Dana is the creative force behind Dana’s Bakery, specializing in macarons. Her macarons rock—even more than other good macarons, because she’s quite the flavor artist as well as a designer, creating beautiful “painted” custom macarons.

This is the second career for the honors graduate of the Pastry and Baking program at New York’s Institute of Culinary Education. Photography’s loss is macaron lovers’ gain. (If you want learn how to bake your own, Dana gives classes in her northern New Jersey bakery.)

While many macaron specialists stick with the classics—chocolate, coffee, lemon, pistachio, raspberry and vanilla—Dana takes a page from the cookbook of Parisian macaron masters Ladurée and Pierre Hermé, who continue to bring forth new flavors to tempt foodie palates. A Dana’s Bakery bonus: Her macarons are certified kosher (and all macarons are gluten-free, made with almond flour).

Dana’s vision was to create an artisanal line of American flavor-inspired macarons. No raspberry and vanilla for her; instead, think of all your favorite sweet flavors, from Banana Split and Key Lime to Strawberry Shortcake and Watermelon.
 
There are seasonal flavors, too: Imagine Caramel Apple or Candy Corn Macarons for Halloween, the latter with a kernel of candy corn on top of the ganache. (“I could eat these every day of my life, literally,” says Dana.)

HOLIDAY FLAVORS

For the holidays, there are Gingerbread Man, White Peppermint Bark and Chocolate Molten Mac.

In addition to the holiday flavors, the current lineup includes Birthday Cake, Cookie Dough, Cup of Joe, Peanut Butter & Jelly, Fruity Cereal, Red Velvet, Thin Mint, S’mores.
 
CUSTOM MACARONS

Dana’s impressive macarons have attracted such prestigious corporate clients as Chanel, Martha Stewart Weddings and Vogue, where she creates custom designs from leopard-spotted macarons to gold or silver beauties. Your corporate logo can grace the top of the macarons.

Need a wedding favor? Silver macs with Champagne ganache sounds good to us!

TIME FOR A TREAT

What can we say about these melt-in-your-mouth bites of heaven except GET YOURS TODAY. Head to DanasBakery.com.

 
All macarons are gluten-free, made with almond flour, egg whites, sugar and flavors; the line is certified kosher by KOF-K.
 

MORE ON MACARONS

The history of macaroons and the difference between macaroons and macarons.
  

Nuts.com is a third-generation purveyor of nuts, dried fruits, chocolates and other sweets. They offer some 3,000 items sold by the pound, but will also package the wares into snack packs, 3.2 ounce bags sold in packs of 12. The 12-packs range from approximately $18 to $24, creating an inexpensive stocking stuffer that has a higher-value appearance.

We love the snack packs as stocking stuffers or party favors, the cheery green bags hinting at the goodies inside. There are hundreds of sweet options, that you can search by category (or however you like):

 
There are also Gummy Sugar Plums for gifting or as a garnish for cakes, cupcakes or other desserts.

Check out all the options (well, maybe not all 3,000) at Nuts.com.

In this recipe, a medium watermelon and two small ones create two bowls and a head for the snowman—as well as supplying plenty of melon balls for a fruit salad. You can use the Watermelon Snowman Fruit Bowl in different ways:

 
The Snowman Fruit Bowl was designed by the National Watermelon Promotion Board, which has plenty of interesting recipes and watermelon carvings—everything from Angry Birds and Minions to a seasonal penguin.

RECIPE: WATERMELON SNOWMAN

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. HALVE the large melon and one of the small melons. Scoop melon balls and reserve.

2. CLEAN the leftover melon scraps from the two halves, leaving the white portion of the rind.

3. FILL with fruit salad or other ingredients; make the face.

4. MOVE to the serving table and add arms, hat and scarf.