Bruléed Apple Tart
Inspiration comes from a lot of places. Sometimes it is a basket of fresh fruit, sometimes it is a picture, and sometimes it is a television show. Last week, while watching Gordon Ramsay’s The F Word, inspiration struck in the form of an apple tart. Gordon baked sliced apples on a round of puff pastry, then when it was finished he bruléed sugar on the top and it looked divine! I decided to try something similar. I started...
Chocolate Angel Food Cake
This recipe is something of a triumph for me. I have long suffered with an inability to make a light and tender angel food cake. The cakes always, without fail, fall in the oven or just after removal from the oven. It drove me mad! Now I am confident those days are behind me with this recipe! It is adapted from a recipe on Baking Bites which sounds lovely as is, but I tinkered, and added chocolate … which can’t be...
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...
Croque-Madame Panini
What is better than a ham and cheese panini? How about a ham and cheese panini topped with a fried egg and some creamy mornay sauce? While dining out at a local French cafe I had a Croque-Monsieur which was quite nice. I promptly went home to research what went into this sandwich when I discovered a recipe for a Croque-Madame. A croque-madame has a sunny-side, or over-easy, egg and mornay sauce on top. You can’t imagine...
Jalapeno Bacon Cheddar Cheese Burgers
A well grilled burger is a thing of beauty. Add jalapenos, sharp cheddar cheese and thick cut bacon and it is the stuff of dreams. I have a few requirements for a good burger. It must be made with fairly lean meat (around 90%), it must have salt and pepper, and it must remain moist after grilling, even if cooked to well-done. The first two requirements are fairly straight forward, but the last can be tricky. My trick to moist...
