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By mlb, on March 21st, 2013%
French Friday’s with Dorie this week was Ispahan Loaf Cake, which is Persian, very time consuming (what with the egg separating, whites beating, raspberry placementing, etc,…) but quite delightful when it was all done. Perhaps it wasn’t the best project for a Thursday night, but we were having tasty, slightly-warm slices of cake by 8pm, so that’s not too bad.
I really didn’t change too much here: I added a pinch of salt and used almond extract for the rosewater extract. However, I was able to find rose syrup at a Middle Eastern market not too far from my house (the one next to Ya Hala), so that worked out. I found that mine took about 1 hour and ten minutes to produce a clean test knife.
An addition: I did take my extra raspberries, some chambord, a little sugar and made a quick raspberry sauce to accompany the cake. As usual, the recipe is in Dorie Greenspan’s cookbook, Around My French Table.
Here’s a link to everyone’s French Friday posts this week and my photos below.
 . . . → Read More: FFwD: Ispahan Loaf Cake
By mlb, on February 12th, 2013%
Valentine’s Day Baking Tips & Tricks at Darigold in Seattle
I was recently invited to a dairy baking demonstration at Darigold headquarters in Seattle. And of course, when someone invites you to spend the day in Seattle tasting fancy desserts and pastries made with mountains of cream and butter, the correct response is, “Yes! Of course I will attend!”
Upon arriving at Darigold, we had a butter and sour cream tasting, learned a bit about the company and then it was time for the demonstrations and dessert tastings.
Chef Pierre Fauvet was on hand to take us through the creation of not three or even four desserts but five! Five dairy-rich, decadent desserts. Such a difficult way to spend an afternoon. In addition to Sour Cream Raspberry Chambord Cheesecake, we also sampled Salted Caramel Tart, Cream Puff Swans, Raspberry Cream Tart and Chocolate Eclairs.
I’ve posted the cheesecake recipe below. It would definitely make a wonderful Valentine’s Day dessert, but it does need to chill overnight, so plan accordingly.
 . . . → Read More: Valentine’s Day Dessert: Sour Cream Raspberry Chambord Cheesecake
By mlb, on January 10th, 2013%
The French Fridays with Dorie recipe this week was Long & Slow Apples and the recipe is posted in the LA Times Food section, so I’ll supply the link.
But, here’s my thing — whispers — I didn’t really like this one.
I thought it was a lot of work (not even counting the two hours, inactive roasting time) and had surprisingly, very little flavor. And the fault totally could have been with my apple choice (I used what we had on hand, two Pacific Rose apples, which I love for eating, so I’m kind of bummed I wasted them here). But. Meh.
Notes: I used the one side of a box grater for making thin slices out of things and subbed parchment for plastic wrap because I just do not trust putting plastic wrap in the oven. Instead of another ramekin, I weighted the tops down with pie beads wrapped in foil.
For a topping, I didn’t have any cream to whip or ice cream, so I flavored some Greek yogurt with a little maple syrup, ginger and cinnamon. I loved that, actually.
Okay, my photos below and everyone’s posts are . . . → Read More: FFwD: Long & Slow Apples
By mlb, on October 12th, 2012%
This week’s French Fridays with Dorie was for a crispy and crackly Apple Almond Tart made with filo dough. And although I do like working with filo (phyllo) dough, I already had some tart/pie dough that I had JUST defrosted from the freezer (the Dorie pie crust recipe, actually). So, I decided to just use that. While my tart wasn’t necessarily “crackly” it was crispy and delicious.
Notes:
1. Since I made my tart sort of free-form, it turned out a little smaller, so I only ended up using about 1-1/2 apples.
2. Speaking of apples, I used a Fuji and a Gala.
3. For the almond cream, I used Trader Joe’s Almond Meal, which isn’t skinned, so my cream is a little darker.
4. For the glaze, I used Apricot Jam mixed with a little water and about 1/4 tsp of almond extract.
5. We really liked the tart and I actually thought he flavor was even better the second day!
Okay, here’s a link to everyone’s posts and my photos.
Tart dough rolled out, almond cream made and apples.
Peeled and . . . → Read More: FFwD: Crispy Crackly Apple Almond Tart
By mlb, on September 14th, 2012%
Has it been a week already? Yep, I guess so. That means it’s time for another French Fridays with Dorie and this week it was Spiced-Poached Pears (or Apples). I used apples pears. Duh. Pears.
Notes:
1. I thought the syrup was really, really sweet. I added a little dry white wine to it while the pears were poaching.
2. I couldn’t find a cinnamon stick, so I used about 1/4 tsp of ground cinnamon.
3. Ideally, there would have been some vanilla frozen yogurt in the freezer, but there was not. So, I put a tiny scoop of creamy goat cheese in the indentation of each poached pear half. I thought this was really good! The answer to any question? Add cheese.
4. I finished with a garnish of lightly toasted, slivered almonds.
5. Oh my, I just realized that I completely did this wrong. I didn’t see in the recipe where it said to add water to the poaching liquid! I thought it was weird to just poach in the sugar, honey and orange + lemon juice, but hey, I thought, must be a French thing? So funny! Note to self: Do not attempt to make FFwD recipes late at . . . → Read More: FFwD: Spiced-Poached Pears
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