Daring Bakers and a Bakewell Tart

June 27, 2009

This is my first time participating in a Daring Bakers' challenge. I thought about joining for a long time and finally decided to just do it. And I'm glad I did! This month's challenge is a Bakewell Tart, and I was excited when I read about it. I just love the combination of raspberry and almonds. I knew I'd be using that combination, but it wouldn't be fun if I didn't try to do something else. So I looked into my refrigerator and pulled out the jars of jam. There was homemade strawberry jam I had made a few days earlier, raspberry and apricot. So I got to work.

I wanted to try different jam fillings, so I made the pastry and then cut it into rounds slightly larger than my muffin tin. I placed the pastry in the muffin tin and then started to have fun. I used the three jams I had in the refrigerator and then topped them with the frangipane. I divided the frangipane in half and added a little over a tablespoon of cocoa powder to one half since I thought it would be nice to try a "chocolate" frangipane. I divided the two frangipanes amongst the muffin tarts.

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

Sweet shortcrust pastry

225g (8oz) all purpose flour

30g (1oz) sugar

2.5ml (½ tsp) salt

110g (4oz) unsalted butter, cold (frozen is better)

2  egg yolks

2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract (optional)

15-30ml (1-2 Tbsp) cold water

1. Sift together flour, sugar and salt. Grate butter into the flour mixture, using the large hole-side of a box grater. Using your finger tips only, and working very quickly, rub the fat into the flour until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Set aside.

2. Lightly beat the egg yolks with the almond extract (if using) and quickly mix into the flour mixture. Keep mixing while dribbling in the water, only adding enough to form a cohesive and slightly sticky dough.

3. Form the dough into a disc, wrap in cling and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes

Frangipane

125g (4.5oz) unsalted butter, softened

125g (4.5oz) icing sugar

3  eggs

2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract

125g (4.5oz) ground almonds

30g (1oz) all purpose flour

Cream butter and sugar together for about a minute or until the mixture is primrose in colour and very fluffy. Scrape down the side of the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. The batter may appear to curdle. In the words of Douglas Adams: Don’t panic. Really. It’ll be fine. After all three are in, pour in the almond extract and mix for about another 30 seconds and scrape down the sides again. With the beaters on, spoon in the ground nuts and the flour. Mix well. The mixture will be soft, keep its slightly curdled look (mostly from the almonds) and retain its pallid yellow colour.

Assemble the tartelettes:

Place the chilled dough disc on a lightly floured surface. If it's overly cold, you will need to let it become acclimatised for about 15 minutes before you roll it out. Flour the rolling pin and roll the pastry to 5mm (1/4”) thickness, by rolling in one direction only (start from the centre and roll away from you), and turning the disc a quarter turn after each roll. When the pastry is to the desired size and thickness, transfer it to the tart pans, press in and trim the excess dough. Patch any holes, fissures or tears with trimmed bits. Place the tarts on a baking sheet line with parchment paper and chill in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 200C/400F. Position a rack in the center of the oven.

Remove shell from freezer, spread as even a layer as you can of jam onto the pastry base. Top with frangipane, spreading to cover the entire surface of the tart. Smooth the top and pop into the oven for 30 minutes. Five minutes before the tart is done, the top will be poofy and brownish.

Island Hopping

June 20, 2009

 

When summer finally arrives and it's too hot to want to turn on the oven, I know it's time to head south and look for recipes which were made for hot weather. A quick and easy favorite of ours is Insalata Caprese (Salad from Capri): vine ripened, plump and juicy tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and basil. Despite the fact that I've been to Italy numerous times, I have never once ordered this salad at a restaurant. If it's part of a buffet I will take some, but for some reason, this is something I don't feel I need to order. It's something I can have at home and I'd rather try more exotic things.

Slice the best tomatoes you can get, along with good quality mozzarella, and tear fresh basil over the top. Drizzle olive oil over the salad and season with salt and pepper. Adding balsamic vinegar is possible, although it's not authentic. With the best of ingredients, it isn't even needed.

From the island of Capri we move on to the Greek Islands. The best part of Greek breakfasts is the thick yogurt served with honey. In the many souvenir shops you can find many types of honey: thyme honey, olive honey, wildflower honey, etc. Moving along the shelf, there is always honey with nuts and those are the best.

I must have had one too many pieces of bread and butter with honey drizzled on top when I was a kid, since honey is now something I just can't eat. I do use it when baking or cooking, but I just can't eat it plain. The first time I went to Greece, I went to Crete and for breakfast yogurt and honey was served. I passed that and had some really horrible white bread instead. Everyone else was saying how wonderful their breakfast had been. A few days later we stopped at a little café after a hike and we asked what they'd serve us as a snack. The answer was yogurt and honey. Well, we all ordered is since we weren't going to get anything else. And boy was I in for a surprise. The thick and creamy yogurt was drizzled with a very light tasting honey. I took a small taste prepared to just eat it and it turned out to be very good. The honey wasn't overpowering at all and it gave the yogurt just enough sweetness to cut the acidity plain yogurt can have. The second time I went to Greece, this time Santorini, I didn't pass up a single chance to have the yogurt with honey. Both times I brought jars of honey with nuts back home with me so I could recreate that dish. Now I buy thick Greek yogurt, drizzle a little bit of honey over it and add chopped nuts such as almonds, walnuts or pistachios. Easy enough for breakfast or for dessert on a hot summer day.

Strawberry and Mascarpone Ice Cream

June 13, 2009

 

The strawberry season is in full swing here, and we've been picking and eating them as fast as we can. Luckily we have a berry picking patch nearby and can go and pick our own sweet berries. Of the 7 kg we've picked so far, I've made 7 jars of jam. We've been eating them plain, with whipped cream or yogurt or cut over cereal.  

 

But I needed something new. My husband isn't one for very sweet things so a wonderful strawberry shortcake was out of the question. After taking a look at the weather report for this weekend, I suggested strawberry ice cream and it was accepted. I turned to Linda Tubby's "Ices Italia", a beautiful book on ice cream and sorbets with many wonderful flavors. I adapted her Peach and Mascarpone Ice Cream by substituting strawberries for the peaches. A wonderfully strawberry tasting ice cream in bright pink emerged.

Strawberry and Mascarpone Ice Cream (adapted from Linda Tubby)

160 g extra fine sugar

160 ml water

juice of half a lemon

250 g mascarpone

300 g ripe strawberries

Heat the sugar and water, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has melted. Remove from heat, mix in the lemon juice and pour into bowl. Place the bowl in the refrigerator to cool for 30 minutes.

Whip the mascarpone in a bowl with the cooled simple syrup. Add 200 g of the strawberries and pureé until the strawberries are chopped fine. Chop the remaining 100 g of strawberries and add to the bowl. Stir with a spoon to mix. Churn in the ice cream maker.

Cookbooks

June 10, 2009

I have a lot of cookbooks. A lot. I must have inherited this trait from my mother. I remember her either being in the kitchen making us something to eat or sitting at the table looking though cookbooks. Even now when I visit her, the first thing I'll ask is "Do you have any new cookbooks?", and then we spend the next hour or so going through her latest acquisition(s). Often I'll pull out one of her older cookbooks and find a handwritten list of dishes she planed to make for a party. Now, when she's planing a party we'll go through the menu over the phone.

When I'm planing a party I have a rough idea of what I'd like to serve. Most often dishes I have never made before. Parties are my chance to try out new things and see what the reaction is for a larger audience. So I turn to my large cookbook collection. I do have recipes that are tried and true and for which I get requests for at parties. I try to incorporate those whenever I can. One very popular request is cheesecake. I can accommodate that wish, but not without trying something new each time. So it's never just cheesecake, it's citrus cheesecake or double chocolate cheesecake or strawberry cheesecake, or ... In the back of my mind there is always a recipe I saw in a cookbook that I wanted to try and add little something of my own to.