Rhubarb Meringue Tartlets with Pecan Shortbread Crust

Even though spring has decided to be something of a tease this year, we’re charging ahead with the seasonal desserts here in the 4oz Kitchen. The only food that declares, “Spring has arrived, you clowns!” more than rhubarb, to me, is asparagus; however, working that ingredient into a dessert seems almost as foolhardy as trying to make a chocolate cake with beets, and we all remember how that turned out (okay, that beet cake was six kinds of awesome, but I don’t want to press my luck in the roulette of vegetable/dessert combos). So we'll save the asparagus for next time...perhaps in a savory scone or popover of some sort. As for this week, rhubarb will suffice.

A few weeks ago, Emily Hilliard wrote about a rhubarb meringue tart on Nothing in the House, and I’ve been hankering to try it ever since. The long holiday weekend afforded me enough time to make my dreams a reality (and to write in stultifyingly bland clichés…but can’t my vocabulary take a vacation too?).

I’ve been acquainted with rhubarb as long as I can remember. We had a tired, old rhubarb bush, planted by my great-grandparents, living next to our cottage up north, and in the years when it could muster enough chutzpah to produce a few healthy stalks, my dad would always use them to make pie. Now, this year, he’s already made a few of what I’ve come to consider his signature dish, so I think even if Emily hadn’t written about it, I’d ‘ve felt compelled to keep up with family tradition and crank out some sort of rhubarb-related pastry, but I’m really excited about the finished result of this particular recipe. While usually the word ‘curd’ is not one that immediately appeals to the palate, this one is a jaw-dropper...in the good way.

Ingredient line-up for the pecan shortbread crust.

First the dry ingredients and pecans go into the food processor, followed by a generous helping of cold butter.

A few more pulses and our dough is ready to be wrapped and chilled. Recipes often instruct dough to be made into a ball before wrapping, but if I know I'm going to be rolling it out later on (versus just piecing it into the pan), I like to go for a disc shape instead. This, along with letting the chilled dough stand at room temp for about 10 minutes before touching it with a rolling pin, generally makes the whole process go much more smoothly. 

The tart crust baked under foil and pie weights for 20 minutes and then uncovered for another 10. I had enough dough to fill all six of my mini-tart ramekins with a good thick crust and then had enough left over for three 4-oz jars as well. (Somebody may have gotten a little overzealous with her fork-hole-piercing of the crusts -- rest assured there were absolutely NO ripples or bubbles from unreleased air in these shells when they were done baking.)

Once the crusts came out of the oven, I set them aside to cool and worked on the filling. Three cups of diced rhubarb, which came from about 1 1/4 lbs of stalks, yielded 1 1/2 cups of puree. I didn't realize how much water the rhubarb itself contained until it began to cook down. With the help of my new immersion blender, the pureeing part of the curd was quick and easy. Said blender was purchased just recently after months if not years of hesitation. But Meijer was having a sale, so I think the universe was trying to tell me it was time to take the plunge already. Definitely no regrets so far.

Making curd is a stressful process, or at least an absorbing one. You’ll notice there are no pictures taken during this part of the recipe. This is because as soon as the rhubarb puree was finished and back on the stove top, the curd-making process began, and I was busy watching for lumps and whisking in yolks and monitoring the temperature to keep it at-but-not-above-185° F (sidebar: a couple of years ago I bought a candy thermometer. I wouldn’t say I use it often, but it’s definitely proven its worth in clutch situations like this).  However, all of the labor was worth it. Much like Willy Wonka’s paradigmatic snozzberry wallpaper, this rhubarb curd actually tastes like rhubarb. Or, more specifically, since rhubarb by itself is intensely, unpleasantly tart, it tastes like rhubarb pie filling. Eating this dessert is like having the exact flavor of rhubarb pie transported to the middle of a buttery, pecan-and-orange-zest-infused shortbread crust and topped with a fluffy, sugary cloud. The result is sensational. 

Once the tart filling was finished and had time to cool to room temperature, I scooped it into the shells with my trusty giant melon-baller (or ice cream scoop...whatever) and popped it into the fridge to set for two hours. Before scooping, I did have to add some pink food coloring to the curd to bring it back to a shade more reminiscent of rhubarb since the egg yolks added a decidedly yellow tinge when they were whisked in. 

While the tarts were in the fridge, I washed and sliced about a cup of strawberries and got my meringue ingredients ready. I opted to include the strawberry layer between the curd and meringue on some of the tarts because rhubarb + strawberry is never a bad combination. This was not a bad addition, but I was almost loath to add anything to distract from the flavor of the tart filling. The real motive behind this choice is the fact that when you buy strawberries, they demand to be used within a certain, fairly slim window, and mine were edging toward the point of no return, so on they went. I'm a little embarrassed how long I took painstakingly arranging my berry slices in pretty patterns on top of the tarts before I realized they would all be covered in meringue in the end. I like to think they tasted better for the extra TLC, regardless.

Five egg whites make meringue in abundance. I had a good bit left over, and in retrospect I wish I’d committed 100% to the thing and heaped my tarts even higher to use all of the topping. 

It took quite a bit of trial and error with various instruments before I found the best way to apply and then fancify the meringue so it would brown in a decorative way. Pro-tip: start with the butter knife, then use the spoon to finish; ditch the spatula entirely. Also, the historians in the audience should take a moment to notice the spoon used here. I was recently given the privilege of inheriting the silver owned by the same great-grandparents who planted the rhubarb in the first place. The spoon pictured is one of Clyde and Elma Taber’s very own. So that’s pretty boss.

When they came out of the oven for the last time, my meringue had toasted to a golden brown and the kitchen smelled like rhubarb pie, which told me I'd done something right. 

I finished this recipe pretty late at night, so once they were cool, I put all the tarts back in the refrigerator to keep overnight, and then rewarded myself with one for breakfast. I'd finished almost the whole thing before I remembered I had an obligation to pause and document for my readers. There is no better companion to morning coffee than a good pastry. And these aren't just good, they're sweet, tangy, light, fruity, and bursting with bright, springtime flavor.   

Rhubarb Meringue Tart with Pecan Shortbread Crust
Slightly modified from Nothing in the House

For the crust:
1 c. pecans, roasted
1 3/4 c. all-purpose flour
1/3 c. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
9 Tblsp. butter
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
zest of one small orange

For the filling:
3 c. fresh rhubarb, diced
1/4 c. + about 1/2 c. water  (extra ½ c. may not be necessary)
1 1/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. cornstarch
1/4 tsp. salt
5 egg yolks (save whites for meringue)
3 Tblsp. butter, cut into chunks

For the meringue:
5 egg whites
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1/4 c. sugar

Directions

For the crust:
1. Combine roasted pecans, flour, sugar, and baking powder in a food processor and pulse until pecans are finely ground.

2. Add cold butter chunks to the pecan mixture and process until mix is the size of small peas.

3. Add egg, egg yolk, vanilla extract and orange zest and pulse just until dough begins to form.

4. Remove pastry dough from the food processor, form into a disc and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Chill for at least one hour and up to 1 day.

5. After at least one hour, preheat oven to 350 degrees F and lightly grease and flour the bottom and sides of a 9-inch tart pan or six 4 oz ramekins. Remove the dough from the fridge. Let it sit for 5-10 minutes, then place a sheet of waxed paper over the disc and roll it out to about 1/8” thickness.  If rolling isn’t your thing, Emily says you can also just press it into the bottom and sides of the tart pan. The bottom crust should be slightly thicker than the sides.

6. Pierce bottom and sides with a fork and then place crust in the freezer for about 10 minutes so butter can re-chill.

7. Remove, line with parchment paper and pie weights, then bake for about 20 minutes or until edges are light, golden brown.

8. Remove pie weights and bake for 5-10 more minutes. Take from oven and let cool.

For the filling:
1. Combine diced rhubarb and 1/4 c. water in a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Let cook until rhubarb is soft and begins to break down.

2. With an immersion blender (or a stand blender), purée until smooth and set aside to cool slightly.

3. Once cooled, pour into a 2-cup measuring cup and add enough water to bring purée to 1 1/2 c if necessary. Then pour the rhubarb mixture back into the saucepan.

4. Add sugar, salt, and cornstarch to the purée mixture and cook over medium heat until it begins to thicken. Whisk constantly to prevent lumps.

5. Add in egg yolks, whisking after each addition.

6. Continue to cook until mixture coats the back of a spoon, or reads 185° F on a candy thermometer.

7. Remove from heat and stir in the butter. Let cool to room temperature. Once cooled, pour filling into pie crust, cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for about 2 hours.

8. If desired, slice strawberries and arrange them in a thin layer over the filling before topping with meringue.

 For the meringue:
1. Once filling has chilled for 2 hours, and you’ve added strawberries if you want, preheat oven to 375° F.

2. In a medium mixing bowl, mix egg whites and cream of tartar on high until egg whites begin to form medium peaks.

3. Continue to beat eggs, gradually adding in sugar. Again continue to beat eggs until they are glossy and can form stiff peaks.

4. Spread over rhubarb filling, making sure the meringue seals the edge of the pie. Use the back of a spoon to curl meringue decoratively.

5. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until egg whites begin to brown. Serve chilled, at room temperature, or alongside a cup of coffee.

Bittersweet Brownies with Salted Peanut Butter Frosting

I was planning on making a glorious-looking rhubarb meringue tart this week to compensate for the gaping chasm of radio silence since the last post, but this is Michigan after all, and there’s nary a stalk of rhubarb to be found this time of year, at least not in the groceries and farmer’s markets I scoured. So instead you get brownies (#SorryNotSorry).  Also, last month I packed up my life and moved, like, 10 whole miles down the road, so I feel like my new house and I have at least a semi-legitimate excuse for this lapse in posting (she bashfully excuses herself).

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Anyway. Today’s recipe was originally posted on TheKitchn as part of a Valentine’s Day series featuring a cookbook by Ashley Rodriguez called Date Night In. But personally, I think the chocolate-peanut butter combination is too good to be relegated to yearly pseudo-holidays, so I’m making it on May Day Eve.

As I skimmed this recipe’s ingredient list, it boded well from the outset by being pleasantly low on eggs and flour and promisingly high on butter, sugar, and chocolate. So I assembled the requisite ingredients and dove in. I liked this recipe for lots of reasons, one of the main ones being the fact that I had everything on hand before making it (espresso powder notwithstanding...but that's an optional ingredient so, you know). That hardly ever happens in this kitchen.

The steps for this recipe were simple and straightforward. After browning the butter and combining it with the chocolate, I just whisked, scooped, baked, and frosted. And once they were cool, of course I sampled.

Sidenote: As a new baker, I remember being intimidated by recipes that called for browned butter because it sounded like an ingredient that took finesse and expertise to produce. It is not. The Kitchn’s directions offer a nicely low-brow tutorial, and they don't even use the phrase “browned butter,” but instead jump right into describing the process used to achieve this ingredient (Can you put butter in a pan over medium heat? Can you wait patiently for 5-7 minutes? Can you tell the difference between the color yellow and the color brown? Then you can make browned butter).

Dry ingredients, sans espresso powder, ready to be sifted and incorporated at the proper juncture.  

Here is the mixing phase. About 20 stirs was all it took to sufficiently blend the wet and dry ingredients.

I used my ½ cup ice cream scoop (or is it meant to be a giant melon baller? I've never been entirely sure) to fill the jars, and then baked them for 30 minutes. Later, I would realize that I ought to have used more jars and filled them less, so the bake time would be lowered accordingly in that situation. The smaller portions would also have been better since both the brownies and the frosting are super rich. Tangent: We're reading Romeo and Juliet in the freshmen English class that I teach, and we just studied the scene where, in warning the young protagonists to love moderately and cautiously, Friar Lawrence observes, "The sweetest honey / Is loathsome in his own deliciousness / And in the taste confounds the appetite." He might as well have been talking about these suckers. Also Valentine's Day, love, tragedy, eating chocolate - it's all connected!

Freshly baked brownie babies. Quite large brownie babies, actually…

Not quite the same as cooling in a Heritage Hill, Victorian house window sill, but it’ll do.

Also, LOOK AT ALL THIS COUNTER SPACE, YOU GUYS. All the boxing and unboxing and [insert annoying details of moving here] was not for naught. Window sill trade-up was probably worth it. Probably.

Final Reflections: Doesn’t everything good in life always come down to proper proportions? Sigh. So, as I mentioned before, these guys rose more than I thought they would (even though I took the recipe’s note and added two eggs instead of three to prevent excessive airiness). But c’est la vie. Next time I would add less batter to each jar to leave plenty of room to put on a good half-inch of frosting on top without having it reach too far past the edge of the jar. I mean, I still put a half-inch of frosting on this batch, but I also ended up with some awkwardly tall pastry towers. Next time I’ll know better.

Bittersweet Brownies with Salted Peanut Butter Frosting

From Ashley Rodriguez's Date Night In

Makes 12 to 15 brownies or 9 brimful 4oz jars

For the Brownies:

3/4 cup (170 grams) unsalted butter, plus more for the pan
3 ounces (90 grams) bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 1/2 cups (300 grams) granulated sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs - or use 3 if you like lighter, less dense brownies (read: if you're a dessert heretic)
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon instant espresso powder (optional)
1/2 cup (40 grams) cocoa powder
1/2 cup (70 grams) all-purpose flour

For the frosting:
6 tablespoons (85 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup (100 grams) smooth peanut butter
1/3 cup (40 grams) confectioners’ sugar
1/2 teaspoon flake salt

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325°F, and grease an 8-inch square pan (or 10-12 four ounce glass jars)

Line the pan with parchment paper so that a couple inches hang over the edge. Then grease the parchment (or spray the jars with non-stick cooking spray - I use Trader Joe's Coconut Oil Spray)

Brown the butter, meaning…

Place the butter in a medium saucepan and melt over medium-high heat.

Allow the butter to cook until the milk solids bubble up and then settle into the pan and caramelize.
Swirl the butter in the pan in order to see the color of the little bits on the bottom.

As soon as the milk solids are golden and the butter smells nutty, about 3 to 5 minutes, remove the pan from the heat.

Pour the browned butter into a medium bowl and add the chopped chocolate.

Let stand for 1 minute to melt and then whisk together, then whisk in the sugar and vanilla while the butter mixture is still warm.

Stir in the eggs, salt, and espresso powder until well blended.

Over the bowl with the chocolate mixture, sift in the cocoa powder and flour.

Fold the ingredients together until just combined using a spatula.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan or scoop into the jars, filling each about 1 inch high and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle pulls out clean.

Let cool to room temperature.

With an electric mixer, whip together the butter, peanut butter, and confectioners’ sugar in a large bowl.Continue to mix until everything is well combined and the frosting has lightened in color.

Frost the cooled brownies and finish with the flake salt.

If the brownies are too fudgy to cut, refrigerate for 30 minutes and then cut. Let the brownies sit at room temperature for 10 minutes before serving.

Brownies can be made 1 to 3 days in advance. The frosting can be made up to 1 week in advance.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

I like to watch the show Project Runway (she admits sheepishly). Every season they have one episode where the challenge is for the designers to create an Avant Garde look. This outfit is supposed to be exaggerated and conceptual, to push the boundaries of innovation and creativity. The Avant Garde look is meant to impress and inspire on the runway during fashion shows, but it’s not expected to be practical; it is free from the obligation of translating to everyday street wear.

In my opinion, today’s dessert falls in the category of Avant Garde baking. A friend told me about the concept a couple of weeks ago, and the idea kept lurking around the corners of my brain until I finally gave in and, after a few more clarification questions to said friend, tackled it (If I get diabetes next week, we all know who to blame). Anyway, about the Avant Garde thing: the finished product of this endeavor, this tower of cookie and frosting, sure is pretty to look at, and with nine layers and about five gallons of icing, it definitely pushes many boundaries (granted those include boundaries of rationality, wisdom, and caloric-intake...but pioneering nonetheless), yet ultimately, this creation is more of a showpiece than a practical dessert; one person could never eat one piece of this cake – even the tiniest sliver – on their own.  I had to quit after about four bites when I took my first sample piece this morning, and historically I have a freakishly high tolerance for rich, sugary things. I think I’m also a little disappointed with the flavor balance of the dessert because I really, really like a good, authentic chocolate chip cookie, so for me, the cream cheese frosting was more of a distraction than anything else.

The recipe I used was adapted from Martha Stewart. Her version made 5 thicker layers. I squeezed 9 out of the same amount of batter. I also used a different frosting recipe since a few of the comments on the cake found fault with the original. The frosting I ended up making (recipe here) worked out well. I liked how it held its consistency at room temperature, and the whipped cream tempered the intensity of the cream cheese nicely. That being said, less would still have been better, especially toward the top layers when I realized how much extra frosting I was going to have and, instead of deciding to save it for later like a logical person, I decided to start globbing it on so I could use it all. Poor choice, Taber, poor choice.

To prepare and bake he cookie layers, Martha said to use a spatula to spread the raw dough into 8-inch rounds. I found that laying down a piece of waxed paper on top of each lump of batter and using my hands to shape the discs was much more effective. My silicon baking-sheet liners also came in extremely handy to keep the finished cookies from sticking to the pan when I transferred them to wire racks to cool.

Like I intimated before, the next time I make this recipe I would be much more conservative with the application of the frosting – just adding enough to get the layers to stick together, and I would also adjust the frosting recipe to use less sugar since the cookie is sweet enough on its own.

I hope I haven’t griped too much. This was a really fun recipe to make, and I’m sure my friends and co-workers will be happy to help me chip away at Cookie Cake Mountain over the next few days before it collapses entirely under the weight of its own frosting. 

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

adapted from Martha Stewart

For the Cookies:

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp salt

12 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened (I doubled Martha's suggestion, because: America)

1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar

3/4 cups granulated sugar

3 tsp pure vanilla extract

2 large eggs, plus 2 egg yolks

3/4 cup heavy cream

3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (mini chips work best for thinner layers)

For the Frosting:

2 8oz. packages cream cheese at room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar (use more or less to taste; this is half what the original recipe called for)

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

2 cups heavy cream

The will power to not use all of this frosting if you don't really need to. Seriously.

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Put butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer with paddle attachment and beat at medium speed until pale and fluffy. Mix in vanilla, eggs, and yolks. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in a little at a time, alternative with the cream. Mix until all ingredients are incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips by hand.

Divide batter into 3-4 portions. Wrap each in waxed paper and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Work with one portion at a time. Use a pastry cutter to divide each portion into 2-3 sections. Place each section on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicon baking mat. Put a loose sheet of wax paper over the section and use your hands to press the dough into an 8-inch disc. Peel the wax paper off when you're done and use it for the next section. These will have to be done in batches depending on how many baking sheets you have and how big your oven is. Leave waiting dough in the refrigerator so it doesn't get soft and difficult to work with in the meantime. 

Bake each disc until edges are pale golden brown, about 10 minutes. Bake time will vary depending on how many discs you bake at once and how thick you've made them, so watch the first batch carefully and adjust as needed. After the first 10 minutes, remove partially-baked cookies from oven and use an offset spatula to gently reshape the dough into a uniform circle. Return to oven and bake for 8-10 minutes more until edges are golden brown and center has set up. Gently remove from baking sheet and lay on wire rack to cool. Finished discs can be stored in an airtight container for up to 1 day. 

Once the cookies are all cooled completely, make the frosting. Combine the cream cheese, granulated sugar, and vanilla by mixing on medium until all ingredients are incorporated and texture is fluffy. Transfer the mixture into a large mixing bowl and wash the stand mixer's bowl. Use the whisk attachment to whip the heavy cream until stiff peaks form. Gently fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture by hand. Do not over mix.

To assemble, spread a thin (THIN, people!) layer of frosting over all but one of the discs, then stack them as evenly as possible. If the sizes aren't exactly the same, then clearly you've failed and should never lift a spatula again. No, seriously, try to put the larger cookies on the bottom for stability. Extra frosting can be used as a garnish, and I shaved about 2 oz. of 78% cacao chocolate over the top for visual appeal. 

Let the cake (is that the appropriate label for this dish? I keep calling it 'the tower' or 'the mountain' when I describe it to my friends) sit for at least an hour so the cookies can soften a little (they'll soak up some of the frosting) to prevent crumbling when you cut into it. Then slice and serve. It's extremely rich, so use small portions.

The frosting doesn't need to be refrigerated to hold its consistency, so leftovers can be kept at room temperature or refrigerated.

Raspberry, Rose & Chocolate Cakes

Happy Winter Storm Warning. After a few mild, sunnyish days, February is clearly here to remind us that winter is far from over. I made this recipe yesterday, and while the ice crystals were swirling around in the frigid gales outside my window, there was no place I would rather have been than in my toasty kitchen with the oven on. And I hear there was some kind of football event that happened last night too?  And Valentine’s Day is right around the corner? Lots of reasons to stay indoors and eat cupcakes.

With sweet raspberry and a hint of rose, the flavors in this recipe provide some much-needed reminders of spring.  The directions come from April Carter’s book trEATs, which was also the source of the Almond and Earl Grey Teacup Cakes I made it November. Those were pretty stellar, so the bar was set accordingly high for yesterday's endeavor.

First, I had to adapt the recipe slightly because I didn’t have raspberry jam on hand. Of course I’ve got four other kinds of jams, all open and half-eaten, sitting in my fridge. But no raspberry. Perusing my other options, I immediately rejected the rhubarb-hibiscus and decided that the apricot preserves were a last resort. I found myself torn over whether to use blackberry jam or the strawberry preserves I made from scratch last summer (they were frozen until a couple weeks ago - don't panic). Thankfully, I quickly remembered that this is America, the place where football ends with brawling and there is always a way to get out of making difficult decisions. So I used both. Okay, that's kind of a lie. The blackberry was my definite first choice, but when I opened the jar there were only a few tablespoons left, and it ran out after four cakes, so I had to utilize my second and then third string options (and that is the first and last time I will ever use a sports metaphor on this blog; clearly the Superbowl has wormed its way into my subconscious. Gross). 

The recipe in trEATs does a nice job giving its list of ingredients in metric and imperial measurements. And I've said this before, but measuring ingredients by weight makes so much sense in terms of consistency between bakers. However, because I'm not as used to thinking in terms of weight, I have kind of a terrible time estimating how much of each ingredient I'll be using. For instance, I imagine that 2oz of cocoa powder isn't very much - maybe a couple of tablespoons? Oh no. Here is what 2 oz of cocoa powder looks like. A veritable mountain of chocolate. 

All that cocoa powder made a smooth chocolate paste for the base of the cupcakes.

The recipe was a little vague about how to combine all of the ingredients. While I'm definitely a fan of the ol' dump-and-mix, I chose to be a little more deliberate with the order in which I put things together, just in case, you know? First, I added the milk to the butter/sugar mixture, then into that I folded the cocoa paste, and finally I slowly added the dry ingredients, which I'd already sifted together. 

The recipe made one dozen cupcakes, which fit perfectly into my jars. I did have to add time onto the baking to accommodate for the glass containers. Mine baked for about 25 minutes and turned out nicely - crisp on the tops, but moist inside. Sidebar: I'd like to give another gold star to Trader Joe's for making a cooking spray with coconut oil. I feel very trendy AND healthy when I'm using this. Much better than your basic Pam spray, in my opinion.

The tops came out a bit knobbier than I’d have liked. I considered shaving them down a bit so the frosting would look rounder and less…pointy, but ultimately decided against it on the grounds of wasting not wanting not. Thank goodness America is also a land of helpful proverbs.

Shout out to Science for providing man with the capacity to invent (and re-purpose) tools that make it easier to put holes in things. Apple corer, cupcake corer? Tomato, tomahto. 

After they'd cooled and been cored properly, I ended up filling my cakes with blackberry, strawberry, and apricot jams. (That's right, I ran out of the strawberry back-up, too. Normally I'm not such a fly-by-the-seat-of-her-pants baker. I should have run to the store right at the outset and just bought a jar of raspberry jam, but I took the snowstorm as an excuse to stay in and fake it). 

The frosting was a simple butter cream with a healthy dose of pink dye added in. I used rose water instead of rose extract, so I had to increase the amount to around a teaspoon. This ingredient can be dangerous because it's such a recognizable and potentially intense flavor, but I was cautious while I added it in, and ultimately I really liked how the rose aroma brought out the floral elements in the jam fillings. In other words, the risk was totally worth it. Also, usually I'm not one for artificial colors in baking, but this time the smell/taste combo made sense - desserts that taste like roses ought to be pink, damnit. 

So, the recipe advised me to decorate the cakes to look like flowers. That's a tall order for someone who still uses ziploc baggies with the corners cut off as her pastry bags. I was able to fumble out some kind of cactus-meets-peony-maybe kind of shapes, and my friend Emily suggested that the one in the back left looks kind of like a brain. Clearly I'll need more practice before I make (and decorate) this recipe again. Also keep in mind I only took pictures of the GOOD ones to show you guys.

Raspberry, Rose & Chocolate Cakes

from trEATs by April Carter

For the Cakes:
2 oz cocoa powder (about 1/2 cup)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
4 fl oz boiling water
3 3/4 oz (7.5 Tbsp) unsalted butter
2/5 cup superfine sugar [possibly condescending note: 2/5 cup is between 1/3 and 1/2 cup]
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
2 eggs
1 2/5 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 fl oz milk

For the Filling:
4 Tbsp raspberry jam (or the fruit preserve of your choice. I also feel like I used a lot more than 4 Tbsp, so make sure you have extra)

For the Rose Buttercream:
4oz (8 Tbsp or one stick) unsalted butter
2 cups confectioner's sugar
2 tsp milk
3 drops of rose extract (I used 1 tsp rose water; add more or less to taste)
claret or pink gel food coloring

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Set liners in a 12-hole cupcake tin or spray your 4 oz jars with non-stick cooking spray.

Mix the cocoa powder, vanilla extract, and boiling water in a small bowl until combined, then set aside to cool.

Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugars (about 3-4 minutes). Add the eggs one a a time and beat well after each addition.

Into a clean bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, and salt, and stir to combine. Add milk to butter mixture and then fold in chocolate paste. Finally, gradually mix in dry ingredients. Scrape down the sides of the bowl (or use one of these...so cool!) to make sure all of the ingredients are well incorporated, then scoop the mixture into the cupcake liners or jars. Fill containers about 2/3 full.

Bake for 18-20 minutes for normal cupcakes or 23-25 minutes for 4 oz glass jars (or until a skewer inserted into the middle of one of the cakes comes out clean).

Remove cupcakes from tin and set on a wire rack to cool.

To make the buttercream, cream together butter and sugar, then add milk, rose extract or water and beat for 3-5 minutes until mixture is creamy and light. Add food coloring a few drops at a time until desired color is reached.

Once the cakes have cooled, cut a small, cone-shaped piece from the top of each (or use an apple corer to gently remove the centers of the cakes). Fill each hole with a teaspoon (or more!) of jam and top with the cut-out piece.

Pipe the rose buttercream onto the top of each cake using a large star tip (or your trusty ziploc bag). To pipe a rose design, start piping from the center of each cake and spiral outwards (then hide the results of all of your mess-ups from your friends).

Cover and store in the fridge for up to 3 days. Any leftover buttercream can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.

Speculoos Ice Box Pie

Though this recipe is called an "ice box" pie, that does not mean it isn't perfect for wintertime. What it does mean is that the recipe involves very little baking, since the filling sets up in the freezer rather than the oven. Incidentally, the cool, creamy texture of the finished product also pairs well with warm beverages like cocoa or coffee. And chocolate is good any time of year, right?

Now, let's pause a minute so I can evangelize for Speculoos Cookie Butter. It was no accident that I set it in a sunny window for its picture, so you could more easily envision a halo and angle chorus combo while you look at it. This addicting little product is only available at Trader Joe's. It is the consistency of peanut butter (smooth and crunchy varieties are both available), but made by grinding Speculoos cookies into a very find powder. And you know what Speculoos cookies are, even if you think you don't. Have you seen the Dutch windmill-shaped ones? With the sweet-meets-spicy gingery flavor? Those are them. So this butter has ingeniously found a way to make eating cookies even easier and more delicious. Awesome.

I'm following Emily Hilliard's recipe from Nothing in the House. This recipe also appears as the December entry in the cookbook she published with illustrator Elizabeth Graeber, Pie: A Hand-Drawn Almanac. The recipe book features twelve pies, one for each month, along with delightfully whimsical images to accompany all of the ingredient lists and baking directions.


The pie has three easy steps, each with no more than a handful of ingredients. Honestly, adding anything to hide the flavor of the Speculoos from this pie would be a mistake. Easy Step One is making the crust. To do so, I put a whole package of Oreos into a food processor, added some butter to the crumbs, pressed my delicious cookie-dirt into a pie pan, and baked it. This is the only oven use required in the entire recipe. I was a little confused when Emily's recipe directions said to mix butter and sugar into the cookie crumbs, yet sugar wasn't on the list of crust ingredients. I used only butter and Oreos, and mine turned out well. I did keep the filling in the oreos, since the recipe didn't tell me not to. To aviod any confusion, they also sell pre-baked chocolate cookie shells at most grocery stores, but I like this method better since I always have to eat a few Oreos to test their quality.

When the crust is done, it sat in my window sill to cool while I assembled ingredients for the filling. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you the Dream Team of pie filling items, that, when mixed in proper proportions, will yield nothing short of an otherworldly substance: Speculoos cream filling. 

I mean, cream cheese and whipping cream are already two of my favorite ingredients to bake with, and when they work together PLUS have magic cookie butter added to them, watch out. 

So the cream cheese and Speculoos go together with a hand mixer, then I used a stand mixer to whip the heavy cream, vanilla, and powdered sugar into whipped cream. Then I just had to fold the whipped cream into the Speculoos mixture and the filling was done. 

I keep wanting to use Emeril's annoying "Bam" catchphrase at the end of my sentences to emphasize how easy this pie is, but my inner quality-control sensor won't let me. Also, if you ever catch me saying "Yumm-o" about anything, I have to jump off a bridge. Just fyi. 

So, here is the end of Step 2 where the filling is unceremoniously dolloped into the cooled pie crusts. 

The fresh pies need to set in the freezer for at least half an hour, which is plenty of time to prepare Step 3 - the ganache. For this step, I deviated from the original recipe’s instructions because they seemed unclear about what kind of chocolate to use – 60-70% dark chocolate is not the same as unsweetened. Then the recipe said to add sugar, which would make sense if I’d used the unsweetened chocolate, but since I was using  70% dark, it was already sweetened to where I wanted it. All of this made me a little skittish, so I went to my tried and true method for making ganache: I chopped the chocolate and put it in a heat-safe bowl (here I also added the salt per the recipe’s instructions…this was also something I’d omit in the future), then I heated the cream until it was just about to boil before pouring it over the chocolate and covering it bowl for 3-5 minutes. After 5 minutes, I uncovered the mixture, whisked it until it looked like ganache, and drizzled it over my pies. Everything turned out except for the excessively salty flavor of the chocolate, so, again, I’d omit that ingredient in the future and just make normal chocolate ganache here. The darker the chocolate the better, since the pie filling and crust are already a pretty sweet combination.

I forgot to take a picture of the ganache-making early stages, but use your imagination to picture chocolate covered in warm cream underneath this towel. And then the finished product in all its overly salty glory. 

When the pies came out of the freezer and I drizzled the ganache over their tops, I was satisfied with how they both looked and tasted (salty chocolate notwithstanding). These get a high score for their appearance and flavor and they're low on the difficulty metric. Now if only Trader Joe's would build a store in Grand Rapids so I could make them more than once a year. 

Speculoos Ice Box Pie 
(adapted from Nothing in the House)

For the Crust:

1 package Oreos (or chocolate sandwich cookie substitute)

3 Tblsp. butter, melted

For the Filling:

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

1/2 c. powdered sugar + 2 Tblsp.

3/4 c. Speculoos

1 c. heavy whipping cream

1 tsp. vanilla

For the Chocolate Ganache:

3.5 oz. 60-70% dark chocolate roughly chopped

1/2 c. heavy cream 

Directions for the Crust:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Pulse cookies in a food processor until they form a fairly fine powder

Mix in melted butter until well incorporated

Pat filling into a 9 or 10-in. pie plate (I used six small ramekins).

Bake crust for about 7 minutes, let cool, then put in the freezer while you prepare the filling.

Directions for the Filling:

 In a bowl, mix the cream cheese and 1/2 c. powdered sugar using a hand mixer, about one minute.

Add 3/4 cup Speculoos Cookie Butter and beat until very smooth and creamy, about three minutes

In a separate bowl, beat 1 cup heavy whipping cream, vanilla, and 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar until stiff peaks have formed- approximately 3-4 minutes

Starting with 1/3 of the whipped cream mixture, fold the whipped cream into the Speculoos mixture. 

Once it's combined, add the remaining whipped cream to the Speculoos mixture, folding gently until thoroughly mixed

Pour the mixture into the cookie crust and freeze pie for about 20 minutes, meanwhile, make the chocolate ganache. 

Directions for the Chocolate Ganache:

Chop chocolate and put it in a heat-safe bowl

Heat cream over medium heat until it’s just about to boil

Pour the cream over the chocolate, cover with a towel, and let sit for 3-5 minutes

Whisk mixture until both ingredients combine to a glossy, chocolate texture

Drizzle the ganache over the chilled pie and place in the freezer for at least 1 hour

Remove pie from freezer about 20 minutes before serving and serve while still slightly chilled.

Salty Honey Pie

I made this pie more than a week ago, but 'tis the season for hectic schedules, so you're only getting to see it now. The inspiration for Salty Honey Pie came from a conversation with some old friends whom I had the pleasure of catching up with over Thanksgiving weekend. My friend Kat told me about a(n apparently famous) pie shop in Brooklyn called Four & Twenty Blackbirds. She raved about their salty honey pie and piqued my interest in their pie recipe book which I immediately added to the top of my Amazon Wish List. Lucky for me, the shop owners had recently shared the recipe for this particular pie in an interview with the South Brooklyn Post (read the interview and get the original recipe).

So we begin. A couple of the ingredients were tricky to find. For some reason (perhaps the fact that it was right after Thanksgiving), my local grocery stores were all out of flake sea salt. And I'd never heard of vanilla paste before. If I'd thought ahead, I could have ordered some online, but this recipe was a spur of the moment kind of thing (typical), so I improvised with vanilla bean seeds and flake kosher salt.

This is what I like to call a “One Bowl” recipe – cousin to the one-pot meals you see all the time in Real Simple, but more generous in the sugar-fat-salt department.  When all the mixing was done, the batter looked pretty much like what you’d  expect a raw custard base to be: frothy and golden and very soupy. But after baking, my recipe (reprinted below) promised I’d see my pies “puff up like marshmallows” before setting. So at this point, my hopes are high. I pre-baked the crusts and then filled 'em up.

The recipe made enough batter for six 4 ounce pies in my mini-tart dishes and a bonus pie in the half-sized pie dish I bought at a craft show this fall (also featured in the Szarlotka post when I had extra apple pie filling that needed a home). All of these pies used a full crust recipe - top and bottom.

I stuck to the recipe and baked my 4 oz. pies for 20 minutes. This may have been a little long since they were so small, but I watched them carefully, and the centers seemed really wobbly until the very end, while the recipe said they'd be "just slightly" wobbly when they were done. The larger pie was still really wobbly after 20 minutes, so I left it in for another five. In retrospect, I may need to redefine my understanding of what 'wobbly' looks like, because these pies were definitely on the far side of done when they finally came out. In fact, the batter seems to have seeped through the holes in the crust (from piercing them with a fork while they pre-baked) and carmelized, making a sugary cement that made it extremely difficult to remove some of the little pies from their dishes. Or perhaps I was just over-eager to get to the taste-test stage of this recipe. Anyway, this happened...

In the end, I had a plate of scraps that tasted delicious but decidedly did not look like pie. Luckily, a couple of the pies held together through the removed process and ended up looking pretty handsome. 

And the half-pie stayed in his dish, which definitely helped. So let's just pretend they all came out looking like this one. 

This pie is extremely rich and sweet. The recipe recommends serving it with whipped cream, which I second. It would also pair nicely with a strong after-dinner coffee (or an early morning coffee if you're the type who likes to start the day with a caffeine/sugar one-two punch).

Salty Honey Pie from Four & Twenty Blackbirds Pie Shop

Preheat oven to 350 F

Have pre-baked one 9-inch pie shell of your choice (I recommend Emily Hilliard's Nothing in the Hosue Pie Crust. Always).

For the Pie Filling: 

½ cup butter - melted

¾  cup white sugar

2 Tbsp white cornmeal

¼  tsp salt

¾  cup honey (lavender- or ginger-infused honey would be an excellent upgrade here)

3 eggs

½  cup heavy cream

2 tsp white vinegar

1 tsp vanilla paste (or 1 tsp vanilla extract, or seeds of 1 whole vanilla bean)

1 or 2 Tbsp flake sea salt for finishing (Maldon is a good choice)

Directions

All of the mixing can be done by hand or with an electric mixer.

Melt butter and combine with the sugar, salt and cornmeal to make a thick paste. 

Add the honey, vanilla and vinegar and mix together.

Fold in the eggs, add the cream and blend.

Pour the filling into a pre-baked pie shell and bake at 350 F for 45 to 60 minutes.

The filling will puff up like a marshmallow and the center will be just slightly wobbly (or very wobbly. Take it out anyway).

Once cooled at least one hour, finish with a sprinkling of flake sea salt. Slice and serve with freshly whipped cream. (Recipes for whipped cream: from Martha or Alton)