Molly has been making these cookies for years. This year however the cookies were over the top scrumptious!! They would have won multiple green clover trophy’s at any 4-H county fair.. Bessy watch out! So to mend your curiosity I’ll fill you in why I’m calling them “adult pop tarts”… you remember when you were a kid and how pop tarts, especially right out of the toaster, were so damn good?! The sweet sugar glaze, tender dough and tart jam made any kid do back flips until dad came home. I took one bite of these cookies and was transpotred to 1436 Pickering Place, where I spent many mornings in my winnie the pooh jammies watching huckle berry finn and eating warm pop tarts.. In this application, Molly used a garden variety Italian sour cherry jam instead of a more rounded softer fruit and along with the floral lavender made for the best pop tarts I’ve ever experienced.. try them and you too will giggle with happiness!

Lavender Cookies with Sour Cherry Jam
These delicate sandwich cookies are like sophisticated adult pop tarts. Tender, sweet and tart.

Makes 3 dozen cookies

Ingredients
3 cups plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
6 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon dried lavender blossoms
1 cup sour cherry jam
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup lavender syrup
1/2 teaspoon (or more) water

Instructions
Whisk flour and salt in medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter and sugar in large bowl until smooth. Add egg yolks 1 at a time, beating until blended after each addition. Add vanilla; beat 1 minute. Stir in flour mixture just to combine. Stir in lavender blossoms. Beat dough until creamy, about 2 minutes. Gather dough into ball. Divide dough into 4 portions; flatten each into disk. Wrap disks in plastic; refrigerate overnight. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Keep chilled.)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Working with 1 disk at a time, roll dough out on lightly floured surface to 1/8-inch thickness. Using 2 1/2-inch round cookie cutter, cut out cookies. Transfer to prepared sheets, spacing 1 inch apart. Gather scraps and roll out on lightly floured surface; cut out more cookies. Repeat until all dough is used. Bake cookies until light golden, about 9 minutes. Let cool completely on sheet.

Spread about 1 teaspoon jam on flat side of 1 cookie; top with flat side of another cookie, forming sandwich. Repeat with remaining cookies and jam.

Whisk powdered sugar, lavender syrup, and 1/2 teaspoon water in medium bowl to blend, adding more water as needed by 1/2 teaspoonfuls to form spreadable icing. Spread thin layer of icing atop each sandwich cookie. Let stand until set, about 1 hour. (Cookies can be made 1 day ahead. Store in airtight container in single layer at room temperature.)

I’ve never quite understood that saying. Good pie is anything but easy to make! This post is for us less fortunate bakers who crave to make good desserts but have less flour skills.

You usually have three types of cooks…cooks that are good at making desserts, ones that are not good at making desserts and those who can pull off a nice dessert from time to time, but nothing too difficult mind you….and I’m in definitely in that category! I LOVE components of desserts; like sauces, custards and fresh fruit but am not at all thrilled when I have to make a dough or cake. With savory cooking you can usually put it into 5th gear and get great results.. with MOST desserts you can not… a great pastry chef has the mind of a scientist and the touch of someone who works with plutonium (soft and quiet).. and brother, that ain’t me!

So, to start the new year off nice and sweet I thought I’d share one of my favorite EASY desserts that requires nothing more than a trip to the farmers market, a little melted sugar and a schmear of mildly sweet cheese.

I tripped on this dish when I was running the lounge for Virgin Atlantic Club House way back when. Originally, I used baby apples but since have used these magnificent Forelle pears that have an amazing pear flavor and are the perfect size for a single serving. They originally came from Germany and translated means “trout” due to their bright red and yellow colors.

Happy roasting!

Roast Forelle Pears with Salted Caramel and Mascarpone
Serves 10 people

For the pears
10 forelle pears, washed
Juice of one lemon
2 turns of fresh nutmeg
1 pound mascarpone cheese

For the caramel
¾ cup sugar
¼ cup water
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 ½ cups heavy cream
3 tablespoons orange juice (or 3 tablespoons whiskey *optional)

Instructions
Preheat oven to 500 degrees and place pan in oven

For the pears
Toss with lemon and nutmeg. Roast in hot skillet for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the skin starts to bubble and turn brown. Take out of skillet and let cool a tinge.

For the caramel
Combine water and sugar in a non-reactive saucepan. Cook over low heat until sugar dissolves. Let mixture boil gently, without stirring! It will take about 10 minutes for a light amber color to start showing. As sugar darkens in color it is okay to swirl the pan, but do not use any utensils to stir the sugar. If crystals form on the side of the pan, dip a pastry brush in water and brush down the sides of the pan. When sugar is the desired caramel color, remove pan from heat and add salt and the OJ (whiskey). The mixture will boil vigorously. When it calms down add the cream and stir. Return to the heat and stir the sauce with a spoon. It will thicken a bit more and get slightly darker, and then it is done.

To Serve
On the base of a plate schmear a heaping tablespoon of mascarpone. Lay a pear directly on top and then ladle the slightly burnt salted caramel over top. Yum!

I was super excited to shoot our new pear tarts at a recent event; so excited that I forgot to capture the finished image? duh.. I guess that I was focusing to much on the manicotti or seared polenta with chopped olives. Oh well.. it actually was a good thing because my haste inspired me to get results in a different way.

Hear Ye Hear Ye! “Calling all photographers”…

Myself and HOG would like to invite all of you to participate in a fun creative contest to see who can come up with the missing money shot! Send in an image of your finished tart and see if you have the skills necessary to win the big, big prize.. oh and what is the prize you ask? The prize is a $100 gift certificate from Zingerman’s fine and eclectic foods . They have a spiffy collection of treats to offer from buttery olive oils to tangy spreads, sharp cheese, chocolates and bread . They’ll ship directly to anywhere in the good ol’ US of A..So come on and have some fun with HOG for the holidays! Give it your best shot. Enter the contest by sending us your tart photo, email us at Hands On Gourmet. The address is tellmemore AT handsongourmet.com

Send all entries by January 1, 2008 and we will announce the winner in the new year.

PS. this tart would also be a great addition to any holiday meal!

Pear Croustade (Tart)
Serves 10 people

For the Dough
1 pound all purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 ounces sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ pound butter
8 ounces crème fraîche or sour cream
pinch salt

Chill butter and crème fraîche. Sift dries into a large bowl. Cut cold butter into small pieces and rub into dry ingredients. Mix until the mixture is coarse like cornmeal. Add crème fraîche and flatted dough into thin disk. Cover with plastic wrap and chill.

For the Pears
4-5 Bartlett or Bosc pears, peeled and sliced
1 small piece of nutmeg or 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
juice of one lemon

Peel and slice pears, then toss in lemon juice and season with fresh grated nutmeg.

For the Almond Frangipane Filling
6 ounces brown butter, room temperature
¾ cup sugar
3 eggs
1 cup almond meal
zest of one lemon
2 tablespoons frangelico or rum or 1 teaspoon almond extract
pinch salt

Combine all ingredients until a smooth thick batter is formed and then chill.To build and bake the croustades, preheat oven to 325°F. Remove dough from refrigerator and place on flour dusted work surface. Roll out to 1/8-inch thick and cut circles large enough to line the tartlet molds. Chill for 15 minutes and fill with frangipane. Top with sliced pears and bake for about 40 minutes.Serve warm with toasted almonds, whipped crème fraîche and salt caramel sauce or brown butter vanilla sauce.

Don’t you just love all those soft, luscious, rustic food photos you see in various publications and mediums like this? What the general public doesn’t know however is the crazy stories that are behind the photos… ohh delicious tales that if made into a reality TV show would be a runaway hit! Fanatical photographers, moody stylists, sleep deprived chefs, sets that fall apart, assistants stuck in traffic. Drama! Culinary theatre!

Now, observe the photo of the peaches above…This seems to be a serene photo of carefully chosen peaches resting nice and happy on a clean white towel, right? And then you see the transformation from peach to cooked fruit, the toasted baguette and the bench they both sit on… the promise of a nice relaxing morning in the countryside. Not a care in the world; imagery that is supposed to make the viewer feel at peace and hungry. It is all an illusion, I can assure you… This is a story of some unexpected peaches that stumbled into my life.

The day before taking the photo, I was leaving the bank near the produce market when I heard a lady yell, “Hey Baby, you want some peaches?” I turned in her direction to find a woman running down the street with a cart stacked with three double flats of local peaches. “How much?” I ask. “Three bucks for a case, but I’ll take more!” she responds. Pondering the deal, I look over the peaches and realized that they were about 2 minutes away from being rotten. After inquiring where she got them, she answered, “Baby, I grew ‘em in my back yard,” followed by a hoarse laugh. “Nah, the vegetable company down the road gave them to me ’cause they’ll just throw them away tomorrow.” Realizing I was purchasing some fruit on the verge that nearly hit the dumpster, I gave her the money with the notion to make cooked fruit.

With a cook’s road paved with good intentions, I stuck the peaches in the back of my car and headed off to an event. I have to admit that I forgot about the peaches until later that night. It was midnight by the time I got home but I was determined to at least prep them and at least get them in a pot ready for the preserves. I rinsed the peaches, placed them on the nice clean towel you see in the picture and waited until morning to make the preserves. The next morning I made the jelly, which by the way really did taste good… A Hollywood true-life happy ending story for the dumpster bound fruit!

Peaches with Whisky and Honey

10 medium ripe fresh peaches, pitted, and rough chopped *I keep the skins on
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
¼ cup Whisky and a shot for the cook!
1 ¾ ounce powdered fruit pectin
1 ¼ cups sugar
1 cup really good honey

In a large thick bottom sauté pot, combine ½ the peaches, lemon juice and Whisky.
In a small bowl, combine the pectin and 1/4 cup of the sugar and mix well. (you do this because if you add hot liquid straight to the pectin it will clump up). Over medium-high heat, bring the peach mixture to a full boil. In roughly 5 minutes it will turn to liquid, at this point whisk about a half-cup of the hot liquid into the pectin and sugar mixture. Stir well and add to the peaches. Turn down the heat a tad and add the rest of the sugar and honey (I like to use less sugar, as most recipes call for 3 cups. I supplement with some honey. Plus it adds a nice sting on the tongue!). Cook for another 5 minutes or so constantly stirring the pot. Careful! You can burn the preserves very easily. Once the mixture has gelled and starts to thicken, fold in the rest of the peaches. Turn down the heat to a simmer, stir the pot, and cook for another couple of minutes. Take off the heat and cool. You can preserve the peaches by boiling mason jars and canning or simply ladle into jars that you’ve saved up over the months and give to friends and loved ones!