Fresh Berry Tartlets with Creamy Vanilla Bean Filling - gluten free! (Or not)

You know how sometimes you land upon a recipe that just has some sort of magic combination of ingredients, and it turns into a family favorite that you make over and over again? This is that recipe. I have made this tart every summer since I discovered it, and I've been tinkering with the recipe until I got it just the way I like it. It's probably the most requested recipe I have, so its about time it went up on the 'ol blog, wouldn't you say?

BTW, I generally adapt recipes from other sources, but this crust recipe is all me! The original called for a graham cracker crust, and when I first started making this gluten-free graham crackers were not available (they are now). That's ok though, because I like this crust way better than a the graham cracker crust, and so does everyone else! There just something special about the nutty almond flour (and this crust) that really brings this dessert up to a whole new level.

And of course, you must make the filling. It is not optional. Do not use something else. This filling is THE BEST THING EVER. It makes pastry cream feel like an ugly stepsister crying in the corner. It's like, as good as cheesecake, but with none of the work. I promise, if you make this, you will never want to use pastry cream again (ok, ok, you might use it again, but you will like this better).

Fresh Berry Tartlets with Creamy Vanilla Bean Filling
makes 1 large tart, or 4-5 individual tartlets

I topped these with raspberries, strawberries, and blueberries because that's what was in season, and it looked cute for our 4th of July barbecue, but you can really make these any time of year and use whatever fruit or combination of fruits are fresh and in season. I have made it with peaches and raspberries, cherries, apricots, blackberries, and I bet it would taste great with poached pears, quince, or other fall fruits.

I used to make this as one large tart, but that was always a struggle for me, because as pretty as it looks when you are done making it, it turns into a real mess when you try to cut it up. One I did it as individual tartlets, I was sold: They are just so cute, and they don't fall apart when you slice them into individual portions.

For the Crust
3/4 cup almond flour
1 cup flour (you can use regular flour if gluten is not an issue, or an all purpose gluten-free mix, or yout favorite combination of gluten free flours. For this recipe I use 1/2 a cup sweet rice flour, and 1/2 a cup oat flour)
1 tbs xanthum gum
1/2 a cup (1 stick) butter, melted
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar

For the cream cheese vanilla bean filling
8 oz (one stick) cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup heavy cream, room temperature
1 Vanilla Bean, halved and scraped, or 1 tsp Vanilla Bean Paste
1/4 cup white sugar

For the topping
2 cups fresh fruit
optional: warmed jam for especially sour fruits, brushed over the top

1. Make the crust: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together almond flour and other flour(s), xanthum gum, and sugars. Pour melted butter into flour, and mix with a wooden spoon until evenly distributed through the flour. Press into tart shell, and bake 15 - 20 minutes, until golden. Remove from the oven, and cool completely.

2. Make the filling: In a stand mixer, beat cream cheese until soft, 2-3 minutes. Add in vanilla, sugar, and cream. Mix on low until incorporated, then beat on high until cream is light and fluffy. Scrape into cooled tart shell, and top with fruit. If the fruit you have chosen is especially sour, feel free to brush some warmed jam over it. Enjoy!

Apricot Vanilla Bean Jam ~ Mes Confitures

You asked for it, so here it is! This is my favorite jam. A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to find organic apricots for only 50 cents a pound, so what to do? Buy 10 lbs and make apricot vanilla bean jam, of course!

The inspiration for this jam comes from Christine Ferber's jam making Bible, Mes Confitures. This book is incredible. It has so many amazing jam recipes - black cherry with Pinot noir, raspberry with white peach, apple with caramel. Is your mouth watering yet? She's called the fairy godmother of jams and jellies, and she deserves it.

Alright, recipe time!


Apricot Vanilla Bean Jam
adapted from Christine Ferber's Mes Confitures

2 + 1/2 lbs ripe apricots
3 + 3/4 cups granulated sugar
7 oz water (a little less than a cup)
juice of one small lemon
2 Vanilla Beans, or 1 tsp Vanilla Bean Paste

1. Rinse and pit the apricots. Place the apricots, the sugar, water, lemon juice, and vanilla bean split lengthwise (or vanilla bean paste) in a large heavy bottomed pot, and mash with a potato masher. (Ferber has you do some macerating and over night stuff, and then you peel off the skins, but that is way too fussy for me!)

2. Bring the mixture to a boil. Cook on high heat, until the jam reaches 221 degrees. Or be lazy like me and forget the thermometer - boil until the jam sets (you can check the sit by dripping some onto a cold plate. It it sets instead of runs, it's done!)

3. Put the jam immediately into canning jars and seal.

Beach Day: Newport Beach

a few of James' little friends

June in Southern California is gray, misty affair. In fact, it could be said that California's weather never does what you wish it would: it's blazing hot in December, and overcast and cold in June. Just when you want to pull out the flip flops and the sunscreen, the sun disappears behind a marine layer and doesn't come out for a month.

We went to the beach anyway.

And it was a lovely day: Soft and pastel, but lovely all the same, and not even that cold, in the end. James had a great time running up and down the beach, chasing beach balls and makings sand castles. And the friends! It was so great to have so many friends there with us! Speaking of...

Internet, you have to meet James' little friend Amara. What a girl! Seriously - you look away for a millisecond, and she was gone, rushing toward the water. She had been heading back up the beach with a grownup, and I was standing down by the water talking to a friend, when suddenly I looked over, and she was waist high in the water with a wave rushing towards her. I ran in after her, slinging my camera over my back and praying it didn't get wet. (Notice how my first instinct was to pray for the camera and not the child. Hmmm. Priorities people.) Did she come up smiling? Oh yes, she did.

See her mom's expression? She's saying, "what am I going to do with this kid??" They were at the beach for like... an hour? After that, her mom was like, "we need to go home now. I am pregnant and I am done."

She's a fire cracker, that one.

My mom came and did a bit of painting while we were there. I love the relationship that James has with his grandma (all of his grandparents actually!). He calls her Kimmy, and he adores her. Whenever we pull up to my parents house, he has a sharp intake of breath, and then he yell "yaay!" I think that's pretty cool, because neither Nate nor I ever really had relationships with any of our grandparents, and it's so wonderful and unanticipated that my kid has such great relationships with his.






All in all, I'd say it was an excellent day. And more to come!

Martha Stewart's Cinnamon Spiced Mexican Horchata

I have been going back and forth about whether I should post this recipe or not, because as good as it is (and it's really good), and as lovely as the pictures are (don't you like them?), this is not very authentic horchata. I say that because it has cow's milk in it, and traditionally, Mexican horchata is made of rice milk. And traditionally, you must wake up at the crack of dawn, soak the rice all day, and then grind it to a paste (by hand!) in your molcajete (what's that sound I hear? Ah, yes, cue the tiny violin).

Alternatively, you buy a little plastic baggie of powdered mix from the Mexican section of the grocery store, and you mix it with water. Which, by the way, I am pretty sure is what most Mexican people around here actually do when they want to drink horchata. Who has time to grind rice in a molcajete all day long?

So this drink, while delicious, is sort of Martha's irreverent devil-may-care-what-the-real-thing-is interpretation of horchata, and I have to say, it's good! It's creamy and delicious and the milk pairs well with Mexican food, which can be spicy! I imagine you could probably even just use unsweetened rice milk from the grocery store if you want to make it more authentic, or if you happen to be allergic to cow's milk, or you are vegan or WHATEVER. You don't have to make any explanations to me! I love you just the way you are, non-milk drinking friend.

If you want to make this a more grown-up drink, you can add in a little dark rum. It's quite tasty!

Martha Stewart's Cinnamon Spiced Mexican Horchata
adapted from Martha Stewart Living 2011
Serves 4

Ingredients
4 cups milk (use whatever fat content you like best)
1 cinnamon stick
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
1/3 cup rice flour
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
optional: 1/2 cup dark rum

1. bring milk and cinnamon stick to a simmer over medium heat. Remove from heat, and transfer to a pitcher or bowl. Mix in sweetened condensed milk, flour, vanilla, and cinnamon. Chill until cold (a good 2 hours should do it).

2. strain mixture with a sieve, and add in rum (if using). Pour over ice, and garnish with a cinnamon stick, or a little sprinkle or cinnamon. Enjoy!

Authentic Homemade Fire Roasted Mexican Salsa!

This salsa makes me angry. It makes me angry because I have been paying $4 for little jars of salsa for year and years, and now I find out that making your own big jar of salsa is not only delicious and easy, but it's also dirt cheap! Do you have access to some tomatoes, garlic, onions, and jalapeno peppers? Then you have the making of some great salsa on your hands.

This being me, I am also excited to have more control over the ingredients, and I can keep out nasty villains like corn syrup, excessive sodium, and preservatives, and risky chemicals like BPA or whatever else they use to line cans and jar lids. But that's just me and my ever lasting quest to get more healthy food into my family!

I have only made this one way, but I like to think that this is a good base recipe for making different flavors of sauce. Here are some suggestions for flavors:

Three Pepper: Add 3 cored bell peppers to roasting pan, in red, orange, and yellow
Garlic Chipotle: Replace jalapeno with 1 - 2 canned Chipotle peppers (depending on how spicy you want it) and 1 tsp adobo sauce. Increase garlic to 5-6 cloves
Pineapple: Add 2 thick slices cored fresh pineapple, or 1/2 a cup drained canned pineapple
Spicy Smoky Peach: Add 1 fresh peach, slices in half and pit removed, and replace jalapeno with 1/2 a chipotle pepper + adobo (or more if you like it hot!)
Double Chipotle: Add 1 - 2 canned chipotle peppers + adobo sauce, and 1 teaspoon smoke chipotle chili powder

Authentic Homemade Fire Roasted Mexican Salsa Recipe
adapted from Everyday Food, June 2011

Ingredients
4-5 ripe tomatoes, sliced in half, and seeds removed
2-4 jalapeno peppers, tops cut off, and seeds removed (use your discretion here - if you like your salsa mild, use one pepper with the seeds removed. It you like it really spicy, do 4 peppers with the seeds still in, since that's the spiciest part.
2 cloves garlic, skin on
1 large white onion, peeled and cut in half
1 bunch cilantro, roughly chopped (about 1 cup loosely packed)
lime juice
sea salt
cracked black pepper
additional pepper if desired, such as cayenne or chipotle

1. Turn on oven broiler. A gas stove is best, since you will get that awesome flame kissed flavor, but an electric stove will work too. Place tomatoes and onion cut side down on a rimmed baking sheet, along with garlic and jalapenos. broil 5-10 minutes, until tomatoes and onions are softened and charred (if garlic begins to burn, remove it early). Remove from boiler, and let cool to handle.

2. Roughly chop tomatoes, onion, and jalapenos, and peel garlic. Place in a food processor. Pulse until smooth. Add chopped cilantro, the juice of 1 lime (about 1.5 tablespoons), sea salt, pepper, and chili (if using), and pulse until incorporated. Taste, and correct seasoning. Serve immediately, or transfer to a container, and refridgerate up to 4 days (or, you could can it and stock your pantry!) enjoy!

Dreamy Creamy Coconut Cream Bars

I know this doesn't seem like this has anything to do with coconut cream bars (which are just as creamy and dreamy as they look!), but I have had allergies on the brain lately. Apparently, I am allergic to everything. Cats, dogs, mold, dust, hay, grass, and a host of other things yet unknown. Which is why I have 40 little stickers stuck to my back that are itching like crazy. But it will be good to finally know what it is that I am allergic to to, after not knowing for all this time.

Which has got me to thinking about allergies, because lots of people have them, and not just to dogs and cats and dust and pollen, but to foods as well. Before I knew about my gluten issues, I used to roll my eyes at people with special diets. Like, how pretentious can you get? I can't eat this, I can't eat that, treat me special. Back when I taught, I had a few students who were on gluten-free diets, and they were invariably the most difficult ones. I'm ashamed to say that on more than one occasion, I thought to myself "oh, of course you would be the one on the "gluten-free diet" you annoying kid." Ah, youth. It makes idiots of us all.

Because it was one of those students who actually turned me on to the fact that I had a gluten-problem myself. She brought cupcakes to class one day, and her mom chimed in, "and they're gluten free!" Inwardly I rolled my eyes, but after I ate one I thought "Woah. I don't feel sick after eating that cupcake. I always feel sick after eating a cupcake. What is this "gluten" stuff anyway?" And that was the end of that. Within 2 months, I had gone gluten-free for life. I had become the person I mocked. Haha! Life has a way turning things around on you like that.

All that is to say, you never know: it could happen to you. And if it does happen to you, you can take solace in the fact that allergies and intolerances don't mean the end to all good things. If you can't eat gluten (or whatever you happen to be allergic to... Unless you are allergic to coconut!), you can still eat these bars! (If you can eat gluten, you can eat them too, if you can get your hands on them!). I promise, one day you will never miss the gluten at all. I don't!

And what's to miss, when you can have these dreamy creamy coconut cream bars? It sucks to be allergic to stuff. I suppose I will just have to eat another coconut bar to console myself. Poor, poor me. I feel soooo sorry for myself.

Dreamy Creamy Coconut Bars
adapted from Martha Stewart magazine, May 2004

Ingredients
2.5 cups sweetened dried coconut flakes
-----------------------------
1.5 cups white rice flour (or all purpose flour if gluten is not an issue)
1/2 cup white sugar
1 stick butter, melted
(if you want, you can just use pulsed up sugar cookies instead of the flour and sugar).
----------------------------
1 cup white sugar
6 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 can coconut milk
2 cups whole milk
5 eggs yolk
1 stick butter, cut into small pieces
-----------------------------
1.5 cups heavy cream
3 tablespoons confectioners sugar

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spread coconut on a rimmed baking sheet, and bake 10-15 minutes (stirring occasionally if needed), until coconut is golden around the edges. Remove and let cool.

2. In a food processor, pulse together 1 cup of the toasted coconut, 1.5 cups rice flour, 1/2 a cup white sugar, and the melted butter. Pulse together 1-2 minutes until mixture is crumbly. Press into a 9x13 glass baking dish, and bake 10 minutes, or until golden. Remove, and let cool.

3. In a large non-reactive sauce pan, whisk together 1 cup sugar, 6 tablespoons cornstarch, and 1/2 a teaspoon salt. Mix in 1 can coconut milk, 2 cups whole milk, and 5 egg yolks. Whisk over high heat, until mixture comes to a boil and thickens. Remove from heat, and whisk in pieces of butter and 1 cup of the toasted coconut.

4. Scrape coconut cream into crust, and smooth with a spatula. Press saran wrap to the surface of the coconut cream, so that no skin forms on the custard. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours, until cream is completely cooled.

5. In a stand mixer (or by hand if you are buff), beat 1.5 cups heavy whipping cream with 3 tablespoons confectioners sugar, until stiff. Spoon into a pastry bag fitted with a star tip.

6. Cut cream and crust into bars. Pipe a zig zag of whipped cream onto each bar (so it looks pretty!) and sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup coconut. Enjoy!

Edamame Avocado Dip with Spicy Wasabe

Wow. All I can say is wow. It isn't very often that you stumble across a recipe that shifts your paradigms, but folks, this is it. It's like guacamole on steroids, and the craziest thing is that this stuff is good for you. No really! It is!

If you read my blog at all, you know that I am always trying to sneak healthy stuff into my family. The number one problem is that when you think "healthy" you probably also think "doesn't taste good."

That is so sad.

Healthy food, food that nourishes your body, should taste great. Maybe not like lots of bad fat, sugar, or salt, but it should taste good. And this does. This tastes so, so good. Creamy cool, with the dry heat of wasabe, ginger, and garlic, and a punch of protein from the edamame. It's so good that I want to eat it by the spoonful, and I have to keep reminding myself not to feel guilty if I do, because this really is good for me too!

Edamame Avocado Dip with Spicy Wasabe
adapted from The Cancer-Fighting Kitchen by Rebecca Katz

This is my new favorite cookbook, and before I freak you out, no, no-one at my house has cancer. But people who do have cancer need to eat really healthy food, and it has to taste really good because treatment has a way of killing the appetite. This cookbook does just this: really healthy food that tastes really amazing. Exactly what I need for my picky family!

Ingredients
1 cup fresh or frozen shelled edamame beans
2 avocados, peeled and pitted
1 teaspoon wasabe
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
1 clove minced fresh garlic
1/4 cup water
juice of 2 fresh limes (about 3 tablespoons)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
cracked black pepper
1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint

1. Combine all the ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth. Do a seasoning check, and add more salt, pepper, lime juice, or wasabe as needed (I like to kick it up to a tablespoon to really bring on the heat).