Turning out Tarte Tatin

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Here it is. The moment of truth.

You manage this, and your two hours of hulling produce, reducing caramel, kneading pastry, and trying to improvise an airtight turkey baster will (maybe) be rewarded spectacularly. If you mess it up, not only is your desert ruined, but you're risking everything from the fate of your glass cookware to personal injury.

All you have to do to unlock the (potential) glory of your exquisitely crafted dessert is to upend a heavy cast-iron pan filled with scalding liquid onto a breakable platter wearing padded mittens that wouldn't look out of place on an Eskimo.

But boy is the result worth it.

I present la tarte tatin.

Here's the basic methodology behind a tarte tatin: start by making a simple caramel out of butter and sugar (um, yum) in a stovetop saucepan. You delicately arrange an interlocking starburst of apple slices onto the bottom of the pan and then heap the thing with as many apples as you can physically stack. You cook them into tender submission, basting them in lemon juice and sugar until the entire filling is rendered with delicious caramel. Now here's the interesting part: once the apples are done baking, the pie crust goes on top of the filling; you cover the fruit with a circle of dough and bake the entire production in the oven until the crust browns and hardens. At that point, you flip the entire dessert so that the crust is actually on the bottom of the tart. Prepare for the moment of truth!

According to the fantastical land of error-free modern baking media, the tarte tatin is a masterpiece of foresight wherein the baker meticulously blueprints and lays out her fruit on the base of the pan (the top of the tart, remember?) and the final release is an all-or-nothing revelation of the success of the original vision. Here's an example of what television says an outturned tarte tatin should look like:

According to real life, your carefully organized design of lemon-coated crescents have likely already been prodded aside by your turkey baster, smashed by the adjacent layer of apples, and in all probability glued to the bottom of the pan by that lovely caramel you created.

Here's what a real outturned tarte tatin looks like.

But never fear! With a spatula and a delicate pair of fingers, you can put your tart back together like nothing happened. I promise. If you don't believe me that retroactively reconstituting your tarte tatin is valid baking practice, just ask Julia Child. After watching this chef turn out her own tarte tatin you will feel much better about your own kitchen!

(Thank goodness for Julia Child.)

This was my first time making tarte tatin, and this recipe came out gorgeously. I think the trick is making sure that each component--the caramel, the apples, the crust--are all cooked properly in their turn, even if you have to cook them for longer than strictly called for, and the tart just eventually comes together compliantly.

My mom loves tarte tatin, and by her declaration, this dish was the best tarte tatin she has ever tasted.

(Which is a good thing, because it means I'm allowed to keep buying butter and getting flour all over the kitchen. Phew!)

Here's the recipe!

More Pumpkin, and More Pie

What would Thanksgiving dessert be without pumpkin pie?

(Well, delicious, but that's besides the point.)

Each year my family makes two pumpkin pies (because let's be honest nothing gets the rush of gratitude flowing like extra dessert :D). The idea is that by gorging ourselves on pumpkin on Thanksgiving and the approximately two days it takes to polish off the rest of the pies, we'll probably make it to the next Thanksgiving and its promise of pumpkin pie.

Unfortunately, whereas making food is a Thanksgiving tradition, processed food seems to be something of an American tradition. Last year I was a little troubled to find out that pumpkin pie was one of the most pre-processed items that leaves my house. Not only did we use pre-packaged pie crust (the horror, right? how are you supposed to brag about that), but my mom directed me to the recipe on the outside of the pumpkin can. Like couldn't between me and my mom and my aunt and my grandma and the Internet we scrounge up something a little more original?

Evidently not, because I ended up using the same on-the-back-of-the-can pumpkin pie recipe again this year. Because it is really good.

But I could not find it in myself to forgive the pre-made pie crust...so I made my own. The dough is really simple and when you do chill it properly (yes, I learned my lesson) it turns out really good. It has no shortening in it because half of them are carcinogenic and the other half were not avaliable at the grocery stores my mom visited in the three days leading up to this project. And it was actually very flaky, and I will explain why below :)

Pecan Pie (without gelatin, of course)

I have an incentive for everyone to read my blog.

And that is, when I make a recipe, I can tell you honestly which instructions you need to follow, and which ones you don't. We want to bake, not wade through a set of directions that could fill a small pamphlet. I can think of maybe one recipe where the outcome is materially benefitted by sifting the flour beforehand, and a good dozen where dumping all the ingredients in the bowl together in no particular order produces a quite lovely batter, thank you.

Well when I made the crust for this pecan pie it was 9:30 on the eve of Thanksgiving and I did not want to wait for my dough to chill for an hour before I rolled and baked it, so I rolled and baked it on the spot.

So you should chill your dough before baking it.

Pretty much what happened is that A) my dough did not roll out as neatly and B) my shell was not sturdy enough, so when I poured in the filling I got leakage. (Sorry to dissappoint, but I didn't take pictures of that part.) The filling is really runny before baking, because its pretty much composed of eggs, sugar, and melted butter. The leak stopped up soon enough once I put the pie in the oven.

Patchy crust :(

It is a testament to this amazing recipe that the finished product still looked stunning, but in the interest of avoiding a crispy corona around the base of your pie, I recommend chilling your crust.  Just follow the instructions below!

Thanksgiving!...and more importantly, pumpkin bread

You know what that means...an excuse to put aside homework to spend all day baking inedible amounts of dessert!

My grandma was handling the main meal, which means my household was responsible for providing dessert. Which is just how I like it :D

Between us, my mom and I managed two pumpkin pies, a pecan pie, four loaves of pumpkin bread (with and without chocolate chips--more on that later), chocolate chunk and macadamia nut cookies, and a plate of pucharata (is that spelled right?)--essentially Croatian doughnut holes. They're good.

(That's how you know.)

I did the pumpkin bread and the pies along with the crusts (storebought pie crust? please), which explains why my mom thought Thanksgiving was so relaxing this year.

I started with the pumpkin bread. The chocolate chips were at the request of my uncle, who vehemently exhorted of me (and a week ahead of time, too!) that I make pumpkin bread WITH chocolate chips and-don't-forget-the-chocolate-chips! So I ended up making four loaves of pumpkin bread--two with chocolate chips for my uncle, and two regular for my family. I was kind of skeptical about the chocolate and the pumpkin, but all too willing to try it because remind me what doesn't taste good with chocolate? Unfortunately, the chocolate ended up overwhelming all taste of the spices, so in defense of the delicate spice-based appeal of traditional pumpkin bread, I advocate for leaving out the addition. (Don't think this means I'm not in favor of chocolate in breakfast food: that will be forthcoming.)

Besides, the normal version looked prettier ;)

I've made this recipe once before, and both times it has come out wonderfully. If you're not in the mood for bread, I recommend upping the sugar content and making muffins/ cupcakes, which you top with fresh whipped cream. Delicious.