Tarts

January 27, 2016

Baking Through Fika: Mazarin Tarts

Carrie Zinnecker Cookbooks, Desserts, Tarts almond, dessert, fika, tarts 0 Comments

Confession time: I ate all but two of these. Myself. In a week. One night I ate 3 in one sitting. These are evil. And oh so delicious.

Really there was no choice but for them to be tasty. Butter pastry and sweet almond filling are two of the best things in the food world I think. At least in the sweet food world, because there’s bacon and goat cheese to consider…

I would like to make these again, and not simply with the intention of devouring them. This was my first time using these tins and I don’t yet know the best way to prep them or to remove the final product. In the Fika book they are perfect rounds, which is darling and seems easier to remove than a fluted tin. I didn’t start out greasing them, but after I’d done a few I thought I’d better do it so that if the ungreased tins did stick I wouldn’t have ruined them all. I think greasing helped, but it was still tricky to get them out fully intact. That could also have something to do with the delicate-ness of the crust itself, though.

The filling was more than I needed for the dozen tart shells I prepared. I think that the crust was a bit thick on some of them, so I could’ve probably stretched the dough for the crusts a bit and made at least 3 more than the dozen I made. The filling does cook up so don’t fill them too much or it will run up and over the crust.

To finish these off, you can either give them a nice dusting of powdered sugar or a simple powdered sugar glaze. I love the look of both, but chose the glaze since it added another texture to the tart.

This isn’t a dessert you make on a Wednesday just ’cause. Or maybe it is! I think they’d be a great addition to a dessert spread and perfect for a little tea or coffee party. They keep very well in the fridge for a few days, just let them sit at room temp to warm up a bit. Enjoy! Hopefully this is all you will want to leave behind of these sweet tarts.

Mazarin Tarts

From Fika

Ingredients

Tart Shells

3 1/2 ounces of butter, cold and cut into chunks
2 tablespoons sugar
3/4 cup flour
1 egg yolk
pinch of salt

Filling

1 3/4 ounces butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
3 1/2 ounces of blanched almonds, ground
2 eggs
1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Glaze

3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons milk

Directions

Tart Shells

Combine flour, sugar, salt and butter in a food processor and pulse until mixture looks like coarse sand.
Add in the egg and mix until dough comes together.
Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least an hour.
Grease 12-16 tart tins. If you have small tins you will use more, bigger tins you’ll need fewer.

Filling

Whisk together all filling ingredients.

Assemble and Bake

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Divide dough into as many pieces as you have tins. Press a piece of dough into the tin and up the sides making it as even as possible. Repeat for all the tins and place on a baking sheet.
Fill the tarts about 2/3 full with the almond filling. Err on the side of less filling since it could spill over the edge of the tart.
Bake for about 20 minutes, until tarts begin to turn golden.
Cool tarts completely and remove from the tins before whisking together glaze ingredients and pouring a thin layer over the filling of the tart. You can also dust them with powdered sugar or leave them plain.

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March 27, 2015

Daring Bakers: Tarte Tatin

Carrie Zinnecker Daring Bakers, Desserts, Fruit, Pies, Tarts apples, Caramel, Daring Bakers, puff pastry, tarte tatin 2 Comments

This is one of those classic desserts that I can’t believe I haven’t made before! Thanks again, Daring Bakers, for getting me to try something new and delicious. And so beautiful!

For the March Daring bakers’ challenge, Korena from Korena in the Kitchen taught us that some treats are best enjoyed upside down. She challenged us to make a tarte tatin from scratch.

Since I of course didn’t make this until 2 days before the posting date and I am off to visit family for the weekend I am going to keep this post pretty short. The recipe worked wonderfully well and I had no issues whatsoever. I would do it all the same the next time around.

Except for the apples. Mine were HUGE and I used the recommend 6 called for and had a bunch left over. You want more apples than the pan can hold since they do cook down, but I had probably 2 apples worth of slices left. That being said, I’d rather have too much than not enough.

The recipe for the pastry is easy and bakes up so flaky I know I’ll be making it again. I can’t believe I almost cheated and used a frozen puff pastry!

The caramel is a time consuming but fun project! Forgive these photos, but I thought it would be helpful to see the process. If I didn’t know the stages the sugar would go through I would’ve thought something was going terribly wrong. So, no need to worry when the sugar gets all nasty and clumpy and looks like nothing good can come from it. Something very good is coming. Just keep stirring and be patient.

The apples get wonderfully soft in the rich caramel. A scoop of plain vanilla bean ice cream is the perfect accompaniment to this rich dessert.

After arranging the apples and letting them cool a bit, place the crust on top and bake. I wasn’t supposed to let the tarte cool all the way before unmolding, so I was worried that it wouldn’t come out cleanly. I warmed the pan on the stove very breifly and it came out perfectly.

This is a beautiful dessert, perfect for impressing your guests! Or perfect to make for yourself and your baked good-loving toddler when your husband has gone out of town…

Tarte Tatin

Pastry

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup ( 5 ounces) unsalted butter, cold
¼ tsp fine salt
¼ cup ice cold water

Directions

Pulse flour, butter and salt in a food processor until butter is in pea sized pieces.
Stream in the water until the dough just comes together.
Turn out on a floured surface and press together into a square.
Roll into a 10 inch rectangle. Fold the top third of the dough down and the bottom third up so that you have 3 layers. Rotate 1/4 turn and repeat this process 4 more times.
Wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least one hour, but up to a day.

Filling

Ingredients

4 large or 5-6 medium-sized apples (I used Granny Smith)
Juice of half a lemon
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1-1/3 cups granulated sugar, divided
pinch salt

Directions

Peel the apples and cut them into 4-6 pieces depending on the size of the apples. Remove the cores in such a way that each apple quarter has a flat inner side: when placed rounded-side-up, it should sit on a flat base. Place the apples in a large bowl and toss with the lemon juice and 1/3 cup sugar. This will help draw out some of the moisture from the apples and prevent an overly runny caramel. Set aside for 15 minutes.
Melt the butter in a very heavy, 9” or 10″ oven-proof saucepan over medium heat, then sprinkle with the remaining 1 cup sugar. Stir with a whisk until the sugar melts and becomes a pale, smooth caramel. The sugar will seem dry and chunky at first, then will start to melt and smooth out. If the butter appears to separate out from the caramel, just keep whisking until it is a cohesive sauce. This can be a long process, but it eventually works! Remove from the heat.
Preheat oven to 375F. Discard the liquid that has come out of the apples, then add the apple quarters to the caramel, round side down. They won’t all fit in a single layer at first, but as they cook they will shrink a bit. Cook over medium heat for 10-15 minutes, pressing down gently on the apples with a spoon to cover them in the caramel liquid. Move the apples around the pan gently so that they all cook evenly, trying to keep them round side down. When the apples have shrunk enough to mostly fit in a single layer and are starting to soften but still keep their shape, remove the pan from the heat.
With a wooden spoon, arrange the apples, round side down, in a single layer of concentric circles covering the bottom of the pan. Set aside until the filling stops steaming before covering with pastry.
Remove the pastry from the fridge, roll it out on a lightly floured surface, and trim it into a circle about 1″ in diameter larger than your saucepan. Lay it over the filling, tucking in the edges between the apples and the sides of the pan, and cut a few steam vents in the pastry. Place the saucepan on a rimmed baking sheet (just in case the filling decides to bubble over the sides) and place in the preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes, then increase the heat to 400°F for 5 minutes. Keep and eye on it so it doesn’t get too dark.
Remove from the oven and let sit just until the caramel stops bubbling. Immediately place a serving platter (slightly larger in diameter than the saucepan) over the pastry. Wearing oven mitts, grab hold of the saucepan and platter and quickly invert everything to unmold the Tatin onto the platter. If any of the apples stick to the pan or come out of place, rearrange them with a spatula.
The tarte can be served warm from the oven or at room temperature. Suggested accompaniments include vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, or crème fraîche.

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October 8, 2014

Fall Vegetable Tart with Goat Cheese and Prosciutto

Carrie Zinnecker Main Dishes, Tarts, Vegetables Autumn, Bell Pepper, butter, butternut squash, carrot, Cauliflower, cream cheese, fall, Prosciutto, tart, vegetables 3 Comments

Fall is coming! Here in Southeast Texas we enjoyed a “cold front” this past weekend. The mornings were slightly chilly and the days incredibly pleasant. This week it’s humid and hot again. But the promise of cooler weather is near. And cooler weather means comfort food and cute coats and sweaters for my kids.

This fall tart recipe comes from the latest issue of Fine Cooking which I received last week and I’ve already made this twice. I can see it appearing in our dinner rotation many more times in the coming months. I love roasted vegetables. I love goat cheese. I love savory pie crust. And so naturally, I love this tart. It is incredible.

You can make this from start to finish in a couple of hours, or you can make the vegetables ahead of time and simply assemble and bake the tart when you’re ready. I’ve done it both ways now.

The combination of vegetables (butternut squash, carrot, cauliflower and red bell pepper) is great. The recipe calls for leeks, but I decided to use a yellow onion instead. I didn’t make a great grocery list and ended up using my only onion in another dish so I left out the onion entirely. The tart didn’t suffer a bit. The measurements in the recipe below are from the magazine, but I didn’t really measure. I’m sure I used a bit more, maybe heaping amounts of those listed here.

After roasting the vegetables you mix in a bunch of chopped proscuitto. That’s magic right there. Magic.

The dough is simply flour, butter, cream cheese and a pinch of salt. It comes together in a food processor in no time and doesn’t need to be chilled before being rolled out. However, this means you absolutely must roll it out onto parchment paper. I made the mistake of rolling it out on the counter the first time and won’t do that again. Since this is a rustic tart you don’t need to worry too much about how neat the edges of your dough are.

After you roll out your dough you spread some softened goat cheese on it. Again, there’s magic happening in your kitchen right about now. Be sure the goat cheese is room temperature or it will pull too much on the dough and rip it. I know from experience.

On top of the cheese goes the vegetables.

Fold up the edges, brush with a beaten egg and bake. I baked mine on a pizza stone the second time with great results, but a cookie sheet works well, too.

After cooling for a few minutes, slice and serve and enjoy. It’s so amazing warm, but I ate a slice cold from the fridge as I was running out the door at lunchtime and it was still delicious. As far as reheating goes you need to be prepared for a slightly soggy bottom crust. But again, still delicious. If you’re serving this to at least 4 people you probably won’t need to worry about leftovers, though.

Fall Vegetable Tart with Goat Cheese and Prosciuttio

From Fine Cooking

Ingredients

Dough

6 ounces (1 1/3 cups) flour
6 ounces (1 1/2 sticks) cold butter cut into chunks
6 ounces cold cream cheese (low fat is fine) cut into chunks
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 beaten egg for egg wash

Filling

olive oil
1 1/2 cups butternut squash cut into 1/2 inch cubes
3/4 cup sliced carrots (1/2 inch thick half moons)
3/4 cup sliced leek (optional)
3/4 cup chopped red bell pepper
3/4 cup chopped cauliflower
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
kosher salt and pepper
4 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto, cut in to bite sized pieces
4 ounces goat cheese, room temperature

Directions

Filling

Preheat oven to 375°F.
Toss the vegetables together with rosemary, thyme 3/4 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper and a drizzle of olive oil.
Transfer to a 9×13 pan, cover tightly with foil and roast for 30-40 minutes until just fork tender.
Let cool for 10-15 minutes then add in the prosciutto.

Dough

Put flour, butter, cream cheese and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until the dough just begins to come together.
Place a large piece of parchment on the counter and sprinkle with a little flour. Turn dough out onto the parchment and bring together with your hands, sprinkling with more flour if needed.
Roll dough out onto the parchment into a roughly 16-inch round.

Assemble

Preheat oven to 400°F.
Transfer parchment to a cookie sheet or pizza stone and trim any excess parchment that hangs off the sheet or stone.
Spread goat cheese onto the dough leaving a 1 1/2 inch border.
Pile vegetable evenly on top of the goat cheese.
Fold edges of the dough over the vegetables, then brush with beaten egg.
Bake for 35-45 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes before slicing and serving.

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December 30, 2013

Bacon, Potato & Blue Cheese Tart

Carrie Zinnecker Main Dishes, Tarts bacon, blue cheese, potato, rosemary, savory, tart, thyme 0 Comments

A good friend of mine made this when we met up for a playdate at her house a while back. I say “a while back” because it feels like just a few months ago but I think it might have been over a year ago, which reminds me just how quickly a year goes by. I can’t believe it’s almost 2014.

Candace paired this rich and savory tart with a spinach salad loaded with berries, which made for a well balanced lunch. I’m still amazed that she fixed this lunch for us since she’d recently had a baby. My meal of choice when having people over for a playdate is Chick-fil-A…or goldfish and raisins.

The recipe is from Smitten Kitchen and is something I can definitely see myself making again, especially for a lunch or brunch. It’s impressive but not too time or skill intensive. It’s also fine served room temp, so you can make it hours ahead or even the day before and re-warm it. I added bacon to the original recipe because I don’t see anything wrong with adding bacon to pretty much everything. Maybe my new motto for 2014 will be, “Put some bacon on it!” inspired by Portlandia… But of course it’s amazing without the bacon and fits into a vegetarian diet that way.

Other than the bacon, the rest of the recipe is unchanged. You can use a tart pan or pie plate for this. I had planned to use a tart pan because it’s just prettier than a pie plate. Something about that fancy fluted edge. But the dough recipe provided wouldn’t fit in my 10 inch tart pan, so I used a 9-inch pie plate. Thankfully the lovely filling makes up for the unimpressive pie plate. The dough wasn’t impossible to work with, but it was a little crumbly so I had to do some patching up in places. It was delicious and not hard to whip up in the food processor, so I’d definitely recommend it over a store bought crust.

Ingredients

If you don’t like blue cheese you probably haven’t read to this point in the blog post, and if for some reason you have I can pretty much guarantee that you won’t be a fan of this tart. Which makes me sad, because it’s delicious…if you like blue cheese. I think you could use goat cheese, but haven’t tried it so I’m not sure how that will effect the final product. Let me know how it turns out if you try it!

A few tips:

Refrigerate your crust before filling to minimize shrinking during baking.
For making ahead, you can prep everything, store it in the fridge and assemble right before baking.
If using bacon, this cold oven method of cooking it has become my new favorite. No greasy pan to clean and your house won’t smell like bacon for days.
Make sure to let the tart cool or otherwise the filling won’t have time to thicken and could be runny.

photo 2 (22)

Pre-baked Tart

Bacon, Potato & Blue Cheese Tart

From Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients

Tart

1 Savory Tart Shell, recipe below, in a 9-inch tart or pie pan and ready to use
1 pound small red potatoes, scrubbed and cut into 1/4-inch slices
4-8 slices of good bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 cup heavy cream
1 large egg yolk
1/4 pound blue cheese, crumbled (about 3/4 cup)
1 tablespoons finely chopped thyme and rosemary
Fine sea salt for sprinkling

Tart Shell

1 and 1/4 cups flour
1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons butter, diced
1 large egg

Directions

For Tart Shell

Combine flour, cornstarch and salt in the bowl of your food processor. Pulse a few times to combine.
Add in butter chunks and pulse until butter is in pea sized pieces.
Add egg and pulse until dough comes together. It will still be slightly crumbly.
Dump the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead it a few times so that it comes together. Flatten into a disk.
Roll out into a 12 inch circle then transfer to your 9-inch tart pan or pie plate. Press out any air bubbles and trim or crimp edges as desired. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before filling.

For Filling

Preheat oven to 350°F
Cook potatoes in a medium sized saucepan, just covered in water, over medium heat. Simmer until tender, 8-10 minutes. Remove from the water and drain. Lay the slices out on a clean dishtowel and gently pat dry with another clean towel or paper towels.
Arrange potatoes in concentric circles on the bottom of the crust, overlapping slightly, covering the crust entirely.
Sprinkle cheese over potatoes, followed by bacon and herbs.
Whisk egg and cream in small bowl and pour over everything.
Sprinkle with sea salt.
Bake tart for 45 to 50 minutes until bubbly and browned. Cool on wire rack. Serve the tart warm, room temp or cold.

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August 3, 2011

Fruit Tart with Vanilla Bean Pastry Cream

Carrie Zinnecker Desserts, Fruit, Tarts Fruit, Martha Stewart, pastry cream, tart, vanilla bean 4 Comments

When I was asked to bring fruit to a little gathering of Sunday school ladies, I don’t know if this is what she had in mind. But I’d been itching to make a proper dessert for a while, so this is what I brought. Beats the pants off of a fruit salad, I’d say.

Making pastry cream is one of those “miracle in the kitchen” moments when you smile and marvel at what can become of eggs, milk, sugar and heat! One minute on the stove you’re whisking, being careful not to stir too quickly to avoid spilling the thin mixture, then it’s suddenly a thickened pot of deliciousness! Pastry cream is easy, as long as you can devote a little bit of undivided attention to it. If you don’t whisk, whisk, whisk while its cooking you’ll end up with lumps, which are not what you want in a pastry cream. You also have to let it cool for at least 2 hours in the fridge. If you have time and patience, you can make pastry cream.

Recipes for the tart crust and pastry cream came from Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook. I had no problems with the pastry cream. The crust was another story entirely. After preparing the dough, I wrapped it in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge. At this point I already had my doubts. It was so crumbly and dry. After chilling overnight (which the recipe says is fine) it was so dry that it was impossible to roll out. And I mean impossible. It crumbled. All over the place. I ended up just pressing it into the tart pan. I blind baked it, worrying the entire time that I’d have to do it over again. But it came out of the oven looking fine. I figured that since it was going to be filled with pastry cream and topped with fruit, a less than stellar crust was OK. It turned out to be a bit difficult to slice, and it did crumble easily, but it tasted great. But I am in search of the perfect tart dough now.

You can use any fruit you like. I used blueberries, raspberries and kiwi. I also bought strawberries, but didn’t end up having room for them. So I made baby food with them…something that was not a big hit. But that’s a story for another blog.

I glazed the top of the finished tart with apricot jam that I’d heated and thinned with a little water to give it a nice sheen. It doesn’t interfere with the taste at all.

Tart Dough and Pastry Cream From Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook

Tart Dough

NOTE: The instructions below would work in an ideal baking world. I had to press my crumbling dough into the tart pan, much like a graham cracker crust. If you cannot roll this dough, the pressing method works fine, but does not yield a tender crust. I might be inclined to tell you to simply use your favorite pie dough recipe in place of this one. Sorry, Martha.

Ingredients

6 tablespoons butter, room temp
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 large egg yolks
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons heavy cream

Directions

In the bowl of an electric mixer with a paddle attachment, combine butter and powdered sugar on low speed until combined, about 2 minutes.
Add egg yolks and mix until incorporated. Add 3/4 cup flour and mix on low speed until just incorporated. Add remaining 3/4 cup flour, salt and cream, and mix until flour is no longer visible, about 1 minute.
Turn dough onto plastic wrap and shape into a flattened disk. Wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.
When ready to make your tart shell, preheat oven to 375°F, remove dough from the fridge, roll out to 1/4 inch thick and at least 2 inches wider in diameter than your tart pan (so 13 inches for an 11 inch pan, 11 inches for a 9 inch pan).
Drape dough over pan, press into the pan, remove excess by rolling a rolling pin over the top edge to trim dough.
Blind Bake: Prick dough lightly with a fork in several places. Lay a piece of parchment over the dough, fill with pie weights or dried beans. Bake for 20 minutes, remove parchment and weights, bake for another 5-10 until slightly browned. Let cool.

Pastry Cream

Ingredients

2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise, seeds scraped
pinch of salt
4 egg yolks
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 tablespoons butter, cut into cubes

Directions

In a medium saucepan, combine milk, 1/4 cup sugar, vanilla bean and seeds, and salt. Cook over medium heat until mixture just comes to a simmer.
In a medium bowl, whisk eggs yolks, cornstarch, and remaining 1/4 cup sugar. Whisking constantly, slowly pour about 1/2 cup hot milk mixture into the egg mixture. Continue adding milk mixture, a little at a time, to the egg mixture, whisking constantly, until it has all been incorporated.
Pour mixture back into the saucepan and cook over medium-high heat, whisking constantly, until mixture thickens, about 2 minutes. Remove and discard vanilla bean.
Transfer to the bowl of an electric mixer with paddle attachment. Add the butter and beat on medium speed until the butter melts and the mixture cools slightly, about 5 minutes.
Pour pastry cream into a bowl and press plastic wrap directly onto the surface (so it doesn’t form a skin). Refrigerate until chilled, at least 2 hours or up to 2 days.
Just before using, whisk until smooth.

Fruit Tart

Ingredients

1 baked tart shell
1 batch pastry cream
Assorted fruits, rinsed and dried (a heaping cup each blueberries, raspberries and 3 kiwi fruits sliced with skin removed)
1/4 cup apricot jam, warmed with 1-2 tablespoons water

Directions

Brush jam over crust, just to coat, to keep it from becoming soggy. Let dry for 20 minutes.
Spread pastry cream in shell and smooth the top, fill almost to the top edge of the shell.
Arrange fruit on top of pastry cream and then brush top of the fruit with more jam. Chill until ready to serve.

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