TWD - French Apple Tart

A year ago yesterday our dog, Crash, passed away. We declared yesterday Crash day and honored him by eating his favorite food, chicken. Crash loved chicken more than life itself. He loved chicken so much that one time when he was eating his dog food my husband said chicken (in regards to our upcoming supper) and Crash spit out his dog food and whipped his head around looking for the chicken. I've never laughed so hard in my life. This dog loved chicken.

So yesterday instead of making the tart, I looked at pictures of Crash, ate a little chicken and cried a little. But it's ok. I'm ok and Crash is ok because I'm pretty sure he's getting all the chicken he's ever wanted.

miss you

Well don't let Crash fool you, he had a sweet tooth too and would've loved this tart. And I have always wanted to make a French tart. I love the thin apples carefully laid out in a circle. It really appeals to my OCD side. I have to channel that for good and not evil.

thank gravy for my mandolin!

After baking this little beaute, I didn't feel I had properly achieved the caramelized edges that were pictured in the book. So out comes the blow torch! Don't worry it's just a little guy. Just the perfect size to sizzle each apple edge. Yes more OCD. But look at this picture, wasn't it worth it?

torched to perfection

Ok, now for the 64 dollar question...what did I change? Well everything...almost. I did use granny smith's called for in the recipe. But I used this pie dough recipe. And for the apple mixture, I omitted the cinnamon and added 2 tablespoons of tamarind paste. Yes, tamarind. It's so tangy and sweet. I highly recommend everyone running out right now and getting some at your local latin store. Back? Good, eat some.

Here's our hostest with the mostest for this week, Laws of the Kitchen. She's a lawyer, so you better follow her recipe to the T! Don't do what I did and throw caution to the wind...well maybe throw a little.

later gaters

TWD - Riesling Poached Apricot Marzipan Tartlets

Ok, I promise, pinky promise that the next TWD recipe I will follow to a T! I swear it! What is the next one...popovers...sure I can do that, I can make a recipe and not tinker with it or completely change it up so that it's not even recognizable. Sure.

Now let me explain. I didn't do the galette because last TWD I did a galette (mini galettes). I send my baked goods to work with my husband and there are about 50 or so employees and I just want to make it easy for each or as many as possible to enjoy a bite. I know it's easy to cut up a pie or a galette, but come on who cuts it up equally so that you can have 50 pieces. Ok, that doesn't make sense, but you see what I'm getting at, right?

And since I did mini galettes last week I needed to do something different this week. So I went back to pie/tart shape. I think this is technically a tart dough, but please correct me if I'm wrong.

But maybe you are asking why did I do tartlettes this week, when I could have done them last week and did mini galettes this week and followed closer to the recipe, huh? The answer: I dunno. Moving on.

As for using apricots and marzipan and not mixed berries, well I did not realize but berry season is long gone  here at the base of the rockies. So dried apricots and marzipan from the cupboard made sense. Plus I had a wee bit of riesling that needed to be used up. So toss some sugar, cardamom pods, crushed vanilla beans and the riesling in the pot with the apricots and tada!

Vintage year

Now this week I did use the dough recipe. My recipe from last week is the foolproof pie dough from Cook's Illustrated. I LOVE IT! It's so freakin tasty and easy to throw together, it's supper, dupper flaky and is just great to eat, but kind of hard to work with. This week's recipe is super easy to work with, the cornmeal is fun and it's nice and sturdy and it tastes good too. I think I shall add it to my repertoire.

To see this magical recipe, go here and here and then here. (That last one was just for fun.)

Even though this wasn't a 2 am genius moment, I think I'll still call Martha and tell her about these.

Adorable, right?

And they are really the cutest things ever, well almost.

My oh Meyer Lemon Tart

My oh my, this tart was nice. With Meyer lemons needing to be used in my ice box, this was an of course! I've done a few lemon tart/pies, but still hadn't really settled on a lemon filling that I would call my "go to".

I'm not sure this one is either, but it certainly fits the bill on this rainy day. Spring is springing around and the clocks are doing there thing, so it's time for us to think bright, shiny thoughts and I think sampling this pie might do it.

I suggest you do it too.

The pie consists of a lemon pudding from Tartine Bakery in San Francisco. I didn't make any alterations at all so I'm just going to link to the original. They have a nice step by step of the processes. (Although sometimes I just want to get to the recipe.)

http://food52.com/blog/2980_tartine_bakerys_lemon_cream

Just a note about this recipe, the directions say to cook the lemon mixture until it reaches 180 degrees, I could never get over 160 degrees, but the pudding was coating my whisk and eggs are safe at 145 degrees. So I was happy with that.

The crust comes from a fig tart over at the Nourished Kitchen. I was looking for something a little different and this seem to work, you'll have to scroll down to the bottom to find the crust recipe. This recipe called for the crust to be cooked for 35 minutes, but at 15, my edges were brown and the bottom was firm.

http://nourishedkitchen.com/fresh-fig-tart-almond-crust/

If you decide to make the fig and yogurt tart, save me a piece.

Thanks.


3/15/2012 UPDATE! I submitted this recipe (with appropriate credits) to instructables.com and it became one of the editors pick's!!!!  http://www.instructables.com/tag/type-id/category-food/

TWD - Chocolate Truffle Tartlets

Some things are better the next day like chili or lasagna and for me, these tarts. I baked them on Sunday and after they cooled, my husband and I took a bite and said "hmmm" (not a good hmmm, just a so-so hmmm). Now, to be fair, I did change the recipe up a bit. I made mini tartlets (even tinier tarts) and instead of the white and dark chocolate chunks and biscotti called for in the recipe, instead I added a little marzipan filling and topped with an almond and some smoked sea salt. Sounded like a winner, eh? Well the next day when I tried one for my morning snack, I was much more pleased. I really enjoyed the filling combination, but I think the crust was just not my favorite. I don't care for chocolate tart crust...I know, I know you are saying it's chocolate for crying out loud. What's wrong with you girl? Well I'm sorry, I don't care for it and you can't make me eat it!

Oh, that reminds me of a story when I was a wee, little lass. My mom would make spaghetti with mushrooms. I hated the mushrooms, hated them....hated them. They were gross tasting, gross texture and just gross. Well, apparently, I complained a little too much one day and was unappreciative of my mom's efforts and my dad very clearly stated, "You aren't leaving this table until you eat every one of those mushrooms. This isn't a restaurant."

Well after eating my gross mushrooms, I realized that they might not be gross and that they might actually be quite tasty. I rather enjoy mushrooms now, in all forms, shapes and colors.

Now one thing has always puzzled me about my dad's statement, it seems that any restaurant I go to doesn't take kindly to substitutions or changes to the menu items. I wonder where this magical restaurant that my dad was referring to is and can I order chocolate tartlets without chocolate tart crust there?

Hmmm...

Like the stand? I got it at Target for $8 on sale...nice!

Well here is a link to the recipe, http://spikebakes.tumblr.com/ AND a video of Julia herself. Here is another, http://www.goodeatsblog.com/ and another http://cookbookhabit.blogspot.com/ and finally here, http://awhiskandaspoon.com/2012/02/21/twd-chocolate-truffle-tartlets/

Take care, bye bye now. Bye, bye.

p.s. Thank you to the those who commented on my last post, it was very comforting.

Raw Buckwheat Honey in my treacle tart.

What is that you ask? Well it's a $7.95 honey bear full of this crazy, pungent honey. It's like a really stout cheese, there is a love/hate relationship. You like it, but you about gag when you first smell it.

I came across this honey at Silver Dollar City at Christmas time. We had received free tickets and decided to go the busiest day of the year and look at the lights. I saw a lot of lights, camera lights. Don't go on the busiest day of the year (I think that might be any day).

The honey came from a little shop that sold honey from a store in Springfield. MO. I think it was Honey Heaven, fitting name. They have a lot of interesting honey blends and after finding out that there was honey that wasn't clover honey, I decided that honey would be my friend. Clover honey isn't tasty.

This buckwheat honey might not be tasty either, verdict is still out. It can best be described as molassesey, it's very dark with a weird pungent flavor. I like what this site says about it:

"I like to think of buckwheat honey as the tall dark stranger in the honey crowd.  There will be many who are beguiled by its unique charms, but to others its pleasures will remain an enigma." 


I'd say that's a tall dark, stinky stranger.


Verdict is still out.


Ok, so what to do with old stinky...well with it's molasses undertones and my hankering for treacle tart, this seemed like a perfect match. Treacle tart (Harry's fav) requires golden syrup. It's not easy to find in the states, but many sites suggest light corn syrup with some molasses as a nice substitute.


So this is what I did for the required 18 oz of golden syrup, I used 12 oz light corn syrup, 2 oz of buckwheat honey and 2 oz of molasses. That buckwheat is strong and expensive, so after squeezing about $1.32 into the corn syrup I opted to finish off with less expensive, less pungent molasses.


In the end, I did like the buckwheat honey in the tart, but I'm don't think I'm a tall dark stranger kind of girl.

Here's the recipe, it's adapted from Bakingdom.com

Crust

Prepare the crust first, it will need to rest in the fridge for at least 45 mins. BTW you'll need vodka for the pie dough, it sounds crazy and it is.

Prepare the fool proof pie dough from Cook's Illustrated, roll out and place into a greased tart pan or 9 inch pie plate. Prick the bottom with a fork and freeze for 30 mins, bake for 20 mins at 350 degrees.

Treacle Tart Americana

12 oz. light corn syrup combined with  2 oz. honey* and 4 oz. molasses
2 eggs
finely grated zest and juice of 1 large lemon
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 cup fresh bread crumbs (whole wheat and even multi-grain works)
2-3 pinches of salt (this is literally taking your finger and thumb and pinching some salt and tossing it in)

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and pour filling into tart/pie pan and finish baking for 30 mins at 350 degress, cool and serve with fresh whipped cream or a drizzle of heavy cream.

*regular honey would be outstanding in this, so I suggest maybe don't go for the tall dark stranger and use a nice, good guy instead.