Strawberry Tart with Limoncello Cream and Toasted Almonds

Well it's been two months since I've been missing in the blogging world... Did you notice?  :-)  I have a whole set of good excuses to give you for my absence but I'll spare you and instead, will share a good recipe... Bon Appetit!  Caroline

Strawberry Tart with Limoncello Cream and Toasted Almonds

Crust:

2 tablespoons sliced almonds, toasted and cooled

¾ cup flour

¼ cup powdered sugar

Pinch of salt

4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch cubes

1 large egg yolk

3 ½ tablespoons olive oil

  

Custard:

1/3 cup lemon juice

2 tablespoons Limoncello

½ cup milk

1/3 cup cream

Pinch of salt

1 large egg

2 egg yolks

¼ cup granulated sugar

1 tablespoon flour

1 tablespoon cornstarch

½ teaspoons vanilla extract

Tart:

1 ½ pints strawberries, stemmed

2 tablespoons red currant jelly

¼ cup sliced almonds, toasted

Preheat the oven to 425ºF.  Make the tart crust:  Pulse the almonds with flour, sugar, and salt to a fine powder in a food processor.  Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles a coarse meal with some small (roughly pea-size) butter lumps.

            Add the yolk and oil and pulse until just incorporated and a very soft dough has formed.

            Spread the dough evenly over the bottom and up the side of a 9-inch tart pan with removable bottom.  Chill until firm, about 30 minutes.

            Line the shell with parchment paper and fill with pie weights.  Bake the shell for 10 minutes.  Remove the parchment paper and pie weights and bake another 5 minutes or until golden brown.  Transfer to a rack to cool completely, about 30 minutes.

            (May be made the day before and kept covered at room temperature.)

            Make the custard:  In a small saucepan, bring the lemon juice, Limoncello, milk, cream and salt to a boil. 

In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg, egg yolks, sugar, flour and cornstarch.  Whisk in the hot lemon mixture and return to the pan.  Bring back to a boil, whisking constantly, and boil for 1 minute.  Remove from the heat and whisk in the vanilla. 

Pour the custard into the prebaked tart crust and cool.

Arrange the strawberries on top of the custard, cut side down. Sprinkle the almonds in between the berries.  Heat the red currant jelly and brush over the berries. 

(May be made 3 hours ahead and kept refrigerated.)

Serves 6-8 

Swiss Chard, Apple and Almond Tart

This all started when I was a kid in St-Martin-de-Vesubie, a small village in the French Alps.  My mom and I spent every August there hiking, relaxing by the pond and spending time with friends that I only saw once a year.  I loved that place when I was growing up.  My mom would let me have Nutella whenever I wanted and she was delighted I liked the local Swiss chard tart.  It was one of those rare occasions when she didn't have to push green vegetables on me.  A similar dish she liked to prepare for me was the zucchini tart which originated from there as well but that's another blog...

So when I started to grow Swiss chard in my own backyard some 30 years later, it was time to try to replicate the infamous Swiss chard tart...  After several tries, I came up with this recipe.  I think the combination of the apple and almond with the chard brings me back to St-Martin...

The recipe is for a 9-inch tart pan but like you can tell from the pictures, I've made it into a rectangular pan and also several smaller tart pans.  I hope you enjoy it and I hope that one day, it will bring you to this charming little village in the South of France... They also make a terrific blueberry tart, black nougat and rustic bread.

Swiss Chard, Apple and Almond Tart
Serves 6

1 cup flour

6 ½ tablespoons cold unsalted butter

¼ teaspoon salt

1 tablespoons sugar

3 tablespoons cold water

¾ pound red Swiss chard, stems removed

¼ cup currants or raisins

2 tablespoons brandy or dark rum

1 Golden Delicious or Gala apple, peeled and diced into ½-inch pieces

1 tablespoon honey

6 tablespoons brown sugar

½ cup ground almonds

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1 egg

Powdered sugar

            In the bowl of a food processor, add the flour, butter and salt.  Pulse until the butter resembles pea-size pieces.  With the machine running, add the water.  Transfer the mixture to a tea towel and press the dough together with the tea towel.  Lightly flour the tea towel and roll the dough to a 10- to 11-inch circle.  Transfer to a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom.  Press the dough into the pan to form a crust.  Prick the bottom of the crust with a fork and refrigerate until needed.

            Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  Boil the red chard leaves for 2 minutes.  Drain well and squeeze dry.  Chop the red chard and place into a medium bowl. 

Place the currants in a 1-cup Pyrex measurer.  Add the brandy and microwave for 1 minute.  Let stand for 5 minutes.

In a 2-cup Pyrex measurer, place the apple with the honey.  Place in the microwave and

cook for 3 minutes.

Place the currants, apples and the remaining ingredients in the bowl with the chard.  Mix well and transfer to the pie crust.

Bake at 375ºF. for 45 minutes.  Cool to room temperature and sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.

Almond Butter Cookies

Oh my! I can't believe it's been a year and a half since my last blog... I really didn't last long in the blogging world... I guess life got in the way and I got distracted. I won't promise I'll be around long but today, I'm back. These cookies brought me back and I had to share them with you... At least the recipe... Enjoy...

Almond Butter Cookies

½ cup granulated sugar

½ cup brown sugar

½ cup shortening

½ cup almond butter with flax seeds

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

¾ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon kosher salt

Slivered toasted almonds

Preheatoven to 375ºF. Mix the sugars,shortening and almond butter in the bowl of a mixer. Add the egg and vanilla extract and mix well. Mix together the dry ingredients and add to the almond butter mixture.

Form the mixture intoballs and place on two baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Press 3 slivered almonds in each cookie as you slightly flatten them.

Bake for 10to 12 minutes or until lightly brown. Cool 5 minutes on baking sheet before transferring to a cooling rack.

Torta de dos naranjas

After looking all over the web for the perfect spanish orange cake (and starting this blog...), I gathered a couple of recipes and came up with my own. I liked that most of them didn't use flour but just ground almonds. The rest of the ingredients were pretty straight forward: eggs, sugar, oranges.

Some recipes used whole oranges cooked into a compote. Others used just the zest of the oranges and then poured an orangy syrup over the cake at the end. Well, I decided to use both hence the name: Torta de dos naranjas!

It is a delicious cake with a coarse texture specked with tiny bits of candied orange pieces giving it an intense but not overwhelming orange flavor. It is also moist from the syrup made of orange and lemon juices. Serve it with a dollop of creamy mascarpone for a true culinary delight that makes you want to come back for more... It was the perfect ending to my spanish inspired dinner last night.

Torta de dos Naranjas

For the cake:

2 oranges, about 280 grs or 10 ounces, scrubbed and roughly chopped (with skin) pips discarded

5 eggs, at room temperature, separated

200 grs or 7 ounces sugar

220 grs or 7 ½ ounces ground almond or almond meal

A few whole blanched almonds

For the syrup:

1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice

¼ cup sugar

3 tablespoons lemon juice

2 oranges, cut into segments

Mascarpone cheese for serving

Make the cake: Place the chopped oranges in a small saucepan. Add 2 tablespoons water, cover the pan and simmer gently for about 30 minutes or until the oranges are soft and all the excess liquid has evaporated. Leave to cool.

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan with parchment paper and lightly greased the sides. Finely chop the oranges.

Place the egg whites in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until they form stiff peaks. Gradually add half the sugar, then beat for 1 minute.

Place the egg yolks and the remaining sugar in another bowl and beat for 2 minutes or until pale and very thick. Add the oranges and beat to combine well. Carefully fold in the ground almonds.

Stir in ¼ of the egg whites to lighten the batter then gently fold in the remaining whites. Transfer the mixture to the tin and level the surface. Arrange the whole almonds on top of the cake.

Bake for 50 minutes or until the cake is golden and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Check the cake after 25 minutes and cover lightly with aluminum foil if it is browning too quickly.

While the cake is baking, make the syrup: Place the orange juice, sugar, lemon juice and orange segments in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and cool completely.

After removing the cake from the oven, leave it to cool in the pan, then turn it out, peel away the parchment paper and transfer to a serving plate.

(May be made the day before and kept covered at room temperature.)

A few hours before serving, brush half the syrup over the cake and arrange the segments on top. Serve the cake with the remaining syrup and mascarpone cheese.