Author Archives: fancyfrenchfilly

I’m going to show you the pic of this one right away, so that you can see what I’m talking about. The first thing you notice, and the first thing the author suggests, is that you serve this on a $100 bill as a coaster. My Husband. Maybe. Otherwise….THAT ain’t happening. I wasn’t too sureContinue reading “27th Recipe: Baller’s Delight”

Let me start off by admitting that I changed this recipe. It was a tart made with almond,(gee, the French use a lot of almond!) lavender, and grapefruit. The problem was the grapefruit. It shows my age, but frankly everyone I know is on blood pressure medication, or heart meds; and most of those, (includingContinue reading “26th Recipe: Sunset on the Boulevard”

Honey, peaches, and pecans–how can you go wrong? Well this recipe was a lot of peoples favorite. Slightly too sweet for my taste, but it was balanced nicely with the peaches. Here’s the pic…. The base was basically a pecan pavlova…a meringue baked so it’s crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. PecansContinue reading “25th Recipe: The Ricky Ricardo”

For coffee lovers everywhere! Almost like a coffee candy bar. Salty and sweet, It has everything. Caramel, coffee mousse, chocolate, and peanuts. Here’s the picture…. The crust is an almond/chocolate dough, and OF COURSE there was another mold to buy. By the time I finish this book, I will have a store’s worth of slightlyContinue reading “24th Recipe: Concerto”

Layers of fun! I think this recipe really tests plating techniques more than it does baking abilities. Here it is…. The layers consist of Joconde Biscuit (almond cake), blueberry coulis, and cheesecake mousse, with a white chocolate glaze. The whole trick to the recipe is to get the layers VERY thin, and as uniform asContinue reading “23rd Recipe: Cancale”

Well nothing got down here but ME. Ever have one of those days? Especially baking or cooking. You know. You get distracted and your dinner burns or you forget to add the sugar in a pie(my mother did that once!) or you slave for hours on your favorite dish (that you probably need to takeContinue reading “22nd Recipe: Oregon Get Down”

I was so excited to make this recipe…I had always wanted to do a “mirror glaze”, and this made this cake visually stunning. The balls are chocolate covered with edible gold leaf. The author suggests floating the gold leaf on water, then plunging the chocolate ball into it and underwater. Easier said than done. JustContinue reading “21st Recipe: Cherry Bomb”

Can you believe we’re almost half way through? This was the perfect celebratory dessert! So colorful ! So Springy ! The colored balls are balls of pate a choux (think Cream Puffs) filled with a fresh mint crème legere that sit on a layer of tart pastry. This is the top layer of 2 layers;Continue reading “20th Recipe: Confetti”

This recipe deserves the picture first…. Right? So easy looking, so tasty looking! And here’s the kicker….they ARE !! I’m not quite sure why they were ranked so high in difficulty, but I was grateful for something that took so little time and was so good. Literally 4 ingredients. The brittle, which is made upContinue reading “19th Recipe: Chocolate Nougatine”

With this recipe we enter a whole new realm of difficulty(fresh hell?). It is the beginning of the 2 macaron level; only 2 more difficulty levels–2 1/2 macarons and 3 macarons are remaining after this. When I tackle these recipes, each one takes me more than a day, sometimes several. I (mistakenly) always assumed thatContinue reading “18th Recipe: Bastille”