Serves: 6

Ingredients

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• Cinnamon
• 8-10 apples

Preparation time
45 minutes

Preparation

• Fill an 8 or 9 inch pie plate with peeled sliced apples.
• Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and egg together.
• Place the egg mixture over the apples.
• Pour the melted butter over the flour mixture.
• Sprinkle with cinnamon.
• Cook at 350 F (175 C) degrees for 35 minutes or until apples are soft (Test them with a knife)

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

• 2 large pears
• 3/4 cup whipping cream
• 3/4 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 4 pinches of cinnamon
• 2 tablespoon butter

Preparation time
15 minutes

Preparation
First peel the pears and cut them half, remove seeds and slice them. Put the sliced pears in a saucepan with 2 tablespoons of sugar. Cook over low heat until tender. Preheat oven at 300 degrees. With butter grease some individual serving bowls (oven proof).

In a mixing bowl, stir eggs, milk, whipping cream and cinnamon. Pour mixture into each bowl and Place a couple pear slices in each bowl. Bake for 1 hour. Serve warm.

Serves: 6-8

Ingredients

• 1 pound blueberries
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 3 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2/3 cup flour
• 5 tablespoons of butter
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Preparation time
40 minutes

Preparation
Mix the flour, brown sugar, and salt in a bowl. Melt the butter and add it to the flour mixture. Stir this thoroughly and make it as granular as possible. Once you have a fine crumby texture put it in the refrigerator for 2 hours. This will be the crust and the top layer of the tarte.

Put the blueberries in a pan with the white sugar and cook it over a low heat for 10 minutes. Spread a thin layer of dough in the pie pan evenly over bottom. Then carefully spread the blueberries over the crust. Cover the layer of blueberries with the remainder of dough. Sprinkle the top with cinnamon and bake at 350° F (175° C).

Serves: 4

Ingredients
For the filling

• 2 1/4 cups milk with a slice of lemon zest
• 1/2 cup (heaping) finely ground semolina
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 Tbsp. butter

For the coating

• 3/4 cup finely ground dry bread
• 1 beaten egg
• 6 Tbsp. Butter for frying
• powder sugar to sprinkle

Preparation time
40 minutes (needs to be refrigerated for 24 hours)

Preparation

• Warm up the milk in a nonstick pan and when it starts to boil add the semolina flour a little at a time and mix using a wire whisk.
• Once the semolina is added continue stirring with a wooden spoon until the mixture starts to thicken.
• Remove the pan from the stove and add the sugar, the butter and the egg yolks.
• Wet a smooth surface with water and place the mixture. Flatten it down with a large wet knife or a glass.
• Cut the semolina mixture into disks using a glass. Use the excess to make other more rounds.
• Dip the disks into the egg and then coat them with bread crumbs.
• Melt the butter in a medium non stick pan. Fry the disks a little bit at the time on both sides. Be careful not to burn the butter. In case it gets brown change the pan with new one.
• Place the disks on a paper towel to eliminate the extra butter and serve them on a plate sprinkled with powder sugar.
• Sprinkle the top with cocoa powder through a fine mesh strainer.
• Refrigerate for 24 hours.

Serves: 4

Ingredients

For the cream

• 40 cl milk
• 3 egg yolks
• 90g sugar
• 50g flour
• 1 vanilla bean
• optional: 100g dark chocolate

For the puffs

• 75g flour
• 60g butter
• 2 eggs
• 10cl water
• 5cl milk
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 pinch salt

Preparation time
35 minutes

Preparation
To make the cream: put the milk, the split vanilla bean (and the grated chocolate if desired) in a pot and bring to a boil. During that time, put the egg yolks and the sugar in a bowl, and whip for about 5 minutes (until smooth and almost white in color). Add the flour, and mix again until smooth. Slowly pour the boiling-hot milk while stirring until smooth. Put the mix back in the pot, put the pot on medium heat, and stir constantly until the cream boils. At first boil, take the cream out of the heat and let it cool.

To make the puffs: Put water, milk and butter (cut in pieces) in a pot. Add the sugar and the salt, and bring to a boil while stirring constantly. Take out of the heat and slowly add the flour, while stirring, until the dough is smooth. Put the pot back on the heat and stir constantly for about one minute, then take out of the heat. Add the eggs one by one, stirring constantly until the dough is smooth. Pre-heat the oven at 220 C (430 F). Put the dough in a pastry pocket, and make 3cm-wide puffs, separated 4cm from each other, on a pastry sheet. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the puffs are brown and puffed.

To stuff the puffs: when the puffs and the cream have cooled, put the cream in a pastry pocket and fill the puffs with the cream.

Serves: 6

Ingredients

Crust

• 2 store-bought puff pastry sheets

Filling cream

• 125g butter
• 125g sugar
• 125g ground almonds
• 3 eggs

Preparation time
30 minutes

Preparation
Puff pastry is too difficult to make at home and can be bought frozen at the supermarket; it must be thawed before you start preparing the galette. Some pastry shops also sell their own puff pastry, which of course will taste even better.

Preheat oven to 230° Celcius (450° F). To make the filling cream (called “frangipane”), mix the sugar and butter and beat until smooth. Add the almonds and the eggs, and beat until smooth again (this can be done in a food processor). On a slightly floured cold surface, cut 2 circles the size of dinner plates out of the puff pastry. Put one of them on a floured baking sheet. Spread the frangipane cream on the circle, starting from the center, up to 2cm from the border. Brush water on the edge around the cream and place the second circle on top of the first one. Press all around the edges to seal them together.

If desired, you can decorate the galette by drawing patterns with a fork and brushing the top with an extra beaten egg.

Bake the galette for 25 to 30 minutes at 230° Celsius (450° F) until brown.

Recipe for:  1 pie

Ingredients

• 1 – 9 inch unbaked pie shell
• 2 (1 ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate
• 1/4 cup butter or margarine
• 1 tablespoon instant coffee dissolved in 1/4 cup hot water
• 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 2 eggs, well beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup walnuts

Preparation time
20 minutes

Preparation

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• In medium saucepan, melt chocolate and butter or margarine over low heat. Stir in coffee, sweetened condensed milk, eggs, and vanilla. Mix well. Pour filling into pastry shell. Top with walnuts.
• Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until center is set. Cool.

Serves: 1 tarte

Ingredients

Apples

• 2 1/2 sticks (20 tablespoons) butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 9 golden delicious apples, peeled, cored and halved

Pastry

• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 6 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces

Preparation time
40 minutes

Preparation
For apples, preheat oven to 400° F (200° C). Scatter butter pieces and sprinkle sugar evenly in a 9 to 10-inch copper tartin pan or heavy baking pan. Tightly pack apple halves around inside edge of pan, reserve 4, standing upright, nestled against one another, with round side tilted down. Place 4 remaining halves in similar position in center of pan. (Apples will shrink as they cook and slip round side down into pan.) Bake for about 2 hours. Transfer pan from oven to stove top and cook over medium-high heat until butter and sugar caramelize to a rich brown, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from heat, and gently ease sticky apples away from side of pan with a knife. Refrigerate overnight so that apples firm up and “confit” further.

For pastry, preheat oven to 350° F (175° C) about 1 hour before serving tart. Sift flour, salt, and sugar into a bowl. Rub butter into flour mixture with your fingers until it resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle in 3 tablespoons ice water and work dough until it just holds together. Form into a ball, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Roll out dough on a floured surface into a 12-inch circle. Drape pastry over apples and pan. Roll the rolling pin across of pan to cut off excess pastry and allow pastry to fall over apples against the inside edge of pan. Bake in oven (still at 350) until pastry is flaky and golden, about 20 minutes. Remove from oven, place a flat ovenproof platter on top of tartin pan and invert quickly and carefully. Do not unmold yet. Reduce heat to 300 degrees and return platter and pan to oven for 10 minutes. Remove tartin pan and serve warm.

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup fine sugar
• 3 tablespoon self raising flour
• rind and juice of 2 lemons
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk

Preparation time
15 minutes

Preparation
Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F). Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in flour, lemon juice and rind. Separate eggs and beat egg yolks and milk into the mixture. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Fold into the mixture. Pour into a greased oven proof dish, stand dish in a water bath. Bake in oven for 45 minutes. Serve with cream or ice cream.

Serves: 5-6

Ingredients

• 3 Tbl. all purpose flour
• 3 Tbl. unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 12 oz bittersweet baking chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup brewed strong coffee 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 5 egg yolks
• 7 egg whites
• Confectioners sugar

Preparation time
50 minutes

Preparation
Preheat oven to 375º F (165º C). Melt butter in a sauce pot over low heat, whisk in flour and milk and cook until it thickens. Stir in chocolate and stir constantly until it’s melted. Remove from heat and add coffee, vanilla, and half the sugar. One at a time, add the egg yolks while whisking constantly.

Butter a 2-2 1/2 quart soufflé or baking dish.

In a perfectly clean and dry bowl , whisk the egg whites to soft peaks and gradually whisk in the remaining sugar and continue to whisk until the peaks stiffen. Gently fold the egg whites into the soufflé base and pour into the prepared baking dish.

Bake for 35 – 40 minutes until the soufflé rises 2 inches above soufflé dish. Dust with confectioners sugar and serve immediately because the soufflé will deflate in less than two minutes.