These French-inspired desserts are deliciously simple
I usually have a good amount of will power when it comes to eating what I’m baking. I test, I may retest, then I give whatever it happens to be — cake, cookies, pies — away.
Summer desserts, that’s another story.
Today, I ate a slice of the blueberry croustade with hazelnut crunch topping, with creme anglaise, borrowed from the berries recipe — for breakfast. Yesterday, I had the ice cream affogato with meringue cookies for lunch (instead of my usual egg-white omelette). The night before that, for dinner I had berries with creme anglaise and shortbread cookies.
I wish I were kidding. Just ask my pants.
All of these recipes are inspired by my life and travels in France, and what’s so great about them is that they’re simple and elegant, and not the same old defaults we usually lean on this time of year.
One of my favorite desserts when I first started visiting France was the simplest thing ever, a bowl of raspberries with creme anglaise. I don’t think that I’d ever been served more one raspberry at a time before then, usually served alongside a chocolate dessert.
To be able to eat an entire bowl of raspberries, just like that, with this very vanilla-y French sauce, served in a tiny pitcher, made it the most extravagant dessert I’d ever eaten. I still love them like that. Today, if raspberries are on the menu, I’ll choose them over anything else.
Because I’m stateside right now, I’d be remiss if I left out blueberries — I’m still a Texan, after all — so I’ve mixed the two berries. I like the red against the blue, and the different textures together.
Ice cream affogato, simply ice cream with warm espresso poured over the top, is totally Italian, but last year I had an ice cream sundae with crushed meringue cookies in Evian, France, and loved the added crunch the meringues gave to the dessert, so I decided to combine the two ideas — an Italian ice cream dessert with a crisp French cookie — and see how it worked out.
Beautifully, turns out, and this idea of meringues, crushed and added to any sort of ice cream sundae, is one that I plan to repeat.
For those of you still terrified of making pie crusts, the blueberry croustade is an easier way to go. The all-butter dough is similar to pie dough, but instead of the precision that pie-making requires, from getting it into the pan to crimping the edges, the croustade is far more straightforward.
You simply roll out the dough, heap the filling in the middle, then fold over the edges. It’s easy and not meant to be perfect. The hazelnut crunch topping gives it a little extra something, but it can be omitted.
My father’s favorite berry was the blackberry, and I always think of him whenever I make something with them. This upside-down cake is a great stand-in if you’re weary of making cobblers, and it’s just as easy.
It’s a moist and slightly sweet cake that works well with just a spoonful of sour cream or whipped cream on top. I don’t do a lot of cakes in the summertime, but I like this one because it’s not too heavy or rich, even though melted butter and sour cream are involved.
I finished the creme anglaise with the last few blueberries last night after dinner, but I’m still nibbling on the shortbread cookies, because they are small (and therefore practically calorie-free) and they remind me of France.
Which is why I’m not feeling one bit of guilt about my indulgent week of desserts for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It wouldn’t be a very French thing to do.
Ellise Pierce is The Cowgirl Chef and author of “Cowgirl Chef: Texas Cooking With a French Accent” (Running Press). Read her blog (www.cowgirlchef.com), and follow her on Twitter (@cowgirlchef) and Instagram (cowgirlchef).
Ice cream affogato with meringue cookies
Makes 4 servings
4 egg whites, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon white vinegar
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 pint vanilla ice cream
4 shots freshly brewed espresso
1. Turn the oven to 225 degrees and line 2 baking sheets with parchment or a silpat.
2. Put the egg white and white vinegar in a mixer bowl on low speed. As the mixture becomes foamy, gradually increase the speed to medium and when the egg whites begin to hold a shape, start adding the powdered sugar, a teaspoonful at a time, while the mixer is running. Continue to increase the speed until you have firm, glossy peaks. Spoon these out onto baking sheets and bake for 1 1/2 hours. Turn off the heat and leave in the oven, door closed, until they cool completely. Store in an airtight container.
3. Scoop the ice cream into bowls and crush a meringue cookie or two on top. Pour the warm espresso over ice cream and serve.
Nutritional analysis per serving: 208 calories, 7 grams fat, 31 grams carbohydrates, 6 grams protein, 29 milligrams cholesterol, 100 milligrams sodium, no dietary fiber, 31 percent of calories from fat.
Blueberry croustade with hazelnut crunch topping
Serves 6
Filling
18 ounces blueberries
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 cup sugar
Pinch sea salt
Juice of 1 lemon + zest
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Dough
1 1/2 cups flour
`1/2 cup sugar
Pinch sea salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, cubed, well-chilled or frozen
3 to 4 tablespoons ice water
Hazelnut crunch topping:
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, melted
1 cup oats
1/2 cup hazelnuts, toasted and roughly chopped
1/2 cup wheat flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
Pinch sea salt
Egg yolk for brushing the crust
Sanding sugar for crust
Filling
1. Put 1/4 of the blueberries with 1/2 cup of water in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
2. In a small bowl, mix the cornstarch with 2 tablespoons of water.
3. When the blueberries come to a boil, lower the heat, add the cornstarch-water mixture, sugar, pinch of sea salt, lemon juice and zest, and cinnamon. Stir, lower the heat and let this cook until it thickens, 5 to 10 minutes. Add the rest of the blueberries and turn off the heat. Let cool.
Time-saver: Make the blueberry filling a day in advance, cool and refrigerate.
Dough
Whisk together flour, sugar and sea salt, or put this in a food processor and pulse a time or two. Add the butter cubes and mix until the butter is the size small pebbles throughout the flour. Slowly add the ice water and mix just until the dough begins to come together, but is still quite crumbly, and you can pinch it together easily with your fingertips — you don’t want it to be one big mass. Dump the dough directly onto a piece of plastic wrap and gently press it together into a nice fat disc. Wrap it up and pop into the fridge for an hour.
Time-saver: Make the dough a day in advance, and keep the dough in the fridge.
Hazelnut topping
Mix together all of the ingredients for the topping.
To bake the croustade, preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough into a roughly round shape — the beauty of making a croustade is that it’s not meant to be perfect. Put the dough on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and put the blueberry mixture in the middle of the dough, leaving about 2 to 3 inches around the edges. Add about 1/2 cup of the hazelnut crunch topping. Fold the edges of the dough over the blueberries, brush with egg yolk mixed with water, and sprinkle a little bit of the sanding sugar on top. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the crust is brown. Let cool for an hour before serving.
Nutritional analysis per serving: 829 calories, 41 grams fat, 111 grams carbohydrates, 11 grams protein, 83 milligrams cholesterol, 384 milligrams sodium, 8 grams dietary fiber, 43 percent of calories from fat.
Summer berries with creme anglaise and shortbread cookies
Serves 4
1 vanilla bean
3 cups whole milk
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
6 egg yolks
6 ounces raspberries
6 ounces blueberries
Shortbread cookies, recipe follows
1. Set a colander over a medium bowl.
2. Split the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape the seeds into a medium saucepan along with the vanilla pod, milk, half of the sugar and sea salt. Turn the heat to medium and let cook until the milk warms through, the sugar melts, and there are tiny bubbles on the side. Let cool for 30 minutes. Note: You don’t want this to boil.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks with the remaining sugar.
4. Pour a little of the milk mixture at a time into the egg yolk mixture, whisking vigorously as you do so. After you’ve poured about half of the milk into the egg yolk mixture, pour this back into the saucepan and turn the heat to medium, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon. When the custard begins to thicken and coats the back of your spoon, pour it through the colander into the bowl to catch any eggy bits that may have cooked in the process. Let cool, then cover with plastic wrap and completely chill.
Time-saver: Make your creme anglaise the day before you want to serve the dessert.
5. To serve, divide the berries between 4 bowls, pour some of the creme anglaise on top, and add a shortbread cookie or two on the side.
Nutritional analysis per serving (without shortbread cookies): 536 calories, 14 grams fat, 95 grams carbohydrates, 11 grams protein
Shortbread cookies
Makes about 3 dozen
Adapted from a recipe in Dorie Greenspan’s “Paris Sweets” (Broadway)
10 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg, at room temperature
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup sanding sugar
1. In the mixer bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, for 2 to 3 minutes. Add egg and beat until smooth, for another minute. On low speed, add flour and sea salt and mix only until the dough comes together.
2. Divide the dough into two pieces, rolling each piece into a log (of about 1-inch in diameter).
3. Sprinkle the sanding sugar onto the sides of the logs, then wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm.
Note: I sometimes put one log in the freezer, so I can make them later.
4. When you’re ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line 2 baking sheets with parchment or with a silpat.
5. Slice the cookies about 1/4-inch thick and lay them on the baking sheets about 1 inch apart. Decorate the tops with more sanding sugar, gently pressing the sugar into the dough. Bake each sheet of cookies for 8 to 10 minutes, or until firm. Note: These cookies will not brown. Let cool on the baking sheets, then remove them to a baking rack to cool completely.
Nutritional analysis per cookie: 75 calories, 3 grams fat, 11 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram protein, 15 milligrams cholesterol, 61 milligrams sodium, trace dietary fiber, 39 percent of calories from fat.
Blackberry upside-down cake
Makes 12 servings
Adapted from a recipe in Bon Appetit
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, melted
20 ounces frozen or fresh blackberries
1 cup plus 4 tablespoons sugar
Juice plus zest of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
3 eggs, at room temperature
1 cup sour cream, room temperature (plus more for serving)
Powdered sugar for serving
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a 9-inch round cake pan with parchment. Brush butter all over the bottom and sides of the pan. Set this aside.
2. Put 2 tablespoons of the butter along with the berries, 4 tablespoons of sugar, lemon juice and zest in a medium saucepan. Whisk the 2 tablespoons of cornstarch with an equal amount of water and add this to the saucepan, too, stirring to combine. Cook the berries over medium heat just until the sauce thickens, about 10 minutes or so. Remove from heat, pour into the prepared pan, and let cool while you make the cake batter.
3. Put the dry ingredients — the sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt — in the mixer bowl and mix to combine. Add the wet ingredients all at once — the rest of the melted butter, eggs and sour cream — and mix just until smooth. Don’t overmix. Add the batter to the pan with the berries and bake the cake for 45 minutes or until firm. Let cool for about 10 minutes before turning it out onto a cake plate. Serve with a spoonful of sour cream.
Nutritional analysis per serving: 313 calories, 13 grams fat, 45 grams carbohydrates, 5 grams protein, 82 milligrams cholesterol, 272 milligrams sodium, 4 grams dietary fiber, 38 percent of calories from fat.
This story was originally published August 14, 2017 at 11:52 AM with the headline "These French-inspired desserts are deliciously simple."