NuM NuM

"The 2010 November Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Simona of briciole. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well."

Remember a few weeks ago I mentioned I joined an Internet cooking club? Well as fate would have it, it's also associated with an Internet baking club.......and guess who joined. :D Laugh if you must, but you all benefit from the yummy recipes - so if you keep laughing, the hand that feeds you will bite you!

Our challenge this month was to bake a crostata which is basically an Italian baked tart/pie. They can be sweet or savory and I've made a couple in the past which I served to guests who ecstatically devoured the whole thing. I'd had my eye on this recipe for a while now so I finally had a reason to make it. I followed the crust recipe from the challenge, but the filling is from Alice Water's Apple Tart which can be found here. Overall the dessert was sweet without being too over the top, and if you hadn't guessed already - yes, the crust was the best part. Buttery and flaky perfection - perfect with a scoop of ice cream.

If you're an apple pie purist, this may not be the recipe for you. It's quite different from your traditional apple pie since cinnamon and nutmeg are not used. The apples are thinly sliced and showered with a coating of turbinado sugar. Once baked, it's brushed with a thick syrupy glaze made from a reduction of apple peals, cores, and sugar. I baked the crostata at the Cindyro's and I think the oven temperature ran a little high so my filling turned into mush - but it was still delectable. This pie travels well and would be great to take to your next holiday party. Enjoy!

Are you a fan of banana pudding pie? If so, I think you'll love this version with the addition of a salted caramel sauce. The caramel adds the tiniest bit of saltiness and takes your average pudding pie up a notch to something extra rich and gooey. Hence, why this aint yo mama's puddin' pie! There's also another lingering taste you can't quite distinguish, but the pie has a hint of alcohol or "booziness" which adds another dimension of flavor. Why? I do not know. Perhaps it was the addition of almond extract to the topping which will make your guests say, "hmmm...what is that?" Heck, I even said it and I made the dang thing.

After eating the pie I discovered I'm not a fan of whipped cream. I'd say the topping is purely optional IMO. Or perhaps I'd use a thinner layer next time rather than the entire amount - but that's just me. With or without the whipped cream, if you're a fan of banana puddin' pie this should not be missed. You'll definitely go bananas over this one :)


Salted Caramel Banana Pudding Pie
Adapted from Dessert First
Makes one 9-inch pie

• 1 box vanilla wafers (65 cookies)
• 6 tablespoons butter, melted
• 3 large ripe bananas
• salted caramel sauce plus 1 teaspoon fleur de sel, recipe follows
• Vanilla Pudding, recipe follows
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Put 45 vanilla wafers in a food processor and pulse until the cookies are finely crushed. Reserve 1/2 cup to top the pie. Stir together crushed vanilla wafers and butter in a small bowl until blended. Firmly press it into the bottom, up the sides, and onto the lip of a greased 9-inch pie plate. Bake until lightly browned, about 10 to 12 minutes. Remove to a wire rack, and let cool until completely cool, about 30 minutes.
Coat the banana slices with salted caramel. Arrange half banana slices along with caramel sauce evenly over the bottom of the crust. Spread half of the Vanilla Pudding over the bananas, top with vanilla wafers, and remaining caramel-coated bananas. Spread the remaining filling over the vanilla wafers.
In a large bowl, whip the cream until stiff peaks are just about to form. Add the almond extract, and sugar and beat until peaks form. Make sure not to overbeat, or the cream will become lumpy, and butter-like. Spread the cream over the pie. At service, garnish with a caramel swirl, and the reserved vanilla wafer crumbs.

Caramel Sauce
• 3/4 cups sugar
• 3 tbs water
• 1/2 cup + 2 tbs heavy cream

Directions
Over moderate heat, mix the water, and sugar in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan. Cook until the sugar dissolves, about 5 to 10 minutes. Do not stir. Increase the heat to medium and boil uncovered until the sugar turns a warm chestnut brown (about 350 degrees F on a candy thermometer), about 5 to 7 minutes, gently swirling the pan to stir the mixture. Be careful - the mixture is extremely hot! Once it starts to smell smoky take it off the heat immediately.
Watch the mixture very carefully at the end, as it will go from caramel to burnt very quickly. Turn off the heat, and stand back to avoid splattering. Slowly add the cream. Don't panic - the cream will bubble violently, and the caramel will solidify.
Simmer over low heat, stirring constantly, until the caramel dissolves and the sauce is smooth, about 2 minutes. Allow the sauce to cool to room temperature, at least 4 hours. It will thicken as it sits. Once cool add fleur de sel.


Vanilla Pudding:
• 1.5 oz box instant vanilla pudding & pie filling (I used Jello Sugar free fat free)
• 3 cups cold 2% milk

In a bowl whisk together the pudding and milk for two minutes until thickened. Refrigerate until ready to use.

It's official!!! I have finally conquered my fear of working with dough. The other night, I made a nice meal for lobster's belated birthday, which was about two months ago...bad wifey. However, since I was making such a belated dinner, it had to kick ass...which this crostata did. I made this along with short ribs from "Sunday Night Suppers" by Suzanne Goin which were really nummy too.

This crostata was the perfect blend of sweet and savory. The flavor of the crust was amazing. It was perfectly light and flaky. The lemon zest really made the difference and took the crust to a whole new level. For my first attempt I would say it wasn't too bad.

I may have rolled my dough a little too thick b/c the end result was a little smaller then what the recipe stated. I have yet to figure out how to roll the dough into a perfect circle. Mine usually end up looking like funky shaped islands...can't figure out what I'm doing incorrectly. Anyway, it doesn't matter since I'm usually the only one who gets to see my funky dough so I just cut around the misperfections and no one is the wiser :D

I altered the recipe a tiny bit and eyeballed several of the ingredients. I didn't use all the honey in the recipe but simply drizzled what I thought looked right over the crostata. For the blue cheese I would use all the cheese called for in the recipe, if not more. But that's just me since roquefort is one of my favorites. If you are not a fan of strong, sharp cheeses I would be conservative with the amount you use. But for me, the stinkier the better :) I also only used about half the amount of pears I roasted. I was afraid the crust might get soggy if I used all the pears so I skimped a little. Oh well, just gives me another reason to make it again. Numm.

**I have updated the recipe and am now using the crust from my Butternut Squash Galette recipe.

Pear Crostata with Honey, Blue Cheese and Almonds
Adapted from Tyler Florence, Food Network

4 pears, halved, cored, but not peeled
1 tablespoons butter
4 ounces good-quality blue cheese, crumbled (Roquefort)
1/2 cup slivered almonds
3 tablespoons honey
1 recipe Basic Pie Pastry, chilled 30 minutes, recipe follows
1 egg, beaten with a drizzle of cold water
2 tablespoons turbinado sugar

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Arrange the pears, cut sides up, on a baking sheet and dot with butter. Put the baking sheet in the oven and bake 25 to 30 minutes, or until the pears are just tender. Let cool.
Increase the oven heat to 450 degrees F.
Sprinkle the counter and a rolling pin lightly with flour. Roll the dough out to a 14-inch round, about 1/4-inch thick. It doesn't have to be perfect. Transfer the dough to the back of a lightly floured baking sheet. Slice the pears and arrange them on the dough round by overlapping the slices in a spiral fashion, leaving a 2-inch border all around. Scatter blue cheese over the top, and sprinkle with the almonds.
Bring the edge of crust over onto the filling, leaving the fruit exposed in center. Gently fold and pinch the dough to seal any cracks and brush the crust with the egg wash and sprinkle with the sugar. Put the baking sheet in the oven and bake for 30 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and the fruit is tender. Remove crostata from the oven and drizzle with the honey. Slide a knife under the crostata to loosen it from the pan. Then cut into wedges and serve warm or at room temperature.

Basic Pie Pastry:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
4 to 6 tablespoons ice-cold water

Pulse flour, butter, lemon zest, and sea salt in a food processor until mixture resembles coarse meal (very tiny pebbles of dough). Drizzle ice water evenly over mixture and pulse until it just forms a ball. (Do not overwork dough, or pastry will be tough.) Gently press dough into a 5-inch disk and chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, until firm, at least 1 hour.

**Even though it seems excessive you really should use 2 tablespoons of sugar for the crust.Also, next time I will try it with 2 tablespoons of lemon zest and perhaps the juice of half a lemon

This apple tart was nummmm. I really enjoyed the crust and the apples had just the right amount of sweetness....AND what could make it even better you ask? Vanilla ice cream!!! I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream :) Ahhhhhh.....blogging geek! The soft apples, crunchy crust and cool ice cream made for the perfect balance of crunchy, sweet, hot and cold. Mmmm...makes my mouth water just writing about it!! I enjoyed the crust so much I found myself eating around the apples and diving straight for the crust.

I had been eyeing this recipe ever since I'd seen it on other people's blogs. It's from Dorie Greenspan's, Tuesday's With Dorie, and it lived up to all its hype. If you'd like to make the recipe, you can find it here. This was my first TWD recipe and it was fairly simple to make, however I was unable to get the apples to caramelize on the bottom and gave up after about 25 minutes b/c white man kept coming in to see and harassing me about my cooking skills. Anyway, I think next time I'll try making the caramel sauce first, THEN layer on the apples. Even though my apples didn't caramelize the tart was still delicious! Making the tart bottom side up allowed the crust to retain it's crunch and was the perfect contrast to the soft apples.

This tart was the perfect ending to our delicious meal. The white man/brother-in-law smoked some ribs on lobster's Egg and they were just as good as I remembered them. He made this delicious sop to glaze the ribs as they were cooking and it gave a wonderful tang to the meat. I was literally licking every bit of the sop off my fingers...num num num. The sop was so good I froze it to use for future use....yah, all mine!!! As much as we banter back-and-forth, I really can't say anything when it comes to his barbecuing. He sure can cook some mean ribs - and these bear claw ribs were AMAZING. I'm sure he's hunted and killed bears too, being that he's from the country and used to burn his own trash...who burns their own trash?! And....I digress :)

That would be the white man's hand...can you tell he's from Texas?

This is a delicious light flaky dessert. It's adapted from Ina Garten's recipe. The first time I made this tart I did not use the entire half cup of sugar to sprinkle over the apples. I think it just depends on how tart your apples are. I could not force myself to use that much sugar. Although, when I think about it now, I probably could have b/c the tart was not overly sweet but it was still yummy.

The next time I make this tart I will have to remember to not sprinkle the sugar on the pan I'm going to put into the oven. By doing that the sugar around the tart caramelized and burned. Also, I think if I tuck the edges of the tart in a little bit it will help the edges not cook too fast and burn.

UPDATE: I just saw this episode again and Ina reinforces that you MUST use the entire 1/2 cup of sugar so the apples can brown and caramelize.

French Apple Tart - makes one tart

For the pastry:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon sugar
12 tablespoons (11/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, diced
1/2 cup ice water
For the apples:
4 Granny Smith apples
1/2 cup sugar
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) cold unsalted butter, small diced
1/2 cup apricot jelly or warm sieved apricot jam
2 tablespoons Calvados, rum, or water

Directions
For the pastry, place the flour, salt, and sugar in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Pulse for a few seconds to combine. Add the butter and pulse 10 to 12 times, until the butter is in small bits the size of peas. With the motor running, pour the ice water down the feed tube and pulse just until the dough starts to come together. Dump onto a floured board and knead quickly into a ball. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

Roll the dough slightly larger than 10 by 14-inches. Using a ruler and a small knife, trim the edges. Place the dough on the prepared sheet pan and refrigerate while you prepare the apples.

Peel the apples and cut them in half through the stem. Remove the stems and cores with a sharp knife and a melon baler. Slice the apples crosswise in 1/4-inch thick slices. Place overlapping slices of apples diagonally down the middle of the tart and continue making diagonal rows on both sides of the first row until the pastry is covered with apple slices. (I tend not to use the apple ends in order to make the arrangement beautiful.) Sprinkle with the full 1/2 cup of sugar and dot with the butter.

Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until the pastry is browned and the edges of the apples start to brown. Rotate the pan once during cooking. If the pastry puffs up in one area, cut a little slit with a knife to let the air out. Don't worry! The apple juices will burn in the pan but the tart will be fine! When the tart's done, heat the apricot jelly together with the Calvados and brush the apples and the pastry completely with the jelly mixture. Loosen the tart with a metal spatula so it doesn't stick to the paper. Allow to cool and serve warm or at room temperature.