Springtime Strawberry Torte

Layers of genoise, strawberry puree and créme mousseline for this springtime dessert.

For a recent dinner gathering, I wanted a special dessert to complement the main courses of roasted lamb and chicken. Something pretty but not too sweet or heavy. This strawberry torte, with layers of genoise, créme mousseline and a thick strawberry puree, was perfect.

The cake is not particularly difficult, but does require a bit of time, however, the components can be made in stages and ahead of time, so that gives you some options. I first made the cake layers as a 9 x 9 inch square and cut rectangular pieces from it. The second time round, I used the same size cake layers, but use biscuit cutters and formed several little cakes, which I think are fun. This enabled me to use three layers of genoise instead of two.

A créme mousseline takes pastry cream one step further by adding butter. (I know.) It is nothing but luscious and if you’ve never made it before, you really should add this to your cooking life list.

Buckwheat Sablés with Garrotxa Cheese, Thyme and Lemon Zest for #Baketogether

Buckwheat sablés with Garrotxa cheese, thyme, and lemon zest.

 
If it’s possible for a single blog to have a meme, mine would be sablé. In the 11 months since I started this cooking journal, I’ve baked four versions of buttery shortbread cookies.

It wasn’t intentional. It just happened. Memes are like that. You think they come out of nowhere until there’s a pattern in the rear view mirror.

All my sablés, until now, have been on the sweet side. All have used standard unbleached wheat flour. So, when Abby Dodge posted her Spicy Parmesan version for March’s Twitter #baketogether, I got to thinking about variations.

Wanting to change the base, I selected buckwheat. I had some in the pantry, owing to a recent craving for pancakes as a special Friday night supper. Buckwheat is gluten free and this recipe would be a thoughtful way to accommodate friends allergic to gluten.

Garrotxa, an aged goat cheese from Spain.

The Garrotxa cheese came about while browsing the diverse selection at New Pioneer Food Co-op. It is a flavorful aged goat’s milk variety from Spain’s Catalonia region. Creamy white inside, it has a soft and bloomy rind. Garrotxa is rich and tangy enough to pair with earthy buckwheat.

To fill in the flavor gap, I kept the fresh thyme that Abby used. There is a great local herb company, Mariposa, that supplies area supermarkets. I enjoy having fresh thyme, rosemary and basil in the dead of winter.

TWD: Rugelach from Baking with Julia

Rugelach in crescent shapes.

A friend recently posted on Facebook that she’d just made eight dozen rugelach. Eight dozen. That’s 96 little cream cheese and butter pastries with a sweet cinnamony filling. My husband, who really, really loves rugelach, caught the news first and told me.

Our friend is Jewish and very pregnant, so the eight dozen pastries are important for her nesting instinct, for her late-term cravings and for providing nourishment to family and guests when the baby comes home.

“Eight dozen,” he said, not really trying to hide his rugelach envy.

He brightened when I said his rugelach dreams would come true in just about two weeks as the Tuesdays with Dorie group baked a recipe from Baking with Julia.

But since that conversation, he has asked me more than once: “Now, when are you making rugelach?” as if to make sure I hadn’t changed my mind. To keep him in the loop, we discussed the recipe and what filling I would use. I prefer chocolate filling, but he insisted on cinnamon, so I followed the recipe and its cinnamon theme.

Rugelach from the book Baking with Julia.

Lemon Butter Cookies with Citrus Marmalade Ganache Filling

We all know cooks who keep home-made cookie dough on hand. Sometimes there’s more than one variety of dough, nicely tucked in the freezer, legibly identified, just waiting to be called up for action.

I want to be like that, armed with dough for whatever occasion strikes.

Take my friend D. Upon hearing of a church member’s life-threatening illness, she commenced to mixing dough for cranberry walnut oatmeal cookies. It relieved her anxiety. She knew there would be something to nibble on —  either for a time of sorrow or for rejoicing. She told me this as we cleaned the kitchen after the memorial service.

These tender, lemony, not-too-sweet butter cookies would be good for any occasion, and because they’re of the slice and bake style, easy to store and prepare. The recipe is taken from Paris Sweets -- a recipe Dorie Greenspan adapted from Pâtisserie Lerch.

While I was at the stove, my kitchen assistant jumped in to help fold the linens.

From Paris Sweets: Toast-Point Apple Tart, Tarte aux Pommes au Pain de Mie

Toast-Point Apple Tart adapted from Lenôtre via Paris Sweets

Sometimes we play the warm spice theme a little too often with apple desserts. I’m certainly guilty of adding cinnamon and its friends with nary a second thought.

It’s as if we forget that apples are worthy enough to stand on their own.

And that’s why a nonspicy take on apples can be a welcome change.

Consider this Toast-Point Apple Tart from Lenôtre, which appears in Dorie Greenspan’s Paris Sweets.
Sliced apples are baked in a caramel cream. It’s appley, but not apple-ginger-nutmeg-cinnamoney.

And it’s sweet and custardy, a bit like apple pie and ice cream flavors.

Raisins and walnuts are strewn about, just in case there wasn’t enough textural interest going on.

From Paris Sweets: Fresh Strawberry Tart with Marshmallows

Strawberry Tart with Marshmallows adapted from Paris Sweets by Dorie Greenspan

Supply, time and refrigerator capacity challenge the seasonal cook, especially if she is tries to rely on locally grown produce.

Strawberry season was too short, but I always say that.

I was in a quandary this year about what to do with the berries. I knew that if I didn’t make jam I would regret it come, oh, January when the nights are long and the daylight is puny and cold. But to make even three jars of jam the old-fashioned way requires a good two pounds of berries.

That cut into a supply already diminished by the “car-loss factor” which occurs when the driver eats the warm and juicy berries as she drives home from the market.

Timing is especially critical for fresh-berry desserts and it’s tough to decide what to make.

I was on track to make this fresh strawberry tart with marshmallows in June. Instead, I chose another French dessert, one that has been stalking me since I had it at Lenôtre on a sunny Parisian day.

I had to get it out of my head and onto a plate.

From Paris Sweets: Croq-Télé, TV Snacks for the World Cup

Croq-Télé, TV Snacks for the World Cup

The World Cup is highly anticipated in our household, and we could not be happier that the U. S. Women’s National Team has made it to the final. Their beautiful athleticism and big-hearted play are exciting to watch.

I’m so proud they are representing my country.

For the game on Sunday, I will serve these Croq-Télé — TV Snacks — from Dorie Greenspan’s Paris Sweets. They are salty-sweet, crunchy little things adapted from a recipe by pâtissier Arnaud Larher.

I hoped to make them Wednesday in honor of the USA-France semi-final but didn’t have time. We watched the game without snacks, unless you consider that I bit my nails during the second half, fearing a victory by the formidable French who played with great style and creativity.

It bears mentioning that France’s women played with kilos more class than that nation’s men’s team did in World Cup 2010.

Five Days to Chocolate Ice Cream St. John

Chocolate Ice Cream St. John (or Five Day Ice Cream)

Do you remember how Darren would call Samantha at the last minute to say he’s bringing Larry Tate over for dinner? And there the pretty Samatha would be, not worrying about dinner itself, but rather how to get one or more odd relatives to (literally) disappear.

Dinner would be ready when Darren walked through the door, alone or with guests.

Today’s world finds us scheduling social occasions as far in advance as dental visits. It’s only now that I am away from an office job that I have the luxury to plan for dinner guests.

One thing to be said for planning is that you can spend a lot of time kvetching about what to eat. Early notice also allows you to serve, for instance, a chocolate ice cream that takes five days to prepare.

From Paris Sweet: Punitions

Butter cookies based on a recipe from Boulangerie Poilâne via Paris Sweets

These are elegant cookies.

But they are not expensive cookies. Indeed, they are comprised of kitchen basics: butter, sugar, flour and eggs.

Their elegance is the simplicity of ingredients, the lack of unnecessary adornments, that combine to highly satisfying affect. Cookies that are enjoyed for themselves, not for extras thrown in or an icing on top.

From Paris Sweets: Pavé Montmartre

Pavé Montmartre

Stone streets will wreck your fancy shoes — or cause you to stumble — yet this quite old and very well dressed woman glided along in her impossibly high heels. She never let a heel touch down on the old Paris street. I felt shabby in my Danish clogs.

I remembered her as I baked Pavé Montmartre, a recipe from Dorie Greenspan’s Paris Sweets, the book I am cooking in its entirety. It is an egg-rich almond cake that is wrapped in a thin sheet of almond paste, then lightly burnished in the oven for some color. It was designed to resemble a paving stone in Pâtisserie Arnaud Larher’s neighborhood.