A Few of My Favorite Desserts
‘Tis the
season for food excesses of all kinds.
Woohoo! As for desserts, most Americans have already indulged in the apple and pumpkin pies that normally
accompany the Thanksgiving feast. My preferred
sweet courses consist of, but are not limited to, fruit- and chocolate-based
goodies which are often heavenly rich and satisfying. There are so many good ones to choose from,
many from France, bien sûr : crêpes, mousses, clafoutis...
Although I can’t possibly discuss all of my favorites, I thought I’d
concentrate on three today which are so good and not too difficult to make.
From a
much-loved cookbook I’ve mentioned before, Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home,
comes Pépin’s recipe for a rustic fruit tart. This pie combines two great qualities: it is delicious
and easy. You begin by making the crust
which is practically fail-safe. Put 1½ cups
of flour into a food processor with a pinch of salt. Add in 1½ sticks (or 6 oz.) of cold butter a
little at a time and pulse until the mixture resembles small peas. Sprinkle 1/3 cup of ice water into the processor and mix until moistened.
Then knead the dough a few times on a lightly floured board and roll
out to about ¼ inch thick. Put the dough
on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Mix together 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1
tablespoon of flour and scatter it over the top of the dough. Peel, core, and slice 4 Golden Delicious
apples (or a mixture of any fresh and dried fruit you like) and overlap the
pieces on the dough, starting 3 inches from the edge, going in concentric
circles. Fold the dough up over the
fruit in an unsystematic way (hence the word rustic). Brush the fruit with 2 tablespoons of melted
butter and sprinkle with 1½ tablespoons of sugar. Refrigerate for 10 minutes and then bake at
400 degrees for about an hour till the crust is golden. Brush the tart with 2 tablespoons of melted, strained apricot preserves for a beautiful tasty glaze. Yum!
The
following recipe does not normally contain either chocolate or fruit, but it
does have heavy cream in it, so it’ll do just fine! We had a somewhat non-traditional meal at
Thanksgiving this year which included crème brûlée
for dessert. The making of this French custard
is not too hard and the results are terrific. First, preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Bring a quart of heavy cream and a split,
scraped vanilla bean to a boil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Remove from the burner and let the mixture
sit for 15 minutes. Whisk together ½ cup
of sugar and 6 large egg yolks in a bowl.
Then comes the only tricky part: slowly add the warm cream mixture to
the beaten eggs, about a ½ cup at a time, constantly beating. Pour into 6 8-oz. ramekins and place in a
large Pyrex baking dish. Fill the dish
with hot water so that it comes half-way up the sides of the ramekins. (One good idea is to put a clean kitchen
towel at the bottom of the dish to prevent movement). Bake 40 to 45 minutes till the custard is
still jiggly but set. Refrigerate the
ramekins for at least 2 hours. What
makes the dessert brûlée is burning some
kind of sugar on the top of the cream mixture. Professional chefs use a small
hand torch for this purpose, but the broiler setting of the oven is much safer
for us mere mortals. Remove the ramekins
from the fridge 30 minutes before placing them back in the oven. Sprinkle about a ½ cup of brown sugar evenly and
broil to form a crispy top. Let sit 5
minutes before serving.
The
final dessert resembles the previous one but it is the chocolate variety, much like a mousse: the
simple but lovely pot de crème. We first tasted this unbeatable French treat years ago in a restaurant outside of Boston. Preheat the oven to 375 while melting 3-oz.
of bittersweet chocolate in a double-boiler.
(You can, of course, improvise by setting a pan on top of another that
has simmering water in it.) Meanwhile, scald 2 cups cream with 1 cup of
milk, being careful not to let it boil over.
Beat together 5 egg yolks with ¼ cup of sugar, and a pinch of salt. As in the previous recipe, very slowly add
the warm cream to the egg mixture so as not to have scrambled eggs! Pour the egg/cream mixture through a fine
sieve into the melted chocolate. Whisk
until smooth. Then proceed as in the
above recipe: fill ramekins, put them in a baking dish, fill ½-way up with hot
water. One difference is that you cover
the dish with aluminum foil before baking about 35 minutes or until firm. Refrigerate 2 to 3 hours and serve cold with
whipped cream if the dessert itself is not rich enough for you!
There you go! Hope you'll try them.
1 comments:
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