David Leite's Hershey Chocolate Cake

I’m always looking for the perfect chocolate cake recipe. I’ve tried a lot of different ones, but I think this simple Hershey’s Chocolate Cake from Leite’s Culinaria is my favorite, because it uses pantry ingredients and a hand mixer.  I love a cake that can be made spur of the moment when the mood strikes. 

 

This cake’s got espresso powder in it, which we all know from Ina Garten seriously enhances the flavor of chocolate. The frosting is made with melted butter and confectioner’s sugar, and it’s a lot lighter and better than most frostings.  I haven’t tried to pipe with it, but it’s the perfect thick, creamy consistency for rustic, homey looking swirls.

 

Because I changed nothing, I’m not going to post the recipe, I’ll just send you right over to David’s blog. Check this out if you need an easy, delicious, classic chocolate layer cake. This one’s perfection, and just in time for Valentine’s Day.

Lemon Blueberry Tart

A few months back, I took at baking class at ICE in New York City. We learned to make all sorts of tarts, and since then, I've been completely obsessed with tarts of all kinds.  My mother-in-law loves your classic grocery store fruit tart, so for a recent family brunch, I decided to make a lemon blueberry version.

I used Gina DePalma's pasta frolla recipe, because I wanted a sweet tart crust that was easy to roll, and combined it with Dorie Greenspan's amazingly delicious lemon cream.

You will need one nine inch round tart pan, or one rectangular pan, like I used.

Pasta Frolla (Sweet Tart Crust), from Dolce Italiano, by Gina DePalma
2 1/3 cups flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
Zest of one small lemon
3/4 cup very cold unsalted butter, diced
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup heavy cream

In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and zest. Pulse a few times to combine. Add butter and process until the mixture is sandy, with no big lumps.

Whisk together the egg, yolk, cream, and extract in a bowl.  Add to the food processor. Pulse a few times, until dough comes together.

Remove dough from processor and  smush together with your hands, to even out any dry spots. Flatten into a disk, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for 1 hour or overnight. You can also freeze this for two months at this point.

When ready to bake, roll it out on a lightly floured workspace into a circle (or rectangle, depending on your tart pan shape), till it's about 1/8 inch thick. Roll the dough up over your rolling pin and drop it into the tart pan. Press the dough gently into the sides and corners of the pan, and run your rolling pin over the top to slice off excess dough. Chill tart shell for 20 minutes and preheat oven to 350.

After 20 minutes, line the pan with foil and weight with dried beans, lentils, or pie weights. Bake for 15 minutes, then remove weights and foil and bake another 5-7 minutes, or until lightly golden, like below.

Let cool completely. Can be tightly wrapped and refrigerated for up to 3 days.

Lemon Cream, from Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan
1 cup sugar
Finely grated zest of 3 lemons
4 large eggs
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (about 5 lemons)
2 sticks plus 5 tablespoons (10-1/2 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon-size pieces, at room temperature

Put the sugar and zest in a large heatproof bowl that can be set over the pan of simmering water. Off the heat, rub the sugar and zest together between your fingers until the sugar is moist, grainy and smells delicious. Whisk in the eggs, followed by the lemon juice.

Set the bowl over the pan, and start stirring with the whisk as soon as the mixture feels tepid to the touch. Cook the lemon cream until it reaches 180 degrees F- use a thermometer! You m ust whisk constantly, but as you do, you'll see the cream will get very foamy, then the bubblers bigger, then it will start thickening and the whisk will leave tracks. This means the cream is almost ready. Don’t stop whisking or checking the temperature, and have patience—getting to 180 can take up to 10 minutes.

Once it reaches 180 degrees F, remove the cream from the heat and strain it into the container of the blender and discard the zest. Let the cream stand, stirring occasionally, until it cools to 140 degrees F, approximately another 10 minutes.

Once at 140, turn the blender to high, and, with the machine going, add the butter about 5 pieces at a time. Scrape down the sides of the container as needed as you incorporate the butter. Once the butter is in, keep the machine going—to get the perfect light, airy texture of lemon-cream dreams, you must continue to blend the cream for another 3 minutes. If the machine seems like it's overheating, you can pause for a few seconds after each minute.

Pour the cream into an airtight container and press a piece of plastic wrap to the surface and refrigerate. At this point, the cream can be refrigerated for up to four days, or frozen for two months.

To Assemble:
1 fully baked tart shell
1 recipe lemon cream
1 pint blueberries
1/3 cup apricot jam, optional (I skipped)

Spoon your lemon cream into the tart shell, smoothing out with an offset spatula or the back of a spoon. Pour blueberries over.

To glaze, combine the apricot jam with a tablespoon or two of water, and melt over low heat. Brush over blueberries. (I skipped this step as my mother-in-law hates the glaze).

Keep tart refrigerated. Best served the day it is made.

Thanksgiving Recipes: Cranberry Tart

I’m obsessed with this cranberry tart from Dolce Italiano. I think it’s the perfect Thanksgiving dessert- festive, yet kind of unexpected. It’s a nice change from all the pumpkin and apple and pecan pies. 

The tart has a sweet and chewy polenta crust, and a tangy cranberry filling. I like to bake it in a rectangular tart pan, as I think the presentation is a little nicer (especially given the rustic nature of the tart), but the recipe will make enough for a 10" round pan.

Cranberry Tart, from Dolce Italiano

1 ¼ cups all purpose flour plus 2 tbsp

½ cup instant or fine polenta

1 ¾ cups sugar, divided

1 ¼ tsp salt

Zest of 1 lemon

1 stick butter, diced

1 large egg, plus 3 egg yolks

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp vanilla extract

½ cup light corn syrup

12 oz fresh cranberries

½ cup heavy cream

Place 1 ¼ cups flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 tsp salt, and lemon zest in a food processor and process to blend. Add butter and pulse till mixture resembles sand.

In a small bowl, beat the whole egg, 1 tsp vanilla, and olive oil together.  Add to processor and pulse until a ball of dough forms. You may need to sprinkle in a smidge of water to help it come together. When it does, turn it out onto a piece of plastic wrap, form into a disk, wrap it up, and refrigerate for at least an hour. (Dough can also be frozen at this point).

In a saucepan, melt remaining sugar over low heat. Stir in corn syrup and bring to a boil. Add cranberries and cook until they soften and release juice, about 2 minutes. Pour into a bowl and cool for 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly flour a work surface and roll out your dough to fit your pan (a 12 inch circle will cover a 10” tart pan). Patch any tears with excess dough. This dough can be re-rolled easily.

In a bowl, whisk cream and 2 tbsp flour. Whisk in egg yolks, remaining vanilla, and salt. Pour over cranberries and fold together. Pour into tart shell and place on a baking sheet. Bake 40 minutes or until filling bubbles but is not firm, and pastry browns.

Cool in pan and remove sides of tart pan. Will keep in fridge, well wrapped, for several days. This tart is fine made ahead.