Almond Recipes
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Almond and Orange Blossom Croquants Cookies
From the department of Who Has Time To Make Edible Gifts In Advance Anyway comes this last-minute recipe, shared by French food writer Cécile Cau on her blog a couple of days ago. It is a recipe for croquants, which is the French word for a variety of crunchy cookies from the South of France, most often thin and involving almonds.
I read the recipe and was enchanted by its simplicity. Flour, s...
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."
A...
[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 ...
...make almond lemon curd.
I like it when I can count the degrees of separation between an ingredient and myself, especially when I only need the fingers of one hand to do so. In this case, there were just four degrees of separation between me and three large lemons: my sister Céline has a boyfriend I adore, named Christian. Christian has a father, who lives not far from Nice. And this father ...
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...
[Apricot and Almond Jam]
When I spend time at my parents' house in the Vosges, my mother and I start out by making a mental list (we haven't reached the point of actually writing down that list - yet) of what we're going to cook, bake and eat. One of the items I mentioned this time was jam : over the years, I've often seen my mother make jam, I've made jam on my own, we've talked about jam toge...
Aunt Amélie's Smooth Chocolate Cake
[Aunt Amélie's Smooth Chocolate Cake]
None of my aunts are named Amélie, I thought I should make that clear from the start. And if I am to explain the origin of this recipe, I will need to rewind the tape back to early January, when French food writer Thierry Roussillon asked if I would answer a few questions for one of the interviews gourmandes he publishes on his blog.
A few days after I d...
[Chestnut Pecan Biscotti]
Because I know you've been hanging on to the edge of your seats and I'm not such a bad person after all, here is my report on this year's batch of edible gifts. The recipe I ended up making on Saturday afternoon -- in between a few last-minute errands, but I'm fortunate enough to live in a neighborhood that offers plenty of shops that cater to the disorganized and thus...
Chocolate Almond Bettelman Bread Pudding
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 sa...
Easy Candied Almonds and Hazelnuts
If there was a candy making for dummies book (what am I saying, of course there is one) this recipe would deserve a prominent spot.
No sugar thermometer, no elaborate trick, very few opportunities for a major burn (unless you really apply yourself). Just a bit of boiling, stirring, and baking, and still these minimal efforts will yield something delicious that anyone will recognize as candy.
T...
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 t...
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 si...
Ginger and Almond Chocolate Clusters
Lately I've had an insuppressible urge to declutter. I would chalk it up to the advent of spring if it hadn't been so stubbornly cold, and if I didn't find myself in that state of I-can't-bear-to-live-with-this-stuff-for-a-minute-longer several times a year.
Actually, one of my resolutions for 2010 is to take on at least one decluttering project every weekend. It can be something quick, like so...
[Soupe de Haricots Verts aux Amandes]
None of my friends need to be reminded how I feel about Rose Bakery, their salad plates, their assortment of British goods (including Neal's Yard cheeses), and their superb sweets that one simply must try and reproduce at home. "Where should we go for lunch in your neighborhood?" they ask. "I like Rose Bakery," I reply. "And what about breakfast/tea/brunch,...
I have never been particularly drawn to energy bars and their spooky ingredients lists, but then I discovered the hugely popular Lärabars while in New York, and they won me over quickly.
If you've yet to make their acquaintance, here's what you need to know: Lärabars (I just ignore the umlaut and say "larabar") are compact but tender energy bars made of ground dates mixed with nuts and other ...
Do you remember Muriel, from Muriel's Chicken? She's a good friend of Maxence's mother's who lives with her family in Le Perche, and whom we've been visiting every year or so with immense pleasure, and frequent sighs of contentment.
Last time we went was in the fall, and Muriel's two lovely daughters had just started their school year; because they attend university in Paris, it means they live...
When I was little and my grandmother was still a young and energetic seventy-something, she came to our house for lunch every Sunday. Now that I am older I'm guessing that this tradition must have been a bit of a strain on the adults from time to time (surely lazing around in your pajamas till noon must have been a tempting occupation too), but to us little girls, this very regularity made it co...
A friend of mine was just admitted to the traditional French cooking program I attended four years ago (read all about it here and here), and the good news got me thinking about a type of cookie we learned to make in class as we approached the holidays, called sablés diamant.
These "diamond cookies" are classic butter cookies that you form using my favorite technique, referred to in English as...
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 wheelba...
Two years ago, I met a young British woman named Poppy -- that alone made my day -- who introduced herself as a raw chocolatier.
I had a taste of her heart-shaped raw chocolates, assembled from raw Arriba cacao and a bunch of raw superfoods, and liked them so much I devoted one of my ELLE à table columns to them.
And when we met one day for her to demonstrate her chocolate-making prowess, she...
Rucola Salad, Shallot Vinaigrette and Toasted Almonds
[Rucola Salad, Shallot Vinaigrette and Toasted Almonds]
Last week I had lunch (at the Café Fusion, where else?) with someone who, incidentally, told me about a cooking class she had attended. It was one of those conversations between two persons who don't know each other too well, who suspect they are in the company of a fellow food enthusiast, but are still trying to determine how deeply infe...
[Strawberry Basil Pesto]
What do you do when your deepest desire is a little homemade pesto in your sandwich, but you discover with a sinking heart that you have but a handful of basil? Sure, you could go out and buy more, certainly, yes, that would be the sensible thing to do. But what if you can't go out for some reason, say, because you've just painted your toenails, or because you're expect...
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 Tu...
[Violet Cornmeal Macarons]
If you are still trying to get your act together about what homemade edible presents to give out this holiday season, I'm here to tell you that you are not alone. I myself have done precisely zilch about it, but that's okay: today is Tuesday, Christmas eve is this Sunday, and that still gives me plenty of time to pick a recipe, buy the ingredients, and get started, ri...
Zucchini Pasta with Almonds and Lemon Zest
Our spring has been so warm and sunny for so many weeks, it feels like we're living a perpetual July.
Although this is terrible news for farmers, who need a wet spring for their crop, Parisians have been enjoying this gift of a weather obliviously. Drinks and meals out on sidewalk terraces have become a daily pleasure, as have light dresses and strappy sandals.
Produce stalls bear witness to t...
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