Pink Marbled Meringues

When I went to check my mail, I found a magazine attention to me which I had not paid for and received with no charge or invoice.  While I was reading it, I came across a recipe for meringues, which was a big eye-opener for me since my husband's work was having a Kid's Christmas Party.  I have got to tell you that meringues are the most easiest to make!  Although, it does take a long time to bake!  The meringues are sweet, crunchy and oh~so~ light.  For a sophisticated yet simple ending to a dinner party, crumble a couple of them over a bowl of ice cream then top with fruit.

The first couple times, I made it on my Kitchen-aid Stand Mixer and the most recent was at my sister's house with her hand-mixer and I have learned that the egg whites "does not get stiff" without a stand mixer!  When I piped out stars, all I got was round balls ... or maybe the quality of the hand-mixer wasn't so great?  I do not know!

Green Tea Cranberry Cookies

These Green Tea Cranberry Cookies are bitter from the green tea, slightly sweet and chewy from the dried cranberries.

Recently, I had made this for a Christmas Party while visiting my sister in LA, but I could not find Green Tea Powder which is one of the ingredients in this cookie.  I had learned to never buy the actual green tea bags and grind them!  It does not give that bright green color, so I cheated by adding food coloring, which I should not have done.  The best Green Tea Powder is the Powdered Matcha Green Tea.  I buy mine from a local chinese grocery store and to note, it may be pricey.  I buy mine for $13 for 100grams.

    

Sugar Cookies

It has been a while now and we decided to make every Saturday a family event by doing something with the kids and come to think of it, all the events we had somehow had something to do with eating.  Possibly because my husband used to be a chef and also loves cooking and baking like I do.  My two younger ones have a lot of interest in the kitchen as well; not only eating, but with a mind full of curiosity, they have the "need" to do something especially in the kitchen.  When my second son was 2 years old, he would come to the kitchen while I am cooking/baking and dig for a spatula to help me.  He once tip-toed to try to stick a spatula in the fry pan on the stove, which I did not let him do because it was hot.  Anyways, this event was done early December last year and the kids loved it!  I was a little bit disappointed of my boys though because the first cookie they made "had" to be a men in an underwear!  You know that saying, "Boy's will be boys"?  Well, that was it!  =)

Ready to decorate:

  

Finished product:

Banana Orange Cranberry Muffins / Banana Walnut Muffins

Banana Orange Cranberry Muffins

Banana Walnut Muffins

Chocolate Chip Cookies

These chocolate chip cookies are moist, nutty from the brown sugar and well, who doesn't love chocolate chip cookies?  I have been receiving many raves for my cookies and you won't believe it, but the most I made was probably almost 300 cookies for a church Christmas event in 2011.  For my cookies, I like to use swirl white and milk chocolate chips.  It gives the creaminess from the white chocolate and sweetness from the milk chocolate.

Popovers

My husband was at work when the cafeteria served Popovers, he had several ideas of if we opened a business, maybe we could serve soup inside the Popovers, so I stumbled across a recipe and the result of serving soup in a Popover was a failure.  However, the Popovers actually tasted great and was one of the most easiest recipe to make!  These Popovers are great with soup or even make it as a snack by adding ham and cheese before baking or any ingredients you would like to add. =)  On my first batch, I made this as written in the recipe, but it was a bit bland, so I added a bit of sugar.  And several batches after that, I added cheese to them.  I thought this recipe was so interesting because the recipe doesn't ask for baking powder or baking soda and wondered how this can rise, but it was the two different temperatures when you bake them that makes the Popovers "pop".  With my word of mouth, you may not believe it, so all I have to say is try them out.  Whenever I make these, I always like to watch them "pop" because it amuses me every time. =)  The popovers are always great as soon as they are out of the oven, hot, still moist and crusty.

  

Vanilla Yellow Cupcake with Creamy Chocolate Frosting

Who's not going to love the taste of soft moist cupcakes with creamy chocolate frosting!  This would be the perfect "birthday" cupcake especially for kids or even those chocolate lovers!

I find that there is a big difference with Pure Vanilla Extract and Imitation Vanilla Extract.  You really don't want to buy imitations for anything!

Introduction to Pâtisserie D'amour

So, this is my first post on my blog and to start off my blog, I will introduce myself and the reason I made this blog.

Hello Everyone!!  My name is Esther and I am a home-baker.  My blog is about the "goodies" I bake.  I love to bake and when I am baking, I feel like I am in a totally different world like there is a dome around me and I feel like I'm at peace.  =)  Also, I have an urge to give because well, I just love to give to others and share my love, but unfortunately, there's not enough people to give to(at least that I know of), so I made a blog to share my bakings/goodies.  I feel that if I share on my blog, it will satisfy my urge to give.  I apologize if my pictures I post aren't so great.  I will try my best to get the best pictures up, but to note, I'm a baker, not a photographer.  I have an over-filled mind with ideas for baking; I dream and have been dreaming for several years to go to culinary/baking school one day to expand my "skills" for baking, but it is too pricey for me, so I learn at home from trying out and tweaking many many recipes from books, online, and even a simple picture posted.  Also, I dream to open up a bakery one day(and been told to open one), so I can give as much as I can and want. ^^*

As per my blog name, Pâtisserie D'amour, it is in French and translates as "Love Pastry".  After many thoughts of my blog name, I have decided to name it, Pâtisserie D'amour because it sounded more romantic than "Cuisson de l'amour" meaning "Love Baking" or "Boulangeries de l'amour" meaning "Love Bakeries".  There probably may be many other translations, but this is what seemed to "click" to me.  I love pastries too, but my blog will be about all different kinds of baked goods; from sweets to beer smelling bread(beer smelling bread is actually a good thing for yeast breads because when the dough is well-risen, a great bread smell like beer which means, soft and moist bread). ^^*

I hope you all like what you see and do not forget to comment(at least good ones that is...).