Tag: French

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Bouchon Bakery’s Traditional Financiers

traditional financiers
traditional financiers
Bite-sized, and worthy of a pâtisserie.

We’ve wanted to make these for several years now. Not necessarily from this recipe, but, for some reason, we liked the idea of financiers. Just as we like the idea of making canneles. It’s one of those things that just appeal to us. If we had to guess, we might say that it’s because they seem to be the epitome of a French pâtisserie. Just a little sweet bite, made from a few high-quality ingredients and some key technique that, we, in the United States, skip over with a corresponding loss of flavor.

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Chard and Cheese Soufflé

chard and Cheese soufflé
chard and Cheese soufflé
Who wouldn’t want to show off this dish?

It’s been a while since we had a soufflé; we guess that we just don’t think of making a soufflé when we decide what to have as a main for lunch or dinner. It’s not because they’re difficult, although they do have the reputation of being so; we just forget how good they are. So, we decided on a soufflé for lunch, but what kind?

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Chocolate Pots de Crème

chocolate pots de creme
chocolate pots de creme
Chocolicious!

Okay, has this ever happened to you? You open the refrigerator, take a look inside and see a pint of heavy cream that will be out of date in a few days, and you have no idea how you’re going to use it. Yeah, us, too. One of the hazards of scratchin’, we guess. So, what did you do?

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Potato Leek Soup

leek potato soup
leek potato soup
Creamy, creamy, creamy!

You might think that this recipe is just in time for St. Patrick’s Day, and you could certainly make it up for dinner on the 17th; however,  we have to tell you that we’re not sure how Irish this particular recipe is. Sure, you can find plenty of Irish versions of potato leek soup, but, as far as we could tell, most of them used heavy cream, which we didn’t have on hand. So, we went with this recipe, and, based on the book from which it came, it might just be a Continue reading “Potato Leek Soup”

Worth the trouble?
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Crêpe Cake

slice of chocolate crepe cake
slice of chocolate crepe cake
Easy as pancakes!

We love making desserts like this crêpe cake. Why? First, they’re nothing more than a combination of a couple of things that we’ve already made and know are really good. Second, they’re easy to write up. And, in this case, they’re pretty easy to put together, too. That’s three for three, which here in Scratchin’ Land is about as good as it gets.

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Whole-Wheat Crêpes

whole wheat crepes
whole wheat crepes
Tres Bon!

One of our resolutions this year is to eat more whole grains. While they often taste better, they can be a bit more difficult to use, as they take longer to cook, or, in the case of flour, are harder to get the nice, smooth texture that you can get with all-purpose flour.

With our resolution in mind, we decided to try making crêpes with 100% whole-wheat flour. Now, to be honest, we didn’t think these would turn out. But … well, let’s just see what happens at Scratchin Central.

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Worth the trouble?
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Tarte Tatin

Classic tarte Tatin
Classic tarte Tatin
Trés bon!

Whoa, there. Are you trying to click away from this post after reading the title because you think that it’ll be too difficult for you? Well, stop.

Like you, when we first saw this recipe (over 2 years ago) we thought that it would be beyond our capabilities. In fact, the original recipe is titled “Worth-the-Effort Tarte Tatin.” Worth-the-Effort? Nothing like making this seem nigh on impossible for anyone without decades of pastry-making experience. But, we here at Scratchin’ Central are going to let you in on a secret. Tarte tatin is pretty much just an upside-down apple pie. And, since it’s upside down, no one will even look to see if the crust is perfect.

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Worth the trouble?