Pim et Isabelle

dark chocolate-hazelnut bites and crisp almond praline cookies

Two cookies going to Lulu's today: hazelnut and dark chocolate bites, a cross between dark chocolate truffles and cookies, and crisp and buttery almond praline cookies.  The chocolate, if you want to know, is a blend of 72% Valrhona Araguani and 99% Scharffen Berger.  We are selling the cookies in pairs, one of each kind, just the perfect size to soothe your sweet tooth without interfering with your New Year resolution.  Well, sort of. 

See you there?

chocolate-caramel shortbreads

Evidently I'm in a baking mood these days.  So here's the result from last night's tinkering.  I made buttery shortbreads, then found myself in an even more decadent mood, so I made a batch of chocolate ganache and salted butter caramel.  The ganache was piped to form a levy around the edges of the shortbread, and then the oozing caramel piped in the middle.  Another piece of butter shortbread to top it up makes a very indulgent cookie sandwich.  I'm heading out to Lulu's with them right now.  See you there?

Financiers with raspberry jam

Making a return today at Lulu's, these financiers filled with homemade raspberry jam and topped with crisp slivers of almond. This is the first time I brought these financiers to Lulu's in quite a few months, so if you've been missing them, come by to grab one with your afternoon cup.

Butternut Bourbon² Cupcakes

If you're wondering what I've been doing lately, don't look on the blog, look on Twitter.  I've been moonlighting as the jam fairy over in the kitchen at Manresa.  We have so much produce coming from the gardens at Love Apple Farm that we had to do something about them.  So I've been making jam with red tomatoes, green tomatoes, hot chillies, not to mention all the fabulous Meyer lemons and mandarins we harvested from Gene's farm.  The craziest thing about all this is that we sold them all already!  All of them.  Most even before I was done making them.  Pre-arrival jams, how about that, huh?  Who wants to trade in Bordeaux futures when you can sell jam futures?

Well, but if you can keep a secret.  I'll tell you I kept a box or two for Manthri to sell at Lulu's at the Octagon.  Check out one fo the shelves along the back wall, you'll see some of my jams appearing soon.  They'll make perfect holiday gift.

Meanwhile, if you're downtown today, make sure you stop by Lulu's.  I made cupcakes!  The base is crèmes fraîche/vanilla cake, filled with my Butternut Bourbon² jam, and then topped with slightly tangy cream cheese frosting.  I just dropped them off like five minutes ago, and three are already gone.  Hurry!

Returning to Lulu's with Chocolat Désir

I've been away a lot lately, as I'm sure you've noticed.  Starting with the trip to France, then the sailing lessons, and then I was off to Vegas (Vegas!) for a whole crazy week.  Now that I'm back I will be delivering new yummy stuff to Lulu's a lot more often.  Seriously.

The first item to return this morning is our beloved Chocolat Désir, the super-gooey-and-fudgy mini chocolate pyramids made with Valrhona chocolates.  They are one of my all-time favorites and I hope they are yours too.

a new item: gingerbread cake with cream cheese frosting and meyer lemon confit

I brought home these cute little loaf pans from my trip to France last month.  The first experiment turned out these gingerbread cakes with cream cheese frosting and my own homemade meyer lemon confit.  These were at Lulu's a few weeks ago (sorry I didn't blog about it).  They will be making a reappearance soon.  Promise.

Plummy coffeecake

Tender crème fraîche cake, fragrant slices of plum, buttery crumb on top.  Today at Lulu's

back from vacation!!

I really didn't intend to be gone that long, but it seems I have.  Just got back from Europe--Côte d'Azur, a brief foray into San Remo, and then good old Paris.  Now I'm all fired up to make delicious things again, and today mark the first day our pastries are back at Lulu's.

Before I went off to Europe I had resigned myself to seeing an entirely different farmers market by the time I return, but happily I was just flat out wrong.  There were still plenty of stone fruits at the downtown market Wednesday, so we our financiers are still topped with fragrant slices of plums.  Come try one!

Fig tart

A new item made a debut today at Lulu's.  A simple fig tart, in a sweet tart crust with a layer of almond cream.

Last call for peach financiers

I think today's is the last batch of financiers with fresh peach slices.  The season is over, sadly, and I don't think we'll be making them with peaches anymore.  I made loads and loads of jams though, so you can still get financiers filled with jam even when the sun isn't out.