Tropical Tart - Tuesdays with Dorie

This week's bake from the book, Baking Chez Moi, was a sunshine yellow tart with a mango-lime flavour that was as bright as it's colour. It included a surprise ingredient - red pepper flakes - that added unexpected warmth that was quite pleasant. A scattering of shredded coconut completed the tropical theme.

I was suppoded to make tartlets with the recipe but I doubled it to make a full sized tart to serve 8; it took an extra 15 minutes baking time for the filling to set.

Family and I loved this tart and I plan to make it again.

Visit Tuesdays with Dorie to see what everyone else made.

Merveilles - Tuesdays with Dorie

This week's project for Tuesdays with Dorie, Baking Chez Moi edition, was a French treat called merveilles. I'm more familiar with the Polish variation of this fried sugared pastry, chrusty, which I've made many times.

Though the recipe was different, the dough was of similar consistency so I applied some of the techniques I was taught to make chrusty to this recipe: I rolled the dough "thin enough to read a newspaper through" (with a pasta maker - not part of the original instructions!); I covered the cut dough shapes, and any dough awaiting its turn for the pasta maker, tightly with plastic wrap (dry dough apparently doesn't puff up as much); I fried them in a large skillet with 1" melted shortening (I was told lard is best; oil makes them heavier and has a less neutral flavour). Maintaining a temperature between 330F-350F, the cook time was less than 1 minute per side.

They were light and crunchy and delicious, even without the sugar coating. So good, in fact, that I may steal the idea of adding rum and orange zest next time I make chrusty.

Ladyfingers - Tuesdays with Dorie

One of this month's choices from the book Baking Chez Moi is a delicate, sponge cake-like cookie. The beauty of these "cookies" is their ability to absorb liquid without disintegrating despite their lightness.

I made them last summer for the Espresso-Espresso Tiramisu Tart. Most of them were used to absorb the boozy coffee in the tart and we enjoyed the remainder dunked in espresso.

Visit here to see what everyone else in TWD made.

Crème Brûlée Tart - Tuesdays with Dorie

This was such a delicious tart. I included the (optional) raspberries which were a bright and fresh contrast to the classic sweet and rich crème filling.

My sad little kitchen torch wasn't up to the job of brûléeing the sugar but my oven broiler was quite effective, though I must remember to protect the tart crust edges with foil next time.

The recipe is from the book, Baking Chez Moi by Dorie Greenspan. Visit TWD to see this week's other bakes.

Fruit and Nut Croquants - Tuesdays with Dorie

For this week's Baking Chez Moi project, we made crunchy, nut and fruit-filled cookies. It's the type of recipe that adapts easily to whatever nuts, dried fruits, and even flavourings you may have in your pantry. I made them with almonds and sour cherries and flavoured the dough with fiori di Sicilia and vanilla.

They looked like biscotti, and held up well to dunking like biscotti, but they had a softer and chewier texture that improved with time. We loved them!

Visit here to see what the other TWD bakers made.