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Caramelized Fennel Tart
Chef Hallie Harron's uniquely delicious dessert. Consider serving it with a raspberry sauce.
Almond Cream:
Puff pastry or tart dough
Melt the sugar and butter in a large skillet. Add fennel, stirring occasionally for 20 minutes until most of the liquid is absorbed and the fennel is caramelized. Cool.
Stir together the almond powder, sugar and egg whites. Stir in the hot browned butter, then stir in the fennel.
On an ungreased baking sheet, create a tart shell out of the puff pastry. Leave about 1/2 inch of pastry to stand above the filling. Spoon the filling into the shell. Top with almonds. This can be rustic looking. Bake for 40-50 minutes at 350° until golden and puffed. Cool to room temperature before serving.
Apple Snacking Cake
Imagine a caramel apple transformed into a moist cake! Easy and irresistable!
Preheat oven to 350 Farhenheit. Grease an 8" square pan. Prepare apples and set aside. Cream butter and sugar. Add egg and vanilla and mix well. Stir in diced apples. Sift dry ingredients together. Add dry ingredients to apple mixture and blend completely. Pour batter into greased pan and smooth the top with a spatula. Bake for 40 minutes or until a rich brown.
For a snack, serve slightly warm on a napkin. If you're at the table, serve in a bowl with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.
Confetti Pound Cake
The poppy seeds and citrus zests turn this rich cake into a colorful party! Perfect for a tailgating treat, tea time, or pot luck dinner.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees Farhenheit. Butter and flour a 8"x4" loaf pan.
In a deep, medium sized bowl, cream butter and sugar together until the mixture forms stiff peaks that are almost white. Beat in eggs one at a time. Fold in the flour and combine well. Stir in citrus zest, poppy seeds, and extract.
Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake at 325 for 45-50 minutes or until cake pulls away from sides and is golden brown. Cool cake in the pan on a rack for 15 minutes. Turn cake onto the rack and cool completely before cutting with a thin, serrated knife.
For a sit down dessert, it's delicious served with a citrus sorbet!
Pound cake is best served fresh. It keeps well, but grows more dense with each passing day.
Italian Almond Cake
This elegant and rich dessert is easy with a food processor.
Preheat oven to 350° Fahrenheit. Grease and flour a 9 - 10" springform pan.In a food processor, buzz almond paste with sugar until blended to the consistency of sand. Transfer to mixing bowl. Add softened butter; then add eggs one by one beating after each addition. Add Kirsh and almond extract.
In a separate bowl, sift flour and baking powder. Mix into almond mixture. Do not overmix.
Bake at 350° for 50 - 60 minutes or until knife comes out with just a few crumbs attached (not wet). Cool in pan. Remove sides of springform pan and transfer to a serving platter. (Optional: Sprinkle top with powdered sugar before serving.)
Recipe can be halved and baked in a 9" layer cake pan. Baking time will vary. Check after 40 minutes.
*Editor's Note: If buying supermarket grade almond paste, I recommend Odense brand. It comes in a 7 ounce roll. I do not recommend Betty Crocker's. Professional quality almond paste is preferable to grocery store brand. - Joy
Old Witch's Pumpkin Cake
Courtesy of Chef and Culinary Instructor Michael Andrews, Miami Beach, FL
Beat together:
Blend together and add to wet ingredients:
Then stir in:
Pour into a greased and floured 9" X 13" pan and bake at 350 for 45 minutes. When cool, top with Cream Cheese Frosting.
Cream Cheese Frosting
Make it in seconds with a food processor.
Cream:
Add:
Beat well.
Perfect Pumpkin Pie
From the 1998 Pumpkin Patch of Recipes - If there is ever a criticism of a fine pumpkin pie, it's that the bottom crust is soggy by the time it gets to the table. This recipe separates the baking of the crust and the custard filling. You'll need two matching pie pans, preferably 9 inchers. Warning: Recipe requires refrigeration time.
Custard filling ingredients:
Pastry for a single 9" pie crust. (See World's Flakiest Pie Crust recipe, and click here for tips on making pie crust).
For decorating the pie:
To make the filling:
Set oven temperature at 350° Fahrenheit. Butter inside of 9 inch pie plate. In large bowl, combine filling ingredients. Beat with rotary beater until smooth. Pour half of the filling into buttered pie plate; set in large, shallow pan. Place in oven; add remainder of filling. Pour water into shallow pan to measure 1/2 inch up the sides of the pie plate . Bake 50 minutes, or until tip of a thin knife inserted near center comes out clean.
Cool filling on wire rack. Loosen edge with spatula and chill well - about 4 hours or overnight.
While the filling is chilling (poetry!), prepare pastry for a single pie crust for a 9" pie plate. Roll out dough, place in the pie plate, and scallop the edges. Refrigerate pastry about 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 450° Fahrenheit.
Prick entire surface of unbaked pie shell evenly with fork to prevent shell from puffing. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until golden. Cool completely on wire rack.
Before placing filling in pre-baked crust, separate custard from pan with a thin spatula all around edge and underneath and shake to loosen. Holding custard above rim of pie crust, slip filling into shell.
Decorate edge of pie, between filling and crust, with whipped cream. Use a pastry bag with a Number 6 star tip (or, in a pinch, place whipped cream in a Ziploc and cut off a small corner). Garnish with the walnut halves or candied ginger. Refrigerate.
Serves 8.
Dottie's Pumpkin Ice Cream Pie
This can be made well ahead of time and frozen until needed.
Combine and heat gently, stirring until all sugar is dissolved:
Let cool and mix thoroughly with:
Pour into a 9" graham cracker crust.
Mix:
Sprinkle on top of pie. Freeze overnight. Wrap tightly if freezing for an extended period. Thaw slightly before serving.
Pumpkin and Bourbon Chiffon Pie
Sometimes, it's worth tinkering with tradition!
In a saucepan, combine gelatin, 3/4 cup sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt; stir in milk, beaten egg yolks and pumpkin. Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture thickens and just begins to boil. Remove from heat and stir in the bourbon. Chill mixture until partially set.
In a separate, deep bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form (tips curl over). Gradually add 2 tablespoons sugar, beating until stiff peaks form (tips stand up straight). Fold the beaten egg whites into the pumpkin mixture. Pour filling into a baked and cooled pastry shell. Refrigerate several hours or until set. Serve with whipped cream and a dusting of nutmeg if desired.
Fresh Peach & Ginger Pie
Double pie crust dough for an 8"or 9" pie.
Click here for the pie crust recipe!
Preheat oven to 425 degrees Farhenheit. Peel and slice peaches 1/8" thick and toss with lemon and ginger juice. Sift the cornstarch, sugar and pinch of salt into the peaches and mix well. Line a pie plate with pastry and fill with the peach mixture. Dot with butter. Seal with top crust. Using a sharp knife, cut 4 steam holes in pastry. (Bake on a cookie sheet if you fear spills). Bake 30 - 40 minutes or until golden brown and bubbling. After 25 minutes, if the pie appears to be browning too quickly, cover edge of crust with a wreath of tin foil. Allow to cool to lukewarm before serving.
Delicious with your favorite vanilla ice cream!
World's Flakiest Pie Crust
We did the math.
For single 8" pie:
For double 8" pie:
For single 9" pie:
For double 9" pie:
Sift flour and salt together into a deep mixing bowl that is impervious to knives. Add Crisco. Using two steak knives, cut the shortening into the flour mixture as if you were cutting up a bowl of spaghetti for a baby, or use a pastry cutter. Do this until the mixture starts to form small clumps. The mixture should resemble sawdust. Sprinkle in cold water cautiously, a tablespoon at a time, continuously cutting, until the mixture forms clumps the size of unshelled almonds. The ingredients do not need to be 100% homogeneous. With floured hands, loosely gather dough into a ball and place in a clean bowl. Chill until ready to roll out.
Have your pie plate, rolling pin, a small sharp knife, and a canister of flour within easy reach. Prepare a clean wooden or marble surface. (Formica and other synthetic countertops may be used with varying degrees of success, but be prepared to dust frequently with generous amounts of flour to prevent sticking.) Dust the surface evenly with flour - a sifter is handy for this job. Flour hands and a rolling pin.
Press chilled pastry into a small, flat circle (like a hockey puck). With the rolling pin, roll out dough from the center to the edges in opposing directions of the clock (noon and 6, 9 and 3, 11 and 5, etc.). Never crush the pastry with the rolling pin to hasten the job. Instead, push it out from the center, lifting the pin ever so slightly as you reach the edge. A perfectly rolled crust will be of an even thicknes (squeeze the thick part of your earlobe).
Use the pie plate as a pattern to cut the crust. Invert the pie plate over the rolled out crust and, with the small, sharp knife, cut a circle around the plate leaving a 1" hem. Discard scraps (or save them for later use-- See Tips). Remove pie plate. Be sure the surface of the pastry is dusted with flour. Gently peel back crust from one side, folding it in half, then peel it from another direction to fold it in quarters. Lift the dough gently and place it in the ungreased pie plate. Unfold and position the pastry.
If making a single crust pie, crimp the edges before filling. Fold in the hem of pastry between the lip of the pie plate and the top of the crust. Use a fork dipped in flour to seam and decorate the edge, or crimp between your fingers.
If you are making a double crust pie, use a pastry brush to moisten the top lip of the crust with water. Fill the bottom crust. Place the second crust on top-- it's hem should extend beyond the bottom crust's hem. Fold the top hem under the bottom's and on top of the lip of the pie plate. Crimp as you would a single crust pie. Using a sharp knife, cut a few holes on the top of the crust to vent steam and prevent hot filling from flowing out of the edges.
Click here for more tips to guarantee a flaky pie crust!
