Tarte Tatin with Whisky Apples and Blackberries

Our last trip to the woods didn't really work out the way we thought. 
Due to a lack of rain and high temperatures we hardly found any mushrooms. 
What seemed to become a rather disappointing trip turned into a quite successful day otherwise.

We went home with a basket full of wild carrots, Canadian golden rut, sea buckthorn, blackberries 
(so sweet, and definitely the best blackberries I ever had!) and apples, 
that we stole picked from trees near the forest...and at least a few mushrooms.

Wil made a weirdly delicious cold carrot dill soup for which he used the wild carrots 
and our homegrown dill seeds for flavoring 
(the carrots we picked were to hard and chewy to eat, but very aromatic!). 
We used the golden rut for tea. Not sure what to do with the sea buckthorn, yet. 
It's still sitting in the fridge waiting for something to happen...

But with the apples and the blackberries I decided to make my first Tarte Tatin. 
And let me tell you, that was not that easy. 
I probably didn't choose the best recipe... 
But I'll do it again. It turned out pretty well!

Ingredients 

200g flour

50g sugar 

100g cold butter (cut in small cubes/flakes)

1 dash of salt

1 dash of cinnamon

plain flour for dusting

150-200g blackberries

1,25-1,5 kg apples (e.g. Cox orange or Granny Smith)

2 Tbsp Whisky

2-3 Tbsp lemon juice

150 g sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

75 g cold butter (cut in small cubes/flakes)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 200°C.

For the shortcrust quickly mix flour, sugar,butter flakes salt and cinnamon until it comes together in a dough. 
Wrap the dough in cling film and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Peel apples, remove the cores and cut each into 8-12 wedges. 
Put the wedges in a bowl and sprinkle with lemon juice. 
Add whisky and cinnamon.

Take a heavy-bottomed pan and evenly sprinkle the bottom with sugar. 
Place on the hob over medium heat, turning the pan frequently and making sure the sugar doesn't burn. 
Let the sugar caramelize. It's about right when it turns golden brown. 

Remove from heat and place one half of the blackberries over the bottom of the pan. 
Arrange the apple wedges on top of them and place the other half of the blackberries on top of the apple wedges. 

Dot the butter flakes on top.

Dust a clean surface and a rolling pin with flour and roll out your shortcrust until it's big enough to cover your tarte pan. 
Carefully lay the shortcrust over the top of the pan.

Bake in the oven for about 40 minutes or until the crust turns golden brown.

Using oven gloves take a plate that is larger than the tarte pan and place it on top of the pan.

Holding the plate and the pan firmly together, quickly and carefully flip both, so that the pan is on top and the plate is on the bottom. Slowly remove the pan. The tarte should be left on the serving place with the fruits on top.

Let cool down for a few minutes.

Serve warm with vanilla ice or custard.

PS: 

I will try a different shortcrust recipe next time. The dough was really hard to roll out. It was very crumbly, which is a common problem with shortcrust, I know. But still, I had better ones before. Even though it tasted really good.

The reason could also be that I used whole wheat flour with the regular flour as well...

I saw on some websites that you can also just use a cast iron pan for it. I'll do that next time, as well!

You don't necessary need to marinate the apple wedges in whisky. It still tastes really good without it.

Pasta with mushroom-whisky sauce ON FIRE!

The mushroom season is in full bloom, 

and I still haven't posted our favorite mushroom recipe of all time, yet. 

But this is about to change... 

NOW!

Forest in Schorfheide/Barnim near Berlin - photo by Beau Lark

Wil and I came up with the idea to this recipe cause we wanted to do something different than just mushroom risotto. So we decided to make pasta with a delicious self-created mushroom sauce you cannot go wrong with. The top-components for cooking mushrooms are definitely rosemary, onions, pepper and (smoked wooly pig-)bacon, and guess what: you can find all of these in this wonderful dish! Plus cream, whisky (WHISKY!) and balsamico-date essence. 

Me and the Steinpilz (Porcini) - photo by Beau Lark

Our harvest: Chanterelles, Porcini, Slippery Jack and Bay Boletes

We picked the mushrooms ourselves (I even found a pretty neat looking porcini!), and took tomatoes and rosemary from our little vegetable garden. The wooly pig bacon was from a small local market and the balsamico-date essence was a gift my best friend Kirsten gave to me a while ago.

Cooking at Anna and Beau's - photo by Beau Lark

What you need for a maximum of 4 people:

500g pasta (fussili, penne...)

400-500g mushrooms (about 2 cups, or a small basket, e.g. chanterelles and/or porcinis)

200g-250g bacon cubes/bits (for example from happy wooly pigs...the smokier the better!)

200g cream

3-4 twigs of rosemary, chopped

1 onion, chopped

2-3 garlic cloves, chopped

(a handful cherry tomatos, halved)

3-4cl whisky (same as with the bacon: the smokier the better e.g. a nice Bourbon)

1 Tbsp balsamico-date essence

4 Tbsp parmesan, freshly grated 

Ceaning and cutting the mushrooms - photo by Beau Lark

Clean the mushrooms by brushing them gently to remove the dirt. Do not wash them! Otherwise they'll lose their aroma. If too big cut the mushrooms into slices or smaller pieces. 

Wil cutting wooly pig bacon - photo by Beau Lark

Fry the bacon in a pan until crisp, remove from pan and set aside. 

Sautee the onions and garlic in the remaining bacon fat until translucent and golden. 

 Add the bacon, mushrooms sautee all-together for a minute or two on medium heat. 

Right before the fire action - photo by Beau Lark

Turn up to maxium heat, add the whisky and carefully 

with a lighter or long match set the whisky on fire. 

Flambé until the fire goes off (after about a minute or so). 

Rosemary and tomatoes - photo by Beau Lark

Add cherry tomatoes and rosemary, let the sauce simmer for another two minutes. 

Add the cream and the balsamico-date essence. 

Let it reduce for a few minutes. 

In the meantime cook the  pasta in boiling water with salt until al dente 

(9-12 minutes, depending on what the packaging says). 

Season the sauce with pepper and salt, if required 

(careful, the bacon and parmesan are already salty).

Dish up the pasta and pour the mushroom whisky cream sauce over it. 

Sprinkle with parmesan. 

Serve!

Ready!

PS:

• If you don not have balsamico-date essence, you can use a  plain balsamico essence or balsamico vinegar mixed with maple syrup, honey or brown sugar, instead. 
• This sauce is also good with a nice piece of meat (deer or beef). 
• I tried to write down the measurements as exact as possible, which isn't that easy, cause you can pretty much vary everything. Add more or less rosemary, garlic or balsamico-date essence, use more pasta, less mushrooms...whatever you want. It is really hard to ruin this one! 

Bon apetit.

Special thanks to Beau Lark for taking all these wonderful pictures I didn't take...

Mudslide Cookies with Fleur de Sel

I found the recipe for these delicious cookies here the other day

 and had to try them out right away!

With all their dark chocolate they just looked too tempting...and chocolate combined with Fleur de Sel works so well together, anyway.

The woman of the blog I got the recipe from did a far better job on the photos than I.
Check her blog out to get into the ultimate cookies baking mood!

I changed a few things in the recipe, though.

I'm not the biggest fan of boozy sweets.

Therefore I decided to only add 1 to 2 Tbsp of whisky to the batter.

You won't taste the alcohol at all. But the the whisky's oak- and peatiness adds a very nice and subtle flavour. I also didn't have instant coffee powder.
Instead of adding 1/4 cup of liquor I decided to brew a very strong coffee,
and replaced the liquor with the same amount of that, plus the whisky.

Oh, and I used margarine instead of butter.
I usually prefer the taste of butter.
But when it comes to baking the margarine helps making cakes, cookies etc.
more chewy and less crispy...

The cookies turned out fantastic!

They were a little bit more caky then I expected, but reminded me of chocolate fudge brownies. 

I had to give some away. 

Otherwise you would see me rather rolling than walking through the streets of Berlin, by now.

Here is the whole recipe :

(source: http://www.howsweeteats.com/)

2 cups + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour (475g)

1/4 cup dark cocoa powder

3 tablespoons instant coffee powder

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 cup (120g) of unsalted butter, melted and cooled for 10-15 minutes

1 cup (235g) brown sugar

1/2 cup (120g)sugar

1 egg + 1 egg yolk, at room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/4 cup (60g) coffee liqueur + 1 teaspoon (Godiva, Kahlua, etc)

1 cup chocolate chunks

Fleur de Sel for topping

1/2 teaspoons baking soda

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (160ºC).

                              Mix the flour, cocoa, coffee powder, salt and baking soda in a bowl and set aside. 

In another bowl, mix the melted butter and sugars until they are combined. 

Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla and stir until mixed. Stream in coffee liqueur and mix. 

Gradually add flour and mix until a dough forms – it will look crumbly at first, but it will come together. 

I even used my hands to help at one point. 

If you find you absolutely need more liquid add in a teaspoon of coffee liqueur, but it should come together. 

Fold in the chocolate chunks. 

Refrigerate dough for 30 minutes.

Remove dough from the fridge and roll into golfball sized balls. 

Set on a non-stick baking sheet with 2 inches between each. 

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges are set and the middles are still soft. 

The centers should be puffy. 

Do not over bake. 

Remove from oven and immediately sprinkle with sea salt. 

Let cool completely then dig in!