TWD: French Pear Tart

This week's Tuesdays With Dorie selection is the French Pear Tart chosen by our patron saint of baking herself, Ms. Dorie Greenspan.


I was excited to write this post until I realized that I actually have some critiques of the recipe and I soooo don't want to offend Dorie, especially on a week when she might actually read all 200+ posts. So Dorie, if you're here, if you made it to the letter K in the alphabetical listing, I just first want to say how much I admire and respect your work (and you). I love the book, I have at least 10 pounds of Dorie baking weight now added to my frame and many happy friends who enjoy the treats I bring them weekly. I have learned so much from the book!

Nevertheless.....oh and I so hate to go here but....I have to say that this recipe had me more confused than most.


So, Dorie, here are my questions: Was I supposed to knead that tart dough or leave it crumbly? It seemed like a contradiction in terms to me.

Was I supposed to leave the stem on the pears after halving them - I think you meant that, but I totally didn't get it even after reading the recipe twice and I ended up slicing them entirely. I think that's okay but after the fact, I wished I had left the pear halves intact and then fanning which is what I think you intended us to do (oops).


The almond cream seemed a little bland to me (so sorry, Dorie! just being honest here!). Did it maybe need a dash of salt? I have learned so much about the value of added salt from you Dorie, I really think it was needed here too.

To counter the blandness of the almond filling, I decided to brush my tart shell with some melted bittersweet chocolate after the partial baking. I loved it like that, though my husband thought it ended up too sweet and too rich. I of course had no problem with either of those things, since I am still eating it, 4 days later.

As for the tart filling "browning" in the oven, that never happened. No matter how long I left it in there, it seemed to reach one shade of golden and never go beyond it. I was also worried my pears were too wet as it looked very moist even after baking 15 minutes longer than specified, but I finally just took it out. Then I thought I had overbaked it because when it cooled, the filling had separated a bit from the pears and wasn't so pretty. Nonetheless, it turned out pretty darn yummy.

I loved the idea of poaching the pears first. If we liked alcohol in our desserts at my house, I might try poaching them in red wine & cinnamon next time. Another idea is to try adding some chocolate to the almond cream filling and make it a really chocolatey pear tart. Clearly, I need to make this one again and I know one little boy who might agree...

Bernie enjoying his tart & cake!

TWD: Summer Fruit Galette

Wow, is this a good recipe! This week's entry for Tuesdays with Dorie is Summer Fruit Galette, chosen by Michelle of Colorado Springs . You can find the recipe on her blog. And if you don't own the cookbook, I highly recommend going over there and printing that recipe out. And making it sometime soon. Like tomorrow. And then inviting me over. Did you know that I'm free tomorrow for tart-eating?

Almost any fruit will work in this galette, so I used two that were at the farmer's market last weekend -- apricots and blueberries. I seem to have a blueberry-buying problem, so it's no surprise that this had them in it. (I over-buy blueberries every week - not sure where this comes from. I was never denied blueberries as a child; in fact, we ate them often in the summer. Is it another Willie Wonka thing? All I know is that every week I'm trying to figure out how to consume all the berries in the fridge before they rot. I am eating an inordinate amount of blueberries - pints upon pints. Kittydad does not help in this antioxidant effort of mine, as much as I try to enlist him. So I'm on my own with an entire blueberry bush's output every week. And yes I do own a blueberry cookbook, but I always seem to forget I own it until after I've eaten the last berry. Then I say "Well, I'll just have to buy more blueberries next weekend and make xxx recipe!" Which recipe I then promptly forget about, leading to more blueberry-overflow the following week. Fortunately, blueberries do not have the same properties as asparagus - that would be weird.)

But, I digress. Since I had wanted a bit of almond in the Cherry-Rhubarb Cobbler last week, I decided to add a touch of almond extract to the custard. Like many other TWD bakers, I didn't use all of the custard called for in the recipe. I really should have saved it, though, because I may need to make this sucker again sometime soon. Like tomorrow.

I wish I had kept the fruit a bit more in the middle of the tart and had more sides to fold over and make it prettier - I'll remember that tomorrow, er, I mean, next time. I wanted mine to look more like Carla's.

But who cares, it tastes incredible. One thing I really like about this type of tart is that the fruit goes all the way into the corner of the crust, so you don't get a big hunk of just-crust at the end of the piece, like you do with pie. And because the filling is not as deep as a pie's, the bottom crust stayed nice and crisp.

I used strawberry jam on the bottom cuz that's what I had in the fridge, and I used the graham cracker crumbs. But, after I tasted the almond flavor, I thought that ground nuts would work well, too. Cooked apricots are super yummy, by the way. I'm so glad I caught the end of the season for this tart.

All in all, an outstanding tart and this is exactly why I joined TWD. Because I might never have tried that recipe on my own. I tend to avoid tarts and head straight for pies. Well, that won't happen....tomorrow!

TWD: Cherry Rhubarb Cobbler

(The cherries & rhubarb before it all went so wrong...)

(It looks promising coming out of the oven, doesn't it? Don't be fooled!)

I love cherries. I love rhubarb. I love cobbler. So the odds were high that I would also love this week's entry for Tuesdays with Dorie, Cherry Rhubarb Cobbler, chosen by Amanda of Like Sprinkles on a Cupcake .

But...I have to say...no love here for this one. Not even any "like" for this one.

Where to start...whole wheat flour in cobbler topping? Not a winner. I think the depth of the flavor fights with the fruit. Ginger in both filling and topping? I am a big fan of ginger, but with these fruits, not so much. I would have preferred a touch of almond extract or vanilla bean perhaps. My cobbler was also hobbled (hah) by slight under-cooking. I was mortified to realize, when serving it up, that the underside of most of the topping was still a bit raw despite 45 minutes of baking and looking golden brown on top. Maybe I was fooled by the naturally darker color of the whole wheat dough? The fruit wasn't fully cooked either. Oy. You really shouldn't have to chew rhubarb, it should just melt in your mouth. Undercooked rhubarb is pretty under-yummy.

And as for the look...well, I'm not sure why 20 blobs on a 8x8 square is a good idea. I would have done fewer blobs of dough, or rolled it out for a nicer look. The thing just looks sort of homely, don't you think? I mean, I know cobbler is a home-y dessert but still...it's just kinda sad looking.

(My homely homey cobbler)

Regardless, my family members ate every scrap on their plates -- dad even went back for seconds and wanted to keep all of the leftovers.

I know there were a lot of TWD bloggers who were not familiar with rhubarb before this recipe. I hope this doesn't turn them off forever -- instead, they (and everyone else) should try Dorie's Double Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp which is fantastic.

So, not a great report card today for TWD. I give it a C-.


And p.s., kittydad usually photoshops my sub-par photos but I am late getting this posted before deadline - maybe we'll fix them later (or not).

Tuesdays with Dorie: A Tale of Two Pies

This week's challenge from Tuesdays with Dorie is Double Crust Blueberry Pie. I actually made this pie the week before last - one week before I decided to join the group and start my blog. It was this coincidence that finally convinced me to become a TWD baker. So, I don't have any photos of my blueberry pie, but I can certainly describe the experience.

I have long had a love-hate relationship with making pies. I love pie. I adore pie. I covet pie. I lust for pie. Especially warm fruit pie with ice cream. And while a cobbler or crisp gives you essentially the same flavor, there is something iconic about pie that makes it even more deeply soul-satisfying. Being able to bake a perfect pie has been a holy grail for me for a long, long time.

But pie crust is a bitch. It's moody, unpredictable, overly sensitive, uncooperative and messy. I have thrown out more pie doughs than I care to admit. I have sworn off pies forever, only to find myself back in the kitchen a few hours later, pounding the rolling pin on the counter once again. Because I NEED to make pie. As much as it bedevils me, I can't stay away from it. Sometimes I manage to roll out a crust without too many tears and curses, but most times it's ugly in the kitchen when I'm making a pie.

So...back to the blueberry pie. This crust unfortunately fell into the maddening category. It was tough to roll out, cracking badly on the edges and falling apart when I transferred it into the pan. As soon as it started to bake in the oven, the darn thing seemed to fall apart, like it was melting. The crimps drooped and some just fell right off the pie plate and onto the sheet pan. Aaagh! This has happened in the past - why, why, why?? My crimps were perfectly perky before going in the oven and the end product looked like I had just thrown a bunch of dough at the wall and let it slide down onto the berries.

In the end, the pie tasted fine and my guests loved it. The filling was sweet but not too sweet and nicely balanced. I added a sprinkling of cinnamon but would add more next time as it wasn't noticeable. The crust was buttery and yummy. But still, I was not happy with how my crust had rolled out and I wanted my crimps to stay put, not melt off the pie plate.

This weekend, I made another batch of pie dough. And I am happy to report that some new techniques I used made a HUGE difference. Rather than ending up frustrated and cursing up a storm, I actually enjoyed rolling out the crusts. Success at last! I could hardly contain my glee. So, here is what I learned:

1. I used the food processor to blend in the butter. I always make sure everything is cold -- the flour, the butter, the metal blade. In the past, I think I under-blended the butter and ended up with some very large chunks of fat. This probably meant that some of the flour wasn't "touched" by fat and therefore too dry. It may also be why the crust seemed to melt in the oven. So, this time I pulsed a bit longer so that the butter was tiny little pea-size pieces.

2. I added water - about 7 Tbs in all - and pulsed until the mixture looked like dry cottage cheese curds. Another problem I have always had in the past is that I seemed to need so much more water than the recipe called for and I would end up with a dough too wet and then tough after baking. I think I under-pulsed so that the water I added didn't have a chance to evenly distribute. This time I just pulsed a bit more after adding the initial 6 Tbs, then added the extra drops when I thought it really did need it. Next time, I might be more brave and keep pulsing rather than adding more water. I'm just always afraid of over-working the dough but I think excess water might be a bigger risk.

3. After squeezing the dough into 2 balls, I patted it out into a fat disk, wrapped it with saran and then patted it out AGAIN into a much larger, flatter disk - about 5 inches in diameter. I have never made the disk this big before. Then I chilled it for a few hours. When I started to roll it out, I found it was much easier because the dough was fairly flat already. I didn't have any cracking in the middle and much less on the edges.

4. I used a vinyl pastry bag to roll out my dough. I had bought one many months ago on Dorie's recommendation but never pulled it out of the drawer. I don't know why but I had looked at it and thought it looked strange so I just shelved it. This time, I figured I needed to change my methods and would give it a whirl. Holy cow! What a revelation! I love the thing. It totally made rolling much easier - I could better control the shape to ensure it was round. There is less mess on the countertop as you don't have flour flying all over and the rolling pin doesn't stick. My new friend the vinyl pastry rolling bag, you must meet her! You can buy one here.

5. Instead of rolling with my hands on the rolling pins' handles, I put my hands on the barrel itself and put my full weight into it. I used fewer strokes and the rolling went much faster. Another revelation - why was I holding those handles all this time??

I made a gorgeous cherry pie with pistachio crumb topping. Unfortunately, I didn't get many good pictures of either the process or the pie (still working on my camera skills!). But it was deeelicious and a great ending to our dinner with friends in the Hudson Valley. Thanks to my good friends A. and R. for hosting such a great night with good food, good wine and lots of laughs.

Yes, I did pit all the cherries myself:



And here is one of the only shots I managed to get of the finished product:


So, those are today's pie making tips. Sorry for the long post but I had a lot to tell you folks!

Fast, Cheap & Out of Control

Well, it's all true except for the cheap part. Nothing with fresh berries in it is cheap. But I couldn't resist using that title for a post.

You want dessert fast? You want it out-of-control good? I got it right here for ya.

Here's what you need:
Pound Cake: homemade, store-bought, fresh or stale
Chocolate Sauce: your own, Hershey's or a fancy gourmet brand
Berry Sorbet: I like Haagen Dazs raspberry but any one will do
Fresh Berries: any kind you like, a mix of 2 or 3 is nice for color but not mandatory
Mint Sprig: optional, only if you want to really impress them

What is fast about a dessert with 5 elements on the plate, you say? Well, okay, it's only fast if you happen to have all of those things in the house. But with some advance shopping, you can bang out a photo-worthy dessert in just a few minutes.

I wanted a dessert for July 4th that only involved minimal baking as I was making pies for a July 5th party as well. I wanted it colorful and to include fresh berries which are so amazing at the farmer's markets right now.

I couldn't remember the last time I made a plain pound cake. Banana bread; zucchini bread; pumpkin bread -- those loaf cakes are regulars at our house. But plain, buttery pound cake had somehow escaped me for years. I used a recipe from The Sweet Melissa Baking Book. It was good, but I'm not sure I'd make it again. But in this dessert, it really doesn't matter where you get the pound cake from.

I happened to have some leftover hot fudge sauce in my freezer, but again, you can just buy some. Then you pick up some berry sorbet and fresh berries.

When you're ready to serve dessert, toast slices of pound cake. Drizzle warm chocolate sauce on the bottom of the plate, top with a slice of cake, followed by a scoop of sorbet and toss a handful of berries on top. Sure, add the mint sprig if you have it growing in your garden or happen to have in the fridge. Oh my god, you have just created a restaurant dessert in your own home. And it tastes as good as it looks, seriously. Let's take another look at mine, just to tempt you again:




(I am hereby using the Benetton/Gap theory of marketing...show the people the same thing over & over and eventually they will need to own it -- do you need to see it again? Just scroll back up to the top and keep staring at it...you're getting sleepy...you're getting sleepy...you're taking out the loaf pan...you're softening up the butter...you're rinsing berries....there you go, you're on your way to dessert stardom in your own home....)