TWD: Two Tarts - Honey Almond Fig and Normandy Apple

Wow, so many tart recipes as we come down the home stretch with Tuesdays with Dorie. Does that mean folks are scared of tarts? With their sugar cookie-like shell, I've found tarts to be much easier than pie.

Anyway, this week Kayte of Grandma’s Kitchen Table chose Honey Almond Fig Tart. In addition, Nicole of Bakeologie chose Earl Grey Madeleines, which I didn't make but I'm sure were terrific.

I opted for canned peaches in my tart rather than figs, since figs are not to be found in stores right now.



I really loved how it looked with the peaches and the shiny nougaty-looking filling.


Sadly, my tart wasn't baked through in the middle, even after 40 minutes in the oven. We managed to munch around the outer circle, though. The overwhelming flavor in this tart was honey, with the peaches and almond taking a supporting role. If I were to bake this again, I might cut the honey by half, only because I'm a huge fan of peaches.

I'm also playing catchup from last week. I made both the Sour Cream Pumpkin Tart and the Normandy Apple Tart that Judy of Judy’s Gross Eats and Tracey of Tracey’s Culinary Adventures chose. As you can see, I only managed to photograph the apple tart.


This was a really tasty tart, with a homemade applesauce making up the bulk of the filling. The rosy color came from cooking the apple peels with the filling before straining them out. This was a big hit with the family.

I served the pumpkin tart at Thanksgiving and it was a bit hit too. The filling was a perfectly textured pumpkin flavor, just what you'd expect for the star of the Thanksgiving dessert table.

As a side note, I thought I'd mention that I didn't prebake any of the shells and they came out fine. I find that the edges of the shells come out too dark for my tastes if I prebake.

OK, that's it for now. The next few weeks will highlight the final recipes from Dorie Greenspan's outstanding book "Baking, From my Home to Yours". You can find the tart recipes in her book or at the recipe links above.

(Almost Perfect) Pumpkin Pie

Perfection is such an elusive thing, isn't it? Especially when it comes to baking. And pumpkin pie.

When I say "almost perfect" about this pie, I mean 98% of the way toward perfect. My 2% of criticism is a minor point, really. Easily fixed. I thought it needed a little more cinnamon. That's all. Throw in another teaspoon and yes, this would be THE perfect pumpkin pie (at least according to my tastebuds). Maybe the folks who aren't quite as enthusiastic about cinnamon would think it was 100% perfect as-is.

Of course the recipe came from Cook's Illustrated. Of course! The folks who make it their life's work to tinker with recipes over and over and over and over and over and over.... (multiply that times about 10) until they get it just right.

Thank you, Cook's Illustrated. This pie is definitely Thanksgiving table worthy.

Oh, and just for fun, I'll show you my "photo shoot" from when I made this last winter. Ready for snow yet?


Baking Notes:

This recipe has some unique steps. For example -

- the recipe uses a 50:50 mixture of pumpkin and canned sweet potatoes. What? I know. Sweet potatoes give a surprisingly nice depth of flavor and no of my tasters guessed the substitution.

- the pumpkin, sweet potatoes, and spices are cooked on the stovetop first to drive off moisture and concentrate flavor

- the filling is strained, giving a super smooth and creamy filling.

Happy baking! Hope you enjoy this and if you try it, I'd love to hear what you thought.

PUMPKIN PIE
Makes one 9-inch pie. Published November 1, 2008, Cook's Illustrated magazine. Thanks so much to Cook's Illustrated for permission to include the recipe here.

If candied yams are unavailable, regular canned yams can be substituted. The best way to judge doneness is with an instant-read thermometer. The center 2 inches of the pie should look firm but jiggle slightly. The pie finishes cooking with residual heat; to ensure that the filling sets, cool it at room temperature and not in the refrigerator. To ensure accurate cooking times and a crisp crust, the filling should be added to the prebaked crust when both the crust and filling are warm. Serve at room temperature with whipped cream. Vodka is essential to the texture of the crust and imparts no flavor; do not substitute.

Ingredients

Crust
1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (6 1/4 ounces)
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 tablespoon sugar
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) cold unsalted butter , cut into 1/4-inch slices
1/4 cup vegetable shortening , cold, cut into two pieces
2 tablespoons vodka , cold (see note)
2 tablespoons cold water

Filling
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
3 large eggs plus 2 large yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 15-ounce can pumpkin puree
1 cup drained candied yams from 15-ounce can
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon table salt

Instructions
1. For the Crust: Process 3/4 cup flour, salt, and sugar in food processor until combined, about two 1-second pulses. Add butter and shortening and process until homogenous dough just starts to collect in uneven clumps, about 10 seconds; dough will resemble cottage cheese curds with some very small pieces of butter remaining, but there should be no uncoated flour. Scrape bowl with rubber spatula and redistribute dough evenly around processor blade. Add remaining 1/2 cup flour and pulse until mixture is evenly distributed around bowl and mass of dough has been broken up, 4 to 6 quick pulses. Empty mixture into medium bowl.
2. Sprinkle vodka and water over mixture. With rubber spatula, use folding motion to mix, pressing down on dough until dough is slightly tacky and sticks together. Flatten dough into 4-inch disk. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 45 minutes or up to 2 days.
3. Adjust oven rack to lowest position, place rimmed baking sheet on rack, and heat oven to 400 degrees. Remove dough from refrigerator and roll out on generously floured (up to 1/4 cup) work surface to 12-inch circle about 1/8 inch thick. Roll dough loosely around rolling pin and unroll into pie plate, leaving at least 1-inch overhang on each side. Working around circumference, ease dough into plate by gently lifting edge of dough with one hand while pressing into plate bottom with other hand. Refrigerate 15 minutes.
4. Trim overhang to 1/2 inch beyond lip of pie plate. Fold overhang under itself; folded edge should be flush with edge of pie plate. Using thumb and forefinger, flute edge of dough. Refrigerate dough-lined plate until firm, about 15 minutes.
5. Remove pie pan from refrigerator, line crust with foil, and fill with pie weights or pennies. Bake on rimmed baking sheet 15 minutes. Remove foil and weights, rotate plate, and bake 5 to 10 additional minutes until crust is golden brown and crisp. Remove pie plate and baking sheet from oven.
6. For the Filling: While pie shell is baking, whisk cream, milk, eggs, yolks, and vanilla together in medium bowl. Combine pumpkin puree, yams, sugar, maple syrup, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in large heavy-bottomed saucepan; bring to sputtering simmer over medium heat, 5 to 7 minutes. Continue to simmer pumpkin mixture, stirring constantly and mashing yams against sides of pot, until thick and shiny, 10 to 15 minutes.
7. Remove pan from heat and whisk in cream mixture until fully incorporated. Strain mixture through fine-mesh strainer set over medium bowl, using back of ladle or spatula to press solids through strainer. Rewhisk mixture and transfer to warm prebaked pie shell. Return pie plate with baking sheet to oven and bake pie for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 300 degrees and continue baking until edges of pie are set (instant-read thermometer inserted in center registers 175 degrees), 20 to 35 minutes longer. Transfer pie to wire rack and cool to room temperature, 2 to 3 hours. Cut into wedges and serve.

Technique - Cooking the Filling

Simmering the filling for pumpkin pie is an unusual step, but its benefits are threefold. First, cooking the pumpkin and sweet potatoes drives off moisture and concentrates their taste. Second, cooking the spices along with the pumpkin allows their flavors to bloom. Third, heating the filling allows it to firm up quickly in the oven, rather than soaking into the pastry and causing the crust to become soggy.

TWD: Caramel Pumpkin Pie

Janell of Mortensen Family Memoirs picked Caramel Pumpkin Pie for this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe.

Basically, this is pumpkin pie with a healthy dose of home-made caramel mixed in with the typical ingredients.

At first, I wasn't too crazy about it. But that might have something to do with the fact that I got distracted and walked away from my first batch of melting sugar. Big mistake! Big enough that I might have ruined my pan, unless I can figure out how to get the layer of black that seems to be super-glued to it off. (Suggestions welcome.)


Once I got over it, though, I decided this was a pretty darn good piece of pumpkin pie. Kind of like "Extreme Pumpkin Pie" or "Adults Only" pumpkin pie (neither of the kids liked it).

I really don't taste caramel, per se. More like a deeper, richer flavored pumpkin pie.

Definitely an alternative for the Thankgsiving dessert table, in my opinion.

P.S. I totally cheated and used store-bought pie shell... that's why it's so perfect! Also, I didn't go as dark with the caramel as instructed. I know from experience that I don't like it that bitter.

OK, that's that. if you'd like to see the recipe, please visit Janell's blog, or find a copy of Dorie Greenspan's book "Baking, From my Home to Yours".

TWD: All in One Holiday Bundt Cake

Hey folks! I feel like I need to issue a serious apology for not having posts of any real substance these days. It's been a serious lack of posts or "here's the recipe, see you later" around here lately. Sorry! Hopefully I can get my act together after the holidays.

Anyway, for this week's Tuesday's with Dorie recipe, I made the All in One Holiday Bundt Cake which was chosen by Britin of The Nitty Britty.


This puppy is going in the freezer until Saturday when our family gets together for Thanksgiving. I'll also add the cream cheese icing glaze then (ooooh, can't wait!).

For now, I tried an unglazed piece so I could report on the taste. As I suspected, it is VERY good. Mostly, the pumpkin and spice flavor come through, but every now and there there's a little tart cranberry surprise. I grated half of the apple and cut the other half into tiny little pieces so there were no distinct hits of apple. But I'll bet it helped add to the moistness of the cake.

All in all, I'd call this cake a success.

OK, if you'd like to try this yourself, check out the recipe at Britin's blog, or better yet, get the book "Baking, from My Home to Yours", by Dorie Greenpspan.

TWD: Pumpkin Muffins

One great thing about pumpkin desserts is the color. That burnt orange color... love it!

This week's Tuesday's with Dorie recipe was Pumpkin Muffins, and was chosen by Kelly of "Sounding My Barbaric Gulp". Thanks Kelly! These lovely muffins have gotten me in the fall baking spirit.

My 9 year old took this picture. Don't they look great against the just-turning fall leaves?


A lot of folks said they loved these muffins. I don't know if it's my imagination or not, but it seemed like a lot of the folks that loved them added chocolate chips. Is that true? Anyone?

Personally, I thought they were a little bland. I did enjoy the crunch of the sunflower seeds on top, though. It was an interesting and tasty addition. I decided to up the yummy-factor by adding a healthy dollop of cream cheese icing to the muffins. They pretty much rocked after that. (Although I think it's quite possible that a burlap bag would taste delish with a dollop of cream cheese icing on top.)

I ended up with 12 muffins plus enough batter for a 2-inch mini cake.


Next week, we'll break out the muffin pans again for "Chocolate Chocolate Cupcakes". See you then!