Mignardise- A New Year Nibble

Definition- french for "delicate fondling"

Mignardise are the tiny, bite-sized desserts that often follow a meal at high-end restaurants. They frequently include tiny cookies or chocolates, as well as other edible delights. These are also referred to on occasion as "friandise".

Friandises are larger and it is also a blanket term for sweets.

Mignardise are served with coffee after a meal or presented as an amuse-bouche before a meal. Friandise are generally bought at a sweet counter or at the supermarket as treats for consumption throughout the day.

My fondest memory of 'mignardise' was at Alain Ducasse in NYC- famed mantra of “60% ingredients and 40% technique”; utmost in contemporary dinning experiences. The whole dinning experience was wonderful, but at the end when they set down that plate of yummy sweet gelées, truffles, and macarons.

Just when you think you cannot eat another bite a bag of hearty sized brioche is given for the road. 

Ah the memory of Christmas eve...wait...stop! Okay I admit its the New Years Day, and you are so over the holiday stuff. I do have to tie in the whole post theme. I agree, so let's skip to...I was reminded by hubby when we returned from his family's a few days back that the bag full commercial chocolate bars found in our stockings are not of his liking. He has developed a rather extreme case of 'food snobbery' over the years, and believe one should not waste calories on un-extraordinary experiences.

I how ever could not resist the chocolate call, and nibbled on one illegal contraband in secret (as I thought about what to do with all the candy). All in the name of creative investigation, right?

So far this is the first of what I came up with...Double Chocolate Blueberry Drop Cookies.

Chewy, gooey, and a touch of the Ghiradelli chocolate, and hubby's favorite little blue power packed berries. Even he could not refuse to eat them. Extra contraband ingredient. Shhh, what he does not know will not hurt him right! I might not be able to top Alain Ducasse, but I can sure try...

What ever your choice of mignardise on this first day of the New Year, make it a good bite!

Double Chocolate Blueberry Drop Cookies
Joy of Cooking, 1967, Irma S. Rombauer and her sister Marion

* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa (Ghiradelli)
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 8 ounces unsalted butter (2 sticks), softened
* 1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
* 2/3 cup granulated sugar
* 2 large eggs
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 cups finely chopped walnuts or pecans, optional (2 chocolate bars in pieces)
*1 cup blueberries

Preparation:

Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Beat in vanilla.

On low speed, beat in flour mixture a little at a time, until well blended and smooth. Stir in chopped walnuts (blueberries and chocolate bar pieces).

This is an extra step not in the book- I chilled the dough for thirty minutes, since I would be handling it before baking.

Drop chocolate cookie dough onto greased baking sheets by rounded tablespoons, about 2 inches apart. (1 inch rounds)

Bake at 350° for 12 to 15 minutes, or until set. If desired, sprinkle with a little granulated sugar while they're hot. (I skipped this part)

Cool on pans on rack for about 5 minutes; transfer chocolate cookies to rack to cool completely.
Makes about 4 to 5 dozen chocolate cookies.

Jersey Fresh- Blueberries

This time of the year you will see signs dotting what I call 'back roads' in my neighborhood. Many small farms still are running in spite of the housing explosion here.

Most of the signs read 'Jersey Fresh', and one thing we look forward to...Jersey Blueberries! On my way home from running errands I stopped at one of the local farm stands, and purchased some...

















Highbush Blueberries deserve some recognition, and New Jersey are proud of their crops! Go check out the history of how early settlers learned to harvest them from the Native Americans, and began serving them for Thanksgiving...

Hubby loves blueberries more than the cereal that lay underneath. Yeah, my fun lovin' cereal eating man, and one of his other favorite foods is when I bake these babies into a dessert.


















My goal was to make a blueberry chutney. One of my signature recipes that I always incorporate with dark chocolate. I manage to add some into my diet this past week. The above 'blon-cake' is a little rough around the edges like me, but so sweet!














Have you ever had one of those moments though when you do not have enough ingredients to make something, but you might be able to pull off something else? Well that is what happened with this dessert. I call it 'Blon-cake'. Not blonde brownies, but not cake either?



















Yeah, I adjusted a blonde brownie recipe I use, added more butter and eggs. Due to a lack of chocolate powder in my spice cabinet to make regular brownies, and an over eagerness to make 'something'...well, lets just call it a not so pretty and tasty 'creation'.

















I am always the first to admit that baking is not one of my favorite things, but like doing it now and then. The blueberries, ingredients, and what chocolate I did have available...made this dessert a hit with the hubby!

Blueberry Blon-Cake

1 1/2 stick butter or margarine (4 ounces), room temperature
1 cup brown sugar, packed (I only had about half of this, and blended with raw sugar)
3 egg
2 cups unbleached baking flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
pinch salt
1/2 to 1 cup chopped walnuts (replace with blueberries)
1 cup (about 8 ounces) dark baking chocolate; break into pieces

Preparation:

Cream together the butter and brown sugar; melt 1/2 cup chocolate and stir in; beat in eggs. Stir in flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir in nuts and the rest of the chocolate. Spread batter in a greased and floured 7- X 11-inch pan. Take a small spoon and dollop some blueberry chutney here and there on top of batter.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes.

I decided these might have even been better with some walnuts, so next time! If anyone would like my blueberry chutney recipe just email me and I will share...