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| Ready to bake |
Here we go again. This time the Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was the Cranberry Crackle Tart, found on pages 135-137 of Baking Chez Moi.
K was less enthusiastic about this one, at first. "Cranberries, I don't like cranberries very much." "Look at the recipe K." "Meringue, I love meringue." Midway through her first slice "I'm not even done yet and already want more." So clearly, another hit.
As expected, the hardest part of the recipe for K was rolling the crust. I sometimes wonder if I need to buy some Play-doh for her to practice with. Or perhaps I am just not instructing her properly? Any advice more than welcome.
Once the dough was rolled out and baked, K covered it with a perhaps slightly thicker than suggested layer of our homemade raspberry jam. She then made the meringue, which was her favorite part of the project. Once the cranberries were added, she piled the meringue on top of the crust and waited impatiently for it to bake.
By the way, if you'd like to bake along, the December recipe choices are already up on the Tuesdays with Dorie site:
December 9 – The Rugelach That Won Over France on p. 301
December 23 – Gingerbread Buche de Noel on p. 86
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| Rolling and grumbling |
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| Can I just eat the meringue? |
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| Close up of the first slice |
Crust rolling is definitely an acquired skill, more of an art than a science. I think it's one of those things that takes a while to get right. My grandmother was an amazing baker and made crust rolling look effortless. I think of her every time I break out my roller. So neat you are doing this together.
ReplyDeleteThe tart looks wonderful! I'm so glad that your daughter enjoyed the fruits of her labour; I thought it was delicious too!
ReplyDeleteLooks like a hit from here, very nice! A few years ago when I was doing another blog along and we were making a lot of pies and tarts, decided I would make a pie/tart a day for a month and see if my rolling skills, etc. improved. That did it...I made 6" pies/tarts for a month (and made a lot of people happy by gifting a lot of it away) and to this day my favorite things to make are pies and tarts. It was just a matter of getting the repetition down. And having good recipes helps (you can't go wrong with Dorie, Martha, and Nick Malgieri).
ReplyDeleteMaybe getting roller guides to help control the dough's thickness will help? They are kind of like 'training wheels' for the novice baker.
ReplyDeleteFrom the look of your finished tart I think you achieved a great result and all that rolling was worth it? Right? Looking forward to our baking project good luck in December..such delicious challenges ahead of us :)
ReplyDeleteYou guys did a great job! Brava!
ReplyDeleteWhat a neat idea to do with your (I assume) daughter!!! Very nice crackle!
ReplyDeleteI think the more you do just about anything, the better you get at it. So making more crusts and using parchment paper will definitely do the trick. I use a rolling pin that doesn't have handles--it's basically a 1 ½" diameter cylinder--and I like the way it feels under my hands.
ReplyDeleteI grumble too when I have to roll out tart or pie dough. I can never get that perfect circle, except when I need a rectangular shape. Seriously. Play-Doh! What a genius idea!!! I may have to do that myself. :) Your tart looks great!
ReplyDeleteI think the thing with rolling pie dough is just practice. Your tart looks great and it seems like you both had a lot of fun making it. Glad it was a hit in the taste department, too.
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