Tartelette

Pumkin Semifreddo With A Side Of Gingerbread Houses

2009-11-24T09:58:00.004-05:00

Instead of making pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving this year, I am bringing Pumpkin Semifreddo to my sister-in-law's. It's a riff on one of the desserts we had last week in Asheville and given that we devoured 8 of them in record time, I am pretty sure his family will also appreciate the change. It's cold, creamy, mousse-like with a nice crunch from the gluten free streudel on top. Makes me think of Fall with every bite.

I have always had a soft spot for Asheville during Fall and Winter. When we lived in upstate SC, we would take the beautiful mountain roads and drive around the area, always making a pit stop in there. We had an impromptu getaway in Asheville one Christmas years ago and I dragged B. through the gallery of gingerbread houses on display at The Grove Park Inn. I knew there had been a competition. I had no idea I'd be judging it one day, 5 years later! And with a beautiful friend and work peer as my traveling companion to boot.

Arriving at The Grove Park always makes me feel like I have steppped back in time, somewhere around 1935 when F. Scott Fitzgerald could have been my almost neighbor in room 441 (we were in room 552). Truly a special place, yet one that evolved perfectly with time and where people are the embodiement of Southern hospitality. Fun, gracious, never stuffy and most of all with some of the best foods and drinks around.

I love the view out my kitchen but waking up with this everyday made me rubb my eyes quite a few times. Was I dreaming? What do they put in those drinks that one is constantly beaming to be so peacefully there? Wait, don't answer that one.

Maybe it's the food. Maybe it's the mountain air. On Saturday night, we all gathered for a "Meet&Greet" among the judges and were treated to some fabulous finger foods prepared in the nick of time by one of the hotel kitchens. Crab salad shooters, various kinds of sushi, potstickers, sliders, shots of lemon mousse and Tiramisu. A special drinks menu prepared just for us and greatly enjoyed by yours truly. The Gingerbread White Russian was as close to liquid dessert as one can get. Don't be fooled though...they hit you like a brick about an hour later.

In hindsight I am quite glad I started the day with a virgin Bloody Mary at Corner Kitchen and burned a couple of calories walking through the River Arts District with Tami and Dodie whom we met on our previous trip there (from Asheville CVB).

Yes, there is something magical about The Grove Park this time of year and if you are a sucker for holidays, Christmas, trees and ornaments as much as I am, you will be in heaven walking through the hotel right now. There is a tree in front of every window, each with its own theme. Whether you are a coffee or vintage addict to a Santa and gingerbread figurine lover, you are sure to find a tree for you!

My head was spinning at every corner of the hotel with all this whimsy! Glad I found a compass to navigate my way around, down the stairs, up the elevator, around the piano bar and back to our room!

Actually, this much fun is highly conducive to good nights of sleep. I sleep very little and yet I had no problem here putting my brain to rest, close my eyes and sleep a full night. This proved extremely important for the reason I was there in the first place: judging the National Gingerbread House Competition™. Yeah! Get to work Helen! Stop having that much fun with trees! Trust me, this is not an affair taken lightly by anybody. From the competitors entering, to the staff wheeling the houses in the main ballroom to the judges, armed with clipboards and scoring sheets.

One random thing that hit me around noon is that I should have had more than coffee that morning. After looking at two full rows of houses, the smell of gingerbread was making my stomach growl and my concentration weep. We had 5 criteria on which to base our scores and we took plenty of time to evaluate each and every house thoroughly (from 9.30am to 4.30pm).

There are times when putting the camera down is appropriate, especially when you are surrounded with such seriousness as Colette Peters, Nicholas Lodge, Mark Seaman and Steve Stellingwerf pointing to you the latest trends and techniques. To be honest, just to hear the words pastillage and wafer paper was sending me back years ago when I use to eat, drink and sleep that stuff for work and I *had* to put the camera gear to the side.

I did however sneaked in toward the end and while a hired team was taking full shots of the houses, I wanted to focus on the details and the artistry behind some houses. These are some of my favorites in design and whimsy although they did not make it to my top picks as they did not have enough "gingerbread" elements which is what we had come here to judge. Sometimes you have to put your heart waves aside and focus on that spread sheet. The grand prize and other winners in each category can be viewed here.

I did marvel at The Fruitcake House (pictured above). All the details were blowing me away. From the floor tiling to the cracked eggs on the work table, the nonpareilles, the fruit cake tally chalk boards and so forth and so on.

Another one I admired was the first place winner. It reminded me of the of A Christmas Story and the details were so whimsical and aesthetically perfect that everyone had to stop and admire that one. For some judges, there was "not enough gigerbread" to win Grand Prize for others, it was "the one". Yeah, I know, we're tough, but in the wash-out of scoring and tabulating, I think that we indeed picked all the houses that deserved to be in the Top 10.

I just love the aesthetics and color scheme of that one!

It was a long and exhausting day but we were rewarded with a fantastic dinner at Horizons where I had the chance to sit across Colette and Steve and talk shop, sugar and cake for a few hours. I was also blown away by Mark's fluent French and truly envy his yearly excursion to France to tour Patisseries.

Before I get to the recipe I want to extend a huge "Thank You" to my fellow judges, to Jeff, Brian "The Gingerbread Man", Susan, Ron and Rick who made our stay so pleasant and memorable. You guys know your stuff and do it well. Bravo.

We have had many reasons to feel lost this year but we have many more reasons to be grateful, starting with our family, our friends and your constant support and visits. Thank You. Have a fantastic Thanksgiving!

Now...let's talk Pumpkin Semifreddo...

During our lavish dinner at Horizons at The Grove Park Inn, we were presented with a delicious selection of desserts, some I had had the pleasure to make before and one that made everyone ask for more, the Pumpkin Semifreddo. I did not ask for a recipe because it is pretty straightforward to reproduce and instead of doing a full blown plated dessert as we had that night, I served mine in jars and other ramekins for a more casual presentation.

Pumkin Semifreddo

Serves 8

For the semifreddo:
1 cup (250ml) heavy cream
3 tablespoons (65gr)honey (I like wildflower the best)
2 tablespoons (25gr) sugar
2 tablespoons water
3 large egg yolks
1/2 cup (120gr) pumkin puree (I used canned as I was making 150 of these for a catered event but feel free to make your own puree from fresh and cooked pumpkin)
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger

For the crumble topping:
1/2 cup (80 gr) sweet brown rice flour
1/4 cup tapioca (30gr) flour
1/4 cup sorghum (30gr) flour
1/2 cup (100 gr) light packed brown sugar
1 stick (113 gr) unsalted butter, softened

Prepare the Semifreddo:
In the bowl of a stand mixer equipped with the whisk attachment or hand held one with ballon whisks, beat the cream until it just holds soft peaks. Refrigerate it while you prepare the base of the ice cream. Wash your bowl and whisk attachment.

In a heavy saucepan, stir together the honey, sugar, and the water. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Since you are not making caramel, it is ok to stir occasionally until the sugar is dissolved. Let it boil and bring the mixture registers 238°F on a candy thermometer.

This second part is easier to do with a hand held mixer than a KA for example since the quantity of egg yolks is small and the bowl tends to be deep in some models. It works, have no fear...it's just easier with a hand held one.

In the clean bowl of your mixer, still using the whisk attachment, beat the yolks for a minute to loosen them up. Reduce speed to medium and pour the hot honey mixture in a steady stream over them. Go fast enough to prevent the eggs from scrambling but not so fast that you end up with most of the syrup on the wall of the bowl or the whisk. Continue to whip at medium-high speed until the mass is completely cold and airy.

Fold about one third of the chilled whipped cream into the semifreddo base to loosen it up and make it easier to incorporate homogeneously. Add the pumkin puree, the spices and the remaining whipped cream and fold until everything is incorporated.
Divide mixture evenly among dishes cover with plastic wrap and freeze until set.

Prepare the topping:
Preheat the oven to 350F.
In a medium bowl, blend the flours, sugar and butter with your fingertips or a pastry cutter to form large clumps of dough. Lay them on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool to room temperature before breaking the clumps into smaller crumbs.

When ready to serve, top each semifreddo with some crumble and some whipped cream if desired.

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[Full Disclosure] As a guest of The Grove Park Inn, I did not pay for the room and dinners (friday through monday). Any meals and drinks that were not part of the group scheduled ones (saturday brunch-nightcaps at the hotel) were paid by me. I drove my own little self there, on my own little gas money.

Asian Pear Frozen Yogurt

2009-11-19T09:55:00.008-05:00

Before I tell you about this Asian Pear Frozen Yogurt, I want to thank everyone who stopped by to enter Ree's cookbook giveaway. The woman is well loved, that's for sure! My random number generator this time was my friend Tami with whom I went to the National Gingerbread House Competition™ and to be fair, I didn't take into account the entries coming in past the deadline. Congratulations to Patricia in Texas, a., and Jelli Bean. Email me your snail mail addresses at mytartelette[at]gmail[dot]com and I'll pass the info on to Ree.

I have been back from Asheville for a couple of days yet and I am not done processing pictures from the weekend. We did a lot, ate a lot and well, drank a lot too! Instead of throwing down a few comments and a few photos here and there, I want to make the competition, competitors and judges justice (Ha!) so that will be in an upcoming post. I was part of an amazing group of people who tackled each house one by one and evaluated every square each of every display, no tasting though. I think I behaved...

Fall-iage in Asheville, NC.
That part lasted from 9.30am until 4.30pm. Yep. Tami who was not on jury duty booked a nice and lengthy massage at the spa, (another kind of heaven!) and there was a brief moment I wished I was there with her but I had a serious task at hand. Gingerbread houses at The Grove Park Inn is serious business folks! As in every competition, some of my chosen picks did not win Grand Prize or first place in some categories but that's ok, it's part of the maths behind it all.

Driving the 250 miles to Asheville gave me my fix of gorgeous Fall colors and foliage. I did stop a couple of times along the way to take it all in. I called B. and yapped about the reds and the golds I was seeing while he was racking brown dried leaves in the yard under a hot sun and no wind. He asked if there was some Asian Pear Frozen Yogurt he could have afterwards and lucky for him, I had not completely eaten the batch I had made from Jaden's cookbook!

Trust me, I am not kidding when I say I almost ate the entire batch. That frozen yogurt is seriously addicting. I was hoping B. would focus on all the other dishes I had prepared in anticipation of my weekend away but no, he had to ask about the frozen yogurt! My fro-yo, how dare he?! Eh, that's alright, I was feeling bad he was stuck at home with work while I was ~~gallivanting~~ working hard with Tami in the mountains of North Carolina.

I discovered Asian peasr for the first time when I moved to the US where almost every week I would be faced with a new item, either typically Southern or completely exotic as was the case with these pears (as well as prickly pears, dragon fruit, jicama, okra, etc...). I was intrigued. It was juicy, firm, sweet but the flavor was completely unique. You can easily find your share of bland ones, but if you pick the small ones, they will be packed with flavor and juice.

Jaden's frozen yogurt recipe couldn't be any simpler: pears, sugar, ginger, sugar and Greek yogurt. Chop, process, churn. And eat. She tops hers with some crushed pink peppercorns for a little sweet kick but I was out and particularly pressed for time to get more. Instead I topped ours with pomegranate seeds which gave the frozen yogurt a nice tart note.

Asian Pear Frozen Yogurt, adapted from and with permission of Jaden Hair:

Makes 1 1/2 pints

2 large Asian Pears
1/4 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice (I used lime)
1 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger
1 1/2 cups (375gr) Greek yogurt
1/2 cup (100gr) sugar
generous pinch of fine sea salt
1 tablespoons pink peppercorns (crushed) (I used pomegranate seeds)

Peel and chop the pears into small 1/2-inch chunks. Toass them with the lemon juice to prevent oxidizing. In a blender, combine the pears and ginger and puree until smooth. Use 1-2 tablespoons of water if this is difficult to puree.
In a large bowl, combine the pear puree with the yogurt, sugar and salt. Refrigerate for an hour.
Note: I skipped this step by refrigerating the pears for a couple of hours before.
Churn the mixture in your ice cream amker according to manufacturer's directions.
Once churned, freeze until firm. Serve topped with the pink peppercorns.

Potato Leek Pizza and A Giveaway

2009-11-14T11:56:00.005-05:00

When I ask my father what vegetables he wants with dinner, his response is often "potatoes" to which I reply "Dad! We already have a starch. What vegetable would you like?" He then looks me with an obvious smirk and repeats "potatoes". I am very much my father's daughter in that regard. Love them. And noodles. I hope I never have to chose between the two. As much as I am a potato gal, I never thought of putting them on pizza, until last week that is. This Potato-Leek Pizza from The Pioneer Woman has surely changed my mind. "More!" I say!

I remember very distincly the first post I read on Ree's site. I was on the phone with a friend back home who wanted to know how to make cinnamon rolls. We may have many a delicious pastry back home but I think we sorely miss out in the cinnamon rolls department. As a very occasional baker, she needed visuals. I searched step-by-steps online and stumbled on Ree's site. Bingo! My friend had an official teacher, willing to take her by the hand through the whole process. I had found a treasure trove of All American classics that my husband grew up on. He never says so but it's good to split my cooking between my French and his American. Makes for a fun relationship. Much like potatoes and pizza actually.

Ree lives on a ranch in the middle of vast great lands. I live in a house on stilts in the middle of marsh land. She has four 2-legged offsprings, I have two 4-legged companions. She married a cowboy who herds cows for a living. I married a man of the last frontier, history teaching. In her cooking, Ree makes do of what is available in her neck of the woods. I had to learn quickly what is Lowcountry cooking. Her cookbook is #1 in the New York Times Best Sellers list. Mine is still being edited (more on that later, promise) See...completely the same. Ahah!

Don't these fancy baby leeks look like glorified green onions?
I don't know Ree. Sure I have met her at BlogHer Food in San Francisco and exchanged a few words but that's about it. Yet, and I don't know how she does it, she is one of the most kind hearted ladies, taking time in her incredibly busy schedule and many roles to make you feel like what you say did not get lost in the big emptiness of the internet. I can guess it has got to be mind boggling for her how life has changed for her family in the last few years. It would make people feel uneasy, others would get the big head. Yet, Ree remains her natural, super nice, dorky self. I do need to say that she made me blush bright red when she put me in the same sentence a Matt Armendariz at BlogHer. Ugh!

Ree's cookbook reads like a novel. There is food and there is life on the ranch, life with the kids, daily thoughts and aspirations. The one most excited about getting the book was my husband however. He can relate to the recipes, they were part of his mom's stapples. He thought that whereas I fought the generation gap with his mother and the can of Ro-Tel, I would relate to Ree's fresh approach to life and cooking as she was trying to adapt to her new territory. He was right. Copies of my mother-in-law's Little League cookbooks are collecting dust but The Pioneer Woman Cooks is being earmarked by the both of us. He seldoms cooks so he loves the step by step pictures while I skip those for the stories. I like stories.

Ree's book does not need another review, yet I can tell you that B. is extremely excited to eat "Pioneer Woman" this weekend while I am away. I have been invited by the great folks of The Grove Park Inn in Asheville to be a judge in their annual National Gingerbread House Competition. I am not only extremely honored but thrilled to be in a group comprising Colette Peters and Chef Lodge to name a couple. I thought that B. would be able to accompany me but he's stuck with gigs this weekend. Instead, gal pal Tami from Running With Tweezers is coming up from Atlanta to share some of the fun and mountain air. In preparation of the trip, I made a few things that Bill loved and that he could easily reheat at night. One of them was this potato-leek pizza except it was devoured the moment it came out of the oven (well, after a few pictures).

I felt a bit pioneer-ish shopping for the ingredients when the only leeks I could find were fancy baby ones (did not have time to get to another store). Despite the double price tag, they looked a lot like green onions to me and I think I even aggravated the store clerck when I said so. I hate to aggravate them because they do order fancy stuff for me when I ask them. Ah well, they did taste like leeks however so all's well. The combination of potatoes, leeks, bacon ang goat cheese made me think of Frenchified loaded American baked potatoes meeting their Italian cousin on a bed of mozarella and tender pizza crust. Awesome...and I am packing two slices for the road.

I hate to tell you I'm going to frolic in gingerbread goodness in a paradise like retreat while some of you have to work, play hard or are stuck sick at home. That's why I am psyched that Ree generously offered to giveaway THREE copies of her book to three readers. If you want a chance to win, here is what to do:
- leave a comment on this post
- ONE entry per person - if you don't see your comment right away, give me a few hours before re-posting as I have the moderator on.
- Enter until Wednesday November 18th at midnight, US eastern time.

Have a great weekend!

Potato Leek Pizza, with permission of Ree Drummond:

6 slices thick bacon, cut into 1-in pieces
3 leeks, sliced thinly
Extra virgin olive oil
5 small red or Yukon Gold potatoes, sliced paper thin
16 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced thinly
4 oz crumbled goat cheese (I used twice that much:))
Parmesan cheese, grated
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Unbaked pizza crust

Preheat oven to 500 degrees
Begin by frying bacon pieces in a skillet over medium heat until cooked but not crisp. Remove bacon from pan and pour off most of the grease. Set bacon aside.
Return skillet to stove and turn heat to medium-low.
Slice leeks very thinly. A sharp knife helps.
Add leeks to the same pan and sauté over medium-low heat until soft, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
Using a sharp knife or mandoline, slice potatoes very thin.
Prepare pizza crust according to directions, and drizzle lightly with olive oil. Sprinkle lightly with salt. Arrange potatoes in a single layer all over crust, slightly overlapping edges. Sprinkle potatoes lightly with salt, then lay mozzarella slices in a single layer over the top of the potatoes.
Place sautéed leeks over the top of the cheese.
Next, sprinkle the fried bacon pieces over the top, followed by a generous addition of crumbled goat cheese.
Finally, sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper.
Bake pizza for 8 to 11 minutes, or until edges of crust are golden brown and cheese is melted and bubbly. Cut into wedges or squares and serve immediately.

Pizza Crust
Makes two pizza crusts
1 ½ cups warm water
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Extra olive oil for drizzling

Pour warm water into a mixing bowl. Sprinkle yeast over the water.
Stir together flour, olive oil, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add water/yeast mixture and stir together until just combined. Dough will be very sticky.
Drizzle a little olive oil into a clean mixing bowl. Toss the ball of dough in the bowl and turn over to coat in oil. Cover bowl and place in a warm place for 1 to 2 hours, or cover in plastic wrap and store in the fridge for up to 2 days.

Pomegranate and Caramelized Pear Panna Cottas

2009-11-11T09:57:00.007-05:00

I appreciate this time of year when night falls so much earlier. It makes me want to rush home and cozy up with loved ones, a book or a good project. Unlike summer when things are so bright up in my face, I love that Fall and Winter are seasons of shadows and angles with night and day playing cat and mouse so well. So many holidays around the corner. So many friends dropping by, parties hosted and kitchens in full roar. Time to connect and reconnect with people and things. Time to lose half your brain too if you don't pay attention!

When things get plenty busy, it's always good to have a few staples in your kitchen repertoire that are not only show stoppers but easy to prepare and make ahead, almost ensuring your guests will ask for more. My holiday staples almost always include cremes brulees, pots de creme, and panna cottas. Among the variations I like on this traditional Italian favorite, these Pomegranate and Caramelized Pear Panna Cottas have come to rank high on the list.

Panna Cotta is said to have originated in the northern region of Italy where dairy is one of the main agricultural productions but spread out to the entire nation and the rest of the world throughout the years. Variations of panna cotta exist in almost every country as it is a very convenient way to use up extra dairy like cream, milk and yogurt. I grew up on Blanc Manger for example which is a close cousin to the creamy silky no-bake Italian custard.

There are many, many reasons to start putting panna cottas on your list of "reliable-good-things-to-make-for-people-I-love." For starters, what is really fun about panna cotta (beside listening to an Italian saying it outloud) is that you can add flavors and ingredients inside, outside, above and below. You can also mix up the choice of dairy to be used as long as you make sure to balance the acidity and fats of each appropriately. You can prepare them up to 48 hours in advance and keep them snuggled up in the refrigerator until ready to eat. You can top them with whatever strikes your fancy that day or what is available during the season. And...they are gluten free!

November is synonymous with pears and pomegranate to me. Where my mother-in-law tries to find the biggest Comice and Bosc pears for cooking, I tend to favor Seckel and Forelles, my absolute smaller favorites. Where she feels like she hit the jackpot with the biggest pomegranate on the shelf, I always dig for the tinier ones. Yes, I like small and tiny anything but for a reason. Almost everything here is bigger than where I am from. Bigger roads, bigger houses, bigger stores and bigger produce which unfortunately doesn't always mean bigger on taste. I often find that smaller fruits and veggies pack so much more flavor and I'd rather have a small anything full of aroma any day like small servings of creamy and silky Panna Cotta.

Can I say out loud how much I love caramel? If you know me a tiny bit, you know that the mere idea of caramelizing anything gets me moving. When I made these panna cottas for a catered event earlier this week, I kept the base relatively simple with just a touch of vanilla bean and focused more on the toppings. I caramelized some seasonal Forelle pears with just a touch of butter and brown sugar and kept them at room temperature until the guests were ready for dessert. However, when it comes to pomegranate, nothing beats eating them straight out in their natural form. I just love the tart pop that comes with biting into pomegranate seeds. They were just the perfect texture and color contrast to the richness of the panna cottas.

One thing that you can play with and never reach the end of your playtime when it comes to Panna Cottas (beside the flavors) is the combination of dairy you use. Most recipes give you a combination of heavy cream and milk, some add buttermilk or/and yogurt to the mix. All are good, all work...in the proper ratios. If you use more acidic dairy like buttermilk and yogurt (even full fat) make sure to keep twice the amount of heavy cream in the mix. The more acidity is mixed in, the greater risk you run of the base separating into one part cream, one part whey. Nothing to do at this point but to start from scratch. Live and learn. If I can save you a major "Oh no!" and an extra trip to the store, then I've done my job!

If you are vegetarian or vegan, panna cottas can still be well within your dessert favorites. You can substitute any of the dairy for their vegetarian or vegan equivalent such as soy, almond, oat, hemp milks or vegetarian cream as long as they are the full fat kind. Panna cottas rely on the addition of gelatin which is a no-no if you are not a carnivore but kosher gelatin is often vegetarian and agar agar and carrageen are often used as substitutes. I am not proficient with any of these but you can find more information in this article on their nature and preparation.

Panna Cottas are pretty much a bottomless well for your tastebuds and imagination.

Pomegranate and Caramelized Pear Panna Cottas:

Notes: I make my own yogurt and used a freshly made batch in this recipe but you can substitute with store bought plain full fat yogurt, just don't use light, pretty please.
If you are not used to working with gelatin, in all its various forms, I recommend this article written by David Lebovitz. Gelatin won't be a mystery anymore!
Serves 8

For the panna cottas:
2 tablespoons cold water (more if using sheet gelatin)
2 teaspoons (5gr) unflavored powdered gelatin (1.5 sheets to 2 sheets gelatin)
2 cups (500ml) heavy cream
1/3 cup (70gr) sugar
1/2 vanilla bean, split lenghtwise and seeded
1 cup (250ml) plain whole milk yogurt

For the caramelized pear topping:
1 tablespoon (15gr) unsalted butter at room temperature
2 tablespoons (30gr) light brown sugar, packed
2 Forelle or Seckel pears or one Bosc pear, peeled, cored and cut in small dices

One pomegranate, seeded

Prepare the panna cottas:
Place the water in small bowl and sprinkle the gelatin over it. Reserve.
In a large heavy bottomed saucepan placed over medium heat, bring the heavy cream, sugar and vanilla bean seeds to a simmer. When the cream is hot, remove from the heat and whisk in the reserved gelatin until it is completely dissolved. Add the yogurt and whisk until well blended.
Divide the mixture among 8 glasses or ramekins. Let stand at room temperature for 20 minutes and then refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving to let the cream set properly.

Prepare the caramelized pears:
In a heavy sautee pan set over medium heat, melt the butter and sugar together. When the mixture starts to sizzle, add the pear dices and sautee them until they start to become translucid and a little soft to the touch, about 2 minutes. If you cook them too long, you will end up with pear compote which is good too, but does not have the same biting contrast as barely sauteed pears.
Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature.

To serve:
Top the panna cottas with some caramelized pears or pomegranate seeds as desired.

Chocolate Wontons And Tonka Bean Ice Cream

2009-11-07T01:27:00.003-05:00

If I were to wait for the proper weather to bake certain desserts, I'd never get to turn the oven on or fry some donuts and the ice cream machine would be churning year round. Take Halloween day, it was near 90F pretty much all day long and yet I wanted to bake some fun goodies for the neighbors. We spent the day in short sleeves, going about the neighborhood with the kids steaming in their costumes. More than one of them thought ill of their parents for dressing them up as a furry teddy bear or a heavy padded alligator. I know these feelings disappeared when I brought down these hot Chocolate Wontons and a batch of Tonka Bean Ice Cream that we had with glasses of apple cider...on ice.

Years ago we used to have a different chocolate special everyday at the restaurant and certain mornings proved difficult to come up with a bright idea at 5am when I was hand deep into kneading baguettes. I remember opening Chocolate Passion by Timothy Moriarty and Tish Boyle with the assurance that I'd have a winner and often recommended it to patrons asking me for a recipe. When I stumbled upon Maury Rubin's Book Of Tarts, I think I baked just about every one of them they were so creative.

Sometimes it's a technique or a subject that makes me delve in a cookbook. Sometimes it's the story behind its coming to life, an anedocte, the writing. Sometimes it's the author and her/his journey. In short, something that moves me beyond the recipes (I have quite a head full of those already) which is the case with Jaden's first cookbook, The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook, from which I made the chocolate wontons. Having shared a plane, meals, drinks, and a panel with her, I can tell you that Jaden is good people and I am extremely proud of her. I knew her book would be one I could open at any page and cook something new, delicious and fresh. All four recipes I have made so far were a hit with us and our friends.

If you were to come to my house you'd think I spend all my spare change on cookbooks. If you looked a little closer, you would see a fine print on most reading "preview copy", "press release copy", etc... About twice a week, the mailman makes the hike up to the front door and drops a new box on the porch. He also leaves a couple of doggie treats for the pupps. They know it, they go crazy until I get to the door. What do I do? I open the box, I flip through the book and get the post-its out. "This one will be great for friend S." or "This is one for R." and so forth.

I am very appreciative of this situation, believe me and I am under no obligation to review or pimp them out on this site. I know that a friend would benefit from a crockpot recipe book more than I will since I don't own such a beast, or my baking-challenged friend S. might enjoy a basic dessert cookbook more than I will. But there are books I hoard, read, cook and bake from, hoard again, read some more and cook from until the hinges get worn out. Jaden's book will be one of them.

I must give Jaden kuddos for the dessert section though she said it was tough to write. Her approach to dessert is very much what we like throughout the week: fresh fruits, easy to prepare frozen treats and the occasional splurge like the chocolate wontons. The headnotes say they will make little girls squeals and little boys break out into a disco dance (I am paraphrasing) and the neighbors' kids did just that on Halloween when I handed them out! I think I even saw a couple of adults shake their bootie in delight too!

These are so easy to make and if you get an extra set of hands to help out, you can make a double batch in a flash. Plan on that as they disappear very fast! There is no need for a deep fryer and if you keep the oil at a steady 350F you end up with perfectly crisp, never oily wontons which chocolate center oozes out as you bite into them. I had planned to serve them with her Asian Pear Frozen Yogurt but we devoured that one too fast so I went with my own tonka bean ice cream instead. The almond and vanilla flavor of the tonka paired really well with the chocolate once again. (see recipe notes)

Chocolate Wontons, from The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook, with permission of Jaden Hair

Makes 12

1 egg
1 tablespoon water
12 wonton wrappers
12 pieces of chocolates (I used about 4 chocolate chips per wonton)
high heat oil for frying (I used canola)
Powdered sugar for dusting

In a small bowl, make an egg wash by whisking together the egg and the water.
On a clean, dry surface, place a wrapper down with a point facing you. Place a piece of chocolate or chocolate chips near the top end of the wrapper. Brush a thin lauer of egg wash on the edges of the warpper. Fold the bottom corner up to create a triangle and press down at the edges to remove as much air from the middle as possible. Make sure the wrapper is sealed completely. Repeat with the remaining wrappers and chocolate pieces. Keep the prepared wontons covered with a piece of plastic wrap or a damp towel to prevent them from drying.
In a wok or medium pot (I used a 9-inch cast iron pan), heat about 2 inches of oil to 350F and gently slide a few wontons into the hot oil. Do not crowd the pan as the oil temperature would lower too much and you would end up with grease-soggy wontons.
Fry 1 to 1 1/3 minutes on each side until both sides are golden crisp.
Drain on paper towels and sprinkle with powdered sugar

Tonka Bean Ice Cream:

Notes: Yes, tonka beans are banned from import in the US by the FDA, yet they are used by many countries in food preparation and desserts in particular. Consumed in large quantities, they can be toxic as they contain an anticoagulant which many blood thinning medications are based on, courmarin. So, it's banned, but its main agent is used in meds here and you can purchase tonka beans on ebay. UGH?!! Gotta love the FDA and large medical companies politics. Since I use 2-3 beans a year in recipes that feed no less than 8 people each time, I know we are ok but research and educate yourself before cooking with tonka beans if you are interested.

By the way, if you have vanilla extract from South America in your pantry and wonder why it smells like a vanilla bean got too close to an almond one night, that's probably because tonka beans were used instead of real vanilla or diluted with it to make it cheaper to sell. Nothing wrong with that if you are aware of all the facts.

Tonka beans smell like a cross between vanilla and almond extracts and if you can't find or do not wish to use tonka beans, substitute with each extract in the ice cream recipe and you will get close to the actual flavor.

6 egg yolks
1 cup (100gr)
2 cups whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
1 tonka bean (or 1 teaspoon vanilla + 1/2 teaspoon almond extracts)

In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks and the sugar until pale and thick. In a saucepan set over medium heat, bring the milk, cream to a simmer, without letting it come to a full boil. With a microplane, grate the tonka bean right over the milk and cream simmering (I add the little knob left for extra flavor). Slowly pour the hot cream over the egg yolks mixture while whisking to temper the egg yolks. Pour the whole mixture back into the saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the cream coats the back of spoon. It should register 170F on a candy thermometer. At this point you have made a custard sauce, also known as "creme anglaise". Let cool completely, strain and refrigerate until cold, preferably overnight.
Once and the custard is cold, process according to your ice cream maker manufacturer's instructions.

Mom's "Tupp" Apple Cardamom Cake

2009-11-04T01:21:00.003-05:00

Let's talk winning tickets, shall we? First, my dear human random number generator, B., picked Brandy from Nutmeg Nanny to receive Nicole's The Baking Bites Cookbook. Congrats! Send me a quick email and I'll pass the info along. Now on to this cake...

I know I am going to jinx it. I just know it. Maybe if I whisper it very softly: It finally feels like Fall around here. Mostly in the wee hours of the morning when I can finally feel a chill in the air and a dry breeze through the marsh. Actually, not having a free day on the schedule until April means that the season has indeed changed. Drastic times call for drastic measures and I often turn the comfort of my mom's apple cake during the Fall and holiday season. The one cake that earned her the affectionate name of Maman Tupp and the one we know as "Gateau Aux Pommes Tupp".

I am pretty sure that most French people reading are familiar with the "Gateau aux Pommes 5-4-3-2-1" that the brand Tupperware® introduced during home demonstrations of their products. A very simple, very unassuming and particularly delicious appple cake, soft and moist all the way through. It was especially known for its creamy butter and sugar topping forming a tempting thin crust while baking. For years, I thought that was my favorite part of the cake. Now I know. Two slices with some creme fraiche is my favorite part!

When you are 5 or 6, saying that you would like the "Gateau 5-4-3-2-1" for "gouter" (4pm snack) is not only long but it does sound silly. However, it made it very easy to start baking with mom at an early age since the recipe went something like "5 spoons of flour, 4 spoons of sugar, 3 spoons of milk"...and so on. One bowl, one spoon, dry before wet, one apple, whip it all and bake.

We made it so often in my family that it became much easier for everyone to call it the "Gateau Aux Pommes Tupp" (Tupp Apple Cake) and over the years to make it even shorter with a simple "Gateau Tupp". See, it works so much better to beg mom for it this way. This simple gateau became the one we would gather around during tea time on a cold and rainy day, the one that made any bad school day be forgotten in a few whisks of sugar. It solved a few arguments and mended broken hearts too.

Yes, my mom was a Tupperware® lady back in the 80s. She never played the sales game, but she loved to host parties for friends getting in the biz. That was her thing, the hosting. And the baking, the cooking, and passing around trays of items made with the brand's products. Let's face it mom, you also loved getting new stuff for the kitchen. To this day she is still very well stocked in containers, molds and measuring instruments of all sorts from the big T company.

It was very fortunate that my parents in law dropped off a basket full of apples from a recent visit to an orchard in North Carolina and I made a big dent in it baking a few of these cakes. In the end, the cakes are nothing like the original recipe. I made ours a tad less sweet and gluten free which is perfect here to keep the cakes moist, thus not following the original "5-4-3-2-1" formula. Then, there was the matter of the spoon measure called for in the original version. I don't own such an instrument but I figured that since the company was American, a large spoon such as the one mom used had to be close to 1/4 cup. Yes, in this cake, precision to the gram has very little importance and that's just what I need when swamped.

Now, if you'll excuse me, it's time for my daily slice...Or mini cake.

Mom's Tupp Apple Cake:

Notes: if you do not intend to make a gluten free cake, replace all the gluten free flours (rice, tapioca, sorghum) with 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour.
The cake bakes in two separate times: first for 10 minutes, the remove it from the oven to add the cream topping and bake for an additional 20 minutes.
I added cardamom just because it reminds me even more of my mom but you can skip that part or add cinnamon instead.

For the cake:
1/2 cup (80gr) sweet brown rice flour
1/4 cup (30gr) tapioca flour
1/2 cup (65gr) sorghum flour
1/2 cup (100gr) sugar
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon (5gr) baking powder
3/4 cup (190ml) whole milk
1/3 cup (80ml) oil
1 egg
2 apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced (I like Granny Smith but any kind will do here)

For the topping:
5 1/2 tablespoons(80gr) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup (100gr) sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Prepare the cake:
Preheat the oven to 350F. Spray or butter the inside of a 9-inch round baking pan or several 3 to 4-inch baking pans if you want smaller cakes. Place them on a baking sheet and set aside.
In large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cardamom, salt and baking powder. Reserve. In another large bowl, whisk together the milk, oil and egg until just blended.
Slowly pour the liquids over the dry ingredients, whisking well to make sure that everything is well incorporated, about 40 to 50 strokes.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan(s) and arrange the apple slices on top in a circular pattern.

Prepare the topping:
In a medium bowl, whisk together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the egg and the vanilla extract and whisk until smooth. Reserve

Bake the cake(s) in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove the cake(s) from the oven and spread the creamy butter topping over the top(s). Bake an additional 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted near the center comes out clean.

Chai Coffee Cake And A Giveaway

2009-10-31T01:28:00.007-04:00

It won't be a surprise to say that there is always cake at the ready in the house. Whether it be for B. as a late night snack after a music job, friends dropping by on a late saturday afternoon, or simply as a quick snack as we pass by the kitchen. It's usually a variation of my grandma's yogurt cake. Always good. Always comforting. One cake I never make enough is coffee cake. You know, the kind with the lovely strudel top that is both crunchy and soft as you bite into it. But then Nicole's Chai Spiced Coffee Cake entered my life. Twice in one week. Three times a day, once.

I did not make it twice just for us and just because. You see, a couple of weeks ago, I received an email from a high school senior here in town, Haley, whose senior project was to recreate the Julie-Julia project but with David Lebovitz' Room For Dessert book. Haley asked if I would have a bit of time to give her some tips about running her blog chronicling the project, photography, writing, etc... I said yes. I remember when I started blogging that I was often looking up to my seniors for pointers (I still do at times) so I thought it was a great opportunity to give back to the blogging community. I am no expert but I have been at this blogging thing for a while now, eheheh.

And I love when life on the screen brings about wonderful little happenings like this!

Anyway, I thought we'd have some cake and tea and get right into the nitty nifty gritty of blogging and pictures. Well, schedules got out of hands and I never got to make that Chai Coffee Cake for Haley. We did meet this week and spent a great afternoon. I hope I answered her questions, at least until next time we meet. I gave her tips on how to operate her point and shoot camera to the best of its capacity, tips on light, focus, etc...and let her play with my props. Hopefully, there will be cake next time we do this!

I love this cake on so many levels but first and foremost because it is one of the recipes that Nicole included in her newly released first cookbook, "The Baking Bites Cookbook". Nicole's Blog, Baking Bites is one of the handful of blogs I started reading prior to starting my own. We were "blog friends from afar" until we finally met at BlogHer Food in San Francisco. Nicole is as delightful and true as she is on her blog. I am so proud that she achieved one of her lifelong dreams by writing this book.

I bluntly asked her if I could feature one of her recipes and introduce some of you to her blog if you did not read it already and to her "baby", The Baking Bites Cookbook. She agreed. I bluntly added "hey! Would you be ok to give a copy to one reader?" and she said yes. So here you go: there is one free copy of this delicious book up for grabs. All you have to do is leave a comment on this post. The giveaway runs until Monday November 2nd, midnight US Eastern time and a reader will be chosen at random to receive a copy.

Given how good the Chai Coffee Cake was, I can't wait to bake more from Nicole's book!

Chai-Spiced Crumb Coffee Cake, from The Baking Bites Cookbook with permission of Nicole Weston:

Cinnamon is the standard spice for topping a crumb coffee cake. This coffee cake keeps the crumb topping and spices it up a little more by using some of the same flavors that are found in chai, including cinnamon, ginger, cardamom and allspice. These spices really help to make the coffee cake memorable - and they also make you want to come back for a second slice.

Note: the only change I made to the recipe was to fill my baking pan with half the batter, sprinkle some of the topping and add the remaining batter and topping.

Topping:
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled slightly

Cake:
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup sour cream, full or low fat

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 9-inch square baking pan with parchment paper or lightly greased aluminum foil.

Make the Topping:
In a medium bowl, combine all topping ingredients except butter. Whisk to blend.
Gradually stir in the melted butter, using a large fork or spatula to mix. When all the butter has been incorporated and the mixture looks like wet sand, squeeze small clumps together to make large crumbs ranging in size from that of a pea to that of a grape. Set aside.

Make the Cake:
In another medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light. Beat in eggs, one at a time, followed by vanilla extract. With the mixer set on a low speed (or by hand), alternately add in flour and sour cream in two or three additions. When no streaks of flour remain, pour into prepared pan. Top evenly with crumb mixture.
Bake at 350F for about 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Cool on a wire rack before slicing.
Serves 9-12

It Takes All Sorts Of Macarons To Make The World Go Round

2009-10-27T01:37:00.002-04:00

I love, like, enjoy, many people and many things in this life but if there is one thing that I live for on the weekends is when B. comes home from playing music and we sit on the bed and geek out for hours about all sorts of topics. Photography, films, history, and often times, food. Before we know, it's three o'clock in the morning (not his bedtime at all) and we go to sleep with growling stomachs and visions of sugar plums. Especially when we geek out about macarons. Especially when they are Peanut Butter and Jelly, Lemon Meringue Pie and Banana Caramel Macarons.

We were recently putting together a care package for a friend in town and we started brainstorming about what to include. Macarons, are always first on the list for some reason, eheh! I was looking for flavors I had not done before and he was looking to recreate some of his favorites. In the end, our friend S. received 2/3 of the Daring Bakers challenge delivered right to her front steps. From the look on her face, I knew I'd be repeating these flavors over again.

Bill's go-to breakfast is a bagel with peanut butter and jelly and turning this into a macaron was very easy. I used half almond and half peanuts for the shells and filled those with a teaspoon each of peanut butter and homemade raspberry jelly.

One of my favorite desserts is lemon meringue pie and after coniving on the best way to make this into a macaron, I finally settled on keeping the shells all almonds and adding the zest of one lemon to the batter. I filled the insides with homemade lemon curd and a teaspoon of freshly made Swiss meringue.

One of my husband'd favorite snacks when he comes home from playing music is to cut up a banana and drizzle it with Salidou, the homemade salted butter caramel sauce that I always keep handy in the fridge. For the macarons I simply mashed a whole banana and mixed it with the leftover from the Taffy Apples I posted yesterday. Once cooled and naturally thickened a bit, it was easy to pipe on the macarons shells and sandwich them.

I've known about this month challenge since this summer when Amy emailed with concerns about doing macarons for the Daring Bakers. We covered all types of questions from aging the egg whites, drying the macs before baking to food coloring and how to best incorporate flavors. I volunteered a phone macaron making session and guided her over the phone while she baked my tried and true recipe. In the end she felt most comfortable with the version she knew best, Claudia Flemming's, which brought on my most common comment about macarons: if you find a recipe that works for you, stick to it, no matter whose it is, especially if you are new to macarons and don't make them that often.

Amy, thank you for the fun phone macaron making session and it was a pleasure helping out with some of your questions!

I'm glad I tried a new recipe for macarons and did not have any problems with it, probably because I've been making them for 15 years so I know what to expect. I will however stick to the recipe I use all the time, for no other reason that it is engrained in my DNA right now!

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

Macarons, from Claudia Flemming' The Last Course: The Desserts Of Gramercy Tavern.

Confectioners’ (Icing) sugar: 2 ¼ cups (225 g, 8 oz.)
Almond flour: 2 cups (190 g, 6.7 oz.)
Granulated sugar: 2 tablespoons (25 g , .88 oz.)
Egg whites: 5 (Have at room temperature)

Preheat the oven to 200°F (93°C). Combine the confectioners’ sugar and almond flour in a medium bowl. If grinding your own nuts, combine nuts and a cup of confectioners’ sugar in the bowl of a food processor and grind until nuts are very fine and powdery.
Beat the egg whites in the clean dry bowl of a stand mixer until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks.
Sift a third of the almond flour mixture into the meringue and fold gently to combine. If you are planning on adding zest or other flavorings to the batter, now is the time. Sift in the remaining almond flour in two batches. Be gentle! Don’t overfold, but fully incorporate your ingredients.
Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plain half-inch tip (Ateco #806). You can also use a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off. It’s easiest to fill your bag if you stand it up in a tall glass and fold the top down before spooning in the batter.
Pipe one-inch-sized (2.5 cm) mounds of batter onto baking sheets lined with nonstick liners (or parchment paper).
Bake the macaroon for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and raise the temperature to 375°F (190°C). Once the oven is up to temperature, put the pans back in the oven and bake for an additional 7 to 8 minutes, or lightly colored.
Cool on a rack before filling.

For the PB&J Macarons:- Replace half the amount of almonds with finely ground unsalted roasted peanuts.
- Once cooled, fill the shells with a dollop of peanut butter (either smooth or crunchy) and jam.

For the Lemon Meringue Macarons:
- Fill the shells with a teaspoon or so of freshly made lemon curd
- Add a teaspoon or so of Swiss meringue. (I made half the recipe)

For the Caramel Banana Macarons:
- Mixed one smashed banana with half the quantity of toffee sauce I made for the dipped crabapples.

Trick or TrEat Taffy Crabapples

2009-10-26T00:53:00.013-04:00

I am always amazed when stores start displaying Halloween merchandise in August. A part of me grunts "don't rush it people! Enjoy the rest of the summer!" while I secretly start to giggle at the prospect of gobblins and witches knocking at the door on Halloween night. Halloween is not part of our rituals where I am from. We honor the departed the day after, usually with a trip to church and a visit to the cemetary. That's heavy when you're a kid. Even if kids here only think of dressing up, I am much too happy to oblige in their "Trick Or Treat". I am even happier to make a couple of inspired Halloween treats for us, like these Taffy Crabapples.

Ever since Bill welcomed me home with a basket of crabapples upon returning from San Francisco, I have had it in my head to make little taffy crabapples. When I got an email from Brooke from Tongue And Cheeky asking me if I wanted to be part of her Trick or TrEat project, I jumped on the occasion. Not that I need an excuse to make up for Halloweens past and I certainly don't need an excuse to play with caramel.

What is Trick or TrEat? Well, today, nine favorite food, craft and lifestyle bloggers await behind nine haunted houses with an array of holiday treats created just for you. At the end of this post, you will find two of these mystery houses. To join in the holiday fun, simply click on one of the buttons and you’ll be linked to the next home on the block. You can also discover all of the Trick-Or-TrEat contributors and find direct links to their posts on the Trick Or TrEat website.

We did get a bonus Halloween moment the day after I made these. The humidity and heat in South Carolina caused the taffy to bubble up, giving the crabapples an unflattering pustular look. I thought that was pretty hilarious and decided to tuck at one just to see how the taffy coating would react. It opened up like a pretty wrapper and revealed the crabapple inside giving me the perfect photo op. Who would have thought? I guess that's Halloween: you never know what is really around the corner!

Will I be nice witch or a wicked one on Halloween night? Ahahahah! Happy Halloween!

Whose houses are next to visit on the block? Check after the jump!

This is a great recipe to get the kids involved in the kitchen with you. Do prepare the taffy coating yourself (there is hot caramel and bubbling action there) but let them dip the apples and play with shaking them to let the extra caramel coating drip off. If the stems of the apples are too short or too flimsy, stab a lollipop stick right at the stem and dip. I left the taffy crabapples plain, but you can certainly roll them in chopped nuts, chopped chocolate, nonpareils, etc...

Taffy Crabapples:

Makes about 16 coated mini apples.

12 lady apples

1 cup (200gr) granulated sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup (60ml) heavy cream
pinch of salt
16 crabapples
wooden skewers or thin lollipop sticks to hold (optional)

Line a bkaing sheet with either some slightly greased parchment paper or a silpat. Set aside.
Place the sugar in a heavy bottom saucepan set over medium high heat. Slowly let the sugar melt and turn into caramel. This method is called a dry caramel and can be a bit tricky. If you are not comfortable with it, add up to 1/4 cup water to your saucepan and slowly bring the sugar to caramel color.
Standing back a bit, carefully add the butter, heavy cream and salt. Do not worry, it will bubble like mad. When the bubbling slows down, stir the mixture until smooth.
Carefully dip the crabapples into the hot taffy and twirl them above the pan to let the excess drip off. Place the dipped apples onto your prepared baking sheet and let set.

To see what other Trick-Or-TrEat hosts have cooked up for your viewing pleasure, click on the links at the bottom of the house drawings, not the houses themselves.

Right: Jaime at Sophistimom. Left: Megan at Not Martha.

Butternut And Acorn Squash Soup

2009-10-21T14:45:00.009-04:00

Thank you all so much participating in the Macy's giveaway! Through emails, I know that some of you held dinner parties this week to raise money to fight hunger. That makes me so happy! We held our own last night in a very impromptu sort of way when my mother-in-law dropped by with a standing rib roast, all ready to be devoured. I quickly gathered the neighbors to our table. As a thank you, they made donations to the local food bank. As my way to thank them, I sent everyone with some of this Butternut and Acorn Squash Soup we have been enjoying lately.

My random number generator (Bill) went to bed before midnight so I quickly emailed Jen and asked her to pick two winners. Her answer was: "48 & 119, based on time interval between kaweah's twitches in her sleep times random number." Don't you love this scientifically proven method? Ah! Congratulations to Mani and Cindy. Please send me your mailing address so I can forward them to Macy's (mytartelette[at]gmail[dot]com).

Dang things are busy around here and I am liking it very much! I get to do and see, work lots of fun stuff. Indeed, if you are in the Charleston area, drop by the first annual recipe and cook-off contest which I'll be photographing for Charleston Magazine. Come support some budding cooking and baking talent!

Obviously, all that buzzing about is good and getting home, plopping exhausted on the sofa makes me feel like I have contributed to the twirling world around me. I know my mom hates it because I end up calling home (France) at the oddest hours and often times while I am eating a late lunch of soup or salad while they're already in bed. Sorry. Every time I would talk to my mom last week, she'd ask me what I was eating, and my answer always was "butternut and acorn squash soup, side of petits lardons and creme fraiche".

It got to the point that she started worrying immensely. "Do you need me to send you some money?" she asked one day. In her mind, if we were eating that much soup that could only mean we were ut of ka-ching. I started laughing uncontrollably. "No mom! It's our soup kick of the month and it so good I keep making it every other day!". The timid colder days did not have anything to do with it but tempting displays of seasonal squash got the best of me and I caved in.

This soup could not be any simpler to make with fresh butternut and acorn squash, some chicken stock (homemade if possible), garlic and thyme. To serve, we like a little (or a big) dollop of creme fraiche and some "lardons" (thick cut bacon or salted cured pork). One day this week we added some thinly sliced dried Thai chilies and sauteed butternut squash seeds. We voted this version as the best so far but feel free to improvise!

And before I forget: Please join me on Monday, October 26, when I join forces with nine of the webs best food and lifestyle bloggers for the delightfully frightful Halloween collaboration, Trick-Or-Eat. Nine haunted houses have been trimmed and tricked out on your behalf. Which of your favorite bloggers awaits behind each haunted home? Whatever have the ghostand hostesses prepared for your visit? Be sure to stop by for this ultimate Holiday Block Party, presented blog style!

Butternut And Acorn Squash Soup:

Serves 4 hungry poeple

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small butternut squash, peeled and diced into 1-inch cubes (seeds scooped out & saved)
1 small acorn squash, peeled and diced into 1-inch cubes
3 cloves or garlic, peeled and smashed (don't worry about mincing)
4 cups chicken stock
1 to 2 teaspoons fresh thyme (or less if desired. You can also use some sage)
water
salt and pepper

Optional accompaniements:
chopped Tai chilies
creme fraiche (or sour cream)
sauteed thick cut bacon or salted and cured pork, sliced thin
seeds from one of the squashes (sautee in the bacon fat for maximum flavor, and drained on paper towels)

In a large stock pot, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the cubed squashes and sautee for 2-3 minutes or until they start to get some caramelizing color. Add the garlic and sautee one minute, stirring often to prevent it from burning (or it will become bitter). Add the chicken stock and thyme and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and cook, covered for about 30 minutes or until the squash is tender. With an immersion blender, puree the soup in the pot until smooth. If usig a food processor or blender, let the soup cool a bit before processing. Adjust the consistency to your liking with extra water. Salt and pepper to taste.
Garnish as desired.

Bananas Foster Tartelettes & A Giveaway

2009-10-17T15:10:00.010-04:00

I like to think I am fairly organized. I mean, there is logic to whatever battle is taking place on my desk. Or in my head. Like most of us, I get pretty psyched about being a step ahead and I was darn happy for having posts in drafts right before I left for BlogHer food in San Francisco. David says he has 40 stories or so in drafts at all times. I giggle when I have one ahead of the game. I am however excited when “the” one is these Bananas Foster Tartelettes. Things got busy then and things got busier this week but these were too good to wait any longer to post.

Whenever I travel, I try to leave a few easy things for B. to reheat for dinner knowing too well he’d end up eating at his parents or be invited here and there. He tends to skip meals when there is no one to call him to the table. I know he can boil water for pasta. I’ve seen it. I even happen to know he can make awesome steamed clams.

This time was no different as I labeled containers of food and even took him on a guided tour of the fridge and pantry. It’s just not his thing. I was tempted to post-it the entire house but refrained. However, as previously mentioned, his eyes got stuck on all the desserts left on top shelf from my zealous attempt at getting prepared. This is his thing.

After describing what the tarts were made of, he exclaimed “oh! Kind of like bananas foster without the fire flambéing action!” Precisely. We tend to have a surplus of bananas in the house, and after making banana donuts last month, I still had plenty to use up, hence the tarts (and a few loaves of banana nut bread).

The tarts start with a crispy shortbread base and are filled with a hazelnut and almond frangipane before being topped with fresh banana slices and a (generous) drizzle of salted butter caramel sauce. I am all over banana and nuts and I am all over salted butter anything, so the combination was pretty much a no brainer. However, it all came together out of the necessity to use all the tidbits ingredients in the fridge, pantry and freezer.

I had leftover shortbread dough in the freezer from a previous tart making day as well as a jar of salted butter caramel sauce, a handful each almonds and hazelnuts in the pantry, a knob of butter and a tiny bit of cream in the fridge. And of course a good many banana giving me the sweet eye.

As I have said before, I hate waste. Having worked in a restaurant kitchen for many year, I pretty much nailed down the recycling issue. If you don’t recycle, re-use or force yourself to use items bought on a whim, you are likely to drive your place to the pits. I have the same mentality when it comes to the kitchen. Being on a tight budget, I can’t allow us to waste, even less impulse buy certain items. Everything these days is budgeted, accounted for and used to the max. More than ever before I am aware of what I have. Time, the ability to cook, develop recipes, a wonderful mother- in -law who unexpectedly drops by with supplies, etc…

Some of us are not that lucky. I do my best but some can’t. In that spirit, I really like what Macy is doing in their campaign Come Together to fight hunger to raise awareness and money to feed 10 million of people suffering from hunger, and they will match donation dollar for dollar.
When Macy’s got in touch to spread the word last week, I immediately agreed. There are 3 different ways you can get involved in this great campaign:

1) You can host dinner parties and ask that instead of bringing traditional host gifts, guests make a donation to Feeding America.

2) You can donate $1 directly at any Macy's register, one dollar provides dinner for seven.

3) You can shop at any Macy's and get special savings in-store on October 17 (today). A portion of the $5 in-store ticket sales will benefit Feeding America.

Macy’s also provided me with two $25 gift certificates to give to my readers. All you have to do is leave a comment (multiple entry will automatically be deleted) before Tuesday october 20th midnight eastern time, for a chance to win. My better half will select the winners at random from the comments left on this post. Even if Macy’s does not ship internationally nor has stores outside the US, everyone can enter. You can always use the gift certificate to do your Christmas shopping for friends or family here and continue to spread some good spirit.

Good luck!

Bananas Foster Tartelettes:

Serves 8

Sable Dough:
1 stick (113 gr) butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup (95 gr) powdered sugar (unsifted)
1 large egg
1 1 /2 cups (190gr) all purpose flour
2 tablespoons (20 gr) cornstarch
pinch of salt

For the almond-hazelnut frangipane filling:
1 stick (115 gr) butter, softened
½ cup (100 gr) granulated sugar
½ cup (50 gr) ground almonds
½ cup (50gr) ground hazelnuts
seeds from half a vanilla bean or 2 teaspoons vanilla paste or extract
2 eggs
1/4 cup (60gr) heavy cream

Remaining ingredients:
3-4 bananas, thinly sliced
Salted butter Caramel sauce
Vanilla Ice Cream

Prepare the shortbread rounds:
In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whip the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy on medium speed, 2-3 minutes. Add the egg and mix until combined. Add the flour, cornstarch and salt and mix briefly to incorporate. Dump the whole mixture onto a lightly floured board and gather the dough into a smooth ball. Do not work the dough while in the mixer or it will toughen up. Flatten the dough into a disk, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.
You will need half the amount of dough to make the tartelettes. The other half can be kept in the fridge for up to 5 days or frozen, well wrapped for up to 3 months.
Preheat the oven to 350F and position a rack in the middle. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
When the dough is nice and cold, roll it out on a lightly floured board or in between sheets of plastic wrap to about ¼ -inch thick. Cut out eight 3-inch rounds with a pastry ring or cookie cutter. Place them on the prepared baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes. Let cool.

Prepare the filling:
Place the butter, sugar, ground nuts, vanilla bean seeds and the eggs in a large bowl and whisk until smooth (can also be done in a food processor). Add the cream but stir in it instead of whisking to prevent emulsifying it or it will rise while baking. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Place 8 baked rounds of dough in 8 pastry rings of the same dimension, divide the cream evenly among the rings and bake 20 minutes at 350F. Let cool. Once cooled, remove the tarts from the rings and arrange the banana slices decoratively on top, drizzle the caramel sauce on top. Serve with vanilla ice cream if desired.

Spiced Quince Crumbles

2009-10-12T10:41:00.005-04:00

If you were to come visit South Carolina right now, you'd be hard pressed to find any sign that it is indeed Fall. For us, an extra packed schedule and an ever growing temptation for candy corn let us know tis the season. The leaves are still green, the sun is still out and the heat and humidity are still very much present. So what is a gal to do when she is season deprived? Get in the kitchen and bake something Fall-ish like these Spiced Quince Crumbles while listening to comforting favorites.

Nothing screams Fall louder to me than the smell of quince simmering on the stove with a handful of my favorite spices. My mom used to make quince jelly every year and the process usually took a couple of days between the peeling, slicing, slow cooking, straining and canning. Every year, I looked forward to these days like a famished wolf. There would be jelly sweet as honey for our morning toasts and quince compote left over from the straining for our after school tartine.

Quinces are no locally grown here so they tend to be pricey and since we are watching our budget, they are more of an occasional luxury, and I treat them as such. Nothing gets wasted not even the seeds. Once peeled I use the skin to flavor tagines and oriental stews. The seeds are very high in pectin so I wrap them in cheesecloth and use them for pate de fruits or other jams. The soft flesh is most often stewed until tender and parked in the refrigerator for tarts or crumbles just like this one.

I love that I can find them around here as soon as October rolls around even though no one at the store really knows what they are and how to prepare them. If you live in my town and they was a lady holding up the cashier's line for a code check, might have been me and my two quinces!

There are no good words to explain quinces properly. They are a bit of this and a bit of that but also neither this nor that. Whatever you do with them, just do not eat them raw. You can always check Google and Wikipedia or trust me that they are too good not to bake with.

We've had a pretty packed weekend of photographing weddings and my brain is getting fried by the minute planning a job this week, working with this amazing photographer (I style, he shoots). So when we plopped on the couch last night and put our feet up with a couple of these crumbles, all seemed right and quiet with the world. At least during those ten minutes of eating them...

These gluten free crumbles start with softly poached quinces in plenty of spices reminiscent of Fall like cinnamon, star anise, cardamom, cloves. Here I used a mix of flours for the topping with some chopped hazelnuts, but you could substitute the same amount in all purpose flour if you wish.

Fall is here. At least through cooking and baking!

Spiced Quince Crumbles:

Serves 4

For the poached quinces:
2 quinces, peeled, cored and quartered
2 star anise
1 cinnamon stick
2 cardamom pods, slightly crushed
5 cloves
1/4 cup (50gr) sugar
1 teaspoon allspice berries
1/2 lemon

For the crumble:
1/4 cup (40gr) brown rice flour
1/4 cup (40gr) sorghum flour
1/4 cup (30gr) tapioca flour
OR 3/4 cup (95gr) all purpose flour instead if not baking gluten free
3 tablespoons (15gr)finely chopped hazelnuts
1/4 cup (55gr) packed light brown sugar
1 egg yolk
2 1/2 tablespoons heavy cream

Prepare the quinces:
Place all the ingredients in a large saucepan and add enough water to cover the quinces. Bring the content of the pot to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to low, place a lid halfway over the pot and simmer for 45 minutes to an hour, or until the quinces are soft when you poke a knife through them. Remove the fruit from the liquid with a slotted spoon and let cool to room temperature. Thinly slice the quince and reserve.

Butter the inside of four 1 cup capacity ramekins or small dishes and set them on a baking tray. Preheat the oven to 350F and position a rack in the center.

Prepare the crumble:
Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and mix with your fingertips or a fork until the mixture resembles large beads.

Divide the quince slices evenly among your prepared dishes and sprinkle the crumble as evenly on top. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.

You might have leftover crumble mixture, you can either bake it separately and crumble it up over ice cream later or freeze it for up to three months for a quick crumble later.

The Little Hands Behind

2009-10-08T11:58:00.005-04:00

No, I have not found a way to make clams out of pastry nor did I find the time to make them out of fondant. After my last post, my dear husband came to me and complained "I'm ok with you posting that I dont' bake because let's face it, I don't but I *do* cook. Sometimes." Yes, he does. Sometimes. Which prevents me from eating cake for lunch because I am plowing through work and often realize that it is 2pm and we have not had lunch yet. And I love when he cooks simple things like these Steamed Clams that we eat on the back deck with some bread and a glass of wine.

Living by the water is downright very nice... I'll never take that for granted. Nor will I take my little helper for granted either.

When I last called my mom, she could hear his banging pots and pans, setting his prep area "his" way while giving me directions to please exit the premises, he never came in the kitchen when I was baking after all. Yes sir! Happily. With his teaching schedule he is home a lot and with both our independent characters, she often wonders how pots and pans have not been used as weapons of marital destruction yet. We just love hanging out together and working "independently together". My studio is next to his study and I can shout for help whenever everything is about to tumble down just as easily as he can call me over to look at a research project. We are each others' best critiques and supporters.

When he calls out from the other room "Hey! Have you thought about lunch yet?", I often want to shout back "Hey! Go fry an egg and bring me one while you're at it!". I never actually do say that. Lately though, I have sensed that he could hear my brain scream it so loud that he decided to enter "my" territory (the kitchen) and fix us something for lunch. And what a lunch! Simple, fresh and quick.

We do catch and eat tons of seafood but I rarely think of buying clams, for no particular reason actually. I had been working on a photo project for a friend and his catering business and one of the dishes to photograph had clams. I had bought two bags, anticipating redos but everything went without a hitch and I was left with an extra bag. Since Bill is the master at steaming shellfish and seafood (you should see him take care of the crabs we get at the dock!), I told him to please go do something with the clams as I would not keep them another day.

Fifteen minutes later I was sitting in front of a bowl of perfectly steamed clams in white wine and garlic, simply garnished with a sprinke of tomato dices and a few sprigs of parsley. Guess what I did? I told him not to move and got the camera to shoot our plates. He rolled his eyes so strongly that I thought they were going to get stuck to the back of his head. He simply said "can you speed this one up, I don't want to eat me lunch cold?!" I know many of you cooking and blogging can relate!

I enjoy photographing and writing about other things than cakes and ice creams and I might also post a few other of our favorite "go to" savory lunches or dinners in the future. Do not be alarmed if you see bacon or thyme sneaking in here and there. For now, I figured it was high time I sang Bill's praises for being such great little hands behind the scenes.

Steamed Clams:

Serves two hungry people

Kitchen note: Littleneck clams are best for steaming. These were cherrystone clams which have a tendency to toughen up faster when steamed but we remove them as soon as the shells pop open and they stay nice and soft this way. You can ommit the white wine and use fish stock or water if you can't have alcohol. We like to eat ours with a sprinkle of lemon juice and some red wine vinegar.

2 dozen fresh clams
2 teaspoons olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 cup white wine
1 cup water (or clam juice if you have some)
Salt and pepper to taste
parsley leaves
1 tomato, finely diced

Wash the clams thoroughly and brush off any dirt. Heat oil in a large saucepan set over medium heat and cook the garlic for a minute. Add the wine and water and bring to a simmer. Add the clams, cover the pan and let the clams steam for about 10 minutes or until they start to pop open. Discard any clams that did not open and scoop the clams into serving bowls. Season the juice remaining in the pan with salt and pepper to taste, pour some over the clams and garnish with parsley and diced tomato.

San Francisco Part 2 - Rendition of Bouchon Lemon Tarts

2009-10-05T01:32:00.012-04:00

We were still in the airport parking garage, ten minutes after landing that Bill placed a small bucket full to the rim with crabapples and positively so proud of himself said "You love them so much that as soon as I saw them at the store I had to get you some. Welcome back!" Clearly, if you knew my husband, this would make you melt in an heartbeat. This non shopping, non cooking kind of guy had just connected with me on another level. And what did I say in return? "I must recreate Bouchon Lemon Tart in a gluten free version as soon as possible! Shauna must try it!".

Forget the crabapples, forget the pot of soup simmering on the stove, forget the house all shiny and tidy. I could not shut up about the great meal I had had with Anita, Shauna, Danny and Lu the Monday after BlogHer. And I could not stop thinking about Bouchon and their lemon tart. Go figure.

Inside Bouchon.
We headed out in the morning to Napa in search of pork. For real. Shauna and Danny also write Pork, Knife and Spoon. It's all about the pork, and we did find it in Napa. We made a quick stop in front of The French Laundry for a "Bench Monday" photo op and then headed down to Bouchon for lunch. What a lunch! I am not sure what I loved the most between our exquisite dishes, Lucy flirting with the people in the room or the decor that sent me back to French bistros back home. I relaxed, I breathed, I paused. I forgot every bit of crappy stuff and wished Bill had been there with me. He would have loved the food, the company and the relaxed setting.

Desserts were all tempting but if I spot a lemon tart on the menu, I blank on pretty much everything else and my mouth quickly screams for a bite. Bouchon lemon's tart is one of the bests I have ever had. The filling is tart just so, the shortbread crust is sandy and crispy just right and the addition of pine nuts gives it an earthy texture that complements perfectly the smooth filling. The slice was big. I ate it all. I did not even think twice. And I wanted more.

Happy Gluten Free Girls
I sighed I could not share a bit with Shauna right there as the tart was not gluten free but we all agreed that this would be one of the easiest desserts to adapt for gluten sensitive folks and I set about the task as soon as I got home (recipe and more pictures are right after the jump).

After lunch we headed to Bouchon Bakery where I resisted buying another lemon tart and settled on one of their giant macarons. They are seriously huge which is perfect for sharing. I shared an espresson one with Anita while Lu and Shauna settled on a raspberry macaron. Happy. But we were on a pork mission afterall...

At The Fatted Calf.
Well fed and satisfied, we felt safe to tackle The Fatted Calf without wanting to eat their entire display. My desire of visiting their outpost in Napa goes back to the days when Sam of Becks and Posh used to describe the content of her Saturday market basket. Toulouse sausage, pancetta, merguez. Finally the day had come! I think I have a disease that makes my brain shut off and erase from memory all previous meals while making room for more food. I could have eaten one of every item in the store.

My heart did skip a bit when I spotted figatelli on the counter. I kept having flash backs to many aperitifs held on my parents' terrace where I'd try to sneak as many pieces of figatelli as I could. After school snacks of olives, bread rubbed with garlic and tomatoes and a few slices of that sausage. I tried my best not to spill the content of my nostalgia to the very nice lady behind the counter. I added some spicy chorizo and petit sec to my loot as I knew Bill would love some of those too.

At Oxbow Market & Rancho Gordo.
I was psyched to hear we would also make a stop at Rancho Gordo during our Napa excursion. I have no idea why my first blog reads were almost all from the Bay area but needless to say I have been hearing them sing Steve Sando's praises for quite some time now, increasing my desire to put my hands on some genuinely good heirloom beans.

Yes, I know. I am all about buying and eating local but I think I was a Western local in a previous life and a part of me got stuck there. I borrowed being local for 5 days and the people of San Francisco were very generous in sharing that with me.

Oh! What a day! We headed back to town and reluctantly said goodbye to Shauna, Danny and Lu. I can't describe how lucky I felt to share so much in so little time with them. We all spilled our gutts, laughed and cried. We shared from the most raw places in our hearts and yet with the most uplifting bravery. Thank you guys! Thank you for letting me play with Lu so much!

There was so much more good stuff to come too, starting with a fabulous dinner at Contigo.

Bar seating, facing the kitchen at Contigo.
Since Brett announced on his blog In Praise Of Sardines that he was opening up his own restaurant, Contigo, I have been cheering him on all the way from SC. Thanks to Anita and Cameron who have sort of made it their joint, I have been able to read rave reviews pouring in about the place and I can add that they are all justified. The tapas menu is creative and fun, the dishes executed with flair with the freshest ingredients and the atmosphere and staff make the whole experience relaxed and delectable. Bravo Brett and your staff!

Contigo.
I was fortunate to share this incredible feast with other smart and dedicated food bloggers, Caron, Sean and Paul, Tea and Anita. Thank you guys for making this evening memorable and lively of conversations, patient of my photographing all the dishes so I could relate the Bill exactly what we had. Everything from the garden steamed vegetables, stuffed piquillo peppers, jamon iberico, lemon verbena flan and churros con chocolate (and many more in between) were spot on! A total of 15 tapas were shared and loved.

I know Brett had quite his share of bloggers' visits for dinner that weekend and it is all well deserved. If you are in San Francisco and have not stepped foot there, run there! If you plan a trip to SF in the near future, run there too! You won't be disappointed. Tapas done right. Local and fresh ingredients. Dedication pays off.

The Kitchen at Contigo.
I just want to wrap this post on an incredible day but saying how grateful I am to Anita and Cameron for their generosity and hospitality in having me stay a little while after the conference was over. These two live 100% whether at work or play and it shows. I could not have asked for better hosts and friends in San Francisco.

Stay tuned for another installment of this trip when I get to play a whole day with Tea and discover another side of town. There will also be another dessert adaptation. This time from one I had at Contigo.

At Contigo.
For now, I am going to curl up on the sofa with a gluten free lemon tart and dream I were cooking and dancing with all the friends I have left out West...

Gluten Free Lemon Tarts:

Makes six 4-inch tartlets

Kitchen note:I have a very hard time finding brown rice flour and Shauna suggested making my own by pulverizing brown rice until very fine. The gluttinous texture of the brown rice helps with the crust much better than white rice flour.

For the crust:
1 stick (113gr) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup (60gr) unsifted powdered sugar
3 egg yolks
pinch of salt
1 cup (160gr) brown rice flour
1/4 cup (30gr) amaranth flour (you could use sorghum flour)
1/4 (40gr) potato starch
1/4 cup (20gr) ground almonds

For the filling:
5 tablespoons (80gr) unsalted butter
3 eggs
1/2 cup (100gr) sugar
4 lemons, zested and juiced (about 1/2 cup of juice)

Prepare the crust:
In a mixer, whip together the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks and pinch of salt and mix until incorporated. Add the three different flours and ground almonds and mix briefly. Dump the whole mixture onto a lightly floured (use more rice flour) board and gather the dough into a smooth ball. Do not work the dough while in the mixer or it will toughen it up. Flatten the dough into a disk, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.
Preheat oven to 350F and position a rack in the center. Place eight tart rings on a parchment lined baking sheet and set aside.
When the dough is nice and cold, roll it out on a lightly floured board or in between two sheets of plastic. Cut out eight 6-inch-rounds into the dough and fit them into eight 4-inch tart rings. If the dough tears while you roll or/and transfer into the rings, just patch it with your fingertips. Line the dough with pieces of parchment paper, fill with pie weights or dy beans and par bake for 10 minutes. Remove the weights and parchment paper. Keep the oven at 350F.

Prepare the filling:
In a small saucepan, melt the butter and set aside to cool. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, the juice and zest from the lemons. Add the melted butter and whisk to incorporate. Divide evenly among the tarts and bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Serve room temperature.

BlogHer Food - Weekend In San Francisco

2009-10-02T00:46:00.013-04:00

Did not mean to be silent since I got back from San Francisco but I barely had a moment to kiss Bill "hello" (literally) that work started back again full swing. It's a good thing really since the utilities company already told me macarons were not a viable source of payment. ~~Idiots.~~ Drats.

It is taking me longer than expected to sort through all the pictures from those five days in San Francisco. A part of me has a hard time selecting among all the ones that could make you cry or laugh, and a part of me just revels in the emotions that each pictures of this trip makes me feel.Good times. Lots of laughs. Tons of people.

But first, I must announce the winner of The Hip Hostess apron. I was supposed to ask Bill over the phone to pick a number but one cocktail party and one strong cocktail later, I forgot to and turned to Lara standing next to me to pick one. Congratulations Megan from Life As A Dill! Email Debbie at info[@]thehiphostess [dot]com to claim your prize.

Now let's start this BlogHer thing...

Jen at Akiko's
I met Jen right at the airport since our flights were getting in close together and it was like picking up where we had left off the night before. We had the same dynamic that makes us talk throughout the day via emails, twitter, direct messages and sometimes all of these at once.

Unagi sushi, raw shrimp, fried shrimp heads.
After checking into the hotel, we headed to Akiko for lunch following Anita's recommendation. We were not disappointed. Loved it all but raw shrimp and me won't be friends for a while.

Miette's macarons at the Ferry Building.
Not sure how it became my "mission" but when we started talking about things to see in such a short period of time, I drew a blank on the museums and exhibitions and my brain tuned in patisseries and bakeries. Go figure. We headed out to the ferry building and found Miette's (or a portion of their place given the market layout) right off the bat. Cute and whimsical little place!

Whimsical Musings at Miette's.
Got a couple of macs and headed off to the 39th floor of the Marriott. Check Jen's post for pictures of our blogger meet up. I think I was feeling my "2 hours of sleep in 36 hours" moment and just starred at the gorgeous views instead of clicking away.

Finally got to meet my long time crush Ashley from Not Without Salt (the girl seriously looks like a porcelain doll), ~~crazy~~Alice from Savory Sweet Life and the wonderful Susan from Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy. We were later joined by Anita from Dessert First and Lisa from Lisa Is Bossy (and she is...in a very funny way). Jumped from joy to see Todd and Diane again since I could literally squeeze these two forever.

We headed off to dinner at Anchor and Hope and hooked up with Chuck from Sunday Nite Dinner and Food Gawker and his lady, Michelle from Tuesday Night Smackdown, Karen from Off The Meat Hook. Everything was delicious and prepared just right. Loved it all but sea urchin and I won't be friends for a while. I promptly passed out once my head hit that fluffy pillow at the hotel, which was just fine since we had to gain strength for the next day's activity.

First visual track session with Matt and Heidi.This is pretty much what a session would look like: computers, iphones, cameras, people, good people. Lots of them.
Made it to breakfast slightly refreshed and stunned. No, no seriously: it is stunning to see words and people behind emails and computer screens becoming alive before your eyes. I am thrilled I got to meet many people and regret that I did not meet all of them. Between preparing for my panel and dealing with work and family stuff via computer, my brain was in overload and overwhelmed at times. Finally met bloggers who have inspired me to start mine and this was extremely special to me. Beside all the people mentioned in this post, thank you Sam, Pim, Jen, Anita, Tea,

Where there is love you will find Shauna and Lu.
I had many "fuzzies" during this trip (moments when your heart gets all warm and tingly you're so happy) and one of them was definitely meeting Shauna, Danny and Lucy. Shauna was one of my first blog reads and growing closer this past year made it all the more special to finally talk in real life. Lucy was the name I wanted to give my daughter but that did not happen as planned and I feel like this little one is my remote gift from life. I was very fortunate to spend more time with them after the conference.

Lisa Stone from BlogHer, Ree from The Pioneer Woman, David Lebovitz, Elise from Simply Recipes.
After a whole day of sessions, brainstorming and powerful messages (you can check transcripts of the sessions on BlogHer.com), we all met up again for the closing keynotes. I could write paragraphs after paragraphs about photography, blogging, writing, food politics, etc... but one message that came through from these three successful speakers was to blog because you have a passion, the rest will follow. Or not. And that's ok. Blog what makes you happy and do it to the best of your abilities.

How did I do on my panel? I think it went well. Feedback from the people attending was good so I am happy. And yes, it is official: I am a passionate dork.

So by now, you have probably read the fiasco that was lunch when food bloggers were served frozen foods while badly pitched by a mockery of a chef. Yes, I felt insulted. But not so much as being pitched frosting in a can from one of the sponsors in the lobby. Poor choice of product for a majority of attendees cooking and baking from scratch. We want to be challenged both intellectually and physically not spewed out of can.

Caitlin from Engineer Baker.
The cocktail party after the sessions were over was held on the rooftop of the hotel in perfect weather and with alcohol flowing generously.

Zoe from Zoe Bakes.
One of my "fuzzies" of the conference was to meet Zoe, author of Zoe Bakes and Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes A Day. To say that the woman is hot is an understatement, to add that she is one genuinely cool lady is no exaggeration. I hope we get the chance to meet and talk many more times in the future.

After this first round of cocktails, we all headed to Tropisueno for the After BlogHer Party organized by Jaden, Ree and Elise. These women sure know how to throw a party! I had the chance to hang out with my pal Tammy from Running With Tweezers a bit more while being served glass after glass of Merlot by Hardy from Murphy Goode Wines.

I also got the chance to meet one of my baking crushes, Alice Medrich with whom I talked for a while on topics ranging from French markets and pastry chefs to blogging and writing. Precious moment.

Thanks to Emily from Foodzie I left the party with more chocolate and some really cool Nori salt. Thank you! Oh and a bottle of Pomegranate liqueur from Pama, one of the party sponsors "magically" fell into my bag.

Sunday morning, Jen and I met Caitlin, Shauna, Danny and Lucy for coffee and after parting ways with them all we both headed out to meet Tammy, Todd and Diane for Dim Sum. Again, check Jen's pictures for that part. I was too busy eating! After saying our goodbyes, Jen and I went about town to check out more bakeries.

Paulette Macarons.
I really wanted to check out Paulette's macarons and store. It is my grandmother's name after all and I had heard so many good reviews (after all there is Michalak stamp on it) that I had to sample a few. Geez...Perfect. All of them.

So many great flavors to chose from!

Miette's "headquarters" in Hayes Valley.
Miette's main store is as adorable as you can imagine. I was really like a kid in a candy store since they store a lot of the candies I grew up with. Heaven.

Tess from Miette.
Got the chance to meet Tess who writes and updates Miette's blog. Being a sucker for design and props, I must give Tess and her team an A+ in their arranging the store to make it look so perfect.

At Miette.
We were running out of time before Jen's plane and decided to skip Tartine and part ways. That was tough. Parting ways, not Tartine, doh...

I headed back to the hotel to pick up my bags and headed out to Cameron's and Anita's from Married With Dinner, with whom I stayed until Tuesday. After many years of chatting online, Christmas card exchanges and others, it was a bit surreal to just hang out at their house and leisurely prepare a feast of market fresh produce for dinner.

Homegrown salad and market mushrooms.
Sausages, salad, veggies of all kinds. Anita had scored a bunch of great plums at the Marin market earlier that day and I made us a plum crisp with green coriander seeds and lemon verbana as well as a tropical inspired granita.

Dinner with friends.
Cooked and ate with some wonderful people that I was thrilled to finally meet. Kick ass Laura from (Not So) Urban Hennery and fiesty sweet Kristina from Tennessee Locavore, and of course Cameron, Anita and Jen M.

I went to bed with my head filled and my heart bursting. Still.

I have a couple more posts to come about my stay after BlogHer. A trip to Napa, more bakeries, an amazing tapas dinner at Contigo and more. In the meantime, I am leaving you with a picture of sweet Lucy eating her first macaron at Bouchon bakery. I could photograph this child all day long...and I did!

The way to eat a macaron, by Lucy.

Vanilla,Salted Butter Caramel and Chocolate Mousse And A Giveaway

2009-09-24T00:47:00.014-04:00

When I asked Bill what he would like me to prepare for him while I am gone for a few days, his answer was an unequivocal "Mousse please!". Yes, he is a softee and I know his mom spoiled him with homemade desserts pretty much all his life so his answer did not come as a surprise. I did prepare a few things to warm up after work during the five days I'll be gone but I know Bill. When I showed him where everything was in the fridge, his eyes immediately landed on these Vanilla, Salted Butter Caramel and Chocolate Mousses. And they were all the way in the back. Of course.

So where am I going for 5 days that he needs a fridge full of goodies? San Francisco! I am attending the 2009 BlogHer conference which will be held on Saturday. I am also one of the speakers at the conference! I am so psyched about this event for so many reasons. For starters just take a look at the program here. All these amazing bloggers giving of their experience and expertise, I am honored to be among them and hope to contribute as much as they are.

Then there are all these attendees that I will finely get to meet in person and finally hug silly until they call security because Tartelette is cutting their air supply from excitement! Friends kept tweeting they wanted to meet me, well I want to meet them just as much.

Last May, I was supposed to join Bill on a working trip near Jen from Use Real Butter and we immediately made the plan that I'd stay with her a few days while he'd work. That plan fell through. We were both upset at the circumstances and she asked if I'd be coming to San Francisco for BlogHer. She was. Maybe we could meet up there. This summer has been financially sucky so we were pretty much tied down not going anywhere for a long time. She emailed back the same day and said in her usual ways "Damn it Helen! You're going! Here are Frequent Flyers miles we are not using and you are sharing a room with me. Get a conference ticket and we'll figure something out."

Yes. That is the kind of chick Jen is and I am proud to call her my friend. She rocks. Period.

Man! Those tickets were hotter than the best Nutella crepes on a street cart in Paris. They sold out before I could even log on the computer. So waitlist it was. Drats! Then my name got tossed in the hat for potential speaker and the wait began. Either a ticket would come open or I'd be a speaker in which case I would not need one. Nothing happened on either front for a very long time. Then, I finally scored a ticket and three days later got an email about being a speaker (in case you are wondering, that ticket went back in the ticket pool).

So here we are...On Friday I get to squeeze silly one of the best gals I know and on Saturday I will be talking about "Your Blog is Great…now what? Letting your blog lead the way to new opportunity". I am honored, ecstatic and nervous all at once. Sharing this panel with Jaden and Amy gives the chance to see three different people with different opportunities, different paths and at different pit stops on their careers. I have no doubt this panel will be informative and fun. Did I say I was psyched already? Ok, ok....

Well, I am not done being psyched because my friend Anita from Married With Dinner extended an invite to stay with her a couple for a few days passed the conference and of course I jumped on it! Finally we get to hang out! We have plenty of fun things planned and I can't wait to tell you about it through pictures and emotions. There will be plenty of dinners, lunches and stories shared with friends and strangers and I hope to post a few fun shots while I am gone.

I know by now you must be pretty tired about me gushing about the next five days, so I will shut up and give you back some of the "good schtuff" I am lucky to experience everyday by hosting a little giveaway.

Aprons sample, for more colors and motifs, check The Hip Hostess website.
To win one of these adorable demi style aprons by The Hip Hostess (winner's choice) all you have to do is leave a comment on this post between Thursday September 24th and Sunday September 27th, midnight Eastern Time. My dear husband will draw the winner at random and I will put her/him in contact with The Hip Hostess to pick the preferred demi style apron. But that's not all! Deborah from The Hip Hostess generously offers all the readers of Tartelette a 15% discount on any order throughout October 15th 2009. Use the promo code TART (all caps) at check out. Very cool!

Enter Jen's to win an Ipod Nano and enter here to win a fabulous apron handmade by The Hip Hostess, so you can bake and groove in style. And no, we did not plan it, would not have worked, ahah!

Now you can understand why I loaded the fridge with tons of good things for Bill to eat while I am gone. I am sad he won't be able to walk around SF with me but I know he is not yet prepared for a room full of people saying "Oh my god it's you!" and hugging you every 5 minutes. He said mousse was just fine. Especially one that starts with a soft and silky Bavarian cream and combines delicious layers such as vanilla, salted butter caramel and chocolate...

Vanilla, Salted Butter Caramel and Chocolate Mousse:

Serves 4 to 6 depending on the size of your ramekins

Notes: you want to prepare the caramel part of this triplr mousse first as it needs to cool down properly before being incorporated to the rest of the base.

For the caramel:
1/2 cup (100gr) sugar
2 tablespoons (30ml) water
1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel or fine sea salt
1/4 cup (60ml ) heavy cream
2 teaspoons (10gr) unsalted butter

For the chocolate:
4 oz (120gr) dark semisweet chocolate

For the vanilla mousse base:
4 egg yolks
1/4 cup (50 gr) sugar
1 cup (250 ml) whole milk
1/2 vanilla bean
1 Tb (7gr) powdered gelatin, sprinkled over 3 Tb water
1 cup (250ml) heavy cream

Prepare the caramel:Place the sugar and water in a medium heavy bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Continue to cook until caramel in color. Remove from the heat and add the salt, heavy cream and butter. Stir with a wooden spoon until completely smooth. Let cool to room temperature.

Prepare the chocolate:
In a medium bowl set over a pan of simmering water, melt the chocolate until smooth. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature.

Prepare the mousse base:
In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until very pale. In the meantime, in a large saucepan set over medium heat, bring the milk and the vanilla bean (split open and scraped over the milk) to a boil. Slowly pour the milk over the yolks, whisking constantly. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan over medium low heat and cook until the cream coats the back of a spoon (as if making creme anglaise). Add the softened gelatin and stir until melted completely into the cream. Let cool to room temperature.
Whip the heavy cream to soft peaks and fold it into the cooled cream base. Divide the base into three equal portions (one will stay untouched).

Assemble:
Add a couple of tablespoons of the base to the caramel to lighten it a bit and stir with a spoon. Gently fold the rest of the alloted mousse base into the caramel with a spatula.
Do the same for the chocolate portion.
Layer all three parts evenly into dishes or ramekins and refrigerate for an hour.

Double Chocolate And Pear Cakes

2009-09-21T10:34:00.010-04:00

When I look out the window, it is hard to imagine that Fall officially starts tomorrow. We have two seasons here more or less, Warm and Hot. Christmas celebrated in a summer dress, well, "it ain't fittin'. It jes' ain't fittin'" But there are signs that cannot be mistaken. Night falls earlier, the wind has finally picked up, the pecans are weighing the tree branches down. The light is now giving cold blue undertones, I put the diffuser back up in the studio, my shooting schedule has changed. Most importantly, the oven is buzzing with tarts, custards and cakes like these Double Chocolate And Pear Cakes, a gluten free adaptation of my mother's recipe.

I like spontaneity as much as I like certain family rituals. One that my folks have back home is to get together for tea time everyday around four or five o'clock. Even now that my grandmother is gone, my mother makes the same one yard walk to my grandfather's and continues the tradition. One of my fondest memories is always this moment shared around their dining room table right when it is getting darker outside and we cozy up around a slice of cake and a hot cup of tea and chat.

As a kid, I'd sit quietly and listen to a mix of conversations ranging from politics and literature to the more basic questions of what to cook for the next family get together. As a teenager I started taking part by bringing treats of my own like madeleines and langues de chats. As an adult, every time I go home, I just sit quietly and listen, literally captivated by every word they say, every event or family member they talk about. I try to encapsulate those precious moments for the long strips of time I spent away from them.

Comes Fall when my "cozying-it-up" starts to kick in, I make this cake every weekend so that we can have tea and cake like they do back home. I have no idea where my mom got the original recipe, I just found several copies of it in different recipe tins around the house. I love it for the simple reason that you can make it your own with the flavor that you like. October might be cardamom and pistachios, November might give way to almond and vanilla while December might see some colorful candied fruits. Right now it's pears and chocolate.

After successfully adapting a chocolate tart recipe earlier this month to a gluten version, I thought my favorite cake would be next to become gluten free. The cake was not difficult to adapt using different flours and eggs and butter are there to help ingredients bind and raise properly. I mean, it's hard to mess things up when there are eggs and butter. I added cocoa powder and melted dark chocolate to the batter and topped each cake with slices of ripe pears. I knew the flours could lend a different, sandy texture to the finished cakes so I slightly underbaked them so they'd remain moist for a couple of days.

I purposely left out any kind of spice this time but I am thinking cardamom for the next cup of tea. I also want to try adapting this gorgeous Olive Oil Cake by Connie and these cute Nutella pound cakes by Dana. I can tell Fall is here...

Double Chocolate And Pear Cakes:

Makes five 3-inch cakes (I used these liners) or one loaf cake.

1 stick (113gr)unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup (100gr) sugar
3 eggs
2 oz (60gr) semisweet chocolate, melted and slightly cooled
1/4 cup (60ml) buttermilk
1/3 cup (60gr) sweet rice flour
1/3 cup (60gr) sorghum flour (you could use amaranth or quinoa)
OR 1 cup (125gr) all purpose flour instead, if not going gluten free
3 tablespoons (15gr) cocoa powder
1 14/ teaspoon baking powder
1 pear, ripe, peeled, pitted and thinly sliced

Preheat the oven to 350F and position a rack in the center. Grease cupcake liners or a loaf pan and place them on a baking sheet. Set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and creamy, about 2-3 minutes. Reduce the speed to low and add the eggs, one at a time, scarping the sides of the bowl in between each addition. Add the melted chocolate and beat until smooth. Add the buttermilk and beat, still on low, until incorporated. Add the flours, cocoa and baking powders and beat for 30 seconds. Increase the speed to medium and beat for a minute. Pour the mixture into your prepared pan(s) and place the slices of pears on top. Bake for 30-40 minutes for a loaf, 20-25 minutes for individual cakes. Check at the earliest baking time indicated as each oven runs differently and you want to keep the cake(s) moist inside.

Lemon Chamomile Pots De Creme & A Taste Of Yellow

2009-09-17T12:57:00.013-04:00

Yesterday morning, I stood in the middle of the kitchen trying to find something, anything yellow that I could bake with. I thought I was finally ahead of the game for a change with recipes, writing, pictures, yet I had this nagging feeling that I was forgetting something. I was mumbling "yellow, yellow, something yellow" pacing the kitchen, opening the fridge, the pantry. Bill looked at me, banana in hand and exclaimed "That's yellow!". Read this post and you will understand why I immediately protested: "Non pas encore des bananes. Y'en a marre des bananes!" (no, no more bananas. Enough with the bananas!) Lemons would be nice. Lemon Pots de Creme would even be nicer.

An hour later a baker friend stopped by with a small case of lemons. "Fell off the truck!" he said with a wink. I know it meant they had overstocked and they knew I'd find good use for them. "Oh yes! Yellow overstock! Please find a spot on my countertop" I thought while wringing my hands scheming. I did not have much time yesterday but I did not want to miss Barbara's event LiveStrong With A Taste of Yellow for anything. Barbara gives so much of her friendship and wisdom to all of us. It's all about giving back.

I could write paragraphs after paragraphs about people I know and love who are touched by cancer right now and people I have loved and lost to cancer but it would not do anybody any good. You know some, you love some. It hurts and it's ugly and it is not what Barbara or the event is about. For the past three years, Barbara has gathered food bloggers around the world to create a yellow dish in support of the Lance Armstrong Foundation to raise cancer awareness.

Two years ago I went with an all mango dessert that was devoured by my husband two seconds after I had taken a picture and last year I made tropical verrines with peach macarons that were also devoured right after the pictures. This year I baked Lemon Chamomile Pots de Creme, and guess what happened? Well yes, 3 were gone before lunch! You can't leave two lemon heads like us around these and expect us to behave, not that we would have tried anyway.

"Pots de creme" are exactly that: little cups of creamy custard. Heavy cream, egg yolks, sugar. The rest is up to your imagination. I remember when my friend M. was undergoing chemo, she would often ask for a cup of tea with a lemon slice and some chamomille buds in there. As a tribute to her kicking cancer away for now, I added a small handful of chamomile buds with the cream and let it steep before mixing the cream with the rest of the ingredients and a serious dose of lemons. The result was soothing, tongue nipping and down right refreshing.

Side note: a few people have emailed asking me how I keep my tablecloths so white even after putting crumbs or ice cream right on them. HA AH! Here is my little secret: I use wood. Large blocks of wood or 2x4s that I sand, stain and paint (sometimes dark) so all I have to do is take a sponge when I am done photographing. Unlike Martha Stewart, I don't find doing laundry and ironing that much of fun time. I have enough with the napkins and placemats I use!

Lemon Chamomile Pots de Creme:

Makes 4 to 6 depending on the size of your ramekins.

1 1/2 cups (375ml) heavy cream
2 tablespoons edible chamomille buds (found mine at health food store with bulk herbs and spices)
6 large egg yolks
1/2 cup (100gr) sugar
zest and juice of 2-3 lemons (you'll need 1/4 cup or 60ml of juice)
pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 325F and position a rack in the center. Place your ramekins in a heavy deep pan and set aside.
In a medium saucepan, bring the heavy cream and the chamomile to a simmer. Turn the heat off and let the chamomile steep in the cream while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
In a large bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and the sugar until pale yellow. Add the lemon juice and salt and whisk until smooth.
Strain the heavy cream and discard the chamomile. Slowly pour the heavy cream over the egg yolk mixture, whisking well. Let stand for a couple of minutes to let any foam rise to the top, skim it off and divide the mixture among your ramekins. Pour hot water inside the pan, making sure the water comes at least halfway up the sides of your dishes. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes.

Banana Doughnuts With Dried Banana "Streusel"

2009-09-14T00:52:00.015-04:00

Before I tell you all about these delicious Banana Doughnuts, I must announce the winner of the giveaway: "minisuperbias" won "Confections Of A Closet Master Baker" by Gesine Bullock-Prado. Congratulations! Please, email me your mailing address at mytartelette{at}gmail{dot}com and I will get the book in the mail pronto.

Back to the doughnuts. They pretty much made everybody swoon. Granted we did not share but with one neighbor so we can't really say for sure but we have the feeling they would make people do just that. Or sigh heavily in approval. I did and that is no small feat given my general dislike of bananas. Yes. The only reason why I even buy bananas is because Bill can't live without.

We are very territorial about our fruits, I have noticed, and have clear favorites. However, he can rest assured that I'll never have a midnight craving for "la banane". At a rate of a banana a day for him, I tend to buy a bunch for the week to be on the safe side. Well, last week I found myself with 22 of them in the house. Ugh! I got 8, he stopped by the store on his way home and got 8 (hello! He never goes grocery shopping!) and his mother brought 6 huge ones (were on sale - bought too much - dumped them on me). My least favorite fruit! I had to come up with a plan.

I started with an easy and quick dessert, bananas foster. Ok, down to 21. Then we had banana bread. 19. "Mon cheri, eat one please. Right now!". 18. I'm never going to see the end of this, I thought. Oh yes! Skewer 2 more on lollipop sticks, freeze, coat with melted chocolate and eat. 16. Banana sorbet. 14. Can I start breathing again now. Not yet?

At 14 left, I threw my arms up in the air and said "Mon cheri (I promise, start every request with this or"mon amour" works every time), give me some ideas because this is becoming boring." He pondered this for a minute and asked if they could find their way into a doughnut. At this point, I would have come up with anything to get rid of more so "Yes! Brilliant!"...

After tweaking my recipes to make sure I had the right ratio of dry to wet ingredients, I was still down only two more bananas, unless I was ready to make more and stand at the stove frying the entire evening, feeding our neighborhood and the one next to it. I remember Bill mentioning he liked those little streusel pieces on top of certain doughnuts and that's when the idea of topping the doughnuts with chopped dried bananas came to my mind. Wow! It really made things come together!

The banana flavor in the dough is very subtle and the fruit acts more as a moisture agent than a flavoring. The dried bananas really made it for us. Their smell alone is enough to reconcile me with them. After an hour of drying time, I opened the oven door and did not close it for a few seconds. I was almost paralyzed by the whiff of caramelizing bananas hitting my nose! Amazing! I could eat home dried bananas everyday. Natural chewy candy that makes the house smell absolutely wonderful.

We were then at 11 bananas left. A lot more manageable here, especially if he doubled up on the daily intake!

Banana Doughnuts

Makes about 24

For the doughnuts:
3 to 3 1/2 cups (440gr) all purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons (12gr) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon (2gr) baking soda
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup honey
2 small bananas, mashed
1/4 cup (55gr) sour cream
canola oil for frying.

For the glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
3 tablespoons milk

For the dried bananas: (best prepared the day before or while the dough is resting)
1 small banana

Prepare the dough:
In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt twice and set aside. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the eggs and honey for one minute at medium speed, until light and airy. Add the bananas and sour cream and beat until well incorporated. Turn the speed down to low and add the dry ingredients (little by little). The dough will be soft. Transfer to a medium bowl and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
On a well floured board or countertop, roll the dough to about 1/4 inch thick. Cut rounds either with a 3-inch doughnut cutter or use a 3-inch cookie cutter and a 1-inch small cutter to make the holes in the middle. Reroll the scraps as you go. Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes if it starts getting tough as you reroll and cut, to relax the gluten.
In a large cast iron skilet, heat enough oil (2 inches deep or so) to 325F and fry the doughnuts 3 to 4 at a time, 1 to 2 minutes on each side, turning them once. Do not over crowd your skillet or it will drop the temperature of the oil and you will end up with soggy doughnuts. Drain on a baking sheet lined with paper towels.

For the glaze:
In a medium bowl, sift the powdered sugar. Add the milk and whisk until smooth.
Dip the doughnuts into the glaze and let drip on a wire rack set over a piece of parchment paper

For the dried bananas:
Line a baking sheet with either a silicone mat or a piece of parchment paper.
Preheat the oven at 250F and position a rack in the middle.
Slice the bananas in 1/4 to 1/2-inch thick and place them on the baking sheet. Let the banana slices dry in the oven for 2 hours. Let cool. Chop in small pieces.
Scatter the chopped banana slices over the doughnuts after the glaze is applied but before it is completely set so they have time to stick.

Muscovado Date Cake With Maple Sugar Buttercream And A Giveaway

2009-09-10T01:04:00.006-04:00

Baking for Bill is easy. It's actually very enjoyable. He likes everything. He is willing to try it all. He is also very much like an 8 year-old when I bake. He comes to the kitchen five times for the same imaginary glass of water. Goes back to his study with a banana. Comes back to the kitchen to dispose of the banana peel. Sixth imaginary glass of water. You get the idea. I love it. I also love that when I stacked the last layer of this cake, the first words that came out of his mouth were "Oh wow! That cake is huge! Yeah!!" Yes, The New England Cake, is indeed humongous and delicious.

I would not make a cake of this stature on the spur of the moment, just for us and two cups of tea. This is a Reunion Cake, a Birthday Dinner With Friends Cake, a Celebration Cake, a Date Cake! No really, I mean it. It is literally a lovely brown sugar cake filled with dates and iced with maple sugar buttercream. Trust me, you could make this for a first date and end up with a second. And a third.

There were a couple of reasons for this cake to start taking over the kitchen countertop. A family reunion and a book club. The reunion was as typical as can be: tiresome, crazy, at times scary but ultimately fun. Basically, no reason to elaborate on that but to focus on the book club instead. The Edible Word started last year under the initiative of Cath from A Blithe Palate and Stephanie from Dispensing Happiness. I had such a good time doing it that I said yes for this year's book, "Confections Of A Closet Master Baker" by Gesine Bullock-Prado, a non fiction memoir. I am just a couple of days behind the deadline but I blame it on this cake. And the reunion.

Confections Of A Closet Master Baker traces Gesine's journey as a Hollywood executive who finds her true calling in baking and decides to pursue her passion by moving to Vermont and opening a bakery in the small town of Montpelier. I devoured the book, all pun intended. So many emotions, "coups de coeur" and fun truths. Her passion is the air she breathed. You can bet I found myself in many of Gesine's mornings, getting to the bakery at the crack of dawn, leaving after everybody else and never questioning getting to do it all over again the next day.

I also fell in love with Gesine, her writing style and her voice. Fun, honest, visual. Writing is definitely her other talent. She is a cool chick. Each chapter of the book ends on a sweet note with one of her recipes. I had plenty to choose from: Carrot Cake, Plum Tart, Espresso Cheesecake, cream scones, and the list goes on. I went with The New England purely out of necessity. I was given very short notice to bring another dessert and not much time to shop so I did have to match my pantry to one of the recipes in the book.

I did make a couple of changes to her original recipe. The cake calls for brown sugar and I substituted half the amount with muscovado sugar which gave it an even deeper brown sugar flavor and kept the cake ultra moist, even days later. The frosting is a wonderful maple sugar Swiss meringue that would also go very well with any other darker cakes. I did make the executive decision to leave it un-buttercreamed on the outside. I had this vision of the cake growing and growing the more I was spatulating the inner layers. It was also starting to be pretty hefty and I had to travel with this cake. Honestly, it was quite perfect as it was. Impressive and delicious, filled with dried dates and a soft hint of molasses and maple sugar.

Due to copyright restrictions I am not at liberty to post the recipe (although I have stumbled upon a few close recipes with a quick Google search) but trust me, this cake is worth getting the book alone. Wait! Wait! What I do have is one extra, brand new copy to give away to one lucky reader. If I could I'd add a slice of the New England cake with it but I am afraid it won't work with the post office policies.

To enter the giveaway:
- leave a comment between Thursday September 10th 2009 and Sunday September 13th 2009 (midnight Eastern time)
- One entry per reader.
- no anonymous comment will be taken into consideration. Sign Zorro or X if you must.
- the giveaway is open to all. I'll ship anywhere in the world.
- the winner will be randomly picked by asking Bill to call out a number from all the entries received.

If you happen to know or have a link to a great date cake recipe, feel free to leave it in the comment. I know I am ready to try more!

You can follow Gesine on her blog, Confections Of A (Closet) Master Baker filled with humorous stories, tempting recipes and videos and on Twitter.

Chocolate Truffle Tarts

2009-09-07T01:04:00.013-04:00

Hanging out on Twitter late at night when I can't seem to figure out where sleep went has very very good outcomes. I get to talk to my favorite people as if they were just a few feet away and beside geeking out with Jen, ZenChef and Mark, I also get to talk gluten free with Shauna of Gluten Free Girl . I love the way she is gently coaxing me to push my own boundaries. These Chocolate Truffle Tarts for example are the pure result of an idea that Shauna unkowingly planted in my head one late night.

When we are having large gatherings of friends and family like this weekend, I always try to accomodate everyone's needs, especially when it comes to gluten free and low salt recipes since they directly affect me too. After weeks spent reading about my diagnosis last year and ways to eleviate the symptoms, I realized that a gluten free diet could help a lot with genetic diseases and there was not much around as far as treatments were concerned. Our diet is 90% gf to start with except when it comes to pastries. Even there, I take a small portion and ship the rest to the neighbors, family or friends.

I admit, beside the obvious desserts like macarons, ice creams, panna cottas and financiers, I rarely practice my gluten free flours to the most of their ability. I should, I know it. I clearly see a difference when I keep the salt and gluten under wrap. The attacks are far less and few in between, the strength a bit less violent and I recover faster from feeling on a rollercoaster for a couple of hours. Trust me, it's not only "not fun", it's rather debilitating when you are in the middle of work. And who likes to feel like they are on a plane 24/7 from the ringing and pressure?

Thus, hanging out on Twitter and chatting with people like Shauna gives me the necessary push to try making more gluten free desserts. I have played with gf mixes in the past and often ended up with a brick to cut or cement to chew. I knew it was my lack of practice, and time to persue the issue because there are millions (the gf Daring Bakers for a start) eating gf pastries that not only look good but taste great. I mean, just give a look at this pie!

I had the perfect oppportunity this weekend to tackle a gluten free dessert once again. There are full blown celiacs in our family and then there's me, who does not have the usual stomach reactions but who could benefit from a little tightening of the regimen here and there. I had just the ticket with Chocolate Truffle Tarts and since the filling is already gf, the only thing I'd have to work on was the chocolate crust. I put one of Shauna's recipes side by side with mine and went about tweaking.

Oh happy happy me! The result was exactly like the original. A crisp, deep chocolate flavored crust, filled with an amazing truffle like chocolate filling and topped with a rich chocolate ganache. If I had been looking for my chocolate cravings to be back all these weeks, well....I was surely not looking anymore with these. Decadent and rich without being heavy or coyingly sweet. My kind of chocolate heaven!

While I don't think about turning this blog into a complete gluten free one, and developing the gf recipes I want to make demands more than I can handle right now, I am looking forward to finding the right balance for you readers and us here at home. I can cheat about 10% and feel fine but I know I am also tempting my symptoms and playing with the good days. These tarts were the perfect place to start. Not a crumb was left on anybody's plates.

Chocolate Truffle Tarts:

Makes eight 4-inch tarts

Note: There are many gluten free flours out there that would work with this crust and I just used what I had available in the pantry. Here is a list of gluten free flours from which you can get inspired to try your own concoctions. For a non gf crust, use 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour instead of the 3 gf flours

For the chocolate crust: (adapted from Shauna's pie crust recipe)
1 stick (113gr) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup (60gr) unsifted powdered sugar
3 egg yolks
pinch of salt
1 cup (160gr) white rice flour
1/4 cup (30gr) amaranth flour (you could use sorghum flour)
1/4 (40gr) potato starch
1/4 cup (20gr) unsweetened cocoa powder

For the chocolate truffle filling:
8 ounces (240gr) bittersweet chocolate
12 tablespoons (170gr) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 (50gr)cup sugar
1/4 cup (60ml) strong brewed coffee
4 large eggs

For the chocolate ganache:
4 ounces (120gr) bittersweet chocolate
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

Prepare the crust:
In a mixer, whip together the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks and pinch of salt and mix until incorporated. Add the three different flours and cocoa pwder and mix briefly. Dump the whole mixture onto a lightly floured (use more rice flour) board and gather the dough into a smooth ball. Do not work the dough while in the mixer or it will toughen it up. Flatten the dough into a disk, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.
Preheat oven to 350F and position a rack in the center. Place eight tart rings on a parchment lined baking sheet and set aside.
When the dough is nice and cold, roll it out on a lightly floured board or in between two sheets of plastic. Cut out eight 6-inch-rounds into the dough and fit them into eight 4-inch tart rings. If the dough tears while you roll or/and transfer into the rings, just patch it with your fingertips. Line the dough with pieces of parchment paper, fill with pie weights or dy beans and par bake for 10 minutes. Remove the weights and parchment paper. Keep the oven at 350F.

Prepare the filling:
Place the chocolate in a medium bowland set aside. In a medium saucepan set over medium heat, bring the butter, sugar, and coffee together to a boil over medium. Pour the mixture over the chocolate and leave it undisturbed for 2-3 minutes. Gently whisk until smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time whisking quickly until the mixture is smooth. Divide the batter evenly among the tart shells and bake for 10 minutes.
Let cool completely.

Prepare the chocolate ganache:
Place the chocolate in a medium bowl and set aside. In a medium saucepan set over medium heat, bring the heavy cream to a gentle boil. Pour it over the chocolate and let sit for 2-3 minutes. Whisk until smooth and incorporate the butter at the same time until the ganache is completely smooth. Divide evenly on top of the tarts and snooth out with an offset spatula. Refrigerate until ready to eat.

Matcha And Peach Pate de Fruit Macarons

2009-09-03T00:13:00.006-04:00

When Spring and Summer roll around, I think in shades of pinks and reds. When Fall and Winter point their nose, I am all about the blues and the purples. Greens are oranges are not my colors. Nope. And yet, the first thing I thought about with the first sign of cooler mornings and breezy nights were Matcha and Peach Pate de Fruits Macarons. Enjoying the last bit of summer produce while cozying up to the subtle taste of matcha tea.

Lately, the mere mention of tea evocates long talks on the porch and a light chill on a late night walk. You can feel the air changing. I can finally feel some coolness under my feet when I let the dogs out early in the morning. I can almost hear the grass crisp up as we come down, ready for us. These first few days of September have really been quite Fall-ish and are probably temporary due a hurricane being just around the corner. Nevertheless, every time this lovely Fall breeze enters the house, we just stop whatever we are doing and enjoy for a few seconds. Even if it is short lived it is worth those few seconds in the day.

When I went to teach Veronica a three dayPastry Bootcamp, she not only gifted me with her hospitality and friendship, but with also a few stashes of vanilla beans, some saffron and a brand new can of the matcha she preferred to use in her macarons. I can see why. From the can to the finish product I could taste and smell the wonderful grassy properties of matcha. If you have never had it before, you might go "wow! what is that?" but trust me it grows on you real fast. It's unpretentious and absolutely delicious in pastry.

I know that our Southern peaches are near their end and I have been stocking, preserving and canning as many of them as I could. This season has been particularly prolific and tasty and as much as it pains me to say goodbye to stone fruits I am happily getting my taste buds ready for pears, pomegranates, apples and pumpkins. Each season is a new palette. Even if it makes me paint in greens and orange which I am so-so about! One thing I have made a couple of times recently is peach pate de fruits. It keeps well, makes great little gifts for my students and is just plain good when the fruits are ripe.

So...in my usual ways, peach in one hand and matcha macarons in the other, I decided to marry the two together in one little perfect bite, mending the bridge between Summer leaving and Fall approaching. Alright, so I was helped by a little mascarpone and vanilla cream in the middle. I had no idea that peach and matcha would be that delicious together. They are. I am making more this weekend!

On a side note, I know that Caitlin and Y are going to be disappointed that I did not do a talking picture post as we joked about while Twittering one night. I was starting to crack up looking at some of the shots and started playing around with captions. Here are some of the outakes for the macarons "beauty" shoot.

One more little thing though before the recipe. There are people you want to meet and there are people you want to meet, eat and laugh with and learn from. For me, Tish Boyle is one of those people. I remember the morning I opened my emails and found one with her name as the sender. I did not click for a few seconds. Really. I turned to Bill and said "if this is not a joke, she emailed me" pointing at one book I love and that she co-authored, Chocolate Passion. I carefully clicked and held my breath. I turned to Bill with the biggest smile ever and said "Tish Boyle wants me!". And we both laughed. Or I snorted my coffee. I can't quite remember. She wanted an interview for the print magazine Desserts Professional, alongside David Lebovitz and Michael Laiskonis. Without hesitation, I emailed back "Yes!" before adding "I love your work". When she responded "I'm honored you even know who I am", I fell in love with her even more, if that was possible. Ugh, hello! I am supposed to say that! Thank you Tish, I am honored beyond belief to be in such good company in a wonderful magazine. You can check the article in their August issue.

Matcha And Peach Pate de Fruits Macarons:

Notes:
Use eggs that have been preferably aged 3-5 days in the fridge. Pierre Herme uses eggs that are aged until they are almost like water, about 5 days. If it's good for Pierre, it'd good for me! The humidity, folding, aging of the eggs (the macs here were made with fresh whites) will affect the outcome. It's all a balancing act of chemistry and action.

For the shells:
90 gr egg whites (30 gr granulated sugar
200 gr powdered sugar
110 gr almonds
1 tablespoon matcha powder

For the pate de fruits:
Notes: I use Certo liquid pectin so I can't vouch for how others might behave. I use a large stainless steel pot so the evaporation and cooking could happen faster.
For a superb pectin free recipe, follow this recipe posted by the awesome Anita from Married with Dinner.

13 oz (380gr) peach puree (weight after you remove skin, pits and processed)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 cups (400gr) sugar, divided
3-4 tablespoons liquid pectin

For the mascarpone - vanilla cream:
8 oz (210gr) mascarpone, at room temperature (or substitute cream cheese)
2-3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
or 1/2 vanilla bean, seeded
2 tablespoons heavy cream

Prepare the macarons:
In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the egg whites to a foam, (think bubble bath foam) gradually add the sugar until you obtain a glossy meringue (think shaving cream). Do not overbeat your meringue or it will be too dry. Place the powdered sugar, almonds and matcha in a food processor and give them a good pulse until the nuts are finely ground. Add them to the meringue along with some food coloring if using, give it a quick fold to break some of the air and then fold the mass carefully until you obtain a batter that falls back on itself after counting to 10. Give quick strokes at first to break the mass and slow down. The whole process should not take more than 50 strokes. Test a small amount on a plate: if the tops flattens on its own you are good to go. If there is a small beak, give the batter a couple of turns.
Fill a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip (Ateco #807 or #809) with the batter and pipe small rounds (1.5 inches in diameter) onto parchment paper or silicone mats lined baking sheets. Let the macarons sit out for 30 minutes to an hour to harden their shells a bit. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 280F. When ready, bake for 15 to 20 minutes, depending on their size. Let cool. If you have trouble removing the shells, pour a couple of drops of water under the parchment paper while the sheet is still a bit warm and the macarons will lift up more easily do to the moisture. Don't let them sit there in it too long or they will become soggy. Once baked and if you are not using them right away, store them in an airtight container out of the fridge for a couple of days or in the freezer.

Prepare the pate de fruits:
Line a 8x8-inch pan with parchment paper and set aside.
Plce the peach puree in a heavy saucepan and add the lemon juice. Stir in 1/2 cup (100gr) saugar and bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat and cook until its temperature register 113F, stirring constantly. Add the remaining 1.5 cups (300gr) sugar and the pectin to the pot and slowly bring the mixture to 200F, still over medium high heat while stirring constantly. Turn the heat down a bit and keep the mixture at 200F for 2 to 3 minutes. Turn the heat back up and slowly bring the mixture to 223F. Keep it there for an additional 2-3 minutes (turn the heat down if necessary to do so). Remove from the heat and immediately pour the mixture into your pan lined with parchment paper. Let set for a couple of hours. Cut shapes with a sharp knife and roll the pieces of pate de fruit in sugar. Refrigerate if not eating all of them at once.

Prepare the mascarpone-vanille cream:
In a large bowl, whisk together the mascarpone and sugar until smooth. Add the vanilla and the heavy cream and whisk until all the ingredients are incoporated. Place the mixture in a piping bag fitted with a plain tip and pipe a dollop of cream onto half of the macarons. Top with a square of pate de fruits and another macaron shell.

Muscadine Grape Frangipane Clafoutis

2009-08-31T00:15:00.009-04:00

There is rarely a post without a story around here. I know I had a story for today. Had to have one. As my dad would say "I did not say it was good, I just said there was one". Simple and straight to the fact, which is not how these Muscadine Grapes Frangipane Clafoutis came to be but the result with our friends at dinner last night was actually just that. Simple and straight up good. Oh wait! They are the story. The dessert, the grapes.

A friend wanted me to teach her and her husband how to make souffles. We immediately turned this opportunity to see them into a dinner with a larger group. In return I asked that she helped me out with the huge cross stiching I've been working on for years. Yes, I decided one day to cross stich one famous Charleston street filled with gorgeous ante-bellum houses, and it feels like I have been at it for an eternity! After the first tray of souffles went in the oven, she gave one look at my cross stiching and exclaimed "Well, looks like you have a problem staying within the lines". I gave her the biggest smile and said "Doh! It's me we're talking about. Of course I can't stay within the lines!" She quickly fixed my issues and we proceeded to round two of the souffles lesson.

After the third tray, I could see they both had the hang of it and we moved on to other things. We had made small batches all along and realized we would not have enough desserts for everyone, especially after all the sampling and testing we had done as the lesson progressed. I quickly glanced at the pantry and fridge and decided to assemble another dessert. I was in the mood for clafoutis, Bill was in the mood for something with frangipane. I had bought some really juicy red and green muscadine grapes, the firsts of the season, and decided to add some to my clafoutis-frangipane mix.

Muscadine grapes are big grapes with somewhat of a thick skin which makes them happily snap and pop when you eat them. Just like with kumquats, it's best to take the time to seed them but luckyly there are little of them inside and they are pretty easy to discard. The season is usually September through October but it looks like our crops here have already started to be bountiful. Happy me! Much like kumquats I just love to pop them in my mouth for a snack but I discovered by pan searing them in honey that they are absolutely wonderful warm on vanilla ice cream. Happier me!

As we were fixing dinner, setting the table, getting drinks and nibbles ready I realized I was not paying attention very well and had completely forgotten to add the green grapes in there and we were munching on the reds I had saved to top the clafoutis-flan-whatever-we were-going to call-this. Improvise, devise. Quick! Alright, so we would bake the dessert and quickly pan sear the green muscadine grapes in honey and top the frangipane clafoutis with those. Ok, that would work. Reds inside, greens outside. Guests in the driveway!

Here is what we were not expecting: when I took the tray out of the oven all the frangipane clafoutis ressembled souffles. It was like the never ending souffle making oven! We gathered around the island and started counting, absolutely sure they would deflate within seconds. One, two, three...ten, thirty. Nothing moved. The beautiful golden crust on top remained puffy and upright.

Hmmm...where to put those pan seared green grapes now? Bill took the back of a spoon, smashed the tops down as the rest of us looked horrified and spooned the green and saucy grapes in the middle. He looked at me all happy and said "That works! See I can do stuff in the kitchen!"

He was absolutely right! It worked perfectly, except we had no idea how to call what I had just baked so for now it's just Muscadine Grape Frangipane Clafoutis. I am leaving the souffles part aside because I have no idea if the effect will reproduce itself if I make these again or if you decide to try this recipe. I knew the method would make them rise, I did not know ours would never fall!

One year ago: Lemon Balm Infused Berries with Almond Tuiles.

Muscadine Grape Frangipane Clafoutis:

Serves 4

For the clafoutis:
1/2 cup (100gr) sugar
1 oz (30gr) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 eggs, separated
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup (50gr)ground almonds
2 tablespoons (15gr)all purpose flour
pinch of salt
a dozen red Muscadine grapes, halved and seeded

For the pan seared grapes:
1-2 teaspoons unsalted butter
1 cup green Muscadine grapes, halves and seeded
3 tablespoons of honey (or to taste)

Prepare the frangipane clafoutis:
Preheat the oven to 340F and position a rack in the center. Lightly coat 4 ramekins with cooking spray or a dab of butter and place them on a baking tray. Set aside.
In a large bowl whisk together the sugar, butter and the egg yolks until the mixture is a smooth paste. Add the heavy cream little by little. In a separate bowl, stir together the almonds, flour and salt, add this to the egg yolk mixture and whisk until well blended. In a very clean bowl, whip the egg whites until stiff and gently fold them into the almond mixture. Divide evenly among your ramekins (make sure to fill them only 3/4 of the way up) and place 3-4 grape halves on top of the batter. Bake for about 25-30 minutes. Top with the pan seared green grapes.

Prepare the pan seared grapes:
In a large skillet melt the butter over medium high heat. Add the grapes and sear them for about 5 minutes or until they just start to soften. Deglaze the pan with the honey and remove from the heat.

Raspberry And Vanilla Dobos Torte With The Daring Bakers

2009-08-27T00:28:00.004-04:00

I realized as I was starting to write down the recipe for this post that it was actually my 550th post. Wow...That made me a little proud and left me slightly amazed at the same time! I think I even said "oh la vache!" (holy cow!). That's a whole lot of stories, words, laughs, tears and just as much sugar, butter, flour and eggs! What could be more fitting to celebrate post #550 than a Daring Bakers Challenge? A very sweet and very rich one: a Dobos Torte.

I wrote last time that I hadn't had an ounce of craving for chocolate lately and when I set out to make this challenge, things turned out just about the same. I looked at the recipe and could not chase the images of sweet sugared berries floating in my head. Or was it sugar made saber equipped raspberries fighting off little chocolate critters? Hmmmm...Still, not an ounce of chocolate was calling my name yet. Too hot, too humid and a fridge full of raspberries thanks to my mother - in - law who always buys for 8 when there are just the 2 of them.

A Dobos Torte is traditionally a rich layer sponge cake layered with chocolate buttercream and topped with caramel pieces. I respected all the components of the challenge while changing things around a bit for a few reasons: the season, the plentitude of raspberries and mascarpone I had (mother - in - law again) and the weather.

I baked the sponge layers in a sheet pan, cut out disks in the cake to form several 3-inch cakes in dessert rings. I layered the disks with a super light (but rich) mascarpone mousse and fresh raspberries. For the buttercream, I kept a similar method as the one given by the hostesses and made vanilla bean Swiss meringue buttercream where the egg whites are heated on the stove prior to being whipped. On a side note, the specks you notice on the cakes are neither caused by a problem with your vision or your computer screen. It's not dirt either as my 5 year-old neighbor thought earlier. It's the pure goodness of a vanilla bean.

I thought about that caramel topping long and hard and knew it was just not going to happen as it was written given our heat and humidity. I made pulled sugar ribbons because I could make just what I needed for the cake before they'd disintegrate in sugar puddles. Going back on previous posts, I realized there had been bubble caramel, caramel circles, caramel strands, caramel corkscrews, caramel window panes, caramel plates but never good old pulled sugar. Ah! No more! Here it is!

Before you say you will never ever do it because it's caramel-and-oh-my-god-it's-just-too-hard-because-it's-caramel let me tell you why you could make it tomorrow and neither glue your entire kitchen nor burn all your pots and pans trying to get it to "the proper shade of amber". First, there is a high enough ratio of water to sugar for the liquid not to turn to caramel before you reach the desired temperature for pulled sugar. Then, your mission is NOT to let it turn color. You boil, add coloring or not, take it to a certain temperature, pour it off, let it cool a bit and start playing.

See? One more cool pastry thing to try one quiet evening. Do not fear the sugar!

We loved this version and I have already bookmarked the original one given by our hostesses to make this Fall and Winter. Thank you ladies for hosting and to Lisa and Ivonne for being such incredible Daring Bakers Founders! There are plenty more Dobos Torte to be seen from around the globe here.

The August 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonful
of Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos
Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers' cookbook Kaffeehaus: Exquisite
Desserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.

One year ago: Chocolate Eclairs with the Daring Bakers
Raspberry And Vanilla Dobos Torte:

Makes eight 3 - inch cakes

For the sponge cake layers
6 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
1 1/3 cups (162g) confectioner's (icing) sugar, divided
1 teaspoon (5ml) vanilla extract
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (112g) sifted cake flour
pinch of salt

For the mascarpone mousse:
For the mousse:
3 egg yolks
1/2 tablespoon powdered gelatin
1/2 cup (125ml) honey
3 oz (90gr) mascarpone, at room temperature
1 cup (250ml) heavy cream

For the buttercream:
1 cup (200gr) sugar
4 large egg whites
3 sticks (340gr) unsalted butter, at room temperature

Prepare the cake layers:
Position the racks in the top and centre thirds of the oven and heat to 400F (200C). Line a half sheet pan with parchment paper and spray lightly with cooking spray. Set aside.
Beat the egg yolks, 2/3 cup (81g) of the confectioner's (icing) sugar, and the vanilla in a medium bowl with a mixer on high speed until the mixture is thick, pale yellow and forms a thick ribbon when the beaters are lifted a few inches above the batter, about 3 minutes. (You can do this step with a balloon whisk if you don't have a mixer). In another bowl, using clean beaters, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in the remaining 2/3 cup (81g) of confectioner's (icing)sugar until the whites form stiff, shiny peaks. Using a large rubber spatula, stir about 1/4 of the beaten whites into the egg yolk mixture, then fold in the remainder, leaving a few wisps of white visible. Combine the flour and salt. Sift half the flour over the eggs, and fold in; repeat with the remaining flour. Pour the batter into the prepared half sheet pan and bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until slightly brown.

Prepare the mousse:
Whisk the egg yolks to break them up in the bowl of stand mixer (or with hand held beaters).
Sprinkle the gelatin over 2 Tb of cold water in a small cup and let it bloom.
In a heavy saucepan set over medium high heat, bring the honey to a boil and cook until it reaches 240F. Remove the pan from the stove and pour it carefully into a cup with a spout (easier to pour) .
Dissolve the gelatin in the microwave for 10 seconds, or in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water.
While still whipping the yolks, slowly pour in the hot honey, being careful to temper them and not cook them. Pour the gelatin over the egg/honey and whip together for a few seconds and add the mascarpone, one tablespoon at a time. Whip until cooled to room temperature and has tripled in volume
In another bowl, whip the cream to soft peaks or if you are using a stand mixer, pour the mousse into a large bowl and clean the mixer bowl thoroughly, or use another mixer bowl if you have one. Gently fold the whipped cream into the mousse trying to deflate the whole thing as little as possible. Use immediately.

Prepare the buttercream:
Place the sugar and egg whites in a large heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and whisk constantly, keeping the mixture over the heat, until it feels hot to the touch, about 3 minutes. The sugar should be dissolved, and the mixture will look like marshmallow cream (temperature should be about 235-238F). Pour the mixture into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and beat the meringue on medium speed until it cools and forms a thick shiny meringue, about 5 minutes. Switch to the paddle attachment and add the butter, one tablespoon at a time, beating until smooth. Once all the butter is in, beat in the buttercream on medium-high speed until it is thick and very smooth, 6-8 minutes. Proceed per recipe or store for up to a week in the fridge or 3 months (well wrapped in the freezer).

Assemble the cakes: like eight cake rings with rhodoid or plastic protector sleeves cut to fit (yes, like the ones in the office)and place them on a baking sheet. Place a cake round at the bottom, place a layer of raspberries on the outside, fill with mousse to the top of the raspberries, top with one round of cake, more mousse and a final round of cake. Place in the refrigerator and let set 2 hours or overnight. When the mousse is set, cover with the buttercream and refrigerate.

For the pulled sugar ribbons:
1 1/4 cup (250gr) sugar
100 ml water
1 teaspoon lemon juice
5-8 drops red food coloring

In a heavy saucepan set over high heat, bring the sugar and water to a boil (do not let it turn into caramel). Once it is boiling, add the lemon juice and coloring. Bring the syrup to 298F on a candy thermometer. Immediately pour the caramel onto a silicone mat. You might want to wear some pastry gloves at this point because the caramel is extremely hot. Little tip: I have found myself with not one glove in the tool box so I used a new pair of dishwashing gloves instead.
Let it harden until it is pliable and carefully start folding the mat back and forth onto itself to work the sugar mass a bit. Take small pieces of the mass and start pulling, twirling or even make rose petals and other flowers with it. Beware that pulled sugar cools as fast as it gets hot so if it becomes harder and harder to work with you have different options available. If you have a heat lamp, place the pulled sugar underneath until pliable again. If you are like me (sans heat lamp) you can either place the pulled sugar on the silicone mat on a baking sheet directly on the stove on low heat until pliable or in a low heated oven. Be careful and watch it carefully: it can turn into "real" caramel very fast this way so do not walk away while you reheat.

Peach Mousse & Strawberry Verrines

2009-08-24T01:05:00.007-04:00

We've been drowning under peaches over here. Fresh, juicy local peaches. They were good starting in June but they are just tremendous right now. They got plenty more rain and sunshine to get even better. If that was even possible. Bu they did. The stalls at the farmers' market bear the same jovial velvet dresses of oranges, yellows and terra cotta. Makes me long for the fresh markets of Provence where I grew up. So colorful, so hot, so happy.

Thursday seemed to start with a peach sessions: roasting, jamming, cutting and peeling a bunch to freeze and enjoy during Fall. Lunch was the perfect time to make plans about their use. When dinner came, we enjoyed sweet concoctions like these Peach Mousse & Strawberry Verrines.

Friday started the same way but ended up with a batch of peach jam, peach pate de fruit and matcha macarons for wedding favors. By Saturday morning, first thing I twittered was "peach pate de fruit and matcha macarons I love you". I am telling you...summer makes my head twirl and spin. Bill did hide both from me or there wouldn't have been any left for the wedding at the rate I was going. Sorry....

He's been playing the same trick with the berries, the peaches, the tomatoes, and these verrines. I made six before he left to play music and when he came back there were 4.5 gone. Ooops! I just can't get enough of the bounties of summer. I admit I have had such little desire for chocolate this summer that I have decided that no, nothing was wrong with me and that yes, I will enjoy these fine summer rituals until the end.

It's still too hot to lose myself in chocolate yet. Well, that's not entirely true. My friend Sarah came for dinner one evening with a pan of her famous brownies and I happily devoured my share (and that of my imaginary friend I hear!). For us lately it's been fruit all the time, all the way. With peaches as good as these, it'd be a shame not to.

I have no idea how I came up with these verrines. I just started to think about the best way to use peaches in their "natural" state, as unaltered as possible. I know I am not the only one to think that with fruits this good it'd be a shame to start messing around too much. Yep, Jen's crisp is next on the list.

The base of the verrine is simply some peach puree with lime juice, sugar and a bit of gelatin to help support the peach mousse. I started thinking about doing an Italian meringue based mousse but I was kneed deep in meringue for macarons and a bit tired of washing dishes. Instead, I opted for a simpler fruit mousse base, whipped cream and that worked perfectly as the peaches were already full of natural sugar. The top was leaving me pondering and thinking until I spotted a bag of strawberries I had frozen last May when they were in full season. Score!

And then it was like a little piece of white sand on crowded beach. Nothing else mattered...

Peach Mousse Verrines:

Serves 4

For the peach puree:
1 teaspoon powdered gelatin
1 tablespoon cold water
1 cup (200gr) peaches, peeled and pitted diced small
juice and zest of a lime
2 tablespoons (25gr) sugar

For the peach mousse:
1/2 tablespoon gelatin
2 tablespoons water
3/4 cup (130gr) peaches, peeled and pitted, diced small
2 tablespoons (25gr) sugar
1/2 cup (125ml) heavy cream, cold

For the strawberry topping:
1/2 teaspoon gelatin
2 teaspoons water
3/4 cup (115gr) fresh strawberries, halved
1 tablespoon of sugar (or to taste)
splash of lemon juice

Prepare the peach puree layer:
Sprinkle the gelatin over the water and reserve. Process the peach dices with the lime juice and zest and the sugar until completely processed. Heat the mixture in a medium saucepan set over medium heat until it starts to bubble. Add the gelatin and stir until it is completely melted. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature. Divide evenly among 4 glasses. Refrigerate until set.

Prepare the peach mousse:
Sprinkle the gelatin over the water and reserve. In the bowl of a food processor, puree the peaches until completely smooth. Place the puree and the sugar in a medium saucepan set over medium heat and heat until it bubbles. Add the gelatin and stir until completely dissolved. Let cool to room temperature. When the mixture starts to set, whip the heavy cream to soft peaks and gently fold it in the fruit mixture. Divide evenly among the glasses. Refrigerate until set.

Prepare the strawberry puree:
Sprinkle the gelatin over the water and reserve. In the bowl of a food processor puree the strawberries with the sugar and splash of lemon juice until completely smooth. Heat that mixture in a small pan set over medium high heat and cook until it bubbles. Stir in the gelatin and stir until it dissolves. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature. Divide it on top of the peach mousse and refrigerate until set.