Romy's Baking and Cake Decorating

Raspberry Linzer Torte This week a friend invited me to a potluck dinner at her house. It was her turn to host a group of French speakers she belongs to. I've heard of these dinners for years and was very happy to go! I offered to bring a main course or a dessert and she opted for me to bring a dessert. That was music to my ears! I knew I wanted to make a tart and I knew I wanted it to look impressive. I thought of a fruit tart, but having to drive a half hour in a heat wave with a tart filled with creme patissiere seemed like a bad idea. So it was a perfect time to try making my first Linzer Torte ! I've been looking for an occasion for years, so this was very exciting.  I had no idea how different it would be from other tarts I've made! I looked around for a recipe that fit in a 9" tart pan and that use only almond flour. I had almond flour at hand and didn't want to have to buy pistachios or hazelnuts to grind. I finally settled on  this recipe  from the website...

It was a Monday dinner and movie night with my friends who are fans of chocolate and pistachio.  Time to try Martha Stewart's Milk Chocolate and Pistachio Tart ! Pistachio & Chocolate Tart Here is a link to the recipe:  Milk Chocolate-Pistachio Tart Recipe First change, the recipe says to spray the tart pan with cooking spray. I've never had a problem with a tart not releasing from my Gobel tart pan with removable bottom, but just in case I did lightly cover the bottom and sides of the pan with butter.  Second change, instead of using all milk chocolate, I used half bittersweet and half milk chocolate, for a deeper flavor. The bittersweet chocolate is Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate, and the milk chocolate is Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate Chips.  Third change, when making the crust, I processed the pistachios into a powder with small grains instead of using chopped pistachios. I felt this would make for a smoother bite and an easier-to-work-with dough. I...

It's been kind of a funny summer. Between the long heat wave in June, the construction on our patio, and friends traveling, we've had very little opportunities to entertain. So when we finally had a friend coming over, I wanted to make something special. Not sure why but French Fruit Tart with pastry cream popped into my head, and I just had to make it. I think because I've enjoyed the Triple Berry Pies I've made recently and wanted something similar. And I know this friend really enjoys dessert. French Fruit Tart is so beautiful and impressive looking but couldn't be easier to make. It's perfect to make ahead, as well, in fact you need to make the dough and pastry cream the day before. I like  this recipe  from Martha Stewart for my pate sucree and it's the one I always use. I halved it for just one tart.  I rely on  this recipe , also from Martha Stewart, for my pastry cream. It never gets solid bits of egg and it's so easy it deserves the name she ga...

                                                        Vegan Blueberry Bakewell Tart A favorite cousin whom we hadn't seen in over 15 years was coming to town and we were all eager to see her. Since she is a vegan, many emails flew back and forth to plan a lunch menu that she would enjoy. It's always my turn to bring dessert, so I was looking forward to my first vegan bake! I decided to make a Blueberry Bakewell Tart because blueberries are such a summer favorite for everyone and most people like almond.  As I've written before, I love making tarts. They're easy, delicious and always look so pretty.  I found  this recipe  for a raspberry bakewell tart and decided to substitute blueberry jam and blueberries for the raspberries. The recipe does say it's fine to do this. I used Earth Balance vegan butter.  A long time ago our ...

 My girlfriends were coming over for a light summer dinner.  And to watch a movie we'd all been wanting to see, the French 70's classic La Piscine with the incredibly gorgeous Alain Delon in his prime. With that to look forward to, a preemptive chocolate fix was in order! I love making tarts for an easy dessert that looks fancy enough to make any meal special. I'd had my eye on making a Linzer torte from Anna Olsen's YouTube channel, but that will be for another day because it's a recipe for using blood oranges. And as I said, with Delon on the menu we needed chocolate! I found  this recipe  from the Nestle Toll House website, modestly called verybestbaking.com.  I liked the look of the recipe, I liked that it uses a press-in dough that doesn't need chilling, and I liked that I "happened" to have all the ingredients at hand.   This recipe was developed for using their chocolate chips, but I used Ghirardelli 60% cacao bittersweet chocolate instead. I kn...

It was a beautiful Springlike Sunday and a friend was coming to hike in the woods then return to our house to visit.  It was a perfect day to make a Bakewell Tart! I used  this recipe  from King Arthur Baking.  I've made a Bakewell tart before, but I don't think I used their recipe for the crust.  There definitely wasn't enough liquid for the crust to come together with only 2 tbsp of water, and I ended up using 4 tbsp. It was also different to not chill the dough before. It's a shortcrust dough with egg, but still, it took a lot of handling to get it to be cohesive. After it parbaked and cooled, I could see the metal from the pan through the crust, and I thought for sure the sugar from the jam would cause it to stick and it would be difficult to cut.  But there was no problem, in fact it slid out easily from the removable tart pan bottom.  The other thing I would change is that I would add more jam. Everyone liked the tart, but for me there wasn't eno...