raspberry tart

The crazy weather this spring and this summer has done terrible thing to crops like sour cherries, but at least the raspberries are doing okay.

frangipane apricot tart

The farmers market near my house has had the most wonderful stone fruits from Michigan; last week was sadly the final week of sour cherries so my caneton Montmorency fantasy will have to be fulfilled next summer as the last few weekends have been oppressively humid and the idea of roasting a duck in such conditions was less than desirable (meanwhile, I have some sour cherries saved in rum and others in Luxardo, which should make for some great late-summer cocktails). I decided to make a frangipane tart; above is the prep for a basic flaky pastry, which doesn't need to be pre-baked as the frangipane — a divine almond-butter-egg mixture — bakes into a cakelike consistency and the excess butter drains nicely out of the false-bottomed tart pan (and hopefully not onto the floor of your oven).


Setting up the tart I almost wished that I had made a fresh tart with pastry cream as the color was so vivid. The plums were very ripe, a rich vermilion, and the apricots were perfectly firm and smooth.


I glazed the tart with apricot jam; the upper edges of the apricots are perfectly caramelized and the frangipane firm but moist.

tarte tatin aux poires

A tarte tatin made with pears and cardamom. Baked at 400º for 15 minutes or so, then lowered to 350º until done. That temperature to start seems to get the best crust - this crust is a basic all-butter pie crust, the butter just barely incorporated, allowing for a perfectly flaky crust.

apple nougatine tart

This is another great recipe from Tartine, which has provided some great results in the past. I was actually amazed that I mentioned it in a post but have few details — I'm assuming we ate it all before I got to take photos.

It's a [pre-baked] flaky pastry crust filled with apples sautéed in butter and sugar (with a pinch of salt) that are tossed with lemon juice and zest. The tarts get covered with a mixture of egg white, sugar, salt and almonds, forming a delicious nougatine crust. The trick is for the apples to be cooked until not too soft, with some caramelized, some softer, some firmer. Once that all comes together the result is not to sweet with a brightness from the lemon. This was also one of my best pastry efforts crust-wise.

fête nationale

Mini vol-au-vents (bouchées) with a creamed kale-leek filling.

Foies de volailles à l'estragon en aspic — chicken liver pâté with tarragon in aspic (from those feet!) — grâce à Julia Child, bien sûr! Gateaux St-André and Quatres-quarts (pound cake) in background.


A new creation — cardamon meringues! (1 white, 1/2 c. sugar, pinch salt, pinch cream of tartar, six pods caradmom, ground).


Ensemble: Gâteaux St-Andre (Walnut cake), vegan pâté, pâté, Emmenthaler, chèvre from Colrain.


And tartes aux framboises : I made an almond pastry cream that was heavenly. Red and black raspberries from the Tuesday market.

squash blossoms, steak frites

I bought ten squash blossoms yesterday morning at the market -- and then stuffed them with a mixture of sorrel, ricotta and pine nuts. I beat an egg white with a pinch of salt until airy but still soft, beat in the yolk and then beat in some brown rice flour. I coated them in that and fried them until light brown. They were very very good.


Since we had the oil (grapeseed), and hadn't really had dinner (it was probably nine by this point), we wanted something fried for dinner. And I thought "steak frites" -- given, I've never cooked steak, in fact I hadn't eaten it in a very long time. But it sounded really good. We made small-cut fries, sautéed spinach and seared four portions of steak cooked from medium-rare to well-done. It felt really decadent and was really delicious. It also turned into a heated discussion of meat ethics, which seems appropriate for four one-time vegetarians eating steak.

And I finished that with my first tarte tatin of the season. Today felt like a day in September, and that was nice.

raspberries, blueberries, currants and some cream.

Family function this weekend, and I got some raspberries and blueberries from a farm stand (the currants are from a bush I planted -- the robins had more than I did, actually).

The borage and nasturtium are from the garden (what's left of it -- it's still recovering from roaming house painters). Basic pastry cream (with tapioca starch, not corn), and a pâte sablée (sweet egg-based) for the crust.

And, more exciting than the post, I have a digital camera that works again.

two desserts.

During the height of strawberry season, I made a strawberry-rhubarb tart. First, I made a pâte sablée, the sweet and made-with-eggs crust that I somehow had never bothered to make, mostly in trying to perfect the flaky crust. Next, I made a pastry cream but substituted buttermilk for the milk or cream (out of principle: I wanted a tangy cream), and tapioca flour for cornstarch (out of necessity: I bought a whole box last summer for peach pie and have no cornstarch at home). Right as the vanilla bean-buttermilk mixture was about to separate (think of heating yogurt), I added the eggs and tapioca. The separation of the buttermilk was a first moment of doubt, the stickiness of the tapioca in the cream a second. But, once settled, the pastry cream was incredible.

Tart crust baked, cooled and filled with pastry cream, I topped it with strawberry lightly macerated in lemon juice and sugar and added one-inch lengths of rhubarb cooked in sugar until just soft.

If was really good. Really really good. I brought an 8" tart to work and it was gone (with four of us) by the end of the day.


On another note, today: Grilled nectarines. Vanilla ice cream. That after chorizo and pattypan squash grilled was really really good (I'm in love with my hibachi). Think warm peach pie without the work and crust.

week's end...

A week (and then some) of canning comes to a close. Off to New Jersey and Delaware with Luke -- so canning, cooking and the like can be held at bay until Friday (at the earliest). Made a nougatine tart at work for the "demo" -- the small convection oven, as much as it is small, defies the "middle rack" logic and the almonds were carmalized (read burned, but everyone loved it). One coworker declared it her new favorite dessert. Who wouldn't? Almonds, apples sautéed in butter, a flaky crust... it's a whole lot of heaven.