The Queen of Hearts she made some tarts . . . .

Mind you, I’m not equating myself with the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland (described as a foul tempered monarch), however I do love making tartes - and I can promise that Steve did NOT steal any of them!!

Above is a collection of fresh fruit tartes I created for a recent Alice-themed fund raising event here in Grand Rapids. The chess board seemed like just the right backdrop for these luscious treats.

We have blueberry/lemon, raspberry cream, strawberry/lime mascarpone and blackberry citrus/Earl Grey ganache. Delightful!!

When creating your own fruit tartes remember to start with your favorite pâte sucrée, blind baked, then fill with classic crème pâtissiére or a fruity whipped mascarpone or your own version of a citrus or tea infused ganache (white chocolate works well with fresh berries). It’s lots of fun to mix and match to your heart’s content. Hop on over to the recipes page to find some of my favorite base recipes.

Here are just a few of the other tartes I’ve done in recent months (including some late summer reminiscing!).

Fresh blueberry

Peach custard

Apple blackberry

Classic pear almond

As we are ever fast approaching Thanksgiving and the whirlwind of the holiday season, I wish all of you many “all is calm, all is bright” nights.

Happy tarte baking!

Pumpkin scones

When one has some pumpkin on hand for a certain project, invariably there is always some left. What to do with It? Make pumpkin scones, of course.

Before I proceed, check out the plate above - the result of my first ever pottery wheel session with a local Grand Rapids potter, Kate Lewis. She does the pottery for one of our favorite restaurants, Sovengard and offers one-on-one wheel sessions for anyone with an interest in the craft. It was great fun - I shaped 3 plates, a cup and 2 bowls, one of which was pretty wonky but will serve nicely as a snack or nut bowl for those oh-so low key occasions. I chose the glaze colors and she did the rest. Et voila!

For this treat I tweaked my base recipe, making a number of changes resulting in this recipe with added spices, pumpkin purée and a butter bump up. As with all scone and biscuit recipes, keeping the butter, cream and egg cold and working quickly, efficiently and with purpose without overworking the dough is très important.

The steps are the same as my typical classic recipe, adding the spices in with the dry ingredients and the pumpkin purée in with the cream and egg.

For baking I suggest doubling the sheet pan to protect the bottoms from darkening too much. It worked out well with these - lovely crisp outside, moist and tender crumb inside and a subtle taste of pumpkin and spice. One could certainly opt for a maple syrup/confectioner’s sugar glaze once cooled, although I went with a brushing of cream and a sprinkle of raw sugar before baking to achieve that wonderful exterior crunch.

For my taste test I dolloped on some blackberry jam (although most any jam will do).

Too bad the Steve-meister doesn’t like pumpkin. I brought some over to Mom for her enjoyment and popped a few in my own freezer for future breakfast treats for visitors. One can never be too prepared, particularly with the holidays fast upon us.

Have fun creating your own treat with leftover pumpkin! So much to bake and so little time! Don’t ya just love that plate!!

Cinnamon knots

Having been inspired by my recent purchase of Richard Bertinet’s latest book “Crumb”, I felt it was time to make some cinnamon knots with my own take on his approach to this tasty treat. Warming spices, brown sugar, butter, tender slightly sweet dough . . . aaahhh. Perfect for autumn which has finally arrived in its full glory. Too bad that once the the brilliant reds and oranges are making us smile, we get the winds and rains of late October and early November to blow them all down. It’s nature’s way.

For this project I utilized a basic cinnamon roll type sweet dough using a recipe I discovered on Ambitious Kitchen.com (minus the cream cheese frosting). Once the dough is mixed and undergoes the first rise, I roll it out into a 14”x15” rectangle and spread it with softened butter which is topped with light and dark brown sugars and cinnamon. With the 15” longer edge parallel to the edge of my worktop I fold the dough up onto itself and cut 1” wide strips.

Now it gets a little messy. Leaving the folded edge end intact, cut the dough the length of the strip and twist the two portions around each other. Then form knots. As you can see, the dry stuff fell everywhere, but I simply scooped it onto the shaped knots. Next time - mix the dry with the butter and spread away so it all holds together!

Once all the knots are shaped, place them on a parchment lined sheet pan (cover loosely with plastic wrap) and give them a 30 minute rise while heating the oven to 350ºF.

Bake for about 20 minutes until golden brown.

I opted for a light drizzle of a milk/confectioner’s sugar/vanilla extract glaze to give them a certain je ne sais quoi.

These were wonderfully tender, buttery and cinnamon-y - the perfect treat for a blustery autumn day. I served them at a morning coffee gathering down the street, and they were a hit!

I’ve been very intrigued of late with various twists, coils, spirals, knots or whatever shape one might imagine when creating what I’ll refer to as a “sweet roll” for lack of a better term. As the holiday season approaches I hope to add some new crowns, festive twists and star shapes to my sweet dough baking projects.

It’s all about learning and experimenting!