Well, THAT was just painful
I think I got a little too big for my britches today.
I tentatively put the cranberry, caramel, and almond tarts from Smitten Kitchen on my Thanksgiving menu, but because I’ve never done anything like that before, I figured it might be a good idea to do a test run before I actually attempted them for a full-scale audience.
I was supposed to do them yesterday, but I kind of ran out of time (and also was missing pie weights, but after discussing it with several people today, I decided just to go the dried beans route anyway), so I only made the dough. I figured I could roll out the tarts and do the filling quickly today.
And I could have, if only that tart dough hadn’t kicked my butt all over my kitchen.
Deb mentions having issues with the dough in her post. Since one of her readers says he used Martha Stewart’s tart dough with great success, and I use Martha’s pie crust recipe regularly, I figured I’d substitute the easy dough for the original tough dough and be done with it. After all, I once made a tart dough in my dorm room, so this should be no problem at all, right?
Ha. Hahahahahahahahaha.
I have added water and begged and pleaded and re-refrigerated and scolded and re-floured and threatened, to no avail. The dough stubbornly refuses to roll out. I managed to eke out three semi-reasonable shells in an hour, and then I gave up and stuck the remaining lump of buttered flour back in the fridge to see if a timeout will teach it to behave itself. As of this typing I have lost the will to battle it out again, so I’m moving forward with the three shells that I have and will try the remaining dough again tomorrow.
The caramel filling, though, is lovely. Rich, dark brown, and gorgeously buttery. I want to grab a spoon and dig right in, tart shells be damned. (I did sneak a caramel-drenched almond slice… yum.)
The three semi-presentable shells are baking now, so I should know in about 20 minutes how it’s all going to turn out. If my camera hadn’t imploded, I would take pictures… but as it is, you’ll just have to take my word for it.
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.aproposofanything.com/2007/11/18/well-that-was-just-painful/trackback/
Comments
I was going to include a link to a dessert we made this weekend, a lovely Cranberry Upside-Down Cake. However, the Cook’s Country web site requires that you pay to get their recipes, even if you already subscribe to their magazine. This makes me very angry.
So, no recipe.
I think Jay said it best when I asked him about it on AIM: “that annoying fucker from Vermont who runs the joint — the one with the bowtie — he’s shrewd”
Not sure if the f-bomb is allowed on this site or not, but I’ll give it a whirl.
Posted by: kate | November 19th, 2007 15:45
(and here’s where I sound like a total shill)
Hey! When you put together fine magazines like Cook’s Country or Cook’s Illustrated which accepts no advertising and spends six months researching and preparing dozens of versions of the same recipe over and over again, you’ve gotta make your scratch where you can.
As a side note, I was a virtual witness to the caramel effort. She greatly understated the drama that went into that project.
Posted by: Dan | November 20th, 2007 06:39
But the caramel turned out so wonderfully, it was worth it!
Posted by: huda | November 20th, 2007 09:22
Do you normally have luck with Smitten Kitchen? I was searching for a blondie recipe and came across one on their page. It looked delish and I might try it but wasn’t sure if it would turn out as it stated.
Posted by: Aisha | November 20th, 2007 14:52
you got 3 shells so far out of the dough. how many total are you having to bake for t-day?
Posted by: aalia | November 20th, 2007 19:11
Haha. 16. But I think I have learned something from this debacle — the tart dough really needs to be separated out before refrigeration, so iA that’ll make it easier to roll out when I do it again tomorrow.
And Aisha, I know we discussed this tonight, but yes, I have had great success with Smitten Kitchen recipes. The finished product of this was pretty good, actually… very desi-friendly.
Posted by: huda | November 20th, 2007 22:33
Between this post and the pics in your TasteSpotting thing there, my mouth has filled with drool. LOL. Snack time…
Posted by: Tee | November 23rd, 2007 13:51