Birthday Macarons

My pal Ayalah has her birthday in the summer which was the perfect timing for a picnic!
Because she has a serious sweet tooth and also loves France I made her some macarons.

I picked up the cutest book (I heart macarons) at a cooking store in St. Johns and was itching to use it.
I made yellow with chocolate ganache filling and a cinnamon with cardamon milk tea filling. TASTY!

Cinnamon roooooollllls

Cinnamon roooooollllls, originally uploaded by girl from finito.

Been doing more baking and cooking as of late. These have been made twice. They are really good and - learning to be a bit more patient - they have risen and worked out really nicely. ahhhh hot fresh cinnamon buns. lovely. They have one extra step which makes them a bit more unique than others - when you roll out the dough you fold in a layer of cream cheese and then re-roll.. oooh so tasty.
The recipe come from Saveur magazine.. yum!

Vegan Peach Cobbler

Vegan Peach Cobbler, originally uploaded by girl from finito.

Horrah for peach season! I had a few friends over on tuesday and whipped up a vegan cobbler for them. I replaced the butter with all vegetable shortening, the whipping cream with soy milk and omitted the blueberries (which I admit would have been really nice).. I cooked it in ramekins in a water bath as an alternative to serving it in one dish which worked out quite well.... yummy yummy yummy.

PEACH AND BLUEBERRY COBBLER
from A Matter of Taste .. Waverman and Chatto
filling....
4 cups sliced peeled peaches
1 cup blueberries
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp brown sugar to taste
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1 Tbsp butter
topping....
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 cup butter, diced
1/4 cup whipping cream

preheat oven to 350
combine peaches blueberries, lemon juice, brown sugar, and cornstarch.
place in a buttered 8in square baking dish and dot with butter
combine flour, cornmeal, brown sugar and nutmeg for topping. cut in butter until mixture is crumbly. stir in cream until mixture is just moistened.
drop batter by heaping spoonfuls onto fruit mixture. Topping will spread slightly during baking.
bake for 30 minutes, or until topping is golden and fruit is bubbling. serve warm.

blackberry apple crisp

blackberry apple crisp, originally uploaded by girl from finito.

Ever feel like making desert at 7 at night.. defrost your fruit and get everything ready only to find the store is closed and you are short a cup.. thank goodness for friends around the corner who have apples.. yeah katie!