Daring Bakers: Apricot Frangipane Pie

Rachael from pizzarossa was our lovely June 2013 Daring Bakers' host and she had us whipping up delicious pies in our kitchens! Cream pies, fruit pies, chocolate pies, even crack pies! I was thrilled at the challenge because I've been fixated on baking pies and tarts for quite some time now and this challenge was yet another excuse to try something new. So, before I continue with the post, I have to say a big "thank you" to Rachael. 

Now Rachel gave us four different pies to choose from for the challenge - the infamous Crack Pie made famous by David Chang in his Momofuku Milk Bar; A Chocolate and Caramel Tart, a Crostata de Marmellata (an Italian-styled fruit tart) and a traditional double-crusted Apple Pie. 

I chose to make one of the four - the Crack Pie - and then make a fruit pie  of my own, an Apricot Frangipane Pie (see pic above!). 

First, I tried my hand at the Crack Pie. It was impossible not to try it, having heard and read so much about this utterly decadent (it's a whole lot of butter combined with a whole lot of sugar)  which I am told is being  sold at US$45 a pie or something to that effect. I was also encouraged, having tasted a replica of it made by my colleague and fellow Daring Baker Jane of The Wayward Oven.

Doesn't my Crack Pie look awesome in this photo?

Well, that's because it hadn't been cut yet at the time. Once I cut into it, I discovered to my horror that my filling hadn't set and was still gooey (this despite me extending the baking time substantially). Thick, rich butterscotch-y filling just oozed as I sliced and though it was delicious (and calorie laden, for sure), I was devastated. 

Let me show you a photo of the goooey mess. Be warned, it's not a pretty sight. 

Told ya! Not sure what went wrong. I will probably attempt to make it again once I am done grieving. Yes, I am a little dramatic over failed baking projects. Sigh.

I decided to shift my attention on my Apricot Pie which I was sure wouldn't not yield such a catastrophic result. It's a frangipane fruit pie, after all. 

I chose Apricots by chance. I was planning on making a mixed berry pie but on my grocery run last weekend I saw a carton of Apricots on sale and I grabbed two immediately. I tried them as soon as I got home and was pleased to find how soft and sweet they were. Score!

After eating a couple of them, I put the apricots to good use in the Apricot Frangipane Pie ... errr, even though it kinda looks like a tart. The apricots and the almonds in the frangipane went amazingly well. 

Frangipane is an almond pastry cream used in cakes, pies, pastries and tarts. It's made by simply creaming  butter and sugar together and then adding in almost paste (or ground almonds), eggs and a little flour. It acts as a custard would in holding the fruit pie/tart together. 

This will be my new go-to pie (whenever I see affordable apricots at the grocers, that is - imported fruit such as Apricots, Raspberries, Blueberries etc cost an arm and a leg here in Malaysia). 

  

Apricot Frangipane Pie

For the Crust

150g all purpose flour

25g icing sugar

90g butter, cold and cubed

3-4 tbsp cold milk

For the Filling

600g fresh apricots, pitted and halved

60g brown sugar

70g ground almond  

50g butter, room temp

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp plain flour

For the pastry, combine flour and icing sugar. Add the cold butter and rub the cubes  into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the ice cold milk in, gradually, until a soft dough forms.

Wrap in cling film and chill for at least 30mins.

For the filling, beat the butter, ground almonds and sugar until smooth. Add the egg and extract and beat till all ingredients are incorporated well. Stir in the flour.

Once the dough has chilled, roll the dough and fit it inside the pie dish. Puncture holes at the base of the pastry with a fork and blind bake for 10-13 mins or until the pastry starts to brown and the base is no longer soft.

Using a spatula, fill the half-baked case with the frangipane cream. Arrange the apricots on the cream.

Bake for about 20-30 mins or till cream sets and the pastry is cooked.

Cauliflower and Green Pea Tartlets

I've been experimenting a lot with vegetarian tarts (ha!ha! I am tickled silly by the double entendre here), trying to figure out how to make really tasty vegetable pastries without using eggs. I do love quiches and custardy tarts but there are many in my family and some among my friends who do not eat eggs. 

It isn't difficult to make a tasty tart (I'm still chuckling). Once you get the crust right - sturdy and yet crumbly, buttery - the fillings are just a matter of matching flavours that go together. Mushroom and onion, leek and potato, broccoli and cheese, beetroot and ricotta .... it's pretty straightforward. 

The real challenge is making these ingredients come together or rather, bind so that they don't just fall out of the crust as you bite or cut into it.  Most of the time, I rely on an egg custard to do this. 

Soft cheeses are great binders: mix ricotta/cream cheese/goat or cottage cheese with some herbs (and seasoning) and spread in on the base of the tart and the vegetables will be anchored on securely, for example. 

But what if you don't want so much cheese. Cauliflower, pureed into a thick, chunky paste, is a delicious alternative - this I discovered this morning. 

I had a whole head of cauliflower that had been sitting in my fridge for about a week. I was going to make a mash with it but then I looked at a ball of frozen shortcrust pastry sitting there too and decided today would be the day for using up leftover ingredients.

It turned out to be a really good idea: the past week has been a really busy one at work and as a result I didn't cook much at all. Actually, I didn't eat much either, although, unfortunately this hasn't translated into looser clothes or a lighter me. Grrr.

Anyway, I ended up with three ingredients: the cauliflower, frozen green peas and oyster mushrooms. There was also a couple of sprigs of thyme and about a two-inch slice of Gruyere cheese in the chiller.

I couldn't believe my luck. These were perfect for a tart!

I borrowed a rectangular tart pan from Jane of The Wayward Oven because, well, it looks so elegant and I wanted to make elegant tarts (still a little funny ...no?). As a result, I had a little extra pastry which I used to make some mini tartlets ,,, you know, one-bite (or two) wonders?

I pureed the cauliflower with some cream, cheese and some mushroom stalks, diced and sauteed in butter - I added these in last as I wanted them to be a little chunky in the puree. I seasoned with puree with salt and pepper and this was the binder. 

I steamed some green peas and stirred half the amount (about a half cup) into the puree and left the rest (coated with a little butter) for the topping. 

I also chopped some toasted walnuts and added it into the puree, just for some crunch.

The heads of the mushrooms (I used oyster mushrooms), I shallow fried till they were almost crispy and then placed on top of the tart to bake. They ended up crunchy and, dare I say it, meaty. 

To my joy, the tart turned out really good. The cauliflower puree (which I was afraid would be too mushy for a tart) was yummy and the peas, nuts and mushrooms just added texture and also flavour. 

Cauliflower and Green Peas Tart

500g cauliflower
3 tbsp cream
1 cup green peas
1 cup oyster mushrooms
1/3 cup Gruyere cheese, grated
handful of walnuts, toasted and chopped
2 springs thyme
salt and pepper
knob of butter
olive oil
1 tbsp plain flour

For the pastry.
300g plain flour
150g butter, chilled and cubed
pinch of salt
4-6 tbsp ice water

Start with the pastry. Whisk the salt and flour together. Add the cold butter and rub into the flour (or whizz in the food processor/mixer) until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the water a little at a time until it comes together as a ball of dough. Wrap in cling film and chill for at least 30 mins.

Boil/steam the cauliflower till soft. Drain and toss in olive oil. Roast (200C) for about 20 mins or till the tops start to brown. Remove from oven and let cool.

Steam the peas till cooked.

Separate the stems of the mushrooms from the tops. Dice the stems. Lightly coat the tops with the flour. Heat about 2 tbsp oil in a skillet and, when hot, fry the mushrooms (a little at a time) till they are almost crispy. Drain.

With the remaining oil, saute the stems until they are nice and brown. Drain.

When the cauliflower has cooled, puree it with the cream. It should be a little thick. Add the stems,half the peas and the cheese and pulse a couple more times. Season and stir in thyme (leaves only).

Coat the remaining peas with softened butter.

Preheat the oven at 180C.

Roll the pastry out thin and mould it into the tart case. For mini tartlets, cut circles out and then mould.

Using a fork, puncture the base of the pastry. Blind bake the pastry shell for about 12-15 mins, till the base is firm but not golden.

Remove from the oven.

Spread the puree into the tart case. Top with the fried mushroom tops and, if you like, grate some more cheese on top.

Bake for about 20 mins or till the puree starts to set.

Remove and let cool. Garnish with the remaining buttered peas, and, thinly slice red radish slices.

Ricotta Herb Tart with Olive oil Crust

This wasn't supposed to be a tart, really.

I bought a tub of ricotta cheese to make spinach ricotta gnocchi, based on a dish I sampled in Switzerland recently while I was staying with my friend JY, her hubby, R and their darling black lab, Umbria. R used the fresh Baerlauch (bear's garlic) we picked by the river in Cham, a small municipality in Zug for his gnocchi. It was fabulous. I'd only ever eaten gnocchi made with potato and flour and  not being a fan of potatoes, I find myself staying away from gnocchi altogether.

Since baerlauch is unavailable back home in Malaysia, JY suggested I use Spinach instead. I bought all the necessary ingredients: spinach, ricotta, flour, sage leaves and Gruyere cheese. And then I got side-tracked by another recipe for an olive oil tart crust which caught my eye. I love buttery-rich tart crusts but this one, from Chocolate & Zucchini seemed to get a lot of positive reviews. I had to try it. I just had to.

The gnocchi would have to wait till another day. Soon. Just not today.

The olive oil crust is a little simpler to put together than the classic butter shortcrust pastry crust. Because cold butter is not a pre-requisite, the dough doesn't have to be made with speed (before the fat melts as in the case of shortcrust). Also, the olive oil dough is much sturdier and as a result there is no fear that a soggy filling will in turn create a soggy tart base. There is also no need to rest the dough before rolling. If kneaded enough (just a couple of minutes should do) the dough should be pliable enough to be rolled as soon as it is mixed.

The filling is creamy and delicious, richly flavoured with the herbs. The smell from the herbs is practically intoxicating too!. The egg in the filling is optional, but it does help bind the creamy cheese together and give it a little form. An eggless filling will be a little softer (some thickened cream could thicken it a little). The nuts in the pastry and the Parmesan garnish adds texture and the garnish of red radish adds a little spiciness to the tart.

Olive Oil and Herb Crust

(Based on a recipe in Chocolate & Zucchini)

150g whole wheat flour

100g plain flour

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup olive oil

1 tbsp chopped chives 

handful of walnuts, chopped fine

1/2 cup + 2 tbsp ice cold water

Mix the flours, chives and salt together. Add the oil and the nuts and mix into the flour: it should start to clump together in bits. Add the water, gradually, until the dough comes together in a neat ball. Knead for a couple of minutes. 

The dough is now ready for rolling. 

Lightly flour your work surface and rolling pin and gently roll the dough till its 1/4 cm thin and gently lift it to fit the tart pan. Trim the edges, puncture the base with a fork and blind bake (180C) for about 15 mins or till it firms up. 

Creamy Ricotta-Herb Filling
250g ricotta
2-3 tbsp chopped mixed herbs (I used chopped thyme, rosemary and parsley) - a little more to garnish, if you like.
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 egg (optional)
salt and pepper to season

Mix all the ingredients together well. Spread it into the tart case and bake for about 25-30 min or till the cheese is set and slightly golden.

Garnish
Red radish, sliced thin
1/4 cup grated Parmesan (spread the grated Parmesan thinly on a sheet of parchment-lined baking tray and bake for about 12 mins or till golden. Coll and then break it up).

 

Caramelised Onion Tart

The process of caramelising onions is really quite simple: you heat a saucepan (heavy-bottomed, the size depends really on how much onions you are cooking), melt some butter in it, add the onions (sliced uniformly thin), sprinkle some salt (just a little, it helps release the moisture from the onions which aids the process) and let it cook over a very low heat. The onions need some babysitting though. Not in the beginning, but once they start to colour, you need to stir them so they don't stick to the pan and burn. Oh yes, once they start to colour, I usually add a little sugar too. And, later on a little balsamic vinegar. Or distilled white vinegar if you, like me, are out of balsamic.


Sounds simple enough, right?


Well, who'd have thought that caramelising onions would be the subject of an online stand-off between two men, or rather one man and a legion (well, a whole bunch) of cooks.


So here's the story.

Tom Scocca, a writer for Slate magazine, wrote a scathing piece accusing recipe writers of lying to readers by suggesting that onions can be caramelised in just 10 to 15 minutes. Scocca sounded seriously affronted. "Soft, dark brown onions in five minutes. That is a lie. Fully caramelized onions in five minutes more. Also a lie," he wrote. he went on to name a few renowned food writers and call out their "lies". Man! The man got really emotional. I mean, I get it ... to a point. When i follow recipes to the letter and face failure and realise that the instructions weren't that accurate, I get a little frustrated. But Scocca was maaaaad. So mad it was a little funny. You can read his article here.

So anyway, the fallout from that article was epic. Food writers, home cooks and chefs were annoyed at Scocca. And then came the best food throwdown I've seen. A video posted by a chef called Jacob Burton who shared his expertise on cooking techniques on The Stella Culinary School Podcast. Boy was he annoyed by Scocca's piece. He decided to prove the Slate writer wrong. He filmed himself caramelising onions in just 10 minutes and while the onions cooked, he took the chance to rebut Scocca's allegations, making fun of the article and the writer in the process. Men! It's a funny and educational video and you might want to watch it here. 

Who is right? I don't dare comment. I will just share my method of caramelising onions which has been fool-proof thus far. If you want to read more about caramelising onions, this article on the Serious Eats site is pretty good. 

You haven't tried caramelising onions? What? You must. Caramelised onions are just so lovely: sweet and jammy, there are the perfect topping for a sandwich or a burger. They can also stand alone as a filling for a tart/pie which is what I did. I made a caramelised onion tart. Sure, I added some sauteed mushrooms, cheese and walnuts in my tart but I was being excessive. You don't need any other ingredient ... well, maybe some cheese to balance out the sweetness of the onions. Yes, they are oh-so-sweet and caramelly (is there such a word? An not sure).


I made a tart as well as some mini pies. No, I wasn't being overly ambitious — I just had some leftover pastry which I didn't really want to freeze.


So, let's talk about the pastry. I flavoured my pastry with ground hazelnuts. Oh my. It was a good move, I must say. The pastry was awesome in flavour and texture. Yum!! You have to try it. You just have to.

Caramelised Onion Tart


Pastry
100g plain flour
30g ground hazelnuts
70g butter, cold and cut into cubes.
1/4 tsp salt
4-6 tbsp cold milk/water


Filling
20-30g butter
10 medium to large onions (I used a mixture of yellow and red onions), sliced uniformly thin
pinch of salt
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp vinegar/balsamic vinegar


Optional
1/2 cup sauteed mushrooms
1/4 cup cottage cheese, broken up


Making the pastry.
Whisk together the flour, hazelnuts and salt in a big bowl. Add the cubed, cold butter and with your fingers, rub the butter into the flour until you get what looks like coarse breadcrumbs. Add the cold liquid a little at a time and mix gently till a dough forms nicely. Shape into a disc, wrap in cling film and chill for at least 30mins.


Once chilled, place the dough in between two sheets of cling film and roll out to fit a 9 inch tart pan (with a loose bottom). The dough should be about 2 mm thick. Transfer gently onto the tart pan and gently mould the dough into the pan. Trim the edges, puncture the base with a fork and bake for 15 mins or till the pastry is beginning to brown and the base starts to get firm.


Cooking the onions.
I usually start cooking the onions as I wait for the pastry to chill.


Heat a heavy bottomed skillet on the stove. A cast iron pan is best but a stainless steel one isn't bad either. If you don't have either, you can use a regular pan.


When the pan is hot, lower the heat and add the butter. Let it melt and brown a little. Add the onions and the salt toss to make sure all the onions are coated with butter. Let the onions cook for 5-10 mins. Stir and add the sugar. Cook the onions further, stirring again after 5 mins. As the onions begin to colour, you will need to stir more frequently. As the onions cook, a fond (the brown bits that form at the bottom of a pan as you are cooking meat or in this case onions) may start to form at them bottom of the pan. Don't panic. Add the vinegar or some water and deglaze before continuing to cook.

So, how long do I cook the onions? I will admit, it takes me about 45 minutes but I cook them on a very low heat. I have not tried cooking them on high heat as Chef Burton demonstrates but  I am inclined to give it a go. What you want is a deep brown, slightly reddish, hue to your onions. They will be jammy and sticky and deliciously sweet.


Assembling the tart
Arrange the sauteed mushrooms and cheese on the base of the tart. This is entirely optional. Pile the onions into the shell. Dot with a little butter and bake for 10-15 mins or till the shell is lightly golden and cooked through.

Dark Chocolate Mousse Tart

Intense. That's one word that perfectly describes this dark chocolate mousse tart. Intense colour, intense flavour and intensely ... satisfying too. If you've visited this blog lately, you'll know full well how I've been consumed with making pastry off late. Pies, tarts, puffs ... that's about all I've been making for the last couple of weeks. And so, when I watched Mindy, a contestant on Masterchef Australia (season 4) make a chocolate mousse tart with a chocolate shortcrust pastry shell, I knew I had to give it a go. A chocolate crust: wow! (Mindy went on to win the challenge and her tart was featured on the cover of the Masterchef magazine — didn't know there was such a mag. But you can check it our here). 

So anyway, I decided to follow her recipe for two reasons: first, it looked bloody good — chocolate on chocolate? I mean who can resist, right? Second, while I love watching episodes of Masterchef (the Australian one, not the American version),  I am always curious about how good the dishes really are. I mean, the ones that the judges rave on about. The abilities of the home cooks are without a doubt gasp-worthy but I just wonder how the dishes actually taste. So, by trying out Mindy's recipe, I'd be able to satisfy my curiosity.  

I followed her recipe with minimal changes: she poured a caramel orange syrup over her tart, I chose to drizzle a spiced orange syrup instead. Also, she used 3 egg yolks on top of 2 whole eggs, I just used 2 yolks as I had just four eggs left at home.

The instructions in Mindy's recipe were easy enough to follow. The crust used a fair amount of cocoa powder which was combined with flour, icing sugar and ground almonds. It's a shortcrust pastry: chilled butter is rubbed into the dry ingredients and then a liquid (in this case an egg) is added to bind the dough together. The pastry was rich and very chocolaty. It was also a little more wet than your regular shortcrust shell. I liked the taste: it wasn't too sweet ... in fact it wasn't sweet at all, allowing the chocolate to be the star ingredient and flavour. I might try using ground hazelnuts instead of almonds the next time as I think hazelnuts go so well with chocolate. (I did try using hazelnuts and it was brilliant. I think I'd go with hazelnuts in future. It also combines well with the cocoa and flour and you don't see specks of beige as with the almonds). But, yeah it turned out to be a really nice crust.

The end product was a deeply satisfying chocolate treat. Rich, warm and comforting and "super yum", as the judges on the show eloquently described it. Super yum indeed.

Chocolate Mousse Tart
(Adapted from Mindy Woods recipe from Masterchef)

For the pastry
100g plain flour
70g cocoa powder
pinch of salt
60g icing sugar
20g ground almonds
90g butter, chilled and cubed
1 egg

For the mousse
275g dark chocolate
140g butter
2 eggs
2 egg yolks (the original had 3 egg yolks)
110g castor sugar
zest of one orange

Orange syrup (not from the original recipe)
3 tbsp castor sugar
3 tbsp orange juice
1 tbsp orange zest
3 tbsp water
1 star anise

For the pastry, whisk the flour, sugar, ground almond and cocoa together in a bowl. Add the cold butter and rub into the flour mixture with fingertips until you get what resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Add the egg and bring the crumbs together to form a dough. It will be slightly (just slightly) wet. Shape into a disc and chill for at least 30 mins.

Once chilled, place the disc in between two sheets of non grease paper and roll till about 4 mm thick. transfer onto the tart pan (10-inch) and gently mould to fit the pan.

Prick the base of the pastry case with a fork and chill for 15 mins. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 180C. Pre-bake the crust for 15 mins, until the base of the pastry has dried and hardened a little.

For the filling, add he chocolate and butter in a bowl and place the bowl above a pot of simmering water. Stir until both the butter and chocolate melts and becomes a shiny ganache. Remove and let cool.

Turn the heat off the water but keep the pan on the stove. Add the eggs, yolks and sugar in a bowl and place the bowl above the steaming water. Whisk with an electric hand held mixer or a balloon whisk till the mixture almost tripled in volume and you can form ribbons with the mixture. Stir in the zest.

Add to the cooled chocolate ganache (in three installments) and fold in gently.

Pour the filling into the pre-baked crust and bake for 18 mins. Remove and cool.

Make the syrup: add all the ingredients in a saucepan and heat until sugar dissolves and the syrup thickens. Drizzle over tart.

Creamy Lemon Tart

To love, honour and eat all that I cook. Isn't that what marriage is all about? My husband says no. He says he never signed on to be my food taster. What's he on about? Sign on? Just do what I say, man!

If only it was that simple. I need to find new food tasters because the man who lives in my house has gone on strike.

The problem lies  with me (yeah, go figure!) and my constant need for a second opinion. This applies to everything I do and i really pity my colleagues who I often burden to red through my stories before they come out in print. Sorry guys. But I do bake you cakes :)

So anyway, with this tart, I didn't need a second opinion. It is, after all, based on a Daniel Boulud recipe, from his Cafe Boulud Cookbook. (Boulud works with food writer Dorrie Greenspan to rework some of his popular recipes so that home cooks can recreate them in the home kitchens. The flavours are retained but the methods are simplified). A Boulud recipe?  How could it not be wonderful, right.

The original recipe pairs the lemon custard with raspberries but I used strawberries instead. Boulud's tart is also called a "whole lemon tart" as the recipe uses not just the juice and rind of a lemon but also the flesh. That's a lot of lemon but amazingly, the tart isn't too ... err, tart. Haha. Sorry, I had to include the pun. The lemon isn't overpowering at all. Sure, you get whacked with the taste of lemon immediately but it's not unpleasant; neither is it too acidic -  the cream that's in the egg custard adds a nice balance, I guess.

Yes, cream. Yummmmm.

The strawberries went well with the lemon but I was glad I though of making two tarts with the lemon-rich custard: one tart had strawberries inside it and the second didn't - instead, I made a pure lemon cream tart and kept some strawberries aside to make a sauce to go with the tart, as an option.

I must say I liked the lemon tart on it’s own a little better. With a little whipped cream and the strawberry sauce, it was rather sublime.

For the original recipe, kindly refer to Baking with Dorie, Greenspan's article that appeared on Serious Eats. The recipe I am including is the plain lemon tart with the strawberry sauce.

Creamy Lemon Tart (with a strawberry sauce)

For the pastry

(Enough for two 8-inch tarts)

225g plain flour

25g icing sugar

150g butter, softened

¼ tsp salt

1 egg yolk

25ml cold milk

For the filling

2 lemons lemons

2 eggs

2 egg yolks

1/2 cup sugar

3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons heavy cream

For the sauce

1/3 cup diced strawberries

3 tbsp sugar (or less, my strawberries weren't too sweet)

1/2 cup water

First, the pastry. Put the flour, sugar, salt in a bowl and whisk together. Add the butter in and using your fingers, mix the butter in with the dry ingredients. Add the egg yolk and the milk and gently combine till a soft dough forms. Divide in two and shape into discs.  Wrap in cling film and chill for at least 30 mins.

Preheat the oven to 150C.

Once the dough has chilled, Remove and gently roll the discs out one at a time. The dough should be larger than 8 inch in diameter to cover the base and sides of your tin.

Transfer the dough to the tart tin and gently press to fit. Poke holes in the base of the tart and bake the shell for 10-15 minutes or until the base sets just a little (when you press the base gently, it should be a little firm).

Make the custard.

Zest both the lemons. Set aside the zest. Cut the top and base of the lemons and then, using a small, sharp knife, cut away the skin from the flesh. Make sure you take away all the skin and the pith. Cut the lemon pieces in half and remove all the seeds. Do this over a bowl so you don't lose any of the juice.

Now, transfer the flesh and juice of the lemon (sans the seeds and pith) into your blender. Add the sugar, eggs and egg yolks and blend till smooth. Transfer to a bowl and add the zest and cream and mix together.

The tart is not ready to be baked. Once the shell is ready, fill the tart with the custard. It will be a little runny, don't worry it will set. (a tip:place the tart tray on a larger tray so you can put it in the oven without spilling any of the precious custard). Bake for 35- 40 mins or until the middle of the tart has set. The baked custard will be a little soft.

For the sauce, just add the strawberries, sugar and water in a saucepan and cook over low heat until the sauce thickens. As the strawberries get soft, mash them up with the back of a wooden spoon. Remove from heat when the sauce reaches the consistency you wish.

Mad about Tarts

I think tarts are just so elegant, both savoury or sweet. Oh except in Bridget Jones Diary. I must say, that movie kinda messed with my appreciation of tarts as an elegant pastry. You remember the scene, right? The one in which Renee Zellweger shows up at what she thinks is a 'tarts and vicars' costume party in a bunny-girl outfit (you know, like a playboy bunny) not realising of course that the theme had been scrapped. Yeah, so now every time I hear the word tart, I think of her slightly plump person in that costume. Funny scene, funny movie but not a terribly elegant image. 

Ok, I need a minute to get that image out of my head. Today, we're talking about pastry. Tarts. 

I love tarts. I especially love how tart pastry is so buttery and delicate that it literally crumbles once it's safely in your mouth (not before, God forbid). I also love how versatile a tart can be. Add some sugar in the pastry and fill it with fruit or custard or chocolate and it's a perfect dessert. You can also add cocoa into the pastry in which case you get a chocolate-crusted tart. Or coconut, even. Alternatively, for a savoury tart, mix in herbs, spices or cheese for a delicious tart crust that's extra tasty. 

This weekend, I went tart-mad! I made one large batch of pastry and five different savoury fillings to go in them. 

There are two components to making a good tart: the pastry and the filling. 

First: the pastry. Making short crust pastry isn't difficult. Gently rub cold butter into a bowl of flour (generally the ratio of flour to butter is about 2:11/4) until it resembles crumbs; add just enough ice cold water to bind the mixture together to form a ball of dough. Chill. Roll and bake. For sweet tarts, you'd add a little bit of powdered sugar to the flour; for savoury tarts, add some salt: a large pinch will do. 

That's he basic recipe which I learnt to make years ago. Since then, I've come across variations to the recipe, some that have worked amazingly, others that weren't too spectacular. Basic variations include swapping the ice cold water for ice cold milk. Or, you could replace about 1/4 of the flour with ground nuts (walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds or peanuts). Or, replace 1/4 of the plain flour with wholemeal flour or oats. Adding a couple of tablespoons of cocoa to the flour. Add a little more flour and an egg yolk to the dough. These are the variations that I love. 

Today, I added toasted caraway seeds into my pastry and it was fantastic. 

Next: the filling.

I had a few ingredients to play around with: beetroot, ricotta cheese, Gruyere and cheddar cheese, organic mushrooms, peppers, zucchini, parsnip and cauliflower. I mixed and I matched and I came up with five different fillings. Some worked — the Mushroom and Cheddar Tarts, the Zucchini, Ricotta and Parsnip Tart and the Peppers and Cauliflower Tarts and some needed more work (the Beetroot and Ricotta Tarts). 

I'll include the recipe for the Mushroom and Cheddar Tart.

Pastry

(makes 30 mini tarts)

120g plain flour

65g cold butter, cut into cubes

pinch of salt

2 − 3 tbsp ice cold water

11/2 tsp caraway seeds, toasted. 

Mix the flour, salt and caraway together. Using your finger tips, rub the butter into flour mixture, gently lifting the mixture up as you rub. Once the mixture begins to look like breadcrumbs, add the water (a tbsp at a time) and bring the crumbs together to form a ball of dough. Wrap in clingfilm and chill for at least 30 mins. Once it has chilled, roll the dough gently but swiftly and mould it into the tart tin. Using a fork, poke holes on the base of the tart to allow steam to escape (this way your pastry won't shrink when you pre-bake it). Bake it in a preheated oven (170C) for about 15 mins. (You don't need to add pastry weights since you have poked holes all across the base). 

Filling:

1 cup cauliflower florets

1/2 cup milk

1 cup mushrooms (I used oyster), diced

1/2 cup cheese, grated (Gruyere and/or cheddar)

chives, chopped small

olive oil

Toss the cauliflower in some olive oil and bake for about 20 mins (170-180C) or until the florets start to get golden. Remove and place in saucepan with 1/2 cup milk. Cook on low heat until the milk starts to boil and the cauliflower gets soft. Season with salt, pepper and chilli flakes. Remove from heat and puree till smooth. 

Put a tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet and gently saute the mushrooms till they are lightly browned. Season. 

Mix the pureed cauliflower, half the mushrooms and half the cheese together.

Assembling the tart

Spoon the cauliflower puree to fill half of the pre-baked tart case. Top with the remaining mushrooms and then the cheese. 

Bake for 10-15 mins. Remove and garnish with chives.

Pear and Almond Tart

Imagine my shock when I read an article that describe the pear as a fruit with an elegant shape. Elegant shape? The Pear? Seriously?

 Now, pears are actually one of my favourite fruits, especially when they've ripened nicely and are creamy (almost buttery) and sweet. But I've never looked at them as being particularly elegant.

Why?

Well, maybe it's because my pear-shape body looks nothing close to elegant. No, really! Nothing close. Not by a mile. Sigh.

But, we're here to talk food. So let's talk about the pear. Elegance aside, the pear is a fruit that I've never cooked/baked with before. Why? Well, I guess I like to eat them raw; as a fruit not as an ingredient in a dish.

What changed? December turned out to be a particularly eventful month for me and I found myself eating out a lot more than usual. The result? A bag of pears that was left uneaten in my fridge for three weeks.

Three weeks! Well, maybe four. Eeks.

As a rule, pears are best plucked from the tree just before they are ripe and are left to ripen in room temperature. When I bought the pears, they were about three or four days (my estimate) short of being perfectly ripe. But three/four weeks? I was, quite frankly, afraid to touch them for fear they may be overripe, squishy and bruised. What a waste, right?

Well, as it turns out, they weren't too bad. Just barely over ripe and just a wee bit discoloured. I ate one but decided to bake the other three ... in a tart. Typically, it is better to bake a pear when it is slightly under ripe rather than over ripe. But I had confidence in these babies.

I paired it with some shaved almonds (another ingredient I had sitting in my fridge for a good while) and a basic custard and it turned out pretty good.

Pear and Almond Cream Tart
(Adapted from Food & Wine magazine)

For the pastry
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
130g butter, cold and cut into cubes
1 egg yolk
1/4 cup ice water

Whisk the flour, sugar and salt in a bowl. Add the butter and, using a mixer or your fingers, work it into the flour till you get what resembles coarse bread crumbs. Add the egg and mix it into the crumbly flour till it begins to stick together. Add the water, a little at a time, until a dough forms. You may not need to use all the water, so make sure you don't pour the entire amount at one go.
Shape the dough into a disc, wrap and chill for at least 30 mins.

For the filling
1 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar
3 tbsp corn starch
3 eggs
pinch of salt
140g butter, softened
11/4 cups icing sugar
2 cups shave almonds, lightly toasted
4-5 ripe pears, peeled, cored and quartered

Pour the milk in a saucepan and bring it to a simmer.
Whisk the sugar with just 1 tbsp of the corn starch and the salt. Whisk in 1 egg. Pour the milk into the mixture and whisk to mix. Pour the mixture into the saucepan and heat, whisking all the while, until it begins to thicken and bubble at the sides (about 3 mins). Remove, strain into a bowl and whisk in just 2 tbsp of the butter.  Leave to cool.

Add the remaining butter and almonds in the bowl of your mixer and beat it gently to incorporate the two. The almonds will break in pieces but that's ok. Add the sugar, the remaining 2 tbsp corn starch and 2 eggs and the custard beat till mixed together perfectly, about 2 mins.

Preheat the oven to 350C.

Remove the pastry from the fridge. On a lightly floured surface, roll it to meet a 10-inch tart tin. It should be 1/4 cm thick; transfer into the tart dish, pressing it close to the edges.

Pour the cream into the pastry shell and arrange the quartered pears into the custard. Top with more shaved almonds (if you wish).

Bake for 80 mins or until the custard is set.

1. 
   

Don't judge my pie ...

A galette is a free-form rustic tart or pie. Free-form? Instead of the beautifully structured and fluted pastry case that holds a traditional pie together, a galette is flat, kind of like a disc. You put your filling (sweet  or savoury; sliced fruit or vegetables, etc) on a thin sheet of pastry. Then you fold the edges in, brush the pastry with egg and that's your galette.

I may have taken the "free form" definition a little too literally here. My galette looks unimpressive (see below). Very rustic. Very, very rustic. But that's ok. Because, ladies and gentlemen, this tart tastes great. No, it tastes better than great. 

I was hesitant about posting these pictures up and even considered altering the recipe for my pastry to make a more solid galette. But I changed my mind because, quite frankly, I like how it turned out. I loved the taste and I also liked how imperfect it looked. 

This is what a perfect free form galette looks like (from recipe.com);

Nice? Yeah. Here's what I love about my imperfect galette: 

First: The pastry.

The crust of a galette is very important. It has to be rich, it has to be flaky. It has to be good. Don't worry, you don't have to use or make puff pastry to make the galette crust. While some galettes are made with puff pastry,  I prefer shortcrust pastry at its buttery best. You do have to use a huge amount of butter but that's what makes it so special.

And it is special.

I added some whole wheat flour to my pastry as I love the slight grainy texture of my pastry. No need for a food processor or mixer, Just use your hands to mix chilled cubes of butter into the flour, leaving chunks of butter here and there for an even flakier result. '

'Oh yeah!

Second: The filling. 

A leek galette -- just leeks, nothing more -- may seem boring but leeks, sauteed in butter and seasoned only with salt and black pepper are unbelievably tasty. Stick them in the oven and they taste even better, You can, of course, add mushrooms or cheese (goat cheese, white cheese or cottage cheese are best I think) but a simple leek only galette is my favourite. 

The thing to remember about using leeks or other vegetables in a galette is to pre-cook the filling first, lightly but until the moisture leaves it. This way, you don't end up with a soggy tart.

Thirdly: Its easy, no fuss food. The galette needs no special dish to bake in. So, put away your fluted tart dish or your fancy pie dish. All you need is a baking tray, lined with parchment. That's it. Free-form all the way. No fuss at all. It's ok if your tart is bumpy or lumpy. It just adds to the rustic charm. And I'm not saying this just because mine turned out rather bumpy. Ok, maybe I am a little but I am proud of my less than pretty tart.

Leek Galette

Pastry
11/4 cup flour ( I used 3/4 cup plain flour and 1/2 cup wholemeal)
113 gm butter, cold
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 cup chilled water

Filling
2 cups sliced leeks
1 tbsp butter
salt and pepper

1 egg, beaten

Sift the flours, salt and pepper and whisk them together. Add the butter and, using your fingers, mix  it into the flour to resemble coarse crumbs. Leave a few chunky bits.

Form into a disc, wrap in cling film and chill for at least 30 mins.

Start with the filling. Melt the butter in a fry pan. Add the leeks ands saute (medium heat) till soft and the moisture is evaporated almost completely. Season and remove from heat.

Preheat oven to 180C.

Remove the chilled dough. Place it between two sheets of parchment paper. Roll till its about 20c in diameter and 1/2cm thick.

Place the leeks in the centre of the pastry dough. Fold in the edges. Brush the pastry with the egg. Place the galette gently only a parchment-lined baking tray and bake for about 25-35 mins.

Pie-lette, anyone

[caption id="attachment_210" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The Apple Pie that made my weekend"][/caption]

Had some apples that I really din want to eat. Had a boyfriend who loves apple pie and apple crumble. It's obvious what I hade to do right?

So began my search for an easy apple pie recipe using ingredients I had in my fridge/pantry. I was way to lazy to go buy anything, rainy weather and all. Thankfully, I managed to find one and with some modifications, I managed a pretty decent pie .... errr, pie-lette actually.

You see, one of the 'ingredients' I didn't have was a pie dish. Had a tart dish and I thought since I was making it for one person (I don't eat desserts -- hence my blog site)  a tart dish was perfect. So I reduced the ingredients to a third of what was recommended.

I also didn't have lime juice, so I used juice of two mini-tangerines and a dash of vinegar. (Dunno what culinary sin I committed there but it tasted pretty darn good).

Thankfully I had one sheet of shortcrust pastry left in the freezer and this proved just nice for one tart dish. It wouldn't have been enough for a pie dish as this recipe is for a double crust pie -- crust on the bottom and the top.

Try it, you'll love it.

♣ Easy and delicious double crust Apple Pie-lette

2/3 small to medium red apples

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup lime juice (i used orange juice and a dash of vinegar)

1 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

1 egg yolk, beaten with a little milk

Shortcrust pastry (i used store bought): one sheet to line the base of a tart dish and another to cover the pie.

[caption id="attachment_249" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Half eaten -- sweet and tangy and oh so juicy"][/caption]

Mix the apples, sugar, clour, cinnamon, ginger and juice and let it sit. Cut the pastry to fit dish and line it. Fill in the apple mix. Dot the tart with butter and cover with the remaining pastry, folding the edges tight. Cut small incisions on the top of the pie and glaze with egg mix. Bake at 180 C for about 40 -45 mins. Let cool for about 1-2 hours before serving. Goes well with ice cream.

And, for a bit of corny, while you are eating this delicious pie, check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tr-BYVeCv6U