November 03, 2026

Sea salt caramel shortbread gift boxes! (and autumn’s passing)

November 03, 2026/ Susan VandenBerg

Hello Grand Rapids! I’m in the holiday spirit, ready to bake for you and offering a select number of goodies for the holiday season.

While I continue my work on crafting a FAVE post all about shortbread, in the meantime I’m eager to share these favorites with you.

Check out the newly added “menu” page for details on ordering sea salt caramel shortbread gift boxes, lovely croissant aux amandes or chocolate ganache tartes. Plan ahead!

Shortbread are packaged in one dozen (white box) or two dozen (kraft box) sized packages and spiffed up with my own mix and match ribbons and tags. Let me choose the look for you!

Croissant aux amandes are available for the Thanksgiving and Christmas weekends only. Order by November 15 for Thanksgiving weekend and by December 15 for Christmas weekend.

Remember to check out the “menu” page.

My chocolate ganache tarte has been a favorite over the years. For December only, available in three sizes depending on your needs. It keeps well in the fridge over several days.

Remember to plan ahead. Check details here.

I want to wish all of you a lovely holiday season and share just a few of the “last gasps of autumn” from the past week or so. Take good care. Be kind.

**Bittersweet - just like the passing of this season!**

The end!

October 20, 2026

French Tarte Faves (FTF) No. 6: Scones

October 20, 2026/ Susan VandenBerg

It’s been awhile since my last FAVE post - life happens, doesn’t it. This is certainly not a new topic for this blog. Over the years I’ve shared pumpkin, lemon, ginger, cheddar and blueberry scones to name just a few. In the lead image - raspberry glazed vanilla scones - yum.

I’ve been working on this particular post now for several months - whoa! It’s about time to finish it. Having taught a scone and teacakes class last week and another one coming up next week, I’m definitely in the mood.

Fair warning - it’s a lengthy one! I completely understand if you simply scroll through, check out the images, click on some of the recipe links and create your own tasty version of scones. Just have fun with it.

First let’s take a look at basic ingredients: flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, butter, dairy and sometimes egg.

Flour is usually all purpose but you can create your own combos. For example - create a mix using all purpose, whole wheat, spelt or rye, particularly for a cheesy savory scone. Or replace 1/4 of the flour with a nut flour like almond or hazelnut especially when adding dried fruit and/or chopped nuts. Even “00” pizza flour subbed in for 1/4 to 1/3 of the all purpose lends a lovely texture.

Butter is typically unsalted in the majority of baking recipes, and, while I generally stick with that, I’ve used European style salted butters for different bakes (particularly shortbread cookies) with delicious results.

**Some favorite butters at our local grocery**

Not all scone recipes contain egg. Without it I generally find the end result to have a drier biscuit like texture and I do prefer the moisture provided by adding the egg (except Rose Levy Beranaum’s ginger scones! made with whipped cream!).

Here’s Rose’s ginger scone with fresh strawberries and homemade strawberry ice cream - delish!

The form of dairy can vary from heavy cream or crème fraîche to buttermilk to yogurt or even cottage cheese or ricotta. I’ve used combos of cream+yogurt or buttermilk+ ricotta to create slightly different textures and flavors. Play around with it.

Then consider chunky or crunchy add-ins like dried fruits (cranberry, cherry, apricot, currants are all fair game), lightly toasted-then-chopped nuts and/or chopped or grated chocolate/chips/pearls; or savory versions with grated cheddar cheese, sun dried tomato or bacon bits. So many possibilities!

Be careful with “wet” add-ins which are likely to affect the scone’s texture. I generally don’t use fresh raspberries or strawberries due to their water content as well as difficulty incorporating them into the dough without squishing them a lot. I have however had pretty good luck with blueberries in this Joanne Chang recipe.

I utilize two base recipes for the most part. Here’s the one for a classic simple lemon or vanilla scone with some suggested flavor variations and different glazes you might like. And here’s the one with add-ins - same ingredients with adjusted quantities to allow for add-ins and yield the same batch weight as the classic version.

Example - if I’m making both lemon and cranberry nut scones, I’ll have essentially equal weights of each dough and can shape and cut the same number and size of scones from each batch. Yeah, I know - a bit over the top on the uniformity end of things, eh?

With a slight variation for savory scones I use this base.

I usually shape my dough either into circles from which I cut larger triangles OR a rectangle from which I cut squares then divide those into smaller triangles. It’s not so much the exact dimensions but that you shape your dough at least 3/4” - 1” thick for a nicely risen scone.

Here are a couple of templates that help me determine shapes/sizes that I might choose to cut. Note different colored lines to indicate different sizes/yields/approximate weights of each scone. Yes I know - I’m kinda of a nut case!

I came across an approach recently for a slightly different take on things. For my basic lemon scone recipe I use exactly the same ingredients but incorporate melted/cooled (yet still “fluid”) butter into the mix rather than the usual cold, diced butter that’s briefly worked into the dough with the fingertips. This one requires some planning ahead since the dough has to chill in the fridge for 4-ish hours or overnight before you portion and bake.

Let’s take a look. Below are the ingredients for the basic dough - note the melted/cooled butter on the left.

Blend the dry ingredients in the bowl, pour the butter in and gently mix it by hand or gently with a bowl scraper. Note the curd like consistency in the bowl on the left.

Then add the egg/cream . . . . . .

. . . . .and blend with a fork/bowl scraper to bring it all together.

Note the more moist cottage cheese like consistency below.

Now wrap it up . . . .

. . . . . and refrigerate at least several hours or overnight. This allows the flour to absorb the liquid.

When ready to bake, heat the oven to 425º. I keep a baking stone in my oven and will heat it as the oven is heating. I place my pan of scones directly on the heated stone for a bit more even heat while they’re baking. An option is to use a second sheet pan as your “stone”.

Scoop dough portions (I prefer mine on the smaller side) onto a parchment lined sheet pan, lightly press them down and sprinkle with raw sugar if you like. Option is to glaze after baking with lemon glaze (lemon juice and confectioner’s sugar blended to your chosen consistency) or a lemon simple syrup.

Bake 10 minutes, rotate pan 180º, reduce oven to 400º and continue baking 8-10 minutes until golden brown. Remember every oven is different - pay attention!

Brush glaze on while warm, let cool a bit and enjoy.

I recently did a side-by-side test of my classic version and the melted butter one. Both tasty with a similar crumb - I think I still like the original method (cold, diced butter sanded in) a tad better. Try them both and you decide!.

Eyeball the classic on left, scooped melted butter version on right.

We’ll be finished soon! Let’s take a look at the add-ins version with similar steps outlined below. Nothing like repetition to get things to sink in.

Below is a basic lay out of ingredients for a batch with tart cherry/chocolate/pecan.

Flour, sugar, baking powder and salt go in the bowl; cold diced butter on top of dry, ready to sand in; cream and egg blended and ready to add (I keep it in the fridge until I’m ready); chopped chocolate (or chocolate pearls), lightly toasted/chopped pecans and plumped, chopped dry cherries at the ready.

Sand in butter, distribute the chopped add-ins around the periphery of the bowl then pour the cream/egg over it all.

Toss everything with a fork to moisten. I then use my bowl scraper to continue blending and bring things together. Don’t overwork! Turn the roughly mixed dough out onto a work surface and quickly pat it into either a round or a rectangle depending on your end point.

When making smaller triangles, shape the dough into a 5”x10” rectangle, cut eight 2.5” squares and then cut each of those into two triangles. Remember that template?

Place scones on a parchment lined sheet pan, brush with a bit of milk and sprinkle with raw sugar. Hold in the freezer while heating the oven to 425ºF. I typically have a second empty sheet pan or my baking stone heating up as well. I find that helps maintain even heat as the scones are baking.

Bake for 5 minutes then decrease temp to 400º and bake an additional 10-15 minutes until nicely browned and set, rotating the pan half way through the bake. Keep an eye on them - if they seem to be browning too quickly, decrease temp to 375º.

In this case I drizzled caramel over the baked scones, popped them back in for a few minutes to set the caramel. Delicious.

Wow! What a scone ride that was! I hope you learned something.

Happy baking and happy autumn to all!

October 12, 2026

Autumn: Sunsets, rocky shores, pumpkins, baking and more!

October 12, 2026/ Susan VandenBerg

It’s my time of year! Cool nights, sunny skies, autumn colors appearing - I’ll take it.

The last week of September Steve and I had a wonderful driving trip to Michigan’s upper peninsula. We made it all the way to Copper Harbor, the northern most town in Michigan at the end of the Keweenau Peninsula. Our lodging for four nights was just outside the small town of L’Anse at the base of the Keweenau and right on the “Big Lake” itself. Our first sunset was stunning!

After exploring and visiting various U.P. sites for a few days we headed west over to Wisconsin into Minnesota and down to Minneapolis to visit niece Rachel and family for a couple of nights. Then a brief one nighter in Lake-in-the-Hills IL to see Steve’s brother Greg and his wife Joyce before returning to Grand Rapids. Many miles traveled, many hours in the car and well worth it.

Here’s just one view of the rocky, rugged Lake Superior shore line along the Keweenau.

While I’ve not posted much this past summer, I’ve recently been prepping for a few upcoming classes including one of my faves - croissants. After a number of months without laminated dough projects it feels great to go through the steps again and anticipate the end result.

Typically when I teach a croissant class, I plan to have baked croissants available to demonstrate making croissant aux amandes, a huge favorite.

A cool (and practical) thing to do when making laminated dough is to use the trimmings from the edges (I trim to neaten the dough layers while going through the process of folds and turns) and make “squiggle buns”. Using about 50 g of dough per “squiggle”, loosely place a tangle of dough scrap strips into muffin papers and let them rise an hour or so. Then (this time) I topped them with dots of butter, some chocolate pearls and a sprinkle of raw sugar.

Bake at 350ºF about 15-20 minutes until golden. Then drizzle caramel over the tops, pop ‘em back into the oven for a few minutes to set the caramel. Et voilà!

**A delicious dessert treat one evening**

One recent beautiful afternoon we popped over to Meijer Gardens to check out the bonsai show. Here are a couple of images of the entrance area all gussied up for autumn.

For another upcoming class, scones and teacakes are in process as well.

Here’s my favorite cheese braid to accompany bowls of chili with neighbors. Yum!

Bottom line? Bake your little heart out and enjoy the season!

September 09, 2026

Blueberry bakes you might like

September 09, 2026/ Susan VandenBerg

Local blueberries are winding down and there are still some peaches to be had. I’d like to share a couple of straight forward goodies from the past few weeks.

First up - peach blueberry custard tart (you could make it all peach if you’d like). Here’s the recipe PDF for you. It’s similar to the mixed red fruits tart I wrote about waaaaaaay back in March of 2015!

I made this one for a cousins’ reunion at Jen’s lake cottage. It’s a good plan ahead-er since the crust can be baked and held in the freezer even a few days before finishing it off. The custard comes together quickly and can be held in the fridge up to 24 hours - re-whisk before using.

Blind bake your favorite short crust or pâte brisée, arrange fruit of choice on the base, pour the easy custard over it all and bake. Voila!

The custard is a blend of 90 g sugar, 160 ml cream (or 80 g mascarpone/80 g cream), 3 large eggs, 1/2 tablespoon flour, 25 g almond flour, 25 g melted butter, 1/2 tablespoon vanilla and optional spices like a few grates of fresh nutmeg and 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander. Whisk it all together - can be made ahead and refrigerated for a day or so. Simply re-whisk before pouring it over the fruit. Easy peasy.

It bakes about 35- 40 minutes until the custard is set. Let cool. Great served with some freshly whipped cream and a crunchy garnish like oat crumble or toasted sliced almonds.

Next up!

Remember that mascarpone torta post I wrote a few months ago? At the end I shared my recipe for mascarpone cake and showed you some petite teacakes using raspberries. Well this time I (once again) had some mascarpone in the fridge ready to use so went with the same recipe but different fruit.

I went for a narrower, slightly longer loaf cake this time (in my mom’s MIRRO pan that I love!) and topped it with almond cream and blueberries. Yes!

I like to line the pan with parchment then butter and raw sugar the sides of the pan to give it a bit of exterior crunch. Ease the batter in and level the top - see those sugared sides?

Once the batter is in, press blueberries randomly on top. NOTE: I opted not to blend berries into the full batter batch since I find they have a tendency to sink to the bottom during baking.

I happened to have some crème d’amande on hand so decided to pipe squiggles on top before baking, along with a sprinkle of a bit more raw sugar.

Using this particular pan the cake bakes at 350ºF for about 60-70 minutes. An 8” or 9” round shallower pan will take less - more like 45-50 - it’s up to you to check! The top should be nicely browned and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let cool in the pan about 15 minutes then lift out and finish cooling on a wire grid.

Steve and I enjoyed this one with some homemade vanilla ice cream. Some of the neighbors benefitted too!

Meanwhile we have a Chihuly installation right across the street at nearby Meijer Gardens. We’ve been to check it out once already and plan a return visit soon. Pretty amazing glass sculpture amidst the natural beauty of the gardens.

Until next time - still working on that scone post! Take care.

September 01, 2026

A different approach to ganache

September 01, 2026/ Susan VandenBerg

I actually started playing around with this post earlier in the year and realized that it’s been sitting as a draft all this time. As I recently began work on a FAVE post on scones which may take me a bit of time, it seems fitting to share a quickie with you. Even if you’re in the midst of heat and humidity and don’t want to turn on your oven, these recipes can be done on the stove top. Plus you can freeze your end result and be ready for those wonderful autumn days when French macarons might be on your to do list.

While I have plenty of baking and pastry books in my home library, I love browsing the shelves at our local libraries. Not only do they often have newer books available that I can peruse before I might consider a purchase but also many that have been around for some years. One of those is François Payard’s book “Payard’s Cookies”, coauthored with Anne E. McBride and published back in November, 2015.

As I paged through the book I was drawn not so much to the cookie recipes but to some of the other components that might go into a cookie project - things like nut pastes and ganaches. Hmmm . . . I should try a couple of these.

Payard includes recipes for making your own nut pastes (almond/hazelnut, pistachio) which can be made ahead and then incorporated into a ganache or other filling. He offers two ganache versions - “fruit” when using fruit purées and “dry” when using ingredients like extracts or nut pastes.

**Raspberry ganache centers surrounded by white chocolate raspberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream**

Here’s the recipe PDF for both fruit and dry versions.

First fruit . . . . .The primary ingredient in fruit ganache is 100 g fruit purée along with 30 ml heavy cream (or you can leave out the cream and use 130 g fruit purée). Additionally there’s 56 g / 2 oz white chocolate, 40 g / 1/4 cup minus 2 teaspoons granulated sugar, 10g / one heaping tablespoon cornstarch and 75 g / 5.5 tablespoons unsalted butter.

Place white chocolate in a medium bowl. Whisk together sugar and cornstarch in a small separate bowl. Place cream and fruit purée (in this case raspberry) in a saucepan and have diced butter ready on the side.

Bring cream and purée to a boil, whisking to avoid sticking. Then whisk in sugar/cornstarch, return to a boil and whisk 2-3 minutes until it thickens.

Pour the fruit/cream mixture over the white chocolate and blend until melted.

Add butter and blend until smooth.

Press plastic wrap directly on the surface and refrigerate an hour or overnight until set. It should be pipe-able.

Being in macaron mode I was already planning to use the raspberry Swiss meringue buttercream in my freezer for a batch and thought . . . . . hmmmm . . . how about a center dollop of raspberry ganache to compliment that? Why sure!

**I added vanilla speckles to the shells - Yummy!**

The dry ganache is essentially the same as far as ingredients other than using 140 g heavy cream and 20 g of nut paste to replace the cream and fruit purée in the fruit version. Here’s the recipe again.

As an aside: what you’ll have to decide is whether you wish to make your own nut paste(s) a.k.a praliné - essentially caramelized nuts that are ground into a paste (a entirely different topic!). It’s a process that you may not want to pursue.

But if you do, here’s the recipe for praliné shortbread that includes how to make the paste itself. If you go for it, remember the paste can be made ahead and keeps for some weeks in the fridge.

The good news is you have the option of buying your nut paste(s) from various sources such as well stocked bakery supply sites, nut vendors or Amazon. There are lots of choices out there, particularly for pistachio paste due to the recent popularity of Dubai chocolate bars.

OK - on to the dry ganache. Cream and paste go into the saucepan - then the steps are the same.

For this macaron project I used the pistachio ganache as the center and piped a ring of strawberry Swiss meringue buttercream to fill the vanilla shells. Not bad my friends.

And so it goes. Until next time.

August 12, 2026

Pain de mie

August 12, 2026/ Susan VandenBerg

Hi everyone. Boy oh boy did this one have me going . . . and going . . . . and going! I started this project back in the spring and now summer is whizzing by! After four different trials and tweeking recipe details I’m finally here to share it with you.

It’s time for pain de mie - that classic white French sandwich bread that’s great for grilled cheese, simple toast, lovely tea sandwiches, canapés and croque monsieur/madame, just to name a few.

Some time back I purchased a 16”x4”x4” lidded pain de mie pan (also known as a pullman pan). Frankly I don’t really remember when/why I decided to go with this pan. I think it had something to do with the fact that I enjoy creating assortments for afternoon tea events (think classic cucumber sandwiches on pain de mie) and felt I should have one. Well OK then - I think I’ve used it once.

That’s now changed for the better.

Did you know there are different sizes of pain de mie/pullman pans? 9”x4”x4” and 13”x4”x4” are those most commonly used, and 7” and 16” lengths are also available. Mine is the longer 16”x4”x4” so I had to do a bit of figuring to determine how much dough I should use for that size.

After reviewing recipes from Jeffry Hamelman’s “BREAD”, Rose Levy Beranbaum’s “The Bread Bible”, my CIA 2004 edition of “Baking and Pastry” and a couple of other on-line resources, I found no consistency in recipes as to the quantity of dough needed for different pan sizes.

Not to confuse you but here’s just an example: Hamelman calls for 1022 g of dough for a 13” long pan; RLB uses 1127 g for a 16” long pan whereas CIA calls for 1360 g for a 16” pan. What’s a bread baker to do?? I finally found a cool site written by a couple who are majorly into bread baking. They recommend 1300-1400 g of dough for a 16” pullman pan, similar to CIA. In addition there was another source that suggests ~100 g of dough per linear inch of pan size e.g. 1600 g dough for 16” long pan.

I went through a few sessions of baking this lovely bread using Jeffry Hamelman’s full recipe which yields about 1580 g of dough. He recommends 1022 g for a 13” long pan and the rest for one small loaf.

NOTE: Here’s my final recipe variation if you choose not to go through the whole post.

For my first round (March 21) I rather randomly chose 1217 g (an increase from RLB’s for this size pan) for my 16” pan loaf and used the remainder to make six ~60 g rolls.

The loaf baked up nicely but didn’t have the straight edges typical of the classic pain de mie. That was my clue to use more dough in my second trial. At least it tasted great and the rolls were oh so good.

The crumb looked more open than I thought it should, but it was delicious, especially toasted and spread with peanut butter!

For my second round (April 7) I used 1400 g of dough for the loaf and made three 55 g rolls. While still not quite there in the appearance department, the edges approached a sharper look, particularly when I turned it out of the pan bottom side up. Not bad. Perhaps a slightly longer rise would have made the difference?

The crumb had a tighter more uniform appearance this time although a bit of a sag on top.

For the third round (May 15) I went for it and used the entire amount of dough (~1580 g) from Hamelman’s base recipe. Remember that guideline I mentioned above using 100 g per linear inch of your pan? Whoa - turned out to be too much!

During the final rise, the dough rose too close to the pan edge/lid on one end. Hamelman’s guideline is for the dough to reach about 1/2” from the top edge of the pan - that’s what I was looking for so I gave it a bit more time. Would’ve helped if I had shaped the dough more uniformly, eh?

Had I baked it at the one hour mark, it would probably have fared better.

Another 20 minutes . . . . .

In addition, while I’m pretty sure the lid was on snugly going into the oven, the dough rose enough part way through the bake that the lid lifted right off one end of the pan! Yikes.

I ultimately did a fourth loaf after making adjustments to the recipe/dough amount that I thought would fit nicely in the 16” pan. I went for a dough weight of ~1470 g. It rose quite robustly and pushed the lid off, just as in the 3rd trial but I was able to carefully slide it back on part way through the bake. Once again - tasted great!!

You can see the higher end of the loaf on the left side below.

**Fourth round Out of the pan and cooling**

In the final analysis I’ve adjusted the recipe one more time to give me a total dough weight of 1425 g for my 16” pan - should be just the ticket.

So what was reinforced for me as far as bread baking goes?? FIRST: not all recipe guidelines/dough quantities for a certain bread or baking project are uniform; SECOND: shape the dough more uniformly Susan; THIRD: pay attention to ambient temps and rising times.

These trials showed me so vividly how large an impact kitchen temperature has on rising times. NOTE: Hamelman specifies the final rise is typically 1 - 1.5 hours at 76ºF. That’s a great guideline within which to work.

I made the first loaf back in March when my kitchen was probably about 69 or 70º. Had I given it a longer rise, my first loaf may have been a bit better, although the subsequent trials with larger amounts of dough showed me that the first loaf was basically just too small for the pan.

Fast forward to the last trial in July when the kitchen was around 76º and the rise was definitely faster - I gave it 1 hour 20 minutes when I probably could have stopped at an hour. And it led me to adjust the recipe amount one final time.

What a great comparison and clear example of how the environment affects bread baking!

You’ve probably had enough by now but I’ll take you through the steps. The images are from my fourth and final trial - remember I’ve adjusted the dough amount a bit for the final recipe.

It’s a straight forward dough - here’s the final recipe version again. Place all the ingredients (bread flour, dry milk powder, sugar, unsalted butter, lukewarm water, salt, instant yeast) in the bowl of a stand mixer and, using the dough hook, blend on low for three minutes to incorporate all ingredients then increase to medium for 3-4 minutes to achieve a smoother dough that pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

Ball the dough up and place it in a lightly oiled or buttered bowl, cover and let rise about 2 hours, giving it one full fold at one hour in.

Oil or butter your pullman pan including the under surface of the lid (IMPORTANT!). Roughly shape a blunt cylinder and cover with plastic wrap to rest for 10-15 minutes.

Then shape the cylinder by elongating the dough to nearly the length of the pan and forming a tighter blunt ended log.

The dough should reach up about half way in the pan.

Slide the lid over the pan leaving a couple of inches visible so you can check the rise. Cover the open end with plastic wrap.

My kitchen was at 76º for this batch - typically a rise of 1 to 1.5 hours.

Here I could have stopped at the 1 hour rise. With the extra 20 minutes you see the dough arching up against the bottom of the lid which makes for an interesting closure - a well buttered lid is so important!

Toward the end of the rise heat the oven to 400ºF. Slide the lid tightly in place and bake about 40-45 minutes. The bread should have an even golden brown color and the crust firm.

Once out of the oven, turn the bread out of the pan onto a cooling grid right away. Otherwise it will be affected by moisture in the pan and lose some of the lovely crust texture. Let cool completely.

That was quite a ride! I hope you enjoy the rest of August. We’re flush into local sweet corn, blueberries and peaches - love it!

Hmmmm . . . . after all that, now I’m going to have to make croque monsieur one of these days!

August 05, 2026

Mid-ish summer update

August 05, 2026/ Susan VandenBerg

Hello! I wanted to share a quick note as we move our way (not always effortlessly) through summer. I have a few things that I’m working on for the blog but have allowed myself to get side tracked with a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle of a vintage map of Paris (very cool!); going through recipes - editing, updating links to past posts and vetting the reams I have in various folders on my shelves; exercising (always!!) and generally cruising through each day as it comes. We rarely go to movies, but we even saw “The Odyssey” in the IMAX here in GR - talk about in your face!!

And . . . . this first week of August happens to include both my birthday as well as our 43rd wedding anniversary so we have cause for celebration on many fronts.

Even though the heat has kept me out of the kitchen on and off, I tend to keep our own larder/fridge/freezer stocked with burger/sandwich buns, braided cheese bread, pizza dough, nutty granola, energy bites, oaty breakfast cookies, brownies for Steve, ice cream, oat crumble, scones . . . after all, there are certain things that are great to have at the ready when we need a little treat.

Here are a few other goodies I’ve baked in recent months, a couple of which are destined for their own blog post. We’ll see how that all plays out.

I’ll finish up with a few florals seen along my walking route - some native, some cultivated - they all have their own charm.

Enjoy what summer as yet to bring!

As always, I look forward to autumn. Ciao for now.

July 16, 2026

Oat and coconut (a.k.a.ANZAC) biscuits

July 16, 2026/ Susan VandenBerg

7/24/26 NOTE: a big thanks to friend and blog reader Shirley who discovered my recipe PDF was missing the baking soda - a very important ingredient! I’ve corrected and updated the link to the recipe.

Although we’ve been dealing with heat and wildfire smoke, we were fortunate to have had a perfect weather break recently for our yearly neighborhood cookout. Great turnout, good conversation and plenty of food. Steve and neighbor Don were at the griddle/grill doing up the brats and dogs. It’s summer, there’s no doubt about it.

While baking has been and is currently reserved for shorter projects and earlier in the day oven sessions, this recipe find from the NYT and chef Brian Levy caught my eye! Made with oats and coconut using an interesting stove top preparation for the dough, these are tasty indeed. Just another example of using Lyle’s Golden Syrup, an ingredient that adds a toasty caramel nuance to the flavor. Yum.

The story goes that during WWI (think Gallipoli) the Australian New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) were supplied with a hardtack kind of biscuit at the front, one that wouldn’t go stale. Further research tells me that the current iteration of these cookies became very popular down under in the years following the war and remain popular still. Web search “ANZAC biscuits” and you’ll find many references/recipes. Depending on the baking time the result is either chewy (shorter bake) or crispy/crunchy (longer bake). Either way I can vouch for their deliciousness!

Here’s the recipe PDF which includes a few comments on the different batches I baked.

I’ve already made them several times - for my first trial I opted to leave out the coconut and up the oats (just because); second round went with a portion of the coconut and subbed in chocolate pearls for the rest; third round went with the base recipe.

**Mise for the first round sans coconut**

Basically you need a saucepan and a mixing bowl (and smaller bowls for your mise if that’s how you roll). Oats, flour, coconut (if using), granulated sugar and salt go into the mixing bowl.

Unsalted butter, Lyle’s golden syrup, brown sugar and a little water go in the saucepan. Have 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda standing by. This is the fun part.

Warm and melt the ingredients in the saucepan. When the mixture just starts to bubble, remove it from the heat and stir in the baking soda. The mixture will foam up as seen below.

Pour the warm mixture over the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl and blend together.

Press the mixture into the bottom of the bowl, cover the surface directly with plastic wrap and let sit 5-10 minutes. This makes it easier to scoop.

For my first round I scooped generous one+-ish tablespoon sized portions, rolled them smooth then lightly push down to flatten a bit. You’ll need two sheet pans for the batch. They do spread so give them some room. The more you make them, the easier it will be to gauge that.

Oven at 325ºF. Bake for 19-20 minutes for a crispy, chewy result. My yield was 29 cookies with the first batch sans coconut.

**First of two pans in the first round of baking**

For the second batch I adjusted the oats a tad, used half the weight of the coconut in the recipe and replaced the other half with mini chocolate pearls. See the recipe for more detail!

A quick word on coconut - as you see below I used Trader Joe’s unsweetened “flake coconut” which is really what most of us think of as medium shredded. I do lightly toast it, cool and crush it up a bit before adding it into the mix.

Flake coconut is typically more likely to refer to large flat pieces of coconut, often used for garnish; shredded can also be more finely shredded than what I used here while desiccated coconut is typically much, much finer.

As for the chocolate pearls - oh Susan what were you thinking?! I had mixed the pearls in with the dry ingredients and, of course, when I poured the hot mixture over the dry - guess what - the chocolate melted toute de suite!

Not to worry - still delicious! My yield for this batch was 38 cookies using a tad smaller scoop. The chocolate added a lovely color as well as flavor.

For the third batch I followed the base recipe and purposefully made my scoops petite. Yield of 47 cookies! Whoa!

Just have fun with it!

Lastly, on a very different note - maybe it’s the reference to WWI regarding this cookie recipe, but I’d like to end with a bit of nostalgia (I’ve been experiencing a lot of that lately). . . . Dad was a navigator in a B-24 bomber during WWII. He died back in 1999 just a month or so after he turned 77, an age that we can’t help but think of now as “young” as we continue to age. And it’s been a touch over a year and a half already since Mom left this earthly life at the age of 97.

The current world seems so unusually disrupted (although historians tell us that “history repeats itself”), and I’m thankful my parents don’t have to experience the hatefulness and rancor that we’re seeing each and every day. OK. I’ve said it.

I’ve got a few things in the hopper for the blog plus I’m slowly working through my recipes, up dating posts and creating more links to recipe PDFs. Lots of work but it keeps me out of trouble. Take care all.

**A memorial day visit to my parents’ gravesite**

May 28, 2026

Tart cherry mascarpone custard torta (and one more)

May 28, 2026/ Susan VandenBerg

Mascarpone here we come! I don’t typically keep this Italian style cream cheese on hand as a staple ingredient but, when I’ve used it for a specific project, there are usually leftovers that are begging to go into something delicious.

I’ve had mascarpone on the brain for a while now. It all started with a full day of three demo sessions for a local seniors group back in April. In addition to a couple of savory offerings, I prepared and served whipped lime mascarpone cream vol-au-vents topped with fresh strawberries. During the ensuing days I used the leftover mascarpone for a home freezer stash of strawberry lime mascarpone ice cream and some delightful raspberry teacakes (more on that later).

As it turns out, I still had one unopened tub in the fridge and - wouldn’t you know it (I believe it was kismet!) - a request came in to create something delicious for my cousin Mary’s afternoon book club group. You can guess where this is going.

*Just a quick note about mascarpone’s shelf life - if it remains unopened, it’s fine in your fridge for awhile - the use by dates are typically some months out. BUT . . . . once opened and the plastic sealer is removed it’s best to use it within 5-7 days. If I’ve used only a portion of the tub, I press plastic wrap directly on the surface to exclude air which helps keep it’s texture until I’ve finished it off.

**Most commonly found brand on grocery store shelves**

**Purchased mid may - use by date 9/14/26 - if unopened!**

Let’s get on with it! I had pasta frolla, Michigan tart cherries (the end of last year’s crop) and oat crumble in my freezer so, along with the unopened tub of mascarpone, I had a clear vision for the book club dessert. With a few additional ingredients always at the ready (cream, sugar, cornstarch, egg, lemon zest and vanilla) I was set.

Here’s the recipe PDF which includes all the components - if you prefer not to read through the entire post, you can go right to it and get to work on your own torta!

Cousin Mary’s book group gave the torta a thumbs up so, as Memorial Day approached, I thought it fitting to make another one for a family gathering at cousin Jen’s cottage! Yippee!

Let’s walk through the steps - or you can go to the full recipe here.

I decided to use an 8” springform pan so I could build up the sides a bit deeper than I might with a standard tart ring. I ended up using about 280-300 g of pasta frolla (the same dough I used for the crostata della Nonna last October). I lightly buttered the bottom of the pan and lined it with a parchment round.

Roll the dough to about a 10” circle 4-5 mm thick and ease it into the form. I wanted a height of about 1.25” so gave myself plenty of dough to work with. Score the dough at your desired height then remove the excess. Save scraps to re-roll for cookies or petite tarts.

Here it is all neatened up with a distinct edge. Prick all over with a fork. I always place my lined form in the freezer while my oven is heating to 350ºF (325º convection) - it helps the dough keep its form during baking.

Ease your parchment round into the pan, snugging it up against the dough. Fill with weights.

Bake 20 minutes, remove from the oven and gently lift out the parchment/weights. You want the edges of the dough starting to set. The bottom will still look wet but continue to bake without weights another 10-15 minutes until it looks dry.

At this point you have the option to let it cool and refrigerate it overnight (or freeze for up to a couple of weeks) if you wish to complete the project later.

If proceeding with filling and baking, make the mascarpone filling. The shell does NOT have to cool completely before filling with the custard and baking.

Here’s the mise for the filling . . . . I didn’t use lemon zest in this one.

In a medium bowl blend 75 g / 1/3 cup + 2 teaspoons sugar with 3 tablespoons cornstarch and a pinch of salt. Whisk in 2 large eggs and 3/4 teaspoon vanilla. Lemon zest is an option and would be added here as well.

Blend in 170 g /3/4 cup mascarpone and 170 g /3/4 cup heavy cream

You can make the filling a day or several hours ahead and hold it in the fridge. Simply stir it back up to re-blend before pouring into the blind baked shell.

Bake at 350ºF (325º convection) about one hour - start with 25 minutes (it will still be quite jiggly), rotate the tray, allow another 25 minutes (should be setting around the edges and browning), rotate again then finish with another 10 minutes or so. Look for a nice golden brown surface and only a hint of jiggle in the center.

I loosen the outer ring of the springform and let the torta cool to room temperature. Remove the ring. You can hold the torta in the fridge until the next day if you’re not ready for garnishing.

I make my cherry filling earlier in the day or the day before and keep it refrigerated. Spoon a layer of cherries over the center of the torta, leaving an inch or so clear around the edges. Sprinkle oat crumble around the edges then dust that with powdered sugar. TIP: hold a small bowl over the cherries while you dust - keeps them nice and cherry-y.

Slice and serve . . . . . the marriage of tart cherries, crunchy crumble, creamy filling and buttery crust can’t be beat.

Leftovers will keep for a couple of days in the fridge although the cherry topping/sauce may get a tad more runny.

Whoa! That one went on didn’t it! But there’s one more thing.

To help you use up any of your own mascarpone here’s a straight forward mascarpone cake that serves as a great blank canvas for adding fruit, nuts, and/or topping with various swirls of delight. The recipe makes one 8” or 9” cake or about 30 small teacakes.

As many of you know, I prefer baking petite teacakes versus a large sliceable cake. These do not disappoint.

For these babies I turned back to an oil based mascarpone recipe I originally found at “An Italian in My Kitchen” about seven years ago. The site is chock full - the section on cakes alone will knock your socks off.

I’ve made it a number of times over the years, tweaking ingredients here and there (e.g. melted butter for the oil; different combos of mascarpone/yogurt/heavy cream; adding chopped nuts and/or fruit). It’s quite adaptable.

Below is the mise for my current iteration of the recipe. Don’t let the 8” springform distract you - I ultimately topped that one with a lovely thin-ish layer of lemon Swiss meringue buttercream and a few chopped candied pistachios. Darn - I didn’t take photos. Sometimes I simply get lost in the moment.

No worries. The mise remains the same for the teacakes - recipe makes about 30.

I’ve thrown enough at you so I won’t take you through the steps - just follow the recipe and create your own version. For these I piped the batter into flexi mini muffin molds, pressed some frozen raspberry pieces in and baked ‘em. If you’re not ready to garnish and serve them, they keep very well in the freezer for a couple of weeks.

When you’re ready, thaw and garnish as you wish. Here I drizzled them with caramel then gave them a nice cap of raspberry/tart cherry Swiss meringue buttercream. You could even sprinkle on some chopped pistachios.

I served these at our exercise facility as a treat for friend Kim’s last day working there. We miss her!

Until next time! Ciao.

May 16, 2026

Spring update - it’s not all about baking!

May 16, 2026/ Susan VandenBerg

Now that I’ve finally published the bagel post that I started working on some weeks ago, I’m going to offer you a brief diversion. While I have several more baking project drafts in the hopper, I’m focusing my energies not only on the joys of baking but also some favorite activities like exercise (yes!!), spending social time with friends, enjoying nature and doing my best to cruise along life’s pathways. It’s not always easy, is it.

Most recently it was wonderful to gather with four high school (and beyond) classmates for a mini reunion. Angie and I began our friendship in grade school then on into junior high and high school. We met Jane, Luanne and Mary Beth in 10th grade and some of us also continued on through college and med school together. We’ve all traveled different paths and experienced life in various ways over the years. Now, particularly in the wake of the death of Angie’s husband (also a high school classmate) a few months ago, we were all eager to reconnect.

The five of us spent a couple of nights in northern Michigan near Crystal and Glen Lakes at Jane’s lovely lakeside home. Beautiful skies, dunes, many lakes, loons, country roads, wildflowers, beach rocks, cool shops - a popular traveler/tourist destination here in Michigan.

The lead photo above is a view from the dunes in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore down onto the gorgeous deep blue/aqua/turquoise waters of Lake Michigan (known to us as “the big lake”). The water seems to go on forever.

Two favorite lakes in the area are Big Glen and Little Glen (in the foreground in the photo below), adjacent to Sleeping Bear and just inland from the shores of the “big lake”.

**Look out over big and little Glen Lakes**

As we drove here and there we saw tons of trillium blooming on the woods’ floors.

We stopped for a lovely woodland hike and, in addition to lots of trillium, found many other wildflowers like jack-in-the-pulpit and Dutchman’s breeches. The path took us out of the woods, through a meadow and finally out to a dune overlook on Lake Michigan where we experienced a chilly wind.

We took a lunch break back at Jane’s then ventured forth to Point Betsie Lighthouse, a favorite spot to search for beach rocks, particularly Petoskey stones. We couldn’t wander into the lighthouse grounds since the park wasn’t even officially open for the season yet, but we could go down to the beach.

There were a few diehard rock searchers out on the fairly long stretch of beach. Angie did find one Petoskey as well as a number of other rocks that she’ll place in some of the garden areas around her home.

It was a relaxing and meaningful time for all of us. After a safe arrival back home I look forward to more adventures, baking or otherwise.

Of course I simply cannot leave you without at least one baked good - a mascarpone custard torta with cherry topping and oat crumble. I made it to honor a request from cousin Mary S. for something delicious to share with her book group. I do hope to write more about it.

And finally (I promise) here are some stunning blooms from Meijer Gardens tropical conservatory . . . . .

There’s so much beauty to experience. Until next time!

May 12, 2026

Bagels

May 12, 2026/ Susan VandenBerg

I first wrote about bagel making back in May, 2017. I’ve tested out a couple of other recipes since that first success with admittedly varied results. Having a load of unbleached bread flour on hand put me in the mood to bake both pain de mie (post coming up soon I hope) and bagels, knowing they would be well received here at home.

Here’s the printable recipe PDF. The process is pretty standard as far as bread making goes. I like to use my 6-quart Kitchenaid - the bowl size is perfect. The yield for the base recipe is 8 bagels but I prepped a 1.5x recipe to give me 12. I figured as long as I was making them I’d go for more. They freeze beautifully.

Mix unbleached bread flour (I use King Arthur), fine sea salt, instant yeast and a skosh of brown sugar in your mixing bowl. Add in lukewarm water and 4 teaspoons of barley malt syrup (or molasses or honey) and blend together then knead on medium speed with the dough hook for 5-6 minutes (8-10 minutes if doing by hand). The base recipe is here. The dough should come together and be fairly smooth. Let proof for an hour or until doubled. I know that can be hard to determine - I like to take a photo at the start to give me the needed comparison later on.

It didn’t seem quite full enough after an hour so I gave it more time. Looks good now! Remember - cool kitchen, longer rise.

Place the risen dough on a lightly floured surface and divide into pieces about 100-113 g each. In this case it meant 12 pieces. Do a rough pre-shape, cover with a damp towel and let rest 15 minutes.

Now form each piece into a tight ball, cover again with a damp towel and let rest about 20 minutes.

Have a sheet pan ready lined with a lightly oiled piece of parchment. To form the bagels push your thumb through the center of each ball then, using both thumbs, gradually pull the hole a bit wider as seen below.

Then insert your index/middle fingers through the center and rotate the dough as you gradually enlarge the hole. What fun!

Place shaped bagels on a sheet pan lined with lightly oiled parchment and cover with a damp kitchen towel.

Let them rest/proof about 30 minutes, meanwhile heating your oven to 450ºF (425 convection)

Place 4 quarts water along with 3 tablespoons barley malt syrup in a pot and bring to a boil. Once boiling stir in 4 teaspoons baking soda - it will foam up!

Have a cooling grid placed over a separate half sheet pan.

Place 3 or 4 bagels into the boiling water, boil for 30 seconds then flip over and boil another 30 seconds. Lift out and place on the cooling grid. Continue the same process until all bagels are boiled.

Below are the boiled bagels ready for the oven. Kinda shriveled, eh?

Place bagels in the heated oven and bake 15-20 minutes - I tend to go the longer time frame for a nice deep golden brown result. Don’t open the oven for the first 10 minutes or they may deflate.

Cool on a rack and enjoy!

Simple cream cheese is always good. These bagels freeze beautifully so we’re spacing out our enjoyment of them, treating ourselves every now and then. We’ve enjoyed egg/cheese sandwiches, PB with or without jam (with pickles for Steve!) and more cream cheese. What’s not to like!

Spring is still deciding what it wants to be. My tulips came up early and the flowers have been dunzo for a good week and a half. Oh my. Here they are a few weeks back.

Whatever you’re doing and wherever you are - enjoy! Until next time.

March 15, 2026

Pasteis de Nata adventures at home

March 15, 2026/ Susan VandenBerg

After a wonderful class in nata making at Nat’elier in Lisbon a few weeks back, I was determined to make these popular Portuguese treats at home. I went through several rounds and definitely learned a few things in the process.

When I started drafting this post, I felt like I was getting carried away with too much info on steps and recipe variants (you know me!). Instead I offer you the recipe that I plan to use from here on out as well as what I discovered about making these gems. The recipe is an amalgamation of the one I received from Nat’elier and the one that came with the nata tins I purchased - very similar.

The puff dough is easier/quicker than traditional puff pastry. It can be made with butter or margarine, although I’m told that margarine is what the “big houses” in Portugal use to make these. Our instructor at Nate’lier explained that margarine is more plastic, rolls more easily and stands up to very high heat. Oven temps are generally anywhere from 480º to 550º for these tarts but the word is that some shops bake as hot as 800º! Obviously we home bakers won’t be doing that, although hmmmm . . . . how about some of the pizza ovens available these days that get super hot?

The folding steps are fewer and there are no chilling and resting times other than a short rest before rolling the dough into a log and a final fridge rest once the dough is completed (45 minutes up to 2 days). The final tight log rolling of the dough is what yields the many layers. Here’s the recipe again.

One of my tests involved a more complicated and more fussy way to make the puff pastry - I’ll show you a bit about that later.

Below is my initial trial with the reverse puff I had in my freezer (I make it with spelt and all purpose flour) just to give you a visual of the log rolling process. The dough is brushed with water to make it sticky . . . . .

. . . . then rolled tightly from the bottom edge a couple of times to get things going . . . .

. . . . then finished off. The diameter of the log should be about the same as the diameter of the tart tin bottoms (3.5 cm). Wrap and chill at least 45 minutes up to 2 days. It can also be frozen.

The custard is straight forward with ingredients much like a classic crème pâtissière - milk/sugar/flour cooked to thicken; egg yolks added. Traditionally lemon rind and cinnamon stick are steeped in the milk mixture. I left the cinnamon out but am certainly not opposed to it. You can also sprinkle cinnamon and powdered sugar on top of the baked natas.

Nat’elier uses 2% milk, feeling that the lower fat content makes for a more creamy, less flan-like custard. I used both whole and 2% in my trials and didn’t see much difference. Some recipes I reviewed instruct that skim, 2% or whole are options.

Nat’elier also allows the cooked milk, sugar, flour mixture cool before whisking in the egg yolks, again feeling that gives a creamier end result. I also added a splash of vanilla extract at the end.

The following image is hazy (sorry - a fair amount of steam coming off the pan) but shows the amount of thickening to look for in the milk, flour, sugar mixture. A track should remain as you pull a spatula through it. It also thickens a bit more once cooled.

Here’s one more visual of the thickness as I was getting ready to whisk in egg yolks for one of my trials . . . .

Let’s take a look at my results.

My first round - As mentioned earlier, I used some of my reverse puff pastry from the freezer and made a half recipe of Nat’elier’s custard (a very close version to the one I’m sharing with you); I used a mini muffin tin and baked 10 pasteis. NOTE: I did not butter or oil the wells.

Slice the log, place a portion in each well and, with a thumb dipped in water, press directly down into the center of the dough. Using thumbs or index fingers push the dough up to the rim forming a lip at the top.

Have your oven heating for a good 30-40 minutes. I baked these at 480º, 5-10 minutes, rotate, then another 5-10 minutes. The custard shouldn’t jiggle - if it does give them another couple of minutes. You know my mantra - pay attention to what’s going on in that oven of yours!

The shape of the mini muffin tin is taller and narrower than the traditional pasteis tins and the end result looked more like a muffin with the custard puffed up above the rim. These popped out of the wells easily.

In my eagerness to taste one, I cut one in half while still quite warm. Note the bottom dough layer - doesn’t look fully baked. However after waiting until they fully cooled, I cut open another and the dough looked much better. And they tasted great!

General rule - they taste best when freshly baked with a hint of warmth or at room temperature. Warm in the oven gently the following day (if you still have some hanging around).

Moving on - being one who prefers doing things in a traditional fashion, of course I succumbed and ordered a set of 12 nata tins - made in Portugal and accompanied by a recipe which, by the way, is very much the same as the one I received from Nat’elier. Hmmmm.

The tins come in two sizes, one shallower than the other - I went for the shallower one. Made from galvanized steel, they arrive with a protective coating that requires the tins to be seasoned before use - 500º - 550º oven for 90 minutes! Whoa! Wipe clean with a cloth or paper towel once cooled. With continued use they are meant to be non-stick - a bit more on that next.

**The tins arrive shiny but develop the darker patina once seasoned**

My second round: Always one to poke around, I discovered David Leite’s nata recipe during an online search. He’s a Portuguese American foodie who has a great web presence with lots of recipes and more. Comparing his dough to that of Nat’elier’s, he uses a higher ratio of butter and water compared to the all purpose flour. It’s not so much the actual recipe that caught my eye but his method of creating the puff pastry (note he uses butter NOT margarine).

I’ll leave it that he rolls the dough much more thinly, spreads soft butter on portions of the dough then folds it to create the layers. The dough is very soft and has to be handled with a gentle touch.

The image below gives you a sense. Butter spread over two thirds, the left third gets folded over the middle then the right third over that for the first 3-fold. He completes that process one more time.

The last step is rolling the dough into a rectangle and spreading butter over the entire surface of the dough before doing the final rolling into a log. Quite a process. Here’s the fully folded/buttered dough ready to log roll.

Leite also uses a different approach to making the custard by cooking a sugar syrup to 220ºF/104ºC which is then whisked into a milk/flour mixture and cooked to thicken then cooled until warm.

Vanilla and egg yolks are whisked in and the mixture is then strained and allowed to cool to room temperature. As I’m learning, the addition of the yolks when the mixture is not piping hot yields a more creamy custard texture. The custard keeps in the fridge for a couple of days as well.

Remember - you can check out his recipe here.

**Set up for custard - more pans required**

Leite bakes his natas at 550º (I did 525º). I had seasoned my tins so I thought a light oiling or buttering wasn’t needed. I was wrong.

Here are the tins lined with dough; filling recommendation about 3/4 full. I went a little too full.

General baking time is about 12-15 minutes, rotating the tray half way through the bake. Tops classically have browned spots and the custard shouldn’t be jiggly.

I admit (and regret!) that I forgot to take pictures of the tray just out of the oven. I was side tracked by the mess - custard spilled over the edges and onto the parchment. I had to carefully pry the tarts out with a paring knife and offset spatula and was left with stuck on crust particles in the tins. Whoa!

But the good news is they were delicious! Fortunately I was able to preserve the bulk of each one even after prying them out.

They had that shattering crispness with a lovely creamy filling.

I soaked the tins and was able to get them clean - popped them back into the hot oven to dry. No harm done.

My third round: OK. Take a deep breath. We’re almost there. Remember - I share all of this for your benefit, but also so I can remember what I did!

This time I made the dough with the recipe I’m sharing with you - one batch with butter and one with margarine. I lightly oiled (use a neutral oil) most of the tins but left two of them un-oiled (one for butter and one for margarine). So I shaped six of each, five of each going into oiled tins (let’s call it paranoia) and one of each into un-oiled.

Baked at 500º - convection this time. I’ll add here that the recipes I reviewed didn’t specify conventional or convection but our chef teacher at Nat’elier mentioned a more even bake with convection.

Six minutes, rotate, six more minutes then 2 minutes more to finish. Voila!

Notice the margarine versions (on the right in the image above) baked up more generously with more obvious layers of the puff.

Good news - they ALL released easily from the tins so I think the seasoning has reached the proper stage. It should only continue to improve with ongoing use. Hurray!

Here’s a cross section of a butter and a margarine version showing a more ample bake with the margarine one.

Do I have a scientific reason for that? It turns out that margarine has a higher melting point, is more stable and less likely to melt out of the layers during the bake, resulting in more consistent and dramatic layers. OK I get it!

I also discovered (had NO idea) that there exists a “puff or pastry margarine” that has a higher fat content. I used a basic Land O’Lakes margarine and found those results to yield a crisp, shattering crust. Wonder how much better the “puff margarine” might be?

They were both delicious yet I lean more toward the butter version for the flavor. It’s clear that one can reheat these the following day and they’re still pretty good, but I notice the pastry does become less tender and develops a hint of “toughness” or chew to it. That was the same with both butter and margarine.

The final word? I’ll use the recipe I’m sharing with you and will most likely stick with butter as my fat of choice. I typically don’t keep margarine on hand but I do have 3 sticks left from the pound of Land O’Lakes I bought so . . . . why not use it up, eh?

Here’s to hints of spring (my tulips have started coming up!) and happy baking.

February 22, 2026

Pastel de Nata

February 22, 2026/ Susan VandenBerg

Bom dia! Having recently returned from Portugal, I’m here to share my experience with pastel de Nata (pastel is the singular of pasteis), the classic custard tart seen everywhere in this small country.

This being our first visit to Spain’s petite neighbor, we enjoyed many experiences in spite of weather that was all over the place. We had coolish days with spurts of wind and rain and occasionally sunny breaks interspersed. So windy in fact that mid Portugal sustained damaging winds with many trees blown over or snapped off, metal road signs twisted into pretzels and debris strewn here and there. Our planned train trip from Lisbon to Porto was canceled (all trains going north were affected) but fortunately there were buses aplenty that got us to our destination in almost the same amount of time as the train. Gotta love it!

As many of you well know, I’m a huge fan of custard in most any form so I knew that when we were planning this trip to Lisbon and Porto, I should search for a class experience to learn the secrets of this delectable treat. And so I signed up for an afternoon session at Lisbon’s Nat’elier.

Turns out the shop was just a few blocks walk from our AirBnB so Steve and I decided to check it out a couple of days before my class.

The case was chock full of pasteis (plural of pastel) in different flavors ranging from the traditional to a take on the currently popular Dubai chocolate bars; apple crumble, tiramisu, crème brulée and cherry were just a few of the many other options. The space is airy and open with seating on the main floor as well as on a wrap around sort of balcony offering a great view of the main space. There’s a robust coffee and drinks menu as well.

I chose the traditional pastel and Steve the Dubai version along with an espresso. I foolishly went with an over the top hot chocolate with whipped cream and caramel which made me wonder if I’d even want dinner ((I don’t indulge very often!)

The pastry was crispy, flaky and delicious; the custard smooth with a hint of cinnamon. Steve’s Dubai tart had chocolate hidden under the custard and pistachio cream dolloped on top.

There happened to be a class going on that afternoon - we could see the activity through the windowed teaching kitchen at the back of the shop. My turn would come in a couple of days.

Whereas the class we had witnessed was chock full (I think they take a maximum of 12 in a class), my class had three attendees - Ulrich from Germany, Michi, a pastry chef from Japan and myself. The space is laid out simply with a couple of work tables, all essential tools, a sheeter, mixer, oven etc.

Our chef Adriano had come to Lisbon from Brazil and was able to speak English as well as some Japanese. Michi didn’t speak any English, while Ulrich spoke it fluently. Interesting how one can communicate even when not knowing a particular language. Somehow it just works.

We all went through the steps of creating the laminated dough. One surprise for me was the fact that we used margarine instead of butter in the puff pastry. Our chef explained that because it’s more “plastic”, it’s easier to create the finished dough in a relatively short period of time without the usual rests in between the folds and turns. It also stands up well to high oven heat. With a bit of online reading I found that some pasteis are baked in as high as 800ºF/400ºC ovens!

SIDE NOTE: the recipe we were given at the end of class uses butter in the puff. Every other recipe I’ve looked at on line does as well. Also - one can use a high quality all butter puff from your local grocer if you prefer not to make your own.

Another eye opener was making the base dough by hand, kneading for a good ten minutes then starting the beurrage after only a short rest period for the dough. Certainly different than the way I’ve been making puff pastry for years! I guess you CAN teach an old dog new tricks!

I’ll give you more detail about ingredients and the process in the upcoming post when I share my “at home” adventures with making pasteis.

For this class, we enveloped our margarine in the dough . . . .

. . . . then rolled it out long, did a three fold, rotated 90º, rolled out again and did another three fold, all back to back without resting. I was amazed at how smoothly it rolled out without any resistance.

Then, placing the dough with the long edge facing us, we gave the surface of the dough a light brush with water (helps the layers stick) and starting by rolling the leading edge over tightly. Continuing on, we then rolled it into a snug log. We wrapped the logs and refrigerated them for 10-15 minutes as the oven heated to 500ºF.

Lightly oil or butter the tins. Slice the log into pieces as wide as the height of the tins then place them cut side up in the tins.

Next we dipped a thumb in water and pushed down directly into the center of the dough. Push firmly to flatten the bottom then work the dough evenly up the sides to create a rim just over the edge.

We had made a big batch of custard a little earlier in the class - made with 2% milk, cinnamon stick and some lemon peel first brought to a boil. Reduce heat to low as you add a flour/sugar mixture, stirring constantly to avoid lumps. Then cook over medium heat until thickened a bit (it should leave a trail when lifting the spoon) then set aside to cool to room temperature. Egg yolks shouldn’t go in when the mixture is boiling hot - add the yolks to the base custard mixture right before filling the shells. I’m told this lends itself to a nice silky custard that isn’t too firm or flan like.

Fill each shell with custard almost to the top.

We each made four (there was plenty of dough left that our instructor used to created palmiers). Bake at 250ºC/480ºF for 5-6 minutes then rotate trays and bake another 10-12 minutes until set.

The well browned tops are a sign of a well baked pastel - if the center wobbles a bit, bake a couple minutes more. Let cool briefly then remove from the tins. HINT - more about my experience with this in the next post!

After class we were invited upstairs to a sitting area to enjoy our freshly baked pasteis along with a coffee beverage of our choice.

Next up we’ll see how my experience at home went! I didn’t want to overwhelm you all in one go so stay tuned . . . . adventures await.

February 10, 2026

A little taste of Portugal

February 10, 2026/ Susan VandenBerg

Steve and I recently returned from Portugal where we spent time in Lisbon (6 nights) and Porto (5 nights). We enjoyed our stay in spite of weather that was quite variable - from brief torrential rain showers and wind to occasional blue skies and sunshine with temps in the mid to high 50s. At least there wasn’t any snow!

Check out Steve’s blog for LOTS of detail on what we saw and did.

The ubiquitous custard tarts - pasteis de Nata - were all over the place and we tried them at a handful of bakeries and cafes. All a bit different in their flavors and textures but generally pretty tasty. The highlight for me was taking a hands on class in making these little delights at Nat’elier, a shop right in the heart of Lisbon’s old quarter not far from our AirBnB. We even got certificates to prove it.

Here’s the group - Michi from Japan, our chef instructor Adriano from Brazil, Ulrich from Germany and moi.

The class was well orchestrated, interesting and offered a couple of unexpected variations on ingredients and process. Now I’m poised to make my own version soon which I’ll share in a separate post.

Below are a few images of things we enjoyed (mostly food related of course).

We paid Nat’elier a visit a couple of days before my class so we could test out the product.

**Dubai version on the left and traditional on the right**

Architecture abounds. One day we visited the Jerónimos Monastery in Lisbon’s Belém neighborhood - what a marvel of design and structure.

Tiles and tile work are also HUGE around the city - here are just a couple of examples of tiling in the monastery . . .

While randomly strolling one can always find flowers . . . .

The image above shows you a perfect example of the street surface in many parts of Lisbon - small, square stones laid by hand. They can be very uneven and slippery when wet so it pays to be careful!

Bakeries are everywhere . . . . .

In Porto we met up with our British friends, Richard and Pauline (remember - Steve has written about all of our adventures). The WOW (World of Wine) was quite a place and lots of fun. Our lunch there at Root and Vine was delicious - I had been craving lighter, fresher dishes after some meals on the heavy side and this quinoa salad was just the ticket. Citrus, nuts, sun dried tomatoes, sunflower seeds, lovely greens . . . YUM.

Our hotel in Porto had a wonderful breakfast spread . . . .

One could also get made-to-order omelettes or choose from hot dishes like scrambled eggs, potatoes, bacon.

Richard celebrated a birthday during our stay and he was supplied with a lovely Happy Birthday breakfast treat that morning.

We enjoyed dinner a couple of nights at the hotel as well. I had a delicious apple tart for dessert one evening - right up there with The French Tarte’s!

Now we’re back in the land of snow and ice and look forward to spring.

I’ll get to work on my pastel de Nata project/post and be back with you before too long (I hope).

January 02, 2026

Chocolate and pistachio (a match made in heaven): Caramel pistachio ganache tarte plus one more

January 02, 2026/ Susan VandenBerg

I admit I’ve been on a bit of a pistachio kick lately. Pistachio millionaire’s shortbread and pistachio amaretti just to name two. I’ve made the amaretti a few more times lately - so, so delicious and pretty straight forward to boot. And the best thing is they hold beautifully in the freezer!

When I contemplate dessert ideas for a dinner gathering with friends (thanks Shirley!), a tarte (of course) is usually at the top of my list. How about caramel pistachio chocolate ganache - well that was easy!

First - a quick aside, health wise. Nuts are a favorite of mine, and I keep a stash of lightly seasoned, toasted mixed nuts on hand, usually walnuts, pecans and/or almonds. Along with my morning latte, I can jump start my day with fresh fruit, a small bowl of said nuts, some cubes of cheese and a small energy bite (almond butter, honey, toasted old fashioned oats and finely chopped dark chocolate). What a great way to fuel up for my mid morning exercise classes at our local fitness club - they lift my spirits every day!

OK - let’s get to work. This caramel-y, nutty, chocolate-y tarte is an amped up version of the chocolate ganache tarte which I have oft mentioned over the years. I posted specifically about the pristine all-ganache version on November 25, 2023 (click on the post in the right sidebar if you’d like to read about it.)

It’s a great dessert basic which comes together in a straight forward fashion. I keep it au naturel most of the time but when I want to add something to the flavor profile, bring in some crunch and dress it up, I go with a bottom layer of caramel and nuts in a blind baked pâte sucrée au chocolat shell (or choose a basic pâte sucrée). The ganache is then poured over and chilled to set then garnished with a little Chantilly cream and additional candied nuts (or however you might like to add your own touches).

**Pouring the ganache - this one’s from a few years back with mixed nuts/caramel in a *pâte sucrée* crust**

I’ve created a PDF for you which includes recipes for the chocolate dough, the ganache filling, my base caramel recipe plus guidelines for quantities of the components for different sized tartes. It’s all there for you.

For planning ahead, you can blind bake your tarte shell even a couple of days ahead and hold it in the freezer until you’re ready to proceed. I always have my house made caramel sauce in the fridge so I’m set there, but you can opt to use a decent store bought version. Have your choice of lightly toasted nuts ready - do that ahead as well since, once toasted, they’ll be fine in a covered container at room temp for several weeks.

On a caramel note - if I’ve EVER purchased store caramel, it’s been a long, long, long time! I did a quick look for highly recommended brands and it looks like Coop’s, Williams Sonoma and Trader Joe’s do a pretty good job. You definitely want something that isn’t too runny and those three are touted as thicker than many others. Look for good ingredients like cane sugar, cream, butter, maybe vanilla, a little sea salt. I avoid high fructose corn syrup at all costs.

Moving on . . . . fill the tarte shell early in the day of your event.

Below are an 8” tarte (used my 200 mm ring) with a couple small 65 mm / 2.5” ones on the side (extra for Steve and myself!). The caramel pistachio layer is spread in the baked tart shells with the mise for the ganache in the foreground.

For this I used a scant cup of toasted pistachios and a scant 3/4 cup caramel which works for either an 8” or 9” tarte. Here I simply kept a small amount aside for the two minis.

For the ganache heat the cream to a boil, pour over the chocolate and butter and blend. Blend in a teaspoon of espresso powder dissolved in 2 tablespoons hot water. Remember the recipe here.

Pour somewhat slowly as to avoid air bubbles. If they do happen, I pop them with the tip of a sharp knife. Let cool at room temperature for an hour or so. You don’t want to refrigerate immediately when the filling is still pretty warm - you’ll get unwanted moisture droplets forming on the surface. Not good. Then refrigerate for at least an hour to fully set the ganache. You can let it be in the fridge for several hours if needed before doing your final garnish.

As in this case, when preparing for a dinner gathering, I garnish the tarte an hour or two ahead - sprinkle on some chocolate crumbs leaving a bare edge for a nice piped ring of Chantilly. Lightly dust the crumbs with confectioner’s sugar for a light snowfall look. Hold in the fridge until 20 or so minutes before serving.

Once sliced, top each serving with an additional dollop of Chantilly and some lightly candied, chopped pistachios. So good.

The diners loved it!! It was a perfect end to Shirley’s “shrimp in purgatory” served over pasta along with a lovely side salad.

But . . . . . . before I go, one more chocolate pistachio creation. Using my go-to financier recipe, I subbed ground pistachios for half of the almond flour, made the base mixture and refrigerated it overnight. When it was time to bake, I finely chopped ~120 g 61% Guittard chocolate discs and blended them into the batter.

You see my favorite mini muffin sized silicone molds below, filled about 2/3 - 3/4 full.

Bake at 375º 15-18 minutes. Let rest a few minutes then turn out of the molds and let cool.

I froze some for later enjoyment - I do that a lot - then garnished a half dozen with dark chocolate ganache and a fine sprinkle of pistachio crumbs. Steve and enjoyed two and the remainder went to accompany some vanilla-buttercream-topped pear almond teacakes as a gift for friend Kim S.

May 2026 bring peace, joy and quietude - and plenty of baked treats for those you love!

December 12, 2025

Laminated pastries - what fun you can have!

December 12, 2025/ Susan VandenBerg

I love both the process of making laminated dough as well as the variety of treats one can create with it. Through the summer months I don’t do much in that particular realm (just doesn’t seem quite right), but once autumn/early winter rolls around, it’s a new ball game folks!

Of course the standards are always on the table, my favorites being croissants, pain au chocolat, and croissant aux amandes. It’s often when I have a croissant class coming up (as I did in November), that I start making completed dough as well as portions of detrempe with which the students can work. They leave class with fresh croissants (and sometimes pain au chocolat) plus their own half batch of completed dough to play with at home.

Here’s my standard croissant dough recipe. For those of you familiar with the process, I’ve been playing around with the folding steps. I was taught in pastry school (whoa - going on 20 years ago!) that croissant dough is put through three 3-folds (also referred to as business letter folds). For awhile now I’ve been doing a 4-fold (or book fold) and a 3-fold and calling it good. But lately I’ve added a 2-fold at the end of that process. I like the way the layers come out. Don’t be afraid to play around with it.

As a result of preparing for the class, I was left with some 1/2 portions of dough in my freezer (never hurts to make extra!). It was definitely time to use those babies up. NOTE: yeasted dough can be frozen, but it’s best to use it within 4 weeks or so. Much longer and the yeast sort of dumbs down and the rise isn’t as good.

As some of you may realize by now, I prefer my treats in smaller portions - you know that “everything in moderation” mantra I swear by. I aimed for three different laminated pastries, each version made using a half portion of completed dough.

Technical steps coming up!

For this project I initially intended to veer away from the standards (like pain au chocolat) but since I have a stash of chocolate batons on hand, I thought it best to use some of those for one of the three versions. For the other two I chose classic “Danish” and some twisty spiral knots.

Let’s go through the steps of each (I’ll try to keep it succinct!)

For standard Danish one would typically cut six ~4”x4” squares from a 1/2 portion (rolled out 8”x12”). To yield 12 smaller pastries I rolled the dough out to 9”x12”, cutting 3”x3” squares as seen below.

Pipe a round of crème d’amande in the center.

Fold the corners into the center and press them down to hold them in place.

Don’t be afraid to push down in the center pretty firmly. Lightly brush with egg wash.

It’s important that laminated dough not rise at anything warmer than 78ºF. If too hot, the butter leaches out during the rise and the bake. I create a warm moist environment (yeast loves that!) either in my turned off oven with a pan of hot water in it or under an overturned clean tote bin with cups of hot water tucked next to the sheet pan(s).

Below is one example of my proof set up - my tote is large enough to stack 2 half sheet pans (using three wooden blocks) and have room on the side for a couple of cups of hot water to provide moisture. Here the bottom pan holds croissants and the top pain au chocolat - you can see the condensation inside the lid. Works great!!

Let the pastries rise about 2-2.5 hours. Look for a more pudgy appearance and more visible layers.

Top them with an additional dollop of crème d’amande, some apricot jam, crushed almond slices and a sprinkle of raw sugar. Give them a second egg wash.

Start the bake at 400º - I always check at 10 minutes in and will reduce temp to 375º if browning seems to be going too fast. Total bake time is typically 20-25 minutes. Here my jam sort of slid off - next time I’d mix the jam and crème d’amande together, both to protect the jam from burning (Susan - you should have known better) and keeping the filling more in the center. Invariably the corners do open up some but, believe me, the end result doesn’t suffer.

For my twisty spirals I decided on a hazelnut orange filling. For my 1/2 portion of dough I blended 42 g / 3 tablespoons soft unsalted butter with a large pinch salt, zest of an orange and 66 g / 1/3 cup brown sugar (light or dark - you decide).

I rolled the dough out to a 9”x18” rectangle and crumbled the filling mixture over one half. TIP: I didn’t do this here but, when you have a crumbly filling, it helps to blend in a bit of egg white to give it some cohesion.

Fold the bare half of the dough over the filling covered half and lightly go over it with the rolling pin to press things together. I end up with a 9”x9” -ish square.

I wanted a yield of 12 pastries so I cut 3/4” strips and twisted and knotted each. Every time I do this it comes out a bit differently. Play around with it.

Egg wash, let rise a couple of hours. You should appreciate more fullness as they’ve risen. Lightly egg wash a second time.

Bake at 375º about 20-25 minutes. I brushed ‘em with some vanilla simple syrup just out of the oven.

Last but not least - pain au chocolat. Normally a p.a.choc is about 3” wide (the width of the batons used) and a half batch of dough yields six standard sized pastries.

To go for a smaller, narrower version, I cut my batons down to 2”, allowing me to get 9 portions out of the half batch of dough. To achieve that, roll the dough out to a touch over 6” wide and about 15” long

For each pastry rectangle you want enough length of 4.5 to 5” to form a decent log. Place one baton piece across one end, just in a bit from the edge. Roll that edge over the baton then place the second baton (or pieces placed together) tucked up against the dough/first baton. Get it? Then roll it up into a snug log.

It’s important that the visible cut end of the formed roll be face down on the sheet pan - enough to keep the pastry from rolling open during baking. Don’t worry - it does happen, but they still taste good!

Below is the side view of the finished shaped logs - you can see how the end edge is just underneath. If you roll it back too much, the whole thing will unfurl during rising/baking; roll it more forward and that cut end will open right up.

Here they are after a 2.5 hour rise. More pudgy and the laminations more visible. The dough takes on a softer more supple look and when you jiggle the tray a bit, the pastries also jiggle. It takes practice - eventually you just know.

Bake at 400º about 20 minutes. A bit of unfurling but not bad at all. You want the visible edges to be lightly browned (not pale). A sign of a well baked pain au chocolat or croissant is it’s lightness when picked up. If it feels heavy, it’s not done inside.

Okay! So much for that project. It’s pretty wintery here in west Michigan.

A bit of holiday cheer for you. Until next time - happy baking!

October 30, 2025

Happy Halloween!

October 30, 2025/ Susan VandenBerg

This one’s a quickie to say hello and wish all of you continued enjoyment of this autumn time of year. I know there are many Halloween lovers out there too!

Steve and I visited nearby Frederik Meijer Gardens a couple of nights ago to see the pumpkin walk through the woods - very cool and fun, especially for the kids. There were lots of folks out on a beautiful evening, not too cold and with a clear starry sky. My most beloved time of the year.

I had hoped to share a recent cake baking project here but, alas, even though it sounded good up front (a Norwegian twist on a honey almond cake), the end result was, in my humble opinion, THE most boring cake I’ve ever eaten. Enough said. I’ll just have to jump to a new project . . . . hmmmm, what might it be? I’m overdue for the next FAVE post so I’m chewing on the possible topics. Stay tuned.

In the meantime I’ll share a few photos of past pumpkin bakes. Steve prefers to keep pumpkin at a very far distance from his mouth so it’s not a regular ingredient in my larder. But it’s kinda de rigueur, especially leading up to T-day, don’t you think?

**Pumpkin custard *tarte* with sesame brittle**

I’ve got my thinking cap on! Until next time.

October 21, 2025

Chocolate tahini tartelettes

October 21, 2025/ Susan VandenBerg

My oh my these are tasty. (Remember those pistachio tahini shortbread I wrote about in August?) Here’s another recipe from Yotam Ottolenghi’s book “Sweet” in which the filling incorporates flavors that marry so deliciously - dark chocolate, tahini and honey.

Invariably at this time of year (baking season!), I go through my supplies and ingredients with an eye to using some that often sit patiently waiting in the cabinet. As it turns out, this summer I had just refreshed my larder with the likes of sesame seeds and tahini as well as a fresh jar of local raw honey from Melody Bee Farms. Even though their shelf life is great, it’s good to start thinking of the delicious treats that might ensue.

This is a three component project (not including garnish) - a classic pâte sucrée crust, blind baked, then a dollop of tahini-honey topped by a lovely chocolate mousse filling baked in the shells. For garnish I whipped up a caramel mascarpone cream and sprinkled on some toasted sesame seeds and a few chocolate pearls.

For planning purposes, you can make the pâte sucrée ahead, line your chosen rings or tins and hold them in the fridge a couple of days or in the freezer for several weeks before blind baking and proceeding with the fillings. It’s all about making things a bit easier folks!

When you’re ready for the full project, blind bake the shells at 350ºF.

Here’s the full recipe PDF. NOTE: for this trial I used 2/3 recipe of the chocolate mousse filling since I was making a smaller number of tarts. The full recipe calls for 3 eggs so don’t let the 2 eggs in the photo below confuse you.

My house chocolate is Guittard’s 61% Lever du soleil in disc form so, since the recipe here calls for a darker chocolate, I picked up some 70% Lindt at our local supermarket. It’s pretty good and worked well here.

The mousse filling is four simple ingredients - chocolate, butter, sugar and eggs. Voila!

I melted my butter and chocolate in a 4 quart Pyrex in the microwave using bursts of medium power and stirring until melted. You can also place the two in a heat proof bowl over a water bath and slowly melt. Let the mixture cool while you whip the eggs and sugar on high speed for 10 minutes until nice and pale, foamy and tripled in volume.

Then fold the whipped egg/sugar gently into the chocolate/butter mixture in two additions until well combined. My 4 quart Pyrex was able to accommodate the volume (remember I made a 2/3 recipe mixture here).

Beat the tahini and honey about 3 minutes to thicken. Here’s the full recipe again.

**Chocolate/butter and egg/sugar Waiting to be combined plus tahini/honey at the ready**

Have your cooled shells standing by and increase the oven temp to 400ºF. Place a tablespoon of the tahini mixture in the bottom then either pipe or spoon in a generous mound of mousse. You want them to bake up puffy (they will deflate once cooled as is true for most baked mousse fillings).

Bake about 9-10 minutes until the top looks matte (not shiny) and a crust has formed. The center should still be gooey.

Let the tartelettes cool completely then gently remove from the rings. Note the deflated filling below.

A nice swirl of caramel mascarpone, a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds and a few chocolate pearls did the trick.

Of course Steve and I enjoyed a taste test and saved a couple in the fridge for another day. A few friendly folks were on the receiving end of the remaining treats. We can’t eat everything can we??

We’re finally seeing some brilliant autumn color - it’s hit or miss but the hits are gorgeous. Even a few simple fallen leaves on the walking path offer a rustic artful display.

Hmmm . . . . . what’s next?

October 10, 2025

Crostata della Nonna (and one more)

October 10, 2025/ Susan VandenBerg

Continuing on my Italian kick, this crostata is as classic to Italians as apple pie is to Americans. Based on another recipe from the book “Dolci” by Renato Poliafito (remember the peach semifreddo?), the name is literally translated as “grandmother’s tart”. A tender, buttery, hint of lemon short crust, a pastry cream filling topped with a lattice of the same crust. Oh my.

A quick note on vocabulary. I’ve seen this type of tart referred to as either a crostata or a torta with some differences in the variables that make it what it is. Some say a crostata may have a more chunky fruit filling and no top crust, similar to a French galette or may be filled with pastry cream and topped with a lattice crust (as in this case). Torta might refer to either a cake or tart-like creation that can be either sweet or savory. In Spanish torta refers to a crusty roll or bread sandwich.

Not too gloss over it too much but I don’t think I’ll worry about which word I use, especially with regard to Italian pastries in the tart family. If you travel a fair amount, you’ll find similar treats in other countries in Europe, Scandinavia and beyond - everyone has their own take on a good thing!

Now back to our topic - just two components and a pretty simple assembly (the lattice can be a bit tricky), the pasta frolla dough bakes up light and tender, a true match for the luscious pastry cream filling. The full dough recipe makes about 750 g of dough of which you’ll use about 450 g, give or take. It’s somewhat akin to my favorite Breton dough but even a bit more ethereal.

Both components can be made a day or two ahead. Then it’s a matter of assembling and baking. I won’t go through the steps for the dough here - just check out the recipe. Any extra dough can go to making cookies (end of post!).

I used my favorite recipe for the pastry cream - 500 ml whole milk, 100 g sugar, 5 yolks and 50 g corn starch (or a mix of 32 g cornstarch and 18 g flour), 1.5 teaspoons vanilla, 40 g unsalted butter.

Heat the milk with half of the sugar. In a separate bowl blend cornstarch/flour, the other half of the sugar with the egg yolks, whisking until well blended. Temper the hot milk into the yolk mixture then return all to the pan. Continue to cook while whisking constantly until thickened and see a couple of “blub, blubs on the surface. Then blend in the butter and vanilla.

I line a quarter sheet pan with plastic wrap (long enough to bring up over the cream), transfer the hot cream to the pan, spread into a layer (more surface area, quicker cooling) then cover with the plastic as you expel any air bubbles. Chill in the fridge until cool.

You’ll most likely use about 2/3 of the cream, but you could always bake up some choux puffs and fill ‘em right up with what’s left.

Heat your oven to 350ºF. Line a half sheet pan with parchment. Have a 9” tart ring at hand. Using about 280-300 g of chilled pasta frolla, roll the dough out to a thickness of about 3-4 mm, lightly flouring the work surface and lifting the dough periodically to keep from sticking. Line the tart ring, creating a rim along the top of the ring. Prick the bottom all over with a fork.

Remove the pastry cream from the fridge and give it a paddling in a stand mixer to smooth it out. Spread the cream into the lined ring to just below the top edge of dough. Smooth the top. Save any extra cream for another use.

Using another 170 g or so of dough, roll it out and cut strips about 3/4 - 1 “ wide. The dough is fragile so if it gets too warm and difficult to handle, place the strips on a sheet pan and pop them in the fridge to firm up.

I’m sure many of you are expert pie makers and can whip off a woven lattice crust licket-y split. It takes a bit for me. I didn’t even try to weave them - just laid some across the cream then the rest at a bit of a diagonal. You can see my patching here and there - it’s OK - it all comes out in the end. Seal the dough strips along the edges.

Bake at 350ºF for about 40 minutes until the dough is golden and the pastry cream is set.

Let cool, gently lift the tart ring off and give it a nice dusting of confectioner’s sugar for that extra special look. It does something for it don’t you think?

So delicious as an accompaniment to afternoon tea or coffee or for a simple, yet tasty dessert. Maybe a few fresh berries on the side?

Leftovers keep covered in the fridge for 3-4 days.

I had planned on a separate post on occhi di bue (bullseye cookies) but thought I’d just tack on a few images for you here. Made with the same pasta frolla dough, simply roll out the dough, cut your desired size rounds then, with half of those rounds, cut out a center bullseye (re-roll the center cutouts for more cookies or bake them for snacks!)

Bake at 350º F about 20 minutes. Let cool then spread a thin layer of apricot jam (or other jam of your choice) on the full rounds, pop them back into the oven for 5 minutes or so to set the jam. Then top with the bullseye rounds. Cool and give them a dusting of confectioner’s sugar. Enjoy!

Until next time (waiting for the autumn colors to burst forth)!

This one’s from 5 years ago at this same time of year. Back then we were deep into Covid and Steve and I wanted to get out of the house. We took a drive to see some autumn color and stopped at Meinert Park, a Muskegon county park on Lake Michigan. Of course I had to put my toes in the water!

October 01, 2025

Why I love Paris

October 01, 2025/ Susan VandenBerg

I’m working on a couple of additional Italian treat posts, but first I want to take time to share some images and thoughts about the City of Light where we’ve been spending the past 9 days. For us it’s not Michelin starred restaurants or la haute couture but the day to day life, the history, the monuments, the parks, the light, the art, the wine, the flowers, the ever changing variety of cuisines from all over the world . . . . . and even more.

We envy the neighborhoods (quartiers) in every arrondisement that offer within easy walking distance most everything you might need on a daily basis; the parks and green spaces where families and friends can enjoy the fresh air and the children run and play; the transit system that can take you from one end of the city to another in less time than it might take us to drive several miles round trip to our favorite cheese shop (or many other things in Grand Rapids). The societal camaraderie in general here is refreshing and healthy.

And, on an eco-friendly note, our friend Marie B. shared with us that pollution is down 40% in Paris due to limiting cars in the city.

You can also read more about things we experienced through Steve’s blog here.

Following are a variety of images from Paris that demonstrate what it is about this place that draws us in. There’s always something interesting around a corner or an unexpected find to surprise you.

FLORA AND PARKS (in no particular order)

A bit of green space at *Place de L’Hôtel De ville,* 4th *arr.*

Florist shop near *Le Bon Marche,* 7th *arr.*

Just a small part of *Le Jardin de Luxembourg,* 6th *arr.*

Playing *petanque* in *Le Jardin de Luxembourg*

Florist shop near *Le Jardin de Luxembourg*

Lovely natural garden near *Le Petit Palais,* 8th *arr.*

**Vineyards near *Musée de Montmartre,* 18th *arr.* (the only vineyards actually in the city)**

Everyone’s out in the park on a Sunday afternoon, near our AirBnB in the 12th *arr*

Walking along *Le Promenade Plantée,* 12th *arr.*

In the courtyard at *Musée Jacquemart-André,* 8th *arr.*

CULINARY AND PASTRY TREATS and a bit more (again, in no particular order)

The following images are from outings that occurred over a series of days, focused mainly on our lunches out and afternoon coffee and treats. Our evening meals were either at home prepared by chef Steve using roasted chicken plus fresh veggies and potatoes, all purchased at the local Place d’ Aligré market (literally just outside our door). We also enjoyed Vietnamese, Algerian and classic French cuisines at nearby eateries.

*Chocolat chaud, macaron au passion, praline chocolat* at *Foucher,* 7th *arr.* (Steve had espresso)

On one outing we had lunch at Café du Trocadero - Steve a tasty chicken salad and I a classic goat cheese/greens/tomatoes/carrots/cuke/walnuts arrangement.

**My *salade au chèvre chaud,* delicious and filling**

Below is our shared dessert - pâte sucrée crust, layer of crème d’amande baked in, topped with crème de pistache and fresh raspberries. It reminded me of a non-pistachio version I make. Good!

***Tarte au pistache et framboise* at *Café du Trocadero,* 16th *arr.***

**Savory *galette artisanal* (classic Breton buckwheat crepe with ham, egg, cheese), *Breizh café,* 18th arr.**

**Classic *Flan Parisien, Musée d’Orsay café,* 7th *arr.* (not as good as The French Tarte’s!)**

*pâtisserie Gosselin,* near the *Orsay* (we tried *paris-Brest* and *Religieuse au café*)

Wine and cheese tasting at Ô *Chateau,* 1st *arr.*

A nice Rosé, *La Vieille Tour,* 5th *arr.* (just off *rue Mouffetard)*

Plus . . . . .

And . . . . . .

*Soupe à la oignon* (classic French onion soup!)

***Le Gouter* (afternoon snack time): *èclair au café, brioche feuilletée, espresso, cappuccino,* at *Blé Sucre,* 12th *arr.***

After initial days of cool temps and rain showers on and off, we enjoyed our first afternoon “sitting-out” coffee experience at Blé Sucré (above) as the weather had turned sunny. Since it was just around a corner from our AirBnB, we opted for another round of treats at the end of our stay.

**Another day - *èclair chocolat et tarte au citron* (reminded me of The French Tarte’s!)**

Of course, I had to throw this one in . . . . . .

STROLLING AND DISCOVERY (once again, in no particular order)

This one was unexpected. When in Paris we typically stop on rue Monge at Pâtisserie Pascal Pinaud where I did two stages (internships) in 2007. The last time we stopped there was back in 2022 when Pascal’s wife was still manning the counter.

This visit we were surprised to see a new look and new name, now called Maison Monge. The shop is definitely refreshed from the days I recall - new faces, newer/cleaner look, more open and inviting. They have some outside tables for morning coffee and pastries or enjoying a lunch time baguette sandwich or slice of quiche. The range of breads and pastries looked good (sorry - forgot to take an inside picture!)

We popped in and talked briefly with the man who seemed to be in charge - I tried my broken French, he did speak some English. Turns out that Chef Pascal has retired! The fellow I just mentioned says he’s in touch with Pascal by phone to receive tips and guidance about the shop’s operations. They just opened three weeks ago! Bon chance I say!

*Maison Monge,* 5th *arr.* New owner, new look

We did try an oranais, one of Steve’s favorite pastries made with Danish type dough with a filling of pastry cream and apricot. We gave it a thumb’s up. Once again, I forgot to take a picture, but here’s a version I made a while back that will give you an idea (whoops - should have been in the pastry section!). Oh well.

Next up was one of those “what’s going on here” as we approached a number of white tents like you might see at a craft fair in the USA. Much to our surprise it was a VERY cool vintage furniture market (brocante) and definitely not one of the often grungy flea markets/rummage sales (know as vide greniers) that one often sees here and there around Paris.

We certainly are in no market for furniture but the quality of what we saw was quite stunning. Below is just one “room” set up that could certainly appeal to many who fancy vintage stuff or retro looks.