Pâte de fruit: two flavors

Pâte de fruit is a sophisticated holiday treat made from pure fruit puree. Its translation means fruit paste, but it more resembles a jelly candy. The process is much like making jam, but with a stronger gelling agent. Most high-end chocolatiers and confiseries carry this sweet treat, which can be quite pricey. They are best eaten right away, which is usually not a problem; they get gobbled up immediately. They can be made with any flavor of fruit, but berries tend to be popular, both due to their distinctive flavors and bright hues. Although some of the ingredients in this recipe are hard to find, it's worth searching them out to achieve the proper results.

Nougat

Nougat, this week's recipe, is a common Christmastime treat is southern Europe. It is made from egg whites, honey, nuts, and sometimes dried fruit. It's a popular sweet in France, Italy (torrone), Spain (turron), Greece (mandolato), and Malta (qubbajd). It is also used in many candy bars, including the duty-free airport favorite Toblerone, which this recipe tells you how to make with the scraps. It keeps for about a month, so it makes the perfect holiday gift to make in advance and ship to friends and family who can't be together this time of year. 

Happy Anniversary Bouchon Bakers!

Well bakers, it's been a whole year since we started this blog. That's right, we have successfully completed 53 weeks of baking, for a grand total of 76 recipes! And that's not including all the creams and fillings we had to make in order to complete those recipes. Believe it or not, that's only halfway there. There's still a lot of baking in our future, with puff pastry, croissants, and breads still to come. 

To celebrate this occasion, we were inspired by the season. We decided to pumpkin-ize our favorite recipes so far, just like Bouchon Bakery does in its bakeries this time of year. Our bakers chose from a few options offered at the bakery, featured in this article. 

We hope everyone has enjoyed reading about our baking adventure, and that you continue to follow us as we finish the book. As always, feel free to email us with your own baking exploits, and we'll be happy to feature you on the blog.