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!

Dried Fruit and Nut Cake

Mindy gave me the book Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich as a parting gift, and I have found it truly inspirational. There are some delicious looking recipes, that encourage improvisation and are based on purity and true taste- using fruits and whole grains as inspiration to develop flavor rather than for health reasons. And her desserts are not particularly healthy, just to clarify. This book is totally in my line of thinking and so I immediately started baking from it, starting with what I had in my kitchen.

Adam hordes raisins like a fiend, and encourages me to buy multiple kinds while I am at the store. So for this Fruit and Nut Bread, most of the dried fruit I used were raisins- I also threw in dried cranberries, apricots, and figs. For the nuts, the recipe says walnuts but you can use any- I used walnuts, hazelnuts, and some leftover almond slivers I had in my freezer.

Here is the recipe typed in from the book, along with some pictures.

DRIED FRUIT AND NUT CAKE

3/4 C. AP flour

1/4 t. baking soda

1/4 t. baking powder

1/2 t. salt

3/4 C. natural sugar

3 C. dried fruits

3 C. nuts

3 eggs

1 t. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 300, spray a loaf pan.

In a large bowl thoroughly combine all dry ingredients, including sugar, nuts and fruit.

In a small bowl beat eggs with vanilla until light.

Pour egg mixture into dry ingredients, and mix with a wooden spoon until incorporated.

Pour and spread evenly in prepared pan, and bake until the top is a deep golden brown, about 75 minutes.

This is a truly delicious cake that is relatively healthy (for cake). I have been toasting it in the morning and eating it with my yogurt. Its a great source of energy. It also keeps forever, wrapped in plastic on the counter. A TOTAL WIN!