TWD – Parisian Raspberry and Peach Tartlets

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie pick is the easiest one to date. I can’t imagine an easier dessert, nor one more simply elegant.

I made this to serve with next week’s Honey Peach Ice Cream, and as a result, I bought peaches instead of apples. They’re in season now, and they speak to me of warmer weather with hints of summer’s coming bounties. The recipe calls for placing your fruit on a round of puff pastry, sprinkling it with some brown sugar, dotting with butter and baking. That’s it. Let it cool, serve it with ice cream, or just a spoon. Sharing, while possible, is difficult with a precious little pastry that oozes with butter and has hints of caramel where the sugar burns along the edges.

The peach tartlet was delicious, but the raspberry one I made as an afterthought, indulging an unexplained silent urging from the berries in my fridge, was the sleeper hit. The berries weren’t heavy enough to weigh down the pastry and it puffed up as it baked, tumbling the ruby jewels to the baking sheet. They scooped up just fine and topped with the ice cream melting into the mess of recovered berries, this dessert was as satisfying as simple perfection can be.

My thanks go out to Jessica of My Baking Heart for choosing this special recipe for us this week. If you’d like the recipe, check out Jessica’s blog. And then go shopping for the fruit that speaks to you, and some puff pastry to adorn with it.

Barefoot Bloggers – Tomato and Goat Cheese Tarts

Anne Strawberry picked this week’s recipe, and although I already loved Anne and her lovely blog plenty, I have yet another reason to appreciate her. Tomato and goat cheese tarts rule!

Ina Garten is teaching me to appreciate frozen puff pastry. First it was these ridiculously easy sticky buns. Now, tomato and goat cheese tarts for dinner on a weeknight? I am so there.

This recipe calls for sauteing thinly sliced onions and garlic until caramelized, and layering the cooled onions with goat cheese, sliced tomatoes, shaved Parmesan, topped with a chiffonade of basil.

I almost let the voices in my head take over again, but I resisted. I stuck with Ina’s recipe as written, except I added the basil after the tarts came out of the oven, and I cut them square rather than round so there wouldn’t be any puff pastry waste. One sheet of puff pastry yielded four tarts, and it felt really decadent to eat two of them for dinner. They were very filling! And amazingly tasty. M., who eschews butter because of his cholesterol, didn’t once ask how I prepared them. I think it was “don’t ask, don’t tell” night.

Next time (which could be tonight!), I plan to substitute sun dried tomatoes for the fresh, and mozzarella cheese for the goat cheese. Or maybe tapenade under the onions with capers and pine nuts. Or pesto under sun dried tomatoes with goat cheese and fresh basil. Or walnut oil with sauteed wild mushrooms and a garnish of arugula salad lightly dressed with vinaigrette. Or… Stop it, Leslie!

I may even shrink these delightful tarts to party size, serving them with any or all of the above toppings, making the perfect two or three bite appetizer. They have excellent do-ahead potential for impressing your guests with how seemingly effortless it is to pull an awesome hors d’oeuvre out of the oven and serve it to stunned guests. Heck, if I did that, I’d be stunned!

You’ll find the recipe for this delicious and versatile tart in Back to Basics, or here, or on Anne’s site. If you’d like to join us, we’re having a blast cooking, baking and blogging our way through Ina Garten’s recipes. You can find out how to join us here.

Barefoot Bloggers – Tomato and Goat Cheese Tarts

Anne Strawberry picked this week’s recipe, and although I already loved Anne and her lovely blog plenty, I have yet another reason to appreciate her. Tomato and goat cheese tarts rule!

Ina Garten is teaching me to appreciate frozen puff pastry. First it was these ridiculously easy sticky buns. Now, tomato and goat cheese tarts for dinner on a weeknight? I am so there.

This recipe calls for sauteing thinly sliced onions and garlic until caramelized, and layering the cooled onions with goat cheese, sliced tomatoes, shaved Parmesan, topped with a chiffonade of basil.

I almost let the voices in my head take over again, but I resisted. I stuck with Ina’s recipe as written, except I added the basil after the tarts came out of the oven, and I cut them square rather than round so there wouldn’t be any puff pastry waste. One sheet of puff pastry yielded four tarts, and it felt really decadent to eat two of them for dinner. They were very filling! And amazingly tasty. M., who eschews butter because of his cholesterol, didn’t once ask how I prepared them. I think it was “don’t ask, don’t tell” night.

Next time (which could be tonight!), I plan to substitute sun dried tomatoes for the fresh, and mozzarella cheese for the goat cheese. Or maybe tapenade under the onions with capers and pine nuts. Or pesto under sun dried tomatoes with goat cheese and fresh basil. Or walnut oil with sauteed wild mushrooms and a garnish of arugula salad lightly dressed with vinaigrette. Or… Stop it, Leslie!

I may even shrink these delightful tarts to party size, serving them with any or all of the above toppings, making the perfect two or three bite appetizer. They have excellent do-ahead potential for impressing your guests with how seemingly effortless it is to pull an awesome hors d’oeuvre out of the oven and serve it to stunned guests. Heck, if I did that, I’d be stunned!

You’ll find the recipe for this delicious and versatile tart in Back to Basics, or here, or on Anne’s site. If you’d like to join us, we’re having a blast cooking, baking and blogging our way through Ina Garten’s recipes. You can find out how to join us here.