Elizabeth wrote and asked me about assembling the Blueberry Lemon Curd Ring from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day (page 228). I already had the Brioche dough, in my mini dorm fridge filled with buckets, and I had just made the lemon curd for mother’s day so it was simple to throw this together. Read More
These chocolate soufflé cupcakes is a great little hit of chocolate and coffee for when you need a fix. They are my two favorite vices. Well, the two that come to mind right now. My day ALWAYS starts with a cup of coffee in the morning. About midday I open up my chocolate drawer and have a little square of some treasure I’ve been hiding. Yes, I have a drawer just for chocolate. Actually it shares space with tins of tea, but they are just a foil to throw my boys off the scent. If you lift up the tins there are about a dozen different chocolate bars to choose from. If the boys start reading my website I’ll have to find a new hiding spot. Read More
These marzipan cherries topped a carrot cake from Carole Bloom’s newest book I made for a friend’s birthday party this weekend. Cherries were the theme of her party, because her name is Carolyn Cherry! Her birthday happens to fall at a time of year when there is not a fresh fruit to be found. Not even those grown in South America. So what is a pastry chef to do? Make her own, of course! Read More
Over the course of the next month I am going to be preparing recipes from Carole Bloom’s latest baking tome The Essential Baker, which came out last year. Kim Ode from the Star Tribune hosts a wonderful cookbook review at the Barnes and Noble in Edina called Edesia (it means the Roman Goddess of Food). On May 19th I’ll be one of the “guest experts” and will give my opinion, along with some sample goodies of the recipes I’ve tested. Along the way I thought I would share some of my findings with you. Read More
Last week Graham and I went to dinner at Cosmos restaurant in Minneapolis where my friend Khanh Tran is the pastry chef. She is a brilliantly talented woman and all of the desserts were breathtaking. I am not generally this liberal with my praise of sweets. I’m often disappointed and rarely quiet about it. Khanh has managed to balance the art of beautiful presentation with deep and true flavors. The last thing we ate that night was a plate of mignardises (small bite sized desserts) and on the platter were two of my all time favorites: French macaroons and citrus fruit pâtes.
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Meyer Lemon and Rosemary Pâte is one of the 3 French Fruit Pâtes (fruit jellies) I made this week. Be sure to check out my recipes for blood orange pâtes and kumquat and vanilla bean pâtes.
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