Bakery Archives - Harvest to Table

Fresh Apricot Tart Recipe

Stephen Albert — Sat, 04 Jul 2015 19:57:44 +0000

Apricots reach their full potential cooked. Compare the flavor of a raw apricot to one that has been heated up a bit in the oven—you will be convinced.

The most flavorful of all apricot varieties is the Blenheim. The Blenheim—also called the Royal and the Royal Blenheim—is a petite fruit often with lightly green shoulders. While the Blenheim is not as richly colored or meaty as other apricots, its flavor is sublime.

Fresh Apricot Tart Recipe

Cook 35 mins

Inactive 10 mins

Total 45 mins

Author Steve Albert

Yield 12 servings

This recipe puts the Blenheim into a tart, an open-faced pie with a rich, sweet crust.

Ingredients

¼ cup almond paste
2 tablespoons sugar firmly packed (or use light brown sugar), plus more for sprinkling
¼ cup sour cream
9-inch single-crust pie pastry, store bought, or Simple All-Purpose Pie Crust
15 or so apricots depending upon size (preferably Blenheim), peeled or unpeeled, halved, pitted, and thinly sliced
About 1 tablespoon whole milk

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375°.
Blend almond paste, sugar, and sour cream in a food processor, pulse once or twice.
Roll out pie crust to an 11 to 12-inch circle and drape it over a 9½-inch tart pan. Cut off excess dough by rubbing your thumb across the edge of the pan. Prick the bottom of the dough lightly with a fork. If you don’t have a pan you can lay the crust on a baking sheet. Place the dough in the freezer for 10 minutes to chill before baking.
Evenly spread almond mixture over dough (leave a 2-inch border if you are working on a baking sheet). Arrange the sliced apricots evenly over the dough in a circular pattern in a single, slightly overlapping layer. You can fold the dough edge over apricots if you are working on a baking sheet—this will make a galette instead of a tart. Brush crust with milk and lightly sprinkle additional sugar on top.
Bake until crust is golden, about 35 minutes.

Courses Bakery

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Simple All-Purpose Pie Crust Recipe

Stephen Albert — Sat, 04 Jul 2015 14:25:42 +0000

Simple All-Purpose Pie Crust Recipe

Prep 10 mins

Inactive 20 mins

Total 30 mins

Author Steve Albert

Yield 1 crust for a 9-inch pie

Here is all-purpose pie crust recipe you can use for pies, tarts, and galettes.

Ingredients

1 cup flour
½ teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons cold solid shortening

Instructions

In a medium bowl, combine flour, salt, and shortening. With your fingertips or a pastry blender or 2 knives (one held in each hand and moving crosswise), work the shortening into the flour until the shortening has been broken into small pieces like fresh bread crumbs. Use your fingers to lift the mixture above the bowl rubbing the shortening quickly into then flour. You want the mixture to end up loose and crumbly. If the shortening starts to melt in your fingertips, your fingers are too warm; switch to the pastry blender or knives.
Next you will need 3 tablespoons ice cold water. Dribble 2 tablespoons water over mixture, quickly mixing and lightly tossing the dough with a fork until it starts to cling together in clumps. Collect the dough and press it together into a handful ball; if it doesn’t hold together, sprinkle the dough with another 1 tablespoon cold water, then mix again until the clump is evenly moistened. Press the dough into a ball with your hands, wrap in plastic, press down lightly to compress the dough. Refrigerate the dough at least 20 minutes or up to 2 days, or double wrap and freeze up to 6 weeks. Thaw frozen dough overnight in the refrigerator before using.

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Roasted Garlic on Toast

Stephen Albert — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 14:00:49 +0000

Roasted garlic is mellow and warming. Its delicate undertones enhance the flavor of salads and meats. Here, I give you a recipe for pairing roasted garlic with olive oil to flavor your favorite toasted bread.

Roasted Garlic on Toast

Author Steve Albert

Yield 15-20 slices of toast

Choose good-size garlic bulbs with big cloves for this recipe—big cloves are easier to work with and save time. A well-matured garlic head that has been cured and dried will be firm, dry, and have a paper-like crackly skin. Inside each head are smaller individually-wrapped sections called cloves. Be sure to choose heads that have not begun to sprout.

Good crusty bread is called for in this recipe. You’ll want bread that is a solid match for both the roasted garlic and olive oil. Ciabatta is a good choice. Ciabatta is an Italian-origin bread. It can have a crisp crust and a somewhat soft, porous texture, that is light to the touch, or it can be firm crusted and dense—the difference depends on the baker and the region of Italy that inspired her.

Extra-virgin olive oil is your best choice for this recipe. Extra-virgin olive oil is oil that has been separated from the olive without the use of heat, hot water, or solvents—and it is unfiltered. It is oil from the first pressing of the olives. It is the purest and most flavorful.

Ingredients

2-3 heads garlic
2-3 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided (to flavor garlic cloves)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 loaf ciabatta or other crusty bread, sliced ¼-inch thick
About ¼-⅓ cup extra-virgin olive oil (to coat bread at end)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375°.
Hold each head of garlic upright, root side down. Peel off the dry papery outer skin of each head then use a kitchen scissor or paring knife to cut away the top of each head just enough to expose the cloves—but do not separate the cloves from the head.
Place the heads root side down in a small baking dish or heavy oven-proof pan that will hold them upright. If you are roasting just a couple of heads you can use a girdle of aluminum foil to hold them upright in the dish or pan.
Add chicken broth or water and olive oil to the baking dish to a depth of ¼ inch. Drizzle the head with ½ teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. For more flavor, add a couple of sprigs of thyme or savory and a few peppercorns if you like. Cover the dish or pan tightly with aluminum foil and bake or 20 minutes or so. After 20 minutes, pull back the aluminum foil cover and drizzle each garlic head with another ½ teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil. Recover the baking dish and bake another 20 minutes. Bake until the garlic is soft, tender, and easily pierced with a thin-bladed knife—about 40 to 60 minutes. When tender, drizzle with a bit more olive oil and roast uncovered for another 5 to 7 minutes.
Once the garlic is tender, remove the baking dish from the oven and increase the oven temperature to 450°. Squeeze the garlic cloves from garlic heads (or pop cloves out with knife) into a bowl. Mash garlic with a fork.
Adjust the oven rack so that it is at least 4 inches from the heat source. Brush the bread on one or both sides with a little olive oil. Place the bread on a baking sheet and bake, broil (top), or grill (bottom) until lightly browned on each side, 4 to 8 minutes, turning over once. Be careful not to burn or toast the bread all the way through.
Spread each piece of toasted bread with a tablespoon or so of mashed garlic puree; rub one or both sides of each slice with garlic until it all but disappears into the bread. Sprinkle with additional olive oil and salt and pepper if you like.

Notes

It’s always best to serve roasted garlic on toasted bread while hot. Serve with goat cheese and olives if you like.

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Chocolate Chip and Dip Applesauce Cookies

Stephen Albert — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 14:00:01 +0000

Chocolate chip applesauce cookies with feet dipped in chcolate

Family and friends will gobble up chocolate chip and dip applesauce cookies.

In this recipe, I substitute chocolate bits and chunks that I’ve chopped myself for standard chips—I just like the surprise of finding those just-a-bit-bigger bits and chunks along the way. Also in this recipe let solid shortening and applesauce take the place of butter to give the cookies an added mouthwatering softness. You don’t have to dip these chocolate chips in chocolate once baked, but why wouldn’t you?

The chocolate chip is a quintessential American cookie (first baked by Ruth Graves Winfield of Whitman, Massachusetts in 1939), but I think it eats well any place in the world.

Chocolate Chip and Dip Applesauce Cookies

Author Steve Albert

Yield 24 cookies

Ingredients

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
a big pinch of cinnamon and a pinch of nutmeg (optional)
¼ cup solid vegetable shortening (butter flavored shortening is good)
6 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 large egg
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
⅓ cup applesauce
1 bar (3 ounces) Tobler bittersweet chocolate, chop the chocolate yourself (or ⅓ cup semisweet chocolate chips)
¼ cup or a bit less coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)
For Dip: 1½ cups of grated or chopped semisweet chocolate

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375°F and grease well 2 or 3 cookie sheets.
Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt into a small bowl (Add the cinnamon and nutmeg if you are using them and blend them in thoroughly.) Set aside.
Whip the shortening until light and fluffy. Sprinkle in gradually the sugar, beating continuously. Beat in the egg and vanilla.
Alternate blending in the dry ingredients and applesauce (do this by hand or with the mixer at low). Do not overbeat. Stir in the chopped chocolate bits and chunks (or chips) and chopped nuts.
Drop rounded teaspoons of batter and mix 3 inches apart onto the greased cookie sheets and bake for 10 to 12 minutes.
Allow cookies to set for 3 minutes then transfer to a cooking rack.

Notes

Serve warm or add a chocolate coating to the bottom of each cookie after the cookies have cooled.

Chocolate Dip1½ cups of grated or chopped semisweet chocolate should suffice to coat or glaze the bottoms of the cookies. Melt the chocolate in a heavy pan over low heat—add a dollop of butter to keep the chocolate from scorching. You can also melt the chocolate in the top of a double boiler over hot water or in a microwave on high power at 30 second intervals. Be sure to stir the melting chocolate so it does not stick or scorch. Place the melted chocolate in a small work bowl then skim the bottom of each cookie across the chocolate to coat then set each cookie upside down until the chocolate coating sets.

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