Free Video Tutorials on Baking, Pastry making and Creating Desserts. Have a sweet life!
I
f you somehow haven’t noticed yet, I really love bread! I love making bread, and I sure do love eating all kinds of bread (not just baguette). I simply enjoy browsing through enormous shelves filled with all kinds of flour and picking the right one for my next recipe, or just trying out a new one to judge how it will turn out in one of the well-known recipes.
T
wo bites small, in most cases rectangular, in some cases oval cakes, perfect for snacking with a cup of tea, financiers are widely popular in France. The basic recipe calls for only 5 ingredients!
I
f you find yourself wandering through the center of Paris, you can’t miss street pancake sellers and numerous crêperies (French for ‘pancake place’). The crêpes make an exquisite dessert especially if they are filled with fruit jams, various creams, or imaginative fillings. And the bonus is that you can make them sweet or savory!
M
adeleines are small, shell-shaped sponge cake pastries made of sugar, flour, and eggs, flavored with lemon juice and peel, and baked in special molds which give them those recognizable, familiar grooves.
T
his chocolate indulgence is composed of two parts. The first is chocolate shortcrust pastry, and the second part is silky dark chocolate ganache. You can decorate the tart with chocolate shavings and some red berries, or you could just leave it as is, and serve it with some whipped cream. A perfect snack with your afternoon tea or coffee!
P
sssst! Don’t tell anyone, but when I was a little girl, there was no greater pleasure for me then licking the beaters of a hand mixer just after Mom finished making cream slices! Mmm, cream slices… In Croatia, cream slice or cremeschnitten (in German), is, without a doubt, the most popular pastry! A block of tasty, yellow vanilla cream, sandwiched between two thin sheets of baked puff pastry is a sight that no kid can resist!
F
ocaccia [foˈkattʃa] is Italian flatbread, often topped with coarse salt, olives or cherry tomatoes. Its origin goes back to the ancient Romans who were baking flatbread “panis focacius” on the hearth.
T
here is one boutique I stumbled upon when I was sightseeing (read – searching for pastry shops) through Parisian district Marais that I’ve remembered very well because I have never seen something like that before – it was kind of a pastry shop, but again, it didn’t look like any other pastry shop anywhere! Long story short – it was a boutique of éclairs!
W
hen I think of lemon curd, I always picture the famous and fancy English 5-o’clock-tea ritual. I see a vintage castle by the river and a glorious garden with neatly trimmed grass and breathtaking rose bushes. In the middle there is an elegant table covered with colorful tablecloth. And on that table – a feast!
A
s John Donne once said – “No man is an island”. One of my favorite quotes, and although sometimes I wish I could become an island, just for a few minutes… the truth is – in most cases I would rather eat one! But not any island, just the floating island – dessert made of vanilla flavored crème anglaise and a blob of meringue floating on top of it, of course!
