Fresh Fruit Tart

This fresh fruit tart recipe produces a beautiful and delicious tart (as long as you cut the fruit nicely), and is perfect for a party because you can make everything the day ahead (or even two) and just assemble right before serving. I failed to get any pictures of the ones I made for glee club because they were devoured too quickly, but this picture is from the one Taylor and I made the weekend before to test the recipe out (see why you don't use blackberry jam for the glaze).

I mostly followed the recipe from Joy of Baking, and found it works well with a mixture of fruit (mango, strawberry, blackberry, pineapple, etc.), or as an all-berry tart (your choice of strawberry, blackberry, blueberry, raspberry). This recipe has quite a few steps and separate pieces, but it's very much worth making.

Fresh Fruit Tart

Serves 8-10

Ingredients

Sweet Pastry Crust:
     1 1/2 cups all purpose flour + more for dusting
     1/8 teaspoon salt
     1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature + more for coating pan
     1/4 cup granulated white sugar
     1 large egg

Pastry Cream:
     1 1/4 cups whole milk
     1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
     3 large egg yolks
     1/4 cup granulated white sugar
     2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
     2 tablespoons cornstarch
     1 1/2 tablespoons Malibu (optional)

Apricot Glaze: (optional - I used it, but I'm not sure it's necessary, especially if you're assembling close to the time you eat)
     1/2 cup apricot jam
     1 tablespoon water

Topping:
     3 cups fruit, washed and cut into nice-looking, small pieces

Equipment

Measuring cup and spoons

Hand mixer

Large mixing bowl

Plastic wrap

9 inch tart pan with removable bottom (a pie plate might be able to be used in a pinch)

Freezer

Oven and oven mitts

Fork

Medium heat-proof bowl

Whisk

Saucepan

Stove

Wooden spoon or silicone spatula

Knife and cutting board

Optional if using glaze: small saucepan/heatproof bowl, strainer, pastry brush

Instructions

Sweet Pastry Crust:

1. Place the butter in a mixing bowl and beat on medium-high speed until softened with hand mixer. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat just until incorporated.

2. Add the flour and salt all at once and mix at medium-low speed just until it comes together and forms a ball.

3. Turn dough out onto a sheet of plastic wrap and form into a ball. Flatten into a disk and fold plastic wrap around it to cover. Refrigerate for 15-30 minutes or just until firm (or place in freezer for about 10-15 minutes.)

4. Lightly butter and flour, or spray with a non-stick vegetable/flour cooking spray, the tart pan.

5. Remove pastry from freezer and unwrap. Use your hands to flatten pastry dough into large circle, approximately the size of the tart pan. Place dough in pan and press into bottom and up sides of pan. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the freezer for about 15 minutes.

6. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F and place rack in center of oven.

7. Remove plastic wrap from tart shell and lightly prick bottom of pastry crust with the tines of a fork (this will prevent the dough from puffing up as it bakes). Bake crust for 5 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F and continue to bake the crust for about 15-20 minutes or until dry and lightly golden brown.

8. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool completely before filling. Can be covered and stored for a few days.

Pastry Cream:

1. In a medium-sized heatproof bowl, whisk the sugar and egg yolks together. (Don't let the mixture sit too long or you will get pieces of egg forming.)

2. Add the flour and cornstarch to the egg mixture, whisking mixing until you get a smooth paste.

3. Meanwhile, in a saucepan, bring the milk and vanilla just to boiling (just until milk starts to foam up.)

4. Remove from heat and add slowly to egg mixture (Slowly is really important here), whisking constantly to prevent curdling. (If you get a few pieces of egg (curdling) in the mixture, pour through a strainer.) 

5. Pour the egg mixture back into the saucepan and cook over medium heat whisking constantly. The mixture will slowly thicken, and then will suddenly thicken a lot. Keep cooking until this point, where it thickens significantly to just beyond a pudding-like consistency. [Make sure to be watching carefully because it will quickly go from too thin to the right consistency to too thick.]

6. Remove from heat and immediately whisk in the liqueur (if using). Pour into a clean bowl and immediately cover the surface with plastic wrap to prevent a crust from forming. Cool to room temperature. If not using right away refrigerate until needed, up to 3 days. Beat or whisk before using to get rid of any lumps that may have formed.

Apricot Glaze:

Heat the apricot jam and water in a small saucepan over medium heat until liquid (melted). (Can also heat in the microwave.) Remove from heat and strain the jam through a fine strainer to remove any fruit lumps.

To Assemble Tart:

1. To remove the tart from the fluted sides of the pan, place your hand under the pan, touching only the removable bottom not the sides. Gently push the tart straight up, away from the sides. The fluted tart ring will fall away and slide down your arm. If you want to remove the bottom of the pan, run a knife or thin metal spatula between the crust and metal bottom, then slide the tart onto your platter.

2. If using the glaze, spread a thin layer of apricot glaze over the bottom and sides of the baked tart shell to prevent the crust from getting soggy. Let the glaze dry (about 20 minutes).

3. Spread the pastry cream onto the bottom of the tart shell. Place fruit randomly on top of cream or in concentric overlapping circles, starting at the outside edge.

4. After arranging the fruit, rewarm the glaze, if using, and gently brush a light coat on the fruit. If not serving immediately, refrigerate but bring to room temperature before serving.

This fruit tart is best eaten the same day as it is assembled. Cover and refrigerate any leftovers.

Mini Caramelized White Chocolate "Cheesecakes"

Adam and I are making appetizers and baking dessert for 60 this weekend for the annual Glee Club banquet, so get excited for some awesome dishes coming your way over the next few days as I test out the new recipes and we do tons of cooking this weekend.

For the desserts, we wanted to do one chocolate dish, one fruit dish, and one non-fruit non-chocolate dish (without nuts because of allergies), so hopefully everyone would have at least one or two options they would like. We landed pretty quickly on Jeni's Darkest Chocolate Ice Cream in the World (which I make with espresso in place of coffee and is divine) and a fresh fruit tart (which I'll send out soon). The non-fruit non-chocolate recipe was a bit harder. Adam suggested cheesecake, but I wanted to go with something more exciting, so thinking back to David Lebovitz's recipe for caramelized white chocolate, I decided to try inventing a recipe for caramelize white chocolate cheesecake. I found a recipe for white chocolate cheesecake, and just substituted in the caramelized white chocolate.

While my office seemed to like it a lot, I thought the resulting cheesecake was good, but not great. I think it wasn't quite as dense and creamy as I hoped it would be, and the crust was a crumbly mess and too thick, and it got into the cream cheese part, ruining the texture. Given I didn't love it and I had forgotten how much of a pain in the ass cheesecake is (especially messing with cooking it for 2 hours in a water bath and cooling it for 4 hours before unmolding with only 1 springform pan to use for 6 cakes), we decided not to make it for the banquet.

However, I ended up with mini caramelized white chocolate cheesecake-souffles as a delicious accidental byproduct, which is what I'm sharing with you today, and is something that I probably would make again (even though it won't work for this weekend because it requires separate ramekins). Because I didn't have a tall-sided springform pan, I made the large cheesecake in a shallower dish that couldn't accommodate all the filling I had made. Not one to waste delicious caramelized white chocolate cheesecake batter, I poured the excess into 4 small ramekins and baked them alongside the big cheesecake outside of the water bath because there was no room in the roasting pan.

These mini desserts turned out quite unlike the large cheesecake, but very delicious in their own way. They baked up with a nice crust on top and a dense texture somewhere between a cheesecake and a fallen souffle - more cakelike than a cheesecake, more cheesecake like than a cake. The caramel flavor was much more pronounced, and without a crust getting in the way, the texture was significantly improved. Also, without the need to make and bake the crust, or to bake them in the water bath, these are much easier to make - and worth it.

Mini Caramelized White Chocolate "Cheesecakes"

Serves 12

Ingredients

8 oz good quality white chocolate (make sure cocoa butter is a listed ingredient, the more the better)

a pinch of sea salt

3 8-ounce packages of cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream
5 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch salt

Equipment

Knife and cutting board

Oven and pot holders

Stovetop

Baking sheet

Silicone spatula

Saucepan

Mixing bowl
Measuring cups
Measuring spoons

Hand mixer/standing mixer

optional: immersion blender

10-12 ramekins, depending on their size

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 250. If the white chocolate is in a block, chop it into relatively small pieces.

2. Distribute the white chocolate on a rimmed baking sheet and heat in the oven for ten minutes.

3. Remove it from the oven and spread it with a clean, dry spatula (it's okay if it doesn't spread nicely, just do your best).

4. Continue to cook for an additional 30-60 minutes, stirring at 10 minute intervals. At some points it may look lumpy and chalky (and even unpleasant), but keep going.

5. Cook until the white chocolate is deep-golden brown, and caramelized. It's okay if it's still a bit lumpy - we'll fix that later. Stir in a good pinch of sea salt and set aside. [If you want to make the caramelized white chocolate to use in other things, you can now store in a jar, at room temperature, until ready to use. It should keep for several months, if stored in a cool, dry place.]

6. Increase oven temperature to 325°F and bring the 1/2 cup of cream to a simmer over medium heat in a small sauce pan. Remove from heat and scrape in caramelized white chocolate, stirring gently until melted completely and combined. If there are lumps that won't dissolve (like in mine), use an immersion blender to smooth it out. If you don't have an immersion blender, you could probably pour into a regular blender, or tough it out and deal with a few tiny lumps in your final cakes.

7. With your hand mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth and lump free. Add the sugar and mix, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
8. On medium speed, slowly add the white chocolate mixture. Once combined you can add the eggs, one at a time, beating on low speed until each egg is incorporated. Once you've added all the eggs, mix in the vanilla and salt.

9. Fill ramekins about 2/3 full with the batter. Bake for about 60 minutes or until puffed up and slightly browned on the top, and no longer jiggly.

10. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely on a wire rack. You can store for several days in the fridge, and bring to room temperature to serve.

Passion Fruit Ice Cream

Since Bill Rose gave me an ice cream maker nearly 3 years ago (wow, we're getting old) I have been rather obsessed with homemade ice cream (to the benefit or detriment, depending on your POV, of my DC housemates, blockmates, and friends). For a while I used various recipes I found online, but my culinary life changed again when Adam's family gave me Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home for my birthday this past year. Jeni runs an ice cream shop near Columbus, Ohio, and has developed a foolproof technique for amazing ice cream that works just as well at home as at her very popular store (and for the $12/pint ice creams she ships all over the country). So far I have made 5 different ice creams and sorbets out of the book (several of them multiple times) and not been the slightest bit disappointed with any of them.

Now I don't know what normal people do in their free time when they're not at campaign events with their mother, but when I wasn't cleaning my apartment after weeks of pre-LSAT neglect, I spent my weekend making ice cream. The first one I made is called Buckeye State, which is peanut butter with dark chocolate freckles and tastes just like those chocolate covered peanut butter balls in ice cream form. It was phenomenal. Except for the part where I wanted to eat the whole 2.5 pints in one sitting. I won't repost the recipe because it's Jeni's copyright, but I encourage you to check out her book (pg 104-105) and give it a try.

The second recipe, which I invented, and therefore can share with you, came about as a result of my obsession with passion fruit. In anticipation of making passion fruit ice cream, I had been looking for months for passion fruit puree or curd at the store, and finally found frozen puree. Jeni has a recipe for tangy passion fruit frozen yogurt, but I wanted ice cream (and had the cream and milk on hand, but no plain yogurt), so I decided to make my own passion fruit ice cream.  Fortunately, another benefit of her technique is that it creates a base that is easily adaptable to new flavors, and my version worked out great. Now I don't like to brag, but this stuff is really good. Like go-out-now-and-buy-an-ice-cream-maker-so-you-can-make-it-yourself good. It's creamy, tangy, the right amount of sweet, and has a strong passion fruit flavor. It's definitely one I will be making again.

Passion Fruit Ice Cream

Ingredients

2/3 cup passion fruit puree (frozen is fine, or probably about 8-10 medium fruits, pressed through a sieve to remove the seeds)

2 cups whole milk

1 Tbsp plus 1 tsp corn starch

1.5 oz (3 Tbsp) cream cheese, softened

1/8 tsp fine sea salt

1.25 cups heavy cream

2/3 cup plus 2 Tbsp sugar (divided)

2 Tbsp light corn syrup

Equipment

small saucepan

tall-sided saucepan

silicone spatula

measuring cups and spoons

stove

small bowl

fork

large bowl

whisk

ice cream maker

Instructions

1. Make a passion fruit syrup by heating the passion fruit puree (still frozen is fine) with 2 Tbsp of the sugar in a small saucepan. Simmer, stirring until sugar is dissolved and for about a minute after the mixture begins to bubble. Remove from heat and refrigerate.

2. Mix 1/4 cup of the milk with the cornstarch in the small bowl until smooth, using the fork to break up any lumps.

3. Whisk the cream cheese and salt together in the large bowl to break up the big lumps of cheese.

4. Combine the remaining milk and sugar, cream, and corn syrup in the tall-sided saucepan. Bring to a roiling boil over medium-high heat and boil for 4 minutes [watch carefully during this time period because at least half of the times I've made ice cream this way, the mixture has or has nearly boiled over - be ready to pull the pot off the burner and hold to the side until the bubbling goes down, then return to the heat and lower slightly so it doesn't boil over again].

5. Remove from the heat and gradually mix in the cornstarch slurry.

6. Return to a boil over medium-high heat and cook, stirring with a silicone spatula or wooden spoon, until slightly thickened, about 1 minute.

7. Remove from the heat and gradually pour into the large bowl of cream cheese, whisking with each addition. Continue whisking until smooth and completely incorporated.

8. Chill completely in the refrigerator (at least 6 hours, overnight is better). If you are very impatient, you can pour the hot mixture into a gallon ziplock bag and submerge it in an ice bath, adding more ice every 5-10 minutes for half an hour or until the mixture is cold.

9. Turn on your ice cream maker and pour the ice cream base into the frozen canister. Pour the passion fruit syrup through the opening at the top of the machine and let the machine run until thick and creamy. It's better if you pack it into containers and freeze for at least another 2 hours in your freezer before eating, but if you like it pretty soft you can go ahead and eat it right from the machine.

If you're making it for a group, you can make ice cream ahead of time and it will last perfectly for weeks in the freezer, though not once people know it's in there.

Bacon Chocolate Truffles (and Bacon Brittle)

As some of you may know, meat takes up the bottom 2/3 of my my lovely boyfriend Adam's personal food pyramid (pie takes up the remaining 1/3). So, for Valentine's Day last year, I made him chocolate covered caramelized bacon, which was very popular (perhaps I'll share that recipe in the future). This year, I decided to keep up the trend with bacon chocolate truffles. 



The bacon chocolate truffles come from a recipe from Carri Thurman, via Michael Ruhlman's blog, with some of my tweaks and my own bacon brittle spinoff. I have to say from the outset that the chocolate dipped truffles are beautiful, but not very bacon-y. The ones rolled in bacon brittle powder are more bacon-y, and the chocolate dipped bacon brittle is very tasty and quite bacon-y if that's what you're going for.

Sorry veggies and vegans, this recipe is not for you (however, assuming the chili that's on the stove right now turns out okay, I promise a great vegan chili recipe later this week). Veggies, it is quite easy to skip the bacon cream infusion and replace the bacon fat with butter if you want a vegetarian truffle, though that kind of defeats the purpose of this recipe.

Ingredients

Truffle Centers
1/2 pound bacon (preferably applewood smoked)
1/4 cup alcohol (brandy, whiskey, etc)

1/4 cup water
1.5 cups heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1.5 pounds semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate chips
Truffle Coating

3 cups semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup reserved bacon fat (or 1/2 cup butter/vegetable shortening)

Bacon Brittle
1/2 pound finely chopped and cooked bacon (you can re-use the bacon left over from making the centers above)
1 cup demarera sugar (brown sugar could be subbed in here)
1/2 cup water

1 tsp baking soda

Equipment
Medium saucepan
Wooden spoon
Whisk
Sieve/strainer
Non-stick sauté pan
Small or medium-sized bowl
2 sheet pans lined with parchment paper/silpats
Pyrex baking pan

Silicone spatula
Fork
Truffle cups (small paper cups like mini cupcake liners)

Larger paper cups or cupcake liners for the bacon brittle

Large microwave safe bowl

Food processor (optional)

Instructions

1. Slice the bacon strips in half lengthwise and then into thin slices (about 1/4 inch wide or smaller). Fry in the saucepan over medium heat until very crispy.

2. Place the sieve over a medium bowl and pour bacon over it to strain off the bacon bits from the fat. Retain the bowl of bacon fat for the coating.

3. Return the bacon bits to the saucepan, turn the heat to medium, and add the alcohol and water. Cook for 2-3 minutes until the liquid is burned off.

4. Add heavy cream and kosher salt to the pan and bring just to a boil. Turn off the heat and let sit 20 minutes for the bacon to infuse into the cream. After 20 minutes, turn the heat back on to a light simmer to thoroughly reheat it.

5. Evenly spread the chocolate chips over the bottom of the Pyrex baking pan. Pour the cream through a sieve to catch the bacon bits (save those for the bacon brittle) and over the chocolate chips. Let sit for about 5 minutes to melt. [If your chocolate doesn't melt, as mine didn't, just use a spatula to scrape the cream and chocolate mixture back into the saucepan and reheat over medium-low heat, stirring constantly so it doesn't burn, until the chocolate is melted, then scrape back into the baking dish.]

6. Whisk the mixture to make sure it's smooth. Refrigerate until solid.

7. While you're waiting for your chocolate filling to chill, make the bacon brittle. Take the bacon bits left over from making the infused cream and put into a saucepan along with the demarera sugar and water. Cook, stirring constantly, over medium high heat until the sugar is melted and the mixture gets very bubbly (about 3 minutes).

8. Remove from heat and stir in the baking soda. Stir together quickly (you will see the mixture getting thick and opaque).

9. Quickly scrape out the mixture onto one of the parchment paper or silpat-lined baking sheets and spread out to a relatively thin layer using the back of your spatula.

10. Let the mixture cool completely (about 10 minutes). Break about half of it into small bits and pulse in a food processor until you get a fine crumb/powder mixture. Break the other half into larger chunks (about 1.5x1.5 inches) to save to dip in chocolate.

11. When your truffle filling is firm, take it out of the fridge and scoop into balls (using a melon baller, small ice cream scoop, or strong spoon to get a properly sized chunk of filling and then shaping into a ball with your clean hands). If the chocolate is too hard to scoop (which mine was after chilling overnight), let warm up for about half an hour or muscle through it. The directions say to re-freeze the centers before coating, but I skipped this step and mine turned out fine.

12. If you want to coat your truffles in bacon brittle powder, take the centers and roll them in the powder to coat, pressing it into the sides so it sticks. Place the rolled truffles in cups. If you want to coat some or all truffles in chocolate, read on.

12. Melt 3 cups chocolate and 1/2 cup reserved bacon fat in a large Pyrex measuring cup or other large microwave safe bowl [Many recipes will tell you to melt chocolate in a double boiler setup over the stove. This is entirely unnecessary - you can melt chocolate easily in the microwave. To do so, heat in 30 second bursts, then stir to combine melted and unmelted bits, and repeat until the chocolate is just melted (it will look unmelted when you first start stirring, but then as you stir the bits will melt and combine).]

13. Drop the formed truffle centers one at a time into the melted chocolate. Use a fork to stir around so all the sides are coated. Then scoop up the center, tapping off the excess chocolate on the side of the bowl. Slide off the fork onto the other baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silpat. If there is a gap in the chocolate coating where the fork was, drizzle a little extra chocolate over it and use the fork to even up the covering. While the chocolate coating ss still melty, sprinkle with the bacon dust. Let cool completely before carefully peeling off the parchment paper and placing into truffle cups. 

14. Dip any reserved pieces of bacon brittle in melted chocolate, submerging entirely or only half, depending on your preference. Place on parchment paper and cool completely before removing and placing into larger paper liners.