I make the Original Plum Torte from Marion Burros, every summer. It’s so simple to whip up and incredibly satisfying to snack on, no wonder it has over 13,000 reviews. I use Italian plums but any plum, pluot or even berry, would work well. I did make a few adjustments to the recipe.
I’ve always preferred eating cherries fresh, but this cherry clafoutis convinced me that they are delicious baked as well. When I worked at Williams Sonoma, we hosted a special dinner at Chef Dominique Crenn’s now-closed Petit Crenn in San Francisco. The menu was full of French classics like salade nicoise, ratatouille, and finished with a cherry clafoutis that I still remember to this day. The dinner was 6 years ago. I dug a giant spoon into the warm dish, revealing a glorious custard-y bake, dotted with the largest Bing cherries I had ever seen.
I took a two-hour train ride from Paris to Beaune, a town is situated in the wine-making region of Burgundy. I made the weekend trip to take a day-long cooking class at The Cooks Atelier. The charming school is run by mother-daughter team Marjorie Taylor and Kendall Smith Franchini. There’s a wine shop on the ground floor, kitchen on the second and dining area on the third. It’s a truly idyllic place and I had so much fun prepping and eating a menu of French classics. One of my favorite dishes was the comforting, savory cheese soufflé.
I know what you’re thinking… LEFTOVER croissants? Who has those? Well, bakeries sometimes do at the end of the day, and typically, they use the leftover croissants to make almond croissants. A pretty spectacular round 2 bake, in my opinion. I opted to do a savory twice bake, inspired by the ham and cheese croissant, my favorite morning bakery treat.
The Ina Garten flag cake is a classic patriotic dessert, perfect for Memorial Day or Fourth of July. It’s easy to decorate red, white and blue with fresh summer berries and cream cheese frosting. Her recipe is meant to feed a crowd (20-24!), but I wanted a small batch size, and found the recipe easy to halve and even quarter. I share the conversion with gram measurements for the half size here, made in a casserole dish, the perfect potluck size.
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