This was a lot of fun to make with Layla and Hettie Rose. It was a birthday surprise for a neighbor who has had a most difficult year and we thought we’d bake her something special to cheer her up.

I’m really a pie and pastry maker, cakes are never my go-to dessert but I’m trying, trying, to be a better Mommy and embrace the whole over-the-top American cake thing. Why? Because Layla told me good mommies make cakes and asked why we didn’t make more cakes since “You’re a Chef and all, Mom”.

You know I could have made a thousand excuses to her: “They have too much sugar.” (which they do) “I prefer seasonal fruit desserts” (which I do) “They take a lot of time” (definitely true). But at the heart of it, and the real reason I don’t make a lot of cakes, is because I’m a lazy baker. I like to make things at home that I don’t need a recipe for and that includes all feuilltage pastries, tarts and pies.

So Layla actually is right, I need to step up my cake baking skills and get out of my comfort zone once and awhile. However, you can be sure that if I’m posting a cake recipe it’s going to be relatively quick, delicious and have seasonal fruit in it somewhere.

Rhubarb, raspberry and rose water are a beautiful combination –– absolutely gorgeous. I made a refrigerator jam for the cake by combining 4 large ruby red stalks chopped rhubarb with a few pints of raspberries and a cup of sugar cooked down on the stove top. After cooling my quick jam, I added a few splashes of rose water and then slathered it in between the layers. So good! And remember, don’t eat the leaves – they are poisonous!

This recipe is adapted from Cook’s Illustrated. It caught my eye because the technique is so different from every cake I’ve ever made. It’s almost like a pâte brisée technique, but it worked! I made the recipe twice following their steps the first time and then refining them on the second go because the cake did not rise the way the picture looked or create the quantity they suggested. Still, it’s a very easy and very tasty white cake with my improvements. There is no whipping egg whites into a meringue, no creaming butter and sugar – it’s easy!

The topping is that ever ethereal seven minute frosting which is quick to whip up (as the name suggests) and fun to spread on. I gave the cake a crumb coat, so as not to over do it with this sweet spread. At least there’s a lot of protein in it.

I’m on the fence about wrapping the cake with rhubarb slices. It looks cool and it’s easy to do, but I also like the crumb coat unfinished look. if you like it then find some long rhubarb stalks and make long shavings using a vegetable peeler. You can brush them with hot simple syrup and stick them in the oven to soften a bit. I suggest removing them before slicing. I did not test how long the slices stay put on the cake, but I would add these more as decoration before presenting the cake.

My Mom hated rhubarb. I don’t know why. I think it had to do with growing up during WWII and being forced to eat rhubarb desserts. It’s the only vegetable (yes, rhubarb is a vegetable not a fruit) I can remember that she would actually cringe and turn a slight shade of green just in mentioning its name. I didn’t have rhubarb until I was much, much older because I was scared of it. But now I love it. I found this quote, which I’ll leave you with because clearly other people feel the same. Do you love rhubarb? I’m curious, let me know!

“Human growth is not like rhubarb. It can be nurtured and encouraged but it cannot be forced!” — Andy Hargreaves

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My Stepdad, Joe, would hover around the kitchen while this pie was baking and then pace around the house restless, waiting for it to set. Many a time it was served hot and messy with a scoop of vanilla ice cream over top because he just couldn’t wait.

My husband Ramin, does the same thing. I’m telling you this is a blue ribbon peach pie recipe! And yes, I’ll explain the “blossom” part (the SECRET ingredient) down below…

So what makes it so much better than the rest? A few things…

The peach is important. If your peaches are mealy and bland then your pie will be as well. I know, so obvious, but it needs to be repeated because there is a bit of effort to prepping peaches and it’s not worth the trouble if the main ingredient isn’t ripe, firm, and sweet-tart.

So bite into one before you blanch and peel and make sure it’s delicious! Or taste test at the farmer’s market before buying – that’s my favorite thing to do!

I always use a yellow variety because the white ones have sweetness overload with not enough acidity and tend to be a little softer. I love those white varieties too, especially for eating fresh, but not for pie.

I make this recipe with quick cooking tapioca but you can also just scratch the cream and tapioca part of this and mix the peaches with 3 tablespoons of cornstarch if you’re in a bind. Sometimes quick cooking tapioca is hard to find in the markets. Do not use regular tapioca – it takes waaaay to long to cook for this recipe. I do prefer quick cooking tapioca over cornstarch for this if you have a choice, the tapioca gives a little creaminess (along with the actual cream) which I love with peaches.

What is the blossom part of this? Orange blossom water! The combination of orange blossom and peach is truly magical. I am a purest when it comes to pie, I don’t often do mixed fruits. I never put raisins in my apple pies. I like blueberry as just blueberry and cherry as just cherry. But, there are exceptions and this is one of them. I strongly believe that peach and orange blossom flavors elevate each other to new foodgasm heights!

Layla and I made the first part of this recipe while Hettie Rose was napping. It’s so fun to have time with my big girl in the kitchen – the original wild child! – we don’t often get ‘just us’ time these days and cooking is one of the ways we get to bond. I love having a food project that we can work on together.

Both Layla and Hettie were gifted their own Japanese Misono kid’s knives with their names engraved by our long time family friends. If you are teaching a LIttle One to use a real knife I would highly suggest these. When I cooked for Le Bernardin in NYC I bought all my knives at Korin and they have an extensive and beautiful collection. In my years of teaching kids cooking, I have used many different knives and I think these are the best. They are perfect for small hands, nicely weighted and they have a rounded tip.

This Peach Blossom pie needs no extra help in the tasty department, but if you want to serve it with a scoop of vanilla or buttermilk ice cream overtop, while it’s still warm, I’m pretty sure you won’t regret it.

For my Flakey Pie Crust Recipe Go Here: Pâte Brisée

Yay for Summer!!! Enjoy!!! Don’t cry about it, just dig in and devour!!!

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Mother smeared the cake good with a browned butter frosting and gave Father a lick from her spoon before tossing. When they finally snuggled up tight for the night, Santa Claus came and gave them a fright! (Because, actually, it was a bad Santa, the kind that breaks a window instead of coming down the chimney).

A house full of chaos, needless to say, the Gingerbread Cake was at least here to stay….

And I’m not even going to tell you if that’s fact or fiction. Okay, it’s kind of both. We were robbed last Christmas and my kids really love rum brown butter cream cheese frosting. (Please let this frosting not be the gateway to hurricanes, daiquiris and mojitos.)

Anapestic tetrameter aside, even if you don’t like sweet spices (cinnamon, clove, ginger, nutmeg) you will want to slather everything in this frosting. Yes, it is that good. I wouldn’t waste my time bragging about it, if it was just run of the mill prose. My husband smears the extra on toast in the morning.

To get ready for Christmas, the children would help, and then run to their laptops to watch Ariel in kelp. Exhausted, but happy, Mother, after lighting the tree (Yes, I put real candles on the tree, family tradition – we have an extinguisher nearby, don’t worry) sipped scotch and ate a big slice of cake happily. She passed out on the sofa with a belly warm and full, Father carried her upstairs – now that’s an ending so cool!

It does taste better when your Sous Chef doesn’t mix up cumin for cinnamon though. Happy Holidays Friends, wishing you a cozy and healthy Winter break – we are ALL in this together!

If you love the browned butter frosting, check out my Pumpkin Cupcakes here: http://www.amyglaze.com/spiced-pumpkin-cupcakes-with-brown-butter-cream-cheese-frosting/

And if you love the poached pears (they are delicious on their own or with a scoop of ice cream) check out my pear tart here, the poaching syrup makes gorgeous cocktails too – add a splash to champagne for a truly festive celebration: http://www.amyglaze.com/pear-and-almond-tart/

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I dug this recipe out of a 6-inch folder she kept with newspaper and magazine cut-outs. It’s a 1975 Sunset recipe that she adapted with all of her little notes and scribbles on it. Just seeing her handwriting…

I remember making this with her when I was little. I loved eating the tart dough because it was sweet with lemon zest and I loved poaching the pears because they were sweet with lemon zest and I loved whipping the cream cheese filling because it was sweet with lemon zest too!

This is a very simple recipe, but there is something so perfectly balanced between the lemony sugar shell, poached pears and not-too-sweet almond cream cheese filling. The lemons, almonds and pears really are their own trifecta of deliciousness.

I made this with Layla today. She loved it too! Every part of it, just like me when I was a kid. I think this might be a new tradition for our family. Or really, just an old one revisited and remembered with love.

Happy Thanksgiving friends! And P.S. the pear poaching liquid is excellent for Champagne cocktails!

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Brown butter and pumpkin (or any kind of squash for that matter) is one of those legendary pairings and when you layer the tangy goodness of real cream cheese and cozy sweet spices, you get a totally delicious outcome.

This is also a kid friendly recipe. The cake itself is a two bowl deal. One for wet, the other for dry, the wet gets hand mixed into dry and voilà! Cupcakes! I make my own pumpkin pack (of course) and so should you. It really isn’t time consuming or hard and the flavor is much better than anything you can get out of can. The cake is not overly sweet either – another bonus for caregivers who want to give kids a holiday treat without the inevitable sugar high come down / meltdown.

To make pumpkin pack simply quarter a Sugar Pie or Sweetie Pie pumpkin, scrape out seeds (but don’t worry too much about the stringy pumpkin guts) and roast the pumpkin wedges on a rimmed baking sheet with a 1/4 cup of water for 20 minutes at 425˚F until soft. Allow to cool, remove the skin, then blend into a thick purée in the Vitaprep (try not to add any extra liquid). Pumpkin pack makes great soup, it’s a nice addition to homemade breads and biscuits, elevates pie to something truly special and gives cakes a moist crumb with the healthy benefit of vitamins and minerals.

We had a lot of fun decorating these cupcakes with pumpkin candies and candy corn for funny looking turkeys. Since my kids are so young, this was just the right level of difficulty. Layla enjoyed the process and Hettie enjoyed eating the process!

Stay warm and healthy! I did say these cupcakes have fresh ginger in them, didn’t I? Ginger is loaded with antioxidants that help to prevent stress and might help fight diseases and promote healthy aging – so if you need an excuse to indulge, there ya have it!

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So, with my last enormous stunning magenta pink apple we decided to make an apple snack cake. Or rather, I decided to make a cake while my two little sous chefs decided to eat the cake before baking.

What is is a ‘snack cake’ you ask? Well, it’s a cake you can snack on throughout the day silly! One that is easy to whip up, perfect for any occasion and doesn’t require a holiday to enjoy. And, okay, I’ll be honest, it’s really just the new hip term for coffee cake.

This recipe should be in your repertoire because it has a million uses and it’s easy to add your own creativity to it. Maybe you don’t want to add apple, maybe you want a lemon glaze instead? Or you could add a crumb on top and cinnamon to the batter to make it a crumb cake. This is a basic sour cream coffee cake of epic proportions that is moist and delicious. It would make a lovely house warming gift, a delicious breakfast (with a nice cup of earl grey), or a sweet finish to a Fall meal served warm with a scoop of ice cream.

I made a simple glaze for the cake with powdered sugar, Meyer lemon and rose essence. I love the combination of apples and rose. To me, this is one of the most beautiful pairings in the world – the rose perfumes the apples in such a pretty way which enhances the flavor. I love rose essence in apple sauce too! I use the Carlo brand rose water and it can be found in most markets. Your local Middle Eastern market will carry it for sure.

For more pictures, especially of those chunky cheek squirrels, check out my Michelin Mom instagram page! https://www.instagram.com/michelin_mom

I’m not always able to post recipes these days, but I sure do love to post inspiration. And catch up on my last two issues of Michelin Mom Magazine with a slice of apple cake!

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Even my husband who normally disappears when the baking madness begins, showed up to decorate a few shamrocks. Some people draw in coloring books, we bake, it’s free therapy.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: if there is no spoon to lick, no bowl to scrape, no sugar to pour, no icing to pipe – then my kids are outta there. Sugar cookies with royal icing are easy to make and they satisfy all toddler requirements. As you can see from the pictures, they were FULLY engaged.

At the toddler age, we’re still working mostly on sequential steps/learning and motor skills. And because sugar cookies only have a few ingredients, this is a really great beginners recipe. My helpful tip to making great sugar cookies is to roll out and refrigerate the dough before cutting shapes. It needs to rest for at least 30 minutes.
I have made many sugar cookies over the years, but I used Sally’s recipe of Sally’s Baking Addiction this time and I thought it was great. I did alter it – I cut out the salt and used salted butter and added the zest of two limes. To the Royal icing I used lime juice instead of water.

I have always preferred making Royal Icing with meringue powder. It never fails. And, you don’t have to fight anyone at the grocery store for eggs! Yay! Our market aisles are empty when it comes to eggs, bread, toilet paper, and chicken. Go figure. I never thought eggs or chicken would be a coveted item, but I guess these are crazy times. However meringue powder is in stock just about everywhere! No one stocking up on powdered egg whites…

I am not a master at Royal Icing decorating. Well, that’s not true, I’m pretty good, but I never get to decorate my own cookies. Some one always takes the ones I start. I divide the icing into bowls and add gel paste coloring. Then I put the icing in piping bags with small round pastry tips. Pipe the outline of the cookie first, then flood the middle of the cookie with more icing and spread it out with a toothpick. You can also just leave it in the bowls and use toothpicks and spoons to decorate.

Royal icing does set up fast. So work quickly!

I hope you and your family are hunkering down and hanging in and staying home. We’ll all get through this. Be safe and make some cookies! And Happy St. Patrick’s Day

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When American recipes refer to “French Apple Cake” I think they are really referencing: Gâteau Breton Aux Pommes which originates from Breton (Brittany) on the west coast of France where apples are grown and cidre is made! There are various versions of this cake, some where the apples are caramelized beforehand, and others that have the custard consistency of quiche and there are varying degrees of effort as well.

This recipe, which is slightly Americanized, is a blend of both worlds because there is a batter within a batter giving the cake two consistencies: custardy and cake-y. The apples are not caramelized ahead of time but softened in the microwave as per Cooks Illustrated recommendation. A little calvados is added too for extra kick (yum, yum!)

Layla is my Alice in Apple Land. There is something about picking an apple straight from the tree, biting into it, puckering up from the tart-sweet juice and seeing the surprising magenta flesh that is just really fun for her (and for me too, I’m not that old). This apple, if you haven’t read my previous Pink Pearl recipes, is the perfect apple. Regardless of the incredible pink flesh, I just don’t think there is an apple out there that tastes better or bakes better. Go ahead, that’s a challenge, tell me I’m wrong!

Let’s be clear, when you bake with a toddler, you are only there as an enabler. Your job is to help them get more sugar into their mouths. The egg cracking, mixing and measuring is only entertaining for so long. If there’s no sweet spoon to lick or sticky bowl to run a finger through, then they are done. Luckily this recipe satisfied Layla’s sugar demands and she especially enjoyed sifting the powdered sugar over the top and over her hands and then licking it off.

I used a 10-inch springform pan, but an 9-inch would have been preferable. It would have added a little extra height. That being said, it was still the perfect slice. And since this cake is somewhere in between a coffee-cake and a torte it tasted equally delicious with a cup of coffee or a glass of champagne.

Pink Pearl Apples got your interest? Here are some recipes from the past:

Pink Peppercorn Pork Chops with Pink Pearl Apples and Lemon Thyme

Wild Watercress Salad with Pink Pearl Apples and Shaved Fennel

Pink Pearl Apple Galette h

Pink Pearl Apple: Tarte Fine Aux Pommes

Pink Pearl Apple Cups with Fromage Blanc

The post French Apple Cake first appeared on Amy Glaze's Pommes d'Amour.

Okay, truth be told, my birthday cake is not fancy, I love a simple poppy seed cake dusted with powdered sugar. But my Mom had her special cake; a Chocolate Devil’s Food Cake with whipped cream frosting. My Step Dad had his favorite: a black walnut yellow cake with milk chocolate frosting. My husband likes a Pennsylvania Dutch vanilla cake with whipped cream frosting and loads of berries and Hettie Rose, my sweet little surprise, has her cake too (for now at least), an angel food cake topped with Meyer lemon curd and beautiful little frais de bois for decoration.

Hettie Rose is truly my angel (hence the angel food cake and not the devil’s food cake!), not just because she is a super happy little baby but because I found out I was pregnant when I least expected another child just before my 45th birthday. She also made her debut a whole month early. However, she has no idea she is a premie and she has crushed all her developmental markers including averaging out in height and weigh. Her personality brings so much sunshine into our lives, hence the sunny Meyer Lemon curd topping. As soon as she wakes up, she is smiling – it’s just nuts! I’m like: who does that? Who wakes up and just instantly smiles? Hettie Rose, I guess, Hettie Rose…

Hettie Rose is constantly curious, always ready to giggle or crack one of her enormous smiles that literally engulf her little face in happiness, she is determined to swipe anything in sight and put it straight into her mouth, she enjoys grabbing her toes and she thinks hats, swings, sunglasses and mirrors (her reflection) are hilarious. She loves to eat/drink: boob, banana, avocado and prunes – she is a little chunky milk monkey with big ol’ baby fat rolls that I absolutely adore! She is my angel, it is a miracle that she is here and she has truly completed this little family. Hettie Rose balances all of our personalities in a way I never could have imagined.

Okay, enough goo-goo gah-gah, so angel food cake, how to make it? Good question. Believe it or not, this is my first one! I know, I know – I totally nailed it! I thought it was easy as far as cakes go, so I’d like to demystify the process below. I have always been afraid to attempt angel food cake because my Mom told me when I was a kid that it was extremely difficult to make (probably because she just didn’t want me to eat it) so I just never thought to bother! See how parents damage their kids?!?!? Kidding, kidding…

For the Meyer lemon curd I used David Lebovitz’s recipe. Meyer lemon curd is easy but time consuming. However, if you make it in a large batch you can keep it in the fridge for a few weeks and spread it on toast in the morning or use with other desserts – or just stick your tongue in the jar and devour while nobody’s watching! Not everyone has the time to make lemon curd and there are great store bought options these days that you can squeeze some Meyer lemon juice into in a pinch.

One thing you can’t mess up in an angel food cake is the egg separation process. A little egg yolk in the egg white mixture is going to ruin the meringue. I was hesitant to let Layla help out because, although her egg cracking game is pretty good, it’s not perfect. And she’s two years old. Which means she has selective hearing. Needless to say, she did a good job and she was careful. We cracked the eggs whole into a dish and then used our fingers to scoop out the yolks, letting the whites sift through our fingertips back into the bowl. This is also the way I do it in a professional kitchen when I’ve got trays and trays of eggs to separate. I do not sit around rocking the yolk back and forth between shells for 100 eggs.

Pro Tips: separate eggs when they are cold. The yolk is less likely to break. Use fresh egg whites from fresh eggs for this recipe so the moisture content is high. Whip meringue when whites have warmed up from the refrigerator to about 65˚F.

When you finish whipping up your meringue, it should look like the picture below: glossy and almost stiff but not dry – pourable not like little dry cloud clumps. The whites should be around 60-65˚F, just under room temperature in order to whip perfectly. And I would highly advise using the proverbial angel food cake pan. The meringue needs to cling and climb and this cake pan works best. A non-stick bundt pan is a no-go. Do not grease the pan either.

The recipe can be divided into 4 quarters according to my old edition of the Joy of Cooking (don’t even bother with the new one when it comes to cake recipes, I use the 1975 JOY which still includes fascinating tips on how to set up a champagne tower and how to cook squirrel and I find the dessert recipes to be less about weight loss and cutting calories and more about technique).

In the first quarter of the recipe, the egg whites are beaten gently until foamy. Then salt and cream of tartar is added midway which helps to stabilize the foam. In the second quarter the granulated sugar is added gradually on high speed until soft glossy peaks form – the granulated sugar helps to guard against over whipping. The third part consists of folding the meringue into the sifted dry ingredients quickly and lightly. with an over-under motion. And the fourth, pouring the mixture into the non-greased tube pan and baking on 350F˚.

I think most bakers today (like Flo Braker) would recommend using both granulated sugar AND powdered sugar unlike my old JOY recipe, so I’ve adjusted that below Granulated sugar should be used to whip into the meringue because using powdered sugar turns it into a gooey icing. And powdered sugar should be used with the dry ingredients – this keeps the structure light all around.

Flo Braker (my baking Goddess) says the golden crust should come off in the pan. Mine did not and I was okay with that. My old JOY recipe didn’t say anything about that either. So, I get a ding there on my first angel food cake but I though the taste and texture was perfect.

The funniest thing about angel food cake is what you do when it’s done baking: you invert the pan onto a bottle. I used a wine bottle and let it hang out for about an hour and a half. This helps to set the cake. It makes it awfully hard to pour the wine though…

All in all, this was not a difficult cake to bake. But it sure was beautiful. And so light and fluffy. Layla sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to Hettie Rose and blew out her candles and we all enjoyed a slice except Hettie of course, sigh, she’s just a baby after all, but she seemed content just to be part of her party.

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So, where did I find these beauties? Well, my mother-in-law says I’m a Persian at heart because I have secret knowledge of free-for-all fruit trees in my neighborhood. I guess it’s a Persian thing. But also, sour cherries are a big deal in Iranian cooking and I’ll post some of my Mom’s recipes soon. Her eyes got very large and a little watery, when I showed her my secret sour cherry tree. “You are Persian, I knew it, don’t tell anyone about this tree…” Yeah, and here I am blabbing to the world…. sorry Mom….

This particular cherry tree overhangs a fence on a busy Oakland street and for years on my walks about town, I watched as no one touched it. Not even the birds – who normally descend on cherry trees like locust. For this reason, although I could tell it was some sort of cherry, I thought perhaps it was poisonous. Montmorency cherries are almost neon red in color and small compared to Bing or Ranier. They are sour too, but not so pucker-y that you can’t eat them fresh.

Toddlers are makers by nature and they love to learn how things work. Layla, my little three-year-old, enjoys ‘jobs’ in the kitchen that involve fine motor skills (use of hands) and pitting cherries was fun for her – which is great, because I hate it. Yay! Teach ’em young! She was super psyched to sit down with her bowl of just-picked cherries and figure out how to use the pitter. Little Ones gain a sense of independence and self-reliance when they can master a tool/appliance/tennis-shoe-with-laces/etc and anything involving food – specifically sweet food – is instantly exciting.

This recipe is straight forward: make pastry dough, pit cherries (and check and double check because nothing is worse than cracking a tooth on a pit), mix cherries with some cornstarch and sugar, shape tarts, fill, bake, put a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top and eat! Voilà! C’est facile!

I’ve included in the recipe how to make pie crust by hand without a Cuisinart or pastry cutter because it’s easy and fun for kids! Try it! It honestly doesn’t take me anymore time to make by hand and then I have one thing less to wash!

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I made this pistachio cardamom pound cake for Christmas brunch and it was delicious. Definitely a sweet treat, but in lieu of making pancakes or French toast à la minute, I wanted something pretty, nicely sugary and also something I could make a day or two beforehand.

At Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, poundcake is one of the first recipes you learn. The chefs always call it le gâteau pour le week-end pique-nique. Or: the cake for the weekend picnic. Why? Because it travels well (and keeps for days) and it can sit in a basket not get spoiled.

This is not a traditional pound cake recipe in the sense that it does use leavening, but I think it’s a great basic recipe to start with and make your own and it doesn’t require separating eggs and whipping up whites (although you can still do that and you will get an even lighter crumb).

The rose glaze is just a pretty touch at the end and the segmented Winter Citrus soaked in an orange blossom simple syrup adds a nice counterpoint.

Go get nutty….

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To me, tarts and pies are like Dagwood sandwiches, I often fill them with whatever fruit, nut or custard I have on hand and they mostly turn out gorgeous. Experimenting on my guests on Christmas was a little risky, but it turned out beautiful and tasty, so I’m passing on the recipe here!

This bittersweet chocolate and pistachio frangipane tart came together by accident as I had some left over pistachio paste from a pistachio & cardamom pound cake I was making for Christmas brunch. I was intending on making a rich and decadent chocolate tart for Christmas dinner anyways, so I just added the two together. And besides, most things that end up in a Tupperware container in my refrigerator end up going in the trash about a month later, so I decided to make use of it instead.

I will admit, this recipe is time consuming to make. It’s not hard per se, but there are three steps and they all take time: the tart shell (make and bake), the pistachio paste frangipane (make and bake first layer), and the chocolate custard (make and bake to finish tart). Again, all steps are easy, but the layers are made and baked separately. So, keep this in mind as you proceed. I wish I had, had a little more of the pistachio paste frangipane for the first layer. As you can see from the picture, it’s a thin tier. So I’m publishing the full frangipane recipe that could actually be used for a full tart on it’s own if desired (maybe with some apricot or pear slices on top?) or for a full first layer of this tart.

I garnished the top with some gold leaf I had on hand, some chopped candied orange and a little dusting of ground up pistachio. Voilà! Nothing to it! This tart is on the rich bittersweet side so a nice dollop of sweetened whipped cream is the perfect compliment.

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After 16 years of writing about food, you’d think I could at least get some recipes out before the actual event, but no, I just get too busy! I did do things different this Christmas and I want to share my revelation even though it’s after the fact.

I finally created a feast I could make the day before the event so I could spend more time with family and friends instead of running around like a headless chicken cooking everything à la minute. This year I just pulled platters out of my fridge, plopped them on the buffet table and reheated the foods that needed to be hot. It was wonderful! Glorious in fact! Long live the buffet table! 

Normally for the holidays, I do these crazy elaborate meals with hot and cold appetizers, a multiple coursed dinner and elaborate desserts for a crowd – anywhere from 15 to 30 people. I tent my backyard and decorate to the max and honestly, it’s just exhausting to prepare. The end result is always beautiful but it takes a physical and emotional toll on the whole family. By the time the actual celebration arrives, we can’t enjoy it because we’re tired. Maybe when we’re out of the toddler era and sleeping normally we’ll enjoy setting up that kind of party again.

Since I’m very pregnant and very uncomfortable and I also have a toddler running around, I decided to simplify things this year. And you know what? I think this was one of my best holiday menus yet! I did zero actual cooking on Christmas day which left a lot more time to enjoy our yearly White Elephant party and lounge around. And I thought the food looked and tasted beautiful.

The Holiday menu:

Deluxe Bloody Mary Bar

Roasted Whole Salmon with Niçoise Salad garnish

Pistachio Cardamom Poundcake with Winter Citrus Orange Blossom Salad

4-inch Quiche Lorraine

Clam Chowder Cups with Dill & Thyme

Rosemary and Garlic Roast Beef French Dip Sandwiches with Au Jus

Bedazzled Pistachio frangipane & Chocolate Tart with Soft Whipped Cream.

I hope to follow up with the recipes over the next few weeks. Wishing everyone a wonderful 2019 full of LOVE!

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Galette’s are my rustic go-to dessert for feeding a crowd. I can easily feed 10 with this galette and maybe 12 if I slice the wedges thin (and really, that’s all anybody needs after a big dinner). As far as most desserts go, this is low sugar. It’s the fruit that is the show stopper. Brown sugar and cardamom brown butter are sprinkled/drizzled over top before baking. The crust is a rich and flaky pâte brisée, similar to pie crust but with the addition of an egg yolk. 

I think galette’s should be rustic in appearance. Had I not been working on automatic, I wouldn’t have even peeled the apples. I made a crazy quilt design with the slices slightly overlapping the edges. I’ve seen pictures of well manicured galettes where each apple slice is perfectly arranged over the next (as in my old Pink Pearl recipe: Tarte Fin Aux Pommes), but I don’t think you need to go there – unless of course you want to – galettes are meant to be beautifully imperfect.

And if you happen to have a two-year-old hangin’ around and looking for something to do, this is a fun recipe. I know Layla really loves to roll dough out and she enjoys sprinkling sugar over everything and anything. She also helped pick the apples. For the longest time Layla didn’t like apples but the day she helped me harvest was the day she changed her mind about the fruit.

Oh, and another fun thing to do, if you have too many apples sliced up for this recipe and not enough surface space to use them all – throw them in a small sauce pot with a little water and a little of the brown butter and make apple sauce. It’s pretty on yogurt or just by itself and kids love it!

I’m not sure why pink pearls aren’t grown commercially because they are low maintenance and the flavor is superior. Maybe it’s because the growing season is short, about two weeks. Look for them at your farmer’s market… or plant one in your backyard!

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Life changed drastically when I found out I was pregnant with Layla. I literally put the brakes on everything. No cooking professionally, no writing, no nothing. Why? Well, because three years ago everyone I loved passed away: my Mom, Stepdad, Grandpa, and our two daughters late second term. I was at the top of my game professionally which, thankfully, was all-absorbing but, I was walking through emotional quicksand. So I left my work as an Executive Chef for six restaurants and hopped on a plane to India after loosing my Mom and second daughter within a 3 week period.  And I spent some time far, far, far away from stress, grief, depression, pain, anger and all those yucky feelings that go along with loosing your family.

When my husband came to meet me in Delhi, we both had this incredible sense of relief. It was so liberating to leave our emotional baggage at home and reconnect. We lived it up completely treating ourselves like Moguls and rode elephants through castles, made wonderful friends, ate the most delicious food I’ve ever had and came home happy, well rested, and much to our surprise – pregnant!

When I found out the good news, I knew that cooking professionally was not going to be an option for the duration. My doctors also said: no more cooking. No more standing for 12 hours a day, no more stress, no more adrenaline rushes –  basically no fun and I spent nine whole entire months on modified bed rest. Yes. Nine months. I know, sounds like a holiday and it was for the first two weeks but, from there on out it was pure torture. For a person who was used to running 5-10 miles after a full day of cooking, being imprisoned to a sofa was brutal. I watched so many episodes of Law and Order that my husband was convinced our daughter was either going to be a lawyer or a serial killer! I did not write my blog. I did not cook. I did not read books or better myself in any way. I just zoned out on murder mysteries. It’s really all I could do to get through it.

But now, here we are two years and nine months later, almost to the date, with a gorgeous little girl who is the best little Sous Chef a Mama could have. Layla brings so much joy and love into our lives. Our cup runneth over…

And she loves to bake! She likes to mix, sift, roll out dough and pop whatever we’re making into the oven. And of course she loves to eat up her creations with extra whip (whipped cream apparently goes with everything). I am so happy to be her Mama. She is pure sunshine. And this is, by far, the most demanding job I’ve ever had.

So yes, my priorities have shifted. My ambition has mellowed (sightly). I’m a Mom! But that’s not to say that I still don’t have my finger in the pie, I consult for restaurants and enjoy the challenge of designing menus and fine tuning operations. It’s fun. I love it. I’m good at it. And I still get to snuggle my Little One and be there for her and all of her firsts.

And this Fourth of July definitely had a lot of firsts – our first lemonade stand! Our first bake sale! Our first blueberry pie! And I guess my first post in almost three years. Whew, well, if fireworks were an emotion, I certainly would be one heck of a colorful show this 4th. Thanks friends, family and long time readers for all the support over these last 15 years. This is certainly one new adventure and I’m hoping to bring family and fun back to the kitchen.

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Shaker Lemon Pie made with whole lemon slices – rind, pith and all!

I did a little online research to see what other people put in the filling because my French lemon tarte recipe adds crème fraîche and it’s one of my favorite recipes. One notable magazine adds butter. Don’t do this. I tried it and the filling turned out lumpy and somewhat curdled. Not sure why because I’m not a scientist. I was hoping it would give a lemon curd mouth feel, but it didn’t. Instead I use the same recipe my Grandmother used from her old out of date copy of Joy of Cooking (yes, the same one that tells you how to make a champagne tower out of tulip shaped glasses as well as how to skin and cook a squirrel – seriously interesting stuff) with a few contemporary tweaks.

I’ve also seen recipes that add over a half dozen eggs for one pie – again, not necessary – unless you want a lemon quiche and not a lemon pie. Adding extra egg whites won’t help either. What’s important is the type of lemon and the length of maceration depending on the lemon variety. If using Eureka lemons, use 2 large lemons to 2 cups of sugar and macerate for at least 6 hours (or more!). If using Meyer lemons use 4 medium lemons to the same amount of sugar and macerate for at least 2 hours.

Shaker Lemon Pie

The filling is nothing other than macerated lemons in sugar with some sea salt and whole eggs whipped up with a little flour then mixed into the lemon-sugar mixture. There’s no dairy believe it or not, even though it looks creamy and tastes creamy.

I don’t always bake this pie with the upper crust. Sometimes I just do the bottom and it’s really pretty because the lemons float to the top and make a beautiful lightly caramelized layer. Below are some pictures taken from a Pie bake class I gave at Pie Ranch last year where we used all ingredients from the farm including the flour that was grown and milled on site for the crust. We used a mixture of Meyer lemons and Bearss limes for the pie because that’s what was available, it worked out great. My students got creative with their lattice toppings as you can see. And I should add, they didn’t have time to let the lemons macerate more than 20 minutes in class – and nobody complained with the finished result. We baked the pies in a woodfire oven – talk about pioneering!

Pie Ranch Pie Bake Class: Shaker Lemon and Raspberry Rhubarb

I think a big dollop of vanilla bean whipped cream is the perfect garnish for this pie. If you’re a lemon dessert lover then you’ve got to try this one because you won’t find it in restaurants.

Ohio Shaker Lemon Pie Slice

The Shakers never wasted anything – not even lemon rind – and in this age of sinful waste I think we can all take a tasty lesson from that!

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Baked French Toast with Orange Blossom Maple Syrup

Instead of just mixing the half-half and eggs together, I make a crème anglaise base (with whole eggs instead of just yolks) which gives the soaked bread a silkier, creamier, fluffier texture when baked.  Heat the half-half up to a simmer adding the green cardamom pods, cinnamon sticks, scraped vanilla bean, and orange zest. Let the mixture infuse and cool a little and then whisk it into the beaten eggs – tempering the eggs first with just a scosh of warm milk and whisking the remaining in a steady stream. I pour the crème anglaise base over the thick-cut bread,which is normally challah or brioche, and let everything soak for an hour or two.

Bake the bread in a single layer covered with foil until it’s poofy and golden brown on the bottom. Then remove and fry the top un-browned side in foamy butter on the stove top right before serving – this last step you can take or leave. I really like the buttery crispy addition, because let’s face it, butter is better with everything! But if time doesn’t permit, just remove the foil after ten minutes so the top browns too.  Or skip the baking and fry in butter on the stove top – although it won’t be as custardy inside.

Orange Blossom Maple Syrup over French Toast

My dear friend Chef Ivan Shaw (check his blog out! I’m addicted to the great stories and recipes.) and his beautiful wife Nadine sent me and my husband a very special Christmas gift all the way from Canada. We received 8 cans of the purest highest grade maple syrup, maple butter, maple granules, maple candies, smoked duck breast, Grade extra-fancy foie gras lobes, and foie gras terrine. I think seared foie gras or even foie gras butter with this decadent Pain Perdu would be fantastic. And the smoked duck breast would be a killer pairing – much more interesting than bacon or sausage!

baked and pan fried french toast with orange blossom maple syrup

To add a little je ne sais quoi to the maple syrup I heated it up with a few splashes of orange blossom water (I use Carlo which can be sourced in Middle Eastern Stores and Whole Foods Market) and a few pods of star anise – not that it needed anything extra – I just like the two together because the perfume is heavenly. The orange blossom water is very very strong, add too much and the syrup will taste more like perfume or a bar of soap so go easy with splashes.

Soaking up all the good stuff!

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Persimmon Upside Down Cake with Hachiya and Fuyu Persimmons

Especially the Hachiya persimmons; the heart-shaped flame colored fruit hangs heavy on thin black branches with giant hot copper leaves to protect them from the elements. And yet, people just don’t know what to do with these beauties! I’ve watched my next door neighbor auction off his Hachiyas to anyone and everyone that passes by – the Mail Man included!

The squat Fuyu persimmon tree that thrives two doors down from the Hachiya Neighbor, is equally heavy with eye popping orange candy. Oh how this makes my heart burn with desire, do I dare run up and grab some? I prefer the Fuyu because it’s easy to incorporate into sweet and savory dishes and it’s edible, like an apple, straight off the tree.

Fuyu Persimmon slices line the cake.

Yes, I know I should knock on their doors and introduce myself as the Chef next door. Ah, to be a new neighbor in a new city, and to be a little insecure about meeting and greeting. (Don’t they see me leaving in a pressed white Chef’s jacket every morning?!?!)

Thankfully my Father-in-law planted a Hachiya tree last year and he’s already reaping the benefits (and his neighbors are too because some one stripped the tree clean before he got the chance to pick the first one – the nerve!) Nonetheless, he managed to bring me a few from the tippy-top of his tree to work with. We order the Fuyus in the restaurants regularly but not the Hachiyas because they need to be extremely ripe.

The squat Fuyu Persimmon that does not have to be over ripe to eat like an apple!

The Hachiya persimmon (called Kaki in French – and they also don’t know what to do with them because I’ve seen many a French Madame admire the soft orange globes in the farmer’s markets and then move on to the poire d’anjou instead) tastes like a whole bottle of baby aspirin if you have the misfortunate to eat one that is not mushy-gushy over ripe.

In order to use the Hachiya it must be extremely soft – and this is no exaggeration. It’s got to feel like a water balloon that’s begging to be popped. Any other way and you’re going to be seriously disappointed. Even if you bake it unripe you will STILL experience the same chalky results.

Persimmon Upside Down Spice Cake

My upside down Persimmon spice cake uses Fuyu slices to decorate the top and Hachiya for flavor in the cake and cream cheese frosting.

Some chef’s notes: the fuyu slices on top should be sliced thin (1/4-inch) otherwise they add too much extra moisture while baking, and the cake should be eaten within 2 days because the slices turn grey with time. A thin layer of apricot jam on the top would probably slow the oxidation process, but I prefer it rustic as pictured above .

The recipe is a genuine Spice Cake recipe which uses mostly brown sugar as opposed to just granulated. I find that the crumb in Spice Cake is denser than normal because of this. The addition of the Hachiya purée makes the dense crumb a little moister. If you desire a dry-er crumb, then leave out the Hachiya purée and just add it in the cream cheese frosting for flavor & color.

I have tried many, many spice cake recipes and the one I’ve printed below with or without the Hachiya purée is the best. This recipe is adapted from Flo Braker and I’ve added a little more baking powder than her original recipe and different spices.

So, what are your favorite persimmon recipes? Do you pass them up in the markets, or take them home and whip up something creative?

And here’s some Persimmon Lore having to do with the upcoming weather forcast which I find facsinating: Check out the Winter for 2015 with the Persimmon Lady, Melissa Bunker http://farmersalmanac.com/blog/2014/09/26/persimmon-lady-winter-2015/

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Strawberry, rhubarb, raspberry jam jar cobblers

The best thing about making these for farm events is getting all the kids together to make the biscuit topping. While the cobblers are baking away, I teach the kiddos how to make whipped cream (yes, I suppose this is child labor). I had one little girl who got so excited about the whipped cream that she insisted on being the server as well so she could dole it out to our 60 guests and make sure that everyone would get the exact same amount. Very fair of her, I thought. She was kind enough to walk around the tables with a huge bowl of cream and deliver a perfect dollop on the cobblers. Very cute.

But this cobbler pictured below was hers. It still cracks me up to no end because it’s something I would do – look at that generous wollop of a dollop! The cobbler, obviously just a vehicle for extra thick rich lightly sweetened soft and fluffy whipped cream.

Whipped cream – a must for berry cobblers!

If you cook the filling in the jam jars with the biscuit dough on top there will be shrinkage as the berries soften and the biscuit topping won’t poof up and over the jar – which is the way I like them. Notmartha (Megan Reardon) makes these to sell and as gifts and she bakes the filling and biscuit topping below the top of the jar so she can screw the lid on afterwards, which is also a great idea. But I think the country looking puffy cobbler is more preferable as a plated dessert. I cook the berries in a large batch on the stovetop, then fill the jars up to the first ring.

My Mom helping out on at Tunitas Creek Kitchen on Potrero Nuevo Farm

Once the jars are filled and cooled, the lids can be screwed on and  refrigerated or frozen. When ready to cook, its best to heat ’em up in the oven first (with lid off of course) and adding a scoop of biscuit dough overtop once the filling is hot and bubbly – the biscuit topping will cook much better like this. I have never had any jars break in the oven and I’ve made these hundreds of times. Feel free to add a little cornmeal crunch on top of the biscuit dough or use some fancy crystal sugar.

Hope you have fun with this recipe! it’s a great way to showcase fruit at its peak and it’s so much fun to make kids!

And Happy Valentine’s Day! xoxxoo

For all my GF friends out there, the biscuit topping can be made with Cup4Cup  all-purpose gluten-free flour.

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Beef Empanadas made by Edible After School

We have tried out many recipes over the year some gluten -ree and some a combination of flour and masa. The masa recipes are harder to work with for turnovers (we do like to make tacos with it though) and not as flaky even when we use lard instead of butter. But they are much more flavorful and more traditional. A mixture of flour and masa can be used as well. The best mixed masa-flour empanada dough recipe we tested is Martha Stewart’s:  flour-masa dough. However, my students prefer the flour recipe (printed below) for its ease and super flakiness.

Game Day Beef Empanadas with Avocado Crema

We have yet to experiment with some of the new non-gluten all-purpose flour mixtures that are now on the market but I’ve heard lots of praise from King Arthur’s new mixture as well as Cup4Cup developed by Lena Kwok for Thomas Keller at the French Laundry.

Empanada dough is made using the same as technique as a shortcrust except there is vinegar and egg added to the wet ingredients.

First, cut in the fat with the flour, then add the wet ingredients (vinegar, water, egg) until the dough comes together, and lastly knead dough a few times until it is pliable. It’s important to beat the egg with the wet ingredients and mix them thoroughly together (don’t add the egg separately) before adding to dry ingredients or the dough doesn’t combine well and it changes the elasticity. You will find your dough streaked with tough dried out yolk if you don’t head my words!

If making to consume for a later date: freeze empanadas on parchment on a baking sheet making sure they’re not touching. Once completely frozen they can be stacked and stored in ziplock bags without the risk of the the meat pies crushing, touching, or smooshing each other.

Don’t worry about defrosting them, just place the frozen disks on a baking sheet and bake away!

Puente’s Edible After School has been written up in Edible Magazine and other local publications including theHalfmoon Bay Review. Our program has existed for two years through sponsors like the Packard Foundation and private donors but we are ever growing and expanding and looking for help to buy ingredients, pay for kitchen rental, and buy computers so that we can add technology to our class and create an online teen-run cooking program and manage an online store selling our jams, pickles, and grab n’ go market items. Would you consider a donation to our program to help us continue teaching practical Math & English, Nutrition, basic & intermediate cooking, food safety & handling, teamwork and leadership?

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I know it might appear that I’ve completely flipped my lid considering that only months ago I was making croissants from scratch and whipping up tarts à la minute,  but since the body clock is ticking away and the nutritional supplements are piling up along with the pre-natal vitamins and the extraneous bottles of flax-seed oil, fish oil, and Bragg amino acids – why not just go whole hog?

Meyer Lemon Polenta Cake with Brown Butter and Walnuts

“Not the Acme batard! You’re really going to toss that too?” My husband jumps up from his stool and digs the loaf out of the trash. I grab it back and shove it further down. He leaves the kitchen a little teary eyed and perhaps a little deflated. He’s a sandwich guy and this, no doubt, is sacrilege.  It’s not that I like to throw away food – both of us hate that more than anything – but if the science in these two books is true then the wheat of today is unsafe for human consumption.

We are not celiac and we are not trying this purge for weight loss reasons although we both could stand to lose a little around the middle. But the fact remains that over this two-week self-imposed non-gluten diet and my crazy kitchen cleanse we have both lost 5 pounds by simply NOT eating anything made with wheat. The real bonus is: I feel great. I wake up feeling GREAT! I run farther and faster, I have more energy during the day, and my clothes are fitting again!

My husband will not echo my sentiments as forthright because he, unfortunately, feels hungry all the time and has trouble getting enough food at work. He is athletic and requires at least 1000 more calories than me. He complains that his snacks choices from the complex-carbo overloaded snack bar at his start-up company are now singled out to smoked almonds. No more cereal. No more chex mix. No more beloved sandwiches piled high with fresh deli cuts and oozing with condiments. And, perhaps the worst of it all, no more pizza and beer. But regardless, he’s on board, as long as some new book doesn’t come out with a steak smear campaign. (His co-workers are all on the Paleo diet anyways – Meat!Meat! Meat!)

Gluten Free Lemon Cake with Brown Butter, Walnuts, Polenta and Almond flour!

Why cut out gluten? You should probably read the fore mentioned books and not take my second-hand wisdom but as I understand it, the evidence points out that wheat today is so genetically modified that it barely resembles the wheat from our mother’s and grandmother’s generations and it is higher in gluten than ever before which is more readily absorbed in our bodies and creates an addictive state where the body actually craves it (and other junk foods) even more. Yes, it’s true that in France and Italy it is still possible to get flour that Monsanto hasn’t altered to a frankenfood but how do we know, as consumers, specifically which type of wheat is in our daily bread?

Of course, there is more, much more, to condemn our modern wheat, but for the purposes of this post I will leave it there.

We have not cut out all complex carbs but we have cut down on them significantly. My husband is Persian and rice is never going to be eradicated from his diet or I’m afraid divorce papers will be en route. And I still like something sweet every once and awhile so refined sugar (another evil) will probably never fully disappear.

Macerated Meyer lemons line a parchment covered ring mold

Sure enough, we aren’t the only late-comers to this gluten-free craze since all of the latest food rags and mags and blogs of January are touting the usual New Years Day detox cleanses along with creative recipes sweet & savory that are wheat free.

People, there’s got to be something to this! I’m willing to give it a try – are you? Any takers? Any personal experiences out there that uphold or trash this diet?

Although I don’t feel that cutting out gluten is an excuse to overload on everything else that is ‘bad’ for you, I still would like to leave you with something sweet. And after reading the latest Bon Appetit magazine and being sorely disappointed with their Gluten Free desserts – even their Polenta cake – I thought I’d leave you with my nutty brown butter lemon Polenta cake which is super moist and dense and has much more protein, flavor,  and also a nicer crrrrunch!

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Pumpkin Pie From Scratch

Take your baking pumpkin, slice it in quarters, scoop the seeds out (reserve and toast separately), stick pumpkin wedges on a baking sheet, pop in the oven, and roast at 450˚F for 20 minutes until soft while making the pie crust.  That’s it, that’s all! Well of course you’ve got to mash the pumpkin and add the eggs, cream, and spices but that part’s easy.

There are many varieties of pie pumpkins out there. Sweetie Pie and Sugar Pie are my favs. I also like Durst but the flesh is a little stringier than the other two and it’s not quite as sweet so up the sugar. Blue Ballet or Blue Hubbard are incredible if you can find them and go straight to the top of the list. To cut either of the blue varieties (called ‘blue’ because their flesh is blue-ish in color) pick them up and throw them on the ground hard to split them apart – there’s just no cutting through them with a serrated knife. It’s a great stress reliever around the holidays.

I don’t add much to the filling. No evaporated milk or condensed milk. Just cream, sugar, eggs, and spices.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Pecan Pie

Pecans are worth more than gold in Paris and sell out of the Ex-pat stores quicker than you can catch the metro from St. Germain to the Marais. One year a friend of mine heard through the ex-pat grapevine that I had grabbed the last four bags of pecans at the Thanksgiving Store (yes, there is a whole store in Paris dedicated to Thanksgiving and produit Americain) and she showed up at my doorstep desperate to barter or exchange anything for just one bag. They weren’t even pretty pecans! They were chopped up tidbits for 6 euros a bag! Needless to say I happily handed over half of my goods in exchange for a good recipe.

If you’re up for some storytime, here’s an old one about getting Thanksgiving done in Paris…. A Parisian Thanksgiving….

Pecan Pie

Although Thanksgiving is precious to all Americans, holding family & friends near and dear, when you are million miles away from home you hold Thanksgiving even closer to your heart. Traditions make us part of what we are. As a family. As a culture. As a country. Sometimes it takes some distance to fully appreciate what our American holidays are all about – at least it did for me.

This is that same recipe my friend gave me with a few adaptions (I add alcohol and extra pecans). I’ve never had problems with the filling setting like I have with other recipes. To get that pretty look with the pecan halves, pour the filling in your pie crust and then layer nice halves on top. I buy the cheaper chopped up version for the filling.

Pecan pie filling

Wishing you and your family a warm and cozy Thanksgiving with family and friends and foreigners who might want to try a slice of the pie!

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Tarte au Citron, French Lemon Tart

Or you could just make Tarte au Citron

I go back and forth between what I love more – chocolate or lemon desserts. I think my “students” at Pie Ranch during our French cooking class were equally torn between the two. Sometimes it’s nice to have both! Pourquoi pas? We made strawberry, lemon, and chocolate tarts plus an extra strawberry-rhubarb lattice pie for fun. And we drank a lot of wine in the process (that’s my kind of cooking class). We thoroughly reveled in turning lemons into lemon pie!

Most people shy away from making tarts or pies that have a custard filling because they assume it’s going to be a lot of work. This one is very easy – there is no extra cooking over the stove top.

Notice how we are eating multiple types of tarts here! Fun!

Tarte au Citron, Tarte au Fraises, and Tarte au Chocolat at Pie Ranch

Crème fraîche adds a little extra tang which I love and it makes the filling creamier than a traditional buttery lemon curd. I thinly slice a lemon and place on top of filling for extra decoration. Using a mandoline works best for this. Don’t worry if they sink to the bottom they will float to the top while cooking.

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Call it what you will: pie crust, shortcrust, or pâte brisée – it’s one of my favorite things on this planet and I will always always choose a well made slice o’ pie over a light and fluffy piece o’ cake. I can even forgive a terrible filling if the crust is flaky and fork tender – that’s how much I love pie crust.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

I use the same basic French pâte brisée pastry recipe for everything whether it’s pie, quiche,  tart or quoi. It’s basically a half-fat to half-flour ratio.

I know lard pies are trendy in SF right now and I’m probably going to have my handlebar mustache shaved off and my ‘fixe’ bicycle stolen for saying this, but I don’t like the aftertaste of lard or Crisco because it sticks to my tongue and I feel like I need a knife to scrape it off. Who wants to comb their tongue after a great dessert? I like the flakiness and texture animal fats and hydrogenated fats can provide, but still, I’m all butter baby – all the way.

In a nutshell (or tart shell – ba, dum, dum) pâte brisée is an un-leavened dough that does not rise significantly. The flakiness comes from the process of rubbing fat into flour until it resembles cornmeal – and I always prefer to do this by hand when possible– then adding a little bit of water to bring it all together. The dough is kneaded a few times (known as frissage in French) and then allowed to rest in the fridge so the gluten strands relax and quit lengthening before rolling out and baking to golden deliciousness.

In France, for the recipe pâte sucrée which is a sweetened shortcrust, you add an egg too. I have yet to find the need for a sweetened pie crust – I prefer the filling to be the sweet part – but there are variations to this basic recipe.

And speaking of variations: I cook on farms and I use a hard red wheat flour milled onsite that is high in protein and VERY low in gluten which is great for pastry (and not so great for bread). It can be tricky to work with because it absorbs liquid at a slower rate and it’s not as finely ground as store bought All-Purpose. But, I strongly prefer the flavor and the rustic crumbly appearance and texture.

If you are using flour like this then use the recipe below. If you are using store bought All-Purpose flour (and my favorite is Guisto’s Organic – they also have amazing pizza ’00’ flour) then up the flour amount by 1/4 cup.

And, if you happen to be driving along the gorgeous coastal highway 1 and you find yourself in Pescadero. Stop by Pie Ranch’s farm stall in their beautiful old barn and pick up a slice of pie made from this amazing flour. You can buy flour too and just picked produce and farm fresh eggs!

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Tarte Au Chocolate: Chocolate Tart

During a basic French technique class I taught at Pie Ranch we made three different tarts: lemon, chocolate, and strawberry plus a range of savory dishes too. All the ingredients (aside from the chocolate) were grown on site – including the wheat for the flour.

Shortcrust is a  handy recipe to memorize and have on hand. Who knows when you’re going to have to whip up a dessert? It’s easy to make, extremely forgivable (my middle school kids whip this up in no time), and can be used in many sweet & savory ways. I like to make it by hand but it takes about 30 seconds to make in a Cuisinart – 30 seconds people!

It’s also a great way to showcase a single ingredient whether it’s a seasonal fruit or an expensive chocolate.

Chocolate Tart

I should warn that this is not an overly sweet chocolate tart and I like it this way. Sweetened whipped cream will make up for it if you’re not a death-by-chocolate fan. Or you can add sugar to the filling too!

Totally off subject but funny nonetheless, the Urban Dictionary translates the French expression of “Miam” as the following:

The French equivalent to “yum,” or “yummy.”

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Flan made by Edible After School, yes that is an ant in one of the flowers….

Flan is one of those beautifully simple desserts that many countries and cultures claim as their own. Whether you call it crème caramel or custard, history has it that this dessert dates all the way back to the Romans who originally domesticated chickens (flan is a custard that uses lots of eggs). The Spanish got hold of the recipe and added caramel to the mix and then imported it to Mexico when they came and conquered. I don’t know when France picked up the recipe but I do know they feel it is purely their creation.

But how can making a dessert that only has 3 ingredients be so complicated?

Flan aka Crème Caramel aka Custard

It’s always the simple things in life that are the most difficult to master. With flan the key to a smooth texture is the cooking temperature. Cooked for too long or cooked at too high of a temperature and the custard will have a slightly pock-y curdled texture.

I made flan with my Edible After School students to finish up our Mexican Cuisine unit. We made all sorts of shapes and sizes and we even layered flan to create a more dramatic effect.

Layered Flan

Keep in mind when checking flan for doneness that the center should be slightly jiggly – just about a dime size of the center. It will set as it cools. Just as in cheesecake or quiche, if you cook it past this stage you end up risking curdled yuckiness.

I like to add a little cinnamon and orange zest along with vanilla to the flan batter, but that’s up to you. My students were purists and opted to NOT add anything but extra vanilla….

This my second year teaching Edible After School, a course I created with Puente for Middle School Students. Over the last two years we have begun our own food business selling grab-n-go food at the farmer’s market in the Summer and jams (hibiscus-strawberry and Tomatillo-ginger-lime) and various salsas too. During the school year we study: baking & cooking techniques, food safety, and regional world cuisine. We are ALWAYS looking for funding and have been running on a generous grant from the Packard Foundation which will be depleted soon. Will you consider making a donation to PUENTE so that we can continue? THANK YOU!

My current students want to continue this class next year and I want to as well, please pass on the word would you? We need some buzzzzz!

The post Flan: How to Make Flan Like a Pro first appeared on Amy Glaze's Pommes d'Amour.

Tres Leches Cake made by Edible After School students

Except this week – this week we made Pastel de Tres Leches cake which is a sponge cake of sorts soaked in evaporated, condensed, and whole milk.  A hefty dollop of whipped cream frosting and a cherry on top completes the finished product. Since we are studying regional Mexican cuisine I figured this would quell the incessant nagging for sweet stuff.

Whipped Cream frosting creatively piped by students

Why choose this cake for kids? Because it is one of the most nutritious cakes I know of. With 6 eggs and extra dairy it has more protein  than most cakes which offsets the sugar rush.

Oh who am I kidding? I ate half a whole cake on my own (it was that good) and then suffered terribly from carbo overload – you know when all that sugar hits your system and your eyelids start to get heavy? Must….take….a….nap….zzzzzzzzzzzz……

Sponge cake is not as easy as quick breads for kids but it’s a good first real cake for them to try because it does require whipping the egg whites stiff – but not dry or over whipped – and folding in the remaining ingredients gently in 3 additions.

This recipe is modified from traditional sponge cake – there’s no cooking the eggs over a bain marie or anything so the process is more kid friendly. All the same the result is pretty close to the traditional sponge cake.  I don’t know that I would try and roll this cake if baked thin, but it certainly absorbs liquid well. (Speaking of absorbing liquid – why not add rum to the cake for an adult version?)

The cake itself is moist, fluffy, and the crumb does not turn to mush when drenched in the three milks. We baked this cake in square 8 x 8 inch pans so the height would be 3-inches, but it could be baked into a larger pan.

Some students used flaked coconut to top and added coconut milk to the soaking liquid

We also stabilized the whipped cream with a small amount of unflavored gelatin so it would hold up to a piping bag. Some students got extra fancy and topped their cakes with coconut flakes and substituted coconut milk for evaporated milk to drench the cake in added flavor. Most opted for adding vanilla and cinnamon to the batter.

Hope you enjoy this classic! We sure did…

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Todd Parsons Photography at http://toddparsons.net

Walnuts, golden raisins, and Potrero Nuevo Farm heirloom tart-sweet mystery apples (Golden Delicious perhaps, nobody know for sure because the trees are very old) are cooked in a spiked sweet soup with: canela, star anise, rosemary, nutmeg, cardamom, orange peel, brown sugar, and honey – and whiskey.

Yes whiskey and a few bottles of rich barley wine from Cypress Brewing Company. Basically this is a cocktail in disguise as a very innocent dessert. Perfect for wrapping cold hands around while sitting on a hail bail and watching an outdoor movie at Potrero Nuevo Farm.

Hot Apple Pie Sundae: http://toddparsons.net/

Shortbread cookies are close in ratio and recipe to a pâte brisée (pie crust). With two major exceptions: there is extra salt and pie crust is often half fat to flour instead of one-third fat to flour. Traditional Scottish shortbread is salty and sweet. This combo is totally underplayed in my humble opinion. In terms of flavor profiles it should go: butter, flour, salt, then sugar even though the actual recipe actually uses a 1:2:3 ratio of sugar: butter: flour and leaves the salt to your discretion. Don’t be afraid to taste the dough and adjust!

The caramel drizzle is malt extract syrup for beer making which I’ve been using a lot lately in different ways. It has become a fantastic secret ingredient adding depth to winter stews, soups, extra maltiness to pizza crust, and as a fun sweet dessert topping.  It has the consistency of honey and a rich sweet malty hop flavor.

There’s nothing pretentious about this dessert. It’s easy. It tastes warm and comforting and it is meant to be held by the hands and warm you inside and out.

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This was my finale for a dinner for Google Executive Chefs who flew from all over the world to lend their support to Pie Ranch and their mission to educate communities  & youth about food systems, sustainable agriculture, and land acquisition for new farmers.

Believe it or not Google has a strong committment to sustainable agriculture. They are extremely proactive about the produce and proteins they serve and they have created their own standards that are higher than the norm – including the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s sustainable fish watch list. They will be hosting Pie Ranch’s upcoming Benefit Event if you are interested in tasting some Google haute cuisine, tickets are on sale (running low – hurry!) for $200 a pop. The event includes: food, wine, pie, barn dance, charity auction, fun – come!

ALL THE PROCEEDS GO TO PIE RANCH!

Pie Ranch is a huge working farm. It’s a very exciting place to be. It’s a great place for learning on many levels whether you are a farmer interning after college or a student from one of the Bay Area’s schools learning how to harvest, grow, and process food.

Okay, back to this pie – it was a huge hit. I got some fantastic reviews and one comment in particular that was most flattering and a little embarrassing: “This is better than my mother’s signature rhubarb pie and she is probably rolling in her grave for me saying this to you right now…”.

Now before you go thinking I’m bragging; the deliciousness of this pie had nothing to do with me. What makes pies at Pie Ranch special are a few things. For starters they grow and mill their own Sonora flour and it is low in gluten which is ideal for pastry. The whole wheat flour makes crisp flakey crust, and it has a wonderful subtle nutty flavor which I’ve never experienced even with the best organic flours. The flour was milled the day of – super fresh!

Secondly when I cook for there, I cook outdoors. (like camping – no joke here ).  I bake in a wood burning pizza oven that takes about two days to really get going. So, you can imagine all that wood-fire aroma just infusing right into that crust … yummm….

And thirdly, the farmers harvest the day I’m cooking. When I show up, the produce is waiting, picked at the peak of ripeness. Does it get any better? My job is easy – all I have to do is put a few simple ingredients together et voilà!

Chef’s notes: be light-handed with the thickening agent (arrowroot, cornstarch, tapioca, or whatever you prefer). I like this pie a little soup-y, almost like a cobbler. When you cut slice into it, a nice rich magenta juice should run at least a little bit.

The pie crust recipe is for Pie Ranch flour and it holds up well with a filling that is not overly gelatinous. If using regular all-purpose flour, the butter to flour ratio will be too high and you will probably end up with a ball of goo. In this case increase the amount of flour by 1/2 cup and the cornstarch to 3 tablespoons.

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I revived our family recipe for a brunch at Echo Valley Farm but offered a choice of sweet or savory – or both! It cooks perfectly in cast iron skillets. (In fact I wouldn’t do it any other way.)

And it looks great on the table – rustic charm. Bandana and Coveralls not included…

 

Next to opening a box of cereal and putting it on the table, this is a very easy breakfast. And unlike tradional soufflés there really is no messing it up: It will puff, it will fall, it will be delicious.

While heating two cast iron skillets in the oven with a generous amount of butter, I make the egg base in a blender (eggs, cream, milk, flour, salt). In one hot skillet I add apple slices, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla extract creating a pan caramel. Then I pour in half the egg base once the apples are soft and the sugar is ooey-gooey…

To the other hot skillet I use the rest of the egg mixture adding a little truffle oil, chopped truffle shavings, and fresh thyme. Half way through the cooking I add pieces of homemade goat cheese. Just about any omelet concoction could be added to the savory soufflé: ham & cheese, wild mushrooms & spinach, etc.

The main trick to this pan soufflé is to make sure the iron skillet is well heated and that your guests are seated when you are ready to serve it. Just like any soufflé it will deflate some after a few minutes. The filling has a texture somewhere between custard and quiche.

Serve up with a big green salad and some bacon and sausages.

The post Dutch Apple Baby & Truffled Skillet Soufflé: Cast Iron Breakfasts first appeared on Amy Glaze's Pommes d'Amour.

Persian Saffron Orange Cake

Why I am not a pastry chef is sort of a mystery in my family. My last name really is ‘Glaze’. My first spoken word was “cake” (the precursor to “hotdog”). And I’m probably borderline diabetic considering my insatiable sweet tooth.

What went wrong…

I was briefly thrown into pastry chefdom at the age of 21 when the now famous but then unknown pastry chef, Elizabeth Falkner, left Ristorante Ecco. I was only the nighttime Garde Mangé cook (cold apps, salads, and pastry assembly) with no cooking school degree and little knowledge of baking.

Left an anthology of recipes, I picked up the slack. I learned two things: I prefer to see food cooking in front of my face instead of hoping and praying it will turn out okay before dinner service and I have trouble not taste-testing everything I create.

Was it Shakespeare who wrote: “Tis an ill cook that cannot lick his own fingers”?

Saffron Orange Bundt Cake

Fold egg whites gently…

Even so, true to my first utterance, I love cake. Unadulterated. Fresh and fluffy. Although there is a time and place for buttercreams and Italian meringues, I prefer it “as is” with minimal frosting. Maybe with a dollop of barely sweetened vanilla bean whipped cream. Or maybe not.

I make cakes at home by hand, without electric aid, because it’s a great arm and ab workout and lessens the guilt factor when I devour half in one go.

It does take extra time, but then again, making cake is a labor of love…

Saffron Orange Cake

I wonder if his Persian Grandmother knew that saffron, cardamom, and orange scented fresh cake brings a lingering sultry fragrance to the kitchen and, well, romance to the table?

The post Persian Saffron Orange Cake first appeared on Amy Glaze's Pommes d'Amour.

There’s only two ingredients that really matter: the berries and the butter. Wild blackberries are mouth puckering tart and lip smacking sweet with less moisture content than store bought. And they are free, because you stop at the side of the road and pick them yourself or sneak into your neighbor’s back forty and harvest. (Don’t get caught.)

Check out this butter that Farmer Kate made at Echo Valley farm! And the color! I have never tasted butter with such Incredible depth of flavor – not even in France. If homemade butter is not a possibility look for European styles like Plugra or Strauss.

Of course the flour matters too; I use organic when possible. We are not milling flour on the farm but Pie Ranch is down the road. And, by the way, they are hosting a farm to table dinner with a barn dance this Saturday. Lots of pie for dessert if you’re in town.

I adapted an old recipe from Bon Appetit for the pie crust. It’s the only one I know that is flaky, all butter, and does not get soggy with a juicy filling. This pie should be juicy. The coagulated cornstarch amorphous blackberry blob just doesn’t cut it.

Correction: I was forced to “adapt” the recipe due to the available selection.

Normally the crust is a combination of cake and all-purpose flour. But when I asked at the local store for cake flour the response was: “Honey, we just don’t get that specialized around here.” Jeez, was it my Lulu Lemon yoga outfit and freshly coiffed hair-do that misconstrued my normal free spirit for some snooty high falutin’ city girl? Honestly, I didn’t miss it. The crust was great.

I’ll leave you the unadapted pie crust recipe. Or you can do what I did and sub the cake flour for all-purpose – if you’re not feelin’ too specialized!

The post Wild Blackberry Pie first appeared on Amy Glaze's Pommes d'Amour.

In France my Chef would always greet me in the morning with a big cheerful: Ça va? Comme une pêche? To which the only reply is, "Oui Chef, comme une pêche!" A nice way of saying: How are you? Like a peach? Full of energy? Ready to dominate in the kitchen today?

I don't know about you, but I'm ready to dominate peach cobbler. This recipe is a family favorite, adapted from Lee Bailey's Country Desserts, and we are purists about it. We don't add spices or thickners. No tapioca, no lemon, no cinnamon, no vanilla, no nutmeg – just fruit and crust. Nothing else.

(Oh, except a big scoop of vanilla ice cream, but that's just a garnish, not a real ingredient of the cobbler itself) T'as la pêche?

More Peach Cobbler Recipes around the Blogosphere:

Peach Cobbler by Simply Recipes

Summer Peach Cobbler by Baking Bites

Easy Peach Cobbler video by iFoods TV

Peach Cobbler

adapted from Lee Bailey’s COUNTRY DESSERTS published by Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., NY, 1988 Serves 6

 1 ½ cups sifted all-purpose flour

Scant ¼ teaspoon salt

5 tablespoons unsalted butter

Frozen ¼ cup solid vegetable shortening

5 tablespoons ice water

7 very large ripe peaches, skinned and pitted

1 cup sugar (this sounds like a lot, but use all of it to make the peche syrup)

¼ cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into bits

Whipped cream or ice cream

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Lightly grease a deep 7 x 9–inch ovenproof dish. Set aside. Place the flour and salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Add the frozen butter and shortening. Process until mixture is the size of small peas. Add ice water and process until mixture is the size of small peas. Add ice water and process until mixture begins to form a ball. Remove and shape into a ball. Refrigerate in two flattened disks until ready to use.

Meanwhile, cut the peaches into thick slices and set aside. To assemble the cobbler, roll the dough out into a large ragged rectangle on a floured surface. Dust with flour and roll back onto the rolling pin, window-shade fashion. Unroll over the prepared dish, allowing excess dough to hang over sides. Heap peaches into the dish. Sprinkle with the sugar and dot with the butter pieces. Flop the loose ends of the pastry over the top, use any pieces that might have fallen off as patches.

Put cobbler into the oven and turn temperature down to 425 degrees. Bake for 45 minutes, or until top is golden.

The post Fresh Peach Cobbler : T’as la Pêche! first appeared on Amy Glaze's Pommes d'Amour.

That kills me, that here in NYC I actually have to pay for meyer lemons. Ha-rumph! In the Bay Area they are practically free.

I got the idea of this recipe from Michael Laiskonis, the world famous pastry chef at Le Bernardin. He makes teeny tiny vanilla pastry cream filled beignets that are sent out at the end of the meal with a host of other miniature delicacies (petit fours, chocolates, etc). Every time I pass the pastry kitchen I stop and beg for one. They are so good, sooo more-ish, sooooo impossible to eat just one.

 My mini deep fryer ("Cuisinart CDF-100 Compact 1.1-Liter Deep Fryer, Brushed Stainless Steel" (Cuisinart)) makes beignets easy to fry up and it's one of the most useful small appliances I own. No joke. How else do you make steak frites? Or green bean tempura? Or fried calamari?

The trick to getting nice beignets is to keep the temperature of the oil a little lower than normal, around 350˚F. Otherwise the dough burns and cracks. Roll them around in the cinnamon sugar directly out of the fryer and let cool for a few minutes before piping lemon curd through a tiny incision. Lots of fun to watch cook because they puff up and spin around in the oil and – of course – even more fun to eat.

Let the sun shine in!

Beignets Filled with Meyer Lemon Curd

Ingredients

  Beinget batter:

1/2 cup water 4 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/2 tablespoon salt 1teaspoon sugar

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

4 large eggs

Meyer Lemon Curd:

2/3 cup sugar

2 tablespoons chopped lemon zest

3 large eggs 4 large egg yolks

3/4 cup meyer lemon juice

4 tablespoons butter, chilled

Instructions 

For beignet batter: combine water, butter, sugar and salt in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Add in the flour and stir constantly over medium heat until mixture comes together and has a shine. Continue to cook and stir for two minutes more.

Remove dough from heat and transfer to a medium mixing bowl. Add one egg at a time beating vigorously after each. The dough will separate and then come together again after every egg. The mixture should be smooth and shiny and make think ribbons.

Heat the deep fryer to 350˚F. Drop dough in carefully by the spoonful. When it is golden brown remove to a pan covered in paper towels and roll around in cinammon sugar.

Lemon Curd: prepare an ice bath for the curd in advance. In a double boiler add the lemon zest, sugar, eggs, and egg yolks and whisk. Continue to whisk until the sugar is dissolved. Once sugar is dissolved add the lemon juice and continue to whisk for 5 minutes (don't stop!). The curd is done when it is thick and heavy and reaches a temperature of 160˚F.

Tranfer curd to a food processor or bowl. Pulse or whisk while adding chilled butter piece by piece. Strain curd into a bowl and place in the ice bath to chill.  To stuff beignets with curd make a tiny incision into each puff. Put the lemon curd in a pastry bag (or use a makeshift plastic ziploc bag with the corner cut off) with a small pastry tip if you have it. Pipe curd in until the beignet feels heavy.

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In my case, I bought an 8 drawer dresser that resided in my living room for 3 weeks partially completed, becoming a permanent unfinished counter top until just last night. What on earth does this have to with bread pudding you must be wondering? Nothing. Except after my IKEA nightmare was finally assembled I wanted dessert and wine and I didn't want to brave the cold outdoors for either one.

So I whipped this up having never made it before with no real recipe and just a few ingredients. Which should go to show you how infallible it is. It was one of the most satisfying comfort desserts I've had in ages. A great no hassle dessert for winter dinner parties, family meals, or even IKEA put-it-together celebrations.

This bread pudding is simply a mixture of custard base with cubed white bread, pears, and spices. It's baked in a water bath for 30 minutes and browned on top for 20 minutes more with some sprinkled sugar for added texture and flavor. Hard to resist breaking through the sugary crusty top to the soft sweet spicy filling underneath.

Bread Pudding with Pears and Currants

serves 6 people

Ingredients

4-5 cups of bread cubed (country white, brioche, challah, whatever) I like the crusts on but you can remove them

3 cups cream (or whole milk if you must – see note at bottom)

4 eggs

1/2 – 3/4 cup sugar (depending on how sweet you like it)

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon vanilla powder, or 1 vanilla bean scraped, or 1 T vanilla extract

1 large pear, diced

1/3 cup currants

Instructions Preheat oven to 350˚F. Scald cream with sugar, vanilla, and spices in a sauce pot. Whisk eggs together in a mixing bowl. Add scaled milk to eggs little by little whisking constantly until fully incorporated. Pour milk mixture over cubed bread and fold in currants and pears. Spoon bread mixture into ramekins up to the top and place into a 1 1/2-inch hot water bath. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes.

Remove foil and increase the heat to 425˚F. Sprinkle extra sugar over the top if desired. Bake for another 20 minutes or until the puddings have puffed up and are nicely browned on top while moist but firm on the inside.

Cooks Notes: I tried this recipe the next day (to get the correct measurements) with milk because I ran out of cream and it worked just as well. Although it wasn't nearly as rich and decadent. It still forms a custard base but not quite as silky as with cream. Also, the bread pudding will not poof up until the last 20 minutes on the higher temperature with the foil removed. So be patient!

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Tarte fine is just what it sounds like: fine tart. It is made with puff pastry and thin layers of fruit spiraling around the top. The pink pearl apples I bought from Dave Hale, owner of the famous Hale’s Apple Farm in Sebastopol, California.

Dave sells his apples (in person) at the Palo Alto farmer’s market on Saturdays and the Marin Civic Center Market on Thursdays and Sundays. If you want to keep him on your sweet side then bring by samples of your apple creations. He really enjoys seeing what people do with his produce and he carries many varieties of apples, not just the pink pearls.

I made a video on how to make puff pastry a few years ago with my friend Tselani who writes the popular blog Chez Tse. Check it out if you want a few laughs along with your pastry lesson. It was a very hot day and we polished off a bottle of champagne before filming. Moral of the story? If we can make puff pastry inebriated in 100˚F weather, then so can anyone!

My Dad says this apple tart needs a scoop of soft vanilla ice cream to go alongside. I think he’s just looking for excuses to polish of the Ben & Jerry’s. And he keeps insisting that he needs another slice to see if he “really likes it”. Excuses, excuses. (sigh)

Dave Hale’s Apple Ranch 1526 Gravenstein Hwy North in Sebastopol. About 1 mile north of the city limits on State Hwy 116 (Gravenstein Hwy); open daily 9 to 5 during apple season. Phone 707-823-4613

The post Tarte Fine Aux Pommes: Pink Apple Tart first appeared on Amy Glaze's Pommes d'Amour.

I asked him "why" because to me pastry cream is just pastry cream. Disappointed in my lack of appreciation, he told me: "Every pastry chef makes pastry cream, but how he makes it and what he flavors it with is his signature".

The Chef went on to explain how the texture should be creamy not grainy or lumpy, sweet but not overpowering, and flavored with the essence that most pleases the chef. He liked to put rum in his pastry cream – a lot of rum. Not entirely a rum fan (too many mojitos over the years, and too many nights over the toilet bowl)

I asked what else I could flavor the cream with. He suggested: fleur d'orange, an exotic vanilla, amaretto, cointreau, or lemon. I chose lemon to be my "signature" because I think it pairs nicely with fruit. And I prefer fruit desserts to everything except maybe a really decadent chocolate cake. Figs are in season and they are one of the sexiest fruits on the planet – fleshy and sweet with an intoxicating perfume. Pair them with creamy lemon-y pastry cream and you have kama sutra on a plate.

Crème Pâtissière: Tart aux Fiques

 Makes 6 small tarts or one big tart

  Ingredients

Sweet Short Pastry Dough 200g all-purpose flour, sifted

100g unsalted butter

4g salt

20g sugar

1 egg

5 ml cold water (or around 1-3 Tablespoons, depending on dough)

Pastry Cream

1 liter whole milk (4 cups)

1 vanilla bean

250g sugar

8 egg yolks

40 g cornstarch

50 g flour

Zest of 1 lemon

Ripe figs

Pre-heat oven to 350˚F

Short Pastry: Place dry ingredients in a large bowl and stir with a whisk to incorporate. Cut in cold butter – you can use your finger tips to do this – pretend like you're counting money and squishing the butter and flour together to form a sand-like dough. Add egg and continue to cut in. Then add water, little by little, just until the dough comes together. Knead the dough a few times inside the bowl to make sure all is incorporated. Flatten into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 10 – 15 minutes.

On a floured surface roll out dough to 1/4- inch and place in desired tart mold. Blind bake on 350˚F for 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown with baking beads. Dough will shrink a lot unless you use baking beans.

Pastry Cream: In a medium pot put the milk, 1/2 the sugar, and vanilla bean (split and seeds scraped). Scald on medium high heat. While milk is scalding add the other 1/2 sugar to the egg yolks in a big bowl and beat by hand or with a hand mixer until tripled in volume, light in color, and ribbons form in the batter. Mix the flour and cornstarch into egg batter on low speed or by hand until smooth – no lumps.

Remove the vanilla bean from the scaled milk and pour into the egg mixture little by little. Add lemon zest. Strain back into the pot used to scald the milk and cook pastry cream on medium heat until it begins to boil, stirring with a whisk constantly. When bubbles make a "blub, blub" sound, it's done.

Remove from heat and pour into a shallow pan and spread out so it can cool quickly. Press a sheet of plastic wrap on top so no 'skin' will form. Chill. Spread or pipe pastry cream into tart shell and top with figs!

The post Tart aux Figues (Fig Tart with Pastry Cream) first appeared on Amy Glaze's Pommes d'Amour.

Thankfully, Italian desserts are less complicated than French ones. And, I'm pretty adept at following instructions. I did, however, mix up the various flours a few times (the bins weren't labeled) which made for some interesting interpretations. The most difficult part of the job was forcing myself not to taste everything all of the time. I came up and down off sugar highs like a yo-yo swinging around-the-world.

Biscotti batter tastes awfully good raw and so does cheesecake batter, tuille cookie batter, chocolate molten cake batter, homemade vanilla ice cream, and proseco sorbet. Oh yes, and rhubarb compote is pretty darn delicious too. We made a meyer lemon polenta cake with a rhubarb compote in the Spring. The original recipe is long gone and the restaurant closed years ago (too bad, it was well loved) but this is the closest approximation to what I remember.

Coarse stone ground polenta will give this cake a slightly crunchy crumb. If you want a finer crumb use cornmeal or finely ground polenta. It can be imbibed with syrup (lemon or orange) for extra moistness or left plain as in this recipe.

The rhubarb ribbon is an easy trick I picked up in France. It makes for pretty presentation and shows off rhubarb's delicate pink and green shiny layers. And then of course there's the obligatory blackberry kir royal. Well, why not? It looks pretty with the cake. (and tastes good too)

Polenta Cake with Rhubarb Blackberry Compote and Rhubarb Ribbons Ingredients

Cake:

1 1/4 cups cake flour

1/2 cup cornmeal

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 sticks (6 ounces) unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

3 eggs

1/2 cup buttermilk

Marscapone or plain yogurt to top

Rhubarb Compote:

5 stalks rhubarb, chopped

1/2" 3 Tablespoons sugar (or more depending on your taste, I like 'em tart)

1 basket blackberries

Rhubarb Ribbons:

2 rhubarb stalks

Sugar for dusting

Cake: Preheat the oven to 350°. Butter a 9-inch cake pan. Line the bottom of the pan with a parchment paper circle and butter the top of it. In a medium bowl, whisk the cake flour with the cornmeal, baking powder and salt. If you're feeling really adventurous sift it all together. In a large bowl cream the butter and sugar with a hand held mixer or standing mixer. I let the butter and sugar cream for at least 3 minutes until it has doubled in volume. Beat in the eggs one at a time until incorporated. Beat in the dry ingredients in three installments on low speed alternating with buttermilk, until just blended but uniform in texture.

Pour the batter into the cake pan and bake for about 25 to 30 minutes or until the cake springs back when lightly pressed. Transfer the pan to a rack and let cool. While the cake is warm, invert it onto the rack and peel off the paper.

Compote: Chop rhubarb into 1/2" pieces and place in a small pot. Sprinkle sugar over and cook on medium-low heat until rhubarb is cooked through but not totally mushy. About 5 minutes. There will be a lot of juice that makes a nice sauce for the cake. Mix in some blackberries after the compote has cooled.

Rhubarb Ribbons: Cut rhubarb stalks into 4 to 5-inch pieces. With a mandonline slice the rhubarb segments extra thin, about 1/8-inch thick. Place slices on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Generously sprinkle sugar over both sides of the slices. Bake in a low temperature oven of 200˚F until slices are stiff and glossy. They should not brown. About 20 minutes, but keep your eye on them.

The post Polenta Cake with Rhubarb Ribbons first appeared on Amy Glaze's Pommes d'Amour.

When I cook long meals I always begin making dessert first. Once the dessert is out of the way, then I prep the rest. That’s why I’ve chosen to start with the end of the meal and work backwards.

This cake is bittersweet chocolate rich. It’s also flour-less and easy to prepare. The texture is like a dense mousse: moist and luxurious on the palatte. It’s the perfect ending to a long menu because it will not take up too much space in already bursting bellies and you only need a sliver to satisfy the strongest sugar cravings.

I always notice that people are silent at the table when they eat it – the best compliment of all!

The full menu is the following:

Vichyssoise with Crab garnished with Crème Fraîche and Chives

Heirloom Carrot and Rainbow Radish Salad, Warm Oyster Vinaigrette, Fresh Oysters

Herb Crusted Prime Rib, Yorkshire Pudding, Brussel sprouts, Au Jus

Gâteau Chocolat, Crème Anglaise

Technorati Tags: bittersweet chocolate cake, cake, chocolate, dessert, gâteau chocolat, New Years dessert

Gâteau Chocolat

Ingredients
8 ounces Bittersweet Chocolate (70%), chopped
1/2 cup whipping cream
1 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup coffee, warm
3 eggs, at room temperature
1/4 cup sugar

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350˚F.
2. Butter a 9-inch round pan (not spring-form). Line bottom with a parchment circle and butter the parchment too. Have a larger pan ready to serve as a water bath (bain marie).
3. Melt the chocolate gently in a double boiler.
4. Whip the cream until soft peaks form then add 1 Tbs of sugar and whip a little further to incorporate. This helps the whipped cream stay stiff. Set aside in refrigerator.
5. Whip eggs on high speed in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer until they double in volume. Gradually add the 1/4 cup sugar to the eggs – don’t dump it in all at once. Continue whipping until the eggs have tripled in volume. They will turn pale yellow in color and become thick. I beat them until they form ribbons when I drag a knife through them. Normally this takes about 4 minutes.
6. Pour the coffee into the chocolate and stir until combined. Fold the eggs into the chocolate in 3 additions. Fold in cream gently until batter is uniform in color (no streaks). Do not overfold or you will deflate it!
7. Pour the batter into the parchment-lined pan. Place into the bain marie (water bath). Fill the outer pan with HOT water so that it reaches halfway up the side of the cake pan.
8. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until the cake still jiggles slightly in the center when gently shaken.
9.Cool completely on a rack. To unmold, slide small knife around the edges of the cake. Cover the top of the pan with a sheet of waxed paper or parchment paper. Place a plate over the paper and invert pan and plate together. Remove parchment liner. Place a serving platter on the bottom of the cake and turn right-side up again. (flip flop the cake!)
10. Once the cake is completely cooled and on its platter, place a doily over the cake and sift powdered sugar over to give it a design. Serve with crème anglaise or whipped cream.
Makes at least 12 servings depending on how you slice it.

The post Gâteau Chocolat first appeared on Amy Glaze's Pommes d'Amour.

Pear desserts can often be too sweet and that is where the red wine syrup adds a rich earthy acidic counterpoint. It also helps to caramelize the skin of the pear during baking giving it a stained glass look. This effect turns the fruit from a bottom heavy little squat bell to quite the stunning brightly faceted jewel – pear shaped diamonds are always on my holiday list.

As if homemade diamonds weren’t enough reason to make this dish, the practicality of it for entertaining is fabulous. There is no need to peel or core the pears and it can be made ahead of time and kept in a warm place. Simply put the pears in a baking dish, pour the red wine over, sprinkle sugar over pears and wine, bake and baste for 45 minutes. They can stay in a warm oven while dinner is being enjoyed and then served.

For recipe Click on “continue reading…”

Technorati Tags: baked, baked pears, pear, poire, dessert, recipe, roasted pears

Poires Rôties Avec Syrop de Vin Rouge
Serves 4 people (can be doubled)

Ingredients
4 firm-ripe medium sized Bosc pears or Bartlett
1 1/2 cups dry red wine
1/2 cup sugar
Optional: orange or lemon rind, 1/2 cinnamon stick, 2 star anise, 3-4 cloves, 1 bay leaf

Instructions
1. Trim the bottoms of the pears so they stand up straight. Put them upright in a shallow baking dish that fits the amount of pears used. Pour wine over pears then sprinkle with half the sugar. The sugar will stick to the pears coating it like snow. If adding spices, place them around the pears in the wine.
2. Bake in oven at 425˚F for 45 minutes. Baste pears with wine syrup and sprinkling with more sugar every fifteen minutes. This will give that stained glass look.
3. They are done when pears are tender and have a reddish brown stained glass appearance.
4. Serve pears whole with syrup poured over and a dollop of vanilla ice cream

Note: I have made this dish in a hurry before where I haven’t had the time to sprinkle the pears with sugar every fifteen minutes. If you’re pressed for time pour the wine over the pears and then sprinkle on all the sugar. Continue to baste with the wine syrup every fifteen minutes. They will still come out like stained glass just not quite as crackle-y.

Tips
1. This dish is easy to make while preparing dinner and can be kept in the oven (turned off, but still warm) until ready to serve for dessert.
2. I prefer Bosc pears because the skin crackles better and the flesh is a little firmer

The post Poires Rôties Avec Syrop de Vin Rouge first appeared on Amy Glaze's Pommes d'Amour.

Walnuts are in season right now. Perhaps you’ve noticed a walnut tree in your nextdoor neighbor’s front yard with a litter of nuts scattered around the ground bursting out of their green casings? Go pick them up! Steal them! Hurry!!!

Cooking with fresh walnuts does require a little elbow grease because they need to be shelled and briefly toasted. I take the flat side of my cleaver and whack them hard to crack the shells. It’s not pretty, but it works. If you’re really picky you can peel off the skins around the flesh of the walnut with the tip of a knife or soak them in milk overnight to help remove the skins and soften the tannins. I don’t bother with it for tarts. Fresh walnuts are more moist than the store bought kind or those that having been sitting around in the nut bowl since last October.

For this recipe I created a simple skillet caramel with added molasses, tossed in the toasted walnuts, added some chopped apple, raisins, spices, and then an egg yolk tempered with warm cream. I poured the walnut melange into a tart shell and baked it until the apples were soft then topped up with an enormous dollop of chantilly cream for presentation.

Walnuts are very October…

For recipe click on “Continue reading Tarte Aux Noix…”

Technorati Tags: apples, noix, tart, tarte, tarte aux noix, walnuts

Tarte Aux Noix

Pâte Brisée
Makes enough dough for 23cm or 9-inch tart shell or 10 7.5cm / 3-inch tartlets. You can always freeze half the dough.

175g / 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour, plus a little extra for rolling out the dough
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
120g / 1/2 cup sweet butter cut into small pieces
2–3 tbsp ice cold water
1 egg

Instructions
1. In a large bowl whisk all dry ingredients to evenly distribute (flour, salt, sugar).
2. Add butter pieces and rub in using fingertips until a fine crumb forms and looks like sand (sablé). Or pulse on and off in a food processor (but why clean another dish?!?!)
3. Add egg and one tablespoon cold water and mix with fingertips until dough comes together. If it is still too dry add another tablespoon of water.
4. Fresage: after adding the liquid knead the dough just a few times with one hand to blend the ingredients into a soft dough. Do not over knead. Form into two disks and chill in refrigerator for at least 15 minutes.
5. When ready to use, take dough out of refrigerator and let rest for about five minutes. Roll out on a floured surface to 1/4″ thickness and cut to desired shape and size. Place in a buttered tart tin carefully by gently rolling the dough around the rolling pin and placing over tin. Press the overhang down around the side of the tin and make sure the dough rises slightly above the side. Shortcrust dough will shrink. Prick with a fork and chill until ready to bake.

Note: some people like to pre-bake the shells so the crust is crispy on the bottom and then fill them and bake again. Often what I do is heat a baking sheet in the oven and then place the tart on top of it so it starts cooking immediately.

Walnut Filling
When I made this filling I didn’t measure ingredients, I used the walnuts I found and what I had in the cupboards so its my professional approximation. Taste as you go and adjust spices and ingredients to your liking.

1 1/2 cups fresh walnuts lightly toasted and roughly chopped
1 apple peeled and chopped
3 tbsps raisins (or more if you like ’em)
1 tbsp molasses
5 tbsps brown sugar
4 tbsps sweet butter
1 egg yolk
1/4 cup cream
1/4 tsp cinnamon
pinch nutmeg
pinch ground cloves
Whipped cream for presentation

Instructions
1. Heat a large nonstick skillet on medium high. Add two tablespoons butter and melt completely. When hot and frothy toss in chopped apples and quickly flash fry.
2. Add brown sugar and molases to apples and toss to coat. The butter and brown sugar will form a light caramel with the juice from the apples. Once the caramel has formed, add walnuts, spices, and remaining butter. Mix gently with a spatula to incorporate and let it bubble on medium heat for 2-3 minutes. Don’t overcook or the apples will get mushy. Take off heat if necessary while preparing the next step.
3. Place egg yolk in a bowl. In a small pot heat cream until just simmering. Slowly add cream to egg yolk whisking constantly to temper yolk. If the yolk curdles, the hot cream was added to fast and you will have to repeat this process.
4. Place walnut mixture back onto a medium heat and add in cream / yolk mixture. Stir to incorporate. Stir in raisins and pour into tart shell.
5. Bake at 400˚F / 200˚ C for 15 minutes. Turn down heat to 350˚F / 175˚C and bake for another 7-10 until tart shell is golden brown.
6. Let cool for at least ten minutes before serving so that the caramel has a chance to set.

The post Tarte Aux Noix first appeared on Amy Glaze's Pommes d'Amour.

Now that I’ve got that disclaimer out of the way, I can tell you about making puff pastry or Feuilletage with the fabulous blogger Tse of Chez Tse. We studied at cooking school together and later she joined me at Guy Savoy before interning at the famous patisserie, Pierre Hermé.

Puff pastry is easy. It really is. And it tastes better and bakes lighter than store bought dough loaded with hydrogenated oils. The ingredients are simple: flour, water, salt, and butter. If possible use beurre sec or “dry” butter that has a low moisture content and high fat content . It will make the process easier and help keep the flour from turning into a greasy mess. But, just to prove that regular butter can be used, we’ve chosen normal unsalted beurre for our video.

There are so many uses for puff pastry from easy fruit tarts to pastry shells for savory dishes. Make a big batch and freeze half!

For recipe click on “continue reading How to Make Puff pastry….”

Technorati Tags: apple turnovers, apples, apricots, chausson aux pommes, cooking videos, puff pastry, video

Puff Pastry

Ingredients
Détrempe dough:
400g flour sifted
220ml water room temperature
10g salt
80g butter, melted and cooled to room temp.

For the turns:
260g “dry” unsalted butter

Instructions
1. Watch video!
2. In a bowl put flour and salt.
3. Pour over water and melted butter and mix quickly to form a ball.
4. Knead dough on marble or in bowl until it has a smooth surface.
5. Rest dough for 10 minutes in refrigerator covered with saran wrap before starting pastry turns.
6. Dust workspace with flour. Put dough ball on surface and make a cross with a slight lump in the middle by rolling out the edges.
7. Place butter in a square on top of mound and fold flaps over it like an envelope.
8. With a rolling pin, press down in an “X” on top of envelope.
9. Roll out dough carefully the length and width of the rolling pin. Fold in thirds. Turn dough towards you like a book. Repeat the process: roll out dough the length of rolling pin and fold in thirds. Cover with parchment paper and chill in refrigerator for 10 minutes.
10. Take dough out of fridge and repeat turns twice to complete the 3rd and 4th pastry turn. Chill again for 10 minutes.
11. Take dough out again and finish 5th and 6th pastry turn. Roll out 1/8″ and cut to desired shape depending on the recipe.
12. On it’s own puff pastry only takes about 10-12 minutes to bake in a convection oven set at 375˚F

Ideas
1. Fresh fruit tart: cut pastry to desired shape and brush with abricot jam and cut fresh apricots on top. Sprinkle some sugar on top (or don’t) and bake until pastry is golden brown.
2. Apple turnovers. Cut pastry out into 3″ circles. With rolling pin, roll center of circle so it becomes an oval (leave edges thick). Dices apples and flash fry in some butter and sugar with cinnamon and vanilla spice. (you can heat the sugar and butter together first to create a nice syrupy caramel before adding apples) Fill one half of pastry circle with a tablespoon of apples. Brush a little water on the half and fold the other over and press down to seal. brush with egg wash.

The post How To Make Puff Pastry: Feuilletage first appeared on Amy Glaze's Pommes d'Amour.

Seriously, if I have to de-feather, de-bone, gut, and cook another fowl I think I’ll slit my wrists. Nonetheless, I made this menu for some friends that are leaving the restaurant – and there are no birds in this meal.

And one more thing – HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!! Gros Bisous and well wishes for a relaxing Holiday season and fun filled New Year!!! Thank you for all the support, wonderful comments, and inspiring emails that you have provided me over this last year!!!

Menu

Red and Black Caviar Amuse Bouches
Black Truffle Slices on Warm Crostini
Veuve Cliquot Champagne

Tuna Tartar with Pearls of Japan & Avocado
Moet & Chandon Rosé Champagne

Carrot and Red Pepper Double Soup
Magnum Jordan Pinot Noir, Nicole’s Vineyard 1999

Leg of Lamb with Herb Potatoes

Spiced Persimmon Purée with Vanilla Ice Cream & Pecan Caramel

Caviar Appetizers
Ingredients:
15-16 small fingerling potatoes
Creme Fraiche
1 lemon
A small jar of black caviar or roe (I cheated and didn’t use real caviar)
Package of belini’s
Hummous
Red caviar or roe

Instructions:
1. Trim potatoes on both ends so they stand up straight. With a small melon baller scoop out half of flesh. Cook in boiling salted water for 7 minutes or until cooked. Remove and chill until ready to fill.
2. Zest one whole lemon. Save half for decoration and finely chop the rest. Add chopped zest to creme fraiche. Fill potatoes with creme and top with a teaspoon of caviar and one zest peel.
3. For the red caviar appetizer simply place a teaspoon of hummous on a belini and top with a teaspoon of red caviar.

Truffles on Toast
Ingredients:
One baguette sliced
Olive oil
One truffle
Fleur de sel

Instructions:
1. With a mandoline slice truffle into rounds about 1/8″ of an inch thick. Thicker if your budget can allow it!
2. Make crostini with the baguette by placing sliced rounds on a baking sheet. Sprinkile olive oil over pan and bread and bake at 350˚K until bread is toasty. Top with a slice of truffle, a sprinkle of fleur de sel – and that’s it!

Tuna Tartar with Pearls of Japan
Ingredients:
1 small box of pearls of japan
Fresh herbs: chives, tarragon, chervil
1 carrot brunoised
1 zuchinni brunoised (just the green skin)
Rocket or fancy small lettuce leaves
1 Kilo of sushi grade tuna
2 Avacadoes
1 limes
1 lemon
Olive oil
Tabasco

Instructions:
1. Make half the box of pearls of Japan and follow instructions on box. Blanch brunoised carrot and zucchini in boiling water for one minute and mix with pearls and 1 T of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
2. In a blender or with a hand mixer blend half a bunch of tarragon, chives, and chervil with 1/3 cup of olive oil. Strain.
3. Chop tuna into small pieces and mix with a few tablespoons of herb oil, salt, pepper, and 1 T of lemon juice (not too much or it will cook the tuna).
4. Mash avocadoes and add lime juice to taste, salt, pepper, and a few dashes of tabasco
5. Layer salad in a ring mold of choice with tuna, avocado, pearls of japan, and some lettuce (dressed in the herb oil) on the top

Carrot and Red Pepper Double Soup (Alice Waters)
Ingredients:
1 Bag Carrots
3 Red Peppers
Olive oil
6 cups chicken stock
Salt and Pepper

Instructions:
1. Peel and chop carrots. Heat a skillet on medium and add a few tablespoons of olive oil. Cook carrots until soft (don’t brown!). Add carrots to a big pot with 2 cups of chicken stock. Blend with a hand mixer. Add more chicken stock as necessary to create a thick soup consistency. Season with salt and pepper
2. De-seed and chop red peppers. Repeat instructions above but add to a separate pot and start with one cup of chicken stock. Season with salt and pepper The soups should have the same consistency
3. When ready to serve ladel carrot soup in first and then the red pepper soup in the middle. The pepper soup will form a flower shape.
4. Garnish with yogurt or creme fraiche and chives

Leg of Lamb with Herb Potatoes
Ingredients:
Leg of lamb for 6 people (ask your butcher!)
One package of yukon gold potatoes. Figure 3/person
One yellow onion
6 cloves of garlic
one boullian cube of lamb stock to make 1cup of stock (you can substitute chicken stock)
Thyme
Olive oil
salt and pepper

Instructions:
1. Have the butcher cut around the bottom of the leg of lamb bone so after cooking you can simply slide it out. Tie leg with cooking string and season generously with salt and pepper on all sides.
2. Slice yukon gold potatoes into 1/2″ rounds. Slice onions. Peel and crush garlic (don’t chop finely)
3. Preheat oven to 400˚F.
4. In a large roasting pan mix lamb boullian, potatoes, onions, salt and pepper, thyme, and garlic
5. Place lamb on a grilling rack over potatoes. The melting fat from the lamb will drip onto the potatoes!!! Turn the lamb every 25 minutes.

Persimmon Purée with Vanilla Ice Cream and Pecan Caramel
Ingredients:
2 large ripe mush persimmons
1 teaspoon of lemon zest
pinches of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and vanilla powder to taste
Premium vanilla ice cream like Haagen Daas
One cup pecans chopped
1/2 cup sugar
silpat mat

Instructions:
1. Take persimmons and scoop out flesh into a bowl. Mash with a fork. Add lemon zest and spices to your liking. Cover and refrigerate
2. Spread pecans on a silpat mat
3. Place sugar in a small pot and add 3 tablespoons of water. Mix gently with your finger tip until sugar is dissolved. You can add a little more water if necessary. Be careful not to get sugar water on sides of pot because it will crystalize.
4. Place sugar water on medium high heat in a small pot and watch. Once it starts to boil and bubbles begin to pop slow and the color turns a dark amber (but not black!!!) remove from heat and pour over pecans. It will harden and then you can break apart into big decorative pieces. Do not stir caramel while it’s cooking. If necessary you and swirl the pan gently to even out the color. The color is very important too – amber to dark amber is okay for this candy.
5. Place a scoop of ice cream into a bowl and spoon spiced persimmon purée around it. Stick a caramel piece in the center of ice cream or however you find most decorative. Serve up!

Technorati Tags: 3-star restaurants, appetizers, caramel, caviar, Food, french, lamb, persimmon, red peppers, tuna

The post Holiday Menu first appeared on Amy Glaze's Pommes d'Amour.

Easily this was a job meant for several people but I managed. One day our pastry chef quit. She was also working for the famous restaurant, Stars, in SF and couldn't handle both. I was asked to take her place while continuing with my Garde Manger position since we had a small cooking staff and none of the other Chef's had any extra prep time. Baking for the first time in a restaurant was a total nightmare. Thank God Italian desserts are much simpler than French ones!

I made every costly mistake in the book. Including not tempering the eggs right for our Creme Brulée, using bread flour for a cake that required all-purpose flour (the bins weren't labeled – how was I to know?), cooking cheesecake until it wasn't jiggly in the center and not letting it set afterwards, wasting over ten kilos of Valronna chocolate because I didn't temper it right – oh the list is endless!

There were many nights when the servers would tell the clientele that we were "sold out" of a particular dessert because I messed it up during the day and didn't have time to go back and re-bake it. I learned the hard way without the aid of a fancy cooking school education how to bake. And I did get really good.

Fast forward to Summer of Paris 2005. I decided to go to cooking school and relearn all the things I had done wrong. I started my education at Le Cordon Bleu with a basic pastry class. I thought I was going to be best in class due to my vast experience in desserts. I was sure that no one would equal my skill, speed, or artistic creativity. I was wrong.

Parisian desserts are a science. They are not "a little bit of this and a little bit of that" like Italian desserts. On our first day we were given scales to weigh ingredients as opposed to the traditional measuring cups, a full case of knives and pastry utensils, and an enormous notebook with recipes covering every famous French pastry and cake that you can imagine.

Our first recipes included several tried and true French tea cakes and biscuits – the Madeleine included. I whizzed through the first recipes faster than anyone in the class. My pastry skills and muscle memory seemed to come back naturally. Even the teachers were impressed. And then came the Madeleines.

I whipped through the simple recipe – maybe too fast – and waited for the rest of the class to catch up so we could put our little cakes in the oven at the same time. When the oven buzzer went off I was excited to see my shell-like cakes with the traditional little bump on the other side (a phenomena that no one can explain, but signifies a well baked Madeleine).

I was even more excited to taste their buttery spongy-ness. Our beloved pastry chef took out the cakes and stacked them on the cooling racks. One looked particularly horrible. The Madeleines had puffed up too much and formed one cake over the whole tray and the ingredients seperated.

I remember thinking, "Oh, I'm sooooo glad those aren't mine. How embarrasing." and then when I couldn't identify my cakes as any of the other perfect golden brown delicacies, I went nervously to see whose name was on the ugly batch.

Yup, they were mine. The chef came over to me and said in broken English, "Zheese ahre yourz?" with a look that can only be compared to one who has seen the Grim Reaper in person.

"I guess so." I replied, close to tears. He then proceeded to quiz me on how I made them and if I had measured everything perfectly. I assured him that I had. "Zhees happens you know, with zhis biscuit and no one knowz why" he comforted me. He popped one in his mouth and told me they tasted excellent. They did taste good at least.

I have made these several times since and I haven't had the same problem. Most likely, I rested the batter longer than every one else's in an extremely hot classroom and perhaps I wasn't as exact with my measurements as I should have been.

This little cake taught me some lessons: there is no place for ego in the kitchen, be exact when baking a recipe for the first time, learn from your mistakes. Madeleines are a specialty of the northeastern French town, Commercy. They are baked in shell-shaped molds and often served with tea.

Bonne Chance!

Madeleine Tea Cakes

(makes 2 dozen large madeleines)

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups cake flour

1 3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 big pinch salt

1/2 cup sugar

3 tablespoons honey

4 eggs

Grated zest of 1 lemon (or orange)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract or 3 pinches of vanilla powder

12 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

2 Madeleine molds, pastry bag and plain tip

Butter and flour madeleine molds by brushing with softened butter and then flour. Tap out extra flour.

Sift dry ingredients together: flour, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl cream eggs and sugar with whisk or electric mixer, until light yellow and creamy. Add honey and lemon zest and beat until blended. Beat in the melted butter just to incorporate. Don't overmix. Let rest for 10-15 minutes covered with saran wrap. Meanwhile set oven to 400˚F.

Pipe batter with pastry bag and tip into madeleine molds about 2/3's full (about 2 T). Bake for 5 minutes at 400˚F then reduce heat to 350˚F minutes and cook about five minutes more until golden. Cool. Eat and enjoy!

The post Madeleine Tea Cakes: A Lesson in Life first appeared on Amy Glaze's Pommes d'Amour.

 It shows off the fruit without too much sugar and it's easy to prepare for a crowd. We're serving this at Guy Savoy right now in Paris and people can't get enough of it. The real trick is to start with good quality firm, juicy, meaty cherries.

Traditionally the pit is left in the fruit. This is supposed to give flavor  and it also makes the prep time shorter (double yippeee!). It keeps the cake-like batter from turning pink too. You can pit them if you're afraid of cracking a tooth, but half the fun is spitting out the seeds.

I often substitute apricots or other stone fruit when in season. At Guy Savoy we adust the copper pan to the size of the table and present it whole. A waiter scoops it out at the table for the diners.

Guy Savoy's Cherry Clafoutis

400g / 1lb cherries

15 ml / 1 tablesppon kirsch

15 ml / 1 tbsp icing sugar

45 g / 3 tablespoon granulated sugar

30 g / 3 Tablespoon flour

170 ml / 3/4 cup milk

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 lemon rind grated Nutmeg (optional) 

Mix cherries with kirsh and icing sugar and let sit for 1 hour.  Preheat oven to 190 C/ 375 F. Butter an 11-12 inch oval dish or a shallow pan. Sift flour and add sugar together. Whisk in milk until smooth. Whisk eggs, vanilla, lemon rind, and nutmeg.

Pack cherries on bottom of oval dish and pour batter over. Bake for 45 min or until set. Insert knife into center, if it comes out clean it is done. Serve warm in dish! Note: sometimes I substitute half of the flour for almond powder because I like cherry and almonds together.

The post Cherry Clafoutis first appeared on Amy Glaze's Pommes d'Amour.

Photo by Typefiend, Gregory Han
(flavors: vanilla, coffee, caramel, black pepper, chocolate, raspberry, cherry, pistachio, cardamom, lemon, etc.)

Macaroons

Ingredients
5 1/4 cups of ground almonds (poudre d’amands)
5 cups of confectioners sugar
1 1/4 cups of egg whites
1 T granulated sugar

Instructions
1. Sift almond flour and powdered sugar separately. Don’t skip this step. You can make almond powder by grinding up skinless almonds, but it is much better to buy the commercial type.
2. Mix almond flour and powdered sugar together with a whisk in a mixing bowl.
3. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Add granulated sugar and continue to beat until they are stiff.
4. Pour half of almond/sugar mixture over eggs whites and fold in.
5. Fold in the rest of the almond/sugar mixture with added color of choice (see below for options & use powdered colors if available). Do over mix/fold until batter is shiny.
6. Paper a cookie sheet with parchment
7. Put cookie batter in a pastry bag with a 8-10mm pastry tip.
8. Pipe circles to desired size. Somewhere between 1″-4″.
9. Tap baking sheet and let cookies rest until a skin forms over the top of the macaroons. For the crackled look let them rest up to two hours. If you touch one and your finger comes away clean, then they are ready to bake.
10. Bake at 350˚ for 10 minutes.
11. Let rest in the oven with the door open and heat off for another 2-3 minutes.
12. Take two cookies and spread a thin layer of easy butter cream or filling of choice and sandwich together. (real buttercream frosting is not necessary because it is just a little bit for added flavor)

Variations for flavors
Vanilla: Scrape the seed of two vanilla beans and add to almond/sugar mixture or use 3 pinches of vanilla powder. Fill cookies with softened butter mixed with sugar and vanilla extract.

Coffee: add 1T coffee extract or powder to egg whites. Fill cookies with coffee ganache or mix a little butter with sugar and coffee powder.

Chocolate: add cocoa powder with the almond/ sugar mixture. Fill cookies with chocolate ganache. To make choclate ganache scald 1/2 cup of cream and pour over 1/2 cup of chocolate chips. Whisk in one place until ganache forms, then make bigger whisk circles

Pistachio: add green and yellow food coloring to the egg whites. Fill cookies by mixing almond paste with pistachio paste and butter

Raspberry: add red food coloring to the egg whites. Use raspberry jam for filling.

Lemon: add yellow food coloring to egg whites. Fill cookies by mixing softened butter with a little lemon juice and lemon peel

Note: even the best pastry makers will tell you that sometimes these turn out and sometimes they don’t. They really are not easy even though the ingredients look simple. However, once you get down the general idea then you can get creative and make your own flavors. If you have a scale and want the metric measurements, let me know.

Technorati Tags: Le Cordon Bleu, macaroon, macaroons, Paris, passover, pastry

The post Passover Pastry Macaroons first appeared on Amy Glaze's Pommes d'Amour.

For the recipe read on…

Technorati Tags: Cooking School, Food, pastry, recipes, video

Raspberry Almond Cream Tart with Chocolate Sauce
Sweet Short Pastry
240g all purpose flour
125g butter
pinch of salt
20g sugar
5 ml water
1 egg
2 big pinches vanilla powder

Almond Cream
60g soft butter (almost melted)
60g sugar
60g ground almonds
2 eggs
4 baskets of raspberries
4 T of warm raspberry jam

Chocolate Sauce
160g honey
100g dark chocolate chips
100g raspberry purée
50-100g cream (if needed)
Raspberry eau de vie or kirsch to taste

Instructions
1. Whisk salt, sugar, vanilla powder into flour. Sablé or cut in butter until dough resembles fine sand. Add egg and water and mix until ball forms. Knead dough lightly (2-3 times) inside of bowl to make sure ingredients are well mixed. Form into a flattened disk, cover with wrap, refrigerate.
2. Blanch sugar and softened butter in bowl with whisk until light in color. Add ground almonds and mix. Add two eggs and mix. Set aside.
3. Roll out tart shell 2-3mm thick to fit size of desired pan or ring (9-10″). Fit dough to pan and flute pastry edges. Pour almond cream into shell and smooth evenly. Cook for 13 minutes at 160˚C or 350˚F.
4. If serving straight away then brush almond cream with raspberry jam (warmed) and place raspberries in concentric circles to cover almond cream. Sprinkle a little granualted sugar over to get that dew kissed look. Place back in oven and cook for another 7 minutes. Otherwise cool and refrigerate and do the raspberries later.
5. For the choc. sauce, melt chocolate chips in a double boiler on low heat. Put honey in a separate pot on medium high heat to caramelize. Once golden brown big bubbles form quickly pour in raspberry purée. Be careful caramel can be dangerous and burn. Add raspberry/honey mixture to chocolate and whisk until smooth. Add a cream little by little if it’s too thick. Before serving add desired brandy.

The post Raspberry Almond Cream Tart with Chocolate Sauce first appeared on Amy Glaze's Pommes d'Amour.

Amy and Marine making crêpes!

In honor of “La Chandeleur” Marine held a huge Crêpe Party. The significance dates back to the middle-ages. Traditionally, in France, La Chandeleur is celebrated every February 2nd, in honor of the dead (including the end of the winter), and for good fortune. Crêpes are a symbol or wealth, and making them while holding a gold coin should bring good fortune and health during the year. Marine found historical details dating back to Pope VII! Nowadays in early February people make these delicious thin pancakes, put on costumes and throw fresh eggs and flour at people on the streets! (well, some do, like students).

When I arrived, Marine had prepared all imaginable accoutrements: tomato confit, sautéed mushrooms, grated grûyère, chevre, lardon (bacon), blue cheese, and eggs. For the dessert crêpes we had our choice of: homemade mandarin, blackberry, and strawberry jams or flambéed with Grand Marnier. She also served an “in between” crêpe filled with chevre, honey, and walnuts–
yummm!

I watched as she tossed pancake after pancake in the air….

We did get a little too crazy with the flambéed crêpes and at one point switched from Grand Marnier to Rum which was NOT a good idea. As we discovered the higher alcohol content in rum causes a much MUCH bigger flame. We melted the air filter on her stove which ended our flambé fun. Luckily the filter is easily replaced, however it dripped all over our last crêpe of the evening.

I DO NOT recommend lighting anything on fire, but for those curious about the process you heat up a small amount of alcohol (usually a cognac or some sort of liqueur) to a simmer then pour it over gently while simultaneously lighting on fire with the longest possible match or lighter. Do not put your face over it or have anything around that can catch on fire– you can never tell how big the flames are going to be.

We gobbled our delicious crêpes with Cidre (hard sparkling cider) and had good fun with baby Zoe..the real light of the party!

Thanks again Marine for all delicious fun and to Stuart Isett (Pro photographer) for capturing our flambé moments.

The post How to Make Crepes! Crepes! Crepes! first appeared on Amy Glaze's Pommes d'Amour.