Almond Joy Tartlets

I made these a while ago for Club: BAKED and fell in love with these little tartlets! I was too busy to post about them when the group baked them, but I couldn't just leave the pictures in my "Cooking Photos" folder any longer so here they are...honestly the are one of the best things I've ever tasted. But, I am a huge coconut fan and love Almond Joy candies (I never buy them though, but, when Halloween rolls around, you can bet these are the first things I request from my kids :) )

Almond Joy Tart

Baked: Explorations
For the Almond Tart Dough
1 large egg1/4 cup whole toasted almonds
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup ( 1 stick ) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes

For the Coconut Filling
8 ounces good quality white chocolate, coarsely chopped

1 cup heavy cream

2 cups unsweetened shredded coconut ( if you are coconut obsessed, go ahead and use 2 1/4 cups) -- I did
1 tablespoon light rum (I used Whaler's Killer Coconut Rum, love this stuff, very mellow with lots of coconut flavor)

For the Chocolate Glaze and Garnish

2 ounces good quality milk chocolate, coarsely chopped

2 ounces good quality dark chocolate ( 60-72% ), coarsely chopped
1/2 cup heavy cream
6 whole toasted almonds (I just added sliced almonds to the top)

Make the Almond Tart Dough


In a small bowl, lightly whisk the egg and set it aside.


Put the almonds and sugar in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until the almonds are finely ground. Add flour and salt and pulse again just until mixed. Add the butter and pulse until sandy ( about 6 to 10 quick pulses). Pour in the egg and pulse just until the dough begins to cohere into a ball. Form the dough into a disk, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate it for at least 1 hour or overnight.
Make the Coconut Cream Filling


Place the white chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl.


In a small saucepan set over medium heat, heat the cream just to a boil. Pour it over the white chocolate and let it stand for 30 seconds. Slowly, starting in the center of the bowl, whisk the cream and white chocolate until smooth. Cover and refrigerate the ganache for 4 hours or overnight before proceeding.


Assemble the Tart


Dust a work surface with flour. Place the disk of chilled dough on the work surface and divide it into 6 equal portions. Shape each into a smooth disk. (Note: The dough will be sticky. Make sure to turn it with a bench knife or offset spatula as needed and keep the working surface floured.) Use a rolling pin to roll each piece of dough into a 5 1/2 inch circle just over 1/8 inch thick. Very gently press each dough round into a 4 inch tart pan with removable bottom.


Place the tart pans in the freezer for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.


Line the tart crusts with aluminum foil, and fill each one three-quarters full with pie weights or dried beans. Bake them for 15 minutes, then remove the foil and weights and bake for another 10 minutes, or until lightly browned. Transfer the tart pans to a wire rack to cool. (I had some shrinkage problems because I didn't use pie weights, I would say for this recipe they are worth the extra effort, but if you don't care if you have a shrunken crust, don't worry about it :) )

Make the Coconut Cream Filling

Meanwhile, in the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the white chocolate ganache at medium speed until soft peaks form. Do not over whip. Gently fold in the coconut and the rum. Divide the filling evenly among the cooled tart shells and place them in the refrigerator while you make the chocolate glaze.

Make the Chocolate Glaze


Place the milk and dark chocolates in a medium heatproof bowl.


In a small saucepan, heat the heavy cream until it is just about to boil. Pour it over the chocolates and whisk to combine. Let the mixture set for about 10 minutes. Remove the tarts from the refrigerator and spoon the glaze evenly over each one. Top each tart with one almond and refrigerate again until the glaze sets up, about 10 minutes.


The tarts can be stored, tightly covered, in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.

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Like I said earlier, these were one of the most delicious things I've ever had or made. They are that good if you are a coconut fan.  Thanks to Linda at Sassy Is Baking for hosting this back in December 2011.  I am wishing I had these all over again, such delicious and decadent treat for any coconut fan!

Walnut Almond Baklava

I've got another nut filled Greek treat to share this week -- Baklava! This one is from Tessa Kiros' book Food From Many Greek Kitchens and I am sharing it with I Heart Cooking Clubs for their Getting a Little Nutty theme of the week. I enjoy baklava and had made it one time before, but it is not something that picky husband likes so I hadn't made it again. I was hoping that now that my kids are a little older they would love baklava, so I gave it another go...

Baklava

Tessa Kiros -- Food From Many Greek Kitchens

Makes about 30

Syrup

2 cups sugar

2 tablespoons honey

juice of 1/2 lemon

strip of lemon peel

2 or 3 small cinnamon sticks

1 cup almonds, crushed but with some texture

1 cup walnuts, crushed but with some texture

2 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

22 sheets phyllo pastry, cut to the dimensions of your dish (I used a 9 by 13 baking dish and did not have to cut my phyllo at all)

2/3 cup (1 and 1/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted to golden brown

30 or so whole cloves for decoration

Preheat oven to 350. To make the syrup, put the sugar, honet, lemon juice, lemon peel, and cinnamon in a saucepan with 1 cup water and bring to a boil, stirring. Simmer for 5 to 6 minutes, then take off the heat and cool.

Mix the almonds, walnuts, sugar, and cinnamon together in a bowl. Habe the phyllo sheets ready, covered by a dish cloth to prevent them from drying out. Brush the base of an 8 and 1/2 by 12 inch baking dish (I used a 9 by 13 pyrex) with butter. Lay 1 sheet of phyllo on the bottom and brush with butter. Cover with another sheet, brush it with butter and continue in this way until you have a neat stack of 10 sheets lining the bottom of the dish. Spread half the nut mixture over the phyllo, patting it down firmly and leveling the surface. Cover with another 2 sheets of phyllo, buttering each one. Scatter the rest of the nuts over evenly and press down gently. Now lay down the last 10 sheets of phyllo, butter each one, of course, and finishing with the last layer buttered.

Using a small sharp knife, cut diamonds on the diagonal of about 2 and 1/2 by 2 and 1/2 inches. Cut all the way through the layers of phyllo, as this will make it easier to lift out the pieces when serving. Flick just a little cold water over the top to prevent the layers from curling up.

Stuf the center of each diamond with a clove. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until gently golden on top. Gently pour half of the syrup all over the baklava. Wait for it to be adsorbed, then pour over the rest. Leave to cool totally before serving. Will keep, unrefridgerated, for at least a week, covered with a dish cloth or foil to deter bees and flies.

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This was so yummy! It was very sticky syrupy and crispy crunchy on top followed by a softer soaked bottom. Delicious stuff! I shared some with the neighbors and heard it was great. Picky husband didn't want to try any, the kids did try some but didn't like it :( 0h-well. I've had lots of baklava at restaurants and such and this was right up there with the best. I missed the pistachio flavor though, so would definitely add those in next time. This is definitely a great baklava recipe, I just wish my family would have liked it more!

Greek Almond Halva

This is my new favorite sweet treat. Seriously. I don't know why but I fell in love with this stuff. It is so delicious to me. Picky husband and all three of my kids don't like it. So I can't promise a recipe your whole family will love, but they might, you never know. Prior to making this Greek Halva for I Heart Cooking Clubs theme of the week -- Getting a little Nutty! -- I wasn't really sure what it even was. I always thought of it as a Middle Eastern sweet, something not quite a cake and not quite a candy, and I guess that's pretty much what it is, but I was not prepared to like it as much as I did! For some reason it reminded me of the hard lumps / clumps that sometimes happen when you make cream of wheat and don't stir properly. I love those and have since I was a child. If you do not like those I don't think you'll care for this, but again, you never know. That's always how I look at recipes, you'll never know if you'll like it if you don't try!

Housewives' Halva -- Halva Tis Nikokiras

Tessa Kiros -- Food From Many Greek Kitchens
Serves an Extended Family (I made a half batch)

Syrup
2 and 2/3 cups sugar

juice of 1/2 lemon

long strip of lemon rind

1 cinnamon stick

3 whole cloves

...

1 cup olive oil (I did half olive oil and half coconut oil, in the recipe preface it is mentioned that butter is also sometimes used)

2/3 cup almonds, skin on, coarsely chopped

1 cup fine semolina

1 cup coarse semolina (I only had one type, so that's what I used)

For the syrup, put the sugar, lemon juice and rind, cinnamon stick and cloves into a pot with 4 cups of water and bring to a boil. Simmer for about 10 minutes or so.

Warm the oil in a big heavy bottomed pot.

Add the almonds and cook over medium heat, stirring, until lightly toasted.

Stir in the semolina and dry-roast them too until a bit golden here and there (okay, that didn't really make sense to me, I reread it a bunch of times but with so much oil in the pan I'm not sure how it would be "dry" roasting, but in the end it was great so I guess I shouldn't have worried about it) stirring constantly and taking care that it doesn't burn.

Lightly oil a 6 cup capacity savarin or ring pan. Scoop out the lemon rind and spices from the syrup, then gradually stir into the roasting semolina. Take care when you pour it in, as it will bubble and splash. Stir it constantly over low heat until the liquid is all absorbed by the semolina and it comes away from the side of the pot.

Remove from heat and scrape into the pan. Flatten with the back of a soup spoon or spatula to push out any creases or small spaces. Let it cool for a few minutes (I set the timer for 10), then ease the halva away from the sides of the pan in a few places using a thin knife. Quickly turn the pan over and unmold the halva onto a flat plate. Scatter with the ground cinnamon and cut into slivers to serve. You only need thin pieces.

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Even though no one else liked this but me, I LOVED it! Not sure when I would make it again, just because I was the only fan, but definitely for a Greek potluck or something like that, not that I've ever had or been invited to a Greek potluck (wait, I take that back, when I was in high school we had a Greek potluck in humanities class, but that was over a decade ago :) ), but it sure sounds like fun. Anyway, the aroma while the semolina "toasted" in the oil was so yummy and reminded me of a middle eastern restaurant. Mmmm! If you like to try new things like I do, give this a go :)

Iraqi Cardamom Cookies

Our February destination over at My Kitchen My World is Iraq and I made these delicious cookies as my Iraqi dish. I found the recipe here at food.com, they are called Hadgi Badah.

Iraqi Cardamom Cookies (Hadgi Badah)

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon baking powder
1 1⁄3; cups sugar
4 large eggs
2 cups ground blanched almonds (about 10 oz.)
rose water (optional) or orange blossom water (optional)
6 dozen whole almonds (okay, the original recipe says it makes 72 cookies and that must be if you make them really small, I made them with about 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of dough and got 24 cookies, so only needed 24 whole almonds)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare baking sheets with a light coating of cooking spray, oil or butter. I lined my sheet with aluminum foil and sprayed it with baking spray.

Sift together the flour, cardamom, salt, and baking powder.

Using an electric mixer, beat the sugar and eggs until light and creamy. Stir in the flour mixture, then the ground almonds. I ground my almonds in a food processor and used regular whole almonds.

Pinch off a small piece of dough and hand form into 1-inch balls, moistening your hands with rose water or orange blossom water, if desired. I sprayed my hands with baking spray to make the shaping easier.

Place on the prepared baking sheets and flatten slightly. Press a whole almond into the center of each cookie. I just brushed the tops lightly with the rose water and orange blossom water, I did 12 rose, 6 orange blossom, and 6 plain -- they were all delicious the waters added more of a scent than flavor.

Bake until lightly browned about 12 minutes. I had to bake mine for 14 minutes and used an insulated baking sheet. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

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These were delicious, especially if you are an almond fan. The cardamom is noticeable if you are "tasting" for it, but it is a pretty light flavor so I would double the cardamom for a real cardamom flavor punch if that is what you are going for.

I made these with my four year old who had fun putting the almonds on. These were really easy cookies to make. They were an after school snack for my older two and everyone loved these! Picky husband hasn't had one yet but I bet he will like them too. They are somewhat soft and chewy and have a delicious flavor.

I had to share this picture because it really makes me smile, such a goof ball my youngest is! Be sure to check out My Kitchen My World to see what other Iraqi dishes people picked to try, and feel free to join us on our culinary world tour :) -- our March destination is Finland!

Beggar's Linguine

Time for French Fridays with Dorie! Today's recipe is Beggar's Linguine and let me tell you, I was so excited to give this recipe a try. You know how when you first page through a new cookbook and one recipe stands out to you, well this was that recipe for me with Around My French Table. It just sounded so delicious and like such a new combination of flavors and textures -- and it's pasta -- one of my very favorite foods.


To do this dish justice I had to make fresh linguine. Then I got the add-ins ready; pistachios, almonds, figs, and instead of raisins (we were out) I used dried Michigan montmorency cherries. Not pictured is the zest, I used the zest of a Minneola Tangelo, which was a nice bright orange -- and also the freshly grated parmigiano reggiano.


Please excuse the bad photos of this recipe, hubby had been messing around with the camera settings and I hadn't switched them back before I started shooting and didn't notice they were not quite right until I uploaded them.

Above, the add-ins are simmering in butter.

This was such a yummy lunch. I am happy I used fresh pasta as I think that really helped make this a special dish. Kids weren't too keen on this dish, oh-well. I thought it was great, and it was nice to use some figs, which I like but always forget about. Another delicious dish with the FFwD gang :)

Chocolate Pots de Creme and Toasted Almond Scones -- Tuesdays with Dorie

Running a little behind on Tuesdays with Dorie posts, so here is a catch up post. Our TWD pick is Chocolate Pots de Creme, chosen for us to try by Christine at Black Cat Cooking, thanks Christine! I was a little nervous about these, thinking they might be too eggy for my liking, but they were not eggy at all, just very chocolaty and with a great pudding consistency. It was nice to get to use my new ramekin set, they are labeled 5 ounce, but I filled them with four ounces of water just to test out their volume and 4 ounces fits in there perfectly, don't think 5 ounces would work without overflow. Thank goodness they were just the right size for a half batch of Chocolate Pots de Creme.

Chocolate Pots de Creme: recipe here

Next up is last week's TWD pick, Toasted Almond Scones, picked for us to try by Mike at Living Out West , thanks Mike! I love scones and almonds and couldn't wait to give these a try. Instead of making two rounds of dough, I made one big round for some jumbo scones.


I topped them with some turbinado sugar and they baked up beautifully. They were absolutely perfect with a cup of mint green tea and I enjoyed the flecks of almond, providing a nice little crunch. Loved them!

Toasted Almond Scones: recipe here

Whew, it is nice to catch up! I was late making the scones since we had the ice storm power outage last week. I made both TWD treats yesterday, so fun to be back playing in the kitchen :)

Orange Almond Heart Tart

Time for French Fridays with Dorie, our recipe this week is an Orange Almond Tart. I was excited about this recipe since I love oranges and almonds and making tarts. This recipe is quite similar to the recipe for French Pear Tarts that we made with Tuesdays with Dorie back in January of 2009.

Dorie's Sweet Tart dough is made in the food processor, I have found that for some reason (not sure why) I always need to add a little extra liquid when making my tart doughs in the food processor so instead of the egg yolk only, I used the whole egg and a couple of tablespoons of water to help the tart dough come together.


Next, pick a tart pan. I figured I'd go with my large heart tart pan since it is almost Valentine's Day and who can resist a heart tart? I did not pre-bake my tart dough, after baking quite a few tarts over the past few years, I've just come to the conclusion that I like my tart dough a little less browned and crunchy that many of the recipes call for. I like it crispy and flaky kind of like a cross between a soft sugar cookie and pie crust.


I used the pat in pan method for the tart dough, which always seems easier to me. Then the tart dough is sent to holiday in the refrigerator for a while the almond cream filling is prepared. I do not keep almond flour on hand but almost always have almonds, and find that you can make a rustic almond meal in the food processor with sliced almonds that works just as well as almond flour and gives it a little more texture. For the filling, instead of two teaspoons rum or one teaspoon vanilla, I switched it up to two teaspoons triple sec (which, according to wikipedia, was invented in France) -- to up the orange flavor and one teaspoon vanilla, since I love vanilla and orange together.


The first photo in this post is my "before baking" shot that I always take. Above is the tart just out of the oven after testing done at only 30 minutes. I had the timer set for 50 minutes per the recipe, but went to check at 30 just because it smelled done to me, and there it was, perfectly golden brown.


And below generously dusted with powdered sugar. Haven't tried this one yet but pretty sure we will love it. Will report back after dinner with the results of the family taste test :) ETA: This tart is so delicious! I think it's my favorite recipe I've made with FFwD so far. My five year old daughter said it was awesome and my three year old son said it was really yummy and wanted a second piece. Everyone else was too full from dinner to try it (tonight was homemade pizza night) but I'm sure that they'll love it as soon as they have some.

Almond Bourbon Bread Pudding

Time for Tuesdays with Dorie! I'm a little late on this one today since I waited until Tuesday to actually make this treat, but it was worth the wait. Our treat of the week is Bourbon Bread Pudding, picked for us to try by Sharon from Simply Southern, thanks Sharon!

I used homemade French bread for this recipe, and instead of baking in a loaf pan went with a 9 by 13 glass baking dish. I used some extra bread, 15 ounces instead of the 8 called for, since I like a higher bread to custard ratio.

I also upped the flavorings a little and added 1 cup of sliced almonds. I also only used the 4 eggs and skipped the extra two yolks, don't worry, it was still plenty rich.

Served with some whipped cream (and some grade B maple syrup -- not pictured) I thought this was a warm and comforting wintertime dessert. I'm glad I upped the bourbon, vanilla, and almond extract. Picky husband isn't a bread pudding person, although I'm still trying to convince him -- I used to not like it but have turned into a fan over the last few years. The kids are hit or miss, we had one who ate their whole serving, one who ate only the whipped cream, and one who had a couple of bites but was not interested in finishing, oh-well, you win some, you lose some :)