French Lemon Cream Tart

I'm a fan of lemon pies (see here and here), so when I saw "The Most Extraordinary French Lemon Cream Tart" in Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours, I knew I needed to give it a try.  It just so happened that my dad was in town when I made this pie (lemon pie is his absolute favorite)!  Essentially, this pie consists of a sweet tart shell that gets filled with lemon cream.  I then whipped some cream and piped little stars around, just to be fancy pants.  If, like me, you aren't sure of the difference between lemon curd and lemon cream, let me share my newfound education!  They basically contain the same ingredients:  eggs, lemon zest and juice, sugar and butter.  The difference is how they are made.  In curd, all of the ingredients are cooked together until they thicken, so you get that nice silky, buttery spread.  In cream, the butter is left out of the cooking - only the eggs, sugar and lemon are cooked until thickened.  Then they are put into a blender, allowed to cool, and whipped with the butter.  This way the butter doesn't actually melt, it gets emulsified, so you end up with a really light, velvety spread.  Lemon cream and lemon curd can be used interchangeably in most cases, however your mood dictates! 
 

The conclusion?  Lemon cream is blissful!  I would probably reduce the sugar next time (a common theme in my lemon pies) but it was super!  The best part though was when I gave the clever boy a taste of the lemon cream.  He is always eager to try anything I am baking, but had not connected the ideas of "lemon" and "tart".  So when I put a bit of lemon cream into his mouth, his eyes got really wide and he did this little shiver/convulsion throughout his 2-yr old body.  It was hysterical!  Sweet boy. 

You can find The Most Extraordinary Lemon Cream Tart on pages 331 and 332 of Baking: From My Home to Yours, or by going here, to Dorie's website. 

Tuesday's with Dorie July Catch-up!

Well, all I can say is that my free time seemed to disappear over the summer...  I did a lot of baking, but never managed to set aside the time to edit photos and post to the blog.  Summer is a busy time with two kids!  Better late than never, though! 

The first recipe in July is the White Chocolate Patty Cake from Baking with Julia.  What appears to be a simple white cake, above, is actually a rich, velvety cake made of white chocolate and lots of eggs.  It was fluffy and velvety and scrumptious.  I am not generally someone who jumps for joy for white chocolate, but it really made this cake something special!  The cakes themselves collapse a bit when taken out of the oven, but that's totally fine.  You sort of smoosh the cakes together anyway!  There is a layer of "raspberry crush" in between the layers, and also some on top of the cake (that's the red sauce you see).  It was supposed to be made with frozen raspberries in a light syrup, but my raspberries were simply frozen - no syrup involved.  That worked fine with me though, as it was not too tart by any means.  Plus, the cake itself is sweet (all that white chocolate!) so the contrast between the sweet cake and the tart sauce was perfect!  Once the sauce is spread over the bottom layer, the top layer is placed and then the edges are smooshed together.  Then more sauce is put on top, with fresh raspberries.  This is a delicious summer treat!  It looks and tastes like you worked really hard, and it is actually quite simple!  Try it!  You can find the recipe here! 

Ready for some more raspberries?  I am!  Truly, when raspberries start showing up in the grocery store, I am thrilled.  My kids love them (call them "finger berries") and I could easily eat an entire tray (no matter the size!) in a sitting.  If you are a Costco member, go there for your summer raspberry fix.  They are AWESOME and like everything at Costco, comes in a bigger container than in the grocery store, for about the same price!  Win! 

This particular recipe is from Baking Chez Moi, and is the Apricot Raspberry Tart.  You can find the recipe on page 145.  This recipe was supposed to have a layer of stale cake crumbs or brioche between the sweet tart and the fruit layer, to absorb the juices.  OR, Dorie suggests that you create an Apricot-Almond Cream Tart and spread a layer of almond cream over the bottom of the tart.  Yeah, HELLO?  I'll take that option, thank you very much!  But I didn't see the purpose of losing the raspberries in the process (Dorie leaves them out in this version) so I used them anyway.  Are you with me here?  Sweet tart dough, almond cream, apricots, raspberries, and pistachios on top.  NOTHING WRONG WITH THIS!  Delicious.  This is totally my kind of dessert.  I tend to lean towards the fruity pie-ish type desserts and this baby is right up my alley! 

Finally, in July we made Vanilla-Mango Panna Cotta.  This recipe is also from Baking Chez Moi and can be found on pages 370-372.  This I made at my parents house, where the kids and I went to help my mom after a minor surgery.  Surely delicious food and love from grandkids helped her heal well!  I like to think so, anyway!  This is another recipe that looks like a million bucks but is actually fairly simple to make!  If you've never made a panna cotta, you really need to give it a try.  It takes minimal time to prep and can (in fact has to) be made in advance, so at the right time you just have to get it out of the refrigerator and BAM an amazing dessert is served! 

The panna cotta sits on a puree of mango and lime.  You could also add honey to the mix, but my mangoes were sweet so I didn't add any.  The puree goes on the bottom and into the refrigerator.  Then you make the panna cotta, which is made by infusing vanilla bean into heavy cream and milk, then adding bloomed gelatin.  Pour this on top of the cold puree, refrigerate at least 2 hours, and there you have a beautiful dessert!  If you don't care for mango, you could use a different fruit puree or use NO fruit puree, set the panna cotta in a lightly oiled mold, and then pop them gently out to serve on a plate with berries or some sort of syrup.  Panna cotta is super versatile!

Oh, and I can't believe I took this picture.  I probably couldn't do it again if I tried but I love how it turned out!  I'll take my successes where I can!

There you go for a July catch up...  There is still one recipe that I haven't gotten around to making yet, but I'll get there.....  eventually.....

TWD: Baking with Julia - Sweet Ricotta Pie

 

Our recipe for today is Sweet Ricotta Pie, from Baking with Julia.  I made this recipe for Easter dinner, hence the bunny!  I have to admit, when I first saw this recipe I was not very excited.  The main flavor in the recipe is anisette, of which I am not actually a fan.  So I changed things up a bit for our tastes and it turned out quite good!

My first change:  Well, this may not actually be a change but I made my own ricotta for this recipe!  I know, crazy, right?  But I happened to get a recipe for making homemade ricotta in my Fine Cooking magazine this month and thought I should give it a try.  I have made it twice now and yum, is it good!  The key thing I need to figure out is the length of time for draining the ricotta.  The recipe says you can drain it anywhere from 30 minutes to 24 hours, depending if you want it soft or firm.  On my first trial, I made it fairly soft, and this time it was more firm.  None of this was actually intentional, it just happened this way because of course I didn't set a timer or anything smart like that.  Have you ever made ricotta?  It is not hard, just takes a little time.  The basic ingredients are whole milk, heavy cream, sea salt and lemon juice or vinegar.  It is all a matter of quantities of these ingredients.  Many recipes seem to have a 3c whole milk to 1 cup heavy cream and 3 TB acid (lemon juice/vinegar) ratio.  The Fine Cooking recipe used way less heavy cream (1 cup for a gallon whole milk) and called for 1/2 cup lemon juice.  I am not sure what difference the milk/cream ratio makes (creaminess) but the acid amount really does vary.  Lemon juice can have a varied level of acid so I found using apple cider vinegar seemed to get better results.  Using additional lemon juice worked fine too, which is what I did the first time.  It also depends on how pasteurized your milk/cream are.  The less pasteurized your dairy products are, the less acid you will need to get nice curds.  But I'll be darned if I could find anything but ultra-pasteurized dairy!  Anyway, if you have never attempted homemade ricotta cheese, I recommend giving it a try.  It's kinda fun to watch the curds form and could be a fun science experiment for your kids!

Back to the pie recipe!  There are/were very few ingredients for this pie:  crust, ricotta, sugar, anisette, eggs and cinnamon.  The crust recipe is from the book, called Pasta Frolla.  It is a very forgiving crust but not as yummy as my tried and true flaky pie crust.  I'd use my own crust next time.  To figure out what I wanted to do with the filling I did some internet research and learned that a ricotta pie is a traditional Italian Easter dessert!  Huh.  I looked at some recipes to get flavor ideas.  Instead of (1 TB!!) anisette, I used 1 teaspoon Fiori di Sicilia (have you ever used this extract?  Amazing!) and the zest of 1/2 Mandarin orange (about 1/2 teaspoon).  I also added an additional tablespoon of sugar, as it seemed to need it when I tasted the batter.  I mixed the filling in my stand mixer, but an immersion blender would have been even better to get the filling nice and smooth. 

The pie was pretty funny looking when it came out of the oven.  The filling puffs up quite a bit, to the point that some of the lattice strips disconnected from the edges and sort of hovered above the pie plate!  When I looked at the end result, I decided it needed to be served with some blueberry sauce.  It was just a bit boring looking by itself!

I am glad I added the blueberry sauce.  It really did make it better.  My pie was a bit dry, which could be because my ricotta was to firm(?) so the blueberry sauce helped.  I did notice that one of the recipes I saw for a ricotta pie included a cup of cream in the filling, so that would have helped as well.  The filling itself is very light in texture,  almost like a light cheesecake.  I do not think it needed the lattice top, as it seemed to add to the dryness.  I am curious to know what others thought of this recipe.  I liked the pie with the changes I made, but it is not my favorite dessert ever. 

The recipe for Sweet Ricotta Pie can be found on page 376 of Baking with Julia. 

Blueberry Sauce
adapted from allrecipes
Ingredients
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
1/4 cup water
1 cup orange juice
3/4 cup white sugar (I used a scant 3/4 cup)
1/4 cup cold water
3 TB cornstarch (I used 2 TB as I wanted a thinner sauce)
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions:
Combine the blueberries, 1/4 cup water, orange juice and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat.  Stir gently and bring to a boil.  Mix the cornstarch and 1/4 cup cold water in a small bowl. Stir the cornstarch mixture into the blueberry mixture, being careful not to squash the blueberries.  Simmer gently until the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a metal spoon, 3-4 minutes.  Remove from the heat and stir in the almond extract and cinnamon.  If the sauce is too thick, thin with a little additional water.
Printable Recipe

Happy Belated Pi Day!

Happy Belated Pi Day!  Yes, I know I am late, but I have good reason!  And the mathy part of me just could not let this date pass me by.  By date, I'm talking about 3-14-15, and if you remember back to geometry class, Pi equals 3.1415....  There won't be another date like this!  Thus, March 14, 2015 was the best Pi day we will have in my lifetime, and what better way to celebrate than baking a pie?  It turns out that we left for Spring Break on March 13, and got to Florida on the 14th.  I did not have the ability (or groceries) to bake a pie right then, so I made it on the 15th instead.  And then didn't blog about it til now, because, well, I was on vacation!

We were on a beach vacation so I decided we needed a beachy pie.  I found  recipe for Pina Colada Pie!  Mmmm, hmmm.  If you are thinking, yum, you would be right!  However this ended up being somewhat of a comedy of errors pie as well.  See, I (being the baking nerd that I am) actually made and froze a pie dough disk in advance to bring to Florida.  Which totally worked.  However when I chose my Pina Colada Pie recipe, I did not think about the fact that you CAN NOT par-bake a pie with no weights inside.  I had not thought of bringing pie weights or buying dried beans, so guess what?  My delicious home-made pie crust slid down the sides of the pie pan and bubbled up in the middle and was pretty much a bona-fide mess!  Time for Plan B!  The pie recipe actually called for breaking up pecan cookies to make into a crust, so since I had thankfully brought a sleeve of graham crackers (theoretically for the clever boy's snacks), I used them for the cookies!  Problem solved!  Oh, and I sprinkled some brown sugar and cinnamon over the weirdo-looking pie shell, baked it for a bit longer, and we had that as a random treat.  I can't throw a delicious (though ugly) pie crust in the trash!

Ok, now that that craziness is all explained, let's talk about the actual pie!!  As I mentioned, the pie crust is made of crushed graham crackers (cookies), which is mixed with coconut and butter, pressed into a pie pan, and baked until browned.  The crust is topped with a layer of pineapple compote - crushed pineapple cooked with sugar and cornstarch until thick.  I added about a cup of coconut to this layer (as I originally thought I'd be using a regular pie crust and not have actual coconut anywhere in the pie).  On top of this comes a creamy layer of cream cheese, coconut cream and eggs.  The entire pie is baked, then you top this with whipped cream that has been beaten with more coconut cream.  I sprinkled toasted coconut around the edges and into a Pi shape in the middle.  Yum.  I mean. YUM.  It tastes like vacation in pie form!

Want to make this beachy treat for your family?  Here is the recipe!

Pina Colada Pie
adapted from Southern Living
Ingredients
2 cups pecan shortbread cookie crumbs (about 16 cookies) or 1 sleeve of graham crackers
1 cup sweetened flaked coconut
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup sugar
2 TB cornstarch
1 8-oz. can crushed pineapple in juice
1 8-oz. package of cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups coconut cream (1 can - you can find this in the Asian section of the grocery store near coconut milk, OR near mix-ins for cocktails, called "cream of coconut" and often the Coco Lopez brand)
2 large eggs
1 cup whipping cream


Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350F.

Mix together the cookie crumbs, coconut and butter, and press against the bottom and sides of a lightly buttered deep dish pie pan.  Bake for 10-12 minutes, until lightly browned.  Cool completely on a wire rack.  

Mix the sugar and cornstarch together in a small heavy saucepan.  Stir in the pineapple (I added 1 cup flaked coconut here).  Bring to a boil while stirring constantly.  Cook for 1 minute (keep stirring) until thickened.  Allow to cool completely (takes about 20 minutes).

Beat cream cheese at medium speed with a heavy-duty electric stand mixer, using whisk attachment, until smooth. Slowly add 1 cup coconut cream, beating at low speed just until blended.  Refrigerate the remaining 1/2 cup coconut cream until later.  Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until blended each time.

Spread the cooled pineapple mixture over the crust, then spread the cream mixture over the pineapple.  Bake for 38-42 minutes, until set.  Cool completely on a wire rack, then cover and chill for at least 4 hours. 

Beat the whipping cream on high speed until foamy.  Add the coconut cream and continue to beat until soft-to-somewhat firm peaks form.  Spread over the pie.  Optional:  top with toasted coconut.
Printable Recipe

All in all, this turned out to be a super delicious pie!  I would definitely make it again, though this time I'd do the crust the right way from the start!

Did you do anything special for pi day??
 

TWD: Baking with Julia - Not-Your-Usual Lemon Meringue Pie

Lemon Meringue Pie is something I have made many times.  We are pretty big lemon pie eaters in my family, on both sides, actually.  It is my dad's favorite and something Mr. Clever Mom requests as well.  This is not to say that I make the perfect lemon meringue pie.  Not at all.  In fact recently I tried a lemon icebox pie and found that to MAYBE be superior to a lemon meringue....  (fighting words!)

Anyway, when I saw this week's recipe, literally entitled "not-your-usual lemon meringue pie" I definitely gave it a second look.  Huh.  It is sort of like a deconstructed lemon meringue pie, I would say.  Sign me up!

You start with making a lemon curd.  I followed the recipe against my better judgement, in that I used the requested amount of sugar.  We are tart lemon pie lovers, not sweet.  So I should have reduced the amount of sugar or used more lemon zest.  However if you like a sweeter lemon pie, the amount of sweetness might be just fine for you.  Even on our regular lemon meringues we drastically reduce the sugar amount.  Pucker up!

After the curd is made, it has to sit in the refrigerator for a little while to set.  In the mean time, you can take a nap as the rest of this recipe is really pretty simple to put together!

Using phyllo dough (from the frozen section of the grocery store), you make little triangles that are layered with clarified butter and sugar, and then baked until crispy.  This is the deconstructed crust.  You were supposed to bake this with a baking sheet on the top so that the phyllo does not puff, but instead I baked it most of the way with the sheet on top and then removed it for the last minute or so, which allowed the phyllo to brown a little.  No puffiness!

By the way, is anyone else watching The Great British Baking Challenge on PBS??  If so, I haven't watched the finale yet so don't spoil it, ok?  In a recent episode they MADE phyllo dough.  As in FROM SCRATCH.  Holy guacamole it was incredible.  These are home bakers, and their challenge was to make homemade phyllo.  I just sat there with my mouth gaping open, watching them pull the dough so thin!  (I do typically watch this show with my mouth gaping open at the bakers total amazingness, and drooling a bit as well, to be honest!  It really does  blow my mind!)  If you haven't been watching this show, I highly recommend seeking it out.  It is available "on demand" here... 

Anyway, back to the deconstructed lemon meringue pie!  Once the phyllo is made into crispy little triangles, whip up some egg whites with brown sugar and then all of the components are ready!

Here we go!  Layer one phyllo triangle,

Spread some lemon curd on the top,

Then top it with a zig-zag of meringue and torch the top.

Repeat this layering one more time and then end with a triangle.  Dust with powdered sugar and there you go!

This was a fun little treat to eat.  I liked breaking apart the phyllo triangles to get a full piece, and they provided a nice crunch to a pie with soft fillings.  Had I reduced the sweetness in the lemon curd, this pie would have been perfect!

Fun, relatively easy, and tasty!  A win-win over here!

You can find this recipe on pages 403-405 of Baking with Julia, or you can also find it here.   I made half of the recipe for  my little family, which worked out just perfectly!  Click on over to the Tuesday's with Dorie blog and check out what the other bakers though of this recipe, okay?

TWD: Baking Chez Moi - Pink Grapefruit Tart

This week's Tuesday's with Dorie recipe is Pink Grapefruit Tart.  This is a tasty recipe that has a LOT of steps.  I am not trying to dissuade you from wanting to make this recipe, I am just warning you that there are lots of steps that have hours of timing inbetween.  Figuring out how to actually plan for this tart was more than I could handle, so it wasn't actually chilled enough at dessert time and was eaten later.  No big deal, it just meant that the clever girl didn't get a piece at that time as she was already in bed.  However that worked out fine, as quite honestly I don't think she would have cared for this tart. Which is not to say that it isn't good, because it is.  But there is a bitter component that I am certain she would not like.  You'll understand as I go along...

Are you ready for the components of this tart?  Looks like there isn't much, doesn't it?  Ha.  First, there is the sweet tart dough.  Easy to mix together, and the it is refrigerated for at least 2 hours, then rolled out and placed into the pan, then chilled again for 30 minutes.  Bake for approximately 35 minutes and allow to totally cool.  That's step 1.  Other steps can be made simultaneously, as there are lots of different timing issues in this recipe.

Next:  Lemon Almond Cream.  This is essentially butter, brown sugar, almond flour, lemon zest and an egg, that get whirled together and the refrigerated for at least 1 hour.  I was excited for this element, as it gave me a chance to use the almond flour that I made by drying some pulp from making almond milk!  Almond milk is my new true love and I make it extremely often so we always have some available.  Thus I have lots of almond pulp left over for which I try to figure out uses.  Almond flour is one of my first!  The bonus is that this almond flour also contains a little vanilla and date, as that is how I make my almond milk.  Mmmm.  I digress...  Let's continue with the Pink Grapefruit Tart components as we are still just beginning...

The next item is grapefruit cremeux.  Here is where I learned a great lesson.  Well, maybe two lessons.  Fresh grapefruit juice is used in this mixture.  So of the 100's of giant Texas grapefruits I purchase and eat every year, there are always a handful that are not very sweet, they are a bit more bitter.  Of course the grapefruit I grabbed to juice for this recipe was one of those!  And of course, I did not taste the juice before using it, as that would have been the OBVIOUS thing to do.  I realized the problem when the cremeaux was almost finished and I noticed a tiny bit of grapefruit pulp sitting by, so I tasted it.  Ack!  I was horrified.  Doubly horrified as I knew that another ingredient for the cremeaux is Campari.  I didn't know anything about Campari before I bought it and then checked it out via my friend Google.  (Had I done that first I probably would not have purchased it, and used Grand Marnier instead or something).  About.com uses these terms to describe Campari:  "extremely unique flavor" of "very bitter orange", it "takes some getting used to" which "might take a few years".  Years?  Good grief.  So here I have a bitter liquor mixing with bitter grapefruit to make a tasty dessert?  Yikes.  I used  little less Campri and added 2 tablespoons of light brown sugar towards the end of making the cremeaux (when I realized my predicament) and hoped for the best.  Honestly, had i used a normal sweet grapefruit, it would have been MUCH better.  You live, you learn.  My lessons here?  Taste, taste, taste.  Oh, and don't work on desserts after drinking 3 glasses of wine.  Just saying.  Probably not my best choice...

Oh, in case you are wondering, the cremeaux has to chill for at least 6 hours.

Then there are the grapefruit supremes.  They are supposed to sit between thick layers of paper towels for 3-8 hours BEFORE you plan to eat the tart.

The lemon almond cream is spread in the tart shell and then baked, then it has to chill completely before the cremeaux is spread inside.  Then, guess what, the whole tart is refrigerated AGAIN after you place the supremes on top, for at least 2 hours.

You see the timing confusion here?  Easy steps, but lots of timing issues!

Taste:  The crust is kind of like a shortbread cookie, yum.  The lemon almond cream is good, though I probably could have used less lemon zest.  It called for the zest of one lemon, and since lemons differ in size I may have used too much.  Good though.  The cremeux definitely has a bitter tone, but isn't bad, especially when you get a piece of the supreme with your bite.  The burst of sweet juiciness of the supreme makes up for the bitter in the cremeux.  Oh, and I served it with lightly sweetened whipped cream.  Mmmm. 

Would I make this again?  I would love to taste it with a sweet grapefruit inside instead of the crummy bitter one I used.  But I don't think it is worth the extensive timing for this dessert.  It is beautiful and fairly tasty, but a ton of prep.  Maybe one of the other bakers figured out a better way to coordinate the timing of this one.  I should have planned this by figuring out what time I wanted to eat the tart and worked backwards from there to figure out the right timing, probably.  But that takes real forethought, which I rarely have on  good day it seems, and certainly don't have after 3 glasses of wine!

The recipe for the Pink Grapefruit Tart is on pages 139-141 of Baking Chez Moi. 

Black-Bottom, Peanut Butter Mousse Pie

Right around the time that the clever girl's school let out for the winter holidays, my neighbor's son, C, had his 12th birthday.  The day prior to C's birthday, his mom delivered his new baby brother, baby A.  Since there was a lot of chaos around the time of C's birthday, the clever girl and I decided to celebrate his birthday right before school started up again.  According to his mom, C's favorite things are peanut butter and chocolate, so we made him a black-bottom peanut butter mousse pie! 

Once I found a recipe that I liked, it was super easy.  The problem with most peanut butter pie recipes is that instead of using PEANUT BUTTER (crazy idea, right?), they use peanut butter chips.  Yuck.  I mean, I should not judge, but I think they are more like peanut butter flavored wax, and why would you not just use peanut butter instead??  That is what I did.  Since I have never tried this recipe using the peanut butter chips, I am not totally sure as to what the filling is supposed to be like, but what I created was pretty tasty, I think!  I could probably reduce the amount of sugar next time, but overall, this is a delicious peanut butter and chocolate pie!

Black-Bottom Peanut Butter Mousse Pie
adapted a lot from Epicurious
Ingredients:
1 9-inch+ graham cracker crust (or make your own)
1 1/3 cups bittersweet chocolate chips (about 8 ounces)
2/3 cup plus 1 cup whipping cream, divided
2 TB light corn syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla extract, divided
2 TB sugar
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar (next time I will try using 1/4 cup)

Instructions:
Combine the chocolate chips, 2/3 cup whipping cream, corn syrup and 1 teaspoon vanilla in a microwave-safe bowl.  Heat in the microwave on medium until the chocolate softens, approximately 3 minutes.  Whisk the chocolate mixture until it is smooth.  Spread about 3/4 of the mixture over the bottom of the graham cracker crust,  It will be about 1/4 inch thick.  Refrigerate the remaining chocolate mixture, and place the crust with the chocolate in the freezer for 10 minutes.

Using the paddle attachment, mix the peanut butter, powdered sugar, and remaining 1 teaspoon vanilla in a small bowl of an electric mixer until smooth.  Set aside.  In a separate larger bowl, beat the remaining 1 cup whipping cream and 2 TB sugar until thick but not holding peaks.  Fold into the peanut butter mixture in 3 additions.  Gently spoon the peanut butter mousse over the chocolate layer in the pie.  Chill for at least 1 hour, up to 1 day.

Before serving, gently heat the remaining chocolate syrup and drizzle over the top of the pie.  
Printable Recipe

 Super awesome big brother!

It was fun surprising C with his pie!  I hope it helped to make his birthday extra special!

Hot Lemon Pie

Do you like lemon?  Well, this lemon pie is so amazingly easy and fast to make, your oven won't even be warmed up by the time you are ready to bake!  And at the end, you will have only one thing to clean, your blender!

You end up with a custardy, creamy, delicious pie in NO time at all, with barely any work involved!  Are you in? 

Hot Lemon Pie
Ingredients
1 large Meyer Lemon, washed well
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 9-inch pie crust

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350F.

Cut the lemon into medium-to-large pieces (depending on your blender capabilities).  Remove the seeds but that is it.  Keep the rind and peel intact!  Put all of the ingredients (except the pie shell!) into the blender and whirl like crazy.  The mixture will be foamy.  Keep blending until the mixture is smooth, with no lumps of butter.  Pour the mixture into an unbaked pie shell and bake for 40-50 minutes.  This pie sets up like custard.  Serve warm or chilled.  Refrigerate any leftovers.
Printable Recipe

I know that this recipe calls for a Meyer lemon, but I am going to try it with a regular lemon next time.  I think as long as I don't end up with one of those lemons that is has a gigantic amount of rind, it will still work!  I like the tartness of a regular lemon better than the Meyer lemons, personally.  However, this pie is delicious and you can always adjust the sugar content to your preference! 

Oh, and please note that there are lots of tiny slices in the picture on top because this was on a table with lots of other pies for Thanksgiving!  Feel free to use normal (bigger!) slices for this pie!

TWD: Baking with Julia - Raspberry-Fig Crostata

This month has 5 Tuesdays, so we have an extra week for our Tuesday's with Dorie posts!  It is sort of a catch-up week for those of us who might have missed a recipe, or maybe a re-do week if there was something we wanted to try again.  For me, it is a catch-up week.  Back in August, we had a week where we could do a choose-your-own-adventure recipe, in that there were two recipes suggested and we could pick which one we might want to make.  Personally, this was stressful as I don't want to miss any recipe and I knew that I wouldn't be able to make both recipes that week!  Ack!  So I actually made this Raspberry-Fig Crostata a week later and set the photos aside to post at a later date.  And that date has finally come!

By the way, as a side note, do you recall the choose-your-own-adventure books from when you were a kid?  I LOVED those things.  I would read them again and again, trying to figure out every permutation of choices to get to the different endings.  I will have to find some of those books for the clever girl... Don't you wish life could be more like a choose-your-own-adventure book sometimes?  In that if you start down one path and you don't like the consequences, you could say "re-do", jump back a few pages/days/months and make a different choice?  Sometimes we actually can to that, but many times, once a choice is made we just have to deal with the developments that come.  Sort of like that movie "Sliding Doors" with Gwyneth Paltrow from the late 1990s.  Have you seen it?  I loved that movie.  Still do, when it comes down to it! 

Anyway, on to the recipe!  This crostata, aka TART or PIE has a sesame-almond dough for the crust.  It is sort of like a shortbread cookie in texture, thus is a bit more crunchy than I am used to for a crust.  It was also quite sticky and kind of a pain, however at the same time it was very forgiving, for when it broke (which it did often) I could just press it back together and keep on moving!  I did not make a true lattice top for my crostata, as that was just too much work with such a tricky dough.  I just criss-crossed the strips and decided it looked wonderful as it was!

The filling is what really speaks for this crostata.  It is made of fresh figs, fresh raspberries, sugar, lemon zest, flour and butter.  Can you go wrong with that?  I think not.  It was delicious! I served the crostata with a dallop of almond whipped cream.  YUM. 

So here is to those days where you really can choose-your-own-adventure and have re-dos if you want, and to those other days when you have to go with the flow and follow where your choices might lead.  I hope the choices you make this week end with some successful baking and a tasty dessert!  You deserve it!


The recipe for the Raspberry-Fig Crostata can be found here, and the Sesame-Almond Dough can be found here. 

TWD: Baking with Julia - Johnnycake Cobbler

We had a choice as to what to make this week for our Tuesday's with Dorie challenge- Johnnycake Cobblers or Raspberry-Fig Crostata.  Since I knew I would be traveling right up to the post date for this recipe, I decided to make what appeared to be the simpler recipe, the Johnnycake Cobbler. 

You may wonder what make this cobbler a "johnnycake" cobbler.  The answer is cornmeal.  Basically, a johnnycake is a flatbread made with cornmeal, so a johnnycake cobbler is a cobbler made with cornmeal! 

This cobbler used nectarines and plums.  You could use any fruits here, in my opinion.  I went ahead and did what the recipe suggested since I found some fresh nectarines at the farmers market, and the plums in the grocery store actually looked good!  It was meant to be.  I happened to be visiting my parents when I made this recipe, and they have the greatest farmers market near their home!  My mom gets almost all of her fruit  and veggies there.  Not only is it a really great farmers market, but it is a lot of fun.  It seems like every time I go there is some sort of live band playing, and people are dancing, kids are playing with hula hoops, it is just a really fun time.  What a great component to their neighborhood!

Anyway, the first thing you do is slice a BUNCH of fruit (6 cups worth) and gently cook it in some melted butter and sugar.  The fruit softens and releases some yummy juices, which become the syrup for the filling.  Put the fruit into individual bowls or one big pan, like I did.  The recipe actually says that if you put it in a big pan, to use a 10-inch deep dish pie pan that fits 1 1/2 quarts.  I used an 8x8-inch baking dish (which is actually 2 quarts) and it fit perfectly. 

Then you create the cobbler part, which the recipe says to make in a food processor but I did with a hand pastry blender.  Plop the cobbler part on top of the fruit and bake. 

Take it out of the oven when the tops are golden, 12-14 minutes for individual cobblers, 14-16 minutes for one big one.  I actually baked mine a bit longer.  This photo was taken after 15 minutes of baking and when I scooped out the first serving, the biscuit part was a bit too doughy in the middle.  So if I made this again in one big pan (which is how I would do it for sure!) I would bake it for maybe 18 -20 minutes, and keep an eye on those last few minutes!

This recipe can be found on pages 389-390 of Baking with Julia.  And, since we don't have hosts in this group anymore, I'll post it for you here!

Johnnycake Cobblers
adapted from Baking with Julia

Ingredients:
Fruit:
3 TB unsalted butter
1/4 cup sugar, or more to taste
6 cups sliced nectarines and purple plums (9-12 pieces of fruit)
Biscuit:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cups stone ground cornmeal
3 TB sugar
1 TB baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher or fine sea salt
1 teaspoon minced ginger (optional)
1/2 stick (2 oz.) cold unsalted butter, cut into 12 pieces
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups heavy cream

Heavy cream or ice cream, for serving (optional)

Instructions:
For the fruit - melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add the sugar and stir until the sugar dissolves.  Then add the fruit.  Stir the fruit to coat each piece and then cook, stirring periodically, until the fruit is soft and gives up some of its juice.  Spoon the fruit into 4-6 individual souffle molds, ramekins, or oven-proof bowls (each should hold 6-8 oz.) and set aside while you make the biscuit.  Or, spoon the fruit into a 10-inch deep dish pie pan (capacity 1 1/2 quarts) or any other similar-sized pan.

For the biscuit - move an oven rack to the center of the oven and preheat to 425F.  Put the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and ginger in the bowl of a food processor and pulse 5-6 times, just to mix the ingredients.  Or, put the ingredients in a bowl and stir with a whisk or fork.

Add the pieces of cold butter and toss them in the flour with your fingers, so that they are coated with flour.  Pulse the food processor 18-20 times, until there are no lumps and the mixture resembles coarse meal.  Or, use a hand pastry blender and go to work!

Transfer the mixture to a large bowl (unless you are already using that bowl with the hand pastry blender, then just keep the mixture in the bowl).  Make a well in the center of the ingredients and pour in  1 1/4 cups of heavy cream.  Stir with a fork to draw in the dry ingredients from the sides of the bowl and form a dough.  If the mixture is too dry, add more heavy cream.  You want a soft, moist dough that forms curds as you stir it.

Spoon the dough on top of the fruit, dividing it evenly among the individual bowls or placing it all on top of the large cobbler pan.  Place the individual cobblers on a foil or parchment lined jelly-roll pan and bake for 12-14 minutes, until the tops are nicely browned.  If using one big pan, just stick the pan in the oven, no additional pan is necessary, and bake for 14-16 minutes.  Transfer the cobbler/s to a rack and allow to cool for 5 to 10 minutes.  These are best served warm.  If you make them in advance, keep them at room temperature.

If you serve the cobblers with heavy cream, encourage guests to crack the tops and create a little opening for the cream to be poured in.  Or scoop ice cream right on top of the cobbler.
Printable Recipe

I enjoyed this cobbler.  I really like the addition of cornmeal to the biscuit.  It made the biscuit have a nice little crunch, while the biscuit itself was very light and tasty.  The recipe is so easy you could truly adapt it to any fruit that happens to be in season at the time.  Go for it!  Oh, and in case you are wondering, I do intend to make that Raspberry-Fig Crostata.  That will definitely appear in another blog post!

Peach Cobbler

I recently found some mysterious peaches at the grocery store.  I say "mysterious" because though they were big and beautiful looking, they were as hard as rocks and had no smell whatsoever.  That makes me very suspicious.  So I bought just a couple to try them out.  I let them ripen a bit and they were DELICIOUS!  Mr. Clever Mom and the clever girl went on and on about the delicious peaches, and demanded that I purchase more!  Of course the delicious peaches made my baking urges turn on full force to PEACH COBBLER.  Ahhh.

Then I had to find the right recipe.  I don't have a "throw down" peach cobbler recipe so I did a little research and decided upon one from Cooks Illustrated.  Yum.  You let the peaches macerate with sugar for a while before cooking them on their own, so they are nice and juicy and sweet.  Then you make the biscuit-y topping, put it on the peaches and stick that baby back in the oven.  Now the biscuits get nice and browned and slightly softened on the bottoms from the peaches, but they don't get mushy.

Peach Cobbler
adapted from Cooks Illustrated

Ingredients:
Peaches:
2 1/2 lbs peaches
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 TB lemon juice
pinch table salt

Biscuits:
1 cup flour
3 TB sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 T cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
1/3 cup plain whole milk yogurt
1 teaspoon sugar

Instructions:
Set a rack in the lower middle of the oven, and preheat the oven to 425F.

Peel, halve and pit the peaches.  Scoop out and discard the dark flesh from around the pit.  Cut each half into 4 wedges.  Gently toss the peaches and sugar together in a large bowl and let stand for 30 minutes, tossing several times.  Drain the peaches in a colander set over a bowl to catch the juice.  Whisk 1/4 cup of the drained juice, cornstarch, lemon juice and salt together in a small bowl.  Toss the peach juice mixture with the peaches and transfer to an 8-inch square baking dish.  Bake until the peaches begin to bubble around the edge - approximately 10 minutes.

While the peaches are baking, pulse the flour, 3 TB sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a food processor to combine.   Scatter the butter over the mixture and pulse until it resembles a coarse meal, about 10 1-second pulses.  Transfer to a medium bowl and add the yogurt, gently stirring with a rubber spatula until a cohesive dough is formed.  Do not over-mix.  Break the dough until 6 evenly sized mounds and set aside. 

After the peaches have baked about 10 minutes, remove from the oven and place the dough mounds on top, spacing them about 1/2 of an inch apart (no touching!). Sprinkle the dough mounds with the remaining 1 teaspoon sugar.  Bake until the biscuit topping is golden and the peaches are bubbling - approximately 16-18 minutes.  Cool on a wire rack until warm, about 20 minutes. 
Printable Recipe

This was delicious.  A total hit.  I think it tastes just like summer.  Plus it was really fast to put together, which is a necessity for me these days!  Do you have a favorite peach cobbler recipe?  Please share in your comments!

Mr. Clever Mom and the clever girl loved it.  And they wanted to know what else I might make with these delicious peaches...  Stay tuned for more! 

Sweet Cherry Pie

Ever since I got my kitchen unpacked, I can't stop thinking of things to bake/cook/create!  I LOVE my new kitchen.  I don't totally have it all organized yet (do we ever?) but it is spacious and beautiful and I just love it!  Since I happened to make several extra pie crusts when I made the Baked Yogurt Tart, pie has been on my mind.  And then I saw these beautiful fresh cherries at the grocery store...  Ah-ha!  I can honestly say this is the first cherry pie I have ever made.  Crazy, right?  I am not so excited about canned pie filling and can never find tart cherries here in Houston (such a shame).  But when I found these sweet cherries, I thought surely I can make a cherry pie with sweet cherries!  And I did!

I found numerous recipes online, and they were all very similar.  I based mine off of the one on Smitten Kitchen. 

The first task was to pit all of the cherries.  Thank goodness I have a cherry-pitter!  You can pit cherries without one, but heavens...  a cherry pitter is worth it!  Plus, it makes pitting the cherries much more fun.  Ka-pow, and the pit is out!  It took some time and my hands were a bit macabre looking at the end, but I had a lovely bowl of cherries to show for it all.  As they say, life is just a bowl of cherries...  (are those pitted cherries or un-pitted cherries...  I wonder...)

Mix the pitted cherries with sugar, cornstarch, almond extract, lemon juice and a little bit of salt.

Then get the crust/s ready.  Deb at Smitten Kitchen did a double crust but I decided to try a lattice-top crust.  Again, something I RARELY do, so why not?   Don't look too closely.  It isn't perfect but I think it is great!  I didn't take pictures at this point.  I was too busy trying to get my crust to work out (it was a terribly humid day here) and trying to get it all in the oven while both kids were napping (yes, both at the same time -a beautiful thing).  And it worked! 

Sweet Cherry Pie
adapted from Smitten Kitchen
Ingredients:
chilled dough for a double crust pie - my favorite recipe is here
4 cups pitted fresh cherries (about 2 1/2 pounds un-pitted)
4 tablespoons cornstarch
2/3 to 3/4 cup sugar (depending on the sweetness of your cherries)
1/8 teaspoon salt
Juice of half a lemon
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 tablespoon cold unsalted butter, cut into small bits
1 egg, beaten with 2 tablespoons water
Coarse sugar, for decoration

Instructions:
Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 400F.
Gently stir together the pitted cherries, cornstarch, sugar, salt, lemon and almond extract in a large bowl.  Roll out half of chilled dough on a floured work surface to 13-inch circle and place it in 9-inch pie pan, leaving an overhang of about 1/2 inch.  Spoon the cherry filling into the pie crust, leaving the majority of the liquid that has pooled in the bowl.  Dot the cherries with bits of cold butter. 

Roll out the remaining dough into a 12-inch round on a lightly floured surface and either (1) drape it over the filling or (2) slice it into ribbons with a knife or pizza wheel and gently weave these into a lattice atop the filling.  Trim the top crust to about 1 inch overhang.  Fold the top crust overhang over the bottom crust and press to seal.  Pinch the edge or decorate to your liking.  Brush the top of the crust with the egg wash and sprinkle with coarse sugar.  If you use a full top crust, cut some slits to form steam vents, and bake the pie in the oven at 400F for 25 minutes.  Reduce the temperature to 350F and continue to bake for 25-30 minutes, until the crust is golden.  Cool completely on a rack.  
Printable Recipe

YUM! 

I always make a snail with the extra bits of crust when I bake a pie.  A snail can contain anything, but growing up it generally included brown sugar and/or cinnamon sugar, and some raisins.  This time I brushed the crust with butter, and sprinkled it with vanilla sugar, chopped dried figs, dark chocolate chips and almonds.  I rolled it into a log, brushed the top with the egg wash and put it in the oven with the pie.  Delish!  Again, no picture but you'll have to take my word (and the word of my family) that it was a great combination!  What do you do with your extra crust bits?? 

TWD: Baking with Julia - Summer Vegetable Tart

Yahoo!  I am actually posting a TWD post on the right day!  Of course I should have had it ready to post first thing this morning, but I'll count my successes where I can these days.  This week we made a Summer Vegetable Tart.  Seriously, it was easy.  Well, mostly easy anyway...

This was the hard part - using phyllo dough!  Have you ever used that stuff?  It is paper thin.  Heck, it is tissue-paper thin.  How do they get it that way?  Anyway I had to separate 8 sheets of that thin stuff, butter and pepper each sheet, then layer it over a tart pan.  Yes, the tart pan is totally invisible since the phyllo hangs over the sides.  Anyway, the phyllo is layered and then baked until golden, and at that point you are finished with your baking! 

Then just saute some veggies.  The recipe called for red peppers and mushrooms, and I threw in some sliced zucchini just because it happened to be in my refrigerator, and aren't zucchini's summer veggies anyway?  Toss in some salt and pepper and some thyme and then sprinkle in some goat cheese and spread those veggies into the phyllo crust and voila!  Done!  The goat cheese wasn't supposed to get all melt-y like mine did.  I am sure it would have been more attractive if it was in nice little crumbles still, but oh well.  I am sure it tasted the same!

And it was good, but definitely something to eat the day it is made.  It would be tricky to reheat this thing. 

The cool thing about this recipe is that you could really throw in any veggie you wanted!  Or you could butter and sugar the phyllo in the beginning and make this a sweet tart with fruits inside!

Did anyone else notice we did two tarts this month?  Hmmm.  Oh, and I looked up the definition of "tart" the other day, after my confusion with the yogurt tart.  It is essentially any baked item in a pastry shell.  Only one pastry - a double-crust pie does not count.  So any quiche or single crust pie is also a tart!  Ta-da!  Baking and an education all in one post!  Multi-tasking...

The recipe is on page 436-437 of Baking with Julia. 

TWD: Baking with Julia - Baked Yogurt Tart

I am a bit behind with my Tuesday's with Dorie posts.  We moved at the very end of June and our kitchen was nothing but chaos and boxes for a bit!  Let's be honest here, most of the house still is but I have managed to get the kitchen wortkable.  I made one of the other missing recipes right before we moved, but  photos are on our other computer, which is not set up yet, that one will have to wait.  The Baked Yogurt Tart was supposed to post on Tuesday, July 2.  It is too bad my life was so crazy at that time, as this would have been a great July 4 treat!  Ah well.

Look what I found in a box!  Just kidding.  I didn't actually pack the clever baby in a box.  

Though he looks quite cozy, doesn't he?

One great thing about posting late is that I had the benefit of reading all of the other TWD baker's thoughts on the recipe before making it myself!  I benefited from their wisdom! 

I am not actually sure why this is called a tart.  Anyone know the actual definition of a "tart"??  Other than the sassy kind, anyway?  Regardless, this starts with a Flaky Pie Dough crust, which we made about a year ago for the Blueberry-Nectarine Pie.  I went back and read my post about that crust and decided I'd try it again.  The recipe calls for 1 cup of ice water and when I made the blueberry nectarine pie I used 2/3 cup and it was still fairly sticky.  This time I used less than 2/3 cups but I didn't actually measure...  I had probably between 1 and 2 tablespoons of water left in the measuring cup, I suppose.  We'll just say I used a scant 2/3 cup ice water, shall we?  And it seemed to have done the trick.  The dough was still somewhat sticky but no worse than other pie doughs, I'd say.  I also added a bit more salt this time, as last time I found the dough to be a little bland.


This crust is baked in a 9-inch cake pan.  Again, why the term, "tart"?  Anyway, the cake pan is supposed to be 1 1/2 inches tall but mine was 2 inches, so there wasn't enough crust to fold over the top edge and make it nice and pretty.  That was okay with me, though. 

Then you make the filling.  It is super easy and uses hardly any ingredients!  Yahoo! You start by beating eggs and sugar together with a hand mixer.  It actually says to use a hand mixer!  Which is good for me, as my beloved stand mixer is still in her box.  Poor thing!

Stir in some plain vanilla yogurt (FAT-FREE!!) and vanilla extract.  Now, when reading the other TWD baker's blog posts, one recurrent theme was that the filling was bland.  Not everyone thought it was bland, but many did.  The recipe calls for 2 tablespoons of vanilla extract, which is actually quite a lot!  I used my homemade double-strength vanilla extract, and put in a splash of almond extract as well.  It was not bland to us, so maybe this did the trick!  After the yogurt and extracts are blended, flour is sifted over the top and folded into the batter. 

Theoretically now is when you pour the filling into the pie tart crust.  However I didn't time this very well and was just pulling the crust out of the oven to cool when I finished making the filling.  I put the filling in the refrigerator while the crust cooled and I ran an errand!  I wonder if refrigerating the batter could have made the flavors come together a bit better?  Maybe...

Pour the filling into the cooled crust and pile a load of fresh berries on top.  The recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups of fresh berries but I did not measure. I just kept piling more on.  I started with the blueberries, and put the strawberries in the middle.  The clever girl was watching and was sad that I had not left room for any fresh peaches, which I had taken out of the refrigerator to use.  Why not add more fruit?  I sliced up two peaches and added them!  Last, I added 1/3 cup toasted almonds and sprinkled them around the edge.  Into the oven it went.  It was supposed to bake for 35-40 minutes or until browned on top.  Another thing I learned from my fellow bakers was that it never really "browned" on top, so I just baked it until the middle seemed set, which was about 50 minutes total. 

Then comes the scary part.  You cover the top of the tart with plastic wrap and a plate of some sort and flip that tart right out of the pan!  Then invert it back onto your serving plate.  I held my breath and did a big "here goes" and it worked!  I did not end up with a disaster all over my new kitchen island!  I ended up with a beautiful tart on a plate.  Phew!

Mmm.  This was a hit.  I can't say it is my favorite pie/tart ever, but it was good!  Almost like a cheesecake in texture, but lighter than a cheesecake.  It was creamy and tasty.  The flavors of the filling accented the fresh fruit nicely, and the almonds provided a nice crunch.  The crust was flaky and the added salt was just right.  A perfect contrast for the sweet fruit.  And since the recipe calls for fat-free yogurt, you can serve this dessert and say it is healthy with your head held high.  Let's just forget about the amount of butter and shortening in the crust, shall we?? 

It is such a simple dessert, I could see making this again and trying different fruit combinations.  Maybe pears?  Cherries?  Plums?  Apricot?  And a graham cracker crust be awesome here as well!  Or maybe crushed gingersnaps?  Mmm.  The combinations are endless!

We are currently doing TWD posts without hosts, so you may find the recipe on pages 378-379 of Baking with Julia, or  you can find it here. 

Enjoy!

Ham Quiche

I think I have mentioned before that my family enjoys quiche.  Really, anything in a pie crust is good in my book!  Anyway, this is a very adaptable recipe.  You can pretty much do this with whatever you happen to have in your refrigerator, which is the best kind of recipe, in my opinion!  I developed this recipe after trying some others and figuring out what works best for us!

Sprinkle 1 cup of a mixture of whatever shredded cheeses you like into a pie crust, and top with 1 cup of diced ham.  You could throw in some veggies here too, if you want!

Whisk together eggs, milk, dry mustard, worchestershire sauce and hot sauce and pour over the ham and cheese.  Mix it together gently with your fingertips, being careful not to poke the crust.  Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and nutmeg.

Bake for 45 minutes and enjoy a delicious meal!

Ham Quiche
Ingredients:
1 cup ham (or whatever - any meat or veggie would work!)
1 cup grated cheeses of your preference (for this one, I used cheddar, mozzarella, and a hard goat cheese that we happened to have.  I often add in swiss as well.)
3 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon worchestershire sauce
a dash or two of hot sauce, optional
grated Parmesan
a few shakes of ground nutmeg
pie dough (I highly recommend THIS recipe - Foolproof Pie Dough)

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350F.  Roll the pie dough into a circle and lay it into a 9-inch pie pan.  Fold the edges under and crimp or pinch the edges.

Scatter the cheese/s and ham over the bottom of the pie crust.  In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, dry mustard, worchestershire sauce and hot sauce.  Pour over the ham and cheese, and stir it lightly with your fingertips or a spoon, just enough to get the egg mixture through the cheese.  You could also mix the ham and cheese into the bowl with the eggs, but I think this is more fun!  Sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top, then sprinkle with nutmeg.  Bake for 45 minutes.  Let rest about 10 minutes before slicing and eating.
Printable Recipe

Give it a try!  I'd love to hear of your favorite combinations!

TWD: Baking with Julia - Chocolate Truffle Tart

Happy Birthday to me, happy birthday to me...  For my birthday, I made the Chocolate Truffle Tart from Baking with Julia.  My Tuesday's with Dorie group schedules recipes for the first and third Tuesday of each month.  If there happens to be a FIFTH Tuesday (like today), we can do a recipe we missed, repeat a recipe, do nothing, whatever we choose.  I only have a couple of recipes left that I missed (baked before I joined the group) so I decided to bake one of those.  And lucky for me, it ended up being Chocolate Truffle Tarts!  Yahoo! 

My birthday was actually in late March, but I planned ahead for this post since I knew I'd have a newborn baby in my home sometime in April and may not be up to baking much.  And really, who can say no to a birthday cake like this?  Not me!

This recipe is delicious!  Yum.  A perfect chocolate-y treat if you love chocolate.  If you don't, you will want to pass this recipe right on by!

Deep Dish Ham Quiche

My family enjoys quiche.  I figure anything made in a pie shell is good, and since the clever girl agrees that makes dinner easier at times!  This is the Deep Dish Ham Quiche by Tyler Florence.  It is different than my normal quiche, in that this one is almost custard-like on the inside, with a smooth velvety texture.  YUM.  Since it is deep dish, you get lots of that yummy velvety stuff.  Plus, unlike most quiches, it does not contain any cheese.  Different, huh?  Oh, and it includes caramelized onions.  Is there anything that isn't made better with caramelized onions?  Well, in the savory food category, anyway?  I do think caramelized onion ice cream would be dreadful, but in savory items, it is ALL GOOD.  I wouldn't say this is a HEALTHY recipe, but every so often you just have to dive in and go all the way with food.   I did try to make it a "little" healthier but it is what it is.

Deep-Dish Ham Quiche

adapted from Tyler Florence, Food Network

1 pastry shell - I use this recipe but you could use a store-bought one as well!
Filling:
3 tablespoons extra-virgin-olive oil
2 large Vidalia onions, sliced
3/4 pound smoked ham, cubed
8 large eggs
1 quart heavy cream (! used 2 cups 2% milk and 2 cups heavy cream)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Roll your pastry/pie crust into a 14-inch circle about 1/4 inch thick.  Carefully place the dough into a 9-inch springform pan and press the dough firmly onto the bottom and the sides so it fits tightly.  Place the springform pan on a cookie sheet so it is easier to move in and out of the oven.  Your oven will thank you if there are any leaks, plus the quiche is pretty heavy so the cookie sheet helps there, too.

To make the filling:

Heat a skillet over medium-low heat.  Coat the pan with oil and add the onions.  Allow to slowly cook, stirring, until they caramelize and release their natural sugars.  Add a few tablespoons of water to help the onions break down if you need to.  This can take 30 minutes to an hour, so you could do this in advance if you prefer.  Once the onions are nice and caramelized, add the ham and cook, stirring, for about 10 minutes to get some color in the ham.  Remove from the heat.  

Preheat oven to 375F.  In a large bowl, beat the eggs until frothy.  Add the cream/milk, season with salt and pepper.  Arrange the caramelized onions and ham over the bottom of the crust and carefully pour in the cream/egg mixture.  The filling should be about 1 inch from the top of the pan.  Cover loosely with foil and bake for 1 1/2 hours.  Remove the foil and bake for another 15 minutes, or until the quiche is set, puffy, and jiggles slightly.  Remove to a wire rack and allow to cool for 30 minutes before serving. 

Printable Recipe

This recipe takes a bit more time than your average quiche recipe but I encourage you to give it a try.  It makes a nice dinner and could be a special brunch dish as well.  I like that it is different - more custardy, no cheese...  It really is delicious!