Mixed Fruits Frangipane Tart

I always have weakness for cute and dainty little fruit tarts. I just love baking them when I have overload of berries or stone fruits in my fridge. I usually buy a lot of them during summer and toward end of the week they don’t look too good anymore so I will usually incorporate them into my bake goods like these tarts.

These tarts not only pretty they taste really good too. With the flaky buttery pastry, sweet and nuttiness of the filling and the fruits provides a slight tartness to the tarts. They were just prefect to have it with a cup of coffee or tea after a meal.

Vanilla Fleur De Sel Macarons with Nutella Filling

This month Aspiring Bakers theme is March Macaron Madness . I was thinking of not participating as I always have love hate relationship with macarons. I baked them few times but it don’t always turn out right. Something always went wrong like cracked tops, over baking it, under baked, sometimes no feet appearing and etc…

This batch of macarons was no exception. I have to throw out the first batch because it was under baked. I am still learning the temper of this oven. Thank God I still have some aged egg whites left from my Pineapple Rolls and I am able to start all over again. It turns out ok but still need some improvement. Nevertheless, I like the taste of these macarons. I particularly love the sprinkled of the glorious Vanilla Fleur de Sel as the saltiness of the salt compliments so well with the sweet macaron.

Fleur de Sel ("Flower of Salt" in French) is a gourmet hand-harvested sea salt that is formed at the surface of salt beds and collected by workers who scrape only the top layer of salt. Rich in minerals with superior flavor qualities, Fleur de Sel is one of the most expensive salts in the world.

French Macarons # 3

I made these macarons for my doctor. She has been taking care of my well being for the past 6 years and she is such a kind and gentle lady and I am going to miss her. I hope I am able to find someone like her when I am in San Francisco. Since this might be my last visit to see her before our move, I decided to make her an Orange Scented Cake , Oatmeal Raisin Cranberry Cookies and these Macarons.

I’ve made macarons many times but they don’t usually turn out all perfect. The first tray will usually have cracks on top and some of the macarons will have no feet. It really puzzles me as the second tray will usually turns out perfect. I normally bake one tray at a time rather than putting two trays in at one go even though my oven is big enough for it as I wanted them to have an even heating. I just filled them up with some melted dark chocolate to cut down on it sweetness. This is a repeat recipe from here but I am just going to repost it again.