Tarte soleil

This recipe began at King Arthur flour, like all the other ones (website loyalty is a good thing!!) but I found a smitten kitchen recipe that did not require me to make my own puff pastry. Hello! 

King Arthur recipe.

Smitten Kitchen recipe.

Basically you layer two sheets of puff pastry, fill it how you see fit (I made a cream cheese/cheddar/bacon/herbs filling), cut it into a ten inch circle (I left mine a square...), cut circle into quarters eight times for 32 rays, and twist each ray three times. Bake at 400 for about 25 minutes. And enjoy! 

It is awfully fun and festive looking for the simplicity involved. I wasn't totally happy with my filling, but it is a delicious thing to keep trying to perfect. 

Chocolate Hazelnut Crepe Cake from King Arthur and Broma Bakery

I may have a thing for King Arthur.... 

Remember my artistic attempts at crepes? 

They resulted in a chocolate hazelnut crepe cake. I am terrible at food photography. But it was really yummy! Crisp crepes layered with hazelnut pastry cream? Oh yes. 

This will take  you approximately 7867 hours to make. Budget your time accordingly. Or get a good book to read or listen to while you make crepes. I always thought crepes were quick things. Each of my crepes took about 5 minutes. Maybe mine were overcooked. 

Hey! I have never made crepes before! 

If you want to see this crepe cake in all it's chocolatey glory, go check out the Broma Bakery photos. They are a thousand times more appealing than my pictures. 

Chocolate Hazelnut Crepe Cake

Crepes

• 1¾ cups Flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ cup Cocoa
• 4 large eggs, room temperature
• 1½ cups milk
• ½ cup unsalted butter, melted

Filling

• 2 cups homemade Pastry Cream (see below)
• ¾ cup chocolate hazelnut spread, such as Nutella

Pastry Cream

• 3 cups whole milk
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 4 large egg yolks
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 cup heavy cream, whipped to stiff peaks

(In typing this up, I realize I completely forgot the whipped cream. Ooopsie! I will have to make it again to see if it is better with it. This version, sans whipped cream, was pretty fabulous....)

For Crepes--

1. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and cocoa. If the cocoa has any lumps be sure to break them up or sift them out.
2. Whisk in the eggs, milk and butter and continue to whisk until the mixture is smooth. Pour the batter through a strainer into a clean bowl, cover and set aside for 30 minutes.
3. Towards the end of the rest period, preheat your crêpe pan according to the manufacturer's direction. Cook a test crêpe or two, and adjust the batter with milk if it is too thick to work with. Cook the rest of the crêpes, you'll need about 18 to 20 for the cake.
4. Cool the crêpes while you prepare the homemade Pastry Cream (recipe linked above). You will need approximately 2 cups of cooled pastry cream.

Cooling the crepes was pretty easy for me--I ended up with paper thin crepes and I had a large cookie sheet to place them on. By the time I finished the third crepe (they took forEVER to make) the first one was cooled completely. I made the pastry cream ahead of time, so I just assembled the cake while I was making them. 

For Hazelnut Pastry Cream--

1. In a medium-sized saucepan, stir together 2 1/2 cups of the milk, the sugar, and salt. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
2. Meanwhile, whisk the cornstarch, flour, and egg yolks with the remaining 1/2 cup milk.
3. Whisk some of the hot milk mixture with the egg yolks to temper them. This keeps the yolks from turning to scrambled eggs when you add them to the simmering milk.
4. Pour the egg/milk mixture back into the remaining simmering milk. Doing this through a strainer will help prevent lumps later. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly with a whisk, until the mixture thickens.
5. Remove from the heat and strain through a fine sieve. Stir in the butter and vanilla extract. Stir in the nutella. 
6. Rub a piece of butter over the surface of the cream, top with a piece of plastic wrap (make sure it touches the top of the pastry cream so it doesn't develop a skin), then refrigerate until cool.
7. To complete, fold the whipped cream into the cooled pastry cream.

Assembling cake--

1. To assemble the cake: Stack 3 crêpes on a serving plate and spread with 2 tablespoons of hazelnut pastry cream. Continue to layer a single crêpe and 2 tablespoons of filling until you are nearly out of crêpes. For stability, occasionally layer two or three crêpes instead of one single crêpe.
2. End with a layer of 3 crêpes. Wrap the cake well in plastic wrap, using a little pressure to keep the cake pressed down. Chill for at least 60 minutes, or up to overnight. Slice in wedges to serve.

Pretzel Bites from King Arthur

Since I was on break, I decided to splash out and try a few new recipes. Because trying new recipes is a marvelous thing. 

These were so, so good. All salty and buttery and pretzely. 

This is from King Arthur Flour. But I will copy and paste it here just in case King Arthur decides to move the recipe or delete it. 

Pretzel Bites

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast (or one packet) 

1 cup warm water*

*in summer, use two tablespoons less water. I have no idea why. 

Topping

1 cup boiling water

2 tablespoons baking soda

coarse, kosher or pretzel salt. Or coarse sugar if you prefer to go that route.

6 tablespoons melted butter

And now I am going to straight up copy and paste the instructions. Because nobody's got time to re-type that all out again. 

1. 1. To make dough by hand, or with a mixer: Place all of the dough ingredients into a bowl, and beat until well-combined. Knead the dough, by hand or machine, for about 5 minutes, until it's soft, smooth, and quite slack. Flour the dough and place it in a bag, and allow it to rest for 30 minutes.

1. 2. To make dough with a bread machine: Place all of the dough ingredients into the pan of your bread machine, program the machine for dough or manual, and press Start. Allow the dough to proceed through its kneading cycle (no need to let it rise), then cancel the machine, flour the dough, and give it a rest in a plastic bag, as instructed above.

1. 3. While the dough is resting, prepare the topping: Combine the boiling water and baking soda, stirring until the soda is totally (or almost totally) dissolved. Set the mixture aside to cool to lukewarm (or cooler).

1. 4. Preheat your oven to 400°F. Prepare a baking sheet by spraying it with vegetable oil spray, or lining it with parchment paper.

1. 5. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased work surface, and divide it into six equal pieces.

1. 6. Roll the six pieces of dough into 12" to 15" ropes. Cut each rope crosswise into about 12 pieces.

1. 7. Pour the cooled baking soda solution into a pan large enough to hold the bites. Place the bites into the solution, gently swish them around, and leave them there for a couple of minutes. Transfer them to a greased or parchment-lined baking sheet, and top with pretzel salt or sea salt; or with pearl sugar, for sweet pretzel bites.

1. 8. Bake the bites for 12 to 15 minutes, until golden brown. Remove them from the oven, and roll them in the melted butter.

1. 9. For cinnamon-sugar pretzels, toss with cinnamon-sugar once you've rolled the bites in the butter.

1. 10. Place on a rack. In you're not going to enjoy them immediately, store the bites, well-wrapped, at room temperature. Reheat briefly before serving.

1. Yield: about 6 dozen bites.

A walk in September is a walk to remember AND Sonker

Or at least rhyme about.

As we got closer to her friends house, Orianna had to whisper instructions to Lily on how to behave. 

The friend wasn't outside, so this is them standing there dejectedly

These glads made September happy!

Cody and Anthony bringing me pie plates. 

And getting chatted up by the neighbor about Cody's caddy.

Lily helping 

Gilbert's therapist, Judy. Hey, see my nice wood floor? Oh yeah. 

Making the crust for sonker. When I saw the name of this recipe I knew I HAD to make it. Apparently it is a regional North Carolina dish. 

This isn't a healthy, diet friendly recipe

The dough divided. 

Four pounds of chopped up sweet potatoes

Steamed in apple cider

Putting the crust in a 9x13 pan

Steamed sweet potatoes with cinnamon and everything nice mixed in. I know, looks gross. But YUM!

Weaving the strips on top

And I forgot to mix in the butter, so I chopped in up fine and put one in each square.

My solution to not having tin foil. Put another 9x13 on top!

And I don't have a picture of the finished product. Which I should, since it was exceedingly unpopular with Vaughans. Justin, the kids, and I all loved it. But apparently you have to really like sweet potatoes or else it is too gross for words. Hey, it has a cinnamon sugar sprinkled crust, all kinds of crazy, buttery goodness--how could this be a bad thing? It can't. Except if you really hate sweet potatoes. And if you do, I am sorry for you. Sorry you can't have sonker and sweet potato fries.

Sonker from Cooks Country Oct/Nov 2011

Serves 12

A note from Cooks Country

Sonker is not to be confused with classic pureed sweet potato pie. This deep-dish beauty is chock full of thinly sliced, steamed sweet potatoes coated in a mixture of cider, brown sugar, butter, flour, and warm spices, such as cinnamon and allspice, and is served with a thin, custardlike sauce. 

(Okay, are you not dying to try this yet? Because if you aren't, we might not be able to be friends anymore. Hey, sweet potatoes are important to me!)

• 2(15-ounce) boxes Pillsbury Just Unroll Pie Crust (or just make your own!)
• 1large egg, beaten
• 2cups apple cider
• 4pounds sweet potatoes, peeled, quartered lengthwise, and sliced 1/4 inch thick
• 1cup (7 ounces) packed light brown sugar
• 4tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 2 1/2tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2tablespoons lemon juice
• 1teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/4teaspoon salt
• 1tablespoon granulated sugar

Custard Dip

• 2cups whole milk
• 1/4cup (1 3/4 ounces) sugar
• 2teaspoons cornstarch
• 1/4teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2teaspoons vanilla extract

INSTRUCTIONS

• 1. FOR THE SONKER: (Seriously, I think it easier to make your own dough than to try to get these things to stick together right. Unless you hate making your own dough. Whatever floats your boat.) Working on lightly floured counter, unroll 2 dough rounds. Brush half of 1 round with egg and overlap with second round. Roll out dough to 17 by 13-inch rectangle and fit into 13 by 9-inch baking dish. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Repeat shaping and rolling with remaining 2 dough rounds; reserve beaten egg. Trim dough into rectangle and cut into ten 1-inch strips. Transfer dough strips to parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet, cover with plastic, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
• 2. Meanwhile, adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Bring cider to boil in Dutch oven. Place steamer basket in Dutch oven and fill with sweet potatoes. Reduce heat to medium and cook, covered, until potatoes are nearly tender, 20 to 30 minutes. Remove and reserve sweet potatoes, leaving cider in pot. (Our steamer basket was lost in one of our many moves, so I just gently simmered the sweet potatoes right in the cider. Of course, I was unable to reduce the cider in the next step. I did not let this worry me.)
• 3. Cook cider over high heat until reduced to ½ cup, about 5 minutes. Combine drained sweet potatoes, brown sugar, reduced cider, butter, flour, lemon juice, vanilla, ½ teaspoon cinnamon, allspice, and salt in large bowl. Spread out sweet potato mixture on rimmed baking sheet and let cool to room temperature, about 20 minutes.
• 4. Scrape cooled sweet potato mixture into dough-lined dish and press into even layer. Brush edges of dough with reserved egg. With long side of dish facing you, lay 4 dough strips lengthwise over sweet potato mixture. Weave remaining 6 strips into lattice pattern. Press dough strips into bottom crust and trim excess. Fold dough sides inward under lip of baking dish and crimp with fork.
• 5. Combine granulated sugar and remaining 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon in bowl. Brush dough with reserved egg and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 15 minutes. Uncover and bake until deep golden brown, 55 to 60 minutes, rotating dish halfway through baking. Let sonker cool on wire rack for at least 1 1/2 hours before serving. (Sonker can be refrigerated, covered, for up to 1 day. Bring to room temperature before serving.)
• 6. FOR THE CUSTARD DIP: Meanwhile, bring milk, sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, and salt to simmer in medium saucepan over medium heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook, whisking frequently, until slightly thickened, about 15 minutes. Off heat, add vanilla. Transfer to bowl and let cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes. Serve with sonker. (I didn't make this sauce. No one liked it or wanted to really try it, and us Cottens liked it well enough without it. Someday, I will make sonker with this sauce. But I might halve the recipe if we have no one to help us eat it.)

Salsa

Last week, or maybe the week before that, I whined about standing in one place peeling tomatoes for an hour and a half. Sheena, brilliant, internet combing cousin-in-law that she is, sent me to canning usa's salsa recipe that does not require peeling. I hadn't heard of canning usa before, so I was a little unsure. But I liked how they only had one recipe for salsa. As in, you will NEVER need any other salsa recipe. It inspires confidence. Last Thursday, I had gone to the garden and sighed about tomatoes. Then I picked a laundry basket full. I can't be technical here because it was too heavy for the scale, but there were a lot of tomatoes. So I decided to do not one, but two batches of this salsa. This was the day before the pig roast, so time was not plentiful. But tomatoes wait for no man. I knew if I left it until Monday, I would have to pick a new batch of tomatoes. Which made me sigh again. I love my garden, I really do. But you might think tomatoes would have the decency to produce in a less than wild, rampaging plant sort of way. A less than 20-30 pounds of tomatoes a day sort of way. Clover has already voiced her opinion on the number of tomato plants I have, but if you want three different kind of tomatoes and they are sold in six packs, what do you do? You plant 18 plants. And really, I love tomatoes. It is just that the plants lay there in the garden (having knocked over their flimsy Wal-mart supports months ago--ungrateful plants) looking woe-be-gone and thinking about all the effort they put forth to produce these gorgeous specimens of red tomatoes and all they are being used for is a landing pad for the odd, stray volleyball. It is harsh. And then I feel guilty. Not so guilty that I want to can or freeze them during the pig roast, but guilty in a people are starving and tomatoes are rotting way. But no one was starving at the pig roast, so the guilt was definitely dulled heavily.

 I canned one batch and left the other fresh. I tasted the canned last night and it is good. But it isn't fresh. Fresh is the only way to go if you have a choice. In the middle of the winter, you don't have a lot of choice though, so canned it is.

I have a salsa recipe that I have loved since Trish O'Neil made in in Alaska. It involves canned stewed tomatoes. It is a GOOD recipe. One you can stand behind with pride. I have always wanted a fresh tomato salsa that was as good and I think I have finally found it! This stuff was super! So super, that after having a vat of it on Friday night, we only have the dregs left. My one complaint with this recipe is that it has a lot of juice. I wanted to drain in out a bit, but some people said they just liked to dip their chips in the juice, not break their chips with a quarter pound of garden veggies. So I left it.

This is canningusa.com's salsa recipe. It doesn't really make sense to me, since the dinner version doesn't seem to be an accurate reduction (18 times the onions and peppers in the canning version, 12 times the garlic, 9 times the cilantro, 4 times the lemon juice). But I don't know. Maybe it is just as good.

Ingredients:	Dinner:	Canning:
	2 cups	18 pints
Tomatoes	3/4 pound	14 pounds
Garlic (optional)	1/2 clove finely diced	6 cloves finely diced
Onions	1/2 diced	9 diced
Red Bell Peppers	1/2 diced	9 diced
Green Bell Peppers	1/2 diced	9 diced
Cilantro	1/3 bunch	3 bunches
Lemon Juice	2 tablespoons	1/2 cup
Salt	1/2 teaspoon	2 tablespoons
Pepper (Optional)	to taste	to taste
Tabasco (Optional)	to taste	to taste

I now have 17 jars of salsa sitting on a shelf. It makes me feel clever. I look at them when I make stupid mistakes.

Woe-be-gone tomatoes.

Salsa in the makin'.

This was Sunday afternoon, about a third gone. 

This was supposed to be in yesterday's post, but somehow, it was missed.