I love summer, partly because I can eat peaches and apricots sans limites! My two favorites fruits are in season, and I only wait for summer to come, just to indulge in juicy peaches, nectarines, and apricots.

My friend Simon in France asked me why I was working so much, aren’t people gone on vacation in July-August in the US?…well it’s true that summer in France and Europe in general, is the dead season, especially July-August, where everything closes and businesses work “au ralenti“. Everyone goes on vacation and big cities are deserted. Well, not here, I cannot tell that this is summer, other than by the fog rolling in the city and the peaches and apricots are on the shelves (which is good enough for me).

I had some whole wheat pâte brisée left that I wanted to use, and decided to make one peach tart and one apricot tart slightly different. The peach tart was sprinkled with vanilla and I added cookies on the crust, so that they absorb the juice of the fruits while cooking. The apricot tart was sprinkled with rosemary and I spread raspberry jam on the crust…so two different flavors. You need to use well ripe fruits, especially apricots if they’re not ripe enough, they tend to be a little acidic and tart, then you need to add more sugar.

Ingredients for 4-6 tartlets

For the crust

• 200 g whole wheat flour
• 100 g butter
• 30 g sugar, soft at room temperature
• water

For apricot tartlets filling

• 1 lb apricots, well ripe and cut in half
• 2 tbs raspberry jam
• 1 tbs brown sugar
• 30 g butter, cut in small cubes
• 1 rosemary sprig

For the peach tartlets filling

• 4 peaches, peeled and cut in 1/2 inch slices
• 5 tbs crumbles shortbread cookies
• 2 tbs brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla powder
• 30 g butter, cut in small cubes

 Preparation

Start making the crust. In a mixing container, add flour and sugar, then incorporate butter using the tip of your fingers, not kneading dough too long, or it will break. Wrap in a plastic film and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Roll dough and place in a tart pan. For the apricot tart, spread jam all over the crust and fill it with apricot halves. Sprinkle with sugar and place little bits of butter on top of the fruits. For the peach tart, cover crust with crushed cookies. Cover with peaches segments, sprinkle with vanilla powder and add bits of butter on top.

Cook for about 35 minutes in a pre-heated oven at 370F. Check to see the bottom of the crust is not over cooked.

Another fruit based dessert, or snack or gourmandise, you name it. I might not have cooked much while in France, but I sure did buy a lot of kitchen gadgets, such as my silicon mini madeleines molds. And since I came back, I baked those madeleines many times. They’re really tiny, about 1.5 inch length, and they go so well as a little “accompagnement” to any fruit based dessert, or ice cream, or simply as is as a delicious little snack.

But this is not about madeleines (I will write a post on mini madeleines soon after this one) and only about a wonderful roasted pear slowly baked with honey, vanilla and orange juice. A very simple dessert, yet elegant and absolutely delicious. You don’t need to serve this pear with madeleines, or whipped cream, but I think for a more “finished” dessert, they do the trick. You need pears that are not too ripe but not to firm either. Pear that are too ripe will cook very fast and will get mushy while cooking and you won’t be able to serve them. So in that respect, it’s better to get them too hard than too soft, that way you can always cook them longer.

For the whipped cream, I used a Siphon, they’re quite handy if you want to make espuma, flavored or fancy whipped creams, such as mascarpone whipped cream, avocado whipped cream, etc… I developed a crêpe menu for a company that makes these siphons and who opened a crêpe joint in Berkeley, so they gave me one siphon. Honestly I would have never thought of buying one, but since I have one now, I use it quite often. Here I flavored the cream with rose water and its delightful and delicate scent blended very well with the fruity flavors of the pear. That was indeed a real treat. Will re-do this dessert with no doubt over and over again…and real soon.

Ingredients for 4

• 2 pears, pealed cored and sliced lengthwise
• Vanilla bean powder
• 2 tbs honey
• 5.07 fl oz (or 150 ml) orange juice
• 1 tbs butter, cut in small pieces
• 1 cup (or about 200 ml) heavy cream
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp rose water

Preparation

Place the peeled pears in a dish, spread honey on top. Add orange juice, vanilla bean powder and butter cut in small cubes on top of pears. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 375 F for about 20 minutes or until the pears are soft but not mushy. Turn pears around during the cooking process and keep pouring juice on top. If the juice decreases and starts to thicken too much, add extra orange juice. When pears are cooked, remove from oven, divide on plates, pour juice on top and serve with cookies, whipped cream, madeleines, etc…

For the whipped cream, place heavy cream in siphon, add powdered sugar and rose water. Shake well. Add cartridge. Place back in the refrigerator to cool.

Financiers are a traditional individual little French cakes made with almond powder and brown butter. Usually they’re rectangular but I gave them their original round shape. They’re sometimes called Visitandines, due to their original fabrication by Visitandines nuns. They used to be round like these ones but became rectangular over the years and especially after arriving in Switzerland where the Swiss decided to make them rectangular.

Financier in French also refers to people working in the finance field. It’s been said that these tiny cakes were created by a pastry chef or what we call pâtissier so that finance people would not make their fingers dirty while eating them. I don’t know if it’s true, but I think that there is always something true in popular ear-say.

After surfing the wonderful site called l’Atelier des Chefs, I saw this little dessert that tempted me and I decided to try it out. Do not hesitate to make these financiers, they’re delightful. I only substituted agave nectar to powdered sugar in the coulis which adds a more natural and flavorful touch, other than that the recipe remained the same.

Since peaches are in season, it’s the perfect time to grill them and eat them warm with these green tea cakes…and what’s better than a strawberry coulis to add the final touch? nothing. These mini cakes are very moist and absolutely perfect for any occasion.

Ingredients for about 10 financiers

For the Financiers

• 2.82 oz (or 80 g) almond flour or powder
• 1.76 oz (or 50 g) white flour
• 0.35 oz (or 10 g) matcha green tea powder
• 6.17 oz (or 175 g) powder sugar
• 5.29 oz (or 150 g) egg whites (about 3)
• 5.29 oz (or 150 g) butter

For the coulis and peaches

• 6 peaches
• 1/2 lb (or 250 g) strawberries
• agave nectar

Preparation

For the financiers

In a mixing container combine all ingredients except butter. Melt butter in a pan and let it brown. Do not let if cook too long until it becomes too dark. It needs to have a nice nutty color. Let it cool and add to the other ingredients. Divide the batter in muffin molds (fill in the molds to half). Cook in a pre heated oven at 180C.

For the coulis, blend strawberries with agave nectar.

Cut peaches in slices and grill on a skillet on both sides.

Serve financiers with grilled peaches and strawberry coulis.

My favorite fruit is finally back in season! Cannot get tired of eating peaches…Of course, we don’t need to do anything to the fruit to enjoy a juicy and sweet peach, but sometimes we can turn them into an elegant and delightful little dessert by roasting them. I love to grill roast, saute, poach, or anything you can think of, just like a vegetable.

I haven’t been able to blog nor read anyone’s blog as much as I would like simply because I am too busy at the moment, cooking and preparing menus, and I thought summer would slow down, which seems to be just the opposite. I still think with my French mind, where in France everything slows down during summer, because everyone goes on vacation, so July and August are dead.

When I have a little time, I always enjoy posting some new recipe, even if it’s something as simple as that. Sometimes, a warm roasted peach enhanced with honey and Grand Marnier is all you need to make your day perfect. It did it for me today, despite the same old San Francisco gloomy summer weather. I haven’t used Grand Marnier in desserts for years, and I remember when I was growing up in France, they sold Grand Marnier flavored yogurts from Yoplait, and my aunt was going crazy about them. Doesn’t this sound funny to have a yogurt with a liquor flavor? I guess in the US, you’ll need to show an ID to get those yogurts!

If you buy the kind of peaches that are hard to peel, cut the in half and place them in boiling water for 30 seconds. They’ll peel very easily.

You can serve this with vanilla ice cream and butter cookies and it will make truly a wonderful dessert.

Ingredients for 4

• 4 white peaches
• 1 tbs salted butter
• 2 tbs lavender honey
• 1/3 tsp vanilla powder
• 2 tbs Grand Marnier
• 1 sprig rosemary, chopped

Preparation

Peel peaches, and cut in half. Melt butter in a pan and brown peaches on both sides at high temperature. Don’t let the peaches overcook or they’ll get mushy. Add honey and decrease temperature. Sprinkle with vanilla powder. Add rosemary, and stir for one 30 seconds or so. Pour Grand Marnier, and flame. Divide in bowls and eat warm. How simple is that? Almost as simple as eating it!