Blueberries and Almond Bundt Cake made by our daugther for my husband's birthday

We celebrated my husband's belated birthday yesterday evening. Following our family tradition, he got to pick his "Menu" and he opted for Empanadas. De Carne. Obviously.
We had not made empanadas for a while and since our daughter does not eat meat these days, I improvised a vegetarian version replacing the meat in the original recipe with spinach and ricotta and omitting the olives. That way, everybody was really happy about the main dish. However, the best part was our daughter's Bundt Cake with blueberries and almonds. She got the recipe from one her friends' and adapted the icing because she had never made a cream cheese-based icing before and did not want to try it on this cake.

For a few weeks now, she has been taking baking classes as an afterschool activity offered at their school on Fridays. She has been enjoying learning new tricks and recipes but, much to my husband's dismay, there is never enough leftovers from him to taste when he gets home. As a present for his birthday, she therefore offered him 4 weekends of baking whereby she would bake at least once during the weekend for him for 4 weeks. Useless to say that he was really excited but made sure that the Bundt Cake was not Week 1!
We'll update the blog with her recipes - and, if I have time and make something really fun and special, I'll post the recipes as well. It's not that I have not been cooking from scratch most nights these days, it's just that I have not made anything really different. That said, as I am looking for new ideas for the daily cooking, I'll find new recipes in the different cookbooks we have around the apartment. Bon Appétit.

Link to the original recipe is here: 
https://beyondfrosting.com/2018/04/04/blueberry-almond-bundt-cake/

Our daughter's Lemon and Chocolate Chips Cake - Made in France

We are back! The year went by very fast... and yes, we did cook a lot, mostly vegerarian every night as our children decided to give up meat. But, as my husband would say, nothing really interesting, worth putting on this blog!! No comment!

Now that our children are in France for most of the Summer, our daugher is using her stay as an opportunity to bake, watch baking competition shows and eat pastries from top pastry chefs whenever she can! Below is her message and the recipe she used for her new lemon cake.

Hello eveyone! Today my mom is not making this cake, I juste arrived in France for the summer (yes, jetlaged), and have decided to put my hands in baking again. During the school year I don't really have the time, but as soon as go to France, I take my opportunities. Today, there was a soccer game, I am not a fan of soccer, but I do watch the World Cup and mostly when France plays. Today my grandfather asked me to bake, and I was up to do my first baking in France. I decided to make a lemon cake. This is one does not use butter and milk, because the oil replaces it. This is a very easy and simple cake to make everywhere with anyone. My mom had made a lemon poppyseed cake, very good too (but mine is better, still love you mom) but my grandmother didn't have  poppy seeds , so I decided just to make it with lemon. Juste before putting the dough in the pan, I thought that the cake needed something else. I thought why not put small chocolat pieces, just enough that that there are some in each piece of cake. I then after the cake was baked I added a lemon icing to give it even more taste!! Bon appetit


Ingredients (for 8 people)

• 94 g flour

• 170 g sugar

• 10 g baking powder 

• 1 pinch of salt

• 3 eggs

• 7.5 cl neutral oil (canola)

• 1 lemon (zest + juice)

• Shredded chocolate - to taste

• Preheat oven to 360 F (180C)

• Mix in the dry ingredients and add the beaten eggs and oil. Mix well.

• Add the lemon zest

• Add 1/2 of the lemon juice, including pulp and mix well until smooth. Add the chocolate shreds.

• Butter your mold and pour the batter

• Bake for about 25 minutes

• For the icing, please see the Lavender Cake recipe here.

Comments

From my grand-father: you need to add a tablespoon of rhum in the batter

My comment: you don't have to put too much chocolate

Our Daughter's Cake à la lavande - Lavender Pound Cake

Hello and happy summer! For once, this recipe is not my mom's!  Since I am really into baking these days,  I figured out that, since I am in France (yes vacation! for 2 1/2 months - too much right?),  I should use this time to bake. The weather in Normandy (one of the places I'm staying over the summer) has been sunny and really hot ;  and then rain, rain, rain!

With my grand-parents, my brother and some of my cousins,  we went to a Gospel concert organized in the village's church. After the concert, we had a "collation" for the artists. We helped out to make something for them, and it had to be a dessert. Good for me, I was up for it! My grandmother told me I should make a chocolate cake, but I thought it was too ordinary. I thought that maybe I could make a lavender cake. Since there is fresh lavender (and no chemicals on them!) in my grandmother's garden (yes lavender in Normandy!), I did not have to purchase any. 

It was a success - they all loved it! So I even made it again for a "goûter" (afternoon snack) and it got  eaten quickly! Hope you love it too! Bon Appétit!

For one pound cake

• 200g flour plus some of the mold
• 8g baking powder
• 2 ts organic lavender buds and some for decorating
• 100g butter + some of the mold
• 200g sugar
• 3 egs
• 125ml whole milk

For the lemon icing:

• 150 g powder sugar
• 10 g water (more or less depending on consistency). .
• 1 organic lemon

• Infuse lavender in milk (I generally do it while we eat or a few hours before baking the cake; the milk should really taste like lavender)
• Preheat oven to 360 F
• Soften butter in microwave oven - it has to be soft but not melted
• Mix sugar and butter together until white and double in volume.
• Add the eggs, one at a time
• Mix the flour and baking powder and add them to the sugar mixture
• Pour the milk (with lavender buds) and mix well with a spatula (my mom calls it the indispensable tool (outil indispensable) in a kitchens)
• Butter + flour the mold
• Pour the mixture in it and bake 40 -45 min
• Unmold the cake and let it cook on a rack 
• While it cools down, prepare the icing

• The icing has to be liquid enough to drip on the sides of the cake but solid enough to create an opaque layer.
• In a pot, mix water and powdered sugar
• Add a few drops of lemon and half of the lemon zest
• Pour on the cake when the cake is cool and decorate with lavender sprigs

Personal Comments

• You could use smaller individual molds - just adjust cooking time to 15 -20 min
• Make sure to use organic lavender as you don't want to eat pesticides!
• I use butter + flour even on a silicon mold
• The cake tastes better cold but you could eat it warm as well

Tarte aux Mendiants & New Year Resolutions

Bonne Année! (I know, I know,  I am late.... but you see, in France, it is acceptable to wish people une Bonne Année!  until the end of January.... so I still within a reasonable timeframe!)

New Year is synonymous with resolutions... but there is nothing more difficult that trying to stick with them! Working for Wharton, I have come to reallly enjoy the research behind how people make  decisions (fascinating or depressing depending on how you want to look at it!). I particularly like Katherine Milkman's advice for making decision around new resolutions (published last year in the New York Times but still relevant) which she calls "bundling": i.e. allowing yourself to watch trash TV (if that's what you like to do but feel that you are wasting your time when you watch it) only if you are on the treadmill (which is what your resolution is all about.) (I know that January is the month when gym have the highest enrollment; I now wonder whether this is when Netflix has the hightest demand for "chick movies"...)

So no - I generally don't make resolutions... except that this year, I decided that I was going to get back to this blog more often than (argh!) once every six months! (I also have other things I would like to work on, but I'll write about them in other posts!)
What I decided is to cook a new dish every week-end.  Partly because I need to increase the pool of recipes I cook and partly because I like the challenge of learning new recipes...
Two weeks ago, I made Butter Chicken, which was a success among our family, which also means that I have to do it again to get a good picture to put on this blog... Last week, I made black-eye peas fritters - they were such a success that they disappeared before I could take a picture! While the Butter Chicken is a little time consuming and not that healthy (think cream and, well, yes, butter in no small quantity), the fritters are a piece-of-cake once you have soaked the peas....
As I try new dishes, I will try to engage our two children more as they have indicated that they wanted to cook with me more often. Perfect bundle: cook for our family while spending more time with them and learning new recipes! I might ask them to choose the recipe so that they end up cooking something they find (more) appealing!

As we were discussing this (and in a way, William was complaining noticing that menus don't change that much (read:I don't cook enough meat or dishes that simmer on the stove for hours)), our daugther asked him what he would cook if he had to cook everyday for a week (assuming that I had not prepared dishes in advance (as I always do when I travel); and he could not rely on frozen food nor take-out). His menu was something like: couscous, lasagnes, cassoulet, salade landaise, hachis Parmentier, choucroute, duck confit! Well, if it weren't for the lack of balance of this diet (our daughter did mention to him that the quantity of greens was really minimal!!), I would take him on the offer of cooking for a week or more just to be "off duty". That would be a great resolution on his part, n'est-ce-pas? I just don't know with what he could bundle it with because he is not the type of person who can do two things at the same time... Except that if he asks our children for help, he would end up spending time with them and that, as we all know, has no price!

Despite all this, I will have to credit him with making Spaghetti a la Carbonara last weekend (bacon, cream, grated cheese -  William's tastes, just there) but also with this impressing dessert he made for his cousins and uncle during our Christmas break in Canada. Note that this is one of the richest and sweetest desserts I have ever seen (William's tastes just there again!)  The type that makes most people sign up for a gym membership the very same night - and if they are bundling, would catch up with at least one full season of a TV serie on their first session!

As for my cooking resolution, a friend of mine just gave me a new cooking book with Asian recipes - so I now have plenty of recipes to try, hopefully with the children as sous-chefs! Be prepared!

The recipe for the Tarte aux Mendiants is from Cuisine et Vins de France and can be found here (in French).

Cake Amandine aux Framboises - Almond and Rasberries Cake

For the first time today, Spring seems to be coming to Philadelphia! All the more surprising that we got about 5 inches of snow last  Thursday! Patches of snow still remain in the city... but hopefully not for too long...  I get tired of snow in the city! It's nice for about 2 hours after the snow storm and then it starts to get dirty, mushy and sometimes really icy! Worst for all of us who walk in the city, the snow is pushed to the corners of streets so you can not cross the street on foot without getting your shoes wet!!
My husband always makes fun of me because I put on my snow boots (or sneakers when it's dry enough) to get to work in the morning, something hardly anyone would do in Paris. I carry my dress shoes and  jacket in my backpack (another no-no in Paris) but I figured that if I am going to walk close to 10km (6 miles) every day, I'd rather be comfortable than stylish - at least for the communiting part of my day. It's also cheaper (my dress shoes last longer; I don't have to worry about orthopedic surgery!) and healthier (I used to log in close to 15,000 - 17,000 steps per day before I lost my Fitbit).
I have been trying to have him walk more with limited success  - he likes the bus better except when there is about 5 feet of snow in the city and then he enjoys the peacefulness that comes with it and then he walks home! He might be the only one wishing for another snow storm in Philly in the coming days!!

To celebrate Spring, I was thinking of making that Cake aux Framboises. I have made a few times in the past and it's always something our family enjoys.
I know, I know, raspeberries are not in season in Pennsylvania yet... but it's a nice treat to celebrate the start of what I hope is going to be a season of wonderful fruits & veggies!
Bon Appetit!

Ingredients
- 3 eggs
- 150g of brown cane suggéra
- 150g corn flour
- 80 g corn starch
- 5g baking powder
- 80g almond meal
- 1 tbs vanilla extrait
- 2 tbs milk
- 150 g soft butter
- 200g frozen raspberries
- Fresh raspberries for decoration

• Preheat oven to 360F (180C)
• Butter a rectangular mold
• In a bowl, cream the sugar and the eggs 
• Add the corn meal, corn starch, baking powder and almond meal.
• Add the Vanilla extrait, milk and butter and mix until you get a smooth batter.
• Pour half of the batter in the mold. 
• Make one layer with the raspberries
• Pour the rest of the batter
• Bake in the oven for 50 mins
• Unmold - Eat cold with fresh raspberries.

A Post by our daughter : Le Punch du Soleil!

Hello,
I am Gaelle's  daughter.
I know she talks a lot about me and my brother on her blog. I like most of her recipes but not all of them! This time I was the one to cook.I  made this drink called "Le Punch du Soleil". My mom liked it.I  added a little more fruits than the original recipe.(I like to improvise too!! )

I hope you will like it!!!!

For 4 persons you need:

1. Press 4 oranges 
2. Peel 1 pineapple and 5 kiwis
3. Cut them in little pieces
4. Then put them in a blender.
5. Next pour them in 4 glasses and have fun drinking it!!

Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake

A few months ago, I was in San Francisco and a friend of mine introduced me to a great local artisan chocolatier and we got to talk "excellence in Chocolate in the US and France" while visiting his atelier...  It was really fascinating to hear him talk about his passion for chocolate and innovation in chocolate-making... I do believe in "innovation" in companies; some of our Executive Education clients are actually coming to Wharton to get their executives to be more innovative.....  Obviously, it was even more mouth-watering to talk about innovation in... chocolate making! The very interesting thing he told me is that when he wants to bounce ideas, he calls up a French artisan chocolatier (excellent as well, trust me!!) and the two of them talk shop! From a business standpoint, this is really exciting to see two competitors helping eachother come up with another great product. It's a win-win situation: they both have something to win in coming up with new products because it will help their profession against the industrially-made chocolates that are out there and stealing some of their market share....
I could not leave the atelier without purchasing some chocolate bars to take home to Philadelphia to share with my husband and our children. This started a discussion among us as we tend not to agree on what defines "un excellent chocolat"...  Like everything else in food, it does take time and experience to be able to distinguish and appreciate differences in chocolates... I am no expert... but do know that I'd rather not eat chocolate than a mediocre one... A real treat? A really nice piece of dark chocolate with an espresso after lunch (once all the dishes is done so that I can really enjoy my coffee!)...

Despite all that I just wrote,  when it comes to baking with chocolate, I generally use the  IKEA dark chocolate bars.  IKEA chocolate??? Yes, I know that it is definitively not the best chocolate out there but it is good enough to bake a cake for a Sunday afternoon tea-break! This is my price/quality hat taking over....

Here is a recipe I got a few years ago. This recipe is a great recipe, and not just for people who avoid gluten.... The best thing? It's even the next day.. so very practical when I don't have time to bake something on Sunday morning...  Verdict of the Chocolate-cake eaters in our family? They all love it! Would it taste better with a more-upscale chocolate? I am not sure. Will have to try! Bon Appétit!

Ingredients:

• 275 gr (9.7 oz) dark chocolate
• 5 medium eggs separated
• 175g (6.1 oz) sugar
• 140g (4.9 oz) almond flour (ground almonds)
• 1 TBs of rhum or orange liqueur (optional)

• Preheat ovent to 170C (340F)
• Roughly chop about 50g of the chocolate and reserve
• Melt the remaining chocolate in the microwave or in a double-boiler
• Whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Gradually whisk in half of the sugar, a tablespoon at a time until incorporated - you have a soft meringue.
• Beat the egg yolks together with the remaining sugar until pale and doubled in volume.
• Carefully fold in the meringue mixture into the egg yolk mixture. 
• Gently fold in the chocolate
• Fold in the rest of the meringue
• Fold in the almond flour and the chopped chocolate.
• Add the rhum/liqueur.
• Fold into a round mold and bake in the oven for 30mns. After 30mns, turn the oven off and leave the cake for another 15mns. 

Cranberry - Orange - Ginger Relish

French people don't celebrate Thanksgiving and very few actually know that Americans get together with their family on that special Thursday in November to eat a Thanksgiving feast made of Turkey, squash and cranberries. This is not to say that French people don't eat turkey. I grew up eating roasted turkey (in a wood-oven mind you!) for Christmas lunch or New Year's lunch at my grand-mother's house when we would all get together with my relatives (about 20 of us). She would wake up really early to start her wooden stove and have the turkey ready by lunch time around 1pm. She would stuff the very local (I remember picking it up at the farm!!) bird with with shallots, oinions and chestnuts (no bread!)... and to this day, this is the best stuffing I have ever eaten (just maybe so because I love chestnuts in savory recipes...)
Although there were about 20 of us, the turkeys were much much smaller than the ones I have seen in local supermarkets around Philadelphia. No way she could have cooked such a big bird in her wood oven and have it ready by 1pm! When my parents come to visit and see the size of turkeys we all wonder how my grand-mother could have cooked such birds in her oven...

Turkey was served with additional chestnuts, cooked apples and maybe green beans... but definitively no cranberry sauce. French people don't know cranberries. Well, let me be more precise, the only French people I know who know what cranberries are (canneberges in French) are the ones who use it to prevent/fight UTI or the ones who traveled to the US/UK and got exposed to fresh/canned cranberries.....
I personally like cranberries but hardly ever cook them except in a pound cake/muffins where I mix them with apples and other Fall spices.  The other recipe I discovered last year through a friend of mine and have been enjoying (alone - no one else except my mom would eat it at home)... is this orange-cranberry relish.  I like it because I cut the sugar amount in half and let it "cook" overnight in its juice. I eat it as dessert or with some roasted winter squash and .... chestnuts.  I have seen this (or very similar) recipe in cooking magazines this year so maybe some of you just had it with your turkey a few days ago! If not, make it with leftovers/discounted fresh cranberries you can find around you these days. It's really worth it... and a most welcome change from the canned cranberry sauce I have tasted in the past! Bon Appetit!

Ingredients
Makes 8-10 servings

• 1 orange, unpeeled and preferably organic, scrubbed
• 2 bags ( 12 oz each) fresh cranberries
• 1-1/2 cups sugar  (300 gr) ( I use anywhere between 1/3 to 2/3 of that depending on how sweet I want it)
• 1/3 cup (2 oz) peeled and finely chopped fresh ginger

• Cut the orange ( with the peel on) into 16 chunks and discard any seeds.  Working in batches, combine the orange chunks, cranberries, sugar and ginger in a food processor.  Pulse to chop finely and evenly, stopping once or twice with each batch to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
• Transfer to a storage container, cover and refrigerate for at least 24 hours to develop the flavors. 
• Bring to room temperature and stir well before serving.
• Can prepare up to 3 days in advance.

Coconut Chia Pudding

Don't ask me where September and most of October went... We have all been busy : first a professional trip to California (my first in 9 years! San Francisco looks even better than the last time I went there/when I lived there (but more on that trip in another post) ),my parents' visit (always a treat), a trip to France for work (VERY hard to say "no" when it was offered for me to to Paris!!), then friends' visit... and of course, the Rentrée des Classes (back to school) with homework, new activities, new friends, etc....

One of the things people who have come to our house discover is that, since I turned vegan a few months ago, we have a lot of seeds & nuts (in addition to other grains French people don't eat often like  Kasha, Quinoa or Millet)  in the house as I use them as a great source of proteins.
Among the cashews nuts (raw or roasted (always unsalted)), almonds, walnuts, soy nuts, hemp seeds, sunflower seeds, peanuts, pistachios, pine nuts, Brazilian nuts, Macadamia nuts and other pecans, the seeds that trigger the most interest are Chia seeds. Most people have never heard of them; or when they have, they don't really know how to use them. They just know it's supposedly good for you because of their Omega 3-6 content...
I get the same question at work where some of my colleagues have started eating them...  No later than this morning, a colleague told me that she was putting a few in her tea; since Chia seeds become gelatinous, it reminded her of tapioca pearls...  I had never thought about this way of using them and will try it out...

I personally put them in yogurt or on apple sauce, never on anything salted for some reasons...
I have also used them to bind dough in cakes.... but most recently, I have been making Chia pudding. This is the easiest dessert to make and the options are endless when it comes to taste, texture and flavor.  I first saw this Chia pudding in a local restaurant and realized that it was really easy to make. I now saw some "Chia Pods" in the dairy section at Whole Foods (I have never tried them and will wait for them to go on major sale to purchase one : for the same price you can make about 10 of them, if not more)...
Our children do eat Chia seeds in their yogurt... and have been enjoying some versions of this Chia pudding.... so voila another easy healthy homemade dessert! Bon Appétit!

Ingredients:

• Chia seeds
• Coconut Milk (whole, not light)
• Agave syrup or honey for sweetness
• Vanilla extract

• In a large bowl, measure 1/4 cup of Chia Seeds. 
• Slowly add 1 cup of milk, stirring a lot. Stirr more so that all the seeds get wet.
• Add syrup/honey and sweeten taste.
• Put in the fridge, stirring it frequently so that no chia seeds cluster together.
• Serve cold with cut fruits (mango, cantaloupe, kiwi, strawberries, etc.)

My Personal Comments

• I have tried it with Soy, Almond and Coconut milk. I prefer it with whole coconut milk.
• You can play with the ratio chia seeds: liquid. I like it at 1:4 but some people like it at 1:3.

Cranberries - Orange Pound Cake

Spring is just around the corner. We got a nice glimpse of it last week-end when temperatures climbed up to the mid-60s (15C) for two days: everybody was out, students had already traded their down-jackets for t-shirts, their winter boots for flip-flops (??? don't ask!!) It felt that everybody was coming out of their house, fully alive and ready to dance! People were crowding public parks again (we once counted two benches with people in Rittenhouse Square one Sunday in February... last week-end, if two benches were inoccuppied, we were lucky!!)
It was unfortunately short-lived.  We are now back to wearing our down-jackets again (some students are still in T-shirts but because they are hot from celebrating Saint Patrick's Day today!!) .... and I have to say that I have a hard time dealing with this grey-dump-cold weather!

On those days, I only want to stay inside, eat some nice hearty soups, read a good book and/or watch a good movie or play a nice game with our children. Unfortunately, with two children in need of energy-burning exercises, this Sunday-inside is not an option for us (we were homebound for 36 hours when Hurricane Sandy hit last Fall and it did not do us any good. By Tuesday morning, we were already outside for a walk in the neighborhood....)

Nice or not-so-nice weather,  off we go!  Our children bundle up, take their scooters and we go out for at least 2 hours...  If we are lucky, they will take a good nap, which is when I have a few minutes to read a book (or take a nap myself!); my husband taking advantage of this quiet time to work...

One thing that I always do on these gloomy days is make some soups for dinner and, if I feel zealous, a nice pound cake for our afternoon goûter. With a nice cup of tea to warm us up, it helps us deal with the grey weather outside. Until it is nice enough again to be able to enjoy a more fruity (ie, no more citrus) pound cake on our roof terrasse. Allez, encore quelques semaines! Bon Appétit!

Ingredients:

- 1.5  (200g) cups all purpose flour

-  2 ts baking powder

- 1/2 ts salt

- 1 cup (250 ml) plain yogurt

- 1 cup (200g) sugar

- 3 eggs

- zest of 2 organic oranges

- 1/2 cup (125ml) canola oil 

- 1/3 cup (80ml)  orange juice

- Dried cranberries

- 2 ts Grand Marnier

• Pre-heat oven to 375 F (185C)
• In bowl, combine al the dry ingredients and the orange zest
• In another bowl, combine the eggs and yogurt and mix well. 
• Add the orange juice and Grand-Marnier and mix gently
• Incorporate the oil gently.
• Combine the wet ingredients in the wet ingredients
• Add the cranberries at the last minute - stirr
• Pour into a mold and bake in the oven for 45mns - 50mns or until a knife inserted comes out clean

Meringues Francaises - French Meringues

We don't go back to France for the Holiday season. It's too expensive and too exhausting to cross the Atlantic (flight +6 hours jetlag) and spend most of our time either driving or eating and not necesseraly being lucky with the weather to enjoy time outside. As we say, we need an extra week off after we come back to recover! This is why we'd rather go back in the summer when we have more time, the weather is (generally) nice and we don't spend the whole time eating!

This year, we were lucky to have my parents come and spend Christmas with us. We were all very excited and took advantage of their presence to have a formal, albeit early, Réveillon on Christmas Eve and formal Christmas lunch on Christmas day (with a nice breakfast with viennoiseries in between!)  And since it is very French to share eachother's Holidays menus, here are ours. On Christmas Eve we had a soupe a l'oignon, escargots, fresh oysters, smoked salmon, and a tarte tatin. On Christmas Day, we ate a nice orange-cumin salad, a stuffed capon with chestnuts and apples and a Charlotte aux fruits rouges. I can't remember what wines we drank; and yes, you can add a few munchies for the apéritifs (on both days) as well as sweets (mostly chocolates) for additional (!) sweetness. I thought about making meringues but since my husband had made some chocolates, I decided against it. I might make some for New Year's Eve.

Meringues are a typical French petit four (ie, a small piece of dessert served after a nice meal or with coffee) and unlike some other petits fours, they are really easy to make. They look intimidating but honnestly, the only thing I don't like about meringues is that they need to bake for about one hour in the oven. Unlike chouquettes or savory gougères, I don't make meringues often. I have never been a big fan of meringues, which I find extremely sweet and nothing to write home about.  My children (and husband) really like them; they have some everytime we get together with my relatives in France. My sister-in-law makes very good meringues and always makes a few batches for us to eat with coffee ; although our children are not drinking coffee yet, they are entitled to the small treat we, adults, eat with our espressos (most often a piece (or two) of dark chocolate; once in a while, when available, meringues.) Un petit plaisir... Bon Appetit!

Ingredients:

For about 20 meringues :

• 2 egg whites
• 125g (4.4oz) sugar (or about 50g (1.76oz)/egg white)
• 2 drops of lemon juice
• 1 pinch of salt

• In order to maximize your chances of success, it is best to leave the egg whites rest for an hour (covered by a kitchen cloth) on the kitchen counter. 
• Pre-heat the oven to 200F (100C)
• Put the egg whites and the salt in a bowl
• With an electric batter, start to beat the eggwhites until they become a little bit foamy.
• Add the lemon drops
• Steadily add the sugar while beating the egg whites
• Beat until the egg whites are "firm", ie they don't drop from your batter anymore.
• With a spoon (or a poche a douille),place each meringue on a baking sheet covered with parchmin paper.
• Bake in the oven for about one hour; every 20mns, open the oven to let some steam out. 
• The meringues are ready when you can easily peel them from the baking sheet.
• Turn off the oven, open the door and let the meringues cool in the oven until it is cold.

My Personal comments

• Don't use a silpat; the meringues don"t cook well on a silicone mat.

Apple-Rhubarb Healthy Crumble

A few months ago, I discovered that I have a gluten sensitivity. Nothing like celiac disease but enough to make me feel uncomfortable after eating gluten-based pasta or bread. And enough to make me want to avoid any gluten-loaded food to avoid the unpleasant days that follow such food intake.

So no gluten? What it really means is no food that has wheat, oat, barley and rye... so yes, no bread, no wheat-pasta, no pastry made with wheat flour...  Pff!! "How limitative!!", might you say? 

After a few weeks, I can tell you that this is absolutely not limitative as long as, comme toujours,  you are willing to adapt. When you cook for yourself eating gluten-free is not an issue at all, especially if you live in the US where most supermarkets now carry gluten-free options. When you think about it you can choose from: rice, wild rice, buckwheat (which despite its name does not contain wheat), millet, corn, quinoa, lentils, dry beans, potatoes and all the fruits, nuts, and vegetables you want. Nothing to make you go hungry!

It becomes tricky when you eat out or are invited over: your traditional American-Italian restaurant is a poor option but Japanese restaurants are a good one! Worse comes to worse, you eat the filling of a sandwich and not the bread or you settle on a salad without the croutons!

The hardest to give up at this stage? Bread, definitively! I did try to start a new gluten-free starter but my two tentatives with buckwheat flour failed; I have read that some people have been successful with brown rice flour, which is what I will try once temperatures are lower (too much heat killed my starter last Summer). I am also working on a decent crust recipe that could be good enough to make quiches.

As for dessert? Sorbets are always a good option; so are French macarons or crèmes brûlées when available (if they put anything to artificially thicken the custard, it is corn starch)...  So nothing to feel deprived of! Honestly! It's just hard to explain to people who are not aware of what gluten is but once you give them alternative options, then they are generally OK. The worst are the people who doubt that you can have a sensitivity! I just wished them not to have any!! 

I was lucky to find gluten-free oats in a Natural Store close to us in Philadelphia. That way, I am able to eat gluten-free oatmeal in the morning and to make my granola recipe gluten-free... or to use gluten-free oats in this crumble recipe. Unlike other crumble recipes that call on butter and wheat flour, oats and oil are used in this recipe instead (hence the "healthier" title). You don't have to make it with gluten-free oats if you and your family have no gluten sensitivity but if you do (or want to experiment something different ), this is a very good recipe for dessert which you can use all year round. Bon appétit!

Ingredients (inspired from Chocolate & Zucchini)

For the topping:

- 100 grams (3.5 oz) rolled oats

- 100 grams (3.5oz) brown rice flour (or 100 grams AP flour)

- 100 grams (3.5 oz) cane brown sugar

-  80 ml (2.7 Floz or 1/3 cup) neutral oil (I generally use canola)

- 1/2 ts cinnamon

- 1/2 ts salt

- Another spice of your choice (I generally use cardamon or just lemon zest)

For the filling:

- 4/5 medium apples

-  2 stalks of rhubarb, cleaned and cut into small pieces

- 100 gr (3.5 oz) Brown cane sugar

• Prepare the topping and let it cool in the fridge for about 2-3 hours (I generally make it the day before)
• Preheat oven to 360F
• Cut all the fruits in small pieces and mix them with the sugar.
• Put in invidual dish or in a deep dish
• Cover with the topping
• Bake in the oven for about 40 mns

Lemon Cookies - Petits sables au citron

Everytime I start a new post, I promise myself to publish more than my once a month. Then as days weeks go by, I just wonder when and where I will possibly find time to cook something new worth-being-posted and publish it online. Time flies. And I just wonder where it goes. What????  School is almost over? (I don't know about you but the Summer-show/Field Trip always sound like end-of-the-school-year to me)... And I have not booked the Summer camp yet! (for my French readers, American children get at least 11, if not more, weeks off in the Summer; how working parents with a minimum of 2 weeks off manage to spend relaxing time with their children in the Summer, is still a big mystery to me). My list of TO DO things keep being longer. My TO READ New Yorker pile gets bigger. My piano practice? What piano practice??
I am up at 5.20 am... I have set it up earlier and earlier hoping that I would have time to read a few pages of the newspaper while enjoying my breakfast au calme (one of my petit plaisirs!!). Pff, how utopic of me? I find  myself unloading the dishwasher, preparing lunchboxes while eating a spoon of oatmeal here and there... then finishing up very fast before waking up the children at 6 am. And from that minute on, it's go-go-go until I get to on the train after droping them in school : I have 15mns where I can read a few pages of the newspaper or send a few personal emails...
6 am, it's early...I did try to wake them up 15 minutes later to have them sleep more but they told me that they'd rather be up earlier and have time to play after breakfast-teethbrushing-handwashing than having to leave straight after breakfast (which generally meant no teethbrushing). Anyway, after a day of work in an office, I come home and then again, I feel that I am back on my track-and-field days with a stopwatch in hand: feed the children, supervise/sign homework, supervise teethbrushing, read bedtime stories, turn light off before 7.30pm. Go back into the kitchen to clean the mess and start preparing dinner for the next day, have dinner with my husband (he cleans the dishes if you wonder where he had been!! ), do one load of laundry and few other house chores.... before going to bed early. With the newspaper if I have not had time to read page 2!
I cook dinner the night before?  I know. I am that kind of person and that's, my friends, is my savior. The few days I thought I would be back early and have extra time (ie 15-20 mns) extra to prepare dinner, it never worked...  So yes, as I write this post, dinner for tomorrow is already cooked (kasha with leeks and tomatoes, slivered almonds and ricotta cheese). Otherwise, our children would be ever more sleep deprived. Or eat  n'importe quoi.  As a result, I have come to love Thursdays because that's the only night I don't cook. Fridays is Aperitif Night so I don't have to prep much! Unless we have friends over. Of course. So maybe I should just plan to write my blog on Thursday nights. Assuming I have been able to cook and take pictures of a few worth-publishing dishes before. That means, cooking on the week-end because my daily cooking, while from scratch, is fairly limited! That's a challenge! We'll see. Until then, you can always either make these littles sablés or prep your dinner for tomorrow. Your choice! Bon Appétit 

Ingredients

• 1 stick (115 gr) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup (100 grams) light blond cane sugar
• 1  egg
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 1 3/4 cups (245 gr) all purpose flour
• a pinch of salt.

• Mix butter and sugar together until creamy
• Add egg and beat until well incorporated
• Add flour, salt and lemon zest and mix until well incorporated
• Knead the dough to bring it together. Divide it in two parts.
• Let cool in the fridge for one hour
• Preheat oven to 350F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper
• Take the dough out of the fridge and roll it out.
• Use your cookie-cutter to make cookies
• Place in the fridge for about 30 minutes. While the first batch is in the fridge, roll out the second batch.
• Bake cookies for about 10 mns or under golden brown.

Pumpkin Flan au Caramel

A few years ago, together with P., the father  of one of my daughter's classmate, we went to the French school headmistress to offer to start a real cafetaria. A cantine à  la francaise like the ones that are so highly praised in some US newspapers... and that a lot of very high-rank people refer to in the US when trying to solve the US school meal plan disaster! See, P. was an executive chef with lots of experience in  excellent multiple meals cooking, with all the network to source the best local produces and with running a kitchen from a beancounter standpoint! He had time to devote to this project and since I was also looking for something to keep myself busy while my two kids were in school, I was ready to help. We went with a full one-month menu that would have watered anybody's mouth....but long story short, this project did not go through. To the detriment of our children. To the detriment of the reputation of the school as well but there were reasons beyond our control. Tant pis. C'est la vie!
And to this day, I do know that the children were the ones really loosing out, mine included since they only get in their lunchbox what I cook!! Why? Because we have been invited to P.'s place a few times and every time, we had a great meal. Last time we had him and his family over, he brought exquisite Pumpkin Flan au caramel. To die for (and coming from me who does not crave sweets, this says a lot). I asked him for his recipe, which he gave me with proportions for 24 servings!!! ... After a few maths calculations (argh...why did I wrongly assumed that professional cooks in the US used the metric system???), came up with enough to make for my family and neighbor. Since I had only glanced through the recipe, I had wrongly assumed that the canned pumpkin had to be the "PIE" type... but nobody complained that it was too sweet (that's a foreign concept for my husband!!)....  It was, admitely, excellent and something great to serve in the Fall in the US to go beyond the traditional pumpkin pie!
I am so thankful that P. was willing to share his recipe. I can't wait to have another dinner at his place (or a potluck party at ours!!). At least, we know that we are not missing out!
Bon Appetit!

Ingredients (For 24 servings, you do the maths!)
- 6 cups sugar, granulated
- 4 1/2 cups heavy cream
- 3 cups whole milk
- 15 eggs
- 3 egg yolks
- 45 ounces pumpkin, canned solid (not pie)
- 3 tsp pure Vanilla
- 4 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 3/4 tsp ground ginger
- 3/4 tsp nutmeg
- 3/4 tsp salt

Caramel:
Cook 3 cups of sugar in a dry 2-quart saucepan over moderate heat, undisturbed (!!), until it begins to melt, stirring occasionally with a fork (!!) until sugar melts into a deep golden caramel. Pour caramel into foil cups tilting to cover bottom and side

Flan
1) Bring cream and milk to a bare simmer in a 2-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat, then remove from heat. Whisk together whole eggs, yolk, and remaining sugar in a large bowk until combined well, then whisk in pumpkin, vanilla, spices, and salt until combined well. Add hot cream mixture in a slow stream, whisking.
2) Pour custard through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl, scraping with a rubber spatula to force through, and stir to combine well. Pour custard over caramel into dish, then bake in a water bath until flan is golden brown on top and a knife inserted in center comes out clean about 1 1/4 hour.
3) Remove from the oven and place in the blast chiller until 40 degrees F. or less.

My Personal Comments

• I did not have foil cups so I used my small ramequins. Truth is that it would be easier (and prettier) to unmold if in foil cups. If you don't have foil cups, bring a little bit of water to a boil in a large saucepan and let the ramequins sit for a few minutes to melt the caramel before unmolding.
• No blast chiller in our house!! I just put the flans in the fridge once they were cold; if you live in a cold area, just let them cool fast outside before putting them in the fridge.
• I used pumpkin pie canned... and it was really good too
• I used almond milk too to lower the fat content and it turned out great too. 

Marble Poundcake - Gâteau Marbré

For my French or francophiles readers, I am sure that if I bring up the Savane Papy Brossard-an industrial version of marble cake-, fond memories (or even water in your mouth?) will come back. I don't know why this one really sticked with us (my husband, me, my sibblings and our friends).... but there is always this happy-talk about it (French people LOVE to speak about food in case you had not noticed!)
Growing up, I remember being thrilled when it was served at birthday parties (yes! at birthday parties) since my parents were not purchasing it! Sure enough, it was loaded with sugar... and an a lot of artificial je-ne-sais-quoi that made it addictive. Truth be told, I can't remember the last time I had some... but since the brand reappeared in French supermarkets recently (they use the name Cake Savane with different flavors and different packaging now; they even sell Brownies!!), I now know that I could have some next time I go. However, tasting it again would maybe kill all the memories...
Le gâteau marbre is a valeur sure of French cakes but for some reasons, I had never baked one for my children (the reason being that my husband associates gâteau marbré with Savane Papy Brossard so much that however good the gâteau marbré is, it will NEVER give him the pleasure of the Savane Papy Brossard!!)
It was therefore quite a wonderful surprise to hear him say "hmm, pas mal le gâteau" when he ate some! It was indeed really good (the kids loved it in case you wondered!)
At least, I know that, except for the chocolate (dark but industrially-made) there is nothing industrial about this cake as opposed to the ingredients listed on the Brossard website... . so if my husband can enjoy my gâteau marbré, Brossard might not make money off me for a while... I'll keep my memories intact instead! Bon Appétit!

Ingredients
- 100g (3.52oz) dark bittersweet chocolate
- 4 eggs
- 220g (7.7oz) light brown cane sugar
- 120 ml (4 US Floz or about 1/4 cup) plain yogurt
- 220g (7.7 oz) flour
- 2 ts baking powder
- 120g (4.23 oz or a little over one stick) salted butter (melted and warm)
- 1 TBS vanilla extract
- 1 TBS Baileys (optional)

• Preheat oven to 165C (330F). Put the butter in the oven as it warms up to melt the butter. Make sure not to let it burn!
• Use a little bit of extra butter to grease a cake mold
• Melt the chocolate in a double-boiler or in the microwave (with a little bit of water)
• In one bowl, mix in half the flour and half baking powder together.
• Repeat in another bowl.
• In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs with half of the sugar until light and fluffy.
• Add half of the yogurt and mix well
• Pour half of the melted butter, the flour and vanilla extract and mix well. Reserve
• In another large bowl, beat the last two eggs with the rest of sugar until light and fluffy
• Add the rest of the yogurt and mix well
• Pour the rest of the butter, the flour, chocolate and Baileys and mix well. Reserve
• Pour about 2/3 of the Vanilla batter in the mold.
• Pour the chocolate batter over the vanilla
• Cover with the remaining1/3 of the vanilla
• Bake in the oven for 45 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.

My Personal Comments

• You can play with the layers of vanilla-chocolate the way you want
• You could add a few cocao nibs (or chocolate chips) to add a little bit of crunchyness to this cake.

Charlotte aux Fruits Rouges

I don't know about you, but I feel that the Summer went by very fast. Too fast in a way...
We have been busy (which I always consider a good thing up to a certain extent): moving into a new unit, taking a break in France (more on that in other upcoming posts), more unpacking, more trips to IKEA and Lowes, hosting my younger brother and his family,... and life-as-usual in between. Well sort of life-as-usual if you want since Philadelphia was hit by the East Coast earthquake AND the Irene hurricane in the last 6 days only! It was stressful for us adults but it was really stressful for the children who did not really understand what was going only to quickly realized that something abnormal was going on! We are still talking about it... and I don't expect the questions to end anytime soon. Why should they when I am the first one to ask myself whether another earthquake is happening whenever I hear my windows crack at work??? And since I sit on one of those big exercising ball (75cm) at work (yes, I know it's quite really peculiar; people do ask me if I am working "my core" as I sit on that big ball?? Truth is that I might but it also forces me to move more, ie, avoiding spending 2 hours straight looking at my computer screens), if I have been bouncing a little as the windows crack, it takes me 1 second to accept that  no earthquake happening. Just the usual windows cracking, truck-bouming and ball bouncing... Pff!
Since there is nothing like life-as-usual in our kitchen either, here is a recipe that will be worth making if you want to change from your apple-pie pie/cheesecake/brownies recipes. It does require some planning (it needs to be made the night before) but always bring light into the eyes of the lucky ones who will eat some of it....and a "can I have some more?" This is one of my husband's recipes (not that he invented it but he is the one making that dessert)... and since in our life-as-usual, I am generally the one cooking, I LOVE it when for once, il met son tablier... and actually bakes (when is he going to do laundry???) . See nothing like life-as-usual in our family! For the better I have to say (but please no more earthquake/hurricane)! Bon Appetit!

Ingredients:
-15 ladyfingers (in French, we use the Biscuits Rose de Reims). Since ladyfingers tend to be narrower, plan to have more.
- 250g (8.8 oz) strawberries ( I use frozen)
- 150g (5.3oz) blueberries (I use frozen)
- 150g (5.3oz) raspberries (I use frozen)
- 30 cl (10.1 flOz)cold heavy cream
- 150g (5.3oz) sugar
- 1 pack of plain jello
- 1 lemon
- Additional fresh berries to put on top of the Charlotte + confectionated sugar

• Put a bowl and the mixing instruments into the freezer
• Prepare the jello according to instructions
• In a bowl, put all the fruits, 2 Tbs of lemon juice and blend.
• Pour through a sift and discard all the seeds
• Put the sugar in a pot together with a few drops of lemon juice and 2 Tbs water. Bring to a boil and cook it for a few minutes until it becomes a light syrup. Reserve.
• Add the Jello to the syrup and stir well so as to avoid any lumps. 
• Mix in the fruits puree and stir
• Take the bowl out of the freezer. Pour the cream in the cold bowl  and beat it into Creme Chantilly.
• Incorporate the Creme Chantilly into the fruits puree
• Pour into a mold. Cover with a plate so as to press the liquid into the mold. Put in the freezer overnight.
• When ready to serve, unmold the Charlotte (using a knife to go around). 
• Arrange the ladyfingers around the cream
• Use a ribbon to keep the Charlotte together and decorate with the fresh fruits and confectionated sugar.
• Serve immediately.

My Personal Comments

• Most recipes will tell you to arrange the ladyfingers INSIDE the mold before pouring the cream-fruit melange into it. This is the traditional recipe. However, my experience is that the cookies are then soaked and don't hold well when you unmold the Charlotte. It's therefore best to "stick" them to the cream afterwards.
• Don't try to cut the overnight chilling time. This is critical.
• If you know how to use agar-agar instead of jello, please do so.

Apple- Rhubarb Cake

One of the best things we did earlier this year is to join a CSA. We are luck to have a Farmers' Market just across from our building on Sundays. The place was meant for it (used to be one way way way back but only got used as a Farmers' market a few years ago). The farmers have produces that don't compete with what even Wholefoods would offer. We are talking about in-season, fresh (FRESH) produces, most of them organic. So yes, this is kind of our luxury because, let's face it as well, it's not cheap. However when it comes to purchasing veggies on Sunday to have enough to cook for the whole week (meal planning anybody????), it's worth investing in good fresh local produces.
The two guys we are supporting are called Tom and Matt. I admired their dedication to good produces. While we think we are having a hard time with the heat (who is readin this post in an AC room???), Tom and Matt are working their crop to make a living. That's just admirable. Merci Messieurs.
I'll have more to talk about Tom and Matt this Summer but one of the first produces we got in May was rhubarb. Lots of fresh rhubarb... so one day I decided to try it on a cake. It turned out to be a good cake, cholesterol-friendly to top it all. My son did declare that he did not really like rhubarb but it was just a one-night-only comment. The next day, he was happy to have another piece of cake!
I know that I should have published this recipe when rhubarb was in season. Oh well... you can always use the recipe to bake a cake with peaches these days... I can't wait to get some in my CSA box!
Bon Appetit!

Ingredients:
- 200 g flour (a mix of flours would be OK)
- 2 ts baking powder
- 100 g sugar
- 1 ts cinnamon
- 200 g apple sauce (no sugar added)
- 100 g neutral oil (canola for instance)

• Put all the dry ingredients in one bowl
• In another bowl, mix in the apple sauce with the oil and mix into the dry ingredients
• Bake in the oven at 360F for about 45 minutes