Jullienned Pear with Vanilla Jam

This was my first jam experience and my mother helped me through it. It was much simpler than I expected and rewardingly delicious. This recipe is from Christine Ferber's Mes Confitures.

Ingredients

• 2 3/4 lbs. (1.2 kg) William or Bartlett pears, ripe but still firm
• 3 3/4 (800 g) granulated sugar
• 7 oz (200 g) Green Apple Jelly
• Juice of 1 small lemon
• 2 vanilla beans

Peel the pears, remove their stems, core them, halve them, and cut them into thin julienne. In a preserving pan, combine the pears, sugar, lemon juice, and vanilla beans, split lengthwise. Bring this to a simmer. Pour into a ceramic bowl. Cover the fruit with a piece of parchment paper and refrigerate overnight.

Next day, bring the mixture to a boil in a preserving pan. Skim. Add the apple jelly, return to a boil, and continue cooking on high heat for about 5 minutes, stirring gently. Skim again if need be. Remove the vanilla beans and divide pieces of them among the jars. Return to a boil. Check the set. Put the jam into jars immediately and seal.

Topsy-Turvy Apple Pie

Sasha's apple dessert request was ironically the most problematic. This apple pie was my second attempt at Sasha's dessert. When I flipped the pie over, not all of the toffee topping transferred and it looked pretty messy, so once again we decided to eat some before we realized that we could have fixed the top with some extra sauce. Just like the apple cake, I didn't want t0 give him a a partial dessert so I ended up offering it to my family and giving a few slices to my pie-loving neighbors. Though it was not the prettiest pie I've ever encountered, it was definitely yummy - the toffee topping coupled perfectly with the baked apple slices. We found this recipe in a Pilsbury cookbook.

Glaze and Crust

• 2 pie crusts (for top and bottom)
• 1/4 c. packed brown sugar
• 1 tbsp. butter, melted
• 1 tbsp corn syrup
• 1/2 c. pecan halves

Filling

• 2/3 c. granulated sugar
• 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 4 c. thinly sliced, peeled apples (4 medium)

Topping

• whipped cream, if desired

Heat oven to 425 degrees F. In a 9 inch pie plate, mix brown sugar, butter and corn syrup. Spread evenly in bottom of pie plate. Arrange pecans over mixture. Place 1 crust over the mixture in pie plate.

In a small bowl, mix granulated sugar, flour and cinnamon. Add apple slices and toss until they're evenly coated. Fill the pie pan with the slices, making sure it is level. Cover with the second pie crust; seal edge and flute. Cut slits in several places in top crust.

Place pie on sheet of foil on middle rack in oven; bake 8 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F; bake for 35-45 minutes longer or until apples are tender and crust is golden brown. Immediately run knife around edge of pie to loosen. Place serving plate upside down over pie; turn serving plate and pie plate over. Remove pie plate.

Serve warm or cool with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream!

(If the caramel does not coat the pie nicely, make some caramel sauce and touch up the unfortunate spots.)

White Chocolate Raspberry Tort for Abby

I was aware of Abby's love of white chocolate for a while. I remember one lunch when she bought a bar and I was slightly surprised because I don't know many people who can eat that much white chocolate by itself. So when Abby's turn came around I thought what better companion to white chocolate than raspberries? The tangy raspberries offset the richness of the white chocolate while the bittersweet tart grounds the ensemble. This tart is from The Art of the Tart by Tamasin Day-Lewis but it has been slightly modified by my mother (I used the recipe from my mother's blog).

For the Chocolate Pastry Crust:

• 1 c flour
• 2 tsp cocoa powder
• 2 tbs confectioner's sugar
• 4 tbs cold butter, cut into small chunks
• 1 egg yolk
• A few tbs ice water

For the Filling:

• 1 c creme fraiche
• 1 c heavy cream
• 6 oz white chocolate, cut into small pieces
  
• 1/2 lb raspberries
• A little cocoa powder for decoration

Preheat the oven to 400F. Grease a 9" tart pan. Sift the flour, cocoa and sugar into the bowl of your food processor. Add in the chunks of butter and process briefly. Add the egg yolk and a tablespoons or two of water, and process just until the dough coheres. Wrap and refrigerate the dough for half an hour (I didn't). Roll on a surface sprinkled with some cocoa powder and line your prepared tart pan. Bake the pastry crust blind with beans for 20 minutes, and 10 minutes more without the beans. It should be crisp and slightly browned. Cool.

Bring 1/3 c of the whipping cream to boil. Pour it over the pieces of white chocolate and stir until completely melted. Refrigerate for a few hours. Whip the remaining 2/3 c cream until thick. Combine it and the creme fraiche with the white chocolate mixture, and stir until the filling comes together uniformly.

Crush some of the raspberries lightly so that they release some juice. Line the cooled pastry crust with the berries. Pour the filling, and use a spoon to smooth it over the fruit. Refrigerate for a couple of hours before you dust the tart lightly with cocoa powder and serve or decorate the top with white chocolate curls by scraping thin slices with a knife (the white chocolate curls better when the it is slightly warm). The consistency and flavor definitely improve after a night of refrigeration.

Carrot Cake for Noah

Noah's favorite dessert is carrot cake. I'm also a fan of carrot cake, but believe it or not, I've neither made nor tasted home-made carrot cake ever (until now). Before making it myself, I always took for granted how much carrot actually goes into this cake; while grating carrot after carrot it was hard to believe that I was making a dessert instead of a huge carrot salad (which I actually did with the leftover carrot gratings, seasoning it with chopped scallions and a lemon dressing - yum!). I ended up spending most of my time learning/perfecting cake frosting techniques, as well as learning to work with marzipan (for the decorative carrots). I thought this would be one of the easier desserts I would make but it was a definitely a fruitful process for me in more ways than one:)
I found this recipe on epicurious, and it was featured in the '94 October edition of Bon Appetit. Since I had an 8.5 inch diameter pan and a whole class to feed, I baked 4 cakes and assembled them into two 2-layered cakes, instead of one triple layer. Below is the original triple layered cake recipe.

Cake

• 2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
• 4 large eggs
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 3 cups finely grated peeled carrots (about 1 pound)
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans (about 1/2 ounce)
• 1/2 cup raisins

Frosting

• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 2 8-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 4 teaspoons vanilla extract

For cake:
Preheat oven to 325°F. Lightly grease three 9-inch-diameter cake pans with 1 1/2-inch-high sides. Line bottom of pans with waxed paper. Lightly grease waxed paper. Using electric mixer, beat sugar and vegetable oil in bowl until combined. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg into sugar and oil mixture. Stir in carrots, chopped pecans and raisins.

Pour batter into prepared pans, dividing equally. Bake until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean and cakes begin to pull away from sides of pans, about 45 minutes. Cool in pans on racks 15 minutes. Turn out cakes onto racks and cool completely. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Wrap tightly in plastic and store at room temperature.)

For frosting:
Using electric mixer, beat all ingredients in medium bowl until smooth and creamy.

Place 1 cake layer on platter. Spread with 3/4 cup frosting. Top with another cake layer. Spread with 3/4 cup frosting. Top with remaining cake layer. Using icing spatula, spread remaining frosting in decorative swirls over sides and top of cake. (Can be prepared 2 days ahead. Cover with cake dome and refrigerate.) Serve cake cold or at room temperature.

Apple Bundt Cake with a Caramel Glaze

I found this Apple Bundt Cake recipe on epicurious. It was supposed to be Sasha's dessert (he had asked for something with caramel and apples) but I started it late at night, and though I'm not 100% sure, I felt as though I had put a 1/4 tsp too much salt. I tasted the batter and it tasted unusually salty. In the end the extra salt, if there was any, complimented the caramel. I had to taste it and make sure a couple of times, and soon enough, a good chunk of the cake was missing. I didn't want to hand Sasha 3/4 of his dessert, plus, I decided that I wanted to make something a little more sophisticated. In the end, I brought the cake to school and let my classmates devour it with caramel sauce and assured Sasha that his dessert was on the way.

Dulce de Leche Cheesecake with a Brulee Topping for Evan

Evan wanted cheesecake with a caramelized top. Luckily, my mother has a dessert torch so I was not too worried about the top. I wanted to give the standard cheesecake flavor a twist and since Evan went on exchange in Argentina and experienced the divine dulce de leche, I thought he would appreciate it swirled into his cheesecake (we thinned it out with some water so it wouldn't completely settle to the bottom). I found this recipe on the Recchiuti Confectioners website. A close friend of mine gave me Michael Recchiuti and Fran Gage's cookbook Chocolate Obsession for my birthday which I'm dying to explore. His recipe calls for a burnt caramel sauce which is drizzled over the cheesecake; I used thinned dulce de leche instead.

Ingredients:

• Flavorless vegetable oil for the pan
• 2 pounds cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 4 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 1/3 cups plus 1/3 cup granulated cane sugar
• 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 2/3 cup pecans, toasted and ground
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter with 82% butterfat, melted and cooled.
  

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Liberally coat the inside of a 9-inch springform pan with flavorless vegetable oil or butter.

In a mixing bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs, pecans, butter and 1/3 cup sugar; stir until blended. Pat the mixture evenly into the bottom of the prepared springform pan. Pressing the crust just up the side of the pan create a slight ridge.

Bake the crust for 15-20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool completely.

Put the cream cheese in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on medium speed until smooth and light, about 3 minutes. Add 1 cup sugar and beat another minute. When cool, wrap the pan with foil to create a seal so that water bath does not seep in.

Scrape the sides of the bowl down before adding the sour cream. Beat to combine. Add the eggs, one at a time, incorporating each completely before adding the next. Beat until blended.

Pour the cream cheese mixture over the crust.

Add water to the dulce de leche until its consistency is similar to that of the cream cheese mixture. Drizzle it fairly evenly over the cheesecake and use a toothpick to gently swirl it without disturbing the crust.

Set the pan in a roasting pan or baking dish that allows ~2 inches space all around and set on the oven rack.

Pour boiling water into the roasting pan or baking dish (a teapot works best). Fill the pan until it is at least halfway up the side of the springform pan but not overflowing.

Bake until the filling is set, about 50-60 minutes. When pressed gently with your finger it should jiggle like Jell-O, but not like a wave.

Transfer to a rack and cool to room temperature.

Cover and refrigerate at least 3 hours before serving.

To serve, unmold the cheesecake. Sprinkle 1/3 cup sugar over the surface and using a kitchen torch, move flame continuously in small circles over surface until sugar melts and browns.

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Praline Pie for Sundi

This pumpkin pie recipe, which I pulled out of an old Pilsbury cookbook, has three layers: an authentic pumpkin pie filling, a pecan praline layer, and a creamy orange whipped cream topping. The crunchy praline layer contrasts the creamy texture of the filling, while the cream topping lightens the dessert with its airy texture and citrus twist.

Note: the candied orange peels were my mother's previous project but they went nicely with the ensemble of textures and flavors.

Crust:
Pie crust of your choice for a 10" pie pan

Filling:
1/2 c sugar
1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/4 tsp salt
16 oz can (2 c) cooked, mashed pumpkin
12 oz can (1 1/2 c) evaporated milk
2 slightly beaten eggs

Praline Layer:
1/4 c firmly packed brown sugar
2 tbs flour
1/4 c cold butter
1/2 c chopped pecans

Topping:
3 oz cream cheese, softened
2 tbs milk
1 tsp grated orange peel
1 c heavy cream
Enough sugar to sweeten the topping Prepare pie crust and line your pie pan. Preheat the oven to 425F.In a large bowl, combine all filling ingredients; beat until blended. Pour into pie crust-lined oan and bake for 15 minutes.Reduce oven to 350F. In small bowl, combine brown sugar and flour. Using a pastry blender or fork, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in pecans. Sprinkle over the pumpkin filling. Bake for an additional 30-35 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool completely.In a small bowl, combine cream cheese, milk and orange peel; mix until smooth. In another bowl, sweeten and whip the cream. Add the whipped cream to the cheese mixture and fold until the two are uniformly combined. Spoon over the cooled pie. Dust with pumpkin pie spice if desired.