Julia Child-Lets try it again! Ratatouille and Tarte Tatin

Well book club got canceled last week, so Andy and I ended up incorporating a lot of cheesy puffs into the meals of the following days!!

We rescheduled, so I had time to look for some Julia type recipes. I decided on Ratatouille and Tarte Tatin. I'd never made either and I was very happy with both.

We had a lovely discussion about Julia. It was a great book to read even for those amongst us who aren't that bothered about food and cooking. I don't know much about her apart from this book and she just sounds like a wonderful woman. There are a few people that you meet in life that just touch you so profoundly that just to be in their presence makes you feel inspired. She sounds like one of these people. It also was encouraging to those of us who aren't sure where their lives are headed, to realize that we should follow our dream and that there is still time for us to change our lives for the better.

Ratatouille was a dish I'd not thought about cooking for years. Having given up meat for over half of my life, I've seen bad versions of it on too many pub and restaurant menus to have any interest whatsoever. I'd seen a lot of people who were cooking it and it seemed the perfect way to use up my eggplant. I used the recipe from the Washington Post and followed it as closely as possible. I think it was worth the effort of cooking things separately, it might be easier and safer to cook in the oven next time for the final cooking. I'm not a huge fan of green pepper, so I'm pretty sure I'll be cutting down on that next time, there was tons of it!

Tarte Tatin is so easy I'm sure I'll be making it again, the lovely chocolate and zucchini steered me towards a caramel preparation which was just divine. I ended up preparing the caramel and apples the night before along with the pastry and then assembling and cooking the next day. I was too embarrassed to be taking pictures at book club so you'll have to be satisfied with seeing the tart before I added the pastry.

I found that instead of her delicious looking caramelized apples, I had some soft apples with a delicious syrup over them. It was nice and not soggy and got snapped up with no leftovers, but I will try again by making it and cooking immediately. I'd say this needs to be eaten immediately before the pastry becomes all soggy.

Incidentally, this is yet another style of preparation of pastry, combining butter and sugar with a fork, then combining flour with the fork.

My changes to the recipe were that I used a 9" cake tin and I substituted some golden syrup for the sugar. 'Cos everything is better with treacle! I'd say that it was on the sweet side, so the tartness of the apples dictate how much sugar needs to be added.

Tarte Tatin Caramel au Beurre Salé from Chocolate and Zucchini

- 5 apples (I decide 4 braeburns would be enough as America makes everything bigger!)
Crust:
- 170 g (1 1/3 C) flour
- 85 g (1/3 C) sugar (preferably unrefined cane sugar)
- 85 g (3/4 stick) salted butter, at room temperature (I used half salted half unsalted)
- a little milk
Caramel:
- 70 g (1/4 C) brown sugar
- 35 g (1/3 stick) salted butter at room temperature, diced

(Serves 6 to 8.)

In a medium mixing-bowl, combine 85 g of sugar and 85 g of butter with a fork. Add in the flour, and keep mixing with the fork. When the dough forms even crumbs, add in a dash of milk, and knead the dough with your hands to form a ball. If the dough does not come together after about a minute, add in a tad more milk and knead again. The idea is to add the milk little by little to stop at just the right dough consistency (if you've added too much and the dough gets impossibly sticky, compensate with flour). Wrap in shrink wrap and put in the fridge to rest for 30 minutes.

Butter the sides of a 25-cm (10-inch) cake pan.

Put 70 g of brown sugar in a small nonstick saucepan, and put over medium-low heat until the sugar melts. As soon as it's melted (work quickly to avoid overcooking the caramel, which would result in a slight bitterness), remove from heat, add in 35 g of butter and stir to form a paste. Pour this paste in the cake pan, and use the back of a spoon to spread it over the bottom. It's okay if the bottom is not entirely covered, but try to make it as even as you can. Set aside.

Rinse, peel, and cut the apples in eighth. Arrange the apple pieces prettily over the caramel in the pan.

Preheat the oven to 180°C (360°F).

Take the ball of dough out from the fridge, lightly flour a clean work surface, and use a rolling pin to roll the dough out in a circle slightly larger than the pan. Transfer the circle of dough over the apples, and tuck in the outer rims. Prick the dough in a few places with a fork.

Put into the oven to bake for 45 minutes to an hour, until the dough turns golden and your home is filled with wonderful caramely apple fumes.

Take the pan out of the oven, run a knife around the sides of the pan and flip it onto a serving dish. If one or two apple pieces have stuck to the bottom of the pan, just put them back where they belong on the tart.

Serve warm (not piping hot) on its own, or with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream or a dollop of crème fraîche/sour cream/yogurt.

Daring Baking! Bostini Cream Pie

I really enjoyed giving myself a new challenge by joining the daring bakers. I don't normally make chiffon cakes, and I've never made custard in my life! This was a very rich dessert, I had one and was very full when I'd finished. The chiffon cake was nice, but I was annoyed with myself for not being diligent and beating the egg whites enough and it was more chewy than fluffy. The orange was a delicious accent to the dessert. My favourite part was the custard, really decadent, and I was grateful for the fact it was nice and silky and didn't set as I usually don't like solid custard. I divided the recipe into 3 and made it into 4 desserts. I sent one in to work with my husband and some people shared the other two and they were gone within seconds, with lots of good reports, so maybe I was being a little hard on myself!

Here are the little mushroom cakes that I made in small ramekins, and the custard when I plated it. You can see that the custard was fairly firm but not completely solid...

Thanks so much daring bakers for accepting me with open arms, I think I'm going to learn a lot!!




Bostini Cream Pie
(from Donna Scala & Kurtis Baguley of Bistro Don Giovanni and Scala's Bistro)
Daring Bakers Challenge #12: October 2007

Serving Size: 8 Generous Sevings

Ingredients:

Custard:
3/4 cup whole milk
2 3/4 tablespoons cornstarch
1 whole egg, beaten
9 egg yolks, beaten
3 3/4 cups heavy whipping cream
1/2 vanilla bean (EDITED:vanilla extract is okay)
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon sugar

Chiffon Cake:
1 1/2 cups cake flour
3/4 cup superfine sugar
1 1/3 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup canola oil
1/3 cup beaten egg yolks (3 to 4 yolks)
3/4 cup fresh orange juice
1 1/2 tablespoons grated orange zest
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup egg whites (about 8 large)
1 teaspoon cream of tartar

Chocolate Glaze:
8 ounces semi or bittersweet chocolate
8 ounces unsalted butter

Instructions:

To prepare the custard:

Combine the milk and cornstarch in a bowl; blend until smooth. Whisk in the whole egg and yolks, beating until smooth. Combine the cream, vanilla bean and sugar in a saucepan and carefully bring to a boil. When the mixture just boils, whisk a ladleful into the egg mixture to temper it, then whisk this back into the cream mixture. Cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Strain the custard and pour into 8 large custard cups. Refrigerate to chill.

To prepare the chiffon cakes:

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Spray 8 molds with nonstick cooking spray. You may use 7-ounce custard cups, ovenproof wide mugs or even large foil cups. Whatever you use should be the same size as the custard cups.

Sift the cake flour, sugar, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Add the oil, egg yolks, orange juice, zest and vanilla. Stir until smooth, but do not overbeat.

Beat the egg whites until frothy. Add the cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks form. Gently fold the beaten whites into the orange batter. Fill the sprayed molds nearly to the top with the batter.

Bake approximately 25 minutes, until the cakes bounce back when lightly pressed with your fingertip. Do not overbake. Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack. When completely cool, remove the cakes from the molds. Cover the cakes to keep them moist.

To prepare the glaze:

Chop the chocolate into small pieces. Place the butter in a saucepan and heat until it is just about to bubble. Remove from the heat; add the chocolate and stir to melt. Pour through a strainer and keep warm.

To assemble:

Cut a thin slice from the top of each cake to create a flat surface. Place a cake flat-side down on top of each custard. Cover the tops with warm chocolate glaze. Serve immediately.

Cabin Fever and Everton Toffee recipe

I found myself indoors with the doors and windows closed for three days this week, trying to avoid watching too much tv as it was just starting to get me worried, with all the sensational reporting. I've since found out that my favourite farm has lost their home, so I'm really sad for them. If anyone knows of any way I can help then please leave me a comment.

On the first day I made myself feel better by baking rye bread from scratch, and the kneading definitely made me feel better. Simply recipes had a great recipe and I followed it to the letter although it made so much that I decided to half the recipe. I incorporated flax seeds and sunflower seeds along with the caraway and they made a delicious addition. It made a wonderful cheese and pickle sandwich the next day!

On the second day I made ravioli from scratch. Now I know how easy it is I'll definitely try it again. The great Jamie Oliver came to the rescue, his book 'the naked chef' is very handy for these basic techniques.

Well fed reminded me I'd been meaning to make the delicious espresso muffins straight out of Heidi Swansons Super Natural Cooking. Wow, they are wonderful. Not too sweet but sweet enough. Perfect breakfast or a wonderful afternoon pick me up. They will probably replace my usual banana bread recipe. I might cut down the walnuts slightly next time as that does add a lot of calories.

The third day my friend from work came round and we tried Joe's shortbread, which was nice but somehow I found the ginger was maybe not quite to my taste. It either needed a lot more, or to be taken out. I do think this would make a wonderful base for a very naughty dessert, maybe a pumpkin cheesecake.

We also made Everton Toffee from my old english recipe book. I fancied caramels so I decided not to go to the hard candy point, and it actually ended up settting up like fudge. Maybe this was because I decided to add walnuts just before I cooled them and it crystallized them. It was truly delicious and I took it to work and tried to keep away from it but it was really hard!!











Everton Toffee from the Dairy Book of Home Cooking

60ml (4tbsp) water
100g (4oz) butter
350g (12oz) demerera sugar (I used soft light brown sugar
30ml (2 tbsp) golden syrup
15 ml (1 tbsp) black treacle/molasses

1. Put all ingredients into a saucepan
2. Heat slowly, stirring, until butter melts and sugar dissolves
3. Bring to the boil. Cover pan. Boil gently for 2 mins
4. Uncover and continue to boil, stirring occasionly for 10-15mins, or until it reaches 138c or 280f (I stopped it at 250f)
5. Pour into a greased 15 cm (6in) square tin. Leave until hard (I used a loaf pan)
6. Turn out onto a board. Break up with a hammer or rolling pin (mine was like fudge and I cut it into squares with a knife)
7. Store in an airtight container between greaseproof paper.

Cheesy Puffs and Julia Child

For bookclub this month we read Julia Child's 'My life in France', which I thoroughly enjoyed, it was really wonderful hearing about her cooking experiences, and inspiring to think that someone can make a go of a new career at 37.

I decided to make something retro-Cheese Puffs. This also helped me to practice a new technique from class- choux pastry which seemed like the oddest method I'd ever heard of! These turned out well, I served them with a UK staple, Branston pickle, the perfect accompaniment to cheddar cheese. I also discovered that the grated cheese made it really hard to pipe, I'd recommend dolloping them on the sheet pan with a teaspoon.

Another presentation might be to make the pastries a little bigger, and then fill with sour cream and sundried tomatoes.

Cheese Puffs

350c convection oven 15 mins then 325 for 8 mins (conventional 375-400 15 mins then 325 15 mins)

8 oz water
4oz butter
2 tsp salt
6oz bread flour
9oz eggs
6oz sharp cheddar
6 scallions, finely chopped, or chives

Boil the water and butter in a saucepan
Turn heat down and add salt and flour then mix vigorously over a low heat with a wooden spoon
Stir until it becomes a dough
Transfer to a mixer with a paddle and stir for 2 minutes on a low speed
Add eggs 2 at a time once mix has cooled.
Scrape down bowl and mix for another 30 seconds, mix in cheddar and scallions then drop teaspoon sized dollops onto a wax paper covered sheet pan.

Bake in oven then open oven with a fork to release steam for the second cooking period.

Here are the piped pastries ready to cook.

Miserable with the fires

I'm lucky enough to be far away from the fires here in Hillcrest, San Diego. I've been sent home from work so I'm just watching telly and worrying about how everyone is doing. If anyone knows of any volunteering I can do in the area please let me know. :(

I hope everyone is ok and the wind calms down soon.

Eating out-La Vache

Well, we've recently revisited one of our local favorites, La Vache in Hillcrest. Its so close that it would have to be pretty bad for us to stop visiting. The restaurant is a nice cosy little bistro and is usually fairly busy, although they dont allow reservations for less than 4.

They definitely have their positives and negatives, on the plus side, they have delicious crusty bread with a lovely soft interior, with delicious chive butter. They also have a reasonably priced wine list. We find that the service is variable, despite the fact we've been visiting frequently for over 2 years now!!

Its the kind of place that we always order the same thing, the boys just love the charcuterie plate. It comes with some fairly average brie, a lovely pate, and a few different salamis. There is a really nicely dressed bit of salad on the side.

The boys always have exactly the same thing, steak au poivre with fries, medium rare. Its served more on the french side of medium rare and they never order anything else. They feel that there is no point ordering this dish anywhere else, la vache is without equal. The fries are very thin and just perfectly seasoned and cooked.

I order all kinds of different things, the shrimp and scallop salad is delicious, I've had their gnocci and pizza and the fish is ok. I often order the scallops on pastry with a saffron sauce, although I'm always a little disappointed by the over-use of saffron.

We've tried all of the desserts on the menu and they all seem to be from the freezer, bought from outside with the exception of the crepes, which were rubbery. The lemon tart is passable, creme brulee is orange flavored although its not mentioned on the menu. I'd advise going elsewhere.

WCB-Tina on the balcony

Oh crikey, could you get down from there please, its really high up!!

She did show off her big soft belly though, bless her!

Pumpkin Muffins

I discovered that pumpkins go quite a long way. I tried joe's pumpkin ravioli, which I enjoyed, but found that wonton wrappers were a bit slimy compared to real pasta, although it was definitely a good alternative at 7pm on a Wednesday, otherwise we'd have been having dinner at midnight!!
Then I saved the seeds, rinsed and toasted them (gosh that was delicious!!).

I still had lots of pumpkin left, so I made these muffins from Baking Bites. I wasnt going to mention them, but they grew on me. I put them in the freezer and had one as an afternoon snack and it was very tasty. I also tried one with a smear of ricotta with a persimmon for breakfast which was lovely. I pretty much stuck to the recipe but instead of the sunflower seeds I added 1/3 cup walnuts and 1/3 cup choc chips. I used half white whole wheat flour and wheat germ instead of wheat bran.

Would you believe I still had some pumpkin left!!! I blended this with some coconut milk and made it into a delicious panang curry. Mmmm.

Portland, Oregon- beer, chocolate, cheese and wine

We loved Portland, even with the chilly drizzly weather, it seemed like a lovely place. The people all seemed really nice and very funny, properly nice like they meant it. You could tell from their bellies that they liked a good pint and we also loved the surrounding outdoors. We were sad to leave and even after 4 days there, felt we hadn't even scratched the surface.

Day 1

We arrived at 8pm, enough time to wander out and get a pint and a snacky dinner before retiring. Our hotel was right in Downtown, so we started walking and came upon Henry's Tavern. It was a lively place and perfect for what we wanted.

My favourite thing we had was the spinach and artichoke dip. I'm not normally a fan, but it was really full of spinach and very tasty instead of the nasty weird vinegary pale green stuff I'm used to. Went really well with the heferweisen too!

Day 2

Bacon was a necessity in order to get Andy moving, so we found a lovely little cafe, Bijou Cafe. It was all decked out in blue check tablecloths and had the requisite bacon, and I enjoyed a nice bowl of oatmeal with raisins, hazelnuts and brown sugar. Mmmm. After wandering around in the cold for several hours, I started feeling quite miserable so the perfect solution was a lunch from mothers bistro. I had some warming vegetable bisque with half an egg sandwich and Andy enjoyed a real stick-to-your-ribs crab cake sandwich with some delicious fries. That was all very warming, with some local beer. I loved that they gave us a couple of delightful cookies with the check.

After all that eating we needed to do much more yomping, we wandered around checking all the cool shops in the Pearl District and nearly got lost in Powells but finally made it back out as the sun was starting to set. We looked for a reviving cup of tea at the hotel but couldn't find one, so headed back out to sample some of the bars that Portland is famous for. There was a nice little one at the corner of our road near our hotel so we started there, then made our way up to the Rogue brewery. We had a nice couple of pints, but the smoke really put us off, we ended up moving on, thinking it was about time for dinner, but we ended up in a rather soulless pub, if we were back home it would have been a Weatherspoons pub! We finally came upon Jake's Famous Crawfish (only now do I realise its part of a gigantic chain!!) and settled on a salad (now thats very uncharacteristic of andy!!) and crabcakes to share and quite a nice pint. It was good people watching but pretty average food. Oh well, at least we were close to our beds!

Day 3

I really fancied trying one of the bakeries for brekkie so we wandered over to Pearl Bakery. It was delicious, Andy was sated with a ham and gruyere croissant, I had a delicious chocolate croissant, and we shared a gibassier, a rich eggy dough with aniseed in and sugar on top. MMM. Highly recommend it.

This gave us lots of energy for exploring and we decided to make the most of the good weather forecast to go and explore. We drove to the coast, had a yomp around on some cliffs, then drove down to the pelican brewery for lunch. By this time we were absolutely starving and ended up a ridiculous amount of fried food! We got an enormous stack of onion rings and fish and chips. The chips were tops, the rest of it was a bit average. We celebrated our feast by running up a gigantic sand dune. That made us feel a bit better but andy felt a bit gippy from all that fried stuff well into the evening.

We popped into the Tillamook Cheese Factory on the way back. We loved looking at the workings of the factory and the cool robots (andy's favourite being the one that 'poos cheese into a bag'). And we got to try the cheese curds, mmmm squeaky!!

Thanks so much to Noble rot for putting up with us getting there, putting our name down for a table, then changing our mind twice! We had a few lovely glasses of wine, a delicious cheese plates and a salad with macaroni cheese. We really enjoyed it there, a really nice little neighbourhood bar.

Day 4
On Saturday I decided that more bacon was in order and we found a trendy little place, Cafe in the Pearl. They satisfied andy's liking for bacon, and I had some giant granola pancakes of which I just about managed half!! It was more interesting people watching, although it was a bit full of kiddies. There seem to be an awful lot more kids per capita than anywhere I've been apart from Wall Mart. That gave us lots of energy, I got to pop into some more shops (yay tax free!!) and then we made our way up to the japanese garden. Very cool. We also had a wander around the rose garden and it was all very nice but we were chilled through to the bone.

We then went and dumped the car and made a pilgrimage to Sahagun Homemade Chocolates. I had a cup of chocolate and a delicious caramel with a hazlenut on top. Crikey! I got one of those big chocolate buzzes on and felt quite strange!

Having satisfied my indulgence we continued west to the Elephants Deli, and enjoyed a couple of glasses of wine. Getting a bit peckish we decided to order a cheese plate. Forgetting we were in a deli, when the guy asked how much we wanted to spend we said '$20' and ended up with what seemed like our own body weights in beautiful double brie, stilton and something very stinky with ash running through.

After doing our best and finishing the bread, we walked the cheese around our systems for a bit by enjoying the delights of SW 21st street shops. There were some wonderful shops, I picked up some very cool boots.
We then got all dolled up for our special evening. We had a nice glass of wine at Vino Paradiso which contrasting with all the guide books, which said it was impossibly poncy, was actually friendly and empty with very cool artwork.

We then made our way to Blue Hour. Now that was impossibly trendy and I certainly felt a bit out of place, but I had my nice shirt on and they were very nice to us, although there was confusion over our table, and I'd have been happier just being seated and fed, instead of waiting and moving to another table. The highlight of the meal was definitely the main course, I had a beautiful sole, Andy had a delicious duck two ways. It was a truly lovely meal and a very nice experience.
I think the most amusing thing was what we decided was a 'cheese sommalier', a white jacketed man who had a bunch of cheeses encased in a perspex box, with many flourishes and much explanation. It conjured up images of Monty Python type humour and we couldnt help but snigger a little bit! Unfortunately we'd had more than enough cheese that day so we didnt get to see it first hand.

Day 5
We went for a walk along the river and gaped at all the marathon runners, then made our way to Veritable Quandry for brunch. Unfortunately it was a bit of a mixed bag, as Andy didnt read the menu very carefully, so he ended up with the bacon egg and french toast. Sweet french toast is really not his thing so he dint really enjoy it. Thankfully it was served with a delicious potato cake. I had a really delicious piece of rainbow trout, the skin beautifully crunchy, with a lovely lemony hollandaise sauce and arugula.

We managed a quick trip to the waterfall before going back to the airport and enjoyed a delicious picnic, the leftover cheese with some nice multigrain bread and salads from the elephants deli. I also enjoyed one of their walnut squares on the plane on the way home and it was absolutely wonderful.

We left Portland a little sad, and cant wait to go back and see more!

Weekend Cat Blogging-Tina mucky paws

I think you'll agree that my lovely Tina is very proud of her mucky paw prints, she's done a particularly careful job today, went out in the rain and then straight into the litter box, then straight on the coffee table.

Lets not even talk about the fact she's not technically even allowed on the bloody coffee table shall we?!

Aaaah, nice cup of tea and....

a Flapjack.

Seems like a perfect day for a bit of comfort food, its nasty and rainy here. I'm very annoyed as I've got a training ride with my bike team but there is no point going out there at the moment so that will have to wait until tomorrow.

I'm writing an essay on Golden Syrup for my Pastry and Baking class, I forgot how wonderful it was, its just so rich and delicious and comforting, and when paired with butter in a baked recipe it takes things to another level! If you somehow happen upon my blog, please comment on your favourite golden syrup recipe, I'd love to hear!

Flapjacks are so simple, just 4 ingredients, but so good! I wish they were a little healthier but the odd treat like this is good for the soul, I'm sure!

Recipe (from the Dairy Book of Home Cookery)
Preparation 20mins Cooking 30 mins
Makes 24

100g (4oz) Butter
75g (3oz) Golden Syrup (Lyles is best)
75g (3oz) Soft Brown Sugar
225g (8oz) Rolled Oats

1. Put butter, syrup and sugar into a saucepan and stand over low heat until melted
2. Stir in oats and mix well.
3. Spread into a greased 20.5 x 30.5 cm (8x12 in) swiss roll tin, and smooth top with a knife
4. Bake at 350F(180c gas mark 4) for 30 mins.
5. Leave in tin for 5 mins, then cut into 24 fingers.

They had microwave instructions but in my opinion they need to be baked. I guess when this book was written they were trying to put everything they could think of in the microwave, I'd hope we've found its limitations now!

A cooks tour-Anthony Bourdain

A cooks tour seemed like the perfect companion for our recent anniversary trip to Portland. I tried to hate Mr Bourdain but he's a great writer and it was a very engaging way to while away the plane journey and associated waiting.

I must admit some of the blood and gore bits where a little bit much for me, especially being a vegetarian, but it wasnt gratuitous, it served a purpose.

I'd recommend it to anyone who has even a passing interest in food.

I'll also be looking out for some more of his musings, once I've got through some of the stuff I got at the cavernous Powells books. Gosh, I spent an hour there and that was just in the cooking section. I could have happily stayed all day, but poor husband was quite bored by that point!

Portland was great, I must write something about some of the top places we found there.

Fig marscapone tart with almond shell

The beautiful Figs, olives, wine blog was my inspiration for this tart, as were the delectable figs that have been popping up in Trader Joes, and the farmers market. I very nearly scarfed my bounty from the market before I even got to making the tart, but managed to keep enough for some small ones and embelleshed my bigger tart with asian pear, which was a nice addition with acidity to cut through the marscapone.

I searched for an almond pie shell, and didnt really come up with much, so I pretty much made my own recipe up. If I were to repeat this, I would probably add pastry flour as I could taste the mealy wholemeal flour in there. The tart shell was a little heavy, I thought although I got good reviews! The chocolate pepper cookie base sounded nice in the original post, or I think mixing the almonds with graham crackers and a bit of melted butter.

Another improvement might be to add orange zest in the marscapone would cut through the richness a little and give a more rounded result.

Recipes:
Tart Shell(Makes 1 9" and 3 smaller tarts):
1 1/2 cups Almond meal
1 cup Wholemeal flour
1/4 cup Brown Sugar
2 tbsp Orange Blossom Honey
1/2 tsp Almond Essence
4tbsp Butter (melted)
1 Egg (beaten lightly)

Preheat the oven to 350C. Combine the almond meal, flour, brown sugar in a food processor, pulse a few times then add the other ingredients and pulse until combined. Press into tart shells and bake for 15 minutes. Allow to cool on a wire rack.

Filling:
8oz Marscapone Cheese
1/2 Cup Non fat vanilla yoghurt

Whisk together until all the lumps are gone

Spoon the filling in the shells and then arrange figs and other fruits over the top.