These are part of my first memories as a child. Back in the 70s, there were not that many cakes and cookies kids would be offered. Our four o'clock after school break was mostly made of bread, butter and chocolate or fruit and yoghurt and that was a great improvement if you compare it to the generation before us. There were some pastry bites that you would find in stores though – some traditional cakes or sometimes shortbread and our equivalent of graham crackers, but that's another story.
Anyway, my grandmother would sometimes buy those round shiny and moist honey cakes that were glazed and filled with orange marmalade. They came from Burgundy and the recipe dates back to the Middle Ages. When you bite into them, the cake crumbles a little and by the time you reach the center that’s filled with orange marmalade, your hands are sticky with honey and you give a care in the world if it’s cold and dreary outside!
Here’s my version of the original recipe. You might want to add more honey if you want the cake to be even puffier. My first attempt was so yummy, I left well enough alone but original recipes in old cookbooks list almost twice as much honey as I used!
Navettes are individual French pastry bites from Marseilles with a delicate taste of orange blossom and looking like small boats, hence their shape. They're easy to make and can be kept in a tin box. Dunk them in your tea or coffee. They're delicious.
This recipe is adapted from La Pintade Aixoise. It will yield about 20 cookies.
Sablé is the same as shortbread and originates in Brittany. There are lots of different cookies made in the different French regions – too many to count and choose from. Most of them, you can find in supermarkets but I like my food baked from scratch and not in plastic bags so I tested this recipe I had in my grandmother's cookbook. Here how it goes...
Bonne Maman is one of the best cookie brands in France. They first specialized in jam and then yoghurt and have recently started making cookies. They're good quality and offer interesting options to the more conventional – and let's be frank – boring pastry bites you can find in French supermarkets. My favorite cookie is a sablé – a sort of shortbread with poppy and sesame seeds. Here's its recipe. You can use it for snacks with coffee or tea. They're easy to carry in a lunch box and can be used to make a blueberry trifle (see recipe on my blog).
Ganache is used in many desserts. I especially use it for macarons so be sure to read this article before you turn to that about macarons. Contrary to popular belief, macarons and ganache are not impossible to make. Quite the contrary actually. It's all about staying focused and following the tips.
Macarons were the joy of my kids' existence when they were younger. Every time I went to Paris, I had to stop at Ladurée's and buy a box of those enticing little things that were gobbled up in no time when I came home.
They come in two sizes and tons of different colors and flavors. You can even make them as appetizers with foie gras and gingerbread flavor, for Pete's sake! They're good, really, though, to me, macarons are sweet. Period.
Anyway, how did I finally decide to give it a try? Well, I have to admit, I like a good challenge and when was cooking not a competition for me?!
This is the result of my first attempts and the photos. See, being honest about it. Sight-wise, they were less than satisfying but the taste... My kids gobbled them up as if they were baked in their favorite pastry shop.
So, on with the recipe and tips, because vanquishing this recipe is all about tips. The recipe is made with 3 egg whites and I advise you to start with just one and try the recipe for 7 small macarons or 4 big ones.
Those scrumptious individual cakes are traditionally made in rectangular-shaped individual molds but you can make them in cupcake molds as well. They are made of butter, egg whites, grounded almonds, confectioners' sugar and flour.
You can add blue or raspberries, pressing them in the batter once in the molds. They look cute and taste delicious.
Once the cakes are cooled, you can also sprinkle confectioners' sugar on them so they look even more tempting.
They can be frozen and thawed an hour at room temperature.
Use them for snacks or to serve with tea or coffee, serving them with an assortment of other bites or even individual parfaits or trifles.
You can add lemon or orange zests or even a tsp of lemon or orange juice to the batter.
I make this scrumptious dessert in the dead of winter with frozen cherries. You can also replace the cherries with apricots or cherry plums, apples or pear.
This recipe appears in one of my stories I'm writing on Fanfiction. It's part of my main character's cookbook.
My aunt, who was named Madeleine too, used to make these when I was a kid. It's one of my fondest memories and like Proust's own little madeleines, those shell-shaped, melt-in-your mouth cookies bring me back to happy times.
Once you've mastered the recipe, you can also try adding chocolate, coffee extract to the dough or even berries, butterscotch.
Bridging the gap between California and France, welcome to my French-American cookbook and the best of both food cultures.
Un pied en Californie, un autre en France, voici le blog d'une accro à la culture culinaire américaine et française.
