After my trip to Iceland, I fell in love with that country…its gorgeous landscape, its friendly people, its peacefulness and its delicious food and products. One of which is called skyr. Basically skyr means yogurt in Icelandic. It’s a very thick yogurt, thicker than the Greek kind, and has 0% fat. It comes plain, or with various fruit flavors and you can eat it as is or use it in desserts. It’s more packed in protein than its Greek counterpart, and fills you up quite fast, since it’s really thick, similar to a cream cheese thickness. I ate skyr everyday, either in a yogurt form or dessert form. Most of their sky desserts are in this type of form or in a glass with a crust layer, then with skyr, then topped with blueberries or caramel sauce.

The good thing is that you can find skyr in the US. There are basically two brands available here in California, one is called “Siggi’s” and one is called “Smaeri“, both of which are locally made by Icelandic guys who moved to the US, and who apparently imported the real recipe form Iceland.

Those yogurts are a bit different from what I tasted in Iceland, and I wish they would import the real ones. I don’t have anything against US made skyr (and I’m thankful I found them even though they’re easy to make), but the taste is slightly different because the cows are obviously different and they are not eating the same type of grass/food than in Iceland; different soil, therefore the milk is different. Anyway, those are just little tiny details, but I think details can make sometimes a difference.

Going back to my beloved skyr, in this dessert, there is a slight resemblance to cheesecake in it appearance but that’s it. It has a lot less calories, because skyr low calories due to its nonfat content. Even adding some cream, it will never compare to cheesecake in its texture or taste. I could call this dessert “Skyr Tart” instead of cake. This dessert is now one of my favorites, and will make it regularly. It’s so delicious, creamy, light and delicate, that you would never believe that it’s made with 0% fat yogurt.

Ingredients for a 9 inch pan

For the crust

• Any cookies of your choice (I used no sugar shortbread), depending on the size of the cookie 10 to 20
• 70 g coconut oil
• 1 tbs coconut sugar

For the skyr filling

• 1 large plain skyr jar (680 g or 24 oz))
• 5 tbs vanilla skyr
• sweetener of your choice (I used stevia) to taste
• 125 g (4.4 oz) heavy cream
• 4 small gelatin sheets (7.5 g total weight of gelatin)
• blueberry jam
• fresh blueberries

Preparation

For the crust

Crush cookies to a medium coarse texture. Add coconut oil, coconut sugar and mix to obtain a homogenous texture. Using a non stick pan, place some parchment paper (the size of the bottom surface) on pan. Make a crust with the crushed cookies/coconut oil, pressing firmly with your hands and spreading crust on pan. Place pan in the freezer or refrigerator for about 15-20 minutes.

For the filling

In a mixing container, mix both skyr yogurts, add sweetener. Soften gelatin sheets in cold water for 10 minutes or until soft. In a small pot add 3 tbs cream and heat it up. When it’s boiling, remove from heat, add gelatin, stir well and let it dissolve. Add the mixture to the skyr mixture. Whip cream and fold carefully into the skyr.

Pour the filling on top of crust and spread it evenly. Refrigerate for about one day.

Spread blueberry jam on top and fresh blueberries.

It’s time to take a little time off and go where the sun is always happy and shining, not the Caribbeans but Baja Mexico. California has been under a horrendous weather, it’s so cold that the heat is back in the house, I am back wearing winter clothes such as thick ski jacket and woolen sweaters. So for a little while, I might not be posting recipes but maybe Mexican beaches and sunset.

Now, I have to find my bikini since the last time I wore it was two years ago. Swim suits are not my favorite things to wear, I always feel the bikini is too small, if I move to fast, the strings will untie. Not being the typical French woman who goes topless on the beach, I get a little paranoid about my top or bottom failing on me. Last time I was in the South of France, no one seemed to worry about the swim suit strings! Vive le topless!

I wanted to celebrate this so needed vacation by making my mom signature sweet. She makes this pie at least once a week since the number of guests stopping by the house is ridiculous, so there is always something sweet to nibble on. Her recipe comes with a jam topping mixed with sliced almonds.

I added almond flour to the crust to give it a nutty after taste. Crostate are typical Italian “tarts”. In Italy, they call the crust: pasta frolla, whereas in France, it’s called pâte brisée but the process is similar.

This crust is not a pasta frolla, my mom always use baking powder in her crust and she melted the butter instead of incorporating it cold and by pieces. This pie tastes more like a cake, and is lighter than a traditional crostata with pasta frolla, since the quantity of butter is less. I flavored it with lemon zest to give a little kick. Overall, I was somehow faithful to her recipe but you don’t always have to be faithful in the kitchen!

Bye bye grey sky, cannot wait to leave you…

Ingredients for 6

For the crostata

• 4.9 oz (or 140 g) flour
• 2.82 oz (or 80 g) almond flour
• 2.46 oz (or 70 g) sugar + 1 tsp
• 2.46 oz (or 70 g) butter, melted
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• zest of 1 1/2 lemon
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup blueberries

For the yogurt cream

• 6 tbs plain Greek yogurt
• 6 tbs heavy cream, whipped
• zest of 1 lemon for decoration

Preparation

In a mixing container, mix flours together. Add sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, melted butter, lemon zest and baking powder. Start mixing all ingredients together, adjusting with flour if the dough is too sticky. For a small homogeneous ball. Butter a non stick mold (about 20 cm diameter) and using your hands spread 2/3 of the dough regularly on the surface of the mold.

Place blueberries on top of the dough leaving one inch around the edges. Using your hands, push carefully blueberries in the dough. Using the leftover dough, start rolling it forming a little rope like you would when making gnocchi. That rope should be about 2/3 inch thick. Place rope across crostata forming a cross shape. Using same process, form another rope and place around the edges of the crostata.

Cook in a pre-heated oven at 365-370F for about 30 minutes, until the crostata is slightly golden. Do not overcook or the crostata will be too hard. The crust has the texture of a cake and should not be too crunchy, it needs to remain soft and moist. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve at room temperature.

For the yogurt cream

Whip heavy cream and mix carefully with yogurt. Top one slice of crostata with the cream-yogurt mixture and sprinkle with lemon zest.

When you feel like being in the Limousin, you make clafoutis. It’s a specialty dessert originally made with whole black cherries. Limousin is in the South-Western region of France (to me it’s more Central than West) where the porcelaine de Limoges comes from.

I love the sound of the word clafoutis, I think it could be a great name for a girl “Clafoutine”. Je m’appelle Clafoutine, don’t you think it sounds cute? 

This weekend I was all excited about making my first torta primavera, it’s basically an Italian chocolate cake stuffed with a strawberry mousse. It turned out a complete disaster. The mousse was too liquid. When I cooked the strawberries, I did not remove the liquid before mixing them, the mousse ended up being liquid, so when I tried to put the mousse on the first layer of the cake, it would go all over the place. I was ready to throw everything in the garbage, then I figured I would try to save it and it ended up thickening while in the refrigerator since I had put some gelatin, but in the meantime, the cake had a very messy appearance. Looked like someone had a fight with it. Taste was OK but really it did not look too appetizing.

Since my last dessert was terrible, I decided to make another one I would not ruin this time. Why stop at a failure? Everyone can make a clafoutis, it’s very simple, you just need the right quantities. I had bought some rhubarb this weekend that kept looking at me anytime I would open the refrigerator door. So I decided to stop the staring game.

I added yogurt to the batter and palm sugar to enhance the flavor and I really liked it. I ate it still warm, so there was a little juice at the bottom, but was nonetheless delicious.

Ingredients for 6-8

• 1.5 lb rhubarb
• 1/2 pint blueberries
• 3 eggs
• 2.8 oz palm sugar
• 2.5 oz regular sugar
• 2 oz flour
• 5 tbs plain yogurt
• 2.5 oz milk
• 2.5 oz heavy cream
• vanilla powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbs sliced almonds

Preparation

First, wash rhubarb, peel and add 2 tbs sugar. Let sit for about 30 min. Remove liquid from the rhubarb. 

In a mixing bowl, beat eggs with sugar. Add yogurt, cream and milk. Add vanilla powder and extract, then add flour. Mix well.

Butter and oven dish, place rhubarb, and washed blueberries. Add batter on top. Sprinkle with sliced almond and cook for about 30 minutes in a pre-heated oven at 375F.