TWD: Brioche Plum Tart

There are days when it is just too hot to bake. This past weekend in San Diego was mighty toasty, so I was a bit worried that this just wasn't going to happen for me. Happily there was a break in the heat wave, because man oh man, was this yummy!

I don't have a large tart pan, and I certainly didn't need 6 servings all to myself. So I broke out the mini tart pans and planned to make two individual tarts. Usually I would make only 1/3 of the dough recipe, but I've learned that one can divide the recipe down to almost nothing, which is very difficult to work with. So I made the complete dough recipe, and would just do enough filling for the minis.

The dough came together easily, and I planned to do the "slap dance" Monday evening and bake it this morning. Although it required a lot of time, the dough really took no effort at all.

I lucked out and got some very yummy, very ripe organic plums from Trader Joes. I thought I had some strawberry jam, but apparently it has been in the fridge too long to use (I'll leave it to you to create the word picture here....). Luckily I had some apricot jam from another Dorie project, and it worked surprisingly well on the plums.

I baked for 15 minutes and then tented the minis and gave them another 7 minutes in the oven. They looked mighty pretty if I do say so myself, and I just couldn't wait to make a cup of tea and have one for breakfast. The other went to a co-worker celebrating her birthday. Elegant baked goods are such a better gift than knickknacks!

These were so good that I may have to do an experiment and see how well the dough does after a whole day in the fridge. Yeah.....that's it..... another batch would be a service to the wider TWD community and would be seen as an effort to expand our culinary knowledge. Yeah.....

Many thanks to Denise at Chez Us for a great pick. This will definitely be put into heavy rotation (but only when it's not 90 degrees in my kitchen!). I can't wait to try other fruit options. YUM!

TWD: Tartest Lemon Tart

I must say I approached this week's pick with a little hesitancy. Don't get me wrong, I like lemon and tart as much as the next girl. But the reports in this week's P&Q section indicated that this was a mighty tart tart!

This recipe gives me the opportunity to introduce the newest member of my family! Apparently I'm not only a stress eater, I'm a stress buyer as well. Last week was the busiest week ever for my company (I'm not exaggerating). In the middle of the hustle and bustle, I took my lunch break and meandered on over to Amazon, where they had a 3 cup Cuisinart food processor on sale. Every time we have a Dorie recipe that says "In a food processor....." I say "oh dang it" (well, maybe something a little stronger) and long for the day when I own one. So this little guy is perfect for my little kitchen and little ol' me. Without a moment's hesitation I clicked "add to shopping cart" and 2 clicks later it was on it's way.

My new toy.....er.....tool made it's maiden voyage this weekend when I made the tart crust for both this recipe and the Chocolate Cream Tart from a few weeks back (more on that later -- made it for Mom's day and it was yummy! Mom is still talking about how good it was). Worked like a dream. Since I'm minus a blender I used this for the filling of the Lemon Tart. I made half of the filling recipe as I was only using two mini-tart pans.

The filling was easy enough, and soon enough the tart was on its way to the oven. I have some filling left over -- hopefully it won't mind an evening in an airtight container enjoying a rest in the fridge.

My only complaint is that this recipe takes a long time to make from beginning to end. I'm really happy I had the pastry dough all ready. My crankiness at the bake time is undoubtedly in direct proportion to my level of tiredness. I thought I'd just suck it up and stick it out tonight, and come home and crash tomorrow. That was before I remembered the season finale of LOST is on tomorrow night, and my Tivo is jammed (that cute little logo is bulging out and his little antennas are droopy). But I digress.....

Due to the hour this is once again a recipe where the components taste yummy, but I'll have to wait until tomorrow to know how the whole package will taste. The edges are a little dark, and I'm not sure I cooked it too long, or not long enough. I guess I'll find out in the morning. If nothing else I can think of worse choices for breakfast.

Thanks to Barb at Babette Feasts for picking this recipe. The lemon is such a nice change of pace from all the chocolate, and this looks to be tasty!

ed. added photos from the second attempt, which was much tastier, and prettier, than the first attempt. It's amazing what a little sleep can do for a girl.

TWD: French Pear Tart

Let me first set expectations by letting you know this entire post was written under the influence of DayQuil. So if I ramble or embarrass myself, I'm blaming it on the nice folks at Vicks.

If I didn't already have a naming convention for my Tuesday with Dorie posts, I'd probably entitle this one "It All Comes Down to This." This recipe, more than any other, nicely illustrates my frustrations with learning to cook out of a book, and why I love the TWD group.

I haven't talked much about the classes I took last semester (they ended up being a bit of a bust - more on that later), or about why I'm taking them at all. As it turns out, I truly am at mid-life and am just learning about food and how to cook it. My mother readily admits she did not have the patience to teach me to cook (it was her, not me!) so I left home and went off to college with only a basic meatloaf recipe under my belt. I didn't really learn much in the following decades but really wanted to know more. I've subscribed to cooking magazines and picked up cook books for years and have tried various things with various levels of success.

It really wasn't until I took the classes in Culinary Arts at my local community college that I got any really helpful information. Perhaps most people are like this, but I'm an "observe and do" kind of a gal. I need someone to show me, and then practice myself, before feeling like I "get" something. And that is one of the most important things I've learned in school -- this is an art (ergo "culinary ARTS") and just because you make something once and it didn't' turn out well doesn't mean you should give up on that thing. Learn from those mistakes and try again.

It also opened my eyes to why cookbooks don't really teach you how to cook. Which brings me back to my tart. Had I not taken a cake decorating class (we made the most exotic cakes and very few gum paste roses in that class) I would have had NO idea what this recipe was about. I probably would have run at "blanched" almonds (cooking 101 taught me how to blanch a tomato - who knew you could blanch an almond!), and I never would have figured out that an 8 inch springform pan will stand in fairly well for a 9 inch tart pan. And I definitely never, EVER, would have known what Dorie meant when she described cutting the pears to put on the tart. And that has nothing to do with Dorie's description. If you've seen it, it makes perfect sense. And luckily I have, so I knew what to do.

Other TWDers, however, never had, and that's what I love about this little community of bakers from all over the world. You can ask questions and get answers from people who know without them making you feel like a complete dope! Links to pictures were even included, which were incredibly helpful to those who needed it. And those of us without food processors (I seriously have no room for any more equipment in my tiny kitchen -- seriously!) learned what our options were to make this without one.

While trying to contend with my dough without a food processor, it occurred to me that every chef I admire at some point in time has written the words "I learned this from 'X' at 'Y place' " -- meaning even the Dories and the Davids and the Jamies of the world have learned not from books but from their friends and co-workers who love creating with food as much as they do. Although we TWDers aren't in the same kitchens to learn "with" each other, this wonderful little community allows us to do that nonetheless.

So with all of that -- here it is, my French Pear Tart. Made with pears from a jar, and in an 8 inch springform pan. Had trouble with the dough, but I think it came out okay. My biggest problem was I had the "brilliant" idea of just blanching almonds I already had -- I'm on a resource saving kick. That way the only thing I needed to buy was the pears.

This was indeed a money saving idea -- I snack on raw almonds so I had them in the house -- but it definitely was not a time saving idea (I need to be more specific about which resource I'm trying to save!). Other than that taking forever, everything went along swimmingly. It was a little challenging to smooth out the almond cream in the springform pan. I only used 4 pears rather than 6. Going in it looked promising!

And coming out - oh so yummy! And pretty! I think this is the prettiest thing I've ever made! It is cooling as I type, so I'll have to wait until tomorrow to see how it tastes. Maybe I will have fully recovered my sense of smell by then (I hope!!).

One thing before I close......There are recipes in Baking: From My Home to Yours that scare the pants off me, and I semi-cringe whenever the recipes are announced each month, worried that something I am ill-prepared to bake will be picked. But with each passing week I'm learning that "I can do that!" with the help of my TWD friends. So rather than running for the hills, I'll be running over to TWD to get some coaching. Thanks, friends!