Tag: Baking

Chocolate Tart

On By lukephillaryhIn ClassicoLeave a comment
chocolate tart dessert
Decadent sliver

Mastering a chocolate tart recipe sort of makes you feel like you could pull off the eternally enviable style of Parisian women – you are Patricia, the beautiful American heroine of Breathless. That, “I woke up this stylish and put-together” look. Seemingly effortless and simple, but at the same time tailored and unique. Parisian style is unassuming, beautiful, and beguiling. For years us American woman have been trying to crack the code. Serving this chocolate tart to guests, you’ll elicit a similar response. They’ll be thinking, “It’s so simple, but so good and I’m not sure how I can recreate this for myself.”  This tart is perfect all on its own – no need to accessorize with whipped cream or ice cream. The filling is silky smooth chocolate, but with just the right amount of bite. And you’ll only need a sliver. There’s a lot of decadence in a tiny portion.

The inspiration for this recipe comes from David Lebovitz, a Parisian emigrate and our favorite ex-pat food writer. We used a crust recipe from Amanda Hesser, though David has his own as well (which we are sure is great).

Ingredients (Crust, makes 2):

  • 8 oz (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened + extra for greasing
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1/2 tsp milk
  • 12 oz (about 2 1/3 cup) all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 tsp salt

Chocolate Filling:

  • 1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 6 TBS warm coffee
  • 4 oz unsalted butter, cubed at room temperature
  • pinch of sea salt
  • 4 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
  • 2 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

  1. Make the crust. In a mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Add the egg yolk and milk and beat to combine. In a separate, medium bowl combine the flour and salt. Slowly add the flour to the butter mixture, stirring until completely blended. Gather dough into 2 balls and wrap each in plastic wrap. Freeze one for a later date and chill one in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
  2. Heavily butter a 10-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. Make sure to butter all the nooks and crannies. Roll out the dough and press the dough into the pan, patching up the sides and trimming the edges as needed. Prick the bottom with a fork and place in the freezer for 30 minutes.
  3. Prebake the tart shell. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Remove tart from freezer, fill with pie weights, dried rice, dried beans to prevent the crust from puffing up. We use a lot of coins! And line the crust with parchment paper or a buttered piece aluminum foil before pouring in coins or weights. Bake until golden, 20-25 minutes.
  4. While prebaking, make the chocolate filling. Spread sugar in an even layer in the bottom of a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan or dutch-oven. Cook the sugar over medium heat until the edges liquefy and begin to caramelize. Using a heatproof utensil, gently drag the liquified sugar toward the center of the pan. This encourages the sugar to melt evenly.
  5. Once the sugar is melted it will caramelize fairly quickly. When it starts to smoke, but before it burns, turn off the heat and stir in the coffee. Be careful when you do this; wear oven mitts and don’t stand too close to the pan. The mixture will bubble and seize up a bit. If the caramel has seized up a bit, stir it gently until smoothed.
  6. Add the butter and salt and stir until melted. Then add both chocolates and stir until smooth. Once smooth, mix in the eggs, then the flour. Finally, stir in vanilla.
  7. Pour the mixture into the pre-baked tart shell. Bake 15-20 minutes, just until the filling starts to rise and crack at the edges but the center is still jiggly. Don’t over bake!
  8. Remove from oven and let cool completely before slicing.

You can enjoy with some whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, but it truly is delicious all on it’s own!

Sunday Morning Blueberry Muffins

On By lukephillaryhIn Ode to NYT2 Comments
Blueberry muffins simple recipe Julia Moskin recipe
Blueberries + Carrots + Walnuts = Perfection

Pancakes? Too sweet. Bacon and eggs? Too greasy. Yogurt parfait? Eh, been there, done that. Oatmeal? Don’t even ask. Sunday morning breakfast can be full of options, but with half of the weekend already over you deserve to be picky. You may want to lay in bed all day and treat yourself to an indulgent breakfast; or keep it lean before a 5 mile run. Hillary usually wants to be lay in bed a little bit longer while I’m gearing up to go…we compromise with a long walk. Whatever your appetite, day’s plan or mood, these whole grain blueberry muffins will surely satisfy.

This recipe comes from Julia Moskin via The New York Times. We omitted the orange streusel topping because we wanted these muffins to still have some simplicity. Filled with carrots, blueberries, oats, walnuts – there’s nothing more you really need. Indulgent, but still healty-ish, it’s the perfect way to start your morning. And if you take sometime to make these on Sunday morning, you’ll have muffin breakfasts for the rest of the week!

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 2/3 cup whole wheat flour
  • 2/3 cup yellow cornmeal (preferably fine-ground)
  • 2/3 cup rolled oats (not the instant version)
  • 2/3 packed light brown sugar
  • 4 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 2 tsp nutmeg (or additional cinnamon)
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 3/4 cups buttermilk
  • 1 1/3 cups coconut oil or neutral oil like canola
  • 2/3 cup maple syrup or honey
  • 4 eggs
  • 2 cups grated carrots or tart apple
  • 1 1/2 cups blueberries
  • 1 cup chopped toasted walnuts

Directions:

  1. Assemble all the ingredients on your table / countertop for birds-eye Instagram photo. You are baking on Sunday morning, it deserves documentation.
  2. Heat oven to 425°F. Heavily butter your muffin tin or use paper liners.
  3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: flours, cornmeal, oats, sugar, baking powder and soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt
  4. In a smaller mixing bowl, mix together the wet ingredients: buttermilk, oil, maple syrup and eggs.
  5. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and carefully mix. Don’t over mix, the batter can be a bit lumpy. Stir in carrots, blueberries, and walnuts.
  6. Let the batter rest for 15-20 minutes. You can use this time to post the earlier “prep” photo to your Instagram story. After resting, give the batter a light stir to make sure it’s thick and fluffy.
  7. Plop enough of the batter to almost fill the muffin indentation. Mound the center so you’ll get nicely rounded tops.
  8. Place tin in oven and reduce temperature to 400°F. Bake for 18-20 minutes. Cool muffins in the tin on a rack for 5-10 minutes and then remove.

Details: Makes about 24 small/medium sized muffins

Blood Orange Olive Oil Cake

On By lukephillaryhIn Ode to NYTLeave a comment
Olive Oil Cake with blood orange Melissa Clark recipe
The perfect cake for dessert or breakfast 🙂

Citruses make the winter much more manageable. When December roles around, I’m always happily surprised to see lemon, orange, and mandarin dishes populate restaurant menus and appear on my favorite food blogs. They’re so cheerful and bright, I forget their best time is wintertime. Of all the citruses, the blood orange is an easy favorite. Tangy, sweet, and aesthetically delightful, its color adds a lovely pop to any plate. I’ve been intrigued by olive oil cake as it sounded like a dessert I could enjoy, without guilt, at all times of day. It is also incredibly easy to prepare. Our fav Melissa Clark provides the recipe for this cake. Don’t skip using good olive oil. It makes the cake more flavorful. And stock up on blood oranges! There’s no reason to be skimpy, they’re in season.

Ingredients:

  • butter (for greasing the pan)
  • 3-6 blood oranges (more if you’d like to make compote)
  • 1 cup sugar
  • approx. 2/3 cup buttermilk or plain yogurt
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 tsp honey (optional, for compote)
  • whipped cream (optional, for serving)

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease a 9-by-5 inch loaf pan (we used a 9-inch round pan, 8-by-8 square pan works well also). Grate zest of 2 oranges and place in bowl with sugar. Fully incorporate the zest and sugar, using your hands to rub the ingredients to ensure even distribution.
  2. Supreme 2-3 oranges (these you will mix into the batter, so supreme more if you like more fruit chunks). To do this, cut off the bottom and top of the orange so it can stand upright on your cutting board. Then, with a sharp knife, cut away peel and pith, following the curve of the fruit. Cut the orange into segments along its connective membrane and let fall into a bowl. Set aside.
  3. Squeeze juice of 1-2 oranges into a measuring cup. Add yogurt or buttermilk to measuring cup until you have a little less than 1 cup of liquid. Mix and then add to bowl of sugar, whisking to fully incorporate.  Whisk in eggs.
  4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. Add the dry to the wet ingredients, a bit at a time, whisking to incorporate. Switch to a spatula and then slowly add the olive oil. Fold into the batter and be mindful to incorporate before pouring in more. Fold in orange pieces. Pour batter into a pan.
  5. Bake for 55 minutes, or until a knife/toothpick inserted into cake’s center comes out clean. Cool on rack for 5 minutes, then unmold and cool at room temperature until ready to serve. Tastes even more delicious when served with whipped cream and honey-blood orange compote.
  6. To make compote, supreme 3 more oranges and mix with 2 tsp of honey. Let sit for 5 minutes then stir once more.

Peach + Blackberry Crumble Pie

On By lukephillaryhIn Ode to NYT6 Comments
Peach blackberry crumble pie Melissa Clark recipe
Enjoy for dessert tonight and breakfast tomorrow

This past weekend, Luke and I celebrated the Fourth of July in Philly. With Luke’s parents away on vacation we had the whole house to ourselves. Comfy bed, lil’ backyard with a BBQ, washer and dryer, big screen TV – it was heavenly. The best part of all: the kitchen and all of it’s wonderful appliances, namely, the Cuisinart food processor. I’m always afraid that making pie crust in our tiny BK apartment will be a complete disaster. And currently we don’t have the space or the shekels for a proper food processor. So all last week I had been looking forward to making a pie, homemade crust and all. And it was delicious. We enjoyed for dessert, breakfast, late night and afternoon snacks all weekend long.

This recipe is adapted from one of our favorites, Melissa Clark. The original recipe includes a very helpful video if you’re a relatively novice pie crust maker like myself.

Ingredients – Crust (yields 2 9-inch crusts):

  • 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  • 3/4 tsp salt
  • 2 1/2 sticks cold, unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
  • 6-8 TBS ice cold water

Ingredients – Filling:

  • 1 lb ripe peaches (about 3 medium peaches), cut into 1 1/2 inch chunks
  • 2-3 cups blackberries
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 1/2 TBS corn starch
  • zest of 1 lemon
  • 2 tsp lemon juice

Ingredients – Crumble:

  • 3/4 cup all purpose flour
  • 1 cup oats
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp cardamon
  • 1/4 tsp nutmeg
  • pinch of salt
  • 6-8 TBS unsalted butter, cubed

Directions – Crust:

  1. In a food processor, combine flour and salt and briefly pulse. Add butter and pulse until mixture forms chickpea/lima bean sized pieces (you don’t want it to be too grainy). Add ice water, 1 TBS at a time, and continue to pulse until mixture is just moist enough to hold together. You’ll know you’ve added enough water when you take some dough, pinch it, and it holds together. Dump contents onto a big sheet of plastic wrap and form dough into a large ball. Wrap with plastic wrap and flatten into a disk. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
  2. You’ll have enough pie crust for either a 9-x-13-inch baking dish or 2 9-inch round pie pans or an 8-x-8-inch baking dish and a 9-inch pie pan. For this recipe, we used half for an 8-x-8-inch baking dish to make a sort of slab pie and saved the other half. You can double the filling if you want to make a giant 9-x-13-inch slab pie. You’ll have lots of leftovers!
  3. Using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll out half of dough into a roughly 10-x-10-inch rectangle. Transfer to lightly greased 8-x-8-inch baking dish and press crust into bottom of the dish and up the edges so it’s flush with the top of the pan. Return crust to the fridge while you make the filling and crumble.

Directions – Filling:

  1. In a medium sized bowl, toss together peaches, blackberries, sugar, corn starch, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Let sit for 20-30 minutes.
  2. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 425°F. Arrange one rack on the lowest position and the other in the center.

Directions – Crumble:

  1. Whisk together flour, oats, sugar, cinnamon, cardamon, nutmeg, and salt. Mix in butter with fingertips until the mixture is uniformly moist and comes together in large clumps.

Directions – Assemble and Bake:

  1. Spoon filling into crust and create a mound. You want more filling in the middle, so aim to create a small, slopping hill. Top with crumble, which you’ll have to gently press into the filling to make sure it clumps together and is evenly distributed. Place on lowest rack and cook at 425°F for 15 minutes. Reduce temp to 375°F and move pie to center rack. Cook for 1 hour more, or until pie is golden brown and filling is bubbling. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely before slicing and serving.

 

Choco Chip COOKIES

On By lukephillaryhIn ClassicoLeave a comment
Chocolate Chip Cookies milk
Milk, a critical accompaniment

Luke and I received a very exciting gift this past Christmas: a Cuisinart 5-Speed Handheld Mixer. Faaaaancy! (Hint hint: we’re being a wee bit sarcastic). But actually, this new mixer has added some much needed power to our baking. And though I’m missing the arm workout I would get from whisking together the butter and sugars (those calories I burned justified an extra cookie) the ease of our handheld mixer gives us an excuse to make choco chip cookies on an even more frequent basis.

We’ve tested many choco chip cookie recipes through the years and this one crafted by baking queen Christina Tosi has become our go-to. After eating a stack of these tasty cookies, you’ll be seriously satisfied.

Ingredients:

  • 2 sticks unsalted butter (1 cup), softened
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 3/4 cup light brown sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • splash of milk (preferably whole, buttermilk and half n’ half work well too)
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 3/4 cup flour
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 TBS non-fat milk powder (optional)
  • 2 cups choco chips (a mix of chips and chunks is always good)

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 325ºF.
  2. Combine butter and sugars.  Mix vigorously with a whisk or with a mixer for 1-2 minutes.
  3. Add egg, vanilla, and splash of milk.  Mix on high for 2-3 minutes, until the dough becomes pale and fluffy.
  4. Add flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and milk powder.  Mix thoroughly, then add the chocolate chips, mixing them into the dough with a wooden spoon.
  5. Place similarly sized scoops of cookie dough on a baking sheet.  Pop em in the oven and bake for 11-13 minutes. You want golden brown edges.

Enjoy with a big glass of milk, hot cup of coffee or mug of tea ♥

Tip: Many pros recommend chilling cookie dough overnight before baking.  Luke and I are not the most patient people (but who is when it comes to choco chip cookies?!). We typically make a batch and then chill the remaining dough.  Verdict: the chilled dough does yield more evenly baked cookies. But no judgement if you scoff at this overnight chilling advice.  We agree, choco chip cookies should be baked stat!

To print the recipe, click here: Choco Chip Cookies