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!

Okay, I’m kidding. About the exclamation points, not the scones. I’ll try and control myself, but it can be hard sometimes.

When you’re a parent, weekends are often more tiring and hectic than the weekdays. Most people head home Friday afternoon with happy plans to sleep and kick back. Or at least, that’s the perception I get. But our weekends are quite different.

This past Saturday, I got hit with a migraine. My whole life, migraines have hit after periods of stress. So after each baby was born, bam! Migraine. After I finish a stressful project? Bam again. And after a long work week with lots of conflict and worry, along comes another. I’m used to them by now. They’re just kind of hard to recover from when you’re home with three noisy kids. Screaming, screeching kids.

By Saturday night, I knew I had to bake. I was listlessly paging through cookbooks, looking for inspiration, trying to avoid the dessert I’d promised myself I would bake. That happens sometimes. I get excited about baking, but then there are 20 steps involved and I just. Can. Not.

Suddenly, I remembered my baking cabinet. It’s a candy lover’s dream. Kenny has strict instructions not to raid my baking cabinet, and he doesn’t really follow the rules. I often find him with his hand inside, pulling out handfuls of mini M & Ms or peanut butter chips. And he wonders why our grocery lists always include more of that stuff.

Sitting in that cabinet was an acquisition I had yet to try: the cherry-flavored Nestle brand of filled chocolate chips. My mind combined those chips with almond meal, and it all came together. After all, the next day was Mother’s Day, and my mother loves almond. Cherry almond scones would be perfect.

Scones are not difficult to make, despite daunting pictures everywhere of shaved frozen butter. You can definitely use frozen butter, but if you work quickly, cold butter works. I would recommend a pastry blender if you have one, but if not, life goes on.

As for the base, I substituted some of the regular flour for almond meal. That, along with almond extract, provides a perfect pairing with those cherry-filled chocolate chips. And it’s a very springtime-esque scone to present to anyone!

Weekends are crazy, and sometimes I can’t decide what to bake until the last minute. But somehow, everything turns out okay, migraine or not. And when the headache fades and the work week starts, I can relax with a bunch of baked goods. It is what it is, friends!

Last week, I once again had a snow day, even though there was very little snow in evidence. That’s the great thing about moving to the DC area from the Midwest. When I lived in the Midwest, snow days were rare and precious, not to mentioned hard-earned. Here, they happen at the drop of a hat. But hey, this teacher is not complaining!

When my daughter got to the icy driveway, she just stopped completely and started crying. She was that petrified to walk to the car. But after some coaxing and the promise of truffles, she made her way toward her car seat.

Yes, my daughter loves truffles. She’s only 4 and a half, but she eats everything, including salad. And dark chocolate is her favorite. Every year, she gets a rich, dark chocolate birthday cake. But I had to appease my other children, who prefer something lighter. So I made these milk chocolate goodies instead!

Truffles are easy to make, relatively quick, and a heckuva lot cheaper than what you buy in any store. All it takes is some cream, a smidge of butter, and milk chocolate. When you’re done, you have a plate full of rich truffles, perfect to eat while staring out at icy driveways.

When these were ready to roll, I coated them in almond meal, which is just finely ground almonds. It comes in a bag at Trader Joe’s, or you can grind your own with a food processor. Either way, I am a chocolate almond addict, so this coating made me a lot happier than the classic dusting of cocoa. It added an extra something to the flavor, too!

The truffles are definitely better chilled, at least, in my humble opinion. They get fudgier and denser. Essentially, these truffles are a thicker ganache, so one will probably go a long way toward satisfying any cravings.

That is, until the next snowfall. There’s something about truffles and snow that just goes together, so whip up a batch and keep them handy for inclement weather. Or hey, if you live in a more temperate climate, that works too! Just think how lucky you are not to be driving through icy streets and dirty snow.

But you know, a snow day is still kind of magical. And a snow day with truffles is perfection. Savor the moments!

I never used to. I honestly never felt much pain at all in my now squandered youth. But these days, this persistent and quite literal pain in my neck just pops up most mornings and reminds me of my mortality. If I try to stretch it out or massage it, people just look at me funny. And since my mornings start with tons of students, it’s better to leave well enough alone.

It’s much more fun to focus on how I’m getting better, not worse, with time. For instance, I’m stronger physically than I’ve ever been, thanks to punishing workouts. After seven years or so, I’m finally starting to figure out this whole motherhood thing, kind of. And the treats coming out of my kitchen are just going from happy to happier!

Take these Linzer cookie bars, for instance. For years, I’ve been a big fan of the traditional toffee bar, in which a buttery cookie crust gets covered in chocolate and nuts. This bar is a variation on that, and if I can say this without sounding immodest, a pretty dang amazing one.

Like the traditional Linzer, the crust here has a ground almond base. It’s buttery too, and flaky, and ever so perfect. I spread a thin layer of raspberry jam on the crust right out of the oven, and it melts in just a bit. Of course, then you add your chocolate layer and some roughly pulverized slivered almonds.

It’s cookie heaven. We have a big holiday party coming up, and I had to put most of these away immediately in the freezer. But I did keep two out for my afternoon tea, and now I’m holding back from ripping my freezer door open and obliterating a few more.

If you don’t know much about Linzer cookies, you need to start now. These bars have the same flavor, but without the stress of rolling out cookies and cutting them into cute shapes. We all change with time, and in some ways, that’s actually quite lovely, especially when the cookies coming out of the kitchen just get better and better!

Today’s pie is really a tart, and I’m feeling rather European because it’s a Linzer tart. Translation: it’s got an almond base and there’s raspberry involved. I also worked in some dark chocolate for good measure. Can’t hurt, right?

Basically, the tart dough is made of almond meal, which I buy at Trader Joe’s (you can grind up the almonds on your own if you’d prefer), flour, some butter, and sugar. Simple, delicious. I’m a huge fan.

You work half the dough into a tart pan with a removable bottom, spread on a chocolate raspberry filling (easy to make!), and make a pattern on top with the rest of the dough. The typical look is lattice, but lattice bores me sometimes. I decided to try this ladder-type pattern instead, which was lots of fun.

Then it got even better. I used my powdered sugar dusting wand (a totally useful kitchen gadget and quite an obsession of mine) to make the top look nice and snowy. And then I tasted my tart. Just a bite, before freezing the rest for Thanksgiving dinner.

It was hard to stop there! I have a thing with chocolate and almond, so I’ll easily put away a couple of slices on Thursday. And that thick layer of chocolate raspberry sandwiched between the marzipan-like dough is pretty fabulous. I’ve never felt more proud.

Advice: instead of doing all the usual pies this year on Thanksgiving, change it up a bit. This Linzer tart is definitely a fun addition to the usual pecan and pumpkin, so go a little crazy. Your family won’t mind!