Tired of the same old pumpkin pie ?

Thanksgiving has come and gone. Neighbors and family gathered for a huge feast of oven-baked turkey, Randy's secret stuffing, honey ham, marshmallowed sweet potatoes, and peruvian potato stew, to stir the melting pot that is America. I brought dessert!
I knew what I was up against. Like every year, the store-bought pumpkin pie invariably makes its appearance on the dining table, plain or with a puff of whipped cream in the center. It is a Thanksgiving staple that will never go away, whether you like it or not. I like my friend Ryan's sweet potato pie better. Maybe because it is homemade, with a recipe passed along the generations. It fits with the tradition of a homemade meal that the entire family helps prepare.
What did I bring, do you ask ? Well, I wanted to go for another seasonal fruit, the apple. And I wanted something that could hold up to a rich and satisfying meal without topping over the glucose level. By the end of a Thanksgiving meal, you can't taste sugar anymore but you can still appreciate texture ! I decided to modify my apple tart recipe by caramelizing the apples first and surround them in frangipane on a thin bed of chocolate. I present you the Apple Frangipane Tart !

Apple Frangipane Tart

It is a deep-dish style tart with sweetened apple slices and a light almond crust that is best consummed warm with a dollup of whipped cream. The almond filling will remind you of macaroons, but softer. To the recipe !

Ingredients (for a 1.5" deep 10" tart):

frangipane filling:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup almond flour
• 1 tbsp white flour
• 1 egg
• 1/4 tsp almond extract

Preparing the apples:

• 6 apples, peeled, cored and cut in eights
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup rum

For the crust:

• 1.5 cup flour
• 3/4 cup butter
• 1 egg
• a pinch of salt
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Prepare the crust as directed in this post.
2. Melt 1/4 cup of 60-70% chocolate on low and pour it on top of the uncooked crust in a thin layer. Let it cool down in the fridge until the chocolate is solid again.
3. Frangipane: beat the butter and the sugar to a white froth, mix in the flour, the almond flour, the egg and the almond extract until smooth and homogeneous. Set aside.
4. To caramelize the apples: in a wide pan, first melt the butter and sugar on a low setting, then add the apple slices and cook them covered on medium heat. Once they have grown soft, remove the cover, add the rum and reduce the liquid (apples give out a lot of water!) until the apples start browning a little. Limit your stirring to a minimum to keep the slices whole.
5. Finish the tart by pouring a layer of frangipane on top of the chocolate layer and adding the apple slices on top of the frangipane. Do not worry too much about arranging the slices neatly, they will slowly sink into the frangipane under heating and some will disappear under.
6. Bake at 370F for 45 minutes.
7. Serve the tart warm with some whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.
8. To make whipped cream: pour a cold pint of heavy whipped cream into a chilled bowl, add 2-3 tbsp of powdered sugar and beat it on high until firm. Do not overbeat it or it will turn into butter !!! I recommend the "finger test". Dunk the finger and give it a taste!

Enjoy !

How disturbing...the truth behind the food we eat ?

Last night, I sat down with the dog on the lap to watch a movie that gathered some good reviews: Food Inc. I was engrossed, and grossed out, for 90 minutes. Even the dog was quiet!

You see, Food Inc is not so much a movie as it is an investigative documentary. Think Michael Moore with less drama and more plain facts. The whole premise of the documentary is to "lift the veil over the whole food industry". Basically the consummer is being blinded by packaging, with the intention of disconnecting, say the animal from the finely sliced piece of red meat. With no more bones in view and a cute smiley cow face on top, it's hard to think of the living and breathing animal who gave it all. But the director did not dwell much on that particular issue. He was more interested in how the food industry evolved to accommodate the mass market and the consequences that are plaguing our society today. For example, the movie swiftly demonstrates the connections to rocketing mass food poisonings, increasing diabetic population, the loss of consummer choices and even illegal immigration. With only a handful of big corporations controlling the food market, a lot of power, both financial and political, is shared by a few, and their actions, entirely motivated by money and business, basically control what we eat. No big surprises here to hear it is a business. But when the dots get connected to direct society and health issues, that's when it gets scary ! And the tactics employed by some companies (think GMOs !) to make farmers comply are plainly disgusting.

The movie does, however, have a positive message to give to us, the consummer. Be more alert of what you eat ! State your preference for fresh and healthy by buying organic and local foods ! The food industry is still a business and they will listen to what the consummer wants.

I can say this movie transformed my attitude towards grocery shopping. I won't turn vegetarian yet, but I'll question the meat I buy, definitely leaning towards grain-fed chickens and grass-fed cows. This is what I like about a small country like France, where local and small farming has still a huge impact on the food chain, thanks to huge government subsidies. It's still not a perfect system, but that's what creates all those lovely farmer's markets around the country. We can have it here in this country too if we, as consummers, band together and state our preference.

Mastering the Art of Crepe !

The art of making crepes

A gust of cold wind. A persisting sniffle. A cold bathroom in the morning. Little signs that cold weather is taking a firm grip in our lives, even in sunny San Diego. Suddenly holding a warm cup of coffee, or chocolate, becomes a much-anticipated ritual throughout the day. For me, it triggers another craving, firmly embedded in years of french upbringing: a warm crepe, with my favorite filling, Nutella. When the wind turns cold and the leaves have begun to fall, city streets in France are filling up with all kinds of aromas, most of which come from grilled chestnuts and warm crepes bubbling on hot portable stoves. As a kid I would be mesmerized watching the crepe maker skillfully pour the batter on the hot plate and spread it in a circular motion to create that soft, eggy, thin and large pancake that is called "crepe". At home, we would have crepe nights in the middle of winter. As a student, they would turn into crepe parties, with all kinds of fillings, from ham and cheese to rum-soaked sugar.

So this week-end was a bit cold, and my conditioning kicked in, I was at the stove making a huge pile of crepes ! The crepe recipe is pretty simple, really. Making them however requires a certain dexterity and practice. So before deciding for a crepe party with the neighbors, make sure you know how to pour the batter adroitly, flip the crepe, and deliver it hot and steaming on your guests' plates. Here is the basic recipe, which gives me 20-25 crepes on a 12-inch nonstick pan.

Ingredients:

• 1L or 4 cups of whole milk (don't substitute with reduced fat milk or the batter will be too runny and hell to cook)
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups of flour
• a pinch of salt
• 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil (canola)
• optional flavoring (vanilla, Grand Marnier, rum, orange blossom...)

Directions:

1. Beat the eggs, salt, oil, and a few tablespoons of milk together.
2. Add the flour and mix to get a very heavy dough.
3. Add the milk little by little while stirring until you get a homogeneous batter. I use a whisk to break up the clumps.
4. Let the batter settle for 1 hour in the fridge before using. If it gets too heavy you can add some milk to it just before use.

To make a crepe: (Note to self: a YouTube video would be perfect here!)

1. Choose a nonstick pan, usually Teflon-coated, and grease it with a thin film of canola oil. Personally I rub an oil-soaked paper towel that I use before making each crepe.
2. Preheat the pan on the stove. Medium heat is good. It's easier to make crepes when the pan is really hot. Quite often I screw up my first crepe because it wasn't hot enough. Typically, the crepe ends up sticking too much to the pan and I can't flip it without breaking it.
3. Pour enough batter to cover the entire pan floor in a thin layer. I tend to transfer my batter to an old milk container, it comes out great without the use of a ladle.
4. Wait until the crepe border detaches itself from the pan then gently slide a flat wooden stick under until you feel confident enough you can flip it. This is a critical step when the crepe is fragile and can break easily. You'll likely to spend many attempts there. Practice, practice, practice ! My secret: I use my fingers to flip the crepe ! Quick or you get burned !
5. Once you flipped the crepe, the other side will cook quickly. Transfer to a plate, regrease and repeat step 3 !

Oui, oui, making crepes is an art that every self-proclaimed french cook has to master. Consider it a rite of passage before tackling Julia Child's french recipe book.

For fillings, I'll leave it to your imagination for now. Between sweet and salt-based fillings, it would take another entire post. For immediate craving, I recommend Nutella, jams, jellies, plain sugar with or without a sprinkle of alcohol (Grand-Margnier tastes good here), peanut butter, ice-cream...have you run out of crepes yet ??? :)

I also have a recipe for buckwheat crepes for the health-conscious and advanced crepe-maker. Also another post for later. If you are antsy, shoot me an email and I'll share. For the price of a crepe or two :)

Brioches aux Amandes

Almond Brioche

Another week-end, another brioche experiment ! What can I say, I am still in the brioche honeymoon phase :)

This time I prepped a big batch with more whole wheat flour. It ups the fiber content and lowers my guilt :) If you refer back to the original brioche recipe, I used 2.5 cups of whole wheat and 5 cups of white flour, basically a 1:2 ratio.

A big portion of the batch went into more chocolate buns for a belated Halloween party at the neighbors. Fun party, great costumes ! I was a barcode for Low-Fat Milk. Imagine a white T-shirt with a huge barcode on it...yeah, I could have done better...moving on...

I had some leftover dough that was sitting in the fridge. I flattened it with a rolling pin then with my fingers (dough was sticking to the rolling pin). I had made a thick almond cream earlier (see recipe below) which I applied generously on the top of the dough. I then cut the dough into smaller rectangles, and rolled each one using the cream as "glue". When they bake they slowly unfurl as they fluff, leaving a baked almond crust on top. Exciting ! I placed each rolls on a buttered baking sheet and baked them at 350F for 30 minutes.

You get your typical brioche with a light almond taste. You can also add almond slices on top for decoration. Or drizzle some hot chocolate like they do on chocolate croissants. Or leave them plain and eat them fast :)

Enjoy my friends !

Almond cream recipe:

melt half a stick of butter and mix with 2 eggs and 3 table spoons of sugar. Add 3/4 cups of almond flour (Bob's Red Mill), a pinch of salt, almond extract to taste, and mix until homogeneous. You can change the consistency from fluid to thick by varying the almond flour content.

Bob's Red Mill's Almond Cake - Gluten-free !

Bob's Red Mill's Almond Cake

Heard of Bob's Red Mill ? The Oregon company has been around for 25 years, delivering a wide range of grain products and baking products. A good part of them are certified organic and even gluten-free. Your local organic store is certain to sell some of its products, easily recognisable in a clear package with a yellow, white, green or red label showing the jolly face of a white-bearded man with a white beret.

To me, BRM is a savior ! One of the baking staples in France is finely ground almond, even more so in Provence where almonds are queen of the fields (hmm, at least sharing the title with olives). Ground almond is added in a range of cakes and confections, notably marzepan and almond paste. It adds texture and a slight almond taste that can be enhanced with salt or almond extract. I like it in cookies very much :) In cakes, I substitute part of the flour (up to 20%) with almond flour. So, yes, almond flour is a required necessity in my kitchen, and for the longest time I had to do without, short of grinding almond slivers (which I did by the way!). But Bob and his white beard winked at me one time at Henry's grocery store and that was the start of our love affair.

I recently discovered the company's website. Nowadays, everything is on the internet, why not Bob ? I was pleasantly surprised by the site expansiveness. Besides a list of over 400 products, you can find recipes, an online shop, but also a company blog ! I have yet to read through it. For now, I dived into their recipe collection. Their almond cake caught my eye, even more so when I saw no regular flour on the ingredient list. Pure almond flour, and some coconut flour. I had to try it !

Here is the link for ingredients and directions (magically moist almond cake). I let mine bake for 50 min at 350F for a brown top. If you like macaroons, you'll love this cake. That's what it reminded me of. It's a bit on the crumbly side, very "moist" (read buttery), with a light almond taste. Personally it's a bit too rich for me. But it's a gluten-free treat for our gluten-intolerant friends. I agree with the author, it would taste great with whipped cream (homemade please) and any berries. Or use it as a layer for an elaborate two or three-layer cake.

Thinking ahead, adding some melted chocolate to the preparation would make an interesting variation on my almost-flourless chocolate cake. Ditch the flour and replace with the almond/coconut flour combo. Hmmm....time to get some butter out of the fridge...:)