Now here's an interesting one - roasted banana ice cream

When I first read this recipe in the book the new sugar and spice, I thought - wow!  What a great way to use up ripe bananas.

It sounded intriguing so I went for it.

We had a bunch of bananas sitting around, not getting any younger, so I peeled them, broke them up and froze them in a ziploc bag until I was ready.

The ice cream base is pretty standard, using cream, sugar and egg yolks, although the sugar comes in at the banana roasting stage rather than during the making of the crème anglaise.

Whereas the recipe calls for 3 cups of heavy cream for the dairy, I used whole milk for one of the cups.  I decided to follow the standard formula in a David Lebovitz recipe that I've been using for years and has always turned out well.

The first step is to heat 2 cups of the dairy with 2 scraped vanilla beans (seeds and pods) and let it steep for an hour or so.

Then in an ovenproof skillet, melt 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, add 100 grams dark brown sugar and 3 tablespoons water. My bananas had been frozen, so during the thaw some juice was created which I used in place of some of the water (Samantha's tip!).

getting ready

Add the bananas and toss them to coat . . . .

then put the skillet in a preheated 450º oven.

Bake the bananas until bubbling and the bananas have broken down.

after the oven

Then purée the roasted bananas (I used a blender) and put them in a medium bowl to cool.  Place a strainer over the banana bowl.

Now this is where I became a tad concerned.  The puréed mixture looked absolutely awful and totally unappealing.

oh my!

But not to be swayed I was determined to see this through.  My hope was that once the purée was mixed into the ice cream base and processed, it would lighten up and not have such a dirty, ugly brown color!

Turning back to the ice cream base, I put 6 large egg yolks in a bowl along with 1/2 teaspoon of salt, poured a portion of the warm vanilla bean infused dairy over the yolks, whisking away.  The mixture is then returned to the heat and cooked while stirring until just thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.  I took it to about 82ºC.

Strain the mixture into the bowl containing the banana puree and whisk in 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract and the third cup of dairy.

Cool this over on ice bath, whisking periodically.

phew! looks better already

Chill the base in the fridge over night.

When you're ready to process the base, have 142 grams/5 oz bittersweet chocolate chopped and ready to go.

ready to start churning

At the end of processing add in the chopped chocolate to blend.

looking pretty good

Put the ice cream in a container and freeze until firm (I usually do this a day or two ahead of when I plan to serve it).  Place plastic wrap directly on the surface of the ice cream to prevent crystallization during freezer storage.

The final product looked just fine and tasted good too.  My only complaint was it seemed a bit icy and not as creamy as I would have liked.

Perhaps the fact that I replaced one cup of cream in the recipe with whole milk, in addition to the moisture in the banana puree, was enough to create the icier texture.

Steve had NO problem with it, but then he's a sucker for ice cream in any way, shape or form!

Pistachio and chocolate butter cake from Samantha Seneviratne

A post holiday gift to myself was the book the new sugar and spice - A RECIPE FOR BOLDER BAKING by Samantha Seneviratne.

Many of the recipes have caught my eye.  My first trial from the book, coffee cardamom shortbread, was a definite success.

Next up is the cover recipe for pistachio and chocolate butter cake, highlighting the use of pistachio paste, cardamom and chocolate chunks (and butter, of course).

The butter, eggs and milk should be at room temperature.

Butter a 9" springform pan and heat the oven to 350º.

Do your ingredient mise en place . . . .

les ingredients

and let's go!

Whisk 223 grams flour, 7 grams baking powder, one teaspoon freshly ground cardamom (hard to see, but it's there on the left side in with the flour) and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a medium bowl.

Cream 113 grams/1 stick room temperature, unsalted butter with 75 grams granulated sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy.

Add two eggs, one at a time, then blend in 198 grams pistachio paste.

Add the flour mixture alternately with 120 ml milk in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour.

Fold in 85 grams chopped dark chocolate (I used a mixture of 56% and 72%).

Put the batter into the springform pan and smooth.  Sprinkle 35 grams coarsely chopped pistachos over the top.

A very straight forward cake batter preparation.

ready for the oven

Bake for about 30-40 minutes.

just out of the oven

How did this work out?  Well, this is one case where it's important to pay attention to what's going on in your oven.

I baked this for a good 50-55 minutes since the center was still loose after the first 30-40 minutes.

At that point all the signs of doneness were there - a tester inserted in the center came out with moist crumbs, the top was nicely browned, there was no central jiggling when I lightly shook the pan, and it felt firm in the center.  Plus the aroma was enticing!

BUT!  Once this cake cooled it sank significantly in the middle and was still not thoroughly baked through in the center.  Disappointing.  You pay attention, you think it's done, but then . . . .

Perhaps the fact that my springform pan was sitting on an insulated cookie sheet kept the oven heat from getting properly into the center - who knows!

However, all was not lost.  I simply cut out the center goo, sliced the cake and served it with Samantha's roasted banana ice cream (see my next post!).  Pretty tasty indeed.

The cake is dense and buttery with a lovely cardamom-pistachio-chocolate thing going on.

If I were to do this recipe again, I would bake the cake in small flexi-molds or individual cake pans.  The baking time would be less, and the smaller portions would bake through more evenly.

Live and learn.  That's what it's all about.

Lemon-lime tart

As I mentioned in a recent post on fresh fruit tarts, I had a blind-baked pâte brisée shell in my freezer just waiting to be filled. I was thinking lemon.

Before the Christmas holidays I had purchased a bunch of Meyer lemons, regular lemons and limes to use as table decor as well as to have on hand for baking. Since I had way more fruit on hand than I would use up efficiently, I proceeded to zest it, freeze the zest, juice the whole lot and freeze the juice too. Always on the prowl for the perfect lemon tart, I tried to track down the recipe for Jacques Genin's famous tarte au citron. I found a couple of recipe versions online as well as a video of Jacques himself preparing said tarte.  Unfortunately the video did NOT include the specific ingredient portions.  Oh well.

Update! I subsequently got my hands on his book on lemon tarts compliments of a student who was in one of my classes at Sur La Table. It’s small, in French and includes many versions of citrus tart. It’s great! But alas very difficult to get one’s hands on in the USA.

While his tart is made with limes, I opted for a lemon-lime combo. I already had my blind-baked crust. NOTE: here’s a link to two of my favorite tartes au citron, including Genin’s version.

The lemon-lime filling is made with 3 large eggs, 170 grams sugar, 180 ml juice (half lemon, half lime for me), zest of 6 fruits (Meyer lemon, lemon and lime combo for me) and 200 grams butter.

Whisk the eggs and sugar in a saucepan, add the zest and juice and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly until the mixture starts to thicken and is just short of boiling (I took it to ~83º C).  You should start seeing fine little bubbles forming around the edges and steam starting to rise up.

Remove it from the heat and blend the butter in with an immersion blender until smooth and creamy.

Since my crust had been in the freezer, I took it out about 30 minutes ahead and warmed it in a 325ºF oven for about 5 minutes.

One approach to a lemon tart is to make the curd, chill it and then fill the blind baked shell with the already chilled curd. Then it goes back into the fridge for additional chilling. Another is to fill the shell with the warm curd, cover the surface with plastic wrap and put the whole thing in the fridge to chill. Even another is to fill the warm shell with the warm curd and put it in the oven at 300-325ºF for about 10 minutes to further "set " the filling.

That's what I did with this one.

before the oven

after the oven

Believe me - the number of ways to approach a lemon tart is as many as the number of lemon tart recipes you'll find out there.  Yes, it's true.  I've tried 'em all (almost).

Once the tart cooled to room temp, I popped it (covered) in the fridge overnight.

We taste tested it the following day as our luncheon dessert at cousin Jen Galloway's house in the woods.  Oh how creamy, tart and lemony it was.  And the pâte brisée crust was PERFECT with it.

Another winner!

Happy Valentine's Day and some puff pastry hearts

 Happy Valentines Day to one and all!

 

I recently gave a puff pastry presentation at OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) at Aquinas College here in Grand Rapids MI.

talking the puff talk

As a prelude to Valentine's Day I simply had to include some puff pastry heart treats for the attendees.

I cut out some heart shaped vol au vent . . . 

and baked them up after egg washing and sprinkling them with vanilla sugar.

I filled them with swirls of whipped chocolate ganache . . . .

Et voila! A tasty treat!

Fresh fruit tarts in January

There's something so attractive about fresh fruits arranged on a layer of vanilla pastry cream, nestled in a lovely tart crust.  A feast for the eyes as well as the mouth.

Recently I received an order for a fresh fruit tart with a request for kiwi and berries.  Typically I use a 1-2-3  cookie-type dough (similar to shortbread dough in the ratio of sugar, butter and flour with some egg and vanilla added in).

But . . . . I had some pâte brisée dough in my freezer and decided to do a comparison between that and the usual 1-2-3.

I don't normally blind bake pâte brisée, but this time I lined 9" tart rings and smaller rings with each of the two doughs, primarily so I'd have something I could sample and compare.

Notice in the photo below how the pâte brisée edge is not as sharp and pristine.  It's an ongoing battle with that dough - trying to keep its shape, avoid shrinkage and have a nice looking end result.

Two things that help when working with pâte brisée are making sure the dough is nice and relaxed before lining the tart form and then freezing the dough in the form before baking.

Keep trying, right?

blind baked pâte brisée

small version of blind baked 1-2-3 dough

larger 1-2-3 version for the ordered tart

I filled the above shell with vanilla bean pastry cream lightened with a bit of whipped cream and topped with fruit.  As seen below on the left, I typically do a little fruit "practice" before placing it on the finished tart.

I added in some mango slivers to give a bit of contrasting color to the kiwi and berries.

getting ready for final assembly

et voila!

As for the smaller versions with the two different doughs, I just randomly topped the pastry cream with some of the fruit leftover from the order, not being concerned about the artistry.  I wanted to know how the two crusts compared taste wise.

the taste tester tarts

The left side is the 1-2-3 and the right the pâte brisée.

Somehow they were switched around for the "cut" pictures.

pâte brisée on left and 1-2-3 on right

While you can't really see a difference in the two doughs photographically, the taste experience was definitely one for comparison.  And to top it off, I stored these babies in the fridge for a day before we ate them.

Both were delicious, although Steve and I agreed that the pâte brisée taste and texture (crispy yet tender and oh so good) outshone the 1-2-3.  They both held up well after their refrigerator day - good to know when planning dessert.

Pâte brisée is now on my hit list of doughs to use for blind baked shells.  The 9 inch-er that I baked for this test went into the freezer for a couple of days after which I used it for a delicious lemon tart.

More on that later.

All in all an enjoyable comparison!

Kouign-amann pudding

Now here's a good one - essentially a bread pudding made with leftover Kouign-amann.  What?!

Of course some might argue that once Kouign-amann are made they'll be gobbled up and there won't BE any leftovers.

Not so in my case.  A couple of months ago I decided to make a batch of K-a, but, instead of baking them in open tart rings, I baked them in flexi-molds.  I thought it would lend itself to much easier release of the final baked goods from their sticky, caramelized holders.

Nuh-uh.  Because the dough was essentially "shielded" by the silicone molds, the K-a exteriors did not caramelize, the dough layers did not bake through and were pale and floppy.  It was a gooey mess.

Note to self: certain things bake and brown much better surrounded by metal.  Yup.

Some of the edges were actually OK and the flavor was there, so something wouldn't allow me to throw them all away and into the freezer they went.

After the holidays I was visiting Schuler Books here in Grand Rapids, looking of course at baking books, and was excited to find a recipe from Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Baking Bible (with Kouign-amann on the front cover no less) for "souffled French toast".

It uses day-old K-a baked in an egg, milk, cream, vanilla custard.  What's not to like.

I removed 480 grams of K-a from the freezer some hours ahead and let them thaw at room temperature.  Notice the misshapen K-a lumps in the photo below.

notice the doughy interior layers

Cut the K-a into cubes and place them in an 8"x8" glass baking dish.

Mix 6 large eggs, 160 ml heavy cream, 60 ml whole milk and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.

Pour the custard over the K-a, cover and soak the mélange in the fridge over night.

ready for an overnight soak

Heat the oven to 350º F.  Bake covered with foil for 10 minutes, then remove foil and bake an additional 10 minutes or until the pudding is puffed, set and nicely browned.

We ate this for dessert au naturale, still slightly warm (when it's at its best, by the way).

I can just imagine it topped with a little chantilly cream, a drizzle of maple syrup and some fresh berries, either for dessert or for breakfast or brunch.  YUM.

So now you know what you can do with those leftover or not-so-perfect Kouign-amanns that you just might have lying around.

Thanks Rose.

Coffee cardamom shortbread

A new shortbread recipe.  Yay!

Cardamom is a spice I haven't used very often.  This tasty version of my favorite type of cookie is from Samantha Seneviratne's book the new sugar and spice - a recipe for bolder baking.  She provides great descriptions of the origins, uses and storage of various spices.

Samantha tells us that "Native to India, green cardamom, Elettaria cardamomum, is the fruit of an herbaceous perennial bush of the ginger family".  The pods are harvested and dried, and the dark brown seeds found inside are ground for culinary use, either savory cooking or baking.

It is generally recommended that one buy whole cardamom pods which have a much longer shelf life than ground cardamom.  Remove the seeds from the pods and grind only what you'll need for a particular recipe, since once the cardamom is ground it will lose some of its fresh flavor and pungency.

I remember one of the chefs I used to work with at Gracie's restaurant in Providence RI always toasted the cardamom pods first to bring out the flavor even more.

Samantha recommends using a light or medium roast coffee, so I chose Starbucks Veranda blend.  I ordered my green cardamom from Spice Jungle, the same folks who run Beanilla, my favorite source for vanilla beans, extract and vanilla fleur de sel.

One thing I noticed right away as I read through the recipe was the higher ratio of butter to flour than most typical shortbreads.  I was intrigued.

Let's go!

First I toasted the 20 pods which, according to the recipe, were to yield about a teaspoon of seeds or 2 teaspoons freshly ground cardamom.

Then I removed the seeds from the pods . . . .

and ground them in my spice grinder with 2 teaspoons of the Verona blend coffee.

The process is a bit fussy but not a problem if the result is a freshly ground spice with maximum flavor!

les ingredients

In a medium-large bowl whisk together the ground coffee/cardamom mixture (seen in the forefront on the left in the above photo), 33 grams/1/3 cup confectioners sugar, 50 grams/1/4 cup dark brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt and 162 grams/1.25 cups all purpose flour (seen on the right above).

Samantha adds the 169 grams/3/4 cup unsalted butter and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and beats with an electric mixer on medium speed until the butter is blended in.

I chose to sand the butter in by hand and realized just how buttery this dough is.  Oh boy.

Press the dough into the pan (9" fluted tart or springform pan in the book - I chose my rectangular straight sided tart mold simply because I like it).

Freeze for about 15 minutes.  It firms up and stabilizes the butter.

Heat the oven to 325º F.

pressed into the tart mold and chilled for baking

Bake for about 40-45 minutes.  The dough should look dry and be nicely browned.

Oh the aroma!

just out of the oven

While the shortbread is still warm cut it into shapes of choice.  I like the baton size so I cut down the middle long ways and then cut narrow strips.

lettin' em cool

The flavor is unique yet scrumptious, offering notes of citrus and spice, and I can appreciate a certain gingery warmth.  The texture is crisp yet tender with a buttery crumb.  A keeper.

Steve even liked them.

Yes indeed.  Thanks Samantha.

Vanilla wafers for Liam

Happy winter everyone!

Recently we hosted my niece Christina and her family during their short visit to Grand Rapids on route from Hawaii to Lille, France where they will be living for the next couple of years.  Yay! Trip opportunity for us!!

Prior to their arrival I asked Christina if there were certain things she'd like to have in the house for the children to eat.  Kiera, age 9 - string cheese; Liam, age 4 - vanilla wafers.

In a recent post I wrote about making my own graham crackers, and the fact that Liam loves vanilla wafers inspired me to give them a try.  I prefer avoiding much of the mass produced stuff in the grocery store, particularly if high fructose corn syrup is involved (it's in the "Nilla Wafer" ingredient list).

I searched online and found an Alton Brown recipe that looked pretty straight forward (and tasty).  You can easily find it by googling "Alton Brown's vanilla wafers" - yes sirree!

The dough was easy to mix - cream butter and vanilla sugar; add egg and blend; blend in vanilla extract and a little milk; blend in flour, baking powder, salt to incorporate.  Then chill the dough for 10 minutes (or longer if your schedule demands it).

Scoop teaspoon balls of dough onto parchment lined sheet pans . . . .

then flatten the balls a bit with the palm of your hand . . . .

ready for the oven

and bake at 350º for about 18 minutes until golden brown.

Side note:  in the photo above you can see a log of dough adjacent to the sheet pan.  I decided to shape that and freeze it for later.  It will be interesting to see how the thinly sliced log cookies bake up.

c'est fini!

While these may not have the smooth surface and well defined edges of the store bought variety, they are tasty indeed.  I describe them as subtly pleasant with vanilla and a hint of salt on the tongue.  The texture reminds me of animal crackers.

I offered one to Liam as a taste test - he took one a bit hesitantly, took a bite and pronounced it good.  Off he went, but a couple of minutes later back he came with "may I have another cookie?".  Yup - they were a hit!!

From now on these will be known as Liam's vanilla "wayers" as he calls them - what a cutie!

Homemade is pretty much always best.

Oh - I made some pear financier that day too - one of Steve's faves.

always a treat

Now it's time to ramp up with some new recipes over the next several weeks.  Can't wait!

Ciao for now and happy baking.

Beet sugar vs cane sugar - live and learn!

Here's a quick tip - pay attention to what the granulated sugar package in your grocery store aisle tells you!  If it doesn't specify CANE sugar it's most likely BEET and, it turns out, the two can behave very differently.

I thought I was quite attentive to that little detail when buying sugar at my local MEIJER store, but, just the other day I realized that their largest line of granulated sugar is actually beet sugar.  Heretofore I don't recall that was actually printed on the bag - but now it is.  Turns out the purple and white Meijer brand bags of granulated sugar are actually beet sugar, while the green and white bags clearly state CANE sugar.

Why am I bringing this up, you might ask?

Since we've been living in Grand Rapids MI I've made a couple of batches of my favorite caramel sauce, a staple I always like to have on hand in my fridge and a recipe I've made many, many times. While it appeared that the sugar cooking process proceeded normally to the medium-dark amber stage, once I added my cream, a little butter and a good pinch of vanilla fleur de sel and chilled the caramel in the fridge, weird things started happening.

The caramel turned a paler tan color and had chunks (and I mean CHUNKS) of crystallized sugar in it - not a pretty picture!  I had to warm it up to try and dissolve the chunks or strain them out, but the stuff still was not the same as my usual deep brown, rich, tasty caramel sauce.

So I finally went on line and found my answer - beet sugar caramelizes differently.  I won't go into the various scientific explanations, but, suffice it to say, I learned my lesson.  I'll be sure to pay very close attention to the sugar package labeling from now on.

what a difference!

I should note that you shouldn't be too concerned about beet vs. cane when doing every day baking like many cookies, brownies, quick breads and more, for many folks won't notice any difference in flavor.  In fact, I made a batch of Steve's favorite brownies just the other day, using the (at the time unrecognized) beet sugar, and they came out just fine and dandy!

FYI - two cane sugar brands available here in GR are Domino and C&H.

So here's to paying attention to the little things!

A pastry year in review and looking ahead

Wow!  It's already January 4 (one of Steve's favorite lines after the new year is "this year is flying by!), and I'm excited about a couple of recently purchased pastry books, compliments of a Schuler's gift certificate from my book lover husband.

Here's a little new-book-preview before I look back at some of the favorite things that I baked in 2015.

Dominique Ansel's The Secret Recipes caught my eye, not because of his cronut fame, but because he shares the history of his pastry profession as well as some of his innovative recipes.  I've just started working my way through the book, and I'm already inspired.

Samantha Seneviratne's the new sugar & spice spoke to me since I'm always trying to think a bit outside the box when it comes to spices and flavor combos.  And her stories of family life in Sri Lanka only serve to enhance the collection of recipes that focus on specific spices such as cardamom, nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla, pepper and more.

And so I look forward to plunging into some new baking adventures.

The cover recipe of Samantha's book is first on my list - pistachio and chocolate butter cake.  Of course I must get some cardamom in the house!

Dominique's "magic soufflé" looks really interesting (and challenging) - brioche dough wrapped around a chocolate ganache filling - man oh man, that should be fun.  I love doing new things with brioche dough, so stay tuned folks!

Now here's a brief pictorial of some of the favorites from this past year.

Galette des rois . . . .

served with chantilly, toasted almonds, fresh citrus and caramel drizzle.

My first English muffins . . . .

served toasted with butter and jam.

Brioche craquelins . . . .

oh so citrusy and crunchy with a crumb to die for.

 Chocolate génoise entremet . . . .

Golden raisin toast apple tart . . . .

Millefeuille chocolat . . . .

 Tarte aux fruits rouge pistache. . . . 

Cannelés bordelais . . . .

Crunchy topped choux  . . . .

Rustic summer crostata . . . .

Gateau Breton . . . .

au naturale

and . . . .

avec crème d'amandes et confiture

Tea flavored shortbread . . . .

Thanksgiving citrus cream tart . . . .

And last but not least a Christmas coconut cream tart . . . .

But I simply can't sign off without a reminder of the perennial favorites . . . .

croissant et pain au chocolat

chausson aux pommes

croissant aux amandes

kouign-amann

Here's to a fantastic year of baking and pastry for 2016!!

Homemade graham crackers and a coconut cream tart for Christmas

It's hard to believe that Christmas Day has come and gone.  Especially with the no-snow-on-the-ground, warm weather we've been having here in west Michigan.  The weeks leading up to Christmas always seem to fill up with various projects, activities and baking (of course!).  And then it's over and time for a new year.

our holiday table

chocolate pot de crème for Christmas Eve supper

spiced, candied nuts as an accompaniment

The other day when Steve and I were checking out Kingma's butcher counter looking for flank steak, we were also perusing the many aisles of food products.  There before my eyes was one of the largest selections of Bob's Red Mill flours that I have ever seen.  The one that caught my eye was graham flour and got me in the mood to make my own graham crackers in preparation for a graham cracker crusted coconut cream tart for Christmas Day.

This graham flour is ground from "hearty dark northern, hard red spring wheat" and "contains all of the wheat berry's healthy and natural elements - the germ, endosperm and bran".  It's good for you!

I first made my own graham crackers some years ago after paying closer attention to the ingredients on the boxes of "store bought" grahams.  I like to keep my baked goods as preservative free as possible and making these crackers at home is really an easy proposition.  So why not go for it?!

I think this recipe may have come from Elizabeth Falkner when she visited Johnson and Wales University in Providence a few years ago as a distinguished visiting chef.  It's a keeper.  I often write up recipes with gram weights and note things I might do differently the next time.  I keep them in plastic page sleeves that I then stash in my many recipe notebooks.

les ingredients

Heat the oven to 350º F.  Line two 1/2 sheet pans with parchment paper.

In a separate bowl whisk 180 grams graham flour with 98 grams all purpose flour and 3/4 teaspoon salt.

In a mixing bowl cream 56 g (2 oz) soft butter with 85 g sugar; add 1 large egg and mix until blended.

Stir in 4 tablespoons honey, followed by 1/2 teaspoon baking soda that's been dissolved in 2 teaspoons of water.

Blend in the dry ingredients.

The dough should hold together and be manageable.  If it's too sticky, add a bit more graham flour.

the finished dough

On a graham flour dusted surface roll the dough out to a thickness of about 2 mm. I work with about half the dough at a time.  It is a tad sticky, but just keep lightly dusting and lifting the dough with a bench scraper to keep it from sticking.

Since my plan for these grahams was to crush them for a graham cracker crust, I wasn't too fussy about how I cut and baked them.  You can certainly cut nice looking squares and even score them with a fork to give the quintessential graham cracker look if you're serving them as a traditional cracker.

ready for the oven

Bake for about 15 minutes and always remember to watch what's going on in your oven!

crisp and golden brown

My graham cracker crust calls for 140 grams (5 oz) of graham crackers so I weighed out what I needed and coarsely broke up the remaining crackers to put in my freezer for the next time.

I crushed the crackers for the crust with the old zip-top bag/rolling pin technique which eliminates having to get out the food processor (or cleaning it afterwards).  Love it!

This coconut cream tart recipe comes from the Baking Illustrated book by the editors of Cooks Illustrated magazine and calls for toasting unsweetened, shredded coconut for both the crust, the filling and the top garnish.  I did that a bit ahead.

crust ingredients

The above ingredients include the 140 grams crushed graham crackers, 2 tablespoons sugar, 70 grams (5 tablespoons) melted unsalted butter and 4 tablespoons of toasted coconut.  Simply mix it all with a fork and press it firmly into a tart pan.

Bake the crust at 325º F for about 20 minutes until fragrant and browned.

waiting for the filling

While the crust cools go ahead and make the coconut cream filling.

filling ingredients

The filling is prepared using a basic pastry cream method.  Place the contents of one 14 oz can of coconut milk in a sauce pan, along with 240 ml (one cup) of whole milk, 35 grams of toasted coconut, 75 grams sugar and 1/4 teaspoon salt.  Heat this to a simmer, stirring occasionally.  Meanwhile place 5 egg yolks in a separate bowl, whisk in 75 grams sugar and 28 grams cornstarch.

Gradually pour half of the hot milk mixture over the yolk mixture, whisking constantly, then return all to the sauce pan and cook, still whisking constantly until the mixture thickens and bubbles.

Take it off the heat and whisk in 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract and 28 grams (2 tablespoons) unsalted butter.

Pour the cream directly into the baked crust, cover the surface with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 3 hours until chilled.

chilled tart ready for garnish

Whip up a cup of heavy cream with a splash of vanilla extract and a tablespoon or two of powdered sugar and spread it over the coconut cream filling.  I love to use my offset spatula to create a simple design.

nothing too fancy here folks!

Then sprinkle some toasted coconut on the top . . . .

and voila, you're ready to go!

Now it's time to take a breath, relax a bit and look ahead to a new year.

A Thanksgiving tart and moving into citrus season

Thanksgiving is now behind us, and we look ahead to the upcoming weeks of December holidays and festivities.

This time of year I start thinking about citrus - all the lovely oranges and grapefruit that come to us from warmer climes.  There's the Cara Cara orange (a lovely pink fleshed navel), the blood orange and the standard navel orange.  And let's not forget tangelos, tangerines and clementines.  Nothing like a bunch of Vitamin C, right?!

As Thanksgiving approached I debated what I wanted to make for dessert to follow the classic American turkey-and-all-the-fixins meal.  Would it be a caramel nut tart or perhaps apple-cranberry or pumpkin ginger?  No - this year I opted for something citrus!

citrus browned butter cream tart

This tart is based on a recipe from Fine Cooking magazine some years ago.  Basically a blind baked pâte sucrée crust filled with browned butter pastry cream and topped with fresh citrus.  What's not to like?

I used my favorite pâte d'amande dough for the crust (I happened to have some in the freezer which made it an all the more attractive option).

lining the tart ring

all lined and ready for blind baking

baked and cooling - just waiting for the pastry cream

The filling is a pretty standard pastry cream made with milk, sugar, egg, cornstarch and, in my case, some added orange zest and vanilla bean seeds.  Yes!  Oh - and some browned butter added at the end of cooking.

les ingredients

In general I like to lighten pastry cream with a little whipped cream, so once my pastry cream was made, I chilled it in the fridge before whipping up a little cream and folding it in.

ready to fold and fill

all filled up

I segmented navel oranges and red grapefruit . . . .

and after drying the segments on paper towel, I did a practice layout . . . .

before the final assembly.

Et voila!

all assembled and ready to transport

We had a delicious Thanksgiving feast at cousin Garrett and his wife Laurie's home in nearby Rockford MI.  We took a break after dinner for some games and chit-chat, and, when it came time for dessert, enjoyed Laurie's pecan and pumpkin pies along with the bright taste of citrus and the smooth creaminess of the vanilla-orange crème pâtissière.

All in all a great day!

The first Michigan snowfall this season, plus some tea shortbread cookies

It's gently snowing at the moment and quite lovely.  We had our first real snowfall over the weekend, about 3 inches or so - really not much, but seeing that first snowy ground cover is always kind of exciting.  What might this winter bring, we ask?

still a few leaves on the burning bushes

looking north

For some time now I've been using a tea shortbread recipe that I received some years ago at a Women Chefs and Restauranteurs conference in Washington DC.  The presenter of one of the seminars on uses of tea in baking and cooking was Chef Laurie Bell of Great Falls Tea Garden.  She had cookie samples to share with us, having chosen a fennel chai tea as that day's particular flavor. So yummy.

I just checked out their website and the business is still going strong. Great stuff for you tea lovers.

http://greatfallsteagarden.com/

Here in GR one can find many varieties and flavors of tea at Schuil Coffee Company. I paid them a visit to pick up some Earl Grey jasmine tea and, in the process, found a Mayan chocolate tea (the staff described it as “peppery”) that sounded like just the ticket for a delicious shortbread cookie.

As you can see above in my much used copy, the recipe includes ground almonds and finely ground tea of choice. Feel free to change up the nut choice to marry with whatever tea you’ve decided to include - lots of options here!

les ingredients

In the bowl above I have 57 gm almond flour (you can grind your own toasted, sliced or slivered almonds easily enough), 130 gm all purpose flour, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 75 gm sugar. In the forefront is my 10 gm of ground Earl Grey jasmine tea which will go in with the dry ingredients.  Then I simply dice my butter, sand it into the dry mix until it comes together.  Wrap and chill.

For the Mayan tea I opted to make two batches - one using the above recipe, obviously replacing the Earl Grey with the Mayan chocolate tea, and one substituting pistachios for almonds and adding cocoa powder to the mix. After all, when I hear "Mayan chocolate", I see a chocolate cookie in my mind's eye. Among other things, the Mayan tea contains cardamom pods, cocoa and ginger pieces and black pepper - all good with chocolate if you ask me.

Oh! FYI - for the pistachio chocolate version I cut the flour back to 110 gm and added 24 gm of cocoa powder to the dry ingredients.

Once the doughs were completed, wrapped and chilled, I prepared for baking.

I love the many different cutter shapes available, and I chose three different ones to help me keep track of which cookie was which.

ready for the oven

These bake at 325 convection for about 20-25 minutes - remember to pay attention to what's going on in that oven of yours!

just out of the oven

Et voila!

getting into the holiday spirit

Bien sûr Steve and I had to do a little taste testing. The Earl Grey jasmine was delightful with a subtle floral hint compared to the more classic Earl Grey with bergamot with which most of us are familiar. And I'm normally not much of a floral flavor fan (how's that for alliteration?)

While the straight Mayan chocolate tea version was smooth and tasty with a nice peppery aftertaste, the pistachio cocoa version was a tad dry, most likely due to the added cocoa powder (but delicious nonetheless).  Next go around I'll back down the cocoa powder a bit to 15 gm and up the flour to 120 gm.  And I'm considering a skosh more butter for that version as well.  The choice of pistachios is great for this flavor profile.

As I anticipate the upcoming December holidays and preparing gift boxes of shortbread,  I'm working on a special tea assortment.  I have a couple more flavor ideas bopping around in my head and hope to have the final assortment chosen soon.  Can't wait!

And Happy Thanksgiving to all from snowy Michigan.

Italian cookie trials and more

It's already November and the holidays are creeping up on us - watch out!!

Lately I've been busy in the kitchen testing out some Italian cookie recipes for holiday gift boxes for a local café. Brutti ma buoni (ugly but good), a ground nut (hazelnut version here) meringue cookie . . . .

Ricciarelli - a classic Senese almond cookie . . . . .

Biscotti doppio cioccolato - double chocolate biscotti . . . .

of course I had to dip some in chocolate!

and semolina shortbread (sorry - no pic!). They all turned out pretty darn tasty!

In the meantime I'm cranking out my own petite shortbread for some sample give away boxes.  I love to hand out goodies for folks to try.

Eight flavors of goodness

Recently I made a batch of reverse puff pastry to have on hand for whatever might come along.  And, being apple season, there's nothing like the combo of buttery puff and lightly sautéed, caramelized apples.  Yum, yum.  Here are some chausson aux pommes I made a couple of weeks ago.

Last week I visited Aquinas College's Browne Center to speak to the ladies there about getting on their "lifelong learning" adult education schedule to teach some pastry classes.  Yeah!

I never like to arrive empty handed so an assortment of treats was in order. In a slightly different take on a chausson I rolled out some puff, cut hexagons, brushed with milk and sprinkled with sugar . . .

and baked them.

puffed and sparkly

I make an indentation in the top of the baked puff, top them with a scoop of the above mentioned apples, drizzle some caramel on and bake them again just to warm the apples through.  So delicious.

I included these apple feuilletée along with matcha-berry financier and some gateau Breton aux amandes et confiture in the goodie box for the Browne center crew.

A brief postscript to the above:  I wrote about gateau Breton in my last post, but this time I topped the dough with either apricot or four fruits jam, a ring of almond cream and some sliced almonds before baking.  What buttery, nutty goodness.

all baked and ready to eat

Lots of fun and much more to do before New Year's Day hits!

Stay tuned.

Gateau Breton

Perhaps I've mentioned this wonderful goodie in previous posts, if only to speak of its ease of preparation and its delightful taste and texture.  In the wake of making a walnut version recently, I thought it time to focus on Breton dough a bit more.  

Absolument!

Gateau Breton au noix

In Brittany a simple gateau Breton is a common offering for petit déjeuner.  It's hard to describe its texture - kind of a cross between cake and shortbread.  When you first take a bite, there is a crispiness to the exterior, but then you reach a dense, almost cake-like interior full of buttery goodness. So deelish.

Breton dough is in the sablé category of dough, but differs from some pâte sablés by changing up the sugar, butter and flour ratios, adding more egg yolks plus baking powder, not a typical ingredient in shortbread and tart doughs.

There are many Breton dough recipes out there.  Most of them utilize equal weights (or close) of sugar and butter in addition to a number of egg yolks, and an amount of flour that is usually about 2 times by weight of that of the sugar or butter.  You can replace some of the flour with a ground nut flour of choice, e.g. almond, pistachio or walnut. Tons of variations exist!

The beauty of Breton dough is its ease of mixing and shaping.  Plus, depending on how thick you bake it, you'll end up with a crispy shortbread (baked thin) or a classic gateau Breton (baked thick).  How can you go wrong with those choices?!

For my walnut version I used Christophe Felder's sablé Breton recipe from his book Les Folles Tartes, replacing the almond flour with toasted, then ground walnuts (toasting nuts before using brings out their flavor!).

I'm a pastry chef who takes lots of notes.  In Felder's book the dough is described thus:  "sablé aéré et léger", and my notation of 2/11/11 was "c'est vrai!" On that date I baked this Breton dough in 60 mm rings and served it with ricotta custard, almond nougatine and a blackberry/raspberry sorbet.  Wow! 

How can something be dense yet airy and light at the same time?  You just have to taste it to understand.

I've since created versions of Breton tarts by topping the dough with almond or pistachio cream and berries or cherries before baking.  You can also add a layer of raspberry or apricot jam (or any flavor you want!) between two layers of dough before baking.  Or bake it plain and top with citrus curd and fresh fruit or coconut cream, candied lime zest and chopped crystallized ginger.  Just use your imagination!

On to the recipe.

les ingredients

There are different methods of mixing the dough - I use the one I learned at LCB in Paris in which one puts all the ingredients except the yolks in the mixing bowl, brings it to the crumbly stage, then adds the yolks and mixes just until the dough comes together.  So easy.

Here goes.  Place 140 g sugar, 150 g diced/cool butter, 200 g all purpose flour, 70 g ground toasted walnuts (almonds if you're following Felder's recipe), 1 teaspoon baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt in the mixing bowl.

NOTE:  Felder calls for 20 g baking powder which is about 2 tablespoons.  I opted to cut it back so as to avoid too heavy of a baking powder taste.

Mix with the paddle on low until coarse crumbs.  Have 3 egg yolks standing by.

ready to start mixing

coarse crumbs

Now add the 3 yolks and blend just until the dough comes together.

c'est fini!

I baked my gateaux Bretons in 80 mm (~3") wide, 2.5 cm (1") tall open rings.  Butter them first and place them on a parchment lined sheet pan.  Heat the oven to 325ºF (I use convection).

Here's the beauty of Breton dough.  When baking it this way, you don't have to chill it or let it rest first.  You can simply press it into place.  I divided the dough up among 6 rings ( ~105 g per ring) and pressed it down evenly.

all divided up

all pressed down evenly

On a side note, if you're baking this dough as a thin cookie, you should wrap and chill it for a couple of hours first.  Then you can roll it out on a lightly floured surface and cut shapes of choice.

Bake these gateaux for about 20-25 minutes and REMEMBER - always watch what's going on in your oven. You're looking for golden brown deliciousness, and the dough should have risen up along the edges of the rings.

golden brown

looks yummy

Let cool for about 10-15 minutes before gently removing from the rings.

I served the gateaux with warm, sautéed plums prepared as follows.

Thinly slice 4 plums, toss them with a bit of lemon zest,  about 1/4 cup of vanilla sugar and  a couple of teaspoons of cornstarch . . . .

all mixed up

then sauté them over med-low heat until the juices are released and start to thicken, 5-10 minutes.

thickened up and ready to go

And the piéce de resistance . . . .

Gateau Breton with sautéed plums, chantilly cream and nut crumble

Très, très délicieux!

Happy autumn tout le monde!!

Autumn baking and an afternoon tea medley

Once again it's been a long time since I've posted here - moving, unpacking, getting settled, painting rooms, figuring out our flow in the kitchen - it all takes awhile.  But now it's officially autumn and yes - it's baking season!!!

The weather here in western Michigan has been pristinely fall of late - cool, breezy, bright and sunny with leaves starting to turn those beautiful reds and oranges that make this time of year so gorgeous.

My last post in early August focused on a rustic peach crostata, and, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, I've continued on in a rustic galette vein (in Italy it's crostata and in France galette) since there have still been late season peaches and berries available at the Fulton Farmers Market.

A few weeks ago I made two galettes for a friend for her Sunday family dinner, and then recently taught my first "guest chef" class at the GR Downtown Market.  And guess what we made - individual galettes - yeah!  So easy and soooooo delicious.

On a different note I continue to contemplate how I'd like to pursue my pastry metier here in Grand Rapids. Aside from teaching classes, afternoon tea is still on my brain - where might I be able to offer such a calming, delicious experience - time will tell, right?  I'm making some connections and working at it "slow by slow" as brother-in-law Jim is fond of saying.

Speaking of afternoon tea, I was invited to share that experience with a former surgical mentor and colleague just the other day.  Of course I HAD to make an assortment of goodies to bring to the occasion.  And, to make that adventure even more enjoyable, our new Kitchenaid range is delivering perfect baked goods!

So it was moelleux chocolat, matcha financier, pear almond tartlets, sablés au miel et herbes de provence, sablés Earl Grey thé and cherry scones with lemon curd that accompanied me to my teatime with Dr. T.

pear almond tartlet, shortbread and scones

It was an enjoyable hour spent chatting about what the years have brought, hopes and aspirations and even how important it is in the medical world today to treat patients as people, not statistics.  I'm on board with that!

So now my head is swimming with ideas for upcoming blog posts, getting back to baking croissants, tarts and shortbread and putting aside (at least temporarily) the unpacking, sorting, organizing, arranging and painting that has been taking up so much of my attention in recent weeks.

It's fall after all!

Michigan peaches and a rustic crostata

It's peach season in Michigan again!!  Love, love, love it.  The photo below is actually one I posted back in October, 2014 from last summer's crop.  Deelish.

Fulton St. farmers market

It seems this summer has been taken up by trips back and forth between Providence RI and Grand Rapids, MI, as well as all the things that have to be done when moving and buying a condo - changing addresses, setting up new accounts (oh boy - more passwords!!!), spackling/sanding, painting and more, more, more.

Even so, I've been able to whip up a few different rustic crostatas in the past week or so.  Planning ahead for some family occasions I made a 3-crostata batch of pâte brisée sucrée (a slight variation on my usual pâte brisée with the addition of egg and a bit of cream), some of which went into the freezer until needed.  I find the texture and flexibility of this dough lends itself very nicely to the necessary dough pleating for a crostata.

Here is one version I made for Mom's birthday with Red Haven peaches plus a few blueberries (Michigan of course) and raspberries tossed in for extra measure.  Add a nice scoop of vanilla ice cream and you're all set.

nice and juicy

love that fruit

Happy birthday Mom!

Gâteau au yaourt and an interesting French measure

A few weeks ago our British friends, Richard and Pauline, came to Michigan for a visit.  They were kind enough to present me with a small gift - a new baking book!  It's in French (which is great practice for me) and is entitled DESSERTS de notre enfance.  

Chock full of classic French cakes, tarts and childhood treats, it soon had me making a list of the goodies I'd like to try.

One recipe that caught my attention was gâteau au yaourt, not so much for its subject but for the method of measurement - a pot de yaourt!  And to top it all off, I had some yogurt in the fridge that needed to be used up.

pots de yaourt measurements

After further research I learned that this is a very familiar and popular childhood French cake often served for le gouter (afternoon snack time) or for breakfast.  It's also one of the first cakes French kids learn to make - so easy!

So I asked myself - "how much is actually in a pot de yaourt?"  Off I went to the trusty internet and found that the majority of pots de yaourt  sold in France hold 125 grams.  I also found a couple of sources that gave me some of the comparable weights and measures for one of these pots:  liquid volume 125 ml; sugar 125 gm; flour 85 gm; rice 125 gm just to name a few.

It took me back to baking books from days of yore in which a recipe might instruct using a "juice glass" or a "coffee cup" as standard measures.  And so it is with the French - perhaps un verre of something or a noisette de beurre is called for; or a c.à.s. (cuillère à soupe) or c.à.c. (cuillère à café), both standard size spoons (akin to our tablespoon and teaspoon) that are typically found in the average kitchen.

But before moving on to making the gâteau au yaourt I had to do a little testing of my own using a 5.3 oz/150gm container of cherry yogurt.  I played around, separately weighing liquid, sugar and flour in the clean and dry container, then did a little math to compare what similar weights would be in a 125 gm yogurt container.  They came out pretty darn close to the figures I had discovered on line (don't worry - I won't bore you with the details).

Now let's make gâteau au yaourt!  

Since I don't have all my baking pans with me in Michigan yet, I rummaged around in Mom's cabinets and found the two different sized loaf pans she's used for many years, from meat loaf to banana bread.  I knew my batter would weigh about 780 gm, so I checked the pan volumes by weighing water in them.  That confirmed for me that the larger of the two pans (see photo below) was just the ticket - the batter would have overflown the smaller pan.  The pan I ended up using is not typical of the standard loaf pans one finds these days.  It's longer, narrower and straight-sided - very nice in fact.

Mom's longer, narrower loaf pan

The gâteau couldn't be simpler.  Butter and flour a medium loaf pan and heat the oven to 350º.

les ingredients

In a medium bowl mix the dry ingredients:  2 pots de yaourt of sugar (equal to 250 gm, although I decreased it to 225 gm, similar to my standard cup of sugar); 3 pots de yaourt of flour (equal to 255 gm which I rounded up to 260 gm or 2 cups); 2 teaspoons baking powder; 1/2 tsp kosher salt.

In another medium bowl whisk together the wet ingredients: one pot de yaourt (125 gm, although I used the full 150 gm of my cherry yogurt - figured the extra bit would add moisture to the cake); 2 large eggs; un demi-pot de yaourt  (63 gm or 1/4 cup) of vegetable oil and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, pour the liquid mixture in and gently incorporate all with a spatula.

wet on dry

Fill the prepared loaf pan . . .

ready for the oven

and bake approximately 50-55 minutes.  Smelling good!

just out of the oven

Cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes then turn out onto the cooling rack to cool completely.

The end result had a nice crispy exterior and the cake had a good heft to it.

Upon slicing it's easy to appreciate the dense crumb.

The flavor was very pleasant, having the nuance of the cherries from the yogurt; the texture was definitely that of a pound cake.

Steve, Mom and I enjoyed it with some Talenti vanilla bean gelato - not a bad way to wind out a hot and muggy Saturday night.

It's summer after all!

Jour de l'Indépendence et les tartes aux saison - cerises et fraises

Happy July 4 tout les mondes!

Steve and I visited the Fulton Street Farmers Market here in Grand Rapids MI yesterday with the express purpose of buying fresh cherries for the tart I was planning for the day's celebration.

Not only did we find cherries, cherries, cherries but soooo much more.  The covered outdoor market is a colorful and enticing destination with all manner of veggies, fruits, perennials, herbs, meats, cheeses and a smattering of local artisans selling their wares.  And surely I've omitted some of the other goods we saw.

Fulton Street Farmers Market

As is often the case, I plan my tarts (and baking in general) around what fridge stock needs to be used up. This time it's ricotta and buttermilk, both perfect complements to fresh summer fruit.

I decided to bake two different tarts as a way to highlight some of the local seasonal fruit.  I was already planning on cherries but when I saw the strawberries, they looked so succulent I couldn't pass them up. I also bought a small box of California lemons for only ONE DOLLAR (such a deal!) - perfect for my lemon buttermilk filling.

So the day's duo includes tarte citron aux fraises and tarte aux cerises/vanille/ricotta.

laying out the fruit

I used my favorite pâte d'amande, blind baked, for both of the tarts.  First up is the tarte citron which is actually a lemon buttermilk tart à la Emily Luchetti.  She makes hers with raspberries baked in the tangy filling, but I baked it sans fruit, saving my fresh strawberries for the after baking garnish.

ready for blind baking

The filling is trés simple and is made by whisking together 3 large eggs, 1 1/2 cups sugar, 1 1/2 cups buttermilk, 2 tablespoons heavy cream, 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice, 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract, 8 tablespoons melted unsalted butter, zest of 2 lemons, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 teaspoon salt and a pinch of ground nutmeg.

working on the filling

Pour the filling into the blind baked crust and bake at 325º for about 50 minutes until set.

just out of the oven

Once cooled I garnished the top with fresh strawberries brushed with a hint of vanilla syrup for a bit of sheen.

Next up - the cherry/vanilla/ricotta tart.  This filling is another straight forward preparation, made by whisking together 4 large eggs, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon flour, the seeds scraped from one vanilla bean, plus 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and 2 cups ricotta (whole milk or part skim - your choice).

les ingredients

Pit and halve 1 1/2 cups of sweet cherries and place them on the bottom of the blind baked tart shell.

Pour the filling over . . . .

ready for the oven

and bake at 350º for about 30-35 minutes until set.

just out of the oven

Once cooled I garnished with a central pile of whole, unpitted cherries just for fun.

Nothin' fancy here folks!

Time to eat.

Slicing was a bit messy.  Steve and I shared a sample piece of each.  The lemon buttermilk was tasty with a nice tang that went well with the fresh, ripe strawberries, but we both found the cherry ricotta lacking a little something.  The texture was smooth but there wasn't much bold cherry flavor to complement the ricotta custard, and I would have liked a more intense vanilla component.

All in all not bad but next time I'd roast the cherries in raw sugar ahead of time (as I've done for gateau Basque) to provide a richer cherry experience.

So Happy Birthday USA!  On to the fireworks!!

A couple of delicious restaurant desserts

I cannot believe it's been a full month since I've posted anything here!  Moving from the Northeast USA to the Midwest seems to be taking up a good deal of our time.  I've already missed the bulk of the Michigan strawberry season, thinking last week that I would make a tarte aux fraises that, alas, never materialized.

Although it did feel good to squeeze in a batch of ricotta buttermilk scones the other day and start to dream of a Michigan cherry ricotta tart for July 4th.

Recently we took a short 2-day trip to Traverse City and the Leelenau Peninsula with our British friends, Richard and Pauline.  We enjoyed picture perfect Michigan summer weather as we toured around the Sleeping Bear national lake shore and dipped our toes in Lake Michigan (Richard actually went in, head under!).

Richard and I running down the dunes at Sleeping Bear

Prior to the trip we had been given some dining recommendations by Patricia Christopher, a fine chocolatier in Grand Haven that we met a couple of months ago.  One of those was Trattoria Stella in Traverse City, very big on the farm-to-table approach.  We enjoyed the food although the service seemed a bit frenetic and the servers somewhat stiff and serious as they delivered their obviously choreographed lines.  Hey folks - lighten up!

I normally skip dessert but when it was time for that portion of the meal, I was intrigued by the choices, since typically I find many restaurant dessert menus to be unimaginative and not all that enticing.

I chose the strawberry-hummingbird option which turned out to be a delicious tart with a hummingbird tea infused custard baked in a lovely crust, topped with lemon ice cream and fresh strawberries and garnished with "hummingbird nectar glaze".  It was very nicely done!

Upon briefly researching hummingbird tea I discovered it's a blend of rooibos tea and hibiscus (apparently very attractive to hummingbirds).  You learn something new every day.

Once we returned to Grand Rapids from the north country Richard and Pauline were kind enough to treat us to dinner out in downtown GR before they took off for Chicago the following day.

I had been to Reserve Wine and Food once before for a wine tasting and thought it deserved another visit.  It's in a refurbished bank and is touted as a "hip and elegant locale" highlighting "farm to fork" cuisine.

After we had finished our delicious, well prepared and nicely presented meals, imagine my surprise to see a Basque cake on the dessert menu!  Whoa baby, now you're talking my lingo!!

Pauline and I both went for it, but since they only had one serving left, our server split it for us and added a nice scoop of vanilla ice cream "for your trouble".  Topped with a strawberry-rhubarb compote, it was deeeelicious.

Yessiree, it's good to be back in Michigan and see how far the culinary scene has come since we lived here 21 years ago.  And it's only the beginning!