Apple Tart from Limburg

Our friends from Belgium sent us a cookbook and in it I found this recipe. I liked the idea of a tart with a leavened dough, and I like the idea of using up some apples that were a little passed their day.

The tart turned out nice and flavourful, but it is more of a coffee accompaniment rather than a dessert. To be truly decadent I would suggest an apricot glaze, some toasted almond slices and maybe ice cream?



Here is the recipe (slightly adapted):

250 g AP flour
50 g vanilla sugar
1 T instant dry yeast
1/2 t salt

Sift above ingredients into a large bow and mix well with a whisk.

1 egg, beaten
100 ml milk

Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the egg and milk. Incorporate slowly and mix with your hands until the mixture comes together.

75 g butter, soft

Add the butter and knead gently until you have a nice smooth dough, about 5 mins. Rest somewhere warm for 45 mins.

Roll the dough into a greased and floured 9" tart pan, trim the edges and poke the bottom with a fork to make some breathing holes. Let it rest for 20 mins. While this is happening, prepare the apples:

650 g of apple slices, peeled
4 T brown sugar
1 t cinnamon
1T calvados
1 t cornstarch
zest from 1 lemon

Toss together. Lie in a circular pattern on the tart, and bake in a preheated over 375F for 30-30 mins until golden brown.

Banoffee. You have to make it once in your life.

This is that time.
For the last day of the decade, I thought I would treat my friends to Banoffee pie. They were looking a little pale after the cheese fondue, so I made sure that they got their recommended dosage of dairy products by topping the pie with some sweet and boozey whipped cream.
I used a shortcrust pastry as a base, par baked completely. On top of it I poured some french caramel that had mascarpone and white chocolate in it, and added some caramelized banana slices that slowly sunk in a little, very appetizing looking.
Note: I recommend caramelizing bananas and just eating those on their own...quite the treat.
Thanks Aimee for taking the photos last night. I could NOT have done it.

OOOOOOOh, and I forgot one thing.
One last time, some Christmas cookies, which ARE ALL GONE NOW. No more.

Some Swiss Spietzbebe, because Christmas is not over until its over. This is the recipe from the December Saveur magazine - a really good short dough recipe that I also used as the base for Banoffee, mostly out of laziness but it worked out. I added lemon zest and extract to it. The cookies are filled with my friend Paul's blueberry jam, and dusted with icing sugar. Yay!!!

Pumpkin Tart with Caramelized Apple and Maple Cream

I HAD to do something with the uncarved pumpkin that was sitting on the porch. When I carried it all the way home just before Halloween, I promised myself I would not let it shrivel up and die alone under the snow. So, a few weeks later, here we are, tadaaa!

To make approx 12 small tarts, you will need:

-tart shells lined with sweet dough (I made 8x 8" tart, and 5 baby tarts)
Par bake these tart shells until almost fully baked, slightly golden brown all over, about10-15 mins depending on the thickness. Set aside.

-1 C pumpkin puree (not pie filling)
Cut the pumpkin open, clean out the middle, reserve the seeds for later use, cut into chunks and roast in a 350F oven for about 1 hour or until soft. Once the pumpkin is soft and cool, peel and put in the bowl of a food processor with the blade attachment. Add water if the pumpkin is very dry. After 5-10 mins, you should see this:

-1/2 t. natural vanilla extract
-2 egg yolks
-1/4 C brown sugar
-pinch of sea salt
-1/8 t. fresh grated nutmeg
-1/4 t. cinnamon
-1/8 t. cloves, ground
1/4 C all purpose flour
-1T fancy molasses (I used a pear syrup instead)

Mix all the above ingredients in a bowl with a whisk until smooth. Spoon into baked tart shells and level with an offset spatula.

Bake the tarts in a 350F oven for 15-20 minutes or until set.

For the Caramelized apples:
-6 medium apples (gala, fuji, grannysmith, good baking apples...)
-1/4 C butter, unsalted
-1/2 C cinnamon sugar



To caramelize the apples, peel, core and chop your apples into even slices, not to thick, not too thin. Melt some butter in a frying pan or skillet. Add the cinnamon sugar and swirl the pan around until the sugar dissolves and caramel starts to form. Lay your apples down on their side in the pan. Add another layer of sugar, and let the apples cook and get a nice dark golden brown colour. Flip them over, add more sugar, and don't burn yourself in the process, the sugar gets reall (so I warned you). Once the apples are a deep caramel colour, carefuly let them cool.Place the cooled apple slices on top of the cooled tarts. Arrange them like a flower if you like.


To make maple whipped cream, whip about 1 C 35% cream, with 3 T icing sugar, and 1.2t. cinnamon in a cold bowl with cold whisk. Pipe into rosettes on the tarts.

Garnish either with pommegranate seeds, or pumpkin seeds. You can candy the seeds from your pumpkin, which is what I did but I ate them all before I could use them!

Dessert Table

Hazelnut tart with plums and blackberries from the garden...

Also...tart Squares with Almond Frangipane, Red Currants and Raspberries

Butter Cookies with Lemon Icing, Coconut Macaroons

Chocotate Cupcakes with White Chocolate Buttercream

Oh My Sweet Galette

I made this galette with flaky pastry, then I smeared some almond frangipane in the bottom, and then added some delicious Ontario Strawberries, and Blueberries. I also ate it with vanilla Ice Cream. Sweet deliciousness, lets be friends!

Almond Tart with Lovely Summer Berries

Strawberries, blueberries, cherries and raspberries are baked in this tart!Then the tart was enjoyed outside.

A Little Prosciutto Garden

More Tarts I've made...

Lemon Cream Tart with Candied PeelCaramelized Apple Tart with Almond Frangipane

Strawberry and Blueberry TartOkay, so I'm sorry for the weird lighting effects on this tart, it is the sunlight. Yes it pretty much the middle of winter, but I did have some wild blueberries and Ontario strawberries in the freezer...I KNEW I was keeping them for a reason. I did want to make a nice glaze for the tart, with the remaining of the strawberry syrup (from the failed strawberry jelly from last summer) but the tarts were eaten before I had the chance. A little bit of almond Frangipane lines the shortcrust dough.

oh one more from another camera. the strawberry tart in january. might as well go to jail.

Is WINTER OVER YET?!?!

I forgot to post these photos from last summer. Inspired by the market, we made some serious tarts that day.
This is an heirloom baby tomato tart. the tomatoes were blanched and peeled because the skin is so thick. we also added caramelized onions, parmesan and herbs and baked it in flaky pastry. hmmmmm!

Violet Beauregard's Blueberry Tart

You will need:

• 1 recipe for tart dough either Here (for whole wheat) or your own favourite
  
• 1 recipe for frangipane
• some fresh blueberries
• some frozen wildblueberries (from the summer)
• Cinnamon Sugar
  
• Apricot Glaze
• Icing sugar
  

1. Roll out the dough, and press into tart shells. Prick some breathing holes in the bottom. Set in the freezer for at least 30 minutes.2. Spread some Frangipane at the bottom of each tart shell.3. Put some fresh blueberries in the bottom.
4. Add some wild blueberries if you have some, or any other kind of berry like raspberry. Sprinkle with some cinnamon sugar.
5. Bake at 350 F for about 40 minutes, but every oven is different, so keep a close eye on it. You want the crust to be dark, and the juices to be gone. The tart should be firm to the touch.

Once the tart is cool, remove from the shell, and brush the fruit with apricot glaze. Sprinkle the sides with sugar. Give to to your neighbors.

Lemon Merringue Tart

With a little merringue ghost.
This is my halloween post. I'm 3 months late.

tarte frangipane aux pruneau secs.

when alex and i went to napa, we stayed with my friend christelle's parents. they gave us this large bag of sundried plums from their tree in their back yard, and then the prunes matures in the back of the card for the duration of the rest of the trip. they were delicious in this almond frangipane tart wich i made. im too lazy to write out the recipe, but if you want it you can have it.

love,
mel

Raspberry Blackberry Frangipane Tart with a Whole Wheat Crust

I love summer in Ontario. Thanks to Alex and the fruits from his garden, I made this tart that tastes like summer. Homegrown Ontario goodness. The crust is soooo, soooo crispy and delicious and I like to think of it as "healthy" and "light", but I would not recommend it if you are on a diet. Its just better in comparison to a box of donuts.

This recipe is for a 11 inch shallow tart dish, which serves 8 people.

Whole Wheat Tart Dough
1 cup 1/3 whole wheat flour
1 cup 1/3 AP Flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1 cup of cold butter, cubed into 1 " pieces, and very very cold (I put mine in the freezer for 5 minutes)
1/2 cup ice water

Put the dry ingredients in a food processor and blitz for a few seconds. Add the cold butter, and pulse 2 or 3 times for 3 seconds, until you have butter chunks the size of a penny. Do not turn this into powder...you need the chunks of butter.
Add the water, a TBSP at a time, and pulse for 3 seconds, until the dough is wet enough to form into a ball. Put the dough (it will be a crumbly mess) onto parchment paper, form into a ball, and then flatten into a disk, and wrap well. Put in the fridge for at least 1 hour. I keep mine in the parchment paper so that I can roll it out on the paper and it makes moving the dough, as well as clean up much easier.
Once the dough has rested, roll it out to fit the 11 inch tart pan, and prick the bottom with a fork to prevent rising. Put into a preheated oven at 350° and blind bake for 40 minutes, rotating halfway through. Once the tart base has been blind baked, let it cool a bit.

While the shell is cooling, prepare the frangipane:
3 oz butter at room temperature
3 oz icing sugar
4 oz almond flour
2 tbsp AP flour
1 egg, at room temperature
zest from 1 lemon
1 tbsp vanilla sugar
Mix the butter and icing sugar with beaters, add the almonds, then the flour, scraping the bowl between each, making sure everything is well blended. Add the egg, vanilla and lemon zest and blend until smooth.
Spread the filling with a palette knife over the bottom of the tart, do not over fill. Spread out your berries (I used raspberries and blackberries, but you can use any seasonal fruit alone or in combination). If you like, sprinkle some granulated sugar over the top. I didn't, but if you are using something very tart like currants, you may want to do that.
I baked this tart at 350° for at least 1 hour. Don't forget to rotate halway through. To check if the tart is done, you can touch the center of the tart with your finger, the frangipane must be slightly crusty, and golden, and not moist. The raspberries should be darkened, and shrunk.

Garnish:
1/3 cup apricot jam or jelly
1/4 cup water
Sliced, blanched almonds, roasted (oven for 8 minutes at 350°)
Icing sugar
Once the tart has cooled down, boil the jam and water until smooth. Brush the top of the tart with the jam and a pastry brush. Make sure to get the top parts of the crust part, so that the almonds will stick. Make sure there are no apricot chunks. Sprinkle almonds around the edges. Garnish with icing sugar.


You can keep this tart, well wrapped, at room temperature for up to 1 week. It can also be frozen if you need to, or give it to your neighbors or something.

Cherry Clafoutis

Yeah, so Lyra has this totally straight off the boat, Hungarian BF named Viktor who not only has the gift of photo taking but also an appreciation for showing up at my house with a fine bottle of spanish wine. That night I stole the recipe for clafoutis from foodbeam (soooo easy) and this was the desert of the evening. Unfortunately I don't think that Chef liked it very much as he gave me another recipe which contained almond flour and apparently no clafoutis is a real clafoutis unless you have the almonds going on inside. Nonetheless I served the cherry clafoutis with a chocolate ganache and I'm not sure if it was good but the folks that were over that day said they were.

I used flexipan molds to make the little ones and also tried with the traditional little tartelette pans, but seriously, HOW MUCH BUTTER do you have to use to get the things out of there???