Murder at Sea of Passenger X Georgie Shaw Cozy Mystery #5 (Georgie Shaw Cozy Mystery Series)
Page 19
Most recipes for tarts using this dough will recommend that you “blind-bake” the tart for about 20 minutes. In other words, line the chilled dough with parchment paper or foil. Fill the inside with pie weights or beans and bake until the edges of the crust begin to brown. Remove the pie weights. Then return the crust to the oven and bake another 5 or 10 minutes until entire crust is a golden brown. Try “setting” the pâte sablée dough by freezing for 15-30 minutes in that tart pan or pie tin first. Then bake it as you need to do for your tart by simply pricking the bottom with a fork instead of using the blind-baking strategy. Do this when you’re rehearsing the tart you plan to make for a special event, though, to see if it works for you!
Ganache is a fancy word for what is basically chocolate [yum!] with warm cream poured over it. Let it melt the chocolate on its own, then mix. If you stir too much too soon the mixture can get grainy. Use it as a glaze over candy, cake, or brownies or as a filling between cake layers. Let the ganache cool so that it will spread more easily over cake layers. For more variety, you can add other flavors to this chocolate ganache. Check this site out for ideas: http://www.easy-cake-ideas.com/chocolate-ganache.html
Whoa, wait! What about the Bavarian cream and Passion fruit syrup on that chocolate tart I described in Murder at Sea of Passenger X? That takes a bit more work but here’s how to do it. You need a Bavarian cream and a passion fruit syrup. Here goes!
Make a Bavarian cream to add as a layer over the ganache…
Bavarian Cream Ingredients
1 Tahitian Vanilla bean, halved, seeds scraped or ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
1 tablespoon powdered gelatin
3 tablespoons milk
1/4 cup sugar
5 egg yolks
1 1/4 cups whipped cream
Bavarian Cream Preparation
Put the split vanilla bean in cream and slowly bring to a boil. Turn off heat and let sit for 1 hour. Remove bean and scrape out seeds, add them to the cream and discard the pod. [If you use vanilla extract instead of the vanilla bean, scald the milk as above but wait until it’s cool to add the vanilla extract]. Sprinkle the gelatin into the milk and set aside.
Whisk the sugar and egg yolks together. Warm the cream mixture back up and slowly whisk into eggs. Place mixture over simmering water and stir until it is thick enough to coat the back of a wooded spoon. Remove from heat and add milk and gelatin mixture.
Place bowl in an ice bath and stir until it reaches room temperature. Fold in whipped cream and spread a thin layer of Bavarian cream over the top of the cooled ganache tart. Return to fridge and chill for at least an hour or until you’re ready to serve it. If you have Bavarian cream leftover, use it on top of French toast or pancakes, as a filling for crepes or blintz, or all alone as a rich pudding.
Drizzle with passion fruit syrup. While the tart is chilling, or ahead of time, make the passion fruit syrup...
Passion Fruit Syrup Ingredients
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup passion fruit pulp (from about 7 ripe passion fruits), strained to remove seeds
Passion Fruit Syrup Preparation
Combine all ingredients in heavy small saucepan. Bring to boil over medium-high heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat to low; simmer until syrup is reduced to 1 1/2 cups, about 15 minutes. Transfer to bowl, cover, and chill. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Keep chilled.)
Ripe passion fruits look dry and very wrinkled. If you can't find them fresh, look for frozen pulp at Latin markets. Or, Monin makes a ready-made passion fruit syrup that you can purchase online if you can’t find the fruit you need to make this yourself.
FINALLY! This tart is ready to serve. Remove the chilled tart from the refrigerator. If you used a tart pan with a removable bottom, this is the time to free the tart. Use a small bowl, like a 1 ½ quart mixing bowl, and turn it upside down. Or you can use a large, 28 oz. can of tomatoes.
This becomes the base on which you set the tart pan with its removable bottom. Set the tart on the base and gently tap the top edge. The side ring will slip off and drop to the counter leaving the tart on its base. Carefully transfer the tart to a serving platter for display.
Here's a YouTube video if you want to see how this is done: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWP4DeixeXA
Cut the tart into 8 pieces. Place a piece of the tart on a dessert plate and drizzle the top with passion fruit syrup as you serve it.
Coconut Pineapple Sheet Cake
About 40-50 pieces
INGREDIENTS
Cake
2 cups sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2eggs
1 (20 ounce) can crushed pineapple with juice [reserve ¼ cup for frosting]
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 Tahitian vanilla bean, split lengthwise and seeds scooped out or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon salt
Icing
5 cups powdered sugar
8 ounces softened cream cheese
½ cup chopped macadamia nuts
¼ cup butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla bean or vanilla extract
Dash of salt [1/4 teaspoon]
¼ cup crushed pineapple
½ cup, shredded, sweetened coconut, toasted
PREPARATION
Cake
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 13” x 18” or 12” x 18” [half] sheet pan.
Cream butter and sugar, add eggs, pineapple and vanilla and stir. In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking soda, and salt, and then combine with wet ingredients. Stir until thoroughly mixed and then pour into prepared pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven and let it cool.
Icing
Toast the coconut—in the microwave! Spread the ½ cup coconut onto a flat microwave safe plate. Cook using 30 second bursts until it’s a golden brown—about 5 minutes if you’re coconut is at room temperature when you start. A little longer if it’s starts out cold from being stored in the fridge.
Mix all ingredients except coconut to make the icing. Spread evenly over the cooled cake. Sprinkle the toasted coconut on top of the iced cake.
Georgie’s Tips
Coconut, pineapple, Tahitian vanilla—wonderful Polynesian, tropical flavors all end up in this cake. If you enjoy that flavor of toasted coconut, make it up ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator. It’s great sprinkled on top of pancakes or French toast or as a garnish with a curry dish or even in soup. It’ll make an everyday bowl of tomato soup special.
What are the dimensions of a half-sheet cake? Wow! Who knew how much this can vary. Ask your bakery if you order a cake ready-made because sizes are all over the place. The difference in dimensions is tied to do with the fact that the term “sheet cake” more often refers to a flat, single layer style of cake rather than to the pan in which it is baked.
The full-size sheet pans we use in commercial kitchens are 18 inches wide x 26 inches long [too large for most home ovens, btw!]. So, the dimensions here 18 x 13 is based on a sheet pan in half that size. You might find 12 x 18-inch sheet pans are more widely available in stores.
The baking pans most of us have in our homes already are 9 x 13 so quarter-sheet pan sized. They’re usually deeper though—more like 3 inches compared to 1 or 2-inch depth in commercial sheet pans. You can use this recipe in a smaller quarter sheet pan, but you will need to cook it longer—30-40 minutes. AND you’ll have fewer 2-inch servings [18].
What you get using a half-sheet pan is a thin cake that you can cut into various sizes. You’ll get 54 2 x 2-inch [1-inch high] squares that’s plenty to go around if you’re doing a luau with lots of friends. Make the squares bigger and feed fewer people. Or cook two half-sheets and stack them with filling before icing them!
If you’re planning a dessert bar, the smaller slices will make it possible for your guests to try your other treats.
About the Author
Anna Celest
e Burke is an award-winning and bestselling author who enjoys snooping into life's mysteries with fun, fiction, & food—California style! Her books include the Jessica Huntington Desert Cities Mystery series set in the Coachella Valley near Palm Springs, the Corsario Cove Cozy Mystery series set on California’s Central Coast, and The Georgie Shaw Cozy Mystery series set in Orange County, California—the OC. Find out more and stay in the loop by joining her at http://www.desertcitiesmystery.com.