DORIE GREENSPAN

The Most Extraordinary Lemon Tart Re-thunk

A few weeks ago, I posted the recipe for this lemon tart, a favorite of mine from Pierre Herme, on Serious Eats and, coincidentally, it was chosen as the recipe of the week by the wonderful bakers at Tuesdays with Dorie.  I heard from some of you that you were having difficulties getting the lemon cream up to 180 degrees F -- 165 degrees F seemed to be the stopping point -- and that whether you called it quits at 165 or kept going to 180, it was taking a long time and a lot of elbow grease to thicken the cream.

Well, I made the recipe over the weekend and I've got a new thought on how to speed up the process and still get the thick, smooth, almost velvety cream that makes this tart so remarkable.

To recap, the recipe calls for the sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice and eggs to be mixed together in a bowl.  The bowl is put over a saucepan with a few inches of boiling water and you whisk, whisk, whisk until the mixture thickens enough for the whisk to leave tracks, then you keep whisking until the cream measures 180 degrees F on a candy or instant-read thermometer.  To finish the cream, you pour it into a blender and cool it slightly before you whir in room-temperature butter -- but that's not the problemmatic part.

So here's what I did over the weekend -- I got bold!  To make my double boiler, I used a soup pot and I filled it about 2/3 full of water, which I brought to a boil.  I then put the bowl (a metal bowl) with all the ingredients over the steaming soup pot (making sure that the bottom of the bowl wasn't touching the boiling water) and whisked like mad.  With so much heat under the bowl, the cream came up to 180 degrees F in under 10 minutes (in fact, the first time I did it, it took 4 minutes and 39 seconds; the second time, it took almost 7 minutes -- different bowl, different pot, different stove).

Of course, if you're going to supercharge the power under the bowl, you've got to be vigilant -- you can't take your eyes off the cream; energetic -- you can't stop whisking, even for a few seconds; and  nimble -- as soon as the cream shows the slightest signs of thickening, measure the temperature and make sure to remove the bowl from the heat immediately the instant you hit 180 degrees F.

A couple of other re-thinks:  If your lemon zest was very finely grated (I use a Microplane grater/zester), then you don't need to strain the cream -- just quickly scrape the hot cream from the bowl into the blender.  And, while you shouldn't add the butter to the cream while it's still very hot (if you do, then the butter will melt, as it does in a lemon curd, and you won't get the great texture that sets this cream apart), you don't really need to measure the cream's temperature before you butterize it -- if you leave the cream in the blender for 8 to 10 minutes, it will be just the right temperature for blending in the butter.

Finally, I made this tart on Sunday as part of my workshop at Pastry Scoop's Spring Conference at The French Culinary Institute, and, because it was at hand, I used lime juice in place of the lemon juice and it worked perfectly.

I hope those of you who haven't already made the tart, will -- it's really one of my all-time favorite recipes -- and that those of you who've already made it, will find these tweaks helpful the next time you decide to whisk up this treat.

Baking with Dorie: Cheesecake

I'm a little late linking to this week's Baking with Dorie recipe on Serious Eats, but I don't think it's crucial, since a classic cheesecake really doesn't have a time limit. 

And this is a classic - and classy - cheesecake:  tall, smooth, rich, dense and creamy, creamy, creamy.  You can make it with all kinds of crusts - this one's the traditional graham cracker crust - or, for Passover (which starts next Saturday night), you can make it crustless or use Kosher-for-Passover macaroons instead of crackers.

In fact, the cheesecake lends itself to all kinds of variations.  I've got 11 of them in my book and I bet you can think of at least 11 more.

If you play around with the recipe, I'd love to know what you do.

(Photo by Alan Richardson)

Baking with Dorie: Extraordinary Lemon Cream Tart

I've been traveling and haven't had a chance to write, so I'll catch up on things soon, but I didn't want you to miss this week's Baking with Dorie Recipe at Serious Eats.  It's for my favorite, favorite lemon cream, a recipe from Pierre Herme, and I hope you enjoy it.

More soon -- I'm off to catch another plane.

Baking with Dorie: Corniest Corn Muffins

Click over to this week's Baking with Dorie recipe on Serious Eats - it's for one of my favorite recipes in Baking From My Home to Yours:  Corniest Corn Muffins.  I love these muffins and serve them at breakfast and brunch and also with stewy dishes at dinner.  But I never thought to serve them the way a commentor at Serious Eats suggested: toasted, covered with milk and honey and eaten like cereal!  Enjoy!

As with all photos from Baking, this one was taken by Alan Richardson.

Baking with Dorie: Banana Cake Big and Small

Here's this week's Baking with Dorie recipe on Serious Eats: It's my friend Ellen Einstein's classic banana cake, cut in half and baked in muffin tins.  Normally made as a sturdy Bundt cake, the recipe calls for four ripe bananas, but since I had only two and it was the day I was leaving for Paris, I just cut the recipe in half and went for a dozen minis.  (When you click over, you'll find instructions for converting the minis back to full-size.)

I also went for some chocolate - I chopped up some dark chocolate (although milk chocolate would be just as good, if not better - milk chocolate and bananas are naturals together) and folded it into the batter at the last minute. 

When I baked these, they rose and worked themselves over the top of the muffin cups and onto the tin, which I thought was great because that way, one part of the cake, the over-the-top part, was just a little crispy around the edges.  I was using a nonstick pan, so it wasn't a problem to unmold the wide tops, but if your pan is "normal," you should butter or spray the area around the muffin cups.

I'm in Paris now and just went banana shopping.  Who knows, by the time I've got to pack and leave, I might be making banana cakelets here, too.

A word about Ellen Einstein:  I met Ellen ten years ago when I was on a book tour (which book? I can't remember) and doing a television show in Nashville and Ellen was the talented food stylist.  We kept in touch after that and have seen one another many times in New York and Paris.  Then, a few years ago, Ellen and her husband, Dan, opened Sweet Sixteenth, the kind of bakery/cafe everyone wants in their neighborhood.  If you're in the neighborhood, GO!  My husband travels to Nashville often and always makes Sweet Sixteenth his first stop - lucky guy.

Baking with Dorie: Gingerbread Baby Cakes

Soon it will be spring - but it's so not spring now!  Minutes ago the weatherman said it was 14 degrees F and that we could expect another 3 inches of snow.  A report like that just confirms that it's still gingerbread weather.

This week's Baking with Dorie recipe on Serious Eats is for spicy gingerbread baby cakes.  The recipe comes from Johanne Killeen, who, with her husband, George Germon, is chef-owner of  the legendary Rhode Island restaurant, Al Forno.

Johanne is an inspired baker and she made this gingerbread cake and other mini sweets when she came to Cambridge to work with us on Baking with Julia. 

If you're in a place as cold as my corner of Connecticut, I'd suggest you rush to your oven, bake these cakes and stir up some hot chocolate as a sip-along.  If you're lucky enough to be someplace warm, bake the cakes anyway - they're too good to pass up - and top them with ice cream.

Baking with Dorie: Creamy Lemon and Raspberry Tart

Please, don't let the fact that I don't have a picture for you stop you from making this week's Baking with Dorie recipe at Serious Eats.  The recipe for a whole-lemon tart comes from The Cafe Boulud Cookbook, the book I wrote with the amazing chef, Daniel Boulud, and it's one that I know you'll try, love and make over and over again.

When I say whole-lemon, I mean it.  The filling for the tart is made with every bit of the lemon, except the pith and pits,  so you get an intense shot of lemon flavor - this is not a tart for those with timid tastebuds.  In this version of the tart, raspberries are scattered across the bottom of a pre-baked crust before the (made-in-a-blender) lemon filling is poured in.  The recipe is super-easy and super-super good.  A sunshine-filled tart for winter.  Hope you enjoy it.

Baking with Dorie: Gourmandise

This week's Baking with Dorie recipe at Serious Eats is both gorgeous and delicious - no surprise when you know that it comes from Pierre Herme (from the book, Desserts by Pierre Herme).  It's called Gourmandise and it has three components, each delicous on its own and spectacular when combined with its dessertmates. 

From the bottom up, you've got:  tapioca cooked in coconut milk; fresh pineapple tossed with lime and marmalade; and oven-dried pineapple slices. 

Everything can be made ahead - I love that; and each of the parts is easy to make - I love that, too.

Baking with Dorie: Chocolate-Dipped Linzer Hearts

Getting into the full swing of Valentine's Day, this week's Baking with Dorie recipe at Serious Eats is for Chocolate-Dipped Linzer Hearts.

The dough for the nut-and-spice cookie, which isn't very sweet, is great to work with.  It rolls out easily, cuts cleanly and can be re-rolled without toughening if you follow my instructions for "pre-rolling" the dough right after it's made and then re-rolling the gathered scraps between plastic wrap or wax paper.  (The pre-rolling is a neat trick that you'll be able to use with other recipes.)

The cookies are also exceptionally play-aroundable.  In Baking From My Home to Yours, you'll see them as scallop-edged round sandwiches: half the cookies are cut with peek-a-boo holes and two cookies are sandwiched together with Valentine-red rasberry jam.  Of course, you could sandwich these heart-shaped cookies.  And, you could dip the sandwiches in chocolate.  After all, they're for Valentine's Day, a good day for making special things extra special.

Puddings of The Times

The food page in this past Sunday's New York Times Magazine was entitled Lovin' Spoonfools and it was a piece by Sara Dickerman about the pleasures of puddings, soft and creamy, traditional and not so traditional. 

For Sara - and for many of us, I'm sure - the sweetness of pudding begins even before the first spoonful because there's something serene, sensuous and satisfying in the act ofjust making pudding.  Sara, who is a terrific writer (you can find some of her work on Slate, including Down with Gloves, for which she won a James Beard Foundation Journalism Award), describes the peaceful process of stirring a pudding on the top of the stove and coming to that almost magical moment when the pudding starts to thicken. 

Then, just when she has us imagining the hypnotic zen-like action of quietly stirring our puddings into a silken state, she admits that she - like me, actually because of me - uses the food processor to make pudding.  As she says: [it's] a little mechanical voodoo to ward off lumps and aerate the final mixture.  I love that description!  Using the food processor is clearly a compromise, but Sara's worked out the difference between what she gets and what she has to give up.  The noise of the whizzing machine might disturb the calm of my stovetop reverie, but the satin texture makes the disruption worthwhile, she writes.

The article includes recipes for five puddings that couldn't be more different one from the other.  There's the author's Rice Pudding with Chai Spices and Saffron Apricots (how good does that sound!) as well as her Hasty Pudding; a Mango Pudding from Sherry Yard's excellent new book, Desserts by the Yard; a Baked Corn Pudding made with John Cope's Sweet Dried Corn, which I'm dying to try; and the Gianduja Pudding, pictured above (the photo, by Tony Cenicola, is from The New York Times).

The Gianduja Pudding is adapted from Baking From My Home to Yours and I think it's a terrific riff on my Chocolate Pudding.  Gianduja always means there'll be chocolate and hazelnuts and Sara uses hazelnuts to infuse the pudding's milk and Frangelico, a hazelnut liqueur, to deepen the nuts' flavor. 

If you want to go straight with the chocolate pudding, here's the recipe

CHOCOLATE PUDDING, From Baking From My Home To Yours

Makes 6 servings

2 1/4 cups whole milk

6 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 large egg

2 large egg yolks

5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted and still warm

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces, at room temperature

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Getting Ready: Have six ramekins or pudding cups, each holding 4 to 6 ounces (1/2 to 3/4 cup), at hand.

Bring 2 cups of the milk and 3 tablespoons of the sugar to a boil in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan.

While the milk is heating, put the cocoa, cornstarch and salt into a food processor and whir to blend.  Turn them out onto a piece of wax paper, put the remaining 3 tablespoons sugar, the egg and egg yolks into the processor and blend for 1 minute.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the remaining 1/4 cup milk and pulse just to mix, then add the dry ingredients and pulse a few times to blend.

With the machine running, very slowly pour in the hot milk mixture.  Process for a few seconds, then put everything back into the saucepan.  Whisk without stopping over medium heat - making sure to get into the edges of the pan - until the pudding thickens and a couple of bubbles burble up to the surface and pop (about 2 minutes).  You want the pudding to thicken, but you don't want it to boil, so lower the heat if necessary.

Scrape the pudding back into the processor (if there's a scorched spot, avoid it as you scrape) and pulse a couple of times.  Add the chocolate, butter and vanilla and pulse until everything is evenly blended.

Pour the pudding into ramekins.  If you don't want a skin to form (some people think the skin is the best part), press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface of each pudding to create an airtight seal.  Refrigerate for at least 4 hours.