Date and Brown Butter Tart with Bourbon Whipped Cream

It was surely some sight last week in the harbor of Belfast when four pajama-clad arms reached out from the cap of Emily’s 1988 Toyota Hilux pickup to unlatch the bed at 7:00 on a Monday morning. A group of young fisherman had been hollering about barnacles while the man behind the information desk arrived to raise the flag, and Emily and I hopped somewhat sheepishly and bedraggled to the cab of the truck so we could drive away for breakfast. I was expecting hoots and hollers or at least a “hello,” but the fisherdudes surveyed us only casually before we drove away.

That was the Monday after Maine’s thrity-sixth annual Common Ground Country Fair. Along with our farming compatriots, Emily—the new cheesemaking apprentice, as I am the new sort of junior cheesemaker—and I captained a few tables and sold cheese at the Maine Cheese Guild booth for all three days of the fair. The fair was some sight to behold—and behold is all we really did since there wasn’t much time to experience much beyond our booth—with farmers, businessowners, artists, and craftspeople from all over the state coming together to hock their wares and promote all the of stellar stuff that’s going on in Maine. I did manage to escape to a beginning beekeeping course, catch a few moments of clog dancing, and pet the cashmere goat kids who would soon be turned to pelts.

In any case, I made this tart several weeks ago and since then have had a serious baking confidence crisis, but working from dawn until beyond dusk has made sharing timely stories and baked goods more difficult. So, blog, say farewell to Arlene, who’s left for a job at Appleton Farm in Ipswich (!), say howdy to your new junior cheesemaker—me!—who is gracefully-ish bumbling through havarti and managing some cheeseplant mischief, and meet Emily, our new cheeseaking apprentice who is awesome. AND THIS TART. Brown butter, dates, crispy top, chewy insides; don’t sleep on it. It’s so easy and hugely delicious—it would be a real shame to pass this one up while you’re enjoying your own very busy-ass life!

Date and Brown Butter Tart

Adapted from Sunday Suppers at Lucques by Suzanne Goin, one of my favorites!

1 recipe tart dough or half of your favorite pie crust recipe
40 to 45 Deglet Noor dates, pitted
1/2 vanilla bean, or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
9 tablespoons salted butter
2 extra-large eggs
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
1 tablespoon raw or large-grain sugar

Bourbon Whipped Cream
1 cup whipping cream
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 tablespoons bourbon, or to taste

1.  Prebake tart shell: Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Roll out your tart dough to a ten-inch circle and line an eight-inch tart pan with it. Prick the bottom all over with a fork and pop into the freezer for a half-hour. Once chilled, press a well-buttered sheet of foil to the dough and up the edges, and bake for 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another ten until crust is golden.

2.  Make tart: Reduce heat to 350 degrees F. Place dates about a half-inch apart in concentric circles on tart shell. Slice open vanilla bean and scrape out pulp onto butter. Run the knife through the butter to ensure that you don't lose any pulp. Heat a medium saute pan over medium heat for one minute. Add the butter and the vanilla bean pod to the pan, and cook for six to ten minutes until the butter browns and smells nutty. Discard the vanilla pod.

3. Whisk the eggs and two-thirds cup of granulated together in a bowl. Whisk in the flour and salt, and stir in the warm butter. Pour the batter over the dates in the tart shell. Sprinkle the single tablespoon of large-grain sugar over the top. Bake for 30 minutes until the filling puffs up, browns, and is set. Cool the tart for at least 20 minutes before serving.

4. Make whipped cream: Beat heavy cream with egg beaters or in a stand mixer on high until frothy. Add sugar and bourbon and continue whipping until soft peaks form, about five minutes. Serve!

Plum and Pine Nut Galette

The damson and black plums for this tart were piled high at the farmers’ market last weekend, along with a few green and red varieties and the bare beginnings of Maine’s apple season. While the start of summer drives me rather nuts with desperation about which juicy fruits to get my deprived hands on first, the fall transition has a lovely sort of ceremonious appeal--measured and familiar, instead of rushed. We’re expecting pears this weekend at the market, along with spinach, gourds, and more apples, and it’s that even rolling out of fall fruits that keeps me motivated to bake with produce before bourbon, custards, and creams totally take over for the winter.

This galette is a lovely end-of-summer ode. The fruit is beautiful and barely sweetened, and the pine nuts add a bit of savory depth and a toasty crunch. If you have a tart dough waiting in the wings already, then it comes together in just a few easy steps too, perfect for when the new, wonderful WWOOFer is distracting you with stories of Labrador or when Dave is laying the smackdown about dishes. And while it’s hot, hot, hot everywhere and folks are lamenting the use of the oven this time of year, it’s starting to cool off here and I’m a complete sucker for baking fruit to its juiciest peak anyway. For the next few weeks it’ll be a toss-up between plums and pears around here, but it’s a late summer dilemma that brings out some of my favorite kinds of baked goods.

Plum Pine Nut Galette

Adapted significantly from Gourmet (1999!)

For the Crust
From Apt. 2B Baking Co. and I Made That!

Makes enough for two, but you’ll only need one for this recipe. Feel free to substitute in your favorite crust recipe instead!

12 ounces pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
8 ounces (two sticks) very cold butter
4 to 6 ounces ice water
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

1.  On a clean counter, dump your flour and salt; mix it around with a bench scraper. Chop one stick of butter into quarters, and cut it into the four with your bench scraper. When butter is about the size of lima beans, cut in the second stick, pulling, folding, and tossing with the bench scraper as you go, until the butter is about the size of quarters. Add the vinegar to the ice water.

2. Using your fingers, flick the water onto the butter-flour mixture, gently folding with the bench scraper all the while. You have added enough water once the mixture holds together when squeezed; it should be very shaggy.

3. Next, push the butter into the flour. Using the heel of your palm, push a small section of the dough down and away from you; this creates long layers of butter in your dough, which translates to long flaky layers in your crust. Use your bench scraper to scrape up the smear, and put it a bowl. Repeat until all the dough has been smeared and you have a bowlful of long, buttery layers. Push these into one mass, divide in half, wrap each in plastic, flatten into disks, and chill at least two hours, or better yet overnight.

For the Filling
2.5 pounds plums of your choosing
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
1/4 cup demerara sugar, divided
1 egg
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter, cut into small pieces
1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Roll out your pie dough to a 14- or 15-inch circle. Trim the edges so they’re even, slide onto a piece of parchment paper on the back of a cookie sheet, and pop into the freezer while you prepare the rest of your ingredients. This cooling step will help you fold or pleat the dough more easily in a bit.

2.  Cut the plums into half-inch slices. I cut some of my plums into quarters and the bigger ones into sixths, so it just depends on your plum size. Set aside. In a food processor, grind the toasted pine nuts with the flour and just two tablespoons of the demerara sugar. Mixture should be finely ground, but not powdered.  

3.  Remove the dough round from the freezer and, leaving it on the back of the cookie sheet, spread ground nut mixture across the bottom, leaving a three-inch border. Starting at the outside edge of the ground nuts, arrange your plum slices into one, tightly fit ring with all the plums facing the same way. Make the inner ring, then the final third ring in the middle. If you have extra plum slices, go back and fill in any gaps or wider spaces. And if you’re using different plum varieties, try to alternate the varieties in every other slice or one variety per ring. Don’t worry if you can’t!

4.  Fold tart dough up and over the plums, pleating or pinching as you go, then put the whole thing into the freezer for at least one hour. This will help the dough keep its shape when it’s popped into the hot oven. Once the tart has fully chilled, brush the crust with your egg wash. Mix the remaining two tablespoons of demerara sugar with the cinnamon. Sprinkle a heavy layer of the sugar-cinnamon mixture across the crust, then sprinkle the remaining over the fruit itself. Brush any stray granules off the parchment so they don’t scorch in the oven. Dot the tart with butter and cover the tart very lightly with a sheet of foil, and bake for a total of 45 to 50 minutes until crust is dark golden brown and juices are bubbling. Remove the foil about halfway through baking so that the crust can color. Allow to cool for about 20 minutes, and serve.

Coffee S'more Nutella Pie

“It’s called a ‘swing,’ not a ‘bounce,’” my partner barked in my ear as I bobbed away during my first contra dance last week in Bangor. I laughed it off and apologized, “Oh! It’s just that I’m excited to be learning. I’ll take note.” He grunted and mumbled advice about watching the other women to learn the feet properly, before I was passed off to another partner, this one blessedly more clueless than I was. There was a 16-year-old who swung me so hard I thought I would surely fall over, a professional dance mentor who forced me into constant, awkward eye contact to ward off dizziness (it worked?), and a young bespectacled beanpole who was counting all the beats and clearly annoyed when I interrupted him with a hullo during our turn together. Peter, my favorite besides Bonnie, was a tall soft-spoken fellow with bare feet and a ponytail who pulled me aside for a lesson in “centrifugal force” (spinning) and has been a contra dancer for as long as he can remember; he reminded me of my friend Aaron who can build anything, talk to anyone, and is one of the greatest fun-havers around. Arlene and I left the dance in stitches about some of the folks we met, others on whom we spied, and my own missteps too: the night was unexpectedly excellent.

That continuous laughter about everything, even cock-ups at the contra dance, is the precise difference between life now and six weeks ago. “Fuckton,” for instance, is acceptable workplace phraseology—and an exact unit of measurement!—and that freedom to let loose coupled with everyone’s generally sick and thriving senses of humor renders me doubled over with belly laughs on a near daily basis. There’s the whole farm thing and goats and cheese too, but it’s really the laughing that feels so different and welcome; I hope that it never dries up. And I'm doing my part to make sure that it doesn't by embracing being in new or weird situations as often as possible, especially if it means that I'll end up laughing at myself.

The Bangor dance was just one of many such moments where I had a guffaw-filled time by being out of my element, but it was also a self-imposed homework assignment. Arlene has warned me that it’s “only sort of okay” to be a contra first-timer at the dance in Belfast, and we're dead-set on attending in October. The coast on one side, country on the other, and jam-packed with awesome people and excellent food, Belfast is one of the best towns around, and the dance there also offers a potluck break and social hour halfway through the night. I can't wait to attend, pie in tow. This here s'more pie would be a great offering to such an event as it's a real crowd-pleaser. The crust tastes like a candy bar, the coffee ganache is outstanding, the marshmallow meringue ties the whole thing together with a sweet kick, and if you have a kitchen torch (we don't), it's an oven-free pie to boot. It would be welcome at any potluck, campfire, or giggle riot, or, if you’re working on a sweet farm in Maxfield, Maine, all three! 

Coffee S'more Nutella Pie

Adapted from Bon Appetit

The main thing I changed for this was to increase the volume and sweetness of the meringue. The original recipe called for the whites from just two eggs, which seemed skimpy, so I doubled it and the sugar. You'd be fine leaving the sugar at the original half-cup too, but don't pinch on the whites! Also, I've lately used nothing but salted butter because it's what we have. You could use either, and the original doesn't call for salt anyway, but it's pretty much the best ingredient for baked goods, so below you'll see salt both within and in addition to the butter.

Graham Cracker Crust

9 whole graham crackers, ground finely in a food processor

2 tablespoons heavy cream

2 tablespoons Nutella

1 ounce semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, melted

1 tablespoon salted butter, melted

Coffee Ganache

12 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (go with bittersweet if you can)

2 tablespoons salted butter, cut into half-inch cubes

1/4 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt, or to taste1 1/4 cups heavy cream

2 tablespoons water

2 tablespoons finely ground coffee beans

Meringue

4 large egg whites, at room temperature

Pinch salt

1 cup fine sugar

1.  For graham cracker crust: mix graham cracker crumbs and remaining ingredients in a small bowl to blend. Press mixture onto bottom and up sides of pie dish; chill until crust is firm, about 30 minutes.

2.  For coffee ganache: place chocolate and butter in a large bowl. Bring cream, coffee, and two tablespoons water to a boil in a small saucepan. Remove from heat; cover and let steep for five minutes.

3.  Strain cream mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into bowl with chocolate and butter; discard coffee grounds. Stir until melted and ganache is smooth. Pour into chilled crust; smooth top. Chill in freezer while you clean up and prepare the meringue.

4.  For meringue: set a small pot of water to simmer over medium-low heat. When simmering, add egg whites and pinch of salt to the bowl of stand mixer or other heat-proof bowl. Place over but not touching simmering water, and, whisking constantly, cook until egg whites are warm to the touch, about three minutes.

5.  Next, whip eggs and pinch of salt using whisk attachment or egg beaters on medium until they’re foamy. With the machine running, gradually add sugar, and begin beating on high until eggs whites hold very stiff peaks. Plop the meringue all over your chocolate ganache, anchoring at the crust, and pop into the broiler for two to five minutes to toast the meringue; be sure not to burn! Keep the pie refrigerated if you can, although we kept ours at room temperature for three days and it was totally fine.

Red Potato Tart with Shallots, Kale, Mustard, and Goat Tomme

We’re awash in sugar ‘round these parts. Last week started with blackberry cobbler with “dip,” ended with maple bourbon goat milk waffles, and dropped us smack dab at yesterday’s door with a coffee-nutella-s’more pie. Dave recently balked on our banana-bread-off (after he tasted mine, might I add: scared stiff of the competition!), but I’m relieved not to have as much sweet stuff floating around the house; it’s time to come up for some salty air. And lo’ and behold: I live on a cheese farm. This is the perfect place to regenerate a salt tooth.

A month or two before I arrived, Arlene worked up a few wheels of goat tomme with vegetable ash running through their centers. We cut into them about two weeks ago, and while she of course had her critiques, I was totally smitten. The tomme tastes like a clean asiago, and it’s ended up being a dang-near perfect savory baking cheese—salty, nutty, the right sort of contrast to fruit and vegetables. And as much as I would love for you to come up to Maine and buy some in person, don’t let the travel distance stop you from making this tart! Swap in some asiago, parmesan, or any good hard cheese, and you’ll be rolling some savory bliss—a nice change of pace ‘round these parts.

Red Potato Tart with Shallots, Kale, Mustard, and Goat Tomme

For the Crust
Adapted from Apt. 2B Baking Co. and I Made That!

Makes enough for two, but you’ll only need one for this recipe. Feel free to substitute in your favorite crust recipe instead! Click here for photo tutorial.

12 ounces pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
8 ounces (two sticks) very cold butter
4 to 6 ounces ice water
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

1.  On a clean counter, dump your flour and salt; mix it around with a bench scraper. Chop one stick of butter into quarters, and cut it into the four with your bench scraper. When butter is about the size of lima beans, cut in the second stick, pulling, folding, and tossing with the bench scraper as you go, until the butter is about the size of quarters. Add the vinegar to the ice water.

2. Using your fingers, flick the water onto the butter-flour mixture, gently folding with the bench scraper all the while. You have added enough water once the mixture holds together when squeezed; it should be very shaggy.

3. Next, push the butter into the flour. Using the heel of your palm, push a small section of the dough down and away from you; this creates long layers of butter in your dough, which translates to long flaky layers in your crust. Use your bench scraper to scrape up the smear, and put it a bowl. Repeat until all the dough has been smeared and you have a bowlful of long, buttery layers. Push these into one mass, divide in half, wrap each in plastic, flatten into disks, and chill at least two hours, or better yet overnight.

For the Filling

Adapted significantly from Smitten Kitchen

I added shallots, kale, dijon, and a salt quantity to this. Also used a different crust, cut back the cream, and kept the egg white instead of using just the yolk. See here for her version with blue cheese.

One-half recipe savory pie or tart crust
3/4 pound small red potatoes
1/3 cup shredded cheese (we used farm-made goat tomme, but consider gouda, gruyere, asiago, havarti)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 medium shallot, sliced into thin rings
3 to 4 large leaves of kale, ribs removed, and leaves cut into ribbons
1 tablespoon dijon or other fine mustard
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 medium or large egg
1/2 teaspoon Diamond kosher salt (see here for salt tutorial to compensate if using other brand)
Cracked black pepper
Parsley for garnish, optional

1.  Roll out your dough to a ten-inch circle and fit it into an 8-inch tart pan. Prick all over with a fork, and place it in the freezer while you ready everything else. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with foil and set aside.

2.  Slice the potatoes into quarter-inch slices. Put into medium saucepan, cover with an inch or two of water, bring to a simmer, and cook for about ten minutes, until tender. Drain, and pat dry with a paper towel.

3. In a medium sautee pan, heat olive oil over medium until hot. Add shallots, and cook until wilted and starting to color, about five minutes. Add kale ribbons, and cook until bright green, two to three minutes. Remove from heat and set aside. Next, spread your mustard across the bottom of your frozen tart dough; use more if you wish, but a thin layer should do the trick. Whisk together the cream, egg, and salt, and set aside.
4.  Starting out the outside of your tart, overlap potato slices into one ring. Use a bit more than half of your kale ribbons and shallots to line the inner edge of your potato ring. Make your next circle of potatoes. Line that one with kale ribbons, and make your final third circle the middle. Use leftover potatoes to go back and fill in places where the potato circles might be thin. Top with your cheese and any remaining shallots. Slowly pour the cream and egg mixture across the top, allowing it to sink down into the spaces between potatoes. Crack some black pepper over the top, and bake on cookie sheet for 45 minutes to an hour, or until the cheese and crust are golden, and the filling is bubbling. Remove to a cooling rack for ten to 15 minutes, remove outer tart pan ring, top with a few torn parsley leaves if desired, and serve while still warm.

Tomatoes for a side salad with the goat tomme front and center-ish.

Stone Fruit Tartlets with Rough Puff Pastry

The WWOOFers manhandled these tartlets. The three of them showed up on a Monday, fell in love with each other, and then, under feigned personal duress and believable tremendous confusion, ditched the farm that Wednesday morning to pursue their triad; somewhere along the line they pounded back all of the desserts, drank a lot of Twisted Tea, and left skivvies tacked to a chair in the basement. “You know, when I grow up,” mused the 23-year-old, “what I really want to do is become a foodie. I think I’d like that.” Arlene and I snorted into our beers, and we would have dumped them on his head had we known that later that night he would announce with deep solemnity that the three of the them were forgoing the endless opportunity to learn to make incredible food so they could get it on somewhere else. 

While we all worked on cheese and goats, the three of them horsed around in the shower and waxed poetic about what it’s like to “work hard” and be away from home. And even though they thus annoyed me to hell and the shared farm attitude was “fuck ‘em,” in a backwards way I almost appreciate their inanity because it brought levity to the farm once they were gone—a fun story to tell my folks about the spoiled Oberlin kids gone awry. Plus, they were totally nuts about these tartlets, if that’s any kind of endorsement. Don’t have any stone fruit? Use apple slices! Or pears. Or pralines. Don’t have any sluggish WOOFers with whom to share them? Toast to your lucky stars.

Stone Fruit Tartlets

Yields about 12 to 15 tartlets, depending on size

Adapted from Apt. 2B Baking Co. and Not Without Salt

This was my first time making rough puff pastry, and while you can see that I overbaked it some and my fruit pieces were a wee wack, I am in love with this recipe. I am also in love with Yossy of Apt. 2B Baking Co. for always having the most easily beautiful photos and recipes to share. Not so much in love that I’d ditch my farm to run away together, but enough so that her blog inspires me every day. Read it!

For Rough Puff Pastry
Below is one-half of a full recipe, which is just what you'll need to make about one dozen to 15 tartlets. See full proportions and a photo tutorial here if you'd like.

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
3 1/4 sticks (26 tablespoons) unsalted, very cold butter, cut into half-inch cubes
1/2 cup very cold water

1.  Sift together dry ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Add butter chunks, and mix on the lowest speed for 30 seconds. Drizzle the water over the top and mix on the lowest speed for 15 seconds. (You can also do this whole step by hand using a bench scraper, if you'd rather.)

2.  Dump flour mixture onto clean counter or pastry board. Using your hands and a bench scraper, push the crumbly mass into a long rectangle, with the long end parallel to your body. Using the bench scraper, fold the right third of the dough over into the center and then the left third of the dough into the center on top; it's like folding a business letter. Rotate the dough 90 degrees.

3.  Reshape and push the dough into a rectangle again. Repeat the folding and turning two more times for a total of three times folded. If the dough becomes soft, just refrigerate for 20 to 30 minutes and continue. Once you've completed your turns, wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour.

4.  Remove dough from fridge and repeat process with three more turns. Where in the previous round your were mostly using your hands to push and shape the dough, a well-floured rolling pin will the do the trick now that the dough is more pliable. After the three turns (for a grand total of six), let dough rest, wrapped in fridge for 30 minutes; your dough is now ready to use! When baking, remember to preheat the oven for about an hour ahead of time, if you can.

For Assembly and Baking
As Yossy warns, these bake best in a very hot oven and when the pastry is very cold, almost frozen. My second batch puffed much more nicely than my first, so be sure to pre-heat your oven for a good while, and don't skimp on the freezer time for the pastry squares.

Rough puff pastry (see above)
5 to 7 pieces of stone fruit (one nectarine or peach will yield three tartlets if you slice well; one small plum or apricot will yield two)
1 egg + 1 tablespoon water, beaten with a fork until no streaks remain
1 teaspoon raw or large-grain sugar per tartlet
Powdered sugar for dusting, if desired

1. At least an hour prior to baking, preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment. When ready to bake, on a lightly floured surface, roll out rough puff pasty to a quarter-inch thick, keeping it as close to a rectangle as you can. With a knife or bench scraper, cut pastry into squares, three or four inches on each side (plums fit well on three-inch squares, but I wish I'd gone bigger for nectarines). Move squares to cookie sheets, and chill in the freezer for 20 to 30 minutes.

2.  Meanwhile, halve and pit your stone fruit. Cut the halves into eighth-inch slices, keeping them together so that they're easy to fan out across the pastry. When the pastry is very cold, brush the tops with your egg wash. Arrange tartlets on sheets with an inch or so of space between. Sprinkle each square with about half a teaspoon of sugar, fan the fruit across, and top with the rest of the sugar so that each tartlet has about one teaspoon total. Brush the excess sugar from the pans so that it doesn't blacken in the oven (like mine did), and bake your tartlets for 15 to 20 minutes, until they're lightly golden (I went a little long on the ones pictured). Allow to cool for about ten minutes, and enjoy! They'll keep covered at room temperature for about three days, softening a little bit each day.