Holiday whimsy!

Well, after seeing this Bûche de Noël in one of my foodie magazines, I decided I MUST make it. The flavor was right- coffee buttercream, genoise cake- and there was some component of construction involved! Now the question remained, for which event?
When the just right Holiday party invitation arrived, the deal was sealed and I committed to the task.


I prepared the genoise cake and butter cream the day before, rolled it up, wrapped it and stowed it in the refrigerator. I prepared the ganache. 

The day of the event, I loosened up the ganache and set about enrobing the log. I did enjoy trimming the stump- it allowed a delightful sample of the partially constructed product-mmmmm.

Now I was grateful that the day was cool and dry as I set about making the meringue for the decors- I started with a nice Italian meringue recipe for a good stable egg white. I am still struggling with the piping tip adaptor- it appears I have 3 tip sizes, yet only 2 adapters... really?!? Believe it or not, I ended up holding the star tip against the bad and piped the trees like that.

A little dusting with cocoa powder, and gluing with ganache.... I think this was by far my most favorite part of the project- to make and to look at. The mushrooms are just so darn cute and realistic!


The cake is set, and bark is drawn onto the ganache.

And here is the finished product!

It was well appreciated for its good looks, but most of all, its taste!
And I can't wait to make those little mushrooms again.
Saveur's Holiday Yule Log

Well, Thanksgiving dinner leaves me stuffed, exhausted, warmed by friends and family and mostly grateful to have a chance to cook traditional recipes and to have the audience to try some new ones!!

Every year I am disappointed by the marshmallow topping on my sweet potatoes. Corny as it may be, it is the one thing that is purely junky and without gourmet inspiration- just downright childish. We all scramble for the marshmallow topping that seems to simply evaporate, no matter how many I manage to pile on top.

So, this year, having acquired a new skill- making marshmallows at home- was the perfect time to try using homemade marshmallows on my potatoes. Normally, I would have some kind of sweet brown sugar and butter and oatmeal crumble thing I would sprinkle over the already once baked spuds before smothering them in white clouds of whipped sugar. This year, in my focus to make the topping myself, I completely forgot to put anything atop of the spuds before piping the white fluff on top...

 Normally I would not talk too much about a "savory" dish, but the inclusion of a homemade confection on top, bringing dessert to the main course of a meal, warranted such a move.
It piped out quite nicely, and held its shape perfectly until time to go in the oven.

 I wish I had a chance to photograph it before it was attacked. It was quite successful, and the pillowy white topping held up so stunningly, so substantially, that there was NO FIGHTING for marshmallow topping as each served portion had topping that did not seem to simply vanish between the serving dish and the plate. This was a thrilling turn of events for the children especially, but the adults were equally happy, just not as vocal about it.

Now we must discuss dessert.
I was quite happy with the Pumpkin-Ginger cheesecake recipe from last year, so I opted to try it again but not add additional crystallized ginger than what was called for in the recipe- it was not appreciated by the biggest cheesecake fan at the table, and I felt his input was worth noting.

Again, I managed to serve it before I realized I had not snapped a good photo.... alas.

It was extremely creamy, and gingery, which was fabulous, and I liked the swirly stuff happening on top.









THE  French Pear-Almond tart was by far the biggest hit of the night. Thank-you David Lebovitz and Dorie Greenspan. They said one could use canned pears, but..... how could I!!?? So I didn't. I poached the pears in a lemony sugar syrup and the outcome was well worth it in the texture of the fruit. Sweet but a slight tartness and pleasant firmness of the bosc pears helped make this a beautiful aria in the mouth.

Beautiful poached pears




Almond cream schmeared onto a partially baked cookie sweet crust

Even the cored pears looked pretty

And ready to go into the oven!!

Once again, in the chaos of the meal, did not manage to snap a photo- but is was lovely. I grated some pistachio nuts on top, but really it could have stood as it was. In its almond cream and pear goodness.

Great way to end the night, mmmmm.

Oh My! More Macarons!

I really can't help my self. In part because I love to eat them. In part because they are easy and fast to make. In part because they are so pretty- both piped out, baked in rows, as well as little sandwich cookies. One can color them, top them, fill them, then eat them.

 These I made pink meant to have the salted caramel ganache, and blue meant to hold the peanut butter and chocolate. I loved them both, but the PB & C did not get as high reviews from others. Nobody ever complains about the caramel ones.... ever.

 I love the soft pillowy egg whites before the dry ingredients are added.

 I intentionally left some pink batter in the bag to see how the initial cookies would come out. The few that were affected were very very cool looking.

It's so hard not to just pop them in my mouth before filling. But then I remember how excellent they are after they are filled....

Fig and Goat Cheese Tart with Port Wine reduction and Hazelnuts

This tart is composed of some of my favorite foods.

I made a hazelnut tart shell with toasted ground hazelnuts, filled it with a soft goat cheese filling, arranged the lovely fresh and ripe figs, topped with a port wine that was reduced to a thick syrup and sprinkled with more hazelnuts.

I gathered the parts from a few different recipes to create this dessert and it worked fabulously. I can only look forward to finding fresh ripe figs again so I can repeat it.

Actually, I am confident that another fruit could easily be substituted for the figs. Berries would certainly lend themselves well in this combination.

Chocolate covered cherry marshmallows
This was my first attempt at marshmallows and I had found a naturel cherry flavoring that I thought would work so well. Luckily it did and they were enjoyed by all after an impromptu dinner with friends and kids down at the lake. My technique for dipping or covering with cjocolate leaves a bit to be desired, the the mouth is not complainimg.
I did try to make them again and coat them with cocoa powder- why have I never seen that? Well, they tasted just weird, so I will have to work on my dipping.

Kransecake!