2024 Holiday Cookie Box

  

I know I've done a crap job of updating my blog in the past several months but I would be remiss if I ended the year without posting my 2024 Holiday Cookie Box.  I think it's a nice variety that caters to many different tastes.  Hopefully the people who receive it will agree.

Stella Parks Gingerbread Cookies

Pierre Hermé Viennois (Raspberry Jam Filled or Chocolate Dipped Fingers)

Ginger Molasses

Walnut Snowballs

Lemon Gooey Butter Cookies

Clotted Cream Shortbread 

 

Bakery Boxes

 

 

Apple Galette des Rois

January 6 marks Epiphany or Three Kings Day in the Christian faith, when the three wise men visited the baby Jesus after he was born.  In honor of the occasion many countries in Europe celebrate with a King's Cake.  In France it's known as galette des rois, traditionally made with puff pastry and an almond frangipane filling.  This year to mix things up a bit I made an Apple Galette des Rois.

The inspiration for this variation came from a chausson aux pommes, a French apple turnover found in any boulangerie.   I made a very simple  compote filling using my favorite apple variety, honeycrisp.  The galette came together in no time at all since I used store bought puff pastry to encase the apple filling.   Not one to forget the all-important fève or charm, I hid a walnut half in the cake.   

One bite of the compote filling and crisp puff pastry and I am now fully converted to the apple galette des rois.

Checkerboard and Marble Sablés

 

French butter cookies are a personal favorite of mine and this year I made them as Checkerboard and Marble Sablés.  Don't be intimidated, the checkerboard pattern isn't as difficult as it may appear.   I made two batches of Cook's Illustrated sablés recipe, one flavored vanilla and the other chocolate, to create these beauties.  For the design I turned to this King Arthur's video which was super helpful.  As you cut the rods of dough to make the checkerboard you inevitably end up with many scraps.  Don't throw them away!  When you smoosh the scraps together you get the marbled cookies.

  

These cookies will impress anyone and they taste fantastic too.  Not too sweet, buttery and crunchy.  They will be the stars in this year's holiday cookie box.

Merveilleux

 

 On my last few trips to Paris I remember seeing a pâtisserie shop called Aux Merveilleux de Fred selling Merveilleux (French for Marvelous), which are cakes made out of meringues sandwiched with whipped cream and covered in chocolate shavings.  The desserts looked so pretty but for some reason I never bothered having a taste, which in hindsight I really regret.  On the bright side I now have something to look forward to when I return to Paris, right?  

Hopefully we'll be able to safely resume international travel in 2022, but until then I'll have to be content with making merveilleux chez moi.  I ended up using David Lebovitz's recipe from his book, My Paris Kitchen, because it had received good reviews when I was searching for merveilleux recipes online.  

 

The desserts aren't difficult to make and the steps can be spread out over multiple days, which is what I did, but the process to make the merveilleux can be messy.  In particular the part where you fill and coat the meringues with whipped cream.  If your cream isn't beaten to a stiffness similar to buttercream I can see easily foresee challenges getting it to stay intact.  Next time I'll add more whipped cream in the middle and on top to get the really tall cone shape like the cakes I saw in Paris.  Even if your merveilleux aren't shop display worthy don't worry because the final coating of chocolate shavings hides all kinds of imperfections. 

Wanting to make as many flavors of merveilleux as possible in one go, I split the filling recipe into thirds and made stracciatella, strawberry and coffee chocolate chip.    Based on it's appearance you might think the merveilleux would be really sweet, but in fact it's not.  The lightly sweetened whipped cream is a really nice contrast to the crispy meringue cookie.  Delicieux!  An added bonus is that the cakes are 100% gluten-free which makes them perfect for anyone with a wheat intolerance.  Until I can hop of a plane to the city of lights I'll be happy enjoying my homemade merveilleux.  

Choux au Craquelin with Pistachio Crème Mousseline and Raspberry Jam

 

Towards the end of last year I decided to make homemade pistachio paste using this recipe from Stella Parks.  Being ambitious I thought it was a good idea to double the recipe so that I would have plenty of paste to last me for a while.  Little did I know that doing this would test the limits of my poor food processor.  It definitely wasn't a good sign when the motor started smoking...ha!  Fortunately, after a long rest the food processor recovered and I didn't have to replace it. Phew!  Perhaps it was that trauma that made me procrastinate in using the pistachio paste.  Several months passed and I finally found a use for it.

Pistachio is one of my favorite nut flavors and I thought it would be delicious in a pastry cream.  I found a recipe for Choux au Craquelin with Pistachio Crème Mousseline and Raspberry Jam from the blog Ana's Baking Chronicles.  Her pictures of the pastries were so stunning that I was immediately enticed to make them myself.  

You'll notice the crackly crust on top of the cream puffs.  This is called craquelin which is a dough made of butter, sugar, flour and salt (and a little food coloring, if you want).  It's rolled out thin, then frozen and cut into discs using a small round cutter.  The craquelin is placed on top of the pâte à choux just before baking.  When baked it turns into a crackly shell on top of the baked puff.

 

One of the issues I've found with cream puffs is the pastry cream filling tends to run and not hold it's shape, especially when you try to cut into it.  What I especially liked about Ana's recipe is that she fills her choux with pastry cream whipped with butter, also known as crème mousseline or German buttercream.  The result was a filling bursting with pistachio flavor that also held up to piping and cutting.  A layer of homemade raspberry jam at the bottom of the choux serves as a nice contrast to the nutty filling.  One bite of this decadent pastry and you'll be transported back to France!

Crème Fraîche Poundcake

I bought a carton of crème fraîche as an impulse buy on a recent Costco outing but I had no clue what I was going to use it for.  As fate would have it the NY Times recently published a recipe for Crème Fraîche Poundcake.  It's like the baking gods were in my brain!

Crème fraîche is similar to sour cream but I find it's more stable and less water than it's American cousin.  It adds a really delicious tang to the poundcake, most especially in the glaze topping.  I found the cake to be even more delicious the day after it was made so it's a great make-ahead recipe.  

Financiers

I've had leftover egg whites sitting in my fridge for a few weeks now and I finally got fed up looking at them and decided to make something.  But what?  Macarons would be the obvious choice but I was too lazy to deal with the lengthy process of making and piping the batter, the drying time and then filling the cookies.  I was after something quick, easy and delicious - cue the Financiers!

These little French almond cakes have a delicious nutty bite and texture and go perfectly with a cup of coffee or tea.  I used a recipe from Cook's Illustrated that was super easy to come together in one bowl.  The only "tedious" thing was to make the brown butter and that took no time at all. 

Normally the cakes are baked in rectangular molds so that they resemble gold bars, which is where the "financier" name comes from but not everyone has those specialty molds.  I like this version that uses a mini muffin pan.   The financiers were delicious plain but I jazzed mine up by topping them with fresh raspberries, blueberries and chocolate chunks. 

NOTE: You can make this gluten-free by replacing the all-purpose flour with a gluten-free flour.

Leek & Gruyère Quiche

Recently I hosted Sunday brunch for work colleagues at my house.  The food, drink and company were excellent, if I do say so myself, and everyone seemed to have a great time.  As with all gatherings, when it came to prepping for the party I erred on the side of over-buying for fear that I wouldn't have enough food, which then led to a surplus of ingredients.  

When I opened my fridge to survey the leftovers what immediately caught my eye were eggs, heavy cream, milk, leeks and Gruyère.  Perfect!  I had everything I needed to make quiche.   I love these savory French tarts and as a student in Dijon would eat them almost daily.  To this day I still think  about the scrumptious tarte au fromage from Boulangerie Garcia.  

Leek and Gruyère is such a delicious flavor combination too.  Nothing better than ooey, gooey melted cheese married with the delicate, sweetness of the leeks.  The attached recipe makes one 9-inch round quiche but I opted to do mini ones using the tartlet tins I bought at E. Dehillerin last summer.  They make the perfect hand held portion that's ideal for a picnic or snack on the go.   

Kouign Amann 2.0

My first attempt at making Kouign Amann was five years ago and unfortunately I didn't have much success.  You can see my first blog post about them here.  At the time I just couldn't get the laminated dough right which resulted in squat and dense pastries.  C'est pas bon. 

But now I'm very happy to report that after all this time I finally found a recipe that REALLY works!!!  And the hero of this story is none other than Paul Hollywood, celebrity baker from England and a judge on my favorite baking show The Great British Bake Off.  These Breton beauties were the featured technical challenge in the "Pastries" episode of Season 5.

Little did I know that the key to success was to only add sugar to the very last turn of the laminated dough.  My problem in previous attempts was that I was putting sugar in every turn which ended up melting in between the dough/butter layers.  

The pastry rose and puffed up beautifully in the oven and the sugar melted to a lovely caramel.  I admit I baked them a bit too long (notice the burnt looking bits) and they got darker than I would like so next time I'll take them out about 3-5 minutes earlier.   

This recipe may not be for everyone, but anyone who wants to learn more about laminated dough should give it a go.  Find the link to the kouign amann recipe on BBC's website here.

Baguettes

Call me crazy, it certainly wouldn't be the first time.  My sister says I'm the only one she knows who would even attempt to make baguettes.  But I ask myself, why should that be?  Yeah, ok, chalk them up as one of those things that you leave to the experts.  I get it.  However, I'm a home baker who is constantly looking to grow and challenge my skills so I say bring it on. 

Don't mistake my confidence for arrogance.  My self-assurance can solely be attributed to the fact that I was using a Cook's Illustrated recipe.   They've tested it countless times and I knew I was going to get fantastic results.  I was lucky enough to get a preview copy of the recipe which is now available in the Sep/Oct 2014 issue of the magazine.  Ok, I admit it, basically I begged them relentlessly until they gave up.   Tenacity has its benefits..hehehe.  

The ingredients are few and the instructions are long but don't be scared!  Just read through it several times and pay close attention to the accompanying pictures.  I found they help a lot.    If you have access to the online recipe you definitely need to watch the video! 

I've never made baguettes before and I have to say I was really impressed with how they turned out.   Although next time I'll be a bit more assertive when I use the lame to slash the formed dough so that the openings on the top of the baked baguette are more pronounced.  My skeptical sister even said they looked like they were from a bakery!  

 

I've eaten my fair share of baguette, especially after having lived in a France in my youth, and I can honestly say the bread was absolutely delicious.  Will my baguette be gracing the presidential table at the Elysées Palace any time soon?  Ummm, highly unlikely, but they'll definitely be most welcome at my table anytime.   

Raspberry-Almond Financiers

Financiers are little French cakes traditionally baked in rectangular molds to resemble gold bars.  You'd think that since my day job is in corporate finance I would have been motivated to make them before, but I never did.  That all changed when I finally bought a financier mold.  Had I known what I was missing it wouldn't have taken me so long.

These financiers are really, really good; I ate two of them minutes after they came out of the oven.  What sets them apart is the beurre noisette (a fancy name for brown butter) that's used in the batter.  I also made them gluten-free by substituting C4C flour in place of all-purpose flour - I swear you can't even tell the difference.  

Before they went in the oven I sprinkled a few fresh raspberries and sliced blanched almonds on top; such a delicious flavor combination.  The burst of tart, juicy fruit and toasted nuts were fantastic in the moist, buttery cake.

Croissants

I don't think there's anything better than a flaky and buttery croissant, especially when it's fresh from your own oven.   Sound too good to be true?   It's not as unattainable as you may think and you don't even need to buy a plane ticket to France.

All it takes are three P's:  planning,  preparation and perseverance.    

You know I love me some Cook's Illustrated and the most recent issue (Jan/Feb 2012) was chock full of fantastic recipes like the chocolate truffles I made earlier this month.   Another recipe that captured my attention, and that I knew I had to try, was croissants.

I've made CI's version of pain au chocolat before but they've since updated the laminated dough recipe to make it even more foolproof.  One of the best things about this recipe is that you can freeze the shaped croissants and bake them at a later time.  Fresh croissants any time you want?  Definitely not a bad thing!

Be forewarned though, making croissants from scratch is a very time consuming process.  However, your efforts really do pay off in the final product.   I swear when I took my first bite I was transported back to my student days in Dijon. 

Tips for success:  Follow CI's advice and use King Arthur all-purpose unbleached flour and Plugra unsalted butter!

Paris-Brest

I'm lucky enough to be a recipe tester for Cook's Illustrated, the ne plus ultra cooking authorities, so when a Paris-Brest recipe landed in my Inbox many, many, many months ago I was super excited.  I had every intention of making it straight away until procrastination and summer vacation distracted me.  When I saw that the recipe was published in the current issue of the magazine (November/December 2011) I figured it was about time to make it.

If you're not familiar with this classic French dessert it's a large ring of pâte à choux filled with a praline-infused pastry cream.  They say the Paris-Brest was the brainchild of a very ingenious baker to commemorate the famous bicycle race between the two cities.  Leave it to a Frenchie to think of something like that...love it!

I'm sending this cake across cyberspace to my dear friend Mimi who is celebrating her birthday today.  Joyeux anniversaire mon amie!  

Cherry Clafoutis

Fresh, ripe cherries always herald the beginning of the summer for me.  I just love them - especially the sweet, crunchy bing variety.  But beware, don't indulge in too many at once or you'll be sorry....if you know what I mean!

The Saturday before Memorial Day I went cherry picking in Brentwood with my nieces and sister-in-law.   It was the first day of the season so we headed out bright and early with the hope of getting the nicest fruit. 

Even by 9:30am the parking lot was already jam packed with minivans and young families.   Sixty minutes, one pair of dusty sneakers and nine pounds of cherries later I was a very happy person.

 

I immediately got home and set about searching for a new cherry recipe.  I happened upon this one for clafoutis from Bon Appétit.   I'd never made it before, but it's the quintessential French dessert using cherries.  It tastes very much like a pancake or crepe and is so good served slightly warm with a dusting of powdered sugar.

Think we've just discovered a new Memorial Day tradition.