Springtime is the best time of year for baking and cooking, and here’s why: it’s not so sweltering hot so you can’t turn on the oven without suffering, fresh produce and sweet fruits are abundant, and you can just as easily and equally enjoy a light quiche or a dense, chocolate-y treat without feeling weighed down. These must-make recipes below for a perfect Easter feast are versatile enough to work for a festive Easter lunch or a luxurious brunch.
While we love the convenience of perfectly smoked salmon in a package, there’s something so DIY and millennial about curing our own! And it couldn’t be easier – just a fresh side of salmon, a killer combo of salt, honey and sugar, and a little bit of patience, and you could be feasting on your own homemade cured salmon come Easter Sunday.
Frittatas are the perfect dish for springtime lunches and brunches, not only because they can be made in advance and reheated easily, but also because the basic recipe can be tweaked to be made with any vegetables and ingredients you have on hand. We went with a classic combination of spinach, goat cheese and prosciutto, for a hearty dish that’s full of flavor and color, and that partners well with pretty much anything else.
A sumptuously creamy smoked salmon mousse becomes the shining star in this elegant dessert that really takes brunching up a notch. Wrapped in a paper-thin slice of cucumber and topped with crème fraiche and colorful salmon roe caviar, it gives a more elegant twist to this springtime feast.
An Easter wreath at your door is pretty enough, but this gorgeous Easter bread wreath will steal the show! Super simple to make, we arranged individual bread dough on a cake pan in two layers for this festive wreath that you can serve with your favorite dip – although we highly recommend our creamy gorgonzola and avocado dip!
This dessert has all the creamy denseness of a traditional cheese cake, but with the added tanginess and savory twist of fine chevre cheese. The piece de resistance is a balsamic and strawberry reduction, a healthy dose of fresh strawberries, and a homemade lemon sabayon. A recipe so gorgeous it will be the star of your Instagram feed for weeks!
Inspired by a classic Venezuelan dessert, the Marquesa is a cookie-based cake that requires no baking – so keep this in your pocket for summer months as well! Made with over 3 cups of fine Valrhona chocolate, and two cans of condensed milk, it’s a dessert so rich and decadent you won’t resist going back for seconds. The fact that’s it’s also a freezer cake though nicely offsets the richness so it doesn’t become overwhelming.
