Queen of Tarts

It's been a dry month-plus around here in my kitchen. I try recipes with the best of intentions, but there hasn't been anything worth reporting back on. This is my go-to excuse, I know. But I'm being truthful. Then it occurred to me that I always wanted to talk about tarts.

I received a tart pan for Christmas. I've used it to make several really delicious tarts, including this one. One thing that I especially like about this recipe is the technique for making the dough. Making the dough is easy; you can make lots of plain pastry dough, and freeze for up to three months. You can always have it on hand to make a wide variety of recipes. Here's a crash course:

Pastry dough, or pate brisee, can be used to make pies, tarts, quiche, or puff pastry. While there may be some variations, the basic formula is all-purpose flour mixed with a little salt, and then an equal amount (to the flour) of very cold butter (I use frozen) is grated in. Then use very cold water, about a tablespoon at a time, to form the ingredients into a ball. Use only enough water to achieve this. Shape into a ball, then flatten. Freeze or chill, for at least an hour. When you're ready to use the dough, thaw (if needed) and shape.

The technique from here varies, but you will have a delicious, buttery, flaky crust to use for just about anything. And it's so easy. A lot of modern cooks recommend that you use a food processor to do the work, which is fine, but you really don't need anything more than a bowl, your hands, a cheese grater (box or flat), and a freezer. A rolling pin is nice, too, but it's not necessary.

For some variations, you could add sugar, vanilla beans, freshly cracked black pepper, finely grated Parmesan cheese, olive oil, or dried herbs. Not all together, of course. Also, as you'll note in the recipe linked above, the addition of an egg and an egg yolk makes the dough a lot easier to work with, as tart dough can be very crumbly. Omitting the egg and folding the dough over, then rolling it out, chilling, and repeating, results in airy, flaky puff pastry.

The easy part is deciding what to use the dough for. As I said, there are countless ways to use pastry dough. Make a chicken stew, cover with the pastry dough, brush with an egg wash,cut to vent, bake, and you have chicken pot pie. I like to use the scraps for little cookies. I dust them with cinnamon and sugar, roll up, and bake in the oven or toaster oven for 15 minutes. The butter in the dough braises your dish as it bakes, so you'll end up with great, rich flavor, no matter what.

The recipe that I used yesterday would make a beautiful and delicious addition to any Easter table: an almond and apricot tart. I got the recipe from the Food and Wine Magazine website. It involves a lot of work, but I think it was worth it. Fortunately, you can always make the pastry dough for the tart in advance, and then also bake the shell the night before.






Apricot, Almond and Brown Butter Tart
Adapted with revised instructions from Food and Wine

Ingredients for Pastry:
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter, chilled if using a food processor, frozen if using a grater
5 tablespoons ice water
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Ingredients for Filling:
3/4 cup slivered almonds
2 cups dry white wine
2 cups dried apricots (10 ounces)
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 vanilla bean—halved lengthwise, seeds scraped and reserved (I strongly recommend using vanilla bean, as it makes great flavor, but an extra 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract would work too)
1 3/4 cups confectioners’ sugar
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon pure almond extract or vanilla
Sweetened whipped cream, for serving, or vanilla ice cream, if you're feeling extract decadent

To make the tart shell, mix the flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Remove the butter from the freezer and grate using a flat plane or box cheese grater. Add to the bowl, or grate directly over the bowl. Using your hands, crumble the mixture together until it is coarse in texture, or with lumps the size of peas. Add most of the ice water and vanilla extract. Using hands again, shape into a ball. Keep adding ice water by the tablespoon full until the dough forms a ball. Do not use more that 6 or 7 tablespoons of water, and only if absolutely necessary. The mixture may be very crumbly, but just shape it as best you can. If large chunks fall of, slap them back on. Dump the dough onto plastic wrap, flatten and wrap.

Place in the refrigerator to chill for at least an hour. You can keep the dough in the refrigerator for up to a week, and in the freezer, sealed and wrapped well, for about three months. If you are keeping the dough in the refrigerator for more than a few hours, you will need to allow the dough to thaw.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough to a 15-inch round, 1/4 inch thick. Transfer the round to a 12-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom; gently press it over the bottom and up the side. Trim any excess. Again if the dough is hard to work with, just be patient. It will turn out fine if you do the patching. Refrigerate the tart shell for at least 20 minutes, until firm.

Line the tart shell with foil and fill with dried beans or pie weights. Bake for about 50 minutes, until the shell starts to brown around the edges. Remove the foil and weights and bake for about 25 minutes longer, until the shell is cooked through. Transfer to a rack and let cool. You can make the shell a day in advance. If finishing the tart on the same day, lower the oven temperature to 325°.

To make the filling, spread the slivered almonds on a large rimmed baking sheet. Toast in the oven for about 6 minutes (at 325 degrees), until lightly browned. Let cool.

Meanwhile, in a medium nonreactive saucepan, bring the wine to a boil. Add the apricots, cover and simmer over moderate heat until plumped, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat.

In a small skillet, cook the butter with the vanilla bean seeds over moderate heat until browned, about 4 minutes.

In a food processor, pulse the toasted and cooled almonds until it forms a meal. Place them in a medium bowl and add the confectioners' sugar, flour, and salt. Stir to combine. Add the eggs and stir until just combined. Add the browned butter and almond/vanilla extract and stir until smooth. There will still be some bumps from the almonds.

Drain the apricots and pat dry. Pour the almond filling into the tart shell. Nestle the apricots into the filling in concentric circles. Bake the tart for about 50 minutes, until the filling is golden brown and set. Transfer to a rack to cool. Cut into wedges and serve warm or at room temperature, dolloped with sweetened whipped cream.

The Doldrums

I believe that we have entered that period known to many as the Winter Doldrums. I don't know about you, but I am bored. This boredom has sapped my energy and creativity, leaving me a dull and somewhat crabby person who is no fun to be around. I try to think of ways to help with the boredom, but one look at the piles and piles of snow sends me back to the couch. I'm trying not to complain, since I gave it up for Lent, but it's hard when it snows nearly every day and you haven't seen the sun in weeks. See, I told you I was crabby!

Anyway, enough whining. Sean and I had a lovely day last Friday, when we went to look at the Orchids at Phipps Conservatory. It was lovely and refreshing. And, since we went at night, you couldn't tell that the sun wasn't shining!




And today, many of our nearest and dearest will be joining us at Sean's friends house for an engagement party! I am so looking forward to that.

On Tuesday, my office had a Mardi Gras party. I had planned to make Pralines, but there was an ice storm on Monday night (or maybe it was snowing. I no longer differentiate between days of the week--I may even have worn the same clothes twice this week, but I'm not sure). Anyway, I decided not to go to the store for brown sugar and pecans, and instead relied on my personal stash of baking ingredients to make something. I find that it is good policy to have enough ingredients to make brownies or cake at any given time. Especially brownies. I've tried many brownie recipies over the years, most of them delicious, but I think I've found the holy grail of brownie recipes this time. They're nothing wild or unexpected, but that's the beauty of them. You could add whatever you wanted to these, and they'd be fabulous. Or, you could just follow the recipe, and they'd be fabulous. You could slightly over or undercook them and then drop them on the floor, and they'd still be fabulous (I normally hate it when people use the word fabulous, but the chocolately, crisp-on-the-outside, gooey-on-the-inside qualities of these brownies are enough to make me say anything)!

This recipe came from Martha Stewart, who, I must say, usually has the best classic, no frills version of many old standbys. These are no exception. The texture is neither cakey nor chewy, both of which I despise in a brownie. Since they call for real chocolate, the flavor is perfect, chocolately without being overwhelming. And they use real butter, not oil or shortening. Plus, they are nearly as easy to make as brownies from a mix, and so much better. No icing, peanut butter, or nuts needed.

Perfect Chocolate Brownies

Adapted from Martha Stewart at marthstewart.com

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, plus more for the pan (or use Pam with Flour cooking spray)

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used Ghiraradelli bittersweet chocolate chips with no problem, but most chocolate chips contain stabilizers and won't melt properly)

1 1/2 cups white sugar

4 large eggs, room temperature. To get the eggs to room temperature quickly, I fill a bowl with lukewarm water and place the uncracked eggs in it for at least ten minutes. I find that room temperature eggs really improve a recipe, especially brownies.

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

3/4 cup all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an inch square baking pan or oven proof glass dish, then line with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Do not use wax paper. Grease the liner, and set aside.

If your butter is colder than room temperature, place the stick in a microwave safe bowl or large glass measuring cup and soften it a little in the microwave. It's ok if it starts to melt. Place the chocolate in the bowl with the softened butter and microwave for about 20 seconds at a time, stirring carefully in between. Make sure the chocolate is not scorching. When the butter and chocolate are mostly melted, remove from the microwave and stir until the mixture is smooth. Alternately, use a double boiler over the stove. Allow the chocolate mixture to cool for about 10 to 15 minutes. If the bowl you used to melt your chocolate and butter is not big enough to hold all of the other ingredients too, move your chocolate mixture to a larger bowl.

Stir sugar into the cooled chocolate mixture until combined. At this point, the mixture will be grainy. Whisk in the eggs one at a time, until smooth after each addition. Whisk in vanilla. Gently fold in flour and salt with a wooden spoon.

Pour batter into the prepared pan and smooth top with a spatula. Bake until a cake tester placed in the center of the brownies comes clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and allow to cool completely.

When cool, run a knife around the sides of the pan. Using the parchment or foil, carefully lift the brownies out of the pan and onto the rack. Brownies can be stored in an air tight container for 3 days.

I Eat My Words (and Cake)

I love making (and eating!) birthday cakes. Unless it’s mine, that is. It’s really fun to think of a cake that’s just perfect for the birthday boy/girl in question. It’s also a good time to show off, or try something fancy.
The last birthday cake that I made was for Sean’s birthday. Since he is always eating Snickers Bars, I decided to find a recipe that would work for his taste buds and my baking skills. The result is a cake that is very rich, and perhaps even gratuitously sweet, but it was a hit at the birthday party. The cake has a good, rich chocolate flavor that compliments the caramel and peanuts of the candy. In the end, it was the chocolate icing that could benefit from some adjustment. Possibly a light ganache, applied sparingly over the top of the cake, and in between layers, would be adequate for this cake. However, this was to be Sean’s birthday cake, and so a sweet, fluffy , over-the-top icing was in order. Regardless of what you choose, whoever you make this cake for will know that you love them.
My recipe for Snickers Birthday Cake is a very loose adaptation of a recipe I found on Epicurious.com. If you wanted to make a show-stopping cake in a hurry, you could use a boxed German chocolate cake mix with canned icing. Just add Snickers. The cake recipe here calls for two nine inch cakes or three eight inch layers. I used the chocolate cake recipe from Craig Claiborne’s New York Times Cookbook, 1990 edition, as shown below. However, any good chocolate cake recipe would do. The frosting recipe was something that I found online (maybe cooks.com or allrecipes.com ?) while looking for an eggless butter cream.

Snickers Birthday Cake
Makes two nine inch layers or three eight inch layers
For Cake:
2 cups cake flower, sifted
2 Teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
½ cup plus two teaspoons cocoa powder, preferably dark
1 ½ cups sugar
½ cup plus two tablespoons vegetable shortening
½ cup warm water (warmed on stove or in microwave)
2/3 cup milk
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For Frosting:
3 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 cup unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-2 tablespoons whipping cream
10 ounces chocolate, finely chopped
10 ounces Snickers Bars, chopped into small pieces (I used the small, one bite ones that are an ounce each).

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease two nine inch or three eight inch cake pans, and line the bottom with circles of parchment paper that have been cut approximately 1/8 inch smaller than the pans.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cocoa and sugar together. Add the shortening, water, milk, eggs and vanilla. Blend on very low speed until the ingredients are just moistened. Mix three minutes on medium speed , scraping down to fully mix ingredients. Scraping time should not be included in the three minutes.
Pour the mixture into the prepared two nine inch cake pans. Bake until the cakes bounce back when gently pushed in the middles. This will take about 25 to 30 minutes. Cool the pans on a cake rack for ten minutes before removing them from the pans. Allow to cool completely before applying the frosting or Snickers.
While the cake layers are baking, melt the chocolate in a double boiler or microwave. Set aside and allow to cool, but do not let the chocolate harden. Chop the Snickers Bars and set aside.
In a small bowl of an electric mixer, mix butter and sugar until well-blended; reduce the speed and mix for three minutes. Add vanilla, cream and chocolate. Beat an additional one minute, or until the chocolate is blended.
Place about 1 1/2 cups of frosting in a bowl. Add the Snickers pieces and gently mix. Refrigerate if not immediately using.
When icing the cake, spread the Snickers frosting mixture on the top of one cake that has been placed on a serving platter or cake stand. Place the second layer over top, and cover top and sides of the cake with the non-Snickered icing.

It Goes with Everything

The first cookies that I remember making entirely on my own were some chewy gingersnaps (is that a contradiction?). My mother found the recipe in Yankee Magazine. I always thought the cookies were best when baked to a very light brown and allowed to cool completely. I then would eat them with a bowl of vanilla bean ice cream. To me, it always tasted perfect.

The magazine article in which the recipe was contained suggested peach ice cream with the cookies. I think some nice, ripe peaches in season would be even better. Gingersnaps are also great with coffee, tea, hot chocolate, or even chocolate icing. They really do seem to go with almost anything for dessert. And I have noticed that non-dessert eaters (I will never understand these types)love fresh-baked gingersnaps.

I have since looked for the recipe on the Yankee Magazine website, but none of the gingersnap recipes available match what I remembered. For the past month or so, I have been looking for the perfect gingersnap recipe. I personally don't like cookies that have whole pieces of ginger in the recipe, as I think this makes the flavor overwhelming. The cookies should also not be too hard, as this reminds me of the kind that you buy in the grocery store, in the brown bags. They taste stale, in my opinion.

The fist gingersnap recipe I tried during this search called for 1 1/2 sticks of butter. Normally, I prefer to use butter more than any other type of fat. But the end result of these cookies was a batter that was too thin. I put the dough in the refrigerator for half an hour to try to remedy this problem. While this made the dough more pliable, the cookies were too thin when they came out of the oven. As you can see in the picture below, the they spread pretty badly in the oven. I wasn't happy with their looks, and the texture was way off.




A gingersnap should have nice cracks in the surface. They tasted great, though. As I remembered that the original recipe containing shortening, this was the ingredient that I turned to for a rebake.

Gingersnap Cookies

This is adapted from a recipe that I found on the Yankee Magazine website. I made a few adjustments so they would be similar to the cookies I had in mind.

3/4 cup solid vegetable shortening
1 cup white sugar, plus more for rolling the cookies
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose white flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon


In a mixing bowl, cream together the shortening and sugar. Add the molasses and egg and beat until smooth. In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, soda, salt, and spices. Add to the creamed mixture and blend well.

Refrigerate the dough for an hour to one day.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease three or four baking sheets. Place about one cup of sugar on a plate or shallow bowl.

Roll dough into a ball about the size of a quarter. Roll the ball in sugar. Continue this process, placing the balls about 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. Do not press the balls down.

Bake for 10 to 15 minutes. Watch the baking cookies carefully, as they will burn rather easily. Allow to rest on the baking sheets for 5 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely. Serve with your favorite ice cream, coffee, fresh fruit, or whatever else you like.

An Apology for Absence

Between wedding planning and various social obligations, I haven't gotten much of a chance to try any new recipes. I also seemed to have picked up a new dependent: something that is erroneously called "Amish Friendship Bread Starter" (they have nothing to do with it--it's just a catchy name). If you've never experienced this new responsibility, it basically involves ten days of kneading and feeding. On the tenth day, you bake, and if you don't pass along at least three cups of the starter, something bad happens to you and your family--per my copy of the instructions. I haven't passed any on, and I am getting worried!

The Instructions I Recieved:

Amish Friendship Bread
-Do not refrigerate.

Day 1: Do nothing
Days 2 through 5: Mash the bag.
Day 6: Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, and 1 cup of milk to the bag. Mash the bag.
Days 7 through 9: Mash the bag.

Day 10:
Pour entire contents of bag into a non-metal bowl. Add 1 1/2 cups of sugar, 1 1/2 cups of flour, and 1 1/2 cups of milk. Measure out 4 separate batters of about one cup each into four gallon size Ziploc bags. If you keep one for yourself, you will be baking every ten days.
Keep a starter for yourself and give the other three to friends, along with a copy of the recipe. Only the Amish know how to create a starter so if you give them all away you will have to wait until someone gives you a starter back.
Using the remaining starter (about one cup), follow a recipe for bread.

But seriously, the instructions make the entire process out to be a lot of work. Since receiving a cupful from a coworker exactly 21 days ago, I have been coddling mine. I think my cat may be getting jealous.

With the amount of work that seemed to be involved, I did some internet research, and I subsequently found that most food blogs claim that you don't have to bake every ten and feed every six. You do, however, need to knead or stir the starter everyday. If you will be on away vacation, or otherwise not available to the needs of this concoction, you can freeze the starter. You don't even need a starter-sitter. I think that's quite a relief. Furthermore, you don't have to give all of it away, and it is probably healthy for the starter if you throw some away every so often.

And so, since the starter isn't nearly as high-maintenance as it might seem, I've decided to turn mine into a sort of science experiment. This might worry some of you. Who eats their experiments? But don't be scared, it's just active yeast. You eat it all the time!

The bread is really quite delicious, especially with a ribbon of brown sugar and cinnamon running through it. The more mature the starter is, the easier it is to take care of. Just make sure to discard any starter that looks pink or brown, or smells bad. In the near future, I intend to experiment with the starter by making muffins, coffee cake, and maybe pancakes. Apparently, the starter also works well as a replacement for sourdough. Does any one else know of other uses for the starter? I'd love to hear some more ideas.

P.S. Dear Mom, sister and aunts: let me know if you would like a cupful of starter and some instructions! There are also tips for making a starter from scratch here, or purchase one here. But really, I think that buying some starter really defeats the purpose, don't you?

S'More Pie, Please

Last Saturday, Sean and I attended a picnic that a co-worker was having at a local park. With no refrigeration or even running water available, it becomes something of a conundrum to decide what to bring. I have to assume that many people have a similar problem, since there was a glut of brownies and pasta salads. Everything was very good, but it got a little monotonous. However, I wasn't much more creative myself: in situations where there is no refrigeration, I almost always bring a dessert.






But I still need to show off a bit.







This pie is easy to make, I promise. Regardless, people who see the finished product simply won't believe you. I found the original recipe here. The finished product looks delicious, and I love the idea. But there is no way that I am going to make my own marshmallow for the topping! I also got lazy and simply bought a graham-cracker pie crust. This was for the best, since it meant the pie had a disposable pan that I could leave behind at the picnic, with no worries. I also decided to make the top of the pie resemble more of a fruit tart, with the marshmallows arranged in a circular patten over the chocolate layer. With a little browning under the broiler, the whole marshmallows make for a more dramatic finish, I think.

That said, when you brown the marshmallows, watch carefully! On my first attempt, I stepped away from the broiler for literally 30 seconds. When I came to retrieve the pie, the marshmallows were on fire! It blew out easily, but it gave me quite a scare. I only wish I had a picture of that for you. If your marshmallows catch on fire, blow them out promptly and carefully remove from the broiler. With a pair of tongs, remove the marshmallow, being careful not get charred bits on the chocolate. It should come off in one or two pieces. Then begin again.


S'more Pie

Adapted from Gourmet, November 2006

Ingredients:
7 oz. good quality bittersweet chocolate, no more than 70% Cacao and not unsweetened, finely chopped or broken into small pieces
1 cup (or one pint) heavy cream
1 large egg, beaten and placed at room temperature for 30 minutes
Pinch of salt
1 graham cracker pie crust
Mini-marshmallows, for topping. Have a whole bag on hand, in case of charring.

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Put the chocolate in a large bowl. Bring the cream to just to a boil in a heavy-bottomed sauce-pan over low heat, stirring frequently. Pour the cream over the chocolate and stir until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth. Gently whisk in the egg and a pinch of salt until combined. Pour the chocolate into the pie crust (place the pre-made crust on a baking sheet, like the packaging says!). The crust will be half-full. Cover the edge with a pie shield or foil and place in the oven, and bake until the filling is set, about 25 minutes. When the pie is fully cooked, the filling will tremble only slightly when gently shaken. Cool for about an hour, and then cover and refrigerate, three hours to one day.

Take the pie out of the refrigerator and allow to come closer to room temperature, about five or ten minutes. Place the marshmallows in a circular pattern (or however you would like) over the chocolate. Place the pie shield or foil over the crust so that it doesn't burn in the broiler. Place the pie back on the cookie sheet, if you have removed it, and place in the broiler. Watch carefully and turn the pie frequently. When the marshmallows are appealingly browned, promptly remove the pie from the broiler.

Slice the pie with a knife that has been dipped in warm water, and then dried with a towel, if possible.

Notes:
Marshmallows can be browned with a creme brulee torch, instead of in the broiler. Before adding the marshmallow topping, the pie can be covered and refrigerated for up to one day.

On Self-Denial

I have given up desserts for Lent, and I am really starting to miss my almost daily suagr fix. I may be exaggerating, but it's like my idea withdrawal from an addictive substance. However, I am allowing myself a treat on Sundays. Otherwise, I could never make it. To cope during the week, I have been eating blueberry Ego waffles (no syrup or even butter) when I am getting desperate. I kind of feel like the Ego approach is methadone for sugar addicts. I don't really want the waffle, but it keeps me under control. Who knows what would happen if I quit cold-turkey.

Another coping mechanism (or possibly form of torture) is thinking about the desserts I will eat when Lent is over. One part of this sugarless experience that I will take away a better appreciation for what's good. I now realize that I had fallen into the habit of eating junk without even thinking. There are some things that I just don't miss. I can assure you that, from now on, my sweet treat after a long day of work--which is when I need that deliciousness the most--will not include just any factory-made cake or cheap candy bar. There will be more baking in my future!

My list of things I miss the most:
1. Cupcakes from one of those fancy little shops (if you are in the Pittsburgh area, try here and here.
2. Homemade cupcakes!
3. Ice cream from Dave and Andy's(near the University of Pittsburgh). I am devoted to their Birthday Cake flavor.
4. Baklava, especially the baklava from The Istanbul Grille in Shadyside. This is now especially forbidden fruit, since these delicacies are made with pistachios.
5.Lake Champlain dark chocolate.
I could wax on and on about everything that I would like to eat (preferably not all at once, sounds painful), but I think that is enough. I'm off to make a delicious Chicken Satay Stir-Fry. Peanut butter, soy sauce, and chicken (along with a number of other things) are really tasty together!