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Blackberry Lime Tart

19 Jul

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As I imagine it is with most people in the PNW, I have a seriously tense, love/hate relationship with blackberries. Himalayan blackberries are a scourge to gardens and yards all over the city this time of year, their prickly vines and tentacle-like roots popping up and taking hold every single place you don’t want them to be. These blackberry vines have been known to destroy public parks, obliterate native plants, and—god help me—produce some of the most delicious free fruit you’re likely to taste on this side of the country.

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This tart is a summer dream, hitting all the right notes with its zingy lime zest, perfect berries, creamy mascarpone and yogurt filling, and a wonderfully crumbly, barely sweetened crust to pull everything together.

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Last Year: Watermelon, Cucumber, and Feta Salad with Mint and Tangerine Zucchini Bread

Blackberry Lime Tart

 Crust:

Generous 1 cup of graham cracker crumbs (from about 16 graham cracker squares)

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1 tablespoon sugar

½ teaspoon finely grated fresh lime zest

pinch of salt

Filling:

¼  cup freshly squeezed lime juice

1 tablespoon finely grated fresh lime zest

1/3 cup sugar

1 tablespoon flour

¾ cup plain yogurt

3 ounces (about 1/3 cup) mascarpone cheese (you could also use cream cheese)

3 large eggs

pinch of salt

1 to 2 cups of blackberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. In a medium bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs, melted butter, sugar, lime zest, and salt. Stir until the butter is completely incorporated. Press the crumbs into a 10-inch tart pan, trying to keep the thickness of the crust as uniform as possible (if you can’t don’t worry—an uneven crust has never brought a pox upon anyone and their family). Bake the tart crust in the oven for 10 minutes, until it just begins to barely brown at the edges. Remove and set aside while you make the filling.

In the bowl of a food processor or blender, combine lime juice, lime zest, sugar, flour, yogurt, mascarpone or cream cheese, eggs, and pinch of salt. Process until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Pour the filling into the tart crust, and bake in the center of the oven until the top of the tart has puffed up and the middle has set, about 30 to 40 minutes, checking the tart consistently after the 30 minute mark to make sure it doesn’t burn. The top should be just touched with golden spots.

Remove the tart from the oven, then immediately sprinkle on the berries. The top of the tart will sink a bit, and the berries will gently sink in along with them.

Refrigerate the tart until chilled through, at least 2 hours, or overnight. Serve with whipped cream, if desired.

Makes 1 10-inch tart, enough to serve 8 to 10 people.

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Mini Cherpumple

19 Dec

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Let’s just state the obvious here: there is no such thing, really, as a mini cherpumple, because there is absolutely nothing at all to be found about a cherpumple that can be classified as “mini.” The cherpumple, as some of you may recall, is a three-layer, six-part dessert, dreamed up by humorist Charles Phoenix. Three layers of cake encase three different types of pie, which are then stacked atop one another and spackled with cream cheese frosting. It is, just as Phoenix dreamed it, the turducken of desserts.

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When I first wrote about the cherpumple, I was surprised to encounter some rather enthusiastic responses to the dessert. Whereas I found the very idea of the cherpumple to be an affront to the very basic tenets of food, every single person I talked to about the cherpumple thought it was fascinating. You must make a cherpumple, I was told. It is your destiny to bring a cherpumple to life.

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But I had no interest in actually making a cherpumple. Why on earth would I ruin three good pies and three good layers of cake by Frankensteining them together and trying to make them live as one? That’s crazy. But then, the more I thought about it, the more I wondered if it was possible to make a cherpumple that was not so crazy. I mean, it would still be crazy—it is the turducken of desserts, after all—but could I make a cherpumple that was a tad more subdued, a bit less depraved, and, most importantly, something that people would actually want to eat because it was delicious, not because it was a fascinating study in the psychology of excess?

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There was only one way to find out. My first order of business was to find a way to scale down the cherpumple so that it was still a hybrid of desserts, but not an exercise in terror. Deciding to limit the dessert to a single layer of entombment, I whittled the components of a classic cherpumple down to its best elements: pie and spice cake. In this version, a handsome pie is constructed with a strata of pumpkin butter, sautéed apples, and tart, chunky cherry preserves. The pie is then baked into a positively enormous spice cake, then slathered with tangy cream cheese frosting. While still decidedly decadent and ever-so-slightly intimidating, the finished product is not the towering beast of the original, but rather a slightly more tame and, dare I say it, refined animal.

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Okay, no. So, it’s not refined in the least, but it is completely and totally edible, which came as a total shock to me. Somehow the three pie flavors meld deliciously, and the spice cake is a perfect pairing with the autumnal flavors of the pie. I can’t believe I am saying this, but the cherpumple, at least in mini form, is not merely the punchline to a joke of excess and revulsion. It’s actually tasty, and if you’re looking to feed and impress an enormous crowd of people this holiday season, I’d have to recommend giving this baby a try. Maybe only once, though. A cherpumple is not meant to be an annual affair. It’s like the Halley’s Comet of desserts, meant to be experienced, if lucky, only once in a lifetime.

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Last Year: Salted Chocolate Hazelnut Tart

Mini Cherpumple Recipe

For the pie:

Pie crust for a 2-layer pie (this is my favorite pie crust recipe)

3 cups of peeled and sliced tart apples (I used 3 medium Granny Smith apples)

1 teaspoon unsalted butter

½ teaspoon dark brown sugar

pinch of cinnamon

1 ½ cups pumpkin butter

¾ cup chunky sour cherry preserves

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a heavy sheet pan with foil, then place on the lower middle rack of the oven.

In a medium saucepan or skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Add sliced apples, brown sugar, and cinnamon, and stir to combine.  Reduce heat to low, and sauté apples, stirring occasionally, until they have softened a bit and released some of their juices, about 5 minutes. Remove apples from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.

Roll out half of pie dough and line the bottom of an 8-inch or 9-inch pie plate. Trim the edges of the dough so nothing falls over the edges of the pie plate. Spread the bottom of the pie with the pumpkin butter, then sprinkle over the cooled, sautéed apples. Dot the top of the apples with the cherry preserves. Roll out the second half of the dough and gently place over the top of the pie. Trim the edges of the dough so nothing hangs over the edges, then crimp the top and bottom crusts together. Cut half a dozen slashes on the top crust, to allow steam to escape while baking.

Bake the pie on the foil-lined baking sheet for 25 minutes, until the edges of the crust are just beginning to brown. Rotate the pie on the baking sheet, lower the oven heat to 375 degrees Fahrenheit, then bake for an additional 25 to 30 minutes, until the crust is deeply browned and the pie’s juices are bubbling out of the slashes on top of the crust.

Remove pie from oven and cool completely.

For the cake:

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon allspice

1 teaspoon ginger

¼ teaspoon cardamom

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature

1 ½ cups granulated sugar

2 large eggs, at room temperature

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2 cups buttermilk, at room temperature

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Arrange an oven rack to the lower middle position. Grease and flour the sides and bottom of a 10-inch springform pan, then line the bottom with a round of parchment paper.

Sift together flour, baking soda, salt, and ground spices, then set aside.

In a large bowl, or in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter until light, about 3 minutes. Add the sugar, and beat at high speed until fluffy, about 3 to 4 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. With the mixer on medium high speed, beat in the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl to incorporate everything. Beat in the vanilla.

Reduce mixer speed to low. Add in 1/3 of the flour and spice mixture, and mix until just combined. Add in half of the buttermilk, then beat until just combined. Continue adding in half of the remaining flour mixture, the remaining buttermilk, then the last of the flour mixture, beating after each addition until the mixture is just combined. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl, then give everything one last mix for about 10 seconds.

Pour enough cake batter into the prepared springform pan to just cover the bottom. Release the cooled pie from its pan (I ran a very small and flexible spatula around the inside perimeter of the pie pan before turning the pie out onto my open palm), then place the pie, right-side up, on the thin later of cake batter in the springform pan. Very lightly press the pie into the batter, just to secure it in place. Pour the rest of the cake batter over and around the pie, covering as much territory as evenly as possible. Smooth the top of the cake batter.

Place cake on a baking sheet, then bake on the lower middle rack of the oven for anywhere from 55 to 75 minutes. You want to start checking your cake for doneness at around the 55 minute mark, but do not be surprised if your cake takes the full 75 minutes to bake. The reason there can be much a variable in baking time is due to the fact that springform pan thicknesses very, oven temperatures can vary, and sometimes things just bake up sort of weird, being as though you are baking a heavy pie into an enormous cake. Just test your cake with a cake tester in several places on the cake, looking for the tester to emerge with just a few moist crumbs attached. It might cause the top of the cake to get rather crisp in places, but that is all right. What you do not want is a cake that is done on top and runny in the middle and bottom, so bake this cake with diligence.

When the cake is done, allow it to cool, still in its pan, on a wire rack for at least 1 hour. Then, remove springform sides of pan and allow cake to cool completely. This is a super dense cake, so cooling it completely can take several hours.

When the cake has cooled completely, very gently invert the cake onto another wire rack or a large platter, then remove the springform bottom (you may need to loosen it first by gently running a thin knife in between the cake and the springform bottom) and peel off the parchment paper. Very carefully invert the cake back onto a serving platter. You are now ready to frost the cake.

Cream Cheese Frosting

From The America’s Test Kitchen Family Baking Book

12 ounces cream cheese, softened at room temperature

6 tablespoons of unsalted butter, softened at room temperature

4 teaspoons sour cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

¼ teaspoon salt

1 ¾ cups confectioner’s sugar

In a large bowl, or in the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the cream cheese, butter, sour cream, vanilla, and salt on high speed until light smooth, about 2 to 4 minutes. Reduce mixer speed to medium low, then slowly add in the confectioner’s sugar. Beat for about 4 minutes until the confectioner’s sugar is completely incorporated, then increase mixer speed to medium high and beat frosting until it is light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

Frost the cake when it is completely cool, using every last bit of the frosting available.

Mini cherpumple will serve an entire army of kitch-loving dessert fans.

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Easiest Skillet Fruit Pie

12 Nov

Are you familiar with the concept of a skillet pie? Up until a couple of weeks ago, I was not. In fact, until the moment when I found myself with a huge box of fast-ripening pears and one single layer pie crust, it had never really occurred to me to bake a pie with only one crust. Oh, sure, I like single crust pies and tarts, but a baked fruit pie with only one crust? Why would I do that? One of the most enjoyable things about a fruit pie is the fact that it bakes into one big juicy mass of fruit that melts into its cozy pocket of crust. What’s the point of taking away one of those crusts?

To be honest, I don’t really think you need to take away one of those crusts, but, if you want to know how to make a dead simple pie out of nothing more than some fresh fruit, a tiny amount of sugar, and only a single layer of pie crust, well, you’ve come to the right place.

Think of this as a last minute pie, the type of thing you throw together when you find yourself with unexpected company or a zero-hour request that you provide a dinner party dessert. The entire thing comes together in no time at all, and you use the same pan to both sauté the fruit and bake the pie. All of the great caramelized juices from the pears stay in the pan, allowing everything to mingle and get cozy while the top crust bakes. It’s a great pie for new bakers, for people short on time, one just for people who love pie. Really, it’s just a great pie, period.

Last Year: Butternut Squash Cake with Ginger Cream Cheese Frosting

Easiest Skillet Fruit Pie Recipe

I use a 12-inch skillet to make this pie, as it provides a good amount of surface area in which to cook the fruit. If you only have a smaller skillet, say, a 10-inch one, you may have to divide your fruit into more batches when you cook it initially.

4 pounds ripe pears or apples

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 tablespoons dark brown sugar

1 single layer pie crust (my favorite pie crust recipe is below)

Flaky Tart and Pie Dough Recipe

From Tartine

1 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup (5 ½ ounces) very cold ice water

3 cups plus 2 tablespoons (1 pound) unbleached all-purpose flour

1 cup plus 5 tablespoons (10 ½ ounces) very cold unsalted butter

pinch of sea salt

In a small bowl, add the salt to the water and stir to dissolve.  Place in the freezer to keep super cold until ready to use.

Place the flour in the bowl of a food processor, or in a large bowl.  Cut the butter into 1-inch pieces, then scatter over the flour.  If using a food processor, pulse the mixture briefly until it forms into large crumbs and some of the pieces of butter remain pea-sized.  If making the dough by hand, cut the butter into the dough using a pastry cutter.  You will want the dough to have the same crumb-like look with some large pea-sized chunks of butter throughout.

Drizzle the salt and water mixture over the dough and, if using a food processor, pulse until the dough comes together into a ball but is not completely smooth.  You should still see visible butter chunks.  If mixing the dough by hand, drizzle the salt and water mixture over the dough while tossing with a fork.  The dough should come together in a shaggy mass.  Gently mix the dough together until it comes together in a ball but is not completely smooth.  As with the food processor dough, you should still see visible butter chunks.

Divide the dough into 2 equal balls on a lightly floured surface.  Shape each ball into a disk about 1 inch thick.  Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 2 hours, preferably overnight.

Makes 2 9-inch or 10-inch tart or pie shells, enough for 2 single-crust pies or tarts, or 1 double-crust pie.

To make the pie:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Peel and core the pears or apples. If your fruit is super fresh (meaning, if it is in season and has spent only a handful of weeks in between being on a tree and being in  your kitchen) you don’t even need to peel the fruit, as the skin should be very thin and flavorful. Cut the pears or apples in half, then in quarters.

In a large cast iron skillet set over medium-low heat, melt 1 tablespoon of the butter. Sprinkle over 1 tablespoon of the dark brown sugar, and allow it to melt into the butter just slightly (about 30 seconds to 1 minute). Add a small pinch of sea salt. Add half of the quartered fruit, making sure that the fruit is laying in a single layer. Sauté fruit until it is just starting to caramelize on one side. For the pears I used, which were super ripe, this only took about 3 minutes since the juices were just flowing out of them once they hit the hot pan. For less ripe pears, or for firm apples, it could take up to 7 or 8 minutes. Carefully turn the fruit over and caramelize on the other side (again, this could take anywhere from 3 to 8 minutes). Pour cooked fruit into a large bowl, scraping out the caramelized sugar along with it. Add the second tablespoon of butter, the second tablespoon of sugar, a small pinch of sea salt, then the rest of the fruit, and cook in the same manner as you did the first batch. If the sugar and butter start to brown too quickly, turn the heat down to low. When the fruit has cooked, remove the pan from the heat, add in the first batch of fruit, stir gently to combine, and set aside.

On a floured surface, roll out the single-layer pie crust into a circle roughly 1 inch larger than the size of your pan. Gently place the round of dough over the fruit in the skillet, then tuck under any overhanging edges. Slice air vents in the crust. If you want, you can sprinkle a little turbinado sugar over the top of the crust, or brush the crust with a beaten egg, but you certainly don’t have to do either.

Bake the pie in the center of the oven for 35-40 minutes, until the top crust is dark golden brown and the fruit is bubbling. Remove from oven and allow to cool for at least 15 minutes before eating. The filling will be molten hot.

Serve with freshly whipped cream, whipped with just a pinch of cinnamon.

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