Cafe Fernando

Tahini and Leblebi Swirl Brownies

Brownie recipes are among the easiest to make gluten-free. As the flour plays no essential role (many recipes have none at all), you can freely substitute it with an array of gluten-free alternatives. I’m sure you’ve seen several versions, but have you tried brownies made with sarı leblebi flour?

Sarı leblebi refers to double-roasted hulled chickpeas (leblebi) that are yellow (sarı). It is a beloved Turkish snack, available at every kuruyemişçi (specialty shop selling dried nuts, seeds, and fruits), sometimes roasted right by the entrance to entice customers with its toasty smell. Roasting the chickpeas twice chars them in spots, giving them an intensely toasty flavor. There is also beyaz (white) leblebi, made from unhulled chickpeas; these go through a different process and aren’t as toasty. Sarı leblebi may be found ground into a flour, but as I always have the snack on hand, I grind the flour at home using a mortar and pestle.

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Blond Chocolate, Tahini and Sesame Truffles

There are quite a few recipes in The Artful Baker that would be perfect for your Thanksgiving table, such as the Peel-to-Stem Apple Pie or the Deeply Pumpkiny Pumpkin Cheesecake, but in case you’re pressed for time or would like your guests to leave with a handmade gift, here’s a great recipe that requires only 15 minutes of active work.

There have been many crazes in the food blogosphere over the last decade, and I am surprised that blond chocolate wasn’t one of them. Technically, blond chocolate is not a designated category. It is essentially caramelized white chocolate, which is nothing new, but Valrhona was the first to produce a stable couverture version. Frédéric Bau, the founder of L’Ecole du Grand Chocolat Valrhona, is the mastermind behind Valrhona Dulcey, the first couverture blond chocolate. It has a toasty, buttery, biscuit-like flavor, with a final hint of salt, akin to a freshly baked croissant dipped in dulce de leche.

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Pistachio and Matcha Sablés from The Artful Baker

I can’t believe the accolades I’ve received for the Sour Cherry & Almond Upside-Down Cake recipe video from The Artful Baker! I’m thrilled to hear that you liked it so much and very excited to share the second video. This one is for Pistachio and Matcha Sablés, cookies I gifted to my baking hero, Nick Malgieri, the first time I met him in İstanbul.

One look at the photo below and you’d think I’d baked intergalactic cookies to welcome guests from hundreds of light years away and arranged them in a bowl straight from The Jetsons, just so that they’d feel right at home.

That was not my intention, but now that I think about it, if you had told me that aliens were sending representatives to all the countries of the world and asked me to come up with a cookie that represents Turkey, this is exactly what I would have baked. It is a cookie version of one of Turkey’s delicacies, fıstık ezmesi (“pistachio paste”). That said, it has an ingredient that is alien to the world of Turkish desserts: matcha—powdered green tea made from leaves that have been shade grown, deveined, destemmed, and stone milled.

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