Apple Cream Tart

A little brown on the top, but don't let that scare you...it is really yummy! This tart is originally made with peaches, but when you have tart granny smith apples and it feels like fall, I think that apple will go well in anything. This doesn't take long at all to put together and you have the tartness of the apples with the sweetness of the filling...almost like an apple cobbler, only in tart form.

Crust:

1 1/4 Cups all-purpose flour

1/2 Cup (1 stick)butter, softened

2 Tbsp sour cream

Filling:

About 3 medium apples, peeled, cored and thickly sliced

3 large egg yolks

3/4 Cup sour cream

3/4 Cup sugar

1/4 Cup all-purpose flour

Glaze:

1/2 Cup apple jelly, warmed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

To make the crust, place the flour, butter and sour cream in food processor and pulse to combine. When the dough has formed a ball, pat with lightly floured hands into the bottom and sides of an ungreased 10-inch tart pan with a removable bottom and 1/2 inch sides. Bake for about 15 minutes, until the crust is set but not browned. Let cool while preparing the filling.

To make filling, arrange the apple slices in overlapping circles on top of the crust, until it;s completely covered. Overfill the crust, as apples will draw up during baking. Combine the yolks, sour cream, sugar and flour and beat until smooth. Pour the mixture over the apples.

Place the tart pan on a baking sheet and bake for about 1 hour, until the custard sets and is pale golden in color. Cover with an aluminum foil tent if the crust gets too dark. (I forgot this part!ha!)

Transfer the tart pan to a wire rack to cool. When cool, remove the side wall of the pan. Spread the apple jelly with a pastry brush over the top of the tart.

My own chocolate from Paris!

I am so excited when I went to check my mail today, there is was...my child labor free chocolate bar from R Khooks. I won this by guessing the dessert that she made for the Stop the Traffiking Competition she had...you can check out the round up here.. There are some really wonderful creations. Thanks again!

October Daring Baker challenge

What is this? Bostini Cream Pie, of course...not to be confused with Boston cream pie. The bottom layer is a vanilla custard, topped with an orange chiffon cake, then topped with a chocolate ganache. I loved the custard, I could eat it by itself. The cake was good, but the only mistake that I made was that I used salted butter with the chocolate, which made the whole dessert a little salty. Next time I will definitely use unsalted butter! This month was hosted my Mary at Alpineberry, you can find this recipe here.

While looking over at a fellow DBer Lis on her blog...it states that the Daring Bakers have now grown to 299 members!! WOW!! That is amazing! Go and check out all of the other's posts of this months challenge from our blogroll. They truly are a bunch of talented bakers!

Cranberry Upside Down Cake

It finally feels like fall here, after having 90 degree weather for so long, it is now in the 60's, and it is the last week of October. Crazy, I know!! There is nothing better than cranberries, and pumpkin..that will come later...that says "Fall is finally here!" If you like tart and sweet, here is a great one to try. This cake is moist, sweet, with a hint of cinnamon, with the buttery and tart topping. You can use pecans in the topping also, if you choose. I chose not to use the pecans.

Cranberry Upside Down Cake
Topping:
2/3 Cup packed brown sugar
1/3 Cup butter
1 1/4 Cups cranberries
1/2 Cup chopped pecans

Cake:
1/2 cup butter, room temp
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 Cup sour cream
1 1/2 Cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Wrap the outside of a 9 inch spring form pan with aluminum foil to prevent leaking. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.
In a saucepan over medium heat, combine brown sugar and 1/3 cup of butter. Bring to a boil, then pour into bottom of spring form pan. Sprinkle with cranberries and pecans.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and 3/4 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Beat int he eggs one at at time, then stir in the vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the sour cream. Pour batter into the prepared pan.
Bake in the preheated oven for 45-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then invert onto serving platter and carefully remove pan. Serve warm.

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Jam

I ran across the jam/jelly exchange hosted by Molly at Batter-splattered and thought that this would be so much fun to participate in. I have only made jam a few times, but this has to be my favorite so far. It is a little thicker than normal jam, but still tastes great. Who doesn't like chocolate covered strawberries? Now I can enjoy them on a biscuit! White chocolate raspberry is next on my list of jams to create.

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Jam

2 lbs strawberries, sliced
4 1/2 Cups sugar
2 Tbsp vinegar
pinch of salt
3 oz. of bittersweet chocolate, chopped

Combine all of the ingredients, EXCEPT the chocolate in a large pot. Bring to a rolling boil on medium-high heat, stirring frequently for about 15-20 minutes, or until you reach 220 F on a candy thermometer. Once you reach this temp, remove from heat and add the chocolate. Stir until all the chocolate has melted and is combined. Transfer to jelly jars and top with the lids. The heat from the jam should make the tops seal. Also, you don't need to skim off the foam, once you add the chocolate and get that all mixed in, the foam dissolves back into the jam.

The newest addition on my kitchen shelf

Today I was just sitting around, watching the TN/GA ballgame and thought, this is really boring. I so need to go to the bookstore. I had intended on buying Dorie Greenspan's book, Paris Sweets, but when I got to the cooking sections, there it was..just calling my name. Sherry Yard's new book, Desserts by the Yard! I was totally surprised, because I wasn't expecting it to hit the shelves until November. So, Dorie's book will be the new guest on my shelf on the next go around. I cannot wait to dig into this book! Some of it makes me a little nervous to tackle, but the pictures are great, and this book tells the story of her life. Anita from Dessert First gave a wonderful review of this book. I would encourage you to check that out here. I would also encourage you to check out Veronica's review from Veronica's Kitchen too. I have Sherry's first book, The Secrets of Baking and I love it, so I was curious to see how the 2nd one would compare. I am not disappointed in the least bit. I would say that this new one is just as good, if not better than book number 1. This would definitely be the one to put on your wish list.

Lemon-Buttermilk Poundcake

Lemon desserts run really close to chocolate desserts in being my favorite. I love anything lemon..but then again, I really like anything sweet. Go figure.... Anyways, this will be a recipe that I refer to again and again to make for anything. It is dense like a pound cake should be, but moist from the lemon vanilla simple syrup you make to brush over it while it is still warm, so that all this yumminess soaks all the way through. Maybe the only thing that I would do differently would be to maybe add a thin lemon glaze to it after it cools, but it is just fine without it.

Lemon Buttermilk Pound cake
1/2 lb. butter, at room temperature
2 Cups Sugar
2 1/2 Cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
4 large eggs
1/3 Cup lemon juice, about large lemons
2 tsp. vanilla
3 egg yolks
1/2 Cup buttermilk
1 Tbsp. grated lemon zest

For the simple syrup:
1/2 Cup water
1/2 Cup sugar
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. vanilla

Prepare a 10 inch bundt pan-buttered and then floured.

Combine butter, sugar, flour and baking powder in a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. beat on low speed for 2 minutes. Combine remaining ingredients into a bowl and add to mixer in 3 additions, beating 1 minutes between each addition. Scrape batter into prepared pan and bake about 1 hour. Place cake on cooking rack in pan.

Prepare the simple syrup: Combine water and sugar in saucepan and bring to a boil until sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat and add the lemon juice and vanilla. Unmold the cake and brush the syrup over the cake-allow to cool.

Pretzels

I love working with yeast dough. Ever since I completed my first DBer challenge, sticky buns, I have wanted to make something with a yeast dough again. The Daring Bakers started out with 2 people, Ivonne and Lis, who in discussion decided to make pretzels on the same day and post about it, that has been almost a year ago. After reading this, I thought this would be the perfect thing to make, except, I made mine sweet. You can find this recipe here. After they came out of the oven, I brushed them with butter, and then sprinkled with a cinnamon and sugar mixture. Now, for the taste test..big, soft, and chewy. Very tasty!

Chocolate Traffiking

I had never really thought about this or had even any idea about chocolate traffiking. Children under the age of 12 work on cocoa and coffee plantations, working 12 hour days and only make less than $150 a year. That broke my heart! Having 3 children myself under this age, I tried to imagine them having to do this to support our family. I couldn't. I know that other countries have different cultures than we do here in America, but those "babies" don't get to be kids and have to do more labor than I will probably have to ever do as an adult. So, when I read that R Khooks was doing this challenge, I knew that I would have to participate...if I could find a chocolate that was slave free. I only found 1 place in Knoxville that carried it, and it is a Nature store.

I found 3 oz blocks for $6 a bar...kind of pricey, but I loved how it baked and melted down. It is made from Theo and the fairtrade logo is on the front, however, it smelled great, it tasted great...it chopped great. I could also get it in different cocoa percentages, so I bought the 75%. Now....I found the chocolate..what to make. With loving chocolate and have so many favorite chocolate recipes, that was the next challenge..what to bake. While watching Barefoot Contessa on Foodtv, she made a Black and White Angel Food Cake with a chocolate ganache, I knew that I had to try it, and it was so worth it..light and fluffy, and just a little chocolate to satisfy the chocolate craving. My kids have loved it and my husband has eaten a piece (or two) in the past 2 days. I am happy to have participated in this to support such a great cause! Thanks for letting me be a part of it!

Black and White Angel Food Cake

2 Cups sifted superfine sugar

1 1/3 Cups sifted cake flour (not self rising)

1 1/2 Cups egg whites at room temperature (10-12 eggs)

3/4 tsp kosher salt

1 1/2 tsp cream of tarter

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 Cup coarsely grated semi sweet chocolate

Chocolate Glaze:

1 Cup chopped semi sweet chocolate

4 Tbsp butter

2 Tbsp light corn syrup

Melt all 3 ingredients together in a double boiler. Drizzle over the cake.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Combine 1/2 cup of the sugar with the flour and sift them together 4 times. Set aside.

Place the egg whites, salt, and cream of tartar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and beat on high speed until the eggs form medium-firm peaks, about 1 minute. With the mixer on medium speed, add the remaining 1 1/2 cups of sugar by sprinkling it over the beaten egg whites. Beat on high speed for a few minutes until thick and shiny. Add the vanilla and continue to whisk until very thick, about 1 more minutes. Scrape the beaten egg whites into a large bowl. Sift 1/4 of the flour mixture over the egg whites and fold it carefully into the batter with a rubber spatula. Continue adding the flour in 3 equal additions, sifting and folding until it's all incorporated. Fold in the grated chocolate.

Pour the batter into an ungreased 10-in. tube pan, smooth the top, and bake it for 35-40 minutes, until it springs back to the touch. Remove the cake from the oven and invert the pan on a cooling rack. When cool, run a thin, flexible knife around the cake to remove it from the pan. Drizzle with the chocolate glaze.