Pastry classes, Days 7-9

I have a lot to go over, so I am going to combine days 7, 8 and 9 into one post.

Day 7

Onion Tart. It was nice to do something savory. Looks like barf, tastes good. Caramelized onions, blue cheese, walnuts, and tomatoes on pate brisee. Basically a pizza a la francais.

Fig Newtons. Gotta love the newtons. Great source of FIBAH! These were great, especially because we cooked the figs down with a little bourbon. Wasn't a huge fan of the dough though, I like a flakier cream cheese dough more. And I like the cookies a little bit smaller. Overall though, great flavor and texture.

My new friends Omar and Rachel feeling good after a long hard class:

Day 8

Spritzkakor cookies. Cool name, not very exciting cookie. Relatively basic butter cookie with light lemon flavoring, piped in rosettes (my hand hurt) and then with pecan, chocolate, or raspberry filling. Had a slightly dry, crumbly texture. Certainly better than the supermarket variety.

Clafoutis aux Cerises. Basically a cherry custard tart. Similar in style to the Tart Alsacienne only WAY BETTER. Matter fact, this tart was BOMB. One of the best ones yet! The cherries provided a really nice tartness, and the custard part was really nice and smooth. And it didn't look gross!

Day 9

Lemon Tartlets. Overall, this was an excellent endeavor. Let me break it down for you. Flaky, pate brisee crust. Lemon curd (perfectly made, I may add) set with gelatin. Candied lemon peel. Swiss meringue, gently torched. I loved making them, and I loved eating them. We learned a lot by making these - all about meringues and curds! I will have some fond memories of torching the top and smelling toasted marshmallow.

French Nut Tart. I've never eaten anything like this before. Pate sucree, thin layer of jam, toasted almonds, and then almond cream beaten with almond and hazelnut flours, with incorporated whipped egg whites. The top layer puffed up a bit, so it was almost like a thin cake in a tart. I was surprised at how good it was actually. Note sophisticated top design skills. Its called making a paper snowflake template. I DIDNT GO TO ART SCHOOL FOR NOTHING BITCHES!

Tis Tart Time!

I was feeling tarty the other day so I made 2 of them! I essentially followed this recipe for an Asparagus custard tart, only did not really follow it.

I used swiss chard and leeks instead of asparagus. I also doubled the crust recipe to make 2 pies- one savory, the other sweet (I added 2 T of sugar into the peach tart crust)! Why not, its fucking hot and humid in New York so I'm not going to turn the oven on for just one thing. Shiiiiiiiiiiiiitttt . . .

I improvised the sweet tart: some peaches, some blueberries, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, ginger, and a blueberry jam glaze.

Yield: 1 swiss chard and leek tart, 1 peach and blueberry tart, and a whole lot of efficient awesomeness.