Posted by: Dawn on: August 21, 2012
If there’s anything better than freshly made doughnuts, it’s this: fresh homemade doughnuts. I’ve always thought of beignets as fluffy little fried pillows of dough covered in powdered sugar, but apparently “beignet” is just French for “doughnut.” And “beignet framboise,” as it turns out, is just French for “raspberry jelly doughnut.” The really good news? If [...]
Posted by: Dawn on: August 5, 2012
This week, we are having what Seattle calls a “heat wave,” but what the rest of the country calls “August.” It’s sunny and well above my personal maximum of 80 (yesterday the mercury peaked at 90 degrees), which means that it’s hot enough to leave me drenched in sweat if I so much as leave [...]
Posted by: Dawn on: August 4, 2012
Oddly enough, I’d heard of kouignn amann before coming into possession of the Ladureé book, thanks to Cakespy’s post on it a couple of years ago. Although, when I set out to make them for myself, I couldn’t actually remember any of the details beyond “butter and sugar, lots of it.” Which, really, sums it right [...]
Posted by: Dawn on: July 21, 2012
What is a kouglof, you ask? It’s actually quite simple. It’s just a brioche with some golden raisins (or other dried fruit) baked in it, then drenched in a sweetened orange blossom syrup and covered with melted butter (because if there’s one thing a brioche needs, it’s more butter) before being dusted with powdered sugar. [...]
Posted by: Dawn on: May 28, 2012
This recipe was a nice change, and worked out perfectly for the season. It’s essentially a fruit salad with a tropical twist (containing pineapple, mango, and papaya in addition to oranges, grapefruit and strawberries) that gets tossed with a bit of basil and a citrus-basil syrup. Assembling this was incredibly easy – a simple syrup [...]
Posted by: Dawn on: May 15, 2012
I know what you’re thinking, “Is there seriously a French toast recipe in the book?” Yes, yes there is. It may seem ridiculous, but there’s a very good reason for it. It’s because, as Americans, we have gotten lazy in how we make French toast. (At least everyone I know has.) Let me know if [...]
Posted by: Dawn on: January 29, 2012
For the past several weeks, I’ve had containers of chocolate ganache and lemon curd in the fridge that were leftovers from the chocolate and lemon macarons I made. I wound up with way, way more than I needed to fill the macarons and just couldn’t bring myself to throw out the extra. That said, I [...]
Posted by: Dawn on: October 9, 2011
So what, exactly, is a bostock? That’s the question I asked myself as I was getting ready to make these. The short answer? French toast for grownups. Slices of brioche are soaked in an orange blossom-scented syrup and then covered in an almond cream and baked. The result? Soft, creamy, delicious bread with just a [...]