desserts recipes
What better way to celebrate than with a sip of champagne as well as a bite of champagne cake with champagne frosting ! The idea came about for France’s national holiday called Bastille Day on July 14th, which is also the reason I used red and blue berries to decorate it like France’s blue, white and red flag, but ideally I would keep...
My next door neigbour in Paris who is originally from Beirut showed up one day at my door with these wonderful, moist, sweet coconut balls, topped with golden raisins. Usually I’m the one who is supposed to cooks stuff but her sweets were divine and as she mentioned, they were also quite easy to make so I wanted to share this recipe with...
Melopita means honey pie in Greek. Melopita recipe is a simple cake that people in Greece were making using only 3 main ingredients such a soft neutral cheese like myzhithra in Greece, ricotta in Italy or brousse in France, eggs, honey and a few little extras for flavourings such as cinnamon and citrus zest, what could be simpler ?...
A maple fudge recipe to continue with my Belgian-Canadian inspired culinary experiments, following the mussels and fries poutine recipe a few days ago, it was time to switch to a sweet recipe… something very, very sweet ! I combined (and crushed) the spicy ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove and anis biscuits from Belgium called speculoos with...
Easter & chocolate . . . For kids, it's all about the chocolate eggs, chocolate bunnies, chocolate everything, the more the better ! We're all familiar with cheesecake, whether baked or non-baked, with or without a cookie crust, with or without a topping. But "kadaifi filo" pastry dough (unfamiliar to some) is like...
Fresh summer berries, flowers petals, cool and creamy filling, and kadaif shredded filo dough (like angel-hair used in several Mediterranean countries for sweet and/or savoury preparations and that I’ve already used in my Easter hazelnut & chocolate cheesecakes) … What could be better as a summer dessert ? It’s easy to...
I have a very dear friend who travels a lot and often brings me back fruit from far-and-away countries (legally of course !). This is a quick, simple, refreshing and very creamy frozen dessert that everyone should make ! Only 3 main ingredients, 1 mould for frozen desserts (or an ice-cube tray) and skewers or sticks ! In this recipe, I also tried...
I absolutely had to find out how to make that chocolate syrup that turned into a magic hard shell chocolate coating that we loved when we were kids growing up in North America, and of course covered our ice cream with it ! The "magic" was that this chocolate syrupy liquid (at room temperature) turned into a hard chocolate coating on...
Spring is finally here and we've spent most of the winter eating apples and oranges. Here's an idea for a simple apple snack before the spring and summer seasons provide us with other fruits that we've missed. My mother used to make these for us as a healthier version of a dessert or snack. Just peel, core, slice and coat your apples...
"Baklava" is right up there with moussaka and spanakopita for things we love to eat and rarely make (or at least not often enough). The preparation of the baklava filling, the layering of the fragile filo dough, the buttering and the assembly could hinder anyone's good intentions as well as their wavering appetites. A big thanks...
It’s rhubarb season ! This unusually tangy vegetable is used for sweet as well as savoury dishes. My friend and neigbour was kind enough to bring me about two and a half kilograms of rhubarb stalks from his parents’ farm north of Paris last week so it was time for me to prepare 3 dishes with it ! We’ll start with the simplest and...
This recipe is for what is called a "pound cake" in English or a "quatre-quarts" in French. Usually cmposed of 4 equal parts of eggs, sugar, dairy such as milk and butter and flour. Probably the simplest and yet most delicious and moist and honest cake you'll ever make. I always flavor mine with vanilla and sometimes also...
A sorbet is always a nice way to end a heavy meal or even as a refreshing pause before a main dessert (if you'll be having that too). It is quite easy, especially if you have an ice cream maker to churn and aerate the mixture, instead of doing it by hand, but either way is fine and will give good results. The difficult yet beautiful way of...
The traditional Easter bread served in Greece is traditionally braided, with a red-dyed hard-boiled egg inserted in the middle and then baked. Like many yeast breads, these easter breads require two risings, so plan your timing when making them. My reinterpretation results in smaller individual portions like muffins or cinnamon-buns. The ball of...
The wintery months are all about potatoes, cabbages and apples. I'm always amazed (having spent half of my life in North America and the other half here in Europe) how people here in France are acutely aware of the different varieties of fruits and vegetables and herbs and of "what's in season" and acquire their fruits and...