Vanilla bean scented Strawberry Tart

I've been all about fruit lately.  We've had some beautiful strawberries in the fridge so I thought that it was finally time for a creamy French tart.

 

You can actually see the vanilla bean in the pastry cream!  How awesome is that?

This 'pie' crust was a super fun version, I used butter and cream cheese with no water to make this dense and decadent delight.  My grandpa said, "Honey, are we going to get some whipped cream to put on top?"  Why yes grandpa, we certainly are.

Adapted from the Art & Soul of Baking's traditional fruit tart

pastry cream:

1 1/2 c. Almond milk

2 vanilla beans

1 egg

2 egg yolk

1/4 c. flour

6 Tbl. unrefined sugar

Place Almond milk into saucepan on med heat. Score vanilla beans down center, Using blunt end of knife scrape contents into milk. Bring milk to a simmer and shut off heat when tiny bubbles form.  Let vanilla steep in milk for fifteen minutes.  In a small bowl whisk sugar and eggs together.  When smooth add flour and mix until smooth. Once the milk has had time to absorb the vanilla scent, slowly pour a 1/4 or so of the warm milk into the egg mixture.  Whisk until smooth.  Now pour that egg mixture back into the pot on the stove and turn heat up to med. Whisk constantly while this mixture thickens like gravy or pudding.  Remove from heat.  If your mixture contains lumps, feel free to strain it.  If not, let cool on counter or in fridge until ready to serve.

 Crust:

1 1/2 c.  All purpose flour or whole wheat

1/2 c. butter

1 c. cream cheese

1 Tbl. unrefined sugar

1 tsp. salt

*1/4 c. white choc. chip

Mix dry ingredients in bowl.  cube in butter and mix until the consistency is that of bread crumbs.  Spoon in cream cheese with a Table or Soup spoon. Use your hands or a stand mixer to bring the dough together.  It will be quite soft like play dough.  Roll dough out between two sheets of parchment or saran and fold into quarters.  Chill in fridge for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375

Remove chilled dough and place in tart pan.  I used a spring form. Once the dough is in place, put foil on top and fill with pie weights. The easiest way to do this is to pour a bunch of dry beans on top of the foil.  The point of this is to keep the shape of the crust rather than having in puff up or fall in on itself.  And believe me, with this much butter and cream (cheese) it will!  Bake for 20-25 mins. until outer edges are golden.

*While crust is still hot spread the 1/4 cup of white chocolate chips all over the bottom.  Wait about 2 minutes then use the back side of a spoon to smear white chocolate all over the bottom of the crust to cool and harden.  This way the crust will maintain its integrity after adding the pastry cream.

 When all ingredients are cool, pour pastry cream into tart and spread evenly.  Slice berries and desired and arrage as desired. 

Share with loved ones

Blueberry Nectarine & Blackberry Galette

This was easily the tastiest thing I've made in ages. It must be the lightness of fruit and the fact that summer is on its way!! I ended up scooping on a little rice dream vanilla ice cream and it was perfection!

 * A galette is basically a free form pie.  Traditionally they can be made in a circle but feel free to play with squares and rectangle shapes too.  Simply place pie crust on parchment on a baking tray, put berries in a pile in the center, then fold up the edges before spreading the filling out evenly. No pie pan needed.

Preheat oven to 400

Crust:

1  stick butter (1/2 c.) cubed

1 1/4 c. Flour

3-4 Tbl cold water

1 Tbl sugar

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. cardamom

1 egg yolk (for brushing)

sliced almonds (optional)

Place all dry ingredients in mixing bowl.  Put butter in and mix with fingers until crumbly with some big chunks of butter remaining.  I used to think that it should look like crumbs, but by leaving some bigger pieces of butter, the crust will be much more flakey.  Once this process is complete, add water until a mass forms.  Take mass out and roll out into desired shape.  If you made a circle, fold into quarters leaving a pie shape.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.  If you made a diamond or rectangle fold into quarters making a small square.  Cover and let chill for 1 hour in fridge.

Filling:

1 Nectarine

1 c. Blueberries

1/2c. Blackberries

1 Tbl. Flour

1/3 c. brown sugar

Slice nectarine vertically around pit.  Put with berries into medium mixing bowl.  Sprinkle flour and sugar over top and let sit until dough is ready.  Once pie dough has finished chilling, take out of fridge and put on prepared baking tray.  pour berry mixture into center forming a tower.  Fold up sides of dough, then spread berries to edges.  Brush exposed dough with an egg yold and sprinkle with almonds.  Put in oven and bake 40-45 mins.

Share with loved ones

Pistachio Cardamom Danish

I wanted to try a pastry dough and this was amazingly simple. Danish dough is essentially yeasted bread dough that has a mixture of butter and flour folded into it numerous times between risings. The only thing that really could be an issue, is that this process takes time.  I took about 6-8 hours one day then 2 hours the next.  Sometimes Labor intensive is definitely worth it!

Danish dough

¼ c warm whole milk

1 tsp plus 2 Tbl sugar

4 tsp dry active yeast

2 cold large eggs

¾ c cold milk

3 ½ flour

1 tsp salt

½ tsp ground cardamom

 (this recipe makes enough dough for 2 danishes, you can wrap up the other half and freeze up to 4 weeks)

Butter Block

3 sticks 12 ounces butter

¼ flour

1.Take soft butter and beat or mix in flour until smooth. Spoon mixture onto wax paper that has been cut to 8x10" in Length. Lightly spoon and press butter until it forms an even thickness on surface of wax paper. Use another piece of wax paper or saran wrap to cover the butter and put butter into fridge to harden.

2.Take 1/4 c. of the warm milk plus one tsp sugar and yeast and whisk in a small (cereal) bowl.  Let sit until yeast is activated and frothy.  About 10 minutes. 

3. Mix remaining eggs,milk, and sugar in different bowl until combined. 

4.Sift, Flour, salt, cardamom in a large  mixing bowl. Add yeast mixture. Mix with hands or on low in stand mixer until flour is wet but nothing has come together.  Add the rest of the wet ingredients and mix until everything comes together, knead dough 3-5 times.  Dough will be rough and not smooth or plastic.  You do NOT want to knead the dough as this will be done when the butter is incorporated and the dough is rolled out later.  Take dough ball and wrap in plastic.  Let rest for 1 hour in fridge

4.Take dough out of fridge and roll into a 8x12" rectangle with the 12" end parallel to the edge of the counter.

5.When the butter block has set in the fridge for 30 minutes and is hard but pliable, remove from wax paper and set onto the rolled out dough.

You are now ready for your first fold.  It is called the letter fold and looks like this

With your eyes on the rectangle, imagine there are 3 equal parts.  Like a letter, fold the left up to meet the first 'fold' in the middle, then fold that over itself to create a letter fold.  Once you have achieved this, take dough and let it rest in the fridge for another hour.

6.Take the dough out of the fridge and roll into a 8x12" rectangle. If you do this quickly while the butter is still cold it shouldn't be a problem, but if the butter starts to warm up, then pop your dough into the fridge for another 15 minutes.  Once the rectangle shape is achieved, you will be ready for the second fold.

It is called the book fold and looks like this:

 (I had to borrow these letter fold examples off of the internet as I did not take any photos)

Just like the pages of a book, take the 8" ends and fold them into the center of the dough, then fold the right 'page' over the left and you have a book.  Take this dough and let rise for 1 hour in fridge.

7. Reapeat this process two more times and let the final dough rest in a book fold in the fridge for 12-24 hours.  Letting the dough rest overnight ensures fresh pastries for breakfast......

While the water is boiling for your personal moring addiction( or whenever you get round to baking the dough)... Take the chilled dough out of the fridge and let it warm up (rest) for about 10 minutes. 

8.Roll the dough into an 8x12" rectangle.

9.Preheat oven to 350

10.Whisk 1 egg white until stiff and save yolk for brushing the dough

Prepare the filling:

Make the filling in a food processor. Put pistachios and powdered sugar together until broken but not fine. Add butter, egg, and evaporated cane juice, cardamom, and flour.  When this mixture comes together, remove from processor and put in bowl.  Fold in, the whisked egg white.

Pistachio filling

4 oz. pistachios

2 Tbl evaporated cane juice

2 tsp. ground cardamom

2 Tbl confectioners sugar

1 stick butter softened

1 large egg

1 egg white

1 egg yolk (for brushing)

4 Tbl unbleached all purpose flour

Cut the dough at 1" diagonal intervals down each length leaving about 1-2 inches in the middle 

 Spoon the Pistachios down the center of the dough and make a smooth even thickness

 Now you should be ready to braid the dough and transfer to a parchment lined baking sheet

 The process of braiding dough is simple.  Take one diagonal cut piece from the right and move it in towards the center.  Then take one diagonal cut piece from the left and lay it over the right piece to creat what looks like two arms crossing.  Repeat this process.  Cover with saran and let rise for 1 hour.  DO NOT set on oven or near hot surface as the butter in the dough will melt and make a mess.

after the dough has risen and looks nice and fat(you should no longer be able to see what is inside the dough) Pop braid into the fridge for the last 15 to chill the butter, so it will make the dough more flakey. 

Brush dough with egg yolk and sprinkle with pistachios or almonds

bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until crust is golden!!!

 Dust with Confectioners sugar and share with loved ones

Aphrodite

 I cut this image out of the Vogue best dressed addition because it reminded me of my Cinnamon souffle in goddess form. Beautiful? Tres Bien!

Speaking of Goddesses, isn’t it the month of Aphrodite herself?   I couldn’t help but be fully compelled toward sexy stimulating herbs for my first few recipes! The soothing and erotic notes of vanilla first come to mind, followed by her warm and alluring sister, cinnamon as a close second. Here is some great information about the medicinal qualities of cinnamon and vanilla.  These two ladies are both among the most famous and popular in the aphrodisiac kingdom.  They get invited to the best parties and guys buy them drinks all night….

Here’s why.

Cinnamon is an effective appetite stimulant.  The digestive properties of the plant which are found in the essential oil of the bark, aid in stimulating saliva and gastric juices.  Which in turn aid in the suppression of excess gas (flatulence).  No wonder they’re so popular.

Cinnamon also has antiplatelet, antithrombic, and antiesclerotic properties.  Which basically means it helps blood flow and circulation.  Because of this, it will help a woman regain her menses, ultimately allowing her to procreate.

Why else would this be an herb of the goddess if it weren’t all about feeling sexy and making babies? And we all know where babies come from…the stork, duh!

A little about Vanilla….

 Homeopaths like to think Vanilla’s fragrance can release one’s pent-up anger and frustration by opening doors to hidden, untamed sensual desires. Uh, count me in……

Historically, the spice has been used as a febrifuge to reduce fever.  The most common uses however have been for flavoring of medicines, foods, and lending and aromatic hand to the cosmetics and fragrance industry.

Okay, so what? She doesn’t do as many"medicinal" things as her sister …but she smells pretty and tastes good.  What more does a girl have to do to get a few drinks? Not much apparently.

 I hope you’re excited as I was to make this!

 Sexy Cinnamon Soufflé

This made the house smell amazing.....

The sunken center had no effect on the incredible cloudy texture and rich spicy taste. I did the bad girl thing and ate standing at the counter....

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

For the Batter:

1/3 cup evaporated cane juice

1/4 cup organic unbleached pastry flour

1 cup organic half and half

4 egg yolks at room temp

1 Tbl cinnamon

2 tsp vanilla

2 Tbl butter at room temp

For the egg whites:

5 egg whites at room temp

pinch sea salt

1/8 tsp cream of tartar

3 Tbl evaporated cane juice

Confectioners sugar for dusting

Butter the soufflé dish and coat with sugar and shake out excess.

Combine flour,sugar,cinnamon,and 1/4 cup of milk in medium sized bowl. Whisk until smooth making a batter.

Bring remaining 3/4 of milk to simmer in medium sized saucepan stirring constantly. When bubbles begin to form. Remove from heat and pour into flour mixture. Whisk this mixture in bowl until smooth. Return mixture to saucepan and bring to a low simmer stirring constantly. When bubbles form turn down heat and stir for about 2 mins or until mixture is nice and thick.

Remove from heat and slowly spoon Flour mixture into the 4 egg yolks. Temper the yolks by spooning in 1 Tablespoon at a time. If you pour all of it the eggs will scramble. add renaming Vanilla and whisk until smooth.

You now have the souffle "base" this can be covered and put in the fridge for up to 3 hours.

Take the 5 egg whites and beat eggs until frothy. Add salt. Then beat eggs until a fairly stiff peak forms. Add cream of tartar. 1 Tablespoon at a time add remaining sugar while beating, until the peaks become very stiff.

Slowly add 1/4 of whites into the batter and stir gently.

Fold in the rest of the whites carefully then spoon into prepared soufflé dish.

Bake for 30-35 mins depending on size of dish. Double for larger souffles...ones made in tart or small cake pans for example.

Carefully set in oven and turn temp down to 375.

Take out and dust to perfection. Serve immediately.

Share with loved ones

• Here is a great link about sexual attraction, pheromones, blood flow and the like. http://www.sirc.org/publik/smell_attract.html

This is the album I was listening to while baking this.  It's always nice to have a little music in the background. I've had this album forever but just started listenting to it on repeat, like a big dork.

Here is my favorite track so far:

 I'm excited to start my next sugar scrub that I will be sharing with you.  Also, some more Valentine's ideas are in store! See you soon.

Straight Spilln' J