Fresh Fruit Tartlets

Those mini fresh fruit tartlets have a sweet pastry crust that is filled with a rich hazelnut cream and topped with fresh fruit. Dust the fruit with powdered sugar before serving or glaze with apricot glaze to give the fruit a bright shiny finish.

Sweet Pastry Crust	Topping
250 g Pastry flour 60 g Caster sugar 1/4 tsp Salt 125 g Butter, cut into small pieces 1 Egg yolk 2-3 tbsp Cold water	85 g Butter, softened 85 g Powdered sugar 1 Egg 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract 85 g Ground hazelnut 8 tbsp Chantilly cream Seedless grapes Strawberries Powdered sugar

1. Heap the flour on a work surface and make a well. Put in butter, salt, sugar, and egg yolk. Using your fingertips, mix all the ingredients together. Add in cold water and work until the dough begins to hold together. Shape each into a ball and wrap with a plastic film and chill for half an hour.
   
2. Cream the butter and sugar with a hand mixer in the bowl. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract until smooth. Add the ground hazelnut and beat until it forms a smooth paste. Set aside.
   
3. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Grease four 12cm tartlet tins with butter and sprinkle them lightly with flour. Remove the pastry from the refrigerator and divide into four equal portions. On a lightly floured surface, roll each portion of pastry into a 16cm circle. Line the tins with pastry and prick several times with a fork.
   
4. Divide the hazelnut mixture into 4 pastry cases and smooth the top. Put the tart tins on the hot baking tray and bake for 30 minutes until golden brown. Lift the tart and base from the tin and leave on a wire rack to cool completely.
   
5. Spread two tablespoons of chantilly cream on top of each tartlet. Arrange the fruit on top. If desired, dust with powdered sugar before serving.

Almond Galette

This is the dessert traditionally served in France for Epiphany, on the 6th day of January, but is welcome at any time of year. It's also known as the "Galette des rois", or "King Cake". One "feve", "bean" in French, or a tiny ceramic figurine is hidden somewhere in the galette as a "prize" and the finder is crowned the king or queen.

	Frangipane Almond Cream
350 g Puff pastry (homemade or frozen) 1 Egg, lightly beaten	85 g Butter, at room temperature 85 g Caster sugar 1 Egg 1/4 tsp Vanilla extract Pinch of salt 100 g Almonds, finely ground

1. Cream the butter and sugar with a hand mixer in the bowl. Beat in the egg, vanilla extract and salt until smooth. Add the almond meal and beat until it forms a smooth paste. Set aside.
   
2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Roll the pastry out until it’s about 3mm thick. Cut out two 4-inch rounds and two 6-inch rounds or two 11-inch rounds.
   
3. Place one sheet of pastry on the baking sheet. Spread a circle of filling on the pastry, leaving 1-inch border around the frangipane. Brush the border with some of the beaten egg. Top with the second sheet of pastry over the filling and press the borders firmly to seal it.
   
4. With the back edge of a paring knife, make 6 or 8 of tucks along the border. Make a small hole with a skewer in the center, so the steam can escape during cooking. Glaze the top with beaten egg. Cut a decorative pattern on the top with the tip of a knife.
   
5. Refrigerate for one hour. Preheat oven to 200C/400F. Put in the center of the hot oven for 25-30 minutes until they are nicely brown and crisp. Remove and cool the galette on the wire rack. Slice and serve!

Orange and Poppy Seed Friands

A Friand, originally from France, is traditionally made mainly with ground almond, melted butter and only a small amount of flour. In this recipe, the ground poppy seeds together with blood orange zest were added to enhance the flavour and aroma of those truly wonderful friands. Orange syrup is not a necessity, actually I find it too sweet.

• 160 g Butter
  
• 3 Blood oranges
  
• 50 g Plain flour
  
• 180 g Icing sugar
  
• 150 g Almond meal
  
• 50 g Poppy seeds, ground
  
• 5 Egg whites
  
• 100 g Caster sugar
  

1. Preheat oven to 200C/400F. Grease 7-8 rectangle friand pans. Melt the butter in a saucepan over a medium-low heat, then simmer for 5 minutes until golden brown. Cool slightly.
   
2. Finely grate the rind of two blood oranges. Combine the flour, icing sugar, almond meal, ground poppy seeds and grated orange rind.
   
3. Whisk the egg whites until frothy. Add to the dry ingredients together with the butter. Stir until just combined. Divide the batter into the pans. Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes.
   
4. Zest rind from remaining orange then juice the oranges. Place zest, juice and sugar into a small saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring, for 5 minutes or until mixture comes to the boil. Reduce heat to low. Simmer for 5 minutes or until mixture thickens slightly. Allow to cool. Place friands onto serving plates. Drizzle with orange syrup and serve.

Spelt Croissants

Who doesn't love buttery and flaky croissants? They are rich, decadent and irresistible! According to Jeffrey Hamelman, when you know it's a good croissant after you take a bite and look at your shirt: if it’s covered with flakes of golden pastry that shatter from each bite, then it's a good one.
It took me two days to make 16 croissants, and my husband finished 4 at one go in 20 minutes. So I strongly suggest you double the recipe!

• 250 ml Whole milk
  
• 30 g Fresh yeast
  
• 40 g Brown sugar
  
• 300 g Spelt #630 flour
  
• 100 g Whole spelt flour
  
• 2 tsp Salt
  
• 300 g Cold and unsalted butter
  
• 1 Egg, lightly beaten
  

1. Stir together warm milk, brown sugar, and fresh yeast in bowl of standing mixer and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. Add spelt flours, and salt and mix with dough hook at low speed until dough is smooth and soft, about 5 minutes.
   
2. Transfer the dough to a work surface and knead by hand 2 minutes, adding more flour as necessary, a little at a time, to make a soft, slightly sticky dough. Wrap the dough with a cling film and chill for 1 hour.
   
   
3. Place butter between two sheets of cling film and roll with a rolling pin to form 8x5 inch/20x12 cm rectangle. Chill until firm. Remove the dough from the fridge and roll out on a lightly floured surface into a 16x10 inch/40x25 cm rectangle.
   
4. Arrange dough with a short side nearest you. Put butter in center of dough so that long sides of butter are parallel to short sides of dough. Fold the bottom up over the butter, brushing off any excess flour, and then fold the top down over the butter to seal the butter.
   
   
5. With a heavy rolling pin, roll the dough into a rectangle, approximately 15x10 inch/38x25 cm. Fold the length of dough into thirds, as for a letter. Turn so that the open ends are at twelve and six o'clock. The first simple “fold” is completed. Wrap well in plastic and chill overnight.
   
   
6. Repeat the simple fold one more time. Wrap the dough tightly in plastic and chill 1 hour. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and place on the floured work surface. Unwrap and roll out to a rectangle, about 15x10 inch/38x25 cm. This time fold the top and bottom in so that they meet in the middle of the dough, then fold the dough in half again so that there are four layers of dough. Chill the dough, wrapped with plastic, in the fridge for 2 hours. Repeat the double fold once more. This is the final fold before rolled out and cut into croissants.
   
   
7. To shape the croissants, roll the dough into a 25x15 inch/64x38 cm rectangle on a lightly floured work surface. It should be about 1/4 inch/6mm thick. From the long side, fold the dough into half and using a yardstick as a guide mark the folded strip into 8 triangles and the scrapings of dough at each end. Cut each double triangle into two. So you’ll have 16 triangles.
   
8. Make a small slit in the base of each triangle, place a piece of dough trimming at the base. Starting at the base of the triangle, roll the dough up into a log. Tuck the tip the triangle under the body of the croissant. Bend in two corners to form the crescent shape.
   
9. Place the croissants on a baking sheet and allow them to rise for 1 to 2 hours until almost doubled in size. Half an hour before finishing the proofing, brush the croissants with the lightly beaten egg. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F with a shallow dish filled with water at the bottom of oven. Bake the croissants for 20-25 minutes. Allow them to cool on a rack before serving.

Provencal Fish

Unlike Bouillabaisse, a traditional fancy fish stew in the Provençal region of southern France, this oven-baked fish with Provencal sauce is rather quick, easy to make, and tastes very delicious and Mediterranean.

• 700 g Skinless fish fillets (sea bass or red snapper)
  
  
• Salt and pepper to taste
  
  
• 1 tbsp Olive oil
  
  2 Shallots, finely sliced
  
  
• 1 clove Garlic, minced
  
  
• 1 tbsp Tomato paste
  
  
• 400 g Canned chopped tomatoes
  
  
• 120 ml White wine
  
  
• 1 Roasted bell pepper, thinly sliced
  
  
• 12 Olives, pitted and halved
  
  
• 1 tbsp Flat-leaf parsley, chopped
  
  

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F. Grease a baking dish with a little olive oil. Place fish in Season, cover with foil and bake for 15 minutes until just cooked through.
   
   
2. To prepare the sauce, heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add sliced shallots and stir until it starts to soften, 1-2 minutes. Add garlic and stir briefly. Add tomato paste, tomatoes and white wine. Stir and cook for 5 minutes until the sauce has thickened.
   
   
3. Add in sliced roasted bell peppers and halved olives, taste and adjust the seasoning. Arrange the fish on serving plates and spoon the sauce over. Top with chopped parsley and serve with noodles or potatoes.

Pear Financier Tea Cake

These delicious, moist tea cakes were named long ago by a pâtisserie near the Bourse, the Parisian stock exchange, who cleverly baked them in the shape of gold ingots to please their wealthy clientele. The basis of the cake butter, egg whites, powdered sugar and almond meal. While delicious on its own, the Financier can also be flavoured with seasonal fruits such as raspberries, peaches or pears. Financiers are often baked in the rectangular mould.

• 2 Pears, peeled and cut into 1cm dices
  
  
• 100 g Butter, melted
  
  
• 80 g Almond meal©angiesrecipes
  
  
• 40 g All-purpose flour
  
  
• 80 g Icing sugar
  
  
• Pinch of salt
  
  
• 1/2 tsp Almond extract
  
  
• 3 Egg whites, lightly beaten
  
  
• 1 tbsp Pistachio, chopped
  
  

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F. Thoroughly butter the financier moulds and place them in the freezer to resolidify the butter and make the financiers easier to unmould.
   
   
2. In a large bowl, combine the almond meal, flour, icing sugar and salt. Mix to blend. Fold in the lightly beaten egg whites, almond extract and melted butter.
   
   
3. Fill each mold almost to the rim and place some diced pears on top. Bake for 12 minutes or until the financiers have become light brown on top and are springy to the touch. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack. Sprinkle the top with some chopped pistachio.

Baked Chicken Cordon Bleu

Chicken Cordon Bleu is a French-inspired poultry dish, although evidence suggests that Chicken Cordon Bleu was actually developed in the United States by chefs imitating other stuffed meat dishes from Europe. The name of the dish is clearly of French origin – Cordon Bleu means “blue ribbon” in French, and in French culinary tradition, the Cordon Bleu is awarded to food or chefs of particularly high quality. More information please check Wisegeek out.

50 ml Chicken broth 1 tbsp Butter, melted 1 clove Garlic, minced 1/2 cup Breadcrumbs 1 tbsp Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, grated 1 tsp Paprika

2 Boneless chicken breasts halves, skin removed 1/4 tsp Salt 1/4 tsp Freshly ground black pepper 1/4 tsp Dried oregano 2 slice Ham 2 slice Gruyères 1-2 tbsp Butter

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Combine the chicken broth, melted butter and minced garlic in a bowl. Set aside. In another bowl, mix together the breadcrumbs, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and paprika.
   
   
2. Place each chicken breast between 2 sheets of heavy-duty plastic wrap, and pound each to 1/4-inch thickness using a meat mallet or rolling pin. Sprinkle both sides of chicken with salt, pepper and oregano. Place a cheese and ham slice on each breast within 1/2 inch of the edges. Tuck in the sides of the breast and roll up tight like a jellyroll and secure with toothpicks.
   
   
3. Dip each roll in chicken broth mixture and dredge in breadcrumb mixture. Place rolls, seam side down, in a baking dish coated with butter. Pour the remaining broth mixture over chicken. Bake in the preheated oven for 28 minutes or until golden crisp.

Baked Chicken Cordon Bleu