Just who is William Bartlett ?

Why Granny Smith's good friend of course! (In fact she's rather smitten by his firm flesh, bell-shaped bottom)

Little wikipedia says he has many aliases, my favourite is Williams Bon Chrétien, but in Australia he is known as William Bartlett. Bill Bartlett of the Lemon Pipers isn't Granny Smith's friend, despite the fruity name connection.

It is said that this pear has been around since the 1700s and was discovered by a man called Stair, a schoolmaster who then struck a sale and sold the variety to Richard Williams a nurseryman. In 1799, an American bought the variety and cultivated it in the US soil. Years later, (a man with a strange first name I thought...) Enoch Bartlett bought an estate where Williams pear had been planted, propagated the trees and called the pear after himself.

WBs were on special and were $3 cheaper a kilo than ol' nanna Smith so I considered it wise to spend the extra $3 on potato chips instead.



Tarte aux pommes
A Jean-Luc Poujauran recipe, Elle à Table magazine (Jan/Fev 2000 p.51)
Pour 6 personnes

Pâte brisée
200 gr flour
100 gr butter, softened
1 egg yolk
2 tbsp milk
1 pinch sugar

6 apples reine des reinettes
50 gr butter
70 gr brown sugar
1 tbsp miel d'acacia
2 tbsp almond powder

Prepare the pâte in a big bowl, mix butter with sugar and a pinch of salt and add to it the milk and egg yolk. Mix with a whisk and incorporate flour to form a ball. Leave to rest in the fridge for approximately 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 210°C. Peel and core the apples, cut into 4s then into 8s. In a pan on high heat, cook the apples in the butter, honey and 50 gr of the brown sugar for 10 minutes then leave to cool.

Roll out the dough onto a tart pan and prick the base with fork several times. Sprinkle with the almond powder and remaining sugar and fill it 'tightly' with the apples. Bake for 10 at 210°C then 40 minutes at 160°C.

Note:
1. I sprinkled the top with almond powder and sugar.
2. Again I used my tartelette pans for this recipe, I have fear rolling out any dough for big tart pans.
3. As mentioned I subbed the apples with pears, I'm not sure what is equivalent to reine des reinettes... I used whatever honey I have in my pantry, not knowing where I could find a purveyor of miel d'acacia in Sydney.
4. The pâte brisée was extremely short! I like! I followed the tips from the magazine to leave the dough in the fridge overnight (it gets better with time apparently...) and to leave slightly ajar the oven door in the middle of cuisson for 2 minutes so that the vapour escape.
5. xo

Please explain

Dear Mr.Ramsay,
I attempted your chocolate tart recipe a few days ago. For next time, maybe you could give me some pointers. I had problems rolling out the dough for the base, it was too soft! So I added more flour! and I refrigerated it for longer than the recommended 30 minutes, in fact 2 days because I sort of lost my courage after trying a few times to see it tearing apart. I wanted to use my new rectangular tart pan but even for my tartelette pans I struggled! In the end I used Jamie's trick and cut the dough into thin discs and moulded it in. Anyhow, I persisted and conquered. The filling was rather lovely, though my pans are shallow and so it wasn't tall enough to be wobbly.

Thank you and if you care to leave a comment, I'd be most delighted.

Yours sincerly,
Melivanilla

ps. The tarts went down well.



Chocolate tart
A Gordon Ramsay recipe, Delicious magazine (Mar'06 p.93)
Serves 6-8

125 gr plain flour
1 tbsp cocoa powder, plus extra to dust
60 gr unsalted butter, softened
60 gr caster sugar
1 large free-range egg
30 gr dark chocolate, melted, cooled
Crème fraîche, to serve

200 gr good quality dark chocolate, melted
300 ml thickened cream
50 ml milk
2 large free-range eggs
100 gr caster sugar
Few drops vanilla extract

Sift flour and cocoa with a pinch of salt. Using electric beaters, beat butter and sugar in a separate bowl until pale and thick. Mix in egg and chocolate, then beat in flour mixture and knead lightly to a smooth dough. Dust hands with flour and form dough into flat disc. Enclose in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 190°C fan-forced (210°C conventional). Lightly grease a 22cm loose-bottomed tart pan. Roll out dough on a lightly floured board or between sheets of baking paper just larger than the size of the pan. Use to line pan, pressing into sides and trimming to fit. Chill for 15-20 minutes.

Prick base, then line with foil and fill with pastry weights or uncooked rice. Sit pan on a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Remove weights and bake for 5 minutes, then cool. Reduce oven to 150°C fan-forced (170°C conventional).

For filling, brush a third of the melted chocolate over the tart base. Bring the cream and milk to the boil in a pan, then slowly pour onto the remaining chocolate, stirring until smooth. Whisk together the eggs, sugar and vanilla, then combine with chocolate cream.

Place the tart pan on a baking sheet on the middle oven shelf and pull halfway out. Pour in the filling and ease the shelf back in. Bake for 40-45 minutes. The filling will wobble, but sets in the pan. Coll and dust with good quality cocoa. Serve with crème fraîche.



Note : I iPhoto (but I hope you won't notice). I do not like food photographs that are digitally enhanced to the max to bring out their 'natural' colours which I guess was supposedly to enliven the object. It tickles me! but not in the nice way! Can you please let me know if my photos look too done up? Muchas gracias. x

Long live Nino II

When it comes to raising a sourdough starter, I'm not completely clueless! Over the past four years or so, I've raised a few... but all sadly 'killed' by my then, lack of motherly instinct. My latest one Nino II, I only started about 2 weeks ago or so, rather capricous at the beginning, feigning death and all, but I never let him starve (thus far) so nowadays he is a well-behaved young wild yeast.

The first time I made my own starter, I used a recipe from Baker by Dean Brettschneider and Lauraine Jacobs. It is a long recipe with feeding schedule of how much to feed and when, it was a success! Revelation! Jubilee and amazement! Nowadays I am too lazy to be too precise of how much flour and water needed to refresh the boy, though I read somewhere that it's crucial. As for me, I feed Nino around half of his body mass, approximately, twice a day. When I have nothing to blog about, I might acquaint you with him and type up the recipe for the starter which is very very detailed and long! The bread recipe though, I'm happy to share it now. (The basic recipe for my bread also comes from the same book, it's very simple and rather excellent)



Organic Sourdough Bread
makes 3 big loaves or 18 small rolls (I usually make one third of this recipe)

1 kg organic white flour
300 gr organic sourdough starter (pane acido)
600 ml filtered water
20 gr sea salt

Sieve the flour onto work surface and make a well. Add pane acido and water, mixing well by hand and knead dough until the ingredients are well combined.
Put the dough into a bowl and cover. Leave for 20 minutes to rest. Add the sea salt and continue to knead by hand for about 10-15 minutes.

Lightly oil a bowl large enough to allow the dough to double in bulk. Put the dough in the bowl and cover. Leave in a warmish place for 3 hours.
Gently knock back the dough in the bowl, this will deflate it slightly. Cover again and leave for another 60 minutes.

Shape the loaf/rolls and leave for a final proof for approximately 2.5-3 hours.
Preheat the oven to 240°C.
If you want to score the loaves, do it now using a razor blade or sharp knife.

Bake for 20 minutes then turn the heat down to 220°C, if necessary turn them around. For the remaining baking time, leave the door slightly ajar to thicken and dry the crust. After 30-35 minutes the loaves will be ready. Cool on a wire rack.



Note:
1. I'm especially fond of the 'mie' of these rolls I made. It has air holes!
2. I cut the long recipe short, and I only proof the dough once. Normally I would start the dough before I go to bed, shape it, ready to bake first thing in the morning.
3. These rolls has chopped olives and rosemary added, my other favourite variants are walnut, with or without raisin and just plain olive.
4. I add gluten to my flour to make it 'stronger' to the ratio of 5gr per 100gr of flour.

ps. Am I going to be yeastspotted by yeastspotting wild yeast ?