Cheddar and Gruyère Gougères
When I was in my Laminated Dough class in culinary school we made gougères. I have never been the same since. After reading what gougères were I was certain they would be awful. I mean, a gougère is nothing more than pâte à choux with cheese mixed in, but I always associated pâte à choux with cream puffs. With trepidation I mixed in the cheese, piped them out into little mounds, and slid them into the oven. One taste and I was...
Lemon Cherry Cake
When I buy fruit I find that I almost always buy more than I need. In fact, I would go so far as to say I do that with most food. That isn’t to say I am forever throwing away perfectly good food, but I plan for a dessert or salad and then overbuy with abandon and have to come up with a second, and even third recipe to use it all up. That is what happened when I bought cherries for my Cherry Cheese Tart. I bought loads of...
Cherry Cheese Tart
I love fresh cherries, and at this time of year they are plump and sweet. When the cherries hit the produce section I grab them up for cherry pies, cherry sauce, and for eating ice cold on a hot day. However, I must warn you, cooking with fresh cherries in season will spoil you for any other kind of cherry. Even the frozen kind, picked and preserved at their peak, pale in comparison to fresh. I also love cherry cheese danish...
Fresh Peach Cobbler
When the weather turns from warm to hot, and the scents of grilling fill the air, my thoughts turn to cobbler. I would like to take moment to clear up a misconception about cobbler. It is not just fruit with a layer of pastry crust on top. That is NOT a cobbler. That is pie. No my friends, cobbler is topped with a fluffy biscuit topping which gives the dessert the look of a cobbled road. The topping is buttery, crisp on the...
Strawberry Jam Tarts
Last October I had the opportunity to go to England and Ireland and the trip changed my life. Overall, I must admit, the food was pretty bleak. I was so busy preparing for my friend’s wedding (in which I was not only the Matron of Honor but I was the cake designer) that I ate a lot of quick meals and pub food. However, one lovely afternoon I had a traditional tea, and with that tea came some buttery, slightly sweet, jam...
Buttermilk Biscuits
Tomorrow is the 4th of July here in the US, and I can think of no better way to celebrate our nation’s independence than with a hearty breakfast of flaky and tender buttermilk biscuits. For years I struggled with buttermilk biscuits. Drop biscuits I had down pat. I could make batches of those fluffy little wonders in my sleep. However, the tender, layered biscuits that I grew up with eluded me. They would either be hard as...
