An Apple Tart

There is always a chance, in any endeavor, that something will go horribly wrong.  A badly written recipe, poorly described instructions, forgetting to add a vital ingredient - what? You've never done that?  Never been so careless as to simply misplace that last 2 tbsp. of butter or miscount the number of cups of flour?

When Sally first learned of my forgetful nature, she was sympathetic.  Granted, my muttering questions about the location of my cell phone or car keys had no direct impact on her.  But when my minor bouts of amnesia started to intrude on her life (hours stranded in parking lots on cold winter nights searching for the car, Christmas presents in July...) she decided to take a stand.  There would be no forgetfulness around Sally.  Twas simply not allowed.

Unfortunately, it doesn't work like that.  Oh, things certainly got better now that I had an incentive to remember things - breaking a 5 year friendship due to misplaced birthday cards was not too dramatic for Sally - but every now any then, I would have a minor relapse.

Like when it came to this tart.  This gorgeous, delicious, flaky apply tart.  That survived a minor scorching in the oven due to my forgetfulness... good thing I checked on it 15 minutes in, and was able to save most of it.  I'd say "Don't tell Sally!" except she obviously already knows - good thing the apple tart was yummy enough to distract her.

Alice Water's Apple Tart
adapted (more like followed) from here
Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
6 tbs. (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, softened, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
3 1/2 tbs. chilled water
2 pounds apples (I used 4 granny smith), peeled, cored (save the peels and cores), and sliced
2 tbs. unsalted butter, melted
3 tbs. sugar
1/4 cup sugar (glaze)
Directions
1.  Mix flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl.  Add 2 tbs. of the butter.  Mix until dough resembles coarse cornmeal.  Add remaining butter and mix until pieces look like large peas.
2.  Pour in some of the water, mix, and then add more until dough just holds together.  Toss with hands until it's ropy with some dry patches.  Keep tossing until you can roll dough into a ball.  Flatten into a 4-inch-thick disk and refrigerate.  Remove after at least 30 minutes and let soften.  Smooth cracks at edges.  Roll out dough into a 14-inch circle about 1/8 inch thick on a lightly floured surface.
3.  Place dough into lightly greased 9-inch round tart pan.  Heat oven to 400 degrees F.
4.  Place apple slices on dough in a ring, continue inward until reaching the center.  Fold the dough hanging off the edge of the pan onto itself and crimp edges at 1 inch intervals.
5.  Brush melted butter over apples and onto dough edge.  Sprinkle 3 tablespoons sugar over dough edge and apples.  Place tart in oven until edges brown (about 45 minutes, make sure to rotate tart every 15 minutes).
6.  Meanwhile, make the glaze by putting apple peels and cores in saucepan with 1/4 cup sugar.  Pour in just enough water to cover, and simmer for 30-45 minutes.  Strain syrup through cheesecloth.
7.  Remove tart from oven, let cool for 15 minutes.  Brush glaze over tart, then slice and serve.

Banana Bottom Baked Oatmeal

This isn't the healthy recipe the title would lead you to think.  Nope, it's chock full of sugary and buttery goodness, perfect for those cool fall mornings.  Maybe even too much sugar - though, according to Sally, you can never have too much sugar.

(pre-oven photo shoot)

It's perfect for those mornings when you crave something more substantial than milk and cereal and more satisfying than a granola bar.  The texture is similar to a dense, chewy granola bar, and the fruit on the bottom is a nice surprise.  Keep some in the fridge and reheat whenever you're craving oatmeal - it lasted a week before Sally and I managed to finish it all.

Banana Bottom Baked Oatmeal
makes around 6 servings
adapted from Annie's Eats
Ingredients
1/2 cup steel cut oats
2 tbsp. unsalted butter, divided
1 1/2 cups very hot water
2 bananas, sliced
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp. brown sugar, divided
2 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon, divided
1 tsp. cardamom (optional)
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
Dash ground cloves
2 tbs. maple syrup (optional)
1 tsp. salt
3/4 cup milk
Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (you can use a toaster oven - Sally and I did).  Lightly grease a 1 quart baking dish (an 8x8 glass dish would be perfect, or a large pyrex bowl)
2. Add the steel cut oats into a large bowl with 1 tablespoon of the butter.  Pout the hot water over the oats and cover the bowl.  Let sit for 20 minutes.
3. For the caramelized bananas: Melt the remaining 1 tablespoon of butter in a medium skillet over medium heat.  Add the bananas, 1 tablespoon of brown sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon to the pan.  Toss gently and cook briefly, about 2 minutes.  Stop before the bananas start to break apart.  Remove from heat and pour into prepared baking dish.  Spread evenly on bottom of dish.
4. After the steel cut oats are done, stir in the old fashioned oats, remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar, maple syrup, salt, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, and cloves.  Add the milk.
5. Pour the oatmeal mixture on top of the bananas.  Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes.  Remove and let cool before serving. To reheat leftover oatmeal, place in microwave bowl, add a dribble or two of milk, and reheat in microwave for 30 seconds.

Teaser pics!

Are you ready for fall yet? Coming soon:

Caramelized Bananas & Baked Oatmeal

Simple Apple Tart

Non-edible but still gorgeous:

Pouding Chomeur in a mug

You've heard of cake in a mug?  The infamous yummy 5-minute cake made in mug in the microwave, single serving of deliciousness? No?  It's delicious. You should try it.

This isn't a recipe for cake in a mug.  Well, it is, but not the kind you'd expect.  Because Pouding Chomeur isn't technically cake.  It's more like a mix of cake and frosting, all rolled in one.  Made in Canada since the fur trading days, pouding chomeur is French for "poor man's pudding."

This isn't a traditional recipe for Pouding Chomeur either.  Sally says this is more like bread pudding, because of the addition of fruit, but she admits the texture is more like cake than bread.  Technically, in pouding chomeur, one would leave the brown sugar sauce on top of the batter instead of stirring it in like I suggested.  But when baking in the oven, there's more time for the sugar to seep into the cake - here it only has 3 minutes, so I decided to help it along.

Pouding Chomeur (in a mug)
adapted from here, advice taken from here
serves: 1!
Ingredients
1/2 tbs. butter
1 tbs. sugar
1/4 egg (I know, it's silly, use the other 3/4 to make some scrambled eggs... or more cake in a mug)
drop of vanilla
3 tbs. flour (divided)
1 tbs. milk
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 apple, peeled, chopped
10-12 raisins
2 tbs. brown sugar
2 tbs. water
Directions
1. Make sure your ingredients are at room temperature! Then, in a microwave-safe mug, cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy.  Add in the egg, beat again until well combined.  Add the drop of vanilla.
2. Add 2 tbs. of flour, stir into the egg mixture.  Add the milk and stir again.  Pile on the remaining 1 tbs of flour, baking powder, and cinnamon on top of the batter.  Stir it all together until smooth.  Add the apples raisins and stir once or twice.
3.  Mix the brown sugar and water in a separate small bowl, microwave 30 seconds until bubbling.  Pour on top of the batter and stir once.  Microwave the mug for 3 minutes, watching carefully.  The cake is done when it bubbles up.

Scallion Pancakes

I know I mentioned we have no flour, and it's true.  We have no all-purpose, standard, white flour.  What we do have is atta, which is half all-purpose and half wheat.  Along with rice flour, gram flour, chickpea flour, and several other never-heard-of don't-know-what-they're-used-for flours.

And since I'm going stir crazy rounding up all these recipes that just happen to require the one pesky ingredient we don't have, Sally suggested doing a little substituting.  Switch the amount of all-purpose flour for the same amount of atta, plug and chug, and ta-da! scallion pancake.

Kinda. Sorta. Maybe.  Ok, they turned out perfectly normal, except for the extra-brown color and a little bit more stiffness to the dough than usual.  And hey, they're a little extra-healthy too. It's a nice plus.

Scallion pancakes are the perfect thing to make when you have too many scallions.  They don't require many ingredients (aside from flour), assembly is a snap, and they last a while in the fridge.  Just reheat them in the microwave for about 20 seconds and you'll be good to go.

I've seen them served with a soy sauce/vinegar sauce before, but seeing as we didn't have either of those, I didn't bother to look up a proper recipe for it.  And they're just as delicious on their own.

Scallion Pancakes
adapted from here and here
makes about 10 pancakes
Ingredients
2 cups flour
1/2 cup hot water
1/3 cup cold water
4-6 scallions, minced
salt, to taste
sesame oil
Directions
1. Mix together flour and hot water in a medium sized bowl.  Add the cold water and knead the dough until smooth (~20 strokes).  Cover dough with damp towel, let rise for 15 minutes.
2.  Pinch off a piece of dough and roll it into a ball (1 1/2 - 2 inches in diameter, a little bigger than a golf ball). Flatten it in your palm and place on floured surface.  Use rolling pin to roll out dough into a circle as thin as possible (1/16th inch).
3. Spread sesame oil over the flattened dough (about 1 tsp), sprinkle some salt and add some scallions.  Roll the dough horizontally (to make a tube- or just look at the picture here).  Then swirl the dough around like a snail's tail and press flat.  Roll the dough out with a rolling pin again (1/8th inch thick).
4.  Heat a flat pan, the kind used for making omelets or pancakes, on the stove with a drop of oil in it.  Add the pancake when the oil is hot.  Flip over the pancake when one side turns brown, cook the other side, and you're done!