banana bundt cake

how appropriate that i'm here on a tuesday with a dorie recipe. it's bittersweet because i no longer bake along with the lovely tuesdays with dorie group, although i do follow many of them along the way. i don't believe this one has been made by the group yet, but i know they will love it once they do!

this was my first time making a bundt cake in order to justify buying the pan a couple months ago!

so simple, and probably my favorite recipe so far. it came out so moist and the banana-sour cream flavor was perfect. when googling around to find an online print of the recipe, i found that dorie made these into banana cake muffins with half the recipe - what a terrific idea for an easy portable breakfast treat!



for dorie's banana bundt cake recipe, click here. i did not use chocolate (the book recipe does not include it either), but i did add a lemon glaze once it cooled.

for some strange reason, this is my fourth post on banana baking! i either really love bananas, or i routinely let them brown-rot far too often. but for other banana bread/cake ideas, click here or here or here.

orange cream cheese muffins with pepita crunch

citrus is pretty much my favorite fruit and one of the very few reasons i can tolerate winter at all! however, when i was a wee girl of about 6 impressionable years i was at a family dinner function of sorts. towards the end, fresh fruit was served, including orange wedges. after eating mine and leaving the rinds on my plate, one of my ornery uncles cleverly said "hey, why aren't you eating those? you're supposed to eat all the orange parts!" i had never heard such a thing but i was the quintessential curious kid, so i bit off a big piece of the rind ..... and a thousand glasses of water couldn't get rid of that bitter, awful taste!!



ever since then i've had an unnatural, neurotic obsession with peeling off every dangling piece of rind and white pith whenever i peel an orange. yes, even though i know the white pith has all that good nutrition! but what can i say, my taste buds were traumatized and now i can only have my oranges naked.

so i was a bit wary, to say the very least, with this recipe that asks for the orange - flesh, pith, and rind! - to be incorporated. as a pre-caution, i zipped it to a pulp.



but my fears were unwarranted, because these muffins turned out so good. i'd even prefer them a bit more orangey (maybe a round 1/4 cup?) and the pepita crunch was a lovely topping. here's to a yummy breakfast treat!

orange cream cheese muffins with pepita crunch: makes 12*
from great coffee cakes, sticky buns, muffins & more (2007, p. 106)

for pepita crunch
1 large egg white (reserve yolk)
2 tb plus 1 tsp sugar
1/2 cup pepitas

1. preheat oven to 350F. spray a cookie sheet with nonstick spray or line with parchment. in small bowl, whisk together egg white and 1 tb of sugar. add pepitas and toss well. pour onto cookie sheet and spread evenly in single layer. sprinkle 1 more tb of sugar over pepitas. bake for 7-8 minutes.

2. stir pepitas with fork and bake for another 7 minutes. stir pepitas again, sprinkle with remaining 1 tsp of sugar and bake for another 3 minutes. remove and allow to cool; set aside.

for muffins
1/2 small navel orange, cut into 6-8 pieces (rind, pith, and flesh)
4 oz cream cheese, room temp, broken into 3-4 pieces
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, slightly firm
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 egg yolk (from pepita crunch)
1 tsp vanilla

1. increase oven to 375F. whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and bakng soda; set aside.

2. turn on food processor and drop orange pieces through the tube. process until finely chopped. measure out 1/4 cup pulp and return to food processor bowl (discard any excess orange). add cream cheese and process in three 10-second intervals, scraping the sides after each.

3. but butter into 1-inch pieces and with electric mixer and paddle attachment, mix on medium speed until smooth and light, about 1 minute. stop and add cream cheese/orange mixture, mix on medium 1 more minute. add sugar in steady stream, then blend in eggs, yolk, and vanilla.

4. reduce mixer to slow and add flour mixure in three additions, mixing until just blended after each addition.

5. portion level scoops into muffin pan. sprinkle top of each with 1 tb of pepita crunch. be sure to use any sugar that remains in the pan.

6. bake for 22-25 minutes, rotating halfway through, until golden brown and tops are spingy. cool on rack.

* note: despite ms. walter's annoying insistence on making 14 muffins in her recipes, i just whip up the whole batter and make 12 and it's never been a problem. however, i have to wonder, why write recipes for 14 muffins??!

honey shortbread cookies

i admit, i only wanted to make this because (a) it has five ingredients, easy-parcheesi! and (b) i've never made shortbread before. can you believe i've never made shortbread - even though trefoils are my third favorite (behind thin mints and samoas, of course!)??

well i'm glad that oversight was rectified because these are some the yummiest cookies i've ever made! everyone knows that the combo of sweet and salty is near goodliness, and for any skeptics, the case was confirmed with that famous new york times article last year that caused legions of bloggers to take note and bake away with a little sprinkling of sea salt!

i used a scant 1/2 tsp of fleur de sel instead of kosher. all i had in the pantry was wildflower honey, which i normally find too floral but once it caramelized it was fine. and of course, the sprinkling of salt made it perfect!



sprinkling or pour? as you can see, i was a wee bit generous with the salt. but i am someone who will pick popcorn and chips over chocolate and ice cream any day, so - uh - i guess that means no problem for me! but even my sweets obsessed mr. mimi thought it was just fine. so i guess it just looks too salty in photos even though technically it didn't taste over-salted. also, it was a teeny tiny bit crumbly when i cut the slices. but only really at the narrow apex and it totally had no impact whatsoever on the "oh. my. goodness, these are so insanely yummy!" that we mumbled between each bite.

the recipe suggestion was to serve once cooled completely, although i preferred the cookie just on the edge of slightly warm. mr. mimi preferred them room temp to better appreciate the sandiness of cookie. in the end, i would have preferred if i didn't eat almost all of them!

for the fine cooking recipe, click here.



i am also sending this on over for the weekend cookbook challenge of five ingredients or less!

chunky peanut, chocolate, and cinnamon cookies

i have finally settled back into new york city after a really great holiday vacation in san diego, san francisco, and sonoma. and now i have just a little more than two and a half weeks before i leave for nigeria.

it's a strange feeling not having a place to report to. since i can remember, i have always had to - in theory, folks - be at work or in class. but now, in between a few school papers due and and a couple of travel-related errands, i really have nothing to do.

i guess i should cherish this downtime, but i have heard i will have lots of it in abuja!! so i decided to take the next two weeks and bake every day. all those things i have wanted to try again and get right, all those bookmarked blogs, and tagged book pages. of course, i can't get to it all, but there is really no excuse to start having fun again in the kitchen.



so sit back and enjoy the treats. my first bake is by request of mr. mimi: chunky peanut, chocolate, and cinnamon cookies. honestly, i hardly tasted any cinnamon, but they were still very good. i did add the vanilla in with the wet ingredients instead of at the end (as instructed) because it just seemed very weird to me to do otherwise.

i used the recipe from her book, in which she suggests that you can make ahead and bake-off when needed. simply form the dough into 1-inch balls, flatten them slightly, freeze them on cookie sheets until firm. keep in resealable plastic bags for up to one month. i froze about 3/4 of the dough and baked some off last night. i love that i have cookies waiting for me in the freezer!

for the online version, click here.

twd: buttery jam cookies

there's so much more i wish i could be cooking and baking and blogging about. but big changes are happening (even some that nobody knows about - but NO!! i am not preggers, so don't even ask!) so time is of the essence for me right now and i only squeeze in what i can.

but i'm glad i snuck in some time for a tuesdays with dorie cookie this week. we have been graciously allowed to skip around weeks this month, and technically this isn't due until next tuesday.

i made the recipe as written, but with cherry preserves. when these came out the oven i was totally underwhelmed and thought well that was a waste of butter. i mean look at the photo! no amount of photoshopping could make these actually look good!

but then i tried them with a cup of tea and wow, i was totally and pleasantly surprised by how good these are! they are like a scone but lighter, and like a biscuit but crispier. it's hard to describe - but soft on the inside and slightly crispy on the outside. thank goodness i gave some away because by the next day i had eaten the rest.

and speaking of the next day, you know how almost all baking recipes warn "best eaten day made" or whatnots. like we all have time to bake the day of anything?! but these truly are best eaten the day they are made. i kept them overnight in air-tight box, and they were still yummy today (i still ate them all didn't i?) but they definitely lost some of the crispy.

to get the recipe, please check back to heather's blog, randomosity and the girl next tuesday!

a try at snickerdoodles

i have to admit that i've never heard of snickerdoodles before i started blogging. AND i thought they had something to do with snickers, yummy! so i was just a tad bit disappointed when i learned that was just false advertising - and in reality they were just basically a sugar cinnamon cookie. where's the snickery peanuts and chocolate and caramel??!!



but so many people wrote so many wonderful things about them, so i've wanted to try making them ever since. last week i did, but i was rushing out and did not watch them carefully. they ended up slightly overcooked and deflated to a crunchy cookie. so the verdict is out on whether i like these or not, i'll just have to bake another batch more carefully!

i used the recipe from fine cooking's special cookie issue, but you can find the recipe online here.

twd: rugelach

this post is going to be short and sweet as i have (at least what seems) a zillion things going on today.

when i was younger i loved hanukkah. and not just for the gifts! but latkes and rugelach were my favorite holiday treats that basically i pigged out on because they only came around once a year!

so how delighted i was when grace from piggy's cooking journal picked rugelach for this week's tuesday with dorie!

the recipe was super easy to follow. i used a combination of whatever i had on hand: cherry jam, walnuts, and golden raisins. i did not add the chocolate, as dorie suggests, because i'm one of those few stalwarts who thinks not everything tastes better with chocolate!



these were the best rugelach i've ever eaten, especially right after baking. the dough was so light and flaky, compared to the denser dough typically found at store or even bakery bought versions. next time i want to try rolling them a little bit more uniform in size/shape, but i can't wait to make these again for hanukkah!



for the recipe, click here. and to see everyone else's rugelach combinations, click through the blogroll!

daring bakers: pizza, pizza, pizza

i've said it before but i'll say it again: i love pizza. plain, white, vegetables - you name it, i love it. well, actually, i prefer my pizza meatless. is that an aberration?

anyhoo, what a happy surprise when rosa from rosa's yummy yums picked pizza for this month's daring bakers challenge. and it was even more special as this month's selection was in honor of sherry, who was to co-host with rosa, but who tragically passed away this summer.

i just had one wee mistake. i've only made pizza dough once before and it was made, proofed, and baked on the same day. so even though i waited to the very last minute - because i like to put the challenge in a daring bakers challenge! - i was cool as a cuc, and anticipating a fun night of when the moon hits your eye ....

but this recipe from peter reinhart instructs one to rest the dough in the refrigerator overnight before proceeding the next day .... frickety frick!!



well, there was not going to be any overnight rest and i made do with the time i had (about 3 hours in the fridge). this made the dough harder to work with as it was relatively warm and soft. i used more flour than usual to get it working. i also think next time i won't make the dough balls so small, as it is counter-intuitively easier to work with larger pieces of dough.

even without the longer fridge time, these pizza babies still came out terrific. it had a wonderful flavor, soft but crispy at the same time, it was great to bite into. but i felt badly i didn't do this recipe the justice it deserved. however, this is definitely going to be my go-to recipe for pizza dough from now on, so i'm excited to see just how amazing it can be!

for the recipe, from reinhart's the bread baker's apprentice, please check out rosa's blog. however please note the original recipe did not call for sugar, and listed oil as only suggested for high gluten flour like bread. for more pizzas check out the entire daring bakers blogroll, all zillion of them!

pizza #1: fresh mozzarella, anchovies, capers, hot chilis, and sauce (inspired from jaime oliver)



pizza #2: fresh mozzarella, artichokes, spanish olives, and sauce



pizza #3: gruyère, onions, garlic, mushrooms, and turkey bacon. um yeah, just forget about that first comment about meatless pizzas! this one was definitely my favorite, so damn tasty. i loved having the gruyère instead of mozzarella, it's more flavorful and such a good contrast to the earthy mushrooms and onions.

twd: chocolate-chocolate cupcakes, boo-yah!

for this week's tuesdays with dorie, clara from the wonderful i heart food for thought chose chocolate-chocolate cupcakes and gently suggested doing a halloween theme for decoration.

there had been some lengthy discussion about the texture and crumb being dry, with lots of talk about ratios and flour weights. i don't think there are any "fool-proof" recipes (especially for baking) so i tend to think that any discrepancies mainly occur because of differences in conditions, particularly in the oven. so i decided to proceed as written, but keeping a careful watch on the baking time. i checked in 16 minutes and the toothpick came out wet; only 2 more minutes and it came out completely dry.



the result? well first, the batter was soo good! that bowl hardly had to go in the dishwasher i cleaned it so well myself - no shame!

and the cupcake? amazing! moist and chocolately. i did not have any problem with it being a crummy dry crumb. i suspect that was related to my 18 minutes baking, compared to dorie's written 22-25 minutes. i would've preferred a chocolate buttercream, but that's just me (or is it you, too?)

i wasn't at all creative in the halloween department. but do you ever need a pretty reason to eat a chocolately chocolate cupcake??

for the recipe, please click here!

let's make whoopie!

it's a pumpkin kind of time. i first saw these whoopies over at peabody and knew i had to make them. then by chance a couple days later i actually bought the baked book myself and still knew i had to make them.

they didn't come out as domed and cracked on the tops as i would have liked. but my goodness, these were amazing. so spicy! i loved them. i'm glad i halved the recipe otherwise i would have been in real trouble. as it is, i'm already ashamed to admit how many i ate in one day, oh it was a perfectly delicious, gluttonous day!

i promise, if you make these, you will love them!



pumpkin whoopie pies: makes 12 large pies
from baked (2008, p. 151)

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tb cinnamon
1 tb ginger
1 tb cloves
2 cups firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 cups chilled pumpkin purée (yes, the chilling is important)
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla

for filling:
3 cups confectioners' sugar
1 stick butter, softened
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 tsp vanilla

1. preheat oven to 350F. line two baking sheets with parchment.

2. whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves; set aside.

3. in separate bowl, whisk brown sugar and oil together until combined. add pumpkin purée and whisk to combine thoroughly. add eggs and vanilla and whisk until combined.

4. sprinkle flour mixture over pumpkin mixture and whisk until completely combined.

5. drop heaping tablespoon of dough onto prepared baking sheets, about 1 inch apart. bake 10-12 minutes, until cookies are just starting to crack on top and toothpick comes out clean from center of cookie. remove from oven and let cookies cool completely on the pan while making the filling.

6. sift confectioners' sugar into bowl and set aside. in bowl of electric mixer with paddle attachment, beat butter until completely smooth. add cream cheese and beat until combined.

7. add confectioners' sugar and vanilla and beat until smooth, but be careful not to overbeat.

8. turn half of the cooled cookies upside down (flat side up). drop a large scoop of filling on to flat side of the cookie. place another cookie, flat side down, on top of the filling. smooch a little so the filling spreads. put the whoopie pies in the fridge for about 30 minutes to firm up before serving.

twd: pumpkin muffins

don't be fooled by those healthy looking seeds on top of these muffins. they are muffins afterall, and still have a nice big stick of butter in them!

i am a re-member of the happy tuesdays with dorie club. it was the lazy days of summer and i couldn't manage to be inside enough to get baked goods done every week (or even twice a month as allowed!) but as tuesdays with dorie grew, it finally expanded beyond and the inevitable deadline to join was created.

and what perfect timing for me to re-join because these pumpkin muffins were quite a tasty midnight snack. or breakfast treat. or after lunch why the heck not?

i used dried cranberries instead of raisins because i thought the combo was just a bit more complementary and i liked the color contrast too. i also used pepitas on top instead of sunflower seeds. the muffin cups definitely get filled up more than what i'm normally used to; i was a bit fearful they would overflow, but all was fine in pumpkin land.



for the recipe, check out kelly's blog over at sounding my barbaric gulp! - thanks for such a great pick kelly! and go ahead and check out the tuesdays with dorie blogroll, all almost 300 of us!

banana chocolate nut bread

does anyone make banana bread because they actually want to?? or is it because they innocently forget about those last three bananas on the bunch until it's too late?

i won't point any fingers ... but here's a banana nut bread i made tonight. and because everything tastes better with chocolate, i threw in a handful of chocolate chips as well.

banana chocolate nut bread: makes two 9x5 loaves
adapted from martha's baking handbook (2005, p. 49)

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
3 large eggs
2 cups sugar
1 1/3 cups vegetable oil
2 tb vanilla
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1 cup (about 4 oz) walnuts, toasted and finely chopped
1/2 cup buttermilk
non-stick cooking spray

1. preheat oven to 350F. coat loaf pans with cooking spray. in large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

2. in bowl of mixer with paddle attachment, beat eggs, sugar, and vegetable oil on medium-low speed until combined. beat in flour mixture. add vanilla, banana, coconut, nuts, and buttermilk and beat just to combine.

3. divide batter evenly between pans. bake, rotating halfway through, until cake tester inserted in center comes out clean, about 60 - 65 minutes. transfer to wire rack and let cool 10 minutes. remove loaves from pan and let cool completely.



if you find yourselves with even more ripe bananas, check out these two posts as well: classic banana bread and banana cake (from david lebovitz).

chocolate, chocolate, chocolate

yes, it's true. i missed a day. not entirely my fault as yesterday i was out of the house from the time i woke up until 3 in the morning (thanks m!)

the worst part is i LOVE lip balm. and so to hopefully make up for my lapse and to unjeopordize the receiving of said lip balm, i offer not one but two awesome chocolate treats!



first up is martha's double chocolate brownie cookies. fudgy inside, relatively crispy outside. need i say more? these are delicious, and i promise you will be sneaking them all day long.



second up is david lebovitz's black bottom cupcakes. i first saw these on smitten kitchen and totally wanted to make them. this is a bittersweet bake today because david is in new york city for a little get together at city bakery. i just couldn't manage to squeeze in a trip to manhattan this afternoon and so i missed out on meeting him. oh well, i guess it's a good excuse for another trip to paris! ;-)



but back to those cupcakes. now i know bloggers tend to be generous with the adjectives. how many things can truly be fantastic, amazing, delicious, tasty, and wonderful? but honestly, these things were incredible. it was an instant ymmm from the first bite. so moist and good! and so much fun to make!


for martha's double chocolate brownie cookies, click here (there is a comment about them not spreading. i used a scooper and plopped the dough down. they spread just fine for me.) in the book, it suggests adding 3 oz coarsely chopped walnuts.

for david's black bottom cupcakes that i found via smitten kitchen, click here.

day 9: lemon bars

at first i was really excited about nablowrimo. but now i have to admit, i'm kind of tired. and i still have 22 more days to go!!

but in a couple months i will probably be in a new place where i might not have the luxury of baking as many things as i want to, or when and how i want to. so i want to take advantage of this time to really enjoy myself, enjoy the city, my family and friends, and time well spent in the kitchen.

in this way, nablowrimo helps me keep focused on bringing you more savory meals and sweet treats. because goodness knows you don't want to hear 22 more days of politics from me!! ;-)

and because not everything can be chocolate (or can it??) here are some lemon bars. and while this is the second recipe for lemon bars that i have tried, i don't think i have ever eaten a lemon bar from a bakery, so i have no idea what they are "supposed" to taste or feel like.

so if you're a lemon bar connoisseur, don't take my word for anything. but the lemon was a great flavor, the texture was like a jellied candy. the shortbread was a little thick because i made the mistake when the recipe called for a 9x13 pan and i used 9x9 (i don't even have 9x13). but i love shortbread so really, no problem there.

for the recipe from gourmet magazine, on the food network online, click here.

hazelnut cinnamon chocolate biscotti

wowzers. blogging on a saturday night.

damn, this nablowrimo has got me hardcore!!

even though i love brooklyn and all the relatively new things popping up over in red hook, i am embarrassed to confess that i had never heard of baked until i read about them on smitten kitchen last month.



and now i can't escape them! i've been reading about them everywhere. and then peabody made their whoopie pies. and then i took a random visit to my local barnes & noble to find a microeconomics study book and i saw that matt and renato were scheduled to do a discussion, tasting, and book signing a couple days later.

it was fate.

so on thursday night i heard the story, ate the famous baked brownie, bought the book (full price, grrr), got it signed, and was off on my merry way dreaming about all the fun things i wanted to try.



with a bit of time to spare this afternoon, i decided i wanted to bake up some treats to share with my parents who are enjoying a weekend in the city. we were meeting them for dinner in just a short while so it needed to be something quick, easy, and portable. and a recipe that had all ingredients already in the pantry and fridge (which is more of a challenge for me than you think).



the decision? hazelnut cinnamon chocolate biscotti. i had to halve the recipe because i only had a total of 3 eggs on hand, which was a bit of a pain because of the original 1/3 and 1/4 measurements. but i figured biscotti would be forgiving in the precision department.

the verdict? sorry baked, but i wasn't wild about these. don't get me wrong, they taste very good. the cinnamon is a nice surprise. but the whole nuts were just a little too whole. and i think there is too much chocolate. i know, i know! no such thing as too much chocolate. maybe i'm just a traditionalist? or maybe i just need to wait a night and dunk them in my tea tomorrow morning for a proper analysis? keep tuned!



hazelnut cinnamon chocolate biscotti: makes 24
adapted from baked: new frontiers in baking (2008, p. 147)

1 1/3 cup sugar
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
4 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cup blanched hazelnuts, toasted and cooled
1 3/4 cup (10 oz) semisweet chocolate chips
1 large egg white

1. preheat oven to 350F. line baking sheet with parchment.

2. whisk together sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. in bowl of mixer with paddle attachment, beat eggs and sugar mixture until color is uniform and mixture is thick. add vanilla and beat for 5 seconds. add flour in two batches and beat until just combined. scrape down bowl and mix for a few seconds more. add hazelnuts and chocolate chips and beat until just combined.

3. turn dough out on sheet and shape into log 16 inches long, 3 1/2 inches wide, and 3/4 inches thick. use offset spatula to smooth. bake for 20-25 minutes until firm, but not browned. let cool on pan for 10 minutes and lower oven to 325F.

4. while log is cooling, whisk egg white and 2 tb water together and brush egg wash on top of the log.

5. cut the log into 3/4 inch slices with serrated knife. note: the following method comes from martha stewart and is how i do all biscotti now. put wire rack on top of baking sheet. arrange slices, cut sides down, on rack. bake for 25 minutes (time is from original recipe). let cool and enjoy with coffee or tea!

martha mondays: tomato tart

another round of martha mondays!

i hate the end of summer. shorter days, colder evenings. it all just means one depressing thing: crappy man winter is on its way. so you'll probably see me try to squeeze in every last drip drop of summer left here in the next couple of weeks. denial is a wonderful thing! ... and so is this tomato tart!

i bought martha's baking handbook back around the holidays last year, and this was one of the first things that caught my eye. the thought of using blah winter hydroponic tomatoes seemed a waste of the whole effort, and so i had to wait it out six long months!



there's nothing tricky about this tart, just your standard pâte brisée dough, tomatoes, garlic, fontina cheese, and basil for garnish. i haven't made dough in quite a long time so i decided to make it with half vegetable shortening, half butter to make it easier to work with (in case you're wondering, shortening doesn't melt so that's what makes it easier). but i still had problems rolling it out, mainly because it became a wee crumbly as i tried to stretch it to 13 inches. so the dough got manhandled when putting into the tart pan, although it still turned out pretty flaky. note to self: more practice with pâte brisée! hmm ... i see all sorts of pies in my baking future :)



you could say this is just a fancy pizza, and even though the preparation and assembly is easy, it is a bit of total time needed (with the garlic roasting, baking, and cooling). but pizza never looked so amazing, smelled so awesome, or tasted so delish! next time i will have to come up with a way to dry the tomatoes a bit before baking so that the crust can stay a little more firm. but make this your next lazy sunday and maybe you, too, will forget that cold weather is almost here.



it appears i also need more practice with my lovely camera and studio light set-up (there is no option for "natural" light since i ain't baking or cooking until well after sun down.) do you see all those blown highlights in the tomatoes and cheese?! ugh.

tomato tart: serves 4 as main (or 3 if you are anything like me!)
from martha's baking handbook (2005, p. 268)

1 head garlic
3 tb olive oil
1/2 recipe pâte brisée (follows)
3/4 cup grated fontina cheese
1 1/2 lbs ripe, firm tomatoes, sliced 1/4 inch thick
salt + pepper
12 fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced

1. preheat oven to 30F. place garlic on piece of aluminum foil; drizzle with 1 tb olive oil and fold foil to encase garlic, sealing folded edges well. place on baking sheet and roast until golden brown and top of knife easily pierces flesh, about 45 minutes. remove and let cool.

2. on lightly floured surface, roll dough out to 13 inch round, about 1/8 inch thick. remove excess flour and fit dough into a 10 inch fluted tart pan with removable bottom, pressing into edges. use rolling pin to trim dough flush with top edge of tart pan; chill until firm, about 30 minutes.

3. raise heat in oven to 425F. when garlic is cooled, squeeze cloves out of their skins and into small bowl. mash with a fork and set aside while tart shell is chilling.

4. spread roasted garlic evenly on bottom of tart shell. sprinkle with 1/4 cup grated cheese. arrange tomato slices in overlapping circular pattern on top of cheese, working from outside towards the center. season with salt and pepper. sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup of grated cheese and drizzle with remaining 2 tb of olive oil.

5. bake tart until crust is golden and tomatoes are soft but retain shape, 45-55 minutes. cool on wire rack for 20 minutes. garnish with sliced basil leaves and serve warm. (you can make this a day ahead and reheat at 300F until warmed through.)





pâte brisée: full recipe (use half for tomato tart)
from martha's baking handbook (p. 224)
note: i used half shortening, half butter - but i'm giving the recipe as written

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2 sticks (1 cup) butter, cold cut into small pieces
1/4 cup ice water, plus more if needed

1. combine flour and salt in food processor. add butter and pulse until mixture resembles coarse crumbs with some larger pieces. (to mix by hand, combing dry ingredients in bowl and cut in butter with pastry blender.)

2. with machine running, add ice water through feed tube in slow, steady stream, just until dough holds together without being sticky. do not process more than 30 seconds. test by squeezing small amount of dough together; if it is crumbly, add more water 1 tb at a time.

3. turn out dough and divide in half, shaping into flattened disk and wrapped in plastic. refrigerate at least 1 hour or overnight. can also be frozen up to 1 month; thaw overnight in refrigerator before using.