Fresh Apricot Tart

Very quick post today, here's a fabulous recipe and when I didn't follow it very well (aka: used apricots instead of apples and didn't add any jam) was okay, but not great. Here's the original recipe, do with it what you will, but it is an absolutely DELICIOUS crust, I just goofed a little with the topping. :)
Alice Waters’ Apple Tart

Dough:

• 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, just softened, cut in 1/2-inch pieces
• 3 1/2 tablespoons chilled water

Filling:

• 2 pounds apples (Golden Delicious or another tart, firm variety), peeled, cored (save peels and cores), and sliced
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 5 tablespoons sugar

Glaze:

• 1/2 cup sugar

Directions:

1. MIX flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl; add 2 tablespoons of the butter. Blend in a mixer until dough resembles coarse cornmeal. Add remaining butter; mix until biggest pieces look like large peas.
2. DRIBBLE in water, stir, then dribble in more, until dough just holds together. Toss with hands, letting it fall through fingers, until it’s ropy with some dry patches. If dry patches predominate, add another tablespoon water. Keep tossing until you can roll dough into a ball. Flatten into a 4-inch-thick disk; refrigerate. After at least 30 minutes, remove; let soften so it’s malleable but still cold. Smooth cracks at edges. On a lightly floured surface, roll into a 14-inch circle about 1/8 inch thick. Dust excess flour from both sides with a dry pastry brush.
3. PLACE dough in a lightly greased 9-inch round tart pan, or simply on a parchment-lined baking sheet if you wish to go free-form, or galette-style with it. Heat oven to 400#176;F. (If you have a pizza stone, place it in the center of the rack.)
4. OVERLAP apples on dough in a ring 2 inches from edge if going galette-style, or up to the sides if using the tart pan. Continue inward until you reach the center. Fold any dough hanging over pan back onto itself; crimp edges at 1-inch intervals.
5. BRUSH melted butter over apples and onto dough edge. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons sugar over dough edge and the other 3 tablespoons over apples. (Deb note: I found it nearly impossible to coat it with this much sugar, so I used a little less–more like 3 tablespoons. It made a lightly sweet tart, which we found perfect.)
6. BAKE in center of oven until apples are soft, with browned edges, and crust has caramelized to a dark golden brown (about 45 minutes), making sure to rotate tart every 15 minutes.
7. MAKE glaze: Put reserved peels and cores in a large saucepan, along with sugar. Pour in just enough water to cover; simmer for 25 minutes. Strain syrup through cheesecloth.
8. REMOVE tart from oven, and slide off parchment onto cooling rack. Let cool at least 15 minutes.
9. BRUSH glaze over tart, slice, and serve.

Happy Baking!

Jessica

Clafoutis aux Abricots

Why, oh why? Can someone please tell me why "The Mentalist" Season 2 is not available on Apple TV? I just don't understand! It's driving me crazy! I miss Patrick Jane and his gorgeous smile way too much... What can I have to look forward to all day at work now?

To make myself feel a little better, I decided to buy some fresh apricots and make some mini clafoutis, and they helped....a little bit. :) Here is a superbly delicious recipe for Apricot Clafoutis, a dessert that can be easily dressed up by making individual portions or dressed down by tossing it all into one large, homey pan.

Apricot Clafoutis

(adapted from Eating Well)

Ingredients:

• 6 apricots, pitted and cut into wedges
• 1 teaspoon Grand Marnier
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons sugar (plus more for sprinkling)
• 1 small egg
• 1/3 cup nonfat milk
• 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt

Directions:

1. Combine apricots and Grand Marnier in a large bowl. Grate zest from the lemon and set aside. Juice the lemon and stir 2 teaspoons of the juice into the apricots. Let stand for at least 1 hour.
2. Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat 3 small ramequins with cooking spray. Sprinkle about 1/2 teaspoon sugar evenly over the bottom of each. Drain the apricots (reserving the syrup) and arrange in the baking dish.
3. Combine egg and the sugar in a medium bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until pale yellow. Add milk, flour, vanilla extract, salt, the reserved lemon zest and the reserved syrup; beat well to blend. Pour the batter over the apricots.
4. Bake the clafoutis until puffed and golden, about 3o minutes. Let cool about 20 minutes. Serve warm or room temperature.

Happy Baking!

Jessica

Dorie's Thumbprints

After such a long day yesterday watching my brother play a golf match in Antioch- it was 100 degrees all afternoon! I just did not have the energy to bake anything when we got home at 11pm. It was great to finally watch Zach play a full round and I am so impressed that he's able to play golf day in and day out, without being exhausted ALL the time! As I write this, he's on his way to a course in Aptos with my dad for another round! :-)

So today, I am fully making up for my missed day by making Dorie's "Thumbprints For Us Big Guys." I'd had my eye on them all week but I'm so happy I waited until I had some free time to make them in a leisurely way, they were so simple and classic, but easy to customize with a simple change of filling. I used raspberry jam in some, apricot preserves in others, and of course Nutella in just a few. ;-) Easy and low-key but cute and tasty, give them a try!

Thumbprints For Us Big Guys

adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home to Yours

• 1 3/4 cups finely ground walnuts
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 sticks (8 oz) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• Confectioner’s sugar, for dusting
• About 1 cup jam/preserves/Nutella for the filling

GETTING READY: Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

Whisk together ground nuts and flour.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with the paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the extracts and beat to blend. Reduce the mixer speed to low and gradually add the nut-flower mixture, mixing only until it is incorporated into the dough.

Working with a teaspoonful of dough at a time, roll the dough between your palms to form small balls and place the balls 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. Steadying each cookie with the thumb and forefinger of one hand, use the pinkie of your other hand (or the end of a wooden spoon) to poke a hole in the center of each cookie. Be careful not to go all the way down to the baking sheet.

Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back at the midway point. The cookies should be only slightly colored–they may even look underdone, which is fine: they should not be overbaked. When the cookies are baked, remove the baking sheets from the oven and let the cookies rest on the sheets for 2 minutes before transferring them to cooling racks with a wide metal spatula and sifting confectioner’s sugar over them.

Repeat with the remaining dough, remembering to cool the baking sheets before baking the next batch.

Bring jam to a boil in a small saucepan over low heat, or bring to a boil in a microwave oven; remove from the heat. Fill the indentations of all the cookies with enough of the hot jam to come level with the tops. Cool to room temperature.

Happy Baking!

Jessica

Apricot Galette

:-) I am loving this Galette! Since I already had the dough made from Friday's Nectarine Galette I used the leftover with apricots to make a delicious Sunday night dessert to begin the new week on a good note. Have some pictures!

Happy Baking!

Jessica

Little Tartelettes

Very quick post here as I'm off to have a sushi dinner with my friend, Micala. :) I needed to make something quick and simple, so I chose Dorie greenspan's "pate sablé" and made a half-recipe and then baked them in little muffin tins. Then I melted a bit of apricot jam and used it as a filling and topped them with fresh-cut strawberries. I also made one with nutella instead of jam and boy oh boy- the combination of sugar cookie-like dough and chocolate spread? There's nothing tastier. :) Enjoy, and have fun experimenting!

Dorie Greenspan's Pate Sablee:

Ingredients:

• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick plus 1 tablespoon (9 tablespoons) very cold (or frozen) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 large egg yolk

Directions:
Put the flour, confectioners' sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse a couple of times to combine. Scatter the pieces of butter over the dry ingredients and pulse until the butter is coarsely cut in—you should have some pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and some the size of peas. Stir the yolk, just to break it up, and add it a little at a time, pulsing after each addition. When the egg is in, process in long pulses—about 10 seconds each—until the dough, which will look granular soon after the egg is added, forms clumps and curds. Just before you reach this stage, the sound of the machine working the dough will change—heads up. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and, very lightly and sparingly, knead the dough just to incorporate any dry ingredients that might have escaped mixing.
To press the dough into the pan: Butter a 9-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom. Press the dough evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the pan, using all but one little piece of dough, which you should save in the refrigerator to patch any cracks after the crust is baked. Don't be too heavy-handed—press the crust in so that the edges of the pieces cling to one another, but not so hard that the crust loses its crumbly texture. Freeze the crust for at least 30 minutes, preferably longer, before baking.

To partially or fully bake the crust: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Butter the shiny side of a piece of aluminum foil and fit the foil, buttered side down, tightly against the crust. (Since you froze the crust, you can bake it without weights.) Put the tart pan on a baking sheet and bake the crust for 25 minutes. Carefully remove the foil. If the crust has puffed, press it down gently with the back of a spoon. For a partially baked crust, patch the crust if necessary, then transfer the crust to a cooling rack (keep it in its pan).

Happy Baking!

Jessica

First day of work and Giada's Apricot Oat Bars!

Hi everyone!

I apologize for the past few posts' shortness, but I've been so busy trying to cram in the last few moments of summer fun before work began! And what a last hurrah it was!
I have baked so much in the last week and a half but I am having so much fun, coming home and being able to bake anything of my choosing is so relaxing and having the chance to balance it out between the SUPER sweet (yep, I'm talking to you S'Mores Brownies!!) to the scrumptious and savory Challah. (Did I just use alliteration over summer break?) Anyways, back to the reason for this post! I had my first day of work today at a technology company (Sorry, can't disclose the name!) as a marketing intern. Today was mostly orientation presentations and a REALLY long training session for a program I already know... So as I'm sure you can imagine, I was seriously ready for a little R and R, and on the drive home I thought of the perfect dessert. I saw it on the Food Network about 2 weeks ago and knew I had to wait for the perfect occasion to make it. Giada de Laurentiis is honestly one of my favorite people ever. Between Giada and Ina Garten (The Barefoot Contessa), I think I would never have another boring conversation. She just seems so normal and down to earth! We'd be besties- I know it. :) So, in the spirit of sharing my love for my foodie idol, here's the recipe. These bars are chewy and moist throughout with just the right amount of crunch from the nuts! I am ESPECIALLY glad I halved this recipe because after watching all the sugar that was mixed into it and the AMAZING taste-I would absolutely gain 10 pounds if the full recipe had been in my kitchen. Be careful- these are crazy good.

Apricot Oat Bars (full recipe)
(adapted from Giada de Laurentiis)

Ingredients

• 13 ounces apricot preserves
• 8 dried apricots, chopped into 1/4 in. pieces (I kept the full 8 to add more authentic apricot chewiness!)
• 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 packed cup light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (I left this out- not a big cinnamon fan)
• 3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt (table salt is fine too)
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 3/4 cups old-fashioned oats
• 1 cup (4 ounces) coursely chopped walnuts (I only had pecans on hand so I used those and they worked just as well)
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
• 1 egg, at room temperature, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I left the whole teaspoon in my halved version)

Directions

1. Put an oven rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9x13 by 2-inch metal baking dish with vegetable oil cooking spray. (Or butter) Line the bottom and sides of the pan with parchment paper. Spray the parchment paper with vegetable oil cooking spray and set aside.
2. Filling: In a small bowl, mix together the preserves and the apricots. Set aside.
3. Crust: In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cinnamon, salt and baking soda. Stir in the oats and walnuts. Add the butter, egg and vanilla and stir until incorporated.
4. Using a fork or clean fingers, lightly press half of the crust mixture onto the bottom of the prepared pan. Using a spatula, spread the filling over the crust leaving a 1/2-inch border around the edge of the pan. Cover the filling with the remaining crust mixture and gently press to flatten. Bake until golden, about 30 to 35 minutes. Cool for 1 hour. (This is the REALLY hard part!) Cut into bars and store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Hopefully you'll give these a try and share my love for Giada and her yummy bars. :)

Happy Baking!

Jessica