honey pistachio fig tart

For about 6 weeks this summer, fresh local figs became available at the farmer’s market.

“Just peeeeeked theeeeese morning, beeeeeter than Cal-i-for-n-ia!”  was what Ivan, the fig guy with the not-quite-discernible accent, said every week as the look on my face seriously questioned his pricing. Let’s just say they didn’t come cheap. But they were delicious, local, and only available for a short time. I bought a container every week.

It would have been wrong to do anything to those figs aside from eat them fresh (maybe with a little brie) but it did get me thinking about what else I could do with figs before their season ended. I knew I wanted to use my new rectangular tart pan for one of my Rosh Hashana desserts, so put the two and two together for this fig tart with a honey-pistachio filling.

As incredible as it would have probably been with Ivan’s figs, it would have made for one very pricey tart. Luckily his season was over so I couldn’t even be tempted to splurge. Regular California ones from Trader Joe’s worked just fine. The filling itself was a bit on the sweet side – appropriate for the New Year, but I would probably cut the sugar the next time around.

The only major issue I had was with the cooking time. The original recipe (which called for butter and almonds – I subbed parve butter and pistachios) said 25 minutes. At that point, my filling was still mostly raw and the figs just starting to soften. Afraid the edges would burn if left in too long, I tented some foil over the top and baked it for another 25 minutes. At that point, the filling was set and the fruit sunken in and jammy, which was just what I was looking for.

(and yes, I also made an apple cake. . . will try and post that over the weekend!)

honey pistachio fig tart
(tart shell adapted from Paula Shoyer’s The Kosher Baker, filling adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours)

note: pastry can be made a day ahead and frozen before rolling out, filling can be made up to 3 days ahead and kept refrigerated.

 

ingredients
tart shell
1 cup all purpose flour
⅔ cup confectioners’ sugar
5 tablespoons parve butter, cut into pieces and frozen for 30 minutes
1 large egg yolk
2 tablespoons cold water
¼ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

filling
8 tablespoons parve butter, softened
⅓ cup honey
⅔ cup confectioners’ sugar
1 cup shelled pistachios, finely ground
¼ teaspoon ground cardamom
4 teaspoons cornstarch
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
16 figs, stems removed, sliced in half through the stem side
coarse sugar, for sprinkling

 

directions
1. Prepare tart shell. In a food processor fitted with a metal blade, pulse together the flour, sugar and parve butter until mixture looks like sand. Add the egg yolk, cold water and vanilla and process again until the dough comes together into a ball. You may want to turn out the dough into a large bowl and finish the process with a wooden spoon or by hand. Dough will be soft, but if it is very soft and sticky, add more flour 1 tablespoon at a time until it comes together. Place ball of dough on a piece of plastic wrap, flatten into a disk and wrap tightly. Store in the refrigerator for 1 hour or in the freezer overnight. (If you freeze it overnight, let it sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes until you can roll it out.)
2. To prepare filling, clean out food processor as you’ll be using it again. Combine parve butter, honey and confectioners’ sugar in food processor fitted with metal blade. Add the ground pistachios and cardamom and process again. Add cornstarch and blend again, then add egg and egg yolk. Process again until fully combined. Pour filling into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate at least 2 hours and up to 3 days.
3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Cut two pieces of parchment paper a few inches larger than a 4×13 inch rectangular tart pan and sprinkle one piece lightly with flour. Unwrap dough and place on floured parchment, then sprinkle with a bit more flour. Place second piece of parchment on top of dough. Use a rolling pin to roll out dough into a elongated oval, about 1-2 inches larger than tart pan on all sides. Remove top piece of parchment and place on a baking sheet.
4. Carefully lift up bottom piece of parchment and flip it over the tart pan, so the dough is centered over the pan. Peel off parchment paper and press dough into pan. Being a soft dough, it will tear in places. Take excess dough scraps and fill in where needed, pressing evenly across the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Gently press rolling pin across tart pan to trim edges.
5. Pour pistachio filling into pan, using a knife or offset spatula to spread evenly. Place fig halves face up in two columns down the tart pan, keeping them close together but not touching. You should be able to fit 8 halves on each side. Sprinkle with coarse sugar.
6. Place tart pan on parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for 30 minutes and check to see how done it is – filling should firm up slightly, puff up and turn a light golden brown. If still raw in places but cooked at the edges, tent a piece of tin foil over tart pan and continue cooking for another 15-20 minutes, checking every so often so the tart doesn’t get overcooked. Transfer to a rack to cool completely in pan, then remove right before serving. Cut into 8 strips or 16 squares.

triple chocolate banana muffins and fully loaded blondies

I may have gotten a little behind with posting. School apparently does take up some time. And we’ve been out of town the last two weekends, first to Houston to celebrate the wedding of two very good friends and then up to Chicago to hang out with more friends. Now with Rosh Hashana coming up this week and all sorts of baking related to that, I figured I would get caught up by sharing two recipes in one post. The first is the final of the three batches of muffins I made back in August, triple chocolate banana. The second is a basic blondie recipe that I loaded up with all sorts of good things. So without any further delay. . .

(both recipes at bottom)

southern apple cake

I finally broke down.

After almost a month of seeing the farmer’s market slowly turn over from blackberries and peaches to butternut squash, I gave in and purchased the first apples of the season. It was the second week of September, so I guess it wasn’t too crazy of a move.

To celebrate, I used 3 of them in an apple cake for a barbecue last weekend at my in-laws, which I’m calling Southern Apple Cake. Why? Well first, according to the blog I got the recipe from, it was adapted from a cookbook called Southern Cakes. And second, I don’t want to confuse you with the apple cake I’ll be making a couple of weeks from now, titled Jewish Apple Cake, which being rather labor intensive (I slice the apples by hand, not sure why), I only make once a year for Rosh Hashana. So anyway, back to this cake. It seemed like a nice way to welcome in the cooler, fall like weather we’ve been having.

brown butter raspberry tart

Last weekend, I finally sat down and plowed through the stack of magazines that had piled up over the last 6 months. Most of these were Bon Appetit, which I earmark while reading and later (apparently up to 6 months later) clip and file away in one of two recipe binders. The purple binder is dedicated to desserts, the blue binder is for pretty much everything else. I’ve been keeping these binders, as evidenced by some of the recipes inside, since 2003. So in addition to filing new recipes, I thought it was about time I cleaned them out. So a few recipes that seemed like a good idea at the time or were too similar to other recipes were thrown out.

And others were rediscovered – recipes I’d totally forgotten about. Like this brown butter raspberry tart. I wanted to make it immediately. It also just so happened that 6 ounce containers of raspberries were on sale for $1 each at Dierbergs. This was obviously a sign.

italian plum cake

This is the cake I wanted to make back in July, when I picked up those gorgeous tiny blush colored plums swirled with a bit of green. Actually, that’s not entirely true. I didn’t have this recipe yet. And the cake I had initially set out to make was from a recipe of my mom’s, which she couldn’t find. So instead I went ahead with this upside down cake which turned out to be a definite keeper.

Then, I found this recipe shortly thereafter. This is the cake that was in my oven the other day. It was initially the picture in A Platter of Figs that caught my eye. The cake was topped with Italian plums, those small, oblong shaped fruits that signal the end of summer. It looked like the cake I remembered my mom making. Well, except better. (Can I say that? Sorry!)