Hot on the heels of my delicious baked rhubarb, I bring you Rhubarb Tartlets from Issue 9 of Jamie Oliver’s magazine.

I am a huge fan of tartlets. This is mainly due to the fact that I can pretend that I am eating a pie all by myself (a dream of mine) and I don’t have to share it with anyone.

What can I say? I can be a selfish Cream Puff when it comes to the matter of sweets.

While these took a bit of work to make the pastry shells and the custard, they were completely worth it. I overcooked my rhubarb ever so slightly but in the end it was all so delicious.

This is my entry for this week’s Magazine Mondays, the non-event I created to give everyone the opportunity to at least tempt to tame the pile of clipped magazine recipes I know we all have.

Before I get to the list of participants for this edition of MM, I want to introduce you to a lovely new blog recently started by a kindred spirit. It’s called Eye For a Recipe. I’m happy to say that Sleuth is participating in her first Magazine Mondays with a submission from the April 2010 issue of Food & Wine: Chicken Sukiyaki!

Here are all the other lovely entries for this week’s edition of Magazine Mondays:

Tina of Life in the Slow Lane at Squirrel Head Manor made Mini Baked Potatoes.

Lynn of I’ll Have What She’s Having made Mini Tomato Chèvre Tarts from the April 2010 issue of Chatelaine.

Dawn of Doable and Delicious made Cauliflower Souffle with Brown Butter from the May 2008 issue of Gourmet and Barley Salad from Cooking Light magazine.

Wandering Coyote of ReTorte made Curried Pork Burgers from Canadian Living.

Remember, anyone can take part in MM. Just send me a link to a magazine recipe that you posted. Have a great week, everyone!

Ciao!

Click here for the Rhubarb Tartlet recipe from Issue 9 of Jamie magazine.

In October, Mama Cream Puff and I bought a bushel of the most beautiful Jonagold apples we’d seen in a long time. Locally grown, their gorgeous colour was enough to tempt us, nevermind how delicious they were!

For the first month or so we ate so many out of hand that I didn’t give much thought to baking with the apples. We’re down to the final apples and while they’re still delicious, they’re not quite as firm and crisp as they were in the fall.

This was a signal to me that it was time to bake with the apples. We’ve enjoyed quite a few of them baked simply with a bit of butter and cinnamon, but last week I had the urge for apple pie and remembered a recipe that I’d bookmared in an old copy of Cook’s Illustrated. It’s from a special issue published in the fall of 2007. The recipe is for Free-Form Apple Tartlets (you can find the recipe on the Cook’s Illustrated site, unfortunately, you have to pay for it).

The crust for the tartlets was made with butter and cream cheese which makes for a tender pastry. But to be honest, while the tartlets were very good when they first came out of the oven, I found that the tartlet dough softened quickly and lost that lovely flakiness that all-butter doughs or butter and shortening doughs are better at maintaining.

The filling, on the other hand, was delicious. The magazine recipe called for Granny Smith apples but I put our Jonagolds to good use instead.

I think it just proves that delicious apples make delicious pie filling. End of story. While I wasn’t thrilled with the end result, the tartlets were still pretty good. Next time, though, I’ll use my usual pie crust dough.

This is my entry for Magazine Mondays and I’m happy to say I have quite a few other bloggers who joined me this week in keeping that magazine pile in order! Here’s who joined me:

Dawn from Doable and Delicious made Sauteed Mushrooms with Lemon Cream from Bon Appétit.

Bonita of Bon Eats made Broccoli Bisque from Food & Drink.

Janie of Panini Girl made a Lemon Crostata from Gourmet.

Tina of Life in the Slow Lane at Squirrel Head Manor made Beef Stew from Cook’s Illustrated.

Rebecca from A North London Kitchen made Marmalade and Ginger Cream Sandwich Cookies from Sainsbury’s.

Sarah of A Taste of Savoie made Churros and Hot Chocolate from Homes and Gardens.

Jeanna of Whispering Pines Bed & Breakfast made Hearty Chipotle Chicken Soup from Taste of Home and Healthy Cooking.

Poppyseed of Poppyseeds and Tiger Lilies made Porcini and Spinach Risotto from Olive.

Tia from Buttercream Barbie made Zuccini Bread from Canadian Living and Multi-Grain Bread with Sesame, Flax and Poppyseeds from Bon Appétit.

Have a fabulous week, everyone!

Ciao!

Apple Filling for Tartlets or Pie

Note: This makes enough filling for 6 tartlets or one 9-inch pie.

6 Jonagold apples, peeled and sliced into 1/2-inch slices.
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
pie crust of your choice

Combine the sliced apples, the lemon juice, the sugar and the cinnamon and nutmeg in a large bowl. Let sit while you roll out your pie crust. Bake pie (or tartlets) according to crust directions.

Enjoy!

And on the eigth day of the 12 Days of Cookbooks I give you Domenica Marchetti’s Big Night In: More Than 100 Wonderful Recipes for Feeding Family and Friends Italian-Style.

Domenica Marchetti is a cookbook author of Italian background who has very quickly become one of my favourites. I also own her book The Glorious Soups and Stews of Italy and believe me when I say it has kept me company during the chilly fall!

Her recipes are excellent and well written and Big Night is no exception. This is a big, warm book about feeding a crowd of people, something that’s good for all of us to do from time-to-time, especially over the holidays!

The book is geared to cooks of all sorts with a heavy emphasis on bright flavours, abundance and comfort. It’s traditionally laid out as it starts with Appetizers and Soups and Salads. It’s followed by Pasta, Rice and Savory Tortes and then Main Courses. The content is rounded out with Vegetables and Side Dishes and then Desserts. There’s even a brunch menu at the end for those who entertain large crowds early in the day!

I, of course, decided to showcase a recipe from the Desserts section. Because you can never make enough crostata in your life, I made the Jam Crostata using strawberry jam.

A simple and rustic tart, this is a perfect example of the kind of cooking and baking that Marchetti offers with her recipes. This was a most satisfying crostata and I look forward to making it again.

I’m also really looking forward to having some people over and trying more of the recipes.

Hope you pick this up for the person in your life that loves to feed a crowd!

Ciao!

And on the seventh day of the 12 Days of Cookbooks I give you Carole Bloom’sBite-Size Desserts: Creating Mini Sweet Treats, from Cupcakes and Cobblers to Custards and Cookies.

Carole Bloom is yet another brilliant pastry chef and cookbook author who I am lucky enough to “know” through her books. I own several of them including The Essential Baker: The Comprehensive Guide to Baking with Chocolate, Fruit, Nuts, Spices, and Other Ingredients (which is another one that I highly recommend).

Bloom’s books help you to create baked goods of the very highest standard. Her latest helps you to create mini baked goods of the very highest standard.

Honestly. Every little thing in this books is so adorable. So cute. So adorable!!!

I’ve tried many of the recipes, all with great success, but my most favourite so far has to be the Nectarine and Walnut Galettes on p. 97 (I used plums instead of nectarines). The pastry for these galettes completely blew me away. It has ground walnuts in it. It is, without question, one of my top five favourite new things that I made this year.

As I mentioned, I’ve tried numerous recipes from the book but another favourite is the recipe for Toasted Pecan Shortbread Bites. The picture isn’t great but trust me these cookies are so cute and so good.

This would make a great gift for a seasoned baker. The recipes do tend to be a bit involved and usually involve several stages so it might not be the best book for a beginner baker.

I’m off to bake something mini …

Ciao!

Today is Thanksgiving Day in Canada and next to Christmas, it is my favourite holiday. Even though our background is Italian, we have embraced this North American holiday to the fullest!

Turkey. Stuffing. Squash. Cranberries. Gravy. Lots o’ gravy. Pecans. Brussel sprouts. Potatoes. Rolls. Pie.

You name it, it’s on the table.

This year, among other things, I took the ubiquitous Canadian butter tart and made Butter Tart Bars. Look at the oozy goodness!

I think what I love most about Thanksgiving is that it is stress-free in a way that Christmas and some other holidays are not. You don’t have to worry about gifts or anything like that. Just belly up to the table and enjoy.

I also love Thanksgiving because it occurs just as the Harvest comes to an end. To me it symbolizes truly being thankful for everything that the good Earth gives us. And of course, it is a time to be thankful for family and friends.

As always, I am thankful for so many things, especially for my family, my dear friends and my sweet little blog that gives me so much pleasure. And you … I am thankful for you!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ciao!

P.S. The recipe for Butter Tart Bars that I made is from Dish Entertains: Everyday Simple to Special Occasionsby Trish Magwood. But there are many recipes around for this type of dessert including this one for Butter Tart Squares. Enjoy!

P.S.S. Every year, just prior to Thanksgiving, I go on and on about my coworkers and what great cooks/bakers they are. Just as previous years, we had our annual Thanksgiving potluck at work but silly me forgot her camera, which means no pictures. Ah, well! Suffice it to say that everything was delicious and a fun time was had by all. I definitely work with some serious gourmands!

Cream Puff is back! I had an amazing vacation in Italy. I spent three weeks enjoying my family and friends, all the while surrounded by the most incredible food and wine.

And best of all, I got to stay in our little house that we finished renovating last year.

It was truly a magical vacation.

Being away meant no activity on this blog and that was a good thing. I had a lot of time to recharge and restore myself so I’m looking forward to a new season of baking and cooking, and sharing it all with you.

Of course being away also meant that I missed a Daring Baker’s challenge and today, I’m also missing the Daring Cook’s challenge for September 2009. I promise, though, that I will catch up in the coming weeks!

In the meantime, I just wanted to take a moment to say hello again to all of you and to my sweet little blog. I missed you!

Ciao!

I blogged about the plum tart pictured above here. Now that we have our very own kitchen in Italy, I took a handful of recipes with me to try and this was one of them. I made two mini tarts instead of one big one. It was delicious.

Okay.

That’s not a true story. For starters I don’t have a dog and secondly, there was no skate to be eaten.

And by skate I’m referring to the fish and not the footwear.

Don’t be afraid. I have not gone crazy.

I speak of the July 2009 Daring Cooks’ challenge that you may have noticed is missing from this blog.

For the first time in “Daring” history, I’ve missed a challenge. My apologies to Sketchy, our host for the month, but this just wasn’t meant to be. I was intrigued by his challenge, which would have had me dipping my kitchen utensils into the untried waters of molecular gastronomy (untried in our household).

There were, however, some brave souls who did give it a try and you can check them out here.

I feel really badly about this. So badly that I felt I had to give you something so instead, I give you this Fresh Fruit Tart that is also dedicated to my good friend Nazca.

Many of you will remember Nazca (Mr. Nazca as I like to call him) from his blog.

Funny guy.

But he stopped blogging and this has made women everywhere very disappointed.

Silly guy.

But Mr. Nazca did something very sweet about a month ago and I promised to thank him very publically.

After an offhand remark about cheesecake crusts and cookies (like who doesn’t talk about that all the time?), Mr. Nazca mentioned HobNob cookies to me and I immediately asked, “What’s that?”

Well as fast as you could say “call me British” a package arrived on my doorstep filled with crumpled bits of English newspaper and four (count ‘em four) supersized packs of HobNob cookies.

My first reaction was to fly to England and thank Mr. Nazca in person but then I thought that such precipitice action could a) result in stalking charges and b) be slightly too expensive.

My second reaction was to squeal and clap my hands and rip the packages open and start eating.

My third reaction was to take a picture. Strangely, the urge to eat the cookies beat out that third reaction and by the time I convinced myself to take the pictures, the cookies were all gone.

All gone, Mr. Nazca!

I am nothing if not selfish when it comes to cookies. Whle I did spare a few for Mamma Cream Puff, the vast majority were savoured by me.

So last weekend I was in the kitchen, glorying in the abundance of fresh berries and looking for a dessert to bake when I remembered this beautiful tart that I used to bake all the time. For some reason I haven’t really made it the last few summers, but it popped into my mind and I had the overwhelming urge to try it again.

This is a very basic fruit tart. It has three components: a butter crust, a vanilla custard, a berry topping. You can make the tart and custard in advance and then assemble the tart quickly before serving.

I have yet to meet anyone that doesn’t like it.

Mr. Nazca, I wish I could have sent it to you, but I don’t think it would have survived the flight. I took it to a friend’s house (she’s a new mommy) where we each enjoyed a generous serving.

But rest assured, Mr. Nazca, that I was thinking of HobNobs while I was eating it!

Ciao!

My Fresh Fruit Tart is based on the Classic Fresh Fruit Tart with Pastry Cream from the Cook’s Illustrated site. It was featured in the … issue of the magazine. It is one of my most treasured recipes. Unfortunately, as I have never adapted the recipe in any way, I don’t feel comfortable reproducing it here since I don’t have permission. You can find the recipe on the Cook’s Illustrated site but you have to pay for it.

Fresh Fruit Tart from Food & Wine.
Tarte aux Fruits from Pretty Tasty Cakes.
Fruit Tart from Joy of Baking.com.

Oh, people!

Get thee to Food & Wine and print thee a copy of this recipe now! (Don’t forget the Vanilla-Caramel Sauce and the Mocha Fudge Sauce).

This is a winner by every standard that I use to judge recipes. Delicious. Beautiful to look at. Easy.

The only warning I give you is that you should prepare yourselves for arguments and possibly violence, as people will fight over this incredible dessert.

If you can make your own dulce de leche ice cream, great. If not, just buy the best quality ice cream you can find (you can also make this with lots of other ice cream flavours like vanilla or coffee).

While the original recipe yields one pie, I made four individual tartlets, which limited the arguments (to a degree) since we all had our own tartlet. The only problem as that we then founds ourselves coveting our neighbours tartlets.

Ah, the glory of sin!

Here’s a look at who joined me for this week’s edition of Magazine Mondays:

Janie of Panini Girl made Grilled Turkey Burgers with Cheddar and Smoky Aioli from Bon Appétit and “Le Cake” Aux Olives et au Reblochon from Gourmet.

Tamy of The Krazy Kitchen made Chocolate Upside Down Cake.

Wandering Coyote of ReTorte made Herbed Focaccia from Canadian Living.

Margaret of Tea and Scones made Chicken Parmigiana from Taste of Home.

Have a wonderful week, everyone!

Ciao!

My submission for this week’s Magazine Mondays is from the July 2005 edition of Food & Wine: Dulce de Leche Ice Cream Pie.

The June Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart… er… pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800’s in England.

For the first time in the two-and-a-half year history of the Daring Bakers, I’m late.

Between being a bit under the weather and overwhelmed with some other things that are going on, I missed the 27th deadline for my Daring Bakers’ post.

Mea culpa. Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa.

I’m feeling particularly shoddy about the whole thing given that the June 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by my sweetest of sweeties Jasmine and the lovely Annemarie.

Not to mention the fact that they’ve chosen a challenge that’s been on my list of top 10 things to bake for quite some time: the Bakewell Tart.

I don’t know where it was that I first read about the Bakewell Tart, but I know that somewhere around the time that I first discovered it, I knew I wanted to bake it. I’ve read all sorts of “facts” about the Bakewell Tart and its origins but as is often the case with these sorts of desserts, a lot of it is probably more fiction than fact.

Suffice to say that the Bakewell Tart is probably one of the desserts that can be recognized as singularly British. And for this alone, I love it. I’m in a bit of a British mood these days for various reasons (one of which has to do with Mr. Nazca … more on that another day but if you want to take a moment to send Mr. Nazca an e-mail yelling at him for not blogging more feel free to do so …) so the opportunity to bake something so … British … did have me excited. Honest.

It just took me awhile to get to it.

Not much else to say, really. Jasmine and Annemarie have provided a most straightforward recipe that yielded a most delicious Bakewell Tart. Ladies, you are the epitome of Daring Bakers’ hostesses. My thanks!

Here’s a little photo journal of my adventures in Bakewell Tart baking:

Is there anything more beautiful than pastry dough?

The frozen crust, ready to be filled.

A lovely cherry jam layer.

Frangipane!

Behold … the Bakewell!

Ciao!

Check out The Daring Kitchen for links to lots of other Daring Bakers’ who made the Bakewell Tart!

The recipe is here.

I’m back with one of my favourite Magazine Mondays post in a long time.

This recipe hasn’t been bookmarked for very long. I was sitting on the subway a few weeks ago, on the ride home, trying not to nod off. I pulled out the April 2009 issue of Bon Appétit and on page 23, saw a recipe for Strawberry-Rhubarb Tarts with Crème Fraîche Sorbet. I immediately knew I had to try the recipe for two reasons: 1) I still had a package of frozen strawberries and rhubarb from last summer in the freezer and 2) I was recently looking through David Lebovitz’s Perfect Scoop: Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, and Sweet Accompaniments
and had my eye on a recipe for Crème Fraîche Ice Cream. That same night I was happily rolling out tart crusts and making the custard base for the ice cream.

I have a thing for strawberry and rhubarb. I’m always looking for the perfect strawberry-rhubarb tart recipe and I think I may have found it. These were delicious and the tangy ice cream was the perfect complement.

A bit of bad news though … I can’t seem to find the recipe for the tarts on-line! It’s on p. 23 of the magazine but it’s not on-line yet. And even worse … I don’t know what I did with the magazine!!! I’ll keep looking for the recipe on-line and link to it if it shows up.

While this wasn’t by any means one of the oldest magazine recipes lingering in my pile, I’m sure glad I tried it! Fingers crossed that I can find that recipe.

Here are all the people that joined me in making a dent in their magazine piles:

Wandering Coyote of ReTorte made Ricotta Cookies.

Tamy of 3sidesofcrazy made Glazed Green Beans.

Emiglia of Tomato Kumato made Spring Peas, Two Ways.

Mandi of Red Dirty Mummy made Currant and Hazelnut Baked Apples.

Elizabeth of The Waspy Redhead came in with two posts this week: Lemon Ginger Mini Cheesecakes and a Spinach and Leek Rolled Omelet.

Simone of Junglefrog Cooking made Ricotta and White Bean Salad.

Saliha of Hayat Binbircesni made Crackle Cookies!

Debbie of Taste of Sweetness made some incredible Gnocchi with Wild Mushroom and Sage Ragu.

Janie of Panini Girl made an Italian Chicken Salad.

Georgia of Oh Kitchen, What Won’t You Do? made a Chipotle Chicken Sandwich.

Joy from The Cooking of Joy made Coconut Lime Cakelets.

Nurit of 1 family. friendly. food. made Peas and Tarragon Soup. Gorgeous!

Have a great week, everyone!

Ciao!