montcarte

I have always liked the idea of using fresh herbs in baking. While lemon-rosemary cookies are on my shortlist of things to bake, I figured I’ve done used enough lemon in recent times. Now that we have a nice balcony herb garden growing, I searched for something I can make with basil, cilantro, chives (okay, that might be a bit tricky) or mint.

Our mint plant has been growing with fervor, so I thought it best to try and prune it back by making these tasty-sounding chocolate chip cookies with real mint.

Mint and chocolate is an awesome combination I’ve always loved, so I knew these had to be good, which they were! I find mint extract leaves a sharp, minty taste in baked goods, so I was curious about how the fresh mint leaves would taste. It definitely does not have that minty bite of extract. Rather, the fresh mint is much mellower and perhaps sweeter, but still with all the flavour of mint. The cookie recipe itself is also a very good one, not cakey at all, and packed with dark chocolate chips.

If you have a mint plant that’s growing a bit too impatiently, I really recommend these cookies. It’s an excellent twist on the typical chocolate chip cookie!

Real Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies
adapted from Eatpress
Printable Recipe

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup dark chocolate chips (or any kind you prefer)
1/4 c coarsely chopped fresh mint leaves (I chopped mine rather finely)

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC (375ºF). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Cream the butter and sugars. Add egg and vanilla slowly.

3. Sift together flour, salt and baking soda and then add to the egg mix and beat until just combined.

4. Add the chocolate chips and chopped mint and mix together.

5. Form the dough into 5cm (2 inch) balls. Place on prepared baking sheet and bake until golden, about 9 minutes for chewy and 12 for crunchy. Cool on rack. Store in airtight container. This recipe makes about 15 cookies, so not very many…I recommend doubling the recipe!

If you like this, you might also like:

The Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookie
Mayan Chocolate Sparklers
White Chocolate Raspberry Cookies

My last post promised you the baked good I made with all my lemon-lime curd, and so here it is! A beautiful friend of mine (hello Patra!) was celebrating her birthday and the best gift I think I could probably give anyone is that of baked treats. Given I had sooo much curd, I figured I should try to make a dessert that incorporates it in some way.

I stumbled upon this recipe, and since I’ve been wanting to give Magnolia’s vanilla cupcakes a try anyway, thought the cupcakes were the perfect thing to bring to a summer birthday BBQ. And they really were!

The vanilla cupcake, but itself, is a really good cupcake. Its texture is light and cakey, as long as it’s served at room temperature. Its vanilla flavour is very present, but still quite delicate. Once the cupcakes were done baking, I cut a cone out of the top (see this recipe for reference), and filled the hollow with a generous tablespoon of the homemade lemon-lime curd. I cut the point off each cupcake cone, and placed the circular top back on top of each cupcake.

As for the frosting, I remembered making a lemon cake that had a frosting I really enjoyed. The lemon flavour was mild enough that it didn’t overpower the vanilla cupcake, but simply played along with it. I whipped up a half-batch of the frosting, and ended up with these delicious cupcakes. People ended up pleasantly surprised with the lemon curd filling, and it seemed these cakes were enjoyed by all. I thought they turned out excellently – the lemon curd in the middle was rich and decadent, but still allowed the vanilla cupcake, which was light and gorgeous in its texture, to stand out. I think these cupcakes are a wonderful summer BBQ dessert!

I only made 12 cupcakes, so I divided the following recipe in half. The recipe I have listed makes 24 cupcakes (frosting and cupcake batter).

Vanilla Cupcakes with Lemon-Lime Curd Filling and Lemon-Lime Frosting
via Cupcake Bakeshop, adapted from Cupcakes from The Magnolia Bakery Cookbook
Printable Recipe

VANILLA CUPCAKES
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs, room temperature
2-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Beat butter on high until soft, about 30 seconds.
2. Add sugar. Beat on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
3. Add eggs one at a time, beat for 30 seconds between each.
4. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and baking soda in a bowl.
5. Measure out milk and vanilla together.
6. Add about a fourth of the flour to the butter/sugar mixture and beat to combine.
7. Add about one third the milk/vanilla mixture and beat until combined.
8. Repeat above, alternating flour and milk and ending with the flour mixture.
9. Scoop into cupcake papers about half to three-quarters full (depending on whether you want flat or domed cupcakes).
10. Bake for 22-25 minutes at 350 degrees F until a cake tester comes out clean.

LEMON-LIME CURD
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1 tbsp finely grated lemon zest
1 tbsp finely grated lime zest
3/4 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature

1. In a medium saucepan, whisk together the lemon juice, lime juice, lemon zest, lime zest, sugar and eggs. Cut the butter into bits and add it to the saucepan.

2. Turn on the heat to medium-low and cook the mixture gently, whisking constantly, until it thickens up enough to hold the marks of the whisk and is just about to come to a simmer. This takes me usually around 20-25 minutes — better to be gentle than to curdle your eggs. The end mixture will be a buttery, creamy light yellow.

3. Remove from the heat and place into a bowl to cool. Strain it if you want to get rid of the zest. Place a piece of plastic wrap on the surface of the curd to prevent a skin from forming as it cools. Store the curd in the fridge.

LEMON-LIME FROSTING
½ cup butter, softened
4 cups confectioner’s (icing) sugar
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp fresh lime juice
¼ cup light (10%) cream

1. Beat together all ingredients until smooth and creamy (I had to add some extra lemon juice to bring it to a spreadable consistency)

TO ASSEMBLE CUPCAKES
1. Using a small pairing knife, cut off the top of the cupcake in the shape of a cone. Flip the top over and cut off the cone.
2. Fill the cavity with a teaspoon or so of curd.
3. Replace top.
4. Frost with frosting.

If you like this, you might also like:

Caramel Apple Cupcakes
Lemon Raspberry Muffins
Lemon Cream Pie with Coconut Crust

In case you can’t tell, I love citrus desserts. I think I may even prefer a lemony sweet thing to something chocolate. So of course, I’ve always been a fan of lemon curd, but haven’t really tried to make my own, except when I gave this lemon tart a try (and the curd wasn’t that successful).

I bookmarked the lemon curd on Eggs on Sunday’s blog, and on one of the hottest days in the summer, stood over the stove preparing a lemon-lime curd following that recipe. It turned out fantastically! It’s a very tart curd, with just enough sweetness. It’s smooth, luscious, and I could definitely eat the whole jar. However, I decided that wouldn’t be smart, and baked something with it (post coming soon!).

The only thing I would do differently next time is strain the curd, as I didn’t like the bits of zest in it; I thought it disrupted the otherwise perfect texture.

Here’s my version, the only difference being the addition of some lime:

Lemon & Lime Curd
adapted from Eggs on Sunday
Printable Recipe

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1 tbsp finely grated lemon zest
1 tbsp finely grated lime zest
3/4 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature

1. In a medium saucepan, whisk together the lemon juice, lime juice, lemon zest, lime zest, sugar and eggs. Cut the butter into bits and add it to the saucepan.

2. Turn on the heat to medium-low and cook the mixture gently, whisking constantly, until it thickens up enough to hold the marks of the whisk and is just about to come to a simmer. This takes me usually around 20-25 minutes — better to be gentle than to curdle your eggs. The end mixture will be a buttery, creamy light yellow.

3. Remove from the heat and place into a bowl to cool. Strain it if you want to get rid of the zest. Place a piece of plastic wrap on the surface of the curd to prevent a skin from forming as it cools. Store the curd in the fridge.

Makes about 1 2/3 cups.

When my mom and sister returned from Paris this spring, they came bearing the gift of blue cheese – and lots of it! Now, I like blue cheese, but there’s no way I can devour a slab of it as is; I much prefer having it in a dish. I searched for something to make with this fine French blue, and finally stumbled upon this recipe for a tart made with pears, spinach, onions, and of course, lots of blue cheese. I was entranced.

This is a really playful combination of flavours. You have to be a major blue cheese fan to like this tart, as that is the predominant taste. However, all the other ingredients really pop out in the background: the pears are a nice, light sweetness, the spinach softens the bite of the blue cheese, and the onions bring in another, different element of sweetness. I think this tart is excellent, and it improves as it cools (warm or cold, it’s delicious!).

I would make some changes to the recipe though, and am writing it out in the way I will try next time. I used a tart pan (after all, it was called a tart!), but there was faaaaar too much egg/milk mixture for this. I ended up using about half of it before it started to overflow. I will definitely add more spinach, as I would’ve liked a stronger spinach taste, to even out the blue cheese a bit more. And I’ll definitely be using fresh pears, not canned, next time. The canned is okay, but they lost a lot of their pear flavour in the baking process, and I wasn’t fond of the texture (just a bit too mushy). Fresh pears will make this perfect.

Oh, and I used a pie crust mix, and didn’t make it from scratch, so this recipe is just for the filling. When it comes to tarts, I don’t think the trouble of making a crust from scratch is worth it, as you barely taste it. Also, I forgot to add the pepper and salt to the milk/egg mixture, and I don’t even notice it missing…

Pear, Spinach & Blue Cheese Tart
adapted from Our House
Printable Recipe

2 onions, chopped
2 tablespoons butter
2 cans (398ml) pear halves
1 bunch of spinach (definitely use more than less)
150g strong blue cheese
2 eggs
1 cup milk
salt
pepper
2 tablespoons grated parmesan

1. Prepare a tart crust and line a 9″ tart pan with the crust. Refrigerate for at least 30minutes.

2. Chop the onions and cook until golden brown in the butter. Put the onions into a sieve to drain off the butter.

3. Drain the pears and cut the halves in half.

4. Wash the spinach well and cook in a little water for a minute, immediately drain and plunge into cold water. Squeeze all the water out of the spinach and chop roughly.

5. Crumble the blue cheese.

6. Beat the eggs with the milk, salt and pepper and set aside.

7. To assemble the tart, spread the onions on the bottom, then the spinach, arrange the pears around the edge and lastly the blue cheese all over the tart. Fill with egg mixture and sprinkle the top with the parmesan.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 390 degrees C for 40 minutes or until golden brown.

If you like this, you might also like:

Tomato Tart
Asparagus and Mushroom Bread Pudding
Spanakopita

Happy Canada Day, fellow Canadians (and 4th of July for all the American readers out there) – I’m posting this right in the middle of the two holidays so that it celebrates both holidays…a little too late for some and a little too early for others.

Rhubarb is just on its way out of season here in Quebec, and strawberries are just on their way in. So, of course, what better dessert than one that combines the two (in the spirit of combining the two holidays as well) than a good strawberry rhubarb crisp?

I had trouble finding a complete recipe that I thought would be perfect, so I combined a bit of a bunch of recipes, and ended up with this, a tart and still sweet crisp. It smells wonderful baking, and tastes even better than it smells. I made a few adjustments with the recipes I found and ended up with a perfect summer dessert – rife with berries, nuts and oats. I love the cinnamon and nutmeg in this dish.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp
Printable Recipe

FILLING
adapted from Everybody Likes Sandwiches

5 stalks rhubarb, diced
4 c strawberries, quartered
juice of one small lemon
1/3 cup sugar
3 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

TOPPING
adapted from Sweet Charity Pie

1 1/2 cups flour
2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter softened
2/3 cup rolled oats
2/3 cup pecans, coarsely chopped

1. Preheat oven to 375F. (I used a 9×13 glass baking dish, but a casserole dish would work for a deeper type of crisp.)

2. Add the rhubarb and strawberries to a large bowl, tossing with the sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon and nutmeg. Squeeze in lemon juice and stir to combine. Set aside.

3. In a small bowl combine all the topping ingredients, except pecans. Using a wooden spoon, stir everything until clumps form. Use your hands to scatter the topping evenly over the fruit. Sprinkle top with walnuts. Bake for 45 minutes until the topping is golden and the fruit have created a bubbly sauce. Cool slightly and serve with ice cream.