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Pecan Crunch Tart

Posted in Holiday, Recipes, tagged , , , , on November 16, 2011 | 3 Comments »

Seriously, how is Thanksgiving in one week? I don’t know about you, but my 2011 flew by in the blink of an eye. I suppose this shouldn’t come as too much of a shock, since “Time flies when you’re having fun,” and 2011 has been jam-packed with tons of fun, new experiences. Still, I’m hoping time slows down a little for these last six weeks of the year so we can soak up all of the enjoyment the holiday season has to offer.

Like baking, for one. Anyone who read my blog through last year’s holidays knows the role cooking, baking in particular, holds for me and my loved ones in how we celebrate this time of year. And since the week leading up to Thanksgiving is going to consist of work, school, trailing, traveling, and (hopefully) sleeping, that leaves little time for baking! The solution? Well, I last Saturday, I made a tart. And I froze it. Fingers crossed this actually works out…

But since my Frangipane Apple Tart held up so well in the freezer for, oh, four weeks after I made it, I have high hopes for this Pecan Crunch Tart, which shares the same sweet buttery crust and a similar fluffy, nut-based filling. Not to mention that the aroma wafting out of the oven while this tart baked leads me to believe  it can be nothing short of delicious. And then there were those small morsels I sampled… Yes, my hopes for this tart are sky-high.

The recipe for Pecan Crunch Tart is a marriage of a fool-proof Pate Sucree (translation: “Sweet Paste”) pie crust, and a caramel-y, pecan-heavy filling that comes from AllRecipes.com – where over a thousand (!) home cooks deemed this pie worthy of four-and-a-half stars. I’m particularly loving the addition of chopped pecans right in the pie filling (rather than just on top) to add more pecan flavor and extra crunch in each bite! So, yeah. I was pretty psyched giving this a whirl at home.

Standard disclaimer: I haven’t actually tried a piece of this pie yet (of course not, its frozen solid in my freezer as my stomach growls in anticipation). But, given my prior experience with (eating) Pate Sucree crust, and a thousand other people’s experience with this pecan filling, I feel fairly confident in recommending this recipe to you for your Thanksgiving dessert spread this year! Are you up for the challenge?

Pecan Crunch Tart – Makes one 9-inch tart (or pie)

Adapted from AllRecipes.com

Ingredients for Pate Sucree Tart Crust (makes enough for one 9″ tart)

  • 1 1/4 cups all-purpose Flour
  • 1 Tbsp white sugar
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • 8 Tbsp (1 sticks) unsalted butter, cold
  • 1 egg, lightly beaten plus ice water to equal 1/4 cup
Ingredients for the Pecan Filling
  • 1 cup of light brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup of white sugar
  • 1/2 cup of butter, melted
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 Tbsp all-purpose flour
  • 1 Tbsp milk
  • 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
  • 1 cup of chopped pecans, plus extra for decoration
Method
Start by preparing the Pate Sucree: Combine your dry ingredients – flour, salt and sugar – in a bowl. Cut cold butter into 1/2 inch cubes and add to dry ingredients. Using the paddle attachment of a standing mixer, a pastry cutter, or your fingers, rub the butter into the flour until you reach a cornmeal consistency (small granules, no flakes or lumps). Slowly mix in the egg mixture until the dough comes together and is smooth. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and form into a disk, about an inch thick. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use (note: dough can be frozen for up to 3 months).
Preheat the oven to 400 F.
When you’re ready to make your tart, role Pate Sucree out in a circle to about 1/8 to 1/4 inch thickness. The dough should be around an inch larger than your tart tin on all sides. Roll the dough over your rolling pin to transfer to tart tin, and gently lay dough over the tin. Then, press the dough down into the corners of the tin to form a flat base and straight sides. Trim off the excess dough, leaving an extra 1/4 inch. Then, use your fingers to straighten the excess dough to make the sides of the tart slightly taller.
To make the filling, in a large bowl, beat eggs until foamy, and stir in melted butter. Stir in the brown sugar, white sugar and the flour; mix well. Last add the milk, vanilla and nuts. Pour into the unbaked tart shell.
Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes at 400 degrees, then reduce temperature to 350 degrees and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until done. About 10 minutes before tart is done, remove from oven and decorate top with whole pecans. Serve with vanilla ice cream or freshly whipped cream!

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Thanksgiving Thoughts

Posted in Holiday, Just for fun, tagged , , , , on November 4, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

Well, it’s that time of year again. The air is crisp, the leaves have finally begun to change from green to deep jewel hues (after being smothered by snow last weekend!), and Halloween’s jack-o-lanterns are firmly behind us. It’s full steam ahead into the foodie-ist holiday of them all – Thanksgiving!

If you, like me, subscribe to a plethora of food blogs and follow every food magazine on Twitter, you’re quickly realizing that all talk has turned to Thanksgiving menus, from the best desserts to the hottest new Turkey roasting trend to most portable Thanksgiving sides for those who won’t be hosting. It’s easy to get overloaded on all this information, but the fact is, it’s also quite contagious, and hard to avoid the pre-planning, recipe scouring, and ingredient hunting that basically defines the month of November for any cook and Thanksgiving lover.

Take last year, for example. Last year I, without actually getting the permission of my parents (small technicality), offered to host a Thanksgiving for my whole family at their house. I mean, we had actually begun toying with the notion of not having Thanksgiving, for crying out loud! I couldn’t let that happen. This was a serious matter. So I offered up their home, kitchen, and hospitality for the event. And with that, my mother immediately declared that she would be spending all of Thanksgiving morning sitting on the couch, watching the parade, and I could do all the cooking.

This was pre-culinary school, though, and I was taking all the cooking I could get my hands on. The idea of preparing a several course meal in my parents’ kitchen, which is considerably larger than my own, sounded delightful, and I even took the Wednesday beforehand off work to prepare. But the preparations didn’t stop there. Oh no. I dove headfirst into planning mode and decided to create a Google Doc presentation of my recipes and plan to share with the whole Family. At the time I thought this was pretty normal (okay, not really).


I should have known then that culinary school was inevitable, but enough about that… Point is, last year’s Thanksgiving went off without a hitch because I had plenty of time to plan, cook, and even a little wiggle room for mistakes (I may have had to ride my bike to 711 for heavy cream at one point). So many delicious recipes, like this Pumpkin Ginger Pie, and just unforgettable cooking moments came out of that day, and it helped me fully understand why hosting Thanksgiving is such a joy for so many people.

This year, I won’t be hosting a Thanksgiving feast, but rather, be a guest at one.  It really is for the best, as Thanksgiving 2011 is bookended by class, work, exams and weekend trips. Still, like any good guest, I refuse to arrive empty-handed, and have already begun plotting what I should bring. Perhaps the unbeatable Apple Frangipane Tart that we made in Pastry class at ICE? Or maybe the amazing cranberry sauce that I died a little bit for last year. Either way, I’m excited for the planning and preparing, whatever it winds up being!

What are you most excited to make (or eat) this Thanksgiving? Are you hosting, or guesting?

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a little salt in your caramel-banana-cream-pie

Posted in Holiday, Recipes, tagged , , , , on June 3, 2011 | 2 Comments »

A few weeks ago, on a typical, totally average Saturday morning, I was lounging on the couch with Adam, channel surfing and enjoying an extended period of non-committal relaxation. This has become the routine, in some ways; as semi-adults, we’ve graduated from the cartoons of our child to another sort of Saturday morning comfort entertainment. We circulated between our three go-to channels – Food Network, Cooking Channel, and HGTV – and finally settled on an episode focused on the essentials of pie making, a vicarious experience since a health kick had us eating oatmeal for breakfast.

Sure, this show on pie making seemed innocent enough. But I quickly realized that this was no ordinary episode. Halfway through, the host was whipping up homemade gray-sea-salted-caramel on the stove top, tempering egg yolks into a vanilla bean custard, and slivering perfectly ripe creamy bananas. I, characteristically, was drooling. Adam, on the other hand, was rolling his eyes, an act only exaggerated by my actual growing angry at the host because she was going to be able to enjoy this salted caramel banana cream pie, and I, stuck with my bowl of mushy oats, was not! How was that fair? I asked the universe. I quickly found myself wanting justice, wanting retribution for being taunted with this ridiculously sumptuous dessert with no signs of closure.

But mostly I just wanted bananas enveloped in a thick, luscious custard, perfumed with Madagascar vanilla and the most subtle of tropical fruit, rich like melting ice cream punctuated with the faintest hint of salt in a river of buttery caramel, all resting upon a savory, crumbling bed of homemade pie crust. With whipped cream on top.

As usual, my epicurean fantasy gave way to reality as I searched for the perfect rationale to execute this over-the-top dessert. The result? Just as good – nay, better than I imagined. I toted this pie, which was baked one and a half times bigger than it should have been in a jumbo-sized Costco pie tin, through forty-five minutes of Memorial Day traffic to a family barbecue where is was greeted with open arms, and eager stomachs.

For a family who knows how to fill up on dinner, it spoke to this pie’s virtues that nearly everyone went back for a second “slice.” And I only say “slice” tentatively because once it hits the plate, the custard, caramel, and whipped cream ooze out over the sides of the crust, like an ice cream sundae in the hot summer sun, pleading to be gobbled up as quickly as possible.

Which is for the best, as it makes licking your plate clean that much easier.

Salted Caramel Banana Cream Pie- Makes one pie (9 to 12 inches)

Largely based on Kelsey’s Essentials

You’ll need:

For the crust

  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces, chilled or frozen
  • 6 to 8 tablespoons ice cold water

For the pie filling

  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/3 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons cornstarch
  • 1 tablespoon flour
  • 2 1/2 cups whole milk
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract, or 1 vanilla bean, split in half lengthwise and seeds scraped
  • 1/2 recipe Salted Caramel Sauce, recipe follows
  • 4 bananas, sliced

For the salted caramel (YUM)

  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 3/4 cup heavy cream
  • 3 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • Gray sea salt, crushed, or kosher salt

For the whipped cream topping

  • 2 cups of heavy cream
  • 2 tbsp confectioner’s sugar

Now, as you may have guessed from this list of one hundred and one ingredients, this pie is not the simplest recipe in the book. If you are ready and willing to take this journey, clear your morning schedule and fully commit yourself to the extremely enjoyable process of creating this confection. Let me reiterate: It. Is. Worth It! Good things take time, and this pie is at the top of the list. And I promise, if you plan properly, you can have the whole thing done in two hours. Doesn’t that sound like a great way to spend your morning? I can’t think of a better one! Here’s your roadmap to heaven:

Start by making your pie crust: Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

In a mixing bowl, mix together the flour and the salt; cut or work the butter into the flour with your fingers or a pastry blender until you have large pea sized chunks scattered throughout. Alternatively, pulse the dough in a food processor, or mix in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment on low speed.

Add the ice water slowly while stirring with a fork, or in the food processor or mixer, until just combined. Be careful not to overwork the dough. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and flatten into a disk. Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes.

Roll out chilled pie dough to fit your pie plate (the extra dough can be balled up and saved in the freezer or fridge). Transfer dough to pie plate, pressing the dough lightly into the plate; trim the edges. Dock the dough with the prongs of a fork evenly over the bottom of the pie plate. Line the docked dough with aluminum foil and fill with pie weights or dried beans. Bake the pie crust until the edges are brown and golden, about 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and remove the weights. Return crust to the oven to finish baking for another 5 minutes.

While your pie crust is baking, you can make your pie filling and salted caramel (note, the caramel can also be made in advance).

To make the filling, start by mixing the sugar, salt, cornstarch, and flour in a heavy bottomed saucepan. Over medium-low heat, slowly whisk in the milk.

In a separate mixing bowl, beat the egg yolks. Once the pastry cream starts to boil, slowly add 1/2 cup of the pastry cream to the egg yolks and whisk quickly to temper. Return the mixture to the saucepan. Continue whisking until the mixture coats the back of a spoon and is smooth and thick. Strain. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter, and vanilla. Stir in 1 cup sliced bananas. Allow the mixture to cool.

To make the salted caramel, start by combining the sugar and water in a heavy bottomed saucepan over medium-low heat until the sugar dissolves. Increase the heat and bring to a boil without stirring. Boil until the syrup is a deep amber color, about 5 to 7 minutes. Watch this carefully – it’s not the time to walk away from the stove.

Remove from the heat and carefully whisk in the heavy cream. The mixture will bubble up in the pan, so be careful. Stir in the unsalted butter, and salt, to taste. Transfer the caramel to a dish and cool.

To make the whipped cream topping, take a large bowl and your beaters and stick them in the freezer until frosty. Then add the cream to the bowl and whip until stiff peaks are just about to form. Beat in sugar until peaks form. Make sure not to over-beat, cream will then become lumpy and butter-like.

Once your pie crust, filling and caramel have cooled down to at least room temperature (cooler is fine), it’s time to assemble your pie! Wahoo! This is the fun part!

Stir up your pie filling to loosen, if necessary. Cover the bottom of the prepared crust with a layer of thinly sliced bananas and drizzle with 1/4 cup of the salted caramel sauce.

Top with another layer of sliced bananas, then add the custard and fill the crust to nearly the top, covering the bananas completely.

Top with another thin layer of bananas. Add the whipped cream, drizzle with salted caramel and decorate the pie any way you’d like with the rest of the sliced bananas. Get creative!

 

Chill the banana cream pie until the filling is set, about 2 hours. Serve with extra salted caramel, if desired, because really, why not?

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Sky Full of Pumpkin-Ginger Pie

Posted in Holiday, Recipes, tagged , , , , , on November 30, 2010 | 4 Comments »

Some will argue that summer is the pinnacle of pie season. All that fresh fruit… blueberries, raspberries, rhubarb – you could make pies galore! But for many, autumn will always spell the beginning of a pie time of year, when the weather is cold and a rich, flaky pastry crust filled with a creamy, sweet confection finally feels just right.

Pumpkin Pie epitomizes this sentiment, from the moment it is conceived in the weeks leading up to Halloween when the deep orange pumpkins of fall just start to ripen. Then, as November arrives and Jack-O-Lanterns are discarded, pumpkins find a new purpose in our meals, as they are pureed into soups, mashes, breads, muffins, and pies. Hundreds of years ago, Native Americans brought the finest pumpkins of their harvest as gifts to the New World settlers, and in the present-day now, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a pumpkin pie missing from your table on Thanksgiving. But after trying this Pumpkin-Ginger pie recipe from Locanda Verde’s pastry chef Karen DeMasco, you’ll want this pie front and center of your dessert buffet for every holiday party, Christmas dinner, and New Year’s celebration that’s to come this year. Because nothing says decadence quite like a classic pastry with a modern twist – and that is what this pie is all about.

To start, you’ll need to spend a little time at your local grocery store, gathering all sorts of magical ingredients. You’ll need:

INGREDIENTS for the Crust:

  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp. sugar
  • 3/4 tsp. kosher salt
  • 1 stick unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
  • 1/4 cup lard, cold

INGREDIENT for the Filling:

  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1/2 cup maple syrup
  • 1/4 cup dark-brown sugar
  • 1 tbs. finely grated ginger
  • 1 3/4 cups fresh pumpkin (or 15-oz. canned pumpkin purée)
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp. cloves
  • 1/2 tsp. fresh nutmeg
  • 1 tsp. kosher salt

Then, get to work making your own pie crust. Sure, you could go store-bought, but why? I promise, this takes less than 20 minutes to make, and is way easier than any pastry-making trials and tribulations you may have heard in the past.

To start, place the flour, sugar, and salt into a large mixing bowl. Add the butter and lard, and mix with a pastry blender or fork (or even cut the butter into small pieces with two knives – trust me, you can work with what you’ve got!) until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add 1/4-cup ice water, using your hands to mix the dough together. Then, on a clean surface, shape the dough into a flattened disk. Wrap the disk in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Once the dough has chilled in the fridge (and feel free to leave it in the fridge as long as overnight – I did, and it worked out great), roll out the dough into an 11-inch round on a floured surface. Center the dough on a 9-inch pie plate, pressing into the edges, and trim the dough to the rim. Then, stick the dough-covered pie plate back in the fridge and chill for 10 more minutes. In the meantime you can shape the remaining scraps of dough into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate those too. They’ll come in handy later ;) Oh, and go preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Once your pie crust has chilled out in the fridge, bring it back front and center, and get ready to bake! Line the pie shell with a round of parchment paper or foil, leaving a 1-inch overhang. Then, fill with pie weights. Or, if you are a normal home cook and are saying to yourself, “Pie-weights, what-now?” go get some dried beans or lentils out of your pantry and fill the parchment-lined pie shell with those. Us home cooks are nothing if not resourceful.

Bake the crust for 15 to 20 minutes until the edges begin to turn golden. Remove the parchment and pie weights, er, lentils… And return the crust to the oven to continue baking for about 10 more minutes until it appears to be flaky and golden. You know, like a pastry… Right… Now the crust is done, so set the whole pie plate on the table or a wire rack  and let it cool completely. There’s still a bit to do, so you’ll have plenty to keep you busy while the crust cools.

Now, it’s time to make the filling! This filling is what makes this pie phenomenal – it has a few secret (well, not any more…), irresistibly scrumptious ingredients that kick it up a few (…thousand…) notches and make it the most unique pumpkin pie you’ve ever had.

Now look. By now you’re probably thinking, “This seems like wayyyy to much work on to of everything else I have to cook for this holiday dinner party. Costco’s got a great pumpkin pie and no one has ever complained about a Costco dessert.” I know it’s easy to go out to the store and buy a pumpkin pie. Maybe even a gourmet, special, different pumpkin pie. But, humor me  while I give you a short scenario. A certain family member of mine dug the last, slightly smushed, left over slice of this pie out of the fridge last night, five days after Thanksgiving, the day on which it was made and served, and after a week of hanging out in the not-always-friendly-fridge, the pie was still able to elicit the following response:

“So I finished the last ample slice of pumpkin pie last night, and after the sensory overload subsided, it knocked my socks off! The ginger came fizzing through!”

That’s right – GINGER. Also, maple syrup. Ready to venture onward? Okay – let’s go!

First, reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees. Gather your filling ingredients, measuring cups, measuring spoons, and whisk around a large bowl. Whisk the eggs, cream, maple syrup, brown sugar, and ginger together until well combined and smooth. In a second bowl, mix the pumpkin, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and salt until that’s smooth, too; then add the egg mixture in, and whisk to combine.

That’s it! Pour filling into cooled pie shell, and give yourself a pat on the back! The hard part is done.

Now, if you want to get decorative, DeMasco recommends the following: Roll out the refrigerated disk of dough to about 1/4-inch thick. Using a 1/2-inch cookie cutter, cut out 40 pieces of dough. Once the crust is cool, fan and press the cutouts to form a lip around the edge of the crust. Chill the cooked crust lined with cutouts for 10 minutes.

I went with a festive leaf cookie cutter to make the rim. Despite the aroma and taste of this pie, let’s face it – we’re all visual creatures, so I definitely recommend taking the extra 15 minutes to cut out some holiday pastry shapes and dressing your pie up a bit.

Bake the pie on the center rack of the oven for about 60 minutes (rotating after 30 minutes) or until the center has a slight jiggle. Serve each slice with some freshly whipped cream, such as DeMasco’s brandy whipped cream, which includes 2 cups heavy cream, 2 tbs. sugar, and 1/4 cup brandy, or something simpler, like heavy cream, a dash of confectioner’s sugar, and some vanilla extract.

So, there you have it! A quick and easy (okay, so not really at all, but really, what good things in life are?) Pumpkin-Ginger-Maple-Brandy-Heaven-like-presents-under-a-fresh-pine-tree-Christma-hannuk-kwanza-practically-perfect-in-every-way Pie (in the sky). But who needs superlatives? The proof is in the pudding (read: pie filling), and in the smiles of pure bliss that will surely overcome your guests’ faces when they dig into a slice of this goodness this holiday season.

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