It is hard to combine the harshness of a pregnancy’s first trimester and the joy of cooking. This is my excuse for staying away from this blog for so long. How can a woman think of baking when her whole body seems repulsed by food and smells? Crackers and iced water have been my lot for three months. Thank goodness, these plain and tasteless days are over. Unfortunately, now that I can finally get back to my oven, it is 900 degrees out there. In other words: not oven season.
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| Ze belly (so far) |
Of course, I will not let the high temperatures discourage me – I NEED to make and eat something tasty. Actually, I have been thinking about ice cream a lot lately, but, because I am eating for two, I need to drop that scoop on top of something crunchy and juicy.
I started this new journey with a fresh batch of ice cream, flavored with rosemary and filled with toasted and salted cashew nuts. Rosemary is usually a nice complement to pear-infused desserts, hence my choice for a pear tart. But this particular tart is loaded with buttermilk: 1) in the dough, and 2) in the custard filling. Buttermilk is supposed to add crispiness to the dough. It is loosely inspired from an Epicurious pie dough recipe, which called for buttermilk, butter and shortening. Shortening somehow reminds me of melted plastic and I usually try to stay away from it. For one, I don’t think you can find this in France (all I mean here is that I am not familiar with shortening at all). And again, I think it looks like melted plastic. Anyway, I replaced the portion of shortening with lard, which is supposed to make pie and tart dough crisp.
The key with this pie dough crust is to use very cold butter and buttermilk, and keep the dough ball as cold as possible in your fridge before rolling it. I even divide the dough ball in two and keep one in the fridge while rolling out the other since my goal is to make tartelettes instead of one big tart. After cutting out one or two circles from the rolled out dough on my counter, I pick up the left over dough, form another little dough ball and place it back in the fridge in plastic wrap. I then use the cold (second) dough ball to cut out more dough circles for the next tartelette molds. Easy peasy.
Toasted Cashew Nut Rosemary Ice Cream: (Crème Glacee au Romarin et Noix de Cajoux Roties)
1 cup whole milk
1 cup half and half
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup granulated sugar
Pinch of sea salt
1/4 cup rosemary twigs or 4 to 5 branches
1 cup raw cashew nuts, roughly chopped
Another pinch of sea salt
Throw the Rosemary in the milk and bring the mixture to boiling point in a heavy saucepan. Remove from the heat, stir in the salt and sugar, and cover. Let this infuse for a solid 10 minutes.
Choose a medium size container that can contain 48oz or 6 cups of liquid. Pour in the half and half and heavy cream. Stir. Add in the infused milk after removing the rosemary. Stir well and “age” in the fridge overnight (or at least 4 hours).
In the meantime, spread the raw cashew nuts on a baking sheet and toast in a 350°F oven for 15 minutes or so, stirring every 5 minutes and keeping a very close eye on the nuts so they do not burn! Once golden, remove from the oven, spread sea salt on and stir well. Reserve.
If you own an ice cream maker, pour this dairy mixture in it and process according to the manufacturer’s instructions. While processing, throw in roasted and salted cashew nuts. Pack the ice cream in a freezer safe container and return to the freezer.
If you do not own an ice cream maker, put a freezer safe container filled with the dairy mixture in the fridge WITHOUT the nuts in. Freeze for 2 hours. Then take the container out, and beat the cream vigorously with an electric mixer to break the ice crystals (put the container in your sink to avoid a mess). Return to the freezer for 2 more hours before repeating the beating process, but this time, throw in the toasted nuts before beating. Return the container to the freezer for 2 more hours. Beat one last time, making sure the nuts don’t remain at the bottom but are well spread in the ice cream. Return to the freezer for 4 more hours before serving.
Buttermilk Tart Crust Dough: (Pate Sablee au Babeurre)
1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp granulated sugar
½ tsp salt
¼ cup very cold unsalted butter, diced
¼ cup very cold lard, diced
1/8 cup cold buttermilk + 1 tbsp
In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar and salt together. Add in the diced butter and lard. Using a pastry cutter, blend well until you have a coarse meal. Add in the cold buttermilk (as cold as you can get it), but do not overwork the dough. Form a ball and wrap it in plastic wrap before chilling in the fridge for at least an hour.
Buttermilk Pear Tartelettes: (Tartelettes aux Poires et Au Babeurre)
Makes 6 (4-inch-diameter) tartelettes
Buttermilk tart dough
3 Anjou pears, peeled, cored and cut in 2
4 medium eggs
½ cup buttermilk
3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
½ cup sugar
Juice and zest of half a lemon
Pinch of salt
If your tartelette molds need to be floured, go for it.
Roll out half of the dough on a floured surface (keep the other half of dough in the fridge). Cut up circles of the diameter you need for your tartelette molds. Fill up each molds with the circle of dough. With a fork, poke tiny holes in the dough. Cover each tart with a cut-out circle of parchment paper and fill up with pie weights or dry beans Let the unbaked crusts chill 30 minutes to an hour in your fridge.
In the meantime, prepare the custard by whisking together the melted butter, sugar, eggs, buttermilk, salt and lemon juice and zest.
Peel, core and slice the pears in 2, then carve them up in thin slices as if you were making a little fan.
Preheat your oven to 350°F.
Bake for the crust 10 minutes.
Place half a sliced up pear delicately inside each crust, fanning the slices a little. Cover up with custard and put back in the oven for about 45 minutes or until the surface of the tartelettes and pears start to golden.
Let chill completely.
Serve at room temperature (the tartelettes should unmold easily at room temperature) with a side of ice cream.
Enjoy your summer!
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