Maple pecan pie

In a month it's Thanksgiving which means turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie and also Maple Pecan Pie, which is what today's post is about. It is a dessert many Europeans do not know about and a typical dessert in North America composed of (guess what?) pecan nuts and maple syrup and that people eat all year round but also for Thanksgiving.

For this recipe I used a pâte sablée (sweet shortcrust dough made with an egg) but you can also use a harder pâte brisée (same but with water) or sweeter pâte sucrée (different method with creamed butter and more sugar) as you prefer. Also I used rum but you can use Bourbon or nothing at all. This recipe was adapted from a 9-inch pan recipe (23 cm diameter) so I reduced everything by 1/3 but you can easily make a bigger pie if you have more guests! Enjoy :-)

Recipe for a 20cm tart form:

1.6 dl maple syrup
0.8 dl brown sugar
0.5 tbsp rum
3 tbsp melted butter
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
approx 3 dl pecan nuts

pâte sablée:
125 g cold butter
3 tbsp powder sugar
250 g flour
1 beaten egg
1.5 tbsp milk

Prepare the dough (pâte sablée first). Mix sugar and flour first, then mix with cold butter by hand making crumbs.  Add the beaten egg and milk and mix until forming a ball. Refrigerate for 1 hour at least.

Roll out 3/4 of the dough on a floured table (approx 4 mm-thick) and transfer to a buttered + floured pie form. Prick the dough with a fork and pre-bake 10 min at 200C.

Mix maple syrup, sugar, rum, butter, eggs and vanilla in a bowl. Add 2 dl lightly crushed/grossly chopped pecans to the batter and transfer it to the pre-baked pie crust. Decorate with the remaining whole pecan nuts. Bake in the oven at 175 C for about 40 min.

Orange cake, by Pierre Hermé

After the Lemon cake by Pierre Hermé, here is its equally juicy and delicious Orange counterpart: the Orange cake by Pierre Hermé.

Recipe for a high 30cm-long orange cake

400 g sugar
zest from 3 oranges
6 eggs
190 g cream
375 g flour
1 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
150 g melted butter, room T

For the orange glaze / syrup:
150 g water
65 g sugar
juice from 3 oranges

Mix sugar and lemon zest and leave to rest 10-15 min. Add eggs and beat until while and foamy. Add cream, rum, mix. Slowly add flour + baking powder + salt (pre-mixed) while mixing to have a nice homogenous batter. Last add melted butter (cooled down to room T), mix, and transfer to a buttered + floured 30cm cake pan. Bake in the oven 90 min at 160C (or until a knife comes out clean of it). (you can also use a longer cake pan and in that case you'll bake the cake in less time: e.g. 60 min for a 38cm-long cake pan)

While the cake is baking, prepare the syrup. In a saucepan heat up sugar and water until it boils. Let it cool down and then add lemon juice. When the cake comes out of the oven, glaze it with the lemon syrup/glaze with a brush (it will seem like a lot of syrup but the cake acts as a sponge and will absorb it all). Let the cake cool down and then take it out of the cake pan.

Banana chocolate chip Bundt cake

 

 

This week I again had overly ripe bananas (I had a few leftover bananas after baking banana-walnut bread last week). A few months ago I made oatmeal-banana-chocolate chip muffins and remembered the banana-chocolate combo was a killer... so guess what? I went on to make the best banana-chocolate chip cake ever (I am not sure the pics convey this but believe me it's too good).

I found the recipe here and replicated it with a bit more banana and some more chocolate. It is too easy to bake so make sure you and your friends are hungry when you make it :-) This banana-chocolate chip cake is dense, moist, and insanely good... If you love bananas and chocolate, this recipe is for you. Let me know how you like it! (I still dream of it...)

Recipe for a Bundt cake*:

4 very ripe bananas, mashed
230 g butter (room T)
2 eggs
4.8 dl sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
7.2 dl flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2.4 dl sour cream or yoghurt
200 g bittersweet chocolate

Cream the butter (whip it). Add sugar and whip more, until well incorporated. Add eggs one by one, beating in between each one. Add vanilla extract and mix. Add mashed bananas and mix on low speed.
Mix remaining dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt) in a separate bowl (not the chocolate). Add 1/2 of dry ingredients to wet mix and mix on low speed. Add sour cream/yoghurt, mix, and finally add the other 1/2 of dry ingredients and mix.
Chop up chocolate into chips and fold in. Transfer the dough into a prepared Bundt cake form and bake approx. 1h10 at 175 C.

*you can half all the amounts for a 24cm-long cake

Adapted from: http://www.foodlibrarian.com/2013/11/banana-chocolate-chip-bundt-i-like-big.html

Honey-like fig tart

 

Figs are wonderful fruits that you can eat raw and cold as snack, with fresh white cheese and honey, in salads, and in yoghurt and muesli too. But my favorite way to eat figs is in a warm tart at the end of summer. This simple recipe will delight your tastebuds so I recommend you try it if you like figs :-) 

I finally found nice ripe figs at the supermarket so I was able to replicate this tart that I like to make every summer. Baked figs will melt in your mouth and if you had a small scoop of vanilla ice-cream it will add a very nice contrast. Enjoy!

Recipe for a 20 cm fig tart:

Pâte brisée (shortcrust dough):

200 g flour

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

110 g butter

0.8 dl cold water

16-20 ripe figs

brown sugar

ground almonds

Prepare the shortcrust dough as previously described and refrigerate it for at least 30 min. Wash figs, cut away the top and cut in 4 quarters. Roll out the dough (approx. 4mm thick) and transfer to a buttered and floured tart pan. The dough has to be relatively bigger than the tart pan such that you can fold the edges over the fruits!
Cover the dough with some ground almonds. Place the fig quarters geometrically on top and sprinkle them with some brown sugar. Fold the dough edges on the first row of figs. Bake approx. 30 min at 200 C. Enjoy the tart warm, it will melt in your mouth!

Banana-walnut bread, moist and decadent

You have old bananas that are too ripe to eat? Make banana bread :-D

That was my case last week. I received a baking book called “Flour” from the so-called bakery in Boston and went on to try their famous banana bread recipe.

The cake was dangerously easy to make and especially easy to eat… it is too good! In fact I liked the banana cake (or rather “bread”) so much that I bought more bananas this week, let them ripen and then made a bigger banana bread (I increased ingredients by 50% and made a 36cm long cake) that I then shared on the train with my friends on our way to Tours!

Recipe for a 24cm cake:

210 g flour

1 tsp baking soda

¼ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp salt

230 g sugar

2 eggs

100 g colza oil

340 g mashed ripe bananas

2 tbsp crème fraîche or sour cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

75 g roasted + chopped walnuts (or pecan nuts)

In a big bowl beat sugar and eggs together until obtaining a fluffy white mixture. While mixing on low speed, add colza oil as a drizzle. Add bananas, cream and vanilla extract and mix until incorporated.
In a small bowl mix dry ingredients (except for sugar). Add dry ingredients and nuts to the wet mix and slowly mix until roughly incorporated. Transfer to a buttered and floured 24cm long cake pan. Bake 1hr at 160C and another 5-10 min at 180C.

Caramelized peaches & vanilla mascarpone cream

Mid-late Summer is stone fruit (apricots, peaches, cherries, plums...) season. Last week I made an apricot tart with thyme-infused honey and last year made an apricot-pistachio tart and a plum tart for Jeûne Fédéral. But so far I had never used peaches in any of my desserts so thought it was about time I try that.

I found very nice white peaches at the market and went on to caramelize them (sliced) in a pan. I served them lukewarm with a cold vanilla mascarpone cream (which was so good I could eat it with a spoon...) and some grilled pine nuts. It made for a very nice and gourmand dessert and was very easy and fast to realize. I recommend it!

Recipe for about 4 people:

125 g mascarpone
125 g whipping cream
2 tbsp powder sugar
2 vanilla pods (seeds)

3 peaches
pine nuts

2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp water

In a bowl, put mascarpone, cream, and vanilla seeds. Whip it up and towards the end (before it hardens) add powder sugar and continue whipping. Once the cream is firm, refrigerate until use.
Put honey, sugar and water in a pan and heat up. Cut the peaches in quarters (I didn't peel them but you can if you prefer to) and place them on one side in the pan. Let them caramelize (4-5 min) and then place the other face down in the pan for another few minutes until the peaches have a nice golden color. If you're not serving them right away, I suggest you transfer the peaches to an oven / pyrex pan and heat them up 5 min at 75 C before serving.
Grill some pine nuts in a pan while making sure they don't burn.
In a glass cup or small bowl, place some mascarpone cream, a few caramelized peach slices on top, and finally decorate with a few grilled pine nuts. Enjoy!

Apricot tart with thyme-infused honey

Yesterday was my birthday so I prepared an apricot tart with thyme-infused honey to celebrate it. I had read about combining thyme with apricots in a few recipes so I thought I would try this combo along with honey. Apricots are very popular in Switzerland during Summer (well it is technically Winter this week here) and I have lots of thyme in the balcony.

I made a simple pâte sablée crust (home-made shortcrust dough is so good!), covered it with some ground almonds, added apricot halves, and finally glazed it all with thyme-infused honey and some thyme leaves. It's a very simple recipe and is great with fresh apricots. If you want to make it more simple, you can skip the thyme and honey and instead sprinkle sugar on top of the apricots before baking.

Apricot tart with thyme-infused honey:

Pâte sablée (shortcrust dough):
250 g flour
125 g butter
1 egg, beaten
1 pinch of salt
2 tbsp water
3 tbsp sugar

50 g ground almonds
1-1.5 kg apricots (I used 1 kg here but I would use more next time)
a few thyme branches
4-5 tbsp honey (use more if fruits are not very ripe or if you don't like acidity too much)
powder sugar

Mix butter and flour by making crumbs. Add all other ingredients and mix fast into a dough. Refrigerate for at least 30 min (the longer the better). Heat up the honey with some of the thyme branches in a saucepan in order to infuse the honey with thyme aroma.
Roll out the dough onto a (very) floured table (flip the dough several times so it doesn't stick to the table) and transfer to a buttered + floured tart form. Prick it with a fork and pre-bake 10 min at 200 C.

Cover the dough with ground almonds. Cut the apricots in halves and place them as to make a flower (see picture, with the interior up). Glaze the apricots with the thyme-infused honey and sprinkle some thyme leaves on top. Bake for 30 min at 200 C.
Let it cool down and then sprinkle powder sugar on top.