TWD: The Most Extraordinary French Lemon Tart

With a recipe name like... The Most Extraordinary Lemon Tart, your expectations are high. Very high.

And honestly, for me... it just didn't live up to the hype. And I love lemon. I really do. The texture of this was really nice, I did like that part a lot, but the crust was a little crunchy for me (even after a couple of days in the fridge) and I felt like the lemon flavor could have been enhanced somehow. Like with some raspberry sauce drizzled all over.

I rarely want whipped cream with my pies, tarts, etc... but, this tart was just begging for it. Sadly, I didn't have any.

It was good. Just not out of this world good. I actually thought that the filling was tastier when it was fresh out of the food processor. I think I might like this better with limes and lemons!

As far as making it goes... it wasn't too bad. It gave me the opportunity to buy some things I hadn't bought yet. Like... a microplane grater, a tart pan (although I couldn't find one, so I bought a quiche pan instead) and an instant read thermometer. This recipe required lots of stirring. But overall, not too scary.

Sorry for the crappy post. But it's the busiest week of the year for me... Better next week, I promise :) Thanks to Mary of Starting from Scratch for picking this recipe and be sure to check out all the other tarts over at Tuesdays With Dorie.

The Most Extraordinary French Lemon Cream Tart
From Baking: From My Home to Yours

1 cup sugar
Grated zest of 3 lemons
4 large eggs
3/4 cup fresh lemon juice (from 4-5 lemons)
2 sticks plus 5 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon-size pieces, at room temperature
1 9-inch tart shell

Getting ready:
Have an instant-read thermometer, a strainer and a blender or food processor at hand. Bring a few inches of water to a simmer in a saucepan.

Put the sugar and zest in a large heatproof bowl that can be set over the pan of simmering water.

Off the heat, rub the sugar and zest together between your fingers until the sugar is moist, grainy and very aromatic. Whisk in the eggs, followed by the lemon juice.

Set the bowl over the pan and start stirring with the whisk as soon as the mixture feels tepid to the touch. Cook the lemon cream until it reaches 180 degrees F. As you whisk - you must whisk constantly to keep the eggs from scrambling - you'll see that the cream will start out light and foamy, then the bubbles will get bigger, and then, as it gets closer to 180 degrees F, it will start to thicken and the whisk will leave tracks. Heads up at this point - the tracks mean the cream is almost ready. Don't stop whisking or checking the temperature, and have patience - depending on how much heat you're giving the cream, getting to temp can take as long as 10 minutes.
As soon as it reaches 180 degrees F, remove the cream from the heat and strain it into the container of the blender (or food processor); discard the zest. Let the cream stand, stirring occasionally, until it cools to 140 degrees F, about 10 minutes.

Turn the blender to high (or turn on the processor) and, with the machine going, add the butter about 5 pieces at a time. Scrape down the sides of the container as needed as you incorporate the butter. Once the butter is in, keep the machine going - to get the perfect light, airy texture of lemon-cream dreams, you must continue to blend the cream for another 3 minutes. If your machine protests and gets a bit too hot, work in 1-minute intervals, giving the machine a little rest between beats.

Pour the cream into a container, press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface to create an airtight seal and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight. The cream will keep in the fridge for 4 days or, tightly sealed, in the freezer for up to 2 months; thaw it overnight in the refrigerator).

When you are ready to assemble the tart, just whisk the cream to loosen it and spoon it into the tart shell. Serve the tart, or refrigerate until needed.

Makes 8 servings.

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cake with Cream Cheese and Butterfinger Frosting

My family never celebrates anything on the correct date. Like, seriously, my immediate family is allergic to pre-set schedules. I don't even think my parents own a calendar. It kind of drives me crazy in a way, but I'm used to it by this point. Their constant spontaneity has turned me into a little bit of an OVERplanner.

It's refreshing in a way. To know that they live life by their seat of the pants. A lot of people are too scared to do that (me). A lot of people like to know when they aren't going to be in town in advance so they can pre-plan the previous weeks in preparation for the trip(me).

Anyway... long story short. My family celebrated Easter one weekend after Easter. Ham, deviled eggs, the whole bit. Strangely missing were easter baskets, but whatever. I'm 28, I'm not going to complain about that. Too much.

So, family get togethers are awesome for me, because I get to make a full-size recipe of something decadent. I searched through my recipe folder and came across this recipe. It was noted as being from Bon Appetit originally. But, I'm sure I got this recipe from someone else's blog. Unfortunately, I didn't put that blog link on the recipe (like I usually do).

I really enjoyed making this cake. I made it in about 3 different stages in about 3 different days and I eagerly anticipated the final day... putting all the delicious components together. But, I think I had overloaded on all the individual components to the point where the final product wasn't as awesome as I had expected it to be. It was delicious, don't get me wrong. But, not quite as delicious as I thought it was going to be.

A few notes on the cake: It's supposed to be a 3 layer cake, but I only have two cake pans, so I made it a two layer cake. For whatever reason, I didn't split the filling recipe in half though, which is why my filling is SO thick. But, it was good that it was thick, because it wasn't too rich at all. My cakes seriously feel in the centers, as you can tell by the cake. I probably should have ran my knife along the edges as soon as I pulled it from the oven and I probably should have leveled the layers out with a serrated knife. Life and Learn.

Anyway, this cake is really good (the peanut butter cake is very light in peanut flavor, I think I would add more peanut butter next time, but it's so moist!) and though it seems kind of daunting, it's totally not.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake with Cream Cheese and Butterfinger Frosting

Begin preparing the cake one day before.

Filling:
2 1/4 cups heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
12 oz bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped (I used semi sweet chips)
1/2 cup old-fashioned (natural) chunky peanut butter (I used smooth JIF)

Cake:
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
10 tbsps unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup old fashioned (natural) chunky peanut butter
1 pound brown sugar
4 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk

Frosting:
1 1/2 8 oz packages of cream cheese, room temperature (basically 12 oz of cream cheese)
2 cups powdered sugar, divided
6 tbps unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup chilled heavy whipping cream
Butterfinger candy bars, coarsely chopped

For filling:
Bring cream and sugar to simmer in saucepan, whisking to dissolve sugar (this took me a LONG time, I dont think I had the heat up enough to start). Remove from heat. Add chocolate; let stand 1 minute. Whisk until smooth. Whisk in peanut butter. Chill uncovered overnight.

For cake:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter three 9 inch diameter cake pans with 1 1/2 inch high sides. Line bottoms with Parchment paper (I then buttered the parchment paper, too). Sift first 4 ingredients in a medium bowl. Set aside. Using an electric mixer, beat butter and peanut butter until blended. Beat in sugar. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, then vanilla. At low speed, beat in flour mixture in 4 additions alternately with buttermilk in 3 additions.

Divide batter among pans and spread evenly. Bake cakes until tester inserted in center comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Cool cakes 5 minutes. Turn out onto racks, peel off parchment paper. Cool cakes completely.

For frosting:
Using electric mixer, beat cream cheese 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar, butter, and vanilla in large bowl to blend. Whisk whipping cream and 3/4 cup powdered sugar in bowl until mixture holds medium-firm peaks. Fold into cream cheese mixture in 3 additions; chill until firm but spreadable, about one hour.

Place one cake layer, bottom side up, on a 9 inch round tart pan bottom. Spread half of filling. Place another layer, bottom side up, on work surface. Spread with remaining filling; place atop first layer. Top with remaining cake layer, bottom side up.

Spread frosting over top and sides of cake. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover with cake dome; chill. Let stand at room temperature 2 hours before continuing). Press candy onto top and sides of cake.

Makes 12 servings
Bon Appetit

Pecan Pie Muffins

My favorite pie is easily pecan pie. With this cherry pie a close, close second. Anyway, I have a really sweet sweet tooth. Like, it's ridiculous. I love all things super, super sweet and if they're gooey, then I've died and gone to heaven. Take for example my love of cadbury eggs. I know that there are scores and scores of people out there who cannot stand the sugar, tooth-achinginy sweet cadbury egg. But, dude... thats my favorite seasonal candy. Oh, that and chocolate covered cherries. But... don't try to get all gourmet on me and give me the dark chocolate covered cherries from some fancy dancy chocolate shop.... no sir. I want the milk chocolate covered cherries made by Queen Anne and sold in your local wal-mart and walgreens. Yum. See, I love my super sweet chocolate and pure sugar fillings.

So, is it any wonder that my favorite pie and maybe my favorite dessert in general is the pecan pie? I also love pecans, so that doesn't hurt.

Now, pecan pie was one of those things that I usually only had at Thanksgiving and Christmas. If my mom was going to make a pie... it was almost always cherry because that's my dad's absolute favorite pie. But, when I went to my grandma's house for Thanksgiving and Christmas, there were always two pecan pies sitting on the dessert table. Each of them made by my Aunt Rita. My Aunt Rita was a very special person in my family. She was extremely intelligent and extremely silly. She didn't have any children, but was basically like a big kid herself. And while all the adult men sat at the kitchen table, the kids at the dining room table and the women (well... did the women even actually eat? I just remember them hovering over the kids and the husbands making sure we were all happy), Aunt Rita always sat with us kids. And we would all laugh and tease. She had a great laugh.

Tragically, my Aunt Rita passed away in a car accident when I was a freshman in high school. Her laugh and smile is something that we all really miss and that I can't help but think about at every family get together.

Since her passing, there have been empty spots on the dessert table where her pies used to be. The pecan pie was her contribution and I guess no one can bear to bring pecan pies, for fear of "stepping" on her memory? A couple of years ago, an outsider brought a store bought pecan pie and it sat untouched on the dessert table. Even with my love of pecan pie (yes, I even love store bought ones, I'm not picky with my pecan pie) I couldn't bear eat a slice of this "foreign" pie.

But, I've kind of decided, that after all this time.... almost 15 years now, that maybe making a pecan pie would honor her memory, instead of step on it. I'm still not sure, I've got some time before thanksgiving to think about it...

The memory of her and the pecan pies is something that makes me love pecan pies even more! Because, when I have pecan pie, I can't help but think about her and smile. But, pecan pie is one of those things that I just can't make for myself. I mean, I could seriously eat an entire pie at one sitting and still be craving more. So, you see how dangerous it is?

I saw this recipe ages ago on Recipezaar for Pecan Pie Muffins. Everyone raved over them in the comments section and they seemed easy enough, so I printed out the recipe, although, I was very skeptical that they actually tasted like pecan pie. How can a muffin taste like pecan pie?

Then, recently... Jennifer at Bake or Break made them. And let me just say... I have made a ton of the recipes she posts over there... and they are always delicious and always right up my alley. I kind of consider myself a Bake or Break stalker, actually. When I get a random 5 minute break at work, I always click on my favorites and she's at the top of the list, so I probably click on her site 3 times a day, just to see if she's posted anything new, or to look over some of her past recipes, to see if there's anything that sounds good for that day. I do that with Cookie Madness too and a few other blogs, but those two I definitely visit the most.

Anyway.. wow, I can get off on a tangent, can't I?

So, I made these muffins last week, and y'all... I have no idea how it can be... but these taste SO much like a pecan pie. I mean, they are obviously a little cakey-ier than a pie, but they are so delicious and so easy to make! They are chewy and gooey (although my picture doesn't really do that justice) and moist and sweet. Perfect! And so easy, too! I will definitely be making these again and again and passing this recipe on to lots of folks.

And while, it's not a pecan pie, it still makes me think of my Aunt Rita. I know she'd love these muffins and heck... maybe I can make these to bring to the holiday gatherings instead of an actual pie!

Tuesdays with Dorie: Gooey Chocolate Baby Cakes

This weekend, my friend April came to visit me!

How serendipitous that this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was the perfect thing to make for her visit!

Now, I’ve had Chocolate Molten cakes before at like Chili’s or Ruby Tuesday’s or somewhere equally as crappy. But it wasn’t something that I ever considered making myself. I mean… it seemed like the perfect “only when you go out to a restaurant” type of dessert. Ya know? Lord knows some things I should never attempt on my own. Particularly an easy and delicious recipe like this one!

The timing worked out perfectly, also… I knew that April was having dinner with her family and then would be at my place around 8:30/9:00pm. So, I started making these cakes at about 8:10. By 8:40ish, I was pulling these out of the oven and going downstairs to meet her.

By the time we got around to eating them… around 9:00, they weren’t hot, but they were lusciously oozy and gooey and delicious. Perfect with a glass of milk. I even had one the next morning and it was delicious then, too!



Later on in the weekend (after we had already eaten the all the cakes), I saw someone make little cakes like these on television and then I realized.... ohhhhhh.... right, you're supposed to turn the cakes over upside down to serve them! I forgot to do that. Oh well. I'm not a very good food stylist, apparently. I was too busy preparing to eat these suckers!

Soundtrack: Ummm.. well, I was flipping television channels between NCAA basketball and TLC’s What Not to Wear, sooo… no soundtrack this time.

Recipe Notes:
I halved the recipe and ended up with 4 baby-cakes that I made in a regular muffin pan.

I also used different ratios of chocolate (because I’m not a huge dark chocolate fan, although I knew that April was…) I used ½ bittersweet, 1/4 semi-sweet, and ¼ milk chocolate.

This is April... modeling a piece...

Thanks Leigh aka Lemon Tartlet ! This was a great choice!

Gooey Chocolate Cake
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
¼ teaspoon salt
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate,
4 ounces coarsely chopped,
1 ounce very finely chopped
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
6 tablespoons of sugar

Getting ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. butter (or spray – it’s easier) 6 cups of a regular-size muffin pan, preferably a disposable aluminum foil pan, dust the insides with flour and tap out the excess. Put the muffin pan on a baking sheet.

Sift the flour, cocoa and salt together.

Set a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water, put the coarsely chopped chocolate and the butter in the bowl and stir occasionally over the simmering water just until they are melted – you don’t want them to get so hot that the butter separates. Remove the bowl from the pan of water.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and yolk until homogenous. Add the sugar and whisk until well blended, about 2 minutes. Add the dry ingredients and, still using the whisk, stir (don’t beat) them into the eggs. Little by little, and using a light hand, stir in the melted chocolate and butter. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups and sprinkle the finely chopped chocolate over the batter.

Bake the cakes for 13 minutes. Transfer them, still on the baking sheet, to a rack to cool for 3 minutes. (There is no way to test that these cakes are properly baked, because the inside remains liquid.)

Line a cutting board with a silicone baking mat or parchment or wax paper, and, after the 3-minute rest, unmold the cakes onto the board. Use a wide metal spatula to lift the cakes onto dessert plates.

Guinness Chocolate Mini Cake

You know what's frustrating? When you have the perfect idea and everything goes great, and you get so excited that its going to be complete and utter awesomeness and then its time for the finale and it goes straight to hell. Well, at least presentation-wise? Yeah, welcome to my baking adventures this past weekend.

I had some leftover Guinness from my St. Pattys Day shindig and since I try not to drink much booze while marathon training, I decided to use some in a cake recipe instead! (I can swear off booze, but I can't swear off sugar... interesting, huh?).

I bought these cute little mini-pans ages ago and have been waiting for the perfect opportunity to use them. Well, that opportunity presented itself this weekend, when I had a chocolate craving and nobody in town to share a cake with.

I decided to use Ina Garten's Beatty Cake recipe that I printed out ages ago and instead of using hot coffee in the recipe... I'd use Guinness... Guinness in cake, you say? Brilliant! (I couldnt resist).

I ended up quartering the recipe. Which turned out to fit perfectly in the three little cake pans. They were each 4 inch cake pans. As they were baking, I was trying to decide what type of frosting I wanted to use... I decided I wanted something creamy and chocolatey, but that I'd also like to use some Guinness in the frosting as well. So.... I decided to adapt a cream cheese frosting recipe into a chocolate cream cheese guinness frosting. Yes, you read that right.... Chocolate. Cream Cheese. Guinness. Frosting. Oh my.

So, you can see where the excitement came from. I was so excited to taste this chocolately, booze-y, decadence in cake form... that I didn't even consider the fact that the cake was actually taller than it was round (since it was in petite form) or doing a crumb coat with the frosting and then chilling the cake in the fridge for a bit. Noooooo Sir... I immedately went to frosting that whole blame cake eagerly awaiting the moment that I could slice into it and produce the most beautiful tantilizing piece O' cake you've ever seen.

And thats when this happened.

The whole thing basically fell completely apart. Into a giant chocolatey mess on my maternal Step Grandfather's first wives China.

Sigh. At least it tasted brilliant! Soooooooooo delicious once chilled and the flavors melded. Yum. I will definitely make this in regular size at some point.

Cake Recipe follow exactly, except instead of 1 cup of Hot coffee use 1 cup of Guinness. I also used Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa.

Guinness Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

1 8oz package of cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 tbsp vanilla extract
2tbsps Cocoa
2 tbsp Guinness
1 16 oz package of powdered sugar

Beat cream cheese and butter at low speed until creamy. Add vanilla, cocoa, and guinness and beat till mixed. Slowly add powdered sugar until creamy and fluffy.

Surfer Bars

I love love love a good bar cookie. Soft and chewy, sweet and easy to make. And these bars did not disappoint. I've had this recipe printed out for awhile now, but I never had mini marshmellows on hand, so I wasn't able to make them. Luckily, last weekend when I was in the grocery store, I actually remembered these bars and picked up a bag.

These bars are delicious. I'm not sure why they are called surfer bars, I kept trying to convince myself that it wasn't because they are so high in calories that only surfers will burn the calories, but I have a sneaking suspicion that that could be the case. Eek.

I didn't have butterscotch chips on hand, so I actually used peanut butter chips instead and they came out beautifully. I will definitely be making these cookies again. But, hopefully when I do, there will be other people around to help me eat them.

Surfer Bars

Bailey's Irish Cream Cheesecake

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

This weekend I had a little mini dinner party for my family to celebrate St. Patricks. (It was mini, because two people couldn't come). There was guinness, there was harp, there were potatoes, and there was Bailey's Cheesecake.

YUM. This cheesecake was simple to make and absolutely delicious. But, beware. You have to like Baileys to like this cheesecake, because it tastes just like it! But it's very good. Very rich and very smooth and silky.

The crust was a little different... it was oreo cookies and toasted pecans. But the crust might have been one of my favorite parts.

Everytime I make a cheesecake, I'm reminded of how delicious homemade cheesecakes are, and how simple they are to make! This beats any Cheesecake Factory Cheesecake!

Enjoy!

Baileys Cheesecake Recipe

(I didn't make the coffee cream topping or add the 1/2 cup of chocolate chips to the top of the cake. I did add the 1/2 cup of chocolate chips to the bottom of the cake before I poured the filling in, though).