TWD- Easy Parisian Apple Tartlets

I never ate a bad pastry in France. Even when buying from the biggest hole in the wall or (something I would never do in America) from a bakery in the metro station, they taste great. The French just know food. And with high quality butter, delicious produce, and simple flavors, you can't go wrong. So I was excited to try this Parisian tart. Unlike the apple pie I made last week that took tons of time chilling, rolling, cutting, etc (with a fabulous end result), the assembly of this dessert took about five or ten minutes (also with a fabulous end result). A brief stint in the oven and out comes a flaky, buttery, and tender dessert. With different fruit options, there's really no limit to this recipe.

Atop La Tour Eiffel

And with all the time you've saved making this wonderful French treat, why not watch a romantic movie with your honey. Or the Lakers game, in our case.

Parisian Apple Tartlets
Adapted from Baking by Dorie Greenspan

1 sheet cold puff pastry
3 apples, peeled and cored
1/3 cup brown sugar
3 teaspoons cold butter, cut into bits

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat.

Lightly flour a surface and roll the puff pastry out to about an 11 inch square. Using a fluted cookie cutter between 3 and 4 inches wide, cut pastry into about 8 pieces.

(Reserve the scraps, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, and bake for a few minutes for a treat for your hungry husband who can’t stand to wait during the photos!)

Cut the apple half into 4 or 5 slices (depending on size) and place three slices on the pastry circle. Sprinkle the apple with 1 or 2 teaspoons brown sugar-depending on how much sweetness you want-and a couple bits of butter.

Bake the tartlet for about 20 minutes (the time will vary depending on how your apple bakes), until the pastry is deeply browned and puffed up around the apple and the apple can be easily pierced with the tip of a knife. If it looks like the tartlets need more sugar on top, sprinkle on a bit more toward the end of the baking time.

Transfer the baking sheet to a rack and let the tartlet cool-it's great just a little warm and equally good at room temperature. Serve with ice cream if desired.

Pink Raspberry Cream Sandwich Cookies to Celebrate

It's Tuesday and instead of a delicious cinnamon cake, I've made a perfect party cake (early) and a few dozen cupcakes for my tall man's Grandma's 90th birthday, loads of cookies, and a newly refinished front door. Maybe the door doesn't fall in the "making" category, but it's certainly taken up lots of baking time and the end results of the newly stained dark chocolate colored wood are delicious. So I present one of my favorite cookie recipes- Martha Stewart's Raspberry Cream Sandwich Cookies. Layered between two vanilla bean cookies is a creamy raspberry white chocolate ganache that lends itself to other delicious flavors- chocolate, mint, strawberry, whatever strikes your fancy.

I made these last summer to give to a friend who had just had a beautiful baby girl so I figured they were appropriate to celebrate my upcoming little girl! That's right, it's a girl. We found out about a month ago but the doctor only gave me a 90 percent certainty which just wasn't enough for me to believe him with my husband's family's strong man genes. After another ultrasound last week, I finally do believe him and I can't believe it's a little girl. My man is excited to have a little sweetie and my little guy is (theoretically) excited to have a little sister like his favorite Caillou. I'm just glad to know I'll have someone to keep me company in the kitchen, although my little guy is pretty good at that for now. We're all happy about this healthy, beautiful baby and these cookies are perfect to celebrate. They even taste great with mint filling (I use Guittard Mint Chips) but those would have been more for the boy variety...

I'll be back next week with Dorie's Parisian Apple Tart. I certainly couldn't skip something with apples or puff pastry (not to mention something French!)

Raspberry Cream Sandwich Cookies
From Martha Stewart's Cookies, page 93

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 sticks (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups plus 2 teaspoons sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise, seeds scraped and reserved
6 ounces (1 cup) fresh raspberries
7 1/2 ounces best-quality white chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/3 cup heavy cream (add 1 t. Meringue Powder)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
2. Mix butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add egg, extract, and vanilla seeds; mix until smooth. Reduce speed to low. Gradually mix in flour mixture.
3. Scoop batter using a 1-inch ice cream scoop; space 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
4. Bake cookies 4 minutes. Remove from oven; gently tap baking sheets on counter to flatten cookies. Return to oven, switching positions of sheets; bake until cookies are just set, 4 to 6 minutes more. Let cool on parchment on wire racks.
5. Puree raspberries and remaining 2 teaspoons sugar in a food processor. Pour mixture through a fine sieve into a small bowl, pressing to extract juice; discard seeds. Set mixture aside.
6. Melt white chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Remove from heat; whisk in cream in a slow stream. Whisk in reserved raspberry mixture. Refrigerate 30 minutes.
7. Spread 1 heaping teaspoon raspberry cream on the undersides of half the cookies. Sandwich with remaining cookies. Cookies can be stored at room temperature in an airtight container up to 2 days (no way will they last that long, though!)

Bruschetta with Sauteed Sweet Peppers and Goat Cheese

The end of the month has snuck up on me once again. I'm excited that time is flying but I feel like I scheduled (and didn't quite finish) this post ages ago- can it be June already? That's a good thing, though, since my baby ticker informs me I have 113 (Arizona Summer) days to go. This Bruschetta from Ina is quick and easy for any of those- I made it with my brother and he even did all the slicing without any whining. If he can do it, you can.

I adapted the recipe for the ingredients I had (goat cheese and mini bell peppers from Costco) but it's plenty flexible- use your favorite cheese or veggie for endless variations. See the other Barefoot Bloggers for more ideas. And next time I'll try these on the grill to keep the flavor in and the heat out- especially important as the temperature rises!

Bruschetta with Sauteed Sweet Peppers and Goat Cheese
adapted from Ina Garten

Good olive oil
1 red bell pepper, seeded and sliced into thin strips
1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and sliced into thin strips
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon capers, drained
2 tablespoons julienned fresh basil leaves
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Baguette
3 ounces creamy Gorgonzola or other blue cheese, at room temperature

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a medium saute pan over medium-high heat. Add the peppers and cook until soft, about 12 to 15 minutes. Sprinkle with the sugar and continue cooking for 2 more minutes. Stir in the capers and basil, and season, to taste, with salt and pepper. Set aside.

Slice the baguette crosswise into 18 thin round slices. Brush the bread rounds lightly with olive oil on 1 side. Arrange them in rows, oil side up, on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper and toast in the oven until lightly browned, about 7 to 10 minutes.

Top each toast round with a teaspoonful of the pepper mixture. Place 2 small pieces of Gorgonzola on top. Return the toast to the oven for 1 to 2 minutes and warm through. Serve immediately.

Ina's Outrageous Brownies

Sometimes things are understated- words like "KitchenAid". To the unsuspecting eye, you might think of a nice little helper to wipe the counters behind you, not the kitchen appliance that will change the way you cook and make the kitchen your favorite room (what, that's just me?) Some things, though, are a serious understatement. Like any baked good that Ina Garten describes as "outrageous". Well we all love to laugh at the amount of butter in the beloved Contessa's recipes (and I'll stick up for Ina and say she's not nearly as bad as Paula Deen), even Ina admits a certain fondness for butter. So with that said, you know when Ina calls it outrageous, that you'd better watch out.

And of course, she delivers. These brownies really were ridiculously delicious. I took the liberty of halving the recipe since I didn't feel right about actually using a pound of butter in a single dessert (except for my beloved Brioche Snails or Pecan Honey Sticky Buns). I omitted the coffee as usual and used my slacker large (not extra large) eggs. I baked them in a small, rectangular Pyrex and think any smaller dish would do (like an 8 by 8- it will just change the thickness a little, which is a matter of personal preference anyways). I did under bake them in my attempts not to over bake them per Ina's dire warning at the end of the recipe. Nonetheless, these tasted as good gooey as I imagine they do fully cooked. And next time I'll serve them with a little ice cream. Even Paula Deen would admit that's outrageous.

Outrageous Brownies
adapted from Ina Garten
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter
14 ounces semisweet chocolate chips, divided
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate
3 large eggs
2 tablespoons real vanilla extract
1 cup sugar plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/8 cups)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour (plus 2 tablespoons for the chips and nuts)
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup diced walnut pieces

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour an 8 by 8 inch pan.

Melt together the butter, 8 ounces chocolate chips, and unsweetened chocolate on top of a double boiler. Cool slightly. Stir together the eggs, vanilla and sugar. Stir in the warm chocolate mixture and cool to room temperature.

Stir together 1/2 cup of the flour, baking powder and salt. Add to cooled chocolate mixture. Toss the walnuts and remaining 6 ounces of chocolate chips with 2 tablespoons of flour to coat. Then add to the chocolate batter. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake for about 30 minutes, or until tester just comes out clean. Halfway through the baking, rap the pan against the oven shelf to allow air to escape from between the pan and the brownie dough. Do not over-bake! Cool thoroughly, refrigerate well and cut into squares.

Don't forget to check out the rest of the Barefoot Bloggers' Outrageous Brownies. It'll have you busting out your double boiler (and our of your jeans, likely) in no time.

TWD- Chipster Topped Brownies

Nestled away in this little dish and covered with deliciousness, these cookie topped brownies almost look like a success. But don't be deceived. After plenty of time in the kitchen, more butter than Paula Deen could stomach, and lots of tasty chocolate- these brownies go down in my TWD repertoire as a big fat (and delicious) failure.

After only fourty minutes in the oven they were totally browned and smelled done. I knew the top couldn't take any more and should have tented them early on, but I was distracted by articles about not eating the batter after I had finished eating some of the most delicious brownie batter I've ever tried. It was too late, so I removed them, and after cooled, was shocked by this molten caramel river of goo running through the brownies! I'm not one to shy away from undercooked foods, though (except for ground beef) so I grabbed a spoon. While they were delicious, they were disappointing. I'll have to try again and get a few tricks up my sleeve from the other bakers- because with this much butter and chocolate, this recipe has got to be worth it, right? *Update* After sitting over night, these are much more cohesive and freaking good. Dorie wins again (even if they don't look so hot!)

Grab the recipe at Beth's blog, or here- where's these actually look beautiful (and surely tasted delicious!)

And stay tuned for next week's Cinnamon Squares, some amazing Ina recipes, and the results from my ultrasound later this week! It is a boy or a girl? Your guess is as good as mine...