Desserts

Poached Pears with Cream Cheese Pecan Filling

Poached pears happens to be one of the first desserts that I made after I got married. It is a simple but impressive dessert that is easy to make and has outstanding flavour and appearance. Over the years and many moves later, the recipe for Poached Pears with Cream Cheese Pecan Filling has changed very little with only the variety of pears or locally available wine as adjustments. I prefer the elegant look of Bosch pears for this dessert, but any variety of pear will work well.

Poached Pear plated with raspberries — Poached Pear dessert garnished with fresh berries, whipped cream, raspberry coulis and mint

This dessert is an excellent gluten-free option. For a dairy-free option, use non-dairy cream cheese in the filling. For a nut-free version, omit the pecans in the filling. If you choose not to use wine in the poaching liquid, substitute apple juice or pear juice.

The poaching liquid is reduced to a syrup and used when plating the poached pears.

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Feuillette of Chocolate and Strawberry

By Denise Pare-Watson

Feuillette of Chocolate or Strawberry is a unique garnish that can be used for any style of dessert, whether it is a mousse, panna cotta or as in the recipe for A Sweetheart Chocolate Torte with Feuillette, a stunning garnish crown. It has been adapted from recipes utilized in my chef competitions.

This recipe makes just a small amount (a little paste goes a long way); therefore, I find that utilizing a scale (weight in grams or oz.) is the simplest and most accurate method to make the feuillette paste.

Sweetheart Chocolate Torte with Feuillette of Chocolate and Strawberry | urbnspice.com — An eclectic display of Feuillette of Chocolate and Strawberry

The chocolate feuillette paste is made by using cocoa powder for colour and flavour. The garnish’s chocolate flavour is well pronounced in the finished product.

The strawberry feuillette paste is made from dried strawberries. I used my food dehydrator to dry thinly sliced strawberries. This process took about 2 hours to achieve a crisp result. The dried strawberries are then pulverized in a spice grinder.

The strawberry paste made from this powder is delightfully tasty, with just enough texture to create a translucence appearance! My grandchildren say they look like fairy wings, as you can see from the video.

A Feuillet of Strawberry

It is important not to over bake the strawberry feuillette, as they will lose their delicate pink hue. I did not use any food colouring in my feuillette paste recipe; however, you can add a drop or two of pink or red food colouring to achieve the desired colour.

Strawberry Feuillette Paste | urbnspice.com — Feuillette of Strawberry

Feuillet of Strawberry | urbnspice.com — The feuillet of strawberry reminds me of fairy wings – ethereal and translucent

Chocolate Feuillette Paste | urbnspice.com — Feuillette of Chocolate

Feuillette of Chocolate and Strawberry

Yield: approximately 20 feuillette garnish

CHEF TALK:

INGREDIENTS:

21 g all-purpose flour
77 g icing sugar
12 g cocoa powder or strawberry powder
20 ml water
32 g butter, unsalted, melted

METHOD:

Sift the dry ingredients together.
Gradually add the water, then the melted butter. Stir to combine into a smooth paste.
Spread the paste in a thin layer on Silpat baking mats using an off set spatula. Start from the bottom of the feuillet and spread upwards. The bottom will be slightly thicker spreading to a thin imprecise ‘schmear’ (pastry chef slang).
Bake in a 350^oF (325^oF Convection) for 5 – 6 minutes. The feuillette will look bubbly and will not show any moist spots. They will crisp up as they cool.
Allow the feuillette to come to room temperature. Using an off set spatula, slide it under the thickest edge of each feuillet, and slide upwards to lift it gently from the Silpat baking sheet. Line all the feuillette on a cookie rack until you are ready to decorate the torte.

CHEF TIP: These garnishes are very fragile, light and almost see-through delicate. Make as many as you need at a time (make a few extra to allow for breakage). Store any unused paste in a covered container in the refrigerator. Bring the paste to room temperature before using. Store any extra baked feuillette in an airtight container at room temperature. They are excellent crumbled on ice cream, crème brûlée, panna cotta or simply nibble on them.

LEARNING TIPS:

Please CLICK the link above to access my Urb’n’Spice LEARNING TIPS, which are listed alphabetically on the Learning Tips blog post under the following subheadings:

Favourite Kitchen Tools: Spatula
Oven Temperature Accuracy
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You Might Also Enjoy these Urb’n’Spice recipes:

A Sweetheart Chocolate Torte with Feuillette

Citrus Sand Cookies

Ricciarelli – An Italian Almond Cookie

Malteser White Chocolate Mini Cheesecakes

How to Make Raspberry Mini Cheesecakes

If you try my recipe for Feuillette of Chocolate and Strawberry dessert garnish, please leave me a comment below with your feedback. Don’t forget to pin this recipe for later!

Denise Paré-Watson

The Urb’n’Spice Chef

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Tag me @urbnspice on Instagram and hashtag #urbnspice

Caramelized Pineapple with Pistachios, Lime and Coconut

By Denise Pare-Watson

This recipe for Caramelized Pineapple with Pistachios, Lime and Coconut is delightfully flavourful and simple to make. I have made many desserts that include the caramelization of apples, however; caramelizing pineapple is something that I have just started to do and I am very pleased with the result. It emphasizes the flavour of the pineapple! I have used coconut oil (also known as coconut butter), which caramelizes faster than butter and provides the added bonus of being dairy free. This recipe is a wonderful way to use a bit of leftover pineapple (or after making Pineapple Tepache) to make something uniquely delicious for breakfast or brunch or even as a healthy dessert option.

Caramelized Pineapple with Pistachios | urbnspice.com — Caramelized Pineapple with Pistachios, Lime and Coconut

Caramelized Pineapple with Pistachios, Lime and Coconut

Yield: 2 – 4 servings

CHEF TALK: Use fresh or frozen pineapple for this recipe. I had several spears of frozen pineapple to use up. The technique in this recipe worked very well for the frozen fruit. You will note that I used coconut butter and coconut sugar in the recipe, but feel free to substitute butter, cane sugar or brown sugar. I have not tried canned (well drained) pineapple tidbits, however, I think that it would also work well. If you try canned pineapple tidbits, please let me know about your result. Alternatively, diced apple can be substituted for the pineapple if you use an apple that keeps its shape when cooked such as Granny Smith or Honey Crisp. This recipe is gluten free and dairy free – for refined sugar free, substitute maple syrup or honey for the coconut sugar.

INGREDIENTS:

1 ½ tablespoons coconut butter or unsalted butter
2 cups diced pineapple (1/2 inch or smaller dice)
2 tablespoons coconut sugar or cane sugar
1/3 cup old-fashioned (whole) oats
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 teaspoon lime zest
2 tablespoons coconut shavings
2 tablespoons chopped toasted pistachios

METHOD:

Using a large frying pan, melt the coconut butter over medium heat. Add the diced pineapple, coconut sugar and oats. Toss the mixture together to coat with the coconut butter.
Stir the mixture until the pineapple and oats turn a golden colour (caramelize). Drizzle the mixture with lime juice and lime zest and allow the mixture to cool.
To serve, sprinkle with coconut shavings and chopped toasted pistachios. Caramelized pineapple is delicious served with yogurt for breakfast, or try serving it on top of pannacotta for a delicious gluten-free dessert.

Caramelizing Pineapple | urbnspice.com — Caramelizing the Pineapple

LEARNING TIPS:

Please CLICK the link above to access my Urb’n’Spice LEARNING TIPS, which are listed alphabetically on the Learning Tips blog post under the following subheadings:

Favourite Kitchen Tools: Spatula
Caramelization
__________

You Might Also Enjoy these Urb’n’Spice recipes:

Caramelized Prune Plum Frangipane Galette

Dark Cherry Vanilla Dairy Free Ice Cream

Watermelon Gelée

Greek Yogurt Lemon and Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta

How to Make a Sour (Tart) Cherry Pie

If you try my recipe for Caramelized Pineapple with Pistachios, Lime and Coconut, please leave me a comment with your feedback. Don’t forget to pin this recipe for later!

Denise Paré-Watson

The Urb’n’Spice Chef

Follow me on Social Media

Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Pinterest | Instagram

Did you Make my Recipe?

Tag me @urbnspice on Instagram and hashtag #urbnspice

Watermelon Gelée

By Denise Pare-Watson

Watermelon is one of the summer’s greatest pleasures. For my family, enjoying watermelon while sitting outside around our picnic table or on the back porch was a real pleasure. We would grab thick wedges of melon with the rind on, which made it much easier to hold onto. We would devour the bright pink fruit until we could not eat another piece, watermelon juices dribbled down our chins, which made the smiles on our faces sticky and pink and most satisfied. When I was a child, my father grew ‘Sweet Beauty’ melons in his large garden. We would always have our eye on the biggest melon in the garden and we watched it grow daily from an egg-sized oval to a monster melon. When the melon was perfectly ripe, the neighbourhood children were invited over to share the summer delicacy. It was so heavy that Dad would carry it to our rustic old table using a wheelbarrow. What a feast we had! Whenever I see watermelons today, my mind races through all those wonderful childhood memories of friends and family.

Skip to Watermelon Gelee Recipe

Skip to Raspberry Tapioca Pearls Recipe

Watermelon Gelee is simply plated, including a garnish of strawberry tinted tapioca pearls

Over my career, I have made watermelon granita; watermelon and lime sorbet, and many litres of melon infused water and other similar treats. Watermelon is quite tricky to use in desserts because of the high water content. The flavour and colour can easily be compromised if overheated. So, when I read about an intriguing dessert called Watermelon Gelée by Chef Eddy Van Damme, I wanted to experiment with it! Watermelon Gelée is a gelatine set dessert using the juice of a watermelon. The vivid pink hue is further enhanced by the addition of raspberry liqueur. A very interesting option to consider as a garnish for the dessert is the use of tapioca pearls tinted with raspberry puree. Watermelon Gelée is refreshingly fun to make and gives you a flavourful alternative when serving watermelon this summer. You need to try this! You will enjoy it.

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How to Make Raspberry Mini Cheesecakes

By Denise Pare-Watson

Have you ever noticed that most restaurants offer cheesecake on their dessert menu? It is definitely a favourite choice for many people and also for the restaurants as cheesecake stores and freezes well. I prefer making cheesecake in individualized portions, served simply with a raspberry coulis or a few fresh berries. In this post, I will share a recipe for Raspberry Mini Cheesecakes. This featured cheesecake recipe has a pink hue created by the raspberry puree which is combined with a delicious coconut crust infused with lime zest. For Valentine’s Day, I dress the cheesecakes up by creating a heart swirl decoration before it is baked. The decoration stays attractively suspended on top of the thick cheesecake batter.

Skip to Cheesecake Recipe

Raspberry Mini Cheesecake

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Coconut Orange Pudding – Dairy Free, Gluten Free, Egg free, Nut free and Refined Sugar Free

By Denise Pare-Watson

The Inspiration of Urbnspice Series

The inspiration for this Coconut Orange Pudding recipe came about due to a few points:

I had some coconut milk liquid (leftover from making whipped coconut cream)
I needed a dairy-free dessert for a lactose intolerant guest
I wanted a somewhat lighter dessert option
I had some Sunflower Butter Crumbles that I wanted to try in several different recipes (more on that later).

Coconut Orange Pudding: dairy free, gluten free, nut free, egg free, refined sugar free | urbnspice.com

Coconut Orange Pudding | urbnspice.com

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White Chocolate and Lemon Curd Tart

By Denise Pare-Watson

White Chocolate and citrus is something most people have not considered when looking for something a little different using chocolate as an ingredient. Presenting White Chocolate and Lemon Curd Tart – the combination of sweet white chocolate and lemon is a combination that pairs so beautifully together in perfect harmony. This is a decadent and impressive dessert. The curd is so silky and smooth and can be used on its own in a parfait or swirled lightly into Greek yogurt. The tart shells are pre-baked, so it really is a convenient make-ahead dessert.

White Chocolate and Lemon Curd Tart | urbnspice.com

White Chocolate Lemon Curd Tart

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Vinarterta – A Vintage Recipe

By Denise Pare-Watson

Vínarterta: what is it? It is a very flavourful, seven-layered Icelandic cake – a vintage recipe from the 1800s. The cake consists of thin layers cookie-like dough, rolled out, docked and baked just until it starts to take on a bit of colour on the edges. The traditional filling is made from prunes. For many folks, using dried prunes is a surprising filling, but you have to trust me – this stuff is good! The prunes are infused with what is known as the warming spices cardamom, cinnamon and cloves. These spices elevate the taste of the filling to something that you just know will be wonderful. The colour of the pureed prune is such a rich hue of black-brown that it makes a spectacular show in between the layers of the Vinarterta cake.

Many other fillings can be used, including seasonal apricot filling and raspberry filling. My daughter and I were discussing making a version with all three fillings in one cake. I think that this could be my next cake challenge. I would be tempted to make the layers even thinner so that I could experiment with the different coloured fillings.

Vinarterta with Apricot Filling

In culinary training, we were introduced to many cultural desserts in Baking and Pastry Arts, and this cake was one of the classic cakes we discussed during our lessons. It is delicious! I had forgotten all about this cake until my neighbour mentioned to me that she had in her possession her grandma’s vintage recipe for Vínarterta and that she had always wanted to try making it.

We spent a lovely morning making the cake together using the vintage recipe. As far as she knew, her grandmother’s recipe had sadly not been made by anyone in the family since her passing in 1978. She told me that her grandmother’s parents came to Canada in the 1800s and her grandmother was born in Canada. I am sure that there are great stories about baking this Icelandic recipe and many more dishes in their kitchen – I would have loved to be a part of that. I felt that making this cake using her recipe was a great way of honouring her grandmother. And besides, I love baking using vintage recipes.

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How to Make a Meringue Nest

By Denise Pare-Watson

I learned how to make a meringue nest early in my pastry chef career. It is an excellent idea in the pastry kitchen to have a repertoire of recipes that use an abundance of egg whites. The reason for that is because there are so many egg yolks utilized in the kitchen for crème brûlée, custards, sauces, Hollandaise and Béarnaise sauce, to name a few. We often had buckets of egg whites within a day or two of kitchen activities. Since there are only so many egg white omelettes you can make for the spa menu, using egg whites in cookies or desserts was popular – and fun! I had quite a repertoire of recipes available to use these extra egg whites and I will share some ideas with you to use in your own kitchen.

Blackberry Lime Curd in Crispy Meringue Nests

In this article, I will give you some ideas how you can use extra egg whites as well giving you as a recipe for meringue nests. On this blog, you will find recipes for Italian Almond Macaroons, Rice Flour Tuile Cookies, Earl Grey Chiffon Mini Cakes, Colourful Meringue Cookies, Chocolate Financier Cookies and many more. Making meringues are another way to use egg whites to create all kinds of excellent dessert options.

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The Reflection of a VIP Dessert Menu

By Denise Pare-Watson

(From a pastry chef’s point of view)

Today, I am sharing a Reflection of a VIP Dessert Menu. In my career as a pastry chef in a private golf and country club, VIP Dessert Menus was one of the interesting and intriguing items that frequently became an add-on to my task list at the last minute. When the Executive Chef came up to my pastry station and informed me that there was a VIP event and he needed ideas following a particular theme to pull together a special menu, I had to be quick on my feet.

: White Chocolate Crème Brûlée with a nutmeg tuile nest & lace cookie garnish

There was often not a great deal of time to reflect or ponder this menu and the pride I felt when presented and trusted with this task was very important to me. VIP events often meant a celebrity was arriving in town and it was all quite ‘hush-hush’ until the very last moment before announcing that they would be dinner guests at the club that very evening or the next. After a couple of these events, I strived to be pro-active and have a ready source of special dessert components ready in what I called my “Recipe Bible.” In that way, I could pull together a spectacular dessert with minimal time allowances.

The Reflection of a VIP Dessert Menu

Here is an example of a Canadian Themed VIP Dessert that I created at one of these VIP events. It is a flashback to 2007 and the event was for some very high profile chefs that were members of an exclusive culinary group from Texas. I called the menu “A Canadian Reflection.”

VIP LUNCHEON DESSERT MENU

25 people

“A Canadian Reflection”

*****

A Duo of Mousse:

Swirled Blueberry Mousse and Maple Mousse

Featuring Ontario Wild Blueberries and Maple Syrup from Quebec

*****

Caramelized Macedoine of Okanagan Apple,

A Wine Poached Crabapple or disk of Quince

nestled in a Tuile Leaf Boat

On a Compote of Prairie Saskatoon Berries

*****

Sauces:

Canadian Brandy Crème Anglaise

And a 24-carat Gold Syrup Reduction featuring Alberta Organic Honey

: Beautiful lacy tuile dessert garnish

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