Caramelized Banana Tart with Hazelnut Cream

It's Persian New Year! I was at my local Persian grocery store today and I noticed an abundance of whole hazelnuts being sold. They looked beautiful, so I bought a large bag of nuts, which were eaten fairly quickly by all the family. I turned the remaining nuts into a fine mill and made frangipane tarts in the evening.

To make the dessert look ultra fancy without being too complicated, I topped the hazelnut cream with bruléed bananas. Caramelizing the bananas brought out additional flavors that really complemented the hazelnut cream and the flaky puff pastry.

My cousin's husband Hoss from Ohio is Persian, so we called him to send him our best wishes. But unfortunately, he changed his number and didn't tell us. The person who picked up was utterly confused. So Hoss, if you're reading this, "Happy Nowruz"!

Blueberry Almond Tart Recipe

I love blueberries. I usually serve them fresh with yogurt but this time, I made a change and baked them in a delicious almond cream tart. I filled puff pastry dough with homemade buttery almond cream and topped it with fresh blueberries.

When blueberries are baked, they release a beautiful deep blue color onto the almond cream. I didn't want the puff pastry to turn soggy, so instead of using regular tart molds, I placed them into brioche molds that could hold more cream as the cavity is much deeper. The tarts were not overly sweet; I really wanted the blueberries to shine in this wonderful French dessert. 

Hazelnut Plum Pie Recipe (Tarte aux Prunes)

We harvested our last batch of plums from the garden this week. I've been the only one who enjoys eating them fresh due to their sour-tasting skin, even though the flesh is tremendously sweet.

With the remaining fruit, I made a rustic plum pie. I layered hazelnut-flavored butter cream at the bottom of the pie shell and covered it with halved, peeled plums. I then covered the whole pie with another disk of pastry dough that I pricked using a lattice-dough pastry tool. Serve it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a hot cup of tea and you're all set for your next tea party with your girlfriends!

Galette Des Rois a la Pistache (Pistachio Kings Cake)

This Galette des Rois (Kings' cake) is filled with a sweet pistachio mixture. The traditional Epiphany dessert is made with almond cream, called frangipane, so this was an obvious substitution. The green pistachios give the treats a nice color contrast, and work well with the flaky crust.

I got some Harry Potter fèves last time I went to Paris, which you can see in these pictures. The girls are obsessed with the series, so when I brought them out for the photos they went nuts. If you were to serve individual sized galettes, as I have done here, you should hide a fève in one of the dishes and let each person choose a plate at random. Just make sure to hide the fève well so that the naughty ones who peek can't figure out where you hid it. Whoever finds the fève is Queen or King for the day!