1AM Cherry Tart.

1AM. Bored, couldn't sleep. Had some leftover cherries in the refrigerator. (Just a few months left before my brother's wedding and I need to start building up those egg whites for the vats of buttercream frosting I need to make for the cake...) What is it about early morning that I love about being in the kitchen? Maybe it's the fact that no one is around, that I'm creating something while everyone else is asleep. I'm not sure, but I do know this tart came out very beautifully. I made the tart dough using my hands because I didn't want to turn on the food processor, but I'm sure that way is much easier. But perhaps a bit less satisfying.

These recipes are slightly based on the ones in Dorie Greenspan's book "Baking: From My Home to Yours" and if you want to do things the right way, you should probably follow her instructions instead. I am allergic to doing things the way they say in a cookbook, apparently.

Sweet tart dough:
1 1/2 cups AP flour
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
Pinch of salt
1 stick plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, cold, cut into small pieces
1 egg yolk

Stir together the flour, sugar and salt until combined evenly. Drop the butter on top and start pinching the pieces with your fingers until you have almost combined the butter with the dry ingredients... a few pieces looking like oatmeal, a few looking like peas. That's okay. Add the egg yolk and combine with your hands until a ball of dough forms. Press this into a lightly greased 9-inch tart pan and freeze it for about 20 minutes to a half hour. Or until the oven is done preheating to 375 degrees, like I did.

Bake for about 20 to 30 minutes, or until dark golden brown around the outside and almost golden brown in the middle of the tart.

Pastry cream:
2 cups whole milk
6 large egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch
1 pinch salt
1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste
1/2 stick unsalted butter cut into pieces

Bring the milk to a boil in a medium saucepan. Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch and salt together until combined well. Drizzle in about a 1/4 cup of the hot milk to temper the yolks and whisk. Then add the rest of the milk slowly, and eventually add this mixture back into the saucepan. Bring to a boil and whisk frequently for about 1 minute until very thick. Add the vanilla and the butter a few pieces at a time until it's all melted and combined.

Scrape into a bowl, press a piece of plastic wrap on top and refrigerate until cold.

For the cherries (or any other berry you might want to use):
2 cups cherries, pitted, cut in half
A few tablespoons red currant jelly (you could use apricot too probably)

Melt the jelly in the microwave or whatever, and then stir in the fruit, and toss to make sure all the fruit is about evenly glazed with the jelly. This will make the fruit nice and shiny, and will also help it to keep a bit longer if you're refrigerating a while before serving.

To assemble the tart, take the tart shell out of the pan and place it on a serving platter or plate. Spoon in the pastry cream, spreading to the edges and mounding a bit in the middle if you have a lot like I did, and then pour the fruit on top, letting it fall naturally where it wants to. I think it looks prettier than being arranged. Dig in and enjoy the fruits of summer.

Real Rugelach.

I live in an area with a high Jewish population. So where I work, many Jewish people come in looking for rugelach. We have something that LOOKS like rugelach, yes. Maybe it even has some cream cheese in the dough. But dear Pete they do not TASTE like rugelach. Granted I'm not Jewish, I'm not an expert on this subject, but I have always made my own rugelach from scratch. It's no more difficult than making any other cookie and homemade are always sooooo much better. I honestly couldn't believe how gross (weird aftertaste, weird texture) the ones are that are baked (they come in frozen) where I work. (As a side note, I can't believe people actually pay $9.99 a pound for cookies!)

Anyway, if you're looking for real rugelach, make this recipe. I've seen versions like this where the cream cheese and butter are creamed together, and then I've also seen recipes where the dry ingredients are mixed together first and then cold butter and cream cheese are added in, like a biscuit dough. Both give delicious results and taste much better than the kind from a store :)

Rugelach (basic dough recipe taken from Tish Boyle's "The Good Cookie")

Dough:
1 1/3 cups AP flour (the original calls for cake flour, I didn't have any, turned out fine with AP)
1/8 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon confectioner's sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons sour cream
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.

Cream the butter, cream cheese, and sugar together until very light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the sour cream, egg yolk and vanilla and combine. Add the dry ingredients and stir until everything comes together in a nice dough.

Divide the dough into three equal parts and wrap each in plastic. Refrigerate for 6 hours. (Or actually this is what the recipe says to do. I wrapped each and threw them in the freezer for 1 hour because I'm impatient and wanted rugelach TODAY dammit.)

Filling: You can have lots of fun with this!
3/4 cup any jam you have around (I used raspberry, seeds strained out)
1 tablespoon cinnamon and 1/2 cup sugar, combined in a small bowl
1 cup toasted, finely chopped nuts (I used walnuts and almonds) combined with 1 cup finely chopped dried fruit (I used cranberries)

When the dough has chilled, preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Working with one piece of dough at a time, roll it out on a floured surface to about 12 inches in diameter. Spread about 1/3 of the jam on the circle, sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of the cinnamon sugar, and about 1/3 of the nut/fruit combination. Press into the jam lightly so it doesn't spill out too much. Using a pizza cutter or sharp knife, cut the circle into fourths, then each fourth into fourths, so you end up with 16 triangles all together. Take each triangle and roll it up starting at the wider end and tuck the little point underneath the roll, then place that side down onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Continue with the other pieces of dough.

Bake each sheet for about 20 to 30 minutes or until nice and golden brown. Let cool on a wire rack. These are good with just about any beverage and although I have a mug of milk in this picture, my drink of choice was actually YooHoo.

Bars bars bars.

Apricot bars, that is. I like making bars. They're easy and they make a lot (or a little) depending on how small YOU want to cut them. Plus you can basically incorporate any flavours, crusts, and toppings you want to.

To be honest when I get a recipe online or any recipe really, I hardly ever follow it to a T. I like to adapt to my tastes, to the things I already have, and improve the recipe so I absolutely know I'll like the outcome. For example, the original recipe for these bars included no salt. When you bake, you NEED SALT. Yes. It brings out the flavour of everything! Also, the original said to bake/prepare in a 9x13-inch pan, which is great, but the ingredients listed for the filling and crumb topping would never have covered the entire surface of the crust. So this recipe, although I found it online somewhere, I don't feel credit is really necessary because of how much I changed it. I literally changed every single part of it, and I will put THAT recipe here instead of the one I originally found, since that's what gave me the delicious results.



Apricot Crumb Bars

Shortbread Crust:
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup icing sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
2 cups AP flour
Pinch kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and line a 9x13-inch baking pan with foil. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, then add the vanilla to combine. Add the flour and salt and mix just until a nice ball of dough forms. Press this into the bottom of the pan, and bake for 15 minutes, until golden brown around the edges and in spots in the middle. Cool completely.

Apricot Filling:
3 cups dried apricots
3 cups water
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup Amaretto
Pinch kosher salt

Place the apricots and water in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat and cover. Bring to a boil and let simmer for 20 minutes. At this point I used a stick blender to puree the apricots, but you could transfer to a blender or a food processor also. Stir in the sugar, Amaretto and salt. Let cool slightly.

Crumb Topping:
1 cup packed light brown sugar
Pinch kosher salt
3/4 cup AP flour
1/2 cup unsalted butter
(You could really add anything you want to this, cinnamon, almonds, nuts of any kind, oatmeal. Have fun imo.)

Combine the flour, salt and sugar until well-mixed. Cut in the butter until large clumps form.

Finishing the bars:
After the crust has cooled completely, spread the apricot filling over it to cover. Then crumble the topping on evenly and bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes, or until the crumbs are set. Let cool completely before cutting into squares.

Buttermilk Cupcakes.

The origin for these cupcakes actually comes from the fact that I asked my mom to buy buttermilk for something I was making for brunch but never found the recipe I intended to make. Therefore come Monday, I had an entire quart of buttermilk in the fridge begging to be used. I hadn't made cupcakes in a while so I searched Google for "buttermilk cupcakes" and I came up with a GREAT recipe. These cupcakes are really perfect. They didn't sink, explode, go over the cups, nothing. They rise just above the liners, no more and they don't dip down in the middle after you take them out of the oven.

Here I give you the recipe for these perfect cupcakes. Any frosting would be divine on them - I used up some leftover chocolate cream cheese frosting and caramel espresso buttercream. Have fun with them and be creative!



Buttermilk Cupcakes recipe from Recipezaar

Ingredients:
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla (I used vanilla bean paste)
2 cups AP flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, and line a cupcake pan with papers or grease the cups.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt on a piece of wax paper and set aside. Cream the butter and sugar together until combined, then add the eggs one at a time and beat for 3 minutes on medium-high speed, and then incorporate the vanilla. Beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, add to the butter-egg mixture alternating with the buttermilk. Portion the batter into the baking cups, and bake for about 15 to 20 minutes or until lightly golden brown around the edges and set on top. Let cool completely on a rack before frosting.