Archive for the ‘Fruit’ Category
Perfect Party Celebration Cake ~TWD
Posted by Amy Ruth | Filed under Desserts, For Friends, Fruit, Uncategorized
“Celebration.” Googling a word usually elicits a link for correct spelling and or definitions. The listings under Celebration brought up “Kool and the Gang.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwEMxYggoKQ If you are old enough you may remember that upbeat song. There are many interpretations of celebrations, occasions and businesses. You can’t imagine how many celebrations listing I found. Even a Hotel in Florida. The other really notable occasion that knocked me in the forehead was of course the 4th of July. Then of course there are always a host of family traditional gatherings called Celebrations. The list is infinite. Clearly defined, celebration is the action of marking one’s pleasure at an important event or occasion by engaging in enjoyable, typically social activity. (Yep, that’s from the dictionary, formerly in book form. Remember that ?) See, theses days that usually includes food. My favorite food is dessert or something sweet.
The Perfect Party Cake comes from Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. She writes that she adapted this recipe from her very favorite Nick Malgieri. Who has authored numerous notable and award winning cookbooks. As part of a group of bakers called Tuesdays with Dorie, just under 400 bakers fire up their Kitchen Aid mixers, splatter flour on their cheeks and noses and proceed to bake a weekly recipe selection. Each member takes his or her turn with the honor of selecting a recipe from Dorie’s book. This week’s Perfect Party Cake was chosen by Carol of Mix, Mix, Stir, Stir and I think its a perfect cake for this time of year. Snowy white, lemony cake with a splash of fruitiness on the inside between the layers and or outside if you wish, with an optional coconut finish. White again. I think if you ventured along amongst the blog world you would find much associated with Fourth of July celebrations and this cake would certainly be pronounced among the top choices. Just in case this sounds and looks good to you, the recipe is posted on Carol’s Mix Mix Stir Stir website or you can find it in Baking From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan.
I hope you’ll go a step further and go get the book for the bounty of fabulous recipes or visit Carol for this cake. Start your oven ~ and bake like a mad person. Its great fun, plus you can share with friends and make new ones all at the same time.
Thanks for stopping by for a visit.
I
Parisian Apple Tartlet – for Dorie
Posted by Amy Ruth | Filed under Desserts, For Friends, Fruit
That’s right Dorie. This one is for you, or maybe not. After having dropped off the radar for a couple of weeks imagine how excited I was to see such a straightforward little sweetie on our June schedule. Even though apples are typically a fall fruit, I thought this would really be a lovely trade out for summer fruits. Even a medley of peach, mango, blueberries. I love apricots too. Perhaps a sprinkling of chopped nuts.
Dorie, most of the TWD bakers all know you love to be in your apartment in Paris as often as possible. So what would a “Dorie Book” be without the near and dear to the heart, apple tartlet? Dorie introduces her Parisian Apple Tartlet as a version of a widely enjoyed little treat that can be eaten out of hand or elegantly plated. So make it your choice.
On one end of the tray is an apple tartlet, the opposite is an apricot & blueberry. The beauty of this delicious treat (I ate them both after Corbin photographed them…..shhhh) is the “bang for the buck!” These can be produced in a very short amount of time. Start to finish, a little more than 1/2 hour. Depending on the size of the fruit the recommended baking time may be a bit shorter. Now, if you keep your secrets to yourself you can present a very tasty and impressive sweet treat to an unsuspecting loved one. :-)
Thanks goes to Jessica of My Baking Heart for the palmsized sweet treat that I enjoyed eating tonight. She had the fun choice this week. You can get the recipe on her site as well. Get into that Baking From My Home to Yours cookbook by Dorie Greenspan if you have it on your shelf. If not ? Seriously, why don’t you? Thanks again Dorie for such a nice, homey little treat. It is way better than a donut!!!
Tartest Lemon Tart
Posted by Amy Ruth | Filed under For Friends, Fruit, Tuesdays with Dorie
A Tartest Lemon Tart had to be a refreshing and seasonal choice from Babette of Babette Feasts. One might think of it as kind a passing of the torch from the recent infinity of chocolate to … woo hoo, its fruit season. I can only imagine how she must have “stewed” over Dorie’s many many recipes for the season before finalizing her selection. You might know we wait in a long line for our turn to make a recipe choice. ( There are many bakers in this group.) Some of those choices have been great cause for consternation, swearing, dancing merrily, taking photos of course, stirring, measuring, calculating and recalculating, he he, chilling, heating, freezing, typing and of course eating. Instructions as well as the recipe will be on Babbettes blog. You may also want to drop by your local bookstore for a copy of Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. For more information about joining in on the baking fun drop by Tuesdays With Dorie.
I made this tart a while back upon discovering its reputation on SmittenKitchen. I have to say as I read the varying comments I wasn’t sure how things would go. I used Meyer lemons before and also this time. This was my first experience with them. A much softer, less intense and not so tart lemon. Pretty little things, they are. I have to say it was really a nice and similar to an old southern lemon chess pie recipe I make all the time for my Mom. I love the translation of desserts from Dorie’s home to ours and the connections they often times have to our families.
My crisper drawer had Meyer lemons and regular lemons. They definitely called out so I made two tart shells and set about making Tartest Lemon Tarts. I love lemons. I know everyone asks “Did I say I love lemons?” But really…. I do! So, don’t worry even though I love them, well, Corbin had an Orthodontist appointment on Monday morning. I’m not the patient so its easy for me to say, “It’s fun” however Corbin might not agree. He’s always grumpy for a few days after. They don’t mind if I bring my baking to them and they actually seem to enjoy ???? They’re nice. The Meyer lemons are very small with thin skin. I used two, skin and all, minus the seeds. There is very very little pith in Meyer lemons. Aside from that everything else was according to the written recipe in Baking From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan.
There were good suggestions about handling the pith from the regular lemons in the P & Q section of the TWD site. I considered my options,and decided I didn’t want to risk all my ingredients and time to a possible bitter aftertaste. I used my micro plane to zest my lemons, peeled away the pith, removed the seeds and cut up the 1 1/2 lemons. The unbaked tart filling tasted quite nice so I can’t wait to taste the cooled version. Mmmmm.
Thank you so much for your patience today because my post was an evening edition not an early morning one and for stopping by for a visit. I can’t wait to see all the beautiful Tartest Lemon Tarts out there in the Tuesdays With Dorie baking group. Take a look for yourself. You’ll definitely want to snag a copy of Baking From My Home to Yours for yourself. In the mean time take yourself back to Babette Feasts where you can get the recipe.
French Yogurt Cake ~ TWD
Posted by Amy Ruth | Filed under Fruit, Tuesdays with Dorie
Just as the French Yogurt Cake is a beloved little cake that is often lovingly made in the homes of french families, over and over again with an array of variations as limitless as your palate will allow. This recipe collection is from various families and friends both on the American side of “the Pond” as well as Dorie’s beloved Parisian side of “the Pond.” I love the opportunity to expand my horizons and experience something different.
My Mom always had little loaf style pound cakes around as I was growing up. I couldn’t resist baking this recipe in a loaf pan. I made Dorie’s lemon curd to go with it. See! I also used the ground almonds in mind for added texture and richness. We enjoyed this homey little cake. It was super simple to put together and took no time. So dressed up or simply sliced with fruit or a sauce. Its a winner in my home!
Thank you Lilana of My Cookbook Addiction for choosing such a lovingly shared French cake for us on this side of the pond. Stop by her site for the recipe and take a trip to the other side of the pond here.
Dorie’s Top Choice – French Pear Tart
Posted by Amy Ruth | Filed under Desserts, Fruit, TWD
Through the magic of Corbin the photo’s are right where they should be……I missed them. Gosh!
Oops, so sorry I’m late. I’ve missed the comment rush, but that’s okay. I’m a dork and couldn’t locate my photos to go along with my post. :-0. Anyway, I loved that Dorie chose this tart for us this week, loved making it, loved eating, loved sharing and loved being a part of this group. It was just such a Parisian kind of feeling (not that I’ve ever been there) and kind of had that “special” and fruffy feeling. Share the Love and Enjoy! I did.[SinglePic not found]
This is the first baking selection for the New Year 2009. It also happens to be the First Anniversary of Tuesdays With Dorie baking group. I bake along with one of the best baking groups in the blog world. It’s called Tuesdays with Dorie. Dorie Greenspan authored the book (among many others) Baking From My Home to Yours. Each week, a selection is made from this book by one of the members of the nearly 400 bakers. Baking is done during the week and posted on Tuesdays. So that is the story. Chances are, if you are among the handful of people who are reading this you are aware. Just in case you have happened onto this site somehow in the spider web of the internet, you might want to understand the purpose of this post and blog. I just call it sharing the love. I love to bake pretty food. Especially sweet food. Although I love to eat savory food as well. Don’t worry! I love food, think about food, . . . all the time.
Last night I quickly put together the Sweet Tart Dough in my food processor. I pressed it into my rectangular tart pan and took it to my freezer for the night. Dorie’s recipe suggests you can vary the dough slightly and so I exchanged some of the flour for almond flour. I’ve made Sweet Tart dough before in my Food Processer and its so easy and tastes so good! Seriously! My mental picture is that of a giant shortbread cookie with the tart filling on top. Its just that good. I have not used this particular pan frequently so I was pumped about creating this beautiful French Pear Tart in this particular pan. Its kind of fun to change it up a bit, don’t you think?[SinglePic not found]
This morning I went to the gym for a rigorous hour of training. I had a little extra incentive, with that old after the holiday “fright!” Well, also so that I could have some of this sweet stuff tonight. A trip to the store for the pears for the French Pear Tart was really all I needed to produce this dessert. Just for fun, I choose to poach my fresh pears. Dorie suggests that even some of the highly acclaimed pastry chefs use canned pears. Can you believe that? The almond cream was lovely, made again with Bob’s Red Mill Almond Flour. I had it on hand and had used it before for almond cream when making a previous tart. I did add 1/4 teaspoon of almond extract to this mixture to enhance the almond flavoring a little more.
I conferred with my designer friend about the placement of the sliced, poached pears. Wasn’t it just so kismet that she and her husband dropped by just as I was slicing my little fruits? Perfect timing! So, we placed the pears on a cutting board in front of the pan just to make sure everything fit and looked , well, the way we wanted them to look. That was fun! So in a bit….I’m off to her house for a special delivery, with some of Dorie’s French Pear Tart.
This really was a fun project. I don’t mind multiple steps to a project because you can do them along with all your regular life stuff. I learned how to core those little fruits with my older brothers baby spoon (my Mom gave me), which worked like a charm. Also, in my case with this particular pan I baked for approximately 40 minutes. The recipe calls for a 9″ round tart pan and suggests an approximate baking time of 50 minutes. The unbaked components are just as tastey as the baked. he he . That is a secret you will have to discover for yourself. Do you want to see the recipe? I’ll tell you how. Just click here. If you make this lovely tart, you can taste the goodness for yourself.
You know, Dorie chose this weeks recipe. She Did TOO!!! Uh huh!!! Just take a look at her website if you don’t believe me. www.DorieGreenspan.com. She has the lovely recipe there as well. There are many many many beautiful French Pear Tarts out there so please enjoy the photography (of which there are many print worthy photos) and visit all your favorite TWD bakers on the Blogroll. It is so fun to see all the energy and success of these baker women and even a few men. Yep, that’s right we do not discriminate. Not to mention, many of them are quite entertaining and funny.
As a special treat to our Tuesday’s with Dorie bakers, Laurie of Quirky Cupcake, who is our fearless leader organized with Dorie an Anniversary Q & A interview on the Tuesday’s with Dorie site. What a fun and wonderfully inspiring woman she is to many. Click here and get to know Dorie. Get you own Baking From My Home to Yours and bake along with all these baking friends.
