Daring Bakers and the Smells of Christmas

When I first learned that this month's Daring Baker's challenge was going to be a hazelnut gateau, I thought to myself... "I wish it was Christmas!". July in Florida is hot and humid and a hazelnut, praline and ganache cake seemed a bit "heavy" for this season, but that first impression didn't last long.

Hazelnuts and praline remind me of winter and particularly of Christmas time when all sweets are made with sugar and nuts. Those are the smells I remember from my childhood. Almonds and hazelnuts caramelizing in the stove, grinding almonds and sugar for marzipan, turron... When I took the hazelnut sponge out of the oven, my entire house smelled of Christmas and that put a smile on my face.




Although the recipe indicated to bake the sponge in a 10 inch pan, I decided to go small. I baked the sponge in a half sheetpan (the recipe was perfect for that), then cut out individual circles with a round cutter and build the cake in ring molds. The praline buttercream was heavenly as I expected. I used Frangelico and some lemon zest simple syrup to soak the cake and covered the individual gateaux with ganache.

I decided to decorate the cake very simply with some gold leaf and caramel dipped hazelnuts. This is a simple technique but it does require a bit of a set up in the kitchen. I cooked my sugar and when it was cooling a bit, I lined the kitchen floor area where I was going to work on with newspaper. Then, I inserted wooden skewers on the bottom of whole hazelnuts and dipped these in the slightly cooled caramel. If the caramel is too hot, then the strings become too thin and most likely will crack. But if the caramel is too thick, then the hazelnuts will be too clumpy and might look sloppy. It's a matter of testing the consistency of the sugar.



While taking photos of the cakes, I had a little incident. My 2 year old son decided to get his two fingers in the cake while I was not looking, then got ganache all over the sofa and ran away with one of my pointy hazelnut decors. He thought it was the funniest thing ever but I wanted to cry...I wish I had someone there to take photos of what was going on...

Thank you Chris from Mele Cotte for hosting this month's challenge and please visit other Daring Bakers for other wonderful interpretations of the same recipe.

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Gewurtzeminer and Watermelon Gelee and A New Perspective

I made these gelee shots probably two months ago, but I never really came around to editing the photos and blogging about them. I wasn't happy with how the photos turned out so I left them aside and went on with my recipes. Until now, that is.

We got a new computer recently and this changed my whole perspective regarding my photos. My photos have never looked so different. Isn't that funny? We have always had PC's but we decided it was time to update and get a Mac. We had been wanting one for a while but were too lazy to do the switch. We weren't sure of how all our files would transfer and that kept postponing the purchase. We finally got one a couple of week ago and I have to say transferring our data from one to the other hasn't been painless, but at least not disastrous.

I was going through my photos and I found these again. I realized that they looked very different in my iMac than in my PC. Is that possible? Before I felt the colors were too vibrant, too loud, but now I sort of like them.



The shots were super refreshing and light. I know some might say Gewurtzeminer is for the "weak" but I love it served cold in the summer. Watermelon and all varieties of melon also remind me of hot summer days of my childhood. I suppose I am not the only one.

I don't even have the recipe anymore but I believe I used about 6 sheets of gelatin per liter of liquid. I sweetened the Gewurtzeminer to taste and the same with the watermelon puree. I have a mini melon baller that I rarely use but I pulled it out of my tool box just for this. I topped the gelees with watermelon, cantaloupe and honeydew.

Definitely season appropriate!

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Fig, Berry and Sheep's Milk Cream Tart

A few days ago, browsing through the specialty cheese section at Whole Foods, I found a new kind of spreadable sheep's milk cheese that I have never seen before. It is from Spain, but I didn't recognize it. That doesn't really surprise me given the tremendous amount of different cheeses that are produced in different regions of Spain. It is called MitiCrema and it is hard to describe. Because the cheese came in a small jar similar to the devonshire cream jars, I was expecting a semi-liquid, slightly sweet and mild cheese. Far from it. It is strong, salty, a bit crumbly... far from what I expected.

I also spotted the first organic figs from California and gooseberries. I have been waiting anxiously for figs and currants. Figs are here, but no currants in sight yet. But I will keep waiting.

I am a huge fig fan. When I was little, my grandparents had an enormous fig tree right by their front door and every September, we picked the super sweet figs right by their door step. I can still smell it... I was surprised when I moved to the US and I found figs in the supermarket in June. I always thought figs could only be picked in September. It was funny how my grandparents' fig tree was... September 1st came and it was full of fruit, but when the month came to a close, it was like the tree said... "Oh no, no more figs, all done". Very European.



I made these tarts for brunch. I had some chocolate short dough leftover so I used that as the tart base, but any dough can be used really. Line the tart shells with the dough and refrigerate overnight. Bake them at 350F the next day. If the dough has been chilled overnight, there is no need to use beans or pie weights, I promise. If the dough has rested enough and it has not been overmix to begin with, the dough will not shrink in the oven.

Sheep's Milk Cream

75 grams organic heavy cream
30 grams sheep's milk spreadable cheese or goat cheese
2 tsp honey

Whip all ingredients with an electric mixer until semi-stiff peaks are formed. Fill the pre-baked tart shells with the cream and top with figs, berries, mint or any other fruit or herb you like.

This summer has turned out to be a busy one and finding time to spend in the kitchen is harder and harder. There are many exciting things going on in my life, most of them not food or blog related, so blogging has taken a bit of a break. I do not want to abandon this venue completely since I love it so much, but forgive me if I have not been posting as frequently or if I have not been visiting my favorite blogs as regularly. I think I will be back with full force soon. I hope you are enjoying your summer too!

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Meringue... the Difference that Folding Makes

I am always intrigued by technique and how the simple action of folding ingredients together can completely change the texture and consistency of a product. Such is the case with meringue. The infamous macarons are usually nothing but egg whites with sugar and ground up nuts. But how do they get their tiny feet and the crunchy exterior with the moist interior? I was showing a friend of mine the macaron folding technique or "macaroner", when it occurred to me that I should also show her how a similar meringue can yield a different kind of cookie.

We made a batch of pistachio macarons with pistachio buttercream and a batch of hazelnut success with salted caramel ganache.

I decided to make some hazelnut success, which are nothing more than baked meringue with sugar and hazelnut meal gently folded in. Success is barely folded compared to the way macarons must be almost turned into a paste. The macaron batter is "worked" into a shiny mass, however, success must be folded with a light hand and gentle touch.



I understand that macaron recipes contain more dry ingredients that the rest of meringues, which also contributes to the completely different texture, but I would say, that is mostly in the hand. When macarons are under-mixed and much of the air is left in the mass, they turn into light crispy meringues and not the chewy interior we all desire.

I think at the end of the day, the reason why all this intrigues me is because it means that a recipe or a list of ingredients don't really mean all that much unless there is care and touch behind it.



Pistachio Macarons

100 grams almond meal
80 grams raw pistachio meal
243 grams powdered sugar
138 grams egg whites
3 grams egg white powder
81 grams sugar
few drops of all-natural green food coloring

In a large bowl, sift together the almond flour, pistachio meal and powdered sugar. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, add the egg white and the egg white powder. Whip in medium speed until egg whites start to increase in volume. When the egg whites are almost fully whipped and very fluffy, slowly start adding the sugar, sprinkle it in. After all the sugar is incorporated, continue to whip the meringue in high speed now until semi stiff peaks have formed. Add food coloring.

Add the meringue to the almond flour and pistachio meal mixture and with a spatula, fold the meringue into the dry ingredients. This is called “macaroner” and is also a tricky part. It is better to fold slowly and test a couple of macaroons because it is possible to over fold this mixture. We are looking for a shiny mass. For this amount of ingredients, I would say that it will only take about 10 to 15 strokes. But again, it is better to check for consistency. We are looking for a mass that spreads a little but not too much otherwise our macaroons will be flat.

Pipe the mass onto half sheet pans lined with silpats. Sprinkle the wet macaroons with pistachio crumble or chopped pistachios.

Let them sit at room temperature for about 45 minutes so they dry. We want the tops to not stick to our finger when we touch them. This will ensure a crack-free macaroon.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Turn the oven down to 300 degrees. Bake one sheetpan at a time and rotate half way after about 10 minutes. They will take about 16 minutes total but depends on your oven.

Pistachio Buttercream

50 grams egg whites
100 grams sugar
150 grams butter, softened
50 grams pistachio paste

Mix the egg whites and the sugar and place them over a double boiler while you whisk them together. The sugar will start to dissolve and the egg whites will start to turn white and fluffy. Continue whisking until the egg whites feel hot to the touch.

Transfer the bowl to the electric mixer and whip in high speed until light and fluffy and the bottom of the bowl doesn't feel hot anymore. About 3-5 minutes.

Start adding the softened butter by the tablespoon. Keep adding more butter as it is incorporated into the meringue. It might look like it is curdling but don't worry, keep mixing. When is well mixed, add the pistachio paste.

Hazelnut Success

50 grams egg whites
40 grams sugar
40 grams powdered sugar
25 grams hazelnut meal

Whip the egg whites fully and slowly add the sugar. Whip to stiff peaks.

Separately, sift the powdered sugar and hazelnut meal together. Sprinkle this mixture over the meringue and fold by hand, slowly. Be careful not to deflate the meringue too much.

Place the mix in a pastry bag fitted with a round tip and pipe long lines of the meringue on a sheetpan lined with parchment paper.

Bake at 325 degrees for about 15 minutes or until they dry completely. When they cool you should be able to pick them up from the parchment no problem.

Salted Caramel Ganache

60 grams sugar
110 grams heavy cream
100 grams bittersweet chocolate (64%)
65 grams milk chocolate (38%)
15 grams salted butter
pinch fleur de sel

Make a dry caramel with the sugar. In the meantime, heat the cream and when the caramel is starting to turn fairly dark, deglaze it with the cream.

Have the dark and milk chocolates chopped in a separate bowl. Strain the caramel mixture over the chocolate. Let it sit untouched for a minute. The caramel will start to slowly melt the chocolate. Whisk gently until all the chocolate is dissolved and the ganache has formed an emulsion. When it has coioled a bit, which will happen quickly since it's a small batch, add the soft butter and mix keeping the emulsion. Add the fleur de sel.

Let the ganache sit at room temperature until it hardens enough to be pipeable. Place in a pastry bag and pipe in between hazelnut success.

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Passion Fruit, Apricot and Vanilla Bean Cream Tart

I am a custard person. I love cakes, fruit pies, cookies and so on, but creamy custard, in any way shape or form, is my dessert of choice. And if the custard in question contains lots of mini specs of vanilla bean, then I'm in heaven.

After making the apricot pate de fruit a few days ago, I still had some apricot puree left in the freezer and a bit of passion fruit puree as well. I decided to use it all up by making a thin jam. The process is very similar to pate de fruit but the mixture is not cooked as long and not as much pectin is used resulting in a viscose jam.

As you might have noticed, sable breton is my favorite tart base and I use it many, many times, just as I did this time. This is a very simple tart with the sable breton, the passion fruit and apricot jam and the vanilla bean mousseline. I decorated it with a little bit of the apricot pate de fruit I had left over and it made a great stormy afternoon treat.


If you look closely at the photos, you can tell it is very humid here.  Look at the pate de fruit how it sweats... amazing.  Also, because I do not use any artificial lighting or flashes, my photos take a blue-grey hue when the sky is cloudy.  I didn't like that at first but I think it looks romantic now.  Subtle.



Sable Breton

160 grams sugar
160 grams salted butter
4 egg yolks
zest of half an orange
1/2 vanilla bean
225 grams unbleached all purpose flour
15 grams baking powder

In an electric mixer, cream the butter and the sugar together. Add the egg yolks, vanilla bean and the orange zest. Add the flour and baking powder combined until it comes together. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let it rest in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

Roll out to about 1/2" thickness and cut 3" circles with a round cutter. Place the circles in molds and bake at 350F for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Passion Fruit and Apricot Jam

100 grams passion fruit puree
100 grams apricot puree
1/2 vanilla bean
75 grams sugar
30 grams glucose
20 grams sugar
4 grams pectin
15 grams lemon juice

Place the fruit purees in a small saucepan. Mix the 20 grams of sugar with the 4 grams of pectin. When the puree is about 100 degrees F, add the sugar and pectin mixture. Bring it to a boil and add the rest of the sugar and glucose. Bring to a boil. Remove the pan from the heat and add the lemon juice.

Transfer the jam into a clean bowl and lt it cool slightly before refrigerating it.

Vanilla Mousseline

250 grams whole milk
1/4 vanilla bean
50 grams egg yolk
75 grams sugar
25 grams cornstarch
125 grams butter, cut into medium pieces

Place the milk, half of the sugar and vanilla bean in a small saucepan. Separately, whisk together in a bowl the egg yolks, cornstarch and the other half of the sugar. Bring the milk to a boil and temper into the egg yolks. Return the custard to the saucepan and cook until it thickens.

Immediately, transfer the cream to a clean bowl and add the pieces of butter. Whisk until they melt into the custard. Place plastic wrap over the bowl touching the cream and refrigerate until cool.

Place the cream in a piping bag fitted with a round pastry tip and pipe the cream on top of the baked and cooled sable breton. Pipe some passion fruit and apricot jam in the middle and top with more mousseline cream.

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Chocolate Souffle and Rediscovering a Cookbook

A few night ago, I was flipping through some of my pastry books and I decided to pick up "Chocolate Obsession" by Michael Recchiuti and Fran Gage. I have had this book for years but I don't remember ever baking any recipes from it.

I have to admit I have a cookbook addiction, but after I get them, I tend to leave them on the shelf and never really bake from them. I do enjoy photographs and they do bring much inspiration, but I don't usually copy a recipe from a book. However, this time, I was drawn to a chocolate souffle photo. It was beautiful, full of texture, dark, rich. I said, "I have to try this".




I flipped to the recipe page and started reading through it to see what method the authors used. I am very particular about souffle and its consistency. I despise meringue based souffles and most chocolate souffle recipes I see are meringue based. I feel cheated with these... I want a souffle that has a thick, creamy interior and that is why I like my roux or pastry cream base recipes.

I went back to the chocolate souffle photo and saw that this souffle had an incredible texture inside. I had to give it a shot. Marvellous, indeed. The amount of chocolate in the recipe makes it almost like a molten cake but without egg yolks. Of course, no need to say that you must use the best available chocolate because that is what makes this souffle. If the chocolate is poor, then the souffle will be poor.

Just a little note about the book though. The recipe in the book fails to mention one of the steps. It lists the grated chocolate in the ingredient list, but then, it does not mention when or how this chocolate is supposed to be added. No big deal. It was pretty easy to figure out, but I did find that error. I haven't tried any other recipes from it, but I think it is well worth it just for the photography and the food styling.



Chocolate Souffle

130 grams cocoa powder
350 ml water
1 vanilla bean, split
40 grams 70% chocolate, grated
70 grams egg whites
pinch of salt
75 grams sugar

10 grams sugar
20 grams 70% chocolate, grated
softened butter

Brush softened butter over all sides of the ramekins you are going to use. Make sure you brush applying vertical strokes. This will allow the souffle to rise straight up nicely. Mix the grated chocolate and sugar and pour into one ramekin. Turn so all sides are coated with this mixture and dump the excess into the next ramekin. Once they are all coated, refrigerate them until ready to use.

In a medium saucepan, bring the water and the vanilla to a boil. Turn heat off and let it steep for 5 minutes. Remove the vanilla bean and reserve it for another use. Return the pan to the heat and bring to another boil. Add half of the cocoa powder into the boiling water and whisk constantly until all the cocoa has been absorbed. Add the rest and whisk constantly for about 3 minutes or until it thickens. Remove from heat and transfer the cocoa paste into a large bowl.

In the meantime, whip the egg whites with the pinch of salt. When they are almost fully whipped, add the sugar slowly, in batches. Let the meringue whip to semi stiff peaks.

Add the meringue into the warm cocoa paste and fold gently until no more white streaks are showing. Fold in the grated chocolate.

Spoon the souffle batter into the ramekins. Fill to the top. Bake in a preheated 350F degree oven until they rise. The time will depend on the size of your ramekins. Serve immediately.

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Lemon Verbena and White Chocolate Ice Cream Sandwiches

My lemon verbena plant is growing out of control and I have been using it every chance I get. I have been infusing it in simple syrups for drinks, crème anglaise, in fruit papillote... I even made a sugar body scrub with it. The aroma that it exudes when rubbed between the fingers is amazing.

I wanted to make an ice cream with it and I thought of combining it with white chocolate. I think lemon and white chocolate really compliment each other so I thought why not use the verbena I have. The result is subtle but bright.




Ice cream sandwiches are so fun in the summer. It brings back memories of summers at the beach for me when ice cream sandwiches were always the afternoon treat. This time I made a very crumbly and delicate chocolate and almond shortbread that has a bit of crunch but it's still soft enough to eat with the ice cream. The bit of sea salt really enhances the chocolate.



Lemon Verbena and White Chocolate Ice Cream

250 grams whole milk
500 grams heavy cream
125 grams sugar
100 grams egg yolks
10 grams lemon verbena leaves, washed and dried
225 grams white chocolate, chopped

In a medium saucepan, place the whole milk, heavy cream, half of the sugar and the lemon verbena leaves. Slowly bring to a boil. When it comes to a boil, turn the heat off and let the leaves steep in the milk for about 15 minutes. Turn the heat back on and bring it back to a boil.

In the meantime, whisk the egg yolks with the other half of the sugar. Temper the hot milk mixture into the egg yolks and whisk. Return this base back to the saucepan and cook until nappe or until it reaches 84C.

Have the white chocolate chopped in a large bowl. Strain the custard over the white chocolate and stir until all the chocolate has melted.

Place the bowl with the ice cream base over an ice bath to cool down quickly. Refrigerate overnight. Churn in your ice cream machine overnight.

Chocolate and Almond Short Dough

125 grams butter
75 grams sugar
2 grams salt
1/2 vanilla bean
1 egg yolk
25 grams almond meal
200 grams flour
5 grams cocoa powder

Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla bean seeds together. Add the egg yolk and scrape. Sift together all the dry ingredients and add them to the butter mixture. Mix until combined.

Make a ball with the dough and wrap it in plastic wrap. Gently flatten it with your hands forming a disk. Refrigerate the dough for at least an hour.

Roll the dough to 1/4" thick and cut with cookie cutter. This is a very crumbly dough that tends to crack so you might have to warm up the dough a bit with your hands to soften it.

Bake at 350F for about 10 minutes. Let the cookies cool completely before sandwich them with the white chocolate verbena ice cream.

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The Petit Suisse Experiment and an Accomplice

I have thoroughly chronicled my quest to find the perfect petit suisse recipe. Some think it's insane that I would spend so much time trying to replicate something that back home, is just baby food. But you must understand, I live far, far away from home and sometimes one needs closeness and needs to feed the soul with childhood memories and flavors.

I believe this is my third attempt at it and as we say in Spanish, "a la tercera, la vencida". And so it was. This time, it worked. Wonderful, thick, creamy, sweet and tangy petit suisse.

But there is something I must tell you. Something wonderful happened during this whole process of finding the perfect recipe. Another "insane" blogger decided to join me on this quest. She had brilliant ideas and we both put our minds and our palates to the test. So this would have never happened without her help, the wonderful, inspiring and "Baker Zen Master" herself, Tartelette.




Helen emailed me a couple of months ago saying she was in. She also wanted to "break the petit suisse" code. Of course, I was jumping up and down with joy. Time passed and we both got busy with life until I recently emailed her to tell her about how my creme fraiche blancmange tasted just like petit suisse. Surprisingly, she had just made some creme fraiche from scratch herself and was about to email me the same thought.

So soon after that, we scheduled a first experiment. We agreed to try to culture a mixture of some heavy cream and whole milk with creme fraiche and a bit of buttermilk. We decided to go against using a starter because both creme fraiche and buttermilk are cultured products so there would be enough bacteria in them to incubate the base. I let mine incubate overnight in my yogurt maker and in the morning, I was greeted by something similar to creme bulgare, which I have blogged about, with a good layer of cream on top. Surprisingly, not all the little jars had set the same way and for some reason, some of them ended up with a layer of cream but a liquid center. So good tasting but not what I was looking for.

I still wanted to go the fromage frais route which I had read about originally. So for our second experiment, we decided to use whole milk and rennet. We let the milk inoculate overnight and in the morning, when the milk curd had formed, we decided to add heavy cream to it. This was the key. I laddled the curd into a strainer lined with cheesecloth and I added 20% of heavy cream. Gently mixed it and let it drain the excess whey for about 4 hours. The result was unbelievable. Just like the petit suisse I grew up eating.



I made some strawberry compote to go with it and since it is so hot and humid, I thought my little boy would really enjoy some petit suisse popsicles so I folded some petit suisse and lightly whipped cream together, piped it into my shot glasses and froze it. He could not keep his hands off them!

So here is the recipe that worked wonders.

Petit Suisse

2 liters organic whole milk
30 ml organic cultured buttermilk
1/8 tablet of rennet
30 ml water
200 grams heavy cream (40% butterfat)

Sterilize a large pot by covering and boiling a small amount of water in it for 5 minutes prior to use.

Pour in the fresh milk, then the buttermilk. Warm up stirring to a final temperature of 65°F. Since my pot was warm from sterilizing it, I didn't even have to turn the heat on. Meanwhile, dissolve the rennet in 30 ml of cool water. Stir dissolved rennet into warm milk. Stir well to blend thoroughly. Cover and let it sit undisturbed overnight at room temperature.

The next morning, a soft curd should have formed; if not, let it sit until it does form which could take up to an additional 12 hours (mine was done overnight). When the curd is adequately formed, cut it into 1/2 inch cubes. Ladle cut curds into clean sterile cheesecloth suspended in a large strainer or stainless steel colander. Pour remaining whey through the cloth.

At this point, weigh the curd and add about 20% of its weight in heavy cream. Mine was 1 kg so I added 200 grams of cream. Stir gently. Place the curd and cream back on the strainer with the cheesecloth and refrigerate for 4 hours until most of the whey has drained off. Spoon the petit suisse into your jars.

I really want to thank Helen for helping me on this project. It was so much more fun to be able to share the steps and results with someone else. Like she said on Sunday morning... "who else out there is getting excited over curd like we are?". Yes, that's us! Merci Helen!

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Apricot and Vanilla Bean Pate de Fruit

The abundance of stone fruits is making me go crazy. My head spins thinking about new recipes, how to visually display them, the vibrant colors, flavor combinations. My last three recipes have featured stone fruits, so this time I just had to take it slow and make something rather simple. Something like pate de fruit which I think is a perfect way to utilize stone fruits and yes, get an enormous sugar high!




This recipe makes a lot of pate de fruit so be ready to give some away. It will keep really well for days (the amount of sugar and the tartaric acid solution helps with that) but still... I don't think a family can handle so much sugar. Not even mine! So get out your pretty food packaging boxes or bags and make a list of friends and family to share these with!

Apricot and Vanilla Bean Pate de Fruit

Makes half a sheetpan

750 grams apricot puree
2 vanilla beans
18 grams yellow pectin
75 grams sugar
150 grams glucose
750 grams sugar
6 grams tartaric acid solution (equal parts water and tartaric acid)
12 grams peach liquer

Place the apricot puree and the vanilla bean seeds into a large pot with tall sides. Heat to about 45 degrees celsius (about 113 F).

In the meantime, mix the yellow pectin and the 75 grams of sugar in a bowl. Make sure they are thoroughly combined. If there are clusters of yellow pectin left unmixed with the sugar, this will leave undissolved gummy pieces of pectin in the finished product. So once the puree is warm, add the yellow pectin and sugar to it and whisk very well.

Bring the mixture to a boil and add the rest of the sugar and the glucose. Whisk well and let it boil and cook to 106 degrees Celsius (223F). Make sure to whisk often.

Turn the heat off and add the liquer and the tartaric acid solution. Whisk.

Pour into a half sheetpan lined with parchment paper or silicon mat. Let it set for about 2 hours or until it is completely cool and it has hardened.

Cut squares or different shapes and roll in sugar. Serve immediately. The uncut pate de fruit will keep for a few days lightly covered with plastic wrap. If you are in a humid climate like me, you might notice that it turns very sticky. That's from the humidity in the air melting the sugar.

Happy July 4th weekend to all of you and I will see you next week!

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