Cherry Tomato & Cheese Galette – Perfect for First Time Growers

When people grow cherry tomatoes for the first time, they often make the mistake of planting more than one or two bushes, which a few short months later usually means a ridiculously large harvest, as in more cherry tomatoes than you can possibly use. Well, this cherry tomato and cheese galette might help, a little.

While “galette” sounds a little fancy, they’re actually one of the easier type of pies to make, and above and beyond the simple technique, they are incredibly adaptable to whatever is in season. Whether that’s sweet fruit, or savory vegetables, there are very few things you can’t galette.

Just be sure to bake them long enough, since the bottom needs to brown, as well as you want whatever filling you’re using to dry out a bit. Your oven time will vary depending on the exact size and shape of your galette, so once you take it out, peak underneath to make sure it’s browned. Basically, you should bake this as long as you possibly can, without it burning, so be brave.

This will also work with larger, sliced tomatoes, but just be careful you let them drain on some towels first. Other than that, there’s not much else to worry about, except what to do with those other 5 pints of cherry tomatoes. Even if you have to go to the store to buy yours, I think this is well worth the trip, and I really do hope you give this cherry tomato galette a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for one 12-inch pizza pan sized galette:

For the dough:

1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons corn meal

1/2 teaspoon fine salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter, cubed, frozen

1 tablespoon cider vinegar

1/4 cup ice water

For the filling:

8 ounces soft goat cheese or other fresh cheese

1 egg yolk

1/2 teaspoon fine salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

pinch of cayenne

2 tablespoons sliced basil

For the rest:

3 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon Dijon

sea salt to sprinkle over the top once cooled, optional

- Bake at 425 F. for 30-35 minutes or until well browned. To be safe, place a foil-lined pan on rack under galette to catch any possible drips.

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Fresh Spring Vegetable Tart – Eat Your Heart Out, Giuseppe Arcimboldo

This spring vegetable tart only looks hard to make, and would be a perfect centerpiece for any special occasion meal, just as long as you put it out on the table a little bit early, since we’ll need to allow enough time for all the Instagramming that follows. And please, no flash photography.

As long as you use a wide array of colorful vegetables, and tuck them into a gnarly base of greens, this easy cheese tart/salad can’t help but look gorgeous. In fact, the hardest things will be deciding which vegetables to use, and how to prepare them.

As I said in the video, you can go with anything from raw to roasted, but my favorite way to prep the vegetables, is to simply blanch them briefly in boiling, salted water. Just cook them for a few minutes to take off the raw edge, and then plunge them into cold water, before draining, and dressing.

Above and beyond the veggies, this cheese filling will work with any soft cheese, but I think the tanginess of the goat cheese is an important factor, so if you use something milder, you may want to sneak in some lemon juice. Regardless, of what specific ingredients you use, I really hope you give this gorgeous vegetable tart technique a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for a 10-inch round Spring Vegetable Tart:

2 sheets frozen puff pastry (round or rectangular)

(This tart can be made with any type of shell, including piecrust, phyllo, etc.)

1 large egg beaten with 1 teaspoon of water (for brushing, and then for the filling)

For the filling:

1 1/4 cups goat cheese

salt, freshly ground black pepper, cayenne to taste

1/4 cup freshly chopped herbs, like dill, parsley, thyme, tarragon, basil, chives, etc.

the rest of the egg wash

1/4 cup heavy cream

For the vegetables:

2 handfuls mixed colorful salad greens (including something light and frizzy if possible)

2 to 3 cups of bite-sized fresh vegetables, briefly blanched in salted water

1/2 cup thinly sliced raw radishes, and cherry tomatoes

For the dressing (this is what I used, but your favorite salad dressing will work):

juice of one lemon

1/4 cup olive oil

salt to taste

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Face Pie – The Halloween Pastry You Can’t Un-See

A few months ago I saw a pie image on Twitter so creepy, and disturbing, that I actually questioned whether it was too terrifying to post as a video. Usually, Halloween-themed recipes have the opposite problem, as they are almost never actually scary, but that’s not an issue here. By the way, can someone get sued for giving people nightmares?

Anyway, I eventually traced the image back to what I assumed would be some sort of food blog, but it was actually someone’s Etsy shop, where they were selling inedible versions of this basic design. So, I wasn’t able to see how it was made, but did use their “face” as a rough guide, and despite being somewhat anatomically challenged, I thought this came out looking great. And by great, I mean terrible.

If you’re disturbed enough to make this, you can use our tourtière recipe for the crust and filling, which is exactly what I did here, except for whatever reason I added a touch of ketchup to the meat. Of course, this technique would work for topping any pie, including all your favorite fruit versions, and the next time cherries are in season, I may just have to give this one more try. Or not. We’ll see. In the meantime, if at all possible, please enjoy!

- Follow this tourtière video link for the crust and filling recipes.

Tourtière – A Meaty Holiday Main Course That’s Easy as Pie

Many holiday main course recipes involve expensive ingredients, and/or time consuming, complicated techniques, not to mention the anxiety that comes along with worrying whether all that time and money will have been worth it. I’m looking at you, dry, overcooked beef wellington.

If you want to avoid all that, maybe consider making tourtière. This French-Canadian meat pie is hearty, satisfying, easy to make, visually impressive, relatively affordable, and since it’s best served at room temperature, doesn’t require any kind of precise timing.

You can also easily tailor this to your own tastes, since other than the ground meat and mashed potato, pretty much anything goes. Or, make it just like this. I’ve only had tourtière a handful of times, so I’m certainly no expert, but I thought this came out extremely well, and I wouldn’t change anything when I make it again.

Although, I may try it with some beef gravy, as a few of my Canadian friends have suggested. Some even suggest ketchup, which I did try on a cold slice, and not surprisingly it was delicious. But, no matter how you serve this tourtière, I really do hope you give it a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for one 9-inch Tourtière:

For the crust:

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, sliced, frozen

7 tablespoons ice cold *water

2 teaspoons white distilled vinegar

*add a little more if dough isn’t pressing together

1 large russet potato, boiled in enough salted water to cover (reserve water)

1 tablespoon butter

4 cloves garlic, crushed

1 large onion, finely chopped

1/2 cup finely diced celery

1 pound ground pork

1 pound ground beef

1 cup potato water, plus more as needed

For the spice blend:

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon dried sage

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1⁄2 teaspoon  ground ginger

1⁄4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

1/4 teaspoon ground mustard

1/8 teaspoon ground clove

pinch cayenne

For the egg wash:

1 large egg

1 tablespoon water

Please note: Once your filling has cooled, taste for salt, and adjust before filling the crust.

- Bake at 375 F. for 1 hour, or until browned

Buttermilk Pie – The Best Pie You’ve Never Heard Of

I can understand certain recipes being relatively unknown, but this buttermilk pie is not one of them. Not only is this easy to make, and beautiful to look at, it’s also bursting with the kind of bright, tangy flavor that no other custard-style pie can touch. Like I said in the video, this is sort of like a vanilla custard, meets lemon meringue pie, meets very light cheesecake. Except better.

I’ve never had much trouble finding buttermilk, even in regular, non-fancy grocery stores, but depending on where you live in the world, apparently that’s not the case. There are many “hacks” for making a substitute, usually using milk and lemon juice, or vinegar, and I’ll let you Google those at your leisure, but I’d be more inclined to try some yogurt, thinned out with some milk.

I think that would be closer to the tanginess of buttermilk, but as far as the recipe “working,” one cup of any type of dairy product should yield similar results. Once your pie is made, it can be served “as is,” or topped with seasonal fruit. I went with raspberries, mostly for the pictures, but if you were going to do this for the holidays, some persimmons, and/or pomegranate seeds would also be very nice. Regardless of how you serve it, I really do hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for one pie:

Enough pie dough for a 9-inch pie dish
(I used half a recipe of our butter crust dough)

For the filling:

1 1/2 cups white sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temp

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

zest from one lemon

juice from one lemon juice

1 cup buttermilk

- Prebake crust at 350 F. for 15-20 minutes, let cool, then fill and bake for another 45-55 minutes, or until the filling is golden and “set.”

Fresh Strawberry Tart – Now with 100% Less Tart Pan

There shouldn’t be a lot of stress involved in making this free-form strawberry tart, since once it’s topped with fresh berries, and thickly glazed, it will look like something from a Paris pastry shop. And, I did say, “look like,” not “taste like,” but that’s not our fault. They have better cream cheese.

If you have a tart pan, go ahead and use it, but going free-form is always kind of fun, and even though we’re going to handle the dough a bit more, that’s not a problem with our almost foolproof buttercrust pastry. Just be sure to build up enough around the outside before you crimp, so that your tart is deep enough to hold the filling.

I joked about this being so beautiful that nobody will care what it tastes like, but of course, that’s ridiculous. Do not attempt this unless you can find some perfectly ripe, sweet strawberries. And when you do, I really hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 6 portions:

1/2 of our buttercrust pastry dough recipe

1 pound fresh strawberries

For the sweet cheese mixture:

8 ounces cream cheese or *fromage blanc

2 tablespoons crème fraiche

2 tablespoons white sugar

1 large egg yolk

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon lemon zest, or to taste

For the glaze:

1/4 cup apricot jam (the clearer, the better), plus 2 teaspoons water, heated until brushable. Let cool a bit before applying.

*Note: my cream cheese was suspiciously thin, so your mixture will probably be thicker, and a little easier to work with.

- Bake tart shell at 375 F. for 20-25 minutes, until golden-brown, fill with cheese mixture, and finish baking for another 20 minutes, or until the pastry is browned, and the filling is set.

The Cornish Pasty – Going to Fall Down a Mineshaft? This is the Meat Pie For You!

This Cornish pasty is one of those rare recipes that novice cooks will find easier to make than experienced bakers. That’s because to make this to its original, and very sturdy specifications, you’re forced to over-mix the dough…a cardinal sin that literally gives pie makers nightmares.

Like any pastry dough, we’re just adding just enough ice water to bring everything together, but unlike classic pie dough, we’re going to knead the mixture for a couple minutes past that point.  Thanks to a little thing called muscle memory, this is not going to be easy for some of you.

Get over it; because once you taste and feel the final product, it will all make sense. The tougher, but not tough dough is the perfect delivery system for the meaty filling. Speaking of which, I went with a fairly traditional version, and provided the recipe below, but this great crust will work with all sorts of stuffings.

You could use cooked meat in these, but part of what makes them so good, is how the raw ingredients cook in their own juices, while encased in the tasty dough. I can’t imagine many things that wouldn’t be great in these.

By the way, this recipe is dedicated to my mother-in-law Peggy, who requested it about five years ago. It was one of her favorite foods growing up, and I’m curious to hear how close I got. I hope you give this easy, and delicious meat pie a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 4 Cornish pasty

4 cups bread flour (mine weighed in at 1-lb 2-oz)

2 oz (4 tbsp) cold butter

3 oz (6 tbsp) cold lard

1 1/2 tsp salt

about 2/3 to 3/4 cup ice water, or enough to just bring dough together (start with about 1/2 cup, and then drizzle in more as needed)

For the steak filling:

12oz cubed beef skirt steak

1/2 cup diced onions

1 cup diced gold potatoes

1/3 cup diced turnip

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

pinch of cayenne

2 tbsp butter, cut into 8 thin slices

For the egg wash:

1 large egg, beaten with 1 tsp water

- Bake pasties at 350 F. for about an hour or until browned and bubbly

Savory Ricotta Tart – Thin to Win

I got a food wish for a ricotta cheesecake recently, which sounded fantastic, but with bikini season rapidly approaching, my love handles and I thought we’d compromise and do a savory, sugar-free version instead.

I love the simple combination of really good ricotta and fresh herbs, baked with just enough eggs to hold things together. I was in the mood for some heat, but things like pepper and cayenne are totally optional. 

As I alluded to in the video, I usually do this as a pie, which comes out about twice as thick, but I wanted to try it in tart-form and the pan I used was clearly too large. Next time I’ll simply double the ingredients, and add about 10 or 15 minutes to the cooking time, and I recommend you do the same.

Keep this humble pie in mind when the “way too many vegetables” part of summer rolls around. This could be a great base for using up leftover veggies in a very fritatta-like way. I hope you give it a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 6 thin portions:

1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs, toasted in some olive oil

olive oil to coat pan

2 large eggs

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

cayenne or other hot peppers to taste

1/4 cup fresh chopped or torn basil

1 tbsp chopped Italian parsley

tiny pinch nutmeg

1 1/2 cups ricotta cheese

1 oz finely greated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (about 1/2 cup if the real stuff, otherwise 1/4 cup packed of the fake “stuff”)

*Bake at 325 for about 20 to 25 minutes, or until set.

Happy National Pie Day!

I realize it’s almost over, but I just heard from my friend, and world-famous pie guru, Kate McDermott, that today was National Pie Day. To celebrate, I decided to repost my personal favorite pie video – the strawberry rhubarb custard pie!  This sweet/tart pie is ultra-simple to make, and a great way to enjoy rhubarb’s bright, unique flavor. Click here to see the original post and ingredients. Enjoy!

Lemon Bars for a Lasting Mother’s Day Impression

Mother’s Day is coming up, and since so many of you brave souls will be attempting a celebratory brunch, I thought I’d post this much-requested lemon bars recipe, in case things don’t go as smoothly as anticipated. 

Preparing brunch can be tricky anytime, let alone under mom’s watchful (aka “extremely concerned”) eyes. Can someone please get her a mimosa and walk her into the garden?

So, even if a few poached eggs break, or the toast gets a little too golden-black, no worries! If you finish the meal with these gorgeous, and absolutely impossible to mess-up lemon bars, she'll be as proud as she will be impressed. Our moms may have taught us the importance of a good first impression, but its America’s restaurateurs who discovered the importance of a delicious last impression. There's nothing like a well made pastry to make one forgive a tough steak.

Other than a baking dish, there’s no special equipment or techniques required. Both the shortbread base and the lemon custard take only minutes, and are simply hand-mixed in a bowl. 

Basically, if you can move your arm in a circle, and effectively set a timer (there’s one on your phone), your lemon bars should look just as good as these (maybe better – see meringue note below). Anyway, whether you’re going to make these for Mother’s Day or not, I hope you give them a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 16 Small Lemon Bars:

For the shortbread crust:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup room temp unsalted butter (1 stick)

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp salt

Bake crust at 350 degrees F. for 22 minutes

For the lemon layer:

2 large whole eggs

1 large egg yolk

1 cup white sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1 tbsp grated lemon peel

Bake at 350 degrees F. for 25 minutes

Garnish with powdered sugar; or top with *meringue (the extra egg white whipped with 1 tablespoon of sugar) and brown with torch.

*My Meringue
If you decide to turn these into lemon meringue bars, do yourself a favor and actually measure the sugar. I couldn’t be bothered to check a recipe, so I only tossed in a teaspoon of sugar, and it should be closer to a tablespoon. The technique is the same; beat the extra white to the ribbon stage (where drips of white stay on the surface for a few seconds), and then add the sugar and continue whipping until you have nice, glossy peaks. My “by eye” batch worked fine, but it was a little too dry, and not quite sticky enough. Be advised.

View the complete recipe

Tarte Tatin – See What the Others Aren’t Willing to Show You

When I looked at some other tarte tatin recipes on YouTube, I noticed that very few showed the “flip on to the plate” step. They would just skip from the out of the oven shot to the final beauty shot. The reason of course, is that very few tarte tatins come out of the hot pan perfectly, and if they showed that, then you may not think they are as awesome as their profile says they are.

So, it’s with much pride that I show you the whole ugly scene that is the tarte tatin dismount. The good news is, it’s very simple to slap everything back on the crust before it cools, and none will be the wiser. This is even easier if you’re doing a version with very soft and tender apples and lots of caramel, which is my preference, as you’ll see.

If you do a Google image search for a classic, old recipe like this, you usually see a lot of photos that look alike, but that’s not necessarily so with tarte tatin. You’ll see an amazingly diverse array, which is fascinating since they were all made with the same few basic ingredients. Most of this is a result of cooking time in the pan before baking.

Some feature firm, barely cooked apples, while others cook the fruit all the way down to a buttery, caramelized jam. The beauty of a recipe that uses just pastry dough, butter, apples and sugar to make the magic, is that no matter how yours comes out you’ll enjoy it. Of course, you’ll want to hedge your bets with some vanilla bean ice cream to be safe. I hope you give this classic French treat a try soon. Enjoy!

3 large apples, quartered

3 tbsp butter

3/4 cup sugar

pie dough for a single crust

View the complete recipe 

A Strawberry Rhubarb Custard Pie Worth Brawling Over

Because I grew up listening to baseball on the radio, whenever I heard the word “rhubarb,” I wouldn’t think of something edible and delicious like this amazing Strawberry Rhubarb Pie, I’d think of fights.

Back in the early days of radio, when they wanted to get the sound effect of an angry mob, they’d tell the performers to repeat the word “rhubarb,” over and over. It sounds heated and contentious, yet the listener doesn’t hear any specific words.

Baseball announcers of the same era began to call baseball fights “rhubarbs,” since they sounded so much like those radio effects. I didn’t learn about this until recently, and it made me think of all the games I’d listened to during all those summers, and how never once when I heard “rhubarb,” did I think of pie.

That was until I got this wonderful recipe from my mother Pauline, who I believe got it from my Aunt Angela. As you longtime readers know, both are fantastic bakers and while I love all their pies, this might be my favorite.

So, when Matt Cain drills Matt Kemp in the back this summer, and he charges the mound prompting an ugly benches-clearing brawl, and the play-by-play guy says, “we’ve got ourselves a real rhubarb now,” I will think of this pie. This delicious, rough and tumble pie. Enjoy!

3 cups sliced rhubarb

1 cup quartered strawberries

3 large eggs

pinch of fresh nutmeg

3 tbsp milk

3 tbsp all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

*I didn’t mention, but I added a very tiny pinch of salt
1 tbsp butter for "dotting"
pie dough for one 9-inch crust 
For the glaze:
2 tbsp jam with 1/4 tsp water, warmed in microwave

View the complete recipe