Lemon Curd Tart with berries

You can top with almost any fruit that you think would go well with lemons, but I thought the strawberries and blueberries worked extremely well. Honestly, if you just wanted the tart without the berries it would probably be good, too!

Crust

1 1/4 cup flour (156 g.)
1/4 cup sugar
zest from 1 large lemon
1/2 tsp. salt
1 stick butter
1 tsp. vanilla
1 egg yolk
1+ tsp. water


1. Mix together flour, sugar, salt and zest.

2. Cut in the butter using a pastry cutter or by rubbing between your fingers until it resembles course meal.

3. Beat together egg yolk, water, and vanilla, then mix together with the flour mixture

4. It will be VERY crumbly! Press into a tart pan, letting it go at least an inch up the sides

5. Pierce the bottom several times with a fork, then place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes



6. Preheat oven to 375. Place refrigerated pie into the oven for 16-18 minutes, until lightly browned; remove and allow to cool, but don't turn off the oven!

Lemon Filling

1 cup sugar
Zest from 1 large lemon
Juice from 2 lemons (presumably one used here and one used for crust!)
1/2 cup sour cream
4 eggs

1. Whisk together sugar, zest, and lemon juice.

2. Add eggs, whisk, then sour cream, whisk.

Putting it together

1. Pour lemon mixture into cooled crust (doesn't have to be cooled completely).

2. Place back into the oven and cook for 18-20 minutes; check to see if it's ready by pulling on the rack. You want it to be "set" but still jiggly in the middle.

3. Pull out of the oven and allow to cool. When it's cool enough to not rot everything in the fridge by increasing the temperature, put it in the fridge.

4. About an hour before serving, put on the topping.

Topping

Glaze: 3 T. Polaner's all fruit (if you don't have it, any jam should work), 1 T. water. Mix together and microwave for 30 seconds.

You can use any fruits you like to go on top, assuming that you think it goes well with lemon. I used strawberries and blueberries, but you could use just one or something else entirely, like raspberries. If you do use strawberries, be sure to hull them and cut them into smaller slices.

You can either mix the fruit with the glaze and place on top of the pie or place the fruit on first and spoon on the glaze.

Once it's glazed, place in the refrigerator until ready to be served.

Sweet Potato Gnocchi

Ingredients

2 medium-sized sweet potatoes
1/2 cup ricotta
1 clove garlic, minced or chopped
2 T. grated Parmasan
1 egg
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 T. brown sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
About 3 cups flour (375 g.)

Directions

1. Steam or cook the sweet potatoes so they're soft and cooked through (I find it easiest to microwave by poking a few holes in the sweet potato, wrapping in plastic wrap, and popping in the microwave for 4 minutes on each side)

2. In a large bowl, mix together the ricotta, garlic, egg, parmasan, nutmeg, salt, and brown sugar and stir until well blended.

3. When sweet potatoes are ready, scoop the flesh into the ricotta mix and blend

4. Add flour 1/2 a cup at a time until it forms a soft dough; cut into 6 pieces

5. Roll each piece into a long snake that's about 1/2 an inch tall, then cut out 1 inch pieces

6. Boil in lightly salted boiling water for about 6 minutes; drain and serve with your favorite pasta toppings!

Galette des Rois

In case you haven't noticed, I've just discovered the delights of almond meal. This cake is essentially an eggy almond croissant cake; can you really go wrong with that?

Galette des rois is a traditional cake for L'Epiphanie. For the holiday, you hide a "feve" in the cake (either a dried bean or a small porcelain figure) and whoever gets the slice with the hidden feve is "king" (or queen) for the day. Just make sure you tell people eating the cake to look out so there are no broken teeth!

I also just discovered, after spending an arm and a leg on almond meal at the grocery store, that you can buy a huge bag for $4 at Trader Joe's! Speaking of epiphanies...

Just make sure you seal it REALLY well, or it will leak. Badly. Not that that ever happened to this domestic goddess, of course...



Ingredients

2 sheets of puff pastry, thawed
7 T. butter
5/8 cup sugar
almost 3/4 cup almond meal
1/2 tsp. almond extract
2 eggs (plus 1 egg yolk for egg wash)
great big pinch of salt
confectioner's sugar for dusting
orange zest or drop of orange flower extract (optional)

Directions

1. Make your filling by creaming butter and sugar together (you can let the butter sit at room temperature or be lazy and microwave for 12 seconds. Or you can be REALLY lazy and use a mixer).

2. Once it's a consistent texture, add almond meal, almond extract, 2 eggs, salt, and orange stuff if you've got it and mix until well blended.

3. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or overnight.

Preheat oven to 400 (or whatever the directions on your puff pastry say).

4. Take out puff pastry, being careful not to stretch it and, using a plate or some other round object, cut out 2 equal sized circles of puff pastry.

5. Spread filling onto one pastry, leaving a 1-inch border. If you're going to include a feve, put it in the filling now.

6. Beat together egg yolk with a little bit of milk or water, and brush along the border, being careful not to let it on the sides.

7. Top with second sheet of puff pastry, and press down with your fingers along the edges to seal. Seal it well, my friend! Avoid a baking disaster like mine :(

8. Make shallow slashes along the top of the cake and pierce a few holes to allow it to rise.

9. Cover with the rest of the egg wash.

10. Pop in the oven for about 20 minutes (should get nice and puffy). Pull out and sprinkle with confectioners sugar. Place back into the oven until nicely browned (about another 10 minutes).

Apple Clafoutis

You will need to cook the apples first, so it's not nearly as easy as a berry clafoutis, but still much easier than a pie!

Batter:

1/2 cup flour (62.5 g.)
pinch salt
1/2 cup sugar
3 T. butter
3 eggs
1 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla

1. Whisk batter together for a full 2-3 minutes, then place in the fridge while you prepare the apples. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400.

Apples:

2 apples, peeled, cored, and sliced into 1/4 inch slices
2 T. butter
pinch salt
almost 1 tsp. cinnamon
dash nutmeg
1/4 cup sugar

2. Cook the apples in the butter until slightly soft, then add the spices, salt, and sugar. Continue to cook until apples are cooked through, but not mushy.

3. Spoon apples out into a lightly buttered pie pan. Give the batter another whisk, then pour batter on top of the apples.

4. Bake for about 20 minutes, until clafoutis is puffy and slightly browned around the edges.

5. (Optional): Pour the rewarmed remains of the pan where you cooked the apples on top of the cooked clafoutis.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.

Apple Frangipane Tart

CRUST

1 1/4 cup flour (156 g.)
1/2 tsp. salt
1 T. sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 dashes nutmeg
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, cut into pieces
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. almond extract
1 cup ice water (put in a tablespoon at a time, don't put the whole thing in!)

Directions

1. Mix together dry ingredients

2. Rub flour mixture with the butter with your fingers until it resembles course meal

3. Add vanilla extract, almond extract, and water 1 TABLESPOON AT A TIME until crust comes together

4. Shape into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap, and stick in the fridge until butter is hard again (10 minutes to an hour, depending)


FRANGIPANE:

2 T. butter, room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup almond meal
1 T. flour (15 g.)
1/4 tsp. almond extract
1/4+ tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

1. Cream butter and sugar

2. Add egg and vanilla extract and stir (or beat) until smooth

3. Add almond meal and flour and mix until blended; cover and place in the fridge until use


PUTTING IT ALTOGETHER

Preheat oven to 375

1. Peel, core, and slice 3 granny smith apples until 1/2 inch slices

2. Roll out crust and place in a springform pie pan (if you don't have one, a regular pie pan, and if you don't have that, a baking sheet)

3. Spread frangipane along the bottom of the crust (or leave a border if you're using a baking sheet)

4. Place apples on top of frangepane mixture, and curl crust up around the apples

5. Melt 1 T. butter and brush exposed crust; drizzle any leftover butter over the apples

6. Sprinkle whole thing with 2 T. sugar (over crust and apples)

7. Cover apples with a loose piece of tin foil and bake for 50 minutes

8. Remove tin foil and make for another 10 minutes

9. (Optional) To brown it a little and give it a little extra hint of sweetness, take out the oven and dust with confectioner's sugar, then put back into the oven and broil on low for 1 minute. This extra step made it really nice.

Empanadas

My friend Elizabeth came over and made these. Fantastic! The dough can be used for either salty or sweet empanadas.

DOUGH

Ingredients

2 1/4 cup flour (281 g.)
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 stick cold butter, cut into small pieces
1 egg
1 T. vinegar
1/3 cup cold (preferably ice) water (plus more handy if needed)


Directions


1. Mix together flour and salt

2. Incorporate butter by rubbing butter and flour together between your fingers until it resembles course meal

3. Beat the egg with the vinegar and water and pour into the flour mixture

4. Incorporate wet and dry ingredients by hand or using a wooden spoon, being careful not to work the dough too much, until dough just holds together (if it doesn't, add water a tablespoon at a time to dry parts)

5. Dough is ready when it can be shaped into a cohesive ball (cracks are fine!). Wrap it in plastic wrap and stick in the fridge for at least an hour.

6. When dough it ready, preheat oven to 400. Divide dough into small balls, and roll out each ball with a rolling pin. Put filling in the middle then fold so it resembles a half moon with scrunched up dough on the round side.

7. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown.



FILLING:

The beauty is that you can fill these with pretty much anything. Seriously! Dessert or dinner, doesn't matter,.

Elizabeth made two kinds: one with ground beef and one with strawberry jam. The jam one was easy: just jam!

The beef one was made by sauteing onions (and garlic) until soft, then adding beef and cooking until cooked. She also added chopped cubes of boiled potato and carrots, as well as frozen peas (which she mixed into the beef). MMMMMM!!!! Thanks, Elizabeth!