Banana Cream (Creme?) Pie; My Oh Friggin My

We all remember how my Frangipane Tart came out, right? Brown with a frown. Apparently my parents thought it was so great they are requesting for it again. Hmmph. I decided to conquer a different recipe.

I read a random blog somewhere that positively raved about Tartine in San Francisco (of course) and stated the best dessert item she bought was the Banana Cream Pie. To be precise, she said it was "stellar". All the different layers and textures all result in one big orgasm in your mouth. And you know what? She was absolutely right.

The Layers:

Flaky tart dough
melted dark chocolate
melted caramel
pastry cream
sliced bananas
whipped cream
dark chocolate shavings
powdered sugar

I had to make basically everything from scratch except for the bananas lol. My boyfriend had a great time test tasting all the ingredients individually...OH the caramel. It was like the best caramel I have ever had...like all the Werthers caramels melted into a pot. MMM! And the pastry cream was so creamy - - a vanilla bean dream, for sure. I gave a few slices to my best friend Debbie and her boyfriend Vinnie and they literally did not even sit down to consume all of the pie. That exact moment is what every baker tries to accomplish with each recipe = success.

At this very moment, the 76 Vega is going through some intense surgery. All the wires are being cut, everything is getting removed for a completely new everything. I really should be out there assisting but it's just so hot here in Arizona.

Have a beautiful Saturday everyone! If you have any questions about the recipe or want a copy, please let me know!

Frangipane Tart; Not My Expertise

A most traditional French tart that calls for a filling composed of ground almonds, pastry cream and a little bit of eggs to hold it all together. There were two versions for the filling: Frangipane Cream and Frangipane Cream Variation. I opted for the latter due to my lack of ingredients at the time. The variation did not call for pastry cream and stated that it had a more cakey result rather than gooey. I really wished this recipe had a picture, I was not too sure what it was supposed to look like! The instructions stated that I needed to bake it on 375 for 1 hr 20 mins but within the hour, the top was browning quite a bit. So I covered the tart for the remainder of the time and this is what it came out to look like:

Tartine said the fruits that work best with frangipane filling are the juicier ones that have a bit of acidity in order to balance the nuts and richness in the cream. I chose delicious raspberries to complement the burning hot and miserable summers here in Arizona.

As you can see, I have tried a slice. The taste was nice because it was not too sweet, had a soft almond flavor and the raspberries did a great job at hiding the grainy texture (I think I grounded up the almonds too much and it became too pasty...which Tartine instructed me NOT to do)

Oh man oh man oh man. I start my full time job as an academic advisor so soon...which means I will work 40 hours, attend baking class 2 days a week and bake at least 2 Tartine treats a week in order for me to loosely achieve my goal. On top of that, my boyfriend and I start renovating our 1976 chevy vega TODAY (!!!) and that's going to take some elbow grease as well.

Isn't it so pretty?

Wish me luck...whoever is reading this...

The Cookie with Way Too Much Chocolate!

Aka Deluxe Double Chocolate Cookies. This was one of the recipes I just wanted to get it over with due to my recent newfound laziness. The recipe called for 8 oz of melted bittersweet chocolate and lots of cocoa powder! I went to my neighborhood Fresh n' Easy store and could only find organic dark chocolate so I settled with that. To be honest with you I am so not a dark chocolate fan so I just used these decadent cookies to sandwich Breyer's mint chocolate ice cream in between them (MMM!).

Here they are:



Tomorrow is baking class from 5:00pm - 9:20pm. We are scheduled to make Rose Levy Beranbaum's All-American Chocolate Cake. I've been wanting to snap some pictures during class but I'm not sure how they will feel about it...