Apple Tarte Tatin + The Pixies "Wave of Mutilation"

The last time it was this Cherry & Blueberry Tart and The Clash's "London Calling".  This time? Apple Tarte Tatin and The Pixies' "Wave of Mutilation". It seems I have found a formula that works for salvaging whatever bad mood may hit.


Apple Tarte Tatin, a classic french dessert with apples, caramelized sugar and a flaky crust, falls nicely into my recent category of culinary fascination: butter heavy french dishes. Also, it really isn't fall without some baked apple desserts, right? Besides requiring a careful watch, and sometimes nearly 3 hours of time from initial prep to final presentation, this is a very simple and easy dish to make. The key is allowing the sugar and liquid to cook down enough to reach a caramelized stage, without loosing track and allowing it to burn to the bottom of the pan.



Basic Apple Tarte Tatin:
This recipe is a very basic outline, quantities are not specified as you can easily adjust this to your taste/size of your tarte. The ingredients and technique are based on that taught to me by Chef Pierre Jennaton in a recent cooking class.


Note: it is very important to use apples that will keep their shape and remain firm during the baking process. Mushy apples in a dish like this are just no good. Believe me, I learned this the hard way. So make sure to pick out firmer, eating apples such as Gala or Granny Smith. Let's just say I had to make it a second time with different apples in order to take worthwhile pictures.

Melt butter and a quarter cup of sugar in a nonstick pan. Quarter and core apples and lay them in concentric circles core side up in the pan. Use smaller pieces to fill any holes. I also sprinkled some of my favorite baking spices over the apples at this point: cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice- though it should be noted that this is not traditional. Keeping this dish simple without the spices may actually be preferable.

Top the pan with a circle of frozen (thawed) puff pastry or homemade pastry crust. I actually had a pastry crust I had made ahead of time in the freezer I planned to use, but forgot to thaw it in time to roll out. Lucky the frozen puff pastry is easy to find, and is sold in sheets so there is no rolling required.

Place pan in oven at 375 degrees until crust is browned and flaky.

You will noticed a lot of liquid has formed as the apples cooked. the next step is to cook off this liquid. This is best done somewhat slowly over medium heat, as once the liquid is gone the sugar will burn quite quickly. You can watch and see the liquid bubble away around the edges to keep track of this.

 As this reduces, you can assure the apples and sugar have not stuck to the bottom of the pan by slowly spinning the tarte tatin inside the pan- press your fingers down on the crust and rotate slowly.

Once the liquid is no longer apparent on the edges (You can check by tilting the pan and seeing if more liquid appears) continue to cook a few minutes until you can smell the sugar caramelizing.

When the cooking is complete, place your serving dish over the top of the pan, and flip. Allow the Tarte to rest in the upside down pan for a few minutes, and it will free itself. Then just remove the pan from the top to reveal your Tarte Tatin.

 

Cherry Blueberry Tart - And How To Salavage A Bad Day

I made this tart with the 4th of July in mind- red cherries, blueberries, and pastry cream seemed like a pretty patriotic combination (though I will admit, the egg yolks, vanilla and liqueur in the pastry cream turned it a bit yellowy/tan rather than white) and since I have been trying to make desserts inspired by holidays this year (my green st. patty's day cake was a hit) I decided to make this to continue the theme.

As it happens, the day I made this was shaping up to be JUST NOT A VERY GOOD DAY. Things were not going my way, and I felt angry and hurt by a series of events that morning. I was hesitant to start a project while feeling that way, worried that I would not be able to concentrate and put my best effort in. After some convincing from my favorite (and only) sister, I ended up discovering that making this tart was in fact just what my day needed. I turned on London Calling (which makes for great "I'm angry and I'm gonna bake things!" music), threw on my apron, and sang along while I worked. And I may have danced a bit. I am sure I looked like a fool, but by the time the tart was done, not only did I have a delicious dessert to show for it, my bad mood had been magically repaired. And I knew how to make pastry cream.



The components of this recipe were gathered from a few different sources, the pastry cream is from this recipe at joyofbaking.com as is the apricot glaze. The crust was a basic graham crust from The New Best Recipe which I added a bit of cinnamon and nutmeg to for interest.

Basic Graham Crust
Adapted from The New Best Recipe by the publishers of Cook's Illustrated
9 graham crackers (1 package)
5 tablespoons of butter
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 315F
2. Melt the butter in and set in a medium sized mixing bowl
3. Break the graham crackers into pieces and place in a food processor. Process until it is the consistency of cornmeal and no large pieces remain.
4. Add the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg and pulse to combine.
5. Pour the mixture into the bowl with the butter, combine until all pieces are evenly coated with butter.
6. pour into a greased tart pan, and press into the bottom of the pan and around the sides using the bottom of a cup measure or small bowl.
7. Place on the middle shelf in the oven and cook for 15-18 minutes.
8. Let cool.

Pastry cream
from joyofbaking.com

1 1/4 cups milk (I used heavy cream as I had it on hand)

1/2 vanilla  bean, split lengthwise- (or substitute 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract if needed, it's what I did...)

3 large egg yolks

1/4 cup granulated white sugar

1/8 cup  all-purpose flour (I ended up using whole wheat flour, again, what I had on hand!)

2 tablespoons cornstarch

3/4 tablespoons liqueur (I used Grand Marnier) 

Directions:  (I cut and pasted these from the original source, joyofbaking.com as it is rather complicated and I didn't want any of the steps to get lost in translation, though I did cut out a few side notes they had included and reformatted it as I found the previous format a bit confusing to the eye, but feel free to check the link above to view the original if what I have done here is confusing.)  

1.  In a medium-sized stainless steel bowl, mix the sugar and egg yolks together with a spoon. (Never let the mixture sit too long or you will get pieces of egg forming.) Sift the flour and cornstarch together and then add to the egg mixture, mixing until you get a smooth paste.  Set aside.
2. Meanwhile, in a saucepan combine the milk and split vanilla bean on medium heat until boiling. (The milk will foam up to the top of pan when done, so watch carefully.)
3. Remove from heat and add slowly to egg mixture, whisking constantly to prevent curdling. (If you get a few pieces of egg (curdling) in the mixture, pour through a strainer.) 
4. Remove vanilla bean, scrape out seeds, and add the seeds to the egg mixture.  
5. Place the egg mixture back into a medium saucepan and cook over medium heat until boiling, whisking constantly. When it boils, whisk mixture constantly for another 30 - 60 seconds until it becomes very thick and it is hard to stir.   
6. Remove from heat and immediately whisk in the liqueur. Pour into a clean bowl and immediately cover the surface with plastic wrap to prevent a crust from forming. Cool. If not using right away refrigerate until needed, up to 3 days. Beat before using to get rid of any lumps that may have formed.

Apricot Glaze

Adapted from joyofbaking.com

1/4 cup apricot Jam

1/2 Tablespoon Grand Mariner

1/4 Tablespoon water 

1. Heat the apricot jam and water in a small sauce pan over medium heat until liquid
2. Remove from heat and add the liqueur, stir
3. If needed, strain to remove any lumps
4. allow to cool.

Then, to bring it all together:

 The last step of course, was to cut the fruit (I left the blueberries whole, but cut the cherries in half and removed the pits) and then assemble:

Into the cooled crust: smooth the pastry cream into an even coat at the bottom, layer the fruit on top of it in concentric circles, then paint on the glaze over the fruit with a pastry brush. Refrigerate. Happy Belated 4th of July!

Zucchini & Thyme Tart

Is this not gorgeous? I spent Saturday (as usual) at work. All day I couldn't stop thinking about food, I imagined all the recipes I might try when I got home, and day dreamed about cooking courses I could sign up for in the area, I mused over ingredients I could stop and buy on my walk home and new ways I could challenge myself. Part way through my work day, an old friend called me. We decided to have dinner together, and I was nearly ecstatic knowing I would have someone to cook for that night, an opportunity to try out one of the dishes I kept thinking about. I decided I wanted to make a savory tart. I looked at recipes for quite some time online, and even emailed one of my roommates and asked him to check my favorite cookbooks at home, but in the end I improvised. This zucchini & thyme tart is simple and elegant, and tastes just as good at room temp, so you can make it ahead, or even bring it to a potluck to one up the standard pasta salads.

I made the crust from scratch using the Flaky Pie Crust recipe by Mark Bittman in How to Cook Everything, which is quickly becoming one of my most trusted resources; I made the filling by mandolin slicing zucchini which I then quickly sauteed with olive oil, garlic, fresh thyme, salt and pepper and dried herbs, and layering it with finely shredded Gruyere and Parmesan cheeses. The outcome was savory and delicious, not to mention beautiful. And each step of the process was pretty easy.

Zucchini & Thyme Tart

Flaky Pie Crust (from Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything)
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
8 tablespoons (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into about 8 pieces
3 tablespoons ice water, plus more if necessary

Zucchini Filling:
3 medium Zucchini
1 clove garlic
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp salt (plus more to taste)
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried rosemary
2 tablespoons fresh chopped thyme leaves
1 1/2 cups finely grated Gruyere cheese- packed very loosely
1/2 cup shredded or shaved Parmesan or Parmesan, Ramano, Asiago blend
Grape tomatoes (halved) to garnish (optional)


Combine the flour salt and sugar for the crust in a food processor, and pulse twice. add the butter chopped into small pieces, pulse until blended. the mixture should look very granular, pour into a bowl and add the ice water, and use your fingers to combine until you can roll it into a ball. refrigerate and then roll out following the directions from Mark Bittman in the link above.

Slice the zucchini into thin oblong pieces using a mandoline slicer if you have one, if not slice as thinly as you can by hand.

In a large bowl, pour half the olive oil over the zucchini, and add the salt, pepper, dried herbs and half of the chopped thyme. combine in the bowl so that the zucchini are evenly coated in oil and herbs. In a large pan, heat the remaining oil and add the clove of garlic, chopped finely. add 1/2 of the remaining tablespoon of fresh thyme to the oil, and allow to cook until fragrant, 1-2 minutes. add the herbed and oiled zucchini to the pan, and over high heat saute for no more than 5 minutes.

Assembling the tart:

Preheat oven to 375.
start by laying a thin layer of shredded Gruyere into the bottom of the refrigerated pie crust. Over this, begin to lay the zucchini, starting from the center of the tart, in a single circular layer- overlapping each end in an outward direction until the bottom of the tart crust is completely covered. Cover this layer with a second layer of Gruyere and a thin layer of Parmesan. Create a second layer of zucchini using the same method as the first. and another layer of Gruyere and Parmesan. Lay down a third layer of Zucchini and then top with the remaining gruyere and parmesan, sprinkle on the remaining Thyme and garnish with the grape tomatoes, sliced side up.

Place in the oven and cook for 15-20 minutes or until both crust and cheese is golden.

Make this dish a light summer meal by pairing it with a salad and white wine, or eat a slice as a side or appetizer. 

Sunday afternoon baking- Chocolate Fudge Tart

                   Consulting my cookbooks for a good sunday afternoon baking recipe.

There is one reason I will probably never be a great baker. Baking involves math, my worst enemy. If you were to ask me off hand "what is 7 + 45?" I would probably break down crying before I could give you an answer. Especially if counting on fingers isn't allowed. So far, I have managed to get away with doing quite a bit of baking without encountering much math at all. Today that changed.

This morning I decided to bake a simple chocolate tart. I went to the grocery store, and picked up my supplies (the store, by the way, was a mob scene due to the current water emergency in the Boston area, lines down each aisle of people eagerly waiting to buy bottled water, most stores have already sold out) and hurried home to get started. No sooner than I took my ingredients out of the bag was I slapped in the face with a real life, contextual math problem. The kind of thing math teachers always say will happen, how you will use math in your everyday life and be grateful that they taught it in school. Well, I guess that all never really got through to me, because as I thought it through my mind could not make sense of any of it.

If I have a 500 gram bar of chocolate, and the recipe calls for 140 grams, and my bar has 40 squares....how many squares do I need for this recipe? My pulse quickened, and my breathing grew labored. MATH RELATED ANXIETY ATTACK!  How can I ever hope to bake well if I can't figure out how many damn chocolate squares this tart will need?

Luckily enough I have two roommates much more math minded than myself, one who works in accounting, and one who hopes to become a high school math teacher. I consulted them and was walked through each step (with a calculator of course, those like me with numerical anxiety always have a calculator close by so as never to be trapped doing math in our heads) the answer turned out to be 11.2squares. Cutting .2 of a square of chocolate is also confusing, but not nearly as bad as the multiplication and division  required to get to that answer. I double checked my work on my food scale, turns out my estimate was a bit over due to my rough attempt to cut .2 of a square, so I ate a few bits until it equaled out. Success!

Chocolate Fudge Tart
Adapted from Baking & Desserts, the essential recipe collection Parragon

For chocolate fudge filling:
140g high quality dark chocolate, finely chopped
3/4 cup unsalted butter, diced
3/4 cup flour
1 1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 eggs, beaten

The original recipe called for a basic from scratch pie crust or ready-made shortcrust pastry. I chose to make a graham cracker crust instead, both because it is less intimidating than a from scratch traditional crust, and less embarrassing than using a store bought crust. Also, I love the combination of chocolate and graham flavors. I made the graham crust using this tutorial. I love tutorials...

Additional ingredients:
3/4 cup whipping cream whipped and mixed with ground cinnamon
confectioners sugar for dusting

It also occurred to me that flavoring the whipping cream with orange extract instead of cinnamon, and replacing the confectioners sugar with finely grated orange zest could make an interesting variation.

orange whipped cream variation:
1 tsp finely grated orange zest
1/2 tsp orange extract
1 Tbsp sugar

After baking this I discovered that the amount of filling created by this recipe is far more than could fit in the pan I was using, a standard tart pan with lift out bottom and scalloped sides. I experimented with cupcake servings and ramekin servings with the remaining filling, and another batch of graham crust. These would have been so cute in mini tart tins, I will have to buy some for next time! If you are making this recipe for the same standard tart pan I was using, and do not wish to have extra for mini tarts and such, simply halve the recipe for the filling, and you should be all set.

• Preheat the oven to 350
• Create the graham crust as instructed in the tutorial linked above, set aside.
• In a double boiler pan, (or simply a small heat proof bowl placed inside a sauce pan with simmering water) melt the chocolate and butter together until smooth. Remove from heat.
• In a seperate bowl whisk together the eggs, sugar and vanilla. 
• Once smooth, add the melted chocolate mixture and stir.
• Pour this mixture into the tart pan on top of the graham crust.
• Place in the oven for 40- 50 minutes

For the whipped cream topping:

• using 3/4 cup of whipping cream, combine with 1 tsp cinnamon, or 1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest 1 Tbsp sugar and 1/2 teaspoon orange extract
• whip with egg beaters or standing mixer until thick, about 5 minutes

I was very impressed with the outcome of this recipe, I think this may become a new go-to. It is simple to make, but very sophisticated, never mind ooey-gooey and chocolaty. The addition of the orange infused whipped cream worked well to add brightness to this very rich dessert. I would make this to bring to any event, almost anywhere, and feel confident that it would impress.