Peach Frangipane Tart

It was my friend Carolyn's birthday celebration this weekend!  I asked her if I could bake her a cake and she said she would prefer a peach pie because it was her favorite.  She was also adamant on no gifts so I stole one of her ideas of what she did for me on a past birthday...

First, let's talk about the tart.  So...I wanted to make it a bit more special then just the pie and I've tasted a really great frangipane tart with apricot so thought peaches would work well. Well, I didn't love this tart and the reason is that the peach flavor can't stand up to the creaminess of the almond frangipane.  


What is frangipane you ask?  It's an almond based filling usually made with eggs, sugar, butter, and ground almonds.  You usually see it in tarts, croissant, and other desserts.


Carolyn and party attendees said the tart was good but I am my worst critic and I didn't love this tart.  Again, the peaches kinda blended with the filling and the flavor was one note, where as with apricot, the flavors compliment since the frangipane balances the tartness of the apricots.  So I will have to remake it for Carolyn.

Now for the birthday gift story...one of the best birthday gifts that I received was from Carolyn a couple of year ago.  It was a vegetarian pot pie in a sweet white pie pan.  Carolyn makes one of the best veggie pot pies I've tasted and she gave me this pie along with the pie pan.  I thought what a great idea! The gift of food but also paired with the kitchen dish.  I loved it!  So this was perfect for her birthday since she said no gifts but yes to the peach tart.  


I also made a glaze for this by mixing the peach juices, cinnamon, and powder sugar.  

I'll need to give it a go again and treat her to a new version of this tart.  It's coming Carolyn!

Chicken & Biscuits

It's always time for biscuits!  My new friend Jason from Australia was raving about the American biscuits the last time we  met with Chris, so I had to share my versions.  I mean, this is the product of love that I discovered after I left my day job after 8 years in IT, and then spent a year learning and honing my skills from the local best.

I actually bought a few biscuit cookbooks and have been learning a lot of different versions, especially ones from the south.  I always knew the importance of the light hand but something new I've learn is that the southern light version uses a lighter flour, cake flour.  

On this day, I made a southern lighter version for the ones I served with chicken and gravy.  I also made my usual savory Tomato & Onion ones. 

This is the real chicken version with crispy bacon. I wanted to add a sunny side up egg on it but my guests were trying to eat healthy and I think the egg would have been over the top.

This version is vegetarian. I used veggie faux chicken but same gravy and biscuit.  I should note that I made the gravy "Asian", this is an continued testing from my Asian poutine.  Still working on that... My friend Chris has started focusing more on veggies.  She used to only eat "fish and fowl" but now is full veggie.  She has had four dogs at one point, and is an avid animal lover, so this didn't surprise me that she has reach this point.  It was nice to create comfort food for fellow vegetarians.  :)

Here are the tomato and onion ones. I've made and posted the recipe in the post here.

Here are the southern lighter biscuits...these were hand form and no biscuit cutter so you can see they are not quite perfect.

You can also eat it with just honey, butter, and salt.

I just love making biscuits for people and can't wait to make this again for friends!  

Raspberry Ganache Brownie

In my continued obsession with brownies, I tried to lighten the heavy chocolate with a layer of fresh raspberries, as well as adding a new texture of the glossy ganache.  It tasted great.  The fresh raspberries are a nice touch but this version was too thick for cutting and the base I used was too cakey.  Back to the drawing board but I'm sure I'll try this version again...

Fudgy Brownies

I'm a bit obsessed with brownies right now.  I'm trying a lot of different recipes.  I recently made some fudgy ones for my friend Joan's Fourth of July party.  I also made some cakey ones but was not too happy with it. The fudgy ones turned out great and the recipe came from this super chocolate book by Scharffen Berger. 

6 Tbsp Unsalted Butter
8 oz Dark 70% Chocolate Chopped
3/4 C + 2 Tbsp Sugar
1/4 Tsp of Salt
2 Eggs
1/3 C All Purpose Flour
1/2 C Walnut Toasted with Salt


-Preheat oven to 325
-Butter and line a 9x9 square pan with parchment paper.
-Melt butter and chocolates in a bowl simmering over water.  Remove from heat once melted. Watch carefully not to scorch the mixture, remove from heat if too hot and just stir and then return to simmering water as needed.
-Using a wooden spoon, beat in sugar and salt.
-Add eggs one at a time.
-Stir in flour until mixed.
-Stir in the walnuts.
-Transfer the mixture into the prepared pan.
-Bake for 30-35 min. Check with a toothpick in center. If it comes out clean, it's ready.
-Cool for 10 min in pan, then remove and cool completely before slicing.

Enjoy with a glass of milk or cup of coffee!  These are to die for!