Snickers Pie

Hooray! Another heavenly peanut butter dessert!

I'm feeling in a bit of a baking rut; I'm kind of sick of baking mass quantities of the same old things, kind of sick of getting up early to do it.

I take my job very seriously, and I'm used to receiving praise for it. I love watching customers approach the dessert case with wide eyes, clutching their friend's arm and gasping "look...just look at all that..." I love when they find out I'm the baker and they sigh "I just love your desserts!"

Buuut, recently I heard about some customer complaints, and I have no idea what could have gone wrong. It makes me feel extremely insecure. I'm going in to bake in the morning and I'm actually nervous. I'm an approval suck, it's true. It's funny how one bad comment can wipe out the memory of all the good ones. That's true about everything in life, I suppose.

Anyway, this weekend is the Holiday Market downtown (8th st and Reynolds) from 12-6 and it should be good. Santa will be there and live Christmas trees and FREE chik-fil-a sandwiches. I'll be there with loads of good bread and baked goods like sourdough, ciabatta, rosemary, black olive, mediterranean stuffed loaf, bleu cheese stuffed loaf, cinnamon rolls, brownies, oat fudge bars and more! If you're in the Augusta area, make sure to stop by.

Now, on to this luscious snickers pie, which is a winner guaranteed to improve any bad baking day. There's several steps but they're not hard and the result is phenomenal.

Snickers Pie, Adapted from Martha Steward

Oreo crust:

1 9-in springform pan.

about 2 cups finely ground oreos (a food processor does the job in a jiffy, but you can also crush the cookies in a heavy duty ziplock bag with a blunt object like a rolling pin)

3/4-1 stick melted butter

Caramel Layer:

1 1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup water

3/4 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup sour cream or 1/2 stick butter

1 cup roasted salted peanuts

Peanut Butter Mousse:

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 1/4 cup smooth peanut butter

1/2 t vanilla

1 cup heavy cream, whipped into medium-stiff peaks

Chocolate Ganache Layer

8 oz semi-sweet chocolate

1 cup heavy cream

Directions:

1. Make the Oreo Crust. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the ground Oreos with the butter and press the mixture onto the bottom and sides of the springform pan. I like to use the side of a measuring cup to do this. Use your fingers if necessary. Bake the crust for 10 minutes so its nice and crispy. Remove from oven and let cool.

2. Make the Caramel. Combine the water and sugar in a saucepan and heat it over medium-high heat on the stove. It will take about 10 minutes to turn amber, but watch it carefully, swirling the pan occasionally, because it can burn easily. Remove from heat once a dark amber color and carefully whisk in the 3/4 cup heavy cream. It will bubble and steam and be very hot, so watch your hands. If there are any caramel lumps, reheat the caramel until smooth. Whisk in the sour cream or butter. Transfer to a heat proof bowl and cool, about 45 minutes. Once the caramel is fairly cool, fold in the 1 cup of peanuts. Spread the mixture evenly in the bottom of the oreo crust. Refrigerate while you make the Peanut Butter Mousse.

3. Make the Peanut Butter Mousse. In a stand mixer or with a hand held mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the 1/2 cup powdered sugar and beat until smooth. Add the 1 1/4 cup Peanut Butter and the vanilla and beat until smooth.

Whip the 1 cup heavy cream in a clean bowl until medium-stiff peaks form, and then fold 1/3 the whipped cream into the Peanut Butter mixture to lighten it. Fold the rest of the whipped cream into the Peanut Butter in two additions.

4. Spread the Peanut Butter Mousse evenly on top of the caramel layer, taking care that the two don't mix. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

5. Make the Chocolate Ganache. Pour the final 1 cup heavy cream into a microwave safe container and microwave for about 40 seconds, depending on your microwave. You can also heat it on the stop until bubbly around the edges. Dump the 8 oz chocolate into the hot cream (or pour the cream over the chocolate) and let sit for 1 minute to melt. Whisk until smooth. Pour the Chocolate Ganache over the peanut butter mousse and spread evenly.

Refrigerate a final 30-45 minutes and you're done! Slice and enjoy!

Lemon Tart

I love lemon curd. I like it swirled into cheesecake, I like it sandwiched between cake layers, I like to eat it with a spoon, still warm in the bowl.

This lemon curd might actually be better called a lemon cream. It is light and so smooth and just plain ethereal. If something can be "plain" ethereal.

It's been so hot here, and I've been dealing with melted chocolate all over my kitchen and my clothes, so the accompaniment to the Peanut Butter Torte was this light, refreshing lemon tart. Which is deceiving because there's over 2.5 sticks of butter in it, so it's not really that light.

The secret is not melting the butter with the curd, but adding it at the end and blending it in with a blender, making it incredibly creamy and fluffy.

"The Most Extraordinary French Lemon Cream Tart" by Dorie Greenspan

1 cup sugar

Grated zest of 3 lemons

4 large eggs

3/4 cup fresh lemon juice (from 4-5 lemons)

2 sticks plus 5 T unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon-size pieces, at room temperature

1 9-in tart shell (recipe follows)

Grab a heat proof bowl and bring a few inches of water to a simmer in a saucepan. Put the sugar and the zest in the bowl, and rub them together until this sugar is moist and fragrant. Whisk in the eggs, then the lemon juice.

Set this bowl over the simmering water and start stirring once it's warm. The recipe says cook the curd until it reaches 180 degrees, but for me it never really got there. I'd say just cook until the whisk leaves tracks. I would say you could even skip the bowl part and cook it in the saucepan over really low heat until bubbles start forming. Don't heat too quickly, though, or your eggs will curdle, and stir, stir all the time.

Once the egg mixture has thickened and reached the appropriate temperature, remove the curd from heat and strain it into a blender or food processor. The straining is a pain but completely necessary as it removes the zest and any eggy bits that may have formed. Let the curd stand 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Turn on the blender and add the butter a little bit at a time. Make sure the curd keeps moving and scrape down the sides as you go. Once the butter is all incorporated, keep the blender going for about 3 more minutes to get it all nice and creamy/fluffy.

Pour the cream into a bowl, press a piece of plastic wrap to the surface and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight. (3 hours was completely adequate for me.)

When you're ready to assemble the tart, stir up the cream to loosen it and spoon it into your waiting tart shell. It's best eaten the day you assemble it, but you can keep the curd by itself in the fridge for 4 days or freeze it for up to two months.

And the sweet dough tart shell....

1 1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup confectioner's sugar

1/4 t salt

1 stick plus 1 T very cold butter, cut into small pieces

1 large egg yolk

Get out your handy food processor, and dump in the flour, confectioner's sugar and salt. Pulse a couple of times to combine, and then scatter the butter over the surface. Pulse until the butter is the size of peas, then add the egg yolk and pulse until it's all combined and clumpy. Don't over blend or your tart crust won't be flaky. Pull all the bits together into a ball and press it into a 9 in tart pan. (But don't press too hard or you'll have cement crust)

Freeze the crust for 30 minutes before baking*. Meanwhile, preheat to 375 degrees.

Now, take a piece of aluminum foil and rub butter on the shiny side. Press this buttered side onto the dough in the tart pan and bake the crust for 25 minutes. At this point, take out the crust, remove the foil, and press down the bottom with the back of a spoon if it's puffed up. Bake for another 8 min until the crust is golden. If the edges are getting too dark, you can cover them with aluminum foil.

Let the crust cool before filling.

* Extra steps like freezing always annoy me, but in this case, the freezing means you don't have to weigh down the bottom of your crust with pie weights or beans. I would much rather freeze than mess around with a bunch of dry beans.

Friends: this is one of my new favorite desserts. The crust is crunchy and fab and the cream is so silky and so good after a winter of chocolate. Welcome to spring.

Not that I'm over chocolate, by any means.

Blueberry Frangipane Flan

from Organic Kitchen by Yvonne Spevack

frangipane indicates a dessert made with almond filling

I think this recipe makes a gorgeous tart...and if I get to taste it I'll let you know if the flavor is as good as it looks. I had to rush it straight to the restaurant and hope it's a hit!

This recipe is under the summer section of Organic Kitchen and the caption reads "A tangy lemon pastry case is filled with a nutty sweet almond filling dotted with ripe blueberries. Their wonderful color and taste are a seasonal favorite."

So, I cheated because

A. My blueberries were from the farm and frozen (but they were organic!)

B. I didn't have a lemon, so I made the tart shell with clementine zest instead of lemon.

C. I had to add a tiny bit more liquid to the pastry to get it to roll out smoothly. It was pretty crumbly.

D. I actually added an extra egg and a bit more milk and flour to pump up the filling, which I don't think was necessary recipe-wise, but perhaps it was restaurant-wise.

E. I don't know if I ground the almonds enough. Whatever.

F. I used 1/2 T rum instead of 1 T brandy. Whatever!

but i've wanted to try this recipe for awhile and here it is!

Recipe

For the Pastry:

1.5 cups all-purpose flours

.5 cup (one stick) unsalted butter

2 T sugar

finely grated rind of 1/2 a lemon

1 T chilled water

Sift the flour into a bowl and rub in the butter. Stir in the sugar and lemon rind, then add water and mix to a firm dough.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill for 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface and use to line a 9-in loose bottomed tart or quiche pan. Line the pastry with parchment paper and fill with dried beans (for weight) and bake for 10 min. Remove the paper and the beans and bake for 10 minutes more. Remove from oven.

MEANWHILE...

...make the Filling:

2 T ground coffee

3 T milk

4 T unsalted butter

1/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 cup ground almonds

1 T all purpose flour, sifted

1 cups blueberries

2 T jam

1 T brandy

creme fraiche or sour cream, to serve.

Put the ground coffee in a bowl, heat the milk to almost boiling and pour over the coffee. Let infuse for 4 minutes.

Cream the butter and sugar until pale, beat in the egg, then mix in the almonds and flour. Strain the coffee-milk through a coffee filter and mix the milk in with the other ingredients.

Pour the coffee mixture into the pastry shell and spread evenly. Scatter the blueberries over the top and push them down slightly into the mixture. Bake for 30 minutes, until firm, covering with foil after 20 minutes.

Remove the tart from the oven and allow to cool slightly. Heat the jam and brandy in a small saucepan.

Brush over the flan and remove from the tin. Serve warm with creme fraiche or sour creme.

It really is lovely...I'll probably make another for myself.

And look! The cheesecake I brought in THIS MORNING is almost GONE!

Apple Tart

What a wonderful way to pound some puff pastry.

Ingredients:

3 or 4 apples; I used granny smith

brown sugar, a cup or so

some cinnamon, maybe a teaspoon? or more?

and a squirt of lemon juice.

1 sheet of puff pastry

Defrost the puff pastry and unfold. Preheat to 350. Peel your apples, half them and scoop out the core. Cut each half into skinny slices and put into a bowl. Cover the slices with the sugar, cinnamon and lemon juice, and let sit for a few minutes.

Arrange the apples in a few rows, very close together. Cram as many apples as you can on that sheet of pastry, leaving an inch or an inch and a half around the edge, which you can either leave flat or fold up and squeeze in pleats to keep it there.

Bake on a baking sheet for 20-30 min, until golden brown. I snagged a few apples on the drive to the restaurant and they are TASTY.