All posts in category Pies

Goat’s Cheese and Onion Tart

oniontart_3

I don’t bake savory things often, so when I do, I usually take a poll of what people would like me to attempt. When I asked the office about a savory tart – everyone immediately said cheese and onion tart. So of course, I went off in search of a cheese and onion tart that captured my interest and came upon this one.

After a few tweaks, I was fairly pleased with the way it turned out. So I made it again for Christmas brunch when I was in the States, and it was a hit!

Originally I presented this tart in a rectangular tin, which I actually prefer. These round tart images are from Christmas morning. I don’t know why, I just liked the angular nature of the rectangular tart with the round onions. Meh. Either way, it still tasted good!

Ingredients

  • 1 batch of shortcrust pastry
  • 1 Tablespoon olive oil
  • 4 small red onions
  • fresh thyme
  • balsamic vinegar
  • 4 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 1 cup double cream
  • 100 grams soft goat’s cheese
  • pancetta strips

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C), with a metal cookie sheet in the oven. Line your tart pan with the shortcrust pastry and trim off the extra from the edges. Line the pastry with some baking paper and fill with your pie weights. Place your pastry into the oven on the preheated pan and blind bake for 10 minutes. Next, remove the pie weights and allow your pastry to bake for a further 5 minutes.

oniontart_1

2. In the meantime, heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over low heat. Slice the onions, keeping their layers together. Gently place them into the heated oil along with a few sprigs of fresh thyme. Allow them to cook on both sides until caramelized – then remove from the heat to a paper towel and brush with some balsamic vinegar.

3. Reduce the heat of your oven to  375°F (190°C). Then, in a medium-sized bowl, whisk together your eggs and cream, adding a bit of salt and pepper for seasoning. Crumble up your goat’s cheese, filling the pastry case, then pour the egg mixture over the cheese, not quite to the top. You’ll need to leave some space to allow for displacement when you put the onions in!

4. Carefully arrange the onions on the top of your tart, then top up the egg mixture if necessary. Add in a few sprigs of fresh thyme, as well as the pancetta strips, arranging however you’d like.

5. Bake for 20 minutes or until set and just turning brown.

oniontart_2

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by Ashley on December 30, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Pies
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Posted by Ashley on December 30, 2012

https://pajamabaker.com/2012/12/30/goats-cheese-and-onion-tart/

Mom’s Pecan Pie

pecanpie_1

Back in September, I attempted to make a pecan pie for the American pie challenge on Great British Bake Off. After a miserable failure, I vowed to stick to my mother’s recipe for all future pecan endeavors.

After a few weeks of waiting for mom to finish traveling, I finally had a copy of her recipe arrive in my inbox. So I made myself some pastry and began my second attempt at this troublesome tart. I whisked up the filling and carefully laid in the pecan halves, one by one. Then I held my breath as I anxiously placed it in the oven, gently sliding it into the center and praying that disaster didn’t strike a second time.

Boy had I wished I had done it the right way the first time around! Beautifully dark golden brown and crisp – I’d call this pie a success as well as true American classic!

Ingredients

  • 1 batch of sweet shortcrust pastry
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 3/4 cup light corn syrup (UK people, you can order this on Amazon!)
  • 1/4 cup (57.5 grams) unsalted butter
  • 3 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup pecan halves

pecanpie_2Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 450°F (230°C). Line your pie dish (preferably one with a removable bottom, it’ll make your life easier) with the shortcrust pastry, then gently prick the base and sides with a fork. Lay a sheet of aluminum foil over your pastry, then fill with baking beans and place in the oven to bake for 5 minutes. Carefully remove your baking beans and foil, then return to the oven for another 2 minutes.

2. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the sugar, corn syrup, and butter. Stir the mixture constantly until the sugar dissolves and the butter melts. Once everything dissolves, remove the pan from the heat.

3. Once the mixture is slightly cooled, whisk in the eggs, vanilla, and salt. Once everything is mixed together, pour into your blind-baked pie crust.

4. Gently arrange the pecan halves on the top of your mixture, arranging in concentric circles – starting from the outside and working towards the center.

5. Reduce the heat of your oven down to 325°F (160°C). Carefully place your pie in the oven and bake for 55 minutes until set.

For an added touch, try drizzling over some melted chocolate or make a praline whipped cream using 1 cup whipping cream, 2 teaspoons praline liqueur, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and 1/4 cup icing sugar – mix them all together and beat with an electric mixer until you have your whipped cream.

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by Ashley on November 26, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in GBBO Challenges, Pies
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Posted by Ashley on November 26, 2012

https://pajamabaker.com/2012/11/26/moms-pecan-pie/

Sweet Pastry

This week on GBBO, the showstopper challenge was to make an American Pie. Surely this challenge was made for me! I’m an American, it should be my topic of expertise. I was so excited when Catherine made a chocolate peanut butter pie – the perfect combination and one of my all-time favorite pies but it didn’t go over well with the judges. I don’t know what Paul Hollywood was talking about when he said he didn’t like it! I mean, how could you NOT?! Catherine was robbed.

For my challenge I wanted to make a pecan pie, one of my mother’s classics and a surefire hit. Unfortunately for me, my mother was travelling for work so I scoured the internet to find another recipe. Turns out that was a huge mistake. First I made my pastry using a slightly different recipe than before, and it worked sooooo well. I felt like everything was going to plan. Pastry was good. Filling looked good. Pecans were arranged beautifully.  But then I stuck it in the oven and it all came crashing down from there. The pie completely bubbled up into a huge dome and had terrible cracks and flakes of filling everywhere. I can’t even describe the carnage. It was devastating – I failed at a challenge based on my own heritage.  I’m sorry, American pie, I failed you.

 

However, all is not lost! The sweet pastry was really good, so I felt I should at least post this one because it’s been the only pastry recipe I’ve been happy with so far. So for now, here’s the recipe. Pecan pie – we shall meet again.

Ingredients

  • 500 grams flour, sifted
  • 100 grams icing sugar, sifted
  • 250 grams butter, cold and cut into cubes
  • 2 eggs
  • milk

Directions

1. Sift together the flour and icing sugar into a large bowl. Then, using your hands, rub the cubes of cold butter into the flour mixture, incorporating it as much as you can. It should have a slightly crumbly texture.

2. Pour out your mixture onto your work surface and bring it together into a little pile with a hole in the middle – like a volcano. Put both of your eggs into the hole and bring together the pastry mixture until it starts to form a dough.

3. As you bring everything together, add a bit of milk, about a teaspoon at a time until you have all of the dry ingredients evenly incorporated. Once it becomes a smooth dough, wrap your pastry in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

The trick is to bring everything together as quickly as possible so that your don’t heat the butter up too much or overwork the dough. When it’s chilled and ready to go, then just roll out as needed over a surface dusted with flour. And that’s it! Easy peasy.

 

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by Ashley on September 18, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in GBBO Challenges, Pies
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Posted by Ashley on September 18, 2012

https://pajamabaker.com/2012/09/18/sweet-pastry/

Summer Fruits Tart

Another week and another episode of the Great British Bake Off. This week as a bit more entertaining as the contestants attempted to flip tarte tatins out of their pans, and put a lattice onto treacle tarts. But I was most excited about the patisserie-style fruit tarts they made for the showstopper challenge.

Every time I pass a patisserie with the windows filled with shiny fruit-covered cakes and pies, my mouth literally starts watering. This tart is super simple to make, it’s just a creme patisserie with fruit on top. The most difficult part for me was not eating all of the fruit before I could put it on top of the cream.

Unfortunately, this tart was a bit to delicate to make the hour-plus trek on the rush-hour Tube to work, so Ben and I had to undertake the incredible difficult task of enjoying this bake all by ourselves. And boy was it lovely! The cream and fruit was so refreshing!

If you’re looking to impress some friends at a get-together without much effort, this would definitely be my recommendation

Ingredients

  • 1 batch of sweet shortcrust pastry
  • 4 egg yolks
  • 100 grams sugar
  • 25 grams flour, sifted
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 350 ml milk
  • a mix of summer fruits, in this case, raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries
  • 4 Tablespoons raspberry jam
  • approximately 1 teaspoon water

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C). Line your pie dish (preferably one with a removable bottom, it’ll make your life easier) with the shortcrust pastry, then gently prick the base and sides with a fork. Lay a sheet of baking paper over your pastry, then fill with baking beans and place in the oven to bake for 10-15 minutes until it just starts to turn golden. Once finished, remove and let it cool completely.

2. Next, make the creme patisserie. Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together until they turn light and creamy, then stir in the flour.

3. Bring the milk just to a boil. While continuously whisking the egg mixture, slowly pour in the heated milk. Mix together, then return to the pan and return to the burner on a medium-low heat until it just starts to bubble. Begin stirring and cook for 2 minutes while stirring to allow the mixture to thicken. Remove from the heat, then add in the vanilla.

4. Cover the mixture with plastic wrap, allowing the plastic to touch the top of the creme so that you don’t have a skin forming on top. Allow the creme patisserie cool completely in the fridge. Once cool, spoon the creme patisserie into your baked pastry base and smooth over evenly.

5. Arrange the fruit in any pattern you like on the top of the tart. To create the shiny glaze, place the raspberry jam into a small pan and add a few drops (about 1 teaspoon) of water. Stir continuously until the jam melts, then brush the glaze over the top of each piece of fruit. And that’s it!

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by Ashley on September 2, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in GBBO Challenges, Pies
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Posted by Ashley on September 2, 2012

https://pajamabaker.com/2012/09/02/summer-fruits-tart/

Cherry Bakewell Tart

Ben’s been asking me to make a Bakewell Tart for ages, so I finally decided to give in and do a bit of research.  Originally, I was going to make individual tarts a la Mr. Kipling, but the pastry recipe I used was just terrible. It kept ripping and tearing and just wouldn’t cooperate. In fact, the recipe was so awful that the first tart I made completely fell apart!

So for this week’s recipe, I won’t be posting the pastry recipe. It would just be cruel. Luckily, the second tart turned out beautifully and tasted AMAZING.

Ingredients

  • 500 grams shortcrust pastry
  • 100 grams butter
  • 100 grams sugar
  • 2 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 50 grams ground almonds
  • 50 grams flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon almond extract
  • strawberry jam
  • 175 grams icing sugar
  • 1 – 2 Tablespoons milk
  • glacé cherries

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400° F (approx 200°C). Lightly grease your pie tin, then roll out the pastry until it is about 1/8-inch thick. Gently lay the pastry over the tin and press into place. Lightly poke the pastry with a fork, being careful not to go all the way through the pastry. Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes to set, then remove from the oven and set aside while you make the filling.

2. In the bowl of your mixer, beat the butter and sugar until fluffy, then add in the eggs followed by the ground almonds.

3. Next, add the flour, baking powder, and almond extra. Mix to combine.

4. Spread the bottom of the baked pastry with a generous layer of strawberry jam, then fill with the almond batter. Bake for approximately 20 minutes.

5. Remove the baked pie from the oven and set aside to cool on a wire rack. Once it is completely cool, it’s ready to ice.

6. Make the icing by combining the icing sugar and milk, adding the milk slowly and only adding enough to make a thick but still runny icing. Pour over the cooled pie, being sure not to let it run over the sides, then dot the top with the glacé cherries.

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by Ashley on July 22, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Pies
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Posted by Ashley on July 22, 2012

https://pajamabaker.com/2012/07/22/cherry-bakewell-tart/

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