Apple Tart for Daniella
A while ago, Daniella, a dear friend and former neighbor, sent me an image of a fancy apple tart. Below the image she wrote: “Please make this for me”. Daniella now lives in Washington D.C., so of course she was just joking. I took it a little more seriously.
Lemon Berry Tart
A couple of weeks ago we held a goodbye party for Betty and David, good friends. She’s American, he’s Israeli, and together they’re the perfect mix, just like this pink lemon berry tart combination. After about a decade living here, they decided to move to chilly Boston. They met and got married here, and I had the honor to make them their wedding cake. It was a three-tier tres leches cake, soaked in three different kinds of milk. One of them (evaporated milk) doesn’t exist here and so it had to make it all the way here from the States just for this divine cake. I have to recreate this recipe and put it up here one day.
Coffee and Hazelnut Mille-feuille
This mille-feuille is an incarnation of another dessert I tried to make with Oren a few months ago. We tried to make a Bûche de Noël with coffee diplomat cream and a hazelnut nougat ripple. It turned out so delicious, but couldn’t hold its shape. Maybe ‘cause we tried to make a joconde from hazelnuts, maybe ‘cause the cream was too supple or maybe, just maybe, we didn’t have luck on our side. I didn’t want to let go of the flavors and started looking for another dessert that would work with them, until I reached the perfect one – mille-feuille.
Vanilla Cupcakes with Mascarpone Frosting
Cupcakes. That’s actually what we also call them in this part of the world. In Arabic, we call them “cupcakes.” In Hebrew, we call them “cupcakes.” However, recently, the Hebrew Language Academy came up with a Hebrew term for cupcakes, Oogonit, which sounds like the equivalent of “little cake”. That’s actually better than the other option they were considering, Moofin Mekushat, which simply means, “decorated muffin”.
Gingerbread Cookies with Pistachio Brittle
I’ve already written here about my Christmas obsession. True, it’s not a holiday I’m supposed to celebrate, but the grass is always greener on the other side, and the tree is so much more colorful. When I was a kid, I saved up my pocket money and bought a tiny Christmas tree. I was so in love with it that I left it standing on my bedside table all year round.
Christmas Tree Tartlets
I still remember how my siblings and I used to hear the bells approaching our neighborhood on Christmas Eve as kids. We would immediately run to the windows, hoping to get a glimpse of Santa Claus riding his reindeer-drawn sleigh his car with a huge inflatable reindeer on top. How we used to wish he’d stop by our house too, until mom got the idea eventually and invited him in!
Pistachio Muffins
What can I say about pistachios that I haven’t already said? Oh… you can also bake pistachio muffins! During my trip to Sicily, I came by these pistachio muffins in Bronte. The whole city idolizes pistachios, and grows them, but when I arrived to buy some, it seemed like the whole city was closed for the month of August. Then I stumbled upon a bakery and ordered these muffins. The muffins looked completely innocent at first, with a ground pistachio layer on top. After only one bite, a luscious green filling revealed itself at the muffin’s core and made me smile from ear to ear.
Chocolate Pistachio Tart
This post is inspired by the first tart I ever made. A chocolate pistachio tart from one of my favorite blogs “Metukim Sheli”, a blog that pretty much set my path into the baking world. Daniel was in love with this tart from the first bite. Many years have passed since then, but Daniel still hasn’t found any other dessert that has won over his heart as did this chocolate pistachio tart. Every dinner party, Daniel asks for the chocolate pistachio tart. Every birthday, Daniel asks for the chocolate pistachio tart. And, every Monday, well, you get the idea.
