just another manic monday...

One Pastry Chef + Four Femmes + Five Test Recipes + One Home Kitchen =

Chaos.

The venerable pastry chef, Pichet Ong, (formerly of Spice Market and P*Ong, and now, The Village Tart and Spot Dessert Bar) brought along five recipes for us home cooks to try out.

The BFF, on the left in orange, hosted the shindig.
We're all smiles here, but I think we felt a little under the gun—

"Is the cookie dough ready?"
"Are the walnuts toasted?"
"Did you start the zucchini cake?"
"Have you chopped the chocolate?"

And that was just the first 30 seconds.

A requisite of a chef, besides great taste, vision and creativity, is the ability to remember of dozens of details, all at once. Pichet managed to keep track of us AND play fifteen rounds of Scrabble. 

The following recipes- still in development- will be included in his next cookbook.

ZUCCHINI CAKE

"More sugar on the sides!"

(The chocolate and demerara sugar caramelized here. YUM!)

CHINESE WALNUT COOKIES

"More walnuts!"

RUGELACH

"Is the filling done yet?"

(These are dried blueberries, in case you're wondering.)

The Husband joined in on some rugelach-rolling action.

We baked them standing up and laying flat.

Laying them flat worked better.

FROZEN KEY LIME PIE
(my favorite)

"No lumps, please!"

and, last but not least,

BITTERSWEET CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

"Is the batter done yet?"

"Make them bigger!"

"They're not brown enough!"

Pichet was delightfully humorous, patient, and, I'm sure, inwardly cringing at our attempts.  The results, nevertheless, were delicious, and I look forward to the publication of his sophomore cookbook, Desserts on a Whim.

In the meanwhile, I will try out the delectable desserts in his first one, The Sweet Spot.