My Homemade Pastry Cream Fruit Tart

My friend came over to join me in a baking session, and it turned out we chose to make something that required no baking at all! Using my new Miette cookbook, we chose to make a berry cream tart.


It came out really well, a little soft, but super tasty. It was very simple to make, and I switched up some things which saved a lot of time. I bought the pie crust pre-made at the grocery store, and I used vanilla extract instead of steeping a vanilla bean.


The custard is rich in flavor, the salty graham cracker crust balances out the sweetness, and the berries add the perfect tartness. For a light summery dessert this is amazing!

The Hall at Palihouse

Sunday night I had dinner with three girls from highschool at The Hall Courtyard Brasserie at Palihouse. We ordered two desserts - the Chocolate Banana Muffin and the Blackberry Tarte. I was hesitant to order the muffin, because who wants a muffin for dessert? But since it was the only chocolate on the menu, we had to, and I'm so glad we did. This was no muffin at all, maybe muffin batter... It was like a hot gooey chocolate pudding topped with sauteed bananas an caramelized/candied walnuts. It was unreal.

The tarte was good too, I'm not a huge blackberry fan but topped with vanilla ice cream, it complimented the heavy chocolate of the "muffin" well. It was very pretty too!

Desert Desserts

While in Las Vegas last weekend I came across a few amazing desserts...

TAO -
This is Tao's famous Fortune Cookie which is stuffed with vanilla mousse on one side and chocolate mousse on the other. Its really good, especially the chocolate side! The vanilla side was good, similar to a whipped cream, but pretty bland. The chocolate mousse was very dense and flavorful. The cookie itself was great too, not like a stale Chinese food one. It was crispy and tasty as it was dipped in dark chocolate with white chocolate sprinkles. Best part: sleezy fortunes inside for everyone!


BELLAGIO BUFFET -
I could not believe that this spread of desserts was available for breakfast! Although I don't usually crave sweets in the morning, I had to try some of these because they looked too good to miss, and since they were all in such small portions, I had to try a few....






My favorite was the Chocolate Pie. It was amazing! It reminded me of this chocolate fudge cake Pitzer cafeteria would serve, and I would binge eat. It was very dense had a rich dark chocolate flavor. It kind of tasted like eating frosting out of the container...but really really good frosting.

Aroma Bakery Cafe

Ilana and I went to Aroma on Sunset the other night after a concert and it was such a great late night treat. I love places with big menus, and this menu was HUGE! It was as if The Cheesecake Factory was smaller, and Israeli. Our food was great, but the desserts were better. There was so much to choose from, but I picked a warm chocolate cake served with amazing vanilla ice cream and whipped cream. It was great, mainly because the texture of the cake, which was very spongy, absorbed all the chocolate sauce that was drenching it. The combination of the hot cake with the cold ice cream is the best thing ever. The actual flavor of the chocolate was not anything to rave about, but overall it was good.


The other desserts in the case looked so good! I'll have to go back and try everything else!