Pear Almond Tart, a come back to blogging

Yes, I'm still alive (in case you were wondering) and I'm sorry I've been quiet for so long. A lot a things have been happening since the end of last year, some include me moving boxes, painting walls and building up swedish furniture. Normally this shouldn't prevent me from blogging, but there's been an additional factor: I've got a new partner in crime, let me introduce you to Einstein, my lovely, very fast growing girl puppy.

To anyone who has ever got a puppy, you know how it is: getting up at night, cleaning up a lot of mess and trying to teach the little one a few things as she grows. Don't worry this blog is not going to be about all the cute stories about my dog (though you might get to hear a few) or recipe of what to cook to your dog. This is still a cooking blog, and I did spend only little time cooking, but I'm still in charge of sunday's dessert, so there's been some (easy) baking going on.

This recipe has been done once before and works really well, it has a funny name in french "tarte bourdaloue" (based on the name of the street where a baker created this recipe in Paris, apparently) and it's a pear pie with an almond cream called "frangipane", you can serve it just like that, but I'm sure a version "à la mode" (with ice cream) would be lovely too.

Pear and Almond Cream Tart

For a 27cm pie dish

Pie dough

200gr of Butter at room temperature
300gr of Flour
A pinch of Salt
4 Tablespoons of Sugar
Cold Water

Almond Cream

120gr of Butter at room temperature
2 Eggs
120gr of Sugar
160gr of Ground Almonds

1 Can of Pears

In a bowl, place the flour and make a well in the middle, add the sugar, salt and cut the butter in little cubes and place it in the well aswell. Start rubbing the flour with the butter together to combime them, add the cold water slowly to make a dough. Place on your working surface with a bit of flour and work quickly to combine and set aside for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 190°C.

To make the almond cream, in a bowl combine the eggs and the butter, beat with the sugar to make it smooth and than add the ground almonds. Set side.

Roll out the dough (you will have some extra left) and place it in your pie dish. Spread out the almond cream evenly on top. Cut the pears in slices, but not all the way to the top to fan them out on the almond cream.

Place in the oven for 30 minutes. Leave it to cool before serving.

Hope or Chocolate Tart?

Once, on a bus ride thru a big city, lost in thoughts and listening to music, my eyes caught a grafitti tag on a road sign that read "HOPE DIED LAST". This simple statement got me thinking, would that be true? Would hope be the last thing we hang on to in the end? Is being hopefull the very essence of being human?

If you came looking for answers, well let me tell you, this is not the place. I simply have none of them. But I believe that hope is a great power, that it moves us forward, gets us up in the morning and keeps us standing thru difficult times. And for being a helpless believer, I have had my hopes shattered more than once. I don't know if that makes me any less hopefull, but maybe just more carefull.

"Let's hope for the best" or "Get your hopes up" are expressions I want to embrace, even when I turn on the news and see hate and violence all over the world. Because after all, what else can we do? If the proverbial "all hope is lost" were to be true, how would we react? I think I'd rather not know.

But for any lost cause, I have the same answer: Chocolate! This chocolate and candied orange tart is yet an other proof, that I'm hopeless when it comes to staying away from chocolate! Why should I anyway...

Chocolate and Candied Orange Tart (based on a recipe from Petit Larousse Pâtissier)

For a 28cm Pie

120gr of Butter
2 Eggs
80gr Icing Sugar
4 Tablespoons Ground Almonds
220gr Flour
A pinch of Salt
30cl Cream
200gr Black Chocolate
50gr Milk Chocolate
3 Tablespoon of Candied Orange Peel

Cut the butter into small cubes. In a standing mixer, whisk the eggs and add the sugar, the almonds and the salt, keep whisking until it's well combine and light. Change to the paddle attachement and add all the flour at once, mix in slowly, than start adding the cubes of butter, one by one, until you have a shiny dough. Form a ball and cover it with cling film and leave it to rest at least 30 minutes in the fridge.

Preheat the oven to 170°C.

Roll out you dough to fit you pie dish (I had some dough left). Prick the dough with a fork, than cover with parchement paper to put some weight on it (like dried beans) to bake your pastry blind for 12 minutes. Than (carefully) remove the beans and cook for 10 more minutes. Leave to cool.

To make the ganache, heat up the cream in a sauce pan. Break the chocolate into little pieces and place them in a bowl, pour over the hot cream and start mixing carefully with a spatula, just until it's smooth.

Dice the candied orange peel and place them in the pie crust, than carefully pour over the chocolate ganache, try to make it even and not have to much air bubbles (your can prick them with a knife). Place in the fridge until you serve it.

Let's all cry: Onion Tart

Let me share a secret here: I'm a big cryer. Whether it is because I'm sad, happy, upset, moved, I can't help it, I just cry. Last week only, I cried in front of a cooking contest on TV, a home improvement show, an episod of "Battlestar Galactica"... Anything can get me going, it's embarrasing really. I must have seen the last episod of "Friends" about 10 times, and I still cry, or as Phoebe would say "here comes the water works"!

Beside all the positiv aspects on your health, for your sight, your blood pressure... etc. I believe there is something cathartic about it crying. Letting your emotions flow, releasing tensions and just being in touch with your feelings, that's why we even sing a lot about it. We are the only mammals who cry, so I guess it's also what makes us human.

Now, quite often, I cry in my kitchen, but for a different reason: I love onions! While cutting them you releases a gas, called propanethiol S-oxide, that mixed with certain enzime of the onion creates a sulfur gas that irritates your eyes, hence the crying. Or in other words: it's not my fault this time!
To me, this recipe is worth all the crying. To my knowledge, this a traditionnal swiss recipe, but I'm sure there are many versions around the world, here's mine.

Onion Tart

For an 18cm Pie Dish

For the dough (based on a Betty Bossi recipe)
125gr of Flour
50gr of Butter
5cl of Water
1 Tablespoon of Vinegar
A pinch of Salt

For the filling
400gr of Onion
100gr of Bacon
10cl of White Wine
80 of Parmesan
2 Eggs
Olive Oil
1 Tablespoon of Thym
Salt, Pepper

Make the dough first. In a bowl, weight the flour, and add the butter cut into cubes and the pinch of salt. Using your fingers, rub the butter into the flour, like you would for a crumble. When you have something ressembling sand, pour in the water and vinegar, and work until you have smooth dough. Place in the fridge while you work on the filling.

Peel and cut the onions into half moons. In a big pan, heat up some olive oil and then add the onions, aswell as a pinch of salt and the thym. Cook for about 20 minutes, stir with a wooden spoon quite often, you want the onions to brown a little.

Cut the bacon to small cubes or thin slices, grate the parmesan and set both aside. When the onion has a nice pale brown color, pour the white wine in the pan and stir to scrape the brown bits of the bottom of the pan. Let the wine evapoarte and add the bacon, cook for a couple of minutes and take off the heat to cool a little.

Preheat the oven to 170°C.

When the onion/bacon mixture has cooled a little in a bowl, add the parmesan, the 2 eggs and pepper to taste. Roll out your dough and place it in your pie dish, pour in the filling and place in the oven for 45 to 60 minutes, until the top has a nice golden brown color. Serve with a green salad.

The Easy Way: Plum Tart

Sometimes I wish life would be easy like this pie. It's crystal clear: a crunchy pastry, soft plums, a little bit of sweet, a little bit of sour, a little something for everyone. Instead, life is confusing, at least to me. You try to head into the direction you think is right, but you have to manoeuvre between the bumps and pothole, and sometimes someone puts a stop sign, right in front of your face. As someone I know would say: "That's life".

So let me get back to my kitchen, there at least, I'm the boss of what's going on. Well I said easy, because I had some leftover puff pastry from the Daring Baker's challenge, and you don't want all your effort to go to waste, plus I can find any excuse to actually make some dessert. If you do make your own puff pastry, it will be a little more work.

I've made this a while ago with the last plums I had, but I think it would work with figs, caramelized apples, pears, peaches... Whatever suits your mood of the day would do, depending on the season. I've used greek yogurt and honey on top because I love the combination, but ice cream or whipped cream would do too, aswell as adding a few toasted almonds slivers maybe... See, you can put a lot of work in the simplest thing, and it's worth it.

Plum Tart

Serves 1

100gr of Puff Pastry
2 Yellow Plums
1 Teaspoon of Brown Sugar
2 Tablespoons of Greek Yogurt
1 Teaspoon of Honey

Preheat the oven to 170°C.

Roll out your puff pastry about half a centimer thick. Wash the plums, cut them in half to remove the pit and cut each half in 3 or 4 equal part. Place the slices of plum on the puff pastry, sprinkle it with sugar before placing it in the oven for about 20 minutes.

When the puff pastry has a nice golden color, take the tart out of the oven. You can serve this still hot, or at room temperature, with some yogurt and honey on top.