Desserts for Still Hot Weather

We're still in summer .That means a hot kitchen. Yet many are craving desserts , sort of an upcoming nod to fall where home baking resumes. The best bet is go the easy route.Don;t heat up the kitchen too much,

Again Dave Tanis tapped into this in Wednesday;s New York Times Wednesday Food section.He create a blackberry napoleon iwt fresh blackberries and easy to defrost frozen puff pastry. The puff pastry is put into the oven while a lemon curd for the filling  is made on the stove top.This is an easy cook, similar to sabayon where eggs sugar and salt are remixed together with lemon zest.Once this is cooked this is blended with whipping cream and confectioner's  sugar.Its the layered on the cooled and split puff pastry along with the blackberries to create a sandwich.You can do the same with ice cream and any kind of sauce, Think chocolate ice cream with strawberries and a bit of chocolate sauce or vanilla ice cream with caramel and  air fried toasted almonds. The puff pastry can also be the base for a fancy strawberry shortcake,Just layer the berries with whipped cream(or even Cool Whip) if you don;t want to fuss.You can also create a quick chocolate mousse with Cool Whip and chocolate pudding mixed together. Layer this on puff pastry for an elegant quick dessert.

Ice cream pies ,cakes and cupcakes are all still great right now.They're the perfect send off party cake too, for kids heading off to college . Have a good silicone pan that's easy to take the cake out of. (Amazon has a good array of them)It starts with a good crust - name Nabisco chocolate wafer cookies These are crushed and mixed with melted butter or margarine. The crust can be layered two or three times throughout the cake.Then add whatever flavors the future college student's favorite flavors. Think a mocha latte  pie or cake.Start with the chocolate crust. Then add a layer of chocolate fudge and fill in the mold with softened coffee ice cream.Layer with more chocolate crumbs and then spread a layer of whipped cream or Cool whip on top. You can just add puffs of Reddi Whip too for a fancier cake or pie.This can  be done with ice cream cupcakes too. Use silicone cupcake molds (again you can get these on Amazon). Use the same technique that you would for the pies and cakes. You can also do a fun surprise layer of M&M's chocolate chips or even crushed toffee.Top with a swirl on Reddi Whip and top with sprinkles or cherries.

Desserts can still be made.Yet make them easy during these still hot days. It;s a simple way to enjoy having a sweet treat 

Braving French Pastry

One of the most elegant treats any baker can make is French pastry. It's a complicated blend of crisp layers , airy creams and  artistic decorations. They're a challenge for the home baker yet  a feather in one's toque if done. The question is can an ordinary baker make an extraordinary sweet?

Many ask themselves that.It's a long leap between cake mix cakes and mille-feulle, better known as Napoleons. The best way to acclimate yourself  to it is start off with the relatively easy recipes (and there are some).One of the easiest is crepes,. It's basically sort of like a pancake batter that has to be chilled overnight.it's flour eggs milk and water mixed together and then set aside for twenty-four hours. You can buy a crepe pan for it. This is nothing more than a wider, thinner frying pan or use a frying pan or skillet. Drizzle creme Anglaise over it or serve it street style with granulated sugar and lemon juice. Another relatively easy treat is clafoutis. A plus is that it can be made with any kind of fruit, from apples to blueberries. It's basically an egg rich batter blended together - usually in a blender and poured over fruit. It's baked for only half an hour  - until it's golden and puffy.Once you've accomplished that, try Kouign Amann , the mouth watering buttery sweet bread from Brittany.It's made with the same dough as the croissant which is another pastry a home baker can master. Both require  a lot of butter because it's sealed in layers of rolled dough. It is  labor intensive , with mostly rolling out dough and butter along with shaping into the classic crescents.

Biscuit roses is another transitional level It was featured in yesterday's Sunday's New York Times Magazine. Famed baker , Dorie, Greenspan, wrote about this after baking them. They're sort of like a cross between a lady finger and biscotti.Like biscotti, it's twice baked.and like lady fingers, the yolks and whites are separated , beaten  and then joined into the dough. It''s a great way for beginners to learn about meringues  along with how to shape batter with a piping bag. After this it's an easy move to eclairs, those classic Gallic pastries. They do require a choux paste which is a delicate two step method. It's first putting water .milk butter and sugar into a two quart saucepan and bringing the mixture to a boil. Flour has to be added  slowly, stirred until everything is blended.It;s then adding five more eggs to give it that rich golden color. Just don;t make ti too hot or you'll have scrambled eggs on your hands. Choux paste can be used to make cream puffs along with the eclairs,One of the hardest pastries to make is the mille feuilles or thousand leaves. Also called Napoleon , after France's famed emperor it;'s taking a dough similar to croissant dough where it's rolled and folded several times.There' are intervals where it's put in the fridge. A simple vanilla  cream is sandwiched in the layers .The whole thing is topped off with a decorative chocolate or vanilla glaze.

Can the average home baker handle French pastry? Oui! Once conquered these complicated recipes will be as easy as a chocolate chip or scratch cake one.