Regarding dessert, tiny fruits merit tiny tarts like this recipe for a fresh apricot tart. I am trying to make smaller desserts: small-batch cookies, cakes, and (case in point) tarts. This approach yields fewer tempting leftovers. As it turns out, I have a very small and rather adorable pie plate …

Once again, I was awakened by a dream about food. This one, though, was even more specific than the one for Bistecca con Crema di Porcini. This dream was about a dessert and included all the parts of the recipe — the crust, the fruit layer, and the custard. I …

Fève(s) is a French word with several meanings – a trinket in the epiphany cake, chocolate disks used by chocolatiers and in baking, and fava beans. So in this Niçoise dessert recipe, we are talking about fava beans for the tart (tourte) filling, egg, sugar, and hints of citrus. The …

A traditional recipe from Provence, pissaladière is a flatbread with caramelized onions and often a few anchovies as garnish. Although pissaladière is commonly found in bakeries throughout Provence, the dish originates from the City of Nice on the French Riviera. Given the city’s proximity to Italy, which only became part …

Author, chef, and journalist Susan Herrmann Loomis shares her recipe (below) for a delicious lemon tart. One of the recipes in her cookbook Plat du Jour: French Dinners Made Easy, this French classic tarte au citron is the perfect balance of sweet and sour. The recipe is straightforward, and the …

We all know that French pastry chefs have perfected tempting (and beautiful) fruit tarts, but there is an equally long repertoire of savoury tarts. Perhaps the best known is a classic quiche Lorraine. Then there is the delicious combination of sliced onion, lardon and crème fraîche that makes Flammekueche (Tarte …

As you know, I am a big fan of traditional foods. One of my favourites is the Tarte Tatin, an upside-down apple tart. While there are many upside-down tarts and cakes in French cuisine (tartes renversées, gateaux renversés), the Tatin is made with apples. The Tarte Tatin was created (by …

Today’s recipe combines one of my recipes and one by my friend Inger, who writes The Art of Natural Living. She posted a pear frangipane tart sometime before Christmas, and I had been tasked with finding a Christmas dessert with a 1999 Château d’Yquem Sauternes (thanks, Lee!). Such a problem …

One of my favourite desserts is seasonal fruit tarts (tartes aux fruits). These tarts also make nice afternoon treats. So, I make them all year with local, in-season produce. In California, you find puff pastry sheets at most grocery stores (Ralphs, Gelson’s) and at French supermarkets like Carrefour or Intermarché. …

Recently, I posted a picture of an Apple Creme Brûlée tart, or what essentially could be called the love child of a creme brulee and an apple tart.