Apricot Tart

Apricot Tart
Source: Maida Heatter's Pies & Tarts (Andrews & McMeel Publishing, 1997 ed.), pg. 91.

Okay, so I had major difficulties with the crust portion of this recipe (Rich Flan Pastry) and ended up abandoning it altogether and used my go-to crust recipe which is NOT a Maida Heatter recipe. Confessions aside, this is delicious!

The recipe covers 4 1/2 pages in the book and is a bit daunting. However, a lot of it involves the typical details of a Maida Heatter recipe (being very specific about how to do everything), so after you have done many of these tasks a few times, it becomes old hat.

The filling, divine enough to eat as a breakfast treat, can be made days ahead and refrigerated. I made this three days before baking the tart and stored it in the refrigerator.

Filling

12 ounces dried apricots
2 cups water
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
Optional: 1 TBS. rum, cognac or kirsch (I used kirsch)
Optional: 2 TBS thinly sliced toasted almonds (I did not use) 

Soak the apricots overnight in the water.
Place the soaked apricots and water in a heavy saucepan. Add the sugar and mix.
Over high heat, stir the mixture until it comes to a boil.
Reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Uncover, raise the heat to high again. Stir constantly until the mixture begins to thicken and the apricots fall apart. This will take a while (almost 20 minutes for me). You can also slice the apricots as you do it with your spoon.
Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla and almond extracts and the optional liquor and almonds.

Pastry

I will not go into detail about the Rich Flan Pastry recipe. It was too sticky and fragile for me to use it. I thought it was because she says not to refrigerate it - I find that very odd. So, perhaps I handled the pastry too much. Anyway, here is a great pastry recipe that is not only fool-proof but also very delicious. Sorry Maida!

*2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
* 1 tablespoon sugar
* 12 tablespoons (1.5 sticks) cold unsalted butter, diced
* 1/2 cup ice water

Place the flour, salt, and sugar in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Pulse for a few seconds to combine. Add the butter and pulse 10 to 12 times, until the butter is in small bits the size of peas. With the motor running, pour the ice water down the feed tube and pulse just until the dough starts to come together. Dump onto a floured board and knead quickly into a ball. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. When ready to use, roll out on a floured board. Line a pie pan (or tart pan) with half the dough and set aside the remainder to use as a top crust.

Glaze (applied to top of tart before baking)


Beat together:
1 egg yolk
1 tsp water

Apricot Glaze (applied after baking and tart has cooled)

1/4 cup apricot preserves
2 tsp water

Bring the mixture to a boil and brush over the top of the tart.

Baking

Preheat the oven to 375 and butter a 9 1/2 x 3/4 inch flan ring. Place the flan ring on an ungreased cookie sheet. Adjust your oven racks with the bottom rack one third from the bottom and the second rack in the center of the oven.

Spoon the apricot mixture into the pastry shell. Cover with the other half of the pastry. Pinch the two crusts together around the perimeter with your fingers. Cut off the dough that rises over the top of the pan. Cut some slits along the top of the crust. Apply the glaze with a pastry brush. 

The additional dough can be used for decorative strips or other embellishments (I have a little dough cutter that cuts in the shape of leaves - really cute!)

Bake on the bottom rack for 30 minutes at 375. Reduce the oven temperature to 350 and move the tart to the center rack. Bake an additional 20-30 minutes until the top is browned slightly.

After baking, carefully remove the tart from the flan ring and allow to cool.

Brush with apricot glaze. Serve with vanilla ice cream!

Pumpkin Rocks

Pumpkin Rocks
Source: Maida Heatter's Cookies (Andrews & McMeel Publishing, 1997 ed.), pg. 86.

It is the season for pumpkin flavored desserts. In the past, I had tried Pumpkin Cake, Pumpkin Gingerbread, and Joan's Pumpkin Loaf. All of them are wonderful. I think this is the first time I have tried pumpkin cookies. 

Pumpkin Rocks, despite the name, are soft, chewy cookies (the name comes from the fact that they resemble rocks). They are not too sweet. The pumpkin flavor is delicate. The lemon glaze is optional (the cookies are great on their own) but the tartness of the lemon helps enhance them. If using the glaze, be sure to have it ready as soon as the cookies come out of the oven. This recipes makes about 48 cookies.

2 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp powdered ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp allspice
4 oz. (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
2 eggs
1 lb canned pumpkin (about 1 3/4 cups or 15 oz. can)
1 cup raisins
2 cups walnuts, in small or medium pieces

Preheat the oven to 375 and line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves and allspice. Sifting is great but whisking it all together works equally well.

Cream the butter and beat in both sugars. Add the eggs one at a time and then the pumpkin.

Add the flour mixture on low speed, beating until mixed.

Stir in the raisins and the nuts.

Use a rounded tablespoon (I use an ice-cream scoop) and place the cookies on the parchment paper. The cookies do not spread during baking so it is okay to put them fairly close together. Bake for about 16-18 minutes, until the tops bounce back when lightly pressed. Rotate the pans halfway during baking for even browning. 

While the cookies are baking, prepare the glaze.

2 TBS. butter, softened
1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
Pinch of salt
2 TBS. lemon juice
1 TBS. milk

Mix the ingredients together. The consistency should be like soft whipped cream. You can add more milk or lemon juice to adjust, if needed. 

As the cookies come out of the oven, brush them with glaze. Transfer to a baking rack to cool. Store in an airtight container.

Mocha Chip Chiffon Cake

Mocha Chip Chiffon Cake (Source: Maida Heatter's Cakes (Andrews & McMeel Publishing, 2011 ed., pg. 46-47).

After a long hiatus, I think I am ready to get back in the kitchen and back to some Maida Heatter recipes! The weather here is rainy and cooler which spurs me on. I had bookmarked this recipe a long time ago - it is a very light cake (similar to an Angel Food cake) with a wonderfully subtle hint of coffee flavor.

Overall, it turned out wonderfully well. One thing I would do differently next time is to chop the chocolate much finer. As she explained in her recipe, the chocolate chips will sink to the bottom if they are too heavy. I decided to use ready-made chocolate chips and they are too heavy. I did chop them a bit but next time I will use a chocolate baking bar instead. That minor flub did not affect the taste of the cake though.

3 oz. semi-sweet chocolate
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
1 TBS. instant coffee or espresso (I use Medaglia D Oro Coffee Inst Expresso)
1 TBS. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
7 eggs, separated
1/2 cup Kahlua or Tia Maria or other coffee-flavored liquor
1/4 cup cold water
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
Optional: confectioners sugar

Preheat oven to 325. You will need a non-stick tube pan, the type that has two pieces and which comes apart. Do not spray or butter the pan.

Chop the chocolate into pieces that are 1/4 diameter or less. As I noted earlier, I used chocolate chips and they were really too large, even though I chopped some of them. The larger pieces will sink to the bottom of the cake.

Sift together the flour, 1 1/4 cups of sugar (reserving the rest), the powdered coffee or espresso, baking powder and salt.

Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add the oil, egg yolks, coffee liqueur, water and vanilla. Whisk together until smooth. Use a large spatula to fold in the chopped chocolate. Set aside.

In a separate mixer bowl, beat the egg whites until they are foamy. Add the cream of tartar and beat on high speed until soft peaks are formed. (I always put my bowl and beater in the freezer for a few minutes to get them nice and cold. Always use the whisk beater for egg whites. Start out slow and gradually increase the speed until full speed). Reduce the speed and add the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar. Increase speed to high and beat again until stiff peaks are achieved. Beat for an additional minute to be sure the mixture is stiff.

In three additions, slightly fold in about 3/4 of the yolk mixture. Do not fold in thoroughly, just barely! Then fold the whites into the remaining yolk mixture, being a bit more thorough this time.

Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 1 hour and 10-15 minutes until the top springs back when pressed. The top will crack during baking. (It took 1 hour and 10 minutes for mine to bake)

After removing the pan from the oven, invert it on a narrow bottle and let it cool completely.

After cooling, use a long, sharp knife and gently run it around the rim of the pan and around the center tube. Carefully slide the pan apart and run the knife along the bottom of the pan under the cake. Remove the cake from the pan. If it is still sticking, use the knife to saw it carefully from the pan.

Use a flat pan, dish or I like to use preformed cardboard circles to plate the cake.

Sprinkle with confectioners sugar, if desired.

I think the cake needs whipped cream, ice cream or fruit to accompany it. We tried it with buttered pecan ice cream and it is delicious!

Raisin Oatmeal Cookies

Raisin Oatmeal Cookies
Source: Maida Heatter's Best Dessert Book Ever (Andrews & McMeel Publishing, 1997 ed.), pg. 239.

Taking advantage of a snow day to do a long overdue post! Oatmeal raisin cookies are a favorite at our house - our go-to recipe is the one on the Quaker Oats box. I came across this recipe from Maida and thought I would give it a try. It turns out that it is a bit different from the Quaker Oats recipe. There is no flour in this one and it contains peanut butter. They are delicious but quite different from the other. 

These cookies are very soft, chewy and wonderful. I used a large ice-cream scoop to make the cookies and they turned out really big. A few of them ran together during the baking process but they are easy to cut apart as soon as they come out of the oven. 

The only raisins I had in the pantry were golden raisins and I used those. I think golden raisins have a fainter flavor than the dark ones but they are fine here. I used light corn syrup and I omitted the mace. I have used it before as she calls for it often in her recipes but Michael tells me that it has an odd flavor. 

There are two variations to this recipe and I think they would both be excellent. One is Chocolate Chunk by adding semi-sweet chocolate and the other is Peanut Raisin Oatmeal Cookies which has peanuts added. 

2 cups raisins
1 stick (4 oz.) unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups smooth peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp dark or light corn syrup
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3 large eggs
2 tsp baking soda
scant 1/2 tsp. mace (I omitted this)
4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

Preheat the oven to 350 and line two large cookie sheets with foil.

Steam the raisins for about 10 minutes using a vegetable steamer or a double-boiler with a slotted pan.

Beat the butter until smooth. Add the peanut butter and mix well. Beat in the vanilla, corn syrup, both sugars. Add the eggs, one at a time. Add the baking soda. Mix well. On low speed, add the oats. Stir in the raisins.

Use a large ice-cream scoop or small measuring cup to scoop the mixture and shape the cookies. After depositing onto the cookie sheet, push them together with your fingers if needed (the mixture stays together well) and slightly push them down with a large spoon to slightly flatten. Place the cookies about 2 inches apart. I was able to put 8 cookies on each sheet.

Bake for 15-17 minutes. You can do two sheets at a time, just reverse the pans halfway through baking. Remove from the oven and let them sit for a minute or two before transferring to a wire rack with a large spatula. The cookies will be soft but they will firm up while cooling. They are delicious right out of the oven. After cooling, store them in an airtight container.

Zucchini Loaf from Seattle

Zucchini Loaf from Seattle (Source: Maida Heatter's Cakes (Andrews & McMeel Publishing, 2011 ed., pg. 214).

Since I am a new resident of Washington and I just picked my first zucchini, I thought it would be appropriate to choose this recipe for the July Cake Slice Bakers group. I did make a few changes, basically to cut down on the high calories and sugar content. First, instead of using 1 cup of oil, I used 1/2 cup of canola oil and 1/2 cup of applesauce. Second, instead of 2 cups of sugar, I used 1 cup of white sugar plus 1/4 cup of brown sugar. I am not sure how much that helped but it turned out delicious and was very easy to make. This is a recipe that I will go to again since the zucchinis do very well here.

I used a long, narrow pan (measuring 12" long by 4" wide). The cake took about 50 minutes in the oven.

Maida says this recipe came from a Seattle restaurant called E.A.T.

3 cups sifted all purpose flour
Scant 1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
3 tsp. cinnamon
1 lb. zucchini (to make 2 cups, shredded)
2 eggs
2 cups granulated sugar (I used 1 1/4 cup)
1 cup vegetable oil (I used half oil, half applesauce)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
4 oz. (1 cup) chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350. Butter or grease a loaf pan (with a 10 cup capacity or you can use 2 smaller pans). Sprinkle with bread crumbs.

Grate the zucchini in julienne-shaped slivers. Do not drain.

Beat the eggs just to mix. Add the sugar, oil and vanilla. Add the sifted dry ingredients and mix well. Add the zucchini and nuts. Mix with a wooden spoon.

Turn the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 35 - 50 minutes (baking time will depend on the size pan you are using). Bake until a tester comes out clean.

Cool in the pan for 15 minutes before removing.

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