Clafoutis #trois

 Peach Clafoutis

It's Bastille Day and to honor my French heritage I like to make or bake something French on this French national holiday.  Last year on Bastille Day, I made a clafoutis (for the first time) with mixed berries and we loved it.  

 Freestone peaches

So this year for Bastille Day, I decided to make a clafoutis again.  I just love this simple and rustic dessert which couldn't be easier to make!

Julia Child describes the clafoutis perfectly in Mastering the Art of French Cooking:
  "The clafoutis is peasant cooking for family meals, and about as simple a desert to make as you can imagine:  a pancake batter poured over fruit in a fireproof dish, then baked in the oven.  It looks like a tart, and is usually eaten warm."

This is my third time (#trois) making clafoutis and I chose peaches this time for my fruit since they are in peak season right now in the Yuba-Sutter area where we live.  I buy my peaches direct from the grower Sodaro Orchards at their farm stand.  Their freestone peaches are at perfection right now!

Peach Clafoutis Recipe

As for clafoutis recipes, I use a recipe that I adapted from Chef Daniel Boulud from a video where he made clafoutis.  Here is the video link to inspire you to make your own:  Maison Boulud's Clafoutis

And here is my printable version of my adapted recipe:  Clafoutis

Happy Bastille Day

and 

Vive la France!


(In the photos:  Apilco Quiche Dish purchased at Williams Sonoma)

Clafoutis

 Mixed Berry Clafoutis

Want to impress your guests...

make a clafoutis!  

I've wanted to make Julia Child's clafoutis for years.  Last week, on Bastille Day, I decided  a clafoutis would be the perfect ending to my French themed dinner so I finally made one.

I've tasted many French desserts but I've never had clafoutis.  From my research, clafoutis is the best known dessert of the Limousin region in France.  This rustic dessert is traditionally made with cherries in a buttered dish and covered with a thick crepe-like batter.  They are also called fruit flans as seen In Mastering The Art of French Cooking, where Julia Child calls them fruit flans.  

In my usual manner, I researched and compared recipes for my clafoutis.  In the end, Daniel Boulud's clafoutis recipe won out!  His recipe includes almond powder (almond meal) which traditional recipes do not.  The batter made enough that I could experiment and make two individual sizes as well as one large clafoutis, too.

Here's how simple a clafoutis is to make:

Step 1

 Fill your buttered and floured oven-proof dish (or dishes) with fresh fruit, of your choice. 

(This dessert was perfect for my petite Emile Henry pie dishes.)

 Step 2

Pour in the thick crepe-like batter.  Bake slowly till golden and puffy. 

 Step 3 

Let cool on a wire rack. 

They will deflate a little...just like a souffle!

Sprinkle on confectioner's sugar and serve. 

Voila

You can get the Maison Boulud mixed berry clafoutis recipe and watch Chef Daniel Boulud make it on this video from YouTube.  

Feeling French

My Salade Nicoise

Today is Bastille Day, 

the perfect day to be a little French and celebrate France's National Day.

One of my favorite meals to prepare on Bastille Day is a nicoise-style salad.  I've tried several recipes over the years (including Julia Child's) and generally combine the ideas and ingredients for my nicoise salads.

According to Jacques Pepin:  "Even in Nice, salade nicoise is put together in different ways and with different ingredients.  Conventionally it will always have canned tuna, tomatoes, and the small olives that are grown in that region."

Here are a few of my tips, that I've gathered over the years, for a delicious nicoise-style salad...

Tuna

It wouldn't be a nicoise salad without tuna.  Buy the best quality tuna you can.  Most recipes tell you to get high-quality tuna packed in oil.  This year, I lucked out and had tuna which was fresh-canned by my husband's family on the Oregon coast.  

Something's Fishy

Anchovies are also a staple in a nicoise salad.  I love anchovies but my husband does not.  So this year I found an anchovy vinaigrette to use so I snuck them in.  Yes, I can be a bit sneaky now and then!

 Also a tip from Julia Child, be sure to use the very best quality oil and vinegar for a superior vinaigrette. 

Anchovy Vinaigrette

My favorite anchovy vinaigrette is by Jeanne Kelley from her recipe Salad Nicoise Un Peu Classique.  Her recipe makes about 1 cup of vinaigrette.  You can find the complete recipe in her wonderful book Salad for Dinner .

I found a site for Jeanne's recipe, so here you go:

Salad Nicoise Un Peu Classique 

Bon Appetit!

Whether you serve your nicoise salad on a platter or a plate don't forget theses staples: oil-packed tuna, tomatoes, hard-boiled eggs, potatoes, capers, nicoise olives, haricots verts, parsley and a bed of lettuce.  Anchovies optional. 

And if you want to make your Salade Nicoise Julia Child's way, you can watch her version from her televison show,  The French Chef.  It's really fun to watch!

As Julia would say:  

"Bon Appetit!"

Feeling Patriotic

 Red, White and Blue

Here's my my farm to fork dessert 

for the 4th of July,

star-shaped shortcakes with farm fresh berries!

All the credit for this patriotic dessert goes to Martha Stewart. I saw her idea of using star-shaped cookie cutters for shortcake biscuits many years ago.  This 4th of July, I finally made the dessert and ended up using a shortcake recipe from Fine Cooking but used Martha's idea for the star shapes.

Here are a few of my tips on making this dessert:

Farmers Market Berries

Use farm fresh berries.  

There's nothing better than farm fresh berries.  So first thing this morning, I hit the farmers' market for berries.  Once home, I cleaned the berries and sweetened them up with a little sugar and orange juice.  The orange juice idea is also from Martha Stewart.  Next it was time to make the stars.

 Stars

The star-shaped shortcakes are made with  a 3" star cookie cutter.  

To make the dough, I used my food processor which makes cutting-in the cold butter a breeze!  I  kneaded the dough gently by hand, rolled it out to about 3/4" thick and then cut out the stars.  Then I followed Martha's baking instructions and baked the shortcakes in a 400 F oven for 14 minutes.  

Shortcake, anyone?

This dessert was easy to make and received rave reviews!  I think it's a perfect all American dessert to make for the 4th of July holiday.  Just as Martha inspired me, I hope, that perhaps, I have inspired you to make it sometime. 

You can find the Fine Cooking recipe here:

Classic Strawberry Shortcake

and Martha's recipe here:

Star-Shaped Shortcakes

Happy 4th of July!

Anzac Biscuits

Yep, I made Anzac Biscuits

It's Anzac day!

Today,  April 25th commemorates the 100 anniversary of the ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) Gallipoli landings in 1915.

During the First World War, sweethearts, wives and mothers baked these biscuits to send to "the boys" overseas.  So I made a batch for my sweetheart with a recipe from Australia's  Donna Hay.  

 Lyle's Golden Syrup

You'll need Lyle's Golden Syrup to make these cookies.  Lyle's Golden Syrup is thicker and sweeter than corn syrup.  Lyle's cane syrup gives the biscuits a chewy and sticky texture along with a wonderful richness.  Here in America, you can find it at World Market or a local British import shop if you have one. 

 Anzac Biscuits with Coconut

I just learned yesterday from my Australian friend Sally, that early recipes for these biscuits did not contain coconut.  We love coconut so I have always used recipes which contain coconut.  In previous years, I have baked Anzac biscuits with a recipe from Cooking Light.  

Anzac Biscuits

Here is the link for Donna Hay's Anzac biscuits recipe:

Anzac Biscuits.  Enjoy!

Hot Cross Buns

 Hot Cross Buns

Hot cross buns!  Hot cross buns!

One a penny two a penny - Hot cross buns!

If you have no daughters, give them to your sons

One a penny two a penny - Hot cross buns!

(From an old English nursery rhyme)

 American version ingredients

 Hot cross buns are those little British sweet fruit buns that pop-up at Easter time.  Traditionally they are decorated with a cross on top and eaten on Good Friday.  I've wanted to make them for the longest time. Even though I love to bake, I don't bake with yeast and that's why I've shied away from making them.

  This year though after watching Delia Smith's Cookery School Hot Cross Buns video, I decided to give them a go.  The trickiest part (for me) was determining which yeast to use for Delia's recipe here in America.   

Here are my American conversions for the recipe:

Strong flour =  Gold Medal all purpose flour

Mixed spice =  Pumpkin pie spice

Caster sugar = C & H Baker's Sugar

Easy Bake Yeast = Fleischmann's Rapid Rise Instant Yeast

 Look mom, no seams!

 To learn more about hot cross buns, I also watched a Martha Stewart video.  In Martha's video I learned an easy way to roll and shape the buns thanks to chef John Barricelli who is a third generation baker.  Check out his video with Martha for some great tips.  

 The Cross

In my American home kitchen, I baked my buns in a 375F oven for 15 minutes and ended up with excellent results.  I opted to forgo the traditional method of baking the cross on the buns and decorated my baked buns with an icing cross instead.  Here's my recipe:

Icing recipe

1/2 cup powdered sugar

2 tsp lemon juice

Let stand 5 minutes to thicken and then ice your buns.

Happy Easter!

Traditionally hot cross buns are served with a spread of butter.  We loved them.  These will now be an Easter holiday tradition for us!

The Good Earth

 Reduce

Today is Earth Day.

I believe we should all do our best to live "green" 

and be kind to the good Earth!

As a crafter, I'm always thinking of how to be creative and up-cycle.  

Recently, I ran across some Emma Bridgewater catalogs that I had saved. 

 They are filled with such beautiful photographs on nice quality paper 

that I just can't seem to throw them away.

Recycle

So now, I'm recycling Emma's catalog pages and turning them into cards,

 tags and decorations for my tea and recipe albums.

Emma's darling mug photographs with "mum" hand-painted on them,

recently inspired me to make my mother 

her birthday and Mother's Day cards this year. 

We're not British but quite proud of our family ancestry in England 

so my mom loved her "Best Mum" birthday card!

Up-cycled with Love

I even decorated the card envelopes and back of the cards 

with cut-outs (from the catalog)

and rubber-stamped hearts.

And, of course, moms save everything you make them 

so these cards will stay out of the landfill for a long time!

 Reuse

Being a tea lover and concerned about the land fill, 

I just can't seem to throw out pretty tea caddies either.
I'm always thinking of ways to re-use them like holding
pens & pencils and even straight knitting needles.

Another clever idea...

is to reuse your tea caddies as flower vases
at your tea and garden parties!

Good Earth Tea

And since it's Earth Day,

I'm drinking Good Earth tea.

Growing up a California "Bay Area" girl,

I loved the Good Earth's

"sweet and spicy" iced tea 

served at Good Earth restaurants back in the late 1970's.

Thankfully today, I can buy the tea at my local grocery store.  

So lets all be good to the earth everyday 

and think of creative ways we can all 

live "green" by following the Three R's:

reduce, reuse and recycle. 

Together 

we can make a difference!


(In the photos:  Emma Bridgewater Hearts Tea Cup & Saucer and
French Glass Tea Mug.)

Cherry Blossom Tea

 Sakura Tea Party

It's Cherry Blossom Festival time!

This year 2012, 

is a special year for the National Cherry Blossom Festival,

as it marks the 100-year anniversary 

of Japan's gift of 3,000 cherry trees to

Washington D.C..

Here in California, 

this weekend and next weekend is the 

45th Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival 

in San Francisco, CA.

Our festival is said to be the second largest festival

outside of Washington D.C. to celebrate the blooming of cherry blossoms,

a traditional custom in Japan known

as Hanami. 

 Sakuramochi

To celebrate Hanami,

I'm having a Sakura  (cherry blossom) Tea Party 

with Fleur de Geisha tea, that I purchased last year in Paris, 

along with Sakuramochi treats.

Sakuramochi is a sweet pink mochi (rice cake)

filled with a red bean paste center,
covered with a pickled sakura (cherry) leaf.  

In Japan,

they are a variety of wagashi,

which is traditional Japanese confectionery

which is often served with tea.

I did a bit of research and found out that

Sakuramochi is traditionally served on 

Hinamatsuri (Girl's Day in Japan) 

on March 3rd. 

 Fleur de Geisha

Fleur de Geisha
is one of my favorite green teas to drink in the spring.

It's a blend of Japanese green tea, 

delicately flavored with cherry blossom.  

This lovley blend by Les Palais Des The`s was

inspired by the Japanese Hanami tradition 

of cherry blossom viewing. 

I've purchased this tea

before in Paris

and couldn't wait to buy it again.  

Last year in Paris,

I purchased the boxed Fleur de Geisha tea,

 that comes in a pretty keepsake caddy.

I love that the tin caddy is covered with Washi paper,

decorated with the Sakura motif

traditionally found on the geishas kimonos.

 Le Palais Des The's

I love to shop at Le Palais Des The's 

 in the Le Marais at 

64 rue Vieille du Temple

Paris, France  75003

(In the photos:  Japanese blossom plate by Mino and vintage Spode Chelsea Wicker tea cup.)

Easter Greetings

Happy Easter

Mischievous little Peter Rabbit 

squeezed under the garden gate

 and came to 

Easter Brunch.

He wasn't going to miss out on

hot cross scones!

Wishing you a 

Happy Easter!


(In the photo:  Vintage Beatrix Potter's Beswick Peter Rabbit
and Royal Winton Chintz china.)

Hot Cross Scones

 Good Friday Treats

I've always wanted to make 

Hot Cross Buns. 

In England, hot cross buns are sweet little buns

 with a cross cut into their tops.

They are traditionally served on Good Friday.

I found a recipe instead for Hot Cross Scones 

in one of my baking books called 

Biscuits and Scones.

Hot Cross Scones

To make your own Hot Cross Scones,

just use your favorite basic scone recipe and add:

1/2 cup Zante currants

2 T finely chopped candied peel

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/4 tsp ground cloves

Turn dough out on a lightly floured surface and

roll out to 1" thickness. 

Use a 2.75" round cutter to stamp out your scones.

Arrange scones on a baking sheet lined with a Silpat liner.

Brush with egg wash.

Bake at 425 for approx. 10 to 15 minutes until well risen 

and golden.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool. 

Once they are cooled, 

decorate scones with an icing cross,

made of confectioner's sugar and milk.

More lemon curd, please!

Hot Cross Scones are perfect 

paired with lemon curd 

and a nice "cuppa" of  Earl Grey!

(In the photos:  Royal Winton Chintz patterns
and vintage silver tier stand that I purchased in England.)

Saint-Valentin Tea!

 Happy Hearts Day!

Since it's Valentine's Day...

I'm drinking Mariage Freres Saint-Valentin tea today,

in my darling Emma Bridgewater Pink Hearts 

teacup & saucer.  

Would you care to join me?

I wish you could!

 Saint-Valentin Tea

This is the first time that I am trying Saint-Valentin tea.  

I stocked up on French teas at Mariage Freres last year 

on my trip to Paris.
I've been saving this special tea blend for today.

Mariage Freres describes their Valentin tea as:

"A romantic tea in which bergamont encounters mallow.

Exquisite flavour!"

#937 Saint-Valentin Tea

The Saint-Valentin tea has a lovely 

floral bouquet 

and makes a special cup for Saint-Valentin's Day!

If you're ever in Paris,

I highly recommend treating yourself to 

the wonderful teas at Mariage Freres,
which by the way,
there are over 500 teas to choose from!

(In the photos:  Emma Bridgewater Hearts Tea Cup & Saucer, 

Heart Sugar Cubes by Sugars by Sharon and 

Valentine Card Collection, mine.)

Bonne Annee

Champagne Cocktails

 La Closerie des Lilas

Paris, France

Bonne Annee!

(Happy New Year)

A toast to the New Year!

Patisseries at Carette

Paris, France

I hope the New Year

brings you much happiness and joy,

sweet surprises

and, of course...
a few French treats!

Happy Christmas!

 Gingerbread for Santa

Because Santa deserves the very best...

 we went to Tartine Bakery in San Francisco yesterday

to pick up our holiday order of

Soft Glazed Gingerbread Tiles.

 Gingerbread Tiles

Years ago,

I saw Pastry Chef, Elizabeth Prueitt

(when her bakery was in Marin County)

on the  Martha Stewart show

making her Soft Glazed Gingerbread Tiles.

They looked like a wonderful holiday treat and

I even purchased the Springerle Rolling Pin

she uses to decorate them

so I could make them at home. 

Well, I've never made them at home

partly because I've always wanted to taste Elizabeth's first.

 In Line for

Santa's Cookies

For years, I have tried to buy Tartine's

Soft Glazed Gingerbread Tiles

during the Christmas season but they're always sold out.

So this year,

I was a smart Santa's Helper and placed a holiday pre-order for

my Gingerbread Tiles to avoid disappointment.

For holiday pre-orders at Tartine you must pick them up
on Christmas Eve...

 so off to San Francisco we went yesterday.

 Croque Monsieurs

We made it to Tartine at 2:00 PM.

Every time we've been to Tartine,

there is always a line out the door.  It was no different on Christmas Eve

only this day there were two lines...

one for customers of the day

and one for holiday pre-order pick ups. 

We ended up standing in both lines and even managed to snag an outdoor table

to enjoy a late lunch at Tartine, too. 

It was our first time finally getting a table

for lunch at Tartine.

Lunch at Tartine

is the next best thing to a table for two

at a cafe in Paris!

Union Square

San Francisco

I think we've started a new Christmas tradition...

going to San Francisco on

Christmas Eve!

Merry Christmas to you

and

savor every moment with your family and loved ones!

Happy Halloween

Halloween Brew

Trick or Treat!

Here's a twist on tea for fall...

Brew up your favorite ginger or spice tea

 in "piping" hot apple cider instead of water. 

Steep for 4 minutes and serve with a cinnamon stick.

Perfect for a chilly evening or

 bring it in your thermos when you go apple picking!

Enjoy!