To the younger generation, the word ‘blackberry’ probably only brings to mind a variety of gadgets, but to those who remember when there were no mobile phones in sight or in hand, the blackberry is first and foremost that small, ripe, juicy fruit that makes excellent pies, jams, jellies and wines.
Over 12 species of blackberries grow in woods and clearings in Canada, mainly in eastern provinces and southern British Columbia. Worldwide, Mexico is the leading producer of blackberries, with nearly the entire crop being produced for export into the off-season fresh markets in North America and Europe.
Although nowadays blackberries are primarily used in cooking, they are known to be very beneficial to health. Having one of the highest antioxidant contents of all fruits, blackberries are good for lowering cholesterol levels, support oral health, strengthen bones, regenerate the skin and aid the digestive system.
Today, I thought I’d incorporate them in a custard tart decorated with some white chocolate. The blackberries not only add color but with their deeper, darker, more complex tart/sweetness, add something very special.
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Blackberry White Chocolate Tart
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Instructions
Pastry
In a food processor, pulse flour, sugar, salt & baking powder to blend. Add butter & pulse 3-4 times, until butter is in pea-size pieces. Sprinkle in the ice water; pulse another 4 times. Turn dough out on a lightly floured surface & knead gently a few times to form a disk. Wrap in plastic wrap & refrigerate for at least an hour.
Custard
In a saucepan, cook blackberries over low heat, stirring frequently, until berries break down & sauce begins to boil. Cook until sauce begins to thicken, 7-10 minutes. Remove from heat, strain through a fine mesh sieve, pressing on solids & discarding seeds & solids. Reserve blackberry juice.
In a small saucepan, whisk together 1/2 & 1/2 cream, sugar & salt. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring frequently.
In a medium bowl, whisk together egg yolks, cornstarch & cinnamon (or ginger). Slowly add half of the 1/2 & 1/2 mixture, whisking constantly. Add egg yolk mixture to remaining 1/2 & 1/2 mixture in saucepan & bring to a boil over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until thickened, 2-3 minutes.
Remove from heat & whisk in butter & vanilla until butter is melted then whisk in reserved blackberry juice. Pour into a heatproof bowl, cover with plastic wrap, pressing wrap directly onto surface of custard to prevent a skin from forming. Allow to cool completely.
Baking
On a lightly floured surface, roll chilled pastry to 1/8-inch thickness. Transfer to a 14 x 4-inch rectangular tart pan. with a removeable bottom. Freeze for 15 minutes.
Top crust with a piece of parchment paper, letting ends extend over edge of pan. Add pie weights. Bake until lightly golden around edges. Carefully remove paper & pie weights. Bake until lightly golden & surface is set. Let cool completely.
Decorating
Whisk chilled blackberry custard then place into cooled prepared crust. Smooth with a spoon or an offset spatula. Melt white chocolate & place in a small plastic baggie. Snip off the tip of one corner of the bag. Drizzle the chocolate in parallel lines. Top with a few fresh blackberries & small mint leaves, then carefully place tart on a serving tray. Refrigerate until serving.
The Manchester tart is an English baked treat with its roots tracing back to none other than the vibrant city of Manchester, England. This retro tart has a shortcrust pastry base that’s layered with raspberry preserves, custard, desiccated coconut and sometimes glace cherries. The combination of sweet preserves, creamy custard, and coconut creates a wonderful balance of flavors and textures.
The Manchester tart was a staple on school dinner menus until the mid-1980s and is now a staple in bakeries and home kitchens, cherished for its simplicity and delicious taste.
Over the years, the Manchester Tart has undergone numerous adaptations and variations, with some recipes incorporating different fruits, toppings, or pastry bases. However, its essence remains rooted in the tradition of British baking, symbolizing comfort and nostalgia for many who have enjoyed it throughout generations.
For my adaptation of these tarts I made a pastry cream to give a lightness and added some fresh raspberries to give some tang to balance the sweetness of the preserves. Instead of using the traditional glace cherry on top, I went with a few more fresh raspberries.
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Manchester Tarts
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Ingredients
Raspberry Preserves/Fruit
Ingredients
Raspberry Preserves/Fruit
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Instructions
Tart Base
Combine the flour, powdered sugar, cornstarch, salt, & vanilla in a large bowl. Add the butter and mix with your hands until the butter is broken down into pieces the size of peas and the ingredients are well combined. Add the egg and mix with a spatula until the dough is smooth and the egg is fully incorporated. Don’t overmix.
Turn the dough out onto a large piece of plastic wrap and gently shape it into a ball. Wrap the dough in the plastic wrap and flatten it into a disc. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or overnight, until cold but still pliable. It should have the texture of clay.
When the dough has chilled, unwrap the dough and place it on a silicone baking mat on your work surface. Roll it out into a rectangle about 1⁄8 inch thick, using a second silicone sheet on top. The silicone mat makes it easier to lift the rolled-out dough onto the sheet pan later. Make sure to work quickly so the dough doesn’t get too warm.
Place the silicone mat with the dough on a baking sheet.
Using the tart rings, cut out 18 circles of dough. Remove the rest of the dough from around the rings.
Reroll remaining dough between 2 sheets of parchment. Using a sharp knife, slice strips about 10 inches long & 1- inch thick. These strips will make the sides of each tartlet.
Working with one at a time, transfer a strip of dough to one of the tart rings and press it to the sides. Use your fingers to slightly push the bottom of the sides to the dough circle (to seal it). Repeat with the remaining strips of dough. Use a small knife to cut the edge to the rim of the rings.
Transfer the baking sheet containing the tartlet shells to the freezer & freeze for at least 20 minutes.
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Bake tart rings for about 15 minutes or until golden. Remove from oven & take off rings to allow them to cool.
Pastry Cream
Heat the milk over medium high heat & bring it to a simmer, almost to a boil.
While heating the milk, place the sugar, egg yolks, cornstarch, vanilla & salt in a bowl. Whisk until you have a thick, smooth mix then set aside until the milk comes almost to a boil.
As soon as the milk starts to steam or simmer, remove it from the heat. Slowly pour about a half of the hot milk in a thin stream into the egg mix, WHILE WHISKING CONSTANTLY to temper the egg mix. When the eggs have been tempered, add the egg mix back into the hot milk in the saucepan.
Heat the custard base, over medium heat, while whisking vigorously until it starts to thicken – this should take about 1 – 2 minutes. Make sure to reach the corners of the saucepan so that the custard does not stick to the bottom of the pan.
While whisking, let the custard come to a boil (the custard will release bubbles). You may need to stop whisking from time to time for a few seconds to see if the custard is ‘bubbling’. Look for big bubbles breaking the surface of the custard.
Lower the heat and cook for a further 1 – 2 minutes after you see the first bubbles break the surface, and make sure to whisk constantly.
Remove from the heat & add the butter. Whisk in the butter, until it’s completely mixed in.
Pour the custard into a bowl & immediately cover the surface with plastic wrap, making sure the plastic wrap is touching the whole surface. This is to prevent a custard ‘skin’ from forming on top. You can also choose to pass the custard through a sieve to remove any lumps.
Let the custard cool down to room temperature & then let it chill in the fridge for a few hours, until it’s completely chilled.
The custard will have ‘set’ after chilling. So, it is important to whisk the pastry cream to make it smooth before using.
Assembly
Once the base & custard have cooled, spread raspberry preserve over the bottom of pastry cases. Spoon in the custard, then sprinkle with the coconut & chill. Decorate with raspberries and a final sprinkle of powdered sugar on the berries. Serve.
Recipe Notes
- I used two sizes of tart rings - 2 1/4 + 2 1/2" for these.
While certain holidays such as Christmas, lend themselves to giving food as gifts, gift-giving should be thoughtful and sincere.
We give gifts during the holiday season to express gratitude, love, or friendship to those near and dear throughout the year. But the custom of giving gifts goes all the way back to the first Christmas when the wise men brought Jesus three gifts — gold, frankincense and myrrh.
Many of the gifts we give and receive at Christmas time, especially ones related to food, have symbolic meaning and tales of folklore behind them. Others are just fun to make and share with family and friends. Sometimes those food gifts become an anticipated tradition that the gifter enjoys making and the receiver looks forward to every year.
These Christmas cookie wreaths seem like the perfect gift for our neighbors. Hope they like them because they where a lot of fun to make.
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Christmas Cookie Wreaths for Gifts
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Ingredients
Cranberry Lemon Pistachio Cookies
Ingredients
Cranberry Lemon Pistachio Cookies
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Instructions
Spicy Wreath Base
In a large bowl, combine all ingredients. Mix until dough forms. Divide dough in half for 2 separate wreaths. Roll each half into a long strip about 43-inches long. On 2 sheets of parchment paper, draw 2 round circles each about a 13-inch circumference. Place on baking sheets. Following the circle outline, place a strip of dough on each circle. Press with the back of a spoon to flatten to about a 1/2-inch thickness.
Preheat oven to 310 F. Bake cookie bases for about 15 minutes. They should be baked but not overdone so that the centers are soft. Remove from oven & cool on a wire rack until ready to assemble with cookies.
Cranberry Lemon Pistachio Cookies
In a bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking powder & salt. Place butter & sugar in a bowl & beat with a mixer until pale & fluffy. Mix in egg yolks, lemon zest & vanilla. Reduce speed to low & gradually mix in flour mixture. Shape into a disk; wrap in plastic. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 350 F. Transfer dough to a lightly floured work surface. Roll out to 1/8-inch thick. Using a 2 1/2-inch round fluted cutter, cut out wreaths. Cut out centers using a 7/8-inch round or star cutter.
Space 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Refrigerate until firm, about 15 minutes. bake until just golden, about 12 minutes. Allow to cool for a couple of minutes before icing.
Stir together powdered sugar & lemon juice in a small bowl. Spread each cookie with icing & sprinkle with pistachios and/or pepita seeds & cranberries. Yield: 24
Anise Shortbread Stars
In a bowl, sift together cornstarch, powdered sugar, flour & anise powder. Blend in butter with a spoon, mixing until a soft, smooth dough forms. If the dough is too soft to handle, cover & chill about 1 hour.
Between 2 sheets of parchment paper, roll dough out about 1/2-inch thick. Using a star cookie cutter, cut out stars & sprinkle with coarse white sanding sugar. Transfer to ungreased baking sheets spacing 1 1/2-inches apart. Place baking sheets in refrigerator & chill 30 minutes. Halfway through, preheat oven to 300 F. Bake for about 20 minutes or until edges are just barely browned. Yield: 18
Persimmon Linzer Cookies
In a bowl, sift together flour & salt. Set aside. In a large bowl, cream butter, sugar & vanilla until light & fluffy. Beat in as much of the flour mixture as possible. Mix the rest & gently knead until dough comes together. Wrap in plastic wrap & chill for 30 minutes.
Prepare persimmon puree. In a saucepan over medium low heat, combine persimmons, sugar, cinnamon & salt. Simmer until thick, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat, cool slightly then transfer to a small food processor. Puree mixture until smooth. Set aside to cool.
Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Roll out dough on lightly floured surface to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut into rounds with a 2-inch fluted LINZER cookie cutter with a star attachment in the center. Place on lined cookie sheet. Bake for about 12-15 minutes or just until edges begin to brown. Allow cookies to cool to room temperature.
Spread persimmon puree on the flat side of each solid cookie. Dust & decorate cookies with cut outs using powdered sugar & some more puree. Place decorated cookie tops on bottoms spread with puree, making a sandwich.
Assembly
Arrange cookies on wreath base to your liking. You can either 'fasten' them with an bit of icing that will harden (see notes) or just place them on top base. That way they are easy to pick up by guests without to much trouble. The base can be cut into pieces after the top cookies are eaten for some more cookie goodness.
Recipe Notes
ICING FOR ATTACHING COOKIES TO WREATH:
After Christmas, Halloween is one of the most commercial holidays in Canada. Canadians love going over the top for Halloween. Not only with creative costumes but with the exterior and interior decorations of their homes which are often decorated with fall elements like dried leaves and pumpkin-themed decor.
Halloween in Canada is celebrated on October 31 each year. Even though the festival is celebrated with a lot of pizazz and character, Halloween is not a public holiday in any part of the world.
You would be surprised to know that against popular belief of Halloween having a serious North American following, it is a very British-Irish origin story. The Celts believed that on the night of October 31st, the ghosts of the dead would come back to earth and cause havoc. To ward off evil spirits, people would dress up in costumes, carve jack-o-lanterns, and have bonfires.
Halloween is a great way to celebrate the fabulous fall season in Canada with its spooky decorations, costumes, and treats and to remember the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, which marked the end of summer and the beginning of winter.
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Fall Cookie Leaves
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Instructions
Whisk together flour & salt in a small bowl.
Beat together butter & sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes in a stand mixer or 6 minutes with a hand mixer. Beat in egg & vanilla. Reduce speed to low & add dry ingredients, mixing until just combined.
Divide dough into 4 different bowls. Add a couple of drops of color to each portion of dough. Form into disks. Chill disks, wrapped in plastic wrap, until firm, at least 1 hour.
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On a floured work surface, place dollops of colored cookie dough next to each other. Using a floured rolling pin, roll out to a thickness of 1/4-inch. Don't OVER ROLL cookie dough.
Using different leaf cookie cutters, cut out various leaf shapes. Cut out as many cookies as possible from dough with cutters and transfer to 2 ungreased large baking sheets, arranging cookies about 1 inch apart. Sprinkle with coarse sugar if you wish.
Bake cookies, 1 sheet at a time, until edges are golden, 10 to 12 minutes, do not overbake. Transfer to racks to cool completely.
Recipe Notes
- You can just sprinkle with coarse sugar or if you prefer, glaze them as I did.
- Because it just happens to be Halloween, I added a few 'cinnamon sugar tortilla bats' to my tray just for fun.
As peach season wanes and the late summer sun shines brightest, plums arrive in their multicolored splendor. They come in vibrant red, yellow, orange, green, and pink-purple colors.
Plums belong to the same family as peaches, nectarines and apricots. Over 2,000 varieties of plums exist, each with a diverse set of shapes and colors, and they are divided into the following six categories – Japanese, American, Ornamental, Damson, Wild, and European.
One of the best things about plums is how versatile they are. Both sweet and spicy recipes work well with them. Brown sugar, cardamom, nutmeg, and cinnamon are plums’ best friends.
Plums aren’t the summer darling of fruits and are underutilized. But that means you can easily use them to add an unexpected twist to traditional recipes.
Gently spiced, this plum tart celebrates the summer-into-fall season. Quartered and nestled into the batter, the plums soften into mulberry-colored pockets as they bake.
While a slice of this seasonal fruit tart needs no embellishment, a scoop of vanilla ice cream or some whipped cream doesn’t hurt.
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Late Summer Plum Tart
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Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 F. Line the sides of a 9-inch springform pan with parchment paper.
In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon & cardamom.
In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, cream butter & 1 cup sugar until pale & fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add egg & vanilla; beat on low speed until well combined. Gradually add the flour mixture alternating with the milk. Beat on low speed until smooth & thick.
Transfer the batter to prepared baking pan & smooth the top with a spoon or offset spatula. Arrange plums on top, skin side up, in circular patterns. Sprinkle the remaining 2 Tbsp of sugar over plums.
Bake for 60 minutes or until golden on top & set in the center.
Remove from oven then remove sides from springform pan leaving the base in place. Cool completely on a wire rack. Slice & serve with ice cream or whipped cream if desired.
I always enjoy researching and baking traditional Easter breads. Maybe its because I have such fond memories of my mother’s Easter bread which wasn’t fancy but just ‘to die for’. This year I decided to try my hand at making some Polish Easter bread called ‘placek’.
Just for the sake of interest I wanted to post some of the various countries and their traditional Easter breads.
- Babka (Poland, Ukraine, Belarus): a tall, cylindrical bread often baked in a Bundt-type pan and containing raisins and/or candied citron or orange peel, optionally with icing on the top, thus making it much sweeter than Paska, a broad, round, rich, white bread decorated on the top with symbols, including crosses, flowers, braids, wheat, or other designs representing aspects of Orthodox (Eastern) Christianity—made only for Easter to celebrate the rising of Christ from the dead.
- Placek (Poland): refers to a sweet yeast bread topped with sugary crumble, with or without golden raisins served on Easter. (Pronounced plah-sek)
- Cozonac (Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia): a slightly sweet yeast bread containing raisins and walnuts or pecans—a type of Stollen.
- Folar (Portugal): a bread that may be either sweet or salty and is traditionally offered to godfathers, and priests at Easter in imitation of Jesus’ distribution of bread to his disciples at the Last Supper.
- Hornazo (Spain): a yeast bread meat pie stuffed with pork loin, spicy chorizo, and hard-boiled eggs
- Hot Cross Buns (Great Britain): a spiced sweet bun containing currants or raisins (and sometimes other dried fruits), marked on top with icing in the shape of a cross, and traditionally eaten on Good Friday.
- Kalach (Serbia, Hungary): similar to brioche and usually baked in a braid arranged to form a circle.
- Mazanec (Czech Republic): a sweet bread eaten throughout Holy Week made of dough containing rum soaked raisins and dried fruit, baked as a round loaf, with slivered almonds on top and a decoration made of icing or powdered sugar in the shape of a cross.
- Osterbrot (Germany): a yeast bread containing raisins and slivered almonds and usually cut into thin slices, spread with butter, and enjoyed at breakfast or at teatime.
- Paasstol (Netherlands): a fruit-bread containing raisins and usually filled with almond paste (also made at Christmas).
- Pasca (Romania, Moldova): a sweet bread served with sweet soft cheese that may also be decorated with fruits, nuts, or chocolate.
- Pasqua (Italy): a cake containing candied peel but no raisins and topped with pearl sugar and almonds before being baked in the shape of a ‘dove’.
- Pinca (Croatia, Montenegro): a sweet bread loaf with the sign of a cross carved on top before being baked and eaten at the end of Lent.
- Tsoureki (Greece, Armenia): a sweet holiday bread commonly seasoned with orange zest, mastic resin (from the mastic tree), or mahlab (an aromatic spice made from the pits of the Mediterranean “St. Lucy’s” cherry tree).
Hope you enjoyed reading this info as much as I did.
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Polish Easter Placek
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Instructions
Sponge
In a bowl, dissolve yeast in lukewarm milk with sugar & allow to stand until foamy, about 15 minutes. Stir in the flour, then cover the bowl & let the sponge rise until doubled in size, 30 minutes to an hour.
Dough
In a mixing bowl, cream together butter & sugar, then add the eggs in one at a time; beat until fluffy. Add in the salt, nutmeg zest & 1 cup of flour; beat well. When the sponge is risen, add that to the creamed mixture along with the last cup of flour & the raisins. Knead dough until a very smooth, elastic, sticky dough forms.
Using greased hands, place dough into a greased or buttered bowl. Cover the bowl & allow to rise until doubled in size, about 1-2 hours.
Crumble Topping
Cut butter into sugar & flour until it is fully mixed in & crumbly, then stir in the almonds.
Assembly
When the dough has risen, use greased or wet hands to place in greased baking pans. Sprinkle the crumble over the dough, pressing in lightly. Cover the pans, then let the dough rise until doubled or until almost risen to the top.
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Bake for 30-45 minutes until golden brown on top. Let the bread cool on a wire rack,
Recipe Notes
- I used one 12" x 5 " loaf pan & one 5" x 2" round spring form pan for this amount of dough.
Its hard to say if its the bright color of the fruit or the crisp flavor …. lemons just remind me of spring. I think, when you incorporate some limoncello liqueur into dessert recipes it takes them to a whole new level. Its tangy, refreshing and balances the sugary sweetness of cookies, cakes and many other confections.
Our first introduction to the taste of some authentic limoncello was in the town of Sorrento on the Amalfi Coast of Italy. In 2013, Brion & I had a wonderful holiday travelling throughout Italy. The Amalfi coast is known for its production of limoncello liqueur. It is only here, thanks to the Mediterranean climate, lemons grow with a thick skin that is rich with essential oils, fragrant and with a strong aroma. The lemon skin is the most important ingredient when it comes to making limoncello.
Stunning Amalfi , with its electric blue sea, terra cotta rooftops, bright white sand beaches, emerald hillsides and lemon tree lined streets, will be forever etched in our memories.
The hint of limoncello in the icing gives these simple little shortbread cookies such a nice flavor.
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Pistachio Limoncello Cookies
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Instructions
Shortbread
Preheat oven to 325 F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment.
In a bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch & salt.
In a large bowl, beat butter & sugar with an electric mixer until fluffy & aerated, 4-5 minutes. Add milk & limoncello liqueur; beat for 1 minute.
Sift in half the flour mixture, then fold in with a spatula until just combined. Repeat. Spoon half of the shortbread batter into a piping bag fitted with a large, open star tip.
Pipe batter into 1 1/2-inch wide rosettes, 1 inch apart on a prepared sheets.
Bake shortbread ONLY until edges are lightly browned, 15-16 minutes. Let cool for 3 minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool.
Limoncello Icing
While shortbread cookies are baking, combine powdered sugar & limoncello. Drizzle over warm cookies. While icing is still wet, sprinkle the chopped pistachios over the tops. Allow to set before serving.
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Recipe Notes
- Trace 1 1/2 inch circles onto parchment paper. Flip the paper over & use circles as a guide when piping rosettes.
