Pies, Tarts and Cakes

This tart is Salt and Chocolate nirvana. The salt is all the way through the crust, so you get a good smack of it in every bite. And it’s no dinky chocolate-covered pretzel either; this is big, thick chocolate, not a thin waxy coating. Get the best milk chocolate you can afford, as you’re going to be tasting it.

This coffee cake has been a Christmas tradition in my family for as long as I can remember. It stems, oddly enough, from summer vacation. My step-dad’s family had a cottage in Fish Creek, Wisconsin, where we stayed for a week every summer when I was young. Every year, I could count on a fancy breakfast at the White Gull Inn, where my stepdad ordered buckwheat pancakes, I hoped for an overflowing bowl of fresh berries, and we always shared the coffee cake. At some point, my mom purchased the hotel’s cookbook, and the rest was history.