Dulce Gorgonzola Pickled Pear Tart Recipe

 

Serves 8-10
INGREDIENTS

FILLING

4 oz or 1/4lb Dulce Gorgonzola cheese
1/4 cup Light sour cream
1 1/2 tbsp Honey
1 Egg yolk, large
Pinch of Kosher Salt & Cracked Black Pepper


CRUST

1/2 Hazelnuts, roasted, ground 
1 tbsp Sugar
1/4 tsp Kosher salt
3/4 + 2 tbsp Flour, all purpose 
6 tbsp Butter, unsalted, chilled
1-3 tbsp Ice water
1 tsp Cinnamon or Thyme or Rosemary (these flavors each will work well with filling so, your choice)
2 pint jars Pickled pears or you can poach fresh pears (for pickled pear recipe see below)

INSTRUCTIONS:


1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Making crust using a food processor. Place flour, cool, ground hazelnuts, salt, sugar and butter and pulse until combined. Add water 1 tbsp at a time to help the mixture blend completely. 
3. Place dough on plastic wrap sheet, cover and roll into a log shape, chill for 30 min.
4. For the filling, place cheese, yolk, sour cream, honey and S&P into a blender or vita mix and puree. 
5. Remove crust. Spray a tart or pie pan with nonstick spray. Unwrap dough and place into pan. Using the piece of plastic wrap to come in contact with the dough, press it flat into pan. This protects your hands and smooths the dough evenly. 
6. Using a fork, prick the dough in several places. Place foil over the whole crust and weigh it down with dry rice or dry beans. Place in oven to bake for 20 minutes.
7. After 20 minutes, remove the foil and rice or beans. Cook tart shell an additional 15 minutes until edges begin turning golden brown.
8. Remove tart shell from oven. Pour in the filling and top with slices of pears. 
9. Return to the oven and bake an additional 15 minutes.
10. Remove from oven. Can top with additional roasted hazelnuts. 
11. Serve warm or at room temperature.  Store leftovers in refrigerator.



Recipe by "Joy of Pickling"
6 lbs Bosc pears, pitted, peeled, sliced
4 Cinnamon sticks
2 tbsp whole cloves
1 inch Ginger, fresh, sliced thin
3 cups Water
2 cups Distilled white vinegar
4 cups Sugar

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Place spices in a sachet of cheesecloth.
2. Using a nonreactive pot, bring water, sugar, vinegar, spices to a boil- creating an infused syrup.
3. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 min.
4. Add in pears and cook until tender ~5-10 min.
5. Place pears and syrup into clean pint jars. Seal with lid.
6. Place jars into a boiling water bath and process for 15 minutes.

The Very Best Thick Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Cherry Raisin Cookie Recipe

These cookies are cafe quality! The kind you see in the glass case or on a large cake plate and you instantly think to yourself " I shouldn't! I am not even hungry! I can't help myself! That cookie must be eaten...AND you order 2." These are those types of cookies.

It has taken me a while to perfect the recipe and I thank my taste testers out there. It was hard work.

The selection of ingredients are very specific for a reason- either to keep the cookies shape, texture, density or appearance - otherwise you end up with Toll House, thin, crispy cookies no matter what you do. That is ok if that is what you desire.

Ingredients
1/2 cup Bread Flour
1/4 cup Cake Flour
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
11/2 tsp Cinnamon, ground
1/2 cup Coconut, toasted (King Arthur sells it online or make your own)
1/4 tsp salt (For salty sweet flavor you can increase to 1/2tsp and you will taste the salt)
3 cups Oats (Not quick oats, You can substitute 1 cup of 3 with quick oats but no more)
1 cup Light Brown Sugar
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/2 cup Butter, unsalted, melted
1 lg egg + 1 additional yolk  (I prefer cage free, no hormones etc... trust me yolks are darker/creamier)
1/4 cup Earth Balance Natural Shortening, softened
  (I love this product b/c it is packaged in 1/2 cup sticks and is vegan. Sold at Whole Food or you can use any shortening)

Optional but who are we kidding?
1/2 cup Dried Cherries
1/2 cup Raisins
1 cup Dark Chocolate chunks/chips (60% at least cocoa) 

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350F.
2. Mix in a large bowl the flours, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and oats. (Side note, this combination of flours is one reason the cookie stays chewier & thick. For thinner, crispy cookies use 100% all purpose flour.)
3. In a separate bowl, mix brown sugar with melted butter, soft shortening and vanilla. I do this by hand and not in a mixer because it is important to combine the ingredients but not introduce tons of air. The reason we introduce shortening and melt the butter is due to the melting points in the oven. The higher the melting point the less the cookie will spread and be on the thin side. I have not tried this, but I imagine you substitute margarine for both shortening and butter and yield a similar effect.
4. Add the butter/sugar mix to the flour mixture. I do this gradually so the dry ingredients do not fly all over the room. Gently, mix these ingredients. The dough will be thick and pasty looking. 
5. Lastly, stir in your dried fruit, chocolate and nuts if you like. Make sure they are evenly distributed. Nothing worse than a cookie missing one of key components...chocolate!
6.  Use nonstick baking sheets or silpats when possible. You do not want to be forced to grease or use nonstick spray as it also will cause cookies to spread.
7. For reasonable size cookies, I use a 1/4cup measuring cup to scoop the dough. This creates a rounded and evenly shaped cookies. However, for big as your face - cafe style- use a 1/2 cup measuring cup. Space evenly on the baking sheet. Using your palm slightly smash the cookie, creating a flatter, round cookie versus the mound caused by the measuring cup.
8. Place baking sheet in the center of your oven. Half way through the baking time, rotate the pan. Bake for ~13 minutes (for the 1/4cup size). I set timer for 11 min. and check for browning around the edges. You want cookie to be still slightly soft/wet in the center. When you remove from the oven, allow the cookies to continue to cook on the sheet. I do not move these to a cooling rack but allow them to cool on the pan. I also bake one sheet at a time. 

Recipe yields about 20 1/4cup size cookies.

Mixed Dough



Raw dough



Baked - Cooling on baking sheet

Dig In!

Blueberries Galore

Ripening News!
In the past few weeks there has been an abundance of plump, juicy, blueberries!

How to enjoy these delicious berries beyond snacking on them raw? Not that eating a sun warmed berry is not the best-oh because it is.

However, if you are like me and find yourself with several quarts full at a time and do not wish to turn into Violet (Willie Wonka's Chocolate factory) finding unique ways to store or make use of a surplus is a challenge I enjoy solving. If you do as well, please share your ideas & recipes.






This blueberry season has me making low sugar jams, pancakes, sorbets and frozen yogurt (Kitchen Aid Mixer Ice Cream Attachment).

Couldn't resist Rosewater's (Brooklyn, NYC) Blueberry Pistachio Pancakes - Definitely gonna make these at home!





Try these recipes

Low Sugar Blueberry Basil Sorbet

~2-3 pints fresh blueberries, cleaned (fills a blender about 2/3rds full)
`2 handfuls of whole, fresh, cleaned basil leaves (roughly 4 full stalks)
2 tbsp to a 1/4C of simple syrup (depending on how sweet you like your sorbet)

Directions:
Rinse berries and basil well.
Place both berries and basil into blender, puree.  Taste at this point.
Add simple syrup 2 tbsp at a time, blend, and taste to determine the level of desired sweetness (this varies based on both pallet and ripeness & varietal of berry).

For Kitchen Aid Ice Cream attachment
Attach bowl and paddle, lock and turn machine on low speed.
Gently pour your blueberry mixture into working kitchen aid.
Mix for ~20 minutes.
For smooth and loose texture eat immediately.
For more firm texture- scoopable - place in freezer.
Will keep in air tight container in freezer for ~ 1 mo.

Low Sugar Blueberry Lemon Jam

5 cups cleaned, crushed, blueberries
1 cup water
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (or you made substitute 2 tbsp real lemon extract)
1 box no sugar pectin
1-3 cups sugar (varies pending on your taste preference, splenda for baking is also an option)

Directions:
Follow pectin packet directions for cooked jams.

Flavor Variations:
-Substitute 1 cup coconut water for a tropical hint.
-Go high antioxidant jam substitute 1 cup acai or pomegranate juice for the water. 
-Substitute 1 cup of your favorite fruity White Wine -jam makes a flavorful cheese preserve.
- Add complimentary herb (basil, Thai basil, cilantro) pureed (using 1 cup water called for in recipe)- sounds strange but these flavors pair great with peanuts/peanut butter - think of Thai dishes (fruit + herb + nuts). Makes great jacked up PB&Js or paired with lamb.


Home Jamming/Canning Shortcuts

• Sterilize jars in dishwasher
• Run a cycle while prepping the jam. When ready open dishwasher, pull out only the amount of jars needed, keeping remaining hot and ready for next batch. Keeps kitchen cooler and saves on stove top space. 

• No Need for Boiling Method for sealing. 
• For fruit jams cooked- I don't need to use boiling canning method to seal jars. Simply heat your lids and rings in a boiling water bath. Upon filling hot jars, with hot jam, wipe rim, add sealing lid and screw on ring flip jars upside down to cool. The heat from the hot jam will generate the seal you need.

Blueberry Frozen Yogurt (Low Fat & Sugar)

2 cups Greek style yogurt (Fat free if you like)
1 cup Skim Milk (you may use all yogurt no milk)
1 small jar of home made LS Blueberry jam (recipe above)* I use this as my sweetener
1 cup whole or roughly chopped blueberries

Directions:
Mix yogurt, milk and jam in blender. Add berries. Do not blend.

For Kitchen Aid Ice Cream attachment 
Attach bowl and paddle, lock and turn machine on low speed.
Gently pour your mixture into working kitchen aid.
Mix for ~30 minutes.
For semi-frosty style texture eat immediately.
For more firm texture- scoopable - place in freezer for an hour.
Will keep in air tight container in freezer for ~ 1 mo.
 
*If you prefer to avoid tart frozen yogurt, add simple syrup (2/3 c sugar 2/3 cup water, bring to a simmer, cool, add to mixture)