Mini Fruit Tarts

 

After making six, yes six!, cream tarts in the span of three weeks I was pretty much over them.  At least for the time being.  Turns out making so many tarts meant I found myself with leftover pâte sucrée, pastry cream and fruit.   What to do? Make Mini Fruit Tarts!

 

One of the (many) lessons I have learned during this pandemic is to be more efficient with food, e.g., using up leftovers.  Pre-pandemic I was one of the last people to eat leftovers, mainly because I didn't like having the same thing over and over.  Nowadays I try to be creative and make something "new" out of them.

 

The mini fruit tarts offer just the right amount to satisfy your sweet tooth craving.  You'll need tart tins to make them, but in a pinch you could also use a standard muffin tin.  Just make sure to spray it with nonstick spray beforehand!

Lemon Posset and Lemon Cupcakes

 

For the Lemon Lovers Table that I recently created I included some citrus-infused treats.  At each place setting there was a decorated sugar cookie to welcome my guests.  Other desserts included the cutest  lemon petit-fours from Trader Joe's and homemade Lemon Posset and Lemon Cupcakes.

I had my first taste of lemon posset at ad hoc restaurant and I was immediately hooked on the creamy, tangy dessert.  It was so refreshing, especially after having ad hoc's famous buttermilk fried chicken!  Luckily I found a recipe from Cook's Illustrated that couldn't be simpler to make using only three ingredients: heavy cream, sugar and lemons.

For the lemon cupcakes I used a vanilla cake recipe from The Cupcake Project.  It was the winner of a recent taste test from The Kitchen.  While the cupcakes were really tasty, I actually prefer a cake that has a tighter crumb to it.  I frosted the cupcakes with Swiss meringue buttercream that was mixed with pre-made lemon curd. To pipe the buttercream swirls I used a large petal tip (Ateco #126).  I confess it was a decorating technique I pinched from Violet bakery in London. 

Lemon Lovers Table

 

I couldn't wait to put together this Lemon Lovers Table and I absolutely adore how it turned out.  It all began with the most fabulous citrus-themed linens (tablecloth, placemats and napkins) from Mrs. Alice, the tablescape brand.  If you've never heard of Mrs. Alice I urge you to check out their website because they sell so many gorgeous things.   I could easily blow my paycheck on their products!

Lemons always remind me of Capri, the small island off the Amalfi Coast in Italy that I visited a few years ago with friends.  We had the best time there!  Everywhere you turned in Capri there were lemons present, whether it was the actual fruit growing on trees, the scent perfuming the air or as an ingredient in the food.   I long to return there once the pandemic subsides.

 

The linens paired beautifully with Aerin x Williams-Sonoma tableware I already owned.  I found these darling woven straw fruit napkin rings on etsy.  To complete the table I made a few lemon treats such as decorated sugar cookies, cupcakes and lemon posset.  Talk about a citrus explosion, but I love it!

 

Resources

 

Tablecloth, Placemats, Napkins: Mrs. Alice

Woven Straw Fruit Napkin Rings: etsy 

Plates, Drinking Glass with Raffia collar: Aerin x Williams-Sonoma 

Wine Glass: Amazon

Bamboo Flatware: Pottery Barn 

Petits Fours

 

This Petits Fours post is long overdue and I mean REALLY overdue.  We're talking more than a decade people!  When you put it that way it sounds so bad, right?  My fascination with petits fours really started when I saw them made in this video, Martha Stewart Living Cake Decorating.   I was immediately drawn in by how beautiful and elegant the little cakes were.  They've been on my baking bucket list forever and I finally got my a%$ in gear and made them recently for my Easter table this year.  I packaged four petits fours into clear plastic boxes and placed a favor at each place setting.  I think they look absolutely darling and fit the Easter decor beautifully.

Essentially petits fours are small pieces of pound cake that are filled (I like jam or curd and buttercream) and covered in a glossy fondant.   I started with this recipe for the pound cake from the blog Rose Bakes which is nice and sturdy and holds up really well.  One recipe of the cake makes a half-sheet size pan and yields a lot of petits fours.  I made half of the cake into raspberry petits fours and the other half into lemon petits fours.  I'm  a sucker for fruit flavors and I think the tartness from the raspberry and lemon would be a nice counterbalance to the sweetness from the fondant. 

 

Now let's talk about fondant because that's the Archilles heel of these pretty treats.  The fondant used to coat petits fours is different from the rolled fondant you've seen covering wedding cakes and the like.  Petits fours use a poured fondant.  You can make certainly make it yourself but I was too intimidated (and lazy!) to do that so I bought some premade fondant from Amazon and it worked great.  The only thing I had to do was melt it in a bowl over a pan of simmering water until it was thin enough to coat.  Two tricks I learned from the Martha Stewart video were to have simple syrup on hand to stir into the fondant or put it back on the heat when it got too thick. 

 

 

The main caveat I have when it comes to making petits fours is that it's NOT a neat and tidy process.  The poured fondant can be very finicky to work with and downright messy.  It took me a while to get a feel for what was the best consistency for the fondant and even more time trying to figure out the best set up.  In the end I'm happy with my first attempt at petits fours.  I don't have the time to make them often so I'll save it for special occasions. 

 

Packaging Details:

4" x 4" x 2" clear plastic boxes

4" x 4" x 3/8" raised bottom box insert

3/8" grosgrain ribbon

Italian Tri-Color Cookies

 

I'll be honest with you, I definitely had a lot of hesitation when making these Italian Tri-Color Cookies, also called Rainbow Cookies or 7-Layer Cookies.  Why, you may ask?  Because the first time I attempted them it was a horrible failure.  My Achilles heel was the chocolate coating on the top and bottom.  When I tried cutting the cookies in to bite sized pieces the chocolate completely fell apart and separated from the almond layers.  The perfectionist in me was devastated, to say the least.

But recently I was asked by my friend Maria if I knew how to make them.  Maria grew up on the East Coast (New York City to be exact) and apparently these cookies are ubiquitous staples in every Italian bakery there.  Unfortunately they're not so easily found out here on the West Coast.  Every now and then Maria has a craving for these cookies so I thought I would give it another go and try to give her a taste of home.

Never one to be defeated I set about looking for a "foolproof" recipe - or at least something close to it.  I stumbled upon Smitten Kitchen's recipe and had a very strong feeling they would turn out great.  I'd had previous success with her tres leches cake, one of my absolute favorites.  Just reading through Deb's helpful tips gave me the reassurance I needed.  Be forewarned though: these cookies aren't hard to make but they require some time, most of it inactive though.  

If you like almond flavor these tri-colors are for you!  The festive colors and almond flavor make them the perfect holiday cookie to add to your repertoire.  The true test though would be Maria's review.  I gave her a sample and she said they tasted pretty authentic to her.  Her hubby Lou said the chocolate needed to be thicker..hahaha...I'll remember that for next time! 

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.

Petits Fours

This weekend I took a fantastic petits fours class offered by Dragonfly Cakes.   Luckily I didn't have to travel very far; just across the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito.   You may have seen Dragonfly's adorable little cakes on the Williams-Sonoma website.   Well, I can confirm that not only do they look good they taste absolutely delicious.   Just a touch of sweetness, exactly how I like it.   

Brooks and Andrea, our instructors, were so nice and extremely helpful answering all of the students' questions.  There's a reason why I haven't attempted making petits fours thus far.  After seeing the process at Dragonfly Cakes they are definitely a labor of love.   But they are so darn cute.  Hmmm, could they be my next baking obsession????  Stay tuned to this blog and find out! 

White Peach Pate de Fruit

My brother has a white peach tree in his backyard that seems to explode with fruit every summer.   Kind of ironic that its bounty is so abundant since he doesn't really tend to it that much.  When the fruits are ripe everyone in the family stops by his house to pick peaches fresh off the branches.  This year's harvest seemed to ripen a lot quicker than usual.  Not wanting all that juicy goodness to go to waste I used the white peaches to make pate de fruit, a French fruit jelly.    

The pate de fruit and I have a checkered past.    A few Christmases ago my sister and I  read about them on Alexis Stewart's blog.  We then suffered from delusions of grandeur and foolishly thought we could make a few batches to give away as holiday gifts.  Easy, right?  Easy, wrong!  Little did we know that it wasn't so  simple and unfortunately it was a costly lesson.  Down the trash bin went our hard earned money in the form of gourmet frozen fruit purees, glucose and tartaric acid cooked to a hard, sticky goo.

But this time was different: a) the peaches were free and the only special ingredient I had to buy was Certo liquid pectin (five bucks at my local Safeway), and b) I used a recipe from the queen of all yummy things, Helen from Tartelette.  Once again her recipe was fool proof and the pate came out fantastic.  Exactly the right texture and flavor I was looking for.  Think the pate de fruit and I have reached an accord.

Lemon Madeleines

Mention madeleines and most people associate them with Proust.   He put these little cookies on the map when the mere sight of a madeleine was able to trigger memories of long ago.  Ever since then they've become somewhat of a cult item.  I never got around to reading Remembrance of Things Past but after eating madeleines I don't blame Proust for glorifying them one bit.

I made these madeleines for my friend Gracie who very graciously did me a favor this weekend.  She loves these cookies so I thought it was a nice way of thanking her.  I had been searching high and low for a particular Martha Stewart Crafts paper punch that I had seen in the December issue of her eponymous magazine.  Apparently it was more popular than I thought and I was having no luck finding it at any of my local Michaels craft stores.  Judiciously I called the store near Gracie's house and, sure enough, they had the punch in stock which I then put on 24hr hold.

After several instances of salesperson incompetence and digging around on  her hands and knees scouring through inventory Gracie was able to find what I was looking for.  Eureka!  As good a friend as any I've ever known.  Thanks again Gracie!!!

Cannelés

Cannelés are a French treat that are a bit hard to classify.  They're sort of like a cross between a cake and a crepe.  The crust is dark and crunchy but inside it's like a sponge-y custard.  Hard to describe, but delicious nonetheless. 

When I lived in France I didn't really pay much attention to cannelés.  I stuck to the classics: croissants, pain au chocolat, lemon tarts, etc.  But my sister really loves these things and they're not what you'd call standard bakery fare here in the US.  Sure, in San Francisco we've got several French boulangeries that sell them, but who wants to pay $3 each?  Not me!

I figured I'd take a crack at them since I'd never made them before.  My mom always says you should try something at least once to know how it is and I'm always looking to expand my baking repertoire.  Only downside to making them is you've got to use a cannelé mold if you want to be authentic.  Traditionalists swear by the individual copper molds, but I'm not rolling in the moolah as of late (each small mold is about $17!) so the mini silicone ones worked just fine for me.  If it ended up being a disaster then it wouldn't be too much of a dent to my wallet.

For a first attempt I think these turned out pretty good. At least they taste good and that's half the battle.