Happy New Year!

It's New Year's Eve and the train back to Paris is late. (15 minutes, not 3 hours, but we can leave that out for a more dramatic effect.)

Frustrated and cold (or doing just fine, but you get the point), I got off the subway and walked across the dreary Pont Neuf (alright, now it just sounds fake) and made my way up the five flights of stairs separating me from...an empty apartment? No!

What I came home to was a delightful New Year's Eve dinner in which I was strictly forbidden to help out. Here is the extent of what I had to do: sit, smile, and eat. And honestly, it couldn't have been easier given what was on the table: champagne, butter-seared scallops with truffle salt, marinated salmon--the Scandinavian sashimi--with a light cucumber salad and blinis, and a satisfying holiday cake with dried fruit.

After the partying comes the difficult time of setting New Year's resolutions. Here's mine: have dinner every day like I did on the 31st. Well, tofu and vegetable versions of it. Good enough, right?

Here's wishing everyone a terrific 2010 filled with joy, love, peace and obviously, food to bring it all together!

Simple and Delicious: Pan-Seared Scallops with Truffle Salt

1 TB butter

12 very very fresh scallops, coral removed

salt and pepper

Truffle salt, as much as you like

Heat butter in a pan (preferably steel, but any is fine) on medium-high until butter stops foaming.

Place scallops in pan, making sure not to overcrowd them. They should sizzle--flip them over when the bottom side has a nice light brown, and cook until the other side gets a nice brown as well.

Plate and sprinkle with a generous serving of truffle salt.

Christmas Sachertorte

(Or how an epic fail turned into a yummy cake.)

"The night before Christmas" evokes magic and holiday spirit. It can also bring up images on delicious White Chocolate Macadamia Rasperry cakes from Fine Cooking... that is, until you actually follow the recipe step-by-step, and put the first cake layer in the oven for "28 to 35" minutes. 28 minutes later, unbaked. 35? Same thing. An hour later, the layer was baked, but once it cooled there was no doubt about it: too much butter in the recipe. Just putting my finger on the cake made it glistening, and although the cake wasn't terrible-tasting, it did have a strong butter note that I could've done without.

Off to the birds it went.

I wouldn't say it became The Nightmare Before Christmas, but it came close. I didn't know what to bake to make up for my ingredient-heavy and time-consuming failed cake. In fact, I didn't even know where to start looking. I wanted something easy but holiday-worthy, and those two don't go together much. And I definitely wanted a cake, not cookies or biscotti, as tempted as I was.

I settled on a chocolate cake, and decided to use the raspberries that were planned for cake #1. That is, until we realized that despite what the man at the market said, they had definitely gone bad. Raspberry jam would do. Chocolate, jam... sachertorte!

I would call this a modified sachertorte, because it seems that the traditional one uses apricot jam and a chocolate-syrup glaze (I used ganache). However, it came together easily and I added the raspberry jam and glaze the next morning. After a little decorating, the result was pretty nice. Well, especially nice after such a bad start!

And the taste? Everyone was happy, and the jam provided a nice contrast to the chocolate.

Sometimes you can have your cake and eat it too.

Christmas Sachertorte

Makes one 9-inch two-layer cake

(sorry for the European measurements!)

130g dark chocolate (Ghirardelli's 72% baking chips were great)

130g butter

40g confectioner's sugar

1 TS vanilla extract

pinch salt

6 eggs, whites and yolks separated

180g granulated sugar

130g all-purpose flour

350g raspberry jam

Chocolate Ganache

4 oz. dark chocolate

1/2 cup heavy cream

Preheat oven to 190°C.

Melt chocolate in a double boiler until smooth. Let cool to 35°C.

Beat butter, confectioner's sugar, salt, and vanilla with a mixer. Add chocolate and beat until fluffy. Add six egg yolks one at a time, until blended.

Beat egg whites to stiff peaks with granulated sugar. Fold into the chocolate mixture.

Add flour and mix until combined.

Butter a 9-in. springform pan, and add a disk of buttered parchment paper to the bottom of the pan. Pour batter in, smooth, and bake until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean, approximately 40 minutes.

Once cake is completely cooled, split it in half to create two layers. Heat raspberry jam until it becomes easy to spread, and spread half between the two layers and on top layer.

Spread remaining jam on the sides of the cake and spread another layer on top. Refrigerate cake 30 minutes so the jam sets.

Make chocolate ganache: melt chocolate over a double boiler. Remove from heat and add cream, beating for 15 to 30 seconds. Spread on top and sides of cake. (This may seem like the "opposite" way to make ganache, but it works)

Decorate, and keep cake in a cool place until serving.

Happy Holidays & Merry Christmas!

The best part of Christmas morning is getting up late after a night filled with opening presents...that is until the day you start baking dessert for the 25th when family comes over. In that case, it means getting up earlier to try and finish the cake you started on the 24th--mission accomplished! (But more on that later)

In honor of Christmas morning, a few pictures of my favorite muffins baked a few days ago in snowy Paris. Remember these?

Well, here they are, no recipe included. You know why? Just scroll down and you'll find out.

If someone asks me what I learned in 2009, I'll know what to reply: my favorite muffins come from a box mix. Well, in that case, I know who to give thanks to. Thank you, Betty Crocker!

And most of all, happy holidays to everyone!

Florentins

Last Thursday, I woke up to the sight of surrounding Parisian rooftops covered in snow. I opened my window and realized that if I ran downstairs, right then and there, in my cupcake PJs, I would probably be covered in snowflakes in about 30 seconds. And it hit me: Christmas!

Last year was a snow-less Christmas, and there's honestly nothing better than being able to go Christmas shopping with snow in your hair and stuck to your boots. Plus, snow is the perfect excuse to go all out in the holiday sweets division. It's cold and wet, so hot cocoa, chocolates and cakes are only fitting. I mean, who would want to eat a fruit salad on a cold snowy day? Alright, I'm sure some people like that actually exist, but I don't know many. Or any, actually.

Anyhow, a certain species starts to appear in French pâtisseries around the same time snow starts to fall: the holiday dried fruit and chocolate combo. I'm not talking about truffles or marrons glacés--they would deserve a year's worth of blog posts on their own--but rather the ubiquitous mendiants and florentins. Sure, you can eat them year round, but they have a special Christmas something that everyone appreciates. I'm not one to say no to any kind of chocolate, but I've always been more of a "tout chocolat" kind of girl. Add marzipan or hazelnuts nicely stuffed into the center and I'm just as happy, but dried fruits? Not my thing.

Take one look at a florentin, however, and try to tell me you don't want to eat it--even just a little. Almonds and dried fruit--usually cherries and oranges--are covered in a cream and honey mix, and the bottom is plunged into melted dark chocolate. Convinced?

Florentins are admittedly quite simple to make. All you need is a kitchen thermometer that actually works so that the sugar, honey and cream don't burn when you bring them to a boil--that was not my case. But nothing burned, and my florentins were safe and sound. I also didn't have time to go elsewhere than my local mini grocery store, where no dried cherries or candied orange peels were to be found. Cranberries it was!

They make a great gift, but I'll understand if you keep them to yourself. Just one word of caution, though: make sure your teeth can stand all the delicious stickiness. If it's the case, then you're all set for some truly happy holidays.

Florentins

makes 12

2/3 c. sugar (150g)

1/4 c. honey (50g)

2/3 c. + 1/2 TB crème fraiche (160g)

3.5 oz. candied orange peels (100g)

1.8 oz. pine nuts (50g)

3.5 oz. slivered almonds (100g)

5.3 oz (2.3 c.) dark chocolate (150g)

12 round pastry cutters

Preheat oven to 300°F / 150°C.

Dice candied orange peels.

In a large saucepan, pour creme fraiche, honey and sugar and mix. Bring to a boil and cook, approximately 5 minutes, until mixture reaches 244°F / 118°C on a thermometer. Add almonds, pine nuts, and orange peels.

On a baking sheet covered with parchment paper, place the 12 pastry cutters and fill each with a generous amount of the mixture. While baking, it should spread out so don't worry if you don't have perfect circles beforehand.

Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, until golden but not brown. Remove pastry cutters delicately, and let florentins cool on parchment paper for at least an hour, and up to 3 hours.

In a double boiler, melt dark chocolate. Coat the bottom of each florentin with a brush or by dipping it into the chocolate, and place them in the refrigerator so the chocolate can harden, at least 15 minutes.

Store in an airtight container, separating each layer of florentins with parchment paper or plastic wrap so they don't stick to one another.