Apple pie poptarts and my labmates

Have I mentioned how much I love my labmates? Very much. You know, when you start in a new lab, with a new project, doing stuff you've never done before, things look a little scary. Every little step is full of questions like how should I do this, is this ok, is it gonna work? .

I'm a super lucky gal. I have fantastic labmates who are more than willing to help me every step of the way. They answer my questions, they teach me their tricks and they do it with a smile on their faces. We're a bunch of happy people sharing a tiny space.

But please, don't you think for a second that all we do is work. We do work, but we seriously have too much fun. I usually define our dinamics as a 'shit show'. And excuse my vocabulary, but we're just plain ridiculous. Take for instance the other day, when I was trying to filtrate some stuff and I couldn't reach the filter. There comes my labmate with two large cans and puts one underneath each one of my feet so I can reach. And obviously, two seconds later, the boss shows up and starts laughing at me and says 'ok, we're getting you a stool'. (I did get it!).

That's just one example of ridiculousness. I think our singing is pretty funny too. I share my primary workspace with two very manly guys. Well, they both sang Whitney Houston the other day. I almost dropped what I was carrying.

All in all, I love these guys. I have tons of fun with them and they help me a lot. That's why when C mentioned the other day, how disappointed he was that his mum didn't make apple pie this past thanksgiving, I had an idea. I thought I could make him apple pie in a portable way. And the result are these delicious 'poptarts'. Basically apple pie crust with apple pie filling in a nice cute shape. Pretty and delicious. I bet your coworkers will be happy if you make them!

Apple pie 'poptarts'

For the crust
1 1/4 cups flour
1 stick of butter, cold and cubed
1/8 cup really cold water
1 tablespoon sugar

Mix the butter with the flour and sugar until pebbles form. Use either your hands or a pastry cutter. If you do it with your hands, work fast so the butter doesn't melt. Add the cold water and mix well until you form a homogeneous dough. Refrigerate the dough for at least an hour. Once cold, roll the dough to a thickness of about half a centimeter. Cut in rectangles of the same size. You can make them as big or as small as you want.

For the filling
2 large or 3 medium granny smith apples
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon (I like it a lot)
2 tablespoons of butter, softened

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl. If the butter doesn't spread homogeneously, heat the mixture in the microwave for a bit. Make sure your filling is cold when making the poptarts.

For the poptarts
Preheat your oven to 350F
Place the filling (about 2 tablespoons for the size I made) on top of one of the sides of the poptart. Cover with the other side. Seal the edges with the help of a fork and make three cuts in the tarts to release the steam. Brush the tarts with egg wash. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the tarts are golden brown and oozing with juices. Enjoy warm or cold!

Blueberry galette and publications

Somehow, my life revolves around publications. As a teenager, I used to publish articles in the school magazine. Nothing too fancy, but it was fun and it gave me the opportunity to write about whatever I wanted (more or less). A few years later, while in college, I published poems and short stories in a Catalan website. I wrote always with a nickname, just because I'm not ready for the world to associate my verbal ramblings to myself. Then all the sudden, for some reason, I stopped writing. 

Wait wait, don't be too sad. The artsy part of myself didn't get lost, it just changed instruments. I certainly forgot about pens, papers and keyboards, but I discovered cameras. My dad and one of my sisters are both great photographers, so I guess the transition was meant to happen. 

By the end of college, I was all into metal music. The only one to blame is my friend M, who plays in a band and introduced me to several other bands. I loved going to shows and taking pictures, all with a point and shoot and no photo editing. Still, the shots were decent and I ended up being pretty much the official photographer of my friends' bands. 

But change doesn't stop. I finished college, moved to the US, to a variety of music styles and to a lab at M.I.T.. In the academic world, science is all about publications. People need to know what you're doing in order to establish collaborations, give you money and such things. So I spent my one year project working on tons of experiments that eventually found their place in three papers.  (I'm not gonna go on with what my research was about but if you're interested I'll be happy to tell you more about it). 

After that project, I found a job, started my PhD applications and this blog. At first it was only about publishing posts. Then I took the photography of the recipes more seriously and started sending my pictures to Foodgawker and Tastespotting. The first has already published some of my pictures. Getting published in Tastespotting proved very difficult, but I finally got published this week! I know lots of my fellow bloggers get published there. For them it's probably no big deal. To me it is. It proves that no matter if it's science or photography, perseverance takes you places. 

I made this galette for 4th of July while staying at my friends' place. (Excuse the pictures of the finished product, they are not exactly ideal). They all loved it. My friend S asked me to publish the recipe ASAP, so here it goes. Easy and delicious. According to S, very tasty. Maybe he liked it so much because it has some bourbon in it. Oh, and best of news, I got told yesterday that another one of our papers has been accepted for publication. I hope to be publishing many more recipes  and papers in the upcoming years. Now, galette.

Blueberry galette
Print this recipe

Pate brisee:
adapted from Martha Stewart via Smitten Kitchen
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 stick butter, very cold, cut into pieces
1/4 cup water, freezing

In a bowl, combine, flour, sugar and salt. Stir in the butter pieces and work them into the dough. I used my hands, you can use a pastry blender. If you're making this in summer you'll want to work fast to prevent the butter from softening. Once the mix resembles coarse pebbles, add the cold water and keep on working the dough until it comes together as a ball. Wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour.

Filling
3/4 pint blueberries (or as many as you can fit in your dough)
3 tablespoons bourbon
1 tablespoon of sugar

Wash your blueberries. Toss them together with the bourbon and sugar and let them sit in the fridge while you refrigerate your dough.

Assemble the galette

Preheat your oven to 375 F
Roll your dough into a disc (I did it with my hands because my friends don't have a rolling pin, works just fine). Leaving a 2 inch border, place your blueberries on the dough. Brush the edges with egg wash and then fold them over the fruit to form a seam. Brush the outside part of the seam with more egg wash and sprinkle with some sugar. Transfer to a baking sheet and bake for about 25 minutes, until the crust is golden brown and the fruit filling is bubbly. Serve cold or at room temperature.

Torta de tomate (Spanish tomato and tuna tart)

Torta de tomate is a very typical dish from the region my dad is from, Castellon. I can't count how many times I've eaten this great concotion of tomato, tuna, onions, peppers and a crispy dough. After so many years enjoying my aunt's torta, I had to make it myself. 

There's two things that make this tart delicious. The yeast in the dough comes from beer, just like that, plain beer, which gives it a great flavor. And then there's the tomatoes, cut into pieces and cooked until they fall apart to render a sauce with some chunks.You can't beat slow cooked tomatoes.

When I asked her my aunt for her go to recipe, she told me it actually comes from my grandmother and it passed on to her. And now it's mine, and hopefully one day I'll pass it along as well. Now I'm giving it to you. I promise it won't disappoint you if you try it. The original recipe has bell peppers but I have a really hard time digesting them. Feel free to throw a couple of green and red in, or not. This tart is very versatile, adjust it to your taste. 

Don't cheat in this recipe. Get good ripe plum or roma tomatoes. Nice olive oil and some pine nuts. No canned anything, it's worth it.

For the topping
8-9 tomatoes, cut into cubes
(2 red and 2 green bell peppers if you want to add them)
1 medium onion, chopped
olive oil
pine nuts

Cook the onion at very low heat until translucent and then add the tomatoes (and peppers). Keep the heat low and cook the tomatoes until they fall apart. You don't want to peel the tomatoes because the skin adds another layer of texture to the tart. When the tomatoes are fully cooked, remove from the heat, break down the tuna into little pieces and mix it in.

For the dough, I know this is not gonna sound like a recipe, but it really works...
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup beer
A pinch of salt
All purpose flour

Mix together the olive oil and the beer in a bowl and start adding flour, about half a cup at a time, until the dough comes together. You'll need about 2-3 cups of flour, but really just keep adding until you get a dough that it's not sticky. Knead the dough for about 5 minutes until elastic. Let it rest for about 15 min and then roll it very thin until you get a rectangle with about 1/2 cm thickness.

To assemble the tart

Spread the tomato mixture over the dough. Sprinkle with a generous amount of pine nuts. Cook at 350 F for about 30 minutes or until the dough is crispy and the pine nuts are slightly toasted. Eat cold or warm.

Very berry cream tart

This is not a tart. This is an ode to your taste buds. This is the best of sweet things. This is the beginning of my love story with pastry cream.

It must be a family thing because my mum loves pastry cream. She doesn't like cakes (I know, weird), she's not a fan of frosting or layers of flour and butter. But she loves pastry cream. You ask her what does she want for her birthday and she answers 'anything with pastry cream'.

I myself used to like pastry cream but I was way too terrified to make it. I thought it was the hardest of things and any attempt to make it was gonna end up with a bunch of curdled eggs.

Oh my! how wrong was I! Not only is it delicious but so easy to make, you're gonna want to whip up a batch a day! 

Now, I know you feel like you could eat this with a spoon. But I promise you can even make it better. Just slice some of these...

Now you've reached tart perfection. You and my labmates, because this tart went to a work event and they all loved it!

Oh, I almost forgot... what if I told you you're gonna make a crust that doesn't shrink in the oven? Well, write this recipe down, or even better, go for the printable version

Unshrinkable sweet tart crust (from Dorie Greenspan)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick very cold unsalted butter cubed
1 large egg

Combine the flour, sugar and salt in a bowl. Mix in the cold cubed butter, working it with your hands, until pebbles form. Add the egg and keep working the dough until it comes together in a ball. Chill for 30 min. Roll the dough to a size big enough to cover your tart pan. Place the rolled dough in the pan and press it hard against the edges. With a fork, poke holes all over the crust. Cover the surface with plastic wrap.
Now here's the trick. Freeze the tart for at least 30 min before baking. I made it in advance and froze it overnight. Freezing the dough is gonna prevent it from shrinking in the oven, making it, for real, the perfect tart crust. Bake the tart at 350 F for about 20 min, or until golden brown.


Pastry cream (different sources)

3 egg yolks
1 1/2 cups of milk
1/2 cup heavy cream*
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup granulated sugar

*You can change the proportions and add more cream if you'd like.

Bring milk, cream and sugar to a boil in a saucepan. In the meantime, whisk together the egg yolks, the cornstarch until the mixture turns pale and forms ribbons. Once the milk mixture boils, turn off the heat. Take a tablespoon of the milk mix and add it slowly to the egg mixture while whisking it. This will help temper the eggs, that is, bring them to the right temperature so they don't curdle when you add the rest of the milk. Now start whisking the egg mixture and add, all at once, the milk and cream. Keep mixing until you have a homogeneous mixture and then return the liquid to the saucepan. Heat the mixture until it comes to a boil. I kept cooking for about 3 minutes after that. Keep in mind, the longer you cook it, the thicker the cream. Just remember to keep whisking the cream during the whole process. You can flavor the cream by adding a couple teaspoons of vanilla extract. If you do so, add it always at the end, with the heat off.
Transfer the cream to a bowl and cover the surface with plastic wrap so it doesn't form a skin. Chill for a couple hours, preferably overnight. I didn't have time to wait for it to cool down too much so I chilled it for about 30 min and then transferred to the tart shell.

Once the cream is chilled you can proceed to assemble the tart. Slice about a half a pint of strawberries and or any other berry you like. Add the pastry cream to the tart and level it up to get a smooth surface. Place the berries on top. Serve cold.

Easiest apple tart ever

My oven hates me. I know it, I'm sure. He's being abused by the uncontrolled amount of baking that's been going on lately. I've found myself offering to bake something for every tiny little celebration that goes on both with friends and at work. And that's a lot of baking. Believe me.

Last Friday the excuse was a little cute boy called Connor, who was born 3 weeks ago. It was time to meet my friends' baby! We hadn't seen each other for a while. I thought it'd be nice to bring something to enjoy all together. And I thought about a tart (easy transportation). Since I had a ton of apples left in the kitchen...

Apple tart it is! Who doesn't like apple tart? you? well, then you're weird. Sorry, no offense. You are, it's ok, we can still be friends.

Make this. It's good for you. Me and L ate 1 slice each. A ate 2 slices and took the rest home. I've heard there was no tart left the day after. Conclusion: easy, yummy, make it, eat it, smile.


For the crust:
Note: this is a pie crust. It works well for the apple tart as well. If you're purists with not using pie crust for the tart, just wait a bit! there's a real unshrinkable tart crust coming soon (next post).

1 1/4 cups flour
1 stick butter
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 cup of water, very cold.

For the filling:

4 large apples
4 tablespoons brown sugar
3 tablespoons melted butter
Jam to brush. I used blueberry.

In a bowl mix together the dry ingredients. Then cut the butter into cubes, while still cold and add it to the flour. With your hands or a pastry cutter, incorporate the butter into the flour until pebbles form. Add a bit of water and mix well to see if the dough comes all together in a bowl. If it doesn't add a bit more water. Chill the dough for half an hour and then roll in a floured surface.

Bake the partially, for about 10 min at 350 F. It doesn't need to bake completely since it will be in the oven another 45 min. Mix the apples with the melted butter and the sugar making sure they all get coated.


In the meantime, peel, core and cut the apples in slices. Mix the slices with the melted butter and brown sugar, making sure they get evenly coated.

When the crust is ready, place the apple slices on top. I tried to arrange them in a flower shape but you can go even faster and just spread them over the crust. Bake for about 20 min so the sugar and butter soaks them. Then take the tart out of the oven and brush the apples with jam. Bake the tart for another 25 min or until apples are golden brown.

Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream.

Printable recipe!

Citrus calling the spring!

Sick of winter? of rain and snow? yeah, me and Maria, from Remena Nena, are sick of it too. That's why we decided to team up and summon spring from both sides of the Atlantic. And what better way than with a refreshing citrus tart.

Not only that! but we've decided to create 'Tarting international', our own monthly recipe challenge. Basically each month, one of us chooses a recipe and we both bake and blog about it. We will be really really happy to welcome other participants so if you're up for it, just let us know! the more, the merrier.

Now going back to the tart... it looks like this...

And let me tell you, it tastes like heaven, soaked in lemon and orange... with candied fruit on top...
I played a little more with the candied fruit and made chocolate dipped candied oranges... so coming soon there'll be a 'Candied fruit 101'.

The recipe for the tart comes adapted from 64 sq ft kitchen and Butter Sugar Flour

For the crust

1 ½ cups plain flour
½ cup icing sugar*
¼ teaspoon salt
1 stick (recipe called for 125 g) of butter, cubed
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon water


 *If you don't have any, grab your regular sugar, the coffee grinder and give it a pulse

In a bowl combine the flour, icing sugar and salt. Add the cubed butter (cold) and work it with your hands until you get tiny pebbles. At first it will look like there's no way the butter is gonna absorb all that flour, but it is, just be patient. Oh and you can use a pastry utensil but I rather use my hands. Once you get the pebbles, add the egg yolk and the tablespoon of water (cold as well). And keep mixing until incorporated. As you mix the dough will come together. Knead it for a bit, I spent about 5 minutes, until it looks smooth and uniform (no orange egg spots). Wrap it in plastic wrap and let it cool in the fridge for 30 min.

Roll the dough and place it in your baking pan. I used a 9 in springform but obviously if you have a tart pan, go for it. Let it rest in the fridge for 30 min.

Preheat your oven to 350 F
Punch holes in the tart with a fork and blind bake (place aluminum foil on top and place some kind of weight, I used black beans)  for 15 min at 350 F or until the edges begin to brown. Don't wait until it's totally brown since you're gonna bake again once you have the filling.

Filling

3 1/2 ounces of butter, diced
7 ounces granulated sugar
1 orange
3 medium lemons
5 eggs

Turn oven to 375 F
Zest a lemon and an orange and set aside. Beat together butter and sugar. Add the zest and combine until smooth. Juice the three lemons and add the juice to the batter. Beat in the eggs one at a time. My batter looked crumbly on top. Bake for 30 to 40 min, until the tart looks set. The center will still be giggly. The top should look slightly caramelized. Let cool completely and then transfer to the fridge.
Serve cold. Before serving, if desired, place candied fruits on top.

The tricks on how to get this beautiful candied fruit, coming up soon!