French Buttercream

PRINT French Buttercream Yield: 1 qt. Ingredients 3 large eggs2 large egg yolks 2 cups (14 oz / 400 g) sugar ¼ cup + 2 tbl (3.5 fl oz) water 18 oz (500 g) unsalted butter, high quality, room temperature Flavoring, as needed Special tools and equipment needed: Pre-recipe preparations: Directions:

Read More

French Buttercream

Whipped cream in a mixing bowl with a whisk.

This recipe, from the first pastry shop I worked in Philadelphia, is very rich and smooth. It works extremely well with hazelnut paste, chocolate, and citrus rind as flavorings. It is a bit challenging, with a cooked sugar syrup added to beaten eggs at just the right time, but it is a delicious thing of…

Read More

Black and White Cookies

PRINT Black and White Cookies Yield: 16 cookies # of Servings: 8 Method: Creaming    Ingredients Cookies: Icing: Tools and equipment needed: Pre-recipe preparations: Directions: Cookies: Icing: Note: For a Blue and White Hanukkah version, add a few drops of royal blue food coloring to half the icing.

Read More

Black and White Cookies

Donuts with chocolate and white icing on a plate.

For those who grew up with the occasional bakery treat of a Black and White Cookie, this recipe should bring a smile to your face. There is something about this cake-like cookie, with the sweet vanilla and chocolate icing, that is simply fun to eat. In my version below, the cookie is slimmed down to…

Read More

Apple Cranberry Sour Cream Pie

Apple Cranberry Sour Cream Pie

Center City Philadelphia of the 1980’s had a wealth of very good restaurants. For classic French cuisine, there was Le Bec Fin and La Panetière. In Season and Friday Saturday Sunday (still in existence) featured innovative American menus. The Garden in a beautiful townhouse on Spruce, offered country French cooking with a bit of nouvelle…

Read More

Cranberry Orange Cake

PRINT Cranberry Orange Cake 1 9 ½â€ cake # of Servings: 10    Method: Creaming    Ingredients: Cake: 3 cups (14 oz / 397 g) all-purpose flour1 ½ tsp (.20 oz / 6 g) baking powder ¾ tsp (.15 oz / 4 g) baking soda ¼ tsp (.20 oz / 6 g) salt ¼ cup (1.8 oz…

Read More

Cranberry Orange Cake

A cranberry bundt cake on a plate.

Martha’s Vineyard in the fall has its own unique beauty and seasonal rhythm. The crowds thin out, up-island beaches no longer require permits and driving to down-island towns no longer demands careful time planning. In the 1980s at Morning Glory Farm in Edgartown, there was a pot of clove-laden apple cider on the roaring wood…

Read More

Triple Chocolate Mousse

A three tier chocolate cheesecake on a white plate.

This elegant and chic dessert, is perfect for a small dinner soir©e. It features a trio of chocolate mousses – dark chocolate, mocha (milk chocolate), and a white chocolate mousse which interplay harmoniously with each other. Surprisingly for a mousse dessert it slices beautifully, allowing for thin slices to be placed on your nicest dessert…

Read More

Warm Chocolate Cake

A chocolate cake with raspberries and whipped cream on a plate.

PRINT Yield: 6 individual cakes # of Servings: 6 Ingredients: Ganache: ¼ c + 2 tbl (3 fl oz) heavy cream3 oz chocolate, 58% to 64%, wafers or chopped Cakes: 12 oz chocolate, 58% to 61%, chopped6 tbl (3 oz / 85 g) unsalted butter, cut into pieces 5 large egg yolks6 tbl (2.8 oz…

Read More

Warm Chocolate Cake

A chocolate cake with raspberries and whipped cream on a plate.

In the mid-1990s, while working as the pastry and event chef for Restaurant Associates’ catering division, the executive chef asked me to come to his office. The chairperson for an upcoming event for 860 guests at the American Museum of Natural History’s Hall of Ocean Life had requested the popular molten chocolate cakes for dessert.…

Read More