I'm going to pretend it's hot and sunny in Paris and just ignore the pools of rain collecting on my terrace. I think that's a good plan because this wet blanket weather is seriously grinding my gears. And even though the recipe I'm about to share is most satisfying sipped seaside, it can be equally as refreshing when days upon days of rain are dragging you down. Maybe even better because one gulp of this smoothie and you're ready to scrunch your toes in the nearest strip of sand. Watch out dirty park sandbox on blvd. Richard Lenoir! I'm comin' with my umbrella worthy smoothie!
Remember when the awesome yogurt folks at FAGE sent me a package of their products after I wrote them about my love affair with their yogurt? Well this smoothie is thanks to that small act of God or should I say Apollo, THE Greek god of dairy skills. Dairy skills folks. I think that might be more important than Apollo's claim of reigning over the sun. Just maybe... With or without Apollo's role in this yogurt miracle, Greeks are the ones to praise for this smoothie being worthy of a cabana on Santorini. The quality yogurt in this smoothie makes it a cut above the rest. It's beachy, brain freeze-inducing, and your best bet to beat the heat on the hottest of days (with a punch of protein no less) so big kudos to Jen DePalma for thinking up this recipe. I owe her for helping me will away the clouds blanketing Paris and transporting me to an island oasis. FAGE Island Smoothie from Jen DePalmaMakes: 2 large servings Ingredients 1 banana 1/2 cup chopped frozen mango1/2 cup chopped frozen pineapple 2 tablespoons honey1 container FAGE Total Instructions 1. Put all ingredients in a blender and get that blade workin' ! (I found the ingredients blended together better when the frozen fruits weren't totally rock solid. Let them defrost a bit to keep your blender from going into overdrive. Lesson learned when I caught a whiff of appliance smokiness in the air...)Slurp that smoothie and come back soon for a talk about guac and a recap of my trip to Berlin! Later gators.
I love yogurt. You might even say j'adore yaourt. Yesterday I ate 2 cups of yogurt and that's not counting the yogurt I hid in the slice of cake I scarfed down for my afternoon goûter. France is a yogurt addict's heaven. Walk into any grocery store and you're immediately overwhelmed by the sheer number of yogurt brands and flavors lining the shelves. But despite the food marts being stocked to the brim with different varieties of yogurt, there's only one yogurt for me: FAGE natural strained Greek yogurt. It's my one, true yogurt love. You can imagine the separation anxiety I experienced when I thought I couldn't find FAGE in Paris. Imagine going from one pack a day to nothing for weeks that then dragged into months. It was a painful withdrawal process that was only mildly alleviated by hours spent with a spoon and tub of full fat fromage blanc. Even the famous yogurt from our Turkey trip couldn't fill the growing holes in my stomach and heart. That's until this lady told me she found some. Not only that, but she found FAGE in the grocery store next to my work. Cue cries of joy. The Greek gods had answered my prayers. Life in France would be revolutionized. One FAGE at a time.After this life altering discovery, I emailed FAGE a love letter in which I waxed poetic about my obsession with their yogurt and asked where exactly I could find their products in Paris. My supply was running low and I wanted to know which grocery store brands were wise enough to stock FAGE. They must have found my email equally endearing and desperate because they offered to mail me several packs gratuitement. Free FAGE? Yes please! FAGE's generous response ranks right up there with finishing the Paris marathon--basically the best feeling e-v-e-r. While I could have consumed every yogurt FAGE sent straight from the packaging, I decided to use the yogurt in a few recipes and show just how excellent a product it really is. From today's recipe for Olive Oil Orange Cake (gluten free!) to guacamole, I'm convinced that FAGE has a place in all of your favorite dishes. But it really shines in this cake. The FAGE addition in this recipe kicks the moisture to a new level and creates a citrus, dairy combination usually reserved for sorbets and ice creams. The trio of orange, yogurt, and olive oil give this cake some versatility too. It's sweet enough for a slice at breakfast or for dessert, but I can imagine it working just as well with a fruity summer salad or meat soaked in a syrupy OJ marinade. Give it a try and tell me what you think!
Gluten Free Olive Oil Orange Cake adapted from Dorie Greenspan's EVO and Yogurt Loaf Cake
Makes: 1 loaf cake Ingredients 1 1/2 cups gluten free all purpose flour mix (I used Bob's Red Mill.)3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum 2 teaspoons baking powder pinch of salt zest of 1 orange1/2 cup FAGE Total 3 large eggs1/4 teaspoon orange blossom extract 1/2 cup olive oil Instructions1. Preheat the oven to 180° Celsius/350° Fahrenheit. 2. Butter a 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan (I used the European equivalent.)3. In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, xanthan gum, salt, and baking powder. Set aside. 4. In a separate bowl combine the sugar and orange zest. Using the back of a spoon, repeatedly smush the zest into the sugar until you have a orangey sugar mixture that smells like a citrus grove :-) Next, whisk in the FAGE, eggs, and extract. Once the mixture is well blended, add in the dry ingredients. 5. Using a spatula, gently fold in the olive oil. 6. Pour the batter into your buttered loaf pan and bake for 50 to 55 minutes depending on your oven. 7. Let the cake cool and then make your tummy happy and eat a slice! More FAGE inspired recipes to come! P.S. Here's where to find FAGE in Paris: Monoprix stores, the Galeries Lafayette food department, and La Grande Epicerie de Paris. Miam, miam, miam!
I feel ill.
I just took the contents of the photo above and dumped it in a pint of Haagen Dazs cookie dough ice cream.
That just happened, and I'd by lying if I said I hadn't been thinking about that dynamic duo all day long.
You can't tell me that delicious tasting, but malformed cookie dough mixed with cookie dough ice cream doesn't make the greatest combination e-v-e-r.
Yes. I am totally one of those people who buys raw cookie dough with zero intention of it ever seeing the inside of my oven. It goes a bit like this: mouth meet cookie dough, cookie dough meet mouth. Voila. Except I can't buy raw cookie dough in Paris (if you've been holding out on this information, spit it out tout de suite). So I do the next best thing. I "ruin" a batch of cookies and save that mess for ice cream topping. I act like I've been doing this since I moved here...um no. It happened for the first time this past Sunday thanks to my bum oven and my own direction reading incompetence.
_I read put rounded cookie dough balls on a non-stick surface. (Oh la la...that means I can use my fancy schmancy French silicon baking mat.) NOPE-->FAIL. That's not the way to make your first batch of naturally gluten free cookies. That's the way to get a pile of cookie dough scraps perfectly suited for a late night (i.e. as I type) ice cream binge after a long day of work. Fortunately for the dinner guests who would later be munching on these cookies, I figured out how to get them to look like cookies, not just taste like cookie. I could be disappointed by my first attempt at gluten free baking (the cookies were a tad, er, crunchy), but honestly I'm very satisfied with Sunday's serendipitous turn of events: initial baking mishap = Monday night dessert awesomeness.
A friend moved back to the U.K. and didn't want to drag all of her baking ingredients across the Channel with her. She asked if I could take the ingredients off her hands. Why of course! One week later I had a very, very, large bag of pastry pantry leftovers taking up a good portion of my kitchen floor. It took me another whole week to get to sorting through the bag's contents, and boy did I make out. So much so that I just had to buy new kitchen canisters to store everything in. My goodie bag contained 4 varieties of flour, 3 kinds of sugars, several bags of almond powder, vanilla extracts, enough baking powder to bake a billion baguettes, and TWO cans of sticky, black gunk that I had no idea what to do with.
Turns out sticky, black gunk is not tar but treacle, a substance closely related to molasses, and molasses happens to be one of my very favorite cookie flavors. What to do, what to do? One quick recipe search later and that can of black treacle was being mixed with sugar and butter to make yummy perfect fall cookies. Enjoy!
Black Treacle Cookies adapted from Chew Treacle Cookies by Karin Christian on All Recipes UK
Makes: approximately 72 medium sized cookies
Ingredients
305 grams unsalted butter (beurre doux)
400 grams caster sugar (sucre semoule)
120 ml black treacle
2 eggs (oeufs frais)
500 grams plain flour (type 55 farine)
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (2 cuillère à dessert cannelle)
1 teaspoon nutmeg (1 cuillère à dessert muscade)
1 teaspoon ground ginger (1 cuillère à dessert gingembre)
1 teaspoon salt (1 cuillère à dessert sel)
granulated sugar for coating (sucre cristal)
Instructions
1. Melt the butter then let it cool to room temperature.
2. In a large bowl, beat together the melted butter, sugar, eggs, and black treacle. (Tip: Lightly grease your measuring device with vegetable oil before measuring out the black treacle so that it will slide out more easily.)
3. In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients.
4. Add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture in thirds, beating well after each addition. Chill dough for at least 3 hours.
5. Form the dough into walnut-sized balls and roll each ball in granulated sugar. Place on a greased baking sheet (or silicone baking mat) approximately 5 cm apart.
6. Bake cookies at 190 Celsius for 8 to 10 minutes.
Let's talk about popsicles. Oh, popsicles...
I've got about a zillion mini popsicles growing ice fur in my micro freezer, but I don't want them, not a single one of them--not pineapple, not cola, not grape.
I don't like popsicles.
I buy popsicles to pretend I'm going to eat a healthy dessert only to let them hibernate until every other possible dessert food in my apartment has been gobbled up. That's how Nutella and crackers happened. I didn't want the popsicles so I slapped nutella on what might have been the French version of Keebler Club crackers--professionals call that dessert desperation and it's all popsicles' fault. The ONLY time sugar juice on a stick and I get along is when it comes in lemonade, cherry, and blueberry flavors shaped like a rocket. It better be at the beach too. If the rocket didn't come from the ice cream truck then it doesn't count.
This past Monday it was only me and the popsicles in the apartment and I was nearing code red dessert crazy. I needed a real dessert. Not popsicle dessert. Holy hannah, thank you cookbook gods because I was getting this close to slathering crème de marrons on a banana when I saw a recipe for blondies.
Blondies = avoiding the lamest dessert ever & averting death from popsicle brain freeze
Blondies adapted from The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (192 grams Type 65 farine)
1 teaspoon baking powder (1 cuillère à dessert poudre a lever equilibree speciale)
1/2 teaspoon salt (1/2 cuillère à dessert sel)
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar (330 grams sucre de canne semoule clair)
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled (170 grams beurre doux)
2 eggs (2 oeufs frais)
4 teaspoons vanilla extract (4 cuillère à dessert vanille arome naturel)
1/2 cup chocolate chips (1/2 sac pépites créatives chocolat)
1/2 cup white chocolate chips (~152 grams chocolat blanc; basically one white normal sized bar of white chocolate coarsely chopped)
Instructions
1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (177 degrees Celsius). Line a 9 X 13 inch cake pan (or any regular ol' rectangular pan, but you may have to adjust the cooking time and the blondies may be thinner...) with foil, then coat lightly with vegetable oil spray. Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl and set aside.
2. Whisk the brown sugar and butter together in a medium bowl until combined. Whisk in the eggs and vanilla until incorporated. Stir in flour mixture until no streaks remain. Stir in the chips.
3. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with just a few crumbs attached (22 to 25 minutes).
4. Let cool completely on a wire rack to room temperature for about 2 hours before removing the bars from the pan using the foil and cutting into squares.
5. Say sayonara to popsicle desserts!
P.S. When I get the dessert crazies, these are the images that swirl around my dessert deprived brain. Thanks to Sweet Freak for finding the baker that makes my sugar hallucinations reality. Can't wait to try these when I'm back in the States.
Carrot cake = perfectly acceptable breakfast
Don't you think?
This recipe is technically for carrot cake cupcakes, but when I see the word carrot I automatically think healthy. Healthy means you can stuff as many of these "muffins" (muffin sounds better) in your mouth as you want for an early morning meal. And who said that only Wheaties could be the breakfast of champions? Try these and I think you'll agree there's another contender in the mix...
Carrot Cake "Muffins" from Jenni Does Dessert (Jenni's blog fulfills all of my pastry chef dreams! It's tummy-tastic!) Ingredients 3/4 cup finely grated carrots (225 grams carottes râpées)zest of half an orange (1/2 le zeste d'orange)1/2 cup all purpose flour (64 grams Type 55 farine)pinch of salt (sel)1/2 teaspoon baking powder (1/2 cuillère à dessert poudre a lever equilibree speciale)1/2 teaspoon baking soda (1/2 cuillère à dessert bicarbonate de soude)3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon (4 ml cannelle moulue)1/4 teaspoon ground ginger (1 ml gingembre moulu)1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg (.5 ml muscade moulue) 1 egg (1 oeuf frais)1/2 cup sugar (100 grams sucre cristal)1/4 cup vegetable oil (59 ml or 2 oz huile végétale) 1/8 cup creme fraiche (2 cuillère à soupe) Instructions1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit (200 degrees Celsius).2. Sift all dry ingredients together and set aside. 3. With a whisk, mix together the egg and sugar until pale and slightly thick, then slowly pour in the vegetable oil while continuing to mix.4. Whisk in the creme fraiche until the mixture is smooth. 5. Add the grated carrots and orange zest and mix until evenly distributed. 6. Stir in the dry ingredients. Be careful not to over mix.7. Divide batter into greased muffin pans (or paper lined), filling each 2/3 full. Bake between 15 and 20 minutes or until cake springs back to touch. 8. Enjoy for breakfast or whip up a little cream cheese frosting and you have the perfect dessert! Be sure to check out Jenni's blog for more delicious recipes--she's a true expert! P.S. Here's a handy new measurement site I found...all these conversions get confusing!
Angel cookies sound more fun than white chocolate chip. Don't you think? These cookies don't have feathery wings, but they might as well fly on up to heaven because they taste just that good.
When I was breaking the white chocolate into bite-sized chunks I couldn't help but think that white chocolate is dark chocolate's angelic twin sister. Soon I was imagining chocolate chip versus white chocolate chip duking it out on my shoulders arguing for me to eat the one versus the other. Cookie crazy talk!
Angel Cookies adapted from Joy the Baker (p.s. I wouldn't mind being Joy...) Ingredients 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter (113 grams beurre doux)1 cup packed light or dark brown sugar (220 grams sucre de canne semoule clair)2 Tablespoons milk (30ml or 2 cuillère à soupe lait pasteurise entier)1 large egg (1 oeuf frais)1 teaspoon vanilla extract (1 cuillère à soupe vanille arome naturel)1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour (224 grams Type 55 farine)1/2 teaspoon baking soda (2.5ml or 1/2 cuillère à dessert bicarbonate de soude)pinch of salt (sel)approximately 1 cup white chocolate chunks (~152 grams chocolat blanc)Instructions1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (177 degrees Celsius). In a medium saucepan melt the butter, stirring the butter until nicely browned bits appear in the bottom of the pan (more like little tiny specks; about 5-7 minutes). Once the butter is browned, remove saucepan from heat and set aside to cool a bit. 2. Measure out the dry ingredients and set aside.3. In the bowl of a stand mixer add the brown sugar and slightly cooled butter. (I just used the saucepan and it made clean up super easy.) Beat the sugar and butter on medium speed for about 2 minutes. Add the egg and beat for one minute more. Add the milk and vanilla extract and beat until all mixed in. 4. Turn the mixer off, scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the dry ingredients all at once. With either the stand mixer on low, or by hand with a spatula, incorporate the dry ingredients until just mixed in. Fold in the white chocolate chunks. 5. Form two teaspoon sized balls and place onto a lined baking sheet (or silicon baking mat). Bake for 9-11 minutes or until cookies are just about golden and a tad bit soft. Remove from the oven and let rest on the baking sheet for about 3 minutes before moving them to a cooling rack. (They'll cook a bit more on the pan when you take them out of the oven). 6. Eat at least two cookies with a big glass of milk! Want to meet white chocolate chip cookies' evil twin sister chocolate chip? Click here for the recipe and more from Home Treat Home.
I feel sick...
Sick because I just pigged out on a cup of strawberry buttercream icing.
A cup! I should not be allowed near butter and sugar. They make a scary good team those two.
But when you give a baker a cupcake magazine...you better know she's going to make cupcakes. And cupcakes I made. White little cakes with strawberry jam buttercream frosting.
So they're not the prettiest things you've ever seen (nothing like Paris 's SugarDaze creations), but cake and frosting go together like white on rice so flavor fail wasn't an option. Here's the recipe if you feel like eating cupcakes (or just the frosting like some people I know...).Jammin' Cupcakes adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Cupcakes 2011Ingredients FOR CUPCAKES: 3/4 cup unsalted butter softened (170 grams beurre doux) 3 eggs (3 oeufs frais)2 1/2 cups all purpose flour (320 grams Type 65 farine)2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder (12.5 grams poudre a lever equilibree speciale)big pinch of teaspoon salt (sel) 1 3/4 cups sugar (351 grams sucre cristal)1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla (7.5 ml vanille arome naturel or 1 1/2 cuillère à soupe)1 1/4 cups milk (355 ml lait pasteurise entier)FOR FROSTING:3/4 cup unsalted butter softened (170 grams beurre doux) approximately 8 cups powdered sugar (908 grams sucre glace)1/3 cup milk (79 ml lait pasteurise entier)1/2 cup strawberry jam (40 grams coeur de fruits cuits au chaudron fraise--the only reason I can call these jammin' cupcakes)food coloring; optional (colorant alimentaire)InstructionsFOR CUPCAKES:1. Allow butter and eggs to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, line a muffin pan with paper cups. (My liners weren't the correct size for the muffin pan, but it worked out okiedokie in the end. The original recipe recommends a pan with 2 1/2 inch muffin cups and matching liners.)2. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt. 3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (177 degrees Celsius). In a large mixing bowl beat the butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Gradually add sugar, about 1/4 cup at a time, beating on medium speed until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl; beat about 2 minutes more until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla. Alternately add flour mixture and milk to butter mixture, beating on low speed after each addition just until combined. 4. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling each one half to two-thirds full. Use the back of a spoon to smooth out batter in cups. 5. Bake for 18 to 22 minutes or until a knife inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool cupcakes on a wire rake for 5 minutes. Frost with desired frosting. Makes 24 to 30 cupcakes. FOR FROSTING:1. Allow butter to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. In a very large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Add in jam and mix a few more seconds until combined. 2. Gradually add 2 cups of powdered sugar, beat well. Slowly beat in the 1/3 cup of milk. 3. Gradually beat in the remaining powdered sugar. Beat in additional milk if necessary until frosting reaches spreading consistency. 4. If desired, tint with food coloring. Makes about 4 1/2 cups. (Enough frosting for the cupcakes and to gorge on...bad news.)Happy Monday!
 Too bad I only like you when you're raw... Every once and awhile I get THE urge... The urge to eat a ridiculous amount of cookie dough. Forget cookie monster. We're talking cookie dough monster. Maybe it's because I went cold turkey on candy and needed something, anything to fill the gap (totally not the point, right?), but I was craving cookie dough like nobody's business. So I did the obvious thing and made chocolate chip cookies just to make myself sick licking the mixing bowl clean and then I brought the cookies to a party. But I secretly hoarded a least six cookies worth of dough in the dark corner of my fridge... guess I need to eat that or make the cookies before the dough spoils...what's a girl to do? Cookie dough or cookie? I vote cookie dough, but if you're actually looking to make a baked cookie, try this recipe. The cookies turn out delicious with a capital D. BIG and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies adapted from The America's Test Kitchen Family CookbookIngredients3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour (427 grams Type 65 farine)3.4 teaspoon baking soda (7 grams baking soda)1/2 teaspoon salt (2.4 grams sel) 16 tablespoons unsalted butter softened (244 grams beurre doux) 1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar (275 grams sucre de canne semoule clair)1/2 cup granulated sugar (100 grams sucre cristal)2 large eggs (2 oeufs frais)2 large egg yolks (2 jaune d'œuf)1 tablespoon vanilla extract (15 ml vanille arome naturel or 1 cuillère à soupe)1 bag (12 oz.) semi-sweet chocolate chips (1-2 sac pépites créatives chocolat--much smaller than American chocolate chips so I used almost 2 bags:)Instructions1. Adjust the oven racks to the upper and lower middle positions and heat the oven to 325 degrees F (163 degrees Celsius). Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl and set aside. 2. Beat the butter and sugars in a large bowl using an electric mixer on medium speed until combined. Beat in the eggs, egg yolks, and vanilla until combined, about 30 seconds, scraping down the bowl and beaters as needed. 3. Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly mix in the flour mixture until combined, about 30 seconds. Mix in the chocolate chips until incorporated. 4. Working with 1/4 cup of dough at a time, roll the dough into balls and lay on two parchment-lined baking sheets, spaced bout 2 1/2 inches apart. (I used a non-stick baking mat purchased from a E.Dehillerin in Paris and it has changed my baking life! I highly recommend buying a few of these mats to save you time messing with parchment paper. You can find them at most cooking/baking supply stores.) Bake until the edges are golden but the centers are still soft and puffy, 17 to 20 minutes, rotating and switching the baking sheets halfway through baking. 5. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for 10 minutes, then serve warm or transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely. Bon appétit and don't forget the milk! P.S. If you're in Paris and don't want to spend quality time with your oven, you can order homemade cookies, brownies, and bars from Lola's Cookies. The brownie I devoured was chocolate ecstasy! Want to whip up a few more American recipes? Click here to see more in Home Treat Home.
I could have called it cranberry apple or even cran-apple salad, but crapple just rolled off the tongue so much better. Plus, when you're eating a salad instead of ice cream, it needs a name that will make you smile a big, green, lettucey grin.
Ingredients
FOR SALAD (makes one individual salad):
2 cups lettuce mix (1/2 sac de jeunes pousses)
1/2 granny smith apple diced (Granny Smith le crunch)
1 hunk of Gorgonzola crumbled (Gorgonzola)
1 handful of crushed walnuts (cerneaux de noix)
1 handful of dried cranberries (cranberries)
FOR DRESSING (makes enough for at least 3 individual salads):
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (120ml huile d'olive vierge extra)
2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar (30 ml aceto balsamico di Modena I.G.P.)
1 tsp. Dijon-style mustard (5ml moutarde forte de dijon)
1 tsp. honey (5ml miel)
1 clove garlic minced (1 gousse d'ail)
pinch of salt (un peu de sel)
pinch of pepper (un peu de poivre)
Instructions
1. Put together the salad. You can add more or less of any of the ingredients depending on your likes and dislikes. (I load up on the cranberries like it's nobody's business.)
2. Whisk together the ingredients for the dressing.(I bought a plastic ketchup bottle from a kitchen supply store and use that to mix the dressing. It's also great for squirting it on the salad in step 3!)
3. Add dressing to the salad (as much or as little as you want) on top of salad and mix everything around a bit :)
Hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do! It's one of the only things getting me through my candy hiatus! Bon appétit! Get some more incredible edible Home Treat Home recipes here: banana power pudding & pound-able pound cake
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