Pear and Raspberry Flan Tart

Have I mentioned how I love autumn? The cool weather we have had the last few days has only magnified this sentiment. Mornings with bright blue skies and scarves make me happy. Very happy indeed. My parents are here, the weather is beautiful and I am lucky to be able to dedicate my time to the things I love the most. I feel very blessed.




For this tart, I used some leftover gingerbread sugar dough I had. The tart shell is blind baked, then filled with a vanilla bean and kirsch custard, fresh raspberries and topped with pear slices that I previously poached in a vanilla bean syrup. This tart is best served slightly warm.. it melts.



Originally, I intended to make this flan tart using some quince I found at the supermarket a few days ago. I wanted to slowly poach them in a vanilla syrup and use them as the topping as I had seen in Christine Ferber's "Mes Tartes" book. However, as often times happens with not very popular produce bought at mainstream supermarkets, the quince were rotten inside. Brown and dry. I really get upset when this happens and not only because I wasted money on rotten food, but mainly, because it brings light to the fact that in this country, it is very difficult to find good quality produce. Why is that? I know there are great farms in this country, yet the produce available to us is very poor. Should I just surrender to the fact that I live in Florida and that the quince I so desire must travel great lengths to get to me? I think I'm just spoiled.



Poached Pears

500 grams water
250 grams demerara sugar
1 vanilla bean, split
2 Anjou pears (ripe but still firm)

Place the water, sugar and vanilla bean in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil and when sugar is dissolved, lower heat.

Peel and cut the pears in half. Remove the core with a melon baller. Place the pears in the syrup and simmer for approximately 20 minutes or until tender. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Vanilla and Kirsch Custard

100 grams heavy cream
100 grams whole milk
6 egg yolks
50 grams sugar
30 grams kirsch
1 vanilla bean, seeded

Whisk together the egg yolks and sugar. Add the cream, whole milk, kirsch and vanilla bean seeds and whisk.

Assemble Tart

Roll gingerbread sugar dough to about 1/8" thick. Fill tart pan with dough and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Dock the bottom of the dough with a fork and blind bake at 350F for about 15-20 minutes. If the dough has been refrigerated long enough and if it's not overmixed, it will not shrink in the oven so I generally do not use pie weights. Let the baked tart shell cool.

Fill the tarts with fresh raspberries. Pour the custard in the tart shell to the top. Place thinly sliced poached pears on top and sprinkle with sugar. Bake in a 325F oven for about 25-30 minutes until the sides start to turn golden brown.

Happy Halloween everyone!

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Pear and Raspberry Flan Tart

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Missing Challenge

October has been a very busy month for me. Today is the day I was supposed to be posting photos of me tossing pizza dough up in the air, but it couldn't be. I spent too much time enjoying the fall and images like this.

Being away for most of this month has really backed up my schedule and I'm afraid I had to skip this month's Daring Bakers challenge. Hopefully I will not let you down next month.

This month's challenge is hosted by Rosa's Yummy Yums. Please visit other Daring Bakers to check out their challenge results.

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Missing Challenge

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Chocolate and Pistachio Mousse Cakes

My floors are scrubbed, lavender sachet under the pillow and my grocery list complete. My parents are arriving tonight and everything must be perfect. I impose the silliest things on myself when my mom comes to visit. I know none of this is important to her because she comes to see me, but deep inside, I still feel like the 10 year old girl who has to report to her parents. Some things never change.




So I made a little something for them. Little mousse cakes with chocolate genoise soaked in a kirsch syrup, with pistachio and chocolate mousse. You might be wondering what the red color is for. Well, I always add a bit of red coloring to chocolate spray to bring out the dark in the chocolate. Spraying chocolate is a messy, messy job in a small kitchen, that's why you might be interested in this.

Chocolate Genoise

6 whole eggs
180 grams sugar
80 grams cornstarch
80 grams flour
20 grams cocoa powder
20 grams butter, melted and cooled

In the bowl of an electric mixer, whisk together the eggs and the sugar. Place this bowl over a double boiler and continue whisking until the sugar has dissolved and the eggs feel hot to the touch. Transfer the bowl to the electric mixer and whip in high speed until the eggs triple in volume and they form a thick ribbon.

Sift the cornstarch, flour and cocoa powder together into a bowl. Add the sifted mixture to the whipped eggs in three batches folding each time slowly to avoid deflating the batter too much. Finally add the melted butter and fold so that the butter doesn't all fall to the bottom of the bowl.

Divide this batter into two half sheetpans that have been sprayed and lined with parchment paper. Spread the batter evenly and bake in a 375F oven for about 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cake cool. The cake can be wrapped in plastic and frozen.

Kirsch Simple Syrup

100 grams water
100 grams sugar
2 Tbs kirsch or to taste

Bring the sugar and water to a boil. Remove from heat as soon as sugar is dissolved. Let the syrup cool and add the kirsch.

Pistachio Mousse

55 grams pate a bombe
3 grams gelatin leaves
85 grams pistachio puree
225 ml heavy cream, whipped to soft peaks

Mix pate a bombe and pistachio paste together. Soften the gelatin in ice water. Melt the soften gelatin with a bit of whipped cream in the microwave for about 7 seconds. Whisk it and quickly whisk into the rest of the whipped cream. Fold the whipped cream and pate a bombe base together.

Dark Chocolate Mousse

55 grams pate a bombe
85 grams 70% chocolate
225 ml heavy cream, whipped to soft peaks

Add a third of the cream to the melted chocolate and whisk. Add the pate a bombe to this and fold. Add the rest of the cream and fold. If the mousse is a bit runny, place the bowl in the refrigerator so it has a chance to harden a bit so it is easier to pipe.

Assemble the Cakes

Line ring molds with acetate paper and place them on a sheetpan. Measure the circumference of the ring mold and cut a strip of cake accordingly. Place the strip of chocolate genoise around the ring mold and a disk on the bottom. Soak the cake with simple syrup. Pipe the pistachio mousse inside the ring mold almost to the top. Top with another disk of genoise. Soak the top disk of cake with some more syrup. Let the cake sit in the freezer until the pistachio mousse sets.

Place the chocolate mousse in a piping bag with a star tip. Pipe a rosette on top of the cake. Freeze the cakes overnight. For the velvet look, spray the cakes with chocolate spray when these are still frozen.

And if you are interested about reading about my favorite things, visit Joslyn at Simple Lovely. She is amazing.

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Chocolate and Pistachio Mousse Cakes

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Pumpkin and Gingerbread Ice Cream Sandwiches

Since I was gone for practically three weeks, I have not been thinking about the upcoming holidays. It suddenly hit me when we went over to a friend's house for dinner and their entire house was beautifully decorated with autumn motifs. Halloween is around the corner (still don't know if our little boy will end up wearing the costume we got him) and Thanksgiving and Christmas follow soon after.

Although I grew up eating lots of winter squash, I had never really had it as an ingredient in a dessert until I came to the US and tasted pumpkin pie. I immediately fell in love and to this day, pumpkin pie is my favorite part of the American holidays.




As you might have noticed, I love ice cream and particularly ice cream sandwiches. The weather is still warm enough to be enjoying ice cream outside.

We got some great looking pumpkins the other day, which I roasted. I used some of that flesh for this ice cream and froze the rest. I found that the flesh was a bit more watery than the regular canned pumpkin puree, but it tasted excellent. We also roasted the pumpkin seeds and ate them right out of the oven with a bit of sea salt. Deliciousness.

Gingerbread Sugar Cookies

250 grams butter
125 grams powdered sugar
1 egg
370 grams flour
3 grams salt
2 grams baking powder
3 grams ground ginger
2 grams ground cloves
1 gram ground cinnamon
Egg wash
Sanding sugar

Cream the butter and the powdered sugar with the paddle attachment. Scrape the bowl and add the egg. Mix until combined. Combine the flour, salt, baking powder and spices and add to the mixing bowl. Mix until combined.

Turn the dough on to your work surface and shape it into a disk. Wrap it in plastic wrap and flatten it some more. Refrigerate overnight.

Remove dough from refrigerator and roll to 1/8" thickness. Cut with a square cookie cutter that is about 3" and place them on a sheetpan lined with a silicon mat or a piece of parchment paper. Brush the tops of the cookies with egg wash and sprinkle sanding sugar on top. Bake at 350F for about 8 minutes. Let the cookies cool before assembling the ice cream sandwiches.

Pumpkin Spice Ice Cream

450 grams whole milk
100 grams heavy cream
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp cloves
170 grams sugar
70 grams egg yolks
200 grams fresh pumpkin puree

Cut a medium size pumpkin in half. Place on a sheetpan cut side down and bake at 375F for about 30 minutes or until flesh soft and scoopable. Measure 200 grams of the pumpkin flesh, puree and set aside.

In a medium saucepan, heat the milk, heavy cream, half of the sugar and the spices. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and the rest of the sugar. When the milk mixture comes to a boil, temper into the egg yolks and whisk. Return this base to the pan and cook to 82C or until it coats the back of a wooden spoon.

Strain this custard through a fine sieve into a clean bowl. Mix the pumpkin puree into it and place the bowl over an ice bath to cool it quickly. Let the ice cream base rest in the refrigerator overnight.

Churn in ice cream machine and when done, pour into a frozen quarter sheetpan. Freeze until solid.

Cut ice cream with the same size square cookie cutter used to cut the gingerbread sugar cookies. Place the ice cream squares between cookies and serve,

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Roasted Apple and Vanilla Bean Souffle

When I was a child, one of my most clear memories of autumn and winter was my mom making apple compote. She used to prepare it with whole apples, dried apricots, cinnamon and a tiny bit of sugar. Sometimes she would do it on the stovetop, sometimes in the oven. The entire house would smell of sugar and cinnamon. This is a homage to those flavors.




I baked the apples with tons of vanilla bean specs, brown sugar and butter and then made a puree of them, almost like apple sauce, but richer. The souffle is roux based, which I flavored with the roasted apple puree and calvados. I really like roux based souffles because they result in a pudding-like interior once they are baked. The trick is not to over-bake them.

Roasted Apples

2 fuji apples
1 Tbs unsalted butter, softened
1 Tbs brown sugar
1 vanilla bean, split and seeded

Mix butter, brown sugar and vanilla seeds and set aside. Peel and core apples. Fill the center cavity of the apple with the butter and brown sugar mixture. Bake at 350F for about 40 minutes or until apples are soft. Puree the apples and reserve for the souffle.

Roasted Apple Souffle

110 grams bread flour
90 grams unsalted butter
400 ml whole milk
4 egg yolks
4 egg whites
90 grams sugar
130 grams roasted apple puree
15 grams calvados or dark rum

Brush the sides of your souffle mold with softened butter. Coat with sugar. Turn the mold over to discard any extra sugar. Set aside.

In a small saucepan, bring the whole milk to a boil. Reserve warm.

In the meantime, whip the egg whites to medium peaks and slowly sprinkle in the sugar. Whip until a medium peak meringue forms. Reserve.

In a medium saucepan melt the butter. Add the bread flour and cook for a minute forming a roux. Pour in the hot milk and whisk until the mixture resembles a bechamel. Transfer this base to a large bowl and stir with a wooden spoon or spatula for a couple of minutes until it stops steaming but it is still warm. Add the egg yolks and stir until incorporated. Add the roasted apple puree and the calvados or rum. Stir.

Fold a third of the meringue into the roux base and stir vigorously until the base lightens. Now fold the remainder of the meringue but this time, fold gently.

Fill the molds with the souffle mix almost to the top and bake in a 400F oven for about 10-12 minutes depending on the size of the mold. I like the middle of my souffle slightly undercooked so I usually pull it out about 2 minutes after I see that it has fully risen. Serve immediately accompanied by caramel sauce or any other custard or ice cream you would like.



I also wanted to apologize for being absent from your blogs or responding emails. I am still trying to organize my life a bit after the trip and before my parents come to visit. Thank you for your constant support!

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Roasted Apple and Vanilla Bean Souffle

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Meeting Esti and More Basque Country

It's been a week since I left home and I still cannot seem to get in the swing of things. I still feel torn between my home overseas and my home here. I have been sorting through the hundreds of photos that I took and trying to really internalize the experiences I had. This visit was in many ways very different than any visit I have had before. Very emotional and personal.

One of the highlights of the trip was meeting Esti, whose blog I adore and read every single day. She is part of my daily morning routine along with my email and my coffee. I need her drawings, music and stories to begin my day. But it is incredible how I need something so much from someone I have never met before. As she wrote about in her blog, Esti and I grew up in the same city and shared friends many years ago, but never really knew of each other. A few months back, we found each other's blogs by chance and realized how much we had in common. I really wanted to meet her during this trip. I really wanted to know the artist behind it all.

We met and sat at a cafe talking about the magic of blogging, music, creative impulses, motherhood and many other things. So many questions and topics jammed in a couple of hours with intensity but at the same time the feeling we have known each other for years. It was really magical. Those are some self portraits we took under the rain with our silly faces and messy hair.




With these photos, I put an end to my trip. Until next time. I hope you can visit one day.

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Meeting Esti and More Basque Country

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A White Birthday

I have a dear friend who loves white and all its shades and textures. She has a closet full of beautiful white dresses and delicate white shirts. She has an eye for beauty that I admire. And today is her birthday.




I created this little white dessert palette for her with little meringue kisses, coconut cupcakes and lemon meltaways. Distance will not allow us to be together on her birthday but I want to wish her happiness on this special day.

Happy Birthday Nadia!


Update: I have received an overwhelming amount of emails from readers who want the lemon meltaway recipe, so here it is.

Lemon Meltaways

160 grams butter, at room temperature
125 grams powdered sugar
zest of 2 lemons
2 Tbs lemon juice
1 Tbs vanilla
260 grams flour
20 grams cornstach
1/2 tsp salt
Powdered sugar for rolling

Cream together butter, sugar, zest and vanilla. Add lemon juice and mix. Add the flour, cornstarch and salt to the butter mixture and mix until combined. Form the dough into a log that is about 2 inches in diameter. Wrap it in parchment and refrigerate it overnight.

Cut the log into 1/2 inch disks and bake at 350F for about 12 minutes. Let the cookies cool slightly and roll in powdered sugar while they are still warm.

Meringue Cookies

50 grams egg whites
50 grams sugar
50 grams powdered sugar, sifted

In a bowl, whip the egg whites fully until a light meringue forms. Slowly and while whipping, sprinkle in the granulated sugar and let it whip to stiff peaks. Stop whipping and fold in the sifted powdered sugar. be gentle not to deflate the meringue too much.

Place the meringue in a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip (number 5) and pipe little meringue kisses onto a sheetpan lined with parchment paper. Bake at 175F (or lower if your oven permits it) until dry. You should be able to lift it from the pan without sticking. Store in an airtight container.

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A White Birthday

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Traveling Home

Traveling home always resets my brain and my thought pattern. It's as if I receive a shot of realism and a reminder of what I am made of. A reminder of how much I need to be close to nature and how one day, I will have my own garden and have my loved ones really close to me. It is starting to almost feel like a necessity to live.




Autumn was in full force with gorgeous blue skies, changing leaves, but also the rain and the north wind that are so characteristic of the Basque Country. We experienced all of those, which allowed me to photograph beautiful colors. Here are some photographs of places where I grew up and spent my childhood in. Amorebieta, Bermeo, San Sebastian, Dima, Gernika and more.





It was also a gastronomic tour as usual. Nothing fancy this time. No Michelin star restaurants, only local markets, good ingredients and my mom's touch. Fresh fish right off the boat, farm eggs, apples right off my uncle's tree, plentiful squash, green lemons from Lezama, endless.





And I have many more photos to sort through and a wonderful 'blind date" to tell you about with Esti. Lovely.

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Traveling Home

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