Today I made… a recollection of the past weeks! Charlottes, Crumbles, Pie & Cookies!

So I have been baking, I have been eating….but I haven’t been posting!
In the last weeks I have made a few easy and quick desserts!
I have made 2 crumbles, one with Apples and one with Apricots. All you need for this is fruits, butter, sugar and flour!! Crumble used to be my dessert of choice before I learned how to bake more fancy desserts!

Anyhow, on my list of new desserts to make was the French “Charlotte” so I made one with Strawberries and Blueberries! It was so good that I made another one the next day with Apricots that I had in a can and the rest of the Blueberries! It was even better!
All you need for this cake are Ladyfinger cookies (you can find them at Trader Joes) a can of fruits of your choice (or fresh fruits in their own juice), heavy cream and a little sugar!

Next on the list was a Raspberry-Apple Pie. I made 2 and brought them to my friends house; everyone loved them!

Finally I needed cookies for the holidays, I usually make simple sugar cookies and decorate them! This year I wanted to make hazelnut cookies, and I have to say these were the best cookies ever!! I will definitely make them every year from now on!

Next on my list : Le Flan Pâtissier (French Custard tart!)

À Bientôt!

Today I made Chocolate Dipped Madeleines

These are the same madeleines I have done a couple weeks ago. I just wanted to dipped them in my favorite sauce: chocolate! Enjoy!

Today I made Chocolate “Pots de Crème”

This recipe is in my Williams & Sonoma dessert recipe book that I have been mostly using so far. The pots de crème were not that interesting to me at first but today I had all the ingredients for it so I thought I would give it a try.

Basically all you need is chocolate, cream, milk, eggs and sugar!

The pots are still in the fridge cooling down, if they are good, I’ll post the recipe!

Today I made Chocolate Mousse

Sunday October 17th, 2010

Another chocolate dessert! You know my favorite ingredient now!
I wanted to bake this dessert to see if it was easy to get the “mousse” texture. And it is; as long as you can beat egg whites you will do a fine chocolate mousse!

I think the only “mistake” I made was pouring too much rum…. or I guess it’s just a new variation of the recipe!
Of course I had not read the full recipe and was chocked to see that I had to wait at least 4 hours before eating the mousse! Luckily I had some sweet wine to drink while waiting!

Easy & delicious dessert!

Today I made Pear-Almond Tart

I have always wanted to make a cake with almond paste but thought it may be too difficult. As I was looking for a new cake to bake with the pears I had at home I found this receipe for Pear-Almond tart! Ok, so i went to Safeway get all the ingrediants i was missing, including almond paste! Whao $7 for a small tube! Better not miss that one!

 

 

 

 

 

Anyway I followed this recipe from David Lebovitz. I poached the pears and made the dough from scratch but if you want to make this tart you can also buy can pears and a ready made dough! Making the almond paste is a little difficult as I had imagined because mine was very dry. But with practice this should become very easy!

Here is the result! it was very yummy especially with the marzipan ice cream from Ben&Jerry!

Today I made Chocolate-Vanilla Pound Cake

Have you ever had a slice of the chocolate-vanilla layered pound cake from Starbucks?
I love it, I guess because I grew up eating these sort of cakes. I remember, in France we can buy pound cakes in individual packages and that makes a good to go snack! It is difficult to find quality snacks on the shelf of  US’ grocery stores, no? So until know I used to to buy my slice of pound cake for about $2 at the coffee shop! But that had to stop now that I can bak my own!!!

Since I have started baking I knew I wanted to learn how to make this cake so that I could have a ton of it at home! its perfect for breakfast too! And it’s super easy to make from ingredients you probably have in your kitchen already!

Recipe coming soon! (I love the word “soon”…. it does not mean anything!)