Apple Tarte Tatin

Today the weather in New Zealand, at least where I live, is miserable, but I still love it. I love the streaks of rain that trail down the window and make everything beyond the glass melt. I love when the houses outside have lights on and through my rain splattered window the light catches the different raindrops and looks like fairy lights. Today was the perfect day for something warm, mushy and rustic to eat. We had old apples left over that needed to be used, and my dad requested Tarte Tatin. Hence, Apple Tarte Tatin was made.

I apologize about the unholiness of my pictures. I forgot to take pictures immediately, so half (half!?) of the tarte tatin is gone. And also, it’s dark. Hence the bad lighting and… erm… badness. I have made apple tarte tatin many times but I have also made Banana Tarte Tatin and Pear Tarte Tatin too. Apple is superior in this case. Usually, I sprinkle the bottom of the pan with rosemary and then put in the apples and pastry, but today it was raining so I couldn’t go out and get some rosemary from our plant/bush/thing. If you didn’t know, Tarte Tatin is baked in a pan, then inverted onto a plate, which can go very wrong (as I have learnt!). But that was just because of using a heavy pan in the past, and now I use a light pan.

Apple Tarte Tatin (with Rosemary), adapted from Dish Magazine. Issue 30, June – July 2010 < (a New Zealand magazine) 

Ingredients:
For the pastry:
200g flour
175g butter
100g sour cream

For the rest:
4 apples, peeled, quartered and cored and  I used 4, but if you want a tighter packed Tarte, then I suggest using more.
1/2 cup brown sugar, teensy bit more if you wish
100g butter
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
1 teaspoon finely chopped up rosemary

Method:
Pre-heat your oven to 180 C, or about 350 F.
For the pastry: Chuck everything for the pastry into your food processor and blend/mix till together, but still a bit crumby because that’s the furthest my food processor can go without growling and rumbling! Dump it onto a floured surface and knead the crumbs in then roll out with a rolling pin to a size slightly larger than your pan so that you can have a crust.

For the rest: Melt the butter, brown sugar and lemon juice in a big pan. Make it a light pan, because turning it over will be easier, as will taking the pan out of the oven. Make sure the pan can go into your oven. Keep it on a medium-high temperature on the stove, until everything is melted together, it’s OK if the butter is slightly separate from the caramel. When it looks all yummy and caramel-y and not at all grainy, keep it on for a teensy bit longer, then take off the heat. If using rosemary, now is the time to sprinkle it onto the caramel, because remember this tarte is an upside down kind! Now arrange the apples in whatever way you want on top of the caramel, making sure the round side of the apples is facing down because that’s the good looking part you want to see when it’s upside down. Finally place the pastry on top of the pan and if it’s too hard then roll it around your rolling pin and roll it out onto the pan. Use a fork, spoon or knife to tuck in the crust and bake in the oven for 25 minutes.

Be careful when taking it out of the oven because it is VERY hot. The handle of your pan could really be ouchy. Yup. Let it rest, for about 15 minutes. Invert it onto a plate by putting the plate on the pan upside down, then flip the pan. I loosen the sides of the tarte with a spatula first. I served mine with yummy Piako Gourmet Passionfruit Frozen Yoghurt. Yum.

Chocolate Things

Chocolate Things. I’m not kidding, that is what they are called. Ooh yum. So you don’t know what they are yet, except that they have chocolate involved. So here they are.

I know what you’re thinking. That really is a thing. Well, that is true. It’s in the name. But forgive me, I browned them a bit too much… They are full of chunks of chocolate, which are exceptionally good when warm and all melty! The one I took photos of is one that was picked because of it’s under-cookedness…

Bitten. Or torn. Whatever… it was grrrreat.

The recipe is from dishingthedivine.com.

Chocolate Things adapted from dishingthedivine.com

Ingredients:

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup buttermilk

2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast

2 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour

6 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/3 cup sugar

2 eggs, divided

1 1/2 tsp kosher salt

6 oz dark chocolate, chopped into 1-inch pieces*

Instructions

1. In a small saucepan, heat the cream and buttermilk over low heat until small bubbles form around the edges of the pan. Pour into the bowl of a stand mixer. Let cool until just warm, then whisk in the yeast until dissolved. If using active (non-instant) yeast, let sit for 5 minutes. If not, you may skip this 5 minute waiting period.
2. Add the flour, butter, sugar, one egg, and salt to the bowl. Using the dough hook, the dough should form a ball around the hook. If the dough is too soupy, add extra flour one tablespoon at a time (I had to add 2 extra tablespoons… I would not add much more than that!). Once the dough forms a loose ball, knead for 7 minutes or until the dough is smooth, silky, and elastic. Add the chocolate and knead just long enough to incorporate it. Do this step as quickly as possible as over mixing will result in broken pieces of chocolate and a discolored dough.
3. Form the dough into a ball and place it in a large oiled bowl (I left mine in my mixing bowl). Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp kitchen towel and let it rise in a warm draft free place for 90 minutes, or until doubled in size. You may also refrigerate the dough and let it rise slowly overnight. If you do, let it rest at room temperature for 1 hour before working with the dough in the morning.
4. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and roll it out into a 10 by 12-inch rectangle. In a small bowl, beat the remaining egg with a whisk. Using a pastry brush, brush a stripe down one of the long edges. Working from the other long edge, roll the dough up like a jelly roll. The egg wash will glue it together (reserve remaining egg wash). Using a sharp knife, cut the roll into twelve 1-inch slices and place on the prepared pan, cut side up, about 2 inches apart. Cover them with a floured kitchen towel and let rise in a warm place for one hour, or until the rolls are increased in size by one-third.
5. Fifteen minutes prior to baking, preheat the oven to 350. Using a pastry brush, brush the tops and sides of the rolls with the remaining egg wash. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 30 to 35 minutes*, or until golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

*I baked it for 30 minutes but they were a bit over done, so check on them earlier.

French Apple Cake and some macaron pics!

I always forget to take pictures of the many things that I bake, so I decide not to post without them because I always hate going in to blogs without pictures… child-like? Nahh.

Today I made David Lebovitz’s French Apple Cake. I must stop and take a moment to say that David Lebovitz is like, just, well, uh, awesome. Very awesome. Insanely awesome. So I’m not good at describing things. He’s just all the good adjectives that you can think of ^_^ You should check out his website, davidlebovitz.com, and you should not hesitate to buy his books. Especially The Perfect Scoop, which is full of ice cream, not literally. David is an ice cream god.

So here it is. Not Baked!

It’s packed with apple-y goodness, so if you make this, don’t be scared of the small amount of batter.

Mmm, yummah!

French Apple Cake

(adapted from David Lebovitz, davidlebovitz.com)

3/4 cup (110g) flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
4 large apples (a mix of varieties)
2 large eggs, at room temperature
3/4 cup (150g) sugar
3 tablespoons dark rum
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 tablespoons (115g) butter, salted or unsalted, melted and cooled to room temperature

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC) and adjust the oven rack to the center of the oven.

2. Heavily butter an 8- or 9-inch (20-23cm) springform pan and place it on a baking sheet.

3. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

4. Peel and core the apples, then dice them into 1-inch (3cm) pieces.

5. In a large bowl, beat the eggs until foamy then whisk in the sugar, then rum and vanilla. Whisk in half of the flour mixture, then gently stir in half of the melted butter

6. Stir in the remaining flour mixture, then the rest of the butter.

7. Fold in the apple cubes until they’re well-coated with the batter and scrape them into the prepared cake pan and smooth the top a little with a spatula.

8. Bake the cake for 50 minute to 1 hour, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool for 5 minutes, then run a knife around the edge to loosen the cake from the pan and carefully remove the sides of the cake pan, making sure no apples are stuck to it.

Ooh, Yumm, Don’t you just want to eat it? Oh yeah. Before I forget. I always make macarons. Maybe once minimum, a week. And I always forget to make pictures. But these times, I took pictures… of the piping. I was so proud of how even and circular they looked, so I’m showing them off!

Okay. They’re a bit lumpy. But I have a reason! My brother Alex is allergic to tree nuts. So, I can’t make them with almonds. SO, I use very finely dessicated coconut. Obviously it’s not very fine, what with it kinda being grainy, but it tastes amazing! When Alex is away I make macaron with almonds so I do know how they taste. Here are some blue shells.

This photo was taken when they still had little peaks, I pressed them down a bit with a wet finger tip. I know it’s not very convincing, taking photos of piped macarons but not baked and filled macarons, but I promise that I will post some pictures up. The blue shells were filled with a pink/purple ganache of white chocolate and raspeberry puree. Yumm.

See ya!

I’ve been accepted!

…To Hogwarts!

Haha, I jest, I jest.

I’ve been accepted and am know a proud registered member of The Daring Bakers!

I’ve made 2 different macarons in the time that I wasn’t here.

I made raspberry macarons, which taseted perfect! I made a white chocolate ganache and added pure raspberry puree.

Then I made rose flavoured macarons, which came out so PERFECT! I have definitely mastered the macaron! And I like to think I am the youngest person to be able to say that

Chocolate Lava Cakes

First post of my new blog! I’m planning to actually go through with this, I’ve started many blogs then left them alone…

But anyways.

 

I made this Molten Chocolate Cake, or Lava Cake today. It’s Saturday. It’s hot. And chocolate so does not suit today, but who cares, because I wanted chocolate, and chocolate is what I got!

I’m not allowed to use proper, really yummy chocolate for my baking, because my brother Alex has nut allergies. So I use cooking chocolate which has none. But if you can, use really nummy chocolate for these!

The chocolate flavour comes through in these babies.

They are wonderfully mushy and gooey on the inside, contrary to the picture which looks hollow :/ (it’s just shadow)

Molten Chocolate Cakes

Adapted from Joyofbaking.com

110 grams butter

170 grams chocolate

3 eggs, seperated

1/3 cup or 65 grams caster sugar (which is granulated sugar)

1 teaspooon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon caster sugar

Preheat the oven to 200 C, or 400 F. Butter 4 ramekins, mine were really big, but you can use more smaller ones. Coat them with sugar by shaking the ramekin around so the sugar sticks to the butter coating.

Over a double boiler, melt the butter and the chocolate at medium heat, till it is smooth. While it is melting, beat the sugar, 3 egg yolks and vanilla extract till fluffy and thick. When the chocolate is done, fold the egg yolk mix into it.

In a clean bowl, beat the 3 egg whites, adding the tablespoon of sugar once they start to get frothy, to firm peaks.

Fold the egg whites into the chocolate.

Fill up the ramekins about 3/4 or 5/6 of the way up. They rise a lot, like souffles, but then they sink, so they are best eaten warm

Bake them in the oven for 10 – 15 minutes – mine needed about 13.

Eat warm! You could eat them with ice-cream or lightly whipped cream if you wish…