This is one of the most delicious tarts I've ever made. I grabbed the recipe over the summer from an NPR post written by the author of the Nothing in the House pie blog (thanks for this amazing recipe!).
You'll need fresh figs and a nonstick, oven-safe frying pan for this one. Once you've got those, this tarte tatin should be a piece of cake (pun fully intended). What's a tarte tatin, you'd like to know? It's an upside-down tart with caramelized fruit. It got its name from the Hotel Tatin, located a couple of hours south of Paris, in whose kitchen the tart originated.
Here to pair with this delightful tart is the ninth track from my wedding mix tape, the Beatles' "Two of Us." It might be a controversial statement, but this is my favorite love song on any Beatles album. I can just envision the tungsten lighting of a 1960s drive on 16mm film.
Ingredients:
*adapted from Nothing in the House, courtesy of the British Pieminister
--pie crust, rolled and chilled (recipe here)
--15 large figs, stems cut and sliced in half
--3/4 c. granulated sugar
--3/4 c. water
--1/2 tsp. cinnamon
--1/2 c. roasted pistachios
--3 tbsp. honey
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
In an oven-safe frying pan, bring sugar and water to a low boil until the sugar dissolves. Increase the heat to medium-high and cook for about 8-10 minutes, or just until your mixture has become a thick, golden caramel syrup.
Turn the heat to a simmer and add the figs. Cook for about 3-5 minutes, or just until the figs have become quite soft (but not mushy). Remove the figs with a slotted spoon and set aside in a small bowl. Add the pistachios to the frying pan and cover them with the caramel. Add the figs back to the frying pan face-down, arranging so that the bottom of the pan is filled but no figs overlap.
Take your pie crust and top the fig and pistachio mixture with it. Tuck it down into the sides of the frying pan so that it forms a sort of top (don't worry about neatly tucking the edges! Just tuck them in as best you can--this is a rustic pie).
Poke a few fork holes in the top of your pie crust and transfer your frying pan to the oven. Bake for about 25 minutes, or just until the pie crust turns a light golden color. Remove from oven. Now here's the trick part: line a baking sheet with parchment, and just as soon as you've taken the pan out of the oven, flip the tart upside-down onto the parchment. Just do it quickly--you can do it!
Drizzle honey over the top of the tart and let cool for about 10-15 minutes before cutting.
Next up from the wedding pies? Peach melba pie! This pie is a delicious summery mix of peaches, raspberries, and vanilla. Want it in the wintertime? Freeze some peaches ahead of time in anticipation of warm weather cravings during the snowy months.
With this pie here's the Ramones' "Do You Wanna Dance?" It was initially recorded in the late 1950s, covered by the Beach Boys in the 1960s to much acclaim, and covered again by the Ramones on their 1977 album (and my favorite album), Rocket to Russia.
By the way, underneath the pie is a fabulous textile I brought home from Guatemala this past January.
Ingredients:
--pie crust recipe x2 (available here)
--6 large, ripe peaches, sliced
--juice from one lemon
--zest from one lemon
--1 vanilla bean
--1 c. raspberries
--3 tbsp. cornstarch
--1/4 c. apricot jam
--pinch of salt
--3/4 c. light brown sugar
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a bowl, combine lemon juice, lemon zest, vanilla bean contents, apricot jam, salt, and brown sugar. Fold in sliced peaces. Mash raspberries and fold in. Pour into pie shell.
I used a pastry cutter to design the pie crust top. You could do the same (see photo), or simply add a rolled pie crust on top and cut in a few venting slices.
Cover the crust for the first 30 minutes of baking. Remove crust cover
and continue to bake for another 25-30 minutes, or just until crust
becomes golden in color. Remove from oven and allow to cool. This pie is
great with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
This dessert is my own version of a deconstructed (or reconstructed, as it were) gingersnap cookie dipped in bittersweet lemon curd. It's a ginger cookie crust, filled with homemade lemon curd, and topped with a molasses whipped cream.
It's been awhile since I've made a tart, but every time I do, I think about "Queen of Tarts"--a gorgeous little food and pastry shop in Cape Town, SA that's more than worth a visit (or two).
The Felice Brothers have a new album coming out, "Favorite Waitress," and it features a pretty excellent song I heard about a year ago on a recording from Asheville's Orange Peel. Here's that acoustic version of "Cherry Licorice."
...All she wants to drink is lemon spritzer/ she don't care if the image fits her/ Who wants to spend their time/ choking on lemon rind
Ingredients:
*Adapted from Ina Garten's "Lemon Curd Tart"
Ginger Cookie Crust:
--12 tbsp. unsalted butter, chilled and chopped
--1/2 c. dark brown sugar
--1 3/4 c. flour
--1/2 tsp. salt
--1 tsp. ground ginger
Lemon Curd Filling:
--5 lemons
--1 1/2 c. granulated sugar
--8 tbsp. butter, softened at room temperature
--6 eggs
--pinch of salt
Molasses Whipped Cream:
--1 pint heavy whipping cream
--1/2 c. granulated sugar
--2 tbsp. molasses (you could add more or less depending on taste)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
First make the crust. In a food processor, combine butter, dark brown sugar, flour, salt, and ginger. Pulse until the mixture begins to form a crumbly dough. Form into a ball and press into a 10" tart pan. Press dough from the center outward until the interior of the tart pan--bottom and sides--are covered. Cover the crust with aluminum foil and bake for 18 minutes. Remove tart crust from the oven and remove the foil. Poke fork holes throughout the dough and continue to bake uncovered for another 20 minutes, or just until the crust begins to turn a light golden color. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
While your crust is cooling, it's time to make your lemon curd filling. Zest all five lemons.
Then cut the lemons in half and juice them. You should have just about one cup of lemon juice. Pour through a sieve and set aside.
Combine the zest and the 1 1/2 c. sugar in a food processor, and pulse for about 2 minutes. You'll want the zest to be extremely finely ground and completely incorporated into the sugar. In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, cream the zest and sugar mixture with the butter until smooth. Add your eggs one at a time and mix at a low speed. Drop in a pinch of salt. Slowly add the fresh lemon juice, continuing to mix at a low speed until all ingredients are combined.
Transfer your curd mixture to a medium saucepan and heat over low for approximately 10 minutes, stirring constantly, until the curd has thickened. Remove it from the heat, allow to cool just slightly, then pour into the cooled crust. Allow the mixture to set for 30 minutes at room temperature and then transfer to the refrigerator.
When you're ready to serve, make the molasses whipped cream. In a stand mixer with a whisk attachment, combine heavy whipping cream, sugar, and molasses until you have your desired thickness. I like to whisk mine until medium-stiff peaks form. Top your ginger lemon tart with the molasses whipped cream and serve.
Have you had the most delicious shortbread in the world? Here's the recipe! Millionaire's shortbread is a popular British treat, and this recipe is adapted from Jennifer Yee's "Billionaire's Shortbread" featured in Food and Wine. In short, it's more decadent than the classic millionaire's shortbread with amber caramel, a rich dark chocolate ganache, and a sea salt topping.
This recipe is more than a little time intensive, so make sure you have several hours to spare if you're going to make it. No doubt, it's worth it. You'll end up with one of the most deliciously rich shortbread confections you've ever tasted. Since it's topped with a thick layer of ganache, it's gotta be served chilled and stored in the refrigerator (don't take it to a picnic).
Do you know the Cleveland bank Rocket from the Tombs? I discovered them on CD in college and found the same collection on vinyl at Normal's in Baltimore a year or two ago. (Rocket from the Tombs was a very short-lived but amazing punk band.) If you don't know them, you should. Here's "So Cold" from a "posthumous," if you will, collection of live and demo recordings from 1974-75 on The Day the Earth Met the Rocket from the Tombs.
Ingredients:
*Adapted from Jennifer Yee's Billionaire's Shortbread
Shortbread:
--1 stick unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
--3/4 c. all-purpose flour
--1/4 c. corn flour
--1/3 c. granulated sugar
--pinch of salt
Caramel:
--1 1/2 c. granulated sugar
--2 tbsp. unsalted butter
--1/2 c. heavy cream
--pinch of salt
Chocolate Ganache:
--16 ounces dark chocolate, chopped
--3/4 c. heavy cream
--1 tsp. vanilla
--coarsely ground sea salt (for topping)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Make the shortbread first. Combine butter, flour, corn flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor. Pulse until a dough forms. Now line an 8" square baking pan with aluminum foil so that the foil comes up over the edges (take two sheets of foil and cross them in the pan). Then line the bottom with a square of parchment paper. Press the shortbread dough into the pan with the palm of your hand and smooth it until it's even. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or just until the edges are slightly golden. The dough will still be slightly soft when it's done. Don't overcook it! Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
Now make the caramel. Jennifer Yee makes a wet caramel, but I prefer to make a dry one. Dry caramels (or those made with *just* sugar and no water) are a darker amber color, and I think they go really nicely with dark chocolate and sea salt.
In a medium saucepan, add 1 1/2 c. sugar over medium heat (on the lower side of medium). Let the sugar sit until it begins to caramelize. Don't mix it. Instead, using a spatula, just continue pushing the edges of the sugar down into the pan. You'll see the sugar begin to caramelize and turn an amber color. Fight the urge to mix it! The rest of the sugar will incorporate and caramelize, too. But watch it very closely--once all he sugar has incorporated, it's done--don't let it burn. Turn the heat to low and add 2 tbsp. unsalted butter. Swirl in the butter until it has melted. Now add the heavy cream (be careful when doing this--it splashes) and mix continuously for about 3-4 minutes, or just until you've have a beautifully textured caramel. Swirl in the pinch of salt and remove from heat.
Immediately pour over the chilled shortbread and place in the refrigerator to cool down for about an hour.
Finally, make the chocolate ganache! Place 16 oz. chopped dark chocolate in a medium-sized bowl. In a small saucepan, heat 3/4 c. heavy cream over low-medium heat until it reaches a simmer. Pour over the chocolate and add 1 tsp. vanilla. Let it sit until the chocolate melts almost completely. Then stir until you have a smooth, creamy ganache. Pour over the shortbread/caramel and smooth with a spatula. Top with some coarsely ground sea salt. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for at least 1-2 hours.
Once the ganache has chilled, remove the shortbread from the pan (the foil and parchment should allow you to just lift it up) and cut into squares.
Serve chilled, and store any extra squares covered in the refrigerator.
Cinnamon buns on a snowy Sunday morning. What could make for a better breakfast? Of course, these flaky rolls are also a delightful dessert. I had the idea for these miniature sticky buns after (jealously) watching Ina Garten stroll through London markets. I've adapted her recipe here for some even sweeter, stickier buns.
These are best when they're still just a bit warm from the oven. If you want to make them ahead of time, I recommend rolling and filling the dough, and refrigerating it until you're ready to slice and bake. You'll also need a miniature non-stick muffin pan (but shouldn't you have one of these in your kitchen anyway?).
I can't believe I haven't used this song yet, but it turns out I haven't: Neil Young's "Cinnamon Girl." Here it is, to go along with some very cinnamon-y Chelsea sticky buns.
Ingredients:
(*Adapted from Ina Garten's Holiday Sticky Buns)
For the buns:
--1 package (2 sheets) frozen puff pastry dough, dethawed overnight in the fridge
--1/2 c. dark brown sugar
--1 tsp. cinnamon
--1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
--1/2 to 1 c. coarsely chopped pecans (amount can vary depending on your love of pecans)
For the filling:
--1/3 c. dark brown sugar
--1/3 c. turbinado sugar
--1/3 c. very finely chopped pecans (almost dusted)
--1 tbsp. cinnamon
--1/2 tsp. nutmeg
--1/2 tsp. cloves
--1/2 tsp. allspice
--1/2 stick butter, melted
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Start with the "buns" ingredients. In a large bowl, combine the brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter. You'll want to beat it until the sugar and spice are incorporated fully into the butter, making a sort of brown sugar butter (by the way, this makes an excellent topping, on its own, for muffins and breads). Spoon the butter evenly into the bottoms of the miniature muffin cups, filling them about 1/3 of the way full. Distribute the coarsely chopped pecans on top of the butter in each of the 24 miniature muffin cups and set aside. The butter will begin to melt, but that's OK.
Now for the "filling." In a bowl, mix the sugars, spices, and pecans and set aside for just a moment. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the puff pastry dough. You'll have two sheets, so you'll end up doing this twice. Using a pastry brush, paint about 1/2 of your melted butter across the pastry dough. Sprinkle about 1/2 of your sugar and spice mixture evenly across the dough. Now, you'll want to very carefully roll it up using the longer edge. In other words, you want to have a longer, rather than a shorter, roll. Once you've rolled it up, pinch the ends closed and place the dough roll seam-side down. Using a serrated-edged knife, carefully cut the dough roll into twelve equal pieces. Place these on top of the butter/pecan mixture in your miniature muffin tins and repeat until all muffin cups are filled.
Bake for about 20 minutes, or just until the rolls have puffed up and are firm to the touch (you'll know when you see them!). Allow them to cool down for just a few minutes, and then flip the muffins upside down one at a time onto parchment paper--your bottoms are now your tops, and you've got sticky buns with a gooey, sugary topping. Remove any remaining butter topping from the muffin cups and add it to your buns. Let them cool just a bit longer, and then dig in!
If you read this blog with any regularity, you might have noticed that I have an incurable sweet tooth. The holiday season gives me a marvelous excuse to make (and devour) a new dessert almost every day. I love shortbread, and I've been trying to find a recipe that I'm really crazy about. While I've made some shortbread recipes that are yummy (like my winter white amaretto shortbread), lately I've been craving a shortbread that's especially flaky and crisp. This recipe is exactly that.
You can make this into any shape you'd like, of course. I selected some snowflake cookie cutters to accompany the wintry weather. I tried to introduce you to the Durutti Column's music in previous posts, but it turns out that some of their cold-weather tracks are even more beautiful than I could imagine. Here is their haunting "Snowflakes," to match the aesthetics of these shortbread cookies.
Ingredients:
--2 sticks + 6 tbsp. unsalted butter (keep this very cold like you would for a pie crust)
--2 tbsp. dark rum
--1 tbsp. vanilla
--1 c. turbinado sugar
--1 c. cornstarch
--2 c. all-purpose flour, + extra for rolling
--1 tsp. salt
--decorative sugar crystals
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
In a large bowl, sift flour, cornstarch, and salt. Using a food processor or using a pastry cutter, add butter, sugar, vanilla, and rum. If you're using a food processor, pulse the ingredients until they begin to form a ball, just like a pie crust. (If you're using a pastry cutter, it'll take a little more time, but cut the ingredients until a dry, crumbly dough begins to form.)
Separate the dough into quarters. On a large floured surface, shape the first dough quarter into a ball and roll out until it's about 1/4 to 1/2" thick. Using a floured cookie cutter, cut any shapes you like. Repeat with remaining dough, incorporating the scraps as you go. (You'll end up with about 3 dozen cookies or so, depending on the size of your cookie cutter, when all is said and done.)
Arrange the cookies about 1/2" apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Sprinkle with decorative sugar crystals (I used silver and gold).
Bake at 325 degrees F for approximately 12-14 minutes, or just until the cookie edges are ever so slightly golden. If the tops become golden, they're overdone. Remove from oven and allow to cool. And these look great in holiday gift bags!
