{TWD} Russian Tea Madeleines and Honey Almond Pluot Tart

This is another one of those weeks where the Tuesdays With Dorie baking group is doubling up on recipes - after 4 years of weekly baking, the group will finish Dorie Greenspan's book Baking; From My Home to Yours by the end of 2011. I'll no doubt have some reflections in the final post (December 27) but until then I'm not letting myself think about it too much - too sad!

Today we have another tart and another recipe for madeleines. My Honey Almond Pluot Tart hearkens back to autumn while my Russian Tea Madeleines are decidedly wintry, featuring satsuma and grapefruit flavors.

First, the madeleines (pictured up above):

Russian Tea Madeleines

Dorie's recipe is for Earl Grey Madeleines, but I have completely run out of Earl Grey tea. I keep running across recipes needing Earl Grey and I have scavenged and scrounged the last of the Earl Grey from the recesses of my tea drawer. Since that drawer is still bursting with other varieties of tea, I am holding out on replacing the Earl Grey. But one byproduct of all that scrounging is that at the very back of the tea drawer I found an unopened tin of Russian tea. As it happens, this tea has orange bergamot oil - just like Earl Grey! - and also tangerine and grapefruit flavors. It sounded perfect for my madeleines.

n.o.e.'s notes:

- The madeleine recipe is hosted by Nicole of Bakeologie. You will be able to find the recipe on her cute madeleine post.

- Dorie's recipe calls for lemon zest, which is rubbed with the fingertips into granulated sugar before beating both with the eggs, I decided to use satsuma tangerine zest and grapefruit zest to complement the flavors of the Russian tea.

- This recipe uses an unusual technique to incorporate the tea: leaves of tea are infused in hot melted butter for 15 minutes. Then the butter is strained and added to the batter, carrying the tea's flavors with it.

- Unlike the last time I baked madeleines, I tried to not overfill the molds. They turned out just right, characteristic humps and all, even though I forgot to use Dorie's trick of setting the mold onto a hot baking stone.

the verdict:

These were delicious little cookies - crunchy edges, and softer centers, with the citrus and tea flavors adding complexity and holiday cheer. My husband and I enjoyed them with ice cream and a cup of tea, respectively.

And now, on to the tart:


Honey Almond Pluot Tart

I love baking tarts. Even if f this group were "Tuesdays With Tarts", and we baked a tart every single week, I don't think I'd get tired of baking - or eating - tarts. This week's tart has plenty of appeal. It started as a fig recipe, but there are many other fruits that Dorie suggests as possible variations on the recipe.

n.o.e.'s notes:

- The tart was chosen for TWD by Kayte of Grandma's Kitchen Table (she's a tart fan also). You will be able to find the recipe for the tart and her lovely grapefruit variation if you click to her blog post, but what's even better, you will find her reflections on nearly 4 years of TWD participation. I couldn't say it better.

- Earlier in the fall I looked at the remaining TWD recipes and decided to bake all of the ones that needed seasonal autumnal fruit while it was still in stores. At that point I could still find figs but I had just baked a honey fig cake for TWD and decided to branch out to one of Dorie's suggested alternate fruits. I was hoping for apricots or nectarines but there were none to be found so I picked up some pluots. They're half apricot so I deemed them "close enough."

- For the tart's crust, I made Dorie's Sweet Tart Dough with Nuts, using Bob's Red Mill Almond Flour. I love that tart dough recipe and thought the almond would complement the almond filling. Also, I managed to run out of flour so it was fortuitous to replace some of the recipe's quantity of flour with ground nuts.

- I added almond extract to highlight the almond flavor of the filling.

the verdict:

This was a lovely tart, accompanied nicely by a scoop of vanilla ice cream. The brightness of the pluots was a counterpoint to the sweet creamy almond filling.

All in all, two more delicious recipes, and just three more remain until the book is finished!