Before I joined the Doristas, the pastry dough, Pâte à Choux, translated deliciously to éclairs, slender oblong pastries filled with tasty pastry cream and finished with delicious glaze. Then my neighbor, Michelle, an extraordinary chef, expanded my repertoire by helping me make gougères (FFWD, p. 4, 10-01-10), the classic French cheese puff made with the same dough.
Goat-cheese Mini Puffs – These puffs are good slightly warm, at room temperature or even slightly chilled. I served them with Sancerre, a food-friendly, delicate French wine.
This week I was delighted to make another savory cream puff, Goat-Cheese Mini Puffs, which would be a perfect addition for cocktail time. I often have supper with my friends, Cathy and Fred, who live just two blocks and three hungry bears from my Condo. (Yep, our resident bears, who appear after dark, are still trolling for food.) Since I would be leaving Aspen soon, Cathy invited me to break bread with them, giving me a perfect opportunity to share this week’s recipe choice. (Disclaimer: This week’s recipe was supposed to be Top-Secret Chocolate Mousse but I mistakenly made next week’s choice. Perhaps it was a Freudian slip since I will be out of the high-altitude by next week. Can’t imagine making a souffle at 8200′.)
Pâte à Choux dough, a cooked mixture of milk, butter and flour to which eggs are added. Then, once put into puffs, it’s baking time.
I arrived in Colorado five weeks ago not only to celebrate my husband’s life but also to bring closure to the past 26 years. Now, it’s all about the memories. What I didn’t realize was there would have to be decisions made, sooner rather than later, about the path ahead. To be truthful, no one is pushing or prodding me to do anything, it’s me.
The little puffs are oven-ready and will be baked at 375 degrees for 12-15 minutes. I needed the full 15 minutes to get them golden, firm, and puffy.
I always need to have A Plan. Organization is my middle name. Just love Lists. I thrive in a structured environment, with borders and roadmaps. For better or for worse, this is the skill set packed into my DNA toolbox. In fact, I once had a male friend who remarked, “I think I was put on this earth to make you spontaneous.”
Magic Puffs
Not too surprising, that friendship couldn’t last long! There probably is not one spontaneous bone in my body. My recent huffing and puffing about my “Make No Big Decisions for 12 Months” edict, is not going to happen. I knew I wanted to simplify my life. The first question was: What is that? And, the second question: How can I do it? Then, along came Atticus, a five-pound miniature schnauzer.
The filling, a mixture of herbed goat cheese, cream cheese and heavy cream is absolutely scrumptious. (tasty on Triscuits, too)
When I first got to Aspen, my friend, Jane, stopped by with a book, “Following Atticus, 48 high peaks, one little dog, and an entraordinary friendship.” “When you have time,” she said, “read this.”
Last week-end I finally did just that. “Following Atticus” is ultimately a story of transformation. It’s written by Tom Ryan, who, ironically, is a journalist also. By the time I finished it, my questions had been answered. I had a blueprint for the future. And, somehow, I would find the energy to bring it to fruition.
Next week I leave Aspen to return to Nevada for the winter………..with A Plan.
“The good of going into the mountains is that Life is reconsidered.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
To see how my colleagues who made the right recipe this week fared, go to our FFWD site.
Lacey (l) and Molly are just two of the many young people at The Gant in Aspen, where I live, who keep my life on-track. All of them are eager and willing food-testers. Both the girls liked the addition of mint to the apple jelly glaze. ” And Kiley (another Gant employee) doesn’t even like mint at all, Mrs Hirsch,” Molly told me. “She honestly cannot stand it, but she liked the minty flavor of the topping and thought it was really, really good.”
Yep, today’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe choice is a tart. To my thinking, however, there is nothing about this tasty dessert that looks tarty. As Dorie explained, “It’s so thin and crackly, you get to eat it out of hand.”
Have you ever met a tart that is “thin and crackly” ? What makes it so are multiple sheets of filo dough, each sheet carefully slathered with butter, piled in layers. This was my first experience with fragile, easily torn, uncooperative filo dough. Surprisingly, it was no problem.
Hold that thought……
As I was walking through the Cooper Street Mall in Aspen this afternoon, I spotted a one-to-two year old black bear, napping in a tree. This cub, in all probability, has been abandoned by his Mother who is more concerned right now about packing on 30 to 40 pounds of body fat to survive hibernation and give birth to the next generation of bears. This cub, who obviously cannot find enough food to eat, will probably not last through the winter.
Let’s talk Bear Business. Last week I returned to my home in Aspen to stay until Thanksgiving. This is a particularly lovely time of year because the fall color extravaganza is ending and there’s no snow in sight. Translation: no tourists. Although we love, adore, need and want tourists – we are a resort community, after all – every so often it’s nice to grab our town back.
This fall, more than ever, we are sharing our town with black bears. According to Colorado Parks & Wildlife, there are about 16,000 blackies in Colorado. Aspen is probably the epicenter of bear-human interaction in the state. This year, as the bears prepare for hibernation, needing 30 to 40 pounds of extra body fat for winter survival, they are more desperate than ever for food.
Colorado has been scorched by a summer of fires, the drought has destroyed the bears’ food supply and more homes are infringing into bear habitats. Serviceberry and chokecherry bushes as well as other natural food sources are being bulldozed under for development. Unable to find natural food sources, at night, these savvy and hungry bears wander into town, dismembering our crab apple trees and dumpster-diving into the ones that are unsecured. Although it’s against the law to leave dumpsters and garbage cans unsecured, every night five or six bears charge into downtown to scrounge for their daily rations. By day they sometimes hang in a tree, napping, in the heart of downtown Aspen.
An adult Colorado black bear can weigh anywhere from 150 pounds (a sow) to over 350-400 pounds (a male).
These guys even have their own Facebook page, Aspen Bears.
The little bear I saw this afternoon, dozing in a tree on the Cooper Street Mall, is probably an abandoned cub. It’s “survival of the fittest”, the mother’s harsh reality. She’s gone off to take care of herself.
Those of us who live here try to protect our bears. There are laws, strictly enforced, to make our county “bear-proof”. Once a bear, considered a nuisance, is tagged, the next naughty-bear report means euthanasia. As local writer Barry Petersen wrote, “ Most people in Aspen stay cool about it all, perhaps remembering that the houses and cars and streetlights are all late arrivals — that, in truth, it was the bears who for centuries have thought of this area as their home.”
The tart with its eight layers of buttered filo dough, almond cream and then, apples, ready to bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.
Thanks for allowing me a timeout for our wild animals. Now, let’s get back to the tart.
Luckily, this recipe for the Crispy, Crackly Apple-Almond Tart is here and I suspect if you try it, you’ll love it. I made the almond cream 2 days ahead and then brought it to room temperature before spreading it on the delicate filo dough. If you haven’t baked with filo before, it will not be difficult if you carefully follow the directions on the filo box and in Dorie’s recipe. I chose Braeburn apples to peel, slice and fan onto the tart base.
The tart, baked and glazed
Since I could not find apple jelly for the glaze, I used mint apple jelly and really enjoyed the additional slight minty tang. Although we ate this immediately, the tart can also be served at room temperature. Next time I might even dump a scoop of ice cream on top!
Peaches are plump, flavorful and at their peak now. It’s time for Peach Melba, our FFWD recipe for this week. Before I served it to others, I enjoyed my own personal taste test. Wow. Just, Wow.
Last Summer I ordered some lovely outdoor furniture, a settee, two large arm chairs and a table, for my back patio. When the UPS lady delivered it, in four lean and long boxes, I thought a mistake had been made. You know where I’m taking this story, don’t you?
My order arrived in pieces. Hundreds of bolts, screws, washers, doohickeys and thingumbobs in small plastic bags. There were sixteen flat brown wicker parts which looked familiar to what I had ordered. Oh, yes, included also, the hefty directions manual written in several different languages. It was all Greek to me. That was when I asked myself, “How far can I push the goodwill of my neighbors?” In the end, Ray and Dominick, my go-to guys who live nearby, spent an entire Saturday afternoon, stuck in my garage, putting together my new wicker furniture. Let me mention it was a 100-degree summer day in Nevada. Sweat poured off of them.
My Mitey Shopping Cart, waiting to be built.
So, you understand that when I had a teeny-weeny put-the-parts-together project before leaving for Colorado, I was hesitant to call on them. I had ordered a Mitey Shopping Cart to take with me to Aspen. I walk everywhere here and wanted to use the cart for the Farmers Market, grocery store, library, it’s just a handy thing to have. I had hoped it would arrive intact – no such luck. When I called Ray and he answered his phone, I was blunt. “Here’s the bribe,” I said, “I will trade you a Peach Melba for one Mitey Cart with wheels attached.”
“You’re on,” he replied.
As you’ve already guessed, Peach Melba is our French Fridays with Dorie recipe choice this week and was a perfect and tasty bargaining tool to use with those guys. It is drop-dead delicious. Peaches. Raspberries. Ice Cream. Whipped cream. Crème de cassis. Those are just the major ingredient players. The little guys, sugar, lemon zest, vanilla beans and toasted sliced almonds, also add to the makings of this dessert.
Glenn, another friend, Ray and Dominick (Lto R) presenting me with the finished project, a Mitey Cart with wheels. Time to bring on the Peach Melba.
While Peach Melba is not a difficult dessert to make, it is a multifaceted and timely process. It involves poaching, making two syrups, pureeing, straining seeds, toasting, and, if you wish, making your own ice cream and whipped cream. Since the late and great Auguste Escoffier , a French culinary icon, created the elegant Peach Melba for opera singer Nellis Melba, you’d expect the flavors to be complex and intense.
The good news is that Dorie’s recipe directions are, as usual, carefully and clearly written. We’re currently in the midst of peak peach season so I urge you to link to her recipe here and enjoy this yourself.
What I love about these guys is that they take their taste testing seriously. Before moving to Nevada, Ray and Dominick owned and operated a successful New York deli so they appreciate good food and are honest critics. As for Glenn, a wine connoisseur, he pulled all the various flavors from this dessert and tried to guess (correctly, I might add) the processes used to make them.
The taste testing trio – do you see how seriously they take their assignment? I adore this picture. As you can see, these are guys, so I traded the elegant cut-glass goblet for plain white bowls – it was really all about the dessert not the dish.
Not only was this a win-win situation for all of us, it was a wonderful farewell evening together with good friends before my departure to Colorado. Thanks, guys.
The USA Pro Cycling Challenge is competing in Colorado this week. Tuesday the route was 130.5 miles, involving two 12,000 feet ascents over Cottonwood and Independence Pass, and ended in Aspen. This morning I watched as they headed back over Independence Pass, destined for Beaver Creek.
If you’re interested to see what my FFWD colleagues made this week, go here. Betcha it was peachy.
“J’aime la galette, savez-vous comment? Quand elle est bien faite, avec du beurre dedans.”
The Berry Galette, up close and personal. The Tuesday with Dorie Baking with Julia recipe choice for this week.
French school children sing a silly, nonsensical tune about this week’s TWD/BWJ recipe choice, Berry Galette. Translated, the lyrics are,“I like galette, do you know how? When it is made well, with butter inside.”
This afternoon, as I was putting together what I considered a simple recipe, “est bien faite” , the “made well “ part, became a problem. My dough wasn’t coming together for me. Not at all. Frustrated, I combined the two small disks into one and tossed them back in the refrigerator.
What started as two, wrapped tightly and chilled for two hours, failed to live up to their task. Two became one and were returned to the fridge to “chill out”.
Next, I’ll even admit pulling out my “if all else fails” emergency back-up, hidden in my freezer: Trader Joe’s Pie Crust. Just couldn’t do it. Instead, I walked around our community’s Loop ( it was 106 degrees), huffed and puffed and returned to try again.
Thought about it. Seriously. Considered it. Seriously. Couldn’t do it.
My second attempt was successful and I managed to roll out one 11” circle that was about 1/8” thick, discarding the rest of the dough. After transferring it to a parchment-lined jelly roll pan, I spread blackberries, raspberries and blueberries, within two inches of the border. Then I sprinkled sugar, poured honey, and sliced butter over the fruit. I wrapped and pleated the dough to seal in the fruit (hopefully).
In the oven, pleated and wrapped.
Although my galette sprung a leak, my sleuthing suggests it’s quite difficult to not have seepage. Even master baker and cookbook author Flo Braker, who shared this recipe with Julia, believes a juicy galette is a well-baked galette as shown in her photo on pages 344-345 of our cookbook, Baking with Julia.
Whoops.
The only change I made to this recipe was substituting one-half of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour. To add more flavor, a small amount of Licor 43 could be poured on the fruit mix but I choose not to add more liquid this time. To see the full recipe go to the websites of our hosts this week: Lisa, http://tomatothymes.blogspot.com, who is from Ohio and Andrea, http://kitchenlioness.blogspot.com , who now lives in Germany. Andrea is also my colleague as a member of French Fridays with Dorie. To see if others huffed or puffed this week, go to http://tuesdayswithdorie.wordpress.com
Served warm, with a scoop of ice cream, Berry Galette is very tasty.
A lovely lunch or light dinner: Tomato-Cheese Tartlet with steamed, chilled lentils and baby beets lying on an arugula bed. In the spirit of full disclosure, while the adults enjoyed their lunch, Clara opted for macaroni-and-cheese.
French Friday turned into an oops! moment last week as the day swept by without our even realizing my Dorista duties were beckoning. Let’s put the blame directly where it belongs…..at the feet of the nine-year-old cutie pie who was visiting me.
Since her Dad and 11-year-old sister, were hiking/camping the Pacific Crest Trail last week, she and her Mom decided to jump in the car and dash over to Grandma’s house. Never mind Nevada’s 111-degree heat. Our days were jam-packed with back-to-school shopping, craftwork (beading), jig saws (three 500-piece puzzles), swimming, nutritious meals tilted by tasty, sugary treats, all interspersed with cheering on the Americans (and, the Brits) at the Olympics and playing Jeopardy! (It was Kids Week and Clara held her own against the eleven-year-olds and, unfortunately, also her Mom and Grandmother.)
Needing to roll out the thawed puff pastry to a 13″ square, Clara grabbed the tape measure to be precise. A grandchild after her grandmother’s heart.
But Saturday morning, we got busy, pulled the puff pastry out of the freezer, waved our wand and created Tomato-Cheese Tartlets, an easy but showy pastry concoction that highlights the seasonal tomato harvest.
The technique to be learned this week, to my mind, is in the puff magic. ( I would sooooo like to finesse some dragon allusions into this week’s Post but am refraining from the obvious.) “These tartlets,” Dorie explains, “are built on a base of puff pastry that’s been weighted down so that it bakes to a flat crisp. These flat, rather sturdy discs can be grown into whatever you have on hand or want to pile on top of them.
Using a bowl with a diameter of 6″ as a guide, Clara used the point of a paring knife to score and then cut out 4 rounds of dough.
For this week’s recipe, spread the baked, browned pastry base with tapenade or pesto. Then overlap circles of heirloom tomatoes with mozzarella dressed in olive oil or aged, drippy and languid balsamic vinegar. I preferred to let my cheese melt just a smidgen so I placed it in the oven for a few minutes before dressing it.
Lay the rounds on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper. Prick each disc carefully with a fork so the puff pastry won’t even think about puffing.
Place the cookie sheet with pricked rounds in the oven, cover the top with parchment paper before placing another cookie sheet on top to weigh the pastry down.
Pop a bit of basil on top. It’s lunch or a light dinner. It’s lovely.
By far the most difficult part of this recipe is deciding what to do with the puff pastry scraps. Wouldn’t it be a shame to toss those morsels in the trash? Clara and her mom decided to rescue the leftovers from such a fate. Using a crystal Lalique wine glass as her cookie cutter (Yes, I blanched at that but said not-a-word.), Clara made twelve pastry rounds, brushed each one lightly with melted butter, sprinkled them heavily with Grandma’s ample stash mixture of cinnamon-sugar-and-chopped walnuts and baked until brown and puffy.
One of life’s selfish pleasures, for me at least, is rescuing that last lonely piece of pie, (a leftover from the night before), grabbing a fork and with a fresh cup of coffee, calling it Breakfast.
BLUEBERRY – NECTARINE PIE
This week’s TWD/BWJ recipe choice was Blueberry-Nectarine Pie, a big-buxom double-crusted dessert brimming with seasonal fruits. As for the morning-after pastry? Never happened. Gone. Nada.
One-half the fruit filling with sugar, flour and lemon zest added is brought to a soft boil over medium heat on your stove top.
This recipe, which Julia baked at the elbow of Leslie Mackie, a California Culinary Academy-trained baker of some repute, is all about the fruit. Because the filling is cooked briefly on the stove top, you can adjust the fruits’ flavor combinations before the pie goes into the oven.
As Dorie explains it, that’s “a good idea and guarantee of success from pie to pie, no matter the sweetness, or lack thereof, of a particular bunch of fruit.”
Time to chill-out and take a nap in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.
Hilary and Liz hosted this week’s Tuesday with Dorie/Baking with Julia so check their amazing blogs for the complete recipe. Then I suggest you make these changes:
1. After combining the softly cooked fruit mixture with the uncooked half and cooling it to room temperature, strain the released juices/liquid into a small bowl.
2. If this is an “adult-only” pie, add 1/8 to 1/4 cup of Licor 43 (Cuarenta Y Tres) to the liquid. I met this light-bodied, sweet liqueur through food blogger Susan Lester who suggests it as a subtle punch to baked goods. Made from citrus and fruit juices, it’s flavored with vanilla and other aromatic herbs and spices, in total 43 different ingredients.
3. Return half to three-quarters of the liquid (with or without alcohol addition) to the fruit mixture. Save the remaining liquid for a smoothie (I could become addicted to Licor 43 Smoothies but that’s another Blog Post story.)
In the oven, lookin’ happy.
I used my tried-and-true crust recipe from my food processor pamphlet and baked this pie for 50 minutes until the crust was golden and fruit bubbling. Let the pie sit for an hour or two before cutting so both crusts have a chance to set.
Hold your breath. Cut the first slice. Smile broadly.
If you have a slice or two left, be sure to cover it tightly and stick it in the refrigerator. Fat chance of that happening…………….
Although there was juice seepage, my crusts never were soggy and each slice was intact for presentation. I think reducing the liquid by one-half was key to my pie’s success. This will depend upon the fruit used, however.
