La Palette's Strawberry Tart Goes Chocolate

I know. Another recipe from Baking From My Home to Yours. But this one features strawberries (available now fresh anywhere in the northern hemisphere). I made it in February, when the first organic local strawberries showed up at Trader Joe's. They were beauties, sweet and floral, juicy, and the first harbinger of a spring that was way too early this year, at least in our area.

When the berries are fresh and luscious, it masks almost any error one might make, like over baking the tart shell, nuking cold ganache until it almost broke, forgetting the original recipe also called for strawberry jam, and fumbling the berries so they tumbled randomly into the shell (I had every intention of an artful design, but you know that's just not me). I had planned to use both the jam and the ganache (my addition to the recipe), but completely forgot. We didn't miss it. It would have been a shame to cover the strawberries' flavor with jam. Hindsight...

I have a tart shell crust that I've fallen in love with, and it's the one from The New Best Recipe from Cook's Illustrated. It doesn't look like it from this photo but it's very easy to work with (I mauled it once it was in the pan). It's like a buttery shortbread, and that's a good thing in a tart shell.

Normandy Apple Tart

This week, the Tuesdays with Dorie bakers are making Dorie's Normandy apple tart, selected by Tracey at Tracey's Culinary Adventures. More than any other individual blogger, Tracey's site is the one I check first when searching for something to make on a whim. She's a sweet, generous person and has helped me so much in the past with questions I've had about blogging and photography. I simply couldn't miss her final pick, one of the last ones we'll make with the group.

I was fortunate I had a tart shell premade in the freezer. I don't know if it's Dorie's recipe but it was there and that made this recipe even easier. So too for the apple sauce (I actually substituted apple butter). I used a recipe I learned when I went to canning school at Happy Girl Kitchen last month. I had made it a few weeks ago and I was so pleased with myself that I left the jars out on the counter to bring me a smile whenever I passed through the kitchen.

With the two most time consuming steps already out of the way, this recipe came together in minutes. I made a mini, because that was what the crust in the freezer was, and because I didn't have time to peel a couple of apples. I took the cheek off of one Gala apple, peeled that, thinly sliced it, arranged the slices on top of the apple butter, brushed it with some egg wash and off to the oven it went. 

Mine baked quite quickly because the tart shell was still hot when I loaded it up with the apple butter and apple slices, so I had to cover it with foil to keep the edge of the crust from browning too much. After just 25 minutes, it came out of the oven and I brushed it with a little quince jelly (which was one of the recipes Jordan made at the canning workshop). It gave the apple slices a lovely glow, and the combination of apples and quince is such a natural.

This was a delicious and, yes, even easy dessert with a little advance planning. The mellow tang of the apple butter contrasted nicely with the crisp-tender apple slices and the crunch of the tart shell. The star was truly the apple butter, so I encourage you to use a good quality filling.

If you'd like the recipe as Dorie intended it, Tracey has the recipe posted for you here. And be sure to check out what the other TWD bakers thought...you can find their tarts here.

Espresso Ice Cream Tart

When life gets busy, I head to the kitchen. Lots of you do rational things (like laundry), but I'm driven to bake and share the bounty of my stress.

When I saw this week's TWD recipe, I thought "This one's easy!" Naturally I had to make it harder, so I pretty much revamped the recipe to suit my whims. This didn't exactly fit in with the time I had available. Oh well!

It seemed like a good idea to make my own coffee ice cream, and when I went to buy the coffee for it, expresso seemed even better than coffee. Making hot fudge seemed like a better idea than melting chocolate over the bottom of the warm tart shell. And making a chocolate shortbread tart shell seemed like an upgrade over the crust in the recipe. The embarrassing photo at the top of this post is proof that this tart made my afternoon (and that of lots of my coworkers) much better. Although it was hard to serve, it was happily attacked and disposed of before it could melt. All of our happy tummies thanked Jessica of Domestic Deep Thought of the Day for her timely pick for Tuesday with Dorie. Jessica has the recipe for you here, and you can find what the other bakers did with this one here.

Chocolate Pecan Tart

Chocolate pecan tart. What could be better (well, other than the photo)? My buddy Susan at Baking with Susan picked this yummy treat from Chocolate Epiphany by Francois Payard for last month's Chocolate with Francois selection. I used a frozen tart shell which had seen better days, but the stellar filling more than made up for the textural challenges of an old crust. I used feves for the chocolate as the tart in the book appeared to have been made with chocolate disks. Next time I think I'll chop the chocolate, and go with a higher percentage chocolate (I used 60%, but I think 70% would make the tart less sweet). Great pick, Susan! Check out Susan's amazing tart, and the recipe, here.

Because my wrist is taking FOREVER to heal, I never posted these chocolate coconut rochers, which I made in November. Joanne at Apple Crumbles selected these treats, and they were amazing. Mine didn't look like the pyramids in the book, but they were gobbled up in no time at all. They were so easy, and I don't think I've ever tasted a macaroon I liked more. Even people who don't like coconut liked these. Two thumbs way up for these cookies, which were easy to boot.

Now I'm all caught up on my baking for Chocolate with Francois. And it's a good thing, because I get to pick the recipe this month.

Plum Crostata

I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date! And that date is the monthly posting for Daring Bakers. I put off this ridiculously easy recipe until the day after it was supposed to be posted. As I was making it, it was so easy I wondered why I waited so long.

The 2010 November Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Simona of briciole. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.

I had never had a crostata but I knew I wanted to make gingered plum preserves for it. The only problem was that in November, plums are pretty much gone from the markets, unless they've been picked green and transported from another continent. That's what I ended up with, and the preserves weren't as great as they normally are but they were still better than store bought. 

The crust is fairly simple to put together and work with, and rolling it out was a snap. I cut out some little hearts from the scraps instead of doing the lattice because it was 8 PM. My crostata baked for 29 minutes and cooled completely before we cut it. It was good, but I wasn't wowed by it. That could have been because it came after the many desserts during the long Thanksgiving weekend.

Thanks, Simona, for hosting this month and for picking something easy! If you'd like the recipe, Simona has it for you here.

And now for some shameless self promotion...have you entered my giveaway yet? BlogHer has graciously offered a $100 Visa gift card. You can enter here.

Cranberry Shortbread "Cake"

I never, ever, ever would have made this "cake" if it wasn't for my esteemed blogging buddy Jessica of A Singleton in the Kitchen. And that would have been a real shame. Jessica, who will be faced with renaming her blog next year when she and beau Dudley get married, chose Dorie Greenspan's Not-Just-For-Thanksgiving Cranberry Shortbread Cake as this week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection.

I had a VERY hard time forcing myself to make this "cake." First, there's no photo in the book and I just couldn't wrap my head around how it would look. Second, although I like cranberries, I don't wake up in the morning and think "Gee, what can I make with cranberries today?" And last, the dough sounded finicky and difficult to work with. Nothing could be further from the truth.

A shortbread "cake" (I keep using quotes because it's all crust to me) surrounds a jam you make with cranberries and orange supremes. I went with a Texas pink grapefruit, both in honor of Jessica and, well, because it was what I had available. I made the super easy jam several days before I made the "cake" and tucked it away in the fridge. Last night, I checked Jessica's post (you can find it here) hoping for a photo of the completed "cake" to inspire me to make it. Yes and yes! So this morning I got up at five and started on the "cake." Surprise of surprises, I LOVED working with the dough. In fact, I plan to try this as a tart crust because I love it so much.

This recipe, except for my procrastination, was completely uneventful. Here's what I learned:

• Knowing my natural proclivity for not evenly measuring two dough halves, I weighed them on my scale.
• Jessica's "cake" looked as though she left a small border around the jam and pressed the crust closed around the jam. I liked that idea so I did the same.
• Tracey tweeted that she measured the top crust to get it the right size. I didn't do that, although I did use the ring of the springform pan to gauge it. My top crust ended up a tiny bit bigger than I wanted, so I pushed down the excess.
• Although I didn't do it this time, I am currently enamored with adding ginger to many of my recipes. I think some diced fresh ginger would make a great addition to the jam.
• I sprinkled Demerara sugar on top of the "cake" before baking.

In case you think I'm on the fence about this one, au contraire. I loved it. The tartness of the cranberries played perfectly against the sweet, crunchy pastry. It will be hard to share this one.

Jessica, thanks for a fantastic pick. I heart you, and not just because you chose this TART.

If you'd like the recipe, I have one thing to say...buy the book already! It's the best baking book, period. But if it's not in the budget this week, Jessica has the recipe for you, as well as a tasty apple version. And there are hundreds of us baking through Baking From My Home to Yours. You can find out what the other bakers thought here.

Check back next week...I'll have something exciting for you!

Gerard's Mustard Tart

I knew it was bound to happen.

See this beautiful (use your imagination) tart? The recipe came from none other than Around My French Table, the new book from Dorie Greenspan. I had no problem with the crust. I mixed up the custard, poured it over the shell, artfully arranged the lovingly steamed carrots and leeks, and carefully placed the tart in the oven. All was good in the world.

Then my tart seemed to be baking much more quickly that it was supposed. I pulled it out of the oven and wondered, where did the filling go? Dunno. It leaked out the bottom of the tart pan (which was thankfully on a sheet pan), leaving a thin layer of well done custard in the tart shell with the lovely vegetables caramelized by their exposure to the oven's heat. Even with virtually no custard in the tart, this was gobbled up by the next day. In my mind, that's a great recipe: I can mess it up, and it still tastes good and disappears quickly.

I made this for the new group French Fridays with Dorie. I've already seen some of their mustard tarts, and they didn't spring a leak in their crust. You can find them all here.

Tuesdays with Dorie - Tarte Fine

In the summer of 2008, I learned of Tuesdays with Dorie, an extraordinary group (led by Laurie of slush) working their way through Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. I loved all the recipes I saw them making, and it sounded like such fun. The problem was, you had to have a blog to join and I hardly knew what a blog was. Nonetheless, I resolved to join as soon as my new kitchen was completed. But before the kitchen project even began, Laurie announced she was closing the membership of the group at the end of the following month. Panicked, I quizzed savvy (younger) coworkers, and my blog was born.

Fast forward to July 2010. We were picking dates for our vacation and M. pretended to be astonished that I would schedule our vacation around my turn to pick the recipe. Since I thought my turn would fall the first week of October, we decided on mid-October. Imagine my surprise to get an email from Laurie telling me I'd be the host this week. It was time to pick the recipe the group would make.

I knew my ideal pick would be one that had no chocolate (shockingly, since chocolate is a favorite) so that my friend Kayte could enjoy making and eating it. It would have no nuts, since so many of my fellow bloggers (or their kids) don't like nuts. Ditto coconut. It wouldn't have ingredients that are out of season for bakers in the southern hemisphere. There would be no custard, caramel or pie crust to stress out those who feel angst over these things. It would photograph well. It would be easy, not requiring expensive ingredients. And it would be delicious. So I chose tarte fine.

What could be easier? Frozen puff pastry, sliced apples, a squeeze of lemon and a bit of sugar, cream and egg and it's in the oven. It looks impressive, tastes fabulous, and carries you away to Paris. Which is where we'll be vacationing next month. We'll stock up on memories, buy many pastries at Pierre Herme, indulge in our favorite treats at La Maison du Chocolat, fill up on pain Poilane and their punitions, nut oils from J. LeBlanc (I'll definitely be trying the pistachio oil), fresh Maille mustards... And we'll surely have this tart in various guises.

The recipe truly couldn't be easier. Here are my suggestions:

• Unless your kitchen is very warm, get the puff pastry out and let it defrost as you peel and slice the apples. If your kitchen is hot, peel and slice the apples, toss them with a squeeze of lemon, then get out the puff pastry. 

• I rolled my puff pastry on a Silpat with a sheet of parchment on top. That way, I didn't roll flour into the puff pastry. It's also easier clean up (laziness is one of my primary drivers). Don't think that the paper that separates the pieces of puff pastry is parchment and you can roll with that. Not that I made that mistake. Well, just once.

• As you roll the puff pastry, start from the middle and roll out toward the edge, but don't roll over the edge repeatedly. You want the pastry to puff around the edges and if it's been compressed by the rolling pin you'll get less lift.

• Move the puff pastry to a sheet pan before arranging the apples.

• I made the tart once with Golden Delicious apples, which Dorie recommends, and once with Gala apples. My Galas were a bit mealy and I had a lot of angst over using them. But they melted into the pastry and the mealiness was not detectable.  My tasters liked the tart with Golden Delicious apples but LOVED the one with the Galas. Use whatever apples you like and adjust the sugar accordingly.

• The love of the Gala apple tart may have something to do with using Dorie's playing around suggestion for a sweeter tart: bits of butter, then a sprinkling of sugar on the pastry before arranging the apples. Then brush with melted butter and sprinkle with more sugar. Delicious! 

• I didn't glaze either of my tarts, and nobody seemed to mind. The tart I made with the Golden Delicious apples (no butter) could have used a glaze but the version with butter didn't need it.

• If you live close to a Trader Joe's, rejoice! After 18 months of no puff pastry, they are finally stocking their excellent all-butter puff pastry again.

• Although apples are the classic topping for this tart, it should work equally well with any fruit that isn't excessively wet, such as pears or apricots.

• The technique can be just as easily used for savory tarts. Instead of dotting the puff pastry with butter, brush on a little pesto (basil or sun-dried tomato) and top with sliced Roma tomatoes, slivered basil and a sprinkling of cheese, or sliced artichoke hearts, olives and roasted red peppers.

Getting to pick the recipe was an emotional experience for me.  This group, this cookbook, its author, and my fellow TWD bloggers all mean the world to me. Dorie is always with me in the kitchen. I imagine her calm, encouraging voice giving advice and reassurance when I need it most. Because of her book I have grown so much as a baker and tried things I never would have attempted before. Dorie, thank you from the bottom of my heart for this cookbook. The recipes I've tried from Around My French Table have exceeded my expectations. French Fridays with Dorie will be a new adventure, and I know you'll be there with me, calmly guiding and encouraging me.

This is Pearl, my co-author

Tarte Fine - makes 6 servings
Printer-friendly recipe

Dorie says: In France, tarte fine is a chic, slender tart made from a slim layer of puff pastry topped with paper-thin slices of apple. In this country, it is often called apple pizza, a name that aptly describes the tart's looks, but not its elegance. In the end, the name is thoroughly unimportant--it's the taste and texture that mean something, and this tart gets a perfect score on those counts.

This tart is an easy treat to put together on short notice, since all it requires is store-bought puff pastry, a couple of apples, an egg, sugar and 15 minutes or less of active cutting and arranging.

The tart can be made with any sweet but lightly acidic apple, but I always make it with firm Golden Delicious apples, because they are most like the apples used for a tarte fine in France.

Note:  Pepperidge Farm puff pastry sheets are available in every supermarket across the country. However, I can't encourage you enough to search out an all-butter puff pastry at a local specialty store. If the store doesn't carry frozen all-butter puff pastry, perhaps it will order it for you. The pastry I buy--which is so good I stopped making puff pastry at home--is made by Dufour pastry.

3 medium-size firm sweet apples, preferably Golden Delicious
Squirt of fresh lemon juice
1 sheet (about 8 ounces) frozen puff pastry, preferably all butter (see above), thawed
2 teaspoons milk or heavy cream
1 large egg, beaten with about 1/2 teaspoon water, for egg wash
3-4 teaspoons sugar

1/3 cup apricot jam, for glazing

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Peel the apples, slice them in half lengthwise and core them. Cut the apples halves in half again and cut about 7 lengthwise slices from each quarter. Put the slices into a bowl and toss them with the lemon juice.

On a sheet of parchment paper or a silicone baking mat, roll the sheet of puff pastry out into a rectangle that is about 9 1/2 x 10 1/2 inches. If the dough is warm, cover it with a piece of plastic wrap and refrigerate it for about 20 minutes. If it's still cool, just lift the paper or mat and place it on a baking sheet. Arrange the apple slices in slightly overlapping rows on the pastry, making sure to leave a border of 1/4 to 1/2 inch bare. Brush the borders lightly with the milk or cream, then brush the egg wash over the apple slices. Sprinkle the apples and the borders with the sugar.

Bake the tart for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the pastry is puffed and golden around the edges and the apples are soft and brown at the borders. Remove from the oven. If you want the edges of the apples to be even darker, you can run the tart under the broiler; be very careful not to overbake the pastry border. (To avoid burning the edges, you can cover the perimeter of the tart with aluminum foil.)

Boil the jam with a smidgen of water until it liquifies, then brush the glaze over the apples (if the jam has any chunks of apricot in it, avoid them).

Serve the tart hot or warm.

Playing Around:
If you'd like a sweeter tart, before you arrange the apple layer, scatter 2 tablespoons butter, cut into bits, over the pastry rectangle and sprinkle over 2 tablespoons sugar. Omit the egg wash, and once the apples are in place, brush them with 3-4 tablespoons melted butter and sprinkle with about 3 tablespoons sugar. Bake and glaze the tart as directed.

Crunchy and Custardy Peach Tart

We have been blessed with an abundance of peaches this year, including a giant bag of sweet/tart yellow cling peaches from a friend at work. There are so many delicious treats to make with peaches but nothing beats a fresh peach you must eat over the sink so you don't mess up your clothes.

Until now.

I was a bit skeptical about this tart, chosen for Tuesdays with Dorie by Rachel of sweet tarte, hoping it was a combo that worked and did it ever. The custard and the peaches were wonderful together, and the topping provided just the right amount of sweetness and crunch. I seem to have problems following recipes if I make them before 6 AM, and this one was no different. I completely forgot to use almond flour in place of part of the flour, but I still used the trick I learned from Deb at Smitten Kitchen. Deb uses the whole egg in the crust and rolls it instead of pressing it into the pan. I like the way the dough handles better, as my pressing skills are right up there with my piping and decorating skills.

A few blueberries found their way into my tart as I remembered from this crumble how nicely they play with peaches.

I had to work quickly to get a photo of the tart after it was sliced...it was disappearing too fast to wait any longer! My tasters seemed to like it with one scooping up some crumbs and having them with his sorbet.

If you'd like the recipe, Rachel will have it for you here. And if you'd like to see how the other TWD bakers did with this one, you can find them here. And many thanks to Rachel for a delicious and timely pick.

*******PLEASE NOTE: Lethally Delicious is on hiatus for the month of Ramadan. I will be responding to comments but not keeping up with my Google Reader (like I was before...not) or visiting bloggers other than those who leave comments. I'll be back around Sept. 10th with a spirit refreshed by this blessed month of fasting and prayer. Peace.

Tarte Noire

One of the many things I love about Tuesdays with Dorie is that we make lots of recipes I never would have thought would be good and others which I would have thought were too hard for me. This tarte noire was one of the later. I've enjoyed slivers of deep, dark chocolate tarts in Paris and was in love since the very first one I had.

It was our first trip to Paris and we were still in that first year where you fight a lot have many misunderstandings. We'd had a fight difference of opinion and I stormed out of the hotel and set off walking. I walked all over Paris and in my ultimate act of defiance, I went to La Maison du Chocolat alone. I spied these mini chocolate tarts and I had to have one. Even though I was angry, I wanted to take something back for M., so I asked for four rochers. I was showing off, using the twelve words of French that I know, so I was quite shocked when she handed me a bag with four rocher that were larger than golf balls instead of the tiny bon bons I thought I'd asked for. One of the pitfalls of pretending you speak a language that you don't is you get things you didn't ask for and you have neither the nerve to admit you made a mistake nor the words to ask for what you really wanted. So I headed back to the hotel with the huge chocolate golf balls. I had no idea what kind of mood M. would be in (though, truth be told, his moods were far more rational than mine) but having scarfed down my mini chocolate tart, I was ready to find out.

He had gone out after I stormed out, and at the little grocery store across from our hotel he found pear/peach flavored bottled water that he knew I'd like. So he bought it for me. I gave him the rochers and he gave me the waters, and all was good with the world. Those rochers remain one of our favorite things. The water only lasted a few years before the store stopped stocking it. To this day, neither of us can remember what we argued about.

I always thought chocolate tarts were difficult. Tart shells don't like me. Dorie's tart crust, supposedly easy to pat in the tart pan, only highlights my inability to do anything evenly. A while ago I saw Deb's post that she solved that problem by adding the whole egg, not just the yolk, to the dough. Eureka! This enabled me to roll out the tart shell and get the flat bottom and sharp sides I had been missing.

Look at those sharp sides and even bottom!

The star of the tart is the filling. Use your very best chocolate because that is where your flavor is coming from. I gradually heat the cream rather than cranking it up to high to avoid breakage. Stir the ganache from the center and slowly. I thought I'd get creative and make a swirl pattern in my tart so I let it set a little before attacking it with a palette knife. BIG MISTAKE. Some of the chocolate had started setting and my swirl made it look grainy. Panicked, I heat an offset spatula over the flame of a burner and reswirled the top until the chocolate had smoothed out.

This tart was a huge hit at work. It was cruel of me to take 3/4 of a 9 inch tart for 60 people, but I had to get it out of the house. Our host this week is the fabulous Jessica of bliss: towards a delicious life. I love reading Jessica's blog because she can write, unlike my stream-of-consciousness babbling. Thanks, Jessica, for bringing back a great memory and helping me overcome my tart shell demons.

If you'd like the recipe for this delectable tart, Jessica has it for you here. But really, you should buy the book everyone is talking about, Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. I was a decent baker before I joined TWD, but the things I've made from this book in the last almost-two years have honed my skills considerably.

NOTE:  If you'd like to see the ethereal tarte noir from La Maison du Chocolat, stop over at Nancy's. She included a photo in her post.

Quick Classic Berry Tart Version 2.0

One night last week, when we were both working a lot and under insane amounts of pressure, we ate this for dinner:

Let me back up. Last Wednesday a great dessert was discovered. We came home at about the same time.

"How was your day?"

"Crazy.  We discovered two errors totaling $7 million. People in my office, both phone lines ringing. You know. How about yours?"

"I did an international wire online that the bank turned into a completely different amount.  I was on the phone with customer service for hours and then I had to go to the bank to fix it. At least, I hope it's fixed."

You've heard of breakfast for dinner. At our house last Wednesday, it was dessert for dinner. And I owe it all to my fellow bloggers. Cristine at Cooking with Cristine chose Dorie's Quick Classic Berry Tart for this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe. And my blogging friend Nancy has influenced me so much that I had both a mini tart shell and chocolate ganache in the freezer. And for an even more satisfying tart, I made this with organic berries from my CSA box:

Good

Better

Great

I had baked the tart shell the night before, so it only took 5 minutes to assemble the tart. 90 seconds in the microwave to melt the ganache, wash and slice a few berries, and assemble. Brushing it with jam was only for show. If I wasn't posting it, I would have skipped that.

We split it for dinner, and both felt much better. We each still had problems to deal with at work, but I think Cristine's pick made an awful day end on a very happy note. Thanks, Cristine! This is definitely in our top 5 Dorie desserts.

Sweet Melissa Sundays - Strawberry Cobbler Tart

My blogging and tweeting friend Tracey of Tracey's Culinary Adventures is hosting this week's Sweet Melissa Sundays recipe, Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler Pie. Tracey's encouragement and especially her photo tips have made me a better blogger. She is sweet, kind and generous and her beautiful blog is the first place I look when I need a recipe. This is because her taste is impeccable and she's never disappointed me.

I've been super busy with work, with three separate audits (two of them major) happening concurrently. As if that isn't enough, M's business is at a crossroads where their accountant (me!) has to come up with a manufacturing inventory tracking system. Last night I worked until 11 just to get the year-end financials done and today I'll start on the inventory system.

How to juggle work with my desire to make Tracey's pick? Like Tracey, I have never had rhubarb and looked forward to this recipe so that I could try it. But that just didn't happen. I had fresh strawberries in the fridge, so I went with those. I knew I wouldn't have time to make pie crust and I eschew the store bought ones, so I went with the last sheet of Trader Joe's puff pastry I had in the freezer.

I made 1/4 of the recipe and baked my mini in a 4" spring form pan. I cut way back on the sugar, using only 1 tablespoon since the rhubarb needs a lot and my strawberries were sweet. I also didn't use lemon zest, opting to sprinkle cinnamon sugar over the biscuit. I barely had enough biscuit dough to eke out a thin heart-shaped biscuit to cover my little creation.

My mini baked in about an hour. The biscuit looked very brown before I pulled it out of the oven but the puff pastry and filling still needed more time. The P&Q indicated a lot of bakers had the same issue. Tracey related that her pie was a little soupy and mine was no different, but I was fortunate because it set up nicely.

This made a wonderful treat for us to split after having a small salad for lunch. M. stole most of the strawberry filling and proclaimed the dessert a success. The fresh berry flavor really came through and the crunchy biscuits contrasted nicely with the fruity filling. Puff pastry made this a super easy dessert. I can't call it quick, but if you have puff pastry in the freezer, the hands on time is minimal. I can't wait to try this with cherries, peaches, apricots...

Thanks, Tracey, for a pick that was a runaway hit with us. If you'd like the original recipe, Tracey has it here.

Strawberry Mini Cobbler Tart - adapted from The Sweet Melissa Baking Book
Printable recipe

For the crust:
1 sheet of puff pastry, defrosted in the refrigerator until pliable but not soft

For the filling:
1 cup sliced strawberries (about 10 berries)
1 teaspoon sugar (or more if needed - taste your berries so you know how much to use)
1/4 teaspoon cornstarch (if you add more sugar, use a little more cornstarch)

For the cobbler:
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of cinnamon
pinch of salt
1/2 tablespoon chilled butter, cut onto bits
2 tablespoons heavy cream

For finishing the tart:
Extra cream or milk for brushing the cobbler
1 tablespoon cinnamon sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put a sheet of foil on a sheet pan and set aside.

For the crust, lay the puff pastry on a lightly floured surface and cut a 6" circle out of the middle (you can use a 6" plate as a guide, I eyeballed it and it worked fine). Gently line a 4" spring form pan with the puff pastry, tucking in the folds to form a smooth surface around the side of the pan. Put pan in the refrigerator while you prepare the filling and cobbler.

For the filling, in a small bowl, toss the berries with the sugar and cornstarch. Set aside.

For the cobbler, stir together the dry ingredients in a small bowl. Work in the cold butter with your fingers. You should have a lot of flakes and chunks of butter. Add the cream. With your fingers, combine until the mixture comes together. You may need a few drops more cream (I did). The moment the dough comes together, drop it on a piece of plastic wrap and put another piece of plastic wrap on top of it. Push it into a roundish shape about 1/2" thick, and using a 2 1/2" biscuit or decorative cutter, cut a single biscuit. Remove the crust from the refrigerator, arrange the berries in it and top with the biscuit.

Put the tart on the baking sheet and brush the cobbler with some cream or milk. Sprinkle on some cinnamon sugar. Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour, checking every few minutes toward the end. The tart is done when the juices are thick and bubbly, the puff pastry is browned and looks flaky and the cobbler is well-browned. Serve warm.

Serves two greedy people.

TWD - Soft Chocolate and Raspberry Tartlet

Tuesdays with Dorie is a wonderful group of bakers who are baking and blogging their way through Dorie Greenspan's book Baking From My Home to Yours. Each week, one of the group hosts and that means she or he gets to pick the recipe that hundreds of us make and write about. Pretty cool, huh?

This week was Rachelle's turn. Rachelle's blog is Mommy? I'm Hungry! She writes about cooking, baking, does product reviews and has an astonishing number of giveaways. If I had to go to the post office (my least favorite place to go, less than the DMV) as often as she does, I would have already lost my mind.

But you're not here to read about my dislike of the post office (unless you're a professional and can offer advice). You're here for my adorable if badly executed soft chocolate tart. And with "chocolate" in the name of the recipe, you'd think I would have knocked this one out when the recipes were first announced. Not at all. Late last night, I turned off the TV and got to work. I had a mini tart shell in the freezer (not Dorie's recipe nor nut-based, but ready to go). I made a quarter of the recipe for the filling in 2 small dishes in the microwave, one for melting the chocolate and one for heating the cream and butter. All went well until the last two seconds of heating the butter/cream mixture when it went blurp in the microwave. Some of my best cleaning happens during these late night baking mishaps.

Since I was making a tartlet, I couldn't scatter the raspberries in the shell and pour the ganache over them, they would just be too tall. So I embraced their stature and stood them up in the ganache. My tartlet was done after about 25 minutes at convection bake 275. Letting it cool was torturous because it was late, I was tired and I wanted to sample it. Would it be soft? Would my decision to go bittersweet or go home pay off? Would the graininess of the sugar be less noticeable than it was when I licked the bowl? Would I be able to get a decent photo in the dead of night?

It was indeed soft, and delicious still warm from the oven. My tartlet didn't have a silky texture, which I missed, but it was still good.

If you'd like the recipe, Rachelle has it here. And you can find the other TWD bakers here.

No TWD, but Raspberry Tart with Chocolate Shortbread Crust

This week, the Tuesdays with Dorie bakers are making Katya's (of Second Dinner) pick, Chocolate Caramel Chestnut Cake. I was days away from leaving on vacation when the November picks were announced. If this one had been cookies, brownies, muffins or something like these, I could have fit them in. Katya has great taste so her pick was going to require more time than I had. Visit her to see what her beautiful cake looks like.

Those of you who stop by regularly know I don't always come from a rational place. Exhibit A:

Five days before going on vacation, I spotted beautiful raspberries at Costco. Costco, the land of excess, sells them in boxes of 6 clamshell containers. Even though I'm going on vacation in 5 days, I buy them.

Driving home, I wondered what was I thinking??? How was I going to eat six containers of raspberries on my own? Later, I commiserated with a friend, and decide to make my own IQF (individually quick frozen) raspberries. But lining them up on sheet pans to freeze seems exceedingly tedious, so I decided to make a raspberry tart. By this time, two of the containers were gone, but I figured making a 9" tart would leave me with leftover berries, so I made a 10", plus four 4" chocolate tart shells. Then I made pastry cream. Does anyone else enjoy the irony of watching "The Biggest Loser" while making pastry cream? Finally, I assembled the fruit tart before leaving for work the next morning.

I based my pastry cream on Dorie Greenspan's from Baking From My Home to Yours. I cooked it a little too long, based on her instructions to boil the custard for 1-2 minutes. When it started thickening, my instincts shouted "DANGER!" but I ignored them since it had only been 30 seconds. So my custard ended up very stiff. No worries. When this happens, I always whip some cream and whisk it into the pastry cream to lighten it (I'm talking texture, not calories, because this recipe is pretty much a train wreck for your diet).

I used Dorie's chocolate shortbread crust also from BFMHTY, and it was deliciously chocolaty. Once I assembled the 10" tart, I realized I hardly had enough berries for it, with practically none left over for the 4" minis. Instead of stressing about this, I served the tart at work with the minis, thinking someone would snap them up. And they did, before the tart was even half gone.

Even with a new kitchen, I still run out of space

Don't laugh, but this is a quick, easy recipe for a knockout tart. The chocolate shortbread crust recipe can be found in Baking From My Home to Yours. Here is my version of Dorie's pastry cream.

Pastry Cream, adapted from Baking From My Home to Yours.

Makes about 4 cups

3 cups whole milk (I only had 1%, so I used 2 1/2 cups 1% and 1/2 cup whipping cream)

1 vanilla bean, split and scraped

9 large egg yolks at room temperature

3/4 cup of sugar

1/2 cup cornstarch, sifted

5 tablespoons butter, room temperature, cut into butter pat-sized pieces

3/4 cup (or more or less, to taste) whipping cream (optional)

I like the softer texture that adding whipped cream gives. If you like a sturdier pastry cream, skip the whipped cream.

Bring the milk to a boil in a small saucepan; add the vanilla bean and its scrapings, cover and let sit off the heat for 30 minutes. Bring the milk back to a gentle boil.

Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks, sugar and cornstarch in a large bowl or measuring cup and add the hot milk in a very thin stream, whisking constantly. Once a third of the milk has been added, you can pour the rest in without danger of cooking the yolks.

Pour the custard through a strainer into a medium saucepan and cook the mixture over medium heat, whisking constantly, until it thickens and coats the back of a spoon. Set it aside for 5 minutes, then add the pats of butter and whisk them in completely. Press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface to prevent formation of a skin and refrigerate.

Before assembling your tarts, check the consistency of your pastry cream. If it's too firm for you, whip the cream in a clean, dry bowl, and whip it into the pastry cream. I always eyeball this. This time, since I made so much pastry cream, I added another dose of whipped cream.

Because you've added whipped cream, this pastry cream (which technically is more like a Bavarian cream) is not stable for long periods at room temperature.

I'm sorry, Katya, that couldn't tackle your pick before I left on vacation. It looks scrumptious and I hope to fit it in once I settle back in.

TWD - Cherry-Fudge Brownie Tart

Excuse the paper plate...I served this one at work

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie exploration of Baking From My Home to Yours was hosted by April of Short + Rose. This was one of those recipes where I wasn't quite certain how the finished product would taste. It tasted pretty good!

I made the following mistakes/changes:

• I didn't use alcohol (although I considered using orange juice, I boiled my dried cherries in water)

• I didn't notice the recipe called for 12 ounces of mascarpone, and since I had already been to the grocery store four times on the day I made this, there was no way I was going again, so I made 2/3 of the topping recipe. It was plenty.

• I forgot to add 1/2 cup of sugar to the melted chocolate, and I was glad I did. It didn't need more sugar. I used bittersweet feves and semi-sweet chips and thought it was too sweet.

• I didn't wash and dry the pan before putting the cake back in it.

I sprinkled on some Valrhona crunchy chocolate pearls for decoration instead of dusting it with cocoa, and they added a nice flavor and texture contrast. I found them at Whole Foods (springform but you can order 2.2 pounds of them from Chocosphere. Don't taste them out of the little plastic tub because you may discover they are swell on their own, and there goes your fancy decorating idea. Not that that happened here. Nooo.

Thanks, April, for a great pick. It disappeared soon after I put it out at work.

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Lethally Delicious is on vacation, so I may not be able to visit your blogs for a few days. Can you guess where in the world we are???

TWD - Chocolate - Crunched Caramel Tart

This one will be short and sweet. Carla of Chocolate Moosey chose Dorie's Chocolate-Crunched Caramel Tart for this week's Tuesdays with Dorie pick. Chocolate, caramel, honey roasted peanuts, what's not to love?

This tart is easy to put together and is as impressive as it is delicious.

Thanks, Carla, we really enjoyed your pick.

TWD - Nutella Cherry and Peach Brioche Tartlets

Dorie, I've been unfaithful to you.

It was laziness, pure and simple.

I was making brioche from The Bread Baker's Apprentice, and I didn't want to double up on brioche with just two of us. So I cut off two little pieces and used them for tartlets instead of making your brioche.

I'm sorry.

I'm not a plum lover, but I know you like it when we play around with the recipe, so I made one tartlet with cherries and Nutella and one with white peaches from my tree and Christine Ferber jam I bought at your favorite pastry shop in Paris. Yes, that one. I sampled a few pastries and swooned while I was there, too.

Are we OK?

Good.

I should have checked the tartlets sooner, because after 20 minutes, they were very brown, even underneath (I popped them out to peek at their little bottoms). I cooled them on a rack, then regretted not having any of your vanilla ice cream to have with them. But at the same time I was pinching myself-I couldn't believe I was making this recipe. When the July recipes were announced, I noticed that one of them required a yeast dough. Yeast and I have never been friends. So I finished the other three recipes by June 30th so I could have the entire month free to stress about making a yeast dough.

Then I made Anne's yeast rolls, which were easy and delicious. And then I started tackling The Bread Baker's Apprentice. So making brioche was not the angst-ridden event I had anticipated.

The tartlets? They were fabulous, with the Nutella cherry tartlet the absolute favorite. The Nutella kept the cherry juice in check and the brioche formed a crisp and tender crust under it all. Perfection. The peach was delicious as well. I might as well admit we split the two tartlets for dinner one night. Very decadent, but doesn't that say "Paris" to you? It does me, and it does to the man I love.

Thanks for giving us a dessert that made us remember our trip just two months ago.

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Once the brioche dough was made, this is an ultra-easy and impressive dessert. I honestly did very little according to the recipe because M. had just gotten home from a trip and I didn't want to spend a lot of time away from him. So all the rising and slapping down of the dough didn't happen. I let the dough rest in the fridge, then put it in the tartlet pans and added the fillings and let it rise before baking it off. I can't express how wonderful the Nutella tartlet smelled while it was in the oven. I think the next one I try will have a Nutella filling and be served with ice cream or creme fraiche.

We have Denise of Chez Us to thank for selecting this delectable tart for us to make. I'm sure I wasn't the only TWD baker who looked at this one with trepidation, but I again learned that the ones I want to opt out of are the ones I need to make. They're the ones that surprise me, teach me new skills and give me an appreciation of new desserts.

TWD - Parisian Raspberry and Peach Tartlets

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie pick is the easiest one to date. I can't imagine an easier dessert, nor one more simply elegant.

I made this to serve with next week's Honey Peach Ice Cream, and as a result, I bought peaches instead of apples. They're in season now, and they speak to me of warmer weather with hints of summer's coming bounties. The recipe calls for placing your fruit on a round of puff pastry, sprinkling it with some brown sugar, dotting with butter and baking. That's it. Let it cool, serve it with ice cream, or just a spoon. Sharing, while possible, is difficult with a precious little pastry that oozes with butter and has hints of caramel where the sugar burns along the edges.

The peach tartlet was delicious, but the raspberry one I made as an afterthought, indulging an unexplained silent urging from the berries in my fridge, was the sleeper hit. The berries weren't heavy enough to weigh down the pastry and it puffed up as it baked, tumbling the ruby jewels to the baking sheet. They scooped up just fine and topped with the ice cream melting into the mess of recovered berries, this dessert was as satisfying as simple perfection can be.

My thanks go out to Jessica of My Baking Heart for choosing this special recipe for us this week. If you'd like the recipe, check out Jessica's blog. And then go shopping for the fruit that speaks to you, and some puff pastry to adorn with it.

TWD - Chocolate Cream Tart

Did you hear it? 

The sigh of bliss from all the chocolate loving Tuesdays with Dorie bakers?

This tart brought on the rapture...

Dorie, I love you. Sigh.

Where was I?

This week's recipe was brought to you by Kim of Scrumptious Photography. Kim, I love you, too. I love pretty much everyone after a slice of the tart you selected for us this week.

It was easy to make, especially if you THOROUGHLY read the directions and then followed them. I forgot to do that, so making this tart stretched from the afternoon into the evening and now I'm reporting to all of you at 10 PM. I still have a pile of dishes to attack (more on that later), but I am one fat and happy camper after helping myself to a slice of this tart so I could tell you about it. It was a sacrifice, but one I was willing to make. Now that I've tasted it, I know this tart will be gone in the blink of an eye after I put it out at work. It's not eye candy, but it is the chocolate lover's dream. Perfection. 

I did have a few bumps making it. I initially planned to cut the recipe in half, but after I dumped in the butter, I realized I had forgotten to cut the butter in half. I didn't read the recipe well enough and didn't realize I had to bake the tart shell (after a lifetime of making tart shells, what was I thinking??) First, I had to freeze it, then bake it, then let it cool. Then make the custard, add the melted chocolate (I used Valrhona 61%) and let it cool. Then whip the cream. Then shave some chocolate, try to get a decent photo, eat the subject of the photo, and here I am. Incoherent, but here.

I thought last week's chocolate bread pudding was amazing. Tonight I can hardly remember why I thought that bread pudding was so good because this tart is so rich, so sophisticatedly chocolaty, it's totally captured my heart.

Since I can't seem to put together a coherent sentence, let me just show you a few pictures and then give you the dish count.

The time to remember you're cutting the recipe in half is before you dust the cold butter cubes with the cocoa/flour mixture. Revert to plan B: making the full recipe.

Strain your custard before cooking it. These little yolk bits will interfere with your tart eating pleasure.

The cream cooling in the bowl. Perfect time for a quality control taste. I stressed out a little about the not-velvety texture of my chocolate pastry cream, but I didn't need to worry.

Make sure you leave a little of the cream in the bowl just in case you need another taste.

Oh no. There's a crumb. Quick, eat it.

Much better.

The body count:

Food processor (bowl, blade, lid)

Knife to cut up butter

Several spoons

2 ramekins for egg yolks (plus another for the unused egg whites)

Plastic cutting board to lightly knead the crust

Tart pan

2 whisks

2 spatulas

1 tiny spatula (to get the egg out of the ramekin)

Pan to heat milk

Small plate to rest whisks, spoons, knives, etc. on

Bowl to melt chocolate in

Pan to make custard in 

Strainer (for custard)

Mini strainer (for sifting cornstarch)

3 measuring cups 

Bowl to whip cream in

Beaters from electric mixer (no way I'm getting the KA out to whip 1/2 cup of cream!)

set of measuring spoons

Microplane to grate chocolate

Offset spatula to spread whipped cream

I would do it again in a moment. 

Barefoot Bloggers - Tomato and Goat Cheese Tarts

Anne Strawberry picked this week's recipe, and although I already loved Anne and her lovely blog plenty, I have yet another reason to appreciate her. Tomato and goat cheese tarts rule!

Ina Garten is teaching me to appreciate frozen puff pastry. First it was these ridiculously easy sticky buns. Now, tomato and goat cheese tarts for dinner on a weeknight? I am so there.

This recipe calls for sauteing thinly sliced onions and garlic until caramelized, and layering the cooled onions with goat cheese, sliced tomatoes, shaved Parmesan, topped with a chiffonade of basil.

I almost let the voices in my head take over again, but I resisted. I stuck with Ina's recipe as written, except I added the basil after the tarts came out of the oven, and I cut them square rather than round so there wouldn't be any puff pastry waste. One sheet of puff pastry yielded four tarts, and it felt really decadent to eat two of them for dinner. They were very filling! And amazingly tasty. M., who eschews butter because of his cholesterol, didn't once ask how I prepared them. I think it was "don't ask, don't tell" night.

Next time (which could be tonight!), I plan to substitute sun dried tomatoes for the fresh, and mozzarella cheese for the goat cheese. Or maybe tapenade under the onions with capers and pine nuts. Or pesto under sun dried tomatoes with goat cheese and fresh basil. Or walnut oil with sauteed wild mushrooms and a garnish of arugula salad lightly dressed with vinaigrette. Or... Stop it, Leslie!

I may even shrink these delightful tarts to party size, serving them with any or all of the above toppings, making the perfect two or three bite appetizer. They have excellent do-ahead potential for impressing your guests with how seemingly effortless it is to pull an awesome hors d'oeuvre out of the oven and serve it to stunned guests. Heck, if I did that, I'd be stunned!

You'll find the recipe for this delicious and versatile tart in Back to Basics, or here, or on Anne's site. If you'd like to join us, we're having a blast cooking, baking and blogging our way through Ina Garten's recipes. You can find out how to join us here.