Almond Chocolate Cookie Cake Pie Recipe

Have you ever cooked a turducken? In case you don't know what a turducken is, it's a deboned turkey stuffed with a deboned duck stuffed with a deboned chicken. Turduckens are usually stuffed with breadcrumb dressing. Well, the idea for this elaborate dessert is smilar in concept,  but a sweet version. I wanted to layer one dessert into another and create a special, sweet treat: a cookie cake pie.

Somehow I managed to wrestle the whole thing together and came up with a dessert that I think made sense. It consisted of an almond passion fruit cheesecake inside an almondine tart, which is stuffed into a vanilla chocolate slivered almond cookie pie and finally layered on puff pastry dough.

I rarely make exactly the same dish twice. Once you've worked on your fundamentals, you can start to use the basic recipe and create dozens of different variations. This unique dessert is a true reflection of my cuisine. I love experimenting with new dishes and seeing my loved ones enjoying the fruit of my labor. Now all I need is to come up with a clever name for this unique dessert!

Chocolate Macarons

In my opinion, macarons are the epitome of a classic, elegant French dessert. If you've been following my culinary adventures, you've probably noticed how very keen I am on serving individual, miniature portions and that's exactly what I adore about macarons. They're made of a sweet meringue (egg whites, sugar and almond flour) sandwiched around a flavored filling of some sort. For this version, I used chocolate ganache (heated heavy cream poured over finely chopped exquisite, high-quality chocolate).

Cooking (and by extension baking) is an expression of love. I think the person who receives your baked goods will appreciate your effort and feel special. And that's my favorite part; I take pleasure in seeing the ones I love happy. 

Almond Chocolate Cake with Nougatine

I served this indulgent chocolate dessert for tea time this week. What I like most about it was that it's gluten free, made with almond meal and the texture was so moist. I topped the individual cakes with toffee salted caramel chocolate frosting and a garnish of crushed almond brittle.

This week has gone by ridiculously fast! I'm planning on baking a lot this weekend for our weekly family brunch and will share the recipes this upcoming week. Relax and spend as much time as you can with your loved ones. Life is short. Hug them, tell them you love them and give extra attention to the ones who love you most!

Poha Chudva Recipe (Indian Puffed Rice Trail Mix)

I was flipping through past recipes on PhamFatale and realized that while I published the picture, I didn’t share the recipe for poha chudva. The difference in this recipe from other chudva recipes is the addition of rich and creamy Brazil nuts. I deep-fried them with other nuts and mixed them with homemade-puffed rice called "poha". It's a great fusion South American and Indian rice trail mix flavored with many Indian spices.

I didn’t make the snack too spicy so the little ones could enjoy it too. We made several batches and packed them in cute Chinese takeout boxes for sharing.

French Macarons flavored with Cherries

After posting recipes for almost 5 years, I realized I had never paid homage to the most famous French pastry: le macaron. Today is my attempt to correct this oversight. I made cherry-flavored macarons since this delicious red fruit is finally available in the market.

Making this delicate confection is very time-consuming but so rewarding. I'm not as good at it as I would love to be. They really should rise a bit more in volume, but the meringue still looks decent and the taste is there. The elements of the macaron are egg whites, powdered sugar, granulated sugar, almond flour and a bit food coloring. This assembly is also tricky as the shells can be crushed very easily. I simply add a small mound of cherry-flavored white chocolate ganache and then holding them by the base of the cookie, gently press the two shells together against each other to form the beautiful sandwich cookie.