Pistachio Tartlet
One year ends, another begins. I used to get excited about it once. Now… a little bit less. Now I tell myself, hold on time, slow down… where are you off to? But time doesn’t listen and keeps going on its own hasty way, just like the white rabbit with his pocket watch. Oh well, I guess I’ll press on too. I’ll keep falling in this rabbit hole, or in my reality, this time hole, hoping that this year, just like Alice, I will also land safely.
Lemon Mint Meringue Pie
I got a postcard from New York. Well, a greeting card kind of postcard. Loren, a good friend, and Oscar, his adorable dog, sent it. They used to live here once. On the postcard there’s a beautiful drawing of a classic lemon meringue pie. On the back, there’s a recipe. I love postcards, but this one spoke to my heart.
Milky Way Tartlets
Lately I’ve felt like I’ve opened a tartlet factory. I can’t stop making them and it’s very fun. Before I move on to other desserts, I decided to write one final tartlet post (for now) with a bang… a big bang! Many years ago, before I got involved in baking, I studied geophysics and planetary sciences at university. So I’ve wanted to create a galactic dessert for a while now. I decided to make a tartlet with a half sphere covered in a galaxy glaze. (and later on a solar version of them!)
Alfajores Tartlets
Recently I discovered that the Argentinian cookies Alfajores have Middle Eastern roots with origins from an ancient cooking book from Baghdad of the Middle Ages, just a little over 1000 years ago. (I know, sounds like One Thousand and One Recipes.) The origin of the name in Arabic is al-fakher (الفَاخِر), which means “fine” or “quality” or maybe “praised”.
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!
Ferrero Rocher Tartlets
Last year, two friends of mine and I held a little pop-up event together. During the event, I sold 5 different kinds of tartlets. One of them was this Ferrero Rocher tartlet. It was made from a gianduja chocolate mousse with a hazelnut praliné core, covered in a chocolate glaze studded with caramelized pieces of hazelnuts and set on top of a shortcrust pastry, concealing a crunchy chocolaty biscuit with hazelnuts*. Is it complicated? Yeah, a little bit.. Is it tasty? No doubt about it!
Chocolate Meringue Tartlets
Last year my American friends invited me to their Thanksgiving dinner. I baked these chocolate meringue tartlets for the event, in addition to a pistachio tart I brought as back-up. I’m pretty sure the other guests enjoyed these tartlets, you could see it on their faces. Literally, there were traces of meringue all over their beards and noses!
Hazelnut Tartlets (from homemade Nutella)
I really wanted the headline to be Hashahar Tartlet. Hashahar is a classic local cocoa spread. I tried to make a tartlet version of Hashahar, but unfortunately it came out terribly sweet. Then I thought to maybe change it to Nutella tartlet, but it felt a little too branded. At the end, I decided to go for a tartlet with hazelnut cream (homemade Nutella) mixed with mascarpone cheese. It came out wonderfully and very nutty.
