Butter Tarts & Lemon Custard Tarts

It was a special day at work today. Instead of cookies, I made two kinds of tarts. Of all the requests, lemon was the overall winner. Me, personally, I adore a good butter tart. Butter Tarts are about as Canadian as maple syrup and hockey (despite that our official national game is LaCrosse). I don't know anyone in my family who doesn't have at least one recipe for Butter Tarts. Originally thought to be derived from the American Pecan Pie, butter tarts have two schools of adorers: those that like them gooey, and those that like them custardy. I prefer the gooey. With (most commonly) walnuts, seedless Thompson raisins or without, gooey Butter Tarts make me purr. These ones I made in a muffin tin, so they were definitely more than two bites and they were definitely delicious!

Feel free to omit the dough and use your own favourite. I use the recipe my mum gave me that she adopted when she worked at an Irving Big Stop restaurant (also very Canadian, at least in the Maritimes anyway). The dough, which uses an egg and baking powder, never gets tough - you can roll it and roll it and roll it and it's still as pliable as when it's freshly made. It always turns out crispy and flaky and melt in your mouth and I don't think I'll ever switch!

Festive Butter Tarts

1-1/4 cup flour
3 Tbsp icing sugar
2/3 cup butter, softened
1 cup raisins (optional)
3 eggs
1 cup corn syrup or honey
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup melted butter
pinch salt

Combine flour & sugar. Cut in softened butter until mixture is crumbly. Divide dough among 12-3" fluted tart pans or 3" muffin tins. Press dough evenly over bottom & up sides. Place pans on baking sheet. Sprinkle raisins evenly over bottom of each tart shell. In separate bowl, combine eggs, corn syrup or honey, brown sugar, melted butter and salt. Pour into tart shells, filling each 2/3 full. Bake in preheated 375°F for 20-25 minutes or until set. Cool 10 minutes. Remove from pans. Cool completely. Makes one dozen.

Lemon Custard Tarts
(Recipe from Food Network Canada's Christine Cushing Live)

1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice
grated rind of one lemon
2 Tbsp cornstarch
1-1/2 cup whole milk
1 egg yolk
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Whisk together half the sugar with the 1 yolk, 2 whole eggs, lemon juice, lemon rind and vanilla in a medium bowl. Whisk the cornstarch, remaining sugar and milk in a bowl or measuring cup. Bring milk to a boil in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook until slightly thickened. Slowly, whisk into egg mixture. Return to sauce pan and bring back to a boil, stirring constantly. Transfer to a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, sealing plastic wrap directly over the custard so that no skin forms on the custard. Put in refrigerator and thoroughly chill before using, about 1 to 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 400°F. Roll out the puff pastry to 1/8-inch thick. Cut the pastry into twelve 4-inch circles with a cookie cutter or top of a cup or glass. Press pastry circles into muffin cups. Prick the bottoms with a fork. Line each puff cup with aluminum foil. Fill with pie weights or dried beans. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes. Remove from oven. Remove foil and pie weights. Cool pastry for 5 to 10 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spoon the cooled custard into the baked puff pastry cups. Bake until golden and skin forms, about 10 to 15 minutes. Let tarts cool to room temperature. Serve at room temperature or chilled. The custard will be a little loose.

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Cranberry White Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Sometimes you need a cookie that isn't superficial, or chocolately. Sometimes you need a cookie that is hearty and sweet and reminds you of all the goods things. Weekends in your grandmother's kitchen... the bounty nature provides... things like that.

This cookie was made for my coworkers (they are a lucky lot, aren't they?). I try to make sure everyone gets a request. This one came from an Ocean Spray calendar that one of my co-workers had and it proved to be a big hit - despite that it wasn't full of cocoa!

Oatmeal Cranberry Oatmeal White Chocolate Chunk Cookies
(Courtesy of Ocean Spray Recipes)

2/3 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1-1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
1-1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 6-ounce package Ocean Spray® Craisins® Original Sweetened Dried Cranberries
2/3 cup white chocolate chunks or chips

Preheat oven to 375ºF. Using an electric mixer, beat butter or margarine and sugar together in a medium mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs, mixing well. Combine oats, flour, baking soda and salt in a separate mixing bowl. Add to butter mixture in several additions, mixing well after each addition. Stir in sweetened dried cranberries and white chocolate chunks.

Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on wire rack. Makes approximately 2-1/2 dozen cookies.

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Why I love the Farmer's Market

Every Saturday morning, the husband and I go to our local farmer's market on our weekly grocery trek. We've made it a habit to stop there because, thanks much to Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall & Jamie Oliver, I will now not eat chicken purchased from the supermarkets. I've been wanting for sometime to go as organic & natural as possible in terms of the food I put into my body & what sort of carbon footprint I leave with the chemicals I deposit into the environment. Besides, going to the farmer's market and purchasing the goods there puts money back into the local economy.

I stop at a booth run by Stephen Taylor's Farm to buy my eggs ($2.35 for a dozen, extra large, brown eggs - you can't beat that!). I will also buy my beef there. We stop at a place called Armstrong Cheese to purchase any cheese we may be craving. While not all organic, the family who runs this stall really take pride in their work. Cheese can be a smelly business, but they certainly enjoy it - and each time I go, I like to try something new. "Give me something... old & European," or, "zingy & French!" My favourite is old, English cheddar. There's a distinct flavour variation between English & Canadian cheddars. I find the English one just a bit more... zippy!

Next we get our fruits & veggies from a number of vendors. Arimosa is an organic farm just on the outskirts of the city. Hope Farms is another. Between the two of them, you can get just about anything. Carrots, an assortment of radish (including one that is black all the way though), lemon cucumbers, and this week I bought us some Italian beans. Long, thick & purple! But, when you cook them, they turn green. Very tasty too, slightly nutty. We've gotten in the habit of bringing back the containers the fruits & veg comes in. From the wooden boxes that held berries, to the cardboard ones with the handle on the top that carries apples & plums... we don't throw them out, we take them back for them to use again. And they do. And some days, if you have enough brought back, they give you a discount on your purchase. :)

Lastly, we stop at one of our favourite places, Springbank Farm. We get our pork & chicken there. And in two week's time we should be able to get some lamb. Now, this place, aside from great prices and grain fed livestock, is pretty amazing. The guys that work the stall there (and at the Dieppe Farmer's Market) are pretty darned amazing. We go in and they routinely knock a buck or two off of the price. Last time they gave me an extra packet of home-smoked bacon. The time before that they gave us two chicken carcasses for making broth (see picture). These two carcasses were roasted with some fresh herbs, salt, pepper & some olive oil (not too much, just enough for the herbs to stick). They were boiled with your basics - a large onions, a large carrot and a stalk of celery cut in two. The broth it made was decadent. And the best part, there was enough meat on the bones to tear off and use for making a soup, stew, or even sandwiches. And it was free. That's practically an entire meal, free, that we got from the Farmer's Market.

Free food. Organic livestock. Infusing the local economy. Making the indent of my carbon footprint a little shallower. Overall, superior quality & pride. These are the reasons why I love going to the Farmer's Market.

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Earl Grey Tea Shortbread

So, it was cookie-time at work again and one of my co-workers requested shortbread cookies - the kind with a dollop of icing on the top. I decided that this was time for me to try out a new recipe. I adore tea, Earl Grey in particular. When I found this recipe, I was beyond giddy since I also adore that melt-in-your-mouth texture of shortbread. Now, I'm also particular about my shortbread - I like it crumbly and very dry. If a recipe calls for just flour, I will always substitute, at least a portion of, that flour for cornstarch. That is what I ended up doing with this recipe - and given that they were dry and crumbly to begin with, I don't think that much more than the 1/2 cup substitution would've been a good idea.

Earl Grey Tea Shortbread Cookies
(Original recipe published in the special issue Martha Stewart Holiday Cookies 2005 - though the icing is my own concoction.)

Cookie
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
2 Tbsp finely ground Earl Grey tea leaves
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 confectioner's sugar
1 Tbsp finely grated orange zest
Earl Grey Icing
2/3 cup confectioner's sugar
2 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
2 Tbsp brewed Earl Grey tea, cooled
1/4 tsp orange extract
silver dragees for decoration (optional)


Whisk flour, cornstarch & salt in small bowl; set aside. Put butter, sugar & orange zest in bowl of electric mixer. Mix on medium speed until pale & fluffy (about 3 minutes). Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in flour mixture until just combined. Divide dough in half; transfer each half to a piece of parchment paper or plastic wrap. Shape into logs 1-1/4" in diameter. Transfer inside paper towel tubes to freezer - freeze until firm (at least 1 hour). Preheat oven to 350°F. Cut logs into 1/4" slices. Space 1" apart on baking sheets lined with parchment. Bake cookies, rotating sheets half way through until edges are golden (13-15 minutes). Let cool on sheets on wire racks. Cookies can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature for up to five days.

Mix icing ingredients in small bowl. The icing should be able to form peaks, but should smooth out within a few seconds without being runny, giving it the appearance of a smoothed ganache when cooled. If too runny, add more sugar; if too thick, add more tea. Decorate with dragees if desired.

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Rhubarb Tart

I love rhubarb. One reason being the tart, eye-wincing flavour it imparts. The second - it is one of the few harvests that is not imported from Portugal or Guatemala. It grows in our back yards and reminds us of simpler times. Days spent with grandmothers in frilly aprons, boiling it on the stove or making a pie with plump, fresh strawberries.

Hot, sticky summer days deserve a good dose of nostalgia and a tasty rhubarb treat. This tart has a nice, buttery pastry and the rhubarb is made extra zippy with the added lemon peel. I don't know about y'all, but this ain't my grandma's rhubarb! This one's got zing!

Rhubarb Tart
Recipe courtesy of The Rhubarb Compendium

Crust:
1-2/3 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup chilled unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup sugar
2 large egg yolks
2 tbsp (or more) ice water
3 tbsp apricot jam
Filling:
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
3-3x1/2" strips lemon peel (yellow part only)
1 cinnamon stick, broken in half
2 lbs fresh rhubarb, trimmed, cut diagonally into 1/2" thick pieces (about 6 cups)

For crust:
Mix flour and salt in large bowl. Add butter and cut in, using pastry cutter or two knives, until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add sugar and egg yolks and blend briefly. Add 2 tablespoons water and process just until moist clumps form. If dough is dry, add more water by teaspoonfuls to moisten. Gather dough into ball; flatten into disk. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate until dough is firm enough to roll, about 30 minutes. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Keep refrigerated. Let soften slightly at room temperature before rolling.)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Roll out dough disk on floured surface 12" round. Transfer to 9" tart pan with removable bottom. Trim crust overhang to 1/4". Fold overhang in, creating double-thick sides. Freeze tart crust 15 minutes.

Line crust with foil. Fill with dried beans or pie weights. Bake until sides are set, about 20 minutes. Remove foil and beans. Bake until crust is golden brown, piercing with fork if bubbles form, about 15 minutes. Brush crust with jam and bake until jam is set, about 5 minutes more. Transfer pan to rack and cool.

For filling:
Combine sugar and water in heavy large skillet over low heat. Stir until sugar dissolves. Add lemon peel and cinnamon stick. Increase heat and bring to boil. Add rhubarb and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low. Cover pan and simmer until rhubarb is just beginning to soften, about 5 minutes. Remove pan from heat. Let stand covered until rhubarb is tender, about 15 minutes. Uncover and cool completely.

Using slotted spoon, remove rhubarb from cooking liquid and arrange in concentric circles in crust. Strain cooking liquid into heavy small saucepan. Boil liquid until reduced to 1/4 cup, about 5 minutes. Cool syrup completely. Spoon syrup over rhubarb. (Can be prepared 6 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature.)

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Sesame Coated Fish & Garlic Curry Cauliflower

Ok. I know, from the surface, it would appear that I have a thing, a craving, a penchant, what-have-you for sesame. I do like it. I like the nuttiness, I like the texture. I just happened to come across a recipe I wanted to try that had sesame seeds. Besides being high in copper, maganese & Vitamin B1 (good gods, who couldn't do with an extra dose of energy, eh?), they also help lower cholesterol. So... what better pairing than sesame seeds & fish?

The Husband and I both came home from work, the weather was hot, humid & sticky, and he was tired. SO much so that he decided to forego making dinner and had a nap. We were just going to pan sear the fish with a little lemon, salt & pepper, but I wanted something different. I'll be honest though, as much as I love to cook, my forté has never been fish. A little while ago I ordered a cookbook from eBay to help remedy that. "365 Ways to Cook Fish & Seafood". Whilst my dear husband slept, I perused the pages, determined not to find something that was going to heat up the entire apartment but something that was also different.

Sesame encrusted fish. How easy! I knew I had a stash of sesame seeds left over from the Sesame Snap Wafers, so why not? Well, holy cannolis, Tony Soprano! It was rinsed in cold water, patted dry with a kitchen towel. You then dredged it in flour, egg & sesame seeds in that order. (Word to the wise: use one hand for dry,one hand for wet. If you don't, the phone will ring whilst your hands are all gummy.) The filets are placed in a hot pan that has two tablespoons of olive oil. Let it toast the seeds and sear on one side, then flip. So bloody simple! But the fish stays moist, and the nuttiness of the seeds that are now toasting as they form a crust on your delicious fish dish, infuses the fish inside. Nice flaky, and if you get a bite without the actual seeds, you can still taste the aroma. The Husband has declared this recipe a keeper.

I also roasted some potato slices with olive oil, salt & rosemary on the barbecue. And as a second side, I prepared a recipe for Garlic Curry Cauliflower. I hated cauliflower when I was a kid. As I've gotten older, my palate has changed, reformed, grown-up. I've been getting a subscription to Natural Solutions magazine (formerly "Alternative Medicine"). In it they have some pretty delicious recipes, but each one has a theme. This one is for 'anti-aging'. Per this article by Lisa Turner, cauliflower is a "cruciferous" vegetable and contains diindolylmethane (aka: DIM) which helps metabolise estrogen and prevent breast cancer. If cancer is already an issue, DIM helps prevent cancerous cells from reproducing. Garlic (who hasn't heard praises of garlic?) contains allicin that helps protect the heart. And Turmeric may help prevent rheumatoid arthritis. Amazing. And what's more amazing is that the food that is good for you, is actually quite tasty. Especially when you roast the cauliflower on the barbecue. Yum. As soon as I'm done posting, I'm having leftover cauliflower for lunch, and I cannot wait for an opportunity to have that fish again... so very scrumadilly.

Sesame Coated Fish
(from the cookbook, "365 Ways to Cook Fish & Seafood")

2 boneless white-fish steaks, 6oz each (I used halibut as it was all I had)
1/4 cup flour
1 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup untoasted sesame seeds
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
2 tbsp olive oil

Rinse fish under cold water. Pat dry with paper towel. Have flour, egg & seeds arranged for dipping, in shallow bowls or on plates. Season fish with salt & pepper. Coat each piece of fish with flour, shaking off excess. Dip into egg, then dredge in sesame seeds, turning to coat completely. In large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. When oil starts to swirl, oil should be hot enough. Quickly place fish in pan; when fish starts to appear cooked slighly up the side of each piece, turn over. Should be brown & crispy on the outside and just opaque in center, about 7-10 minutes in total. Drain on paper towels & serve at once. (We had a homemade tartar sauce on the side, made of mayo, relish, lemon juice, orange juice & mustard.)


Garlic Curry Cauliflower
(From Natural Solutions magazine)

1 large head cauliflower, cut into florets
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup yellow onion, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp fresh gingerroot, minced
1 cup light coconut milk
1 tbsp curry powder
1/4 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 fresh cilantro, minced

Preheat oven to 450°F. In 8" square glass casserole, coat cauliflower with olive oil. Roast 10 minutes. Combine onion, garlic, ginger, coconut milk, curry powder, pepper & salt. Pour coconut mixture over cauliflower; cover loosely with foil and roast for 20-25 minutes, until cauliflower is tender. Remove from oven and stir in cilantro.

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Sesame Snap Wafers

I work at an office of Canada's largest customs brokerage. My team consists of eight people, myself included. There are a lot of ins & outs in getting our jobs done but one of the biggest things we try to strive for is to ensure that all drivers who reach the border are set up without issue and are able to keep going through the border, hassle free, & then home to their families when their job is done without hours of delay. If we can, in any given day, ensure that 95% of the entries we submit to customs are not past their ETA then I bake cookies for the team. That's the standing incentive. I love to bake. My husband doesn't like sweets / pastries. So, unless I eat them all myself I suggested I bring them in to work and use it as an incentive for us to work well.

Last week was hot as all get out. You had to find energy to literally peel yourself from your couch to get to the phone to even order take-away (which we did)! There was no way I was going to turn on the oven when it felt like 40°C+. The folks at work knew I owed them a batch of cookies though, and I promised them that they would be made as soon as the weather turned a little less humid. I took some requests and one of those requests was for some Sesame Snap Wafers that I had made for myself and shared a while back.

When I was a kid I used to get these little packs of "Sesame Snaps". Sesame seeds, coated in some sort of sweet concoction that hardens and you get four of these snaps per package. This cookie reminds me of that, albeit a little chewier. But the taste is similar, with the brown sugar and vanilla, and the unmistakable nuttiness of sesame seeds. It's important to use the full amount of sesame seeds - I tried once making this with just 1 cup instead of 1 1/4 cups that is asks for, and the cookies came out rather limp and you lose a lot of the 'snap'. It is definitely a good cookie when I'm looking for something different.

Sesame Snap Wafers

2/3 cup flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1-1/4 cup sesame seeds, untoasted

Combine flour & baking powder; set aside. Cream sugar, egg & vanilla with butter until creamy. Mix to combine. With wooden spoon, stir in seeds. Drop by small teaspoonfuls, leaving room for spreading, onto parchment paper lined baking sheet. Bake at 350°F for 6-8 minutes or until lightly browned Cool on sheet for two minutes, then remove to rack to cool completely.

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