Salted Ginger Caramel Goat Cheese Tart

Just a few short months ago, I was flipping goat cheese wrappers inside out and scraping out the corners with a tiny spoon to release all the smears for this cheese-heavy tart. Not wanting to spend one cent more to ensure enough usable quarter-ounces of cheese, I worked those wrappers for all that they were worth. Now I find myself in the complete opposite set of circumstances, those being that fresh, neverending goat cheese is the most readily available ingredient around; I still scrape out the bowls with a tiny spoon, but now with much less desperation and a lot more pride.

The inspiration for this tart came just in time too. My stint at the goat cheese farm is just two weeks old, but my role  is feeling more settled, routines are natural, and free time more predictable. Based on how the farm sells at market and how much milk we're getting from the girls, certain afternoons and evenings are now far less burdensome than they were just ten days previous, which means I have time to bake! A few days ago, on one of the most sweltering afternoons thus far, Arlene, Dave, and I riproared early through our chores and cheeses. The dough for this tart was already assembled and the chevre already made (by me!) and set aside, so I threw together and baked the filling before we high-tailed it for nearby Schoodic Lake, with beers, sandwiches, and pooch in tow. For a few blissful hours, we dove off tall rocks, exhausted ourselves swimming out as far as we could and back, and swapped stories about weird dates and weird parents. Only one slimy lake creature was spotted, and no one came home with a brain amoeba: success!

And when we got home sun-soaked and somewhat buzzed to finish evening chores, I managed to sneak away to finish the salted ginger caramel and top this tart before dinner. Supper perpetuated our lovely, easy day, as farm-fresh organic everything--all-beef hotdogs, burgers, cherry tomato cobbler baked with cheese that we made, kale chips, and potato salad--was amassed upon the table and gobbled up without hesitation. There might not be too many opportunities for me to make the cheese that makes a tart and then eat it surrounded by new friends and folks with hilarious stories, so I plan to take advantage of it as many times as I can over the next five months. On that note, do you have any must-make goat cheese baked goods recipes, sweet or savory? I'd love to know and make them!

Ginger Caramel Goat Cheese Tart

Inspired by Nothing in the House's Blackberry Lemon Goat Cheese Tart

Makes enough for one nine-inch tart

Crust and Filling

One-half recipe all-butter flaky pie crust or other pie or tart dough of your choosing

16 ounces soft chevre

4 extra-large eggs

2/3 cup + 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Zest from one small lemon, about two teaspoons worth

Salted Ginger Caramel

1 cup granulated sugar

6 tablespoons salted butter (or unsalted + 1/4 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt), cut into one-inch pieces

1/4 cup heavy cream

2-inch peeled knob of ginger, grated and pressed to yield one tablespoon juice

1.  Parbake pie crust:  preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Roll out pie crust to an 11- or 12-inch circle and fit it into nine-inch tart pan. Fold under edges, pleat, and prick all over with a fork. Fit a sheet of foil against the dough and fill with pie weights or dried beans then bake for ten minutes. Carefully remove the foil, press down any crust bubbles, and bake for five to eight minutes more, until crust is lightly golden. Reduce temperature to 350 once crust is parbaked.

2.  Make the filling:  meanwhile, add chevre, eggs, and sugar to a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium-low until filling is uniformly blended, about three minutes. Add the extract, juice, and zest, scrape down the sides, and mix until filling is smooth. 

3.  Bake:  set parbaked tart shell on a foil-lined cookie sheet. Pour filling into hot tart shell and bake at 350 degrees F for 50 minutes, until filling is set on the edges and slightly soft in the middle; be sure to rotate pan halfway through. Allow to cool on wire rack completely, about two hours. Can store undressed tart in fridge at this point, if not finishing tart the same day.

4.  Make caramel* and assemble:  add sugar for caramel to a medium, heavy-bottomed saucepan. Melt sugar over medium-high heat, whisking gently as needed to ensure even melting. Once sugar is melted, swirl pan every 30 seconds or so until sugar turns a deep copper color. With heat still on, add butter and whisk like mad to melt; mixture will sputter, so be careful. Then, add cream and ginger juice, stirring until caramel is smooth. Remove from heat and let cool in fridge for about one hour. When cool, pour caramel over goat cheese tart, spreading to edges of crust. Cool in fridge to set caramel, one to two hours, or cut it into it straight away like we did and end up with a really delicious mess. If you want, sprinkle a few flecks of flaky sea salt over the top too.

*Do ahead: Caramel can be made days or even a week ahead and stored in the fridge. Just rewarm ever so slightly in the microwave for 15 to 20 seconds before spreading over the tart.

Summer Raspberry Cake

Toward the end of last week's Winter Harbor farmers' market, I remarked to the vegetable and fruit farmers how very beautiful were their quarts of raspberries. It had been a dreary, if also uplifting morning, and the brightness of the raspberries sailed out over the grey. Just as Dave and I hopped into the truck to head back, Rick came by and shoved two quarts of berries into one of our coolers—the first of what is amounting to be many generosities shown us by fellow farmers and food producers. 

When I left DC, it seemed that raspberries were on their way out. Strawberries had long gone, cherries had passed too, and blackberries were racking up a precious five to six dollars per pint. The few weeks before my departure showed some of the best of what DC has to offer in terms of fruit—though most stone fruit was only just getting underway—and it was a shame that I missed nearly all of it due to the stresses of leaving. But Maine has given me a do-over! Rick's raspberries from last week were, he said, one of the first pulls of the season and will continue to get brighter and sweeter through mid-August. We're fast on the heels of blueberry season up here, and blackberry season—the best of all of summer—is just around the corner. 

And after being handed some of the most beautiful berries for free, I of course proceeded to let them languish in the fridge, getting sadder and juicier every day. Plots to make creme fraiche raspberry tarts fell by the wayside, and the berries were nearing jam territory when I realized how utterly surrounded by milk, butter, and eggs I am at this time. So in between placating squealing baby goats and almost scorching a batch of mozzarella milk late one night, I baked this breezy summer cake to save what was left of the raspberries. I overbaked it just a bit as I got distracted by foreign sounds and telephone calls from far-away friends, but the berry craters on top and jam pockets within were so nice that I'll definitely be making another version with our next batch of neglected berries.

Summer Raspberry Cake
Adapted from Martha Stewart and Smitten Kitchen


Try this with any berry! Smitten Kitchen does it with a pound of strawberries, and I'm fixing to do a blackberry buttermilk one in a few weeks. The juicier and heavier the berry the better, so if you're using blueberries, macerate them in a tablespoon of sugar first, and if you're using something like raspberries, push a few down into the batter to ensure you get those jammy pockets.

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for pan
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 ½  teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
1 scant cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, divided
1 large egg
½  cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or almond!)
8 ounces fresh raspberries, or about 1 ½ pints

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9- or 10-inch spring-form cake pan. Whisk flour, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl. In a stand mixer on medium or in a large bowl with a handheld mixer, beat butter and scant one cup sugar until pale and fluffy, about two minutes. Mix in egg, milk, and vanilla or almond extract until just combined. Add dry mixture gradually, mixing until just smooth.

2.  Pour batter into prepared pie plate. Arrange raspberries on top of batter, as closely as possible; try to keep it to a single layer of berries. Poke a few down into the batter so that you end up with a few jam pockets baked in. Sprinkle remaining two tablespoons of sugar evenly over the berries and batter.

3.  Bake cake for ten minutes then reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees F and bake until cake is golden brown and a tester comes out free of wet batter, about 50 60 minutes. Be careful not to overbake. Let cool in pan on a rack for about ten minutes before removing spring-form sides. Serve slices with barely sweetened whipped cream! Cake should keep covered at room temperature for a few days, but it’s also good cold from the fridge with a mug of coffee in the morning!

Apricot Sugar Plum Tart

This tart is from Independence Day two weeks ago, and fittingly I write to you now from the farmlands of Maine, where I am currently apprenticing at a goat cheese creamery. This land was previously a big ol' apple orchard and was once a Christmas tree farm, and now it's 100 acres of deciduous trees, bugs, coyotes, and (rumored) moose that's home to about 60 momma goats, kids, and bucks and a handful of farmers, volunteers, and one apprentice. To the northwest is Mt. Katahdin, and right through those trees I can spot the sea on a clear day. Just six days ago I was arriving home from Las Vegas where I spent a week at a freelancing gig, and now I'm waiting for the ph to drop on these curds in the cheese plant so that I can get to hanging them. Needless to say, it's been a hell of a change from Washington, DC, and a largely happy one so far.

The entirety of yesterday found me in the cheese plant helping make mozzarella and boursin and packing up the chevre for market, but today was a really delightful shift in pace. Just this morning, Dave and I went south to Winter Harbor, Maine for one of two Tuesday farmers markets. We packed up at 5:00 a.m., made a coffee pit-stop at Dunkin' Donuts, then jammed on the gas for two hours until we arrived at our market space in the parking lot of a coastal cafe. I will never ever get tired of the ocean, especially the ocean in Maine, which is lined by rocky embankments and dotted with piney islands--it was totally reviving to pass a rainy morning there. We spent the day hocking our cheeses and chatting up some of the town vacationers, but the fellow farmers were my favorite as they threatened to blow up DC and all its politicians when I told them from where I'd come. Then they invited me out to their "patch" to have lunch and pick garlic someday soon. The greatest folks.

But two weeks ago, before all of this, I said some final goodbyes in DC at an all-too-brief Fourth of July BBQ and hotdog cook-off at our (now "their") house. It was truly hot as blazes that afternoon--sweat poured down my nose and nearly onto this tart--but with a lot of beer along with hot dogs, patience, and a freezer, the tart kept its shape and didn't turn into a sweltering summer catastrophe. Apricots and stone fruit more generally are one of the greatest parts of summer, and every year I look for new ways to bake them. This tart is a casual spin upon a previous summer favorite, but as soon as apricots show up here in Maine, I'll be trying this beautiful pie from Lottie + Doof. And have you seen Nikole Herriot's pie project? The blueberry lemon verbena pie she featured was another total winner. Check it out while you count curds and soak up your summer!

Apricot Sugar Plum Tart

One-half recipe of your favorite pie crust recipe (try this!)

1 pound ripe apricots
10 small sugar plums
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
¼ cup + 2 tablespoons apricot jam
1 egg
2 tablespoons raw sugar
¼ teaspoon cinnamon

1.  Make your crust! Put it in the fridge to chill for at least an hour, preferably longer if your kitchen is pretty warm this time of year. Cut the apricots and plums in half, discard the pits, and toss the halves into a large bowl. Add the sugar and toss to coat. Gently stir ¼ cup of apricot jam into apricots; each piece of fruit should be lightly coated with jam.

2.  Roll your dough on a lightly floured surface into a 15-inch circle. Transfer the circle to the back of a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Slip into the fridge if you haven’t finished prepping your ingredients, but if you have, proceed!

3.  To assemble tart, smear two tablespoons of jam across the crust. Pile on the apricots and sugar plums face-up, tucking plums into the nooks. Working from the edges, fold the crust into the center, pleating as needed; there should be about three inches of crust showing. Freeze shaped tart for at least an hour; this helps it keep its shape while baking.

4.  Meanwhile preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Whisk your egg with a splash of water until no streaks remain, and brush the top of your crust with it.  Mix the cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl, and toss it generously and evenly over the tart crust and center. Bake for 60 to 70 minutes, rotating pan halfway through, until crust is deep golden brown and filling is bubbling. Can serve hot out of the oven or cooled to room temperature!

Blueberry Crumb Pie

Pie is summer, right? These guys think so too, and there ain't no summer like the permanent summer that follows the conclusion of four years of steady full-time employment. Give me my summer scout badge y'all, I'm ready to beach camp, lake dive, pick at bug bites, eat tons of pie, and oh yeah, move to Maine to make goat cheese for awhile. In the throes of winding down my time in DC and gearing up for the very challenging, very hot, yet enlightening and reviving months ahead, Joey and I booked it for the beaches of North Carolina all of last week to visit his family and take advantage of my dwindling window of relaxation time. Our list of must-dos included putt-putt and the rifle range, but mostly what we accomplished was quality family time, conversations with strangers in new-to-us places, outdoor Star Wars watching, grade-A sunburns on the shore, and of course, pie.

We arrived south at exactly the right time for his family to host us and were able to spend the afternoons gathered together around the beach umbrella and the nights around the dinner table, eating tomato pie and shrimp and sneaking in more and more of his aunt's potent margaritas. We dug through old pictures of Joey's mom, heard about his cousin's dip into a school of nurse sharks, and were told tales of solo cycling, the time a baby chimp came to stay, and incidental camping above a field of F-4 Phantoms. Baking for other people's families, especially a boo's family, is typically somewhat nerve-wracking for me, but this time I felt comfortably at home, spinning stories and eating pie right along with everybody.

The day after: Agent Cooper breakfast special

The only trouble is that this pie was too early in North Carolina to be much good for the Fourth of July—the ultimate family holiday in my book—but it's right on time for you! The blueberries in North Carolina were just perfect last week, and I suspect they're excellent where you are too. This pie would look mighty fine with some sparklers stuck through the top next week too, but if blueberries aren't your thing, how about some peach? Either way, fruit pie is one of the best favorite summer privileges, especially when surrounded by storytelling family and friends. 

Blueberry Crumb Pie
Almond crumb topping adapted from Smitten Kitchen’s sour cherry crumb pie

All-Butter Flaky Pie Crust
Make one-half of this recipe--included as part of a strawberry rhubarb pie! Or make a full recipe, wrap the extra dough half in plastic, and keep in the fridge for up to a week--there are lots of recipes here that will help you put it to use.


Almond Crumb
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
⅔ cup whole oats
½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup sugar
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Scant ½ teaspoon kosher salt
¾ cup unsalted whole almonds

Filling
24 ounces blueberries
½ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup cornstarch
pinch sea salt
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 ½ tablespoons lemon juice


1. Blind bake the crust: Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Roll out dough to a 12- to 13-inch circle, nestle it into a 9- or 9.5-inch pie plate, tuck under the overhang to make a chubby edge, and pinch decoratively. Press a sheet of foil or parchment to the bottom and sides of the dough and fill with pie weights or dried beans. Bake for 30 minutes, until crust is golden, then remove parchment and beans, and cool shell while you ready the berries. Reduce heat to 375.


2. Make the crumb topping: Melt butter and set aside to cool. In a food processor, grind oats until finely chopped. Add flour, sugar, cinnamon, and salt, and pulse once or twice to blend. Add almonds, and grind until the pieces are small but not fine. Err on the larger side if you must. Dump contents into a medium bowl, add melted butter, and mix and press gently with a fork to create crumbs.


3. Make the filling and bake: Add blueberries and zest to a large bowl. In a small bowl, mix the sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Add to berries and mix gently with your hands. Top it off with the lemon juice and another mix, and pour into baked pie shell, mounding fruit just a bit in the middle. Scoop and press crumbs evenly all over. Slide pie onto a cookie sheet lined with foil, and bake—don't forget, at 375—until crumb is dark golden and edges of filling are thick and bubbly, about 45 minutes but usually no longer than one hour. Allow to cool for a few hours, and serve! Will keep covered at room temperature for several days or in the fridge for longer.