Dinner Party

This is the dinner party that I have been practicing for and changing recipes. I am so glad that I made that scalloped potatoes recipe. Just too rich for this or any meal, as far as I am concerned. The entire meal is guided by Jim’s wine selections. Appetizers Cheeses:, Mt. Tam (Cowboy Creamery, CA), Humbolt Fog, Fuurtufel Kaserei Studer Emmiroth, Cheese Ball (made by me.) Crackers, Olives, Mixed Nuts, Shrimp 2012 Scintellaire, Sparkling Wine, Viansa Winery, Sonoma First Course Salad of winter greens and Fried Oysters 2013 Arneis, Viansa Winery, Sonoma Main Course Tournedos de Boeuf with Truffle Butter Mashed Butternut Squash and Roasted Asparagus 1988 Cosd’Estournel, Saint Estephe, Grand Cru 1995 Grand Vine de Leoville du marquis de las Cases, Saint Julien 1995 Chateau Lynch Bages, Pauillac, Grand Cru Dessert Chocolate Pear Tartlets French Macaroons Chambord or Creme de Cassis I have blogged the fried oysters, roasted asparagus, mashed butternut squash previously. They are simple and delicious. So the new recipe is the chocolate tart. Jim wanted a chocolate dessert. I found this on the Williams Sonoma site. We’ve had all the cheeses before except the Fuurtufel. It is very colorful hard cheese. It has a hot aftertaste. I sure hope people don’t fill up on the appetizers. I found the Macaroons at Costco! Macaroons are my favorite cookie. I doubt these will be as good as the ones from a French bakery, but you never know. I cut this recipe in half except for the custard as I just have 6 tartlet pans and 6 guests. It makes 12 tartlets. It is hard to cut 3 eggs in half so I made the whole amount and baked the remaining in little bakeware ovals for future desserts for Jim. He ate one last night as pronounced them very good. This recipe takes most of a day to do with starts and stops. Mine are not as great as the photo on line, but I did my best. The recipe says that the full recipe also makes 2 9†tarts. that might be easier with the size of our pears. I bought the smallest I could find.

Ingredients

• For the Dough:
• 1/4 C heavy cream, plus more as needed
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 1/2 C all-purpose flour
• 1/2 C unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 C sugar
• A pinch of sea salt, preferably fleur de sel
• 16 T (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2†pieces
• For the Custard:
• 8 oz. bittersweet chocolate
• 3 eggs
• 1 C heavy cream
• 1/2 C creme fraiche
• 1/2 C sugar
• 1 Vanilla bean, halved lengthwise
• 6 firm but ripe small pears

Instructions

1. To make the dough, in a small bowl, whisk together the cream and egg yolks. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, and salt.
3. Add the butter to the flour mixture and toss to coat. Using your fingers, cut the butter into the flour mixture until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal; be careful not to overwork the dough, or it will become tough.
4. Add the cream mixture to the flour mixture and toss gently with a fork just until the liquid is incorporated. Using your hands if necessary, continue combining the ingredients until a small handful of dough holds together when squeezed. If the dough doesn’t hold together, add more cream, about 1 t at a time, until it achieves the right consistency, but continue to be careful not to overwork the dough.
5. Transfer the dough to a work surface and divide it into 2 equal pieces. Wrap each piece separately in a sheet of plastic wrap and flatten into a disk. Refrigerate the dough for at least 1 hour, and preferably overnight. (Mine was in for 1 1/2 hours. Missed the overnight.)
6. To make the custard, place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over but not touching barely simmering water in a saucepan. Heat, stirring, until the chocolate melts, about 2 minutes. Set aside to cool slightly.
7. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, cream, creme fraiche and sugar. Using a pairing knife, scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean into the egg mixture and whisk to combine. Discard the vanilla bean pod or save for another use.
8. Stirring constantly, slowly add the chocolate to the egg mixture, stirring until thoroughly combined.
9. Position a reck in the center of an oven and preheat to 375 degrees.
10. Unwrap both of the dough disks and place the dough on a lightly floured work surface. Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces. using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll each piece into a round abut 1/8th inch thick and about 5 ” in diameter.
11. Gently press a dough round into a 3†fluted round tartlet pan, that has been sprayed very well with PAM. Working your way around the tart pan, pinch off any over hanging dough with your fingers. Place the tartlet shells on a baking sheet and freeze for 10 minutes.
12. Remove the tartlet shells from the freezer and line each with parchment paper. Fill the lined tartlet shells with pie weights, dried beans or rice.
13. Transfer the tartlet pans to the oven and bake just until the sides of the dough have set, about 10 minutes.
14. Remove the tartlets from the oven and carefully remove the parchment paper and pie weights. Return the baking sheet with the tartlet pans to the oven and bake until the dough is dry and set, about 5 minutes ore, rotating the pan 180 degrees halfway through the baking time. (No need to rotate the pan if using a convection oven.) Set aside on a rack to cool.
15. To assemble the tartlets, spoon about 2 T of the filling into each tartlet shell, being careful not to overfill the shells, as the custard will puff when baked.
16. Peel the pears and cut each in half lengthwise. Using a melon baller, remove the core from each pear half, then cut each crosswise into thin slices. Arrange a pear half on top of each tartlet, gently person on the pear half to fan the slices but leaving the slices overlapping,
17. Bake the tartlets until the custard is set and a tester inserted into the center of the filling comes out clean, about 18 minutes.
18. Transfer the tartlets to a wire rack and let cool completely.
19. Immediately before serving, dust with confectioners sugar.