Peach Raspberry Shortcake (TWD)

This will be a short and sweet write-up for this week's Tuesdays With Dorie recipe for Tender Shortcakes. Things have been busy and hectic around here, as the hubs and I are counting down to our upcoming vacation in Italy!

I'm a raving fan of shortcakes, as the slightly sweet biscuit serves as a delicious platform for all of delicious fruit in season. For a change of pace from my favorite Strawberry Shortcakes, I selected a combination of peaches and raspberries for the fruit filling in this version.

I loved the simplicity in making these freeform shortcakes. True to the title of the recipe, these slightly sweet biscuits have a wonderfully tender interior with a slightly crumbly exterior. I scaled down my batch to 1/3 of the original recipe, which yielded four decent sized shortcakes.

Thanks to Cathy of The Tortefeasor for this fantastic summer pick. Make sure to visit Cathy's blog for the recipe, and treat your family to this wonderful summertime dessert.

Quick Classic Berry Tartlettes (TWD)

With all of the gorgeous fruit on display at my local farmers market, I was super happy that Christine of Cooking With Christine decided on Quick Classic Berry Tart for this week's Tuesdays With Dorie recipe.

I definitely have a weakness for fresh fruit tarts. As I couldn't trust myself with a full-sized tart at home, I transformed this recipe into tartlettes --- I can have a little taste and then send the rest off to my hub's workplace.

The berries were abundant at the farmers market this past weekend, and I had hard time narrowing down my choices. Strawberries were definitely overflowing in the stands, but I was drawn to some beautiful golden raspberries. Golden raspberries are milder and less tart than the red variety, with a flavor that reminds me of apricots. Although they're a bit pricey (5 bucks for a small basket), these gems are worth the occasional investment.

As you can prepare the crust and pastry cream in advance, this beautiful dessert comes together super fast when it's time to serve it to your guests.

Here are my recipe notes:

Tart Dough
- The tart crust recipe yielded 21 tartlette shells.
- The little shells are made by pressing portions of dough into a mini-muffin pan. I used a shot glass to evenly press the dough up the sides of the pan.
- After freezing the dough in the pan for one hour, it is popped in a 375 degree oven for 12-14 minutes. The freezing step is critical for the shells to hold their shape while baking.

Vanilla Pastry Cream
- I used vanilla bean paste instead of vanilla extract (I love the little vanilla bean specks in the cream).
- I love Dorie Greenspan's pastry cream, but find that the amount of cornstarch makes the pastry cream a little too congealed for my personal preference. By reducing the cornstarch to 1/4 cup, I get the creamy consistency that I like.
- I had quite a bit of pastry cream leftover, as a little dollop will fill each tartlette shell. Halving the recipe will yield more than enough pastry cream. I don't mind the leftover cream - it's a perfect filling for eclairs!

Fruit Topping
- I skipped the drizzling of red currant jelly.

You don't need a fork to enjoy these tarlettes - just pick them up with your fingers and pop them in your mouth!

Buttery tart shell + creamy and slightly sweet pastry cream + sweet/tart and juicy berries = YUM!!!

If you'd like the complete recipe for this delicious and easy tart, please visit Christine's blog.

Soft Chocolate & Raspberry Tart (TWD)

This week's Tuesdays With Dorie recipe for Soft Chocolate and Raspberry Tart was one that I was really looking forward to making after reading Dorie's delectable introduction:

"After this tart hs baked and cooled just a little, the chocolate filling takes on the lovable characteristics of pudding, becoming soft and creamy and seductively slithery, and the flavor of the berries intensifies."


I wasn't thrilled by how the tart looked out of the oven. I used an 8"x11" rectangular tart pan, and the filling didn't quite cover the raspberries, so these raspberry nubs poked through the top. As Dorie described, the filling was soft and and velvety smooth, but the tart held it's shape as it was cut. The crust is Dorie's Sweet Tart Dough w. Nuts, and flaky texture was a fantastic contrast to the soft filling.

Looking at this tart, you would assume this to be sweet, rich and filling right? Actually, the chocolate filling was subtly sweet, and it did not overpower the the flavor of the raspberries.

With a dollop of lightly sweetened whipped cream and additional berries, this tart is a perfect sweet ending that doesn't send you into a food coma.

I loved this tart! I'm looking forward to making this again in a smaller pan and experimenting with a different fruit - I think cherries are calling my name.

For the complete recipe, please visit Rachelle's blog Mommy? I'm Hungry. Also, join me in checking out the TWD blogroll, as I'm curious to see how everyone's tarts turned out....all delicious, I'm sure!

Meyer Lemon Creme Brulee w. Raspberries & Blueberries

I was recently gifted a bounty of gorgeous meyer lemons from LA baking maven and lover of all things bundt Mary (aka The Food Librarian). The beautiful fruit came right off of trees in the backyard of Mary's dad --- Thank you Mary and Poppa Food Librarian!!! I knew I couldn't use all of this precious fruit right away, so I prepared most of them for the freezer.

I zested,

halved the zested lemons,

then did some serious juice squeezing.

I used snack size zip top bags to store the zest (the zest of 3 lemons in each bag),

and portioned the juice into 1/2 cup packages in sandwich bags. After marking the bags with a sharpie, they go into a large freezer bag and into the deep freeze. Now, I can enjoy fresh meyer lemon juice any time of the year!

I did set aside a handful of fruit for some immediate meyer lemon gratification. I've been reading through Karen DeMasco's book, The Craft of Baking, and her recipe for Lemon Raspberry Creme Brulee was calling my name.

The recipe calls for steeping the cream with lemon zest, cooling the mixture in an ice bath, adding lemon juice and salt, then resting the mixture overnight in the fridge.

Instead of tempering the eggs with the hot cream mixture (as I'm accustomed to), the eggs are whisked in to the cold lemon infused cream. The mixture is strained, and ready for the ramekins.

A handful of raspberries are scattered in each ramekin (I also added a few blueberries), and the custard mixture is poured into the prepared dishes.

These babies are ready for the oven.

Once the custard is set, it is chilled in the fridge overnight. Now, my favorite part - the brulee! After sprinkling some sugar on top,

the top is torched to melt the sugar and to create that scrumptious crunchy top.

My favorite part of this dessert is cracking the crunchy top, which yields to the creamy goodness underneath.

The custard delivers a nice refreshing tang from the meyer lemon, and has a wonderfully soft texture, which is a great contrast to the crunchy sugar top. The berries are soft and jammy, and provides a wonderful complement to the lemon flavor.

If you're a lover of all things lemon, I highly recommend that you take this recipe for a spin!

Meyer Lemon Creme Brulee w. Raspberries & Blueberries

adapted from The Craft of Baking by Karen DeMasco

Serves 6

2 C. heavy cream

1/4 c. plus 2 tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

finely grated zest of 4 meyer lemons

1/2 c. strained fresh meyer lemon juice

1/2 tsp kosher salt

4 large egg yolks

1 c. raspberries

1 c. blueberries

additional sugar

Prepare an ice bath in a large bowl.

In a medium saucepan, bring the cream, sugar, vanilla and meyer lemon zest just to a boil. Remove the pan from the heat and pour the mixture ino a medium bowl. Set the bowl into the ice bath and stir until the mixture has cooled. Once cooled, removed the bowl from the ice bath, and whisk in the lemon juice and salt. Cover, and refrigerate overnight.

In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks. Pour about one third of the chilled cream mixture into the yolks, and whisk together well. Add the remaining cream mixture and whisk to combine. Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl.

Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 300F.

Place 6 ramekins in 9x13x2 baking pan. scatter the raspberries and blueberries in a single layer in each ramekin. Divide the custard mixture among the ramekins. Place the prepared baking pan in the oven, and carefully pour enough hot water into the pan to come halfway up the ramekins. Be careful not to dilute the custard mixture with the hot water.

Bake in the water bath for 30 minutes, or until just set.

Let the custards cool to room temperature, then chill until they are ready to be served.

Just before serving, sprinkle sugar evenly over the tops of each custad and caramelize with a torch or under a broiler. Serve immediately.

Raspberry Blanc-Manger (TWD)

When I read that Susan of Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy selected Raspberry Blanc-Manger as this week's TWD recipe, I immediately had a flashback to this:I was a total new wave music fanatic in high school, and this recipe totally sent me into 80's flashback mode! :) But I digress...

Until this week, I had no idea what a blanc-manger was. I did a little research on wikipedia, and this is what I found:

Blanc-manger is a sweet dessert commonly made with milk or cream and sugar thickened with gelatin, cornstarch or Irish moss, and often flavored with almonds. It is usually set in a mould and served cold. Although traditionally white, blancmanges are frequently given a pink color as well. Some similar desserts are Bavarian cream, vanilla pudding (in US usage), panna cotta, and haupia.

The historical blancmange originated some time in the Middle Ages and usually consisted of capon or chicken, milk or almond milk, rice and sugar and was considered to be an ideal food for the sick.

Without question, Dorie Greenspan's version is infinitely better than that from the Middle Ages (blech)! I loved the simplicity in the preparation, and with a little effort, you are rewarded with a sophisticated looking and very delicious dessert. I also loved that this recipe didn't require turning on the oven.

Thank you Susan for this perfect summer pick! If you'd like to get your hands on this recipe, please visit Susan's blog. Not only is Susan a talented baker, but her photography is absolutely beautiful - total food porn!

Perfect Party Cake (TWD)

It's been a busy month with work and to top it off, I've been super busy planning for my hub's birthday celebration. This was no ordinary b-day, as my eternally youthful hubs was celebrating his 50th! Just yesterday, we returned from that birthday celebration weekend up in Paso Robles, CA. With a weekend of fantastic wine, delious meals, and in the company of some wonderful friends, I think the birthday boy was quite content. The folks at Justin and Tablas Creek really made our wine tasting afternoon fun and interesting (and we tasted some really amazing wines), and our dinner at Artisan was exceptional.

After being such a flake this past month, I'm determined to regain my baking and blogging mojo and kick things into gear.

This week's TWD selection for Dorie Greenspan's Perfect Party Cake is the perfect remedy to get me out of my funk, so THANK U Carol of mix, mix...stir, stir for making this excellent selection! Besides, I couldn't miss out on an opportunity to bake along with Carol, who is a totally talented baker & cook who has a great knack for spices. I was a little ambitious with this cake, and had to seriously hustle to get the cake baked, frosted and photographed yesterday afternoon. The effort was definitely worth it, as I thought this cake was truly exceptional.

The beautiful white cake layers were moist and tender, yet was able to hold it's own stacked in a layer cake. The lemon scented buttercream was delicious (you just need to block out in your mind the 3 sticks of butter that go into the frosting). I went along with the recipe using raspberry jam between the layers.

Next time, I would omit the raspberry jam in the layers, as it got a bit messy to frost and slice. I hope that I wasn't the only one having layers slipping and sliding all over the place.

Without the jam, I would definitely recommend doubling the buttercream recipe (I personally like a thick slathering of frosting on my cakes).
If you'd like to make this cake (which I highly recommend), you can find the complete recipe at Carol's blog. To see the beautiful cake creations of my fellow bakers, please make sure to check out the TWD blogroll.

Cheesecake w. Red & Gold Raspberries

I received a requrest from a dear friend M, who has been such a wonderful supporter of my baking endeavors, to bake for her mother's 87th birthday. I sat down with M to figure out what she wanted. This conversation resulted with a good news, bad news situation. The good news first - M wanted a decadent chocolate cake. My thought - perfect, I can definitely do this, as I have a perfect recipe! Okay, now the bad news - M's mother does not like chocolate (or cake for that matter), and her only dessert request was cheesecake. Cheesecake???? I've only made cheesecake once in my life like 10 years ago, and it was a horrific mess (undercooked filling, and the waterbath seeped into the cake resulting with a soggy crust...overall a royal pile of shit). Sounds gross? It was really gross!!! I swore I would never make another one...until last week.So, what do I do? At 87 years, I owe M's mom a dessert that she would enjoy, so I took a deep breath and promised M that I would deliver on a fabulous and delicious cheesecake. That evening, in a state of panic, I scoured all of my baking books to find a perfect foolproof cheesecake recipe. As I flipped thru Dorie Greenspan's Baking My Home to Yours, she set up a section devoted to cheesecakes. She is a total baking goddess, and almost every recipe I've made from this book was a success. So, I went with her Tall & Creamy Cheesecake recipe (this was highlighted a while back on Serious Eats).
I read all of her pointers, took a deep breath and started to make the cheesecake. I made the filling as directed and dropped in some fresh raspberries to provide a little surprise in the cake. To be quite honest, the ingredients and the preparation is pretty simple and straightforward...it's the baking and unmolding that unnerves me. The cheesecake is baked in a water bath for 90 minutes, and then sits in a cooling oven for another hour. After cooling completely, the cake goes into the frig to chill until ready to serve. So, how do I know that the filling has cooked thru and that the water didn't seep into the springform pan? I won't know, as I couldn't necessarily slice or poke to check for doneness...argh!!!
Okay, the top was a bit more brown than I anticipated, but that was easily remedied with some vanilla whipped cream and raspberries to decorate the top.


As I had a bit of the filling leftover, I decided to make a mini cheesecake using a 4 inch springform pan. I really wanted to see sample and experience the taste and texture of this recipe. As you can see here, the raspberries look GIGANTIC relative to this little cake:
I love seeing the little fruit gems as you slice the cake:

The mini cheesecake was TO DIE for...really delicious. The filling was creamy yet light and fluffy, and imparted a slightly tart flavor which really helped to cut the richness. So, if this little baby is the indicator for the larger cake, I should be in good shape.

The verdict from M and her family: an overwhelmingly positive response...as M put it "we had a total food porn moment!" WHEW!!!!

Okay, who else wants cheesecake for their birthday...I'm ready for you!!!!

Tall and Creamy Cheesecake: A Basic
- makes 16 servings
-Adapted from Baking From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan

Ingredients
For the crust (this makes a pretty thick crust, which is my personal preference):
2 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
4 tablespoons sugar
Pinch of salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

For the cheesecake:
2 pounds (four 8-ounce boxes) cream cheese, at room temperature
1 1/3 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs, at room temperature
2/3 cups sour cream
2/3 cups heavy cream
1/2 cups fresh raspberries, plus addt'l for garnishing

Procedure
To make the crust:
1. Butter a 9-inch springform pan—choose one that has sides that are 2 3/4 inches high (if the sides are lower, you will have cheesecake batter leftover)—and wrap the bottom of the pan in a double layer of aluminum foil; put the pan on a baking sheet.
2. Stir the crumbs, sugar and salt together in a medium bowl. Pour over the melted butter and stir until all of the dry ingredients are uniformly moist. (I do this with my fingers.) Turn the ingredients into the buttered springform pan and use your fingers to pat an even layer of crumbs along the bottom of the pan and about halfway up the sides. Don't worry if the sides are not perfectly even or if the crumbs reach above or below the midway mark on the sides—this doesn't have to be a precision job. Put the pan in the freezer while you preheat the oven.
3. Center a rack in the oven, preheat the oven to 350°F and place the springform on a baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes. Set the crust aside to cool on a rack while you make the cheesecake.
4. Reduce the oven temperature to 325°F.

To make the cheesecake:
1. Put a kettle of water on to boil.
2. Working in a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the cream cheese at medium speed until it is soft and lives up to the creamy part of its name, about 4 minutes. With the mixer running, add the sugar and salt and continue to beat another 4 minutes or so, until the cream cheese is light. Beat in the vanilla. Add the eggs one by one, beating for a full minute after each addition—you want a well-aerated batter. Reduce the mixer speed to low and stir in the sour cream and heavy cream.
3. Put the foil-wrapped springform pan in the roaster pan.
4. Give the batter a few stirs with a rubber spatula, just to make sure that nothing has been left unmixed at the bottom of the bowl, and scrape 1/2 the batter into the springform pan. Dot the filling with the raspberries, then pour the remaining filling on top. The batter will reach the brim of the pan. (If you have a pan with lower sides and have leftover batter, you can bake the batter in a buttered ramekin or small soufflé mold.) Put the roasting pan in the oven and pour enough boiling water into the roaster to come halfway up the sides of the springform pan.
5. Bake the cheesecake for 1 hour and 30 minutes, at which point the top will be browned (and perhaps cracked) and may have risen just a little above the rim of the pan. Turn off the oven's heat and prop the oven door open with a wooden spoon. Allow the cheesecake to luxuriate in its water bath for another hour.
6. After 1 hour, carefully pull the setup out of the oven, lift the springform pan out of the roaster—be careful, there may be some hot water in the aluminum foil—remove the foil. Let the cheesecake come to room temperature on a cooling rack.
7. When the cake is cool, cover the top lightly and chill the cake for at least 4 hours, although overnight would be better.
Serving: Remove the sides of the springform pan—I use a hairdryer to do this (use the dryer to warm the sides of the pan and ever so slightly melt the edges of the cake)—and set the cake, still on the pan's base, on a serving platter. The easiest way to cut cheesecake is to use a long, thin knife that has been run under hot water and lightly wiped. Keep warming the knife as you cut slices of the cake.
Storing: Wrapped well, the cake will keep for up to 1 week in the refrigerator or for up to 2 months in the freezer. It's best to defrost the still-wrapped cheesecake overnight in the refrigerator.

Summer Fruit Galette w. Lemon Verbena Ice Cream (TWD)

I can't believe that July has flown by so quickly! Work and life has been so hectic, and I haven't had the opportunity to slow down and enjoy summer. Still, I'm busy with good reason (it's all good), which I'll share with y'all in a future post. With that in mind, I'm going to keep this short and simple. This week's selection, Summer Fruit Galette, comes from Michelle of Michelle in Colorado Springs. This is a really terrific and timely recipe, as you can take advantage of the amazing bounty of fruit available at the farmers'markets.I decided to pare the recipe down and make two mini-galettes. I love Dorie's pie crust recipe, and I used half of the single crust recipe (the other half is sitting in the freezer). I followed the recipe as written, used a combination of nectarines and raspberries, spread fig jam w. a dash of ground ginger as the base. Echoing many people's thoughts, I wasn't too crazy about adding a custard to this galette (thought it would be too gooey and sweet), but decided to be open-minded and try it out! I served the mini-galette at room temp, and served along side it a combination of fresh golden (YUM) and red raspberries......and a scoop of lemon verbena ice cream. Before you pass judgement, you have to give this ice cream a try with this galette or any summer fruit dessert...delicious!!! For the recipe, I've posted this here.
I only had a taste (trying to exercise some self control as I'm going to Hawaii in October...definitely not in swimsuit shape at all...argh!!!!!), and the combination of the galette, the sweet/tart fresh berries, and the herbal ice cream was heavenly. My only complaint was that the galette itself was a bit sweet from the custard, which was not a winner for me. I'll probably omit the custard the next time I make this.

To see the fantastic galette creations of the Tuesday's With Dorie crew, check out the blogroll here. For the recipe, please visit Michelle's site.