Peaches and Mascarpone Spelled Dessert

Last week I had planned to make a cake and ice it with (what I thought was) a recipe using mascarpone cheese. I bought two containers of mascarpone just for this. Until I went to the recipe to see what else was in it - only to find it had no mascarpone at all. What?!?

Totally confused, I searched the magazine and found zero uses for mascarpone cheese in an icing. How I misled myself into this belief is beyond me, but hey, I am chalking it up to fate. It is a great excuse to use mascarpone in other applications. Yesterday was the first one, and I came up with an idea for a tart. 

Peach Mascarpone Tart with Tarragon Shortbread Crust

On Mascarpone

Peach Mascarpone Tart
with Tarragon Shortbread Crust

If anyone in the blogging world does not yet know what mascarpone cheese is, the simple explanation is that it is an Italian version of cream cheese. While I have absolutely nothing against good old Philly cream cheese, mascarpone just has a better flavor, a different flavor, a better feel, just more depth of character. If Philly is your everyday face, then mascarpone is your totally dressed-up face. This is my own feeling on the matter. Still, maybe you get the picture.

Unlike Philly, one thing to caution about mascarpone: it is best not to over beat it, as it becomes grainy very easily. That said, mascarpone can strengthen and stabilize whipped cream so that it will stand up to refrigeration for days without weeping or losing its shape and texture. This makes any pie with a whipped cream topping (Key Lime, anyone) a total breeze to make slightly in advance rather than having to do things last minute. Pipe rosettes of this stable whipped cream onto a cheesecake for decoration. Use it between cake layers. It has been the most wonderful discovery I've made in years. To make this wonderful stable whipped cream, here is what I do:

Mascarpone Whipped Cream

 

Mascarpone Whipped Cream

Mascarpone Whipped Cream is shown atop a Cherry Custard Tart in the photo at right.

Makes about 3 cups

1 cup heavy whipping cream
6 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
8 ounces mascarpone cheese, AT ROOM TEMPERATURE

With a mixer, beat the one cup of whipping cream until it holds very soft peaks. Add in the confectioners' sugar and beat until it holds stiff peaks. Stop the mixer and add in the mascarpone cream. Beat again just until combined. Beating too long will cause the mascarpone to look curdled.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Okay, I so totally lost my train of thought there, but my goal is to tell you about the wonderful dessert tart I came up with yesterday. It was one of those experiments that went totally right. While rich, it was not terribly sweet, and totally full of flavor. I called it Peach Mascarpone Tart with Tarragon Shortbread Crust. A mouthful to say, but wait till you taste it. 

I used a 9-inch tart pan with a removable rim, so I could set the finished tart onto a fancy plate for serving. The only aspect of this dessert that I would do any differently is to ensure that the crust is pressed all the way up the sides of the tart pan's rim. The reason for this is that when I filled the shell with the mascarpone filling, it reached higher than the crust. The filling is just the slightest bit runny, and with the peaches set on after the filling, it reached much higher. It did not overflow or leak when baking, however I did have to go all around the pan, loosening the filling and crust from the fluted rim of the tart pan. Not horrible, but it was a bit time consuming. Some of the crust still stuck a bit, which you can see on the photo at top of page. Made absolutely no difference to the flavor though!

If you use a tart pan that does not have a removable rim, also be sure to press the crust mixture high, which ensures the slices can be cut and removed for serving with ease. The tart is not terribly thick / deep, so the portions are easy to handle, even after a large meal.  

For the St. Germain liqueur, if not using, sprinkle a little water into the crust, if needed, and for the filling just substitute a teaspoon of vanilla and a little water, if needed.

Peach Mascarpone Tart with Tarragon Shortbread Crust

Peach Mascarpone Tart
with Tarragon Shortbread Crust

Makes one 9 or 10-inch tart

CRUST:
⅔ cup all-purpose flour
⅓ cup cornstarch
1½ teaspoons finely minced fresh tarragon
5½ tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
⅓ cup confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon St. Germain elderflower liqueur, optional

FILLING:
1 cup (8-ounces) mascarpone cheese, at room temperature
2 egg yolks
3 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons St. Germain elderflower liqueur, optional
-----
1½ cups sliced peaches, fresh or frozen

Make crust: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Have ready a tart pan.

Whisk together the flour, cornstarch and tarragon in a small bowl. In a separate bowl, Cream together the butter and confectioners' sugar. Stir in the flour mixture and mix lightly to combine. Add in the elderflower liqueur and toss lightly. Pour into the tart pan and using fingers, press into bottom and sides. Bake for about 20 minutes, until the crust is lightly golden. Remove from oven and cool.

While crust cools, make the filling: In a smaller mixing bowl combine the mascarpone, egg yolks, sugar. Mix together with a fork, or extremely briefly with a hand mixer, to just combine. Add in the liqueur, if using. If not, just add a little vanilla.

If using fresh peaches, peel and slice the peach(es) into thin wedges, as the filling is not deep. Have them ready.
Pour the filling mixture into the cooled crust and set the peach wedges on top. The peaches might be substituted with berries, if preferred. Bake the tart until the filling is just set, about 20 to 25 minutes. Cool completely before serving. 

My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, continuing my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.

Shortbread Type Cookies Bursting with Flavor

Continuing with my effort to make as many Guatemalan foods possible while I am printing a copy of my cookbook / memoir for my daughter, today I made Polvorones. 

Polvorones

Polvorones?

Polvorones (4 syllables: pohl-voh-ROAN-ehs) are small cookies, a sort of shortbread, covered in powdered sugar. They just "poof" apart when you eat them. They are so delicious, it makes little difference that you end up with crumbs and powdered sugar everywhere! These little cookies are very similar to Polvorosas. In some cases, it is very difficult to tell the difference. When looking through myriad recipes online, and including some I had copied down in Guatemala long years ago, in trying to define the difference, the only thing I could come up with to distinguish is that Polvorones more often have ground nuts added to them, where the Polvorosas are mostly a straight shortbread.

Shortbread?

If anyone is unfamiliar with what, precisely, constitutes shortbread, it is a kind of cookie or pastry that generally has three main ingredients: flour, sugar and butter. There is no egg to bind these ingredients, so shortbread is quite crumbly. Sometimes nuts are added, and a little salt, but shortbread is a simple matter. Sometimes part of the flour is substituted with things like cornstarch. 

If anyone is familiar with Russian Tea Cakes or "Snowball", cookies often made for Christmas, then you already have some idea of what these little cookies are like. In the recipe for Russian Tea Cakes that my family has been making since I was a little child, the nuts used are walnuts. I do not believe any deviation was ever made. In more recent years, I have played a bit with the recipe, using ground pistachios and Matcha green tea powder. I called these Pistachio Tea Cookies. 

Polvorones, sliced to show inside

Perusing different recipes for Polvorones and Polvorosas (note that both these cookie titles have the root word "polvo" in them, meaning "dust" or "powder", referring to what you end up with when biting into them), there was a serious amount of crossover between them, making me wonder if there ever was a true difference. When I made the Polvorosas, I made them without egg to bind and I used part cornstarch to lighten the mixture a bit; more of a true shortbread cookie. In my recipe for Polvorones, made today, I decided to use ground almonds in the dough, with a tiny amount of true cinnamon, and one egg yolk, to assist in binding the mixture. This makes these cookies not quite "true" shortbread. The Russian Tea Cake cookies we always made were notoriously hard to form. The dough tends to crumble easily. Once you actually get them formed and baked, they are out-of-this-world. Getting them there is the trick. The egg yolk added to this recipe today made the forming just a little bit easier. They are still just wonderfully tender and lightly crisp. The little bit of cinnamon is just enough of a hint that it takes a moment to recognize. They still burst as you bite into them. To me, these are perfect. 

Polvorones

Polvorones

Makes about 3 dozen 1½-inch cookies

2¼ cups (4 oz. / 312 g.) all-purpose flour
¾ cup (3 oz. / 85 g.) almond meal
1/2 cup (1.75 oz. / 50 g.) confectioners' sugar
½ teaspoon (.04 oz. / 1g.) ground true cinnamon
¼ teaspoon (.04 oz. / 1g.) salt
1 cup butter (8 oz. / 2 sticks), room temperature
1 egg yolk (.74 oz. / 21 g.)
1 teaspoon vanilla (.21 oz. / 26 g.)
extra confectioners' sugar for rolling

Preheat oven to 400 degrees (375 on Convection). Place the first 5 ingredients into a large bowl. Add in the butter and use a pastry blender to cut the butter into the dry ingredients. The mixture should look like coarse crumbs, and it should clump a bit when squeezed, but fall apart easily. Separately, mix together the egg yolk and vanilla. Drizzle this over the mixture in the bowl and again, using the pastry cutter, cut in these liquid ingredients well. The amount of liquid ingredients is very small. It is important to have them well incorporated.

           scoop of dough; squeeze dough; form between finger & thumb; set on baking sheet

Using a cookie scoop makes it easy to form equal sized cookies. If using, pack the scoop, then turn out into the hand. Squeeze the dough to form one mass. Place this ball between the circle formed by placing the tip of first finger and thumb together. With the fingers of the opposite hand, begin pressing from both sides of the dough, flattening and forming into about 1/2-inch thickness. It will have the imprint of the hand: once the dough holds form, begin rotating it and flattening it simultaneously, to make a round cookie about 1 1/2 inches wide x 1/2 inch thick. Set the cookies on an ungreased baking sheet, about 1 1/2 inches apart.

Bake the cookies for about 10 to 12 minutes. They should be barely golden on the edges. Rotate the pan once during baking time, to ensure even browning. Once baked, have ready a bowl with about a cup of confectioners' sugar. Roll the hot cookies in the sugar and set them to cool. Once cooled, and before storing, roll them in the sugar once more.

My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, continuing my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.

Life is Short - Eat Dessert First

Maybe we shouldn't eat dessert first.  Maybe that would just eliminate the desire for more nutritional vegetables and fruits.  But boy, dessert is good!

I think desserts are my favorite part of any meal, and I am one of those people who do not feel a meal is over until something sweet is eaten.  Desserts have always been a very large part of my life, and while I am a good cook, baking is my real passion.


Simple Shortbread

Last evening, I made a repeat of the Cabbage Rolls, because I guess was craving them when my daughter and I made them and I just didn't get my fill. I made plenty of the Cabbage Rolls to freeze for another day.  I may not have mentioned that in the recipe, but they do freeze well. I had my sister-in-law come over to share, and we feasted.

As it neared the dinner hour, I thought, "I should make something for dessert!"  What popped into my mind was my Simple Shortbread recipe, because as the name implies, it is a really simple recipe!  Simple, however, does not mean "mediocre!" This shortbread is so deliciously yummy, it's hard to stop eating. It takes minutes to prepare, and 40 minutes in a slow oven, for a delicate, crumbly and melt-in-your-mouth treat. This is one place my tip about cold butter came in handy. just use a large-holed grater and shred the cold butter. Pour the sugar over and cream or do whatever the recipe calls for.

Simple Shortbread

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup cornstarch
pinch salt
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup confectioner's sugar

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Sift flour, cornstarch and salt into a medium sized bowl and set aside. In a large bowl, cream butter and confectioner's sugar with an electric mixer or a wooden spoon until light and fluffy.   With a wooden spoon gradually work in dry ingredients until thoroughly mixed (a pastry cutter works great, here); it will be all crumbly textured.  Gently press dough into an ungreased, shallow 11 x 7" or 9" square pan. Bake about 40 minutes or until golden. Cut into about 12 squares or bars.  Enjoy!


My passion is to teach people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and help pass along my love and joy of food, both simple and exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, trying new things weekly. Join me at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook and Pinterest.