French Crêpes

Sugar, butter, lemon juice, apple sauce, chocolate, bananas... everything is good with crepes.

Ingredients : (4 servings)
- 1, 3/4 cups of flour
- 3 eggs
- 2 cup of milk
- 2 tbls of oil

1) Stir together the flour and eggs. 
2) Incorporate the milk a little at a time  and  beat until smooth.
3) Heat a lightly oiled frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the pan. Tip and rotate pan to spread batter as thinly as possible. Brown on both sides.

Tips :  Use approximately 2 ounces of mixture for each crepe in a 8 inches frying pan.
The size of the crepes depends of the size of the pan.If the dough is to heavy you can add milk or water.
For sweet crepes you can add sugar and rhum or apple liquor in the batter.

Apple Pie

 A thin pie crust with homemade apple sauce, apple slices and ground cinnamon.

Ingredients : (6 servings)

- 4 apples, peeled and cored

- 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

For the pie crust :
-1 1/3 cup of all-purpose flour + extra for rolling (200g)
- 7 tbsp of butter (100g)
- 1 egg yolk
- 1/2 teaspoon of salt
- 1 2/3 oz of water (5cl)

For the apple sauce :
- 3 apples, peeled,cored and diced
- 1 cup water
- 4 tbsp sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Prep : 15 min
Cook : 50 min

The apple sauce : 
In a pan on medium heat, heat the diced apples and sugar. After 2 minutes add the water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and let simmer 30 minutes. Add the cinnamon. 
In a blender mash the apples. 
If it is still to liquid heat until thicker.

The pie crust :

Mix everything together. Start mixing with a fork and after work with your hands. The dough must be smooth and not sticky.

If it is too flaky :  add a bite of water. 

If is is too sticky : add a bite of flour.

Form a ball.

On a lightly floured surface roll out your dough.

Cut 6 squares (5x3inches) in the dough. (You can also make a regular round one using a pie baking plate).

Put the squares on a baking sheet

The pie : 

Heat oven 410F (210C)

Spread the crusts with the apple sauce. 

Thinly slice the apples and arrange them on the pie.

Lightly sparkle with cinnamon.

Cook 20 minutes or until lightly brown.

Enjoy ;)

Cinamon Cookies

The perfect treat for little princesses...

Ingredients : (about 25 cookies)

For the cookies : 

- 2 cups flour (250g)

- 1 cup brown sugar (175g)

- a pinch of salt

- 1 teaspoon baking powder

- 1 teaspoon ground cinamon

- 3, 1/2 tbsp butter at room temperature (50g)

- 3 oz water (10cl)

Prep : 15 min

Cook : 13 minutes

Rest : 1 h

1) Start by stirring all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the butter, cut in little pieces, an gradually poor the water. Mix with your hand and form a ball. Wrap in plastic sheet and refrigerate about 1hour.

2) Preheat oven 350F (180C)

Roll out the dough, 1/4 inch thick. With a cookie cutter, cut the dough. You may need to form another ball and roll out again to use all the dough.

3) Place your cookies in a baking sheet covered with parchemine paper. Oven 13 minutes.

Let cool down.

For the royal icing : 

- 1, 1/4 cup confectioner sugar 

- 1 egg white

- 2 drop of food coloring

- about 25 sugar pearls

In a small bowl, mix the confectioner sugar and the egg white. Poor few drop of coloring food in the icing and mix well until having a nice bold color.

Take a cookie in your hand and put one of its face in the icing. let drain 3-4 second and place back on the parchemine paper. Decorate with one pearl and continue with the cookies left.

Let dry

Keep them in a closed box or food storage bag.

Strawberry Pie

I remember the first time I baked this pie. I was in US for 1 year, thinking of what I could eat for dessert if I had a bakery nearby ( a french from France bakery of course)... but just "dreaming"wasn't enough, I really needed to have a strawberry pie ! And here I am :

Ingredients : (6 servings)

- 1lb strawberries (500g)

- 1 handful of unsalted pistachios for decorating

For the pie crust (pâte sablée) :

- 2 egg yolks

- 1/4 cup sugar (70g)

- 1,5 oz water (5cl)

- 1,3/4 cup all purpose flour (250g)

- 9 tbsp butter, melted (125g)

For the vanilla custard :

- 1,1/8 cup milk (1/4l)

- 1 vanilla bean

- 1 egg

- 1/8 cup sugar (40g)

- 1/4 cup flour (30g) 

Prep : 20 min
Cook : 30 min
Rest : 1 h

1) The pie crust : 
Preheat oven 350F (180C)
Stir together the egg yolks and sugar, pour the water and mix.
Add the flour and melted butter. Work with your hands to obtain a consistent dough. Form a ball.
On a floured surface roll out the dough. Transfer to greased round baking pan (or 6 small).
Oven 20 minutes.

2) The vanilla custard :
Split the vanilla bean in half, lengthwise, to expose the tar-like seeds inside the pod. Scrape the seeds loose with a knife
In a pan, bring the milk and the grated vanilla bean and the seeds to a boil.
In a medium bowl mix the egg and the sugar until well combine. Add the flour and mix again.
Pour the hot milk onto the egg mixture and beat.
Pour again in the pan and heat stirring until boiling. Remove from heat. The vanilla custard should thicken.  Through away the vanilla bean.

Put the custard onto the prepared crust and let it totally cool down.
Decorate with the strawberries (I cut 3 slices in each fruit). And sparkle with pistachios.
Refrigerate at least 2h.

Bon apetit !

Mini Lemon Pie

There is only one bad thing about this cute lemon bites : When eat one we want to eat them all...

Ingredients : (12 mini pies)

The pie crust : 

- 1, 3/4 cup all purpose flour (250g)

- 9 tbsp melted butter (125g)

- 1/3 cup white sugar (70g)

- 1/4 cup water (5cl)

- a pinch of salt

The lemon cream : 

- the juice of 2 lemons

- 2/3 cup white sugar (150g)

- 2 eggs+2 egg yolks

- 7/8 cup sour cream (20cl)

The meringue : 

- 2 egg whites

- 4.4 oz sugar ( between 1/2 and 2/3 cup) (125g)

- 1.5 oz water (40cl)

Special needs :

- 1 baking thermometer

- 1 small round cookie cutter

- 12 muffins baking pan

- a pastry bag + a big star tip

Prep : 40 min
Cooking : 25 min
Rest : 30 min

Preheat oven 355F
1) The pie crust (pâte sablée)  : 
Beat the egg yolks with the sugar. Poor the water and mix.
Add the flour, melted butter and salt. Start mixing with a fork and after work with your hands.
Form a ball.
Place the dough onto the floured surface and gently shape it into a disk. Flour also your rolling pin and roll out the pie crust. If necessary , add a few sprinkles of flour under the dough to keet it from sticking.
With a round shape cookie cutter cut 12 circles ( You may need to form a ball and unroll the dough few times) . Place them into a greased muffin baking pan.
Cook about 10 minutes and wait 10 more minutes before removing the pie crusts from the pan.
Gently place the precooked crusts onto a baking sheet covered with parchemin paper

2) The lemon cream : 
In a bowl beat the eggs. Mix in the sour cream, sugar and lemon juice.
Poor the mixture onto the pie crusts.
Oven 15 minutes and let refrigerate about 30 minutes

3) The meringue : 
In a pan heat the water and the sugar to 245F (118C), using the thermometer.
Meanwhile beat the egg whites until foamy and continuing mixing, poor the hot sugar into the eggs.
The meringue is done when the mixture stays on the mixer when you remove it.
Fill the pastry bag with the meringue and pipe it onto the little pies.
Broil in oven for 1 minute.

Verry Berry Crumb Cake

A delicious dessert sweet and sour,with a pretty berry color.

Ingredients : 

- 1lb mixed berries (fresh or frozen) (450g)
- 1/4 cup white sugar (50g)

- juice of 1/2 lemon 

- 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour (200g)

- 1 cup brown sugar (200g)

- 14 tbsp butter (200g)

Prep : 10 min
Cook : 25 min

Heat oven 410F
1) In a baking pan, combine the berries, the lemon juice an sugar.
2) In a medium bowl mix with your hands the flour, brown sugar and butter. The dough must be flaky ( It can take few minutes)
3) Poor the flour mixture ober the berries and bake 20-25 minutes or until lightly gold.

Serve warm with sour cream

Chocolate Mousse

One of my favorite dessert and so easy to prepare... a french, light and foamy french mousse topped with a sweet and delicate whipped cream.

For the Mousse : 
Ingredients : (6 tasting glasses)
- 3.5 oz semi sweet chocolate (100g)
- 3 eggs (separated)
- 1 vanilla sugar bag

Prep : 10 min
Rest : 1-2h

1) Microwave the chocolate (in a microwave safe dish) and stir every 30 second until totally melt.
2) In a medium bowl combine the melted chocolate, the sugar and egg yolks.
3) Beat the eggs white until foamy and slowly stir in the chocolate mixture using a spatula.
Share the mousse into 6 tasting glasses.
Let refrigerate 1-2 hours

For the whipped cream : 
Ingredients : (make 6 tasting glasses)
- 1,3/4 cup heavy cream (40cl)
- 3 tbsp white sugar
- 1 drop of vanilla extract

Using an electric mmixer, whipped all the ingredients until soft peaks form ( about 2 minutes).
Fill a pastry bag ( with a big star tip) with this cream and decorate the mousse.

Tips : For the whipped cream, let cool your bowl and the heavy cream 5 minutes in the frozer.

Raspberry Pink Meringues

Two pink meringues filled with a creamy mascarpone cheese and raspberries... just delicious...

Ingredients : (for 10 bites)

- 1/2 lb raspberries (200g)

- pink sugar for decorating

For the meringues :

- 4 egg whites
- 1/2 cup white sugar (125g)

- 1 1/8 cup confectioner sugar (125g)

- a drop of pink food coloring

For the mascarpone cream : 

- 1 container mascarpone cheese

- 2 eggs (separated)

- 4 tbsp confectioner sugar

Prep : 40 min
Cooking : 1h45
Rest : 1h

The meringues : 
Preheat oven 230F (110C)
1) Beat the egg whites using an electric mixer until soft peaks form.  Add the sugar little by little stirring. Mix in the confectioner sugar. Add few drops of coloring food and stir one more time.
2) Cover a baking sheet with parchemin paper and draw small circles (2 inches diameter). Turn the paper over.
Fill a large pastry bag (with a large round tip) with the egg whites and pipe meringue into the circles.
3) Bake for 1h45.
Let totally cool down.

The mascarpone cream : 
In a medium bowl mix the egg yolks with the sugar and mascapone cheese.
In a second bowl beat the egg white until foamy and mix it slowly with the mascarpone cream.

Build it :

1) Using a large pastry bag, spread the cream into 5 meringues letting 1/3 inch free on the side.
2) Cut each raspberry in half and put them all around the mascarpone cream.
The cream must be as high as the raspberries, if not add some more cream.
3) Cover with a second meringue ( like a sandwich)
4) Glue on the top an half raspberry using some cream and sprinkle with pink sugar.

Keep it refrigerate until dessert time !

Lovely Brownies

Strawberries, chocolate, vanilla... brownies looking like hearts with finelly sliced strawberries, vanilla ice cream and hot chocolate... who can resist?

Ingredients :
- 1/2 cup sugar (100g)
- 1/3 cup flour (50g)
- 2 eggs

- 7 tbsp butter (100g)

- 3.5 oz semi sweet chocolate (100g)
- 1/3 cup hazelnuts
- 1 tbsp hazelnut spread (as nutella)

Prep :10 minutes
Cooking : 20 minutes

Preheat oven 390F (200C)
In a bowl, combine the sugar, flour, the eggs.
In a small sauce pan melt the chocolate and the butter until smooth. Poor this mixture into the bowl and stir everything together.
Add the nuts and stir again.
Put the preparation in a baking dish for 18 minutes or until the top starts to crack a little bit.
Aload to cool down and cut, using an heart shape cookies cutter, the brownie.

Enjoy

Strawberry Pops

A fun and sweet idea for your Valentine... The strawberry Pops

All you need is :
- strawberries stemmed
- pop sticks
- chocolate chips or candy melt
- decorating sugar

1) Start by melting the chocolate (in a microwavable safe dish) in the microwave, stirring every 30 second until smooth enough. Ensure the chocolate do not burn.
2) Place a stick in the center of each strawberry and dipe it into the melt chocolate. I use a spoon to poor the mixture all around the pop.
3) Now it's time to decorate your strawberry pop by adding some color. Sparkle some sugar around it.