Pies

Swedish Apple Pie

November 18, 2013 by Erica

Swedish Apple Pie

Let me just say that family traditions crack me up. Every family has their own thing. It’s especially funny how traditions develop and then become set in stone, especially around the holidays. In my family, at least, they become quite rigid, especially where food is concerned. Making any changes is out of the question!

Example: Our Thanksgiving pie tradition. Now I realize we’re not unique in this, but humor me. My mom makes three types of pie every Thanksgiving – pumpkin, pecan and apple, and usually two of each. No additions, subtractions, or substitutions! She’s tried in the past to go down to two types, or maybe try something new for a change, but someone always complains. Hey, pumpkin’s my favorite! Can’t we make it? My mom is one of the most generous people I know, and certainly not one to let anyone go hungry. So before you know it, we’re back at pumpkin, pecan and apple.

Swedish Apple Pie

She’s reconciled herself over the years to the fact that Christmas is a time to try out new and exciting dishes. At Thanksgiving, new and exciting is met only with “hey, where’s the [insert traditional favorite here]?”

That sounds bratty, and maybe it is, especially because three types of pie is A LOT. My sisters and I have started helping out in the past few years… now that we’re kinda sorta adults. And even then, we have to start days ahead of time. Operation Three Types of Pie should be getting ramped up around here in about T-8 days. Bring on the rolling pins!

Nate’s family does pie, too, but their tradition is different. It features this Swedish apple pie, a recipe I was lucky enough to get a copy of from Nate’s mom a few years ago.

…

Pear Frangipane Tart

November 28, 2012 by Erica

Look familiar?

Yes… I posted a picture of this tart in the oven on Facebook a few weeks ago now. Sorry for not sharing it before! I made it for a Thanksgiving party, but the truth is, it’s probably more appropriate for Christmas. So now, rather than being late for Thanskgiving, I’m early for Christmas. I love the way that works!

Have you ever had frangipane? It is a sugary, creamy almond paste that is often layered under fruit in tarts. It’s probably one of the most delicious things on earth, especially if you’re a marzipan lover, like me. I was veeeery skeptical about a frangipane without eggs, but I was proven wrong. Granted it’s been a while since I last baked a pear frangipane tart, but I don’t think you can tell this one is vegan!

This is definitely a tart for those with a sweet tooth (kind of the opposite of the cranberry walnut one). I HIGHLY recommend baking it around the holidays to impress your guests!

For such a pretty and fancy tart, I didn’t take any pictures of the finished product on a serving dish. Sorry. That was mostly because I was driving it across town to a friend’s house, and there was no way I was taking it out of the springform pan before the car ride… no way. (On a side note, does anyone have any tips for transporting pies/cakes in the car? I did a lot of driving around with pies on the floor over Thanksgiving weekend, and it seemed VERY risky.)

Back to baking. One big recommendation here: Use white sugar in the frangipane. I used natural cane sugar in mine, and it turned out the granules were too coarse. You can notice in the pictures that the frangipane looks a bit grainy when baked. It still tasted amazing, but if I were to do it again, I would use white granulated sugar. I’ve never used superfine sugar, but that might be an option for an even creamier texture.

America’s Test Kitchen has a great post on the secrets to assembling a pear frangipane tart. I recommend checking it out before you get started!

Oh, and coring your pears with an ice cream scoop totally does the trick!

Crust and tart recipes are from the Post Punk Kitchen! Feel free to use this crust or a regular pastry crust.

4.5 from 2 reviews

Pear Frangipane Tart

Hands-on time

2 hours

Cook time

1 hour

Total time

3 hours

Author: Coffee & Quinoa

Yields: 10

Ingredients

FOR THE CRUST:
2/3 cup slivered almonds
1 cup all purpose flour
2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
6 Tbsp canola oil
4 Tbsp cold almond milk
FOR THE TART:
6 Tbsp Earth Balance, cut into pieces
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 1/4 cup blanched sliced almonds
2 Tbsp cornstarch
pinch salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2/3 cup plain unsweetened almond milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
4 pears (Bartlet or Bosc), peeled, halved, cored and sliced thinly crosswise
1/4 cup apricot jam, melted

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a tart pan, springform pan or pie dish with cooking spray.
First, prepare the crust. In a food processor, pulse almonds into a fine meal. Add flour and salt and pulse to combine. Stream in canola oil and 3 Tbsp of almond milk while continuing to pulse. Mixture should hold together when pressed between your fingertips; if it still feels a little dry, mix in one more additional Tbsp of almond milk at a time.
Sprinkle almond mixture into prepared pan and press to the bottom and sides. Press the crust as far up the sides as you can to hold in the filling.
Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Remove and allow to cool while you prepare the filling, but keep oven at 350.
To make the frangipane, process almonds to a fine meal in the food processor. Pulse in Earth Balance, sugar, cornstarch, ground cinnamon, and salt until crumbly. Continue to pulse and stream in almond milk, vanilla extract, and almond extract to form a thick batter. Spread frangipane mixture into cooled tart shell.
Pat the pears dry with a paper towel. Gently press one sliced pear into the frangipane in the center of the tart. This is best done with an offset spatula, but can be done carefully with a knife. For the rest of the pears, tip the slices over so that they are leaning over, rather than standing straight up (see pictures or America's Test Kitchen link above). Carefully place them in a circle around the center pear, thin ends pointing inward.
Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until tart is golden brown. Remove from oven and cool for 20 minutes, then brush (carefully!) with melted jam. Cool completely before slicing.

Enjoy!

Weekend + Gluten-Free Cranberry-Orange Walnut Tart

November 19, 2012 by Erica

What a great weekend! I am so tired.

I said that I just wanted to sleep this weekend. But it turns out there was a lot of other stuff I wanted to do, too! So now I’m drinking green tea, hoping it will keep me up long enough to finish this post before I faceplant into my pillow.

Friday night was relatively uneventful. My cousin is in town to audition for the symphony, so once she got in on Friday, we went to dinner at a Middle Eastern restaurant in town. After dinner, it was pie baking time! I wanted to bring two pies to a Thanksgiving dinner party on Saturday night, so I had to get started. First up: a cranberry-orange walnut tart.

This tart was yummy, and believe it or not, gluten-free! I’ll give the recipe below. I’m eating a leftover slice right now!

Making one pie was all I could handle on Friday, so we called it an early night. Saturday we were up early for brunch at Caffe Niche, followed by more pie-baking!

I really liked this pear frangipane tart. I’ll give the recipe if anyone wants to see it, but I didn’t modify it at all from the original.

Saturday afternoon, we also did a bit of Salt Lake City sight seeing. Then we headed over to our friends Matt and Alex’s for a fancy Thanksgiving dinner party. Just look at what they turned their living room into!

They had more than 20 people to a sit-down dinner. Alex is super crafty, and made us each a personalized clay charm for our wine glass! She also did the beautiful table decorations.

We ate way too much, of course. There was also some wine involved!

Yum.

We had such a great time with friends Saturday night – thanks Alex and Matt! It made a little hard to get up Sunday morning to go up to Snowbird. Luckily, we made it!

It was my first day out this year, and happily, the snow was good! It was actually snowing quite hard in the afternoon. It made for tough visibility, but a few good runs!

I had meant to get some powder skis for this season (my second winter in the West!), but I haven’t gotten around to it yet. I also never got around to getting the skis I do own tuned up. They literally had cobwebs on them when I took them out of our storage shed this morning. It made for a pretty sloppy day. But I can’t lie… it’s the skier, not the skis, that has some cobwebs to clear! Hopefully I’ll get out more this year than last, and improve a bit more.

My partner in crime. How cute is he?

Pete and Suzanne made me jealous with their bright-colored ski pants. I think I may need to get some…

And we ended the day with beer and nachos up at Alta.

So I’m now realizing that my weekend could be summarized into “eating, skiing, and more eating.” Yep. Pretty ideal, if you ask me. Let’s do it again next weekend!

Anyway, speaking of eating, let me get back to the cranberry-orange tart.

I didn’t actually mean to make this gluten-free, but it ended up that way, so I’ll take it! This tart has a crust made almost entirely out of walnuts, filled with a cranberry-orange mixture. It’s kind of like eating cranberry sauce out of a nutty crust, to be honest. It’s a pretty basic pie and is not too sweet, so it would make a good end to a rich, filling meal. Leftovers would also make a great breakfast the next day – a time-honored Foulser family tradition. :)

If you’ve never made a nut pie crust before, I highly recommend it. It’s much easier than rolling out a traditional pie crust and adds extra flavor. As a bonus, it’s a really easy way to go gluten-free. I’ve tried making regular pie crust before with gluten-free flour mixes, and never had very good results. So if you’re baking with a gluten-free family member or friend in mind, give it a try. The walnut one below could be filled with chocolate or any number of other fillings. I might use it for a pumpkin pie on Thursday.

5.0 from 1 reviews

Gluten-Free Cranberry-Orange Walnut Tart

Hands-on time

10 mins

Cook time

30 mins

Total time

40 mins

Author: Coffee & Quinoa

Yields: 10

Ingredients

For the crust:
3 cups walnut halves
1 Tbsp canola oil
3 Tbsp maple syrup
⅛ tsp salt
For the filling:
juice of 1 orange
2 1/2 Tbsp cornstarch
1 (12-ounce) package fresh cranberries
½ cup maple syrup
1/4 cup orange marmalade
1 Tbsp grated orange rind
2 Tbsp chopped walnuts, toasted, plus extra for topping (optional)

Instructions

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees.
In a food processor, process 3 cups walnuts to a find crumb. Remove to a bowl and mix with remaining crust ingredients. Mixture should hold together when pinched between two fingers, but not be too wet. Add some extra ground walnuts if it seems too wet, or a bit more maple syrup if it doesn't hold together.
Press into a tart or pie pan, taking care to press some up against the sides to hold in the filling. Bake for 10 minutes, remove and let cool on a wire rack before filling.
Increase oven temperature to 350. In a saucepan (without heat yet), whisk together orange juice and cornstarch. Now add the remaining filling ingredients. Heat over medium, stirring, until mixture is thick. This will take only a few minutes.
Spread evenly into prepared crust. Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes, until crust is golden brown. Remove to wire rack and let cool completely before serving. Optionally, top with additional toasted walnuts once cool.

Notes

Filling adapted from http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/cranberry-orange-tart-10000000522224/

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