Did you know Tiramisu means “Cheer me up” in Italian? The name might come from the fact that the sugar, egg yolks and alcohol are supposed to be fortifiant and gives you energy. Or perhaps it could be how every bite of it makes you happier!
This tiramisu is a very fresh and a light dessert even after a hearty meal. Its lightness comes from all the whisked ingredients in the cream and the easy light baking, which makes it enjoyable during the summer.
Alcohol is not mandatory in the recipe.
Paris-Brest, is a pastry that comes in a shape of a circle filled with hazelnut cream with toppings. As of today different versions exist with various kind of cream and nuts like pistachios and almonds…
Unfortunately for the many English speakers out there, despite how it’s pronounced the dessert itself has no resemblance to a woman’s bosom. Yes, it’s a common misconception assumed among English speakers in that the origin of the pastry is sexual or that the dessert comes in a particular dome shape.
In fact the origin itself might not be the first thing to come to mind.
The supposed origin is of a newspaper editor wanting bicycle use to become popular in the town of Brest and decides to launch a bicycle race from Paris to Brest. He wanted to promote the race and asked a pastry chef by the name of Louis Durand who eventually created this famous dessert in 1910.
The Paris-brest is shaped like a bicycle wheel to celebrate the cycling race and can be found in nearly every bakery in France; it is one of the classics. Furthermore, it has recently been popping onto numerous menus in the US. It’s one of those desserts that people in the states might not be know much about but only look over other tables and tell the server, “I want that!”
Note: 2 big Paris-Brest were made which serves for 30 people but ingredients can be adjusted based on the number of people.
Carrot cake recipes were found in the 19th-century cookbook in Switzerland. According to the Culinary Heritage of Switzerland, it is one of the most popular cakes in Switzerland, especially for children’s birthdays.
Carrot cake became prevalent in the UK during the Second World War because sugar was rationed in the army. The sweetness from the carrots substituted for the sweetness of the sugar.
One of the best parts about carrot cake is that it gets better over the hours, even after a day or two. The flavors have a chance to mingle and the icing helps keep it moist.
Millefeuille is another pastry that you can find in any boulangerie in France. Commonly flavored with vanilla pastry cream, I made this raspberry millefeuille for Valentine’s Day (I know I’m late) with raspberry pastry cream.
I decided to use the raspberry pastry cream to have a refreshing flavor of raspberry to it and to add a romantic vibe.
Traditionally, a millefeuille is made up of three layers of puff pastry, two layers of pastry cream and the top layer is glazed with icing or fondant in alternating white icing and brown stripes then combed.
The French name (Thousand-leaf) of this pastry refers to the large number of layers of puff pastry. With the traditional method of preparing puff pastry, made with six folds of three layers your millefeuilles will have 729 layers we are still far from the thousand.
