Daring Bakers: Bakewell Tart

bakewell-tart

The June Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart… er… pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800’s in England.

This is the perfect tart to serve as a thin slice in the afternoon with tea, or for dessert, or, even well… for breakfast. The basic recipe is a shortcrust, thinly spread with any lovely jam or curd that you have on hand, topped with frangipane – an almond, butter and egg concoction. I used strawberry jam, out of a jar. Next time I’m making my own, I promise.

Bakewell Tart…er…pudding
Makes one 23cm (9” tart)
sweet shortcrust pastry + one cup jam or curd, warmed for spreadability + frangipane

Sweet shortcrust pastry

225g (8oz) all purpose flour
30g (1oz) sugar
2.5ml (½ tsp) salt
110g (4oz) unsalted butter, cold (frozen is better)
2 (2) egg yolks
2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract (optional)
15-30ml (1-2 Tbsp) cold water

Sift together flour, sugar and salt. Grate butter into the flour mixture, using the large hole-side of a box grater. Using your finger tips only, and working very quickly, rub the fat into the flour until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Set aside. Lightly beat the egg yolks with the almond extract (if using) and quickly mix into the flour mixture. Keep mixing while dribbling in the water, only adding enough to form a cohesive and slightly sticky dough. Form the dough into a disc, wrap in cling and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Frangipane

125g (4.5oz) unsalted butter, softened
125g (4.5oz) icing sugar
3 (3) eggs
2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract
125g (4.5oz) ground almonds
30g (1oz) all purpose flour

Cream butter and sugar together for about a minute or until the mixture is primrose in colour and very fluffy. Scrape down the side of the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. The batter may appear to curdle. In the words of Douglas Adams: Don’t panic. Really. It’ll be fine. After all three are in, pour in the almond extract and mix for about another 30 seconds and scrape down the sides again. With the beaters on, spoon in the ground nuts and the flour. Mix well. The mixture will be soft, keep its slightly curdled look (mostly from the almonds) and retain its pallid yellow colour.

Assembling the tart

Place the chilled dough disc on a lightly floured surface. If it’s overly cold, you will need to let it become acclimatised for about 15 minutes before you roll it out. Flour the rolling pin and roll the pastry to 5mm (1/4”) thickness, by rolling in one direction only (start from the centre and roll away from you), and turning the disc a quarter turn after each roll. When the pastry is to the desired size and thickness, transfer it to the tart pan, press in and trim the excess dough. Patch any holes, fissures or tears with trimmed bits. Chill in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 200C/400F.

Remove shell from freezer, spread as even a layer as you can of jam onto the pastry base. Top with frangipane, spreading to cover the entire surface of the tart. Smooth the top and pop into the oven for 30 minutes. Five minutes before the tart is done, the top will be poofy and brownish. Remove from oven and strew flaked almonds on top and return to the heat for the last five minutes of baking.

The finished tart will have a golden crust and the frangipane will be tanned, poofy and a bit spongy-looking. Remove from the oven and cool on the counter. Serve warm, with crème fraîche, whipped cream or custard sauce if you wish. When you slice into the tart, the almond paste will be firm, but slightly squidgy and the crust should be crisp but not tough.


Broccoli, Served Simply, a Few Ways

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I love broccoli, but I know that a lot of people don’t – mostly, I’m guessing, because their experiences with broccoli were with limp, overcooked, way too pungent, and completely devoid of seasoning versions of it. This is boring and depressing, and should be avoided at all costs. Instead, try these:

The easiest way to prepare broccoli is to cut it up into florets, and thinly slice the stalk (I never throw it out!), put it all in a pyrex bowl with about an inch of water, cover it with a microwave cover or some saran wrap, and steam it for five minutes in the microwave, and drain. (Or you can steam on the stovetop – same amount of water, and a couple of minutes more – just one more pot to wash). Then you can use any of these delicious preparations to jazz up the stuff.

1. The Classic: salt, pepper, and a couple of squeezes of lemon juice. Add some fresh parsley, or red pepper flakes for an extra kick.

2. Top with balsamic vinegar, toasted walnuts, crumbled blue cheese. (One of my favorites)

3. Lemon juice, salt, pepper, and a generous dose of parmesan.

4. In a pan, sautee a few cloves of fresh garlic, minced, in some olive oil. Toss in steamed broccoli, and serve.

5. Asian style: saute some garlic, ginger in a bit of vegetable oil, toss in steamed broccoli, and a splash of soy sauce, and a tiny hit of sesame oil. Add sesame seeds if you have them.

6. Toss broccoli in your favorite salad dressing. Just like salad – it’s great.

7. Toss with a drizzle of olive oil, pine nuts, basil, and parmesan (deconstructed pesto).

8. South Asian: Toast 2 teaspoons cumin seeds, 2 teaspoons fennel seeds, and 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom, and grind in a spice grinder. Mix spices into one cup plain yogurt, add a tablespoon of olive oil, salt, pepper, and a the juice of a lemon. Toss in the broccoli.

These individually make nice lunches, served with some fresh bread (or Naan, for the South Asian style), or as a side to any meal. You could easily make each of these into the star for dinner by tossing the dressed broccoli in some pasta. Add sausage and tomatoes for more substance, or for vegetarians, add tofu, or cannelini beans.

Cold Carrot Soup and Crispy Garlic Toast

carrot-soup-with-garlic-toastI went to the gym today.

I’ve been trying to drag myself in there for weeks.

I strolled in and screamed I NEED INCENTIVE! And so I got a free personal training session on the weight circuit and gave every muscle a moment to shine. It doesn’t hurt to have a cute trainer to get you really sweating. Huzzah! I’m feeling great that I’ve finally done it, and as I walked out of there, a woman walked briskly across the room and told me I had beautiful hair (and that was post gym hair!). I’m still beaming!

When I got back to the house, I was determined to continue my positive streak, so I put together this soup in about five minutes from some leftovers of Jamie Oliver’s Sticky carrots* that I had sitting in my fridge. You could just as easily boil some carrots with a little salt, pepper, and garlic, and make the soup in about 20 minutes from start to finish.

Quick Carrot Soup: In a blender, put a few cups of leftover cooked carrots (mine had salt and pepper already on them, but if yours don’t just add some), a half cup of plain yogurt, a half teaspoon of cumin, and a half teaspoon of turmeric, and a dash of water (or chicken stock if you have it), and blend until smooth. Top with some snips of dill.

Serve with garlic toast: just lightly coat a few pieces of day old bread with some good olive oil, put under the broiler or in the toaster for a couple of minutes, and then just lightly sweep a clove of garlic over the warm toast.

*Jamie’s Sticky Carrots: Cut a couple of pounds of carrots into two inch lengths, and stick them straight up in a small saucepan fitting them together snugly. Add a couple of Turkish bay leaves, salt and pepper, and a small nob of butter (a tablespoon or two) on top. (I add in a few cloves of garlic here, although his recipe doesn’t have them). Add enough water so that the carrots are halfway submerged, and bring to a boil. Simmer, covered, until carrots are cooked, about twenty minutes, and then just take off the lid and continue to cook until the water cooks down almost away, and the carrots get stick and lovely – about half an hour more. Jamie has you turn them out so they are all beautiful on the plate (taking care not to burn yourself), and serve.

Wanted: Le Creuset Pots (and a Little Kitchen Tour)

le-creuset

Dear world, I’d like a Le Creuset French Oven (medium or large), and a braiser. Any color will due, although, extra points are given for ‘Carribean’, ‘Cobalt’, or ‘Onyx’. Perhaps you have an extra lying around, or your dear great aunt in San Francisco has a stockpile of them in her kitchen and can’t really lift them anymore because they weigh a ton. Perhaps you are reading this from the Le Creuset or the Sur La Table corporate office, and think to yourself, today, this very lucky young lady in Noe Valley will have a package shipped to her. If you are any of these people, don’t hesitate to contact me. I can barter, trade, and provide you with tasty sustenance in return. Your generosity will be greatly, greatly appreciated.

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One difficult thing about moving across the country in a couple of suitcases – taking your kitchen with you.

The easiest to bring are the little tools, which can be boxed and arrive in no time flat: like David Lebovitz, I’m a big fan of my scissors, and I love my tongs, my Kyocera ceramic knife I picked up at Zabars, and my knife set, and my little stovetop espresso maker, my graters, my Moulinex, my Silpat, my whisk, my measuring cups, wooden spoons, silicone spatula, williams and sonoma kitchen towels, and silicone pinch pots. Along with these came my collection of bento making supplies: boxes, rice presses, tiny fish shaped soy sauce holders, mini utensils, silicone muffin cups, and box bands.

knife-magnet

My expansive spice collection was also shipped, and I have since supplemented with a collection of spices and spice rack from Martha Stewart which was on sale at Macy’s for under twenty dollars. I couldn’t live without my spice mixes from Penzey’s, my Super Special Spice Mix from my grandmother in Istanbul, my assortment of curry powders, garam masala, five spice powders, mace, turmeric, corriander, and excess of cumin.

Fortunately, I am blessed to be living with someone who was given a very, very nice set of calphalon pots – so I didn’t have to shlep my slightly shoddy pieced together collection of pots and pans with me. He also came with a lovely red tea pot which, I’m glad to say gets significant amount of daily use.

He also gave me the very best present on earth for my birthday, a Martha Stewart Blue Kitchen Aid mixer, and in the next few months I will be saving for attachments… I think he deserves to be rewarded with the results of the Ice Cream maker attachment, and after several attempts of homemade pasta made with a rolling pin, I’m looking forward to the pasta attachment.

bundt-and-ceramics

Bakeware is also a pain in the neck to ship, but fortunately for me, I live close enough to the Recycled Cookware store on Divisadero that I managed to pick up things like bundt pans, baking sheets, and loaf pans, and even a gently used coffee grinder for a few dollars a piece. My mother this weekend was a very kind soul to donate two Madeleine pans from her cupboards to my “cause”, because after six months of searching for “affordable” Madeleine pans, I had determined it a failed quest.

I’ve been a fan of Cook’s Boulevard, which, being right in the neighborhood, is useful, when, say, I’m in desperate need of ceramic bakeware for my herb baked eggs, or last minute meat thermometers, silicone popsicle makers, or, really great three dollar peelers.

ikea-jars

Ikea has been a savior for a new mortar and pestle, a digital kitchen scale, and glass jars in which I keep all of my bulk supplies – dried beans (currently I have Christmas Limas, flageolet, yellow indian woman, and popping corn, all from Rancho Gordo)  rices (jasmine, arborio, sticky, and plenty of brown), whole grains (wheatberries, farro, bulgur), nuts (almonds, walnuts), chocolate chips, flours (white, wheat, cake, wheat bread flour, wheat bran, corn meal), and sugars (white and dark brown).

And of course, rounding everything out is my collection of cookbooks – most every Jamie Oliver tome, and an ever growing collection of signed books from the weekly talks at Omnivore Books on Food, the only cook book and food book store in San Francisco, and currently my favorite bookstore in the world.

cookbooks-2

Why I Walk to the Market Every Day

roses-on-noe-1

There is nothing like spending a few minutes a day in your neighborhood markets finding the perfect food for dinner. I know that many people have stressful days and they just want to get home and kick back with some takeout, or whatever you can make the fastest, but for me, spending a couple of minutes in the cheese shop making small talk and getting free samples, picking up some meat at Drewes and saying hi to the staff who know us by name, or walking down the street to Church Produce to find the perfect heirloom tomato and chat with my neighbors for  a few minutes – is a really great stress reducer.

Here are a few snapshots of my beautiful neighborhood yesterday – it was cloudy and gray, but that only makes the roses more brilliant! These beauties were at the very top of the hill on Noe street. Someone has a lovely green thumb – I think I need to leave them a note on their door letting them know how jealous I am of their roses. They make for great incentive walking the steep way from my house to 24th street.

church-on-church-street

Here is St. Paul’s church, I’m guessing it’s why they call it Church Street, and it’s pretty impressive. We snuck inside once during afternoon mass, and it’s just beautiful inside – Gothic arches, buttresses, and intricate stained glass. One of my favorite classes in college was a course about spirituality and architecture, and regardless of what you believe in, walking into a church like this is sure to make your heart soar.

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When I have a house, I’m going to paint it gray and grow some of these flaming climbing flowers. Look at the pop!

It’s not hard to shop in the markets every day when you have such a beautiful walk to look forward to. And it sure beats shopping for an hour in the terrifying/overwhelming Safeway on 30th. And then you have the added bonus of the freshest of produce and ingredients. Win!