“Ode to Annapolis” Apple Pinot Blackberry Tart
A few days ago my best childhood friend Beca and I went on an “Old Stepdads Tour” of Annapolis, the small town along the Northern California coast we grew up in. When we were kids, Annapolis was virtually unknown – one tiny post office which was only open until noon and maybe 350 people scattered around in the redwoods, making their living either growing pot, logging, or working the one little K-8 elementary school. (Very small – my 8th grade graduating class was 4 kids… including me). Our town was socially split into “rednecks” or “hippies”, with my family and Beca’s definitely landing in the hippy camp.
Beca and I grew up riding horses through the redwoods, picking huckleberries and blackberries in the summer, and trying to avoid getting shot in the hunting and pot harvest seasons. My mom and stepfather Doug were both vegetarians with a huge organic garden, which I have to admit I only appreciated for the trade in-value of our gorgeous homegrown strawberries that were swapped surreptitiously at school for white bread Fluffernutter sandwiches. I am also sorry to say that my mom’s truly gourmet whole wheat, cream cheese and artichoke-heart sandwiches ended up in the garbage can nearly every time. But growing up with hippy parents in Annapolis obviously set the stage for my (eventual) interest in organic, local, healthy gourmet vegetarian cooking, and probably gave me an early taste for marketing as well!
Beca and I spent the first couple of hours with her stepfather Bob, whose property was literally dripping with ripe apple, plum and pear trees, and left with bags of intoxicatingly ripe apples as well as several jars of Fandango Spice Garden jam which is made by Bob and Cheryl and sold in local farmers markets. They do not have a website so if you ever see it in California make sure to snatch a bottle up – it’s fantastic, with flavors like Satsuma Plum and Raspberry Shiraz. I love a fruit and wine combination!
After an afternoon of reminiscing and driving up and around the dusty back roads of Annapolis, we ended up for dinner at Doug and his wife Jane’s place – a completely craftsman yet impressively high-tech, solar powered, totally off-the-grid hand-built house with decks and studios overlooking miles of redwood-topped mountains all the way to the Pacific. We had a delicious vegetarian meal, freshly picked from the garden, and watched news of Hurricane Irene rolling towards NYC on a TV monitor larger than most NY cinema screens. It was an amazing mix of country and technology.
From the decks you could also see some new vineyards cropping up on the ridges. Recently, as with Napa Valley and the rest of Sonoma, grapes have come to Annapolis and with them a lot of controversy over clearing mountains of redwood trees to make way for Pinot grapes. I don’t have anything against a few vineyards, but I have seen how this mono-crop has eaten up much of the gorgeous diversity of the rest of Sonoma County, and I can’t tell you how sad it would be to see more redwoods cut down and more damage done to the delicate local watershed. Trees and fish are not a fair trade for wine.
This tart, full of Annapolis apples, summer blackberries and a splash of Pinot just to rile things up, was made from an afternoon full of warm childhood memories. I hope you can taste them too.
Apple Pinot Blackberry Tart
- 1 1/2 recipe Perfect Butter Crust (see below)
- 1 1/2 pints fresh ripe blackberries
- 1/2 cup agave syrup
- 1/4 cup Pinot Noir
- 6 – 7 ripe summer apples
- 1/4 cup local honey
- 6 T small pearl tapioca
- 1 t vanilla
- 1/2 t cinnamon
- pinch of salt
Make a Perfect Butter Crust ( or use your own favorite double crust recipe) using 2 cups of flour and 2/3 plus 2 T butter, and increase water slightly. Split dough into two balls, one slightly larger than the other, flatten each gently and chill for 1 hour.
Roll larger crust out and line a large quiche or deep dish pie pan with dough, allowing the edges to overlap the pan slightly. Chill. Roll smaller ball out and cut into strips. Weave strips together into a lattice top and chill on wax or parchment paper for 20 minutes until firm enough to handle.
Preheat oven to 425° and prepare filling:
In a small pan, cook blackberries with Pinot and agave syrup on medium heat for 5 minutes. Allow to cool while you prepare apples. Peel and slice apples thinly, tossing in a large bowl with honey, tapioca, cinnamon and salt. Crush blackberries through a strainer, discarding seeds, and add to apple mixture. Allow to sit for 20 minutes and pour into chilled bottom tart shell, smoothing out any wayward bits of fruit on top.
Gently roll lattice top onto a rolling pin, transfer to top of fruit mixture and carefully unroll onto tart. Flute lattice and tart edges together and bake for 10 minutes in 425° oven. Turn oven down to 350° and continue baking for 1 hour until top is gently brown all over. Make sure there is a pan with foil at the bottom of the oven to catch the drips. Enjoy!
Chocolate Ganache Cupcakes
My friends all know that I hate cupcakes. Vehemently. I have hated them for a long time – at least since the cupcake craze started in NYC by Sex and the City – and I kept waiting for them to go away, (…um, you know, like: grow up) but in the meantime they seem to have invaded other cities, cookbooks, some of my favorite blogs…and now even my dreams. I had a dream last night in which I had to make a cake for 200 people in an hour…and in it, I was seriously considering cupcakes. Very stressful.
Chocolate Ganache Cupcakes with Edible Gold Leaf
Happily, and despite my own prejudices, I have discovered that there are some real life occasions when one hour is all you’ve got – you want to make something fun for your boyfriend and his 12 year old son’s birthday, for instance – and I have to admit that nothing could be better and more appropriate for the occasion than…chocolate cupcakes! So, here they are – vegan, no refined sugar, dipped in super gooey ganache, topped with edible gold leaf… making them, well, a little bit sexy. Who knew?
Chocolate Cupcakes with Ganache Frosting
- 1 cup unbleached white, or “white whole wheat” flour
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 1 t baking soda
- 1/4 t salt
- 3/4 c agave syrup, or coconut crystals
- 1/2 c almond milk
- 1/3 cup oil (organic grapeseed)
- 2 t vanilla
- 1 t apple cider vinegar
Preheat oven to 350°. Prepare 12 muffin tins with paper cupcake liners.
Combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in mixing bowl. Add agave syrup, almond milk, oil vanilla and vinegar and whisk lightly for 30 seconds to one minute until well combined. Pour into paper cupcake liners and bake for 20 – 25 minutes until tops spring back lightly when touched.
Chocolate Ganache Frosting
- 1/2 cup raw agave syrup
- 1/2 c cocoa powder
- 1 t vanilla extract
- pinch salt
- 1/2 cup coconut oil, liquid but cool
Mix together all ingredients except coconut oil in Vitamix. Add coconut oil in slow steady stream and blend until thick and glossy. Dip cooled cupcake tops into warm ganache. Top with edible gold leaf, nuts, or topping of choice. Enjoy!
Mexican Chocolate Pudding Cake
This is a low-gluten, vegan version of the old fashioned “pudding cake” recipe, in which you mix the base batter up in a baking pan, sprinkle with sugar and cocoa, top with boiling water and bake. As it bakes, it separates into a bottom pudding layer and a top cake layer. Ugly, but super simple and homey and fun! Serve warm in bowls with freshly whipped cream or cashew cream to evil it up!
Mexican Chocolate Pudding Cake – Serves 6
Chocolate Pudding Cake
- 3/4 cup barley flour (can also be made with wheat flour)
- 1 t cinnamon
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup almond milk (or any other liquid)
- 3 tablespoons oil (preferably coconut)
- 1/2 cup honey/agave (or sucanat, coconut or palm sugar)
- ½ t almond extract
- 1 t vanilla extract
Pudding Layer:
- 1/2 cup sucanat, coconut sugar or palm sugar
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- seeds from 1/4 a vanilla bean, or 1/2 t vanilla
- 1 1/4 cups boiling water (or coffee, for a mocha twist)
- pinch salt
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In an 8×8 inch square pan, stir together the flour, almond meal, 1/4 cup of cocoa, baking powder and salt. Add ½ c honey/agave or sugar, milk, vanilla, cinnamon and oil. Mix together completely, scraping sides of pan and spreading batter evenly on bottom.
Add the “Pudding Layer”: Sprinkle brown sugar (or sucanat, or coconut crystals) and remaining 1/4 c cocoa powder over the batter. Add the vanilla and salt to the hot water, then pour the water over the top. Do not mix! Just pop in the oven as it is.
Bake for 20 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until the surface appears dry and brownie-like and the pudding bubbles along the sides of the pan. Serve warm, spooning cake and pudding layers into bowls.
A Note on Chocolate: I used the traditional combination of chocolate, almonds and cinnamon in this recipe becuase in Costa Rica the cocoa powder has an odd fruitiness which needs a more complex combination of flavors to mask it. However, if you are using a high quality cocoa powder, ( and I highly recommend the 22-24% from MySpiceSage.com) you can make a great “Straight-up Chocolate” version, or add hot coffee in the pudding layer for Mocha, or leave out the cocoa powder in the cake layer and do a “Black and White” version, with the almond cake and chocolate pudding. Mmmm….
Not Really Pumpkin Pecan Tart (Raw!)
As promised, here is the raw and still-pretty-rich but much better for you version of the evil Pecan Pumpkin Tart. The “pumpkin custard” which is actually not made with pumpkin at all, is a lightened up version of Matthew Kenney’s Pumpkin Tart with Thyme, found in his cookbook Everyday Raw. This tart requires a couple of days to get all the elements together, but once you have everything it is actually very easy to make and can be done a day in advance. Don’t tell anyone one it is not actually pumpkin, or that it’s raw, until after they have tried it. They will never guess! 
Glazed Pecans
- 2 cups pecan halves (24 nice halves, plus a bit more for snacking)
- 1 T maple syrup
- 1/4 t vanilla extract
- pinch salt, cinnamon, nutmeg
Oat Nut Crumb Crust
- 1 cup oat flour
- 1 cup ground pecans
- 2 T coconut oil
- 2 T coconut crystals
- 1/2 t cinnamon
- 1/4 t nutmeg
- 1/2 t salt
Not Really “Pumpkin” Custard
- 1/2 c cashews, soaked 4 – 6 hours
- 3/4 c carrot juice
- 1/2 c maple syrup
- 1/2 c Irish moss gel (see recipe below. Or substitute 1/4 coconut oil)
- 1/4 c coconut oil
- 1 t vanilla extract
- 1 t cinnamon
- 1/2 t nutmeg
- 1/2 t ginger
- 1/4 t salt
- 1/8 t cloves
Prepare Irish Moss Gel: Rinse 1/2 c dry Irish moss several times, taking care to remove any sand or debris. Soak for 24 hours at room temperature. Rinse one more time (save water for skin care, smoothies, soups or to water plants), top moss with 1/2 to 1 cup fresh water and blend very well (about a minute) in vitamix until completely smooth. Store in refrigerator until ready to use.
Glaze Pecans: Soak pecans in water for 3 – 6 hours. Drain and toss with a pinch of salt. Dehydrate 8- 12 hours. Toss with maple syrup and spices and a tiny bit of salt. Dehydrate again for 12 hours or until completely dry and crunchy.
Make Oat Crumb Crust: Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Pat evenly into 8′ tart pan with removable bottom. Chill well or freeze.
Prepare the Pumpkin Custard: Blend all ingredients in Vitamix on high until slightly warm and completely smooth. Pour into chilled or frozen tart shell and freeze for 2 hours. Refrigerate for 1 hour more to set consistency.
Decorate with Pecans and Serve.
Note: this recipe can be made without the Irish Moss. Increase coconut oil from 1/4 to 1/2 cup.
Happy Thankgiving Pecan Pumpkin Tart
Ok, I just created a “Evil Butter Recipes” category, in honor of this and all the the other summer gallettes I could not resist posting earlier this year. This is recipe based on one my mom used to make at Thanksgiving and people ask me about it every year. (The truth is, neither her nor I ever made it the same way twice, so feel free to play with it). And… I promise to follow up with a raw and healthier version of this recipe soon!
Pumpkin Filling
- 2 whole eggs
- 1/3 cup maple syrup/agave syrup
- ¼ cup cream/soy milk
- 1 ½ cups pumpkin puree (1 can, or one small sugar pumpkin, baked)
- ½ t ground ginger
- ½ t fresh grated ginger
- 1 t cinnamon
- ½ t vanilla
- ¼ t nutmeg
- pinch salt
Pecan Slime
- 1 whole egg
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 1 T melted butter
- ⅓ cup coconut crystals (or Sucanat)
- 2 T bourbon/brandy/dark rum
- ½ t vanilla
- 1 cup pecan halves, toasted lightly
- pinch salt
1 unbaked pie pastry crust
Preheat oven to 375.
Prepare Crust: Make a Perfect Butter Crust, or use any other pie crust recipe you like. Roll out gently, place in a large (10″) pie plate, tart pan (12″) or quiche dish, trim and flute edges. Chill while you prepare filling.
Make Pumpkin Filling: Combine pumpkin, eggs and spices in large bowl. Add maple syrup and cream. Spoon into crust and smooth top. Combine pumpkin, eggs and spices in large bowl. Add maple syrup and cream. Spoon into crust and smooth top.
Top with Pecan Slime: Combine syrup, eggs and spices. Add pecans. Carefully spoon liquid over pumpkin filling in shell and then hand place slimy pecan halves on top in a decorative pattern.
Bake: Bake for 10 minutes at 375. Reduce oven to 350 and bake for 35 – 45 minutes. Bring to room temperature before serving or transporting.
Brazil Nut Chia Pudding
This pudding has quickly become a staple in our house – it’s a lot like tapioca pudding and makes a great breakfast, afternoon snack, or dessert. Chia seeds are ridiculously nutritious – they are the richest vegetable source of omega 3 essential oils found on the planet, contain almost twice the protein of any other grain, are packed with vitamins and minerals, and are high in antioxidants. They are also full of fiber and will absorb 8 -12 times their volume in water, making them a great slow burning carbohydrate source, which is great for diabetics. All that, and no need to cook! Who knew?
Chia Pudding
- 4 c. fresh Brazil nut (or almond) milk
- 3 medjool dates (pits removed)
- 3/4 c. black or white chia seeds*
- 2 packets stevia powder (optional)
- 3-4 T. agave syrup, to taste
- seeds from 2 inches of vanilla bean, or 1/2 t vanilla extract
- pinch Himalayan or sea salt
Make nut milk, blending one cup of soaked nuts, to 4 c water, and adding dates before you blend and squeeze through the nut-milk bag. (Alternately, you can use a pre-fab nut milk or coconut milk of your choice, skip the dates, and add a bit more sweetener to taste when you whisk in the seeds).
Add chia and remaining ingredients, whisk well to combine and taste, adjusting for sweetness. I use a little bit of stevia in order to get a subtle base-level sweetness, and then top it with a touch of agave. Let sit for 10 minutes and whisk again. Let rest for at least 20 minutes at room temperature to allow seeds to soften and gel up. Serve at room temp or keep in refrigerator up to a week (it will firm up even more overnight).
Top each serving with with a little sprinkle of coconut sugar, agave or maple syrup and a bit of freshly grated nutmeg. Or, try the chocolate version:
Chocolate Chia Pudding: Add 2 T unsweetened cocoa powder and 3-4 T of agave syrup to the pudding, after the seeds have gelled up. Whisk well and enjoy!
*Not all chia seeds absorb liquid the same, apparently and probably what liquid you use makes a difference too. I use 3/4 cup chia to 6 cups fresh nut milk, but have friends in California who use up to 1 cup chia to 4 cups liquid. Play with it – you can always adjust by adding a couple tablespoons seeds to thicken or a splash more liquid to thin out.
For more information on chia seeds, you can start here:
Chia Seed – The Ancient Food of the Future
You can purchase chia seeds at the chia seeds page at NutsOnline. Or look for them in the bulk herb/spice section of your local health food store/community market.
Black & White Chia Seed Puddings
Squeezing the wild nut...
- Adding Chia…
...!
Silky Chocolate Ganache
This recipe is taken from Sarma Melngailis’ Chocolate Tart recipe which can be found in her cookbook Raw Food Real World. Not only is the original tart recipe fantastic, but it has been the inspirational spinnoff for many many deliciously decadent chocolate treats and this ganache is the foundation.
- 2 c maple syrup (or mix of maple and agave syrup)
- 2 c high quality organic cocoa powder (not alkalized)
- 1 c virgin coconut oil
- 1 T vanilla extract
- pinch salt
Combine all ingredients in a high speed blender and blend 1 -2 minutes until velvety smooth. Store in glass containers as a spread or topping, or pour immediately into prepared crust if using as a tart or bar filling.
Maple Tart Tatin – Breakfast of Champions
This is one of my favorite tarts, and my favorite breakfast! It’s such a beautiful simple way to use fresh seasonal apples (and/or pears) from the CSA or the farmer’s market, and its so easy to make! Sometimes I whip one up while I am making dinner and my boyfriend Hannes and I eat half for dessert and half the next morning. Unlike the traditional French recipe which uses caramelized white sugar, I found that caramelized maple syrup or agave syrup works really really well and makes you feel a lot better afterwards. Also, because the two of us have no trouble devouring an entire tart in one day, I found that with this tart you can get away with using a very small amount of pastry (only 5 T of butter for the whole thing – and tons of fruit!). This allows room to add a rich topping for a decadent dessert, or to keep it clean and simple.
Maple Tart Tatin:
Preheat oven to 375°.
- 1/2 recipe Pure Butter Pastry (freeze the other half – makes it so easy to whip up the next one!)
- 1/2 c. maple syrup, or a mixture of maple and agave syrup
- 1 T butter
- pinch of salt
- 5 -6 apples, mixed varieties if possible, always organic or locally grown
Caramelized Maple/Agave Syrup:
Boil the maple/agave syrup in a 9″ ovenproof skillet/saute pan over a medium high flame for about 5 -8 minutes, swirling and gently shaking liquid regularly to avoid burning. Be very careful here – this stuff is screamingly hot, and sticks – good to keep a glass of cold water nearby just in case.
Take off heat and add butter and pinch of salt, tilt and swirl pan carefully to incorporate. It will really look like caramel here. Let pan cool while you roll pastry:
Prepare the Crust:
Roll the chilled pastry out thinly, to about the same size as the pan. Chill while you prepare apples:
Prepare the Apples:
Only half-way peel the apples so you have stripes of skin showing still. This will allow the fruit to full absorb the syrup, but to keep some of the color, shine, and nutrients of the skin. Quarter each apple vertically, and slice out the core. This can be done very simply in one cut once the apples are quartered.
Arrange apples round side down, on top of caramel in pan. Pack in as many as you can in a roughly geometric pattern. Top with round of pastry, gently tucking extra pastry edges in around the apples.
Bake at 375° for 20 minutes, reduce temp to 350° and bake for another hour. Remove from oven and let sit 20 -30 minutes to absorb juices.
Place a large serving plate over skillet and quickly invert tart onto plate – give a shake to release apples from pan. (I do this over the sink, wearing a baking mit or towel to protect my hand from any hot juices.) This sounds more intimidating than it is – say 1, 2, 3 and then do a bold, quick flip – the faster you do it the less chance of juices escaping.
Options!
- Make this with pears instead of apples, or a mixture
- Add a bit of chopped crystallized ginger
- Add a sprinkling of fresh or frozen whole cranberries before you put the crust on
- Make this using all dark agave syrup instead of maple, and add 1/2 t of vanilla to the caramel after the butter.
*Caramelizing maple or agave syrup is a little trickier than using white sugar because if you are using dark maple or agave, you will not be able to tell by color. After 4 -5 minutes the mixture should start to thicken, boil more slowly, and start to smell more caramelized. If it starts to smoke or smell burned or bitter take it off the flame immediately, and add the butter. This recipe is very forgiving – so don’t be afraid to go a little dark or light with it – you will find your own personal preference. You are just looking to concentrate the sugars from a liquid syrup to something of a hard-crack stage which means it will be crunchy when cool, but still a thick honey-like syrup when boiling. If in doubt, dip a dry wooden spoon tip in the syrup, then dip for a 5 seconds into your a glass of cold water. It should turn into a maple tipped wooden lollipop…. Mmmmmm….
Quasi-raw, butter, and my favorite Peach Gallette
For a while I have been thinking about my own eating habits as being “quasi-raw”… this could be anywhere from 75% – 95% raw, and is totally flexible depending on whats in season, what’s on hand, what country I happen to be in, and who is coming for dinner.
I do believe in the virtues of raw food, and although much of the flavor of fresh (see Addicted to FRESH), comes from uncooked foods, I love also being able to mix it up by taking more traditional cooked/baked recipes and loading them up with really fresh seasonal fruits or veggies, and turning people ON to that freshness in other ways.
Since my background is that of a professional pastry chef, and I LOOOOVE food, all sorts of food…I want to say that there are some things that are not great for you, but cannot be substituted for by anything else, and one of them is butter. Really good butter. Fresh from the farmers market, organic, grass fed when possible, or at least French or European. (You have to be able to smell it, or it doesn’t count).
Can you smell it when you look at this photo? What I love about this tart is the incredible simplicity of it – the flavor is simple bright fresh peach, nestled in a flaky pure butter crust, the shape is as organic and free-form as you want to make it, and it takes no time to pull together with any fruits you happen to have on hand.
Fresh Peach Gallette
Perfect Butter Crust:
- 1/2 c butter, frozen
- 1 1/2 c unbleached white flour (can use up to 1/2 c wwheat pastry flour)
- 1/2 t salt
- 1/2 ice water, with squeeze of lemon
This can be done by hand, but its incredibly easy and fast in a food processor or mini-prep:
Chop butter into 8 -10 pieces and combine with flour in mini-prep. Pulse until butter is no larger than course bread crumbs. Stop, add salt and 4 -5 T of the iced water and pulse just a few seconds more to slightly combine. Turn out into a medium mixing bowl and toss lightly with a fork, adding 1 -2 T water if nessesary until the mixture just holds a ball. Pat lightly into a 1 inch circle and chill for at least 1/2 hour, while you prepare the fruit.
Preheat oven to 375. Prepare fruit:
Peach Mixture:
- 4 -5 peaches, washed and sliced thinly
- 1 t vanilla
- 1/4 t almond extract
- 1/4 c Agave syrup, to taste
- 1 t arrowroot powder (or cornstarch)
- pinch salt
- pinch nutmeg and cinnamon
Combine fruit and remaining ingredients and allow to macerate for 10 -15 minutes while you roll the crust.
Roll the chilled dough into a large circle, 3 -4 inches beyond diameter of the the pan you are using. This is a freeform tart, so you can make it in anything you have – its supposed to be rustic. I like using an 11′ glass quiche pan (shown above).
Pile fruit in center of crust, even out, and then fold the pastry sides gently towards the middle, so they lay directly onto the fruit, leaving the middle exposed. Crazy, uneven shapes are fine – part of the charm of this tart.
Bake for about 40 minutes at 375, then reduce to 350 and bake for another 20 -30 minutes until the crust is golden brown and the peach juice is thickend slightly.
Remove from oven and brush the exposed peaches with a bit of the juice form the tart to moisten them and make them shine. Serve warm for dessert, and then finish off the next morning for breakfast!
Options:
- Add a smattering of blueberries, raspberries, or blackberries
- Replace cinnamon with zest of 1/2 lemon
- Replace peaches with nectarines, plums, or any other stonefruit in season
- Replace stonefruit with apples or pears, or combination.
- Try adding chopped crystallized ginger and a few cranberries.
- Use maple syrup instead of agave, or use a combination
Chocolate Super-Macs
“Chocolate hides a multitude of evils!” I use a little regular cocoa to get the rich chocolate taste and look, add a little extra sweetener, and then pack these with raw chocolate, blue green algae and any other superfoods I have on hand (and can get away with) – ground goji berries, mangosteen powder, etc. Have fun watching people who would never eat this kind of stuff pop these cookies in their mouth, one after the other!
- 1 recipe Marvelous Macs
- 1/2 cup finely ground raw cacao
- 3 – 4 T organic cocoa powder (not dutch/alkalized)
- 6 – 8 capsules Crystal Manna blue-green algae*
- 2 T agave or maple syrup
Add all ingredients together and adjust for taste (which means, if you can get away with adding more blue-green algae and not tasting it – do it!
Scoop and dehydrate as for Marvelous Macs.
* You can use any kind of greens or blue-green algae you like – I find that this brand has a very mild flavor which allows me to use a lot more without detection.
Conscious Food Choices 