Yeasted Plum Tart

Continuing along in my plum reverie, I stumbled upon another delicious recipe from Ripe for Dessert by David Lebovitz. We can see the fruit of the season narrowing but it’s still easy to find a few varieties of plums. And I think this is a great way to use them right at the moment.

Now I know some of you may feel some trepidation about working with yeast. It can seem like it has its own life. And it does. But it can also be easily mastered. You'll see that this recipe sets out to prove just that. And honestly, everybody has their weak spot. Some people resist working with chocolate or doughs or making a cake. I used to fear the caramel until I had to make it every day for months when I worked for a chef who used versions of it as a backnote in many desserts. It was astonishing what he could do with it. So just a couple burns and botched batches later, I slowly learned to understand how it works and it has become one of my favorite flavorings that can be used in multiple ways. Just keep your eyes and ears and nose open and you can figure out just about anything in the pastry world.

So this tart dough comes together with the snap of a finger. No scary temperature testing or wish-making. Just throw everything together and about 3 minutes later you’re done. Give it two hours to rise, layer some fruit and give it 30 minutes. Bake it and voila! A delicious little tart that is brimming with exactly the right amount of yeast, butter, vanilla, sugar, salt and of course blessed fruit. Snap!

Bench notes:
- This dough is very wet and sticky. If you have a pastry scraper, use it to scrape the dough into the prepared pan. Or a rubber spatula will work just fine.
- When it comes to finishing the tart, 1/4 C of sugar seems like an ungodly amount. But it does seem to be needed to sweeten the fruit just right.
- The tart is great with or without the sauce. If you make it, use a good fruity wine such as Zinfandel.
- The tart will keep for a couple of days.
- There are a number of ways to improvise on this. Use your imagination.

Yeasted Plum Tart
adapted from Ripe for Dessert by David Lebovitz
Serves 8

3 T whole milk
2 t (1 pkg) dry yeast (not instant)
1/4 C sugar
2 eggs @ room temperature
1 1/2 t vanilla
1 1/2 C flour
3/4 t salt
3 oz butter @ room temperature and cut into 1/2” pieces
5 medium plums (approx 1 lb), pitted and cut into 1/2” slices
1/4 C sugar

Red Wine Plum Sauce
1/2 C red wine
1 plum, cut into 1/4” pieces
1/4 C sugar
optional: 1 C raspberries or blackberries

Generously butter a 9 1/2” springform pan.

Stir together the milk and the yeast in a mixer bowl and then add in the 1/4 C sugar, eggs and vanilla. Using the paddle attachment to finish the mixing, add in the flour and salt and mix for one minute. Add butter and continue beating for another minute. Gather the dough into the prepared pan. Cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm space to rise for 2 hours.

Dampen your hands a bit and gently press down on the dough, spreading to cover the bottom of the pan evenly. Arrange the plum slices in a decorative way over the dough, leaving a 1/2” border all around the edges. Press the plums down firmly. Sprinkle a generous 1/4 C sugar over the entire surface and let the tart stand for 30 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Bake the tart for 40 minutes or until the tart is lightly browned and the center feels slightly firm to the touch.

Bring the wine, plums and 1/4 C sugar to a simmer. Cook on low heat until plums are tender. Cool the mixture and puree.

Serve a slice of the warm tart with a generous helping of sauce.

Gâteau Basque

Primavera! Spring is here! And although I am thrilled to welcome this gorgeous season, the bounty of lovely spring fruit that brings us such pleasure has not yet arrived. So I turned to my pantry to retrieve a jar of cherries from last season, put away for just such a moment: a taste of spring, even if we’re not quite there yet.

One of the things I love to do with cherries is to bake a Gâteau Basque. There are several different variations based on region, family history and personal taste preferences, but the basic concept is nearly always the same. A thin pastry filled with some preserved fruit and more than likely some crème patisserie or pastry cream. Gâteau Basque is an absolutely delicious salute to the gorgeously gastronomical Basque region of Spain.

Gâteau Basque originated in the 17th century in the Cambo province of Labourd. At that time, the pastry was made from corn flour and lard and was baked in the shape of a little pig. The Gâteau transformed over time to include the addition of local jams and toward the end of the 19th century, the addition of custard. It was common in old times to fill the pastry with jam made from black cherries from the little village of Itxassou near Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, where they celebrate with a cherry festival in June.

This rendition is a fairly classic one. A thin pastry crust is filled with sour cherry preserves and pastry cream. It is the first kind I ever tasted and I thought it was superb. I’ve also made François Payard’s version, which is actually a cake batter filled with cherries and pastry cream. And there is another version from David Lebovitz, filled only with a prune compote. We’ll get to them eventually so you’ll have the pleasure of sampling them all. They are each in their own way really excellent pastries and all in keeping with the robust Basque tradition.


Bench notes:
- I take the crust recipe from Food and Wine. I recommend that you use the best sour cherry preserves you can find because that is the dominant flavor of the pastry. I used a combination of some cherries I had preserved along with some fresh cherry jam. Italian Amarena cherries are also wonderful in this, although they are quite expensive. When fresh cherries are available, I make a fresh cherry compote and use that. Soon!
- I used a flan ring but you can use a tart pan or, in a pinch, use a pie dish.
- The pastry dough can be made a day ahead and stored in the refrigerator.
- This pastry is best eaten fresh, but will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for a couple of days.



Gâteau Basque
Serves 8 to 10

1/2 C sugar
4 oz (1 stick) butter @ room temperature
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
1/8 t salt
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 1/2 C plus 2 T flour
1 t baking powder

Crème Patisserie (Pastry Cream)

1/4 C sugar
3 egg yolks
1 T flour
1 T cornstarch
1 C milk
1 oz (2 T) butter
1/2 t vanilla
1/4 t almond extract or 1/2 t rum

preserved whole cherries and/or high quality cherry jam/preserves
egg wash: 1 yolk and 1 T milk

For the pastry dough, place the sugar, butter, lemon zest and salt in a food processor and pulse until it is blended. Add the egg and egg yolk and pulse until mixed. Whisk together the flour and the baking powder and add to the processor and pulse until a dough forms. Turn the dough out onto a piece of plastic wrap and divide it into 2 pieces, one slightly larger than the other. Pat the dough into disks and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate until firm, at least 30 minutes.

For the pastry cream, whisk the sugar with the egg yolks until pale. Add the flour and cornstarch and whisk until smooth. Heat the milk just until it starts to show signs of coming to a boil. Gradually add 1/2 of the hot milk to the sugar-yolk mixture, whisking vigorously to prevent the eggs from scrambling. Pour this mixture back into the saucepan and cook over low heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture thickens and boils. Take off the heat and stir in the butter. Add the vanilla extract and almond extract or rum. Pour into a bowl and cool slightly. Press a piece of plastic wrap on the surface and refrigerate until chilled and firm.

To assemble, remove the dough and let it sit for a few minutes to take the chill off. Butter a 9-by-1-inch flan ring and set it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Working between 2 pieces of plastic wrap or parchment and a bit of flour, roll out the larger piece of dough to about an 11” round. Ease the dough into the flan ring, pressing it into the bottom and leaving a slight overhang. Spread a layer of cherry preserves evenly over the bottom of the tart shell. Layer the pastry cream over the preserves and spread carefully. Roll out the second piece of dough to a 10” round and lay it over the pastry cream. Pinch the edges of the top and bottom crusts together to seal the crusts and trim the overhang. Using a bench scraper, knife or the tines of a fork, score the top crust in a decorative crosshatch pattern. Chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 325°. Brush the Gâteau with an egg wash made by combining the egg yolk and 1 T milk. Bake in the center of the oven for 45 - 55 minutes, or until the top is golden brown. Let the tart cool completely on a wire rack.

Unmold and enjoy a bite of the great flavors of Labourd co-mingled with a bit of influence from the French Pyrenees. Ah, spring!

Apple Rosemary Galette

It hardly seems like fall until the sweet aroma of apples baking in a hot oven wafts through the neighborhood. There’s something about the sensory combination of a crisp breeze, a dust up of autumn leaves and the sight and smell of a warm apple dessert that quintessentially inaugurates the arrival of autumn. Whether it’s a quickly devised apple crisp, an old-fashioned apple pie, classic French apple tart, Austrian strudel or European apple cake, apple desserts are among the most ubiquitous and satisfying pleasures in just about every region of the world. They are the reliably delicious staple that gets us through these long winter months before spring arrives with its grand palette of fresh color and succulent sunshine flavors. When the kitchen is full of the fragrance of apples baking, we know we are in for supreme comfort.

I love baking all the traditional apple desserts, but today I’m thinking about a free form apple galette that delivers a slight herbal note to pique our interest and remind us that a tiny bit of savory is more than welcome in the apple kingdom. The smell of a fresh rosemary sprig can lift our spirits just by merely showing up. One bite of this dessert and you’ll see what I mean. Tender apples, just a slight hint of fresh herb and a pinch of sweetness, this is a truly satisfying celebration of fall.


Bench notes:
- This recipe calls for a bit of rosemary sugar that is made by simply grinding fresh rosemary and sugar together to get a fragrant blend. Use a clean coffee grinder that is used for spices only or your food processor. Although only about a tablespoon or so is needed, to get a good blend you’ll need to do a slightly larger batch. The remainder can be used on toast or mixed into hot oatmeal or a good pound cake recipe.
- This dough recipe makes enough for two galettes. You can freeze half the dough for later use if you’d like.
- I used Fuji apples but choose your favorite baking variety. Keep in mind that sugar levels vary greatly in fruit, so always taste the fruit to gauge the desired level of sweetness. You’ll often see that my recipes include the phrase “to taste” to accommodate personal preferences. So taste, taste, taste.



Apple Rosemary Galette
Serves 8

Galette Dough
2 C AP flour
1 T sugar
1/4 t salt
6 oz butter, cold and cut into small pieces
1/2 C cold water

Filling
4 apples
juice of 1/2 lemon
2 T sugar
1 1/2 T rosemary sugar

2 T butter, melted
sugar to sprinkle

To prepare galette dough, whisk the flour, sugar and salt in a bowl to combine. Cut the butter into the flour mixture until you have mostly small pieces the size of tiny peas and some just a bit larger. You can use your fingers to do this or a pastry blender works well. Be sure each piece of butter is coated with flour. Add the cold water and mix gently with your fingers until the dough just starts to come together. Gather the dough on a work surface. Use a pastry scraper or metal spatula to fold the dough back onto itself and gently pat down with your hands into a loose disc. Repeat this process again once or twice until the dough looks like it’s coming together. Place the dough on a piece of plastic wrap. Gather tightly and chill thoroughly, preferably overnight.

When you are ready to roll out the dough, remove from the refrigerator and rest on a lightly floured board for a few minutes so it can soften just a bit to prevent cracking. Then roll the dough out to a 14” circle about 1/8”thick, moving the dough after each roll and keeping the board lightly floured as needed. When you have the desired shape, lift the pastry onto a parchment covered pizza pan or baking sheet. Chill for about a half hour.

Prepare rosemary sugar by grinding about 15 coarsely chopped rosemary leaves and about 3 T granulated sugar together in a clean spice grinder or a food processor. The rosemary should be as finely ground as possible. Set aside.

Squeeze juice of half a lemon into a large bowl. Peel, core and slice apples into thin wedges. Toss in lemon juice and sprinkle with 2 T of plain sugar. Toss thoroughly to coat all the apple slices.

Remove prepared galette dough from the refrigerator and sprinkle 1 1/2 T rosemary sugar evenly across the bottom, leaving about a 1 1/2” border all the way around. Arrange sliced apples on top of rosemary sugar as you wish. Now start to lift and gather the dough up and on top of the fruit, being careful not to create any cracks. Work with both hands, pressing gently to keep the dough in place. Chill for one hour.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Brush the border of dough and the fruit with melted butter and dust the dough and the fruit with a generous sprinkle of plain sugar. Bake for about 40 – 50 minutes, until the dough is crisp and browned. Cool on a wire rack to keep the bottom of the galette crisp.

Parade of the Raspberry

When asked to prepare dessert for a dinner party, I always want to spoil the host. A recent invitation to a friend’s dinner table was almost too easy. I know how much he loves raspberries and tarts. And although I had several ideas for things that would be exciting for me to experiment with, I realized that what would most please him is just a pile of raspberries nestled in a little pastry shell. Sometimes it's just that simple. So I got out of the way and let the raspberries carry on in their own perfect parade.




Chocolate Tart Shells
Adapted from David Ogonowski in Baking with Julia

Makes 6 4” tart shells or many mini tart shells

1 1/4 C flour
1/4 C cocoa, preferably Dutch-processed
1/4 C sugar
1/4 t salt
4 oz cold butter, cut into small pieces
1 egg yolk
1 T ice water

Tart Filling
1 C crème fraiche or heavy cream
1 T sugar
1 - 2 pints raspberries

Place the dry ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and pulse to blend. Add butter and pulse about 8 - 10 times to break up the butter into pea-sized pieces. Add the yolk and ice water and pulse a few more times until the dough begins to look crumbly. Finish the dough on a clean work surface using a motion called fraisage, which is smearing parts of the dough across the work surface with the heel or palm of your hand. This is a great technique that essentially flattens the butter and coats it in flour, producing that all-important flakiness. As with all pastry doughs, be careful not to overmix. Fraisage the dough just 3 or 4 times (depending on the amount of dough you're working with) and then use a bench scraper to gather and fold the dough back on itself. Form into a flat round, wrap in plastic and chill the dough until firm, at least 30 minutes.

Let the dough warm up for a few minutes at room temperature. Roll between 2 pieces of parchment to an 1/8 inch. Line tart pans, patching as you go if necessary. Chill the shells for at least 20 minutes.

Preheat the over to 350 degrees. Prick the bottom of the tart shells with the tines of a fork and place on a baking sheet. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, rotating the baking sheet halfway through the baking time. The surface of the tart sheets should appear dry and firm to the touch. Cool completely.

Whip 1 cup of crème fraiche or heavy cream with 1 T sugar until medium peaks form. Fill the tart shells halfway and top with berries. Stand back and hail the parade.

The Double Life of Figs

Figs have two growing seasons, one in late spring and another in late summer that lasts through early fall. Magic. Maybe it was an early fixation with Fig Newtons, but I really do love figs in all forms. Figs grilled with prosciutto, figs with Bleu de Basque and sourwood honey, figs sprinkled with saba and shaved chocolate, figs cloaked in anise sabayon, figs and coffee ice cream, fig-filled cuccidati, figs just being figs.

I am also especially deeply in love with the simple life of the galette, or crostata as it is known in Italy. Who could resist a fig and raspberry galette? A match made in heaven. If you haven’t tasted this blazing combo, seize the day.

So many figs. So little time.

Bench notes:
-When handling dough, be gentle. I like to mix without tools because I know of nothing more meditative than having my hands in flour. Just make sure your hands are thoroughly coated with flour and work the butter in gingerly to avoid softening it. Using a pastry blender also works very well. In any case, one of the most important things I learned in pastry school is what it means to have a “light touch.” It can take a while to really understand what this means in practice.
-If you have a bench scraper, now is the time to use it. As you roll out the galette, use a light smattering of flour and keep moving the dough after each roll to prevent sticking. If you feel the slightest resistance, use your scraper to gently release it and apply more flour. Rotate the dough to ensure evenness. Try to work fairly quickly to avoid warming the butter. When the dough is rolled out to the desired shape and size, I always take my 3” wide brush and remove excess flour from both sides.
-The beauty of galettes is you can shape them however you’d like. It gets easier with practice.
-Chilling the dough before and after rolling, and again after the galette has been shaped if it feels too soft, is the key to flaky success.
-This dough recipe makes enough for two galettes. You can freeze half the dough for later use if you’d like.


Fresh Fig Raspberry Galette
2 C AP flour
1 T sugar
1/4 t salt
6 oz butter, cold and cut into small pieces
1/2 C chilled water

1 1/2 lb fresh mission figs, sliced in quarters
1 pint raspberries
1/4 C + 2 T sugar, to taste
melted butter and sugar for finishing

Mix the flour, sugar and salt in a bowl. Cut the butter into the flour mixture until you have some small pieces and some a bit larger. Be sure to coat each piece with flour. Add the cold water and mix gently, using a pastry scraper to fold the dough onto itself two or three times. Gather the dough without mixing too much or applying a lot of pressure or squishing it too much. It will look a bit of a mess and you will wonder how it will ever transform into anything useful, but resist the temptation to overwork it. Place the dough on a piece of plastic wrap. Gather tightly and chill thoroughly.

When the dough is ready to roll, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Let the chilled dough rest on a lightly floured board for a few minutes so it can soften just a bit to prevent cracking. Then roll the dough out to a 14” circle about 1/8”thick, moving the dough and keeping the board lightly floured as needed. When you have the desired shape, lift the pastry onto a parchment covered pizza sheet pan. Chill for about a half hour.

Place the figs in a bowl and toss with sugar. Gently incorporate the raspberries and place the fruit onto the surface of the pastry, leaving about a 2” border all the way around. Neaten up your pile so the fruit is evenly distributed. (Alternatively, you can carefully arrange a pattern of figs and add the raspberries last.) Now start to lift and gather the dough up and on top of the fruit, being careful not to create any cracks. Work with both hands, one keeping the folded dough in place and the other doing the pleating. Brush the border of dough with butter and dust the dough and the fruit with a last sprinkle of sugar. Bake for about 40 – 50 minutes, until the dough is crisp and browned. Cool on a wire rack to keep the bottom crunchy.



galette photography courtesy of Jennifer Kanter/Semaphore Fine Preserves & Films