Category: French
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Raspberry Sweetheart Cookies (or, palmiers)
I made these in February, which, admittedly was weeks ago. But this isn’t the first time I’ve made palmiers, nor will it be the last. If you have a box of puff pastry in your freezer, and sugar, and I always do, palmiers are very easy to whip up. I was inspired to make these…
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Marie-Helene’s apple cake
It’s been nearly a year since I made this cake for my father’s birthday and I’ll admit part of the reason why I haven’t written about it until now is because I’m disappointed in the photo. But this cake was so simply delicious I’d be remiss in my duty to my blog readers if…
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Dark chocolate and hazelnut mousse
On my ever-growing list of items I need to get to on my white board in my office: Cleaning and organizing my drawers. I’ve been staring at those words for months. My bathroom drawers. My kitchen drawers. My en suite bathroom drawers. Don’t even get me started. No, I’m not going to tell you I…
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Poilane’s Punitions or Punishment Cookies
Punitions means “punishments” in English. I’m in a sour mood today, it’s raining and it’s grey. And I had the day off from work but sure enough my son woke up sick and lethargic. Now that he’s asleep, I decided it’s time to blog about my experience making these small buttery French cookies a…
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Dorie Greenspan’s coffee eclairs
I never really liked eclairs until recently, when I discovered coffee eclairs (aka eclairs au cafe) at my local tea shop. They were a revelation. Until then, I always equated eclairs with those whipped cream-filled spongy concoctions you can find slowly drying out behind your nearest donut shop counter. You know the type. You…
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Chocolate & Zucchini’s Canelés
It was love at first bite. Sorry I can’t resist a cheesy play on words. Back to the batter at hand (tee hee). I first made canelés, if you might remember, at Bonnie Gordon’s School of Confectionary Arts. I signed up for the two-day course mainly to learn how to make macarons. And I…
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Hazelnut-almond financiers redux
I am a micromanager at the best of times and one of the ways that manifests itself is my obsessive checking of my blog stats. I can’t help but wonder – who keeps misspelling my surname as Nercessian to come to this blog? And who are the readers in Afghanistan? Also, are financiers molds…
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Dorie Greenspan’s Nutella Tartine
Where a North American after-school snack might be a glass of milk and cookies, the French goûter is often a pain au chocolat. Sometimes, Dorie Greenspan says in her new cookbook “Around My French Table” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) it might even be an open-faced chocolate sandwich. This may seem ridiculous to Canadians, and Americans, but…
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Barefoot Contessa’s brioche loaves
I made this recipe out of laziness. I couldn’t find any brioche or challah to buy for one of Dorie Greenspan’s tartine recipes in either of my local grocery stores and I didn’t feel like driving to my favourite French bakery to buy any. So, I made some myself. Once again, Ina Garten’s “Barefoot in Paris” book…
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French pastries day 2: Guimauves and madeleines
Day two of my French pastries course at the Bonnie Gordon school started quietly enough. We were to finish decorating the macarons we made the day before, and we were to bake the canelés batter sitting in the fridge. But in the middle of our demo on guimauves, I realized what I dismissed as…