This post has been long overdue…I made those plums in fall, so when they were in season, then never got the chance to post it. With my trip to France and work schedule, everything got delayed and now it’s November and the plums are no longer in season. I figured I would still post it and not wait for one more year.

I love all poached fruits, they end up being such a delicate and light little treat. I make those quite often when I can find plums and you can complement them with all kinds of dried cookies, biscotti, madeleines, anything you can dip in the syrup. Needless to say this dessert is very quick to make, and “unratable” (that you cannot fail).

The first step is to make the tea. I used green tea in which I added fresh mint leaves and dried verbena leaves (I could not find any fresh ones). Don’t make the tea too strong or the syrup will end up bitter and unpleasant.

Ingredients

• 1.5 cup green verbena-mint tea
• 1 star anise
• vanilla bean, cut lengthwise
• 2 tbs honey
• 6 red plums, not too soft
• 2 tbs macarpone
• 2 tbs Plain greek yogurt
• 1 tsp powder sugar (optional)
• zest of 1/2 Meyer lemon
• pistachios, roasted

Preparation

First make tea, letting the mint and vebena infuse for 10 minutes in green tea. Drain and add honey.

In a pan, cook plums with tea, then add star anis and vanilla bean. Let the plums cook until soft but not mushy. At this point the syrup has thickened. It should not be too thick, add water if too thick. Remove vanilla bean and filter syrup if necessary. Let it cool.

Mix mascarpone and yogurt until smooth, add 1 tsp of powder sugar or more if you like it sweeter and add lemon zest.

Serve plums in cups pouring syrup around and 1 tbs of mascarpone cream on top. Sprinkle with pistachios.

Usually I would never think of making cheese, because in my mind, it was something too complicated, something only cheese makers knew how to do.

This changed my mind. Living in the US, it’s sometimes difficult to find imported cheeses, such as mascarpone. In the past, stores like Rainbow or Whole Foods carried various Italian brands such as Santa Lucia. In any European country, you can find Italian mascarpone anywhere. For whatever reason in San Francisco, they stop selling them, selling only domestic mascarpone, and with no offense, domestic brands are not good, either the texture is too solid, too yellow, too this or too that, making really bad tiramisù. So in my mind, I could no longer make good tiramisù, and I have to admit that I got a little frustrated and annoyed. Then I tried to find on the web some information of the fabrication of mascarpone, which I was curious to know why it was called cheese (it’s because of the caseine). And here we go, the easiest thing on earth is to make mascarpone with just two ingredients! Yes it is possible! I was amazed when this came out of the refrigerator.

One pint will give you about 250-300 gr of mascarpone (a little more than the quantity of the container you find in the store)

Morale of the story: Do not buy domestic mascarpone any longer if you want to make a killer tiramisù, make it yourself, it’s worth it.

Ingredients

• 1 pint of heavy cream (a great quality, I used Straus)
• 1 tbs of lemon juice (filtered)

Preparation

in a large pot, bring about 2 cups of water to a boil. Pour cream in a mixing container that could be exposed at high temperature (I used a pyrex one), place on top of the pot and lower the heat. Stir cream and let it reach about 80-90C, then add lemon juice. Keep stirring for about 10 minutes, at that point the cream will become thicker and coat the spoon. Remove from heat and let it cool.

Place a cheese cloth (the thick kind, not with holes) on top of a strainer, then pour cream in it. Cover with a cloth and place in the refrigerator for about one day (24 hours). Use withing the next few days.

I was not sure how to translate coppa in English other than use the word cup…I am pretty sure there is a more accurate word for it…but nothing better came to my mind. I realized today that my English is getting worse while we were at a Chinese restaurant with my neighbors. They invited us to this new dim sum place that opened recently down the street, and while I was trying to tell a story, I had a difficult time finding words.

The problem is that I rarely speak English now, I mostly speak French or Italian (I don’t really see my clients) and my English is getting worse. How awful!!

Anyway, this lovely dessert has been inspired by tiramisù…but looks like a triffle. So here we go with Triffasù. The mascarpone cream is the same than in tiramisù, the difference comes from the cookies used. Instead of using ladyfingers I use used some Italian cookies called  “cruschelle“, made with wholewheat flour. You can use regular shortbread too, anything that can be easily crumbled, but these “Frollini Integrali” are available in the US, Balocco brand is widely available here, and they are truly delicious, light and not greasy.

The cookies are roughly crushed and are not supposed to be soaked, they remain somehow crunchy.

The strawberries are mixed with some of the raspberry coulis and the mixture of the mascarpone cream and juicy berries is absolutely divine.

Of course, you can use just raspberries or only strawberries but I thought the combination of both had a unique character to this light dessert.

This dessert is extremely fast to prepare, definitely less than 30 minutes and does not need to be refrigerated for one day like traditional tiramisù, so when you have guests and no inspiration and no time for a dessert, this is will make the trick.

Ingredients for 5-6 cups

For strawberries

• 1 lb strawberries, cut in small pieces
• 2 tbs brown sugar
• 12 cookies, preferably butter cookies

For the coulis

• 3/4 lb raspberries
• 2 tbs sugar (or to taste)

For the mascarpone cream

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 lb mascarpone (preferably imported from Italy)
• 2 tbs powder sugar

Preparation

Mix strawberries with sugar and set aside. Blend raspberries with sugar and pass through a sieve, to remove the seeds. Add 3 tbs of the coulis to the strawberries.

For the mascarpone cream, separate whites from yolks. Beat whites to a stiff consistency. Mix yolks with sugar until the mixture whitens. Add mascarpone to the yolk/sugar mixture and mix thoroughly until the cream is smooth and homogenous. Add whites to the mascarpone mixture.

Using a deep cup, add two tbs strawberry mixture, add some coulis. Add crumbled cookies, then add mascarpone cream. Add more strawberries on top and coulis. Refrigerate for one hour.

Some days are a little more morose than others, and lately my mood has been affected by many things and partly by the San Francisco weather…I hate to talk about weather changes, because I think it is a little annoying to hear, and it sounds like “old bored people’s” discussions and if I look at last year posts around this time of year, it was the same thing…the fog rolling in. Everyone talks about the weather in this city because it changes so fast and every district or neighborhood has its own micro climate…and honestly when buying a house in the city you want to make sure you are not in a “fogged in” area, if you do, you better love wearing ski jackets in June. So when it rains, or you need a little quick fix to cheer you up, make palets, they’re easy to make and so delicious!

You might not be familiar with France and its beautiful and picturesque rainy North Western region : la Bretagne (Brittany), they have amazing seafood specialties and many others like this palet breton.

Palet breton is a dry cookie made with a pâte sablée and demi-sel butter. Brittay is famous for galettes bretonnes, palets and other buttery cookies (and crêpes of course). You can find so many brands of those delicious cookies in the supermarkets, so being far away from French supermarkets, I figured I better learn how to make them if I ever want to eat some.

Usually palet breton is about 1.5 com thick, so a little thicker than the ones I made. As any “dry cookie” they’re delicious and very enjoyable with a tea or coffee, or as a little snack. This time, I wanted to “dress them up”, turn them into a little bite as a dessert…and add some extra crunch to it, by adding pistachios.  if you don’t have butter demi-sel, use regular butter and add fleur de sel.

Ingredients for about 18 palets

for the palets

• 7 oz (or 200 g) flour
• 3.52 oz (or 100 g) butter demi-sel, cubed
• 2.82 oz (or 80 g) sugar
• 2 yolks
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2.11 oz (or 60 g raw pistachios, roughly chopped

for the mascarpone cream

• 7 tbs mascarpone
• 7 tbs fromage blanc
• sugar to taste

for the raspberry coulis

• 14 oz (or 400 g) raspberries
• 5.29 oz (or 150 g sugar) or more if the raspberries are not very sweet
• 1 tsp lemon juice

Preparation

In a mixing container, mix flour and baking powder. Add butter and mix carefully from the tips of your fingers incorporating it to the flour mixture. Separately mix yolks with sugar and vanilla extract and add to the flour.  Form a uniform ball. Spread with a rolling pin in a 1.5 cm sheet. Cut with a small cookie cutter or glass (the cookies are usually thick and small, about 5 cm diameter). Bake in a parchment paper or silpat for about 15 min at 360F. Let them cool.

For the mascarpone cream, just combine all ingredients together.

For the coulis, combine all ingredients in a blender. Filter coulis through a sieve to remove the seeds.

Place a generous amount of mascarpone cream on top of a palet. Add raspberries and top it with coulis and chopped pistachios.

At this time of the year, I am either in Italy or France with my family and right now I tend to get nostalgic…it’s cold, foggy and windy in San Francisco, and I wish I were home. When I get homesick, I start cooking things I make when I am over there. I love to use mascarpone in all kinds of desserts, it’s a wonderful cream, not sure I would call it cheese though, anyway it does not matter, what matters is all the wonderful recipes you can make with it.

It’s certainly not to be snobby but if you get mascarpone, please try to get the imported one, not domestic. The domestic mascarpone is thicker, more yellow and more rubbery, so your mousse will not be as fluffy. I think when it has to do with tiramisù, I tend to be very “purist” in the sense that I hate to see tiramisù with whipped cream, I don’t know why it’s just one ingredient that I don’t want to see in tiramisù, therefore will not call this tiramisù, even if it looks like one. Yes, sometimes as far as food is concerned, I can be strange.

I had some extra mousse so I made an additional little verrine…banana, pear and vanilla. You can use any other fruit, but I just had those two left and the good thing is that they are two fruits that mix really well together. You can add some chocolate coulis after the layer of fruits.

Ingredients for 3-4

• 1.5 lb strawberries
• 1/2 lb raspberries
• 1 pack lady fingers
• 1/2 lb (or 250 g) imported mascarpone
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
• 3 tbs powdered sugar
• 2 tbs granulated sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• juice of 1 orange
• 2 tbs sweet wine  (like Marsala, Pinot des Charentes, etc…)

Preparation

Wash and cut strawberries, add granulated sugar and cook at medium heat for about 15 minutes until the strawberries are cooked but not over mushy and that they have produced a deep red juice. Drain and keep the juice aside. Let cool.

Add orange juice, marsala, and vanilla extract to strawberry juice, mix well.

Separate yolks from whites. Beat yolks with powdered sugar until the mixture whitens and double its volume. Add mascarpone and mix thoroughly. Beat egg whites to a thick consistency, and until they start peaking. Fold carefully to the mascarpone mixture. Whip the cream and add to the egg/mascarpone mixture.

Deep lady fingers in the strawberry juice. Deep long enough so that they absorb enough juice. Place at the bottom of a deep dish or a glass. Add a layer of cooked strawberries, then add fresh raspberries. Proceed with another layer of mascarpone cream, and start again with another layer of lady fingers, straberries, raspberries and cream. Decorate with fresh raspberries, and/or powdered chocolate or any other pretty item.

Place in the refrigerator for 2 hours and serve.