November 29, 2011
Chocolate Almond Bettelman
If you've ever bought or baked fresh brioche, surely you've noted the subtle shift, occurring sometime during day two or three, when said brioche turns from something you can't keep your hands off of, to something you feel you should be eating because it's there.
When that initial magic is gone, the toaster can help revive it to a certain extent, especially if you top it with thin slivers of salted butter and generous amounts of grated chocola...
"Chocolate Almond Bettelman" continues »
August 9, 2011
Poached Rhubarb
These days, when I get to the Batignolles farmers market on Saturday mornings -- as early as I can but not as early as I'd like -- my first order of business is to dart upon whatever rhubarb is left at my favorite produce stall.
My strategy is not 100% proper, I'm afraid.
The pile of stalks is usually found a third of the way down the length of the stall, wedged in between, say, a basket of short cucumbers and a crate of tiny new potatoes, an...
March 29, 2011
Butterless Apple Crumble
It's only recently that I've realized that the crumble topping of a fruit crumble doesn't have to be made with butter to be crisp and delicious.
Did you know? Am I the last person to find out?
The epiphany came from my intensive granola-making activities: after all, isn't granola a second cousin to the crumble topping? And if I make granola with oil, not butter, why not try that in a crumble?
And so, for the past few months -- since the begi...
"Butterless Apple Crumble" continues »
January 18, 2011
Vanilla Oat Milk Tapioca Pudding
Meet my current favorite quick and easy dessert: a tapioca pudding made with oat milk and flavored with vanilla.
Tapioca pudding, for those not familiar with it, is not unlike rice pudding, except the texture of cooked pearl tapioca is estimated to be seven hundred and eighty three times more enjoyable than that of cooked rice, as each tiny pearl rolls off your tongue like the word "pearl" itself.
Pearl tapioca is made with the starch extract...
"Vanilla Oat Milk Tapioca Pudding" continues »
October 19, 2010
Quince Almond Cake
I scored big last week, as not one, but two generous friends asked if I'd like to take a few quinces off their hands. I am systemically incapable of resisting free produce, especially when it comes from a friend's garden (or a friend's neighbor's garden), and especially when it's as old-world charming as quince. I said yes! yes! just tell me where and when and I'll come a-running with my wheelbarrow!
And this is how I found myself with about f...
"Quince Almond Cake" continues »
August 17, 2010
Apricot Blueberry Cobbler
I'd been living in California for a few months and thoroughly enjoying the dotcom vibe of my workplace when the big news was announced: we were going to have a company barbecue.
This, to me, was what working in the Silicon Valley at the turn of the century was all about: a lot of fun ideas to make employees happy (water guns! foosball table! free pizza on Fridays!) and therefore more inclined to put in the hours and brainjuice that would help ...
"Apricot Blueberry Cobbler" continues »
July 20, 2010
Almond Cake with Blueberry Coulis
I had my first taste of this cake at my friend Adam's lasst December. I was in New York for a whirlwind visit to promote the big fat pink book, and he and Craig had invited me to dinner at their place.
I would have been grateful for any home-cooked meal, which is by far my favorite kind when I travel, but this was a truly delicious dinner, one that refutes the "amateur" in "amateur gourmet."
After a salad of roasted beets and a dish of milk-b...
"Almond Cake with Blueberry Coulis" continues »
June 3, 2010
Rhubarb Tart with Lemon Verbena
I am rhubarb's most adoring fan.
Throughout the season, in the spring and then in late summer, my weekly market run includes a big bunch of blushing stalks that I'll cook promptly, once home, into a compote* I'll eat for breakfast (with a gurgle of homemade kefir) throughout the week.
While compote is my standard use for rhubarb, I love it in a tart, too, and that's what I decided to serve for dessert last week, when we had friends over for d...
"Rhubarb Tart with Lemon Verbena" continues »
February 16, 2010
Brown Butter Spiced Crisp
Planning the menu for a dinner party is all about being realistic, balancing the different dishes not only in terms of flavor and style, but also in terms of workload. If I opt for a main course that's a bit elaborate, then I know I won't have much time or energy to devote to dessert, and the fruit crisp or crumble* is my wildcard choice. (The trifle, too, but we'll talk about that another day.)
A fruit crisp requires very little work (throw t...
"Brown Butter Spiced Crisp" continues »
January 19, 2010
Homemade Galette des Rois
If you've ever been in France during the month of January, surely you've noticed the blossoming of galettes des rois in the window of every bakery and pastry shop. A puff pastry pie garnished with a buttery almond filling, it is the traditional confection with which the Epiphany is celebrated*; I have written in more detail about this tradition in this post and later in this one, so I invite you to go and read them first. I'll wait right here.
...
"Homemade Galette des Rois" continues »
November 10, 2009
Chocolate Marble Cake
[Cake marbré au chocolat]
I grew up eating a store-bought chocolate marble cake called Savane. Created in the sixties by a French manufacturer that was acquired by an American company shortly thereafter, it came as a whole loaf cake in an ocher and brown box. The bottom of the loaf was wrapped in a paper liner that you peeled off as you sliced your way through the cake, the crumb was fluffy as only factory-made cakes can be, and I loved it.
M...
"Chocolate Marble Cake" continues »
October 20, 2009
Apple Slices with Frozen Sheep's Milk Yogurt
Maxence and I like to spend a weekend in Amsterdam every once in a while: we love the atmosphere of the city in any season, and we usually stay in a neighborhood called Nieuwmarkt that is both lively (plenty of shops and restaurants) and residential (real people live there), the ideal mix if you want to pretend you're an Amsterdammer (only with terrible language skills) for a few days.
It doesn't hurt that it is also the neighborhood where Pât...
"Apple Slices with Frozen Sheep's Milk Yogurt" continues »
July 28, 2009
Cherry Hazelnut Loaf Cake
[Cake Cerise Noisette]
I had lunch with my friends Pascale and Caroline a couple of weeks ago, and afterward we followed Caroline back to her apartment so she could share samples of a quirky ingredient she'd just laid her hands on: hazelnut flour.
I had initially thought she was referring to finely ground hazelnuts (hazelnut meal or poudre de noisettes), but no: this is made by grinding hazelnuts finely, yes, but also removing the oil they co...
"Cherry Hazelnut Loaf Cake" continues »
June 30, 2009
Saskatoon Berry Tart
Two years ago, I received a sweet email from a Canadian woman named Delphine. She explained that she and her French boyfriend run a farm in the Aube, about two and a half hours to the Southeast of Paris, on which they grow -- among other things -- Saskatoon berries*. Did I know this North American fruit? Did I want to try it?
A new fruit! One I'd never even heard of! Of course I wanted to taste it!
Because Saskatoon berries are only in season...
"Saskatoon Berry Tart" continues »
June 16, 2009
Matcha and Azuki (Green Tea and Red Bean) Cake Roll
[Gâteau roulé matcha et azuki]
The thing that happens when you buy a big pouch of anko (Japanese sweetened red bean paste) to make strawberry daifuku is that you're likely to run out of rice flour long before you use up all the azuki paste.
I assume it keeps for weeks if well wrapped, but I didn't want to let it sit in the fridge for too long (shelf space is in short supply), so I tried to think up ways to use it. A quick brainstorm led me to...
"Matcha and Azuki (Green Tea and Red Bean) Cake Roll" continues »
May 19, 2009
Sticky Chocolate Cake
Last time I was in London, my primary objective may have been to snuggle up with my nephew, but I still brought a list of food places I wanted to check out, for, you know, research purposes. One of them was Ottolenghi, a deli that offers a daily selection of colorful dishes -- with an emphasis on fresh produce -- and dazzling pastries.
I had received a review copy of their seductive cookbook a couple of months before, and had quickly stopped t...
"Sticky Chocolate Cake" continues »
March 17, 2009
Apple and Maple Yogurt Cake
A year ago today, my sister gave birth to a healthy baby boy; the next morning, Maxence and I were on a train to visit them at the hospital. He was the freshest newborn I'd ever held, and for weeks afterward, the most mundane display of emotion I witnessed -- in a film, in a book, on the street -- could make me weep. I was an aunt, and not just one in a dozen, either: that baby's one and only aunt.
This unique position comes with great respons...
"Apple and Maple Yogurt Cake" continues »
February 10, 2009
Simple Riz au Lait
As you might remember from my Best of 2008 list*, I have recently revived my old homemade yogurt routine, after several years of hiatus.
There was no tangible reason for this hiatus apart from my self-confessed flemme -- a French word that is pronounced exactly like phlegm (sorry, but it is) and is a sentiment of laziness that washes over you when you can't be bothered to do something -- but there is a very real reason for ending it: when I re...
"Simple Riz au Lait" continues »
January 20, 2009
Luxury Brownies
Among the many blogs I read enthusiastically is one called Coco&Me: its author, Tamami, sells homemade cakes and chocolates at Broadway Market in East London on Saturdays, and she describes her blog as "the diary of a market stall holder."
Beautifully illustrated with photos of her displays and confections, it is full of the sort of details I crave when I read about someone's life and craft: the number of truffles she rolled for the last mark...
January 6, 2009
Raspberry Dacquoise
It all started with a store-bought dessert that we tasted at a friend's house late last summer, which consisted in a light vanilla mousse garnished with raspberries and sandwiched between two layers of a thin, crisp, and lightly chewy almond cake. Everybody loved it, and I thought, hey, I think I could make something like that, too.
You see, years and years ago, at a Demarle homesale hosted by my friend Pascale, I acquired a silicon sheet pan ...
"Raspberry Dacquoise" continues »
December 9, 2008
Flourless Poppy Seed Cake
My oven and I are going through a rough patch and frankly, I don't think it can be fixed*.
You see, it has been behaving in the most erratic manner this fall, and if there's one thing a cook doesn't need, it's an unreliable oven, one that takes forrrreeeeevvver to preheat, turns itself off mid-baking, refuses to turn itself back on, or burns the food that's placed too far out in the back. Oh, and I almost forgot the best part: mine is also an ...
"Flourless Poppy Seed Cake" continues »
November 4, 2008
Vanilla Poached Quince
Where is the online scratch 'n sniff when you need it?
Since such technology is not yet available to us (sheesh!), we'll just have to rely on our imagination and invoke, in our mind's nose, the irresistibly sweet, floral, candy-like scent that quince, the most gnarled and unprepossessing subject of the fruit kingdom, emits.
In fact, if you were to cook quinces right away upon purchasing them, I would call you crazy: what you should do instea...
"Vanilla Poached Quince" continues »
August 13, 2008
Chiffon Cake
When Maxence and I lived in California at the turn of the century, we liked to visit a small shop in Mountain View called Hong Kong Bakery. The Chinese-style pastries all seemed very exotic to me and we ate our way through the full range over the first few months, but soon stopped when we found our gold-medalled champion: the chiffon cake.
If you've never had chiffon cake, perhaps you can start by imagining what it might feel like to eat a clo...
June 18, 2008
Banana Pecan Cake with Maple Glaze
Among the countless blessings this blog has brought to my life is this one: I have met and become friends with a few cookbook authors.
They are delicious people to be around, naturally, and if I manage to fox my way into their house they may actually cook for me, but the invaluable bonus is that, once I've come to know and trust them, once I've witnessed how exacting they are, and how much pressure they submit themselves to in order to produce...
"Banana Pecan Cake with Maple Glaze" continues »
March 17, 2008
Kouign Amann etc.
Update: The pastry shop mentioned in this post is now closed, but it will be replaced by Conticini's new pastry shop, called La Pâtisserie des Rêves, scheduled to open in the summer of 2009 at 93 rue du Bac, 75007 Paris (map it!).
I'm sure there are people out there who step inside a new pastry shop, glance at the display, order what they want, and walk out. I have no idea how they do it.
Take, for instance, Philippe Conticini's recently open...
"Kouign Amann etc." continues »
September 10, 2007
Quetsche Plum Tart with Walnut Cream
I love plums. I love that they are small and that you can rinse a few of them at a time, whirling them in your hand like Baoding balls. I love that they come in sundry shapes and colors to match your outfit, I love that they have a pit that you can spit out into the sink, and I love that they grow on trees under which you can stand, look up, and feel like all is right in the world. I love even the name, plum, how it rolls off the tip of your to...
"Quetsche Plum Tart with Walnut Cream" continues »
July 17, 2007
On Meeting Sadaharu Aoki
Let me tell you this: girls aren't what they used to be. Present them with a spiffy British actor who knows how to bake an apple crumble, and they will smile, shake the actor's hand (twice), and walk away with a good story, yes, but their heart unstirred.
Allow them to spend half a day with a famous pastry chef, however, and you will get a rather eloquent embodiment of glee.
This opportunity was brought to me on a dessert plate by my friend L...
"On Meeting Sadaharu Aoki" continues »
March 7, 2007
Brioche Façon Pain Perdu
[French-Toasted Brioche]
After a main course of cider-stewed pork served with pasta gratin, this is the sweet note on which my last dinner party ended. Inspiration sprung, again, from my recent meal at Le Caméléon, where the Amaretto cherry pain perdu was enchanting.
In its most basic incarnation, pain perdu -- literally "lost bread" -- is stale bread that one recycles into a simple treat by soaking it in a sweet egg batter and browning it in...
"Brioche Façon Pain Perdu" continues »
January 26, 2007
Oeufs au Lait
I don't really do milk. I don't drink it, I don't cook with it, I don't add it to my cereals, and I like my coffee black, thanks. As a result, I rarely have any in the fridge, and when I do buy a bottle for a recipe, the leftovers usually sit in the fridge and spoil with boredom.
But I hate to toss food as much as the next girl (or perhaps even more than her), and it recently occurred to me that I could salvage leftover milk and make Maxence h...
January 19, 2007
Le Gâteau Piège
[Piège Cake]
Oh no, don't worry, despite the name (piège means trap in French), this is not the sort of cake that's designed to snap closed onto the unsuspecting, eager-for-a-slice hand. I've named this cake le gâteau Piège -- with a capital "P" -- after Jean-François Piège, chef at Les Ambassadeurs [warning: muzak ahead], who shared the recipe in ELLE a few weeks ago.
It was published there as le gâteau de mon enfance (the cake from my child...
January 12, 2007
Galette des Rois, the 2007 Edition
Looking for a recipe for galette des rois? See this post.
And this year's galette des rois (read more about the galette des rois tradition) was brought to us by Arnaud Larher, a thirty-something pastry chef and chocolatier who opened his own shop in Montmartre ten years ago, after honing his skills at Fauchon under Pierre Hermé's direction.
I called the day before to order une galette pour six -- ordering is not mandatory for such a standard ...
"Galette des Rois, the 2007 Edition" continues »
December 15, 2006
Favorites of the Moment
Barbie dolls didn't do much for me when I was little, but I had a passion for plush animals. Each of them had a name and a set of personality traits (often refined by my father, who would improvise bedtime shows for my sister and me, with voices and everything), and they felt more alive than I think grownups can really remember. A direct consequence of this was that, even though I had preferences, naturally -- I remember a black crow I'd won at...
"Favorites of the Moment" continues »
November 2, 2006
Cake à la Banane Flambée et Noix de Pécan Caramélisées
[Flambé Banana Bread with Caramelized Pecans]
One of the things I love the most about kitchen activities is that they come in all shapes and sizes to fit your mood, and how much time you have on your hands. Whether you're looking for instant gratification or a way to spend some quality moments with your pans and spatulas, there is a project out there that's perfect for you. And even for one given dish, there are always plenty of options, high-...
"Cake à la Banane Flambée et Noix de Pécan Caramélisées" continues »
October 26, 2006
La Bague de Kenza
Walking through the Oberkampf neighborhood this past Friday on my way from one appointment to the next, I glanced at my watch and gleefully realized I had just enough time to drop by La Bague de Kenza, a luxurious Algerian pastry shop on rue Saint-Maur.
There was a line snaking outside onto the sidewalk -- it was still Ramadan then and many of the customers were buying sweets for the nightly fast-breaking feast -- but this gave me time to be e...
"La Bague de Kenza" continues »
October 23, 2006
Compote de Pomme et Potimarron à la Vanille de Mayotte
[Apple and Hokkaido Squash Compote with Mayotte Vanilla]
I recently read that online shopping -- or just online window-shopping -- was a widespread form of procrastination. I cannot remember where I read this, but that's probably because reading random stuff on the Internet is another way in which I squander vast amounts of my time.
In any case, the online shopping observation certainly struck a chord, and an indisputable proof of my guilt ar...
"Compote de Pomme et Potimarron à la Vanille de Mayotte" continues »
September 5, 2006
Cinq-Cinquièmes à la Pistache
[Pistachio Five-Fifths]
Le quatre-quarts ("four fourths") can be described as the French pound cake. It has earned its name because the batter is made with the same weight of eggs, butter, sugar, and flour, thus amounting to a fourth of the cake each: you weigh the eggs first, and measure the rest of the ingredients accordingly. There's baking powder, too, which throws the proportions off by a feather, but thou shallt resist the temptation to ...
"Cinq-Cinquièmes à la Pistache" continues »
August 10, 2006
Fiadone
Fiadone can be described as the Corsican cheesecake. Crustless and no more than an inch in thickness, it is prepared with one of the most famous specialties from l'Ile de Beauté, a fresh cheese called brocciu (I am told that this is pronounced "brooch", not "bro-choo"), made with sheep's milk and/or goat's milk. Like all fresh cheeses, good artisanal specimens are instantly recognizable by their faint aromas of barn and hay, and brocciu in part...
June 14, 2006
Framboises et Violettes en Tartelette
[Raspberry and Violet Tartlets]
As promised, here is the recipe for the dessert in the flower menu I created for the French edition of ELLE (issue #3154, June 12, 2006). My thanks to Catherine Roig for allowing me to reproduce the recipes here. The picture above is a shot of the magazine page: the food styling is by Valérie Lhomme, the photography by Edouard Sicot.
Where does one find violet syrup and candied violets? In France, they can be p...
"Framboises et Violettes en Tartelette" continues »
March 22, 2006
Clafoutis à la Fraise
I have a new piece appearing today on NPR's Kitchen Window: it is a recipe for strawberry clafoutis, to which I've added, as a free! no-strings-attached! bonus, an easy recipe for strawberry coulis.
(If you've missed them, my previous contributions to Kitchen Window include:
~ Mango Scallop Tartlets
~ Pear Pastilla
~ Cheese Course 101
~ Fresh Herb Muffins
~ Cherry Soup with Hazelnut Rosemary Tuiles
~ Artichoke and Goat Cheese Mille-feuille
~ A...
"Clafoutis à la Fraise" continues »
March 20, 2006
Club-Cake by Fauchon
... or how to botch a perfectly brilliant idea.
This is the story of a disappointment. I hesitate to call it a cruel disappointment, because I was more disappointed the day I learned that Milli Vanilli was all a lie, but it was a sore one nonetheless.
I had business to do around the Place de la Madeleine the other day, and as I was walking past the Fauchon pastry shop, I stepped inside to take a look -- you know, nothing out of the ordinary, ...
"Club-Cake by Fauchon" continues »
March 6, 2006
Almond Croissants
[Croissants aux Amandes]
A couple of weeks ago, as I was writing about brunches and the possibility of leftover croissants, I gave a passing mention to croissants aux amandes. Such a teaser could not go unnoticed: I received a few requests for instructions, and promised I'd share them as soon as I had a picture to illustrate the recipe.
You will find croissants aux amandes in most traditional French bakeries. Originally devised as a way to se...
"Almond Croissants" continues »
January 2, 2006
Crumble Pomme Mangue
[Mango Apple Crumble]
I cultivate a relationship of deep trust and mutual appreciation with the Fruit Crumble Family. We send each other holiday cards and such, we remember our respective birthdays, and I often turn to them when I'm looking for a simple dessert that won't keep me busy for half the day, one that will be comforting and reliably tasty. And if it can suffuse the kitchen and living-room with warm golden smells, so much the better. ...
"Crumble Pomme Mangue" continues »
December 7, 2005
Pommes et Poires aux Caramels
[Apples and Pears with Caramels]
I love having friends over for an impromptu weeknight dinner. I love going out to restaurants too, I've probably made that clear by now, but having them at home is something else entirely -- warmer and more intimate. It allows you to choose your own musical ambiance (a nice random mix from the Squeezebox), move to the couch for a good cup of tea after dinner, and have conversations that you wouldn't dream of le...
"Pommes et Poires aux Caramels" continues »
November 18, 2005
Gâteau au Yaourt à la Myrtille
[Blueberry Yogurt Cake]
I seem to have become the official birthday cake baker on the 3rd floor of my apartment building -- should this be added to my résumé you think? -- a mission I am proud and happy to take on.
It was recently Peter's birthday -- Peter who's half Italian half Scottish, and who lives with Ligiana, herself from Brazil, in the apartment to the left of ours. As a birthday gift, Ligiana had arranged for him to take a Brazilian...
"Gâteau au Yaourt à la Myrtille" continues »
October 31, 2005
Gâteau de Mamy à la Poire
[This is the republication of a post originally featured in October of 2003.]
On Sunday, Marie-Laure came over "pour le goûter". Le goûter is the afternoon snack kids are given when they come out of school around 4. In my family (by that I mean "at my parents'"), it is also called simply le thé, and is practically an institution. Around 5 on weekends, somebody will invariably ask "on fait le thé?" (alternatively "on prend le goûter?"). Cookies...
"Gâteau de Mamy à la Poire" continues »
October 12, 2005
Yogurt Cake
[Gâteau au yaourt]
As I've mentioned before, Maxence is a big advocate of the adage "if it ain't broke don't fix it". In other words, when a classic recipe is fabulous, don't meddle with it, and just do what you're told. Obviously I have trouble following that piece of advice, and more often than not I'll surrender to the urge and tweak a little something here and a little something there -- substitution is my middle name.
But Maxence had bee...
September 19, 2005
Pierre Hermé Fall/Winter Collection 2005
Ah, fall is right around the corner and you know what that means: colder days, longer nights, and a new collection of pastries by Pierre Hermé. This new collection, which was officially presented to the press in Tokyo, appeared in Parisian stores this past Thursday, and Louisa and I were there to greet it (and no, we didn't sleep on the doorstep).
Pierre Hermé's range of products includes entremets, tarts and classic French pastries, layered d...
"Pierre Hermé Fall/Winter Collection 2005" continues »
August 5, 2005
Compote Pêche Abricot à la Crème de Coquelicot
[Peach Apricot Compote with Red Poppy Cream]
I seem to have a particular fondness for the red poppy, its fragile fluttering silhouette and its thread-thin stem, too thin it seems to support its flamboyant scarlet petals and contrasting black heart. I like that it is easily spotted from afar -- in the middle of a field, on the banks of a country road or in the most unsuspected places amidst city landscapes -- and I like that it is a flower best...
"Compote Pêche Abricot à la Crème de Coquelicot" continues »
July 19, 2005
Gratin de Nectarines à la Noisette
[Hazelnut and Nectarine Gratin]
In French, a portrait chinois (literally "Chinese portrait") is a kind of riddle in which one person tries to guess a famous person's name by asking a set of questions and working by analogy: if he were an animal, what would he be? And if he were a flower, a city, a song, a color, a movie? Since this is incredibly difficult -- I mean really, if Charles de Gaulle were a flower, what the heck would he be? I'm tell...
"Gratin de Nectarines à la Noisette" continues »
July 13, 2005
Soupe de Cerise, Tuiles Noisette et Romarin
[Swimming Cherries, Hazelnut Rosemary Tuiles]
I have a new piece appearing today in NPR's weekly Kitchen Window column. The recipe I am sharing this time is for a chilled cherry soup that you can serve with hazelnut rosemary wafers, a variation on the typically French tuile.
The metric measurements are below.
(Previous contributions to Kitchen Window:
- Artichoke and Goat Cheese Mille-feuille,
- Asparagus Confit with Almonds and Rosemary,
- ...
"Soupe de Cerise, Tuiles Noisette et Romarin" continues »
June 9, 2005
Sadaharu Aoki
Having heard many great things about Parisian-Japanese pastry chef Sadaharu Aoki, I was very eager to taste his edible creations for myself. I had often admired them at the Lafayette Gourmet store (okay, now I make it sound like I spend my life there when really I don't, I go home to sleep and shower), but since I don't usually buy pastries unless there is a good occasion -- or at least deserving friends who will be happy to share them with me ...
May 23, 2005
Strawberry Panna Cotta
Panna cotta is a traditional Piemontese recipe -- the name means "cooked cream" in Italian. There are many variations of the recipe, but it is generally made by simply simmering together some cream, milk and sugar, mixing this with gelatin, before letting it cool until set. The cream mixture can also be flavored, often with a vanilla pod, sometimes with fruit or fruit juice, but you could also experiment with tea, cocoa powder, and different sp...
"Strawberry Panna Cotta" continues »
May 9, 2005
Pierre Hermé Tasting Notes
On Thursday afternoon I happened to have a few things to do in the St-Germain area. Being in that neighborhood never fails to send my food-hunter's antennae aflutter, in particular because of the nearby presence of Pierre Hermé's boutique on rue Bonaparte. It took me about one split second to decide that since I was having dinner at my neighbors' apartment that night to watch the Nouvelle Star semi-finals (previous episode here), well, wouldn't...
"Pierre Hermé Tasting Notes" continues »
April 8, 2005
Fraises au Sucre et Eclats de Fève de Cacao
[Just a little something to keep you happy while I busy myself madly at work, playing firefighter on a work project gone horribly awry.]
Write down some of your favorite ingredients on small pieces of paper. Put them all in a jar, pick three at random (no cheating!) and see if you can come up with a recipe to make the most of your trio.
Sometimes it does not work at all, but sometimes you get: a chicken stew with fresh figs and almonds, zucch...
"Fraises au Sucre et Eclats de Fève de Cacao" continues »
April 1, 2005
Gibassier de Lourmarin
Le Gibassier is a specialty from Lourmarin, the beautiful village in Provence where I spent Easter in my aunt and uncle's house. It is a large blond cookie of about a foot in length made with olive oil and shaped like an oval leaf.
It is possibly named after Le Gibas, a nearby summit of the Luberon mountain range, but the confusing thing is that gibassier is also a type of sweet focaccia-like bread baked with olive oil and flavored with orange...
"Gibassier de Lourmarin" continues »
March 16, 2005
Mid-Atlantic Cheesecake
Cheesecake is one of my favorite desserts. Hard to resist I find it, with its fresh, creamy yet cakey body, and its tasty cookie crumb crust. But when you try to make American-style cheesecake in France, you quickly run into a procurement hurdle: neither cream cheese or graham crackers are readily available. You can find them -- at least if you're in Paris -- but this requires time and effort and the planning of a trip to one of the few stores ...
"Mid-Atlantic Cheesecake" continues »
March 7, 2005
Goûter (presque) chez Pierre Hermé
[Afternoon Snack (almost) at Pierre Hermé's]
Yesterday afternoon I had the pleasure to meet Louisa, my own personal kitchen hero, and Andrea, her charming roommate from Mexico who also works at Les Ambassadeurs. When we discussed time and place, Louisa suggested we meet at Pierre Hermé's boutique, as Andrea had yet to discover it. Needless to say, I nodded vigorously (for the sole benefit of my living-room wall, as we were speaking on the phon...
"Goûter (presque) chez Pierre Hermé" continues »
March 2, 2005
Gâteau aux Daims
Daim Cake
Sometimes I come upon a recipe and I just can't seem to get it out of my head. Case in point: the Buttercrunch Almond Tea Cake, as baked by Zarah Maria in Copenhagen. The original recipe comes from Lisa Yockelson's book Baking by Flavor and is a tea cake studded with chunks of Heath bar. Heath bars I don't do (never had one, not sold over here) but Zarah Maria had the brilliance to use Daims instead. Daims? That I will do.
Daims are...
"Gâteau aux Daims" continues »
February 7, 2005
Crêpes
February 2 is La Chandeleur (Candlemas), a holiday that welcomes the first signs of spring. In France, it is traditionally celebrated by making crêpes, with a variety of superstitious little tricks to bring happiness and prosperity upon your household.
One of those tricks involves holding a coin in your left hand while you flip the crêpe pan with your right hand: if all goes smoothly and you haven't dropped the crêpe or the coin or killed any...
January 17, 2005
Tarte Pomme Pistache
[Apple Pistachio Tart]
Ever since I laid my hands on a can of pistachio paste for the Bar à Veloutés, I have been looking for ways to use the precious stuff and make the most of it. So far I have made crème brûlée à la pistache (adding a little to my regular crème brûlée recipe), pistachio cookies and chocolate pistachio cake, all of which I was very happy with. I have also donated some to a couple of friends, but it looks as if I've hardly ma...
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January 6, 2005
Galette des Rois
Looking for a recipe for galette des rois? See this post.
It is a typically French tradition to celebrate l'Epiphanie: this holiday celebrates the day on which the three kings Gaspard, Balthazar and Melchior came to pay their tribute to the world-famous baby born just a couple of weeks before. In French those wise men go by the cool name of Les Rois Mages (the Magi), and their first names are totally coming back in fashion these days, let me t...
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January 5, 2005
Tarte Tatin Caramel au Beurre Salé
[Tarte Tatin with Salted Butter Caramel]
This is the dessert I made for our New Year's Eve dinner.
We had decided to have a luxurious picnic rather than an elaborate meal, so we had toasts of foie gras (brought back from our vacation in the Périgord), a fruity duck magret salad whipped up by our neighbor Stéphan, and some Coquilles St-Jacques, lovingly hand-opened by Maxence and myself, simply sauteed and served with matchstick raw veggies (...
"Tarte Tatin Caramel au Beurre Salé" continues »
December 7, 2004
Crumble Banane Poire Pécan
[Banana Pear Pecan Crumble]
Fruit crumbles are perfect for when you have company: you can prepare the crumble dough well in advance, cut up the fruit when you have time, bake the crumble at your convenience (although same day is best for the crisp factor), and reheat it in the oven just before serving. I usually prepare enough dough for two crumbles and keep the remaining half in the fridge for a few days or in the freezer for a few weeks, rea...
"Crumble Banane Poire Pécan" continues »
September 10, 2004
Blueberry Coffee Cake
[Coffee cake à la myrtille]
At La Pommeraie, the fruit farm where we picked a large amount of blueberries earlier this week, they gave out little leaflets about the different kinds of fruit they grow, giving out instructions on how to keep them, and a few, wonderfully straightforward recipes -- tarts and compotes, clafoutis and jams. This is how I learned that in fact, you should let blueberries sit for a couple of days somewhere cool for them...
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August 31, 2004
Crumble Abricot et Melon aux Pignons de Pin
[Apricot and Melon Crumble with Pinenuts]
Maxence and I were recently invited over to our friends Peggy and Julien's appartment for dinner. They used to live just three blocks down the street from us, but they have just moved and now live, oh, a good six blocks further, so visiting them still has that special neighborly feel to it. Although Peggy is a talented cook, she wasn't the chef on that particular night : Manu, another food enthusiast a...
"Crumble Abricot et Melon aux Pignons de Pin" continues »
August 22, 2004
Gnocchi de Speculoos (IMBB7)
[Sweet Speculoos Gnocchi]
Today is the 7th edition of Is My Blog Burning?, the collective food blogging event, brainchild of my favorite Italian baker, Alberto. This time around, the theme is You're just the cutest little dumpling!, and is hosted by Jarrett, to whom the food enthusiast community owes a lifetime of gratitude for coming up with the Food Porn Watch.
I love dumplings of all shapes and tastes and origins, but I have little experie...
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August 16, 2004
Tarte au Fromage Frais, Miel et Ecorces d'Orange Confites
[Honey Cheese Tart with Candied Orange Peel]
This golden tart rounds out the selection of desserts I served at my birthday party. The birthday cake itself had to be chocolate of course, and I wanted to bake a second dessert that would complement it in terms of taste, shape, color and texture.
I felt that a cheesecake of sorts would be just the thing, and I was inspired by a recipe I found in one of my grandmother's magazines : the recipe was...
"Tarte au Fromage Frais, Miel et Ecorces d'Orange Confites" continues »
August 13, 2004
Compote de Rhubarbe aux Biscuits Roses de Reims
[Rhubarb Compote with Pink Champagne Cookies]
This was a last-minute addition to the dessert buffet for my birthday party. I was at the grocery store minding my own business, when a beautiful bunch of rhubarb, all slender stalks and pink cheeks, called out mischievously : "Rhubarb season doesn't last forever, you know!" I turned around in surprise, looked at the other shoppers, but they were just filling their carts as usual, absorbedly studyi...
"Compote de Rhubarbe aux Biscuits Roses de Reims" continues »
July 16, 2004
Blueberry Tart
[Tarte aux Myrtilles]
Blueberries are by far my favorite berry, and this has been true for as long as I can remember. Something about their color (blue), their size (tiny), and their taste (tart and sweet) really appeals to me. As luck would have it, much like blackcurrant in Burgundy, blueberries are the emblematic berry in the Vosges, where they grow by the bushload up the steep mountain slopes, and go by the name of brimbelles.
When we wen...
July 15, 2004
Apricot Coffee Cake
[Coffee Cake à l'Abricot]
I am currently spending a few days with my family in the Vosges, a mountain range in the East of France where my parents have a vacation house. One of the great pleasures of being there, besides enjoying the garden, taking walks up the mountain, and sleeping soundly in the perfect quiet, is baking with my mother. This is something I used to do pretty often when I still lived with my parents, but now that I'm a big gir...
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May 29, 2004
Compote Rose
[Pink Compote]
I've always been a great fan of tart and acidic things. I also love the French word for this special combination of tastes, "acidulé", which perfectly conveys the idea of something colorful and tingly and refreshing. As a child, my favorite candy were the ones that gave your tastebuds shock therapy -- I remember with particular fondness those little flying saucers made of pastel wafer paper, filled with a pink powder that tickle...
May 23, 2004
Riz au Lait à la Framboise (IMBB4)
[Raspberry Rice Pudding]
Most of you know by now about Is My Blog Burning?, the collaborative food blogging event, in which food bloggers post a recipe on a particular theme on the same day. Well, today is the 4th edition, hosted by Pim, and the theme this time is "Around the World in a Bowl of Rice".
As I have come to expect on such occasions, my mind has been a battlefield for the past week, as ever-growing throngs of widely different ideas...
"Riz au Lait à la Framboise (IMBB4)" continues »
May 17, 2004
Gâteau au Yaourt à la Framboise
[Raspberry Yogurt Cake]
Gâteau au Yaourt is a staple in French home baking : it is very easy to make and I have yet to meet someone who doesn't like it. Its particularity is to call for a pot de yaourt (a tub of yogurt), and to use the empty pot to measure out the rest of the ingredients. This no-scale recipe is a notable exception to the French usage, in which quantities are measured by weight rather than volume.
It is very popular with kids...
"Gâteau au Yaourt à la Framboise" continues »
May 4, 2004
Cranberry Banana Bread
I had read about this recipe a little while ago on Mariko's blog. She credited Melissa for it, who had herself gotten it from Wilson's Farm in Lexington, MA. I'd always wanted to make a banana bread but never had, and the addition of cranberries sounded great. A few months ago, my grocery store was selling cranberries, very uncharacteristically I might add, and I had bought a basket with this bread in mind, and frozen it until the occasion aros...
"Cranberry Banana Bread" continues »
April 27, 2004
Raspberry Rhubarb Grunt
On Sunday, we were invited to my sister Céline's place for lunch with my parents, and I offered to take care of the dessert. With the beautiful spring weather we've had lately, I felt like making something light and fruit-based. Rhubarb season has just begun and we are all big fans in my family, so that was the fruit of choice.
I looked around the web, and read good reviews about Nigella's rhubarb grunt. It sounded easy-breezy (but that's har...
"Raspberry Rhubarb Grunt" continues »
April 6, 2004
Sticky Toffee Pudding à l'Abricot
[Apricot Sticky Toffee Pudding]
This past Sunday afternoon, we had decided to throw a little surprise birthday party for my dear friend Laurence. This sounded like the perfect occasion to try and recreate my own sticky toffee pudding miracle.
Among the different recipes that I had dug out or that you kindly recommended, my favorite was the one by Jill Dupleix, in part because it involved way way way less butter than the others. While hers cal...
"Sticky Toffee Pudding à l'Abricot" continues »
April 3, 2004
Sticky Toffee Pudding
See this? Doesn't it look just scrumpalicious, nested in its little takeout box? See how the sticky caramel coating has rubbed off a bit on the right side, where the little pudding's shoulder was leaning, as I carried it home?
I had walked to Rose Bakery for lunch, armed with a magazine and a notebook, my personal treat when I'm home on a weekday. Usually, after I'm done with the yummy and copious lunch (an assortment of their salads, a main ...
"Sticky Toffee Pudding" continues »
March 13, 2004
Oatmeal Breakfast Clafoutis
I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but I am not the greatest fan of oatmeal - at least when it is cooked in milk the usual way : the lumpy look and the weird smell and the mushy texture really put me off. However, I am a good friend of oatmeal in müesli, and in cookies, and in this baked oatmeal recipe.
The original recipe is brought to us by the good people at Quaker Oats, and it caught my attention as it went through a bout of extreme popu...
"Oatmeal Breakfast Clafoutis" continues »
February 20, 2004
Crumble Pommes Dattes
[Apple and Date Crumble]
And this is the third (and final) item I baked for last Sunday's Goûter de Cousins, thinking it would be nice to make an apple crumble in addition to the two cakes.
The idea was to serve something a little lighter and fruit-based for those of us who may have a small appetite, or may want to go the healthier route, or may be on a diet, or may dislike both chocolate and orange. As it turned out, nobody fit in either of ...
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February 19, 2004
Flourless Orange and Ginger Cake
[Gâteau à l'Orange et au Gingembre]
This is another cake I baked for our Goûter de Cousins last Sunday. I tasted my first flourless orange cake about a year ago at Rose Bakery, and absolutely loved it. I had tried to reproduce it then, and had made an Orange and Poppyseed version, adapting a recipe found on the web. It was really good - the orange and poppyseed pairing was great - but the texture wasn't quite what I was looking for.
This time...
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February 17, 2004
Crumble Poire et Marron Confit
This is the very quick and yummy dessert I served our friends the other night, just before we got back to our scheduled program of activities - video games for Maxence and Marwane, and some serious chatting for Marion and myself.
This is in fact a cheater's crumble, in which the fruit is cooked beforehand (in my case a large amount of delicious passe-crassane pears that had gotten nice and ripe all at the same time), and the crumble is a handf...
"Crumble Poire et Marron Confit" continues »
January 11, 2004
Gâteau Noix de Coco et Chocolat Blanc
[Coconut and White Chocolate Cake]
As you know, yesterday was Maxence's birthday : I treated him to a nice dinner out on Friday (review on the way), and we celebrated again yesterday night with a group of friends, in a bar just a block from our apartment - which we more or less took over. This bar is a small place and we were on friendly terms with the owners, so I had decided to bake a cake and share it with our friends there. And since cocon...
"Gâteau Noix de Coco et Chocolat Blanc" continues »
January 5, 2004
Coffee Cake Chocolat Marron Glacé
[Chocolate and Candied Chestnuts Coffee Cake]
I wanted to bake a cake for our new year's eve party - what's a party without a cake? -- and this is what I made. The recipe for this cake is originally a Sour Cream Coffee Cake from Bon Appétit (circa 1993), which my mother and I tinkered with a little while ago, lowering the sugar content, subbing yogurt for sour cream and converting the measurements from cups to grams.
My mother and I absolute...
"Coffee Cake Chocolat Marron Glacé" continues »
December 29, 2003
Pomme Rôtie aux Fruits Secs, Quenelle de Glace au Calisson
[Roasted Apple with Dried Fruits, Calisson Ice Cream]
My mother and I wanted to end our Christmas eve dinner with a dessert simple to prepare yet festive, and satisfying yet light - more or less. This is what we came up with!
The store Picard Surgelés sells excellent ice-cream created by François Théron. They come in a variety of flavors, all of which quite unusual and incredibly tempting, like marron glacé (chestnut ice-cream with candied ch...
"Pomme Rôtie aux Fruits Secs, Quenelle de Glace au Calisson" continues »
December 19, 2003
Confiture de Tomates Cerises à la Cannelle
[Cherry Tomato Cinnamon Jam]
My mother has been making jars and jars of delicious jam every summer as far back as I can remember, using fruit bought at the Sunday morning market (strawberry, apricot), hand-picked by my family (raspberry, blackberry, blueberry), or given out by friends with overflowing orchards (rhubarb, plums, cherry plums). She labels them and stores them in the cellar, where they patiently age for a year before being generou...
"Confiture de Tomates Cerises à la Cannelle" continues »
November 26, 2003
Pear Rosemary Crème Brûlée
Two weeks ago, my parents came over to my apartment. The plan was for the three of us to have lunch together, and then go out on a mini-tour of the 9th and 18th arrondissements, using a guidebook called "Paris Buissonier", which my sister and I gave our mother for Mother's day : it describes itineraries to walk through parts of Paris that are seldom visited, providing interesting and unusual facts and comments about what you see along the way. ...
"Pear Rosemary Crème Brûlée" continues »
November 4, 2003
Lemon Thyme Crème Brûlée
Ever since we bought the Oxylaser Blowtorch I’ve been pining for an opportunity to use it. My sister Céline has (at least) as much of a sweet tooth as I do, so I decided to make us Lemon Thyme Crèmes Brûlées for dessert on Saturday.
I found a disturbing number of very different crème brûlée recipes out there, calling for widely discordant oven temp, cooking time and quantities of eggs/cream/sugar. They starred various ingredients for fl...
"Lemon Thyme Crème Brûlée" continues »
October 26, 2003
Layers in a Glass
This is one of my favorite recipes when I want to make a light individual dessert that's quick to make, yet looks nice and sophisticated. I served it the other night to end our duck confit meal, after which “light and refreshing” was definitely the way to go. This recipe lends itself to an endless number of variations, but I’ll tell you what I used this time as an example....
"Layers in a Glass" continues »
October 14, 2003
Gâteau de Mamy à la Poire
On Sunday, Marie-Laure came over "pour le goûter". Le goûter is the afternoon snack kids are given when they come out of school around 4. In my family (by that I mean "at my parents'"), it is also called simply le thé, and is practically an institution. Around 5 on weekends, somebody will invariably ask "on fait le thé?" (alternatively "on prend le goûter?"). Cookies or cake (often home-baked by my mother) will be served, washed down by liters ...
"Gâteau de Mamy à la Poire" continues »
October 6, 2003
Honey Hazelnut Cake
Yesterday, my parents came over for tea. This is always a perfect occasion for me to bake (yeah, like I need one), and today being my father's birthday, I decided to bake a cake. After perusing my cookbooks and recipe files, I set my heart on this Honey Hazelnut Cake from the book "Les Gâteaux de Mamie".
The original recipe is titled "Gâteau aux noisettes et au miel", and is actually for cupcakes, but this was a birthday occasion and cupcake...
"Honey Hazelnut Cake" continues »