Palmiers

Palm trees, with their confident sway and big evergreen leaves, symbolize the easy, sun-blessed Californian lifestyle.  But they also remind me of a cookie - Palmier, meaning "palm tree" in French, named for its shape resembling a palm leaf.  Palmiers are made by rolling a sheet of puff pastry in sugar, and folding it twice in opposite directions (it's easier to show this than explain it! For step-by-step instructions, please visit my other website:  www.yukokitazawa.com).  

While it is not documented who first came up with the idea, research shows the cookies were 

invented in the beginning of the twentieth century.  It is believed the French adopted the Middle Eastern method of layering thin sheets of pastry with sugar and spices (i.e., in baklava).  Others say, however, that Palmiers originated in Vienna, where they are traditionally served with coffee or tea.  

Whatever the origin, these cookies are highly addictive, with the  comforting flavors of butter and caramelized sugar. And they're very easy to make with store-bought puff pastry dough, which I recommend because no sane person really has the time or patience to make puff pastry from scratch.  

Baked Alaska

No, I'm not going to lead this post with some bad joke about Sarah Palin's rumored visits to a tanning salon.  It's a year too late for that.    

The Baked Alaska is a strange dessert.  It's baked and frozen at the same time.  It consists of a sponge cake base, ice cream, and a meringue topping.  The meringue is browned just before serving.  

Here's an individual-sized Baked Alaska I made for Valentine's Day. 

This dish is said to have originated in China.  The idea was introduced to France in 1866 when a master cook from a visiting Chinese delegation taught the French chef Balzaac of the Grand Hotel in Paris how to prepare a dessert of vanilla and ginger ice creams baked in a pastry crust. The French named their dish Surprise Omelette.  Benjamin Thompson, the American-born physicist who later earned the title Count Rumford, is credited with the idea of adding meringue on top, which acts as both an excellent insulator and a poor conductor of heat, thus preventing the ice cream from melting as the meringue was browned in the oven.  

Using this information at the turn of the century, Jean Giroix, pastry chef at the Hotel De Paris in Monte Carlo, popularized the modern form of the dessert.  Now it was called Omelette Norwegienne, possibly because of its resemblance to arctic ice.  The creation then appeared at Delmonico's restaurant in New York City, where it was called "Alaska and the Florida", representing the temperature differences of these two geographic areas and the two components of the dish.  

The first recorded use of the name Baked Alaska is in the 1909 edition of the Fannie Meritt Farmer Cookbook.  Farmer is credited as one of those involved in coming up with the name, in celebration of America's purchase of Alaska in 1868 (though it was a bit after the fact).