Cruchy Almond Tart

Although I experienced quite a blogging drought, that did not correlate with a BAKING drought! Now, I have to make up for lost time, and fill in the blanks.

This is going back a while....

I tried David Lebovitz's version of the Chez Panisse Almond Tart for the first time. I've had my eye on it for a while... and it sure didn't disappoint! I brought it for dessert at the in-laws', and everyone loved it.

You should try it - although he describes it as being difficult to do, it isn't that bad. The pastry is quite different, and you aren't able to roll it and end up 'smushing' it into the tart pan:


The tart does require quite a bit of tending-to while in the oven; you need to break up the crust that forms on the filling every few minutes.

I now remember that the tart took a lot longer to bake than I had allotted, and as a result we were a few minutes late for dinner. BUT no one dared complain when they saw this sucker!...


We cut small wedges of it, and speared them into our bowls of vanilla ice cream. It was mentioned in the link above that the tart was taken off the menu at Chez Panisse due to people complaining they couldn't eat it with a fork.... Gimme a break! Pick it up - it's delicious.

My Goodness, How Long it has Been!

Shame on me, it has been tooo long. I barely started blogging, and then disappeared..... But I guess that's what finishing your Masters does to ya!

So, I guess I have some catching up to do.

Let's start with the most worldly of all - our trip to PARIS!

or as I referred to it: "The Pastry Tour of Paris!"

I won't document every stop i made at a patisserie, because that would just be far too long! Here are a few of the highlights:

#1: Lenotre!

Oh, to take a course at Lenotre one day! I know there are quite a few throughout Paris, but there just so happened to be one just down the street from our hotel!

What an amazing display of talent!

This one is my favourite: I'm not even sure how they did this - but it is beautiful!

SOOOOoooooo many mouth-watering choices!

Half an hour later, we were strolling down Avenue des Champs Elysees, and i looked up... and there it was! The pastry Mecca of Paris!

#2) The fabulous Laduree!

Being from the middle of Canada, I can honestly say that I had never tasted a Parisian macaroon... Macaroons in Canada are usually a mixture of coconut and chocolate, and in no way resemble their French cousins. But when I learned of the Parisian macaroon in the 'blogging world'... it sounded beautiful and intriguing... Here is a photo of their beautiful macaroons from one of their window displays:

And I was able to choose from their DOZENS of flavour choices!

Here is a bootlegged picture of some of their beautiful pastries:
Haha, as soon as the lady in line behind me saw me take a picture, she took one... and the guy caught her taking the picture, and yelled at her! hehe... it pays to be stealth!

We took our beautiful prizes to a near-by park, and had a delicious break from our long walk. My husband has a real 'thing' for strawberry rhubarb, so when we saw their gorgeous wild strawberry rhubarb tart, we had to get one. Who the heck wouldn't want to eat something that came out of this box?!:
And the beauty that lay within:
We were in heaven.....

And then i opened the little baggie with my two macaroons; A dark chocolate macaroon, and a salted caramel macaroon. My husband is not a bit "fan" of macaroons, as it turned out... so (oh no....) I had to eat them all myself!
ah well, that's what the gym is for, eh?
how beautiful! how scrumptious! how sweet it is......