Chocolate & Pear Tart: A Stay-cation Indulgence

I called Aaron at work the other day. I was bored; it was just 3 days before my last day at work and the beginning of our two week staycation. I was hoping he would be willing to take a short break and entertain me - just for a few minutes. 

me: Hi! What's going on... just three more days!!!!

Aaron: Honey, I'm really busy, I can't talk right now. 

*click*

Grrr... not exactly the reaction that I hoped for. I picked up the phone and dialed again. 

Aaron: What? I told you, I am swamped. 

me: I'm making a pear tart this weekend.

Aaron: Whatever, I have to go. 

*click*

 

Usually the threat of decadent, indulgent baked goods gets him to listen, sometimes because he is looking forward to eating them, but usually because he tries to put the kibosh on future fattening concoctions showing up in the kitchen. His brush off meant that I would be making a tart that evening!  

I raced home from the office and started whipping up a crust so that the tart would be well underway by the time that Aaron got home. Mission accomplished! The crust was complete before Aaron arrived, and I was halfway through the filling before he realized what was taking place in our kitchen.

 

 Recipe after the jump!

Mocha Buttercream and my first sale!

Subject: Cake Order

Message: Randy's sister's birthday is coming up... Are you up for a birthday cake order?

Seriously??? Am I up for a birthday cake order??? My instant reaction was, OF COURSE!!! Recipes started flooding in to my mind, only to suddenly to be replaced by panic. Someone was going to pay me for cake? Were they sure? What if the result was a baking disaster and I couldn't deliver the goods? I only put my pretty stuff on this blog for the most part - many disasters have preceded the sweets featured on this site.

Putting a dollar value on my hobby almost seemed like too much pressure. Sure, my ambition is to eventually get paid so that I can finance my sweet tooth, but not until I am sure I am ready. Honestly, I am such a perfectionist that I am not sure if I ever would be really ready. That only meant that I had to accept the offer - you have to start somewhere, right? First, I decided that a layer cake was out of the question. I have a history of fallen cakes, making it too risky. Cupcakes it is. I also figured that bargain pricing ($1 a cupcake vs the $2+ charged at most NYC bakeries would make D more forgiving of deformed pastries.  No skimping though - I still planned to use high quality, gourmet ingredients!

D had a few flavor requests. The sister-in-law liked tiramisu-like coffee flavors, vanilla cake with chocolate frosting, and apple cake. I thought that vanilla cake would be least error prone. Though I spent hours researching recipes for tiramisu flavored cupcakes, I lacked enough time for testing to ensure good results. That being said, vanilla + chocolate seemed a little dull, and my standard chocolate frosting is a bittersweet chocolate ganache. No good, birthday cake should be sweet!

After more internet research, I settled on a mocha buttercream recipe that I found at Zoe Bakes. The recipe made me a little nervous. (Ok, so selling baked goods might not be a good idea in the future. It makes me incredibly neurotic!). First, it was an egg-based buttercream (not American style), which can be quite controversial, as many adults find true buttercream to be too sweet. Also, raw eggs scare me. Reading a few too many articles about food safety has left me petrified that I am going to give my friends salmonella. Second, the recipe called for eggs and egg yolks, not egg whites, something I have never made before. My love of experimenting got the best of me, even though I knew that maybe this was not the time to test something new.

Surprisingly everything worked out. Aside from the pile of reject cupcakes on the counter (did I mention that I am a perfectionist!), the frosting came together nicely and I had enough winners to pull together two dozen for the party. Both the flavor and texture were exquisite. The frosting was soft and silky smooth, while the rich, chocolatey flavored seemed almost mousse-like. Garnished with chocolate pearls, boxed up and ready to go: my first sale. Let me know if you want to be number two!

The Daring Bakers Challenge, January 2009: Graham Crackers and Nanaimo Bars

The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and http://www.nanaimo.ca/.

I was really excited about this challenge when the recipe was revealed. I was in Canada at the time, skiing at Whistler and getting completely swept up in Olympic fever. Learning to make a Canadian speciality like Nanaimo Bars seemed timely and appropriate.

For the graham crackers, I decided to go with the non-gluten-free (or glutenous?) version as I had a lot of whole wheat flour on hand. Let's just say that now I understand why graham crackers come in sheets that you have to break into individual crackers. When I started making the dough for my grahams, I had a beautiful vision of lovely round biscuits in my mind - something similar to a British disgestive. Then I discovered that graham dough is STICKY! I rolled out the dough on a silpat carefully, making sure that all sections were of even thickness and then cut circles into the dough with a biscuit cutter.

Everything was going according to plan until I tried to pull away the excess dough and line the circles up on a cookie sheet for baking. What a mess!  The dough stuck so badly that I had to scrape it up with my nails. The majority of the dough ended up in a scrap pile to be rerolled, though I did manage to salvage a few of the round crackers.

After baking, the graham crackers did not get as crisp as what you would buy in a store. The exterior was hard, but inside they were chewy. They were delicious to snack on, but not ideal for making the crumbs for the Nanaimo Bars.

The Nanaimo Bars were easy enough to make, but the end product was VERY rich and not something I think I will make again. The creamy filling tastes almost like an american buttercream that you might use for icing a birthday cake. The entire thing was too sweet for my taste and reminded me of something that children would go crazy for (behaving even crazier after eating from the sugar high!). Both A and I were only able to nibble a small square before pushing them away and running for a glass of milk.

 

Though the challenge recipes won't make it into my regular rotation of desserts and baked treats, they were a lot of fun to make and got me to try something I might not have otherwise tried. With hindsight, I wish that I had tried the gluten free version. I just started a new job and learned that one of my team mates has celiacs, which means that a few gluten free recipes could make their way onto this blog in the future.

Recipes after the jump!