FFwD: Gerard's Mustard Tart

When I was younger, I hated mustard! I was more of a ketchup fan. I would put ketchup on everything and anything! But as time is passing, my taste in food is changing and I now find myself eating things like Gerard's Mustard Tart!

The filling was easy to make: whip the eggs with the cream, add the mustards, whip and season with salt and pepper. It was the crust that I found a bit challenging.

The first time I made the pâte brisée by hand, the dough was very crumbly, I could hardly form a disk with it! It was impossible for me to roll it out, so I decided to remake it. The second time, I used the food processor method, that took me at most 5 minutes. The dough turned out soft and workable... Success!

This tart is something I would never had tried on my own, but I'm glad I gave it a try! It smells delicious out of the oven and I had to hold myself from cutting a slice right away. If you like mustard, you're sure to love this!

FFwD: Gougères

October 1rst has arrived and so has the first post for the French Fridays with Dorie! I am so happy that it has finally begun! Dorie Greenspan chose the recipes for the month of October from her new book Around My French Table and all members of the FFwD must post about the weekly recipe!

Before I talk about this week's recipe, Gougères, I must confess that I was debating if I should join this group mainly because I never cook anything! I've always done the baking at my house, never prepared anything that had to do with meat or fish (except that one time when I made an Italian Wedding Soup... yum!!). But then this is the perfect opportunity for me to learn! I mean, I have to learn how to cook someday, and why not start with some delicious French meals!?

Making Gougères is similar to making profiteroles except that you mix in some grated Gruyère cheese (or Cheddar) before piping/spooning the dough. This was the first time I made pâte à choux and it was a lot easier than I expected!

I decided to top the mounds of dough with the remaining Gruyère I had left so they ended up with a nice golden color. In the past, I found Gruyère to be a very strong cheese but when baked, it is unbelievably good (plus your kitchen will have a delicious aroma)!

The Gougères are best eaten warm out of the oven because they are crispy on the outside. I found that they got soft after being stored in a container, but they get crispy again when warmed up!

I am one of those weird people who don't like wine or Champagne, but I can assume that these ''cheese puffs'' would pair well with a nice glass...?

Lemon-Glazed Madeleines

My idea of a perfect madeleine: has a bump, is airy and springy, and must have nice seashell shape. And I finally found it thanks to David Lebovitz! I don't think I've ever made anything I regretted from him, everything always turns out delicious!




These madeleines didn't require much time to make. In fact, I left them in the refrigerator overnight and baked them in the morning. I used to use cooking spray for the pans but they would stick a bit and it would ruin the whole shape! Butter and flour is the way to go!

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Lemon-Glazed Madeleines

Adapted from David Lebovitz

Makes 24 madeleines

Madeleines:

3 large eggs, at room temperature

2/3 (130g) cup granulated sugar

Pinch of salt

1 1/4 (170g) cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

Zest of one small lemon

9 tbsp (120g) unsalted butter, melted and at room temperature

Lemon Glaze:

3/4 cup (150g) powdered sugar

1 tbsp freshly-squeezed lemon juice

2 tbsp water

Brush the madeleine mold with the melted butter. Dust it with flour, tap off the excess flour, and place it in the refrigerator.

In a medium bowl, whip the eggs, granulated sugar and salt until thickened, about 5 minutes. Spoon the flour and baking powder into a sifter and use a spatula to fold it in as you sift it over the egg mixture. Add the lemon zest to the cooled butter and drizzle it into the batter a few spoonfuls at a time while folding the batter to incorporate it.

Cover and chill the dough for at least one hour (and at most 12 hours).

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Fill the madeleine molds with about three quarters dough (don't spread it). Bake for 8-9 minutes.

While madeleines are baking, make the lemon glaze by stirring the lemon juice, powdered sugar and water together in a bowl until smoothe.

When madeleines are cool enough to be handled, dip one side of each into the glaze (the shell side) and rest them, glaze-side up, onto a cooling rack until glaze has cooled.

Tarte aux pommes - Apple Tart

Lately, I've been doing a lot of thinking about my future. I had a hard time choosing my major in University and I sometimes wonder if I made the right choice. I still have some time ahead of me, but I am finding it increasingly difficult to motivate myself and devote myself 100 percent to studying Accountancy.

This past summer, an idea occurred to me and I am surprised I didn't think of it earlier: why don't I study pastry and do something that I actually enjoy? I do spend most of my time reading baking blogs, flipping through food magazines and baking books, watching the Food Network, baking and making ice cream...

So I've come to a big decision: I will apply to the Institut de tourisme et d'hôtellerie du Québec for next Fall and meanwhile continue my studies in Accountancy! The only thing really motivating me is knowing that I will be able to attend the Professional Pastry Making Program. Until then, I have made it my objective to learn as much as I can about pastry arts! I own The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Pastry Arts, the book used in the Classic Pastry Arts Program at the French Culinary Institute, and believe that I can learn a lot from it!

So here goes, the tart I've been meaning to make for a long time, the apple tart. I will not be posting the recipes from the book since I will be using it a lot and I don't think it would be right. I used a pâte sablé (shortbread) dough for the crust and made an apple compote with apples, sugar, vanilla extract and lemon juice. Thinly-cut apple slices were arranged on the top and the tart was baked for 50 minutes at 350 degrees F. When cooled, I lightly brushed the top with a nappage made from apricot jam and a bit of water.

Rainbow Cake

I am so obsessed with Whisk Kid, Kaitlin's blog! She always makes these truly amazing cakes and cupcakes and has really good photographing skills... like the grapefruit cupcakes she posted recently! I really want to learn how to make those buttercream roses!

Whisk Kid is one of the first blogs I discovered when I entered the food blogging world. Like many others, the famous Super Epic Rainbow Cake is what led me to it! I was so happy for her when she made her appearance on The Martha Stewart Show in June. That means that not only bloggers and people who bake for fun visit food blogs, but bigger companies (like even the Food Network) are constantly searching the web for ideas!

Last Saturday was my boyfriend's and friend's potluck birthday. Their birthday falls on the same date so they celebrate it together every year. I wanted to bring a cake but not just any cake. Not a simple buttercream layered one, but a huge colorful cake with lots of layers!

Making THE cake was pretty long, which is why I don't make cakes often! It is pretty simple if you think about it: make the cake batter, divide it into 6 bowls, put different colors in each, bake, cool, make swiss meringue buttercream and assemble. There was one problem: I only had 2 round cake pans so it made the process longer. And let's not forget all the dishes pilling up non-stop...

I only suggest you serve this cake at room temperature so leave it out for about an hour or so. I served it right out of the fridge and the swiss meringue buttercream tasted really buttery...

I have to admit though, I am quite pleased with the result and so was everyone else. The birthday boys were really surprised when they cut a slice and got to see the rainbow!

For the recipe, you can visit Whisk Kid here where she also put the link for you to watch her appearance on The Martha Stewart Show (I watched it before making the cake, it really helped).

Checkerboard Cookies

I first saw these cookies in The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Pastry Arts book and have avoided making them ever since because I found they looked really hard to make. In the book, there's a recipe for the chocolate and vanilla doughs, but no explanation on how to achieve the checkerboard! Luckily I found a diagram on Baking Obsession that Vera drew to help people like me :)




The doughs didn't require much time to make but I had to keep taking them in and out of the fridge. Cutting and assembling the dough (following the diagram from Baking Obsession) is easier when they are cold.

As long as the dough doesn't get too soft at room temperature (like the spritz cookie dough), any shortbread or sablé cookie dough recipe would do. I used the recipe from The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Pastry Arts book for sablé cookies and was very pleased with the results!

Mastic Ice Cream

The only producer of mastic, also called masticha, is the island Chios in Greece, but it is used in many other countries (Egypt, Turkey, Lebanon, Morocco) for sweets and pastries as well as liqueurs and chewing gums.

I tried mastic ice cream for the first time last summer on my trip to Greece. There's this really good ice cream shop called To Pagoto in Glyfada (Athens) where they have very unique flavors, like Tsoureki, a Greek Easter bread! And now, since I've been making quite a lot of ice cream and stumbled upon some mastic resin crystals (ok... really I looked for them in every gourmet market), I simply had to give it a try!

But there was no mastic ice cream in The Perfect Scoop! No problem: I just used David Lebovitz's method of making vanilla bean ice cream (French-Style), left out the vanilla bean and substituted it for ground mastic! I found that Kevin from Closet Cooking had also made this ice cream and decided to use some vanilla sugar just like he did.

The result was a creamy ice cream, with a slightly gummy texture (which I liked) and a hint of mastic flavor. I liked that the mastic taste wasn't too overpowering and would definitely place this ice cream in my top 5. I did have a hard time getting all the mastic off my pot, mortar and pestle and spoons though... I think I could have prevented this by grinding the mastic with some of the sugar...

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Mastic Ice Cream
Adapted and modified David Lebovitz's Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
Makes about 1/2 Liter (1/2 Quart)

1/2 cup whole milk
3/8 cup (75 g) vanilla sugar
1 cup heavy cream
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp mastic resin crystals
3 large egg yolks

Use a mortar and pestle to grind the mastic resin crystals. Warm the milk, sugar, ½ cup of the cream and salt in a medium saucepan. Add the ground mastic to the warm milk and stir. Remove from the heat and cover for about 30 minutes. There might be pieces of mastic that will have formed. (No worries, we will strain them out later!)

Pour the remaining ½ cup cream in a bowl and set a mesh strainer on top. In another medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks and slowly pour in the warm mixture (to temper eggs), whisking constantly. Scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan and constantly stir the mixture over low heat with a spatula, until mixture thickens and coats the spatula. Pour the custard through the strainer and into the cream. Stir until cool over an ice bath.

Chill the mixture thoroughly (even overnight) in the refrigerator. Freeze the mixture in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions.

Spritz Cookies

The only thing that stopped me making these cookies is the fact that I didn't own a cookie press. I checked out a few places for it and finally found a good deal at Déco Découverte.

These cookies don't need any planning ahead because the ingredients can be found in any kitchen: flour, butter, sugar, eggs, milk, vanilla extract and baking powder. The Wilton recipe asks for a bit of almond extract also, but you can leave that out if you want.

Even though they look cute and easy to make, they are not! Maybe it's just me not being able to use to cookie press properly, but I had a really hard time getting the cookies onto the parchment paper or Silpat! I would press the little handle and the cookie would form but it would stay stuck to the cookie press!

I know I'm complaining and everything, but they were worth it. I would make them again, even after all that hassle! I would probably dip some into chocolate or decorate them with candied cherries next time.

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Spritz Cookies

Adapted from Wilton

Makes about 6 dozen cookies

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 cups butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

2 tbsp milk

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine flour and baking powder in a bowl. In another large bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg, milk, vanilla and almond extract. Beat well (do not chill dough) and fill cookie press with the dough and desired disk. Press cookies onto a ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake 10-12 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Cool 2 minutes on cookie sheet placed on a rack then remove from sheet and cool completely.

Raspberry Swirl Cheesecakes

My taste in food has changed a lot since I was little. My favorite cheese used to be Kraft Cheese but now I can't get enough of Brie, Jarlsberg and Kefalogaviera!

Cheesecake would be the last thing I would have chosen to eat. I remember I didn't appreciate its thickness and creaminess and would only eat the glazed strawberries on the top of the cake. Recently I started liking it though. These cheesecake cupcakes turned out cute and were pretty easy to make. I had halved the recipe because I didn't want to be stuck with too many of them but surprisingly, they disappeared very fast!

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Raspberry Swirl Cheesecakes

Adapted from Cupcakes by Martha Stewart

Makes 32 cupcakes

1 1/2 cups finely ground graham crackers

3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

1 1/2 cups + 5 tbsp sugar

6 ounces fresh raspberries

2 lbs cream cheese, at room temperature

pinch of salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

4 large eggs, at room temperature

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line muffin tins with paper liners. Stir together ground graham crackers, butter and 3 tbsp sugar. Press 1 tbsp of crust mixture firmly into the bottom of each lined cup. Bake for 5 minutes until set and place tins on a wire rack to cool.

Process raspberries in a food processor until smooth and strain the mixture into a small bowl to remove seeds. Whisk in 2 tbsp sugar.

Beat cream cheese until fluffy with a mixer on medium-high speed (scrape down sides of bowl if needed). With mixer on low speed, add remaining 1 1/2 cups of sugar gradually. Add eggs one at a time, beating until just combined after each.

Spoon 3 tbsp filling over crust in each cup. Dollop 1/2 tsp raspberry puree in a few dots on each. Swirl sauce into filling with a toothpick in each cup. Place each tin into a roasting pan and pour enough hot water into the pan to come to three-quarters of the way up sides of cups.

Bake, rotating pans halfway through, until filling is set, between 22-24 minutes. Remove tins from water bath and transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Refrigerate (in tins) for at least 4 hours and remove from tins just before serving.

Nougat

I can hardly believe it's been over a month since I last posted! It feels like forever! I haven't been on the computer much this summer, I've wanted to enjoy the sunny and hot weather as much as possible before I go back to my stressful life as a student. I've been working a lot more too to finance my future vacations (to hopefully take place next summer) and to pay off my 4-night trip to Las Vegas! It was wonderful but I doubt I'd be visiting again soon. I'm not the gambling type (I'd rather spend the money I'd be risking on a pair of jeans...) but still enjoyed the 45-degree weather and the beautiful pools at the Caesar's Palace! The strip has an amazing view at night too with all the lights and the Eiffel Tower from the Paris Hotel. Anyway I really think that a trip to Las Vegas is a must, at least once in your lifetime!

So now let's turn to baking, or freezing in my case. I've been making so many ice creams lately that I think I'll put that on hold, at least for a little while. Too much of one thing is not good, right? So what do I replace my usual custard-making and churning with? Something chewy, nutty and sweet... Nougat!

Nougat is one of those things I always buy just a piece or two of, just to satisfy my nougat-craving. I never end up buying a huge bag of them and that's exactly how much we were left with after making this recipe! A whole lotta nougat! Thank god most of them stayed with my boyfriend at his house :)

Anyways this recipe is not very hard to make but you have to keep an eye on the honey and corn syrup mixtures while they are heating... and this requires the use of 2 thermometers!

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Nougat

Adapted from The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Pastry Arts

Makes 30 to 45 squares

280g almonds

160g hazelnuts

160g walnuts

40g pistachios

2 large egg whites, at room temperature

280g honey

240g light corn syrup

600g sugar

cornstarch for dusting

Preheat oven to 220 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Combine the almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts and pistachios on the baking sheet and toast them in the oven for about 15 minutes, turning frequently. Keep the nuts warm while preparing the nougat base (keep them in the oven with the oven turned off and the door slightly opened).

Place egg whites in a mixer bowl fitted with whip attachment. Combine honey with 40g of the corn syrup in a small saucepan over low heat and bring to a boil (candy thermometer 1).

While waiting for the honey mixture to boil, combine remaining corn syrup, sugar and 75ml cold water in a medium saucepan over low heat and bring to a boil (candy thermometer 2).

When honey mixture comes to a boil, start whipping egg whites. When the honey mixture reaches 130 degrees C (266 degrees F), pour it over the egg whites (don't stop beating). Try to pour it on the side of the bowl and not directly on top of the beaters or else this can form hardened candy on the beaters.

Continue to whip until sugar mixture has reached 139 degrees C (282 degrees F) and pour it over the egg whites (keep beating).

When the meringue begins to stiffen, switch the whip attachment for the paddle attachment. Continue to beat on low and add the nuts, mixing just to blend.

Place a silicone mat on a large pan. Lightly dust it with cornstarch and pour the hot nougat on top. Dust the top of the nougat with cornstarch and place another silicone mat on top of it. Roll the nougat to 1.3 cm (1/2-inch) thick with rolling pin.

Allow to cool for a couple of hours and cut into 2.5 cm (1-inch) squares. Use a brush if you want to dust off the excess cornstarch and enjoy!