Tag: tart

Desserts, France, Fruit

Apricot Tarte Tatin

by Lynda Balslev3 Comments on Apricot Tarte Tatin

Apricot Tarte Tatin

Tarte Tatin Isn’t Just for Apples

Tarte what? Tarte tatin is a French upside-down fruit tart that could easily pass as the poster-child for a universally pleasing, caramelized dessert demanding to be shared. It traditionally features fall fruit, such as apple and pear, but I am here to tell you that it’s not mandatory. In fact, any fruit that can be slow-cooked in butter and sugar without dissolving into a puddle will work. Stone fruit, such as plums, nectarines, and apricots, are excellent contenders, which is why tarte tatins should be added to your summer to-do list.

Apricot Tarte Tatin

Active Time: 45 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour and 15 minutes, plus chilling time
Serves 8

Pastry:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, diced
1/3 cup full fat sour cream

Filling:
2 tablespoons plus 3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into 4 chunks, room temperature
1 1/2 pounds medium apricots, halved and pitted
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1 egg, lightly beaten

Prepare the pastry:
1. Pulse the flour, sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor once or twice to blend. Add the butter and pulse until the butter is pea-sized. Add the sour cream and pulse until moist clumps form. Gather the dough in a ball and flatten into a disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least 2 hours or overnight. Let soften slightly at room temperature before rolling out.
2. Before preparing the filling, roll the dough out on parchment paper to a round shape to fit size of skillet. Slide the parchment and pastry onto a baking tray and refrigerate until ready to use.

Prepare the tart:
1. Whisk the 2 tablespoons sugar, cardamom, and cinnamon in a small bowl and set aside.
2. Arrange the butter in a 10-inch oven-proof skillet with sloping sides. Evenly sprinkle the 3/4 cup sugar over the skillet. Place over medium heat and cook until the butter melts, the sugar begins to dissolve, and the mixture begins to bubble, 2 to 3 minutes. Carefully arrange the apricots, skin-side down, in a circular pattern in the skillet. Sprinkle the reserved sugar mixture and the lemon zest over the fruit.
3. Continue to cook the fruit over medium heat until a deep amber-colored syrup forms, 25 to 30 minutes, turning the skillet to ensure even cooking.
4.  While the apricots are cooking, preheat the oven to 425°F.
5. When the caramel is the desired color, remove the skillet from the heat. Working quickly, lay the pastry over the apricots and peel away the parchment. (It’s ok of the pastry breaks or tears in places. You can piece it together once the parchment is discarded. Remember, it’s the bottom of the tart – it needn’t look pristine.) Press the pastry around edges of the skillet. Cut 3 to 4 slits in the pastry and brush with the egg.
6. Transfer the skillet to the oven and bake until the pastry is golden brown and firm to the touch, about 25 minutes.
7. Remove the tart from the oven. Let it stand for one minute, then run a knife around the edge of the tart to help it to release when inverted. Place a large heat-proof platter over skillet. Using oven mitts, hold the skillet and platter together and invert the tart onto the platter. If any bits stick to the pan, use a knife or spatula to remove and add to the tart. Cool for at least 30 minutes.
8. Serve warm or at room temperature with whipped cream.

Appetizers, Cookbooks, Main Course, Summer, Vegetarian, Wine and food pairings

Easy Late Summer Dinner: Tomato Tart

by Lynda Balslev4 Comments on Easy Late Summer Dinner: Tomato Tart
Easy Late Summer Dinner: Tomato Tart

Tomato Tart

Early September brings beautiful tomatoes, their sunny colors cheerily keeping autumn at bay, reminding us that summer is not yet finished.  Sweet, juicy, sunkissed heirlooms, early girls, and cherries promise to bring a little sunshine to our dinner plates while the days grow shorter, cooler and crisper.

This tomato tart is an easy, light dinner for a busy weekday night that takes advantage of the kaleidescope of cherry tomatoes falling in our gardens and showcased in the market. The tart’s ease of preparation is, in part, due to the usage of store-bought frozen puff pastry dough.  I confess that as much as I try to homemake everything, homemade pastry (unless made well ahead of time and frozen) doesn’t conveniently figure into a spontaneous week night meal.  Fortunately, high quality frozen pastry dough is available in many stores.  I buy mine at Whole Foods, and while the price is not cheap, I see it as a break-even when considering the cost of the ingredients and time I would need to make it myself.


Tomato Tart
Serves 4 as a light meal or 6-8 as a side dish

1 sheet (11 oz./300 g.) frozen puff-pastry dough, thawed
1 1/2 lbs. (750 g.) cherry tomatoes, multi-colored if possible, halved lengthwise
1-2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons fresh marjoram

Prepare tart:
Preheat oven to 400 F. (200 C.)

On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/4″ thickness.  Pierce dough all over with a fork, leaving a 1″ border in tact.  Transfer dough to a parchment-lined baking tray and refrigerate 15 minutes.
Bake in oven until lightly golden, 12-15 minutes.  Remove from oven, but do not turn off heat.

Arrange tomato halves, cut-side up, on crust, leaving the 1″ border clear. Drizzle tart with olive oil. Sprinkle with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Return to oven and bake 15-20 minutes, or until crust is golden brown.  Remove tart from oven, and transfer to serving platter.  Garnish with fresh marjoram (or basil) and serve immediately.

For a complete rustic meal serve with a wedge of soft, runny Camembert or Saint Nectaire cheese, thick slices of pain paysan and a salad of mixed seasonal greens.

 

 

Desserts

Blueberries Blueberries Blueberries

by Lynda Balslev2 Comments on Blueberries Blueberries Blueberries
Blueberries Blueberries Blueberries

Tarte aux Myrtilles

It was impossible to resist the blueberries at the farmers market this morning. Tables were heaped with blueberries. You could choose from buckets, baskets, pints and quarts brimming with inky blue, plump fruit. I purchased two pounds, and arrived home with 1 1/2 pounds, because I couldn’t resist nibbling them along the way. Once home, my family consumed at least another half pound before I resuced the reaminder, which is exactly how much I need to make a this  tart.

Bluberry Tart – Tarte aux Myrtilles
Serves 6-8

For the pastry:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 pound unsalted butter
2 large egg yolks, lightly beaten

Combine flour, sugar and salt in a medium bowl.  Cut butter in pieces into the flour mixture until the largest pieces resemble the size of peas.  Add the egg yolks and mix lightly with fingertips to incorporate and the dough is crumbly.  Press the dough evenly into the bottom and up the sides of a 9″ tart pan with a removable bottom.  Wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight.

Prebake tart shell:
Preheat oven to 375 F.  Prick bottom all over with a fork.  Line the bottom with parchment paper.  Fill liner with dried beans or pie weights.  Bake shell for 15 minutes, or until the edges begin to turn golden.  Remove shell from oven.  Remove parchment and pie weights.  Return shell to oven and cook 10 minutes, or until golden all over.  Remove and cool.

For the filling:
1 pound blueberries, picked over, washed, dried
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Whisk together 1 tablespoon water and cornstarch in a small bowl; set aside.
Combine 1/2 pound blueberries, sugar and 1 tablespoon water in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, stirring, until blueberries pop and mixture begins to thicken – about 3 minutes. Add cornstarch and lemon juice to blueberries. Simmer 30 seconds, stirring constantly.  Fold in remaining blueberries.  Pour into pre-baked tart shell.  Let sit at room temperature until set, at least 1 hour.  Serve with whipped cream or crème fraiche.

 

Desserts

Blueberry Tart

by Lynda Balslev5 Comments on Blueberry Tart
Blueberry Tart

It is impossible to resist the abundant blueberries at this time of year.  Today I came home from the market with 2 pounds of fresh blueberries.  Well, actually I came home with 1 1/2 pounds, because I couldn’t stop nibbling them along the way.  Upon arrival, my children consumed at least another half pound before I rescued the remainder, which is exactly what I needed to go in my blueberry tart.

Tarte aux Myrtilles

Bluberry Tart
Serves 6-8

For the Pâte Sucrée or Tart Pastry:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 pound unsalted butter
2 large egg yolks, lightly beaten

In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt.  Cut butter in pieces into the flour mixture until the largest pieces resemble the size of peas.  Add the egg yolks and mix lightly with fingertips to incorporate and the dough is crumbly.  Press the dough evenly into the bottom and up the sides of a 9″ tart pan with a removable bottom.  Wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight.

Prebake tart shell:
Preheat oven to 375 F.  Prick bottom all over with a fork.  Line the bottom with parchment paper.  Fill liner with dried beans or pie weights.  Bake shell for 15 minutes, or until the edges begin to turn golden.  Remove shell from oven.  Remove parchment and pie weights.  Return shell to oven and cook 10 minutes, or until golden all over.  Remove and cool.

For the filling:
1 pound blueberries, picked over, washed, dried
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

In a medium saucepan, combine 1/2 lb. blueberries, sugar and 1 tablespoon water.  Bring to a boil.
Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk together 1 tablespoon water and cornstarch.  Set aside.
When blueberries reach a boil, reduce heat and simmer, stirring, until blueberries pop and mixture begins to thicken – about 3 minutes.
Add cornstarch mixture and lemon juice to thickened blueberries, stirring constantly.  Simmer 30 seconds, stirring constantly.  Fold in remaining blueberries.  Pour into pre-baked tart shell.  Let sit at room temperature until set, at least 1 hour.  Serve with whipped cream or crème fraiche.

France, Paris

Before and After

by Lynda Balslev5 Comments on Before and After

I confess that when I first moved to Paris to study cooking, I was somewhat inflexible in terms of feeding myself.  Here I was, twenty-something, educated, professional, and, at least in my opinion, worldly. Now, this is my own small story, but I will dare say that I conformed to a rather structured, and, perhaps American, way of viewing diet and exercise: compulsive, rigorous and disciplined. This translated to a philosophy that excluded butter, red meat, caffeine, little alcohol and included fresh fruit, veggies, fish and so on. It also included a regimen of daily exercise, even if it meant rising at 5 a.m. to squeeze a workout into an active, fully-booked life. A day without exercise was unthinkable; deviation from my super healthy diet bordered on cataclysmic.

So, wouldn’t it make perfect sense that I would apply to cooking school in Paris? Not only cooking school, but the revered, classical, traditional French cooking school, Le Cordon Bleu. Goodness knows what I was thinking. Perhaps it was a subconscious acknowledgement of the starkness of my present routine and the need to just live a little; the gap of an ocean and the excuse of a new culture to step away from life as I knew it. Or perhaps it was the lack of meat protein in my diet that impacted my reasoning skills. Whatever the case, off I went to cook and eat in the land of butter, cream, pastry, runny cheese and terrines, at a school that for over 100 years held the distinguished and elite position of teaching classical French cuisine et pâtisserie.

And guess what? Nothing untoward happened. In fact, lots of delicious, sensual, pleasurable, yummy, gooey, and rich experiences befell me. The foods I wistfully admired from the sidelines of my healthy regimen back in the U.S. became the daily staples of my new Parisian life. I had an encyclopedia of cheeses at my disposal, bakeries on every street corner displayed gorgeous oven-baked breads and flaky croissants, cafés dotted every neighborhood serving comforting French bistro fare. Open air markets peppered the city, and depending on the day I could alter my route to school to pass by stands displaying a rainbow of fresh seasonal produce, glistening fresh meats and a sea of fish. Cheeses, pâtés, and more breads were prominently displayed along with a kaleidescope of cut flowers readily available for the finishing touch to the table.

For exercise I walked to school every day – literally across town – from the 18th to the 15th arrondissement. I risked life and limb crossing streets and boulevards, skirting the occasional mob of striking postal workers, protesting students and subsequent swarms of police, allowing 20 minutes at the minimum to navigate across the sweeping Place de la Concorde as I would officially cross from the right to the left bank over the Seine. Each day I would change my walking route, either purposely or more often erroneously, discovering new streets, neighborhoods, shops and cafés. I had a short list of favorite cafés where I would stop for my morning tartine (avec beurre) and café au lait (avec caféine.) Outside of the school I learned which bakeries had the best sandwiches – simple, satisfying packages with thickly sliced Comté cheese or paper-thin tongues of jambon sechée, a little butter and mustard, and perhaps a cornichon for garnish on a crusty, airy baguette the length of a forearm. So satisfying and so uncomplicated. An afternoon pick-me-up between classes or along my walk home would include an espresso and perhaps a tarte au citron – a dollop of perfectly balanced sweet, tart and very lemony curd nestled in a palm-sized shell of pâte sucrée. If I could bear to make dinner after a day of cooking in class, I would improvise a light dish with some of the purchases from the market or head out to a bistro or restaurant on my un-ending list of new places to try. Simply put, my life in Paris revolved around eating, cooking, walking and eating more.  I was very happy.  Bon Appétit.

Tarte au Citron

Lemon Tart – Tarte au Citron

Makes one 9″ tart

For the pastry – Pâte Sucrée
1 1/4 cup flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut in 1/2″ pieces
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon ice water

Combine flour, sugar and salt in bowl of food processor.  Add butter, using on/off turns until the mixture becomes crumbly.
Stir together egg yolk and water in small bowl.  Add to flour mixture.  Pulse until dough begins to clump together.
Press dough into bottom and up sides of 9-inch tart pan with removable bottom.  Trim edges.  Pierce crust all over with fork.  Freeze 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Line crust with foil.  Fill with dried beans or pie weights.  Bake until crust is set, about 15 minutes.  Remove foil and beans or weights.  Continue baking until crust is lightly golden, about 20 minutes.  Transfer to rack to cool while preparing the filling.

For the Lemon Filling:

6 egg yolks
2/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (2-3 lemons)
6 tablespoons butter, softened
pinch of salt
2 teaspoons lemon zest

Combine egg yolks and sugar in a medium sauce pan.  Mix well to combine.  Add remaining ingredients, except for the lemon zest.  Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon.  (Do not allow to boil or the mixture will curdle.)
When the mixture changes to a bright yellow color and thickly coats the wooden spoon, remove from heat.  Pour through a fine strainer.  Discard the residue.  Stir in lemon zest.
Pour the filling into the cooled tart shell; it will continue to thicken as it sets.  Let it sit at least one hour.  Serve at room temperature or cold.