Goin' Nuts for Blue Cheese - Gorgonzola & Walnut Tart

 Every once in awhile, I get a hankerin' for something SUPER cheesy.  Normally, when this happens, I turn to Macaroni & Cheese in all it's myriad permutations.  After all, what better way is there to showcase cheese than pouring it's rich, gooey and melty deliciousness over a mound of pasta? 

But if you are a blue cheese lover, as I am, this tart that will roll your cheese wheel right out the door.  It's so rich, creamy and cheesy that even I can only eat a small slice, to be accompanied by Watercress soup and a very VERY large salad, to break up the cheesiness. 

This is a French tart that has no equal.  You can consume your whole daily caloric intake in one fell swoop with this one.  But it's sooooooooo good.  The filling is simply a cheese laden custard (similar to a quiche) that is them sprinkled with toasty walnuts to add some crunch.

I actually prefer Gorgonzola for this one.  It seems to me that Gorgonzola melts a little smoother than some other crumbly Blue Cheeses.  I also think that it's flavor profile better pairs with toasted walnuts and the peppercorns in the pastry crust. Which reminds me.  It's not simply the tart filling that is rich and high in calories, the crust I like to use for this is my infamous Sour Cream/Peppercorn pastry dough that I usually reserve for certain quiches and my Asparagus / Gruyere Tart. 

Gorgonzola & Walnut Tart

1 recipe for Sour Cream Peppercorn Pastry Crust
1 cup (100g) Walnuts, toasted and chopped
1 cup (236ml) Heavy Cream
3 large Eggs
2 large Egg Yolks
6 oz (170g) Gorgonzola, crumbled (you can use Stilton, Saga, or Roquefort if you prefer)
Salt & Pepper

Preheat the oven to 400F (200C) degrees.
Meanwhile, prepare the Sour Cream Peppercorn Pastry dough; roll the pastry out to fit a 10 inch quiche dish or a fluted tart pan and chill while the oven continues to preheat.

When the oven comes to temperature, toast the walnuts for 5 minutes.

When the Walnuts are finished, remove the pastry from the refrigerator, line with foil or parchment and fill with beans or weights then bake for 10 minutes.

Remove the foil and beans/rice/weights and bake for an additional 5 minutes. (just until the crust is cooked, but still very pale)

Reduce the oven temperature to 350F (180C) degrees.
Whisk the Eggs, Egg Yolks and Heavy Cream together in a small bowl.

Add the crumbled Gorgonzola and stir.

Season with Salt and Pepper, then pour the filling into the warm tart shell.

Sprinkle with toasted Walnuts.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, depending on your oven, just until the top begins to brown.

Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes before attempting to cut.

Delightfully cheesy and UBER rich.  This is most definitely NOT a diet food, that is for sure.

Mangia!!
~~

Walnuts Gone Wild - Carameled Walnut Tart al'Orange

I have been craving walnuts like crazy. Probably because of all the coffee posts I have been doing lately. As a result, I decided to revisit a recipe I posted on BakeSpace over a year ago, when I was having just such a walnut craving and wanted something closely akin to Pecan pie. My end result was not really Pecan Pie-esque, but it was REALLY good... More of a Carameled Walnut pie.

This time instead of my normal Pâte Brisée, I decided to use a Fillo crust. A word of warning about Fillo.... It's extremely thin and sometimes hard to work with, the key to Fillo success is speed, you have got to get it situated and get the butter on it before it dries out.

Caramel Walnut Tarte al'Orange

Crust:
9 inch Pie Plate
6 sheets of Fillo
4 TB of melted Butter (so it's lower in fat than Pâte Brisée)

Melt the butter and preheat the oven to 400 degrees

Grab the Pie plate and brush it with the melted butter.

Unwrap the Fillo

Unroll it, removing 6 sheets, then wrap it up and place the unused portion back in the refrigerator.

Lay down the first sheet and brush it with butter.

Lay down the second sheet in the opposite direction, then brush that one with butter as well.

Continue laying sheets perpendicular to the previous and buttering each sheet until you have completed all six layers.

Brush the final sheet with the remaining butter and cover with wax paper, then cover that with a baking sheet.

Flip the whole thing over and cut around the pie plate with a pizza cutter or pastry wheel....

to remove the excess phyllo.

Flip it back over and dispose of any little pieces and the waxed paper.


Line with parchment paper and pie weights bake for 13 minutes.....

Remove the wights and parchment and bake an additional 3 minutes, until golden.

Set aside to cool while completing the filling below.......

Filling:
1 1/2 cup Granulated Sugar
2 TB Orange Blossom Water
3/4 cup Heavy Cream
8 TB Unsalted butter
1/4 tsp orange oil or the zest of 1 orange
2 1/2 cups Walnuts; Rough Chop (although I cheated cause I was just shy and added 2 TB slivered almonds)
Large pinch of Salt

Combine sugar and orange blossom water in a 6 or 8-inch heavy bottomed saucepan and place over medium flame.

Cook, shaking pan occasionally, until sugar melts; continue cooking, stirring occasionally and scraping sides with a flexible spatula, until mixture turns golden.

Don't let it get too dark.

Reduce the flame to low, and then carefully add cream and the butter, in chunks while whisking the mixture.

Careful, cause it will sputter and spit.

Continue cooking, whisking constantly, until butter melts and mixture is uniform.

Stir in walnuts, orange zest and a large pinch of salt.

Spread the hot filling into the cooled tart shell, evenly, and refrigerate for about an hour to allow the filling to set.

Serve naked or prepare UN-sweetened whipped heavy cream with a drop or two of Cointreau and the zest of 1/2 orange. (I personally like it naked)

Mangia!!
~~

It's The Bees Knees - Honeyed Lemon Pine Nut Tart

For the final pastry in my refrigerator, I had decided to revisit one of my favorite Tarts. Lemon Honey and Pine nuts make a fantastic combination. I usually make this with a sweet Pâte Brisée, but figured it was time to expand my horizons a little and become a little more flexible.

This whole Pâte Sablée experience has been particularly challenging... I forgot that I should not blind bake it ahead of time, like Pâte Brisée, so my first batch of dough turned into a cookie before I could finish toasting the pine nuts on the stove... oops...

I quickly threw together another batch of Pâte Sablée, but since I was now out of Chestnut flour, I used the Hazelnut meal in my freezer. This is really nothing more than a large Lemon bar with Pine Nuts added...

Honeyed Lemon Pine Nut Tart

1 recipe Pâte Sablée
6 Large eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup Honey (Orange Blossom or Fig)
1/2 cup unsalted butter
4 lemons, juice and zest (about 1/2 cup)
pinch of kosher salt
1 1/2 cup Toasted pine nuts

Press pastry dough into a 9 - 10 inch tart pan.

Return to refrigerator to chill.
Meanwhile toast the pine nuts in a shallow skillet over medium-low flame.

Place eggs, sugar, honey and butter into a pan over low heat stir constantly until sugar dissolves.

Add lemon juice and zest; continue stirring and cooking over low heat until mixture thickens. (If it looks lumpy, run it through a mesh strainer)

Fold in Pine nuts and allow mixture to cool while preheating the oven to 400 degrees.

Transfer to your chilled shell.

Bake for 20 minutes. (it will be slightly puffed, but will sink as it cools)

Cool on a wire rack to room temperature then chill in the refrigerator.
Dust with powdered sugar

and serve with a dollop of Crème Fraîche.


Mangia!!
~~

Dupioni, Shantung or Dobby? - Silk Tart Resuscitation

I was channeling my fellow employees chocolate cravings yesterday. Which on one level is kind of annoying, because I have been too busy lately to get involved in a baking project that requires more than tossing ingredients into the Kitchen Aid while it is running. BUT, it is also long overdue, since I am positive that it would reduce my stress level immensely... Or so I was thinking before I started this little project. I did not want to bake cookies, since I had just brought in the Lemon White Chocolate Macadamia cookies earlier this week, and I didn't want to make Brownies again or get involved in a cake with icing and filling and decor. I decided on "quick" chocolate silk tarts.

Notice that "quick" is in quotes...? Yeah, cause they should have been, but the whole thing has turned into a multi-night process now, and I think I would have been better off with the cake.

This is what I get for grabbing a recipe off the net and running with it. Granted, the recipe comes from a cooking mag (I will not say which one, because I am about to go off on them) Some cooking mags really need to have test kitchens, I think, as this is not the first time something along these lines has happened. Let me explain...

The step in the recipe involving the addition of butter made me do a double take. Being all to familiar with Citrus Curd issues, I should have known better. I usually add the butter at the beginning to ensure there are no chunks of unmelted butter, or worse... to keep the Curd from separating or "breaking". Well, since the recipe was from a cookbook, I went ahead and followed it. Yeah, trusting fool that I am.... It separated.... BUT, I had made a mistake myself before hand, when I had added the chocolate, so I chalked it up to my own mistake and no fault of the recipe instructions.

I made it again... mind you, since this is for work, I have to double the recipe to ensure there is enough for everyone.... So I have now used 1/2 gallon of Heavy Cream, 2 dozen Eggs, 2 Tonga Vanilla Beans (grrrr) and 1 1/2 lb of 70% Chocolate.

Well, I added the butter... at the end.... again.... After following the steps VERY carefully this time... the stuff STILL separated...!!! ARGH!!!!

When will I LEARN, I should have followed my initial instincts. My theory is that the water in the butter is causing the chocolate to seize within the custard. But it's only a theory.
Either way, always melt the Butter with the Cream during the scalding phase.
DO NOT add it at the end or you run the risk of a custard break.......

I DID manage to save it, cause I had already wasted enough ingredients the first time. I am sure the texture will be more like dobby silk than, say, dupioni, since I was never able to run it through a sieve to remove any little cooked egg bits. I was too busy trying to get it to rebind after it broke, to do that. A stick blender is your best friend in situations like these... Seriously.... I poured off as much of the "oil" as possible (I am sure there was some cocoa butter mixed with that too) and took the stick blender to it for about 3 minutes trying to get it to rebind.

It seemed to work... Keep your fingers crossed. Tonight I get to make the crusts and fill them. Woo Hoo! I think I am over it at this point, but I am not going to waste all those ingredients. And I STILL have to figure out what to do with 2 dozen egg whites... OYE!!

Individual Chocolate Silk Tarts

16 oz Heavy Whipping Cream
1 Vanilla Bean, split and scraped
6 TB Granulated Sugar; divided
6 large egg yolks
1 1/2 TB Cornstarch
6 oz Bittersweet Chocolate, roughly chopped
2 TB unsalted butter, room temperature
Cocoa powder for dusting

In a small bowl, combine egg yolks 3 TB sugar, whisking to combine.

Add Cornstarch and whisk until completely smooth and velvety, set aside.

In a small saucepan, combine the Heavy Cream, Vanilla Caviar, Vanilla Pod and 3 Remaining TB of Sugar. (And the Butter)

Cook over medium-low heat, stirring regularly, just until it begins to steam, but don’t let it boil.
Remove the Vanilla pod and add the chocolate, whisking continuously until it is all melted. (This is where I messed up the first time, I didn't add the chocolate and skipped to the next step)

Add 2 TB of the warm chocolate mixture to the egg mixture to temper it.

Then, whisking continuously, slowly add the egg mixture to the pan.

Cook, still whisking, until thickened. (This is where I added the chocolate the first time)

Once it thickens (do not let it boil), remove from heat.

Add the butter and whisk until it is melted. (I didn't take any pics the second time, up until this point)

(Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!) Because THIS is what happens.......

If it does, (sigh) drain off as much of the separated fat as possible...

Grab your stick blender and BEAT it into submission!!!

Pour the filling into your prepared shell(s) and place a piece of plastic wrap directly against the surface of the filling, refrigerating for at least 3 hours and up to 48 hours.

OR --

Simply lay plastic on the surface and chill until needed (up to 48 hours)

I will be completing this tonight but making a sable tartlet crust.

Mangia!!
~~