Easy Fruit Crisp

This is a simple and excellent recipe that you will want to keep in your repertoire - as the original recipe says, you can make the crisp topping ahead of time and keep it in your freezer for a last-minute dessert option. Heck, you can even sugar the fruit of your choice and store it in your freezer too.

I love that this truly is a crisp topping, given the semolina (again replacing cornmeal) and ground nut composition that avoids getting soggy. I put the whole batch of topping over a relatively small pan of fruit, so the proportion of topping-to-fruit was just to my liking (read: lots of topping!). For those of you who are curious, this type of dish is called a "crumble" by the French. But if you call it that, you must say "crumble" with a good French accent, to be true to this amazing crumble recipe from real Frenchie Brigitte.

Pick any in-season fruit that bakes well; I chose nectarines, but I was really dying to try figs. I was uncertain of how figs bake up, since their texture is so unique, so I hesitated to make them for my class as this dish was intended. Guess the figs will have to wait. Hmm, maybe with pecans?

Easy Fruit Crisp

6 ripe nectarines, or equivalent volume of fruit of your choice

2 T granulated sugar

3/4 C (105 g) flour

2/3 C (90 g) semolina flour or cornmeal

3/4 C (80 g) almonds or walnuts

1/2 C (110 g) brown sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

pinch of salt

4 oz (1 stick, 115 g) unsalted butter, well chilled

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

Dice fruit, place in a bowl, and stir it together with the 2 T sugar. Let sit to permit the juices to start flowing (called "macerating" the fruit).

In a blender or food processor, pulse the flour, semolina, nuts, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt until the nuts are in smaller pieces.

Cut the butter in chunks and add to the processor, pulsing until the butter is finely broken up, the mixture no longer looks sandy, and it's starting to stick and clump together.

Place the fruit in a 9 or 10-inch round baking dish, and spread the topping over it. Bake until the topping is browned and the fruit is bubbling underneath and can easily be pierced with a sharp knife. Baking time will vary from 30 minutes for softer fruit like nectarines to nearly twice as long for firmer fruits like apples, so check after 30 minutes and then continue to keep an eye on it if you're trying a fruit for the first time.

Serve alone, or with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Beautiful Food in Paris

In the life of a student, luxury is something that normally comes in small doses, so I have come to be very appreciative of the luxurious pastries that pass through my life (=mouth). The parisian macaron is of course one of those extravagant moments that I love the most, and while a few dollars seems like a lot to spend for a few bites of bliss, it certainly can fit an economical budget from time to time.

Pierre Hermé, my favorite macaron provider in Paris, is closed for another four days for their summer revamp (not that I'm counting or anything), so meanwhile I have explored a few other options. The macarons above are found, well, at McCafé, and I believe are only 90 centimes. I tried the caramel au beurre salé, and it really wasn't bad! I have had much worse from patisseries in Paris, and it turns out that McCafé gets their macarons from the same provider that Ladurée does, albeit of a slightly lower quality (more on Ladurée later). Quite the affordable, speedy, and widely available option.

The McCafé at the Louvre food court

I also did a bit of research into cooking classes here; thanks to David Lebovitz and Clotilde Dusoulier's fabulous sites/books, I was introduced to the affordable Atelier des Chefs. Some of their lessons are as low as 15 Euros for a class that can be taken at lunchtime, which includes the food that you make so that you can eat it for lunch. They have many locations and different classes in Paris - and other cities in France - so you can choose one at a convenient place and with a menu that you find interesting. I chose a class for 36 Euros at the BHV store on the rue de Rivoli which featured financiers and caramel macarons. Predictable, perhaps, but given the opportunity to take a class on macarons in Paris, I had to take it!

In the end I learned some valuable techniques from the class, and will definitely use the pistachio-confit orange financier recipe (and will post it in English; click here for a demo video and the recipe in French). The final product of the macaron shells, however, was quite disappointing - they were crunchy, and not as smooth on the surface as I would have liked. So, I will take what I learned and supplement it with the other recipes and techniques I have read.

The Atelier des Chefs kitchen at BHV rue de Rivoli

I finally succeeded in making it to fine chocolatier Pierre Marcolini's store at a time when they weren't closed for their long daily lunch break - this is the third trip to Paris when I've tried to buy their chocolate-covered marshmallows/guimauves.

Pierre Marcolini rue de Seine boutique

Some of the best gourmet marshmallows I've had, and of course the chocolate was excellent! I love that the French for these is "Vanille enrobée de Chocolat" - as if the marshmallow is clothed in the chocolate.

Of course, other beautiful things popped out at me once I entered the PM shop, so I returned another day to buy these macarons, which were not quite delicate enough, but well flavored and very pretty.

Mojito and Limoncello Macarons

And this bouchée of nougat and chocolate cream topped with crisp cookie wafers had me intrigued, so I had to try it:

Mmmmmmmm....

I also made a stop at the nearby Patrick Roger shop, where I bought this caramel dome for a ridiculous 4 Euros, which I assume pays for the fact that it comes in its own box like a piece of jewelry (like I said, moments of luxury):

liquid caramel with a touch of citrus encased in chocolate

And my final moment de luxe this week was my first trip to Ladurée, the classic and classy tea shop that invented parisian macarons. As I have confirmed with my trial of their macarons and conversations with Parisians, these are good macarons, but not the best. The flavors were good, but the texture was lacking the magic of the Pierre Hermé macarons. Their shells were slightly too thick, and the filling in the middle not quite plentiful enough, so that the result was less delicate and less fondant in the middle. All the same, good, just not mind-blowing.

Ladurée to-go bakery at the Champs-Elysée location

I did very much enjoy the other pastries I got at Ladurée, which included a millefeuille praliné (praline napoleon) and an Ispahan macaron, which is actually a flavor creation of Pierre Hermé's: rose, raspberry, and lychee all together (which I had in croissant form back in June, amazing).

Ispahan and millefeuille praliné from Ladurée

But Paris on a daily basis for me has been typified by the wonderfully fresh foods that are all around the city in outdoor markets and even neighborhood supermarkets. My generous hosts even picked up pastries from a local shop for one breakfast:

And I have enjoyed this lunch on a number of days: whole grain cracker with goat cheese and fresh peach slices (see the caramel macarons in the background from my cooking class?). No complaints here! Gotta balance the rich pastries somehow.

Thank goodness for gorgeous weather to go running through the Parc des Buttes Chaumont!

Mediterranean Semolina Cookies

I was really at a loss when deciding what to call these unique treats...they're based on zaletti, an Italian cornmeal cookie (see David Lebovitz's recipe here, which I used as a starting point), but I replaced and changed the proportions of the flours and sugars, and created a theme with the dried fruits, so they certainly aren't zaletti any more.

Despite appearances, they also aren't what you would typically think of as "cookies," nor do they fit the categories of "biscuit" or "crisp" or any other cookie-ish designation that I can think of...so they're just cookies in this post. What that means here, however, is that they are both a teeny bit chewy from being baked, and a little crunchy from the semolina flour. They aren't too sweet, but have the flavor interest added by the variety of dried fruits and the crisped brown sugar on the outer rim.

The Mediterranean theme comes from the combination of dried fruits I found at a little shop in the Old City of Jerusalem - dried figs, kiwi, coconut, mango, and pineapple. You certainly could create any fruit combination of your choice, so see what is available to you and go for it! I loved the colorful results of this particular mix, but I could see a really beautiful Christmas cookie coming out of dried cherries, cranberries, maybe candied green cherries?

A lot of what I made while in Israel was inspired by the contents of my cupboards - as an apartment that changed student hands frequently, still-fresh ingredients were left behind by previous tenants, and I resolved to use as much of them as possible. It would have been a pity to waste perfectly good (free) food! Such was the case with semolina, which I had never bought before, but the full bag of it convinced me that it was the perfect substitute for polenta recipes that I found. If you have polenta or cornmeal instead, feel free to sub it back in. As you can see in the original recipe, regular or coarse ground cornmeal works just fine.

Mediterranean Semolina Cookies

3/4 C (90 g) dried fruit

2 T (20 g) flour

5 1/2 oz (155 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 C (110 g) brown sugar

1 1/2 T honey

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 C (210 g) semolina flour (or polenta/cornmeal)

1 C (140 g) flour

2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

extra brown sugar or raw sugar for rolling the logs of dough

1. Toss the dried fruit and the 2 T (20 g) of flour together in a small bowl and set aside.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, or by hand, beat together the butter, sugar, and honey until smooth and creamy, about one minute. Add the eggs, one at a time, then the vanilla, beating until incorporated.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the semolina flour, 1 C flour, baking powder, and salt.

4. Mix the dry ingredients into the beaten butter mixture until incorporated, then stir in the dried fruit.

5. Form the dough into a rectangle 4- by 7-inches (10 by 18 cm), wrap in plastic, and chill the dough for about an hour, or until it’s firm enough to handle.

6. Spread brown or raw sugar liberally over a surface on which to roll the dough into logs. Divide the dough in two, lengthwise, and roll each piece of dough on the brown sugar into a smooth cylinder 7-inches (18 cm) long. Wrap the cylinders and freeze until ready to bake.

(To bake them right away, pinch off pieces of dough about the size of a small unshelled walnut, and roll into balls. Place them evenly spaced on the prepared baking sheet and press them down gently with your hands to flatten them partially.)

7. To bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 325 F (170 C).

8. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

9. Slice the cookies into 1/4-inch (.75 cm) slices and place them evenly spaced on the prepared baking sheets. The dough is easier to slice when frozen, but if it's too firm or crumbles when you slice it, let it defrost for a few minutes, or reform the individual slices by hand.

10. Bake the cookies for about 12 minutes, rotating the baking sheets midway during baking, until the cookies are very light brown on top. Remove the oven and let cool completely.

Serve the cookies by themselves, alongside a fruit compote, or with a scoop of your favorite ice cream or sorbet.

Storage: The cookies will keep in an airtight container for up to four days. The dough can be refrigerated for up to one week, or frozen for one or two months.

Because these have more fiber, less sugar, and fruit in them, they almost felt like a healthy snack to me. That's justification for making them and eating them whenever you feel hungry, right? Right?

Another crunchy semolina recipe to follow!

Lemon Olive Oil Cupcakes

Being outside of the U.S. for more than a month now has brought up a number of food cravings for me; I expected to miss authentic Asian food, and while I am in Israel, pork, but lately the American blogs I've been reading have been featuring gorgeous cupcakes that I can't get out of my mind. I find myself desiring a cute, fluffy, frosting-laden cupcake.

Fortunately, there is something I can do about this - especially since I usually prefer my own cupcakes to anything from a professional bakery. Sometimes I think it's good to know how to cook for the sake of knowing how to satisfy one's food cravings in one's own kitchen, but on the other hand I think that the more foods I try, the more cravings I develop. At least the two go hand in hand! This time a longing for cupcakes coincided with a craving for lemon-flavored dessert, and I am completely pleased with the result.

Some of you will be glad to know that this is a vegan cake recipe; others of you will be dubious, but if you've tried this red velvet cake recipe you'll know that vegan baking can make a successful cake. In fact, I find this recipe formula to be much more consistent in providing good texture than almost any scratch cake recipe I've tried, and it is easy! Because the only somewhat perishable item in the recipe is soy milk (well, and the lemons too, but I keep lemon zest and juice in the freezer all the time), you can easily make these out of the normal contents of your kitchen.

And is it horrible that I think that one of the great benefits of vegan baking is the fact that you can eat as much of the batter as you want without worrying about raw eggs? Because I guarantee that you will want to have more than one lick of this batter.

The olive oil is not a strong flavor, but it is a nice compliment to the lemon (much more than it is to chocolate in my opinion!).

Your cupcakes will look much cuter than mine since I had to make do without a proper cupcake pan; some of mine ended up more deformed than others, but they were still much enjoyed. Like I've said before, every recipe I've tried in Israel has had to be adapted, but the changes always add character, and sometimes even improve the result.

Lemon Olive Oil Cupcakes (Vegan)
loosely based on this red velvet cupcake recipe

1 C soy milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 1/4 C all-purpose flour
1 C sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 C olive oil
4 tsp lemon juice
1/2 T lemon zest (zest of one medium lemon)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350° F/180°C.
Add vinegar to soy milk, and set aside to curdle.
Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.
Add olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, and vanilla extract to the curdled soy milk, and whisk together.
Pour liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients, and mix until just incorporated.
Fill cupcake liners ¾ full; makes about 12 full-size cupcakes and 45 teeny mini cupcakes.
Bake for 20 minutes for full-size cupcakes, 16 minutes for mini cupcakes, or until a toothpick comes clean.


Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

4 oz cream cheese
4 oz butter (room temperature)
2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 T lemon zest (zest of one lemon, with a bit set aside for garnish)
2 1/3 C (300 g) powdered sugar

Cream together cream cheese, butter, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Add the powdered sugar 1/2 C at a time until well incorporated. Beat until fluffy, then top cooled cupcakes.

See the red velvet cupcake recipe for a vegan frosting option (it actually tastes pretty good). I also think this would be excellent with a mascarpone frosting that has lemon zest and a little juice added.

I garnished them with a mixture of lemon zest, granulated sugar, and a dash of salt.

Sticky Toffee Cake

This is absolutely my favorite thing that I've made this summer. At least thus far. As you can see from the picture, there were others who agreed with my assessment of this gooey, caramely, moist cake: can't get enough of it until it's gone.

It is called a "pudding" by the Brits, who have a pudding category of dessert that I think is still a tad foreign/unappealing to the American ear, so I am deeming it a cake. For so it is - a cake that has wonderful texture and nuanced flavor smothered in toffee sauce.

This was a dessert that was very amenable to adaptation in the Middle East, since it called for dates in the cake (which provide the extra je ne sais quoi both to the moist texture and to the flavor), and the toffee sauce worked extraordinarily well with honey instead of the molasses/golden syrup originally called for. Ironically, the day that I made this I went to a store that did NOT have fresh dates, but it did have this date paste that saved me work in the end. The pits of the dates were mixed in with the paste, so I had to dig them out as I scraped the paste out of the package, but other than that the paste worked very well. If you use honey in the sauce, just be aware that honey has a strong flavor and will be noticeable in the final product. And if you're in Jerusalem and want to use molasses or corn syrup, either can be obtained at Anise (imported goods store with multiple locations, including one on Palmach and one on Yafo).

I adore both the sauce and the cake of this recipe (need I mention that I practically drank a whole cup of the sauce on its own?). You've got the option of making the cake and the sauce separately the day before you serve it, and reheating the cake with the sauce spread over the top, or just making it the day that you will serve it, in which case you will make the sauce, pour half of it into the cake pan, followed by the cake batter, later to be served with the remaining sauce spooned over the top. I had to make it a day ahead, so the sauce was poured over the top of the cake and reheated, but I'm dying to try it with the cake baked in the sauce - I think the absorption factor would be fantastic. And who doesn't want toffee sauce on both sides of their cake??

On a side note, I have also found chocolate-covered dates in the supermarkets here, and they are to die for. Yet another sweet that I overate this week. There were packages of them with pecans, walnuts, or almonds replacing the pit, so of course I had to try more than one of the three options (pecan and almond, yum!). There was a magical connection between the flavor of the dates and the chocolate that melded into another flavor altogether, and they offered the most satisfyingly chewy experience that a classmate of mine delighted in dubbing a "fusion" with a new Hebrew vocabulary word of ours. I think I had an instinct that these chocolate-dipped goodies would be amazing after eating this cake, since it made me realize that while dates are good on their own, they are surprisingly versatile in their ability to boost the flavor profile of another sweet - toffee, in the case of this cake.

Sticky Toffee Cake

For the toffee sauce:
2 C (500ml) heavy cream
1/2 C (120g) demerara or muscovado sugar (or another dark brown sugar)
2 1/2 T golden syrup or molasses (or honey)
pinch of salt

For the cake:
6 oz (180g) pitted dates, snipped or chopped, or date paste with pits removed
1 C (250ml) water
1 tsp baking soda
optional: 1/3 C (40g) candied ginger, chopped
1 1/4 C (175g) flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
4 T (55g) unsalted butter
3/4 C (150g) granulated sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 350F (190C) and butter an 8 1/2-inch (about 24cm) porcelain soufflé mold, or similar-sized baking dish.
2. Make the toffee sauce by bringing the cream, demerara or turbinado sugar, golden syrup (or molasses) and salt to a boil in a medium saucepan, stirring often to melt the sugar.
3. Lower heat and simmer, stirring constantly for about 5 minutes, until the mixture is thick and coats the spoon. Pour half the sauce into the prepared soufflé mold and place the mold in the freezer, and reserve the other half for serving.
4. To make the pudding, in a medium saucepan, heat the dates and water. Once the water begins to boil, remove from heat and stir in the baking soda (this will foam up, as pictured above). Add the ginger, if using, then set aside, but keep it slightly warm.
5. In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
6. In the bowl of a standing electric mixer, or by hand, beat the butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs, then the vanilla. (Don't be alarmed if the mixture looks a bit curdled)
7. Stir in half of the flour mixture, then the date mixture, then add the remaining flour mixture until just mixed. Don't overbeat the batter.
8. Scrape the batter into the prepared baking dish and bake for 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with moist crumbs attached.
9. Remove the pudding from the oven, and let cool slightly before serving.

Serving: Spoon portions of the cake into serving bowls and top with remaining warm toffee sauce. Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream are optional toppings, but it's great on its own.

Note: To make the pudding in advance, bake the cake without the toffee in the bottom. Let cool, then cover until close to serving time. Poke the cake about fifteen times with a chopstick. Distribute half of the sauce over the top, cover with foil, then re-warm in a 300F (150C) oven, for 30 minutes.