New bookies, new cookies

Friends, I got a new cookbook. Without naming any names, someone pretty awesome sent it to me. As for the rest of you, thanks for nothing (except for my friends Marge and Colin, who both sent me recipes I am excited to try). In return, said cookbook gifter asked for cookies and cakes, and said cookbook gifter will receive them. See that? If you buy me something, you’ll get cookies in the mail. You should try it out.

I was a little too excited to make something from the book, and so these cookies came to be faster than you can say “sweet salami sandwiches.” They’re super easy and you can throw all sorts of random what-have-yous you find in your pantry. I found in mine 2 boxes of golden raisins, both open. I took out one bag to find that the raisins were no longer golden but more of a poopy brown color (not unlike “regular” raisins). I looked at the expiration date on the box. It said, August, and I thought, ok, we have a few months–OH HOLY HELL HOLD THE PHONE. August 2004?? Really, mom? REALLY? 5 year old raisins?? Those went in the garbage and I went on to the next box. August again. This time…2008. Well, that was close enough for me. I ate a few to be sure, and they were still golden so I went for it.

I also threw in some craisins, regular raisins, and pecan pieces (we were all out of walnuts) in addition to the requisite chocolate chips. This is how I know I’m growing up. Because I like a bunch of shit in my cookies now. There was a time when I used to pick out all of the chocolate chips from chocolate chip cookies so I could save the plain parts for last. I know. I KNOW. I am an odd one.

This time, I would even say I think I didn’t chock these full enough. There was too much negative space, too much unpainted canvas. I wanted more raisins, more chocolate, more whatever. Not because the cookie dough isn’t lovely itself, but because I now crave things other than butter+eggs+brown sugar.

In summary, these cookies are good. They’re not oatmeal, but they’re not just chocolate chip. They’re some sort of strange but delicious hybrid that the Moosewood crazy ladies call “Cowboy Cookies.” It is unclear to me, even after reading the preamble, why they are named as such. Perhaps it’s a nod to these cookies’ perfect mate, or what I would imagine would be an apt description of a hunky cowboy: a tall glass of milk.

As in, see that tall glass of milk leaning on yonder fencepost? I’d like to dip my cookies into THAT, if you know what I mean. Am I right ladies?

Cowboy Cookies
from Moosewood Restaurant Book of Desserts

1 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 cups unbleached white pastry flour (I used all purpose)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda (see THAT Mark Bittman? NOT 2 TSPS YOU CRAZY MAN)
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 cups rolled oats (I used this weird 5 grain cereal, whatever, the moths ate all our rolled oats)
12 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips (about 1 1/2 cups)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl, thoroughly cream the butter, sugar, and brown sugar with an electric mixer. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat well. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Add the dry ingredients to the butter and sugar mixture and blend well. Mix in the oats. Using a large spoon or your hands, fold in the chocolate chips, and the raisins and walnuts, if using. The dough will be fairly stiff.
On unoiled baking sheets, drop generous rounded teaspoonfuls (see…I did scant tbsps…I like my cookies slightly larger than small enough to inhale several without registering it. if i have to bite it, it registers) of dough about 4 inches apart. Bake for about 12 minutes, until golden. Cool completely before storing in a sealed container.
Variation: Add 1 cup of raisins and/or 1/2 cup of coarsely chopped toasted walnuts.

The Great Egg Sandwich Exploration, part II

I’m back on the case. The greatest egg sandwich combination will be found, and I’ll be the one to find it. I was inspired to make one today because I went out to brunch yesterday in Brooklyn and had an amazing “Norwegian Eggs Benedict,” which is essentially eggs benedict minus canadian bacon plus smoked salmon. It was heavenly. So the very next day after my run I decided I needed eggs again.

I didn’t go the Norwegian route this morning. I do, however, have some pointers for cooking bacon:

1) Don’t cook bacon in your sports bra and tiny running shorts
2) Don’t cook bacon in anything you ever want to wear again, ever

Glad we covered that. So are my now-ruined-by-hot-bacon-fat favorite running shorts and my hot-bacon-fat-burned-stomach.

Here’s what we’ve got for today’s sandwich: 2 eggs, muenster cheese (the only cheese we had), bacon, salt, pepper, pickles, (a tiny bit of) ketchup, cayenne pepper hot sauce. I used one of those slim sandwich buns. I’m a big fan. They’re perfectly sized and they toast up nicer than english muffins and bread.

I realize the pickles aspect might be controversial. I can only point to the age old don’t knock it till you’ve tried it. I’m telling you, tang on an egg sandwich is wonderful, and pickles bring it like nothing else can.

Conclusions? It’s hard to beat fresh eggs and avocado, so this sandwich doesn’t outdo the other. I also broke the yolk, which was upsetting, so it wasn’t nearly as yolky and wonderful as I anticipated. However, bacon might end up winning the meat component race. Sausage, ham, and I have to have a talk about it. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Anyberry Pie

I know you’ve at some point gone through your freezer to find several bags of frozen berries fighting the good fight against freezer burn. If not, you don’t buy frozen berries enough. What do you put on your ice cream? Don’t even say fudge.

Anyway, if you find yourself in such an unfortunate situation, here’s what to do. Make a pie! Don’t be afraid if you don’t have a specific recipe in mind, just thaw those berries out and mix them with some corn starch, some lemon rind and juice, and some sugar, and sit back and enjoy the…wait for it…fruits of your labor.

Our pie consisted of the rest of a 5lb bag of blueberries from Costco, about 7 frozen raspberries, and the rest of an almost-moldy bunch of fresh strawberries. Since it was mostly blueberries, I was heavy on the lemon juice and rind to give it some tartness.

The good thing about this sort of recipe is you really can’t screw it up. It’s berries and sugar and lemon and pie dough. Even if you underestimate the cornstarch and it’s soupy, or you overestimate the sugar and it’s too sweet, it’s still a delicious berry pie. For me, it is a comforting thought to know that there are some things in life that are mostly immune to my foibles.

Any Berry Pie

5ish cups of any berries (or more! whatever!)
1 cup sugar (my preference is a tad under 1 cup)
Up to 1/3 cup corn starch (depending on how juicy your fruit is…i used the entire 1/3 cup and it worked fine. if you’re working with fresh fruit, this will be considerably less…like a few tbsps)
Zest of 1 lemon
Juice of half a lemon (about 2ish tbsps…or more!)
2 9″ pie dough (here’s a recipe…you can even do this one. remember to double the recipe!)

Defrost the berries if frozen. Once thawed, mix with the sugar and corn starch and let sit for a while. Like half an hour or so. Add the lemon zest and juice and mix well. Scoop berries into the pie crust and add as much of the berry liquid as you’d like…I went up to the rim and it didn’t explode. Lay the top crust on and pinch to seal. Slash a few vents in the top of the crust.
Preheat the oven to 375 and set a rack in the middle. Bake the pie for about an hour, until the crust is golden.

Can I get a mulligan?

This, friends, was a test. A test to see which one is stronger…my laziness, or my pride. Well, pride won, by about a mile. Because after my carrot cake disaster I had several options: 1) Do nothing, serve carrot cake and hope for the best 2) Create simple yet pleasing backup cake to serve in case carrot cake is inedible, or 3) Spend all day making complicated chocolate espresso swiss buttercream and piping chocolate designs to prove to yourself that you ain’t gonna let no homely carrot cake bring YOU down.

Guess which one I chose.

it wasn't number 1

nor was it number 2

Which is totally ridiculous. It’s like missing the opening height in the high jump and waltzing over to the official and saying…you know what? I’m just going to try again at 6 ft.

And yet, here we are.

Also, the chocolate cake was vegan.

I’ll wait. Are you done scoffing? Ok, well now let me go ahead and tell you this vegan cake is DELICIOUS and never have I heard a non-vegan complain about it. So put your vegan hatred aside for a moment and make the damn cake. It’s not even about veganism, it’s about magic. Because when you add the cider vinegar to the batter it reacts with the baking soda and the batter turns pale and then you shove it in the oven and it creates a really great and moist texture. Magically.

I took the frosting from another recipe. I really wanted to buttercream this cake. I know, it totally defeats the purpose of the vegan cake in the first place when you slather it with 2 sticks of butter. But I wasn’t serving any vegans and since this was a birthday cake, I wasn’t content to just sprinkle it with powdered sugar and call it a day (incidentally…this cake is totally great just sprinkled with powdered sugar and called a day). So I doubled the cake recipe and made a 4 layer cake.

redemption!

There is a moment every time you make buttercream when you are convinced you have messed it up. I haven’t made buttercream in a while, so I forgot this happens. When you add the butter to the shiny egg whites, it curdles. And you’re like, what the F? What is going on? Did I ruin this again? CAN I NOT DO ANYTHING RIGHT GAAAHHH>!@>>! But then all you have to do is keep beating. Don’t stop believing! And sure enough, a few minutes later, everything works out and you have silky beautiful buttercream and you should really learn how to freak out less, darling.

Vegan Deep Chocolate Cake
from Moosewood Restaurant New Classics (I doubled it to fill 2 8″ rounds)

1 1/2 cups unbleached white flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup cold water or chilled brewed coffee (i just happened to have 2 cups of cold coffee hanging around…twas a miracle)
2 tsps pure vanilla extract
2 tbsps cider vinegar

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Generously oil an 8″ square or round baking pan and dust with a little sifted cocoa or line the bottom with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, soda, salt, and sugar. In another bowl, combine the oil, water or coffee, and vanilla. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until well blended and smooth.
Add the vinegar and stir briefly; the baking soda will begin to react with the vinegar right away, leaving pale swirls in the batter. Without wasting any time, pour the batter into the prepared baking pan.
Bake for 20-30 minutes. Serve the cake right from the pan or, when it’s cool, transfer it to a plate.

Chocolate espresso buttercream
from Chocolate Espresso Fudge Cake recipe at Use Real Butter

8 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped
2 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped
2 tsps instant espresso powder
1 lb. unsalted butter, room temperature
5 egg whites
1 cup granulated sugar

(Below, I used Jen’s method. She never lets me down)

Heat 1 inch of water in the bottom half of a double boiler over medium heat. Place 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, and 2 teaspoons espresso powder in top half of double boiler. Allow to heat for 8 to 10 minutes, transfer to a stainless steel bowl and stir until smooth. Set aside until needed.

Marcel’s method: Place 1 pound of butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle. Beat the butter on low for 2 minutes then on medium for 3 minutes. Scrape down sides of the bowl. Beat on high until light and fluffy, about 4 to 5 minutes. Transfer the butter to a large stainless steel bowl. Set aside until needed. Heat 1 inch of water in the bottom half of a double boiler over medium heat. Place 5 egg whites and 1 cup sugar in the top half of the double boiler. Gently whisk the egg whites until the reach a temperature of 120°F, about 3 to 5 minutes. Transfer the heated egg whites to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a balloon whip. Whisk on high until stiff peaks form, about 4 minutes. Remove from mixer. Fold melted chocolate into the butter, using a rubber spatula to thoroughly combine. Fold in the whipped egg whites until thoroughly combined. Set aside.

Jen’s method: Place egg whites and sugar in a Kitchenaid mixing bowl. Set bowl over 1 inch of water in a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk gently until mixture reaches 140°F. Remove from heat and set on Kitchenaid mixer with balloon whisk. Whisk on speed 4 until stiff. Turn down whip speed to 3rd and whip until cool to the touch (this takes a while – should be cooler than your hand). Change to a paddle and gradually add soft butter by tablespoon pieces. Mix to emulsify (this might take 6-10 minutes). Once desired consistency has been reached, fold in cooled chocolate until well incorporated.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Listen, I upgraded so that I could play around with my CSS because I couldn’t take it anymore. So I’ve put up a temporary banner image (don’t worry, it’s not the final one) until I can scan in the one I really want to use. But first I have to make it. I’m on it. In the meantime, go with the flow kiddies.

Lite and Wrong Carrot Cake

Tell me, readers. Is it possible for me to do anything right? I’m starting to think maybe not. The other night I made chicken and dumplings with some leftover chicken. It was delicious, don’t get me wrong, but someone forgot to TURN THE STOVE OFF after she served herself and others and ended up with, 4 hours later, a very dehydrated looking lump of ass. Then there was today’s debacle, this carrot cake. Not only did I forget to line the pan with parchment paper, but I kinda royally screwed up the batter. To the tune of an entire cup of missing sugar.

This wouldn’t really bother me so much if I was just making the cake for myself. God knows I’ve eaten all sorts of screwed up food that I made for myself. It’s not a big deal. But this cake is a birthday cake for one of my mom’s friends, who “loves carrot cake.” Balls.

the culprit

unknowingly unsweet

Thank god the frosting has almost a pound of powdered sugar in it. I’m hoping maybe that will mask the complete abomination that is the actual cake. If not, maybe I can just instruct everyone to lick the frosting off the cake and call it a night.

Frosting-only desserts are no stranger to me. In college, my friend Vanessa and I would go to this place, Claire’s, before every track meet to get 16oz cups full of their cream cheese frosting. It was our “night before” ritual, and we’d spend the rest of the night licking frosting off wooden coffee stirrers and either making mix cds or watching Alias. If licking frosting off this carrot cake is only slightly better than licking it off a wooden coffee stirrer, let’s call this one a success, shall we?

And let’s step up our game here, Svoboda. It’s freaking amateur hour in this kitch.

Lite Carrot Cake
from Cooking Light? Probably.

1/2 cup chopped walnuts
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (I used all-purpose)
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar (not just 1/2 cup, friends)
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 (20 oz) can crushed pineapple (drained with juice reserved)
2 cups grated carrots
1/4 cup flaked coconut

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9×13 baking dish (I used 2 9″ rounds).
Combine flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Whisk eggs, sugar, buttermilk, oil, vanilla, and 1/4 cup reserved pineapple juice in a large bowl. Stir in pineapple, carrots, and coconut. Add dry ingredients and mix with a rubber spatula until just blended. Stir in nuts.
Scrape into pan. Bake until top springs back, approximately 40-45 minutes (mine took almost an hour).

Cream Cheese Frosting

12 oz cream cheese
1 stick (8 tbsp) unsalted butter, softened
1 lb confectioner’s sugar (I used only 3/4…not knowing yet about the missing sugar from the cake)
1 tsp vanilla
Juice of half a lemon (about 2 tbsp)

Cream together cream cheese and butter. Sift in sugar slowly. Stir in vanilla and lemon.

Plum Tart plum tired me out

Hey kids! How about some plums? Yeah!

here they are!

Know what else? I finally sacked up and got a new camera battery charger today. It set me back a cool $40. Yes. A camera charger. FORTY PRECIOUS DOLLARS. That’s like…I don’t even know. How many sandwiches is that? Like at least 6. Bah.

plum me already

half-assed vanilla sugar

It’s cool though. I am obviously dealing with it well. I’m a survivor.

those plums need more butter

Plus I got to butter plums today, which I had never done before and thoroughly enjoyed. Look at those little babies! Yeah! All buttered up and tucked in. Waiting to be blanketed with sweet sweet custard and sprinkled with vanilla sugar.

I KNOW IT'S ASYMMETRICAL I DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT

Since this was a Martha recipe, and I’m convinced that lady exists to make me want to gouge my eyes out with spoons (see: Torrone), of course there was an issue. I get to the part about sprinkling the vanilla sugar and it’s all “1/4 cup vanilla sugar (see recipe page 18).” So I saunter over to page 18 to see how to make vanilla sugar and Martha’s all casually “yeah put a sliced vanilla bean in a jar with a tight lid and shake it up and leave it alone…for a week.” MARTHA, seriously? Tell me this shit BEFORE I’ve parbaked the stupid crust and buttered the plums and spooned on the custard and the oven’s all preheated and the tart is all waiting to be sprinkled! [note: now is NOT the time to be like, hey asshat, read the recipe all the way through before you make it, because, do you not know me? you must not. because if you did you would know that is the equivalent of asking me to draw a counterclockwise circle in the air with my right hand and a clockwise circle in the air with my right foot....it is just physically impossible and now you're trying to do it, right?]

it's a baby!

So anyway I just kinda sliced open a bean and rubbed the sugar all over it and called it a day. Oh, also, I made a baby one. Look at it! Yeah! It’s so tiny! I couldn’t resist. There would’ve been 2 of them but I ate the rest of the leftover dough. Gross, right? Yeah, I’m not proud of it. But that is where we’re at here. That is the state of my life.

plummy!

Ok, now I’m ready to talk about the asymmetry. So I lined all the plums up in a circle and they didn’t fit perfectly like I imagined, so I cut another half into quarters and I squeezed them in. Despite the obvious aesthetic issues I may or may not have, I don’t regret it. Plums are so lovely when they bake. More plum, less custard, that’s the way to play this tart.

So, that’s that. Now you do it!

European Plum Tart
from The Martha Stewart Cookbook

makes one 7 1/2″ tart

4 to 5 medium-size firm but ripe plums (mine were from Trader Joe’s and they were called Larry Ann, I kid you not)
2 tbsps unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 7 1/2″ Pate Brisee tart shell (see below), partially baked and cooled
1 egg
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup heavy cream
4 tbsps Cognac (I used 2 tbsp of kinda cheap Brandy. You know how I feel about liquor in desserts)

1/4 cup Vanilla Sugar (see below tart shell recipe)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Rub each plum with approximately 1 tsp softened butter, and either halve or cut it into eights (I recommend buttering it AFTER you cut it, unless you happen to have a lot of money invested in Band-Aids). Arrange the plums as desired in the tart shell, and bake for about 15 minutes to soften the fruit.
While the tart is baking, prepare the custard. Beat the egg and granulated sugar until thick and pale yellow. Add the flour mixture and mix until smooth. Beat in the cream and Cognac. Spoon the custard around the bottom of the softened plums and sprinkle with the vanilla sugar. Return the tart to the oven and bake for approximately 20 minutes, until the custard is puffed and golden. Let cool before serving.

Pate Brisee
makes one 8- to 10- inch tart

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar (optional)
1/4 lb (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/8 to 1/4 cup ice water

Put the flour, salt and sugar in the bowl of a food processor (or just a bowl). Add the pieces of butter and process for approximately 10 seconds or just until the mixture resembles a coarse meal (or freeze the butter and then grate it in with a cheese grater, or use a pastry blender or two knives to cut the butter in).
Add ice water, drop by drop, through the feed tube with the machine running, just until the dough holds together without being wet or sticky; do not process more than 30 seconds. Test the dough at this point by squeezing a small amount together. If it’s crumbly, add a bit more water.
Turn the dough out onto a large piece of plastic wrap. Grasping the ends of the plastic wrap with your hands (as opposed to WHAT, Martha?), press the dough into a flat circle. Wrap the dough in the plastic and chill for at least an hour.
To parbake…after you’ve rolled your dough out and pressed it into the tart pan, use a fork to poke holes in the tart, line it with aluminum, and weight it with pie weights or some beans. Bake it in a 375 degree oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly golden.

Vanilla Sugar
makes 3 cups (I halved it)

1 vanilla bean
3 cups sugar

Split the vanilla bean and put it in a glass jar with a tight-fitting lid. Pour in the sugar, put on the lid, and set aside for a week, shaking the jar from time to time.
Replenish the jar with more sugar as you use it up.

Easter cheesecake and rotten brain

Dear readers. Do you ever feel all discombobulated? Because I’ve read that, technically, your brain starts dying at age 23. And here I am facing down 26 in a small number of weeks and I’m feeling like my brain is kinda shaking everyone’s hands and sighing and saying, “well, we had a good run.”

Because I didn’t really do all that much today, mentally. I did the Times magazine crossword puzzle, finished my taxes, and wrote about 1/4 page of a cover letter (that will inevitably have to be rewritten 10 times because I repeated the word “experience” in every sentence). But when my mom said she was going to make a cheesecake (which is my favorite kind of cake), I had very little mental capacity left for processing that.

Instead I did supremely helpful things like take pictures and dip my finger into the filling 20 times and sit at the kitchen counter and stare off into space.

And now I’ve added to that by eating 100 jelly beans, most of which I didn’t even want. But I hate it when there are jelly beans left and they’re all the bad flavors, so I try to eat some of the bad ones at the outset. Instead of not eating them at all. Like a normal person.

So here’s the recipe. I wanted you to have it for Easter (because what, WHAT, is better than cheesecake on Easter?) even though technically “Kat” didn’t really “kitch” this one. This one goes to Satu. Tomorrow I’m recreating the rainbow cookies though. And THEN. And then, friends, I’m back. I’m back so fucking prepare yourselves. It’s going to be crazy.

Easter Cheesecake
from the Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook

Crust:
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
2 tbsps brown sugar
1 tsp brown sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted (my mom writes, “6 tbs enough.” apparently the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree [see paragraph 3])

Filling:
2 cups sour cream
3 packages (8 oz each) cream cheese, room temp
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsps vanilla extract
Finely grated zest of 1 orange (we used some lemon juice as substitute. “we.”)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

To make the crust, combine the crumbs, walnuts, brown sugar, ad cinnamon. Add the butter and toss to combine. Press the graham mixture evenly into the bottom and 1 1/2 inches up the side of a 9-inch springform pan.

To make the filling, process the sour cream, cream cheese, eggs, sugar, and salt in a blender or food processor (or KitchenAid like us) until very smooth. Add the vanilla and orange zest and process just to blend.

Bake the cheesecake for 50 minutes or until the top is lightly golden (up to 10 min more).

Let cool completely. Remove the side of the pan and refrigerate until ready to serve.

In the Red

Internet, there are some things that I just know about myself from having existed on this planet for almost 26 years. Things like, I can’t do a back flip on a trampoline no matter how long I’m on there, jumping up and down, saying, ok, on the next jump I’m doing it. And there are things that other people know about me too. Like, if I’m nearing the end of eating a salad and I’ve saved one of each component of the salad for the last bite, and you steal one such component, I will be seriously pissed. Then there are things I know about the world, like if you wear a white shirt and decide it’s a really stellar idea to cut strawberries in said shirt, you are asking, BEGGING, to be sprayed with strawberry juice.

And yet, here we are. Me in a white shirt, strawberry juice now firmly attached to the side of it, like a little red koala. It’s not that I didn’t know it would happen, internet. It’s just that I don’t listen. I’m not smart. I just do things and, despite what I know about my own sloppiness, I think this time it won’t happen. This time, I’ll do that back flip.

Which isn’t all bad, internet. Because impetuousness often results in trying new things on a whim, without having much time to judge and talk myself out of things. But, you know, it’s also how I ended up standing in Cold Stone with a tablespoon full of cinnamon in my mouth, damning the moment I decided I was brave enough to take the Cold Stone Fear Factor Challenge. No really, have you ever tried to eat a tablespoon full of cinnamon? It’s like inviting 5 cats to fight to the death in your throat.

But then there’s this tart, which I decided to make not knowing if we had any of the ingredients aside from the strawberries I had bought the day before at the Davis Farmer’s Market. Now, the law of the universe says that I should get halfway through and realize I don’t have something major, like sugar. But sometimes the world is kind to me. Sometimes I get thrown a proverbial bone.

And so this tart went off kind of without incident, minus my ruined shirt and a minor strawberry juice explosion in the oven. And, my god, the strawberries were amazing. They’re the kind of strawberries you bite into and say, oh yeah, that’s what a strawberry tastes like.

So what have we learned today? Well, I guess we’ve learned that…I’ll never learn. But learning that about myself is still learning, right? So what if I’m one day 50 years old, jumping up and down on my trampoline, saying to myself, ok, on 3….

Rustic Strawberry Tart
Adapted from Cooking Light by Kristin at TheKitchenSinkRecipes.com

1 cup all-purpose flour (about 4 1/2 ounces)
1/8 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons chilled butter, cut into small pieces, divided
3 1/2 tablespoons ice water
2 cups sliced strawberries
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoons corn starch
pinch salt
1 egg white, lightly beaten
1 tablespoons raw sugar

To prepare crust, lightly spoon 1 cup flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine 1 cup flour and 1/8 teaspoon salt in a medium bowl; cut in 3 tablespoons butter with a pastry blender or 2 knives until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add 3 1/2 tablespoons ice water; stir just until moist. Turn dough out onto a heavily floured surface; knead lightly 5 times. Divide dough into 2 equal portions. Place each dough portion between 2 sheets of plastic wrap; roll each dough portion, still covered, into an 8-inch circle. Chill 20 to 30 minutes (until the plastic wrap peels easily away from the dough).

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine the berries, sugar, lemon juice, corn starch and salt. Stir to combine.

Preheat oven to 350°. Uncover dough; place dough circles on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Arrange half of the strawberries in a pinwheel pattern in one of the dough circles, starting in the middle and forming concentric circles of strawberries, leaving a 2-inch border. Repeat with the second dough circle and remaining berries. Dot each of the tarts with the remaining 1 tbsp of butter.

Fold up the edges of the dough circles over the berries, crimping to seal. Lightly brush the pastry with the beaten egg white. Sprinkle the two rounds with the raw sugar.

Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown.