Dried Fruit and Nut Tart

Happy belated Tu Bishvat! I am kind of late to the party but only post wise! This past week we celebrated Tu Bishvat, the new year of the trees. Some of us celebrated with the traditional eating of dried fruit, some even had seders, and many went out to plant trees. I think I may have sufficed with some dried fruit but I can't remember. I definitely made it up on Shabbat, though. My friend A hosted me for lunch and asked me to bring a Tu Bishvat related dessert. Anything fruit related really would have been okay but seeing as the connection between this holiday and dried fruit is so strong, I knew I would have to go that route. The solution? The dreaded fruitcake. I was ready to go down that route and have a bunch of people hate me for choosing that (in my head, I don't see what the fuss is, it sounds perfectly delicious despite its repuation.. in any case, I made peanut butter cookies as a back up) when I remembered that there was a dried fruit related recipe in Flo Braker's wonderful book Baking for All Occasions. I flipped open the book to discover that my (freaky) memory for recipes hadn't let me down and there indeed was a recipe for Autumn Dried Fruit- Nut Tart. It may not be autumn around these parts, heck, it's practically summer (it's meant to be winter!), but that didn't stop me from making this tart, especially since I happened to have all the ingredients on hand. Well, most of them. I tweaked the rest. The tart calls for a sort of jam to be made by cooking some dried fruit together with water, alcohol and orange juice. That is spread onto the bottom of a blind baked tart shell and then topped with a frangipane-like topping and then baked to perfection. The result? Well, by the looks of it this tart won't win any contests on looks alone- the crust is beige as is the baked almond topping. Nonetheless, this tart is delicious. Subtly nutty and cookie like with a layer of yummy jam in the middle, I likened this to a hamentashen, but different. I was a big fan and it went pretty quickly. I used dried peaches and pears because I didn't have any apricots and omitted the whole nuts from that layer. I also swapped out a different recipe for the crust for one I thought was easier to make and work with. I thought the almond mixture was very subtle and by the time it hit me that I should have added a touch of almond extract to it to heighten the flavor, it was already in the oven. Whoops. I guess there's always next year.

Rum Cake

It's been quite a long time since I've posted anything on this blog. I know I say that every time that I find the time to start writing again and it's hard to explain the lack of motivation and inspiration to get back to blogging. Life, I guess. In the past months, though, people have casually mentioned it and recipes that they've successfully made from it. Gratifying though it may be to hear those things, I still didn't feel inspired enough to make a comeback. Have I been baking? I get that question all the time. The answer? Plenty of challot here, the occasional dessert there... But definitely not with the enthusiasm of a one-time commander who once had soldiers to spoil. I will say that I recently took out my KitchenAid for the first time in months and it's out to stay. That's a promising start as far as I'm concerned. It'll take some time, but I'm getting there.

Caramel Sauce

Caramel Sauce. Those two words are enough to conjure up childhood memories of Friday visits with my sister to the local candy store and then on to the nearest TCBY shop for some Cotton Candy flavored ice cream dripping with liquid amber deliciousness. Caramel. Sugar never tasted so good. But making it in my own kitchen? I've only ever heard horror stories about burning the sugar time after time and having to scrub the pan clean afterwards with nothing to show for it but an empty bag of sugar and some cracked fingernails. So it came as a surprise when a couple of months ago I made my first attempt at caramel sauce and succeeded. And then tried again this past Friday and was once again met with success and the the most addictively delicious topping to ever grace ice cream. The first time it was made for an engagement party as an accompaniment to chocolate peanut butter ice cream and this time for a "showerette" for a dear friend, as a topping for peanut butter ice cream and cookies and cream ice cream. You're right to think that I couldnt resist. I caved and had some. Yum. This recipe comes from David Lebovitz (only logical to make his sauce to go with his ice creams) and was pretty easy. I did find that the sauce came out pretty thin but when allowed to boil takes on a thicker consistency, and obviously when it cools, it thickens as well. The first time, quite a bit of sugar hardened, the second time less, perhaps because my ingredients were at room temperature. Heat on low while stirring to melt the sugar and smooth out the sauce. Your patience will be rewarded. I served this in a glass soda fountain-ey coca-cola glass to add to the ice cream-parlor look.

Oatmeal Raisin Bars

I've been feeling pretty lousy lately, what with this really debilitating cold (and just when the weather has finally gone all summery!) and my voice is starting to go. (I suppose I should be grateful that it's been four days since I got sick and the laryngitis is only kicking in now.) Work is a bit slow so there really is no excuse not to take advantage of the time and post.
I turned to a Taste of Home for inspiration for the engagement party and this is one of two recipes that I made. I'm pretty sure that the only reason I made these homey cookies was because I had everything on hand. Otherwise, I'm not sure that I would have made these for a party. I'll let you in on a little secret, though. These were delicious. First of all, how can anything with an oatmeal crumble be anything less? But, despite their sour cream filling (I kind of have an aversion to dairy and anything overtly dairy tasting. I know, I'm weird) they won me over. The filling is creamy and doesnt taste too strongly of sour cream and the raisins get perfectly softened during the baking and some cinnamon binds everything together. These arent what I would envision if you said oatmeal raisin bars, but try them, I'm sure they'll win you over, too.

Cookie Dough Brownies

It's been a long time since I've updated this blog and truthfully, I've thought about neglecting it altogether. In the last couple of months, I've been released from the army, started a full time job and a part time job and overall just been too tired to keep it up. I can hardly remember the last time I baked something that was a dessert and not bread. Every time I think about getting back into the kitchen, my bed calls my name and almost always wins out. I will try to be better, or at least get all of the backed up posts written.
The last time I went all out in the kitchen was for an engagement party that I hosted for a friend of mine in the army who get engaged. I baked and baked and baked. And then made some more. It was actually really fun and the get together was really nice, even though there was a boatload of leftovers... Enough to feed an army (haha, not so funny!) and that's exactly where I sent them the next day. One of the things I made was these Cookie Dough Brownies from the Cookie Dough Lover's Cookbook and they were really, really well received. These don't require much effort but they are multi- layered so that may put some people off. If you really know how to manage your time, you can always get your other cakes made in between steps. The key is organization, people! I would say that this is a successful cross of two very comforting and homey foods, brownies and cookie dough. Who could say no?!