Chocolate truffle oreo dreamin' (TWD: BwJ)

Our second recipe for the Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking with Julia group was chocolate truffle tartlets. I'd initially intended to make these as a Valentine's treat because, come on, don't they sound perfect and romantic and decadent? But with all of the birthday goodnesses still hanging around, plus Valentine's cookies baked with the kids, I just couldn't introduce another sweet into our house.

Until the weekend, of course! :) I made the tart dough on Saturday night. Having read the helpful comments left in the P&Qs, I knew the tart dough tended to be a bit dry, so even though I cut the recipe in half, I used the full egg yolk and tablespoon of water. The dough was still pretty dry, but eventually it came together. Then it went into the fridge for an overnight rest.

Sunday afternoon, I divided the dough in three and rolled it out for my mini-tart pans. I decided to skip baking the tarts without their bottoms on a bigger sheet pan; I've baked enough tarts in my mini-pans (thanks, NM!) to know that I can get them in and out of the oven okay. The dough rolled out fine and was easy to work with. I chilled the crusts and then baked them for 15 minutes.

I melted the chocolate (60%) and unsalted butter and let the mixture cool while phone calls and birthday party planning distracted me (can't believe my little guy is going to be five this weekend!!!). Then I made the rest of the topping: whipped egg yolks and sugar, combined gently with the chocolate/butter mixture. Finally I added in chopped milk chocolate, white chocolate chips, and Oreos (I didn't have biscotti in the house, but had already purchased Oreos to make mint Oreo ice cream). I divided the filling between my three tart pans; they didn't look set at 10 minutes, and then I got distracted and didn't take them out until almost 15.

The tarts definitely should've come out a few minutes earlier; they were a little dry. Still, this is a winning recipe: we loved the melty chocolately bits and the crunchy bites of cookie. Especially yummy with mint Oreo ice cream! (Good the next day after being in the fridge, too.)

There are four hosts this week, so check their blogs for the recipe: Spike, Jaime, Jessica, and Steph. Check here for links to everyone else's tarts!

Bake! Chocolate meringue tart

Gr. I purposefully left a mini tart so I could take a photo this afternoon.

And then forgot about it until it was dark again.

This only being home for one hour of daylight is killer on the food photography. 

This weekend's Bake! pick was Margaret's; she picked chocolate meringue tart (or chocolate marshmellow pie, as my kids called it).

This one should've been easy, except that my little guy who is usually asleep by 7:00 was up until 9:30 last night, which meant this was definitely a case of distracted baking.

For the tart crust, NM calls for flaky pastry crust. I had a tart crust in the freezer, just labeled "tart crust," so I'm not sure which recipe it was (or even from which book, Modern Baker or Bake!). Either way, I divided it in half, used half to make three 4" crusts, rolled them out (easily!), and put them in the fridge to chill. (I used the other half to make this apple tart that Nancy posted earlier today; perfect for a bit of left-over tart crust and a few leftover apples.)

Meanwhile, I made the chocolate cream (a half-batch, which filled the three mini tart crusts and a large-ish ramekin): whole milk, sugar, half-and-half, corn starch, eggs, and bittersweet chocolate. Margaret had a problem with her cream not setting up...mine went the other way. It was really close for a long time...and then something happened with the little guy and when I looked back, it was so thick I could barely stir it. I was worried that it would taste curdled or lumpy, but the texture was actually perfect.

I baked the mini tart crusts until they were golden. Unfortunately, I forgot to weigh them down with beans, so they shrunk up quite a bit in the oven. While the crusts and chocolate cream were cooling, I made the meringue.

This part did not go so well. I'm not sure what happened, as I've used NM's method of heating the egg whites, sugar, and salt, and then whipping them before with great success. But mine never thickened up (check out Margaret's for a look at how beautiful and full-bodied it should've been), and again I was dealing with the little-guy-who-wouldn't-sleep, so I just gave up and dumped it on top of the chocolate. I think because of the lack of fluffiness, my meringue took a lot longer to turn golden in the oven.

It didn't matter. Hubby gobbled his mini tart right up. He said that he's normally not crazy about meringue, but he loved the crust and the chocolate, and the meringue had a more marshmellowy texture that was actually quite yummy. So despite everything, a success!

Modern Baker: Lemon tartlets (and lemon curd ice cream)

We've just returned to my kitchen home after nearly three weeks away, and my to-bake and to-cook lists have gotten insanely long while I've been away. We always spend two or three weeks with my in-laws in the summer. It is incredibly relaxing: my mother-in-law cooks amazing down-home meals (chicken and noodles with mashed potatoes, anyone?) and generally takes care of us, the kiddos play with their cousins for hours on end. It's such a great start to the summer.

But after about a week or ten days, I really start to miss my kitchen. This is when I start bookmarking recipes like crazy and spend hours making a to-do list and a grocery list for my return.

While we were in the car on our 17-hour drive home, some of my baking buddies decided to make lemon curd ice cream, spearheaded by Phyl. Tracey had posted a recipe on her blog, and she claimed to love it as much as her favorite ice cream, mint chocolate chip (also my favorite). As soon as we returned, it was the first thing I set about making. Happily, one of the few sweet tarts I have left from the Modern Baker Challenge was the lemon-lime tartlets, so I was able to make the lemon curd for those and use it in both.

I made 2/3 of the recipe for the lemon curd, which was enough for one 4" mini-tart, 50 g for the ice cream, and a little bit left over. The curd requires lemons, limes, sugar, unsalted butter, and egg yolks. I couldn't find organic limes; I picked up one regular lime, but had an impossible time zesting it, so my curd was almost all lemon, with about 1-2 tablespoons of lime juice thrown in. The curd was a little time-consuming, but not difficult: put the lemon zests in lemon juice and sugar, simmer, and then allow to rest. After discarding the zest, add the butter to the pan and simmer again. Temper the egg yolks and then stir the whole mixture until thickened. I refrigerated the curd overnight.

Today, I pulled cookie dough crust dough from the freezer and made two mini-tart crusts. NM says to use sweet tart dough, but Andrea thought the cookie dough would be a better pairing and it's what I had in the freezer. On my last post where I talked about my struggles with NM's cookie dough tart crusts, Heather commented that I might need to knead the dough a little longer before rolling. I tried it this time (also using more flour than usual), and I actually had way more success than I've ever had. (Thanks, Heather!) The crusts baked for about 15 minutes, cooled for about 30 minutes, and then I dumped in the lemon curd. The tarts were pretty good.........however:

Last night, I also started making the lemon curd ice cream.  I tempered the egg yolks with heated milk, and then thickened the custard...and then suddenly smelled scrambled eggs and realized that the temperature of the custard had shot from 150 F to 210 F in just a few seconds. I dumped the whole batch into the trash, grumbled a bunch, washed all of my dishes, and started over, this time being very careful to keep the custard at low heat and my eyes on the pan. It worked! I whisked in lemon zest and lemon curd and then refrigerated the whole thing over night.

This morning, I whipped up some whipping cream and folded it into the lemon custard, along with some fresh lemon juice. This step seemed really fussy and I'd debated skipping it, but I'm so glad I didn't. This ice cream was the creamiest, dreamiest textured ice cream I've ever had. And the flavor was so light, lemony, refreshing. Even my little girl, who generally doesn't like fruit flavored things, said, "This is even better than vanilla ice cream!" and proceeded to lick every drop off the paddle of the ice cream maker. Hubby and I were both amazed by how wonderful this ice cream was...if you haven't tried it yet, and you have an ice cream maker, add this one to the list!

Bake! Citrus-scented chocolate tart

Marthe chose the citrus-scented chocolate tart for her Bake! pick.... Although it's not technically on the schedule until the beginning of July, I will likely not be baking much for the next few weeks, and we had our end-of-the-year staff picnic today, so it seemed like the perfect time to try it out.

This tart starts with the cocoa version of the sweet pastry dough. Given my success with the sweet pastry dough, I was excited to get a more workable chocolate pastry dough than the one I tried for the tartlets last weekend. Things seemed to be going well as I mixed up the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, unsalted butter, and egg (I made a half recipe for one 10" tart) in my food processor. I refrigerated the dough for a day. Sadly, once I began the rolling-out process, this dough gave me the same sticky, rippy problems I had with the other chocolate pastry dough. It actually really reminded me of the troublesome cookie dough crust; I ended up having to do a lot of piecing together to cover the pan. I much prefer the basic sweet dough and the rich pie crust for ease of rolling and transferring.

Anyway, after I got the tart dough in place in the pan, I set to work on the filling, which was easy and smelled heavenly. It was all mixed in a saucepan: half-and-half plus sugar, and then butter and semi-sweet chocolate, and then eggs and salt, and finally lemon zest, orange zest, lemon juice, orange juice, vanilla extract, and a bit of triple sec.

Mine baked for almost twice as long as specified in the recipe; it just kept looking jiggly and the instructions say "bake until the filling is set." I was surprised by the mousse-like texture of the final product; I was expecting something a little more solid.

The tart looked a little plain, and I didn't have any orange slices to use as a garnish, so I made a simple chocolate-butter mixture and drizzled some over the top, just to jazz it up a bit.

This tart was delicious. With my massive sweet tooth, I loved that it was made with semi-sweet chocolate instead of the bittersweet called for in many of NM's other recipes. My kiddos both loved it, as did hubby. One of my friends at the lunch today said, "Oh, my, the flavor just explodes in your mouth! This puts the rest of the food here to shame!" which I thought was quite a compliment. =) Even my dad, who doesn't like chocolate, said it was excellent (although too chocolately for him, of course).

Modern Baker Challenge: Chocolate Caramel Pecan Tartlets

These little tartlets were one of my biggest challenges to-date.

I was looking for a quick and easy dessert to bring to a friend's 30th birthday party this afternoon. I wasn't sure whether or not she had a birthday cake already planned, so I wanted to pick something fun that would go with another dessert. Browsing through The Modern Baker, I settled on the chocolate caramel pecan tartlets; they looked tasty and I had all of the ingredients on hand.

My first hiccup with these was that I was counting on using some of the leftover sweet tart dough that I have in my freezer. Upon closer inspection, I discovered that these tarts actually call for the chocolate nut dough. While I was willing to compromise, hubby was pretty convinced they needed the chocolate dough, and since I'd never made it before and we didn't have any plans this morning, I decided to just make a batch. The tart dough was relatively easy: slivered almonds, sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt, butter, eggs, and water, all combined in the food processor. I used extra-large eggs, so I thought maybe I should omit the water because of the extra moisture. I should've listened to my instincts, since the dough ended up being quite wet.

While the dough was cooling in the fridge, I made up the ganache. I realized that I didn't have quite enough chocolate, so I scaled the recipe down (I made 3/4 of the recipe). NM says to use a large saucepan because the caramel boils up...it did, but I think the pan I used was way too large, so it made it a little awkward to cook. And while I was cooking the sugar and water and simultanously heating the cream, I got distracted with the dishes and ended up scorching the cream and having to start over with that part. Anyway, the ganache wasn't difficult: sugar, water, cream, milk, salt, bittersweet chocolate (I used 60% and 72%), and unsalted butter. I probably should've waited to make the ganache, since it was completely hard by the time the crusts were ready.

Ah, the crusts. I rolled out the wet dough, using quite a bit of flour to prevent sticking and tearing, and used a small round cutter to cut circles. I used my mini-muffin pan, one of NM's suggestions for mini-tarts. It was only after I put the pan into the oven that I realized I'd forgotten to pierce the crusts with a fork. I pulled them from the oven, where they'd already begun to puff up, and quickly pierced them. Too late of course; they were still quite puffy. I used a plastic measuring spoon to push the still warm dough down to make a little cup. I thought I was in the clear, until I tried to remove the little delicate forms from the mini muffin pan. There's a reason tart pans have a removable bottom. I was able to salvage a few of them, and then I used the remaining 1/4 of the dough (still in the fridge) to make two 4" mini tart crusts.

After the crusts were finally ready, I rewarmed the ganache over a pot of gently simmering water on the stove, which went surprisingly well. I filled one 4" tart crust with plain chocolate, and then added the toasted pecans and filled the rest of the tart crusts.

I prefer the bittersweet chocolate tart with sweet tart crust. These were pretty dark; I would've preferred them with some sweetened whipped cream or ice cream. And I don't think I'll make this crust again. And I definitely won't use the mini-muffin pan again (unless someone has a foolproof technique for removing the tarts...?). Still, they were pretty tasty and went quickly at the birthday party, so all's well that ends well, I guess!

Bake! Strawberry cream cheese crumble tart

I'd never noticed what an alliterative cake this was until I was typing in the name: strawberry cream cheese crumble cake. How very appropriate for an English teacher!

Anyway, hubby's school had an end-of-the-year barbecue yesterday, and despite my sadness that he's done with school while I still have TWO FULL WEEKS left, I sucked it up and agreed to bake. When I asked hubby what he wanted me to make, he started listing off his favorite recipes, none of which were appropriate for a barbecue: bagels? scones? pizza? Seriously?

So rather than get into a big fight, I told him to look at our up-coming recipes for our Bake! twitterbakes and choose from there. He thought they all looked good, and then settled on this upcoming weekend's pick, by Kayte, strawberry cream cheese crumble tart. Looked good to me!

It was pretty easy to make the components the day before. NM cautions us not to assemble it ahead of time, although you can make all of the parts early.

The crust was the cookie dough crust. Normally, when I see that crust, I sub in his sweet tart dough which has been much more successful for me. The cookie dough crust and I did not get along when I made the Parisian fruit tart. However, that was from The Modern Baker, so I thought that maybe I'd have better luck with the one from Bake! It was easy to mix up in the food processor: slivered almonds, confectioners' sugar, flour, salt, unsalted butter, vanilla extract, and egg yolks. I pulsed and pulsed and worried that it was never going to come together and form a ball...but have faith, because eventually it did. The dough felt much better than the one from MB, not so crumbly, and I stuck it in the fridge as instructed. However, when it came time to roll it out, again it started breaking and tearing and I ended up having to piece it together. It was fine...definitely way easier than my last experience, but I still prefer the sweet tart dough for its supreme ease of rolling. And like the last time I made the cookie dough crust, it was quite crumbly.

The cream cheese filling is easy: cream cheese, confectioners' sugar, lemon zest, and vanilla extract, all mixed in the trusty stand mixer. The only issue I had with this one is that I made it early, left it in the fridge over night, and when I went to scrape it into the tart, it was way too hard. Because it's so easy to whip up, I think I'll just make it the day-of next time.

The crumb topping was a bit odd: flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and chopped slivered almonds, all combined with melted butter. Then the whole thing is placed on a baking sheet and baked for 20 minutes. (It's supposed to be baked at the same time as the crust, but I hadn't read ahead to know that the crust benefits from an overnight rest - in the pan - before baking, so I baked it the morning-of...something to remember for next time!) This was my least favorite of NM's crumble topping, and I'm not sure why. It felt like it wasn't sweet enough. Or maybe it baked too long.

Anyway, the baby girl and I assembled the whole thing before the barbecue: baked crust, spread with cream cheese mixture, cut fresh strawberries, more cream cheese mixture, crumble topping, a dusting of powdered sugar, and a strawberry placed on top (the baby girl did that part).

This was a huge hit at the party. People were still raving to hubby today ~ except those who didn't get any, who complained. =) My hubby managed to grab one piece for photographing before it was all gone, and the four of us split it. Although it wasn't my favorite, the rest of my family loved it.

Modern Baker Challenge: Sour-cream apple pie

What makes you feel better after a slightly stressful afternoon? Me, I decided to come home and bake a pie with my little girl.

This is my thirteenth recipe from the sweet tarts and pies section of The Modern Baker. Based entirely on what I had in the kitchen (and the fact that the last batch of apples we bought were a little bruised and battered), we decided to make sour-cream apple pie.

Before I purchased my own set of 4 1/2" tart pans (which I love, by the way), I asked my dad if he had any small tart pans. He didn't have what I was looking for, but he did find two 4 1/2" pie plates which he gave me just in case. The little girl and I debuted them this afternoon.

I made 1/3 recipe of the apple filling (apples, unsalted butter, and sugar), the sour cream custard (flour, sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, and sour cream), and the crumb topping (flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and unsalted butter). It was absolutely perfect for the two mini pie plates.

I used a little packet of sweet tart dough that was in my freezer (1/3 of the full recipe). For the first time, I hadn't defrosted the dough in the fridge ahead of time, so I did an experiment. I pulled it out of the freezer and set it on the counter. By the time I was finished making the two fillings and the crumb topping, the dough was defrosted enough that I could use my rolling pin but it wasn't warm at all. Hurrah!

The mini pies baked for 45 minutes. I was waiting for the crumb topping to get darker, but I think I'd pull them out at 35 or 40 minutes next time; the filling was a tad dry. Still, this was a delicious pie. NM says that it needs no accompaniment; true, it doesn't need one, but it wasn't hurt by a little scoop of vanilla ice cream either! =) Another winner!

Modern Baker Challenge: Lemony cheese tart

The next tart I made for the Modern Baker Challenge was the lemony cheese tart with sour cream glaze.

The filling is made by mixing softened cream cheese, sugar, vanilla extract, lemon zest, eggs, and sour cream. These are placed into a sweet tart crust (actually two mini crusts). Even though they were mini, they baked for the full thirty minutes. While they were baking, I mixed up the sour cream glaze: sour cream, sugar, and vanilla extract. When I pulled the tarts out of the oven, I poured the glaze over the top. Unfortunately, I had filled the tarts so full (I'd used most of a third of the recipe in the two mini tarts) that the glaze ran off the edges and made a bit of a mess. But I got it cleaned up, put the tarts back into the oven for ten more minutes, and then took them out to cool.

Hubby and I enjoyed one of the mini tarts that night, warm from the oven. It was really yummy. It was even better the next night, cold from the fridge; it tasted like a lemony cheese cake.

Modern Baker Challenge: Roman almond and pine nut tart

As I said yesterday, I baked two mini-tarts last night with my last two chunks of frozen sweet tart dough: we had the banana walnut tart for dessert last night, and it was okay. We saved the Roman almond and pine nut tart for breakfast this morning because NM says it is better served as a tea pastry than for dessert.

I thought this recipe had a weird ingredient list: almond paste, sugar, eggs, butter, vanilla, lemon zest, flour, and pine nuts. In fact, I wasn't even going to make it until Kayte (the official blogger for this recipe) said that it was her new favorite recipe from the book.

I've never cooked with almond paste before, and wasn't able to find it the last time I had a recipe that called for it. Luckily, I found it the other day, and picked up a tube. It was odd stuff, more solid than paste-y, but I chopped it up and gave it a whir in my stand mixer with some sugar. Then I added in the egg, butter, and the rest of the ingredients, plopped it in the mini-tart pan, and pressed a thin layer of pine nuts into the top. I baked it for about 24 minutes. (I made 1/4 recipe for my mini-tart pan, filled the pan pretty full, and had just a tiny bit of filling left over.)

I snuck a bite before giving it to hubby for his breakfast this morning...and then another...and then another. This tart was such a pleasant surprise: so incredibly yummy! I think it would be a fun addition to a brunch, and I'm definitely putting it on the make-again list!

Modern Baker Challenge: Banana walnut tart

Hubby says this tart is like being the slowest guy on the US Olympic 4x100 relay team: it's our least favorite of the Modern Baker tarts so far, but that's not saying much given how ultra-amazing the others have been. It's still pretty good.

I had enough sweet tart dough left for two mini tarts; I decided to make one banana walnut tart and one roman almond and pine nut tart.

The filling for the banana walnut tart came together more quickly than any of the others so far: brown sugar, walnuts, softened butter, egg, cinnamon, vanilla, flour, and baking powder are all mixed in the food processor. A banana is sliced and placed on the crust floor; the filling is poured over the bananas; chopped walnuts are placed on top. I made 1/4 of the filling recipe and used it all...this was a little mistake, as the filling overflowed just a bit in the oven (didn't make that big of a mess, though). I baked it for 26 minutes, until the tart was golden and set.

The sweet, jammy bananas were yummy, the walnuts provided a nice crunch. I doubt I'll make it again, but only because there are already so many of the must-redo-and-soon list.

Pumpkin pie tart and the best vanilla ice cream

I was so excited to try the next recipe on my list in the Modern Baker Challenge: pumpkin-pecan buttermilk tart...and I almost did. (Notice anything missing in the picture?)

This was such an easy recipe; I had a cup of pumpkin in the freezer, leftover from some pumpkin muffins this past fall, so I made 2/3 of the recipe. I mixed the defrosted pumpkin with eggs, sugar, salt, ground cinnamon, ground ginger, freshly grated nutmeg, and some buttermilk. I poured half of it into two mini tart pans and half into a mini-casserole dish.

And then I got into a conversation with my husband and distractedly put the three pans into the oven. It wasn't until ten minutes later, when we'd finished our conversation and I sat down to relax in the family room for a minute, that I realized that I completely forgot the pecan topping! Argh!!!

It's not that I'm not happy to make this recipe again...it's a very delicious pumpkin pie...but there are so many good recipes in this section and I already feel like we've been eating way too many desserts lately. So I may just say that this recipe was yummy, and I'm guessing it would have been even better with the pecans, and hopefully I'll get around to trying it the right way some day.

I made a recipe of David Lebovitz's best vanilla ice cream from The Perfect Scoop (similar recipe here), and oh-my-goodness, we've never tasted a better vanilla ice cream. It was truly amazing, and the perfect accompaniment to my almost-pumpkin pecan buttermilk tart.

Modern Baker Challenge: Bittersweet chocolate tart

Oh no. I didn't think it was possible, but this one is even better than the previous ones.

Here I am at my fifth sweet tart in the Modern Baker Challenge: bittersweet chocolate tart. This one calls for the press-in cookie dough crust; I remembered really struggling with that one when I made the Parisian fruit tart, so I subbed in the sweet tart dough. I rolled this out and put it into my mini tart pans, which I baked for about 15 minutes.

The filling is a ganache made by combining cream and light corn syrup, bringing them to a boil, combining them with unsalted butter, and then combining the whole mixture with melted bittersweet chocolate (I used 70%). The filling is poured into the crust and then refrigerated until it sets. I made 1/3 of a recipe...knowing the crust was a little thick, I really piled it on, although I still had a tiny bit leftover (this was delicious plain, incidentally!).

I made this one while I was working on the bourbon pecan tart, which worked out well because there's a lot of waiting in this one: waiting for things to boil or melt or cool. It's an easy recipe...just need to make sure you have time for the waiting.

NM says that it's best unadorned, but oh man, it was amazing with a little leftover sweetened whipped cream!!

Modern Baker Challenge: Bourbon-scented pecan-walnut tart

Danger! Danger! We are entering the next chapter in the Modern Baker Challenge: sweet tarts and pies. I have already made three recipes from this section, all of which were amazingly good: chocolate orange hazelnut tart, Parisian fruit tart, and Maida's Big Apple Pie.

Knowing this will be a dangerous section for us, I am following Kayte's lead; she recently purchased a 6" tart pan and has been baking mini tarts, which has allowed her to make many more recipes. For my birthday, I received a set of 4" mini tart pans, so I'm planning to make two mini tarts for each recipe, hoping that this will allow us to sample more recipes without gaining 5,000,000 pounds. =)

Yesterday afternoon, I whipped up a batch of the sweet tart dough: flour, sugar, baking powder, unsalted butter, eggs, and salt. It came together perfectly, and I set it to rest in the fridge. I figured that one recipe of tart dough (409 g) would break down into 6 mini tarts (136 g for each recipe; 68 g for each mini tart).

Last night, I was all ready to make us tarts for dessert, but hubby and I simply could not agree which one we should start with. And then it got too late, and we had to settle for ice cream. I did use the rest of my evening wisely, though, and divided all of the filling recipes into thirds so that I could make two mini-tarts of any of them at a moment's notice.

Tonight, I made two: bourbon-scented pecan and bittersweet chocolate, the first for tonight and the second for tomorrow. Failing to make a mis en place (as usual), I didn't realize that I was short pecans until I was measuring them to stir them into the syrup, so I added walnut pieces, too. This tart started with a syrup of dark corn syrup, sugar, and unsalted butter, which was whipped into a mix of egg, salt, and bourbon. The nuts are mixed in, the mixture is poured into the crusts, and then they are set to bake; my minis took about 22 minutes, until the tops were puffed, set, and had popped bubbles on the top.

Unsurprisingly, this tart was amazing. Even hubby, who claims to not like nuts in desserts, couldn't stop raving. Of course these are going on the make-again list.