Archive for the 'dessert' Category
It’s birthday week around here – mine, Mike’s, my sister’s and my nephew’s, all within 6 days. Today we got together for dinner. On the menu: 21 day aged roast beef, Yorkshire pud, roasted veg and all that. For dessert, I dug up something that had jumped out as something Mike would love – apple cheesecake. The plain cheesecake from Canadian Living was his birthday cake of choice for years, and his favourite special-day breakfast has always been puffed apple pancakes or crepes with sautéed apples. This seemed like the perfect marriage of the two.
It had a simple press-in crust made with flour, sugar, butter and egg yolk. Mixed with my fingers and pressed into the bottom and a little up the sides of a springform pan, all rustic-like.
The cheesecake filling is easily mixed and poured overtop.
Then you thinly slice tart apples (I used Ambrosia) and toss them with sugar and cinnamon and spread them over the unbaked filling. Then bake the lot of it.
When it’s done it’ll be puffed and golden, but still a bit jiggly; it will firm up as it cools.
It needs some time to chill out, so make it in the morning if it’s destined for dinner.
Apple Pie Cheesecake
Adapted from Dainty Chef, with thanks to her cheesecake source, Pat Ryer
Crust:
1 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg yolk (save the white)
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
Filling:
2 – 8 oz pkg. cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
Topping:
1 large or 2 medium apples, thinly sliced (about 2 cups or so)
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
To make the crust, combine all of the ingredients in a small bowl and blend with a fork, pastry cutter or your fingers until well blended – it will look like big, soft crumbs. Press into the bottom and about an inch up the sides of a buttered or sprayed springform pan.
To make the filling, beat the cream cheese and sugar until smooth and lump-free; add the eggs, one at a time, then the reserved egg white and vanilla. Pour into the pastry lined pan. Preheat the oven to 400F.
Thinly slice the apple(s) and toss with sugar and cinnamon to coat; scatter over the top of the cheesecake. Bake for 12 minutes, then reduce the heat to 375F and bake for another 30-35 minutes, until puffed and golden but slightly jiggly – it will firm up as it cools. Let cool in the pan, then refrigerate for a few hours, or overnight. Serves 12.
October 30 2011 | cake and dessert | 24 Comments »
I’ve always fancied myself a chocolate person, but I think I might really be a caramel person. And a pastry person – definitely a pastry person. Possibly both. Or all of the above. (This could explain why in the realm of body shapes in which most classify themselves as apples or pears, I’m starting to categorize myself as a snowman.) But oh, some things are worth it. I mean, look at this!
A tarte tatin – an inverted pie typically made with apples and a quick butter-sugar caramel started first in a skillet – is unlike any other fruit pie. Its bottom, having been baked as its top, is crisp and golden, saturated with caramel. This is what Danishes should look like. (In miniature, of course. Or at least the size of a salad plate rather than a dinner plate.)
The fruit is soft and caramelized, kept in halves or fanned out like these pears. With so many more varieties available at the market, it seemed the time to make one. It has been taking up a chunk of headspace since I saw it on Saveur.
It’s the last thing I made before leaving town for Toronto (yep, I’m there now! are you here too? Come see Sue and I at the Cookbook Store between 2 and 3 on Sunday!); my aunt was coming for dinner and I needed to pull together something quick and fancy-ish; it took under ten minutes to dump a chunk of butter and cup of sugar into a cast iron skillet and simmer it into caramel while peeling and coring (a small spoon works perfectly to scoop out the soft flesh) four ripe pears.
And fanning them out in the bottom of the pan. Kind of.
A chunk of thawed puff pastry took about ten seconds to roll out roughly as big as the skillet, then draped overtop. Regular pastry (enough for a single crust) would work just as well – next time I’ll try a hazelnut crust, I think. But I do love puff pastry in this particular placement – it allows you to wind up with something like this:
I really strongly urge you to give this a go, particularly if you are at all pie-phobic. There’s no need to line a plate with pastry, nor crimp the edge – the more haphazardly you put it together, the more rustic it looks, in fact. It’s one of those recipes that you make once, and then can just do, using apples, pears, peaches – bananas, even. Not that you’d ever want to stray from pears when they’re this good.
Saveur instructs the baker to remove excess juices with a turkey baster and reduce them further in a small saucepan. I did not bother to read the whole recipe, and am just reading that part now. I didn’t find the juices to be overly so, and didn’t mind the caramelly puddles, but I do recommend gently inverting the pan onto a plate to avoid a backsplash.
Cast Iron Pear Tarte Tatin
1 chunk of frozen puff pastry, or pastry for a single crust pie
Filling:
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter
a squeeze of lemon juice (about 1 Tbsp.)
2 lb. firm pears, peeled, cored, and halved lengthwise (about 4 pears)
Preheat the oven to 425°. Put the sugar and butter into a heavy cast iron skillet with a squeeze of lemon and cook over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes, stirring until it turns deep golden. Remove from the heat.
To fan the pears, place core-side down on a cutting board and cut into 4 lengthwise slices, leaving the pointy end attached. Arrange cut side up in the pan, fanning them slightly, and placing them close together (fruit shrinks as it cooks).
Roll the pastry out until it’s about as big (or a little bigger) than the skillet; cover the pears and tuck the edge in around them. Cut a few slits in the top and bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden.
Carefully invert the tarte tatin onto a plate while it’s still warm.
October 12 2011 | dessert | 17 Comments »
I love when you have a friend who goes grape picking in the Okanagan and brings you back a box of tight bunches of Coronation grapes, some with twisty vines still attached. If this hasn’t recently happened to you, sorry.
Or… perhaps we should arrange a field trip to the Okanagan?
So I have this box of Coronation grapes – the seedless version of Concords, those dusty indigo blue grapes that pop out of their skins and have far more flavour than the lacklustre green and pale purple ones you see year-round at the grocery store. They’re great for eating, but they also make delicious other things, like cakes and focaccia and chutney and jelly, which is actually a snap to make.
And it tastes surprisingly like the grape jelly of my childhood – not a whole lot more sophisticated.
To make Grape Jelly: simmer 1 1/2 lb Concord or Coronation grapes with 3 Tbsp. lemon juice for about 10 minutes, until the grapes pop; strain through a sieve and return the grape juice to the pan with 1 cup sugar. Bring the mixture to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes, until the jam reaches 220?F on a candy thermometer. Cool and refrigerate for up to a month.
That’s it. It’s thicker than jelly, but I’m not sure I’d call it jam, as all the solids have been strained out. Preserves, perhaps? I love the purpleness of it, especially when spreading on toast or filling little tartlet cups lined with white cheddar pastry. Seemed like a good idea.
Concord Grape Jelly Tarts or Hand Pies
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 cup butter, chilled and cut into pieces
1/4 cup shortening, chilled and cut into pieces
1/2-1 cup grated old white cheddar or 1/4 cup ground hazelnuts or pecans
2-4 Tbsp. ice-cold water
Grape jelly/preserves, for filling
Make the pastry: in a large bowl or the bowl of a food processor, stir together the flour, sugar and salt. Add the butter, shortening and cheese or hazelnuts and use a fork, pastry blender, wire whisk or the “pulse” motion of the food processor to blend the mixture until it resembles coarse meal, with lumps of fat no bigger than a pea.
Drizzle the minimum amount of water over the mixture and stir until the dough comes together, adding a little more a bit at a time if you need it. Gather the dough into a ball, flatten it into a disc, wrap it in plastic and chill for at least half an hour, or freeze for up to 6 months if you want a head start on things.
To fill, roll the pastry out on a lightly floured surface about 1/4-inch thick; cut into rounds with a cookie cutter or glass rim. Fit into mini muffin tins, pressing up the sides, and fill with a spoonful of jam, filling it only about halfway. If you like, cut the scraps into little shapes to place on top of the jam.
Alternatively, make little hand pies (aka turnovers) by putting a spoonful of jam in the middle of each round, brushing the edge with a little beaten egg or milk, and folding it over, turnover-style. Press the edge closed with a fork to seal, and poke the top with a fork. Transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet.
Either way, bake in a preheated 400F oven for 20-25 minutes, until golden. Remove from the pan while still warm. Makes lots.
September 27 2011 | dessert and preserves | 19 Comments »
We totally did it – we had a pie party. Lots of you came, and brought pie, or bubbles, or both. Between the people and the pie and the whipped cream and the sunshine and the bubbly drinks (prosecco, pink moscato, sangria and mint lemonade) it was a pretty fantastic afternoon.
This was the scene at on Saturday at 1:59. I had goosebumps. I tried to photograph them, but it didn’t work. We cleaned up, but didn’t manage to get the walls did, as I keep forgetting to pick up this magic eraser everyone keeps telling me is such a good idea. I’m not convinced it will be less work than painting at this point. But who cares? Everyone’s coming for pie! When the kitchen’s full, no one notices the fingerprints on the walls.
I made a couple pies: a rhubarb-raspberry galette that used up the last of my (still spindly) rhubarb, and a sauteed apple galette on white cheddar crust with a hazelnut crumble topping. (It sounds all fancy when you put it that way, doesn’t it? – really I just added some grated aged white cheddar to the pastry, a handful of hazelnuts to the crumble and didn’t bother with a pie plate.)
And then people started to arrive with pie. Is there a better sight than friends arriving at your door with pies wrapped in tea towels? (And with bubbly bottles of prosecco?) Lauren came! And brought her friends! Astrid had only eaten three types of pie in her life – we fed her three lifetimes worth’ of pie to catch her up.
I heartily endorse a pie potluck as a great kind of a get-together – pie just makes people happy. And it’s the sort of dish you tend to make when you have a group of people to feed. Some people get nervous at the prospect of a potluck. But it’s so risky! You don’t know what you’ll get! That’s part of the fun – that element of surprise. Earlier this week a few people tried to warn me – you’ll get a dozen apple pies! But really – a) who cares? and b) doubtful – the diversity of the dishes that show up at a potluck always amazes me. Especially at harvest time, when there’s so much produce to choose from. Also? If ten people made ten apple pies, they’d all be different.
There was bumbleberry pie, and Saskatoon pie. (One came from Fifendekel in Edmonton, another from Pearson’s Berry Farm.) Jenna brought pecan pie – which was pie perfection, and turned out to be her very first pie made from scratch. Everyone agreed she nailed it. (I’m on her to post that recipe!) There was a stunning peach pie with a lattice crust that disappeared in record time, and chocolate chip cookie dough pie – cookie dough baked right in the crust! Andy brought a ginger pear galette with Greek yogurt for spooning on top. (She also happened to be a calligrapher, and sat down to make signs for each pie as it arrived.)
Aga brought tequila lime pie and two boys for W to play Star Wars with.
Carol brought pink drinks – Foxy Ladies – with Evans cherries from her own back yard. (She said, after a few plates of pie, “I think I’ve pied and gone to heaven.”)
Catharine brought gorgeous peach-plum galettes, sprinkled with sugar she said she rubbed with fresh mint. Hello. I almost snuck off with one of them for some alone time.
And Avery brought pie fries! Sticks of cinnamon-sugared baked pastry that you serve with sweet dip – she brought dulce de leche and strawberry cream. Of course because her pastry was fantastic they were a bit fragile – but a delicious hit! I guess with pie fries the goal is tough pastry?
Darrel and Corrine brought a graham cracker crusted no-bake cheesecake pie, topped with sliced peaches, blueberries and wee strawberries from their back yard. And Lauren‘s pie? A stunner, just like her – blueberry-blackberry-peach, and gluten-free, of course. Her crust was made with almond, sweet rice and millet flours and was incredibly tender and delicious. I may just start making her pastry from now on. She wrote a great pie post, by the way, that sums up the essence of pie and its influence on people.
I’ve had a lot of people tell me I’m crazy for inviting people I’ve never met over to my house. Life is too short not to, I think. Anyone who is willing to bake a pie to bring to a potluck with a bunch of people they’ve never met is probably someone I’d like to hang out with. It’s so much easier to be talked out of doing something because there might be a risk involved (do axe murderers even like pie?) than to just go ahead and do it – most often the potential for greatness far outweighs any potential (imagined or not) negatives. And pie takes care of the rest.
Sautéed Apple Galette on White Cheddar Crust
Crust:
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 cup butter, chilled and cut into pieces
1/4 cup shortening, chilled and cut into pieces
1/2-1 cup grated old white cheddar
2-4 Tbsp. ice-cold water
Filling:
1/4 cup butter
3 lb tart apples (such as Granny Smith) cut into 3/4″ pieces (don’t bother peeling them)
1/2 cup sugar
pinch salt
Crumble:
1/2 cup all-purpose or whole wheat flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup butter, cut into pieces
1/4 cup flaked hazelnuts
Make the pastry: in a large bowl or the bowl of a food processor, stir together the flour, sugar and salt. Add the butter, shortening and cheese and use a fork, pastry blender, wire whisk or the “pulse” motion of the food processor to blend the mixture until it resembles coarse meal, with lumps of fat no bigger than a pea.
Drizzle the minimum amount of water over the mixture and stir until the dough comes together, adding a little more a bit at a time if you need it. Gather the dough into a ball, flatten it into a disc, wrap it in plastic and chill for at least half an hour. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out into a 14-inch circle (don’t worry about it being perfect); drape over the rolling pin and transfer to a parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet. Put the fridge while you make the filling.
Meanwhile in a large, heavy skillet, heat the butter over medium-high heat. When the foaming subsides, add the apples and cook until they start releasing their juices. Sprinkle the sugar and salt overtop. Cook for about 10 more minutes, stirring often, until the moisture evaporates and the syrup thickens, and the apples start to turn golden. Remove from the heat and transfer to a bowl to cool.
To make the crumble topping, blend all the ingredients in a bowl or food processor until well combined and crumbly. Preheat the oven to 375F.
Pile the cooled apples onto the pastry, mounding it the middle and spreading it out to within 2 inches of the edge. Fold the pastry over, letting it fold where it wants to. If you like, brush the folded-over part with a little milk or beaten egg and sprinkle with coarse sugar. Scatter the crumble mixture over top.
Bake for 45 minutes, or until bubbly and golden. Let cool for at least 10 minutes before sliding carefully onto a cutting board to serve. Serves 8-10.
September 11 2011 | dessert | 42 Comments »
I’m attempting to squeeze every last bit of summer out of this last week before school starts. (Honestly, it’s conflicting with my desperate need to organize the basement and office – the one thing I was ABSOLUTELYPOSITIVELY going to get done in August. Of which there are only 8 days left of.)
And I hadn’t even managed to make popsicles! Which are of course all the rage this year. Forget all those years of buying ice pop molds at the dollar store, then cursing the dozen multicoloured plastic handles scattered all over the basement floor for me to a) pick up, and/or 2) step on. I’d throw them out, then get tempted by another set. Did I ever make popsicles? Not really.
But then Avery emailed me a link to the Kitchn, and these creamy lime pie pops, and it was like the mother ship calling me home. I’m a sucker for that lime juice-sweetened condensed milk combo; I love the science of it, the way the mixture thickens as you whisk acid into dairy. I love folding whipped cream into it, then intercepting most of it myself before it makes it into its pie shell.
But frozen into popsicles! Brilliant. And a perfect mixture for freezing in shot glasses – those tall ones, if you can find them. I procured mine for 69 cents at Value Village.
The best part? You douse them in graham crumbs to complete the pie effect. Genius, I know.
Paletas de Pay de Limón – Lime Pie Ice Pops
Adapted from Paletas: Authentic Recipes for Mexican Ice Pops, Shaved Iced, & Aguas Frescas by Fany Gerson, by way of Avery and The Kitchn
1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup half & half
zest and juice of 2 large limes
Pinch salt
coarsely crushed graham crackers or Digestive cookies (or graham crumbs)
Whisk together the sweetened condensed milk, half & half, lime juice, lime zest, and salt in a bowl and whisk until thoroughly combined. It will thicken slightly – a reaction between the lime juice and milk – I love that.
If using ice pop molds, fill them almost to the top and pop in their sticks. If using shot glasses, fill them almost full, then cover with plastic wrap and stick popsicle sticks through the wrap (which will hold them in place) – the mixture is likely thick enough to hold a stick upright without the wrap, though. Freeze until solid.
Spread the crumbs on a large plate. Unmold the pops and dip into the graham crackers, coating as much as you like.
August 23 2011 | dessert and freezable | 11 Comments »
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