Strawberry Soup with Vanilla Bean and Milk Sorbet

My friend Erin, who is an avid gardener, and I took the kids out strawberry picking a couple of weeks ago. We drove out to Ft. Pierce to the D & D Farm where they have a beautiful farm with lots of produce to pick. Strawberry season in Florida runs from December through May, peaking in March and April. When I first moved to Florida six years ago and found strawberry stands on the side of the road in the middle of January, I thought that had to be some sort of scam. Strawberries in January?. But I didn't understand the Florida climate then and now it makes complete sense.

So we headed out strawberry picking before the season was over. We also picked really sweet tomatoes and wanted to get peppers and eggplant but it was a scorching hot day and we just did not want to put the kids through it. So we picked the strawberries and the tomatoes, let the kids play in the dirt for a few minutes and ran for shelter. Yes, air conditioning... I do not know how people lived in Florida before air conditioning existed. Call me weak.

When summer approaches there is nothing better than refreshing fruit soups and ice cream and sorbets. You will be seeing a lot of ice cream and sorbet recipes in this blog from now on. The bowl for my ice cream machine lives in the freezer now just in case I need it after a good catch of fruit.



Strawberry Soup

1 kg strawberries
100 grams sugar
Juice of half a lemon

Place all ingredients in a bowl and cover it with plastic wrap tightly. Place this bowl over a double boiler. Once the water in the pan starts to boil, turn the heat to low and let the water simmer. Keep the bowl of strawberries over the simmering water. They will start to release their juice and this will be transparent.

After an hour, strain the juice through a sieve and discard the wilted strawberries (you can mash them and eat them with ice cream). Refrigerate the juice collected until ready to assemble the dessert.

Vanilla Bean and Milk Sorbet

500 grams organic whole milk
125 grams sugar
3 vanilla beans, scraped
150 grams heavy cream, soft peaks

In a medium saucepan, bring the milk, sugar and vanilla beans to a boil. Remove the pan from the heat and let the vanilla beans infuse in the milk for about 30 minutes. Strain the milk and reserve the vanilla beans for another time. Refrigerate the milk for at least 4 hours.

Churn the sorbet in the ice cream machine. In the meantime, whip the cream to soft peaks. When the milk base is almost done churning and forms ripples, add the whipped cream to the machine. Let the machine mix it all together but don't mix it too much otherwise your cream might turn to butter. This happens if you have a commercial ice cream machine. I find that with my home-use one, it is hard to over churn it just because my machine is not that fast. But just watch out for that.

So long Florida strawberries, we will see you in December...

Almond and Cherry Crumble and... Petit Suisse Part Deux

A couple of weeks ago, I professed my love for petit suisse right here in this blog. I promised you that I would be back with more and my attempt to make them at home. Well here I am, not triumphant, as I had presumed. Let me explain.

I had been searching for a petit suisse recipe for a long time but had not been very successful. Finally a few days ago, I did find a recipe to make fromage frais. This recipe indicated that this was also the method to make petit suisse and since the ingredients were easy to find and the method seemed fairly uncomplicated, I decided to go for it.

There is something about making cheese, yogurt or bread at home that is very rewarding to me. Almost spiritual. Maybe because bacteria and yeast are living organisms that really require attention and depending on the hands of the person handling it, the results can be quite different. I like that. I like inconsistency, I like little flaws, I like the imperfection. Of course nowadays, there are machines that control all variables of the fermenting process resulting in a consistent product everytime, which is necessary in commercial production, but I still find the process of making it myself very rewarding.

So the resulting cheese was basically plain unsalted, fromage frais. Very, very good flavor and texture but it was not petit suisse. I tried to research more about the petit suisse method and learned that heavy cream is added after the curd has formed. It was unclear to me how I was supposed to proceed after that. So if any of you know the answer, please... I need you!

Cherries from California also showed up at Whole Foods which has made my week. I have been eating cherries all day long. They are as addicting as sunflower seeds. I cannot stop. Here is a little crumble I made for dessert a couple of nights ago. I topped it with a little bit of the fromage blanc and it was delicious.


Fromage Blanc

Yields about 200 grams of final product

2 liters organic whole milk
30 ml organic cultured buttermilk
1/8 tablet of rennet
30 ml water

Sterilize a large pot by covering and boiling a small amount of water in it for 5 minutes prior to use. Pour in the fresh milk, then the buttermilk. Warm up stirring to a final temperature of 65°F. Meanwhile, dissolve rennet in 30 ml of cool water. Stir dissolved rennet into heated milk. Stir well to blend thoroughly. Cover and let sit undisturbed overnight at room temperature.

The next morning, a soft curd should have formed; if not, let it sit until it does form which could take up to an additional 12 hours (mine was done overnight). When the curd is adequately formed, cut it into 1/2 inch cubes. Ladle cut curds into clean sterile cheesecloth suspended in a large strainer or stainless steel colander. Pour remaining whey through the cloth.

The next day, open the cloth to reveal the cheese. I spooned it into ring molds but any cleaned yogurt container can be used to store it. I covered mine with a damp paper towel so the top doesn't dry out.

Almond Crumble

100 grams unsalted butter
100 grams sugar
100 grams flour
125 grams almond flour

Cream all ingredients together in an electric mixer. It will be crumbly. Place on a cookie sheet or in an air tight container and refrigerate over night. I normally make a large batch and freeze it and then I bake what I need.

Cherry Filling

200 grams pitted cherries
25 grams flour
30 grams sugar (depends on the sweetness of the fruit)
1 tsp almond extract
1/2 vanilla bean, split

Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Divide filling into four ramekins and sprinkle with a generous amount of crumble. Bake in a 350F oven. Cover the ramekins with aluminum foil for the first 10-15 minutes, then let them finish baking for another 15 minutes or until crumble is golden brown.

Mini Peach and Pistachio Frangipane Tarts

I have been in a mood for tarts lately. In a mood for fruit tarts I should say. It must be Spring and the warm temperatures that make me want to eat fruit and more fruit. Last week I spotted the first peaches of the season at Whole Foods. Well, the first California peaches I should say. They were still a bit small but they were still sweet and soft. I had to get them. I have been craving stone fruits for way too long now.

My friend Jill pointed out the other day that I use a lot of pistachios. Yes, I do, I admit it. It's a habit I developed working for my last chef. We used pistachios in everything and now, I cannot help myself. They add such color, flavor and texture that I always find something to add them to. Here, I am using pistachios once again.

These tarts have a base of sable breton, a layer of pistachio frangipane, fresh peaches and mascarpone cream. Frangipane is traditionally made with almonds but it can be made with any ground up nut. Full of butter and sugar, it just melts in your mouth when served slightly warm.

Sable Breton

Makes 20 4-inch circles

160 grams sugar
160 grams salted organic butter
4 organic egg yolks
zest of half an orange
225 grams unbleached all purpose flour
15 grams aluminum free baking powder

In an electric mixer, cream the butter and the sugar together. Add the egg yolks and the orange zest. Add the flour and baking powder combined until it comes together. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let it rest in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

Roll out to about 1/2" thickness and cut 4" circles with a round cutter.

Pistachio Frangipane

100 grams organic unsalted butter, softened
100 grams sugar
1 organic egg
30 grams unbleached all purpose flour
100 grams raw pistachios, ground to a fine meal

Cream the butter and the sugar together. Add the egg. Scrape and mix well. Add the flour and the ground pistachios and mix until all ingredients are well incorporated.

Place the frangipane in a pastry bag. Insert the sable breton disks in your mold and pipe the frangipane on top of the unbaked sable breton (about 1/4 inch thick). Bake the sable and the frangipane in a 350 degree oven until golden brown. Remove from molds when cool.

Mascarpone Cream

100 grams organic heavy cream
50 grams mascarpone cheese
20 grams sugar

Whip all ingredients together until stiff peaks form. Using a spoon dipped in hot water, make quenelles with the cream and place on top of the tart base. Place slices of fresh peach next to it. Sprinkle with some chopped pistachios.

Stone fruits are here and you will see them on this blog!

Mini Cookie Crumb Ice Cream Bars

Looking through my photo files yesterday, I realized I have so many photographs of recipes I made when my parents were visiting in February that I have not yet posted. We really did cook quite a bit. That's what my mom and I like to do together and I document and photograph everything!

These were little vanilla ice cream bars dipped in chocolate and sprinkled with cinnamon graham crackers. So easy to do and I thought I could leave you with some refreshing photos to end the weekend. I don't know about where you are but it is getting very warm here in South Florida so ice cream, sorbet and the beach is all I can handle.

Happy Sunday to you!

Lemon, Orange and Almond Savarin Cakes with Grapefruit Sorbet

I have been feeling a bit nostalgic lately and I think it shows in my writing and the inspiration for my recipes...

Almonds remind me of my grandfather. I remember him sitting quietly on an aqua-colored stool we had at the bakery while he peeled kilos and kilos of blanched almonds. Both hands working at once, snapping the hot, blanched almonds between his fingers to remove the skin. Prune-like skin on his finger tips. I remember that clear as day.

This was done mostly around Christmas time to make marzipan and turron. The almonds arrived unshelled but with the skins still on them. They were quickly blanched in boiling water and placed on top of towels to drain while we peeled the skins off the almonds while they were still warm. This becomes an annual ritual and it is still done today.

My grandfather was a slim, meticulous and quiet man. Always liked to be surrounded by family. After all, my grandmother and he raised eight children. The bakery doors were always open and people would come and go all day long. Friends would pop in to say hello and move on with their days. My grandparents always welcomed everyone.

I grew up in the bakery. That's where we would go after school, that's where we spent our weekends but I never got to work alongside my grandfather. He started as an apprentice in the renowned patisserie Martina Zuricalday in Bilbao when he was 14 years old. He opened his shop in 1949 and he retired when I was still a child. I often times think how I would have loved to stand next to him and watch him do his craft. A true master. So this recipe is dedicated to the memory of my Aitite Angel who I adored with all my heart.




These cakes also known as pain de genes are made with pure almond paste, eggs and a lot of citrus zest. There's barely any flour so they are leavened by the air incorporated into the eggs. Very, very spongy and very, very citrus-y.

Of course I had to make some sorbet to go with it because it is scorching hot in Florida and since I had some grapefruit juice in the refrigerator, I thought I could make a sorbet with it and complete the citrus theme with a good finale. I used some of the sorbet to accompany the cake but I also piped some into shot glasses for a sorbet popsicle later on.

When you read through the sorbet recipe, I know many of you will just give up on me completely. Yes, I am using ingredients that are not available in the regular supermarkets. I apologize for that. I realize not everyone has access to these (I got them from L'Epicerie) but you must understand that this grapefruit recipe is the best one I have ever tried and so THIS one is the one I had to make. The atomized glucose which is powdered glucose, makes it completely creamy... hard to explain. There is no crystallization at all. For a conventional grapefuit sorbet recipe, you can use this one.

Lemon, Orange, Almond Pain de Genes

Makes a dozen savarins

200 grams almond paste (50% almond)
4 organic eggs
30 grams unbleached all purpose flour
3 grams baking powder
80 grams organic unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Zest of 1 orange
Zest of 1 lemon

In the bowl of a mixer, cream the almond paste, zest with 2 eggs (use paddle attachment at first). When this mixture has turned to a paste, add the rest of the eggs and switch to the whip attachment. Whip the almond paste and eggs to a ribbon (about 5 minutes). Add the flour and baking powder and mix. Add melted butter.

Place the batter in the refrigerator overnight. Place it pastey bag and pipe into savarin mold. bake at 350 for about 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Grapefruit Sorbet

250 grams unsweetened grapefruit juice
110 grams sugar
60 grams powdered glucose (atomized glucose)
200 grams water
2 grams sorbet stabilizer

Place water in a saucepan and heat slightly. Add the atomized gluzose, whisk and bring to a boil. Mix the sugar and the sorbet stabilizer in a bowl and add to the boiling syrup. Whisk and return syrup to a boil. Remove from heat.

Refrigerate the syrup for at least 4 hours. Add the grapefruit juice to the syrup and churn in ice cream machine. Freeze.

Candied Lemon Slices

1 lemon
50 grams sugar
50 grams water

Make a simple syrup with water and sugar. Cut the lemon into very thin slices, dip them in the cooled simple syrup and place them on a silicon mat. dry the lemon slices in a very low oven (about 200F) for about an hour. Store them in an air-tight container.

This dessert is my entry for this month's Sugar High Friday which is a blogging event founded by Jennifer of The Domestic Goddess and this month's challenge is hosted by the lovely Helen of Tartelette.