TWD-Tarte Fine

Apples and puff pastry. The two are a magical combination. I threw this beauty together in 15 or so minutes and a half-hour later had a great little Autumn dessert for me and Josh after the kiddos were in bed. I did the sweet and buttery version and it hit the spot. The simplicity sealed the deal and made this a real winner.  I was too tired to do any pictures tonight so if you want the recipe and some lovely pictures, head on over to Lethally Delicious where Leslie has some great tips as well as pictures of the finished tarte.

TWD: Chocolate-Crunched Caramel Tart

DELICIOUS!!!

That could pretty much sum up this divine rich desert. Similar to many of Dorie's recipes this delightful dish was a very detailed treat to make. Luckily I had an extra baker this time to help and a much more adept baker at that. Thanks Lizzie (sister and TWD baker as well) for helping out and thanks Mike for studying ALL night so I could borrow your wife!

For the first time I did not change a thing...I think.
Here is the run down:

The crust was a short bread crust. It was very buttery and delicious. It was slightly time consuming so next time I may use a faster recipe...Liz has a no roll nut crust that is similar. Maybe she will post it sometime.


I turned the caramel responsibilities over to Liz. She is the family caramel expert (at least that is what I think). This caramel used a very unique technique done in a skillet with heating just the sugar first. She did a fabulous job. After the caramel has cooled the recipe called for honey roasted peanuts, which I thought were super fun in the desert.


The ganache. Wow!!! This stuff was rich. This wasn't too hard to make. I think this is the best ganache I have ever made. I used ghiradeli bittersweet chocolate and it was crazy rich. If I were serving it to guest I may tone it down a little and use at least semisweet or maybe milk. Although the caramel is so sweet you have to be careful with the balance. It was good!


The finished product. Oh so good. When we sat down to eat (at 11pm) my husband said he didn't think he could eat the whole thing because it was so rich. Oh he totally finished it. It is too good pass up. All of the flavors worked well together without one over powering the other. If you are interested in giving it a try you can hop on over to Chocolate Moosey for the recipe.

TWD - Parisian Apple Tartlet

When I first read this recipe I was thrilled that it was so easy! Puff pastry from the freezer, apples, a little brown sugar and a bit of butter. How in the world could you go wrong with that combination? After reading other's reviews I decided I was going to be brave and make my own puff pastry. I didn't want to try and track down a butter puff pastry and didn't want to use one with shortening after reading Dorie's opinion on puff pastry.

So, I pulled out my binder from Cook Street and had a go at puff pastry for the first time in seven years. Yikes! The weather here in Utah has been very mild for this time of year so I figured it was a good time to try this as it wasn't so hot that the butter would become too soft and melt while I was working with it. It was a lot of work and required a lot of time because the dough needs to rest between the series of rollings and foldings. By repeating those steps multiple times, this creates alternating layers of butter and pastry, thereby creating a flaky, light puff pastry crust.

When I put the tarts in the oven I was apprehensive that my puff pastry wasn't going to work out and that I would have a big melted butter mess on the bottom of the pan. I watched carefully and was relieved when it appeared to be doing exactly what it was supposed to do!

We had our friends over for Sunday night dessert and the Parisian Apple Tartlet was a huge hit! I served them slightly warm, with a small scoop of Butter Pecan ice cream on top, which added a creamy element which complimented the baked apple and pastry in a lovely way. In fact, I thought it was so good I had two servings. Good thing I hit the gym hard Monday morning!

Although the puff pastry was a lot of work, I would definitely make these again, and would try my hand at puff pastry again. If you are interested in this simple, fabulous dessert, head on over to My Baking Heart for the full recipe.

Until next week! Happy Baking!

TWD: Tartest Lemon Tart

Pucker up baby!!  This one is SOUR!!  Here is a recipe that truly lives up to its name.  It really is the TARTEST lemon tart ever!  It contains whole lemons (sans seeds) pureed with the rest of the filling.  

I took the liberty of omitting 2/3 of the rind.  I zested the lemon, then cut off and discarded the white part of the rind, then added the flesh of the lemon.  I made the original version of the sweet tart dough.  (I've just had my fill of nuts ground up in things lately.)   I have to say how much I LOVED the dough!!   I'm sure I'll be looking for reasons to use that one again.

Even with the changes, it was super sour, but very tasty.  I served it with a sweet cream and thought it was really good.  I even had to put it in the freezer, so I wouldn't eat it all in one night.

Thanks to Barbara of www.babettefeasts.com!  This was a fresh, fun change from some of the things I've made lately.  If you haven't checked out "Baking, from my home to yours" by Dorie Greenspan, check it out.  There are some amazing and delicious things in there!!

TWD: French Pear Tart

It is my opinion that pears and almonds belong together....or at least that is what I learned from making this tart. The two flavors are complimentary foods and were quite delicious together. This tart had a couple of steps to it.
The first was making the crust which was amazing. The key ingredients are butter and powdered sugar. Those flavor combinations made for a rich crust that tasted great. I had a challenging time with a few of the steps because I don't own a large food processor and a few steps called for using that so I used my kitchen aid with the whisk attachment. My dough ended up a little dry. I was surprised to see that it didn't call for any liquid, just egg yolk...so I cheated a bit and used a little bit of ice cold water to help make it more of a dough. I also don't have a tart pan and it just isn't in our budget to buy a bunch of new things for one recipe so I used my spring form pan. The spring form worked well, but the end product did not look as beautiful as I would have desired.

The next step was an almond cream. Given the title of the filling I thought it would have called for cream or milk or something similar, but it didn't. It was still quite delicious. The base of the flavors were ground almonds and butter. I almost licked out the kitchen aid after making it but made myself wait for the end product when it was combined with the pears.

Then of course the pears. I am still not sure if I arranged them how it was described in the book, but I think it ended up beautifully. Here are the pictures. Sorry about the lighting...I finished it after dark and we were having it for dessert that night...sorry.


The crust is supposed to be partially baked before adding the almond cream and pears and the top of my crust got darker than I wanted so when I finished baking it I put tinfoil over the top to help with burning. It helped a little but I wish I had done it initially. (lesson learned)


The edges are not the beautiful design from a nice tart pan, but I actually ended up liking the look of the crust this way too.


Here is the end result. We ate it for dessert and both Glenn (my husband) and Spencer (visiting brother-in-law) were surprised that it was so good. They were coming off spaghetti squash served with dinner and both were less than impressed so the pear tart made both boys happy.

I learned more about my baker self this time around. I really enjoy baking. It is fun and I love the yummy creations that come from it....but I also learned that I like making treats that aren't so time consuming. I found myself feeling guilty spending time in the kitchen when my hubby was home or a child wanted to be read to, played with, or diaper changed. The types of desserts I like to make in this stage of life have to be a one bowl type deal. However it is good for me to stretch myself. I guess it is good I only do this every four or five weeks. I also learned that I am not much of an aesthetic baker. I do not have a finesse for making my work beautiful. That is something I am sure I will get better with time.

This week's TWD was chosen by Dorie herself, which made the task a little more intimidating...but I made my way through it okay. Here's the link to the full recipe.