant, which happened to be on the water. Not half bad, right? I ordered a margarita and a slice of key lime pie, my very first.

It was nothing short of magical. The whole day of delayed flights and missed connections just melted away. I was in the warm Floridian night air, staring at the man I was falling in love with, drinking a perfect frozen drink and eating the best pie ever. Since that night, key lime pie has been a favorite.

It makes perfect sense, then, that I make a key lime pie that Kenny can actually eat without getting an upset stomach. This crust is not only gluten-free, but it’s one of my favorite pie crusts this season. And you all know that I’ve made a lot of pie crust over the past month.

It’s pretty simple: you take ground almond or almond meal (make it yourself or buy a bag at Trader Joe’s for cheap) and mix it with a melted white chocolate and butter combo. Add in some brown sugar for caramelized goodness, and you’re golden!

The crust is a sweet base for the notoriously tangy filling. Key lime pie is typically a warmer weather dessert, but I like to get a taste of Florida as I’m baking pie after pie for Thanksgiving. It’s a refreshing yet unpredictable option for your holiday table. If you want to wow your GF-eating friends with a showstopper pie, this is the one!

For weeks, I test out pie recipe after pie recipe, putting my very favorites right here on JAB for all to enjoy. But when the big day comes, I have to decide which pies to put on the table. So far, I’m committed to a Dutch apple pie with oat crust and some kind of cookie pie, as well as my pumpkin ganache pie. But that leaves two pies up in the air, plus a non-pie dessert. I’m thinking Kahlua cake.

These little guys are certainly a serious contender. They’re small enough to be portion-controlled (though who wants that on Thanksgiving?), and they have just the right amount of both chocolate and pumpkin. Plus, they’re elegant. I’m quite a fan.

I was busy watching an episode of Next Great Baker this morning while I whipped up some ganache. First of all, I love that show, but I love baking while I watch that show even more. If you’re not familiar, a posse of bakers vie for the grand prize from Cake Boss star Buddy Valastro, which usually includes a whole lotta cash as well as a chance to work at Carlo’s Bakery. The bakers have to be smart and talented, but they also have to move very fast.

The show really should be called Next Great Cake Decorator, because that’s the focus. I’ve seen many a clearly talented baker get booted because a cake failed. Sometimes the flaws are structural, but often, it’s that the decorating just doesn’t go that well. I have a lot of faith in my baking skills, but I’d never do that well on the show because my fondant skills just…aren’t.  I don’t even like fondant.

What Buddy should totally do is a Next Great Baking Blogger show. I’d watch that, and I bet some of you would, too. We could all vie for some awesome prize, like Queen of the Baking World. I’ve always wanted a crown. Or heck, we could also compete for cold hard cash. I like that, too.

While I was watching this morning, I saw these two huge, jacked-up bakers from New Jersey flexing their various muscle groups and looking so proud of their ability to lift gigantic cakes. And all I could think about was how proud they were of their hugeness. I’ve always been petite, and I’m cool with that. So I guess we love what we relate to. They love their giant cake, and I love my little pies.

These are so cute, and of course, they aren’t just pumpkin. They’re chocolate pumpkin. To make the filling, you literally melt chocolate and add it to all the standard pumpkin pie ingredients. The result is pretty noteworthy. The pie tastes a lot like pumpkin pie, but there’s that added richness of the chocolate. If you’ve never tried it, I urge you to give it a shot.

I used refrigerated dough, rolling out little circles and placing them in a muffin tin. In went the filling, and after baking and a night of chilling, I piped a lattice design on top with hot fudge. If you never use hot fudge for decorating, you should. It comes out more slowly than melted chocolate, giving you more control over the final look.

Even as I write this, I’m itching to get back to Next Great Baker. I’m so much more productive in the kitchen when I can bake right along with a whole slew of hyper-competitive dessert chefs. Or cake decorators. Whatever they are, they’re fun. And so are these little tiny pies! Try to work both into your life, if you possibly can.

As Thanksgiving looms ever closer, I can’t stop baking pie. All of them are contenders for the big day, but it’s going to be hard to pick the best ones. I’ve always had such a hard time with the concept of “favorite” dessert.

I mean, come on. How are we supposed to pick an ultimate winner when so many desserts are so wonderful? And pie is the happiest of all holiday treats. Still, if I had to start expressing preferences, this pie would be up there. It’s a traditional pumpkin pie with a thick layer of chocolate ganache on top. Needless to say, it’s a winner.

Picking favorites is super easy with some things, but not with others. My favorite boots? Easy. I hate to be what my students call “basic” (i.e. predictable and unexciting), but I love Uggs. They’re warm and toasty, not to mention comfortable. The first time I saw them, I thought they were crazy ugly. But now, not at all. Or maybe I’ve just stopped caring, because they encase my feet and legs like a cloud of joy.

When it comes to listing favorite foods, though, I’m totally lost. I really hate it when people come and say, “Hey, you’re a baker. What’s your favorite thing to bake?” Aaaaah. Truth? No clue. My big thing about blogging is doing something new and creative every single time. If I wanted to make the same thing over and over, I’d work at Starbucks.

Besides, how are you supposed to pick a favorite? We’ve got chocolate of all kinds. Cookies. Brownies. Cake. Pie. I just cannot make decisions. And any bar cookie is my friend. It’s not a fair question. When it comes to non-dessert food, I’ll take a medium-rare steak and sushi any day, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t other friends I love just as much.

My kids are much simpler. Their favorites are clearly delineated for my own information. Chicken nuggets. Hot dogs. French fries. How predictable is that?

I guess I shouldn’t fault my kids for wanting standard favorites. After all, what is pumpkin pie if not a traditional holiday standard? I just played with this one a little bit, and it paid off!

What we have here is a totally traditional pumpkin pie with a very easy topping. I made the ganache in the microwave in about a minute. It’s so incredibly simple. I also decided to use a frozen pie crust because, after all, I love frozen pie crust. I’ll be making plenty of pie crust over the next two weeks. For this, a little cheating doesn’t hurt.

Once this pie is ready to eat, it hits all the right spots. It’s creamy, it’s chocolatey, and most of all, it’s a perfect twist on a traditional Thanksgiving dessert. I won’t ask if it’s going to be one of your favorites because when it comes to food, that’s kind of a dumb question. But I hope you love it as much as I did!

A few of you out there are still looking for ways to use up so-called “leftover” candy. I don’t really get that concept. It’s not chicken, people. It’s not gonna go bad that fast. Eat it and enjoy at your leisure.

But heck, if you really want to bake it into something, make a pookie! This lovely cookie dough is filled with all your Halloween candy favorites and baked into a pie shell. With Thanksgiving looming, we should be getting our pie thing going anyway. Let’s do a hybrid holiday treat!

To be honest, I’m relieved to be in November. October is just a terrifying month, and not just because of people banging on your door demanding candy. Grades are due in my school system on November first, and so are college recommendations. I’m just happy that these weights are lifting from my shoulders.

Now I can focus on lifting real weights, which I do faithfully. Still, there’s this area under my arm. I hesitate to use the word “flaps” because it’s not empowering. But with all the triceps work I do and all those painful push-ups with my hands shaped like a diamond, why don’t I have arms like Madonna? Probably the pie.

There have been times that I get frustrated at the parts of my body that don’t tone as easily as others. But lately, I’ve also been trying to focus on the good stuff. My abs are really responsive to training, and that means I need to stop complaining. Why are we so inclined to focus on the stuff that isn’t as great and not spend time enjoying what we love about ourselves?

That said, if I ever became rich, I would hire the following in a heartbeat: a personal trainer, a personal chef (just on retainer for those days I don’t wanna cook), and a hairdresser, not on retainer. Because I need hair help every single day. I wouldn’t even think about redoing the house or anything until these three people were part of my daily routine. And you know, it would be cool to have an assistant too, just to keep track of my appointments and all.

Anyone out there willing to make my dream come true? I will totally bake for you every day if you make me rich. I do that anyway. No matter how rich I got, I would bake. It just makes me so darn happy.

Like this pookie here. Who can turn away from this? Not me, I can tell ya. The trick is to make sure you don’t bake this guy for too long, or the whole thing goes from slightly gooey and joyously chewy to dry and hard. Watch that oven timer!

Listen, I don’t need recipes for leftover candy. In my house, it’s called eating it. But I understand if you do, and I hear where you’re coming from. So go ahead and eat your candy in a pookie! It’s almost as nice as being rich and having your own personal staff.