Category Archives: Baking
Apricot Crumble Tart {CtBF}
Sweet or savory, I love tarts! I love the making and the eating. It’s probably one of the things I make most often when I want to wing it with whatever’s in the kitchen. I was delighted to try a new dessert tart, David Lebovitz’s Apricot Crumble Tart, the selection from My Paris Kitchen for this week’s Cook the Book Fridays.
Starting with the crust, this one hooked me in. I’m a huge fan of Dorie Greenspan’s Sweet Tart Crust, but this one was even better. It came together almost instantly in the stand mixer, then pressed easily into the pan. The high sides of a springform pan provides space for lots of sweet fruit filling.
This tart can also be done in stages. I made and prebaked the crust and prepped the cinnamon crumble topping one day, then prepared the filling and baked it the next.
I’m not sure that apricots are grown locally in New England. I haven’t seen them at the farmer’s market. At the largest produce market around, the apricots were from Washington State. They were also HUGE, almost the same size as a peach or nectarine. I was expecting to buy 15-20 apricots, but just 8 giant apricots weighed in at slightly over two pounds. Rather than quarter the fruit, I cut them in eighths which seemed to approximate the size that quarters of a normal-sized apricot would be.
2 pounds of giant apricots
The fruit filling generously filled the crust. Then the crumble was sprinkled on top before baking.
The visual cue for the tart’s doneness was nicely browned crumbs on top. That took a long time to happen. After the initial 50 minutes, the crumble seemed uncooked and the fruit was still firm. I ended up baking the tart for an additional 50 minutes, and even turned up the oven heat for the last half hour. I recall having a similar issue when we made David’s quiche. I recently calibrated my oven, so it wasn’t that. Hopefully next time I make one of his tarts, I’ll remember to start at 375F instead of 350F to reduce the baking time.
As a whole, this tart was good, but I’m not likely to seek out apricots just to make it again. I will definitely use the crust again, being sure to grease the pan a little more than I did because I experienced some stubbornness when serving slices. The crumble might reappear as well. I’m curious how this would be with the more plentiful peaches or nectarines. That might be worth a try.
A suggested accompaniment to the tart is Apricot Kernel Ice Cream made from the pits of the apricots. I didn’t try that this time around because I didn’t have enough of them. A full recipe calls for 50 apricot kernels. Had I used 15-20 apricots, I would have made a half-batch but I wasn’t going to get very far with just 8. I’ll save that one for another day.
The tart recipe can be found on-line here at Leite’s Culinaria or on page 309 in David Lebovitz’s My Paris Kitchen. To read about the other Cook the Book Fridays bloggers’ tarts, check out their links here. Happy Friday All!
Beef Stew Struggles {CtBF}
Full Disclosure: Beef Stew challenges me. On the surface, it’s perfect comfort food with much in its favor, but I usually only like it, never love it. One thing I’ve figured out is that I don’t like stewed vegetables, especially potatoes, so I tend to favor recipes with just meat and gravy. This week’s selection for Cook the Book Fridays from David Lebovitz’s My Paris Kitchen, Belgian beef stew with beer and spice bread (aka Carbonade Flamande), met these criteria, so I was excited to try something new.
To start, chunks of beef chuck are browned. Next, diced onions and bacon lardons are sautéed. The pot is deglazed with some water before adding a bottle of beer. I tried to find a European-style amber, but the only amber at the store was Dos Equis so that’s what I used. Finally, all the ingredients along with thyme, bay leaves, and cloves spent some time simmering.
Now it’s time for the secret ingredient: pain d’épices. What’s pain d’épices, you ask? It’s a honeyed spice loaf, not too sweet and fragrant with a variety of warm spices: anise, cinnamon, allspice, ginger, nutmeg and cloves. The scent reminded me of my favorite holiday cookies, Basler Läckerli.
It seems unconventional, but this stew is thickened with slices of pain d’épices lightly spread with Dijon mustard. The slices are laid on top while it stews for a few more hours. Periodic stirring encourages the bread to dissolve into the pot, transforming the thin beery broth into a thick flavorful gravy.
I served the stew over a bed of mashed potatoes. The stew had the simple style I prefer with an unusual and enticing aroma and taste. While I enjoyed this more than many other versions of beef stew, I still just liked-not-loved it.
Tricky to photograph — it was more appealing in person
I enjoyed the leftover spice bread more. I brought it to my sister’s. It was a bit dry, but improved when we toasted it for breakfast.
Meanwhile, I’ve become obsessed with last time’s dukkah. I made the dukkah-roasted cauliflower 3 times in the past two weeks. I also gave broccoli the same treatment. Equally delicious. And I used dukkah to coat fish fillets when I made Dorie Greenspan’s almond flounder meunière (or should I call it dukkah flounder meunière?) I’m going to have to make another batch.
We just returned from a long weekend in Florida for a family celebration. Here’s my favorite nature shot from the trip. We saw this 15-to-20 foot alligator floating in the water beside the fishing pavilion when we took a walk at Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge.
And closer to home, despite a snowstorm predicted for the weekend, spring is in the air. This morning I caught half a dozen turtles sunning themselves on a log during my late-morning walk with Bella. They made me smile.
And this evening, we spied a beautiful full rainbow in the backyard!
If you want to know how my friends enjoyed their stew, check out their links here. Due to copyright considerations, I don’t publish the recipes here. You can find the stew on page 198 and the pain d’épices on page 293 of David Lebovitz’s My Paris Kitchen. Or feel free to drop me a line and I’ll share with you.
A Plateful of Happiness 