Meatless Monday

 

I am guest posting over at Piccante Dolce, pop over and check out my recipe for an Asparagus & Goat Cheese Quiche.  Leave some comment love while you are there.    Look at this….it’s delicious.  Seriously.

Blueberry Pie Love

It is a week until Love Day.  I adore Love Day (otherwise known as Valentine’s Day)!  Even though I try to Love BIG every day, there is still that spark of Valentine’s Day that fills me with even more love.

To celebrate this upcoming day of love, I thought that it would be fun to shower my loved ones with some of my favorite goodies…..one for each day of the week before the big day.  Fun and full of love right? 

So today I decided to make a couple of mini Blueberry Pies.  I don’t think the boys have ever tried blueberry pie…..a shame, I know. 

Mini Blueberry Pie (makes 2 – enough to share with little ones)

Blueberry Pie:

Ingredients:

2 cups Fresh Blueberries

1/4 cup sugar

3 tbsp Flour

Juice from 1/2 lemon

Preheat the oven to 425 deg.

I will admit – I cheated and used a store bought crust – and this brings me a little shame (I suffer from sever pie crust failure).

Roll out the crust a little bigger than pre-made – you need it a bit bigger to cut out the right size for the bottom crust.  Use the edges of the pie dough to cut strips to make the lattice top.  I chose to cut out a few little hearts to celebrate the occasion.

Butter the cute mini pie plates, place the dough in the plate and make sure there aren’t any air bubbles under the crust.

Place berries in a medium sized bowl and gently stir in the sugar, flour, and lemon juice.  Let sit for a few minutes to merry before spooning into your pie shell.   Gently give the berries one last turn and then spoon the mixture into your pie shells. 

Take the strips of pie dough and create the lattice top.  Use a wet fingertip to secure the lattice to the bottom shell.  Cut off excess.

Using 1 egg and a tsp of water create an egg wash.  Brush the egg wash onto the crust and then sprinkle with some sugar.

Bake at 425 deg for 15 minutes.  Then reduce oven temp to 375 deg.  At this time check to see if the lattice top is getting too dark (mine was a little) – if it is tent the pies with foil.  Bake for another 30 – 40 minutes til filling is bubbly and crust looks baked.

Let cool before digging in.  I recommend eating Blueberry Pie with Vanilla Ice Cream, if you have it.

Enjoy….and don’t forget to Love BIG.

TWD - Brioche Tart!

I wasn't going to participate this week as I have developed quite a summer cold! I am all congested and icky feeling the past couple of days. But I forged on and twisted it up a bit. Instead of using plums like Dorie's recipe calls for I used diced apple and blueberries.

So since I am not feeling so great and anxious to take a hot bath and go to bed, all you are going to get from me this week is pictures! Sorry....but they are great pics, in my opinion!

Before going in the oven....

A little slice....

The complete tart! Look at those shriveled blueberries....all that juice is in the tart...mmmmm

Take Care,

Tania

Love Big, Bake Often

No slacking here this week!

I apologize for the lack of blogging. Have had my head in a funk and am trying really hard to pull myself together. So you will understand when I say that I was very thankful that this weeks Tuesday with Dorie's recipe had so few ingredients and was so simple to put together. These Parisian Apple Tarts were so easy to make. Once I made my own puff pastry that is!! I had checked out the P&Q and the recipe and saw that a full butter puff pastry was recommended, and that the brand of puff pastry that Dorie recommended was hard to find and expensive. So I checked the recipe in "Art & Soul of Baking" and saw that their puff pastry recipe was fairly easy....even if I was intimidated by it! So I jumped in with two feet and made a 1/2 batch of pastry. It was pretty easy....lots of steps...and totally worth it!

And with Dorie's recipe basically cutting up an apple, cutting a circle of pastry, put apple on pastry, sprinkle with butter and brown sugar and bake, how could I go wrong?? And I didn't. It turned out great. My homemade pastry puffed like it was suppose to! They are so simple, and so delicious. I really wanted to make some caramel sauce to put on top of them, but I didn't have any heavy cream in the fridge to make some. :( Next time for sure!

Look at them....they are so yummy looking....and look at that puff!

Be sure to check out the other wonderful bakers on the TWD Blogroll, here!

I am looking forward to posting all the goodies I have been busy baking as I hibernate in my AC - it is so freakin' hot here already!!

Take Care,

Tania

Love Big, Bake Often

Tuesday's with Dorie...chocolate cream pie, my way!

Chocolate Cream Pie with a Layer of Caramel

in a Pretzel Crust!

I was really looking forward to this week's recipe. I love chocolate cream pie. I love Sonic's chocolate cream pie blended thingy....

When looking at the recipe I decided that a chocolate pie crust was not what I wanted to do...I needed to mix it up a little. So I went the salty sweet way....I decided to make a Pretzel Crust! I food processed up some pretzels, mixed in a little salt and sugar and some melted butter to bind it all together. I baked it and was happy when the second time around it held together as a nice tart crust! I also decided to 1/4 the recipe and make two little tarts.....better for my figure and I think they are just cute as can be! A whole chocolate cream pie has no place in my kitchen! And friends are too far away to be taking treats to them every week....so I plan it into my diet these days. It seems to be working.

Back to the pies..... I also decided that to go with the salty pretzel crust that there needed to be a layer of caramel. I think I made it a little too think...but we will see. This was the perfect chance for me to use some of the AMAZING Askinosie chocolate that I got in the mail a couple of months ago.....it is a Mexican 75% dark chocolate....do dark....see?

The chocolate cream in this pie is so rich...I LOVE IT! And I used some of my fantastic vanilla sugar to sweeten the whipped cream just a touch! Absolutely perfect. This pie is rich, creamy, chewy, salty, chocolatey and absolutely phenomenal. I will be making it over and over again.

Be sure to check out the other TWDr's here, and see all their wonderful creations.

And thank you to Kim, from Scrumptious Photography, for choosing this wonderful dessert.

Leave me a comment and let me know what you think!

Take Care,

Tania

Love Big, Bake Often

TWD: French Pear Tart!!

Tuesdays With Dorie.... I am on it. This year is going to be my baking year! I had several set backs last year that prevented me from participating on a regular basis (I probably should have been booted out - Thank you Laurie for not booting me out!!!) but this is my year. My goal is to participate in 99% of the weeks. So here we go.....

This was my first attempt at working with tart dough, tart pans, and actually all the parts of this recipe - never made almond cream, never baked with pears. So an adventure in firsts. I think they turned out pretty great - and they were really tasty!!
What do you think???

I think it looks pretty on the blue plate. I just wish I new how to take better photos! Need to get some tips and advice and maybe a good book about photography. And to find the time to take them during the day so I can take advantage of some natural light instead of icky flash photos!

Here are the ingredients for the crust - don't know why the pic wont rotate.... Simple yummy recipe for tart dough.

And the ingredients blended together... nice and crumbly like the recipe says!

I chose to make four little tarts - but I think I could have made more, the dough was a little thick, it made for a hard crust. Super tasty. I used the bottom of a glass to press it into the pan, didn't mean for there to be so many impressions in the dough! Ooops...
I prebaked them like Dorie says!!

And here they are before I put them in the oven. I did my best to create a nice spiral on a couple. Thought it would look pretty. And they did. They baked up lovely. The almond cream browned up around the pears and made such a lovely crust.

The tarts were very yummy. Jason and I enjoyed them with a bottle, yes a bottle, of Bogle Pinot Noir. He thought it was a very decadent rich dessert, and I have to agree. Would make it again, but maybe with apples or raspberries - the tartness of raspberries would be yummy with the almond.

I am proud to be a member of TWD! It turned a year old, all these amazing bakers baking together every week for a whole year! I hope we can continue for a very long time, I should be choosing the recipe for the week in several years from now!

Be sure to check out everyone else's creations for the week, here!

See you next week!!

Tania

Love Big, Bake Often