Chocolate Caramel Tart

I'm not dead, just sick family and late at posting

So this month for our Chocolate Therapy we chose Tarts. Since She likes fruit and I like Caramel we chose different Tart Recipes. Although I plan on making the same tart as she did for a suprise for my Hubby soon. I picked a Caramel Chocolate tart I had seen on many Daring Bakers pages back in Aug 07. I've been wanting to make it since then and now I can say I did. It wasn't too hard or even very time consuming. I did run into a little issue that I'll fix the next time I make it (definatly a repeat)

Chocolate Shortbread Crust
Single 10 inch crust

9 1/2 Tbs unsalted butter, room temp
5 Tbs powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 C plus 3 Tbs flour
1/4 C Cocoa
1/2 C ground nut (I used Pecans, but macadamia, or almonds would work too)

Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy about 1.5 mins. Add the flour and mix until light and fluffy about 2 mins. Gather dough in ball and press into bottom and sids of a 9 or 10 inch tart pan. Cook at 300 for 40-45 mins, let cool before filling. (if cooking more with your pie then cut time in half)

The crust was easy enough. I made a double batch and filled 2 tart pan with a bit of dough to spare. We made a few cookies out of the rest. I was suprised how good it was. I was worried that it needed a bit more sugar. And while a little more sugar would have made it a bit better, it was still quite good.

Milk Chocolate and Caramel Tart
1 10-inch round tart

half baked shortbread crust
1 cup sugar
½ cup water
1 tbs corn syrup
1 cup heavy cream
¼ cup butter
2 whole eggs
1 egg yolk
2 ½ tablespoons flour
1 ¼ cups whipping cream
½ lb dark chocolate

In a sauce pan bring the sugar, water and syrup to a boil over medium high. When the mixture comes to a boil, stop stirring and wait until it turns a golden caramel color. Incorporate the heavy cream and then add butter. Mix thoroughly. Set aside to cool.
In a mixing bowl, beat the whole eggs with the extra egg yolk, then incorporate the flour.
Pour this into the cream-caramel mixture and mix thoroughly.
Spread it out in the tart shell and bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
Prepare the milk chocolate mousse: beat the whipping cream until stiff. Melt the milk chocolate in the microwave or in a bain-marie, and fold it gently into the whipped cream.
Pour the chocolate mousse over the cooled caramel mixture, smoothing it with a spatula. Chill for one hour in the refrigerator.

Here is where I ran into some difficulties. I'm not sure WHAT happened. It might have been the visitors I had in the middle of the crucial step of making the caramel... My caramel never reached the color I wanted, and then started to separarate. I am still kicking myself that I just didn't start over at this faze. I've made caramel enough that I should have known better. In the end it was a sweet sugary jelly type center. That had nice texture, but was missing the cooked caramel flavor that I was going for!!! I turned it down too low since some visitors came by, and I shouldn't have done that.
But over all we all really liked it. It was a great balance between the super thick and crunchy crust, the sweet center and the dark chocolate thick, yet creamy mousse. I am looking forward to trying it again, but cooking the caramel right. I'll update you!
I have one more tart recipe to make for the month, but it will have to wait until March, as there are few days left this month and they are all a bit on the full side.

Another wedding cake!

This was the cake I made for the reception tonight. I wish I had gotten a shot of the inside. It was white almond, Sour cream dark chocolate and then white almond again. In between each layer was a pistachio mousse. It was SOOO good. And I made Marshmallow fondant for a change. It was delicious. A nice change from the normal chewy gross fondant. About halfway through the outdoor reception we got one of our famous Texan sized Rain/lighting storms. And even though we were undercover the rain came right on in~ The cake got soaked, and the fondant liquefied a bit and got all stick. Luckily it was near the end of the evening. Even so we had a lot of guest leave without cake and the entire bottom layer is left! Good thing cake freezes well! If it hadn't been for that storm I think there would only have been half of the bottom layer or less left. It was a huge cake, built to feed 154. The brides colors were brown green and white. The decorations were beautiful, the setting was amazing and the food and snack were all green, brown and white. It was really beautiful, even if I did get soaked.

Gyro's

I LOVE Greek food, and I especially enjoy a good Gyro. SO when I found a recipe online for homemade Gyro and Tzatziki sauce I just HAD to try it. Add some home made pita's, some tomatoes, sliced onion and TONS of feta and you have a GREAT Gyro.
The Gyro meat itself is basically a meatloaf. You can roast it or cook it in the oven. Since the Oven was the only thing available to me that is what I used. It turned out great. The only thing that would have made it better was if I had a food processor to grind up the meatloaf better.

Gyro Meat


1 medium onion, finely chopped or shredded
2 pounds ground lamb
1 tablespoon finely minced garlic
1 tablespoon dried marjoram
1 tablespoon dried ground rosemary
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper



Process the onion in a food processor for 10 to 15 seconds and turn out into the center of a tea towel. Gather up the ends of the towel and squeeze until almost all of the juice is removed. Discard juice.
Return the onion to the food processor and add the lamb, garlic, marjoram, rosemary, salt, and pepper and process until it is a fine paste, approximately 1 minute. Stop the processor as needed to scrape down sides of bowl.
To cook in the oven as a meatloaf, proceed as follows: Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Place the mixture into a loaf pan, making sure to press into the sides of the pan. Place the loaf pan into a water bath and bake for 60 to 75 minutes or until the mixture reaches 165 to 170 degrees F. Remove from the oven and drain off any fat. Place the loaf pan on a cooling rack and place a brick wrapped in aluminum foil directly on the surface of the meat and allow to sit for 15 to 20 minutes, until the internal temperature reaches 175 degrees F. Slice and serve

The Pita bread is quite simple, and yet time consuming, like most breads...

Pita
makes 6 pitas

2 C bread flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 oz yeast
2/3 C lukewarm water
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil

Mix the yeast with the water then stir in the olive oil. Gradually beat the flour and salt into the mixture. Turn out on floured surface and knead for 5 mins until smooth. cover and let rise for 1 hour, or until doubled.
Punch down and divide into 6 pieces and let rest for 5 mins. Roll out into ovals about 1/4 in thick. let rise 23-30 mins.
Bake at 450 on pizza stone for 4-6 mins until puffed up.

The Tzatziki sauce needs to be started the day before, simply because the yogurt has to strain overnight. I was shocked at just how much juice drained from the yogurt overnight. And I read that the longer you let it drain the better the flavor. Next time I'll let it drain for a full 24 hours, not just overnight.

Tzatziki Sauce
makes 1 1/2 C

16 ounces plain yogurt
1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded, and finely chopped
Pinch kosher salt
4 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
5 to 6 mint leaves, finely minced

Place the yogurt in a tea towel, gather up the edges, suspend over a bowl, and drain for 2 hours in the refrigerator. Place the chopped cucumber in a tea towel and squeeze to remove the liquid; discard liquid. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the drained yogurt, cucumber, salt, garlic, olive oil, vinegar, and mint. Serve as a sauce for gyros. Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to a week.

I actually wanted mine a bit smoother and I ran it through my blender before serving. My husband and kids and I loved it. But I added too much garlic. I tend to go overboard with garlic because most recipes don't have enough for me. I learned my lesson though and I'll stick to the recommended amount for my first trial for now on.

Valentines Truffles

For a Valentines party I attended I made the Oreo Balls from December. But instead of rolling them in sugar I rolled them in Red melted chocolate and then in crushed candy canes.