One of the traditions in France is often to have an appetizer before having lunch or dinner. Sometimes, we just have a drink but usually, we often have a drink and some little things to nibble on. Since we try to pay attention to the food we are eating, my Mom and I began to bake our own crackers. We try to buy organic grains to eat and hand-made deli. Of course, we still happen to buy good, rich and fat industrial crackers, but we found out that they were a thousand times better homemade.

Excuse the double C in crackers :-)

Moreover, we often happen to eat them with some soup or we use them to top a salad. Homemade crackers can be flavoured with whatever you have in your fridge or growing in your garden. They have become one of our family's favorite snack as well.



I baked crackers with the chives and some radish tops of my garden and some blue cheese. You can pick any ingredients and adapt the proportions to your taste. As long as you respect the basic pie crust recipe and watch them while they're baking, you will never fail them.



Makes 40 little crackers

- 55 g butter
- 30 g corn starch
- 30 g corn flour
- 50 g gluten free oat flour
- 40 g blue cheese, diced
- Chives to your taste, finely chopped
- 40 g parmesan cheese
- A large handle of radish tops, finely chopped
- 2 Tbs chia seeds
- 6 Tbs water
- 3 g salt

1. Preheat your oven at 400°. Combine flours, salt, chives, parmesan cheese, blue cheese and chia seeds in a bowl.

2. In a separate bowl, melt the butter. Add it to the flour mixture and mix until you have crumbs.

3. Add water and stir until the dough is homogeneous. You can add more water if the dough is too crumbly.

4. Set the dough in the fridge for one hour. At this step, you can as well roll the dough and freeze it. You can keep it in the freezer for up to three months.

5. Roll the dough on a lightly floured surface until it is about 1/8 inch thick. Use a cookie cutter or a knife to cut crackers from the dough.

6. Lay some parchment paper on a baking tray and transfer the crackers to the baking tray. You can glaze them with some egg yolk or some milk.

7. Bake your crackers until lightly golden (12-15 minutes). Let them cool before eating them. You can store them in an airtight container for 3-5 days.

It was Bastille day in France on July 14th. I felt a bit patriotic :-)

Since tonight is the end of the football world cup (which I haven't been watching…) I thought about posting this dessert idea. For our gluten intolerant friends, this is the perfect recipe, and for everyone else, well, it is just a sweet and savoury recipe.

I used homemade ice cream for this recipe, so that the sugar levels would not be too high. However, some store-bought yogurt ice cream will be perfect for this dessert.



Simply, count 2 apricots and 2 scoops of ice cream per serving. I made this recipe for 4 people but feel free to adapt the proportions to your taste. You can add more sugar or put more apricots in your servings.

Begin heating 2 Tbs olive oil in a grill pan. Cut into half the apricots and grill them on both sides for about 2 minutes per side. Add some sliced almonds, half of a vanilla bean and 50 g brown sugar. Let it cook for 2 more minutes and add about 10 cL water and some rosemary. Let it cook until the sugar and water turn into a blond caramel.

Serve the apricots while they are still very hot, so that their temperature contrasts with the ice cream's one.