Tuesdays with Dorie: Parisian Apple Tartlet
Simple is best.
The Tuesdays with Dorie pick for this week was Parisian Apple Tartlet chosen by Jessica of My Baking Heart. Only four ingredients are needed to make it and the most work you’ll have to do is peel an apple. That’s my kind of recipe.
For how easy this is, the tartlets deliver taste wise. But then again, all of the ingredients by themselves taste good. Dorie says many fruits would work well with this. I think the mango or apricot versions in the Playing Around section would be interesting to try. I’m sure a lot of the TWD members have experimented with different fruits, be sure to stop by the Tuesdays with Dorie blogroll to check out a few.
Thanks to Jessica for a great choice this week, I can see myself making this again. Please visit My Baking Heart to view the recipe or see Dorie Greenspan’s fabulous book Baking: From my home to yours on page 319. Next week, Tommi of Brown Interior selected Honey-Peach Ice Cream on page 437. I can’t wait to break out my ice cream maker again, the Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream that I posted back in August 2008 was the first and last time I have used it. Sad.
Tuesdays with Dorie – Tartest Lemon Tart
Tartest Lemon Tart was selected by Babette of Babette Feasts for the May 12th edition of Tuesdays with Dorie.
Lemon Tarts are yummy. This one is interesting because it uses whole lemons. After I had already made and tasted this, I read some tips from other bakers about removing the white pith from the lemon before using. This is definitely what I should have done because at times it was a tad too bitter. Not really tart… just bitter. But I was able to overlook that and still really enjoy it since the crust and powdered sugar did a good job of cutting it down. I used Dorie’s plain sweet tart dough and doubled the egg yolk while decreasing the butter. I’ve found that increasing the egg yolk in her tart dough recipes works better for me as it reduces crumbliness. I made the lemon filling as directed.
Thanks to Babette for choosing Tartest Lemon Tart. For the recipe, stop by Babette Feasts. Next week, it’s Fresh Mango Bread!
Chocolate Cream Tart
After the last few weeks, I’m on chocolate overload. This tart marks the end of the great chocolate run for TWD and, while it’s been great, I’m glad it’s over. I’m sure I’ll start going through withdrawals soon though. Mmmmm… chocolate. 
This tart is basically a normal diner style chocolate cream pie but with an updated crust of chocolate shortbread. I LOVED the chocolate filling and the whipped topping though I overmixed it a bit. Dorie really nailed the filling flavor in my opinion, I’d say it was close to perfect. Unfortunately, I didn’t love the crust… it was a bit too bitter but that was easy to overlook when eating all the components together. I think maybe adding more sugar to it or using something like an Oreo crust would work better for me.
I made a half recipe and used two 4 inch tart pans. I baked the crusts for only about 15 minutes. The only issue I had was I picked up one of the assembled tarts and it just crumbled in my hands and landed in a big mushy mess on the baking sheet. Whoops!
Chocolate Cream Tart was chosen for the April 28th, 2009 Tuesdays with Dorie by Kim of Scrumptious Photography. Thank you, Kim! The recipe can be found on Kim’s blog here or on pages 352 and 353 of Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From my home to yours. Next week, Megan of My Baking Adventures has chosen Tiramisu Cake on pages 266-268 of Baking: From my home to yours. I can’t wait for this one!!!
Tomato and Goat Cheese Tarts
Ina, I think I love you.
Tomato and Goat Cheese Tarts were the second March recipe for the Barefoot Bloggers and were chosen by Anne of Anne Strawberry. Although these caught my eye before, I probably never would have got around to making them. And that would have been terrible because right now, these tarts are one of my favorite things. The boyfriend also gave his approval.
I’ve never really thought I cared for goat cheese but I’m really coming around to it now. It’s a main ingredient in both these tarts and another Ina recipe I absolutely love, Roasted Pepper and Goat Cheese Sandwiches, which you must try if you haven’t yet!!
What I did: I went a little smaller with my circle cuts, using a 4 inch springform pan as my cutter for the puff pastry. I think next time I would just make squares so I wouldn’t have any waste. I couldn’t bring myself to throw away perfectly good puff pastry so I put my scraps together and made a few extra ugly shaped ones that tasted just as good as the prettier ones. I baked the smaller sized tarts for about 17-18 minutes instead of 20-25.
What I thought: Really, really wonderful. I would make these again without a doubt. My only tiny little complaint seems to be related to puff pastry which I don’t think I love by itself. I remember I complained about it previously on Ina’s Easy Cheese Danishes as well. If something is covering the puff pastry, I’m happy. But naked puff pastry… not so much. I don’t seem to care for the flakiness or the taste. So that being said, I took all of the leftover ingredients and turned this recipe into a sandwich using sourdough bread to model after that Roasted Pepper Sandwich I mentioned earlier. Yum!!!!
Ina Garten’s Tomato and Goat Cheese Tarts
2008, Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics
Show: Barefoot Contessa Episode: Say Cheese
Ingredients
1 package (17.3 ounces/2 sheets) puff pastry, defrosted
Good olive oil
4 cups thinly sliced yellow onions (2 large onions)
3 large garlic cloves, cut into thin slivers
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons dry white wine
2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme leaves
4 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan, plus 2 ounces shaved with a vegetable peeler
4 ounces garlic-and-herb goat cheese (recommended: Montrachet)
1 large tomato, cut into 4 (1/4-inch-thick) slices
3 tablespoons julienned basil leaves
TFF: Truffle Tarts and Raspberries
My blog name has always driven a lot of traffic to my site from people searching for “something sweet to say”. I see variations of that search all the time in my stats, with a surge recently since Valentine’s Day is right upon us.
So sometimes I like to think about what I could offer up in terms of advice.
It’s hard to come up with stuff but I did come up with one thing sweet to say… how about “I made you something!”.
Like these Truffle Tarts with Raspberries.
That’s pretty sweet. You can’t go wrong with that in my opinion. 
An Oreo cookie crust houses a bittersweet chocolate filling with a raspberry hidden inside and more served on top for garnish. It’s small, it’s rich, it’s chocolate, it’s raspberry… it’s seriously good.
Whether or not you love or hate Valentine’s Day, I hope you have a good one. This year, the boyfriend and I have decided to forgo our usual expensive dinner out at our favorite local restaurant and stay home and cook for each other instead. We also decided no cards, candy, flowers or gifts. We’ve had a lot of unexpected expenses come up recently from a sick cat’s huge vet bill to car repairs to an HD Tivo deal we couldn’t pass up to my $500 trip to the dentist Tuesday. We decided not to add more to the debt pile trying to show “I love you”. Just saying it is sweet enough.
Happy Birthday Katie and Sharon! I love both of you Valentine’s babies so much!
Tyler Florence’s Truffle Tarts with Raspberries
Show: How To Boil Water Episode: How Sweet It Is
Rated 4 out of 5 stars from 33 Foodnetwork.com reviews
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups fine chocolate wafer crumbs (from Oreo cookies or chocolate wafers)
6 tablespoons melted butter
1 recipe Dark Chocolate Truffles, recipe follows, whipped but not shaped into balls
6 fresh raspberries, plus extra for serving
Dark Chocolate Truffles:
1/2 cup heavy cream
8 ounces good-quality (70 percent) bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Click here for directions
Truffle Tarts with Raspberries are my fifth post for Tyler Florence Fridays, a group with the freedom to make any recipe of Tyler’s that they choose and then share their experiences every Friday.
Tuesdays with Dorie: French Pear Tart
So this week of Tuesdays with Dorie marks a special occasion – the one year anniversary of TWD! Dorie Greenspan, the author of the fabulous Baking: From my home to yours book we’re all making our way through, chose her French Pear Tart for all of us to try. She also answered questions from the OSI featured bakers. Pretty cool.
This French Pear Tart is a super easy dessert. It’s just a tart shell with an almond cream and pears. You can poach the pears yourself (which I did) or use canned pears to make it even easier. I forgot that I didn’t own a large tart pan (which happens when you have cabinets and closets stuffed to the brim) so I made this in a springform instead. I wasn’t sure how using a different pan would affect it. I found out the tart didn’t get done all the way even after 65 minutes of baking but I didn’t care, it was still good. And what it may have lost in looks from not having the detailed edging on the crust, it made up for in taste. I loved this.
Please visit Dorie’s website for the recipe and to check out all the other amazing things she posts. If you haven’t gotten the Baking: From my home to yours, I highly recommend it. I’ve made enough recipes from it now where I can name off tons of my favorites, but if I had to choose my least favorite I’d have a really hard time. That equals a great book.
I’m looking forward to another great year with TWD. I got the book for Christmas 2007 and joined the group back in April 2008, starting with Bill’s Big Carrot Cake. Last year, I made 44 of the recipes selected. I did a lot of “Blast From the Past” posts when I had extra time and calories to spare where I made selections from before I joined. Now, I’m only 9 behind before I’ve made every single recipe the group has done.
Still need to complete:
Quintuple Chocolate Brownies, Black and White Chocolate Cake, Brown Sugar-Apple Cheesecake, Almost-Fudge Gateau, Russian Grandmothers’ Apple Pie-Cake, Caramel-Topped Flan, Gooey Chocolate Cakes, The Most Extraordinary French Lemon Cream Tart, and Marshmallows.
Special thanks to Laurie for starting this amazing group that led me to the food blogging world. And, of course, thanks to Dorie Greenspan for inspiring me and so many other bakers to get in the kitchen every week and do what we love doing.
La Palette’s Strawberry Tart – Tuesdays with Dorie
I’ve taken the week off of work for a little R&R. Now, I love going on vacations where you actually go somewhere but I also like the ones where you can just stay home and do nothing. I feel like I hardly ever get to just be home for more than a few hours at a time. It’s been nice to completely clean the house, have my sisters over for pizza, catch up on Netflix movies and stupidly take scissors to my own hair and start cutting. 
This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie selection was La Palette’s Strawberry Tart chosen by Marie of A Year From Oak Cottage. I just finished making this a little while ago. I kept putting it off since I knew I would have free time this week. Too much R&R gets in the way of things sometimes when you aren’t used to having it.
I love strawberry pies/tarts because they’re so light. You could eat a huge dinner and still manage to squeeze in this as dessert. Dorie’s version is really simple to make and tastes really good. It has a sweet crust with a layer of jam and sliced strawberries on top. Adding the optional whipped cream and black pepper made this especially good. I would make this again and try using different jam/fruit combinations with the same crust.
The recipe can be found in Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours. Please stop by here to see how all of the other Tuesdays with Dorie members La Palette’s Strawberry Tarts turned out.
Next week, the selection is Peppermint Cream Puff Ring chosen by Caroline of A Consuming Passion. This one looks interesting, can’t wait to see how it comes out.
