Almond Biscotti

I just love biscottis. Crunchy, crispy and not overly sweet. I added some cinnamon too and voilà: a perfect treat next to my frappe!

Blueberry Macarons

Everytime I'm in the Mont Royal area downtown, I make sure I stop either by La Maison du Macaron or the newly discovered Point G. I've tried many of their flavors and now believe that there isn't one macaron that tastes bad. Even the weird ones like Balsamic Vinegar are delicious!


Seeing that I've been having more of these petits four lately, I decided to give them another shot. I had used the french method last time and had some trouble with the batter that had ended up far too liquidy to pipe out. This time, I chose to use the italian method which was said to be easier to work with for beginners.




I followed the detailed instructions and tips on Mélanger (the italian method follows the french) and found the batter much easier to pipe out! They didn't turn out flat like with the french method! Nice!

However, there are some things I would do differently next time. I would double my pans when baking because my first batch burnt slightly. I would fold the batter a bit more after adding the egg white + almond mixture to the meringue to get rid of all the lumps. Also I couldn't find egg white powder anywhere, so I had to omit it. I wonder what that would change...

The recipe for these blueberry macarons can be found on Mélanger's blog! I suggest to let the filling in the fridge for a couple of hours so it can be really thick when filling the macarons. Absolutely delicious!

Ice Cream Madness (Part II)!!

I avoided this (Unsalted) Butter Caramel Ice Cream because I am really bad at making caramel. I usually burn it on my first try, then undercaramelize it on my second attempt because I'm afraid to burn it again. This week, I was somehow feeling more confident in the ice cream-making department, so I decided to give it a try! This recipe isn't in The Perfect Scoop but I found it on David Lebovitz's blog. Even if I was really careful when making the caramel, I still burnt it the first time. I just kept telling myself "a little longer, a little longer..." for the color to turn amber but what I forgot is that when I take off the saucepan from the stove, the caramel keeps cooking since the pot is still hot, causing it to burn. I think I'll start using a thermometer from now on.

There's no doubt that this ice cream is out of this world! I really had to stop myself from eating the whole thing! It reminded me of those individually wrapped salted caramels you can find at candy stores. I didn't have salted butter so I used unsalted instead but still added the fleur de sel as mentioned in the recipe. The caramel bits didn't melt and become gooey after letting the ice cream freeze, but this ice cream is still one of my favorite!

I find peanut butter really good though I prefer having raspberry or apricot jam on my toast. But my sister has this thing with peanut butter. The only way she eats it is with a spoon directly from the container. She is the biggest peanut butter fan I know so I immediately thought of her when I saw this Chocolate-Peanut Butter Ice Cream with Fudge Ripple in The Perfect Scoop.

I followed this recipe to the letter and it didn't double up in size after churning like all the other ice creams I've made so far. Maybe it's because there are no eggs? I had made some peanut butter patties from the Mix-ins section of the book, but the ice cream had a stronger peanut butter flavor than I had imagined so I left them out. The fudge ripple is a must though! I recommend this ice cream to all the peanut butter fans out there!

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Chocolate-Peanut Butter Ice Cream

Adapted from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

Makes 1 Quart

2 cups half-and-half (I can't find this in Montreal so I used half whole milk and half heavy cream)

1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

1/2 cup sugar

Pinch of salt

1/2 cup smooth peanut butter

Whisk together half-and-half, cocoa powder, sugar, and salt in a large saucepan. Heat and whisk frequently until the mixture comes to a boil (it will foam up). Remove from heat, whisk in peanut butter and stir until completely blended.

Chill the mixture overnight and freeze it in your ice cream maker.

Fudge Ripple

Adapted from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

Makes 1 cup

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup light corn syrup

1/2 cup water

6 tbsp unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Whisk sugar, corn syrup, water and cocoa powder together in a medium saucepan. While whisking constantly, heat over medium heat until there are bubbles at the edge of the mixture.

Continue whisking until the mixture comes to a low boil and then cook for another minute (keep whisking). Remove from heat, stir in the vanilla extract and let it cool completely before chilling it in the fridge overnight.

Layer spoonfuls of the fudge ripple between layers of the just-churned ice cream.

Ice Cream Madness!!

I am really obsessed with The Perfect Scoop at this point! I think I can call it my favorite book (it has almost exceeded the Twilight series!!). If you don't own this book and love ice cream, check it out asap!

When I used to bake more, I always needed butter. Now I always need heavy cream. Lots and lots of heavy cream. I've been making half of David Lebovitz's recipes so when dividing the 5 egg yolks called for in most of the ingredients, I decided to use 3 instead of 2 1/2. I find this has made my ice creams softer and creamier... even better!

I was attracted to this Green Tea Ice Cream mainly because I love green tea latte but also because of its vivid green color. To make this ice cream, you follow the custard base recipe and all you do is whisk in 4 tsp matcha powder to the heavy cream before you pour in the custard through a strainer. My ice cream didn't have the vivid green color as shown in the book... maybe I should've bought a higher quality matcha powder? It did taste just like green tea latte though!

Mint and chocolate ice cream is my favorite flavor. I just love that combination. Give me After Eight, Pep or Mint Aero and you'll be my best friend. I'm so used to the mint extract flavor though that when I tasted the Fresh Mint Chip Ice Cream, I was a bit disappointed. Don't get me wrong, it's delicious (we finished it in 2 days), but it tastes very different from the ones we buy at the supermarket. If you're looking for something like that, I suggest you use mint extract instead.

After making my favorite, I decided to make my sister's: Raspberry Swirl Ice Cream. This ice cream is also very easy to make. You simply make a vanilla custard base ice cream and then layer it with the raspberry swirl (raspberries, sugar and 1 tbsp of vodka). This ice cream also vanished in a matter of days but for next time, I would try to find a raspberry swirl that doesn't freeze, kind of like a syrup.

This summer, I've been visiting our local ice cream shop La Paysanne pretty often (even if I've been making a considerable amount of ice cream recently). Instead of gelato, I've been going for sorbets which I find are so refreshing in hot weather. My favorite until now are lemon, lime and raspberry. I had some frozen raspberries in the freezer so I decided to make Raspberry Sherbet which consists of whole milk, sugar, raspberries and a bit of lemon juice. It tasted exactly like the raspberry sorbet I've been having at La Paysanne but a bit creamier. Yum!

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Muffins

I don't know why I put off making these muffins. First, I should tell you that these are the zucchini cupcakes from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes book. They are usually frosted with cream cheese frosting, but I decided to make them without the frosting and add chocolate chips instead. These muffins are really easy to make, and you don't even have to take out the mixer!

I've been avoiding Martha Stewart's books mostly because the last few time I've been following her recipes, they hadn't turned out well. But I can definitely tell you now that these muffins have turned things around!

At this point of the batter preparation, it felt like Christmas in our kitchen. The mixture of cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves brought back sweet memories of warm gingerbread cookies!

Once I took the muffins out of the oven, I was so relieved they hadn't overflowed because I was debating if I should fill them over the usual three-quarters-full suggestion. I had halved the recipe down to 12 muffins but go ahead and make all 24 cause they go by fast!!

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Chocolate Chip Zucchini Muffins

Adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes via Big City Cooking

Makes 24 muffins

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1 cup vegetable oil

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1 tbsp vanilla extract

3/4 tsp grated lemon zest

2 cups sugar (original recipe had packed brown sugar but I was out!)

3 cups packed grated zucchini

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line muffin tins with paper liners.

Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. In another bowl, whisk together oil, eggs, vanilla and lemon zest until well blended. Whisk in brown sugar until smooth. Stir in zucchini and then add flour mixture and stir until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips.

Divide the batter evenly into muffin tins. Bake for 20 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean. Transfer muffins on a wire rack to cool.

Mini madeleines au sésame - Mini Sesame Madeleines

I was drawn to these cute petits fours ever since I was old enough to bake on my own. I usually make lemon or chocolate but decided to try savory this time.


When I usually bake something, anything, I taste the dough (who doesn't!?). I came to the following conclusion: a good tasting dough will yield a good tasting result! It isn't the case for savory madeleines though... When I tasted the mixture before putting it in the fridge, it tasted so salty that I wondered if it was even worth baking! Surely 2 tbsp of grated parmesan couldn't make the dough that salty?!


I still decided to keep following the recipe and the madeleines didn't turn out salty at all! I guess my dough-tasting theory doesn't apply to savory things...






I found the madeleines tasted rather plain and didn't really enjoy the smell of sesame oil. I would suggest 1 tbsp oil instead of 2 and would maybe add more toasted sesame seeds to the batter.

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Mini madeleines au sésame - Mini Sesame Madeleines

Adapted from Mini madeleines: sucrées ou salées by Marabout

Makes 28-30 mini madeleines

100 g all-purpose flour

2 eggs

3 tsp baking powder

A pinch of salt and black pepper

2 tbsp sesame oil

20 g unsalted butter, melted

2 tbsp grated parmesan

4 tbsp milk

2 tbsp white sesame seeds

Toast the sesame seeds in a small pan on low heat.

Mix all the ingredients (except the sesame seeds) in a bowl until smooth. Fold in the browned sesame seeds and refrigerate the mixture for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 220 degrees C (425 degrees F). Spoon about a small teaspoon of batter into the well-buttered molds and bake for 3 to 4 minutes. Lower the oven temperature to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F) and continue baking for another 5 to 6 minutes. If the madeleines brown too fast, lower the oven temperature.

Tarte au citron - Lemon Tart

Celebrating name days is an important tradition for Greeks. Every name has a certain date associated to it to celebrate the memory of the saint bearing that name. When it's the name day of a member of my family, we always call them up to wish them a "Happy Name Day" and often have a dinner at somebody's house.

Last Friday was my sister's and grandmother's name day. They are both named Helen because of another Greek tradition which is less frequently used today. When a child is born, the parents would usually name it after the baby's father's parents (depending if it's a boy or a girl) and then name their next baby after the mother's parents (again, depending if it's a boy or a girl). If there would be a third baby, it would be named after the father's side again. This is why some families have 5 Nicks! This is a good way to keep some older Greek names around but many new parents do not follow this tradition today.

So we went over to my grandmother's house this weekend for dinner and I decided to make her une tarte au citron. I find lemon desserts to be even more delicious on hot summer days!

I made a tart shell using a Pâte sucrée, filled it with lemon curd and piped a decorative design with swiss meringue over the lemon curd. I finally got how to make swiss meringue, remember my first attempt? Then I made my boyfriend brown the meringue using a torch (I was afraid to melt the tart!). The recipes were adapted from the Fundamental Techniques of Classic Pastry Arts.

Super Lemon Ice Cream

It's pretty clear that I'm obsessed with The Perfect Scoop by now! I've been making ice cream once a week. It's starting to get warm (we've been getting 20-25 degrees these past few days!!), so great timing!

If you live in Montreal or happen to be visiting, you must stop by Léo Le Glacier! Their gelato is amongst the best in the city, especially the lemon one I tried. It was so creamy, light and airy, not too lemony and not too sweet... the perfect lemon gelato for a warm summer day!

So I flipped through The Perfect Scoop and fell upon this Super Lemon Ice Cream. It sounded creamy, light and airy, just like the one I had from Léo Le Glacier.

The result: a delicious lemon ice cream that reminded me of lemon meringue pie (minus the crust, some cookies inside would have been nice) but not the one from Léo Le Glacier. Even if the taste was really good, the texture was disappointing. I left the ice cream out for about 20-25 minutes to defrost because it was really hard, and I couldn't form a decent scoop. Every time I would come close to getting a scoop, it would crumble!

Regardless the texture, this ice cream takes 10 minutes to make, tops. Plus 1 hour in the fridge to chill while you enjoy the beautiful weather :)

My cat Fofo watching me struggle to form a scoop!

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Super Lemon Ice Cream

Adapted from David Lebovitz

Makes about 1 Quart (1 Liter)

2 lemons, unsprayed

1/2 cup (100g) sugar

1/2 cup (125 ml) freshly squeezed lemon juice (3 lemons)

2 cups (500ml) half-and-half (I used 15% cream)

Tiny pinch of salt

Zest the lemons directly into a food processor or blender. Add the sugar and blend until very fine. Add the lemon juice and blend until sugar is completely dissolved. Blend in the half-and-half and salt until smooth.

Chill for 1 hour, then freeze the mixture in your ice cream maker.

Raspberry-Filled Vanilla Cupcakes with Almond Buttercream

Cupcake Bakeshop is my go-to blog for anything and everything to do with cupcakes. You can tell that the author knows her cupcakes when:

a) her entire site is devoted to them

b) she compares and tests different recipes (flavor, texture, dryness...)

c) she uses ingredients such as fennel, papaya, grapefruit

So I had my eye on these Cherry Vanilla Cupcakes for a while now and decided to make them for a very special occasion: my good friend's baby shower. I chose to make them cause they look cute and sort of girly (she is having a baby girl!). The cupcakes turned out really good and the raspberry filling paired well with the almond buttercream frosting! I would fill the cupcakes a bit more next time though.

I chose raspberries instead of cherries for the filling since cherries are out of season now and I couldn't find them anywhere (not even frozen!). Also I completely omitted the salt for the vanilla cupcakes. I once put the amount of salt written on a recipe and my cookies had turned out really salty so I usually leave it out or use very very little.

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Raspberry-Filled Vanilla Cupcakes with Almond Buttercream

Adapted and slightly modified from Cupcake Bakeshop

Makes 24 frosted cupcakes

Vanilla Cupcakes

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 cups sugar

4 large eggs

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 cup whole milk

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat butter on high for about 30 seconds until soft. Add the sugar and beat on high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time and beat 30 seconds between each.

Sift flour and baking powder in a bowl and whisk together. Add to mixer bowl and when well combined, add the milk and vanilla.

Scoop into cupcake papers about half to two-thirds full since they rise a bit. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until cake tester comes out clean. (I baked them for 20 minutes.)

Raspberry Filling

2 cups raspberries, fresh or frozen

1/2 cup water

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup sugar

2 tbsp cornstarch

Add raspberries, water and vanilla to a pot. Cook for 10 minutes over medium-high heat. Stir from time to time.

Stir together sugar and cornstarch and then add to the pot with raspberries. Cook until thick, for about 20 minutes. Make sure nothing sticks to the bottom of the pot by stirring occasionally and not overcooking.

Using the cone method mentioned on Baking Bites, fill the cupcakes with raspberry filling when both the filling and the cupcakes have cooled completely.

Almond Buttercream Frosting

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

6-8 cups sifted powdered sugar

1 1/2 tsp almond extract

1/4 cup milk

Beat butter at medium-high speed until creamy. Add half of the sifted powdered sugar, the almond extract and the milk. Beat until combined. Gradually add powdered sugar until desired consistency and sweetness.

Frost filled cupcakes and top with maraschino cherries that have been rinsed and well dried.

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

Yum yum yum!




It was really worth using a vanilla bean for this ice cream instead of simply adding vanilla extract. It gave such a rich taste and smell to the cream! I placed the vanilla bean into the mixture and left it in the refrigerator the whole night so it would extract as much flavor from the vanilla bean as possible. The following day, I strained the mixture again and placed it into my ice cream machine.


This is the second ice cream I make from "The Perfect Scoop". The recipe is also posted on David Lebovitz's blog. I think I'm getting the hang of making ice cream now. It's actually not that hard and it's so much better than buying it because you can make any flavor or combination of flavors that you want! I'm already trying to decide which I will make next!