TWD: French Apple Tart

For years, I had big troubles with tartes and pies, because I never managed to get the dough right. With the "new" book, it seems I finally found the one recipe I am able to master! I made the Flaky Pie Dough for the second time now, and for so far everything went fine. Good news, as I like tartes and pies. And - this recipe is also good for non-sweet tartes, so it is kind of a multi-tasking dough :o]

The French Apple Tart is a tart filled with kind of a home-made apple-sauce and the usual apple slices on top. It takes some time because additionally to the shell you also have to do the apple-sauce. But it is very simple and the result looks great!

I made half the recipe and got a small tart (but still about 8 slices or 12 very thin slices) and an individual tart. I could have used a bit more sauce - I used three apples, one very big one, two normal ones, and it was fine, but more would have been also ok.
Baking time was a bit longer than the recipe tells, what is unusual. It was more like 40 minutes. But I only slightly pre-baked the crust so maybe that's the point.

I brought it to the office the next day and absolutely everybody fell in love with it! I wouldn't say it looses over night, but for sure, a warm apple tart is always extraordinary as well.
If you want to find out about the recipe turn to Gaye's blog "Law of the Kitchen" or have a look at the book by Dorie Greenspan on pp 379-381.

TWD: Pizza with Onion Confit

The Pizza with Onion Confit is one of the reasons I like the "new" book (in fact, it is really not that new at all, anymore...) - making also savory dishes from time to time is really a nice change and after all the Christmas-sweets just right.

I made the Onion Confit with pearl onion, because I had leftovers from the New Years-eve raclette. I know, this is a bit like betraying, because I might be the only one without red swollen and tearful eyes. But the pickles had to vanish and if I find an easy way out - I confess - I take it.

It was pretty easy to cook, but takes some time, about an hour. The red wine and vinegar give the onions a wonderful, dark red/violet colour. Instead of wine-vinegar and cream de cassis I used cassis-vinegar. I felt really clever when I found the small bottle of cassis vinegar and had this smart idea. :o]

The pizza dough is not too difficult. It was my first pizza but turned out fine. I can imagine including some more herbs in the dough next time. Because I have a pizza function in my oven, the baking sheet has to go into the middle of it, not in the lower third. Something I learned...

For the topping I used the onion confit, sour cream, cocktail tomatos, black olive rings and salmon. And some seasoning, of course. How delicious!

I am eager to find out about all the different variations of toppings the group made!

Our host this week ist Paul of The Boy Can Bake - obviously one of the few men in the group. Head over to his blog to find out about the recipe, or buy the book by Dorie Greenspan! (it's on pp 159/160).