Posts Tagged ‘pastry’

I thought maybe if I started making tarts, they wouldn’t look as ugly as my pies. The pre-formed tart shape keeps everything looking the way it’s supposed to and look less like a kitchen accident.

It seems that I can’t show up to a family event empty handed anymore as my relatives anticipate what I’m bringing. It’s my aunt’s 60th birthday so I tried to make something sophisticated. I also wanted something easy with few ingredients involved. This recipe claims sophistication and all I had to buy was some heavy cream and I was all set. Done.

The crust is a sweet tart dough and you can just press it into the pan. This saves me from trying to roll out mis-shapened circles. You pat it into the tart, put foil on it (no weights needed) and bake. Once that’s cool it’s time for the filling.

Do you have chocolate, heavy cream, and butter? That’s the entire list of ingredients for the filling. So make sure that chocolate you’re using is something you’d eat plain. I used 70% Lindt chocolate and I have a feeling this may be too bitter for the kiddies at the party.

To complete the tart, all you have to do is pour the ganache:

Refrigerate for 30 minutes and you’re done. Simple.

The ganache makes it a very rich tart so all you need is a thin slice of it, otherwise it’s too overwhelming. This would also work well as mini tarts. This tart is more adult than kid friendly with the bittersweet, but you can make this with a lower percentage. I think 60% cocoa content would appeal to a wider audience. In the book Dorie says the ganache will taste the same as the chocolate. This was confirmed when my brother in law asked if I had just melted chocolate and poured it right into the tart shell. So use a chocolate you like!

Recipe here.

When I made my first turnovers from The Pie and Pastry Bible, they were good but being a puff pastry fan, they didn’t satisfy me as much as I would have liked. With leftover apples that needed to be used up as well as some sour cream, I turned to Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours cookbook.

This cookbook was on my wishlist for years before I got it as a Christmas present. Then it sat on the shelf for months. I’ve made a handful of these recipes and I’m not too sure why it gets neglected so much, most of the recipes I have made are “repeat worthy”.

If you’re interested in the cookbook, the Tuesdays with Dorie blog has a long list of recipes that you can find in the book. It’s a quick (maybe not so quick with all the delicious photos?) way of seeing if the book is for you.

These Flaky Apple Turnovers caught my eye because it didn’t require me making puff pastry (a somewhat lengthy process) but still claimed to be like puff pastry. The turnovers turned out so well that this recipe will be my “go to”. I even managed to save a few to be baked later. Even though there’s only 2 of us in this household, these turnovers disappeared very quickly.

Tip: Make sure you don’t get any filling on the edges. You won’t be able to pinch the dough closed properly and they will open up in the oven and you will be very sad.

Recipe here.

I used to love those McDonald’s apple turnovers as a kid. What I didn’t love was when you bit into the piping hot filling and have the roof of your mouth peel. I tried an apple turnover many years later to try and bring back nostalgic memories, but they’re never the same. Instead of that same delicious memory, I got something kind of stale and gross.

I made turnovers to prep me for the two apple pies I had to make. The turnovers are from the Pie and Pastry Bible from Rose Levy Beranbaum which hasn’t been as used as much as The Bread Bible and The Cake Bible. I can’t believe I’ve made 16 recipes from The Bread Bible and 19 from The Cake Bible. Although to be fair, the latter includes frostings and jams.

The recipe uses the flaky cream cheese pie crust which can be found here (pdf). The turnover recipe is similar to the pie recipe where you macerate the apples in sugar, lemon juice, and cinnamon and then boil it down until it gets all thick and syrupy which you toss onto the apples.

I think I like a puff pastry better for my turnovers. I have some leftover apples so there are more turnovers in the very near future. The apple filling was also good, but I think I’d increase the sugar a bit and maybe chop the apples into chunks because it’s a little weird for the book to use the term tablespoon for spooning the filling onto the pastry when the apples were in slices.