Chestnut Baklava Recipe (+Giveaway)

Have you ever had trouble serving baklava? It gets sticky, messy and difficult to handle. I found a solution by using shredded phyllo dough instead of sheets of phyllo dough and baking it in individual molds. They tend to trap the syrupy goodness in their web instead of getting soaked and sticky. Since it's the holidays, I wanted to add the flavor of Christmas to the baklava, so I added chestnuts. I layered both chestnut purée and roasted chestnuts into the baklava, along with crushed pistachios for color and flavor. I also substituted date syrup for honey, which added a depth of flavor and a strong contrast of color.

If you're looking for a dessert recipe for the holidays that's easy to make but looks elegant, consider baklava. It's an easy, stress-free dessert that is sure to please everyone.

I used pure, organic date syrup from Organics Are For Everyone. If you've never tried date syrup before, you're in for a treat. You can use it in place of just about any syrup. Date syrup has a mild tanginess to it that balances the sweetness. I especially like it on waffles, pancakes and French toast. For a chance to win two jars of date syrup from Organics Are For Everyone, enter today's 25 Days of Giveaways contest. And if you're interested in making this recipe today, you can get a 20% discount from Organics Are For Everyone by using the "FATALE" promo code (good till 12/21).

Make sure you're a fan of PhamFatale Facebook fan page and Organics Are For Everyone, or follow @Phamfatalecom and tweet about this giveaway. To make it easy, you can just copy and paste this tweet if you’d like: "2 jars of Organics Are For Everyone pure date syrup #Giveaway from @Phamfatalecom and @DateSyrupRocks: http://bit.ly/sp4V7y"

Stuffed Dates with Pistachios

Mascarpone stuffed dates with pistachios is a versatile and easy no-bake dish. It makes a great dessert, appetizer or snack. On top of that, the dessert is so easy to assemble my 6-year-old little sis-in-law can do it!

I used Deglet Noor dates because the texture is firm and thick without tasting overly sweet. This makes them perfect for appetizers. For a sweeter version, you could use Medjool dates.

To make the dish, I pitted the dates and filled them cannoli-style with mascarpone cream. Crushed pistachios add texture, flavor and color. I placed the stuffed dates on a bed of thin butter almond cookies to enhance the presentation and make them easier to handle.

Apple Bread Pudding

This recipe calls for all the usual suspects that are found in bread pudding, namely sugar, milk, fresh or dried fruits and some dry bread cubes. I made my apple raisin bread pudding using stale bread that has been sitting on the kitchen counter. The dryness of stale bread is actually an asset in preparing bread pudding, because the dry bread will soak up a good deal of flavor. If you buy a lot of bread and sometimes don't use all of it, this recipe might be helpful for you. It was amazing how fast these little mini loaves of bread pudding disappeared!

Bread pudding to me is a perfect breakfast food, similar to pain perdu, or French toast. I also often enjoy it for le goûter de 4 heures, which in English translates to "4 p.m. snack". As a child, this was my favorite time of the day! My childhood memory of a typical "4 heures" would be a piece of warm baguette with a piece of chocolate, an apple and chocolate milk. If you ask any French kid, that's pretty normal but it doesn't seem to be this way in America. The juice box and supermarket candy bar that most American kids eat (including my little sisters-in-law), definitely don't compare.

Dulce de Leche Ice Cream with Date and Pear Compote and Candied Pecans

Dulce de leche (caramelized milk sauce) is called confiture de lait in French. We had the most delicious Tres Leches during our anniversary trip to Cancun last month, and it inspired me to make ice cream that captures the flavor.

I've made my own dulce de leche in the past by heating a can of condensed milk in boiling water but I remember it took forever. So this time, I took a shortcut and used a can of ready-made dulce de leche.

Dried fruits, pear, honey and candied ginger are very common during the holiday season, so I made a compote out of these ingredients to pair with the ice cream. The final touch is a topping of candied pecans to give the dessert a nice crunch.

This is a dessert that has decadent written all over it. Dieters need not apply. It's a fabulous way to end any holiday meal.

Fresh Jujube Tart with Walnut Cream (Chinese Date Tart)

Lulu planted jujube trees 3 years ago and they didn't produce much fruit until this year. A jujube (also called Chinese date) is a little date-sized fruit that has a sweet smell and a flavor reminiscent of apples. In Asia, legend says that the scent of jujubes makes people fall in love. They are also a sign of fertility.

The fruits are so much more flavorful and sweet than the ones from our local market. In Vietnam, jujubes are eaten fresh as a snack. The girls have been going back and forth to the garden to pick the fruits from the trees. The crop is so huge this year; each branch holds at least 2 dozen jujubes. We've been asking friends and family to take some home, but we still had more, so I decided to try and make a dessert with some jujubes.

The texture of the fresh fruit is very similar to apples, so I adapted my tarte amandine and made it with walnuts and jujube instead. For a nice glossy look, I drizzled date syrup over the jujube tarts. It was the first  time I tested the recipe and it worked wonderfully.