Happy Birthday Julia Child!

With the upcoming opening of the movie, Julie and Julia, we have decided to honor her as one of the most inspirational icons of American cooking.

Julia Child's birthday is August 15th. We, here at platine cookies, want to celebrate her birthday. And we want you to all join in on the celebration. We have decided to have a contest. We have chosen a few of our favorite dessert recipes from Mastering the Art of French Cooking and in doing so, are allowing our friends, clients and customers to vote via our blog, twitter and in person on which dessert we should featuring during the week of her birthday.

While we do not for a moment believe that we can improve upon a Julia Child recipe, we thought it would be fun to feature one of her recipes with our own platine twist. It will be up to the voters to decide which way to do so.

As we mentioned, Julia Child's birthday is August 15th. We are asking that all votes be in by Friday, August 7th. You can either leave a comment below to vote on one of your favorites or leave your comments on our facebook page (platinecookies) or via email: chef@platinecookies.com. Once we receive all your votes we will tally them and create the chosen recipe which will be featured in our bakery the week of August 10th. We will also have something special planned for the actual day of her birthday, Saturday, August 15th.

Please savor the list below and we look forward to your comments:

Tarte Aux Pêches
Peaches are at their best this time of year, so they need little embellishment. We’ll follow Julia’s recipe and bake them in a simple pastry crust with a few almonds for a little crunch.

Tarte au Citron et aux Amandes
Lemon and Almond Tart – Julia’s pastry crust is filled with a lemon scented almond cream (frangipane) and finished with candied lemon peel. We love this twist on a classic dessert!

Gâteau de Crêpes
layers of tiny crepes (the size is what will make it platine style!) are stacked with alternating layers of thinly sliced macerated strawberries. Julia’s recipe says to “avert your face, set liqueur aflame with a lighted match, and bring the blazing dessert to the table.” But she also says “Flame the crepes or not, as you wish,” we wish not!

Clafouti aux Mûres
Blackberry Clafouti – we have a blackberry vine growing in our backyard, so we couldn't’t resist this recipe for a different take on the traditional Clafouti (kind of like a sophisticated blackberry pancake).

Reine de Saba
literally the ‘Queen of Sheba’ – this classic French dessert is a chocolate cake with a slightly underdone center, chocolate Buttercream and a little almond for decoration.

Palmiers
we had to have some cookies in this contest! - palmiers are simple cookies, sometimes called elephant ears, make of puff pastry that has been baked with sugar to caramelize. Our twist – add a little orange zest and make the cookies bite sized.

Almond Biscotti
although this recipe isn’t from the Mastering the Art of French Cooking, it is from the Baking with Julia Cookbook, and we couldn’t have a contest without a few cookies. This is Jamie's favorite biscotti recipe (she has been making it since she got the book when she was in Culinary School – signed by Julia Child when she spoke at her school), it has great flavor and isn’t as dry as some other biscotti.