Breakfast: November 2003 Archives

I promised Eric that I would mention the maple butter he made for the dinner Saturday night. Four sticks of room-temperature butter, 1/4 cup maple syrup, some cinnamon and I think vanilla all whisked together then refrigerated. Eric put it all in a shallow dish and made decorative swirls on top before he put it back the in the fridge. It was terrific on the sweet-potato biscuits he made, but I think it'd be even better on buttermilk pancakes. I'm sure he and his wife, Lisa, will come up with lots of uses for it, especially since they have the better part of a pound left.

I promised Eric that I would mention the maple butter he made for the dinner Saturday night. Four sticks of room-temperature butter, 1/4 cup maple syrup, some cinnamon and I think vanilla all whisked together then refrigerated. Eric put it all in a shallow dish and made decorative swirls on top before he put it back the in the fridge. It was terrific on the sweet-potato biscuits he made, but I think it'd be even better on buttermilk pancakes. I'm sure he and his wife, Lisa, will come up with lots of uses for it, especially since they have the better part of a pound left.

I gave my new tart pan a spin with a recipe I made from the Once Upon a Tart cookbook for a friend's fall-themed dinner party. Did NOT like the Once Upon a Tart crust at all (it was way too crumbly, and used about twice as much butter as any other recipe I saw), but the apples and custard were great (the custard itself takes on some apple flavor, and it was even better the second day), and I was really happy with how easy it was to use the pan.

So first you make the crust and fit it into the pan (which I won't go into since I was so unhappy with the crust, except to say that it was really hard to work with, even though I opened the window so the apartment would be cold), then refrigerate it to firm it up. Meanwhile, slice the apples about 1/8 inch thick (I used 2 giants and 2 little apples, but I don't remember what the three different types were, and ended up with way too many apple slices). Arrange them in concentric rings, with the smaller apple slices inside. I used the rounded end slices to make a small design in the center. Then pour the custard (mix 1/3 cup sugar with 2 eggs until pale yellow, add 1/2 cup light cream, 1/2 cup milk and 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract) over it and bake in a 375-degree oven for 1 hour 15 minutes. When I put the tart in, all the custard pooled at the front of the tart, so I put a little piece of foil under it to level it. Looks like we need to figure out how to adjust the feet to level the new oven.

This is another place I strayed from the recipe. After 10 minutes the back of the crust was getting brown and the front was not, so I turned on my new convection oven feature. Forty minutes later the tart was done. The apples that stick up above the tart get a little burned, but it gives the whole thing a nice burnished look. Once the tart has cooled a little, brush it with some melted apricot jam.

The tart leaked all over the oven floor during baking, so it looks like it's time to use the new oven's self-clean feature. I'm really breaking this thing in.