Rose's Alpha Bakers: Frozen Pecan Tart

It's week five of my bake-through adventure with Rose's Alpha Bakers. Up this week is the Frozen Pecan Tart - which I served for dessert after Christmas lunch - from Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Baking Bible. The tart was a huge hit and was met with a chorus of ohhs and ahhs and a round of "you made this? It's delicious! Seconds, please."

my lovely Frozen Pecan Tart

a close up...

...and now a slice for dessert on Christmas

I let the tart warm for about 30 minutes before serving because it seemed rock solid when I took it out of freezer and I was a little unsure how a frozen tart/pie would taste (was it really not frozen through? It felt pretty solid!). But - never doubt Rose! - the filling was smooth and silky, almost like caramel. Even after 30 minutes, the tart was quite chilled - which was different than what I'm used to with pecan pie (warmed with vanilla ice cream, please) - but it was very, very good.

The tart would have been delicious with ice cream or whipped cream, but was equally good on its own. It was sweet, but not syrupy sweet like a lot of pecan pies. And - again, unlike most pecan pies I've made - the recipe made exactly the right amount of filling! With most pecan pies I've made in the past, you end up with either too much or too little filling. This recipe was perfect.

I added some leaf cutouts on surface of the tart (using these small leaf cookie cutters I bought at Amazon.com) and - other than wishing I had baked them slightly before adding to the tart so they would be a bit more brown - I really liked the decorative addition.

Here are my step-by-step photos.

mise en place for the crust

The crust was a pâte sucrée, so it's made with more sugar than a regular pie crust and has an egg yolk added to strengthen it. Pâte sucrée is a great crust for tarts because it's very sturdy and easy to roll out. I love making pies and tarts!

the heavy cream is added to the egg yolk

butter and sugar are creamed together

the flour is added to the butter-sugar mixture

then in go the creamy-eggs and everything is pulsed
until the dough is in pea-sized clumps

hello, gorgeous dough!

At this point, the recipe directions got very complicated about how to roll out the dough and lift it into the pan. It involved a pizza wheel, a 12" flan ring, and inverting the dough over the back of an 8" cake pan.

Hmmm...I normally just roll the dough larger than the tart pan and the gently work the dough onto the bottom, corners and up the sides. As much as I know that Rose never steers me wrong, I'm going to just to this my way. The main thing to remember is to not stretch the dough as you place it in the pan, otherwise it will pull back and shrink when it bakes.

measuring the dough

ta da - fits perfectly!

the dough is worked into the pan's fluted edges,
leaving no overhang

the tart shell is filled with rice and blind baked

while the tart shell is baking I made these leaf cutouts to go on top

...and now my gorgeous crust is done!

mise en place for the pecan filling

the filling is strained, giving it a silky smooth texture when baked

the pecans are laid out randomly or in a pattern, if you prefer

then the filling is poured over, gently

the leaves are laid down, edges covered and we're ready for the final bake

gorgeous!

Bye for now...

Rose's Alpha Bakers: English Dried Fruit Cake

Another week of baking with my Rose's Alpha Bakers friends. Up this week: English Dried Fruit Cake. I'm a little late in getting my cake posted, but have been juggling the end of the semester and writing two papers...not to mention working full-time!

I actually made the cake last week and brought it to my office holiday party - it was a big hit (although, I made sure not to label it "fruit cake" so as not to scare anyone off!) so I had the cake and the photos done last week...I just didn't have time to write up my post.

a lovely spice cake with apples, raisins, and pecans

I am not a fan of English fruit cakes, so there was no way I was going to add any glacéed fruit. But, luckily this recipe didn't call for any! The recipe called for any mix of dried fruit that you'd like, in addition to fresh apples, so I kept it simple and just added raisins. So, in reality, my iteration of Rose's English Dried Fruit Cake was more of a spice cake with apples, raisins, and pecans (and rum).

The cake itself was very moist, even 3 days later, so I would recommend this cake if you need to bake something in advance. I added the optional rum into the batter itself so it had a nice, little rum background flavor - it was very nice. The cake also make a lot of pieces, so a good cake for a party or a crowd. Next time I would add more spices - definitely nutmeg and probably some ginger as well.

Enjoy!

mise en place - a pretty easy cake to make!

butter and sugar get melted down together...

... and then cooked for a few minutes

while the raisins are being "plumped" up in boiling water

the apples and zest are added to the sugar-butter mixture
...I had to try a bite of this, just to be sure...(delicious!)

then the eggs are added one-by-one

the nuts and raisins are tossed in the flour
(next time I would add the raisins directly to the wet mixture because
a lot of flour stuck to the wet raisins even after baking and didn't look good)

not very appetizing-looking batter...

but, ahhh, the finished cakes were much nicer!

delicious!

...I'd better just try a bite before the party. Yum!

Bye for now...

Homemade Granola: Maple Pecan with Raisins

My husband has been on a granola kick lately and - in an effort to save money and control what goes in it - we decided we'd try to make our own. Oats, honey, raisins, nuts...I figured it couldn't be too hard, right? Right! It was easy, inexpensive, and yummy! I brought some to work and have been eating it with yogurt. And, it's delicious with milk, of course! It's also nice because a little goes a long way and is very filling.

It's is also one of those recipes that is completely flexible. Since I hadn't made it before, I wanted a recipe to go from so I wouldn't make any major mistakes, so my recipe below is adapted from the wonderful David Lebovitz. My husband made a different version, adapted from Alton Brown's recipe. My recipe (below) has pecans, raisins, maple syrup, and I tried using Lyle's Golden Syrup instead of honey. At first, when fresh out of the oven, it tasted way too apple-cinnamonny, but the next day that strong apple-cinnamon flavor had dissipated and I liked the flavor a lot more. My husband's recipe has almonds, walnuts, brown sugar, and sunflower seeds. He eliminated the maple syrup and coconut and used walnuts instead of cashews from Alton Brown's recipe. We also both thought that recipe had too much salt.

Homemade Granola: Maple Pecan with Raisins

Preheat oven to 300 degrees and set aside a sheet pan (jelly roll pan, with edges). I also love parchment paper - easy cleanup! - so I also used some parchment paper on the pan.

Mix the following "dry" ingredients (except raisins) in a large bowl:
3 c. old fashioned oats (not quick cooking)
2 c. pecans, roughly chopped
1/3 packed brown sugar
approx. 1/8 c. sunflower seeds, more/less to taste (I only used a bit as I'm not too partial to them)
approx. 3/4 t. ground cinnamon, to taste
approx. 1/4 t. ground ginger, to taste
approx. 1/2 t. salt
1 c. raisins, added during last 10 minutes of baking

Mix wet ingredients in small bowl:
approx. 1/3 c. unsweetened applesauce
approx. 1/3 of 1/3 c. Lyle's Golden Syrup (or honey), see below for screenshot of how much I used
2 T. pure maple syrup
2 T. oil (I used safflower)

Add wet ingredients to dry and mix well with a spatula or large spoon until completely covered. It won't seem like enough liquid but it will eventually coat the dry ingredients.

Spread evenly onto a sheet pan and bake for about 1 hour, stirring well every 10-15 minutes. Add the raisins for the last 10 minutes only or they will burn. The raisins will puff way up and look like re-inflating grapes, but they will re-raisin themselves when they cool.

Bake until the oats have dried out and mixture is no longer moist when you stir. Enjoy on its own as a snack, or with milk or yogurt!

my finished granola with pecans and raisins

my husband's recipe included oats, sliced almonds, chopped walnuts,
sunflower seeds, brown sugar

from the beginning...mix and match whichever flavors you like best

I used about 1/3 of 1/3 of a cup of Lyle's Syrup

wet ingredients mixed together

spread onto my sheet pan, ready to bake

add the raisins for the final 10 minutes of baking

baked, cooled, and ready for snacking

also delicious with milk!

Bye for now...

Avid Baker's Challenge: Supermoist Banana-Nut Muffins

Here is one more from my Avid Baker's Challenge group's 2012 book, The Weekend Baker by Abby Dodge. These Supermoist Banana-Nut Muffins were very easy to pull together (and I feel like I always have overripe bananas around!) and were very good. You could easily adjust the spices, but even by the recipe, they was delicious - moist with a great banana flavor.

I've already made this recipe - in a loaf pan - at least twice since the first time (July 2012) and have some overripe bananas sitting on the counter right now so will probably be making another loaf tomorrow. I think I prefer this recipe as a loaf. As cupcakes - unless you plan to eat them all the day they are made - they tend to dry out a little. But, as a loaf, it's much more moist and remains moist for several days. Day (or two) old, toasted and served with butter and a drizzle of butter...the best!

mise en place - this cake is very easy to make

dry ingredients are added to the wet

to avoid over-mixing, add the nuts before the flour is fully incorporated

one last stir and...done!

I use a scoop so all the cupcakes are the same size

done - they would be delicious with a smear of creamcheese frosting

a close up

are they cool enough to eat yet??

yummy - very light and tender

Bye for now...