What I Baked

This cranberry-lime galette, from Dorie Greenspan's "Baking from My Home to Yours," is absolutely incredible. The balance of flavors, the texture, everything is just right. The filling is a blend of fresh and dried cranberries, lime juice and zest, ginger, brown sugar, ground pecans, and chunks of tart apple.







This turned out very well -- delicious and light, a perfect combination of textures. The three thin cake layers are a light sponge doused with Drambuie syrup; the bottom layer of mousse is chocolate and the top layer of mousse is caramel. I'm going to treat myself to a good, flat rectangular serving dish, as this platter wasn't quite cutting it.

Macaronapalooza. Unbaked:

Baked:

Sandwiched with lemon curd:



The piece de resistance. This is an entremet from my fall class at the French Pastry School in Chicago.

Shortbread base, a layer of vanilla cream studded with raspberries (hard to see in this photo), and a layer of chocolate biscuit, all surrounded by raspberry milk chocolate mousse and glazed with a milk chocolate glaze. Each element is fairly simple on its own; the challenge is in the construction. For my first attempt at this sort of thing in my home kitchen with make-do equipment (instead of hundreds of dollars worth of Flexipan molds), I'm pretty proud of it.

I knocked myself out pretty good with all this baking (and eating) and am ready for a long winter's nap. Happy Black Friday!