Baked Goods + Desserts + Drinks – Page 5 – Writing With My Mouth Full

Savory Fig Tart with Rosemary and Stilton

This recipe was republished by The New York Times from A Good Appetite: Ripe for Autumnâ€™s Hearth and it was one of those recipes I saved because it just sounded so deliciously savory. While I was in Raleigh, North Carolina for the weekend, I picked up a pint of figs from the farmers’ market and I immediately thought of making this even though August just began.

The weather the last two days has been bearable and I can’t stop thinking about how it’s almost autumn. I just started seeing tomatoes in the market and the peaches and nectarines are aplenty–how could there be figs already? I’m not ready for summer to be over yet!

I picked up a box of frozen puff pastry from Whole Foods and let it thaw on my way back to my apartment and while I was prepping the rest of the ingredients. I had Roquefort in the fridge, but I didn’t want to stray too much from the original recipe, so I bought a wedge of Stilton to make sure I get it right. I eliminated a pinch of sugar and forgot a splash of sherry vinegar–the former to add sweetness and the latter to caramelize the onions properly–but I think I didn’t screw it up too much because everything came together perfectly.

Ingredients:
2 tbsps unsalted butter
oil
1 large white onion, sliced thinly
2 sprigs rosemary, removed from stem
1/4 cup milk
1 egg
flour for dusting
1 box frozen puff pastry, thawed
1 pint fresh figs, cut in half
a small wedge Stilton cheese, crumbled
a handful of pine nuts

1. In a large skillet over low heat, melt butter with oil. Add onions and rosemary. Cook, tossing occasionally, until onions are limp and golden brown, about 30 to 40 minutes. (Add a splash of sherry vinegar here and scrape off the brown bits from the bottom of the pan when caramelizing.)
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the milk and egg until smooth. Stir in the onions.
3. Preheat oven to 400º. Line an 11 by 17-inch baking sheet with parchment paper. On a lightly floured surface, roll out pastry to a 9 by 12-inch rectangle. Transfer to baking sheet.
4. Use a fork to spread onion mixture evenly over pastry while letting excess egg mixture drip back into bowl and leaving a 1-inch border. Arrange figs, cut-side up, in even rows on onion mixture. Scatter cheese and pine nuts over figs. Use a pastry brush to dab edges of tart with egg mixture. Gently fold over edges of tart to form a lip and brush with more egg mixture.
5. Bake until pastry is puffed and golden, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove to rest at room temperature before serving.

Arugula-Stuffed Flatbread

While walking in the Andersonville neighborhood of Chicago, Anna and I stopped by a store that was lacking in spirit but selling every spice imaginable from Africa, Central Asia and the Mediterranean. My pantry is stocked up with spices I smuggled from our Tunisian trip, so I was in no hurry to buy curries or harissas. Everything was less expensive than Penzeys however, so I kept it in mind for the next time I would need something exotic for my kitchen. It was only on our way out when I noticed the lavash for sale–at less than $1.50 for about three sheets.

Lavash, or flatbread, is a soft, thin bread reportedly of Armenian origin. I was intrigued by flatbreads because they showed up on every Chicago menu I perused. Having lunch by myself one day at Sepia, I ordered the flatbread of the day which was topped with sous-vide onions. If you don’t make it by hand, flatbreads are so easy to bake with almost anything you have in the fridge. Thinner than pizza and thus cook faster, flatbreads are great for quick lunches and make an awesome addition to brunch.

For this version, I finished the two cheeses I had in the fridge by combining them after grating. I had a lot of fresh vegetables available, but was partial to the spicy arugula for the bite. One time, I made this recipe and topped it with slices of kielbasa and Mangalitsa bacon; another, just with shiitake mushrooms and spinach. Feel free to play around with Taleggio cheese and caramelized onions, too. The fun part is coming up with your own combination.

Ingredients:
flatbread
arugula
kielbasa, sliced (optional)
1/2 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano, grated
1/2 cup Manchego, grated
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
red pepper flakes
oil, salt

1. Preheat oven at 350º. In the meantime, lay the flatbread flat on a lined baking sheet. Brush with some olive oil. Spread the arugula on one half of the flatbread. Sprinkle with red pepper and a dash of salt. Top that half with the cheeses. Fold over flatbread.
2. Brush the other side with olive oil. Top with kielbasa, or the toppings of your choice, and then with red onions. If you have leftover arugula, finish off with them.
3. Bake for 3 to 5 minutes, or until you see the edges coloring a bit. Remove from oven and let stand. Transfer to a chopping block and slice to serve.

Zucchini Bread

Lisa brought two more zucchinis for me from her garden. This time I ended up making zucchini bread since I had an entire Saturday free. It was pouring outside so as soon as I switched to cooking mode, I couldn’t stop. I ended up staying in the kitchen all day baking.

For fun, I used my financier molds to cook smaller version of the cake and served it with vanilla ice cream after lunch.

Ingredients:
1 large fresh zucchini, grated
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup sugar
2 tsps vanilla
2 tsps baking soda
a pinch of salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 tsps cinnamon
1 stick of butter, melted
a handful of walnuts, crushed with hand

1. Preheat the oven to 300º. In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, eggs and vanilla. Mix in the grated zucchini and then the melted butter. Sprinkle baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour, a little at a time while mixing with a spatula. Sprinkle in the cinnamon and nutmeg and mix until well-combined. Fold in the walnuts.
2. Divide the batter equally between 2 buttered 5 by 9 inch loaf pans. Bake for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in to the center comes out clean. Check for doneness at 50 minutes. Cool in pans for 10 minutes and then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.

Watermelon Granita

For our first barbecue, I wanted to serve a simple summer dessert that everyone would enjoy after eating all the pork belly and chicken. I donâ€™t know how heavy watermelons are in your area, but in Harlem, a quarter of a melon is good enough for this recipe–it fed five people with second servings. And at 69 cents a pound, itâ€™s also the least expensive dessert I can think of with minimal effort. The watermelon juice that didnâ€™t fit in the glass dish went into three tall glasses spiked with Grey Goose.

Ingredients:
watermelon flesh, chopped in manageable pieces
1/4 cup sugar
juice from 1 lemon
mint leaves

1. Put all watermelon pieces in a large glass bowl and sprinkle all over with sugar. Let stand for an hour in room temperature. In the meantime, put a square baking glass dish in the freezer.
2. Using a blender, purée the sugared watermelon and their juices with 1/2 cup of water and a squirt of the lemon juice. Taste and add more lemon juice if necessary. There should be a perfect balance of light sweetness and some tart.
3. Remove the glass dish from the freezer and pour in blended watermelon juice. Return to the freezer and freeze.
4. After 30 minutes, the watermelon should begin to freeze. Scrape off frozen bits from the side of the glass dish and move them to the center. Return to the freezer. Repeat three more times before serving with mint leaves.

Related post/s:
I forgot I made celery granita before

Banana Bread

I ended up doubling the ingredients here to fill a silicone mold and a 4×8-inch loaf pan. The good thing is that you don’t need a mixer; just a strong arm and a wooden spoon. Keep the measurements precise and I promise it will be the best banana bread you’ll ever bake.

I filled the silicone molds more than halfway and the cooked banana bread puffed up, making their own muffin-like tops. I sliced the tops off and I had these cool-looking banana bread bars. Because I baked late in the afternoon, I could only distribute the tops to save the end-products for the next day’s photo shoot and that reminded me of one of my favorite Seinfeld episodes.

Ingredients:
4 ripe bananas, smashed
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup butter, melted in microwave; some more to butter the loaf pan
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
a pinch of salt

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Add the sugar, egg and vanilla. Toss in the baking soda and salt. Keep mixing. Lastly, add the flour and continue to mix until well-combined.
2. Pour mixture into a buttered 4×8-inch loaf pan. Place the loaf pan on a baking sheet and transfer in the oven and bake for 1 hour. Cool completely on a rack before slicing to serve.