Here's what happens when you have to quickly throw together a dessert on New Years Eve and the grocery store entrance has a 3 mile traffic jam leading up to it. You improvise.
We got a giant tub of animal crackers for Christmas, as well as a jar of fancy salted cashews. So I crushed both in the food processor, added a touch of flour and a touch of sugar and melted 1.5 sticks of butter. Those mixed all together form a nice, pressed together tart crust.
Next, I was out of heavy cream and vanilla beans, so I substituted for half and half and vanilla extract. I made my liquid custard quickly and poured it carefully into my makeshift crust.
This tart is easy, fast and requires a little bit of inventiveness, but you can do it too!
Creme Brulee Tart with Animal Cracker and Cashew Crust
Crust:
3 cups Animal crackers
1.5 cups Cashews
1/4 cup Flour
1/4 cup Sugar
3/4 cup Butter
Filling:
2 cups Half n Half
1 Tbsp Vanilla extract
4 Egg yolks
1 Whole egg
1/2 cup Sugar, divided
1/8 tsp Salt
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a food processor, combine animal crackers, cashews, flour and sugar. Pulse until completely crushed and combined. Melt butter in microwave for 30 to 45 seconds; slowly pour melted butter into food processor while running on low until mixture is wet and crumbly.
2. Grease and flour a fluted 9-in tart pan (or just a 9-in pie pan). Press crust mixture evenly onto bottom and sides of pan. Place on cookie sheet, bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven, reduce temperature to 300 degrees F.
3. Meanwhile, combine half and half and vanilla in a medium saucepan and heat on medium until it just begins to boil. Turn heat off and let steep.
4. Whisk together eggs, 6 tbsp of sugar and salt. Slowly pour hot half n half into egg mixture, whisking constantly so as not to scramble the eggs. Carefully pour mixture into tart shell and place back in the oven for 30 to 35 minutes. The sides will be set up, but the center will still be wobbly when you remove it from the oven. Allow it to cool.
5. Just before serving, sprinkle remaining 2 Tbsp of sugar over the top of the tart and light a kitchen blowtorch. Caramelize the top of the tart. Carefully press the bottom of the fluted tart pan up to remove the tart from the pan and serve.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
My Happy, Healthy, Body & Soul Challenge
I've been thinking a lot about New Years Resolutions. I prefer to do challenges. I'm a competitor at heart and I know I'll succeed if I challenge myself. Last year, I challenged myself to run a marathon, start my own business and become a pastry chef.
I checked all those boxes. I wanted to prove to myself I could do it and rid my life of bad job juju.
So this year, my job is great, my love life is wonderful, but I have to work on my body and soul. I have too much guilt, too many bad toxins, and a lot of deprivation.
This year, I'm challenging myself to a Happy, Healthy body & soul. So I'm thinking about 20 things that make my body and soul happy:
1. A delicious meal
2. Farmers markets
3. Wine
4. Martinis
5. Cheese
6. Baking & pastries
7. Crossfit
8. Hiking
9. Biking
10. Yoga
11. Napping
12. Hugging
13. Kissing
14. Dancing
15. Reading
16. Laughing
17. Dogs
18. Homemade gifts
19. Cuddling
20. Sleeping in
And I'm thinking about how I can make this all fit into my life with ease and an emphasis on balance. There are so many places to turn for inspiration: the French, the Italians, the Spaniards, the Greeks, the Indonesians, us Americans, and then some. And I think I've figured out how it's all going to work.
Here is my pledge for the New Year:
I pledge to myself that this year I will take care of my body and my soul by doing those things that make it happy. I will enjoy 1 deliciously indulgent meal each week and delight in its flavor and sumptuousness. It will be a guilt-free journey to food heaven. I will promise to eat WHOLE foods, not processed foods. If I don't recognize something on the label, I won't eat it. I will sign up for a CSA with a local farm and shop at the farmers market. I will try new vegetables and stretch my cooking repertoire. I will enjoy a glass of wine with dinner. I will order a dirty martini with extra olives because it makes me smile. I will have good cheese as a snack. I will bake my pastries using WHOLE foods. I will promise to only eat 2 of my own creations and give the rest away. I will go to my Crossfit classes 3x's a week. I will do a pullup without assistance. I will hike to the top of a mountain and marvel. I will ride my bike once a week. I will practice yoga with consistency because it feels good. I will take naps. I will give lots of good hugs. I will give lots of kisses. I will dance with my friends, my dogs, my family and my man. I will read a book on a lazy Saturday. I will laugh at myself and with my friends and family. I will play with my dogs. I will give homemade gifts. I will cuddle up. I will sleep in.
I pledge that I won't feel guilty if my to-do list doesn't get finished. I promise that I will find the balance in all of my goals. Most of all, I pledge to love myself, just as I am, and love others, just as they are. This is my key to my happy, healthy, body & soul.
What is your new year challenge? Here's to a happy, healthy, 2011. With all my Sugar Lovin Love, enjoy a pastry a day and don't feel the guilt crunch when you do.
I checked all those boxes. I wanted to prove to myself I could do it and rid my life of bad job juju.
So this year, my job is great, my love life is wonderful, but I have to work on my body and soul. I have too much guilt, too many bad toxins, and a lot of deprivation.
This year, I'm challenging myself to a Happy, Healthy body & soul. So I'm thinking about 20 things that make my body and soul happy:
1. A delicious meal
2. Farmers markets
3. Wine
4. Martinis
5. Cheese
6. Baking & pastries
7. Crossfit
8. Hiking
9. Biking
10. Yoga
11. Napping
12. Hugging
13. Kissing
14. Dancing
15. Reading
16. Laughing
17. Dogs
18. Homemade gifts
19. Cuddling
20. Sleeping in
And I'm thinking about how I can make this all fit into my life with ease and an emphasis on balance. There are so many places to turn for inspiration: the French, the Italians, the Spaniards, the Greeks, the Indonesians, us Americans, and then some. And I think I've figured out how it's all going to work.
Here is my pledge for the New Year:
I pledge to myself that this year I will take care of my body and my soul by doing those things that make it happy. I will enjoy 1 deliciously indulgent meal each week and delight in its flavor and sumptuousness. It will be a guilt-free journey to food heaven. I will promise to eat WHOLE foods, not processed foods. If I don't recognize something on the label, I won't eat it. I will sign up for a CSA with a local farm and shop at the farmers market. I will try new vegetables and stretch my cooking repertoire. I will enjoy a glass of wine with dinner. I will order a dirty martini with extra olives because it makes me smile. I will have good cheese as a snack. I will bake my pastries using WHOLE foods. I will promise to only eat 2 of my own creations and give the rest away. I will go to my Crossfit classes 3x's a week. I will do a pullup without assistance. I will hike to the top of a mountain and marvel. I will ride my bike once a week. I will practice yoga with consistency because it feels good. I will take naps. I will give lots of good hugs. I will give lots of kisses. I will dance with my friends, my dogs, my family and my man. I will read a book on a lazy Saturday. I will laugh at myself and with my friends and family. I will play with my dogs. I will give homemade gifts. I will cuddle up. I will sleep in.
I pledge that I won't feel guilty if my to-do list doesn't get finished. I promise that I will find the balance in all of my goals. Most of all, I pledge to love myself, just as I am, and love others, just as they are. This is my key to my happy, healthy, body & soul.
What is your new year challenge? Here's to a happy, healthy, 2011. With all my Sugar Lovin Love, enjoy a pastry a day and don't feel the guilt crunch when you do.
Christmas baking
No, I haven't quit baking. I know I've been MIA on the blog, but Christmas baking and gifting took over my life.
To make a long story short, here's what I baked for Christmas:
1. Espresso Macarons (2 iterations and the second was the best)
2. Blueberry Cherry White Chocolate Spicy Oatmeal Cookies (say that 3 times fast)
3. Bailey's Truffles
4. Oreo Truffles
5. Peppermint Bark Black Bottom Blondies (failed- should have put the peppermint on at the end, not while baking)
6. Double Chocolate Chip Cookies in Peppermint Bark
7. Ornament Shortbread (only gave two as gifts, the rest broke in travel)
8. Chocolate Dipped pretzels with heath bars, nuts, or non-pareils
The macarons were my favorite the 2nd time I made them. They were easy, quick and unique. The first round I was still messing with proportions, so apologies to the Riley family who got the 1st version.
The oatmeal cookies were easy and painless.
Both truffles were easy, they were just never ever ending. I thought I'd be rolling truffles until I keeled over.
The blondies were an epic failure. I stupidly baked the crushed peppermint in the white chocolate blondie batter and it cause the blondies to implode and get stuck in the pan. I had to throw them all away, which made me quite sad.
The double chocolate chip cookies taught me how to do an all butter cookie that doesn't get too thin and crispy when it bakes. But more on that later.
The shortbread was too fragile for transit. I should have known when the cat killed half of the cooling cookies by knocking them off the table to move to a different kids gift, but I persevered until we got to Cincinnati. The were replaced with the chocolate dipped pretzels which were much easier to make and decorate.
I made 100 of each cookie, so as you can imagine, writing a blog post about each would have cut my sleeping time each night to 0 hours. That said, I learned a lot this Christmas.
1. Ghirardelli chocolate is far and above the BEST chocolate for baking. The flavor and consistency is just wonderful.
2. I've advertised a half butter half shortening cookie in the past to help prevent a thin, crunchy cookie and give you a nice chunky, chewy cookie with slight crisping on the edges. It's been a personal struggle to continue using shortening in my baking as I try to change my diet to include only unprocessed, whole foods, but it was hard to try and find a solution that gave me the texture I wanted and the natural food state as well.
This Christmas, I tried baking with lard. It sounds disgusting, but it is all natural. Lard gave me the consistency I sought, but it just lacked a depth of flavor that butter and butter flavor shortening give you. When I was making the double chocolate chip cookies, I was in a hurry. My blondies had just failed. I needed another cookie, and fast.
I found a recipe I liked that was all butter- and I didn't have the time or the energy to try figuring the right substitutions. So I made it as prescribed, but when the dough was completed, it was quite simply too warm to bake. It was gooey. So I rolled the dough into 4 logs, wrapped them in wax paper and refrigerated them overnight. I sliced them into cookies the next morning and when I baked them, I was shocked to see my cookies not overly thin and spread.
I've yet to try this on all my drop cookies, but I think I'm onto a secret many others have already found- the all butter cookie needs to be cold before baked.
Truly, it's not a secret, it's just food science. Butter has a lower melting temperature than margarine, shortening, lard, and other fats you might use in baking. When a cookie is all butter, it melts faster, spreads thinner and produces a thin, flat, crispy cookie. Cookies with the chewy texture, lumps, and rise often are not all butter. Can't wait to try my new theory on my other cookies!
To make a long story short, here's what I baked for Christmas:
1. Espresso Macarons (2 iterations and the second was the best)
2. Blueberry Cherry White Chocolate Spicy Oatmeal Cookies (say that 3 times fast)
3. Bailey's Truffles
4. Oreo Truffles
6. Double Chocolate Chip Cookies in Peppermint Bark
8. Chocolate Dipped pretzels with heath bars, nuts, or non-pareils
The macarons were my favorite the 2nd time I made them. They were easy, quick and unique. The first round I was still messing with proportions, so apologies to the Riley family who got the 1st version.
The oatmeal cookies were easy and painless.
Both truffles were easy, they were just never ever ending. I thought I'd be rolling truffles until I keeled over.
The blondies were an epic failure. I stupidly baked the crushed peppermint in the white chocolate blondie batter and it cause the blondies to implode and get stuck in the pan. I had to throw them all away, which made me quite sad.
The double chocolate chip cookies taught me how to do an all butter cookie that doesn't get too thin and crispy when it bakes. But more on that later.
The shortbread was too fragile for transit. I should have known when the cat killed half of the cooling cookies by knocking them off the table to move to a different kids gift, but I persevered until we got to Cincinnati. The were replaced with the chocolate dipped pretzels which were much easier to make and decorate.
I made 100 of each cookie, so as you can imagine, writing a blog post about each would have cut my sleeping time each night to 0 hours. That said, I learned a lot this Christmas.
1. Ghirardelli chocolate is far and above the BEST chocolate for baking. The flavor and consistency is just wonderful.
2. I've advertised a half butter half shortening cookie in the past to help prevent a thin, crunchy cookie and give you a nice chunky, chewy cookie with slight crisping on the edges. It's been a personal struggle to continue using shortening in my baking as I try to change my diet to include only unprocessed, whole foods, but it was hard to try and find a solution that gave me the texture I wanted and the natural food state as well.
This Christmas, I tried baking with lard. It sounds disgusting, but it is all natural. Lard gave me the consistency I sought, but it just lacked a depth of flavor that butter and butter flavor shortening give you. When I was making the double chocolate chip cookies, I was in a hurry. My blondies had just failed. I needed another cookie, and fast.
I found a recipe I liked that was all butter- and I didn't have the time or the energy to try figuring the right substitutions. So I made it as prescribed, but when the dough was completed, it was quite simply too warm to bake. It was gooey. So I rolled the dough into 4 logs, wrapped them in wax paper and refrigerated them overnight. I sliced them into cookies the next morning and when I baked them, I was shocked to see my cookies not overly thin and spread.
I've yet to try this on all my drop cookies, but I think I'm onto a secret many others have already found- the all butter cookie needs to be cold before baked.
Truly, it's not a secret, it's just food science. Butter has a lower melting temperature than margarine, shortening, lard, and other fats you might use in baking. When a cookie is all butter, it melts faster, spreads thinner and produces a thin, flat, crispy cookie. Cookies with the chewy texture, lumps, and rise often are not all butter. Can't wait to try my new theory on my other cookies!
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| Not all butter cookie |
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| All butter cookie |
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