Whole Lemon Tart (ala Smitten Kitchen)

As the Dessert Dash coordinator for Annika's school auction, it seemed only fitting that I should actually make a dessert. In fact, I've donated cakes over the past two years and decided this was a good time to jump in as a volunteer on the committee. As the coordinator, I saw just how many cakes people signed up to donate, which made me start thinking outside of the cake box (hahaha!) when deciding what I should make.

The idea of checking the Smitten Kitchen blog struck fairly quickly, so I took a stroll through her dessert section. A few of items jumped out as possible contenders, but then I came across the Whole Lemon Tart recipe and a little choir of angels sang in my ears... ok, not really, but I was inspired nonetheless!

Before making it for the auction, I decided doing a trial run was the smart choice. Eric's best friend and his daughter came over for dinner last night, so I made the tart as our dessert. I didn't use the tart crust recommended in the recipe; instead, I used the tart crust recipe that I learned in the pie-making class I took awhile back at a local baking shop/culinary classroom. I knew it was tried and true ... and mighty tasty.

The thing about this tart recipe that caught my attention was the entire lemon (minus the seeds) is used... not just some zest and the juice, but THE WHOLE LEMON! Per the recipe, I sliced it (thin) and then put it (along with sugar and butter) in the food processor bowl and let 'er rip until everything is pureed! Talk about easy! After the initial whirl, I added the remaining ingredients and then poured the batter into my pre-baked tart shell. The biggest stress was wondering if the tart would be cool enough to serve for dinner (I didn't start the baking process until after we got home from the kids' swim lessons a smidge before 3!

The recipe couldn't have been easier and turned out mighty nicely. The lemon flavor was present but not overpoweringly tart. (In fact, I think I'll add a bit more lemon zest when I make it for the auction) I think Eric put it best when he said the tart reminded him of the lemon bars that I make.

I forgot to take a picture of the whole tart, so this single piece will have to suffice ... it
was the last man standing after I  took the leftover tart to work this morning.

Whole Lemon Tart (ala Smitten Kitchen)

Loosely inspired by a version from the Paris pastry shop, Rollet-Pradier

• 1 partially baked 9-inch Great Unshrinkable Tart Shell, or your favorite sweet tart shell
• 1 average-sized lemon (about 4 1/2 ounces; 130 grams), rinsed and dried*
• 1 1/2 cups (300 grams) sugar
• 1 stick (4 ounces or 115 grams) unsalted butter, cut into chunks
• 4 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons (14 grams) cornstarch
• 1/4 teaspoon table salt

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven 350°F (165´C). Place the tart shell on a baking sheet, which you can line with foil or parchment paper to make any spills a breeze to clean up.

Slice the lemon into thin wheels, remove any seeds, and toss the rounds — lemon flesh and peel — sugar and chunks of butter into the container of a food processor. Process, scraping down the sides of the container as needed, until the lemon is thoroughly pureed. Add the eggs, cornstarch and salt and pulse until the batter is smooth.

Pour into prepared tart shell. It will fill it completely but if due to slight variances in tart pans, egg sizes, lemon sizes or crust thickness, you have too much, do not pour it past the top of of your crust or it will become difficult to unmold later.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until the filling is set. You can test this by bumping the pan a little; it should only jiggle slightly. In my oven, I find that the point at which the filling is set is also when it starts to get very light brown on top.

Let cool on rack, unmold tart pan and serve. I actually prefer this tart completely chilled, which makes it a great dessert to make in advance of a dinner or party.

* Meyer lemons are the first choice here. They’re milder with thinner skin. But if you know that you do not mind a stronger lemon and rind kick, feel free to use a regular lemon, which will have a stronger flavor and a higher proportion of skin to flesh. If your lemon is not 4 1/2 ounces (Meyers often weigh in closer to 4 ounces) go ahead and cut a wedge out of a second one to keep the lemon flavor in balance with the sweetness of the tart.

Salted Caramel Brownies

A few weeks ago, Eric ran across a recipe for salted caramel brownies. Ironically, it was posted on one of my favorite food blogs (Smitten Kitchen). Of course, seeing the recipe made me want to give it a go, but time was a bit short, so I didn't quite get around to it. Part of the reason for the delay was finding time to not only make the brownies, but also the homemade salted caramel that goes into them.

Last night, however, was the night. Annika had a play date at her friend Valeria's house, which gave me a bit of extra time to work on the brownies. I made the caramel and then picked up Annika while it cooled ... multi-tasking, baby!!

Because I made a double batch (knowing I'd take the brownies to work) I used a 9x13 pan instead of the recommended 8x8 pan. I quickly realized that putting the caramel on a plate to cool wasn't going to be an ideal situation; the risk of a "caramel overboard" situation was pretty great; I had visions of caramel slipping off of the plate and all over the freezer ... I also had visions of me chiseling the caramel out of the freezer ... and snacking on it. (How sad is that???) To avoid that embarrassing (yet probably fairly tasty) scenario, I opted to verrrrrrry carefully slide the parchment from the plate to a pie dish; the extra-high sides were exactly what I needed.  Glad I went with plan B!

After picking up Annika and putting Conor to bed, Annika and I made the brownie batter together. She had a great time stirring the ingredients as I dumped them into the bowl. That said, her favorite part was licking the spatula when all was said and done! :)

A few things I noticed, greasing the parchment that the caramel cools on is a must. I lined my baking pan with a two-way of (greased) parchment paper and am very glad that I did. The brownies took about 15-20 minutes longer to bake than the original recipe called for, but that probably has something to do with the fact I doubled the recipe and had a much bigger pan in the oven. Finally, when sprinkling the remaining caramel pieces on top of the brownie batter, don't put the pieces overly close to the edge ... they created caramel crunch and enveloped the edges of the parchment a bit.

Oh my, but are these babies divine! I mean DEEEE-VINE!!! They are gooey and not too sweet. I'm not normally a huge salted caramel fan, but because the salt wasn't overpowering, I'm giving this recipe a huge thumbs up.

If you decide to try the recipe, heed the advice from Smitten Kitchen.... freeze the brownies for a bit before trying to cut them. I tried cutting them this morning without freezing them and it was fairly tricky. After 10-15 minutes in the freezer, they cut much more easily.

Salted Caramel Brownies (courtesy of Smitten Kitchen)

Caramel

1/2 cup granulated sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter (or salted, but then ease up on the sea salt)
Heaped 1/4 teaspoon flaky sea salt (or 1/8 teaspoon table salt, more to taste)
3 tablespoons heavy cream

Brownie
3 ounces (85 grams) unsweetened chocolate, roughly chopped
1 stick (4 ounces or 115 grams) unsalted butter, plus extra for pan
1 cup (200 grams) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla extract
Heaped 1/4 teaspoon flaky sea salt or 1/8 teaspoon table salt
2/3 cup (85 grams) all-purpose flour

Make caramel: Set a square of parchment paper over a medium-sized plate. Lightly butter or coat the parchment with a spray oil, just as an added security measure.

In a medium, dry saucepan over medium-high heat, melt your sugar; this will take about 5 minutes, stirring if necessary to break up large chunks. By the time it is all melted, if should be a nice copper color; if not, cook until it is. Remove from heat and stir in butter. It may not incorporate entirely but do your best. Stir in cream and salt and return saucepan to the stove over medium-high heat, bringing it back to a simmer and melted again any sugar that solidified. Cook bubbling caramel for a few minutes more, until it is a shade darker.

Pour out onto parchment-covered plate and transfer plate to your freezer. Freeze until solidified, which can take anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes in a decent freezer to 40 minutes in my terrible one.

Meanwhile, or when your caramel is almost firm, make your brownies: Heat oven to 350°F. Line an 8×8-inch square baking pan with parchment, extending it up two sides. Butter the parchment or spray it with a nonstick cooking spray.

In a medium heatproof bowl over gently simmering water, melt chocolate and butter together until only a couple unmelted bits remain. Off the heat, stir until smooth and fully melted. You can also do this in the microwave in 30-second bursts, stirring between each. Whisk in sugar, then eggs, one at a time, then vanilla and salt. Stir in flour with a spoon or flexible spatula.

Assemble brownies: When caramel is firm, remove it from the freezer and chop it into rough 1-inch squares. Gently fold all but a small amount of caramel bits into batter. Scrape batter into prepared pan, spreading until mostly even. Scatter remaining caramel bits on top. Bake in heated oven for 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Cool thoroughly — a process that can be hastened in the freezer, which will also produce cleaner cuts — and cut into squares or other desired shapes.

February 2013 Daring Bakers Challenge: Crisp Crackers and Flatbreads

It is funny how some months fly by so fast that I have to scramble to complete the month's Daring Bakers challenge. This month was the antithesis of those months. I completed this month's challenge on the 2nd or 3rd. The reason behind my speedy completion? There were actually two reasons. First, the recipes were pretty fast to complete. Second, the recipes didn't require ingredients that were hard to find ... because they were all in our kitchen. Can't complain about that!

This month, we were tasked with making crisp crackers and/or flatbread. Being the overachiever that I am, I decided to make one of each. I wound up making homemade graham crackers and crisp rosemary flatbread.

It is no secret that I adore the Smitten Kitchen food blog. That gal is a culinary god... you'll definitely agree once you see how small her kitchen is! I chose her graham cracker recipe and am so glad that I did. They turned out amazingly well. The shocker? No graham flour was used. I read the recipe 6-7 times before I believed it. These little yummy treats were flavorful, crunchy, and topped with cinnamon sugar. (Eric said they were too crispy and nuked them for a few seconds before eating them ... what can I say? I married a guy who likes stale graham crackers. I don't get it either!) ;)

Graham crackers

Next, I tackled the the Smitten Kitchen crisp rosemary flatbread recipe. I was less in love with the results of this adventure. The crisp flatbread turned out less crisp and more dense than I expected; imagine almost like a pita texture. I don't know if I did something wrong or simply didn't roll out the dough thin enough. Either way, I wouldn't call this flatbread crisp.

The other issue I had was I didn't have fresh rosemary on hand; instead I used dry. Not wanting to overpower the bread with rosemary, I went too cautious and under rosemary-ed the dough. Its flavor was a bit flat (no pun intended) and lacked the lovely punch of rosemary flavor I'd hoped for. I think I'll try this recipe again, but with thinner dough and fresh rosemary.

Crisp(ish) rosemary flatbread

Can't wait to see what is in store for March's challenge!!


Sarah from All Our Fingers in the Pie was our February 2013 Daring Bakers’ host and she challenges us to use our creativity in making our own Crisp Flatbreads and Crackers! 

One exhausting weekend

The weekend we just finished could be defined as "jam packed", but that might be a bit of a muted description.

Saturday started off with our trip to the passport office. Eric, Annika, and I needed to renew our passports and Conor needed to get his first passport. We were so smart getting ready for this adventure. We had pictures taken 3 weeks ago (right after the kids got haircuts), filled out and printed the required paperwork, grabbed Conor's birth certificate, had photocopies of our IDs, and had it all tucked away in a big envelope.... or so we thought. We arrived at the passport office about 10 minutes before it arrived, knowing two kids in a long line wouldn't be our definition of "fun". We were third in line and silently laughing at the suckers forming the line behind us. After about 10 minutes, it was our turn. We smugly handed the lady our packet of paperwork and as she sorted through everything, I saw the little square on the forms that identifies where the pictures need to go. My stomach sank. I turned to Eric and asked, "Did you grab the pictures? Please tell me you grabbed the pictures." His face sank. The lady smiled, returned our paperwork to us, and said, "we're open until 2." Fortunately, there was a drug store across the street that takes passport photos, so we just had new ones taken. (A small miracle for the photo snafu: Conor and I wound up with much better photos this time around.) We got back in line and made our way through to the desk. The lady sifted through our paperwork, looked at the kids to make sure they matched the photos, looked at our IDs, confirmed the forms were correct (Eric and I even had to take an oath!), and then asked where Annika's certified birth certificate was. Wha?? We knew we needed Conor's because his was a new passport application, but Annika's was a renewal so we didn't think it was needed. The lady very kindly said, "It isn't clear on the website." Followed by, "Do you have it at home because we're open until 2." ARG!!! We scurried back home, I grabbed the birth certificate, and then headed back to Ballard. Fortunately, I was able to make the trek solo because the lady had seen the kids and Eric, as well as all of the required information, so I just needed to hand her the certificate. Oy!!!

Saturday night, we had a wonderful evening out with Troy and Staci. We decided to treat ourselves to an experience instead of exchanging Christmas presents, and this weekend was the designated date. We originally hoped to get tickets to "The Book of Mormon" when it was in town, but getting tickets that weren't insanely expensive wasn't in the cards. Instead, we had a marvelous dinner at Daniels Broiler in Bellevue. We laughed ourselves silly and ate wonderful food until we were ready to burst. We even had a celebrity spotting... Troy discovered that Brock Huard (former UW and NFL football player) and his family were sitting diagonally from us. I'm sure the Huards were tired of hearing us laugh all night long, but oh well! We were having fun and are a loud family. :)

On Sunday, Conor and I went to mass, followed by a quick trip to the grocery store. Annika had been invited to a friend's house for brunch and a play date at 11, which she was beyond excited about. I took Conor to swim lessons while Eric took Annika to her friend's house; unfortunately, we didn't realize it was "everyone please stay" not just "Annika please stay" situation, so we had to scramble a bit to make that work around Conor's nap and us needing to prep for our little dinner party that night. I also needed to finish my Daring Baker's challenge (due on Sunday), so had to work in baking gevulde speculaas, too; fortunately, it worked as the dessert for our dinner party! Eric cleaned up the house while I took Annika to her swim lesson, and then I tackled the lasagna when I got home. We figured it all out and got everything done on time ... thank goodness for teamwork (and Conor taking a nap)!

Sunday evening, our friends the Hoglunds came over for dinner. Awhie ago, they gave us hand-me-down pasta machine, and I promised to pay them back with a homemade pasta dinner. I wound up making a lasagna recipe that I found on the Smitten Kitchen blog and it was fabulous! I made the meat sauce on Saturday and the rest on Sunday. It was really good and Eric liked that it isn't overly tomato-y. I'd definitely make it again, that's for sure.

As we sat in a heap on the couch finishing the episode of Downton Abbey that we'd been trying to finish for over 24 hours, I had the realization that I was looking forward to going back to work the next day... not only because I love my new job, but because the pace HAS to be slower than what we experienced this weekend!!