Pistachio Tart with Strawberries and Rhubarb

I wasn't sure if anyone grew rhubarb in central Texas. For the last couple of years when I was looking for it, I never saw any at our farmers' markets. Some people even told me that rhubarb is more common in the north than it is in the south. Then, all of sudden this spring, I started hearing rumors of locally grown rhubarb being available at markets and farm stands. I stopped by the farm stand at Boggy Creek Farm one morning, and they indeed had freshly cut rhubarb. It wasn't as big or as red as the stalks I see in the grocery store, but it was grown with no chemicals right here in Austin, so I was proud to bring it home. I had a mash-up of a plan in mind for it. In Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook, there were ideas from two different tarts that I wanted to combine into one dessert. The rhubarb tart recipe in the book suggests cooking big pieces of rhubarb in a sugar syrup with a vanilla bean and beet wedges. The beet wedges give the syrup and the rhubarb more red color. Once the rhubarb was tender, it was removed, and the syrup was reduced to a thick glaze. The other tart from the book was made with a pistachio crust, was filled with a creme fraiche and whipped cream mixture, and was topped with berries and whole pistachios. I wanted both.

I made the pistachio dough as instructed by finely grinding shelled pistachios and adding them to butter mixed with confectioners' sugar. Egg yolks were added to that followed by flour, salt, and a little cream. The dough was soft and slightly sticky, so it was necessary to chill it before rolling. Then, rather than making individual tartlets as shown in the book, I made one rectangular tart. There was extra dough, so I did make a few tartlets as well to freeze and use another time. The tart crust was blind baked with pie weights and then allowed to cool. Going back to the rhubarb tart in the book, I cooked the cut pieces of rhubarb as suggested with sugar, water, a vanilla bean, and one beet cut into wedges. Since my rhubarb was more green than red, it required a little extra cooking time to become tender and sweet. Then, it was removed and allowed to dry on paper towels. The sugar syrup was strained and then poured into a clean pan to reduce until thick. One more flip back to the pistachio tarts to make the filling which was a mix of creme fraiche, cream, and sugar. That was spread in the cooled crust and then topped with halved strawberries, whole pistachios, the drained rhubarb, and last was drizzled with the cooled red, sugar syrup glaze.

The glaze was bright red from the beet, full of vanilla flavor, and was delightful. It was so pretty, I wanted to boil it to a higher temperature so I could turn it into lollipops. The pistachio crust was a winner too. It was easy to shape it in the tart pan, and the faint green tint contrasted well with the filling and toppings. I had no uncertainty about the creme fraiche and whipped cream layer under the strawberries and rhubarb, and it was tangy and rich as it should be. So, this mix of two tarts made one pleasing dessert.

Lemon-Strawberry Cake with Lemon Buttercream

Even though I always start pondering cake options weeks in advance of my birthday, I usually end up choosing something lemony or berry-filled or both, unless I decide on butterscotch. I always have to try something different, it’s never the same cake twice, but the flavors are usually similar. I’ve been enjoying baking from Flour since receiving a review copy last fall. Not only has everything from the book been completely delicious, the recipes have also just worked really well. Even if you have a standard approach to apple pie, and I did, the one from this book might change your mind about it. The techniques resulted in the best apple pie I’ve ever made. So, I’ve come to trust this book, and I’m thrilled that Joanne Chang is working on a second one. I knew there would be a good option for a birthday cake in Flour. The name of the cake in the book is lemon-raspberry cake with lemon buttercream, but I had fresh, local strawberries to use instead. It’s intended as a three layer cake with lemon curd mixed with buttercream and berries between each layer. I cut the quantity down to two layers for the cakes and stored the extra buttercream and lemon curd in the freezer for another use. This was a special occasion cake, meaning there are a few parts to making it, although none of them are difficult.

I started by making the lemon curd in advance, and I used meyer lemons for the juice. The next day, I made the cakes which began by creaming together butter and sugar and then adding vanilla and lemon zest. A mixture of flour, baking powder, and salt were added alternately with milk. Last, egg whites were beaten until they held peaks, and they were folded into the cake batter. While the cakes baked and cooled, I gathered ingredients for the French buttercream. First, a sugar syrup was made in a saucepan, and it was brought to 238 degrees F. Eggs and egg yolks were mixed in a stand mixer until pale, and then the syrup was slowly added to the eggs while mixing on low speed. Once all the syrup was added, the speed was increased to medium, and it was mixed until fluffy and cool. Next came the butter, and this was an obscene amount of butter. Three cups of butter were cut into chunks, and the chunks were slowly added while mixing until the buttercream became smooth and lovely. A pinch of salt was added, and the frosting was completed. One last item to make was the lemon syrup which was a mix of lemon juice, sugar, and water which was brought to a boil to dissolve the sugar and then left to cool. That lemon syrup was brushed on top of each cake layer before the filling and toppings were added. A little of the lemon curd was mixed with a little of the buttercream to make the filling that was placed between the cake layers. And, I need to pause for a moment while I remember that mixture of lemon curd and buttercream because it was delightful. I placed some of it in a plastic bag so I could pipe a quick circle of the mixture around the edge, and that held the berries in place preventing berry juice from running on the outside of the cake. Sliced strawberries were placed on the curd-buttercream layer inside the circle barrier. The other cake layer went on top, it was brushed with lemon syrup, and the remaining plain buttercream was used to frost the top and sides of the layers. Last, some lemon curd was spread on top of the cake, and I decorated with a few whole strawberries.

The cake met my requirements perfectly for lemony-ness and berry flavor. Lemon curd, buttercream, and fresh strawberries couldn’t possibly disappoint. The cake layers themselves were light as can be, and the brushed-on lemon syrup kept them from becoming dry. With the strawberries, it was a cake for spring, and I bet the lemon flavors would be great with blueberries too. I’m not sure I can top this, so I might have to bake the same cake again next year.

Fruit Salad with Limoncello and Yogurt Sauce

Is it just me, or is strawberry season far too short? It’s an especially short season for locally-grown strawberries in Austin. We’ve been getting pints of them in our CSA from Farmhouse Delivery, and I’ve been buying them at farmers’ markets. Just yesterday, when I bought some at Boggy Creek Farm, I worried they might be the last of the local season. Yes, I worry over strawberries. I worry over homegrown lemons too and how to best use them, and that could be why I decided to combine the two in a dessert. This fruit salad is from Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics, and the recipe is also available online. Fresh berries were mixed with limoncello and topped with a yogurt sauce made with lemon curd.

The recipe actually suggests using purchased lemon curd, but I had a last bit of frozen meyer lemon juice, so I made my own lemon curd. I also still had some of the limoncello I made earlier in the year. The lemon curd was whisked into some Greek yogurt along with honey and vanilla. For the salad, I used only strawberries and raspberries rather than the recommended mix of berries and bananas. The berries were tossed with a pinch of sugar and a few tablespoons of limoncello and allowed to sit at room temperature for five minutes or so. The macerated fruit was topped with the yogurt sauce and chopped mint.

I don’t think I’d ever tried limoncello with strawberries before, but it’s a combination that’s very worth remembering. In fact, I see a cocktail created with strawberry juice and limoncello in my future. And, the lemony, tangy yogurt sauce made the dessert more special than you would expect a fruit salad to be. I may not have much time left to repeat this dessert with local strawberries this year, but I might try it again when blackberries make an appearance.

Strawberry-Rhubard Sorbet and Vanilla Ice Cream with Rhubarb-Red Wine Compote

It’s time for dessert. After tapas and paella, dessert was, well, not exactly Spanish. I wanted to make use of spring-time strawberries and rhubarb and turning them into something frozen seemed right. Since a frozen dessert would be made well in advance, that meant I could put together a few components and nothing would require last-minute attention. When I read The Perfect Scoop, I was inspired by the suggested pairings of sorbets or granitas with ice creams and sauces. I dreamt up a vision of fruity strawberry-rhubarb sorbet served next to a sinfully rich scoop of vanilla ice cream, and I found those recipes in that book. Following the strawberry-rhubarb sorbet recipe, there’s a note about serving it with a red wine-poached rhubarb compote which sounded perfect. Sorbet, ice cream, and compote was a good start, but I thought a nutty, crunchy item would make it complete. For that, I turned to Martha Stewart's Cookies and chose the lacy nut cookie. I had a plan, but I had no idea how to best present those items on a dessert plate. I should probably read a book on plating and presentation.

Each part of this dessert was very easy to prepare. For the sorbet, rhubarb was chopped and cooked with sugar and water until tender. That was pureed with strawberries, chilled, and churned into sorbet in my ice cream maker. The next day, I made the custard for ice cream with whole milk, sugar, cream, a vanilla bean, six egg yolks, and vanilla extract. I’ve tried a few different recipes for vanilla ice cream, and I can now gauge how delicious the result will be based on the number of egg yolks used. Six is a lovely number of egg yolks for vanilla ice cream, and it was very delicious. The compote was a simple mix of chopped rhubarb, red wine, sugar, honey, a cinnamon stick, and ground cloves. That combination was simmered until the rhubarb was cooked and the sauce reduced, and then I stored it in the refrigerator. Before serving, I brought the compote back to room temperature. The last item was the cookie. The dough was made from mostly butter but also confectioners’ sugar, corn syrup, bread flour, and chopped pecans. Once mixed, it was rolled into a log, wrapped in parchment paper, and chilled. Pieces were sliced from the dough log and baked on silpat-lined sheet pans. I quickly learned that these cookies spread even more than you would think. The dough log I created was a little big, and I ended up cutting each slice in half before baking. The shape of the dough doesn’t matter so much because it spreads into a circle regardless while baking. The cookies baked into lacy and somewhat fragile wafers of buttery crunch.

I ended up with just what I wanted for flavors, textures, fruit, and nuts, but I had no idea how to make it look nice on a plate. Should I have put the compote on the bottom, drizzled it on top, or placed it to the side? What about the cookie? I couldn’t decide how to position it either. It could have been the platform on which everything else sat, or it could have rested on top like a lacy veil over the frozen scoops, or it could have sat in a more vertical pose. I played with the plating and snapped the photos seen here well before dinner time. Then, when it was time for dessert, my final plating decision was to set out a buffet of sorts and invite everyone to help themselves. Problem solved.

Banana Strawberry Granola

A couple of weeks ago, I read a NY Times article about some addictive, crack-like granola, and that was the point at which I decided I had to make some homemade granola of my own. The recipe involved olive oil, and a sweet and salty contrast in the ingredients apparently made it irresistible. I also saw a homemade granola recipe on The Cosmic Cowgirl’s site a few months ago. Both The Cosmic Cowgirl’s and the NY Times recipes included pepitas which sounded great to me. Then, I recalled that Ruhlman had presented a slightly unusual granola recipe back in June. Pureed bananas and strawberries were mixed into the oats and nuts, and I had to try that. I actually consume a lot of cold cereal and granola for breakfasts, and I don’t know why I had never before made my own. I’ll definitely whip up a batch with pepitas as soon as I run out of this granola. It’s incredibly easy to make, you can tailor it to suite your taste or mood, and you can control the quantity of sugar.

With Ruhlman’s recipe, less oil is used because the pureed fruit and water add moisture that helps mix the spices throughout the oats and nuts. Then, most of the ingredients are up to you. You need to use the correct amount of oats, roughly the specified amount of nuts, but nuts of your choosing, then the spices and dried fruit are entirely your choice. I, however, followed almost exactly the quantities and ingredients suggested. I went with two bananas which were blended with strawberries, brown sugar, honey, canola oil, water, cinnamon, of which I added extra, and nutmeg. That was stirred into a mixture of oats, wheat bran, flax seed, walnuts, and sliced almonds. This was baked for an hour and was stirred every 15 minutes. Once it was removed from the oven and cooled, I added dried cranberries.

With homemade granola, you're able to choose the ingredients, but would the taste of be that much different? Yes, of course, homemade is far better. It’s perfectly fresh and the flavors are much more vibrant than something that has been sitting in a bin or box for however many days or weeks. It was worth making this just for the aroma from the oven while it baked. I usually take my granola with some plain soy milk, but it’s even better with thick Greek yogurt. Try one of these recipes or invent a new one, and let me know your favorite nut, spice, and fruit combination.

Strawberry Raspberry Frangipane Tart

Yesterday, I mentioned the potluck picnic I attended over the weekend, and this is the tart I brought along with the sugar cookies. For this food blogger event, I wanted to stick to recipes that I had made enough times to be sure of them. This tart isn’t quite as tried and true as the cookies, but it’s been in my binder full of keepers for several years. This comes from the very early days of the Foodnetwork. I believe this was from Cooking Live with Sara Moulton, and it was presented as just a strawberry frangipane tart. I added the raspberries, and really any combination of summer fruits would be delicious. This is an ideal tart for a picnic because there is no pastry cream filling and no need to refrigerate it.

A pate brisee was made first and fitted into a tart pan. The pastry was topped with the frangipane which is made from softened butter, sugar, an egg, finely ground blanched almonds, almond extract, almond-flavored liqueur, and flour. The tart shell with frangipane was then baked for about 40 minutes. After it cooled, it was topped with sliced strawberries and raspberries. And, the last step was to brush on melted and strained strawberry jam. In the past, I’ve always served this with whipped cream, but I thought the cream wouldn’t hold up well at a picnic and left it behind this time.

The frangipane seems to become part of the bottom crust but offers its hint of almond flavor. The fruit is the real star, though, so it has to be ripe and juicy. I used some organic strawberries that had nice, red color throughout when sliced, and the organic raspberries didn’t need any help in looking like little jewels. I love the sheen of a jam topped tart, and the strawberry jam here added a nice reddish glow. This is a great dessert to make several hours in advance as it holds up well. Also on the dessert table at the picnic was a delicious lemon tart made by Anna of Cookie Madness. There was so much good food that day. I’m still thinking about all of it.

Strawberry Scones

Every time I see a scone recipe, I want to try it. Kurt certainly wouldn’t mind if I did try every scone recipe, and since I don’t even need much encouragement to bake, I baked scones again. Hopefully, this won’t become a dedicated scone site, but chances are good there will be additional scone variations presented here. These particular scones are another item from Exceptional Cakes, and there’s so much more on my to-bake list from that book. Date shortbread bars or the chocolate caramel tart could be next. But, about these scones, I thought I should compare these to the last scones I baked.

These scones were made with self-rising flour which I had never used before. I didn’t even find it at my grocery store, so I made it as described here. An additional two teaspoons of baking powder was added to the homemade self-rising flour. Those ingredients were sifted with salt and sugar, and butter was worked in with my fingertips. Some milk was measured and then eggs were beaten into it and that was poured into the flour butter mixture. I stirred this together and folded in chopped, fresh strawberries. The strawberries were my choice of an addition, but the recipe suggested sultanas. I usually cut butter into flour using a pastry cutter, but this time I worked it in with my fingertips. I think the fingertip method is actually faster, and I definitely had a better sense of when it was well-combined. I may never go back to the pastry cutter. Now, interestingly, the minneola tangelo-buttermilk scones I made in February, used all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar. Butter was mixed in with a pastry cutter, buttermilk was added, and then the segmented tangelos and zest were incorporated. There were no eggs in the dough, and there was more buttermilk than the milk in these scones.

The tangelo scones were fantastic, and they rose nicely. However, in my opinion, the texture of these strawberry scones was the better of the two. It was more delicate and less crumbly. Warm from the oven, they were incredible, and re-warmed the next day, they were still incredible. Let me know if you have a favorite scone recipe, or if your scones have eggs or not, and I’ll keep trying every recipe I see.


UPDATE:
Since the book is not available, and I had a request for the recipe, I'm including it below.

450 g self-raising flour
pinch of salt
25 g granulated sugar
2 t baking powder
85 g unsalted butter, softened
2 eggs
200 ml cold milk
chopped fresh strawberries or fresh or dried fruit of your choice (I used about a pint of fresh strawberries.)

1 egg for glaze
sugar for sprinkling

-preheat oven to 170 degrees C or 350 degrees F; line a large baking tray with parchment or silpat; sift the flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder into a bowl; add the butter and rub in with your fingertips; in a small bowl, lightly beat the eggs, add the milk, then pour into the flour; stir together quickly and lightly, adding fruit if using; don't overwork the dough, the quicker and lighter you are, the better the scones will be
-tip the dough onto a lightly floured surface and pat into a one inche thickness; cut into rounds and place on prepared baking tray; lightly beat egg for glaze and brush onto tops of scones, then sprinkle with sugar
-bake in the center of the oven for 20-25 minutes or until risen and lightly browned

Strawberry Jam Cake

I read Sweets: Soul Food Desserts and Memories last year, made one of the cakes in the book, and mentally bookmarked several other pages. One of those was the page with the strawberry jam cake. All of the desserts from this book are charming, old-fashioned sweets made by members of the author's extended family. When I get to choose dessert, chances are it will be berry-flavored or lemon or caramel, and this time strawberry was the winner. This is actually a spice cake with cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and ginger. It has pecans and buttermilk and of course strawberry jam. In the book, it was presented as a three layer cake which was to have more strawberry jam spread between the layers. I went in a slightly different direction with it and added the frosting from a different strawberry layer cake on page 39.

The jam cake recipe makes a lot of batter with five eggs and four cups of flour, and I chose to fill two eight inch round cake pans and bake the remaining batter in a small baking dish. I made a small layer cake with the rounds and put the extra flat cake in the freezer. I’m thinking that will make a useful platform for strawberries and whipped cream at a later date. For my layer cake, I followed the other recipe’s instructions for the strawberry frosting. Frozen strawberries were thawed and their juice was strained, and then the berries were combined with butter and confectioner’s sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. It was mixed until smooth, and I learned what to do differently next time. When I make this again, I’ll mix the butter and confectioner’s sugar first and then add the strawberries once that is already smooth. That way, I’ll be able to decide how chunky or not to leave the strawberries in the frosting. By mixing them all together, the strawberries were made smooth along with the butter. The flavor was fantastic, and the berries naturally made the frosting pink, but I thought a little texture from berry chunks might have been nice.

When I first frosted the cake, I placed it in the refrigerator to set. We enjoyed the cake that first day in its chilled state, but when I left it covered on the counter overnight, it was even better at room temperature the next day. The flavor of the spices and pecans was more pronounced, and the cake had become even more tender than the day before. In fact, it was better still the day after that. This cake would be delicious with just a dusting of confectioner’s sugar instead of being frosted, but the frosting added an extra punch of fruit and decadence.

Strawberry Sparkler

Crisp, cold, fruity, and refreshing. This was a perfect cocktail for the 4th of July holiday. I perused some cocktail recipes here and there online but didn’t find quite exactly what I wanted. So, with inspiration from several sources, I created this light and lovely strawberry sparkler which proved to be a delightful thirst quencher in the July heat. The fresh strawberries were steeped in lime juice and simple syrup and were then pureed with ice and rum. Sparkling mineral water topped it off and gave the drink its effervescence. I left these cocktails a little light in the sugar department, but the simple syrup can be added to taste. The important thing here is to use fresh, organic strawberries and fresh lime juice. I specify organic strawberries because when grown conventionally, they are a very heavily pesticide-covered fruit. Also, I’ve been using organic sugar lately and find it has a warmer or rounder flavor than bleached, granulated sugar. One more tip: turbinado sugar makes a nice crunchy coating on the top of the glass.

3/4 c organic sugar
1 c water
2 1/2 c organic strawberries, hulled and halved
16 oz fresh lime juice
1 c your favorite summer rum
4 T turbinado sugar
Sparkling mineral water, chilled

-place sugar and water in a small saucepan over medium heat and stir until sugar dissolves; remove from heat and let simple syrup cool to room temperature
-place strawberries in a medium bowl and cover with lime juice; add 3/4 c cooled simple syrup and let sit for 20 minutes or longer; save remaining simple syrup for another use or add more to taste
-fill blender pitcher 1/3 full with ice; add half of the strawberry mixture and steeping liquid; add 1/2 c rum (or more to taste); blend until smooth
-place turbinado sugar on a small plate; dip tops of four tall glasses in water or steeping liquid and then press into turbinado sugar; fill glasses 3/4 full with blended strawberry mixture and top with sparkling mineral water
-repeat blending and serving for four more cocktails or refills