Pots de Crème with Strawberries

Is there anything that sounds quite so divine as Pots de Crème? Little pots of cream, and I can just go at them with a spoon? Vanilla custard, while still sounding pretty darn tasty, doesn't sound nearly as sophisticated. But vanilla custard is what it is, and it has the little specks of aromatic vanilla bean to prove it. This is basically a crème brûlée without the brûlée -- perfect for those of us unarmed with a propane torch.

Sarah and I had just taken the kids to a strawberry patch - my very first time. As we drove in to the little farmette, we were greeted with a sign that read "All Picked Out!" and we had to explain to the kids that there were no strawberries to be had. There were tears.

Just as we were about to leave, the owner of the farm came out and said that there were still some strawberries, but we had to really look for them. A strawberry scavenger hunt! This made our berry-picking adventure all the more exciting. Each little ripe red strawberry was a special treasure. The kids marched around holding their buckets with pride.

When we brought our berries home, we knew we wanted to resist the urge to inhale them all and instead incorporate them into something. But we wanted a dessert that would highlight their unadulterated perfection. No need to cook or puree. Pots de Crème were the answer, as these berries were simply the crowning glory to this sweet, creamy dessert.

Pot de Crème with Strawberries

adapted from The Art of Simple Food, Alice Waters

• 4 egg yolks
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 of a vanilla bean
• 3/4 cup half-and-half
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 pint strawberries, sliced

1. Whisk the egg yolks together in a medium bowl and set aside. Place the heavy cream in a different medium bowl and set aside. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Split the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape the seeds into a small pot, adding the scraped out bean to the pot as well. Add the half-and-half and sugar, and stir over medium heat until it is just steaming and the sugar is dissolved. When it is warm, whisk into the bowl of egg yolks. Immediately strain this mixture through a fine colander into the cold cream, mixing well. Remove the vanilla bean from the colander and squeeze all the seeds back into the custard mix.

3. Pour the custard mixture into 4 ramekins, and place them into a baking dish filled with hot water halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Cover the top of the baking dish with foil, sealing the edges. Bake until the sides of the custards are set, but the center is still jiggly - about 25-30 minutes. Remove from the baking dish and let cool.

4. Before serving, top with freshly sliced strawberries.

Chocolate Covered Vanilla Cream Puffs

Cream puffs, profiteroles, éclairs of a different shape, or choux a la crème are all the same delicious thing.  Darling little pastry puffs that bake up light, airy, and practically hollow in the middle and are filled with vanilla pastry cream. Then drizzled with melted chocolate.  I love vanilla, I love chocolate, but my very favorite things are a combo of the two.

I was browsing through the cookbook section at the library and came across a picture of éclairs on the back of one (Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table).  Like, the most delicious picture of éclairs you’ve ever seen. Once I saw that picture I could not stop thinking about making éclairs for myself IMMEDIATELY.  After obsessing over cream puffs for about an hour I dropped everything, went to the store to gather my supplies, and got cooking.  I tend to be a little impulsive like that.  But hey! It’s fun! I made cream puffs, I’m not doing anything dangerous!

They’re not difficult to make, but there are quite a few components.  You could easily split this up over a few days if you’d like.  The pastry dough, once plopped into little balls on a baking sheet, can be frozen and then baked (from the frozen state) at any time.  The pastry cream can also be made ahead and then given a quick stir to loosen it prior to spooning it into the cream puffs.  The melted chocolate step is easy – I just melted a nice chocolate bar (but you could just as easily use chocolate chips if you have them on hand) and then drizzled it over the filled cream puffs using a spoon. 

Chocolate Covered Vanilla Cream Puffs

Recipe from Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table; a cookbook we highly recommend!

This is a longish recipe and has two steps.  You can make the dough & cream filling separately – the magic doesn’t have to happen all on the same day.  Make the pastry dough, spoon onto a baking sheet, and then freeze for the future.  You can bake these from their frozen state, no need to defrost.  Follow the same directions for baking as un-frozen puffs – they may need an extra minute or so, but that’s it. You can also make the Pastry Cream a day or two in advance – just store it in the fridge until you need it.

Pastry Dough:

• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 8 Tablespoons butter, cut into large pieces
• 1 Tablespoon sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup flour
• 4 large eggs (room temp)

Preheat the oven to 425. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment or a silpat.

Bring the milk, water, butter, sugar, and salt to a rapid boil.  Add the flour, reduce heat to medium-low, and start stirring like crazy! I used a big whisk, you could also use a wooden spoon.  The dough will come together in a ball, a crust may form on the bottom of the pan – just keep stirring for one to two minutes.  This gives the dough the chance to dry out a bit.

Turn the dough into a large bowl (use a stand mixer if you have one.  I don’t, so I used a hand held mixer), let it cool for a minute, then add the eggs one by one.  Beat and beat until the dough is thick and shiny.

Using about a tablespoon of dough for each cream puff, drop the dough from the spoon onto your baking sheet leaving about 2 inches between each ball.  *Once that’s done you can either bake immediate or freeze the dough balls for use later.*  If you want to bake, slide them into the 425 oven and immediately reduce temp to 375.  Bake for 24-30 minutes.  They’re done when they’re golden, puffed, and firm.

Pastry Cream:

• 2 cups whole milk
• 6 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup cornstarch
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 3 1/2 Tbsp butter, cut into small squares

Bring the milk to a boil.  In a separate, larger saucepan, whisk together egg yolks, sugar, and cornstarch.  Whisking without stopping, slowly drizzle the hot milk into the egg yolk mixture.  Go very slowly at first (first 1/4 cup of hot milk) after that it’s OK to speed up a bit.  Keep on whisking, turn up the heat, and bring the mixture to a boil.  Keep it at a boil – and keep up your crazy whisking – for 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat.

Whisk in vanilla.  Let stand for 5 minutes, then whisk in the butter bits.  Scoop into a bowl, cover in plastic, and let cool in the fridge.  Your pastry cream is ready!

To Assemble:

Cut lids off the baked cream puff shells.  They’ll be pretty much hollow inside.  Scoop the pastry cream in to fill them puffs, then put the lids back on.  Melt chocolate and then drizzle over the tops of the filled cream puffs – I did the drizzling with a small spoon.  You’re done!

Crème Anglaise

Crème Anglaise is much more simple than it sounds – it’s a vanilla pouring custard.  That means it’s like a vanilla custard or rich pudding or the creamy layer under the crackly burnt sugar of a crème brûlée – but more pourable in consistency.  You know, so you can pour it over stuff.  Like so:


It’s made with egg yolks, cream, a little sugar, and vanilla bean.  Very simple, and very delicious.  Traditionally it’s actually made with milk, but we decided to go for something decadent and so used heavy cream.  Sue me!


The recipes for this one often sound intimidating – there are lots of warnings not to heat too fast lest you curdle the eggs and wreck the whole thing.  But don’t worry, it’s really a very simple recipe.  The key is to go slow, don’t rush.  Just put your burner on low, stir a lot, and don’t walk away from the pan.  It’s only 15 minutes…but you’ve got to try to make sure the toddlers don’t burn down the house or similar during those 15 minutes.  I recommend either straightjackets or giving them a lick of the crème so that they become addicted and are unable to leave your sight.
See how well it works?

We’ve got a pretty pink recipe coming up later this week that features our crème anglaise, but we can also vouch for it being delicious with fresh strawberries.  Or lemon thin cookies.  I’m sure there are many other applications, it’s just that I ran out of crème anglaise.

Crème Anglaise

• 2 egg yolks, in heat safe bowl
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 1/2 Tbsp sugar
• vanilla bean seeds from about 2” fresh bean.  Or about 1 tsp vanilla extract

Crack the egg yolks in a heat safe bowl.  Set aside at the ready.
Combine cream, sugar, and vanilla bean seeds stovetop.  Heat until steaming but not quite boiling.  Now, whisk in hand, drizzle the hot milk mixture over the cool egg yolks little by little while whisking or stirring well.  Your goal is to slowly incorporate and heat the egg yolks without cooking them.  All you have to do is make sure you drizzle in the hot milk a little at a time (especially in the beginning).
Then, take the fully combined mixture and dump it back in the pan.  Put it over the heat, on low, and stir slowly but surely, as the mixture gently cooks.  It will get thicker and thicker.  When it coats the back of a spoon thickly, or when as you stir you feel a good drag and leave a dry path in your wake, you know it’s ready.  (picture of the “spoon drag” is shown above, in the action montage)
Take it off the heat and continue stirring for a minute or so to help it cool down aand stop cooking.  Pour through a strainer to capture any stray egg curds that may have formed (it happens) into a cool glass jar.  Store in the fridge (where it will become firmer as it cools).  Drizzle over berries, citrus curds (!!), lemon thin cookies, and much more.

Apple Brie Tart

This simple tart with flaky crust and tart apple slices sandwiching a layer of bubbling brie is a perfect fall dish.

The fun part of this tart is it’s very simple to make – it really only has three ingredients if you count “crust” as one ingredient.  But the final product is gorgeous and impressive.  The thinly sliced apples arranged in a pretty rose shape with brie bubbling up between them is basically irresistible.

I recently had a little house warming party and served a couple of these tarts (one was apple brie, the other pear camembert) as appetizers. They were perfect – not too sweet, not too savory, and easy to eat while socializing with our park playdate group.

Most of the toddlers in the group seemed to like them, too, which is always a nice surprise!

Thank you to A Spicy Perspective for the recipe inspiration!

Crust (makes 2, so save one for later):

• 2 cups all purpose flour
  
• 1/2 tsp salt
  
• 12 Tbsp (1.5 sticks) butter, cut into small 1/4” cubes
  
• Have measured 1/2 c ice cold water

From the Alice Waters classic. Mix the flour & salt together.  Cut or work the butter cubes into the flour mixture, leaving some fairly large irregular pieces.  I do this in the food processor, and just hit pulse a few times until it just becomes irregular and grainy.  Pour in about 3/4 of the ice water, pulse a few more times, then add the rest of the water if needed until the mixture sticks together into a rough ball.
Divide the dough into two, wrap in plastic, flatten into discs, and refrigerate for a few minutes or days (depending on when you want to use the dough, you can make it a day or two in advance). 
Roll one of the discs out in a circle to fit a 10” tart pan. No need to prebake the crust.

Filling:

• 2 large apples.  I like honeycrisp best.
  
• 8 oz brie, approx.  This is about the size (maybe a little less) of one of a standard smallish wheel of brie that’s commonly available at the supermarket.

Slice the brie into 1/4” thick planks.  Core & quarter the apples, then slice them as thinly as possible.   Line the bottom of the tart evenly with slices of brie, then top with the apple slices.  To arrange the apple slices, start at the outer edge to create the first circle of overlapping pieces.  Line the pieces up very closely in order to create a good total thickness of apple for the top of the tart – you don’t want to wind up with a paper thin layer of apples in the end.  For the center, stand the apples up with skins out in concentric circles to form a rose shape.  Bend the apples into smaller & smaller circles to create the pretty rose shape.  I learned how to do it here, at a Spicy Perspective, which is also the source of my recipe inspiration!
Bake at 400 for 40 minutes – until the brie is bubbling up and golden.
Let rest and cool for at least 15 minutes before cutting & serving.  This helps it hold together and not completely slip apart due to the hot bubbling brie!

Tomato Tart

This is a delicious way to use fresh grown tomatoes when you’re looking for something a little more fancy than a simple salad.  Behold, the heirloom tomato tart:

It starts with a flaky savory pastry crust made from flour and lots of butter.

It has a very thin layer of Dijon mustard atop the flakey pastry.  It lends a very subtle piquant flavor and is topped with a layer of rich gruyere cheese.  Next, an orderly layer of sliced fresh heirloom tomatoes.

A sprinkling of fresh thyme, plus salt and pepper finishes things off.

We enjoyed ours to celebrate Sylvie’s 2nd birthday.  We told her it was French pizza, and she bought it! 

Tomato Tart

• 2 large heirloom tomatoes
• 1/2 c. thinly sliced gruyere cheese
• 1 Tbsp dijon mustard
• 1 tsp fresh thyme
• sprinkle of salt and pepper
• drizzle of olive oil

Pastry Crust

(makes enough for 2 tarts). I love the recipe from Alice Water’s Art of Simple Food.

• 1/2 cup ice cold water
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 12 Tbsp cold butter, cubed

Combine flour, salt, and butter in food processor.  Pulse a few times; just until butter is in large irregular pieces.  Drizzle in the water bit by bit, pulsing in between, until dough forms a craggy ball.  Divide in two, shape into discs, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for 1 hour or longer.  When ready to use, take out one disc and let soften on counter for 10 minutes then roll out to fit the tart pan.
Preheat oven to 425. Dollop the mustard on the dough and spread very thinly with a rubber spatula.  Arrange thinly sliced (or shredded) gruyere atop the mustard layer, followed by a layer of tomatoes.  Lay the tomatoes in concentric circles, overlapping slightly.  Sprinkle with thyme, salt, pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil.
Bake at 425 for 20-25 minutes.

Pastis

Pastis is an anise flavored alcohol from the Provence region of France.  It’s usually served as a refreshing summertime drink, diluted with 5 parts cold water.

Here’s how you should think of pastis, according to Food Tourist.  I love this:

"Pastis is not just a drink, it is the embodiment of a lifestyle - an attitude to life. You don't slam pastis down you sip it, you savour it - you have all the time in the world.

You enjoy pastis sitting on a terrace looking out over ancient ramparts to the vineyards and lavender fields and the distant mountains. You sip pastis under a plane tree while watching men lazily playing pétanque while the breeze from the Mediterranean or from Mont Ventoux rustles the leaves and cools the players from their ever-so-slight exertion.”


The pastis itself is golden colored and flavored with a top secret blend of herbs.  Fennel and star anise feature prominently, so that part of the herb blend isn’t a secret. But anise isn't the only flavor in this alcohol – others include slight hints of tonka beans from Brazil, cardamom, cinnamon.  The drink has a definite herbal sweetness, although it is not cloying at all.
When the pastis is diluted with water, it changes color from clear golden to opaque white.  After a few tries we managed to capture the color change in action!

I became obsessed with pastis after reading many of Peter Mayle’s books on southern France.  He seems to spend a lot of his time in the books sitting in sunny cafes, sipping pastis, and contemplating what he’s going to buy from the market and each for lunch.  Sign me up!
This is a fun cocktail, perfect for summertime.  Or for those with spring fever (me).  It is surprisingly refreshing, not too strong, and sweet without being fruity or sugary.

Pastis

• 1 oz pastis
• 5 oz cold water
• add a few ice cubes after mixing