This week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe choice is Pommes au Four, baked apples filled with fruits and nuts. My first thought? Who can’t bake an apple? In Iowa, when I was a kid, we picked apples at the local orchard, hauled them home and helped Mom turn them into sauce, pie, crisp, cake, salad and, yes, baked.
But readers, this is an apple like no other. In Dorie’s words, “Baked apples are less a recipe than a construction: you core some apples, stuff their hollows with dried fruits, nuts, honey and butter, and then slide them into the oven. Which fruits and nuts? It’s up to you. Cinnamon or no cinnamon? Again, your choice. Hot? Warm? Chilled. with heavy cream? No one will tell you definitely.”
made this recipe last week-end, just before leaving for California. I enjoyed it hot, warm and chilled, with crème fraîche. I even diced up the leftovers to use as a topping for my oatmeal. If you follow the recipe carefully, Pommes au Four are simple to bake and delicious to eat.
I baked my apples in Aspen but am writing this post in Cambria, my winter home for the next three-and-a-half months. Yesterday I moved into our family’s rental house and, admittedly am enjoying the roominess. Although I’ve made peace with my 940-square foot Colorado condo, this house is nice, quiet and, sorta like this week’s baked apples, a real treat.
My biggest treat, however, will be seeing my nearby family more often. In their last e-mails to me, Emma, my blond, 12-year-old granddaughter, announced the tips of her hair are now dyed pink! Her sister, Clara, who is 10, wrote that she is negotiating with the neighbors to rent hen space in their chicken coop. To my mind, my daughter, Melissa, who is their mother, has either lost her mind or loosened her grip. I need to check in on Family Place to find out. (If it’s the latter, Ms. Clara and I are going to go purchase one great big noisy hen.)
If you’re interested in seeing how other Doristas peeled their apples this week? Go, here.
What do a newly-retired airline pilot, a building contractor, a Chicago banking executive who’s also just retired and I have in common? Give up? We all thoroughly enjoyed, devoured and didn’t leave one yummy crumb of this week’s recipe choice, Whole-Cherry Clafoutis.
Dorie Greenspan’s Whole-Cherry Clafoutis
This dessert français, Clafoutis, is not without controversy. A dust-up over food? The French? As in a is-it-cake-or-is-it-pudding fuss? Bien sur.
“Technically,” Dorie explains, “clafoutis is considered a cake, but, as you’ll see, it’s more like a pudding, a firm, eggy, flour-based pudding that, when cut into wedges stands up straight on the plate.”
To begin, I settled a pound of whole, sweet pitted cherries snugly in a well-buttered, two-quart, deep dish container. Although in France it’s traditional not to pit the cherries – if you keep the pits the cherries retain more flavor and juice – that wasn’t an option I considered. Next, I whisked together eggs, sugar, flour, milk, cream, vanilla extract and salt. I poured my smooth, almost flan-like batter over the cherries and popped it into a 350 degree oven. Dorie recommends 45 minutes baking time. My clafoutis took more than an hour. You want firm, no jiggles.
Admittedly, this is not a sweet dessert. It’s, how do I explain this, just filled with goodness and completes a dinner nicely. If you want a sweeter clafoutis, and many prefer that option, look at Julia Child’s recipe which uses more sugar.
Karen and Ann ( l to r)
I was nervous about asking Karen (building contractor) and Jim (her husband and former pilot for Saudi Airlines) and Ann (retired Chicago banking executive) to join me for dinner this week. They didn’t know each other, both Jim and Ann are new to Aspen, and, if this small group didn’t click, it would be a loooong evening.
Not to worry, it was close to midnight when they left. Click. Click. Click.
Discussing the Pros and Cons of retirement. Although Ann’s was by choice, Jim, like all pilots, had to adhere to the mandatory age requirement. He’d rather be flying………..
I’m giving some credit to my delicious Whole Cherry Clafoutis.
A light dusting of confectionary sugar. Yes, I’m a bit heavy-handed with the CS but I love it.
If you’d like to make Dorie’s clafoutis dessert, here’s a recipe that’s closely adapted to hers. To see the clafoutis of my French Fridays with Dorie colleagues, go here.
Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table recipe book. Photo: Elise, Simply Recipes.
This week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe choice, a buttery sweet shortbread galette slathered with lemon curd and topped with seasonal berries, is a fabulous dessert which can be made by committee. Last evening at my house, six of us created this delicious cookie tart.
Sablé Breton Galette with Berries
When I moved back to Aspen in April, my neighbors and good friends, Fred and Cathy, suggested we get together once a week – on Thursday – for Dinner Not a Dinner Party. Cathy’s cousin, Ann, a newcomer to Aspen and my neighbor, was also game. Cathy suggested guidelines. Simple fare prepared by the host. Nice wine. To avoid talking about our health issues, golf, or other people, our host would e-mail a Question for dinner discussion. For example, the first DNDP question I proposed was, “What event most changed the course of history?” (My answer: Joseph Gutenberg’s invention of a printing press in 1440.) Everyone always has a different response- there are no rights or wrongs – that provokes further discussion. We’re surprised at the fun of these gatherings.
Le Sablé Breton: buttery shortbread cookie dough made into a Galette.
Since I was the host last night, I decided it would be fun for us all to put together this week’s recipe choice, Sablé Breton Galette with Berries. Earlier in the day I made the galette, a giant shortbread cookie formed in a 9-inch fluted tart pan. I purchased a jar of Wilkin & Sons TiptreeLemon Curd at Whole Foods (lemon curd and the high altitude don’t play nicely). I also bought blueberries, blackberries, strawberries and raspberries.
Because the lemon curd will spread, Dorie suggests leaving a 1/2 to 1-inch of the edge bare. Luky was a bit obsessive about lining this border.
Our friends, Luky and Gene, not only joined us for ham, black bean & quinoa salad and very tasty wine but also helped with the dessert. A picture is worth a thousand words so……..
Ann spread the remaining lemon curd and circled the tart with blackberries.
It’s Luky again, with the blueberries.
Did I mention, obsessive? Notice that Ann does throw on some blueberries.
Cathy loves raspberries. Serious business.
Gene puts both whole strawberries and halved berries on the tart.
Fred finishes it off with more blueberries and seeks approval from the hecklers.
A Job Well Done. (Might I add that all my friends are good sports.)
The question for the evening was, “What are five Objects/Things/ or Pieces of Equipment that have made the most difference in your life that weren’t around when you were born?” Our answers were as amazing as our dessert. My answers were: 1) All of Apple’s High Tech Equipment; 2) Garage Door Openers; 3) Pacemakers; 4) International Airliners like the 747, 777, Airbus and Dreamliner; and 5) Well-designed Sports Equipment, especially Helmets. Both Luky and Cathy voted #1, Blowdryers!
To see who my colleagues shared their desserts with, go here. If you wish to make this recipe (and, I suggest you try it), go here.
If I had tried to orchestrate this week’s French Friday with Dorie recipe scenario, I could not have done better. From beginning to end, it was the perfect storm.
Literally.
Springtime in Colorado
Today’s recipe is Financiers(fee-nahn-see-AY), tiny rich buttery cakes. created a century ago at a patisserie near the Bourse (the French Wall Street). These treats were popular with stockbrokers as pick-me-up, finger food.
What makes these exceptionally delicious is beurre noisette, (brown butter). Financiers require oodles of butter. When cooked to a golden brown coloring, it acquires a nutty flavor. NOTE: Go the extra mile and brown your butter.
Beurre Noisette, in the making…
One cup of sugar and almond flour, 2/3 cup A-P flour and 6 egg whites later, you’ve got batter ready to chill for an hour or two. Overnight is better.
Although the Financiers can be any petite shape, I only could find a mini-muffin tin in my moving boxes. I found gorgeous raspberries at the store. Thus, fruit Financiers. To celebrate my first week in Aspen, I decided to share the spoils with the young people manning our front office.
To those of you who have asked, The Gant, my new home, is an 143-condominium complex located in the heart of downtown Aspen. Built in 1975, each condo is individually owned. It is basically a resort rental complex with all the amenities and staff (100) that go along with that moniker. Most homeowners come for the summer, holidays and a week or two during the ski season. Only 8 other owners live here full-time.
Nine years ago, because of my husband’s health, we needed to escape the altitude, find a kinder climate and be nearer our kids. After selling our house and thinking we could at least enjoy the Aspen summers, I bought a condo here at The Gant. When it became apparent we couldn’t return, Donnie Lee, the general manager, promised me, since my hands were full, that they would take care of our condo. Whenever they needed to buy, build, install, improve, or change something in my place, someone would call to get my approval. They did the rest. Every year I’d return for 3 or 4 days to check in. That’s why I’m lucky enough to know all the staff and consider them family.
Mr. Lee, the Boss
Now back to the Financiers. After whipping up the batter Monday evening, I woke up early Tuesday to a raging spring snowstorm. Really? Wouldn’t warm little raspberry mini-muffins (the staff’s eventual name for my Financiers) be a tasty treat for the front desk staff who often work outside as well as in?
I filled the buttered molds with batter and raspberries and baked them 18 minutes until golden and springy to the touch. They popped out easily and, while still warm, I covered them carefully and pulled on my boots and heavy jacket to scurry over to the office.
Here’s what I can say about the Financiers. There is no photo because I didn’t have the heart to freeze-frame the staff’s enthusiasm, insisting they pose for this Post. However, with apologies to Roger Ebert, the bellmen each gave them a Ten-Fingers Up.
To see the absolutely gorgeous, fancier Financiers that my colleagues made this week, go here.
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!
This week’s French Friday with Dorie recipe choice, Spice-Poached Pears
Let’s play JEOPARDY:
Answer: Dorie Greenspan’s Spice-Poached Pears, this week’s FFWD recipe.
Question: How do you thank a neighbor who is driving you to the airport…..at 4 A.M……on a Saturday!?!
Mise en Place, so few ingredients yield such a tasty treat
This week’s recipe, cooked fruit, seems so basic, so un-special, a “why bother?”. Dorie describes this compote as “the simplest of French family sweets, and the most comforting too.”
After making a batch, even if cooked fruit wasn’t my idea of a palate pleaser this week, it tasted heavenly and refreshing. (That’s why Dorie writes the books and I only cook from them.) I picked Bosc pears to poach for this recipe. Really, it’s your choice because all kinds of fruits – apples, pears, plums, apricots, peaches, cherries, prunes, figs, kumquats – to name a few, can be simmered to tasty perfection.
Putting the syrup ingredients together, ready to boil and simmer. This spicy syrup recipe is a Keeper.
What I suggest is to link to Dorie’s recipe here and use her basic syrup recipe to create all kinds of delightful dishes. The sweet and fruity ingredients in the syrup combined with the spices of star anise, cinnamon sticks and vanilla beans, provide a lovely, flavorful and warm bath in which the fruit can bask.
Although the French, according to Dorie, usually serve their compotes with little more than heavy cream, crème fraîche or plain yogurt, I prefer the more-is-better approach. Embellish pancakes, waffles or French toast by spooning this spicy fruit on top. Ladle it over pound and angel food cakes, rice pudding or ice cream. With the right fruit combo, this would be wonderful with ham or poultry. Be even more creative than I am. Poach your taste buds gently, allowing your culinary imagination to run wild.
Papa Pear said to Mama Pear and the little Pears, “Where’s my warm, syrupy bath. I need a soak?” After poaching the pears in the syrup, gently remove the pears to a bowl and continue boiling and reducing the syrup for an additional 10 to 15 minutes before again pouring it back over the fruit.
I made my spicy poached pears midweek, pleased that they’d become a special thank you-treat for my neighbor and friend, Ray, who is taking me to the airport Saturday morning. Although the Hot Now sign isn’t even on at our local Krispie Kreme shop by 4 A.M., Ray, ever the good guy, never complains and, especially not after today when I gave him a bowl of spice-poached pears. Memo to me: Next time, double the recipe.
For the next two weeks, I will be in South America, joining a Tauck Tours excursion which begins in Santiago, ending in Rio de Janeiro. After traveling alone for five years, I find there are some trips that are far easier and safer to do with others. (Or, so my children say………) Tauck seems to understand the independent traveler. I can often turn left when they go right.
Because the celebrations for Chilean Independence Day begin this weekend, I am arriving early to watch the colorful festivities. With the assistance of guide Liz Caskey, I’ll have the opportunity to visit La Vega and Mercado Central, Santiago’s largest markets, following her virtual tour to experience the local foodie scene. As far as the South American culinary culture is concerned, consider me clueless. I hope to change that as I taste my way through these countries.
My Posts the next two weeks will be sporadic and, with appreciation, I am handing off my FFWD administrative duties to Laurie and Betsy. Perhaps, just perhaps, I’ll even catch up with our Argentinean Dorista, Paula, when I am in Buenos Aires. Stay tuned, please…….
Project Dinner Table, a charity event last Saturday in Las Vegas, where 175 people gathered to eat together, family-style.
My dinner partners for the evening, Todd Harrington, Executive Chef at Central Michel Richard at Ceasar’s Palace, and his assistant. Thousands of dollars were raised to benefit Safe Nest and The Shade Tree, organizations dedicated to aiding abused women and to the eradication of domestic violence.
