Crème Brûlée

Are you making dessert for Valentine's Day this weekend? Oh wait, Valentine's Day came and left. See? I can't think of more excuses to make this decadent dessert. 

Crème brûlée was the reason why I didn't get to taste new things in French restaurants until I learned how to make it myself. 

Crème brûlée is not a simple custard with burnt sugar on top, it's way more than that. Just imagine a velvety custard perfumed with vanilla bean, contrasting with a layer of hard caramel. And how about that crackling sound that comes from breaking the caramel with the spoon? 

Those are the exact reasons why I fell in love with this dessert.

The addition of fresh fruit and mint is a plus. Not only does it make this dessert beautiful but also adds lots of flavors and additional texture.

Ingredients:

2 cups heavy cream

5 eggs yolks

1 vanilla pod, split and scraped

zest of one lemon

1/3 cup sugar plus more

for finishing

Preheat the oven to 300 F. Place the half of the sugar, heavy cream and vanilla pod in a saucepan and bring it to a boil. Meanwhile, combine the rest of the sugar, egg yolks and lemon zest in a mixing bowl and whisk until the mixture is pale yellow. Temper the hot cream in to the egg mixture, be careful not to scramble the eggs, do it slowly and whisking constantly, whisk until well combine.  Ladle into ramekins and place in a roasting pan, add enough boiling water to come halfway up the sides of the dishes. Bake for  Bake for 40 minutes or until the mixture is set, the center should still jiggles slightly when shaken. Let them come to room temperature then refrigerate them for a couple of hours. When ready to serve, Sprinkle the top with sugar and caramelize using a blowtorch. Top with fresh fruit and mint.

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Picnic in Central Park

Oh boy, I'm done with Lucas' birthday party for this year. We were able to go for a picnic, I was so stressed out not for the party itself but for the weather conditions. The weather report kept changing from rainy to beautiful to "it might rain". I said to my husband "We will only know on Sunday". Luckily, it was a beautiful day, 80° F.  I said "It's perfect! lets pack!" 

When we got to Central Park, we saw the prettiest cherry blossom tree and I said "There! We found our spot!" I was surprised that spot was available as the park was full of people. 

Lucas is completely an outdoor kid. The minute we got there his face lit up and and started to run and run like he had been in a cage and had just been released. It was funny to see that and I'm so glad he had a great time.

There was also a picnic basket. I made two types of sandwiches. I found a fantastic olive flat bread (similar to focaccia) that I used to make goat cheese with roasted red peppers, baby spinach and sopressata sandwiches. I also made Mozzarella, sun dried tomatoes and basil pesto sandwiches.  For dessert, a flour-less chocolate cake (his favorite) with lemon curd. 

We had some lemon curd left that we brought back home and I made strawberry brulee. It was a fun way to use the leftovers. You can stuff them with many things such as pastry cream, chocolate, orange cream and it always comes out fantastic. 

Here is a tutorial on how to do strawberry brulee.

Ingredients

Lemonade

1 cup fresh lemon juice

4 cups water

1/4 cup sugar (or add more 

adjusting to your taste)

2 sprigs of mint

Ice to serve

In a pitcher, combine all the ingredients (except the ice) Stir until 

the sugar dissolves. Serve with ice. 

Mozzarella sandwiches

Quantity on this recipes depends on the amount of sandwiches.

pesto

bread

sun dried tomatoes

Fresh mozzarella

baby spinach

Spread a thin layer of pesto sauce onto the pieces of bread. Layer few slices of mozzarella cheese and a couple of sun dried tomatoes, top with baby spinach. 

Goat cheese sandwiches

roasted red peppers

sopressata or salami, sliced

baby spinach

bread

goat cheese, at room 

temperature

Spread goat cheese onto the pieces of bread. Layer few slices of sorpressata and a roasted red peppers, top with baby spinach. 

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Happy Birthday Lucas!

It was Lucas' birthday on Wednesday. My baby turned two, he is growing up so quickly. It seems like yesterday when I was craving pickles and ice cream and now he's two years old. Time flies.

He can't talk all that much but he sure knows how to say "chocolate cake" loud and clear. His love for chocolate is no surprise to me, what can you expect? He is the son of a chocoholic, it's in his blood. 

This year, we are hoping to take him for a picnic on Sunday to celebrate, that is if the weather cooperates. We are planning a gathering with the family and I still haven't figured out what kind of sandwiches to make. Good thing I still have some time to come up with a plan. 

The cake I made for him was a flour-less chocolate cake with baked chocolate meringue on top. It had a little crunchy exterior and a marshmallow-ish consistency in the inside. It came out quite nice and most importantly, he loved it.

Happy birthday my love!  

Ingredients:

For the cake:

8oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped

1 sticks of butter, cut in small pieces,

 plus more for the pan

5 large eggs, separated

1/2 cups of sugar

2 Tablespoons of  cocoa powder

For the chocolate meringue 

4 egg whites

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

3 tbs cornstarch, sifted 

1 tbs cocoa powder, sifted 

3/4 cup powder sugar

1 tbsp vanilla extract

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. 

Butter  and dust with cocoa powder an 8-inch spring form pan, set aside. Melt butter and chocolate in a double boiler or a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, make sure the bowl is not touching the water, stir until smooth. Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar in a mixing bowl. Gradually add the egg mixture into the slightly cool chocolate whisking until well blend. In a large bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Whisk 1/4 of  the whites into chocolate mixture, gently fold remaining whites into the chocolate with a spatula. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 20 minutes. 

While the cake is baking, make the meringue.In a clean bowl, combine egg whites, cream of tartar, and vanilla. Beat until the whites form soft peaks. Slowly add sugar (one tbsp at a time) beat until stiff peaks form, and mixture becomes glossy. Fold in cocoa powder and cornstarch. Pull the cake out of the oven and evenly spread the meringue on top of the cake. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes more or until lightly brown on top and when toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Let it cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack and let it cool completely before cutting. 

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Fruit Tart with Cardamom Cream

I'm loving Spring. Everywhere I go, every tree, color, the smell of fresh fruit. Everything is so inspiring to me. I guess my eyes are so tired of seeing "gray" all Winter long that when I start to see all the trees blossom, is like everything starts again.  

This is also the season when I start to prepare for Summer and by prepare I mean plant my tomatoes and herbs. This year we are planting a pear tree and grapes, lets see how that goes. 

And to continue with my Spring celebration, I made a fruit tart. How can I describe it? Well, how about a flaky crust, a delicious layer of cardamom pastry cream and fresh fruits? It really is Spring in a bite. I don't usually brush my fruit tarts with simple syrup or apricot jam like you may have seen in other recipes. I like to avoid that extra sugar but I must mention that such procedure can help the fruit preserve better. However, in our case, that tart was gone in a matter of minutes. 

Ingredients:

For the tart pastry:

1 3/4 cups flour

6 oz unsalted butter,

well chilled and diced

1 egg yolk

1 tablespoon sugar

a pinch of salt

Cold water

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Sift the flour, sugar and salt. Place the mixture into a food processor and pulse a few times, just to combine. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolk and 2 teaspoons of water and pulse until the dough comes together. If the dough is not coming together, add 1 or 2 teaspoons more of water. Bring the dough together with your hands forming a disk and Wrap in plastic. Refrigerate until chilled, about 30 minutes. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface to line a 14"x5" tart pan or a 9" round tart pan , about 1/8" thick. Place the pastry back into the refrigerator for another 20 minutes. Line the pastry shell with a with crumpled parchment paper and fill it with tart weights or you can use dried beans too. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until slightly brown. Set aside to cool.

For the pastry cream:

3 Egg yolks

1/4 cup sugar

1/8 cup cornstarch

1 tsp flour

1 cup milk

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tablespoon butter

1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom (optional)

Whisk together the egg yolks and half of the sugar until the mixture is pale yellow. Sift in the cornstarch and flour. Mix well. Place the milk in a saucepan, add the remaining sugar, cardamom, vanilla and bring it just to a boil. Temper hot mixture over the eggs/sugar whisking constantly. Pour the mixture back into a saucepan and bring it to a boil stirring constantly. Don't worry if you start to see lumps, it will smooth out as you stir. Boil for about one or two minutes, mixture should be thick. Stir in the butter. Transfer to a bowl and cover the surface of the pastry cream with plastic wrap placed directly over the top to prevent the formation of the skin. set aside to cool then refrigerate until cold.

To Assemble:

Arrange sliced fresh fruit on top (I used strawberries, blueberries and kiwi). Feel free to use whatever fruit you have on hand. Sprinkle fresh mint on top and serve.

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