Spiced Chocolate Ganache Fig Tart

D Ed

I hope that everyoneefd dcr had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We had a glorious time, friends, family, neighbors, everyone united around two table put together to enjoy a magnificent feast that my father put together. My mother had us decorate the table with porcelain statues of turkey, oyster bowls full of grapes, and mismatched vintage table cloths. In true holiday spirit Michael and I helped out with the meal, but made our own personal contribution of dessert.

We are so accustomed to pumpkin pies or pecan pies this time of year, that we decided upon making a simple cold chocolate spiced dessert, in the form of a spiced chocolate ganache tart topped with caramelized figs. I don’t think it gets more decadent than this!  

*To cheat on the crust, you can also buy pie crust mix, and add one egg, and three table spoons brown sugar.

*Take about 2 and a half hours.

Pie Crust:

3 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 egg
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling
1 cup (2 sticks or 8 ounces) unsalted butter, very-cold, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
6 to 8 Tablespoon ice water

Ganache:

12 ounces bittersweet chocolate
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ¼ cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons cinnamon

Caramelized Figs:
8 medium to small sized figs
½ cup brown sugar
2 Tablespoons honey

This tart is incredibly easy, and it is velvety and delicious. It is nothing short of decadent. You will make the tart in three steps; start with the pie crust, the ganache, and then caramelize the figs.

Mix the dry ingredients together in a food processor pulsing to mix. Next add cold butter and mix about 8 times until butter is broken down. Now add ice cold water 1 tablespoon at a time, then brown sugar, then egg. Take dough out of processor and flatten and then place in refrigerator for up to one hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, remove dough from refrigerator, and roll out until it is about an 1/8 of an inch thick. Lay over a 9 inch round tart pan, and press down to fit the fold, piercing the bottom about 10 times with a fork to allow steam to release from underneath the dough. Place in oven and bake about 15-20 minutes or until the dough turns golden brown.  Once done, remove and let cool completely.

For the ganache, place cream in a medium sauce pan and chocolate in a large bowl. Boil the cream, once boiled pour the cream, through a sieve (or strainer) into the chocolate. Mix together until there are no lumps in the chocolate. Next add vanilla and cinnamon, and make sure to mix together completely. Next pour the chocolate into your cooled pie crust, and place in refrigerator and let set for about an hour.

For the figs, slice cut both ends of the figs off, and then split into quarters. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. In a bowl, mix together the figs, honey, and half of the brown sugar, making sure you coat all of the figs. Now lay the figs out on a baking sheet evenly, and sprinkle the rest of the brown sugar on top, and place in oven. Bake for about 30-40 minutes, or until the figs are soft to the touch. You can even taste one, and test for sweetness, and no bitterness. Once the figs are done, remove from oven and let cool completely.

To serve all you need to do is pile the figs up in the middle of the tart and take out of the tart mold. Enjoy! The mix of the chocolate, cinnamon, and figs is a combination that will be a crowd pleaser and hopefully will become a tradition for years to come!

Summer Fruit Fall Jam

Michael and I went to Colorado in the beginning of August to visit some friends and check out a door to door organic delivery company they have called Mile High Organics. Something we were really struck by was that our friend Brian has this beautiful range of things he has pickled, jarred, jammed, you name it. When we went to stay with another friend, he was so kind to give us a delicious jar of Colorado cherry jam, and I realized there is just something really beautiful about preserving a specific taste that you can use throughout the year. Many of the fruits of the summer are coming to an end, and it is a perfect time to preserve them before they disappear. Just think, when it gets cold and you are drinking your tea, you can enjoy some of this jam and re-experience those wonderful tastes of summer.

What we recently learned is the difference between jelly, jam, and preserves. We made jams and preserves because I want to honor the fruit in its entirety and incorporate as much of it as we can.

Jelly: The fruit comes in the form of fruit juice.
Jam: The fruit comes in the form of fruit pulp of crushed fruit.
Preserve: The fruit comes in the form of chunks in a syrup or jam.

We made strawberry jam, peach jam, nectarine brandy preserve, and cherry almond preserve. Along with the recipe, we also included below a few suggestions of how to use each of these. At the end of the recipes we included the Ball canning link where you can follow the proper instructions of how to can things, otherwise your food will not properly preserve. So be sure to check out.

Ingredients:

Strawberry jam:
2 Lb strawberries
1 ½ cup sugar

Peach jam:
2 Lbs. peaches
1 ¼ cup sugar

Nectarine Brandy preserve:
2 Lbs nectarine
1 ½ cups sugar
¼ cup brandy

Cherry Almond preserve:
4 cups cherries
1 large lemon
½ cup white sugar
½ cup brown
1 tsp. almond extract

Strawberry jam (as photographed) is amazingly good with rosemary thyme bread, a little blue cheese, or and stinky cheese and a slab of jam.

Peach jam is delightful with a simple high tea spread with some scones.

This nectarine preserve makes a great base in a nectarine tart. Place in the tart shell, and under the fruit. Yum.

Of course cherry preserve is always a favorite of ours in between cake layers. A classic, and never failing.

Strawberry Jam:
Cut the green off of your strawberries and chop in half, and crush half of your mix of strawberries. In a large sauce pan pour all the strawberries and sugar and heat to a boil on a medium heat. Cook for about 10-15 minutes until the mix starts to thicken while stirring every minute or so.

Peach jam:
We leave the skin on the peaches because it adds a nice texture, so simply pit and chop the peaches. Place the peaches and sugar in a sauce pan and on medium heat bring to a boil. Using a masher, mash up the peaches as they start to soften, stir every few minutes for about 10- 15 minutes as the mix thickens.

Nectarine Brandy preserve:
Leave the skin on the nectarine, pit, and chop. In a sauce pan bring the nectarine and brandy to a boil over medium heat. Add half of the sugar mixture, and stir. Let nectarines soften and using your masher, mash them. Add the other half of the sugar, and stir. This preserve takes a bit to thicken up, so you will need to cook it for about 20 minutes, and may need to skim off some foam.

Cherry Almond preserve:
De-pit and chop half of the cherries, leaving the other half as intact as possible. Cook the cherries on a medium high heat, and bring to a boil. Stir and add all the other ingredients, and stir for about 20 minutes until the mix thickens.

Now that you have made all of your preserves be sure to follow all the steps to proper canning because nothing would suck more than all your hard work going to waste!!! Enjoy this for the months to come!!

http://www.freshpreserving.com/Libraries/Homepage_and_FreshTools_Guides/StepByStepHighAcid.sflb.ashx

Fete De Bastille Stone Fruit Tart!

Bonne Fete D’Bastille! Why celebrate independence once when you can twice in the month of July. France celebrates their version of Fourth of July, July 14^th  ; we figure there is no better way to celebrate this French holiday than by baking a tart with some of the seasons best fruit. Stone fruits are at their peak during the summer months, and come in an array of gorgeous colors and flavors. In this recipe we use white meat peaches, nectarines, and black plumcots. From peach to plumcot, the fruit gets more tart and the skin gets darker, making for an array of colors with each bite.  Not only does the fruit create amazing flavor in your mouth, but the almond from the almond flour and almond extract brings that well rounded flavor similar to marzipan, and that richness cut against the fruit is spectacular!

Ingredients:

Crust:

8 Tbs. butter melted and cooled

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 Tsp. almond extract

1/4 Tsp. Vanilla extract

1/2 Tsp. salt

1 1/4 cup plus 1 Tbs. flour

Filling:

1 Lb. fruit- we used peaches, nectarines, and plumcots

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/2 Tsp. almond extract

1/2 Tsp. vanilla extract

2 Tbs. honey

2 Tlbs. almond flour

1 egg

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To start the whole process off, you are going to prepare all of your fruit, by washing, cutting, removing pit, and then slicing into smaller pieces. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Next you will prepare the crust by combining all the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. In another bowl melt the butter, pour into the dry mix, add the other wet ingredients, and combine together. Spread the crust mix and press down into a 9” pie crust mold evenly. Using a fork, make small holes all over the bottom of the crust, then bake for 10-15 minutes, until the crust becomes golden.

The following step is to make the filling. Using a fork, mix the egg in a bowl, then adding all other ingredients for the filling, but the fruit. Pour filling into the bottom of crust, then arrange fruit on top. Bake for 30-25 minutes, or until filling has set.

Remove, let cool, and dust with powdered sugar if it pleases you!!