Wordless Wednesday - Tastes like summer

(Freeform Summer Fruit Tart)

Pizza, pizza?

When I first read that this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was Pizza Rustica, I figured that it would go over well here, since everyone in the family loves pizza.  Then I actually looked at the recipe and realized that it wasn't pizza in the traditional sense.  Instead, it's an Italian pie, filled with cheeses and prosciutto and eggs.  The twist with this one is that the dough is sweet instead of savory.  I knew that my husband would probably like this dish, since he likes the contrast of sweet and salty/savory.  My girls are fans of pretty much anything with a ricotta filling, so I figured there was a decent chance that they would eat it without complaint.  It feels like we've been in a rut lately as far as meal planning, so I was excited to try something new for dinner.

I decided that I wanted to make a tart rather than a pie.  Since I knew the tart pan would be shallower than a pie pan, I used my 10" pan.  For the filling, I used my favorite whole milk ricotta and substituted Asiago cheese for the Romano.  I almost forgot about the pepper, and ended up grinding some on top of the tart filling after it was already in the pan, before I added the lattice strips.  The dough was very nice to work with--easy to roll out and put in the tart pan.  I used my fluted pastry wheel to cut the strips for the top.

For baking, I preheated the oven to 375ºF since I was using a metal tart pan.  I placed the tart on a baking sheet and put the sheet pan directly on my baking stone in the lower part of my oven.  I usually do that for pies and tarts to ensure that the bottom crust bakes well and doesn't end up soggy.  The tart took 35 minutes to bake, at which point it was puffy all over and starting to brown.  We let it cool somewhat, but it was still warm rather than at room temperature when we ate.  I warmed up some of our usual pizza sauce to serve on the side.  

The verdict?  This went over pretty well!  As predicted, Jamie liked it; Brianna did, too.  Gillian didn't like the prosciutto, but said she might eat it without the meat or with regular ham instead.  The girls weren't sure what to think about the slight sweetness of the crust; I might try a less sweet version next time.  The tart was good both with and without the tomato sauce, but J pointed out that the sauce brought some nice acidity to the table to balance all the rich ingredients in the tart.  I can definitely see myself making this again, and maybe playing around with the filling ingredients.

If you'd like to give this a try for yourself, you can find the recipe on Emily's blog or Raelynn's blog.  To see what everyone else thought of this week's selection, check out the Links.  

Wordless Wednesday - Thyme to make tart crust

Tarts and Pi

I was excited to see the second pick this month for the TWD-Baking with Julia group.  Our group of hosts (Steph, Spike, Jessica & Jaime) chose Chocolate Truffle Tartlets for us to make this week.  I love chocolate, and I love tarts.  I like pie too, but there's something great about a tart--I really like crust, and the ratio of filling to crust in a tart is just right for me.  In addition to dessert tarts, I like to make savory ones as well.  

In the course of my TWD journey, I've acquired a lot of bakeware.  It's a testament to my love of tarts that even 4+ years ago, before I started TWD, I owned tart pans in several sizes.  I know I had a 9 1/2" one and an 11" one, as well as a set of half a dozen 4 1/2" tartlet pans.  I might have even had the 10 1/4" one already.  In an attempt to make smaller tarts--so I could make them more often with less guilt (since most tart crusts have lots of butter), sometime in the past year I picked up 6" and 8" ones.  Oh, and I also have a 14" x 4 1/2" rectangular pan that I love.  

I knew I wanted to make half the recipe, which would be three tartlets.  I didn't want to figure out a good way to divide that between four people, so I decided to make a larger tart.  So I had to determine what size to use.  That led me to one of my favorite baking activities, doing the math. =)  Yes, I know most of you are shaking your heads, wondering if I'm crazy.  But I really do enjoy it.  

My tart pans are all about the same in depth, so I really only had to do a calculation of the surface area.  The recipe says it makes six 4 1/2" tartlets.  So for one, it's 2.25 x 2.25 x π, or about 16 square inches.  For six, that's a total of about 96 square inches.  I planned to halve the recipe, so I needed a pan with about 48 square inches in area.  My 8" tart pan has an area of 4 x 4 x π, which is about 50 square inches.  Close enough!

Even though I was making half the recipe, I went ahead and made the full amount of tart dough.  I didn't want to mess with half an egg yolk, and I figured I could just freeze the extra dough.  As I've mentioned before, I prefer natural cocoa powder, so that's what I used.  In this case it was Hershey's since I didn't think the flavor of the crust would stand out due to the filling (so no point in breaking out the really good stuff).  As instructed, I left the bottom out of the tart pan (never done that before!).  The 8" pan fit nicely on one of my quarter sheet pans that I lined with parchment.  

I got a nice upper body workout making the filling.  I know that my stand mixer doesn't do a good job whipping small volumes, and I hate dragging out my hand mixer (it's a bit buried in one of my cabinets).  So I grabbed my balloon whisk and a big bowl and beat the egg yolks, vanilla and sugar by hand.  It really wasn't bad, since I was using the right tools for the job.  I added a big pinch of salt to the sugar when I was adding it; I find that it adds a lot to chocolate desserts.  For the filling, I used 60% chocolate (Agostoni discs that I buy at Central Market).  I skipped the cookies in the filling, not being in the mood for crunch.  Instead, I increased the amount of chocolate chunks (to about 100 grams total for my half recipe).  I don't care for white chocolate, so I used a mix of milk chocolate and dark chocolate for the chunks.  (I got into my supply of Trader Joe's chocolate that I brought back from our trip to Ohio early last summer. )  To make the chocolate easier to cut into chunks without it breaking into lots of little shards, I microwaved the bigger pieces of chocolate on 10% power for about 30 seconds first.  

I wasn't sure about the baking time for my 8" tart versus the tartlets.  I ended up baking the empty crust for 14 minutes.  (I froze it beforehand to make sure it would hold its shape while baking.)  My filling took 15 minutes to be dry on top and apparently set in the middle.  The tart had a chance to cool for over an hour before we cut into it, so it was pretty close to room temperature.  

The verdict?  I must have guessed well on the bake time, because the texture of the tart was perfect.  I have no doubt that we'll be making this recipe again--it was really delicious.  Brianna was a bit disappointed that the texture wasn't the same after the tart had been in the fridge overnight--she liked the slightly oozing texture it had at room temperature.  The tart was very rich; I'm not sure how anyone would be up for eating a whole 4 1/2" tartlet.  We got 8 servings out of my 8" tart, and I think I'll stick with that size in the future. 

If you'd like to give this recipe a try, you can find the recipe in the book, of course.  You can also find it by visiting this week's hosts.  To see what everyone else thought of the Truffle Tart(lets), check out this week's Links!  

p.s. I'll be back tomorrow with some cupcakes, since today is my birthday! =)

If you can't stand the heat...

..you definitely don't want to come to Texas in April.  Two days running now, we've had highs in the mid-90s.  Blech.  It's way too early for this.  I know that everything is air-conditioned here, but to be honest, I still don't want to bake when it's 91º at 7pm.  Especially after having to spend time outside watering the yard.  Have I mentioned that I hate anything to do with yard work?  I also hate getting letters from the home owners' association because the lawn is brown.  Do they know that we're in a drought?  Do they know that we should be under watering restrictions, assuming we aren't already & I just haven't heard about it?  Grrr.

Okay, rant off.  You can't tell it's sore subject, can you? =)  So on to a much more pleasant topic, this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe.  Jeanette of The Whimsical Cupcake picked A Tourtely Apple Tart for us to make this week.  As you've probably noticed, I didn't exactly make a tart.  I meant to make this recipe over the weekend with Nancy and Tracey, but ran out of time and energy.  By the time Monday night rolled around, so had the aforementioned 90-degree temperatures, and there was no way I was going to have my oven on for a couple hours.  So, much as I like Dorie's tart crust, the tart part went out the window.  

But by this morning, I did have the time and energy to at least tackle the filling.  It's a lot like making applesauce.  Chunks of apple, some brown sugar, a bit of nutmeg, and a couple tablespoons of liquid get cooked together until the apples are almost soft enough to break down when pressed with a spoon.  For my liquid, I got to use something from my most recent King Arthur order, Boiled Cider.  I also added a big pinch of salt.  I admit, I took my apples almost to the point of applesauce, and mashed them up some.   After the apples are cooked (and the liquid is allowed to reduce), you mix in some browned butter and vanilla, and some raisins (and nuts, if you're into that, which I'm not).  Yes, my kitchen smelled amazing this morning.  

The verdict?  Well, I love the filling, so now I really need to make the whole tart. =)  I'll probably do it this fall, if not before, when I can try it with some of my favorite apples (not that I dislike the Macs I used today).  It took me a few minutes to realize that what the filling reminds me of is baked apples, the way we made them when I was a kid.  After coring the apples, we'd fill them with a mixture of raisins, brown sugar and a bit of cinnamon, held together with some butter.  This filling tastes kind of like that, though better because of the browned butter.  Mmm.  I'll probably make just the filling again soon, and pair it with some ice cream as my friend Kayte suggested.  

If you'd like to try the tart for yourself, you can find the recipe on Jeanette's blog.  And to see what everyone else thought of this recipe, check out this week's Links.  

I scream

I mentioned in my last post that although I'm feeling overwhelmed and stressed out, I'm still baking.  What's really suffered from all the craziness of late is my blog.  I've been making stuff.  I've even taken pictures of a lot of it.  But I've been having trouble writing--I just don't know where to start.  I don't want to just put down a quick review of a recipe (though the occasional one-sentence post can be nice), so I haven't been writing anything at all.  One thing that's really taken a hit is my Tuesdays with Dorie participation.  Okay, I haven't really been keeping up with any of my baking groups, but TWD is the one I really feel bad about.  So I'm trying to get back on track this month, actually writing some blog posts about the stuff I've made.

This week's recipe is Coffee Ice Cream Tart, chosen by Jessica of Domestic Deep Thought.  Ice cream tart sounded yummy, but I had some problems.  Number one, I don't like coffee ice cream.  But Dorie gives options for other flavors, so that was okay.  I recently made a batch of Vanilla Bourbon ice cream to test out my new Madagascar vanilla beans that I got from Beanilla.  (I purchased them myself due to positive reviews from others; I have no connection to them.)  The original recipe is for Double-Vanilla Bourbon ice cream, but I left out the vanilla extract so that the flavor of the vanilla bean would come through more.  Next time I'll try with both bean and extract.  I only used 2 tablespoons of bourbon, and was happy with that--I enjoyed the flavor, but it wasn't overpowering.  

Issue number two, I wasn't excited about the crust.  I don't like almonds all that much.  I also heard from a number of people that they weren't that happy with the crust--that they found it hard to cut when frozen.  So I decided to improvise.  I only wanted a mini tart, and I had just enough dough left over from last week's cookies to make a 4 1/2" mini tart.  Tia of Buttercream Barbie picked the Pecan Powder Puffs for last week.  I made some of the cookies but didn't get a chance to post them, and I only baked one sheet, so I had leftover dough.  I pressed the dough into my mini tart pan, and followed the recipe instructions for baking the tart shell.

Once the tart shell was cooled, I filled it with some of my vanilla ice cream.  I covered the tart with plastic wrap, and stuck in in the freezer overnight.  The next day, I mixed up a little ganache with some chocolate and cream, and drizzled it on top.  I stuck the tart back in the freezer long enough to let the topping firm up.  I tried to unmold the tart before cutting it, but couldn't get the tart ring to release.  Once I cut a small piece, though, it came out with no problem.

The verdict?  I'm happy with the tart, but it really isn't the tart in the recipe. =)   I realized as I was looking back over the recipe that I was supposed to have a layer of chocolate under the ice cream.  Oops. I'm actually not sorry that I skipped it, since I'm happy with the flavors of my tart.  The bourbon and vanilla were good with the pecans and hint of cinnamon in the crust.  The chocolate on top was far enough from the bit of cinnamon in the crust that it didn't bother me.  (I'm not a fan of the chocolate/cinnamon combo.)  I liked the texture of the crust--it held together in the pan, but wasn't too hard to cut with a fork.  

If you'd like to try the real recipe for yourself, head over to Jessica's blog.  And to see how everyone else interpreted this week's recipe, check out the Links.

Birthday girl

I've mentioned before that birthdays are a big deal around here.  The birthday girl (or boy) gets to pick what kind of cake she wants and also what she wants for dinner.  I felt really bad this year for Gillian's birthday, because life was really crazy and I didn't manage to make her requested meal for her birthday.  We eventually had what she requested, about a week later.  We did have cupcakes on her actual birthday and a fabulous birthday cake a few days later for her party, so I hope that made up for it somewhat.  (It didn't help that Gillian's birthday was on a Thursday, and as I mentioned in my last post, Thursdays are somewhat difficult around here.)

Gillian's isn't the only October birthday in our family.  My youngest sister's birthday is tomorrow.  And one of my cousins was on the 21st.  I have friends with birthdays on the 12th, 13th and 14th (which G shares).  I just made cupcakes for my boss's little boy, who turned 1 on the 22nd.  And I recently discovered that one of our favorite cookbook authors, Dorie Greenspan, celebrates her birthday today!

One of my blogging friends, Holly, had an absolutely wonderful idea.  She and Laurie (our fearless leader) asked a bunch of us TWDers who have also joined French Fridays if we'd like to help celebrate Dorie's birthday.  I'm not sure what Dorie's favorite cake is or what she would pick for her birthday meal.  So we've picked for her. =)  It's probably safe to say that she likes all the recipes in Around My French Table, so we've chosen a variety from all sections of the book and are sharing them with you today.  It's like a giant progressive dinner party!

My recipe come from the "Salads, Starters and Small Plates" section of the book.  I picked the Spinach and Bacon Quiche (which can be found on page 160).  I actually made this before I made the mustard tart that I just posted.  This was my first experience making the tart crust recipe from the book--the dough is lovely to work with.  It turned out great, though I did have a bit of trouble with the crust shrinking during baking (even though I froze it for several hours beforehand).  I'd recommend using weights when blind-baking it.

The filling calls for fresh spinach to be steamed.  I don't have a steamer, so I had to find another solution.  I put the spinach in a large bowl with a tablespoon of water, covered it and microwaved it for several minutes until the spinach wilted.  (I think you could use thawed frozen spinach instead if you want.)  The hardest part of this recipe is squeezing all the liquid out of the spinach.  Talk about a workout for your hands! =)  Next, you cook the bacon in a skillet.  Again, I didn't quite follow the directions.  I cut my bacon into small pieces first, then sautéed it until it was crisp.  Once the bacon is done, you cook onion and garlic in some of the bacon drippings until they're soft.  Then the spinach and bacon are mixed in.

The whole mixture goes into the partially baked tart shell.  The last part of the filling is a custard mixture made of eggs and cream.  I added a bit of nutmeg, as well, since I thought it would go well with the spinach and cream.  (I should have added more--I couldn't detect it in the finished tart.)  Before it heads to the oven, the tart is topped with finely grated Parmesan cheese.  My tart was puffy and golden brown in 26 minutes.

The verdict?  Jamie and I both loved this quiche.  I'm not a big egg person, and this tart is perfect for that.  There's more "stuff" than custard in the filling, and a nice amount of crust, too.  I'll definitely be making this one again, and I can't wait to try some of the other quiche recipes in the book.  Even though it's listed as a starter, we actually ate the quiche as our main course, with salad on the side.  The leftovers are good for breakfast, too.  I knew the girls wouldn't like this one, so I saved it for a night when I fed them early and Jamie and I ate after they went to bed.  Below, you can find a rare glimpse into my crazy life--where the food sometimes ends up after it's carefully photographed. =) (yes, that's the coffee table...)

Head on over to Holly's blog for a full round-up of today's dishes.  I hope you'll visit all of the other people who came together for this birthday celebration.  Happy birthday, Dorie!

Timing is everything

I really need to schedule things better. Or maybe just schedule them, period.  When I originally learned that the new Dorie group was going to be posting on Fridays, all I thought was that it was nice that it was several days away from Tuesday.  I didn't really think it through.  To get something posted on a Friday, I really need to be working on it on Thursday.  Well, around here, Thursday is the worst day of the week.  We're all worn out.  Yes, we're probably more tired on Friday, but by the time we get to Friday morning, we all know that the next day is Saturday, and a chance to relax.  Thursday, we're almost as tired, but a lot more cranky, knowing that we have another day to get through still.  Ugh.

So forget actually accomplishing much of anything on Thursdays.  Unless I have something really solid planned for dinner, it ends up being pretty random.  Then it's a race to get kids to bed before they completely melt down, followed by getting my stuff organized so I can crash, too.  The moral of the story?  If I stand any chance of being able to post something for French Fridays with Dorie, I'd better get it done the weekend before!  And now you know why you haven't seen a post from me since the first week. =)

I'm still behind, but I'm trying to catch up.  Last weekend, I finally got a chance to make Gerard's Mustard Tart.  I was really looking forward to it, because I love leeks.  I made it for the small party that we had for Gillian's birthday.  It probably sounds like a strange thing for a 4-year-old's party, but there were as many adults as kids.  And Gillian's best friend is French, so I thought her parents would enjoy it.  We also had some savory snacks made with puff pastry (that's another post), fresh fruit with chocolate/peanut butter dipping sauce, and Cheetos (the poofy ones, not the crunchy ones).  The last was a specific request from Gillian. =)  And of course, cake.

Fortunately, the tart was pretty easy to make in between the other things that I had to do.  I made the tart dough, but it didn't get a 3-hour rest in the fridge.  It got about 30 minutes in the freezer.  It was still pretty nice to roll out, though.  I decided to use my rectangular tart pan for easy serving.  I froze the crust while working on cake assembly, then baked it.  I did use weights to keep it from shrinking too much. (I have a bunch of dried black beans that I keep just for pie weights.)  After baking it for 20 minutes, I removed the foil and weights and baked it for 7 minutes longer.  I let it cool while prepping the filling ingredients.  I went with 2 carrots that I cut into short julienned pieces, and three small leeks that I quartered lengthwise and then cut crosswise into half-inch pieces.  I don't have a steamer (or didn't, until I bought new rice cooker this week), so I sautéed them in a bit of butter and olive oil until softened (and seasoned them with salt and pepper).  I put the vegetables in the tart crust and then poured the custard filling (eggs, cream and mustard) over it.  I baked the tart for 23 minutes, until it was browned and puffy.  I let it cool until just warm before serving.

The verdict?  Wow, this didn't last long at all.  The best compliment of all was that it was eagerly eaten by our French guests.  Jamie and I really liked it, too.  Gillian wouldn't try it (and I didn't force the issue, especially since it was her party).  Brianna sampled it and said that "it was okay, but it's not my favorite" which is her polite way of saying that she didn't like it all that much.  We will definitely be having this one again; I'd like to play around with the veggies.  

If you'd like to try this recipe, I highly encourage you to get yourself a copy of Around My French Table.  It's on page 154.  For this month only, you can find the recipes here, on the FFwD site.  The group is quite flexible, so feel free to join in on the fun (if you haven't already).  And to hear what everyone else thought of the tart, check out the Links.  

Check back in the next few days to hear about my great class at Central Market with Dorie!

Worlds collide

At a lot of the training classes and district meetings that I go to, not everyone knows one another, so we go around and introduce ourselves.  Name, branch, how long with the company, that sort of thing.  And to make it slightly more interesting, sometimes we'll add "and tell something about yourself that no one else here knows."  It's fun to hear what people come up with.  For me, I've mentioned things like:  I played the flute for 10 years, including chamber music in college.  I've visited 36 states, and lived in 8 of them.  My husband and I have been married for almost 8 years, but have known each other for 22 years. Recently, I told them that I write a baking blog.  And I have one ready for next time--I'm part of a fantasy hockey league.

I played fantasy hockey once before, but it was a number of years ago.  I came to be a hockey fan because Jamie (my husband) has been a diehard fan practically forever.  At first, I didn't really know what the heck was going on as I watched games on TV with him.  Eventually it started to make sense.  Then I got really into it.  Then I had kids. =)  So for the past few years, I've been lucky to watch two or three games a season outside the playoffs.  This year, though, I have incentive to pay more attention.  A few days ago, Laurie (our fearless leader of TWD and FFwD) tweeted that she needed one more person for her fantasy hockey league.  I responded, saying that I might be interested.  She assured me that the league was for fun (not super serious), so I figured, why not?  We had our draft yesterday; now we wait for another week or so for the season to officially start.  Laurie commented during the draft that it was a bit weird to have her baking and hockey worlds overlapping.  I can understand that.  For a lot of us, we're different people in different situations, like at home versus at work or at school.  It's a bit weird when people from one world suddenly show up in another, and see a different side of us, and sometimes learn stuff that they didn't know about us.

So aside from Laurie, what does fantasy hockey have to do with this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe?  Well, one of my good blogging friends, Leslie of Lethally Delicious, picked Tarte Fine for us to make this week.  This fairly simple recipe consists of a rolled out sheet of puff pastry layered with thinly sliced apples and topped with sugar (with a bit of egg wash to help it stick).  I think I had this recipe on the brain when I first logged in to set up my FHL team, because when it asked me to pick a name for my team the first thing that popped into my head was Puck Pastry.  I tried to think of something else, since it seemed a bit too silly, but it stuck.  So Puck Pastry it is.  Wish me luck! =)

A few more notes on the tarte... I have a hard time finding all-butter puff pastry dough around here that isn't outrageously expensive, so I made my own. I used the recipe for Quick Puff Pastry from The Art and Soul of Baking. It makes about 2 pounds of dough and I only needed about 8 ounces for this recipe, so the rest is waiting in my freezer. For the apples, I used one of my favorites, macintosh. We're just starting to get New York apples down here, but the new crop of macs showed up in time for this and some of the other apple recipes coming up in the next few weeks. Tart apples are my favorites--macintosh, macoun, jonathan, jonamac, gravenstein. We'll see how many I can get my hands on this year. I baked the tart until the edges were getting nicely browned, about 30 minutes, I think. And I didn't have anything to use for glaze, so I skipped it.

The verdict?  This tart was delicious. I just wish there was more of it. =)  I cut the large rectangle into 6 pieces, as Dorie suggests in the recipe.  But each is so thin, it's gone before you know it, and you're left wanting more.  I could eat buttery, flaky pastry all day long, given the opportunity.  But I was good--I ate one piece after taking the pictures, and had a second for breakfast the next morning.  Brianna and Gillian joined me for breakfast, and really seemed to enjoy the tart as well.  (Jamie got some, too, the night I made it.)  I definitely think I'll be making this one again.  I'd like to try the butter & sugar variation given with the recipe, or at least have something to use for glaze next time.

If you'd like to try this one for yourself, head over to Leslie's blog for the recipe.  And you can find out how the other TWD bakers fared this week over on the Links page.

Too hot

Well, the school year is officially underway.  I still find it strange that school starts so early around here, since we always went back after Labor Day.  And lucky us, Mother Nature decided to celebrate the first day of school with our hottest day of the year so far, with a high of 104 degrees.  Fortunately, it looks like things are supposed to "cool off" this weekend, with highs in the high 80s or low 90s.  Have I mentioned how much I hate the month of August in Texas? =)

You might think that the heat is the reason for my lack of blogging in the past week--that it's been too hot to bake.  Well, that's not entirely true.  (Thank goodness for air conditioning.)  Last week was mostly taken up with a single project, a 50th birthday cake for a friend of mine.  I spread the frosting making, cake baking and assembly over several days, and delivered the cake to the happy birthday girl on Friday afternoon after work.  Friday was exciting for another reason, too.  I had the chance to meet one of our fellow Tuesdays with Dorie members!  Amy of Amy Ruth Bakes was in Texas to visit family, and happened to be driving through my part of Texas on her way home.  She stopped by my branch at lunch time, and the fun part was explaining to my coworkers that no, I hadn't met her before, but I "know" her from one of my baking groups.  (They know a little bit about TWD because they get to eat a lot of the completed recipes.)  It was a very brief visit, but it was so great to put a face with the name and the blog, as she put it. =)  

And speaking of TWD, I'll be taking a lot of this week's tart to work with me today.  Rachel of sweet tarte picked Crunchy and Custardy Peach Tart for us to make this week.  Despite the heat, I baked the tart and several other things over the past couple of days.  (I took Monday off for back to school and to enjoy some peace and quiet.)  I've just had to adjust my schedule to do my baking in the morning and evening to avoid heating up the house (even more) in the afternoon.  I also had to adjust the tart based on available ingredients.  While we had some fantastic peaches a few weeks ago, the few that were at the store this week didn't look all that great.  I ended up bringing home some nectarines instead.  Close enough, right?  Amazingly enough, I did use almonds in the crust and streusel, since I had some leftover from last week's birthday cake (which featured almond praline in the filling).  For the tart crust, I used my favorite crust from Alice Medrich, with a few tablespoons of chopped almonds added.  My only change to the custard was to leave out the almond extract, since I don't really like it.  Not quite all of the custard fit in my pan, since I used my rectangular one (which has slightly less volume than my 9" round one).  I also adjusted the baking time, baking the tart for 8 minutes at 425 degrees, 15 minutes at 375 degrees, and then another 15 minutes at 375 after adding the streusel.   

The verdict?  I really wanted to like this, but it wasn't quite my thing.  (I would have been happier just eating it the way it is in the picture up above, with just fruit and crust.)  I'm just not a big fan of custardy things (except for ice cream).  I'd like to try making a peach tart with the almond cream from this tart instead.  And my crust ended up way too dark, which didn't help.  I know that's probably mostly due to my change in pan size, but I do wonder about baking anything with eggs/custard at such a high temperature to start.  If I make this tart again, I'll probably just stick with 375 degrees for the whole time.  

If you'd like to try this recipe for yourself, you can find it on Rachel's blog.  And to see what everyone else thought of the tart, check out this week's links to the other TWD bakers.  

Reflections

There are times when I really wish I was fluent in a second language.  For work, and life in Texas in general, Spanish would be the obvious choice.  Through listening to some of my Spanish-speaking bankers, I've gotten to the point where I can at least understand some very basic banking terms.  Through Gillian's fascination with Dora (and some faint memories of my one semester of Spanish in junior high), I know some numbers and colors and a few other words.  But that's about it.  Spanish just didn't appeal to me early on.  So instead, I took four years of French in high school, and another year in college.  I've never been that good at speaking it, though.  My shyness and lack of self-confidence worked against me there.  I have a really hard time opening my mouth unless I'm certain I know what I'm talking about.  Not the best approach for learning to speak a foreign language.

While I wasn't that good at speaking, I could read and write somewhat competently.  I've lost a lot of that now, since it's been....umm....over 20 years since I actively studied it... Eek.  But some of it's starting to come back to me, since some of my blogging friends post in French, and it's fun to try to read their posts before resorting to a translation.  And of course, French is used so much in cooking and baking.  This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe is a good example.  Dharmagirl of bliss: towards a delicious life picked Tarte Noire for us to make this week.  Noire, meaning black, refers to the dark color of this elegant chocolate tart.  

It wasn't until I was talking with Nancy on Twitter that I realized that this tart recipe is quite similar to the Chocolate-Crunched Caramel Tart that we made last fall.  It's just the ganache layer and crust, without any other distractions.  Because of that, Dorie recommends using your favorite chocolate, since it will really stand out.  I went with Scharffen Berger 62%, which I really enjoy eating plain (and I can get the 6oz packages for $4.50 at my grocery store, so the price isn't as outrageous as it could be).  The filling is simple to make--cream, chocolate, and softened butter.  

For the crust, I went out on my own.  I've made Dorie's Sweet Tart Crust a number of times, and like it.  But I couldn't resist making this tart with my new favorite crust.  It's the one that Alice Medrich uses for most of the tarts in Pure Dessert, including the Lebni Tart I made recently.  The recipe uses melted butter and the dough is simply pressed into the tart pan and baked, no fussing with chilling or pulling out the food processor.  And it tastes fabulous.  Once the tart crust was baked and cooled, I filled it with the ganache.  I actually didn't refrigerate it at all, but the filling set up nicely at room temperature.

The verdict?  Yum.  This tart didn't last long around here.  Unlike the chocolate caramel version, it was eagerly devoured by all the members of our household, since it didn't have nuts.  In fact, I've already been asked by Brianna when I'm going to make it again. =)  The great thing is, it's so easy to make, it probably will make an appearance again soon.  It looks so elegant--I love the shiny surface of the tart.  This would make an simple yet impressive dessert for guests (if I can find any willing to brave the mess that is my home).  

Want to try this tart for yourself?  Head on over to dharmagirl's blog for the recipe.  The tart crust I used can be found in this recipe for Alice Medrich's Lebni Tart.  To see what everyone else did this week, check out the TWD Leave Your Links page for this week.  

Simply surprising

I like to play around with recipes. I don’t usually make drastic changes, but I also seldom follow a recipe exactly to the letter. And it’s not just a case of substituting for or eliminating things that I don’t like--though I do that sometimes, especially if there’s coconut involved. =) I take things I learn from making one thing and apply it to others. The TWD raisin bread is a good example--I mostly followed the recipe, but I chose to incorporate the raisins into the dough instead of just putting them in the swirl. It didn’t work exactly the way I wanted--I think they contributed to the crumb being a bit dry (dried fruit tends to suck moisture from the dough). I did soak them beforehand, but I probably should have done it farther ahead and let them absorb more moisture before adding them to the dough.

Okay, by now you’re probably wondering why I’m going on about raisin bread when this is obviously a post about something else... My point is, I like to learn new things, and I like to tweak recipes.  It doesn't always work out the way I expect or hope, but it's fun to experiment.  But sometimes you have a recipe that’s really simple and straightforward, and there isn’t much to play with. A lot of the recipes in Alice Medrich’s Pure Dessert are like that. The cover says it well--"true flavors, inspiring ingredients, and simple recipes."  Each chapter focuses on an ingredient flavor (e.g. milk or fruit or chocolate) and consists of recipes that really highlight that one thing. Several of us have baked together via Twitter to make a number of the recipes, including Kamut Poundcake, Lemon Bars and Cocoa Wafers. Recently, Nancy, Wendy and I decided to try the Lebni Tart. The recipe has intrigued me ever since I got the book--the picture is lovely, and I’d never heard of lebni before reading this recipe. It’s made from yogurt, and is kind of like thick sour cream. I know Nancy made her own by draining yogurt to remove moisture and thicken it. But don’t get it confused with most of the Greek yogurts that are popular right now--this isn’t non-fat or even lowfat, by any means!

Nancy, Wendy and I made plans to bake the tart on Sunday afternoon, but I ended up getting a later start than I hoped. Fortunately, when I reread the recipe, I was encouraged to go ahead and do it even though it was getting late. Unlike a lot of tart crust recipes I’ve made, this one doesn’t require any advanced planning. It uses melted butter. You whisk sugar, salt and vanilla into the butter, then stir in the flour and you’re done. You simply press the dough into a tart pan and put it in the oven. While the crust is baking, you mix up the filling. Alice does strongly recommend doing it in order without changes to get the best texture--start by whisking the eggs (mine were from my local farmers market), then whisk in sugar, salt, vanilla, and the lebni. The filling is poured into the hot crust and baked. You just need to check early and often, because you don’t want to overbake the filling--it should be set around the edges but still jiggly in the middle, since it will continue to set once it’s out of the oven. I did goof a bit--the crust is baked at 350F, then you’re supposed to turn the temp down to 300F to bake the filling. I missed that direction. Fortunately, I checked on my tart after 15 minutes (it was supposed to bake 20-25) and it was just right. Whew. =) I let my tart cool to room temperature, then stuck it in the fridge because it was bedtime.

The verdict? I love this tart. It looks so unassuming.  I started to dress it up with some raspberry sauce for pictures, but I actually prefer the tart plain.  The pictures could be better, but I really wanted to share my thoughts on this recipe, so I'm using them anyway. =)  I can’t even tell you exactly why I love it so much.  One reason is the crust. Browned butter is such a great flavor, and the bit of vanilla in the crust is perfect. And the filling is smooth and tangy and delicious.  I'll definite be stealing ideas from this recipe to use in others.  I'm sure this crust will be great as a base other things, and I’m already trying to think of other uses for lebni.

All of the recipes I’ve tried so far from Pure Dessert are very good, and I’m sure I’ll be baking more.  I highly recommend this cookbook.  But for now, if you'd like to try this tart for yourself, you can find the recipe on Google Books.  And watch for more reviews of this recipe on Nancy's blog and Wendy's blog.