the french cookie: May 2013

Friday, May 31, 2013

Love it!

Chocolate & Zucchini

New favorite blog, I think you'll see why.

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Lemon Tarts

Tarte cirtron meringuee (lemon meringue tart) is my favorite French pastry and is the perfect summer dessert. Today's recipe comes from...

I first started with the sweet pastry crust.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 3/4 cups flour

1 egg

7 tbsp butter (softened)

pinch of salt

makes four-five mini tarts or one large tart

Mix together the sugar, flour and salt

Add the butter

Add the egg

I transferred the dough to a bowl and used my hands to thoroughly mix it until it became dough-like consistency.

Cover and refrigerate for 20 minutes

While the dough was in the refrigerator, I greased the tart tins with butter and preheated the oven to 410ºF

Flour the rolling pin and a flat surface and roll out the dough

Divide the dough and mold one section to a tart tin

Repeat this process with all tart tins

Cover with baking paper and pie-weights (in this case little sauce bowls) to prevent the crust from rising. Bake for 15-20 minutes

*I tried baking a few without pie-weights and decided to poke holes in the bottom, thinking that the crusts would not rise, this did not happen. A few of my crusts had inverted bottoms and they baked more quickly because I did not cover them with parchment paper or tin-foil. Lesson learned!

While the crusts were baking, I made the lemon cream filling.

Ingredients:

scant 1/2 cup sugar

1 stick butter

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 egg

1 egg yolk

**If you like a larger ratio of cream to crust, I would increase this recipe. This amount made just enough for four mini tarts, next time I am going to increase this recipe because I like more filling.

Combine all ingredients in a pot, bring the mixture to a boil while stirring vigorously

Remove mixture from stove and cool

By the time you are finished with the cream, the crusts should be finished. Remove the paper and weights and let the crusts cool

While the cream and crusts were cooling, I made the meringue (or attempted to).

Ingredients:

scant 1/2 cup egg whites (about 4 egg whites)

1/4 cup powered sugar

1/4 cup sugar

zest of 1 lime

Beat the egg whites. Gently add the two sugars. I highly recommend a hand mixer unless you have freakishly strong forearms.

**Here is where I went wrong. I needed to beat the the mixture longer because the meringue didn't rise fully while baking. Note to self - use an electric hand mixer or a kitchen aid!

Once the mixture is stiff, add in the lime zest

Spoon little balls of meringue on an oven tray and bake for two hours on 210ºF.

While the meringue was cooking, I spooned the lemon cream into the tart crusts.

(This picture is from my second attempt with this recipe. I made whip cream with heavy whipping cream rather than making the meringue.)

Once the meringue has cooled, garnish the tarts and serve!

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Carottes râpées

One of my many goals this summer is to make as many french foods as possible. Today I decided to tackle a simple dish, but one that I ate on a daily (sometimes twice a day) basis: Carottes râpées. If any of y'all have ever eaten Chick-fil-a's carrot salad, it is essentially the same thing minus the raisins. There are many variations including lemon based and mustard based. My favorite brand was a mustard based recipe so that was the variation I went with today.

The key players for today are:

Carrots (5-7 medium sized carrots makes 2-3 servings)

Olive oil

Lemon juice

Dijon mustard

Salt

Pepper

Step 1: Shred the carrots into a bowl

Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil

Add 1-2 tbsp of lemon juice (depending on level of sweetness)

Add dijon mustard (to taste, depending on spiciness level)

Salt & pepper to taste

Mix it all together!

You can add more lemon juice or mustard depending on if you want a sweet or spicy dish. I added more mustard for a little extra kick!

Garnish with parsley and enjoy!

Bon appétit!

Additional Recipes:

Marmiton

David Lebovitz

UK Road Trip: London

Last stop in the UK before returning to the States...

On our 8 hour journey from Scotland to London, we stopped in Manchester for a typical English high-tea at Becki Dyer's house (Laura's sister). It consisted of a variety of bite-sized sandwiches, pork pies and scones.

We started off our London experience by touring Westminster Abbey with our very own local (and relative), Jeffrey. He gave us a great tour at the abbey then walked us around the city and gave us a local's insight.