Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Simplifying Things

Reducing something to its simplest form is not always an easy task. For a class once, I had to draw a vegetable of my choice, in this case a mushroom, and make a detailed drawing of it.

Then, step by step, make that drawing into a pictogram. This was when we were doing everything by hand, computers came in a few years later. I sort of liked the process of it all, with the tracing paper and the pencils and then the markers. Man, when 20 of us were using those markers in a closed room, we left with quite a buzz!

Anyways, the whole thing reminds me a lot of cooking, the idea of using a vegetable or any other food and bringing out it’s essence. You don’t need a pinch of this or a pinch of that to make mushrooms tasty. All you need is a hot pan, a pat of butter and thinly sliced mushrooms sautéed until golden brown and delicious. Same goes for onions. Simple things that don’t need much to get even better.

Add a batch of pizza dough, a little goat cheese and it becomes Caramelized Onion and Mushroom Pizza with Goat Cheese. Sounds elegant but really, it’s a simple dish, with simple ingredients. Just add a glass of wine for the buzz…

CLICK!: The photo at the top will be my entry for this month’s CLICK! Event : Au Naturel. Visit jugalbandi for the details.



Pizza Dough
I use Ricardo’s pizza dough, which I love because it’s so soft and easy to work with. It’s enough for 2 pizzas so I keep the rest in the fridge and usually make foccacia or whatever the next day. Or you can make 2 pizzas, it’s up to you!

Caramelized Onion and Mushroom Pizza with Goat Cheese
2-3 yellow onions, thinly sliced

1 package of button mushrooms, thinly sliced

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp olive oil

Salt and Pepper, to taste

about 100g firm goat cheese (I used La Patte Blanche from Fromagerie Bergeron)

Place your pizza stone in the oven and preheat it to 500F.

In a skillet heat 1 tbsp butter with 1 tbsp olive oil. Add onion slices and let cook over medium heat until nicely caramelized. Give it a good 45 to 50 minutes, it’ll be worth it, I promise. Salt and pepper to taste. Set aside to cool.

In the same skillet, heat the remaining butter and olive oil. Add the mushroom slices and sauté until nicely browned. The time this takes depends on how high a heat you’ve got your skillet on, so watch carefully. Once they’re done, let the mushrooms cool a few minutes.

Divide your pizza dough in two and roll one piece to your desired thickness. Place the rest in the fridge for later use. Spread caramelized onions onto the dough, followed by the mushrooms and goat cheese. Bake until the cheese is melted and the crust is golden, about 20 minutes. Remove from oven, let it rest a few minutes then dig in!

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Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Tuesdays With Dorie - Fluted Polenta and Ricotta Cake

When I first looked at the recipe for Fluted Polenta and Ricotta Cake, I have to admit, I wasn’t so sure about the Engineer Baker’s choice for this week’s installment of Tuesdays with Dorie. But the more I went back to it, the more possibilities I saw for Catlin’s pick.

First of all, it gave me an excuse to make ricotta again. Yes, homemade ricotta. I made it a few weeks ago with a recipe from Amy of Eggs On Sunday, and I’ve been obsessed with it ever since! Then I started thinking maple syrup instead of honey, cranberries for the figs, and orange zest, not lemon. Oh yes, now I was excited!

I halved the recipe, as I was reminded of last week’s carrot cake, and got baking! Thank goodness I read the Q&A on the Tuesdays with Dorie site as this cake would have been way too sweet for my taste had I used the amount of sugar specified. So I reduced it to 2 tbsp for a half recipe.

I decided to use my mini fluted tart pans and made three with cranberries, and 2 with figs. I have to say, I could have eaten the whole thing raw, the batter was so good. But, using my better judgment, I baked the little tarts for the same amount of time specified for the regular sized cake. They smelled heavenly and tasted incredible. I even like the rustic look they have, I think it adds to their charm.

I was pleasantly surprised by this recipe and I’m so glad I decided to try it out even though my initial reaction was to opt out this week. Now go check out the rest of the Tuesdays with Dorie bakers! And Caitlin, thank you for making me leave my comfort zone this week and get creative in the kitchen!

Maple-Orange Scented Fluted Polenta and Ricotta Cake
Adapted from Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

4 dried figs, stemmed
2 oz dried cranberries
1/2 cup medium-grain polenta or yellow cornmeal
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup ricotta
2 1/2 tbsp tepid water
4 tbsp sugar
3 oz maple syrup
Grated zest of 1 small orange

4 tbsp of unsalted butter, melted and cooled, plus 1/2 tbsp frozen then grated
1 large eggs

Getting Ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Butter 5 4-inch fluted tart pans with removable bottoms and put them on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat.

Plump the figs and cranberries by steeping them in hot water for a few minutes. Drain and pat dry. Cut the figs in bite sized pieces.

Whisk the polenta, flour, baking powder, and salt together.

Working with a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the ricotta and water together on low speed until very smooth. With the mixer at medium speed, add the sugar, maple syrup, and orange zest and beat until light. Beat in the melted butter, then add the egg, beating until the mixture is smooth. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients, mixing only until they are fully incorporated. You’ll have a sleek, smooth, pourable batter.

Pour a small amount of the batter into each pan and scatter the figs into 2 of the pans and the cranberries into the other 3. Pour in the rest of the batter, smooth the top with a rubber spatula, if necessary, and dot the batter evenly with the chilled bits of butter.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a thin knife inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean. The cakes should be honey brown and pulling away just a little from the sides of the pans, and the butter will have left light-colored circles in the tops. Transfer the cakes to a rack and remove the sides of the pans after about 5 minutes. Cool to warm, or cool completely.

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Sunday, April 27, 2008

You Blog, I Blog...

I always feel a bit shy blogging about a recipe that has been blogged about recently by someone else. Especially when I got the recipe from Deb at Smitten Kitchen. But I just couldn’t help but make these strait away and tell all of you about them.

I made the Peanut Sesame Noodles for dinner last week and we absolutely loved them. It was such a departure from what we usually have and this refreshing dish will definitely be making a repeat performance next summer. The only change I made was to use cooked chicken instead of tofu.

Yesterday, we found this wonderful kitchen store, I felt like a kid in a toy store! I got a few things, just a few, including some muffin top pans. I’ve been looking for some of those for ages and this morning I tried them out on some Whole Wheat Apple Muffins.

As Deb says, the lid really is the best part! These muffins turned out incredibly moist and tender, and made a gorgeous Sunday morning breakfast. I used vegetable oil instead of butter and halved the amount. I replaced the other half with applesauce. A little healthier for a breakfast muffin!

Click, click for the recipes and don’t forget to thank Deb!

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Thursday, April 24, 2008

A Little Something Special

Duck is one of those ingredients that I always feel I have to make something special with. Not your run of the mill meat and potatoes kind of thing. So when Martin came home from the grocery store with duck legs, I went in search of the perfect recipe to use them in. And I found it in the form of Duck Leg Guazzetto.

The duck is braised in a lovely broth with wine and rosemary and dried mushrooms and all this results in the most tender meat I’ve ever tasted. I found the recipe on A Mingling of Tastes, a blog I just recently discovered via Food Blog Search (that nifty little tool you see there at the right of the screen). I’ll certainly be going through the archives for other little jewels like this one!

I didn’t change much to the recipe, just omitted the whole cloves and used a package of mixed, dried mushrooms. I didn’t make the suggested toasted pasta, I didn’t have time, but instead served it with Pantacce, a flat, square shaped pasta that went really well with this. Other than that the recipe is perfect. You can find it over here. Thank you Julie!

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Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Tuesdays With Dorie - Bill's Big Carrot Cake

I wasn’t even sure I would have time to make the Tuesdays with Dorie recipe this week. But am I ever glad I did. Amanda of Slow Like Honey chose Bill’s Big Carrot Cake and I have to say the name is spot on, this is one huge cake!

Three incredible layers full of carrots, coconut, pecans and golden raisins sandwiched in between thick, sweet, dreamy, cream cheese frosting. How could I not make this? I almost omitted the coconut though, not being a big coconut fan myself, but Martin loves it so we compromised and I used the coconut called for in the batter but didn’t use any in the frosting or on top of the cake. The coconut taste is definitely there but not so much that it overpowers the rest of the ingredients. I’m glad I kept as close as possible to the instructions for the look of the cake as it is quite spectacular. I didn’t change the recipe much either except for substituting unsweetened apple sauce for half of the canola oil in the cake, and using low-fat cream cheese in the frosting because that’s what I had in the fridge!

I had eaten carrot cake before but I had never made it myself and this is without a doubt going to be my go to recipe. The cake is moist, just dense enough from all the add-ins and the frosting is fabulous, I mean absolutely fabulous, dahlings! All in all this cake is a keeper! Now go on and see what the rest of the Tuesdays with Dorie gang thought of the cake!

Bill's Big Carrot Cake

Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

Yields 10 servings


Ingredients:

For the cake:

2 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon salt

3 cups grated carrots (about 9 carrots, you can grate them in food processor fitted w/ a shredding a blade or use a box grater)

1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans

1 cup shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)

1/2 cup moist, plump raisins (dark or golden) or dried cranberries

2 cups sugar

1 cup canola oil *or 1/2 cup canola oil and 1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce*

4 large eggs


For the frosting:

8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature *low-fat works well*

1 stick ( 8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 pound or 3 and 3/4 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice or 1/2 teaspoon pure lemon extract

1/2 cup shredded coconut (optional)

Finely chopped toasted nuts and/or toasted shredded coconut (optional)


Getting ready:

Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter three 9-x-2-inch round cake pans, flour the insides, and tap out the excess. Put the two pans on one baking sheet and one on another.


To make the cake:

Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. In another bowl, stir together the carrots, chopped nuts, coconut, and raisins.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the sugar and oil together on a medium speed until smooth. Add the eggs one by one and continue to beat until the batter is even smoother. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture, mixing only until the dry ingredients disappear. Gently mix the chunky ingredients. Divide the batter among the baking pans.

Bake for 40-50 minutes, rotating the pans from top to bottom and front to back at the midway point, until a thin knife inserted into the centers comes out clean. The cakes will have just started to come away from the sides of the pans. Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes and unmold them. Invert and cool to room temperature right side up.

The cakes can be wrapped airtight and kept at room temperature overnight or frozen for up to 2 months.


To make the frosting:

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter together until smooth and creamy. Gradually add the sugar and continue to beat until the frosting is velvety smooth. Beat in the lemon juice or extract.

If you'd like coconut in the filling, scoop about half of the frosting and stir the coconut into this position.


To assemble the cake:

Put one layer top side up on a cardboard cake round or a cake plate protected by strips of wax or parchment paper. If you added the coconut to the frosting, use half of the coconut frosting to generously cover the first layer (or generously cover with plain frosting). Use an offset spatula or a spoon to smooth the frosting all the way to the edges of the layer. Top with the second layer, this time placing the cake stop side down, and frost with the remainder of the coconut frosting or plain frosting. Top with the last layer, right side up, and frost the top- and the sides- of the cake. Finish the top with swirls of frosting. If you want to top the cake with toasted nuts or coconut, sprinkle them on now while the frosting is soft.

Refrigerate the cake for 30 minutes, just to set the frosting before serving.


Serving:

This cake can be served as soon as the frosting is set. It can also wait, at room temperature and covered with a cake keeper overnight. The cake is best served in thick slices at room temperature and while it's good plain, it's even better with vanilla ice cream or some lemon curd.


Storing:

The cake will keep at room temperature for 2 to 3 days. It can also be frozen. Freeze it uncovered, then when it's firm, wrap airtight and freeze for up to 2 months. Defrost, still wrapped, overnight in the refrigerator.

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Friday, April 18, 2008

Ployes for A Taste of Yellow

It is, obviously, my first time participating in A Taste of Yellow, an event to Support LiveSTRONG Day, hosted and created by Barbara of Winos And Foodies. I thought long and hard about the recipe I would be making for the event. I wanted to make a dish that meant something to me, something traditional. And then it hit me: ployes. These griddle cakes are just the right color and I’ve been eating them for as long as I can remember.

Just for the fun of it, I googled ployes to see if I could find anything about them on the net. I was stunned to find recipes for ployes on Food Network Canada, RecipeZaar and various other recipe sites! No two recipes are exactly the same and that’s the way it has always been. There might be as many ways to make ployes as there are people who make them! They can go from thick and crumpet-like to thin as a crêpe, it all depends on who’s at the stove! The shade of yellow the ployes will be depends on the brand of flour and baking powder used to make them. Once, my dad couldn't find his usual brand of baking powder and ended up with bright orange ployes!

My paternal grandmother was a cook in a logging camp when my dad was a small boy and she would make these buckwheat pancakes everyday for the loggers. They’re a tradition in Edmundston New Brunswick, and often served with baked beans, cretons (which is a meat spread), molasses or brown sugar. You can also have a taste at La Foire Brayonne, a yearly fair featuring music, arts and crafts, food, and all sorts of activities. My son and daughter love ployes (the wee one hasn’t tasted them yet!), they even eat them for breakfast with Nutella, but that’s not traditional at all!

So there you have it folks, ployes for A Taste of Yellow. A traditional, comforting family favorite for all our loved ones out there who fight cancer every day.

Ployes (Buckwheat Pancakes)

These are traditionally cooked on a cast iron skillet but an ordinary skillet would do as well. Just make sure not to turn them over when cooking. You’ll know they’re cooked when the surface is dotted with bubbles and dry to the touch. If you find the batter is too thick, just add water until the batter is to your liking.

1 ½ cups of buckwheat flour
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
3 cups of warm water


Mix together dry ingredients. Add water and mix well, incorporating as much air as possible (that will help with the bubbles!). The consistency of the batter should not be too thick so add water if necessary. Spoon batter onto a hot skillet. Cook until the bottom is a little crispy and the top is dotted with bubbles and dry to the touch, you shouldn’t need to turn the ployes. Serve warm with butter or anything else you’d like to try them with!

EDIT: It's been brought to my attention that the brand of baking powder used might affect the color of your Ployes. I've always used Magic brand baking powder. Hope this helps!

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Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Tuesdays With Dorie - Marshmallows Into Cookies

Judy, of Judy’s Gross Eats, chose a really fun recipe for this week’s Tuesdays With Dorie: Marshmallows. At least I thought it would be fun…

I’ve made marshmallows before and they were terrific. My usual recipe doesn’t call for egg whites though and that’s where things went a bit haywire for me. My first attempt turned into marshmallow soup with bits of cooked egg white because I was distracted and my syrup’s temperature went too high. My bad.

My second attempt went really well, the marshmallows were puffy and beautiful. I made half the batch into cappuccino marshmallows and kept the rest vanilla just so I could compare with another batch I’d made with my usual recipe. Once they’d set and cooled and had been cut and rolled in icing sugar, we tasted a few, thought they were delicious, so I put the rest away and came back a few hours later to take some pictures. I was greeted by a mess of soggy, unappetizing and un-photogenic marshmallows. The vanilla ones weren’t too bad but the cappuccino ones were a real mess, like the egg had separated from the rest of the ingredients. Was it the icing sugar? Who knows? I couldn’t salvage the cappuccino marshmallows. I even tried to make Rice Krispies Treats with them. Let’s just say, it wasn’t a success.

What did I do with the vanilla marshmallows? I made a batch of my favorite chocolate chip cookies, replaced some of the flour with unsweetened cocoa powder for half the batch, used pecans instead of walnuts and made Rocky Road Cookies, Two Ways. Those were a success, oh, yes. They still need to be tweaked though as some of the cookies ended up looking like lace cookies because of the marshmallows melting but once I got the idea to put the dough in the refrigerator for a while, they came out a lot better looking. They all tasted incredible though, even the weird looking ones. So, am I going to make marshmallows again? Yes, but not with Dorie’s recipe. My all gelatin recipe, which I found over at What Geeks Eat, is just so much simpler and they keep for at least a week at room temperature. Those I took pictures of! I hope the other Tuesdays With Dorie members had better luck with their marshmallows than I did! For Dorie's recipe, I'll let you visit the other members' blogs for the ones who were actually successful in their marshmallow making journey!


Marshmallows Recipe

What Geeks Eat

3 envelopes of Knox gelatin
1/2 cup cold water
2 cups granulated sugar
2/3 cups corn syrup
1/4 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Powdered sugar for dredging

In the bowl of an electric mixer (preferably a stand mixer), sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup cold water. Soak for 10 minutes. Combine sugar, corn syrup, and 1/4 cup water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and boil hard for 1 minute. Pour boiling syrup into gelatin and mix at high speed. Add the salt and beat for 12 minutes. Add vanilla and incorporate into mixture. Brush your

spatula with oil and scrape the mixture onto a sheet pan lined with foil brushed with oil and spread evenly. Cover with another piece of foil brushed with oil.

Let mixture sit for a few hours. Remove from pan, dredge the marshmallow slab with confectioners’ sugar and cut into equal pieces with a chef’s knife. Dredge each piece of marshmallow in powdered sugar or dip in chocolate.

Rocky Road Cookies

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 ¼ tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 ½ cups granulated sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar

3 large eggs
3 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp instant espresso powder
1 ½ cups chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup marshmallows (leave them in big chunks, that will prevent them from melting too much)

Preheat oven to 375F.

In a medium bowl whisk together flour, baking soda and salt; set aside. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, or in a stand mixer, beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in vanilla and espresso powder. With a wooden spoon, mix in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts.

On a parchment paper lined baking sheet, drop tablespoonfuls of the dough about 1 inch apart. Bake for 10 minutes. Cool 1 to 2 minutes on baking sheet then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

Note: To make the Chocolate Rocky Road Cookies, replace 1 cup of flour with 1 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder.

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Sunday, April 13, 2008

Endless Possibilities...

Recently I spotted a post by Graeme over at Blood Sugar and then one by Jen of Use Real Butter, about sandwiches and how they love them so. Well, I’m a sandwich lovin’ girl too and I wanted to chime in on my favorite, the croque-monsieur.

Inspired once again by one of Ricardo’s latest recipes, Saturday night, I made these incredible sandwiches. I have always loved these kinds of open-faced sandwiches, covered with cheese and then broiled to get the cheese all golden and delicious. If they were on the menu at a restaurant, they were always my first choice. I tried to recreate them at home but there was always something missing. Saturday night, I finally realised it was the béchamel sauce that was missing from my previous attempts to make croque-monsieurs.

Now, I can’t stop thinking of all the different toppings I could use to make my next golden, crunchy croque-monsieur. Saturday night it was asparagus with capicolo, emmenthaler and parmesan cheese on a slice of sourdough. Sunday for lunch, I had some béchamel left over so I replaced the asparagus with tomatoes and had a totally different sandwich. You could use any kind of cheese, veggies or cold-cuts you want. Endless possibilities…

Asparagus Croque-Monsieur
Adapted from Ricardo volume 6 number 3

Cheese Béchamel
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
1 cup milk
2 tbsp grated Emmenthaler cheese
2 tbsp grated parmesan cheese
pinch of freshly ground nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste

Croque-Monsieur
Bunch of asparagus, cleaned and tough part of stem removed
Olive oil
4 slices capicolo
4 slices of sourdough bread (approximately the same length as the asparagus)
Dijon mustard
Grated Emmenthaler and parmesan to top the sandwiches


For the cheese béchamel:

Melt butter in a small saucepan. Add flour and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Add milk and whisk until it boils. Let simmer for about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat, add the cheeses and nutmeg. Stir to melt the cheese. Add salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

For the croque-monsieur:

Place a rack in the upper third of the oven. Preheat broiler to 500F.

Spread asparagus on a baking sheet in a single layer and brush with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook under the broiler for about 5 minutes, until the asparagus are al dente and start to get golden. Remove asparagus from the baking sheet and set aside.

On the same baking sheet, grill the bread slices on both sides. Spread a little Dijon mustard on each slice of bread then coat with a little béchamel sauce.

Divide the asparagus spears evenly between the 4 capicolo slices then roll the capicolo slices around the asparagus. Place the bundles on the bread slices then top with the grated cheeses.

Broil for 3 to 5 minutes until the cheese is melted and golden.

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Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Tuesdays With Dorie - The Most Extraordinary French Lemon Cream Tart

The Most Extraordinary French Lemon Cream Tart. That is the kind of recipe you gawk at while going through your brand new cookbook and think to yourself: “Wow, that would be so good. Naw, I couldn’t, that’s just too much butter…” .

And then you join a baking club and someone, in this case Mary of Starting From Scratch, chooses that recipe and you’re all like: “Yes! Finally, I have an excuse to make it!”. This week we had the option of making The Most Extraordinary French Lemon Cream Tart or the Fresh Orange Cream Tart. Since I’m really bad at taking decisions, I didn’t. I made both of them. On the same day. Yes, I know, sooooo much butter! And citrus too, let’s not forget about the citrus fruit in these recipes.

We found blood oranges at the grocery store this week, it was fate I tell you! And the most gorgeous, fattest, yellowest lemons I’d seen in a while. I loved making the lemon and orange creams, the smell of the zest was all over the place, and the colors, incredible. I don’t know how I could have made these without a blender though, beating the butter into the zest, juice and egg mixture was extremely easy with it. This is one of the few times since I got my blender, ages ago, that I was actually happy I had it! Of course, since I made both recipes, I took a little liberty with one of them. I couldn’t help pairing the orange cream with a bit of chocolate. A thin layer of ganache poured onto the cooled crust before the cream, and I skipped the glaze entirely. Wow. The sweet bitterness of the chocolate paired really well with the tart sweetness of the orange and the texture of the ganache was very nice against the creaminess of the filling.

The lemon cream, I left as is, aside from a little drizzle of strawberry coulis to make the colors pop. The lemony filling was just tart enough, not overly sweet, just perfect. And then there was the crust. I’m so bad with pie doughs, tart doughs, pâtes sucrées, sablées, call them what you will, they don’t like me. I don’t have a food processor, so I made the dough by hand but I knew, after reading the recipe the first time, that I would have trouble with it. Not enough wet ingredients, I knew I couldn’t make the dough hold together. So I had a bowl of ice cold water at hand just in case, and I added at least 3 tablespoons of water before the dough came together. I don’t know if it’s me or the fact that it’s very dry in my apartment but in any case, I don’t think the texture of the dough was affected. I rolled it out to make the full sized orange cream and pressed it into my mini tart pans to make the lemon creams. Pressing it seemed to prevent shrinkage, I don’t know why exactly, but rolling it gave me a more even thickness. Either way, it made for an incredibly tasty, flaky, buttery crust. Both these recipes are very impressive and, if you can decide which one to make, they’re pretty easy to execute. I just hope you’re all more decisive than I am because I can’t even tell you which one was my favorite, I loved them both! So go see if the other members of Tuesdays with Dorie are better at taking decisions than I am!


The Most Extraordinary French Lemon Cream Tart

Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

1 cup sugar
Grated zest of 3 lemons
4 large eggs
3/4 cup fresh lemon juice (from 4 - 5 lemons)
2 sticks plus 5 tablespoons (10 1/2 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon-size pieces, at room temperature

1 9-inch tart shell made with Sweet Tart Dough (recipe follows)

GETTING READY: Have an instant-read thermometer, a strainer and a blender (first choice) or food processor at hand. Bring a few inches of water to a simmer in a saucepan.

Put the sugar and zest in a large heatproof bowl that can be set over the pan of simmering water. Off the heat, rub the sugar and zest together between your fingers until the sugar is moist, grainy and very aromatic. Whisk in the eggs, followed by the lemon juice.

Set the bowl over the pan, and start stirring with the whisk as soon as the mixture feels tepid to the touch. Cook the lemon cream until it reaches 180 degrees F. As you whisk—you must whisk constantly to keep the eggs from scrambling—you'll see that the cream will start out light and foamy, then the bubbles will get bigger, and then, as it gets closer to 180 degrees F, it will start to thicken and the whisk will leave tracks. Heads up at this point—the tracks mean the cream is almost ready. Don't stop whisking or checking the temperature, and have patience—depending on how much heat you're giving the cream, getting to temp can take as long as 10 minutes.

As soon as it reaches 180 degrees F, remove the cream from the heat and strain it into the container of the blender (or food processor); discard the zest. Let the cream stand, stirring occasionally, until it cools to 140 degrees F, about 10 minutes.

Turn the blender to high (or turn on the processor) and, with the machine going, add the butter about 5 pieces at a time. Scrape down the sides of the container as needed as you incorporate the butter. Once the butter is in, keep the machine going—to get the perfect light, airy texture of lemon-cream dreams, you must continue to blend the cream for another 3 minutes. If your machine protests and gets a bit too hot, work in 1-minute intervals, giving the machine a little rest between beats.

Pour the cream into a container, press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface to create an airtight seal and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight. (The cream will keep in the fridge for 4 days and, or tightly sealed, in the freezer for up to 2 months; thaw it overnight in the refrigerator.)

When you are ready to assemble the tart, just whisk the cream to loosen it and spoon it into the tart shell. Serve the tart, or refrigerate 'until needed.



Fresh Orange Cream Tart

Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

1 cup sugar
Grated zest of 3 oranges
Grated zest of 1 lemon
4 large eggs
Scant 3/4 cup fresh blood-orange juice or Valencia orange juice
3 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 1/4 tsp unflavored gelatin
1 tbsp cold water
2 3/4 sticks (11 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon-size pieces, at room temperature

1 9-inch tart shell made with Sweet Tart Dough (recipe follows)

3 orange segments, for decoration
1/3 cup quince or apple jelly mixed with ½ tsp of water, for glazing

GETTING READY: Have an instant-read thermometer, a strainer and a blender (first choice) or food processor at hand. Bring a few inches of water to a simmer in a saucepan.

Put the sugar and orange and lemon zest in a large heatproof bowl that can be set over the pan of simmering water. Off the heat, rub the sugar and zests together between your fingertips until the sugar is moist, grainy and very aromatic. Whisk in the eggs, followed by the orange and lemon juice.

Set the bowl over the pan, and start stirring with the whisk as soon as the mixture feels tepid to the touch. Cook the lemon cream until it reaches 180 degrees F. As you whisk—you must whisk constantly to keep the eggs from scrambling—you'll see that the cream will start out light and foamy, then the bubbles will get bigger, and then, as it gets closer to 180 degrees F, it will start to thicken and the whisk will leave tracks. Heads up at this point—the tracks mean the cream is almost ready. Don't stop whisking or checking the temperature, and have patience—depending on how much heat you're giving the cream, getting to temp can take as long as 10 minutes.

As soon as it reaches 180 degrees F, remove the cream from the heat and strain it into the container of the blender (or food processor); discard the zest.

Soften the gelatin in the cold water, then dissolve it by heating it for 15 seconds in a microwave oven (or do this in a saucepan over extremely low heat). Add the gelatin to the filling and pulse once just to blend, then let the filling cool to 140 degrees F, about 10 minutes.

Turn the blender to high (or turn on the processor) and, with the machine going, add the butter about 5 pieces at a time. Scrape down the sides of the container as needed as you incorporate the butter. Once the butter is in, keep the machine going—to get the perfect light, airy texture of lemon-cream dreams, you must continue to blend the cream for another 3 minutes. If your machine protests and gets a bit too hot, work in 1-minute intervals, giving the machine a little rest between beats.

Pour the cream into a container, press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface to create an airtight seal and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. (The cream can be refrigerated, tightly covered, for up to 5 days and, or frozen for up to 2 months; thaw it overnight in the refrigerator.)

When you are ready to construct the tart, whisk the cream vigorously to loosen it. Spread the cream evenly in the crust. Arrange the orange segments in the center of the tart and prepare the glaze: bring the water and jelly to a boil. Use a pastry brush or a pastry feather to lightly spread the jelly over the orange segments and cream. Serve now or refrigerate the tart until needed.

Sweet Tart Dough
Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 stick plus 1 tablespoon (9 tablespoons) very cold (or frozen) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 large egg yolk

Put the flour, confectioners' sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse a couple of times to combine. Scatter the pieces of butter over the dry ingredients and pulse until the butter is coarsely cut in—you should have some pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and some the size of peas. Stir the yolk, just to break it up, and add it a little at a time, pulsing after each addition. When the egg is in, process in long pulses—about 10 seconds each—until the dough, which will look granular soon after the egg is added, forms clumps and curds. Just before you reach this stage, the sound of the machine working the dough will change—heads up. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and, very lightly and sparingly, knead the dough just to incorporate any dry ingredients that might have escaped mixing.

TO PRESS THE DOUGH INTO THE PAN: Butter a 9-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom. Press the dough evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the pan, using all but one little piece of dough, which you should save in the refrigerator to patch any cracks after the crust is baked. Don't be too heavy-handed—press the crust in so that the edges of the pieces cling to one another, but not so hard that the crust loses its crumbly texture. Freeze the crust for at least 30 minutes, preferably longer, before baking.

TO PARTIALLY OR FULLY BAKE THE CRUST: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Butter the shiny side of a piece of aluminum foil and fit the foil, buttered side down, tightly against the crust. (Since you froze the crust, you can bake it without weights.) Put the tart pan on a baking sheet and bake the crust for 25 minutes. Carefully remove the foil. If the crust has puffed, press it down gently with the back of a spoon. For a partially baked crust, patch the crust if necessary, then transfer the crust to a cooling rack (keep it in its pan).

TO FULLY BAKE THE CRUST: Bake for another 8 minutes or so, or until it is firm and golden brown. (I dislike lightly baked crusts, so I often keep the crust in the oven just a little longer. If you do that, just make sure to keep a close eye on the crust's progress—it can go from golden to way too dark in a flash.) Transfer the tart pan to a rack and cool the crust to room temperature before filling.

TO PATCH A PARTIALLY OR FULLY BAKED CRUST, IF NECESSARY: If there are any cracks in the baked crust, patch them with some of the reserved raw dough as soon as you remove the foil. Slice off a thin piece of the dough, place it over the crack, moisten the edges and very gently smooth the edges into the baked crust. If the tart will not be baked again with its filling, bake for another 2 minutes or so, just to take the rawness off the patch.

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