Around here...

A lot has happened around these here parts and none of it has to do with me writing informative future posts about all the cooking I've been doing.

Not that I haven't been cooking - I've baked up a storm in the last few weeks and actually finished the Bouchon Bakery Cookbook.  I still can't believe I actually accomplished this goal I set for myself last year but I did.  Yeah me.  Unfortunately, with the mad rush to finish the cookbook and everything else going on my writing has suffered greatly.  So what else is going on?

We're moving and not just a regular move across town or to another state, we've moving to a whole 'nother freakin' country.  The movers came to start packing out stuff exactly one week after I stopped working.  I thought I had another week to prepare but things moved much more quickly than I expected - which is better than the alternative.  I spent 4 days sitting in my house watching other people pack my stuff and load it into trucks which is ridiculously boring.  Plus, watching other people work is completely exhausting.

In preparation for the move we had to separate everything into 2 shipments, one that will come to Korea with us and another that will stay in the States in storage.  My mom and dad came up to help us and thank God they did because we wouldn't have been able to get it done by ourselves in the short amount of time that we had.  We also had to sell a car, get our rental house cleaned, take the dog to the vet 4,000 times to get him cleared to travel, get roof rails installed on the other car so that we could fit all the crap in it that we're taking on the airplane and storing at my parents house for the next couple of years (the best part of which was parts of it flying off my car as I drove away from the dealership), drive said car 12 hours to my parents house, then drive another 4 hours each way to take the aforementioned car to the facility to be shipped to Korea (are you done forgiving me for not writing yet?)  Luckily CA did most of the driving but it was still exhausting for me (read watching other people work, above).

Now I'm sitting in a hotel room in Kansas where CA and I start a class on Monday where I learn how to be his wife.  (I'm actually hear to learn how to support him and the families of the people who will be working for him in the job he'll have in Korea but it kind of feels like I'm being sent to wife school.  I guess we'll find out on Monday how much I have to learn).

Anyway, that's about the longest excuse ever to apologize for the fact that the next couple weeks will be completely lacking in I'll Bake It, You Eat It posts.  Hopefully, when I get back to my parents house from Kansas, I can write about all the yummy stuff I made and you can read it while I'm on a 14 hour airplane flight.  I may or may not cry the entire trip because I have to put my dog in a crate under the airplane for 14 hours but that remains to be seen.

Talk to you all again soon.
Julie

Baking Bouchon - Recipe 93: Pastry Galettes

The Puffy Pastry Chapter is done and this was the easiest recipe yet!  It helped that I had already made the puff pastry dough because that is a huge pain in the butt and to be honest with you, I don't think I'll ever make my own again.  The frozen pastry is just fine with me.

These little treats are slices of puff pastry that are covered with royal icing and baked.  They're really very tasty.  The puff pastry is nice and buttery, but there's no sugar in it so the icing adds just enough sweetness to make these a nice little bite.

The royal icing is super easy to make, it's just a combination of powdered sugar, egg whites and lemon juice.  That gets stirred up, spread on top of a rolled our sheet of puff pastry and frozen.  Once it's frozen, it's sliced into little bars and baked.

Unfortunately, these things are hideous.  The icing ran off the sides while they were baking and pooled on the sheet pan.

The picture in the book (above) shows them as perfect little rectangles, mine certainly were not.  However, their looks didn't stop us from eating them.  I'm not joking when I tell you that CA ate 20 of them over the course of 15 minutes.  The next morning, I told him that he didn't need to take them to work since he liked them so much we could keep them.  He said "absolutely not" and took them all to work.  That's what late night binge eating will do to you.

Reflecting on this chapter of the cookbook, my favorite use of the puff pastry was in the Pithiviers.  These were round of pastry filled with a mixture of pastry cream and almond cream - delicious!  I also loved 3 of the 4 versions of croissants - traditional, chocolate and almond.

The worst were the Palmiers a la Framboise which probably would have tasted fine if I could have finished the recipe without screaming in frustration.  I also was not a huge fan of the raisin croissants for obvious reasons.

I'm starting to actually believe that I'll finish this cookbook before the move which is a huge motivator!

Enjoy!
Julie

Nut Pie Bars

Why are there so many freakin' nuts in my pantry?  I don't know where they all came from, why there are two bags of each kind or why they're all open.

Luckily this little recipe relieved me of 2 cups of nuts - all the walnuts & pecans on hand - and most of the graham crackers which have been hiding in there since the S'More Bar or S'More Bars.  This did nothing to help the over-almond population.

The original recipe is for a pecan pie bar and it has a cookie crust.  I thought a graham cracker crust would go nicely with the topping which is just like the filling for a pecan pie.  My only worry was that it would fall apart when I cut it but, luckily, that did not happen.

I do think I overbaked these a little bit which is too bad.  They ended up begin pretty darn crunchy which was not my intention.  I was going for chewy.  So, if you're making them, watch them during the 2nd bake and try to avoid them looking like they're full of craters before you take them out of the oven.

Of course when the bars cooled and I tried to take pictures of them my camera decided to make everything look like it was photographed on the surface of the sun which is awesome.  CA says it's the lighting in the kitchen which could be the case because this only happens when it's dark outside and the lights are on.  I'd rather take pictures with natural light... not because I'm a purist but because you people won't want to eat anything I make if it all looks radioactive.


Nut Pie Bars
Adapted from Just a Taste

Ingredients
1 3/4 cup Graham Cracker Crumbs
1/2 cup Butter, melted
1/4 cup Sugar

1/2 cup Butter
1 cup Brown Sugar
1/3 cup Honey
2 T Heavy Cream
2 cups Chopped Nuts (pecans & walnut)

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a 9"x13" pan with non-stick cooking spray.

In a medium bowl combine the graham cracker crumbs, melted butter and sugar.  Stir until the mixture if moist and crumbly.  Press into the prepared pan and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, until light golden brown.

While the crust bakes, prepare the filling by combining the butter, brown sugar, honey and heavy cream in a saucepan and stirring it over medium heat. Simmer the mixture for 1 minute, then stir in the chopped pecans.

Remove the crust from the oven and immediately pour the filling over the hot crust spreading it to cover the entire surface.

Return the pan to the oven and bake an additional 20 minutes.  Remove the pan and allow the bars to fully cool in the pan.  Cut into bars and serve.

Enjoy!
Julie

Strawberry Banana Bran Muffin

This recipe was a cupboard cleaning miracle.  Yahoo!

I got rid of a ton of wheat bran, most of the pumpkin seeds, all the sunflower seeds, all the frozen bananas and a bag of frozen strawberries.  Who cares that these aren't the most amazing muffins on the planet, they did a darn good job of helping me toward my pantry elimination goal.

I struggle with frozen strawberries in baked goods.  I feel like no matter what I do they make things soggy and soggy bread products activate my gag reflex.  Pre-made sandwiches are my nemesis. Because I was adapting a blueberry muffin recipe to include strawberries instead I knew I needed to get as much moisture out of these guys as possible.  I thawed the strawberries and drained them thoroughly, then chopped them and let them drain again. I also tossed them in flour to help absorb even more water.  I also substituted some whole wheat flour in here for the white flour which helped dry it out a bit more.  It worked OK.

I will say it was kind of nice making a recipe that didn't require me to use a mixer.  Sometimes it's nice to go old school and stir things up by hand.  However, I am getting really used to weighing my ingredients and I find myself annoyed when washing all the measuring cups and spoons it takes to make recipes that are volume based.  I tend to try to use the least number of measuring implements possible even if that means that I have to measure out a quarter teaspoon eight times to get a two teaspoons just to avoid washing another spoon.

I was surprised by how little the muffins rose but the original recipe warned me of that.  I was also surprised that the original recipe indicated this made 12 muffins but I ended up with 18.  I don't know how that happens.  Maybe it's like on TV cooking shows when they don't scrape the bowl.  Have you noticed this?  TV chefs make stuff in a bowl and then put into a pan or a serving tray and don't even put it all in there.  Are they just in a hurry because they have to fit in all into a 30 minute show or are they really so wasteful?  The only reason I can see for doing this is that they plan to eat the rest of the batter in the bowl when the camera's off.

These were not my favorite muffins in all the land.  Despite all the soggy insurance I took out, they still were a little soggy.    The bran flavor is good, if you like a bran muffin.  However, the lightness of my pantry and freezer makes up for any misgivings I have about these muffins.

Strawberry Banana Bran Muffin
Adapted from Real Simple
Makes 18 muffins

Ingredients

1 cup All Purpose Flour
3/4 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1 3/4 cup Bran
3/4 cup Sugar
1/4 cup Sunflower Seeds
1/2 cup Pumpkin Seeds
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Apple Pie Spice
3/4 tsp Baking Soda
3/4 tsp Baking Powder
4 ripe bananas, mashed(1 1/2 cups)
3 Eggs
3/4 cup Milk
4 T Butter, melted
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 lb Frozen Strawberries, thawed, drained and chopped (1 1/2 cups)
2 T All Purpose Flour

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Spray a 2 muffin tins with non-stick spray (you'll only need 1/2 of the 2nd tin).

In a large bowl combine both flours, bran, sugar, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, salt, spices, soda and powder.

In a separate bowl combine the bananas, eggs, milk, butter and vanilla.

In another bowl toss the strawberries with 2 T of flour.

Add the banana mixture to the flour mixture and stir until just combined.  Add the strawberries and stir gently to combine.

Divide the batter among the muffin cups, the batter will come to the top of the cups.  Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the middle of the muffin comes out with just a few moist crumbs.

Enjoy!
Julie

Baking Bouchon - Recipe 92: Pullman Loaf

I did not have high hopes for this bread.  I considered it another obstacle in the way of finishing this cookbook. I figured it would be a giant disaster because I do not have a Pullman Loaf Pan which is a long, narrow pan with a lid that forces the bread to bake into a perfect rectangular block.  This was not a piece of equipment I ever envisioned myself using again so I skipped it and used a regular loaf pan.

The whole reason it's called a Pullamn Loaf is fairly interesting but not interesting enough for me to repeat it here for you.  It's something about trains, you can Google it.

The ingredients for this bread are a little different in that it includes cream cheese.  I don't know what this does for the bread except that it seems a little bit closer to Brioche dough than many of the other breads in this book because of the dairy and the addition of some eggs.

I'm happy to report that my new mixer doesn't attempt to burst into flames while kneading bread dough which is a good thing.  My old mixer got extremely hot during this process because you had to leave it on for 30 minutes but my new orange behemoth does not.

I was pretty impressed with how much the dough rose and with how smooth it was when it baked.  I was convinced that without a lid on this pan and the vague instructions on how big the pan should be that it would overflow the pan and spew all over my oven.

This bread is the closest thing to sandwich bread I've made in this book.  It's definitely more dense than Wonderbread but that means it doesn't completely char when I put it in the toaster or disintegrate when I soak it in eggs and milk to make French Toast.

This is definitely one of the better breads in this cookbook and thank goodness there are only 3 more left!!

Enjoy!
Julie

Candied Orange and Cocoa Nib Biscotti

I love making Biscotti.  This recipe never fails me.  I simply adore it and I never get bored with it because I can always change up the mix-ins and get something completely different.  Plus, I can eat it with coffee and that's just fantastic.

This time I substituted whole wheat flour for some of the regular flour.  This is something I do quite often.  I've found that swapping out any amount up to half of the amount of regular flour for whole wheat works out pretty well in most cookie or muffin recipes.  If you try to do more than half, the baked good ends up pretty dry.  I'm slowly trying to whittle down the whole wheat flour population in my house so a few substitutions here and there have been working out for me.  Plus, now I can call this health food.

This is a combination of mix-ins I've never used before with candied orange peel and cocoa nibs.  It's not such a strange combination if you think about it.  You find chocolate and orange together quite often and even if cocoa nibs are not quite chocolate in its sweet and silky form, it has the essence of bitter chocolate which goes well with the orange.  The candied orange peel is kind of bitter too but that paired with all the sugar in biscotti gives it just the right balance.

In fact, this is potentially one of my favorite biscotti flavor combinations.  I love that it's not too sweet so I don't feel at all guilty eating it with my coffee when I have already eaten or fully intend to also eat breakfast.


I also love that it's unusual and it makes me feel like I'm eating something exotic which is totally ridiculous because it's made with the part of the chocolate plant that people used to throw away until someone decided it was a super food and the part of the orange that people also throw away until someone figured out it wasn't totally disgusting if you boil it in sugar syrup.  Just like when only butchers would eat hangar steak and they used to call mahi mahi dolphin.  It's marketing.  I swear there's someone examining the trash and deciding what the next food trend will be.

Despite that fact that I put trash in the biscotti, they're super awesome and you should make them or find your own trash and make it with that. 
 

Candied Orange and Cocoa Nib Biscotti
Adapted from Williams Sonoma

Ingredients

1/2 cup Unsalted Butter (at room temperature)
3/4 cup Sugar
2 Eggs
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/2 tsp Orange Extract
1 1/4 cup All Purpose Flour
1/2 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Salt
3/4 cup Cocoa Nibs
3/4 cup Candied Orange Peel

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line a cookie sheet with a silpat or parchment paper or spray with non-stick cooking spray.

Cream butter and sugar together until it is fluffy and pale yellow.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating on low speed until incorporated.  Add the vanilla and other extract and mix until combined.

Add the dry ingredients in three additions, mixing until just combined.  Add all the cocoa nibs and candied orange peel and mix until just combined.

Divide the dough in half (it will be quite soft and sticky so use flour on your hands as necessary) and form each half into a log on your cookie sheet.  Each log should be approximately 12 inches long and 2 inches wide.

Bake for 30 minutes or until firm and lightly golden.  Remove the pan from the oven and let the logs cool for 10 minutes.  Transfer each log to a cutting board and use a serrated knife to cut the logs on the diagonal into 3/4 inch slices.  Carefully transfer each slice back to the cookie sheet and lay them on their sides.  Return the cookie sheet to the oven and bake an additional 15 minutes or until the edges are golden brown.

Enjoy!
Julie

Fig Newtons

I can't think of a better use for a jar of Fig Jam than Fig Newtons.  I'm not even sure why I originally bought this jar of jam.  It's not like fig jam is a kitchen staple.  The only other occasion I've used it is to make these quesadillas with fig jam, and prosciutto and goat cheese which are freakin' delicious.  I must have seen this and thought that I would make them but I purchased this when we lived in TN so it's been a couple of years since I had that moment of inspiration.  I would have made those except that I'm pretty sure people would look at me weird if I brought quesadillas into the office to share.

The difficulty of moving overseas is that I can't just stick the stuff that the movers won't pack in my car.  Even my car has to go on a boat to get to Korea and I'm not sure what I can convince the movers to pack (or sneak into boxes while they're not looking) so I'm trying to use up as much as possible.  But beware, if the movers refuse to pack my spices I'm going to completely lose my cool.  You all will hear me scream from wherever you are.

So, back to the fig newtons.  I don't ever think to buy fig newtons, but I do generally like them.  I know that sounds weird coming from me because there's a modified fruit product inside of them, but somehow figs don't freak me out like other fruits.  Fresh figs are certainly superior to dried figs - you won't catch me eating a dried fig by itself but to be perfectly honest I'd never think to eat a fresh fig by itself either.

I was surprised to find out that the dough of a fig newton has orange in it.  I don't even recall tasting oranges in my fig newtons but I did some cross referencing and it was a common denominator among the made from scratch fig newton population.

The dough itself is pretty easy.  It uses both honey and sugar as the sweeteners which I enjoy.  There is both orange juice and orange zest in there to give it that citrus flavor.  I used half whole wheat and half all purpose flour in here because I don't recall real fig newtons being all white floury.

The dough gets chilled and rolled out, then cut into strips.  Each strips gets filled with the fig jam.  The jam I used was much thinner that the typical filing inside of a fig newton - that is more like a fig paste.  It also wasn't as dark, I imagine it was made with a different type of fig.

Once the strips are filled with jam, they get sealed up and moved to the baking sheet.  This was very difficult and I broke most of them in the process and tried my best to seal them up so I didn't have a jam jailbreak on my hands.

Unfortunately, my newtons spread out significantly while they were baking so even after I cut them (which I swear I did even if I neglected to take a picture of them) they didn't really look like fig newtons.  They did, however, taste really good.  I liked that the filling was thinner than in a typical fig newton and there weren't as many seeds in there messing with the texture.  The dough is pretty darn good.  I loved the flavor of the orange, honey and whole wheat flours together.

All in all, a pretty good use of a jar of jam and one less thing I have to throw in the trash.

Fig Newtons
Adapted from Chef In You

Ingredients
1/2 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1 1/4 cup All Purpose Flour
1/4 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Salt
1/8 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 cup Butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup Sugar
1 T Honey
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 tsp Orange Zest
3 Egg Yolks
2 T Orange Juice
1 1/4 cup Fig Jam

Instructions
In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.

In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter, sugar and honey on medium speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Add the vanilla, orange zest, egg yolks and orange juice and mix on low speed until just combined.  Add the flour mixture and mix on low speed until just combined.  The dough will be very soft.

Transfer the dough to a large sheet of plastic wrap.  Fold the plastic over the dough and flatten into a disc.  Refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with a silpat or parchment paper.

On a heavily floured surface, roll the dough out into a rectangle that is approximately 18" long, 6" wide and 1/4" thick.  Cut the dough into 5 strips approximately 3.5" wide and 6" long.

Place a strip of Fig filling in the center of the dough about 1" wide.  Lift one long side of the dough and fold it over the filling.  Repeat for the other side.  Place the logs on the prepared baking sheet.

Bake them for about 15 minutes or until puffed and light brown. While they are still warm, trim them into 1" long cookies.  

Enjoy!
Julie

Baking Bouchon - Recipe 91: Pâtes de Fruits

It comes with the territory that when you attempt to make everything in a cookbook that you'll make something that's not your favorite.  I've disliked a few recipes in this book.

It also come with the territory that you'll make a few things that are an utter disaster.  I've had my fair share of failures.

This was both - I hated it and it didn't even work.  It was a complete waste of time.

Pâtes de Fruits are a fruit jellies.  Not jelly like you spread on toast but jelly like a jelly bean or a not so gummy gummy bear.  My dislike of fruit outside of its natural state is well documented here.  It's only been a couple of years since I started eating jelly at all and I'm super picky about it.  I hate jelly beans - except for Starburst Jelly Beans, those are addicting.  I love gummy bears but those are so far removed from actual fruit hat they don't count - besides I prefer Happy Cola which are the King of Gummies.  I've never actually eaten Pâtes de Fruits because why on earth would I choose that?  Therefore, I don't know what they're even supposed to be or taste like but I'm confident that what I made is just wrong.

I did exactly what I thought I was supposed to do.  The recipe called for Black Current Fruit Puree, but I already had raspberry and cherry in the freezer from when I made the Jam recipes in this cookbook and Thomas said I could use other berry purees so this is not a true substitution and I don't blame the failure on this change.  The fruit puree is cooked with a s$@tload of sugar, fruit pectin (which is the jelling agent), glucose and apple juice.  This boils until is reaches 225 degrees.  Mine got to 228 degrees which is pretty darn close and, if anything, should have made it firmer.  After the mixture cooks a little bit of cream of tartar is added which is supposed to add some acidity and help set the pectin.

The cooked mixture gets poured into a pan to cool.  It's supposed to cool for 30 minutes and then be completely firm so that you can cut it into cute little squares and coat them in sugar.  The picture above shows my creation after 30 minutes.  Not set.

The picture above shows my mixture after 2 hours, 1 of which was in the refrigerator.  Not set.

Basically, I made the sweetest freakin' jelly you've ever tasted.  The kind of sweet that makes you grimace and want to eat a bowl of broccoli followed by a 10 minute tooth brushing session.  Awesome.

Enjoy!
Julie

Baking Bouchon - Recipe 90: Hazelnut Macarons

The recipe marks the end of the cookie chapter in the Bouchon Bakery Cookbook.  HOORAY!!!

And thank God this ended on a positive note.  I have had mixed success with macarons, as evidenced by yesterday's lemon versions but these came out pretty well and the filling is positively spectacular!

The only difference between these and the other macarons in this cookbook is that the almond flour is traded for hazelnut flour.  This flour is pretty interesting (even if I did struggle finding it and finally ordered it on the Internet) - it's like almond flour in that it's just ground up nuts - but the skin of the hazelnuts was left on so it has little brown flecks in it which I think makes the cookie look pretty cool.

See how pretty they are?  See how they didn't explode in the oven?

Well, half of them didn't explode which is really what I've come to expect from a successful macaron adventure.

While the cookies are great, my favorite part of this recipe is the Caramelia Ganache.

The ganache is actually really easy with corn syrup (it was supposed to be trimoline, which is a weird sugar syrup, but I've never bought it for any of the other recipes and wasn't about to start now.  Plus, it's only a tablespoon so I figured the corn syrup would be fine and it was), heavy cream, salt and chocolate.

This isn't any old chocolate, it's Caramelia chocolate which is so much better because it's chocolate with caramel integrated into it - not melty in the center but all mixed in there.  This means that you get a ganache that has the flavor of both chcolate and and caramel which is so much better than regular chocolate ganache. 

The ganache gets made and left to set up on the counter overnight and the results is a firm, spreadable consistency.

These little sandwiches are ridiculous - the cookies are a fairly neutral canvas with just a bit of a nutty flavor but the ganache is hands down one of the best things I've ever made.  It is so creamy and rich and just a little bit salty - I absolutely love it!

Since I had more than a few pretty ones, those came to work with me where someone told me it was the best thing she'd ever eaten.  That made me smile.

The less than pretty ones stayed at my house and got eaten very quickly.

Reflecting back on the entire cookie chapter reveals some hits and some misses.

My least favorites were the Pecan Sandies and the Oatmeal Raisin Cookies.  The Pecan Sandies were too greasy and not enough like shortbread and the oatmeal raisin cookies had raisins in them.

Biggest surprise were the Florentines which I didn't expect to like as much as I did and the Shortbread which I thought would be boring but was really delicious.

My two favorites were Better Nutters which were rich and peanut buttery and just as good when I ate then at the bakery and these Hazelnut Macarons, because that ganache just can't be beat.

CA votes for Florentines, Shortbread and Pecan Sandies which is funny.  He says his coworkers liked the Better Nutters best.

Sconnie's favorite was the Dog Treats, obviously.

Enjoy!
Julie

Baking Bouchon - Recipe 88 & 89: Raspberry & Lemon Macarons

This is kind of a weird post because I made these macarons at totally different times.

The raspberry version I made in December with a friend of mine.  They turned out really well, but I neglected to take any pictures while making them.  I barely remembered to take pictures of the finished macarons.  I think I was too excited about having company in the kitchen that I was just enjoying the experience which was a nice change up.

The cookies themselves are almost identical to the vanilla macarons in this cookbook except that you leave out the vanilla bean seeds and add pink food coloring.  So honestly, the macarons aren't raspberry at all - they're just blank canvases for raspberry filling.  The filling is French Buttercream with Raspberry Jam mixed in.  My guest and I both agreed that the filling didn't have enough raspberry flavor in it so we added more jam.  We also decided it wasn't pink enough so we added pink food coloring.

These were pretty successful with about half of the cooking baking up beautifully without exploding.  In my limited macaron experience, that's pretty darn good.

I had far less success a few months later when I made the lemon macarons.  The macaron cookie here is the same as the raspberry in that it has no lemon in it - just yellow food coloring.

I don't know what happened - I did what I've always done and cooked up some sugar, whipped it into egg whites to make a meringue and folded that into almond flour and powdered sugar.

Piped them out and baked them.

And then they cracked.  All of them.

I take that back - all but six of them.  This was ridiculous and irritating and a total waste of time because there was no way I was letting anyone see these things outside of these four walls.

I had already made the filling so I figured I might as well sandwich all the hideous cookies and photograph only the three that weren't completely exploded.

The filling was pretty awesome - a mix of buttercream frosting and lemon curd.  The lemon curd was amazing and really made me regret my decision to use store bought lemon curd in the lemon meringue tarts instead of making the recipe in the Bouchon cookbook.  It was super tart and oh so creamy because of the butter that gets blended into it.  Mixing it with the buttercream gave it an even richer texture.  It was really freakin' delicious.

Since I was too embarrassed to share all but three of these (which I didn't do because who shows up somewhere with three cookies?) I have to eat them all myself.  I'll let CA and my mom help me but no one else will be subject to these ugly yet delicious treats.

Enjoy!
Julie