Apricot Pot de Creme Recipe

When Lulu and I attended my older sister's wedding in 2007 in Paris, I recall the most delicious store-bought dairy dessert I discovered at my very dear friend Nathalie’s house. We had a lovely dinner and finished the meal with Bonne Maman brand miniature jars of petits pots de crème. But unlike the ones I usually prepare, these pots de crème had a much heavier, thicker, smooth and creamy texture. Unfortunately, this product has been discontinued; Lulu and I searched for it during our most recent trip to France without success.

This is my attempt to recreate that lovely French dessert. The dessert is made with a lot of white chocolate, a fair amount of heavy cream, butter and eggs. I flavored it with apricots from our garden and amaretto to enhance the apricot flavor.

I served the dessert with a fresh fruit salad and a small scoop of rum raisin ice cream for a little temperature and texture contrast.

Pistachio Dessert: Pistachio Creme Brulee Recipe (+Giveaway)

If you've been following my culinary adventures, you've probably noticed how much I love pistachios! Daddy (my father-in-law) went to visit one of his friends in Sacramento who grows orchards of pistachios. Daddy brought bags filled with fresh pistachios back for me to have fun with. I had never seen or tasted the raw product and it was amazing. The color is richer and greener. Daddy said raw pistachios are very common in India and picking the pistachios brought him back in time. There were so many pistachios that I had to come up with creative ways to make use of them. I immediately thought of making pistachio paste by grinding and blending them raw with a little Bourbon Barrel Vanilla Sugar. I also added pistachio oil to make the paste smooth and creamy because pistachios contain very little natural oil compared to other nuts. I also added a touch of almond extract to give the pistachio paste a nice aroma.

I didn't stop there. I used the paste to flavor a typical French dessert: crème brûlée. I've made crèmes brûlées so many times (lavender, banana, cherry, masala chai, matcha green tea, lemon, chocolate, vanilla, butterscotch, even a savory garlic flavored-one!) that after checking back on PhamFatale.com, I was surprised to see that I never posted this particular version! The pistachios were so fresh that it was almost guaranteed that the crèmes brûlées would be divine. To accentuate the dessert, I used vanilla sugar from Bourbon Barrel in the pistachio paste, the custard mixture and the brûlé part itself. It’s just more evidence that a few exquisite ingredients can transform the simplest foods (eggs, milk, cream and sugar) into something extraordinary.

In addition to tasting incredible, this naturally green-colored dessert can be part of your Halloween table. The kids can have their Snickers and Twix; I’d rather have one (or three) of these pistachio crèmes brûlées!

Fig Dessert Cup Recipe

I've recently received feedback about PhamFatale, saying that some of the recipes I post seem too complicated and the instructions can sometimes be a bit intimidating. If that describes you, then you are going to love this recipe. It may look fancy and complex, but it’s actually very simple.

The basics of these cute little desserts are roasted figs in individual baked lavash bread cups. I filled the edible cups with store-bought instant pistachio pudding and sprinkled the top of the fruit with crushed pistachios to repeat the flavor from the filling. I prepared the receptacle for each dessert by molding rounds of lavash bread in the cavity of mini-tart pans. I separately roasted fresh figs from our garden that I drizzled with flavorful maple syrup. Doesn't that sound yummy?



It took me no time to complete this elegant-looking sweet treat. So next time you want to serve dessert, give this recipe a try. If you really want to impress your friends, call it "figues rôties à la pistache". French names make everything sound fancy!

Mulberry Dessert (Fruit Dessert Cup Recipe)

The summer weather in the San Francisco Bay Area has been pretty dreadful for the fruits and vegetables in our garden, with one major exception. We were able to pick a basketful of the ripest mulberries from the tree in our garden. We’re all happy to just graze from the tree every afternoon, but for fun today I made mulberry mousse. I piped it into edible cups made from lavash flat bread.

Just like beets, there's one downside to cooking with mulberries: this fruit stains. So make sure you wear dark-colored clothes and do not place them on a marble baking slab!

Clementine Chocolate Parfait Recipe

I made clementine mousse using fruits from our garden. The zest is amazingly fragrant. The exterior has such a deep orange color, I thought it would be perfect dressed as a parfait paired with French chocolate cookies we bought in Normandy.

My husband Lulu and I brought a lot of delicious French food back home from our recent trip to Europe. The cookies in the dish are called "La Mère Poulard" chocolatine cookies. They are specialty cookies from the Mont Saint Michel region of France. My parents took us there on New Year's Day. It's a rocky tidal island located in Normandy, topped with beautiful shops and a church. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

While we were there, we had the region’s typical crêpes and of course brought back a few packs of cookies. If you’re in France and you have time, I recommend taking a visit.