So when I was reading through Once Upon a Tart the other day looking for a fresh fruit tart to make I ran across a baked lemon tart. I knew that was not what I wanted to make but I was intrigued by the part in the paragraph that said if you had extra custard left over, just put them in ramekins and bake them off. Yum I thought. One problem though, no lemons. But oranges, I always have oranges. Instead of even bothering with the tart part at all I just decided to make the custard and bake those. I originally had the idea of doing a deconstructed tart with the inside in the ramekin and the outside just a little tart cookie. Which I tried, and didn’t really like(apparently I like something in my tart dough…not just beside it), so I scraped that idea and just stuck with the custard. What I got was something similar to flan. A little more eggy than I expected, yet still quite yummy. If I were to do it all over again, I would have bake it in a water bath, which I came really close to doing, but I thought I would stick to their recipe. This would go nicely with an orange caramel sauce, which I would have made except…I was out of oranges after making these.

Orange Custard

3 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
zest of 1 orange
3/4 cup orange juice(the juice of two large oranges)
3/4 cup heavy cream

Whisk together the eggs and yolks together in a medium-sized bowl. Add the sugar with one hand while continuing to whisk with the other. Still whisking, pour in the lemon zest and juice, then the cream. Pout the orange custard into ramekins. Bake at 350F for about 25 minutes…they will puff up, but deflate after coming out of the oven.
Remove from oven and let cool. Once cool, place in fridge to chill. Serve cold.

Source: Adapted from Once Upon a Tart by Frank Mentesana and Jerome Audueau 2003

So to me a galette is a free form open-faced tart stuffed with fruit. But come to find out it can be a great many things. According to Dorie, galettes are most likely referring to a cookie, often a fat, flaky Brenton butter cookie…and I am not one to argue with Dorie. The original recipe is for an Orange Galette, the orange coming from the zest and Grand Marnier that they put into the apricot jam. Since I had no Grand Marnier, I went with apricot brandy. This galette has a bit of an identity crisis…it is half sugar cookie half tart…a tarookie, if you will(doubt that name will be catching on anytime soon). The dough is sweeter than traditional pate brisee and so in that aspect it is more like a sugar cookie. But I just can’t help thinking it is more like a tart since you have the fruit and meringue topping. I must say they are quite yummy and very versatile, as these could really be made with any jam you so desired. Once again, the only downfall, is that the book doesn’t have pictures so this is MY interpretation of what it should look like

Apricot Galettes

The Cookie Base

1 1/4 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup powder sugar
1/4 cup ground almonds
pinch of salt
1 large egg
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

The Jam and Meringue
1/3 cup apricot jam(I use apricot-pineapple that my mom made)
2 tsp apricot brandy
2 large egg whites, preferably at room temperature
3 TBSP sugar
1/3 cup ground almonds
1/3 powder sugar

powder sugar for dusting
1. To make the cookie base: Working in a food processor or a mixer with a fitted paddle, beat the butter, powder sugar, ground nuts, and salt together until the mixture is creamy but not airy. Mix in the egg and then the flour, mixing only until the flour is incorporated-no more. Turn out the dough, gather it into a ball, flatten it into a disk, and wrap it well in plastic. Chill for at least 30 minutes(and up to 2 days).
2. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and keep them close at hand. Working on a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to a thickness of about 1/4 inch. Using a large cookie cutter or the rim of a 4-inch mini-tart pan, cut out as many rounds as you can. Lift the rounds onto the baking sheets, prick them all over with the tines of a fork, and slip the sheets into the refrigerator to chill for about 20 minutes while you preheat the oven.
3. Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 350F.
4. Bake the Cookies for7-10 minutes, rotating the baking sheets top to bottom and front to back at the halfway point. The cookies will be pale and just firm. Transfer the sheets to cooling racks and let the cookies cool while you make the toppings.
5. To make the jam and meringue: Put the apricot jam in a bowl and whisk in apricot brandy…if you don’t have it, don’t worry. Set aside.
6. In a clean, dry mixer bowl, using the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites until they hold medium peaks. Still beating, add the sugar and continue to beat until the whites are firm but still glossy. Sift together the ground nuts and powder sugar, and, using a rubber spatula, gently fold this into the beaten whites.

7. To assemble the galettes: Using a butter knife, spread a thin layer of jam over the cookies, leaving about 1/2 bare around the edges. Using a spoon or pastry bag fitted with a star tip, cover the jam with meringue. Be generous with the meringue. Dust the cookies with powder sugar.
8. Bake for about 12 minutes, or until the cookies are firm and the meringue is set. Carefully lift the cookies on to a cooling rack using a wide metal spatula and cool to room temperature.
The cookies are best served the day they are made.

Source: Apadpted from Paris Sweets by Dorie Greenspan 2002

When I was just a young lassie in undergrad school, I was studying to be a teacher. Elementary teachers teach a variety of subjects and you have to take a class on each subject to “learn” how to teach it. With each class came a hands on experience, where you had to go into a classroom and teach a lesson. I just happen to go to college in the town where I went to elementary school. So when the opportunity to go teach a lesson at the elementary school where I went to, I jumped at the chance. And even better was the fact that I got to go teach in the classroom of my once 6th  grade teacher. Quite nervous and excited I taught my lesson on tree rings to his 4th grade class. All went well and afterwards we sat to talk. He said nothing but positive things and that was what I was hoping for since my emphasis was in science and that is what I was teaching. Then I made the fatal mistake of asking him why he didn’t teach 6th grade anymore and his response was “because they are all a bunch of assholes!” It was like I was back in 6th grade all over again and all I could think was, Mr. K said the “A” word, Mr. K said the “A” word. I couldn’t even bring myself to say the word in my head. I’m not sure why it traumatized me so, but it did. It shattered my ideology of teaching for some reason. At that point in my young teaching experience I assumed I would love all the children equally. Go teach junior high for a few years and the word asshole will creep into your mind more than a few times. So what does any of this have to do with a fruit tart? Well, I am an emotional eater…so the minute I left there I was in frantic search of a bakery or any place that looked like it sold fat filled sugar treats. I found a little bakery that used to be a shoe repair shop when I was in elementary school. I surveyed the pastry case and there was the most beautiful raspberry tart. I had made tarts several times but always with stone fruits. I loved the  little tart all studded with what looked like rubies. I can’t say it was the best tart I ever had mostly because I was so focused on the fact that my 6th grade teacher said a swear word in front of me(LOL) that I didn’t even notice what it really tasted like.
But you can believe that I savored this tart. I really like the vanilla cream but the crust was quite the pain. I added twice the amount of ice water it suggested and it still never really came together enough…so rolling it out was an uber-pain in the butt! But it did produce a very flaky crust and that is its name after all. You can use any fruit you want but I love raspberries just because of how they look. Also, traditionally you would use an apricot glaze but I like the glaze my fruit tarts with glaze that is the same flavor as the fruit…but that is just me.

Raspberry Tart with Vanilla Cream

2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 1/2 cups light cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large egg yolks
1 prebaked 9 inch Flaky Tart Crust(recipe to follow)
Raspberries(enough to over the tart)
1/4 cup Raspberry Glaze(just raspberry jam), melted

1. Whisk the sugar and the cornstarch together in a heavy bottomed saucepan. Place the pan over medium heat, whisk in the cream and the vanilla, and cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon or a heatproof spatula in a figure eight motion making sure to touch all the edges of the pot. Continue cooking until the custard thickens and begins to bubble. Remove the pot from the heat.
2. Whisk the egg yolks in a medium sized bowl. Slowly pour half of the warm cream mixture into the bowl with the eggs, whisking all the while. This warms the eggs slowly so that the warm cream doesn’t cook the eggs.
3. Pour the custard back in the pot, return the pot to the heat, and cook for another 2-3 minutes, until the vanilla cream is almost as thick as pudding. It may look a little lumpy at first, but it will smooth out as you cook it.
4. Pour the vanilla cream into a bowl, cover it with plastic wrap to prevent a “skin” from forming over it, and refrigerate until it is chilled, at least 1 hour or until you are ready to assemble the tart.
5. No more than a few hours before you’re ready to serve the tart, fill the tart shell three-quarters of the way to the top with the vanilla cream. Place fruit on top in whatever pattern or combination you like.
6. To remove the tart from the pan, rest it on a big can(or small if you make minis). Make sure the tart is steady and balanced. Slide the outside ring of the pan down off the tart. Move the tart to your work surface, and slide the tart off the pan bottom onto a rimless serving dish or a cutting board.
7. Use a pastry brush or a scrunched-up paper towel to coat the fruit with the raspberry glaze. Refrigerate until you are ready to serve the tart. Serve this tart chilled, within hours of making it.

Flaky Tart Crust

Flaky Tart Crust

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
12 TBSP cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4 inch cubes
5 TBSP solid shortening
a small glass of ICE water
1 9 inch tart pan(I used two 4 inch pans)

1. Dump the flour, sugar, and salt into a bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade, and pulse a couple of times to make sure the salt is distributed evenly throughout the flour.
2. Add the butter and the shortening all at once, and pulse five to ten times, until the mixture forms little balls, like moist crumbs, and no chunks of butter or shortening remain. You must pulse, not run, the food processor. The worst thing that could happen at this stage of the crust making game would be for the flours and fats to come together completely into a paste.
3. Remove the blade from the food processor, and dump the crumbs into a big bowl. Sprinkle a TBSP of ice water over the surface of the crumbs. Repeat with 3 more TBSP of ice water.
4. Use your hands or a wooden spoon to bring the dough together. Add more water if you have to, 1 TBSP at a time. The dough should be just past crumbly and just barely coming together. You don’t want it to be so wet that it sticks together or turns sticky-white in color.
5. Cut the dough in half, press each of the halves into a disk, and wrap the disks in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough for at least 30 minutes before rolling it out.
6. If you are par-baking or prebaking your crust, position your oven racks so that one is in the center, and preheat the oven to 400F.
7. Roll out one disk of dough to 3/8 inch thick. Fit the dough into your tart pan.
8. Prick holes into the tart dough with tines of a fork. Line the bed of the tart with parchment paper or aluminum foil, and weigh it down with pie weights or dried beans. Place the tart shell on the center rack in the oven, and bake for 10 minutes(regardless of the size of tart pan you are using).Remove the tart shell from the oven, and remove the paper and weights from the pan. Return the tart shell to the oven and bake another 15-18 minutes or until the tart shell is golden brown all over. Remove the tart shell from the oven, and set it on a wire rack to cool.

Source: Adapted from Once Upon a Tart by Frank Mentesana and Jerome Audureau

If I had kept this cake around, I surely would have met my gain 16 pounds goal this week. As it stands, I still ate half of the loaf…in a day. Sigh. French Yogurt Cake is one of my favorites. It is so moist and dense and with just a hint of lemon running through it. I could say it is healthy because there is yogurt in it…but then I would be lying Since the flavors are so simple I like to keep the topping simple: a sprinkle or two of powdered sugar, honey and a few slices of strawberries. It really doesn’t get better than that.

French Yogurt Cake

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup ground almonds
2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1 cups sugar
grated zest of 1 lemon
1/2 cup plain yogurt
3 large eggs
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup flavorless oil

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350F. Generously butter an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch loaf pan and place the pan on a baking sheet.
Whisk together the flour, ground almonds, baking powder and salt.
Put together the sugar and zest in a medium bowl and, with your fingertips, rub the zest into the sugar until the sugar is moist and aromatic. Add the yogurt, eggs and vanilla and whisk vigorously until the mixture is very well blended. Still whisking, add the dry ingredients, then switch to a large rubber spatula and fold in the oil. You’ll have a thick, smooth batter with a slight sheen. Scrape the batter into the pan and smooth the top.
Bake for 50-55 minutes, or until the cake begins to come away from the sides of the pan;it should be golden brown and a thin knife inserted into the center will come out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes, then run a blunt knife between the cake and the sides of the pan. Unmold, and cool to room temperature right side up on the rack.

Source: Adapted from Baking: From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan 2006