Rum cake

One of the things that I've enjoyed the most about my blogging experience are the friends I've made along the way. Although I haven't met many other bloggers in person, I feel like I already know them, or that they (and you all) know me. Liz and I "met" in our shared online cooking forum but hadn't interacted much until I left her a comment about the oatmeal chocolate chip cookies she posted this spring. Liz found the recipe from Thomas Keller's cookbook, Bouchon Bakery, and I mentioned how much I loved that particular cookie. I suggested that we bake something else from the cookbook together and thought nothing of it.

Well, Liz read my comment and followed up with me a short while later. We bookmarked our favorite recipes from the cookbook and hard a difficult time deciding what to bake together. We finally settled on Chef Keller's rum cake. Rum cake has been on my baking bucket list so this was a wonderful opportunity to finally cross it off.

I am embarrassed to say that I had to make this rum cake twice. The first time was an utter fail because the cake was severely underbaked.The tops were nice and browned, and the cake was pulling away from the edges of my tube pan. But, I did not conduct the essential toothpick test to see if the middle was done. When I went to flip my cake over onto the cake platter, it was a hot mess - literally.

I learned my lesson and stuck a chopstick in the middle of my second attempt at the cake to ensure that the inside was done. I didn't want the cake to get overly brown, so I turned off the oven and left the cake inside for about 10-15 additional minutes.

I'm not quite sure what I was expecting from this rum cake since the most memorable version I've had is a Tortuga rum cake from the Caribbean. Chef Keller's recipe, while good, was nothing like the Tortuga cake. The almond meal was a bit gritty for my personal tastes, and the cake just felt a bit heavy. I guess that's what happens when you use 9 large eggs and 5 sticks of butter.

All in all, this cake was good and full of the dark rum flavor, but the texture was off for me. It was too dense and grainy for my personal tastes. I'd like to make another rum cake that's more reminiscent of the Tortuga ones that I enjoy so much.

Thanks, Liz, for baking this rum cake with me. Please check out Liz's post and see how her rum cake turned out.

Rum cake

• 16.5 ounces unsalted butter (about 4 sticks and 2 TBSP), plus additional for the pan
• 2 and 3/4 cups plus 1 TBSP granulated sugar, plus more for the pan
• 4 cups and 3 TBSP almond flour or almond meal (you can find this at Trader Joe's)
• 1 cup and 1 TBSP all-purpose flour
• 2 cups and 3 TBSP eggs (about 9 large eggs)
• 1/3 cup and 3 TBSP Myers's dark rum, separated
• 3 TBSP simple syrup (melt 3 TBSP granulated sugar plus 3 TBSP water until sugar completely dissolves; cool until ready to use)

Rum icing

• 1 and 1/2 cups plus 1 TBSP powdered sugar
• 1 TBSP Myers's dark rum
• 1 TBSP water

Directions
To make the cake:  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Brush your Bundt or tube pan with butter. Refrigerate or freeze the pan in order to harden the butter. Once the butter has hardened, sprinkle sugar around the inside of the pan and turn the pan around in circles so the sugar evenly coats the surface. Tap out and remove any excess sugar.

In the bowl of a food processor or a high powered blender, pulse the almond flour/meal in order to break up any large clumps. Add the all-purpose flour and pulse again to evenly combine.

In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large bowl if using a handheld mixer, cream the butter on medium speed until smooth and creamy. Add the sugar and continue beating until the mixture is light and fluffy.

Turn the mixer down to low and add about a third of the eggs (about 3 eggs) and mix until just combined (about 30 seconds). Add half of the remaining eggs and mix for another 30 seconds. Add the last of the eggs and mix for another 10 seconds. Your mixture may look curdled - do NOT overbeat the eggs.

Continuing with the mixer on low speed, add the flour/almond meal mixture one-third at a time. Be sure to stop the mixer in order to scrape down the bowl as needed.

Transfer 1 cup of the batter to a small bowl and beat in the 1/3 cup of dark rum until combined. Add this rum batter back into the main batter and mix until thoroughly incorporated.

Using a rubber spatula, pour the batter into your prepared pan into an even layer. You may need to rap the pan on the counter a few times in order to evenly distribute the batter.

Bake the cake in your preheated oven for 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Turn off the oven and set the pan on a rack and cool for at least 10 minutes.

While the cake is cooling, mix the simple syrup with the remaining 3 TBSP of dark rum. Invert the cake onto a wire rack and brush the cake with the rum/simple syrup mixture. Allow the cake to cool completely before icing.

To make the rum icing: In a small to medium bowl, combine the powdered sugar, water and rum until you achieve a pourable (but not too runny) consistency. Pour the icing over the cooled cake.

Yield: One standard tube or Bundt cake; about 12 servings (more or less depending upon how large you like your slices)

Source: Bouchon Bakery, by Thomas Keller and Sebastien Rouxel, pages 106-107

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CSA Wednesdays: Kale, Zucchini, and Squash Quiche and Wheat Berry Granola

      This past week I got to the farmer's market later then usual and was shocked by the number of people there!  A few years ago our farmer's market was dying out and now I couldn't find a parking spot and there was a line at every booth!  It was totally awesome!

      For this week I received zucchini, yellow squash, kale, cucumbers, green beans, leeks, broccoli, and basil.  I also received wheat berries.  I had absolutely no idea what a wheat berry was so I had to do some research.  It's part of the wheat plant and it's very hard.  In order to eat it you can actually cook it on the stove top and it pops like popcorn.  You can also grind it to make it into flour.

      I was having people over for brunch the day after I received my CSA so I decided to make granola with the wheat berries.  I started popping them on the stove top and everything was going well until I added a few more and the plastic bag melted.  Wheat berries went all over my kitchen and dining room!  Complete disaster.  However, I managed to save about 80% of them and the granola was made.  The wheat berries added an extra crunch which my husband and I both really liked.  In fact, I'm making more of it today!

      I ended up using some of the zucchini, squash, kale, and basil in a delicious brunch quiche.  Then we used the beans for a balsamic green bean side dish.  The cucumbers my husband instantly took and used in his cucumber onion salad.  

Wheat Berry Granola (adapted from VegWeb)
2 c. oats
1/2 c. wheat berries
1 T. vegetable oil
1 t. vanilla
1 t. cinnamon
3 T. brown sugar
1/4 c. craisins
2 T. flour
1/2 c. honey

1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2.  Heat a large skillet over medium high heat.  Add in the wheat berries and cover with a lid.  Continue shaking the pan every 15 seconds or so until the wheat berries begin to pop.  Once they start popping shake the pan every 10 seconds until the popping has stopped.  Remove from heat and pour into a large bowl.

3.  Add the oats, vegetable oil, vanilla, cinnamon, brown sugar, craisins, and flour to the wheat berries.  Mix well.

4.  Drizzle in all but 2 tablespoons of the honey and use your fingers to mix the honey into the granola.

5.  Pour the granola onto a parchment covered baking sheet.  Drizzle with remaining honey.  Bake for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.

6.  Remove from oven and allow to cool for 30 minutes before placing in an air tight container for storage.  Granola will stay fresh for up to 3 weeks.

      I had also planned on making a quiche for my brunch.  I figured I'd use whatever ingredients I received in the CSA to put together a delicious quiche.  It's easy to make up your own quiche recipe.  I usually start by using a leafy green vegetable.  Often times I'll use spinach but as I received kale, that's what I used this week.  Then choose a few additional vegetables that work well together.  I used the zucchini, yellow squash, and broccoli.  Next I had to choose a cheese.  I went with a sharp cheddar cheese because of both the flavor and the color.

     Finally you need to decide on herbs and spices to add.  Since I had fresh basil I chopped that up and added it to the quiche.  I also went with salt, pepper, paprika, and Italian seasonings.  Finish off by filling the quiche pan with an egg and milk mixture.  Viola!  Instant delicious vegetable quiche.

     This quiche ended up tasting great.  The vegetables were all tender, the basil really stood out as a flavor, and the paprika sprinkled on top added color and flavor.  My guests loved it and it was super easy to make.

Kale, Zucchini, and Squash Quiche (a Hezzi-D original)
1 Pillsbury refrigerated pie crust
1 c. kale, chopped
1 zucchini, cut in half and then diced
1 yellow squash, cut in half and then diced
1 c. broccoli florets
1/3 c. fresh basil, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 t. salt
1 t. pepper
1/2 t. Italian seasonings
1 t. paprika
1 c. cheddar cheese, divided
4 eggs
1 1/4 c. milk

1.  Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Unroll the pie crust and place in an ungreased pie pan.  Flute the edges if desired.

2.  In a large bowl combine the kale, zucchini, squash, broccoli, basil, garlic cloves, salt, pepper, and Italian seasonings.  Toss to combine.  Pour into the pie pan.

3.  In a medium bowl beat the eggs.  Add in the milk, half of the paprika, and half of the cheddar cheese.  Mix well then pour over top of the vegetables in the pie pan. 

4.  Sprinkle remaining cheese over top of the quiche and then sprinkle with remaining paprika.


5.  Bake for 40-50 minutes or until the top is golden brown.  Remove from oven, cool for 5 minutes, then cut and serve.

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Bite Size Cheesy Pepperoni Pizza Puffs in 30 Minutes

Finding meal options for my 3 year old is a never ending battle. Her picky phases change more than the tides. It seems I can never keep up. I am forever trying to feed her healthy balanced meals. Being an avid recipe developer comes in handy in this case. She has been in a bite size food phase lately so I decided to make Bite Size Cheesy Pepperoni Pizza Puffs that I can make ahead and freeze.

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Lemon Tzatziki Potato Salad

Lemon Tzatziki Potato Salad

The mission continues to add more side dish recipes and this one is a tasty find indeed. Summer BBQ's are still in full swing and this would make a delicious addition to the selection of side dishes at your next grilled meal. It's also terrific way to use leftover potatoes from Sunday dinner and serve with your leftover roast beef, chicken or pork for Monday lunch or dinner. It's also a good way to use up any leftover tzatziki from a personal favorite meal of mine, Chicken Souvlaki with Lemon Mint Tzatziki 

• 2 1/2 pounds red skinned potatoes, cut in 1 to 1 1/2 inch chunks

Wash the potatoes well and gently boil them in salted water until they are fully cooked. Drain and cool the potatoes in a single layer on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

For the dressing, you will need to strain some plain yogurt. I do this in a colander lined with coffee filters suspended over a larger bowl. I often do this overnight to get as much liquid out of the yogurt as possible but a couple of hours should suffice. One cup of plain yogurt should produce about a half cup of strained yogurt.

Mix together well:

• 1/2 cup strained yogurt
• 1 clove finely minced garlic
• 3 inch piece of cucumber, de-seeded and diced small
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp lemon zest, finely minced
• pinch of salt and pepper to season 

Chill the salad for at least an hour before serving and if you like, garnish with 

• crumbled feta cheese
• lemon zest

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Gluten Free Blueberry Donuts with Lemon Glaze

    The other day I woke up craving a donut.  If you know me then you know I rarely eat donuts and when I do they almost always are ones I make myself.  Today was no exception.  When I opened up the refrigerator a big container of blueberries was staring me in the face and I knew they were just begging to be used in the donuts.

    I've been waiting for something like this to use my King Arthur gluten free flour.  I've gone through many gluten free flours in my days and let me tell you, not all GF flours are created equal.  On the spectrum of GF flours, I'd say King Arthur's is somewhere in the middle.  It creates baked goods with a good texture though the flavor is slightly chalky.

   The donuts baked up well even though the blueberries burst in the oven.  When I took then out they looked great but when I tried them something was missing.  I quickly determined the missing piece was a glaze and nothing goes better with blueberries then lemon.  I made a quick lemon glaze and it really made these donuts fresh and delicious.  The donuts are best served the day they are made.

Gluten Free Blueberry Donuts with Lemon Glaze (adapted from Growing Up Gabel)
1 1/2 c. King Arthur Gluten Free Multi-purpose Flour
1/3 c. sugar
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1 T. melted butter
1 t. vanilla
1 egg
1/3 c. milk
1/2 c. blueberries

For the glaze:
3/4 c. powdered sugar
1 t. vanilla
1-2 T. lemon juice 

1.  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Spray a donut pan with cooking spray.

2.  In a small bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.

3.  In a medium bowl combine the butter, vanilla, and egg.  Stir in the flour mixture.  Add in the milk and mix until combined.

4.  Gently fold in the blueberries.  Fill the donut cups 2/3 of the way full.  Bake for 9-11 minutes or until the donuts begin turning brown.

5.  Remove from oven, cool for 2 minutes, then remove the donuts from the pan and cool completely on a wire rack.

6.  To make the glaze combine all ingredients and mix well.  Dip each donut into the glaze then place on the wire rack to allow it to drip off.  These donuts are best eaten the day they are made.

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Summery Orange Raspberry Ice Pops

Summer wouldn't be complete without a special cool down treat. This year must be the summer of pools. We have been pool sitting for our neighbor, swimming in Nana and Papa's pool and been to fabulous hotels with outrageous pool. Time for swim lessons and scrumptious popsicles to cool down by the pool with.

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So, you want to decorate cookies, do ya?

Well then, I have a little treat for you.

Have you seen these cookies before?

They are just a few of the cookies featured in Decorating Cookies.  I meant to do a little giveaway for it's 6-month-iversary, buuuuuuut, that was in April.  How about a 9-month-iversary?  K? K.


Here's what the winner is gonna get:

1. a personalized copy of Decorating Cookies,
2. Ateco meringue powder,
3. (2) PME tips...these are the highly coveted icing tips you may have heard about,
4. set of AmeriColor Electric gel paste food colorings (some of my favorite colors),
5. ...and, maybe a few other goodies. :)

To enter, leave a comment on this post.  That's it.  Well, no mean comments.  Other than that, anything goes. ;)

{psst...if you're reading this in an email, click the post title to open the post in your browser to comment.}

**update** Giveaway closed....congrats, Urban Mom!

US addresses only; entries accepted through 11:59pm CST, August 2nd. 

---

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33 While 33 List (3 Month Update)

3 MONTH UPDATE:  I've been doing well so far this year on my list!  The biggest surprise is that while I've made a ton of baked goods over the past few months none of them have been from my list!  I've accomplished 6 things on my list and made progress on 7 of them so I think for 3 months in I'm doing pretty well.  I'll be doing a lot of cooking and baking for the holidays so hopefully I can check a few more things off my list as well.  See below for links to everything I'm accomplished so far. 

It's my birthday!  Yes, today is the day and for the first time EVER in my life I have to work.  Can you believe it?  Being a school teacher I've never had this problem before, even during the other summers that I've worked.  But this year I am working and that's ok.  It's a short day and then my husband and I are going out for dinner.

     I actually had my cake last weekend.  My parents came down to visit and my dad and I both have birthdays in the same week so I made us a Princess Torte to share.  We even let my husband share since his birthday was earlier in the month and he wanted a piece of this incredible cake for his birthday too.

    This birthday I'm 33.  Surprisingly I'm ok with my age this year.  I think it's going to be a lucky year with my double 3's.  The last two years I've made a list of things I wanted to do before my birthday and it really helps me stay on track and reach my goals.  I accomplished a lot of my list from last year and am pretty happy with it.

Ice cream cake from my husband

    This year I'm making a new list.  33 things to get done while I'm 33.  There were only 5 items I didn't accomplish last year and I'm only putting 3 of them back on the list for this year.  So enjoy my list and tell me what YOU hope to accomplish in the next year too!

33 While 33

Things to Cook:

-Risotto

-2 new pizzas -Farmer's Market Pita Pizzas 08/07/13, Buffalo Chicken Pizza 10/06/13,

-Mole Sauce

-Chicken Coq au Vin

-Make 3 new soups- Lamb Stew 08/16/13, Corn and Green Chili Bisque 09/23/13, Beef Noodle Soup 10/9/13,

-Make 2 gourmet burgers- Greek Hummus Burger 09/26/13,

-Wings

Things to Can:

-Peach Butter-10/13/13

-BBQ sauce

-Watermelon Jelly

-Corn Cob Jelly-08/31/13

Things to Bake:

-Creme Brulee

-Zebra Cake

-Flan

-Checkered Cake

-Lemon Chess Pie

-Beignets 

-Bread Pudding

Other Food Related Items to Make:

-Ice Cream

-3 New Beverages-Blueberry Lemonade 09/04/13, Iced Cake Martini 09/07/13, Pumpkin Spice Martini 09/07/13, Apple Sangria 09/28/13,Spike Peppermint White Hot Chocolate 12/3/13,

Crafting:

-Finish our honeymoon scrapbook

-Make 2 crafts I've pinned from Pinterest- Fall Pumpkin and Pinecone Centerpiece 10/1/13,Crayon Wreath 11/23/13,

-Make 2 new crafts with my students

Reading:

-Read 2 books about blogging or food photography-Food Styling and Photography for Dummies 08/06/13,

-Read 3 books outside the genres I normally read-Bel Canto by Ann Patchett 10/6/13,  Coming Through the Fog by Tami A. Goldsteim 10/29/13,The Light Between the Oceans by M.L. Stedman 11/4/13, 

-Go to a book signing

-Read at least 5 books a month-August (9), September (9), October (6), November (9),

Traveling:

-Try at least 2 new restaurants-Red Orchid in Pittsburgh 8/14/13,

-Attend a blog conference- Social Party 2013 (online) 9/15/13-9/18/13, Online Blog Con 2013 (online) 10/8/13-10/10/13,

-Spend a few days in a place we've never been

Health and Fitness:

-Get 4 pedicures-10/5/13,

-Get 2 massages

-Go to aerobics at least once a week

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3 Days in Paris...

So, Paris! In the middle of our trip to Germany, we spent three days in Paris, visiting my friend Clarice, and taking Sandra's mum around as a birthday gift. Let's have a look at what we got up to! FYI - we visited quite a few different places, so rather than listing the full address/website/phone number of each venue, the names of the venues are in bold within the text, with a link to the website if they've got one, and with the address following the name in (brackets). I'm trusting you can Google them for further information if any of these places take your fancy! Allons-y!

Our first morning in Paris was a Monday, which meant that lots of the cafes and restaurants we had on our "must-visit" list were closed. We had a simple breakfast of very good croissants at a local cafe, Le Canon des Gobelins (25 Avenue des Gobelins, 75013), which had the requisite surly waiter and €6.50 cappuccinos - the quintessential experience for tourists in Paris?

Croissants (€1.60 each), Pain au Chocolat (€1.80), Strawberry Jam (€1) at Le Canon des Gobelins

While Sandra and her mum visited the Louvre, Clarice and I walked through the gardens to the nearby Angelina cafe (226 Rue de Rivoli, 75001) for one of their famous hot chocolates. The gardens are stunning, but full of touts hassling you to buy ugly souvenirs like Eiffel Tower keychains - urgh. But, I suppose it comes with the territory when you're in the world's most visited city.

Hot chocolate at Angelina

Hot chocolate at Angelina

The hot chocolate was beautifully rich and thick, with the whipped cream actually cutting through the richness. I wasn't quite hungry enough to try a Mont Blanc, but Angelina's version is meant to be incredibly good.

For lunch that day, we headed to Le Garde Robe (41 Rue de l'Arbre Sec 75001), a cosy little wine bar with friendly service, interesting and varied charcuterie, and a cool selection of organic wines. We shared a goats cheese bruschetta and a fantastic platter of charcuterie and cheese, my favourite of which was stinging nettle cheese.

La Garde Robe

The wine we drank

Bruschetta chevre pesto - €12

Assortiment de fromage et charcuterie - €26

Afterwards we went on a walk through the Marais and the surroundings, having a little nosy through the multitude of cute shops, cafes, boulangeries, pâtisseries and more.

The Marais

I picked up a bottle of coulis de Salidou (Salidou brand salted butter caramel sauce) and some éclats de caramel au beurre salé (little crunchy chips of salted butter caramel) at a wonderful épicerie in the area, which sold all manner of chocolates, sauces, nuts, syrups, spices, dried mushrooms, flours, fondants and other ingredients for professional bakers. Sadly I can't remember or find the name of it, but here's a picture of the front window (you can see the coulis de Salidou in the centre of the picture, in the squeezy bottle). I still haven't decided what to make with the caramel sauce and caramel chips - I'm thinking crêpes for the sauce and sablés for the chips!

My other favourite shop in the area was the breathtaking E Dehillerin (18 rue Coquillière 75001), a cramped, charming professional cookware shop, with an amazing wall of copper pans and pots.

Wall of copper

We had buckwheat crêpes and apple cider for dinner at La Crêpe Dentelle (10 Rue Léopold Bellan, 75002). This lovely little crêperie was run by a very sweet Bretagne man, who appeared to be the chef, waiter and owner all in one, and his glamorous Barbara Streisand lookalike wife.

La Crêpe Dentelle

We shared a bottle of sweet cider, which we all loved, especially Sandra's mum. Yay! I was a bit worried that she might find Paris a bit too foreign, or strange, or simply exhausting, and was so pleased that she really enjoyed this. She even bought two bottles of "den sehr leckeren Apfelwein" to bring home with her.

Cidre de Bretagne / Apfelwein / Cider

I took photos of all the crêpes, but now that I look back, I see that I have repeated photos of brown squares on white plates. Hah!

Flambée

Crêpe et cidre

Between us we tried quite a range from their menu, the more unusual of which included: la raclette (raclette cheese, potatoes, country ham and cream) and la canneaise (Camembert and sautéed apples, flambéed with calvados). For dessert I had a sweet crêpe with crème de marron (chestnut paste). Delicious!

Bright and early the next morning, we made a stop at La Caféothèque (52 rue de l'Hotel de Ville, 75004) for coffee! (You may remember I visited the last time I went to Paris, and loved it!) Good coffee in Paris seems, unfortunately, to be the exception rather than the rule, and after a week of dire German coffee and average London coffee, I was totally hanging out for proper espresso coffee, made from carefully sourced beans, with perfectly steamed, creamy milk, and even latte art! (First world problems, I know!) I also liked how the drinks came on a tray with a little glass of water and a square of chocolate - it felt very much like they wanted the coffee to be an experience to be enjoyed and savoured.

Coffee at La Caféothèque

Galeries Lafayette (40 blvd Haussmann 75009) is my favourite of the big Parisian department stores, especially their food hall and Lafayette Maison, which sells fantastic cookware and has a Pierre Hermé macaron stall. Although the closest metro station is Chaussée d'Antin–La Fayette, if you get off at the Opéra station, which is only one stop away and a very short walk, you get this beautiful view of the Paris Opera!

Paris Opera

Speaking of views, the rooftop of Galeries Lafayette is a really nice spot to visit, and has excellent views of the city.

View from Galeries Lafayette rooftop

Shopping makes you hungry, and we stopped in at Café Gallery (78 Rue de Provence, 75009) to refuel. This cafe is located in one of the streets behind Galeries Lafayette, so you will have to navigate your way through literal busloads of shopping tourists! (Sorry). I'm always wary eating anywhere that's in a major tourist location, and would have been racked with indecision if I'd had to choose our lunch venue, but luckily local Clarice pointed us in the direction of Café Gallery, where she and her Parisian boyfriend often stop in for andouillette sausage or tartines made with Poilâne bread.

Cafe Gallery, corner Rue Mogador and Rue de Provence, behind Galeries Lafayette

Cafe Gallery

They had generous portions, tasty food, and a friendly atmosphere. In the above photo we have a cider, roast chicken, andouillette sausage and my country ham and cheese tartine.

And then we went to see this old thing...

Eiffel Tower

Just as essential as seeing the Eiffel Tower (for me, anyway), was visiting the Pierre Hermé boutique pâtisserie (72 rue Bonaparte, 75006). Whilst there are quite a few Pierre Hermé boutiques throughout Paris, most of them only sell macarons and other packaged products (e.g. biscuits, wafers, granolas, teas, jams, chocolate bonbons etc). The one on the Rue Bonaparte is the only one that sells the actual entremets (pastries), so if you want an Ispahan, or a tarte infinment vanille, you have to come here.

Ispahans

Now, whilst I love Pierre Hermé products, I really do not like the boutique pâtisserie. You see, the way the shop is designed, you are forced to rush through, elbow-to-elbow with other customers, with barely any space to look at the wonderful creations. Suddenly you're at the cash register and you have to make a snap decision without having properly seen the cakes on offer. Luckily I already knew what I wanted, but it does seem to be unnecessarily difficult and rushed. And you know what, when we brought our goodies back to the flat, it turned out they'd given me the wrong box of macarons! I'd specifically requested five Mogador macarons (milk chocolate and passionfruit), and saw the staff member fill the box correctly, but she must have mixed it up with the next customer's. D'oh! We gave them a call and said they'd be happy to swap the macarons over if I brought the receipt, but it seemed like quite a hassle, and more importantly, there are worse things in life than having too many Pierre Hermé macarons! It was pretty cool trying the different flavours too - the chocolate, rose and jasmin, and the salted caramel were my favourites.

Pierre Hermé macarons

The next day, I popped back to the Pierre Hermé stand in Galeries Lafayette Maison, which was blissfully calm and quiet, and got my beloved Mogador macarons! (Plus a cassis and a salted caramel, and some other goodies). I love, love, love the box!

Macarons

When she realised I loved the Mogador flavour, the lady at the stand upsold me some Mogador-flavoured chocolate pralines - dee-licious!

Chocolate pralines

I also picked up some of these waffles, in both vanilla and Ispahan flavours, but wasn't a big fan, finding them super sweet and not particularly crispy, even when within the use-by date.

For dinner on our last night in Paris, we felt like something a bit different, and went for a casual meal at the bustling L'As du Fallafel (34 Rue des Rosiers, 75004), in the Jewish section of the Marais. (In English it sounds like "Felafel Ass", but the translation is closer to "Ace Felafel"!)

"Recommended by Lenny Kravitz"

Cola; Za'atar pitas; Chicken pita; Eggplant with tahini sauce

Don't be put off by the menu in four languages and the line of tourists out the door - the food here is really good! Clarice and I were desperately trying to figure out how to recreate the eggplant with tahini sauce at home. Incidentally, this is a good place to bring vegetarians, who I think would probably struggle a bit in Paris.

My other favourite pâtisserie in Paris is Sadaharu Aoki (56 Boulevard de Port-Royal, 75005). Clarice and I dropped in for breakfast on my last morning in Paris.

Sadaharu Aoki

Unlike Pierre Hermé, Sadaharu Aoki is a salon de thé as well as a pâtisserie, so you can actually sit down and eat at the shop, rather than having to take it away. The staff there are always really nice too, and are so patient while I spend ages trying to choose between all the exquisite pastries!

Sadaharu Aoki - note the cute eclair-shaped paperclips!

We shared three breakfasty pastries between us, as well as a pot of refreshing genmaicha.

Matcha almond croissant 

I wasn't a huge fan of the matcha almond croissant, finding it a bit sweet, and with the almond filling getting in the way of the matcha flavour.

Matcha croissant - €1.40

I much prefer the plain matcha croissant (which I fell in love with on my last visit to Paris) - layers of flaky, buttery, green goodness!

We also shared a chou à la crème (choux pastry filled with vanilla custard and whipped cream). For me, these simple pastries were the most inviting thing in the shop! Look how good that filling looks, it's almost obscene!

Chou à la crème - €3.30

 And here's another shot - yup, totally full of that lovely vanilla custard.

Crème du Chou à la crème

Just as we were about to leave, guess who walked in - none other than Sadaharu Aoki himself! Despite having his name on the door, he seemed really down to earth, and was helping to clear the tables and generally clean up. We'd finished our food, so we got up and left, but then we thought: "Hey, we should ask him to take a photo with us!" So we quickly came back and did! Yay! I was a bit too shy to go up to him directly, so I just asked the sales assistant: "Aoki-san to shasshin wo totte mo ii desu ka?" (Could we please take a photo with Mr Aoki?), and they were more than obliging! Aoki-san even made sure we stood in a good spot so that we could have a nice background for the photo. Arigatou gozaimashita!

Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

After that thrilling encounter, we all went for a walk on the Rue Mouffetard, one of Paris' oldest neighbourhoods, with lots of great shops, restaurants and an open-air market. It feels very "Parisian", in that way that we foreigners stereotypically think of Paris: cobblestone streets, fountains, rotisserie chickens, little pâtisseries, delicatessans, and on the day that we were there, even an accordion-playing busker!

Rue Mouffetard

Clockwise from top left: A fountain, Carl Marletti, Rue Mouffetard; Le Boulanger de Monge

From a food perspective, there are a couple of destinations that I'd definitely recommend visiting: Le Boulanger de Monge (123 Rue Monge, 75005), a bakery that does fantastic bread (particularly their poppyseed baguettes!), and Carl Marletti (51 Rue Censier, 75005), a pâtisserie who have excellent éclairs, religieuses and Paris brests. So essentially, they do great things with choux pastry! They also focus on classic flavours: think chocolate, caramel and coffee rather than matcha or lychee.

Rue Mouffetard

Those rotisserie chickens and roast potatoes looked really tempting, but we restrained ourselves, as we had a booking at Bistrot Paul Bert (18 Rue Paul Bert, 75011) for lunch. Prior to the trip, we'd been tossing up between Bistrot Paul Bert and nearby Le 6 Paul Bert - both have the same owners and are well known for good food. (Check out David Lebovitz' blogpost on Le 6 - looks amazing and not too expensive!) The Bistrot does more traditional, hearty fare, whereas Le 6 seems to be a bit more experimental - think Bistro Thierry as opposed to Vue De Monde. In the end, we decided on the Bistrot as it seemed like a bit of a safer option that all parties on our trip would enjoy.

Le Bistrot Paul Bert

Now, Clarice didn't join us for this lunch, so I had to do all the French talking - scary! I was pretty good at high school French, but haven't spoken much since then, and whilst I can get my point across, I struggle to sound natural. Don't laugh, but before the lunch I'd quizzed Clarice on the right phrases to use and practised them with her: "Nous pouvons avoir l'addition, s'il vous plaît?", "J'aimerais bien une verre de vin rouge", "Oui merci, c'est gentil", "Une entrecôte, pas bien cuite", and so on. It must have worked, because the waiters understood me, they were very polite and sweet, we received all the food and drinks I ordered, and they didn't speak back to me in English. I even managed to translate parts of the menu into German for Sandra's mum! HELLZ YES I AM A LANGUAGE MACHINE.

They had two three-course fixed price lunch menus - one at €36; the other with slightly simpler fare at €18. Bargain!! The whole menu looked awesome (well, what I could understand, anyway!), but given the incredible amount of food we ate over the three days, we decided to only have one main dish each, and shared two desserts between the three of us.

I had to go for the classic steak frites, with béarnaise sauce - my favourite!

Entrecôte de boeuf bearnaise, frites maison - €25 by itself, €36 in the fixed price menu with an entree and dessert

Frites maison

The steak was huge, and cooked just as I wanted it, and the fries were a fantastic mix of crunchy and fluffy. A perfect lunch.

Awwww yeah...

Sandra had the blanquette de veau aux girolles (creamy veal ragout with chanterelle mushrooms), which came in this cute little Staub pot and was served with steamed rice.

Blanquette de veau aux girolles - €25 by itself, €36 in the fixed price menu with an entree and dessert

Sandra's mum had a simple but delicious hanger steak with onion sauce and housemade fries from the €18 menu. (In French it's known as onglet de boeuf aux echalots, frites maison, in German: Zweibel Steak mit Pommes).

Onglet de boeuf aux echalots, frites maison - €13 by itself, €18 in the fixed price menu with an entree and dessert

Now, we didn't really need dessert (does anyone, ever, actually "need" dessert?), but I'd heard great things about their île flottante and just had to try it. It was a massive wedge of soft poached meringue, swimming in cold vanilla bean custard, and topped with crystallised roses and almonds. Very delicious, but I must admit I liked the classic crème brûlée even more - a very rich, thick vanilla-bean custard topped with a perfect crackly sugar topping.

Crème brûlée à la vanille
Ile flotante aux pralines roses

And finally, we did a bit of last minute shopping (Uniqlo, Muji, Lafayette Maison yet again!), a bit of walking, and had a Berthillon ice-cream on the Île Saint-Louis to finish off the trip. I had a caramel au beurre salé (salted butter caramel) and passionfruit. The last time I went to Paris, I promised myself that the next time, I'd visit the Berthillon salon de thé to have a tarte tatin with salted butter caramel ice-cream, but we didn't have a chance on this trip. Just an excuse to make another trip back in the future!

Berthillon ice-cream

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