death by desserts - the seventh heavenly edition!

its funny how i will not typically classify myself as one with a sweet tooth but yet would definitely not say no to any offer for dessert! and i guess my somewhat newly acquired curiosity for the course that ends the meal, has been subtlely piqued by week after week of gorgeous creations homemade and hand delivered by aunty ta. there has of course been the odd occasion where aunty ta wasn't able to put something together given her busy schedule, but in such instances, she always makes it a point to bring a kick ass substitute...like the specially hand carried home leonidas fruit pastilles you see above!

i do have to admit that we have had these gorgeous candies before (many thanks to auntie ta!) but believe you me, one can never have enough of these little beauties. think pure fruit crystallized, condensed and encased into bite sized jelly bliss. truly to die for and definitely worth the tender loving care in hand carting these  freshly made pastilles from the northern hemisphere!

on other weeks, auntie ta continues to wow us regulars by reinventing the simple classics and  recreating some pretty renown recipes. i for one would not have thought of whipping up some banana cream, caramelize some pisang rajahs and assembling them on top of pierre herme's sweet tart dough...but thank goodness auntie ta did for her banana cream pie turned out fantastic. think light layers of banana flavored cream and freshly caramelized banana on top of melted chocolate, held together by pierre herme's classic sweet tart pastry. dark chocolate tart...be warned, for this girl thinks the banana cream pie is gonna be the next big thing (in my book at least!)!

the baklava might not be considered by many as a classic dessert..but according to wikipedia its history goes way back to 1871 and is one of the key sweets of central asia. i've had them in their native turkish country way back when but wasn't too impressed as they were typically too syrupy for my liking...but auntie ta's version was one that i could really get used to! the phyllo layers were light and fluffy and not overly drenched in honey...with generous sprinklings of freshly roasted pistachios and peanuts, these were almost like a sweetened pastry version of tanglin halt's peanut pancake! 

being the seventh installment of death by desserts, i'd thought it would be nice to try to round the post up by quickly raving about the four more decadent sweets that auntie ta introduced to us over the past couple of months. in addition to leonida's oh so yummy fruit pastilles, auntie ta did open my eyes to the world of good quality chocolate (love those 70% dark squares!), crumbly fudge and helped me discover my favorite cheeses - the brie, camembert and manchego. 

so there...big shout out to auntie ta for rocking the dessert scene. i'm already looking forward to this saturday's dinner at one six b!