Vol au Vent Filled with Cherry Ice Cream

I love the combination of dark Morello cherries and balsamic vinegar. Since I have balsamic cherry vinegar from Bellindora on hand, I thought I would use the pairing in a dish. I made cherry vol au vent drizzled with Bellindora balsamic cherry chocolate sauce. If you've had balsamic syrup with fruits in the past, you will certainly love this uncommon flavoring as the balsamic cherry vinegar brings out the flavor of the sweet cherries. 

The vol au vent consists of a puff pastry cup that is formed using two different sizes of cookie cutters. I filled it with homemade dark Morel ice cream. As you can see from the photo, I should have been more patient and waited for the ice cream to harden a bit in the freezer and not transfer the churned cherry ice cream directly from the ice cream machine to the cooled puff pastry. Live and learn...

Horchata Cookies with Queso Fresco

If you've been keeping up on my recipes this week, you know that I've been making use of the wonderful cheeses from Queso Del Valle. I thought a dessert would be a nice way to end the week. Lulu and I had lunch at the appropriately named "Lulu's" Mexican restaurant last Sunday, and we both enjoyed a nice cup of horchata (cinnamon-flavored rice drink). I thought it would be fun to capture the rice and cinnamon flavors of the drink in an edible form.

I made cookies with queso fresco and incorporated sweetened condensed milk, horchata, almonds, rice flour and cinnamon. I didn't stop there and topped the moist cookies with cinnamon and crema Mexicana sour cream icing. 

These horchata cookies turned out great and I might whip another fusion dessert before the weekend is over. How do profiteroles filled with Mexican vanilla-flavored queso fresco and crema Mexicana sour cream sound? I think it would be even more luscious if the profiteroles are drizzled with dulce leche. Mmmm...

Almond Tea Cake Recipe

I don't make these sweet treats too often, because in my opinion (being from France where pastries are subtly sweetened), they're a tad too sweet. But they're perfect with a hot of cup of tea and I know my husband Lulu loves them. The concept of these cookies is to create an absolute overload of almonds. The cookie dough is made of chopped almonds, marzipan (honey and almond meal), almond extract, powdered sugar and a strong, floral honey.

I got the girls involved in rolling the cookies into balls and coating them in powdered sugar prior to baking. And once the cookies were baked, the girls dunked them one more time in powdered sugar to resemble snowballs. 

Coconut Madeleine Recipe

Maybe it's just me but I love having guests over for tea. It's fun because you can serve an assortment of savory and sweet treats to go along with it. And, of course, I love trotting out my different tea sets!

My go-to, fool-proof tea cake recipe is a French classic: the madeleine. The authentic, buttery, plain version is divine, but today I felt like adding something exotic and flavored the batter with coconut. The coconut version doesn't puff up as much as traditional madeleines normally do, but they are a touch crispier and pair wonderfully with a hot cup of tea.

Easter Dessert Ideas

Growing up in France, I always looked forward to Easter Sunday. I remember going to one of the Parisian forests and hunting for eggs while my uncles played bridge. We would do a potluck picnic, and though I can’t honestly recall the food, I do remember the chocolate!

So in the spirit of my sweet memories, here are some of my favorite desserts that I think are perfect for your Easter festivities. Have a great weekend everyone!