Baking – Francois et Moi

Easy Buttery English Toffee for Holiday Gifting

francoisetmoiblog@gmail.com — Mon, 16 Dec 2024 11:00:00 +0000

Deliciously decadent and easy buttery English toffee recipe perfect for Holiday gifting + tricks and tips for a foolproof batch. Nine days to Christmas and the great cookie bake is on! I’m teaming up with a few designer blog friends for a holiday cookie recipe swap, so be sure to check out all the deliciously decadent recipes linked at the bottom of this post! We’ve been making a baking list, and checking it twice. Among our family holiday cookie favorites are Spritz cookies, pepparkakor ginger snaps, wreath cookies, and homemade caramel. Homemade caramel is what we usually make for friends and neighbor gifts, but this year we’re taking our caramelized sugar one step further (or 50F degrees higher) and doing buttery English toffee. What Exactly is English Toffee? What sets English toffee apart from American toffee or buttercrunch? In a word–almonds. English toffee, in addition to chocolate, usually incorporates almonds. In this case, we’re toasting our almonds prior to sprinkling them on top, which really maximizes their flavor. Tips for Toffee Success Candy-making sometimes gets a bad wrap for being hard to make, but if you’ve made caramel with me before (or even if you haven’t ), you’ve got this–I […]

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Sea Salt Bourbon Soft Caramels

francoisetmoiblog@gmail.com — Wed, 16 Dec 2015 19:27:19 +0000

I’m bringing back an oldie, but a goodie today, you guys. Just over 2 years ago, I shared my tried and true soft caramel recipe, and today it’s still one of the main “sweets” recipes I reach for around the Holidays. This year I have a few recipe tweaks, new imagery and a fancy, schmancy printable recipe card to accompany this gem of a recipe! When people see that I’ve made caramel, I often get the comment, “Wow–Caramel is hard to make! How’d you do it?” While caramel-making does take some attention to detail, the only real sticky part about it (pun intended!) is making sure the caramel doesn’t burn. And with constant stirring and a watchful eye on the candy thermometer, you pretty much can’t go wrong. So, I hope that if you have the interest in making caramel, you shake off those “intimidated by caramel” vibes and jump right in with this recipe. Your family and friends will thank you. Follow

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French Croissant Workshop for Mother’s Day

francoisetmoiblog@gmail.com — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 12:18:52 +0000

The art of French croissant making is something my Mom (blogger at Seam Sew Cool) and I have always wanted to learn. So per her birthday request, we signed up for Craftsy’s Online Class: Classic Croissants at Home, and spent the weekend in my kitchen chatting, sneaking bites of that oh-so buttery dough, and of course, mastering the technique for classic French croissants. The croissant workshop made a fun birthday gift, and so it got me thinking that it would also make a fantastic gift for Mother’s Day too. (It’s coming up, kids!) It’s a creative way to spend time with Mom, while learning something new. Here’s how it came together: I picked up the croissant ingredients, a bouquet of flowers (just because), and any additional tools we needed ahead of time. I wrapped up the new croissant tools with a pretty bow for her to open when she arrived. On Saturday, I pulled out a few fun aprons and had some French tunes humming in the background. If you’ve ever made French croissants, you know there are a lot of steps and a lot of breaks in between while the dough refrigerates or rises. My mom and I made them over a Saturday afternoon + Sunday morning so that we could have fresh-from-the-oven croissants for breakfast on Sunday, but you could also make and […]

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Sunday Morning Sweets

francoisetmoiblog@gmail.com — Thu, 19 Dec 2013 14:22:36 +0000

I love checking out new food establishments–although now that I’ve said it out loud (on here), this statement seems like a pretty obvious one; I mean who doesn’t? From farm to table start-ups to food trucks to sweet locally owned bakeries, us Minneapolites are pretty lucky to have such a burgeoning food scene on our hands. It seems like we hear of a new place opening almost monthly, and I’m always excited to go check each one out. Most recently, bakery/coffeeshop, Honey and Rye Bakehouse, started by two Minnesotan women, opened it’s doors in our neighborhood, so my hubby and I stopped over on Sunday morning to see what they’re all about. We were greeted with a friendly smile by one of the owners as we arrived, and I’m pretty sure I let out a squeal of delight when I saw the cake stand loaded with buttery croissants before me. They also had a gorgeous array of fresh-from-the-oven cinnamon rolls, muffins, quiches, cookies, and artisanal breads made with locally sourced ingredients. Ken chose the cinnamon roll and we both swooned as we discovered the icing was actually more of a whipped cream cheese frosting–yum! This sweet, bustling cafe was furnished in a vintage-modern, […]

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