Pies - Tarts

Inspired by the movie, Simply Irresistible (another food dvd you have to rent), these are luscious little éclairs. Make these small enough to serve 2-3 per person.  These are delicate but decadent miniature éclairs, filled with silken pastry cream and a unique caramel topping. Bakeries use either commercial coffee flavored fondant or caramelized sugar. This novel approach gives you the ease of fondant but retains the nice caramel notes that make the whole concept come together.

From A Passion for Baking, Marcy Goldman, Oxmoor House 2007 (check the book for the gorgeous photo of this amazing recipe). This is a near-instant flash of a pie that is as good as the best pastry-shop offering. It uses two frozen piecrusts, shredded apples or regular wedges of apples (but if you shred them you don't have to peel them), and an oven—all for a pie that is ready in barely an hour. You can make Smash Pie with peaches, apricots, blueberries, or almost any fruit filling you choose. It is also aka First Apartment Pie, Bachelor Apple Pie, Baking Neophyte Pie, People Are Coming And I Forgot Dessert Pie - you name it - it resolves any sweet tooth.

This is ideal for homemade strudels, hors d’oeuvres, potato knishes, quiche, pies or tarts. It freezes like a dream and you can made a few batches in a food processor in minutes. It is a crisp, tender, buttery dough that is a bit like puff pastry but low tech. You can use yogurt to replace the sour cream but do not use low-fat sour cream (too watery). ONe of my all-time favorites doughs. Oh! Did I tell you it makes sublime rugulah?

The taste of fresh strawberries and rhubarb with apples in this strudel is positively sparkling. This makes a winter pastry into a springtime frock.

Fresh berries, fresh rhubarb, spices, and a hefty crumbly topping - oh my. 

Sweet and tart and vibrantly red. Rhubarb is so fresh and springy and the berries are a sweet match - all in all, it's an unbeatable combination. Forget about gluey supermarket pie. Bake up a blue ribbon winner!

This is called a tart but more officially it is a crostata, which in Italian means a tart, usually open-faced, of some sort. It is elegant and rustic at the same time. Boyajian tangerine or orange oil, as well as some natural berry essences, heighten the fresh flavors of strawberry and garden rhubarb.

An exceptionally luxurious sweet potato pie, served slightly warmed with crème anglaise, whipping cream (whipped or not) or ice-cream. A pie to be savored for its old-fashioned taste that pleases contemporary palates.

No need to worry about meringues for this lemon wonder. This is a lemon creamsicle in a pie.
You could do a chocolate or caramel version by alternating the fillings; crusts and topping but procedures are the same. I would serve this with raspberry puree to add a splash of color and more summer tartness. Ice Box Pies are no sweat in work or worry over meringue! Citric acid or sour salts or tartartic acid is available through mail order or often, in kosher food sections, or at the pharmacy. It provides an added boost of tartness which is very appealing. If you don't have it, this is still an exceptional summer pie.