Bakewell Tart (Daring Bakers’ Challenge)

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

Before seeing this as the monthly challenge for the Daring Bakers, I had never heard of a bakewell tart.  But I can assure you that I will certainly be making this again – I loved it!

I made this the day Husband moved, figuring that baking would help cheer me up (plus, Husband dislikes almond flavors and any fruit based sweet, so there was no point for making it for him).  Due to some unexpected circumstances, we were out of town until the day before he left, and we did not have the chance to make one last grocery trip using his car, so I made several substitutions with what was already in my kitchen.  The frangipane called for 4.5oz icing (confectioners) sugar, but I only had half a cup… so I subbed the rest with regular granulated sugar.  I also needed 4.5oz of ground almonds, but after tossing all the almonds I had into my food processor and came up short – since I had no idea what the texture would be with fewer nuts, I just filled the rest with ground walnuts and added extra almond extract to mask any walnut flavor.  And you know what?  It was great!  Confession: I ate a piece for breakfast every day this week!

Bakewell Tart

Ingredients:

For shortbread crust-

• 8 oz all purpose flour
• 1 oz sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 oz unsalted butter, cold
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 1-2 tablespoons cold water

For frangipane-

• 4.5 oz unsalted butter, softened
• 4.5 oz icing (confectioners) sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 4.5 oz ground almonds
• 1 oz all purpose flour

For filling-

• 1 cup jam (I used apricot)

Directions:

1. Sift together flour, sugar, and salt for shortbread crust.  Grate butter into the flour mixture, using the larger grating side of a box grater.  Using your finger tips only, rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles bread crumbs.
2. Lightly beat the egg yolks with the almond extract and quickly mix into the flour mixture.  Keep mixing while dribbling in the water, only adding enough to form a cohesive and slightly sticky dough.
3. Form the dough into a disk, wrap in cling wrap, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
4. To prepare the frangipane, cream the butter and sugar together until very fluffy.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Batter may appear to curdle – normal!  Pour in the almond extract and mix for another 30 seconds.  With the beaters running, spoon in the ground nuts and the flour.  Mix well.
5. Place the chilled shortbread dough on a lightly floured surface.  Flour the rolling pin and roll the pastry to 1/4” thickness.  When the pastry is the desired size for a tart or pie plate, transfer it to the pan, press in, and trim excess dough.  Chill in the freezer for 15 minutes.
6. Preheat oven to 400F.
7. Remove shell from freezer and spread an even layer of jam onto the pastry base.  Top with frangipane, spreading to cover the entire surface of the tart.  Smooth the top and bake for 30-35 minutes.  The finished tart will have a golden crust and the frangipane will be tanned and poofy.

Temporary Delays

I apologize for all the delays in posting, but things have been kind of a zoo around here. I intend on updating about my grandmother, sharing some pictures from our vacation, lamenting about how all of my friends suddenly happen to be moving away from D.C. the same week as my Husband… but first, I have to finish helping him pack up all his belongings and load them into the car, as he moves back to Philadelphia this afternoon.

Who knew a year could fly by so quickly? Let’s hope the next two-ish years pass by even faster.

Potstickers (Daring Cooks’ Challenge)

This month, the Daring Cooks recipe was to stuff, pleat, and prepare either postickers or dumplings entirely from scratch (potstickers are pan-fried, while dumplings are boiled or steamed). Having never had a potsticker before, I was excited to give this one a try. The opinions were mixed in the end – I enjoyed them, a friend we had over for dinner loved them, but Husband said they were just “okay” and complained that they lacked flavor. However, he was in a foul, miserable mood, so I’m going to discard his opinion since he was in a “hating everything” mood, and go with the fact that the other two of us were quite pleased.

I altered the original filling suggestions slightly, and went with two versions – one containing pork and one containing shrimp. If Husband hadn’t been unimpressed, this would have been the perfect food option for us, since I won’t eat pork, and he is allergic to shrimp, but both use the same dough. I wound up making three batches of the dough and still had quite a bit of filling remaining, so I’m planning on using them to make some fried rice for lunch today.

pleated dumplings, waiting to be fried into potstickers

Potstickers
Adapted from Jen of Use Real Butter

Pork Filling:

• 1/2 pound ground pork
• 3 stalks scallions, minced
• 1/4 pound shitake mushrooms, minced
• 1/4 cup bamboo shoots, minced
• 1/4 cup water chestnuts, minced
• 1 1/2 tablespoon light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon corn starch

Shrimp Filling:

• 1/2 pound shrimp, peeled, deveined, and chopped
• 3 stalks scallions, minced
• 1/4 pound shitake mushrooms, minced
• 1/4 cup bamboo shoots, minced
• 1/4 cup water chestnuts, minced
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon corn starch

Dipping Sauce:

• 4 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• few drops sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons spicy mustard
• pinch sugar

Dough:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup warm water
• flour for work surface

Directions:

1. Prepare fillings by combining all ingredients and mixing well. (Minicing all the vegetables was my least favorite part of this by far; our old, dull knives were not up to the task.) Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
2. In a large bowl, mix flour with 1/4 cup water and stir until water is absorbed. Continue adding water one teaspoon at a time and mixing thoroughly until dough pulls away from sides of bowl. Dough should be firm and barely sticky to the touch.
3. Knead the dough for 20 strokes, then cover with a damp paper towel and let rest for 15 minutes.
4. Take the dough and form a flattened dome. Cut into strips 1.5 to 2 inches wide, and shape the strips into rounded long cylinders. On a floured surface, cut the strips into 3/4 inch pieces. Press palm down on each piece to form a flattened circle. With a rolling pin, roll out a circular wrapper from each flat disc, about 1/16th inch thick. Place a teaspoon of filling in the center of each wrapper and fold the dough in half, pleating the edges along one side. For a picture tutorial of how to form pleats, see here. Personally, I found pleating the dough to be quite relaxing.
5. Place dumplings in a frying pan with 1-2 tablespoons of vegetable oil. Heat on high and fry for a few minutes until golden (pork took 2-3 minutes, shrimp took less than a minute because of lower fat content). Add 1/4 cup water (1/2 cup if you have a large frying pan and can fit lots of dumpings in at a time) and cover. Cook until the water has boiled away. Uncover pan and reduce heat to medium. Let the dumplings cook another 2 minutes to crisp up, and then remove from heat.
6. Serve with prepared dipping sauce.

frying to a crispy golden bottom

Lord Stanley’s Cup

I very well may have, at age 25, reached my ultimate peak… at least when it comes to sports.  It’s all down hill from here.

First, the Steelers win the Superbowl in February… the very first NFL team to acquire 6 Lombardi Trophies.

And then, tonight, on the very same night, just minutes apart, the Pittsburgh Penguins win the Stanley Cup and the Hershey Bears (AHL minor league hockey) win the Calder Cup.  As my father resides in Pennsylvania, he got to watch BOTH games simultaneously.  I cannot remember the last time I heard him so happy.  Three Stanley Cups in my lifetime – each more exciting than the next.  I’m not going to lie; I almost teared up when Mario Lemieux lifted the Cup over his head and brought it down for a kiss.  As I’ve already mentioned, watching the Penguins has always brought me closer to my father, and I am so thrilled to have been able to watch another Stanley Cup win “with” (over the phone) him.

Picture from the last Penguins game I attended with my father – March 10, 2001 (Jagr had just scored a hat trick, conveniently on free hat giveaway night)

Hot damn, it’s GREAT to be a Pittsburgh (and central Pennsylvania) fan.

 

LET’S GO PENS!!!

 

Penguins win Stanley Cup versus Detroit Red Wings:

 

Hershey Bears win Calder Cup versus Manitoba Moose:

 

And Julie rejoices.