Ben Starr

The Ultimate Food Geek

Category: Desserts

  • Pumpkin Bourbon Pecan Pie

    A video tutorial for this recipe is located at the bottom of the page… I love to bake, especially pies, even though I don’t eat dessert most of the time.  However, my two favorite pies in the world are pecan pie and, naturally, pumpkin pie.  My friends finally convinced me to meld the two pies…

  • Pumpkin Cranberry Swirl Cheesecake

    Cheesecakes aren’t easy or cheap to make, they are wickedly high in calories, but they hold this mystique over humans that is unmatched by any other dessert.  Of course, I have LOADS of cheesecake recipes, but this is my personal favorite.  As you’ll notice, I use the long-slow bake method for cheesecakes.  I did the…

  • 5-minute Molten Chocolate Lava Cake

    I developed this recipe based on the popular “Microwave Chocolate Mug Cake” that makes the email rounds every year.  That recipe was actually developed by a Spanish molecular gastronomist (basically a creative food scientist/chef) and was considered a “high cuisine” dessert, to make and serve tableside at his $200-a-plate restaurant, to the amusement of his…

  • Christian’s Big Chocolate “O”

    Christian is a chocolate FIEND.  I have never seen anyone who can eat more chocolate than Christian.  For his birthday several years ago, Julia Child’s Chocolate Bombe just wasn’t cutting it any more, which was my replacement for Chocolate Blackout Cake.  So I had to think of something new. This was the result: Christian’s Big…

  • Crispy-Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

    Everyone LOVES chocolate chip cookies, right?  I don’t like desserts, and even I like chocolate chip cookies. This is a great recipe honed for several years to produce what I think is the ultimate chocolate chip cookie.  I don’t like cakey cookies because they seem dry in my mouth.  I like the soft, chewy kind,…

  • Ben Starr’s Pumpkin Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and Candied Hazelnuts

    **Please note, instructions for making this into cupcakes are located at the bottom of the “cake” section of the recipe. This is the cake that I get demands for every October at my annual Fall Dinner Party, where I serve a 5 course meal with each course based on pumpkin. Regardless of what unique, delicious…

  • Fresh Pumpkin Pie (NO cans!)

    So everyone’s got a recipe for pumpkin pie, and here’s the best one.  (An instructional video for this recipe is located at the bottom.) Of course, the best one involves nothing from a can, which means WORK.  I’ll throw you some shortcuts the deeper we get into the recipe, but if you want to make…

  • Chocolate Espresso Cheesecake

    Cheesecake is so indulgent, right?  I have to make it every once in awhile, usually for special occasions, but it’s so rich and so expensive to make that I only do it a few times a year.  Coffee is one of my favorite flavors, and that’s why I had to marry it with cheesecake.  This…