The Art of Two Tarts

Pasta with Zucchini Flowers

admin — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 20:15:20 +0000

A few summers back, while we were in Italy, we stopped at a random restaurant on the way home from the beach. Little did we know that we would have the most amazing pasta ever!! The dish consisted of linguine, zucchini flowers and saffron. The flavors were subtle, but melded so well together.

This is Maria’s first year growing a garden, and its doing very well! When we were at her house the other day we picked a dozen zucchini flowers, we knew we had to try and recreate “that” dish. I have to say we came pretty close! It was good…..but not as good as the one we had in Italy. As soon as Maria gets more zucchini flowers we are going to try it out again. Look at how beautiful the flowers are!

Here is how we made it. Let us know if you have any suggestions!

Ingredients:

2 tbsp EVOO

12 zucchini flowers, sliced

1 shallot, diced

1 tsp saffron

2 ladles of pasta water (approx.)

1/2 cup parsley, chopped

salt and pepper to taste

Parmesan cheese

1 tsp corn starch

1 lb. whole wheat linguine

Directions:

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Heat EVOO in a medium pan. Add shallots and cook for a few minutes until translucent. Remove pan from heat and add 2 ladles of pasta water. Next add the zucchini flowers and saffron. Add the tsp of corn starch and simmer until mixture thickens up a bit. Season to your tastes. Drain pasta and add to sauce mixture. Top with parsley and parmesan cheese.

Fortune Cookies

admin — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 12:39:02 +0000

So you might be asking, “why did they make fortune cookies?” Well, it was for a good reason and luckily they game out pretty darn good.

We have some big news people! Our brother, Carmine, proposed to Laura last weekend! We had the honor in helping him propose to our future sister-in law. A few months ago we all started brainstorming for a neat idea. We can’t remember who thought of the fortune cookie idea, but we all loved it. Carmine had the idea of ordering chinese take out at his house to have a nice relaxing dinner for Laura’s birthday. At the end of dinner he was going to offer her a fortune cookie, but little did Laura know what her fortune was going to say that night. She was definitely surprised!! We both love Laura and can’t wait for her to be a part of our family!

How cute are these fortune cookies? Yea they didn’t brown too even, but they still look pretty and tasted great.

The cute engaged couple looking all happy. CONGRATS!

You guys are both such an important part in our lives and we love you both!

Happy 7th Birthday Nico!

admin — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 14:25:12 +0000

Yesterday was our nephew Nico’s 7th birthday. Nico is such a great little nephew. We don’t know another little boy that smiles as much as he does. Since the day he was born, Nico would smile non stop. Not only does he love to smile, but he has a great little laugh too. If there’s one thing to know about Nico, it’s that once you get him to laugh, he won’t be stopping anytime soon! We remember when he was a baby, he’d laugh so much that we’d have to make him stop because he couldn’t catch his breathe!

Nico is such a happy kid and we love being around him. Since he was a baby he’s been super affectionate and loves to give you hugs and kisses. We all know that at a certain age boys stop kissing and hugging you, but never with Nico. You’ll always get a hug and kiss from him. He has such a big heart and we couldn’t imagine our lives without Nico.

Here’s a picture of Nico with Maria on her wedding day. This was one of her most favorite pictures. You can just tell what a loving kid Nico is!

Recently Nico has really been into soccer. He joined a team this year and did great. In fact, he did so well that his coach would have to take him out of the game, because he was scoring all of the goals! We can just imagine what a great soccer player he is going to be when he grows up! We love you Nico!!

Since we’ve been making so many cupcakes lately, we thought it’d be fun to change things up a bit. We were getting tired of the the same old cake cupcakes with buttercream frosting. We came across this recipe on Joy the Baker’s blog and knew that we had to make them. What kid doesn’t like ice cream? We knew Nico loved it for sure.

Here’s the Step by Step Situation:

Adapted from Joy the Baker

First make any brownie box mix. Line two cupcake pans with the foil cupcake liners. Into each cupcake liner, scoop 1 heaping Tablespoon of brownie batter. Bake at 350 degrees F for about about 10 minutes or until the brownie is cooked through.

Let the brownies cool in the cupcake pans to room temperature. Once cool, place in the freezer (still in the cupcake pans) for 30 minutes. When you place the cupcake pans in the freezer, remove the ice cream you’re using and place in the refrigerator to soften.

When ready to assemble the cupcakes, remove the cupcake pans with foil lined brownie cups from the freezer. Remove the ice cream (we did half cookies and cream and half jamoca almond fudge) from the fridge. Run the ice cream scooper under hot water and working quickly, portion a small scoop of ice cream into each foil lined cup, while still in the cupcake pan. The cupcake pan will help the Ice Cream Cupcake hold its shape. You may need to rinse the scooper under hot water in between scoops for easy portioning. Quickly smooth the scoops of ice cream with the back of a small spoon also rinsed in warm water and return the ice cream cupcakes quickly to the freezer.

Let the newly formed Ice Cream Cupcakes refreeze for 45 minutes to an hour. In this time you can make the chocolate ganache (recipe below). Let the ganache come to just around room temperature.

Once the cupcakes are refrozen and nice and firm, remove from the freezer and top with a teaspoon of chocolate ganache. Smooth over the cupcake. Return once again to the freezer.

Before serving, remove the foil liners and serve on a platter!

Chocolate Ganache

3/4 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips (I used chocolate chunks)

1/4 cup heavy cream

Put chocolate chips in a small bowl. Bring cream to a simmer in a small heavy saucepan. Pour cream evenly over chocolate. Let stand for one minute to soften, then stir until smooth. If frosting is too loose to spread, let it sit at room temperature for 10 to 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, frosting will continue to thicken as it stands.

Mini Strawberry Rhubarb Galettes

admin — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 12:59:09 +0000

You may remember us telling you how our dad’s favorite dessert is strawberry rhubarb pie back in April. It’s his all-time favorite, but we don’t make it too often because everyone else in our family isn’t too keen on it.

Well, with it being father’s day this past Sunday, we knew that we HAD to make our dad another strawberry rhubarb dessert. We didn’t want to make the same old strawberry rhubarb pie we always make for our dad. Instead, we thought it would be nice to make mini galettes. We really like individual desserts and they seem to be really popular lately.

We’ve made this peach blueberry crostata plenty of times and we absolutely love the crust. We knew we wanted to use it for our mini galettes. It’s so simple to make and always comes out perfect!

These truly were delicious! Now we know why are dad is in love with anything strawberry rhubarb. There’s something about that sweetness from the strawberries and the tartness from the rhubarb that creates such a wonderful combination.

Of course we made some with peaches and blueberries for those picky eaters in our family.

You gotta have a few in the crowd!

We’re so lucky to have such a great father in our life. He’s done so much for our family and truly is an amazing person. He’s great to go to for advice. The man seriously knows the right answer to anything! It’s good knowing that we have someone like him to call our father!

There just aren’t men like him these days.

Here’s the recipe:

For the Crust

Makes 12 individual servings

Adapted from Ina Garten

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated or superfine sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 pound (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, diced
6 tablespoons (3 ounces) ice water

Place the flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Pulse a few times to combine. Add the butter and toss quickly (and carefully!) with your fingers to coat each cube of butter with the flour. Pulse 12 to 15 times, or until the butter is the size of peas.

With the motor running, add the ice water all at once through the feed tube. Keep hitting the pulse button to combine, but stop the machine just before the dough comes together.

Turn the dough out onto a well-floured board, roll it into a ball, cut in half, and form into 2 flat disks. Wrap the disks in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

For the Strawberry Rhubarb Filling

Adapted from Cooking with Amy

1 1/2 cups rhubarb, peeled and sliced in 1/4 inch pieces
1/2 cup strawberries, sliced
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons cornstarch

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Combine the rhubarb, strawberries, sugar and cornstarch. Let sit for 15 minutes, no longer. Meanwhile break each disk into six pieces and roll each one into roughly a six inch round. Place 1/4 cup filling into the center of the dough rounds and fold the edges over, pinching to seal, place galettes on a baking sheet.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool slightly and serve.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

admin — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 11:00:54 +0000

If you’re tired of your chocolate chip cookie recipe and just want something new you’ve got to make these! We can guarantee that you will not be disappointed! Everytime we make these we eat 4 too many! We won’t be making them again until after Lisa’s wedding. They’re that dangerous!

A warm chocolate chip cookie out of the oven, with the gooey chocolate bits, crispiness around the edge, and barely cooked middle, is…everything that is good in the world of cookies.

These fulfill all of our requirements for a perfect chocolate chip cookie: they are dense and chewy on the inside, with a crispy and sturdy outer shell; the flavor of the cookie itself is rich and buttery.

We have no criticisms for this cookie. None. They were given enthusiastic thumbs up by everyone who has tasted them. Everyone just wanted more and more.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Adapted from MyBakingAddiction.com

originally adapted from Parsley, Sage, Desserts & Line Drives

Ingredients
2 sticks cold and cubed unsalted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon table or fine sea salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 1/2 cups good quality semisweet chocolate chips or chunks

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
1. In bowl of electric mixer fitted with paddle, cream together butter and sugars until well blended and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, mix in vanilla and beat until well incorporated.
2. Add flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and mix until just combined. Gently fold in chocolate chips/chunks and nuts.
3. Transfer dough to clean work surface and gently mix dough by hand to ensure even distribution of ingredients.
4. Scoop the dough into balls using a medium size ice cream scooper.
5. Place each on sheet pan lined with parchment paper and bake in the preheated oven 15-20 minutes depending on how gooey and rawish you like the interior, until very lightly browned, taking care not to overbake. I baked mine for 15 minutes, which seemed to be perfect in my oven.
6. Let cool on rack and store what you don’t immediately eat in an airtight container.

*We always let our cookies cool on a rack for a few minutes and while they are still warm we transfers them to a large ziploc big. The cookies stay soft and chewy for a couple days!

Congrats Farah!

admin — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 15:37:21 +0000

These cupcakes are from this past Sunday. Our best friend’s brother was graduating from High School and we offered to make him cupcakes for his party! He graduated from the same high school we did, so it was fun to make these cupcakes special!

GO TITANS!!

We’ve known this family since the second grade and they are the closet family we know outside relatives. We’ve had such great times with them and they are truly great people. FUN too!

As for the cupcakes, we decided on vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream and chocolate cupcakes with an Oreo frosting.

This oreo frosting is new to our menu and it’s seriously TO DIE FOR!

We had fun making these cupcakes and got great reviews from Farah!

Good luck with everything Farah! We can’t believe you’re off to college!

Happy 12th Birthday Frankie!

admin — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 13:00:55 +0000

Our Nephew Frankie is turning 12 today! Its so crazy to think how fast he’s growing up. We were just about Frankie’s age when he was born. We were 13 and felt so grown up because we already had a niece and couldn’t wait for Frankie to get here! As soon as Frankie was born we wanted to hold him, feed him, change him, and bathe him. There were plenty of times where we would fight over who was going to hold him. We feel really close to Frankie because we saw him almost everyday for the first few years of his life, we look at him like our baby brother. Frankie is one of those kids, that when he speaks to you, you think your speaking to an adult. He excels in school and is very knowledgeable for a 12 year old. We predict that Frankie will become president one day! Wouldn’t be bad to have some connections with the President .

Frankie will be successful in whatever he chooses to do in life. He’s such a great people person and loves to have conversations with everybody and anybody. Most of the time he starts off by saying, “Did you know that…”

Frankie LOVES to read. You’re probably wondering why we drew a scorpion and a lightning bolt on top of his cake. Well, Frankie is into a series of books called, Alex Rider. They are all over 300 pages and he has read about 10 of them! The scorpion and lightening bolt were on the covers of two of the books, and he wanted us to incorporate them into his cake. We are so proud of him and look forward to seeing him continue to grow.

Okay so you’re probably wondering what kind of cake, icing, and filling we used…

After talking with Frankie this is what we decided on.

Chocolate Cake. Oreo Cream filling. Vanilla Buttercream Frosting.

We can’t wait to eat this tonight!

Happy 12th Birthday Frankie!

We love you so much!!

Cake

Ingredients

Butter, for greasing the pans
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pans
2 cups sugar
3/4 cups good cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup buttermilk, shaken
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter 2 (8-inch) round cake pans. Line with parchment paper, then butter and flour the pans.

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack and cool completely.

Oreo Filling

Ingredients

1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups thawed COOL WHIP Whipped Topping
16 OREO Cookies, coarsely crushed

Directions

Beat cream cheese and sugar in large bowl with mixer until blended. Gently stir in COOL WHIP and crushed cookies. Stack cake layers on plate, spreading cream cheese mixture between layers.

Frosting

Ingredients

2 cups (9oz) unsalted butter (softened)
4 1/2 cups (1lb 2oz) confectioner’s (castor) sugar, sifted
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1tbsp hot water

Directions

In a mixing bowl, mix the butter until light and fluffy. (2 minutes)
Carefully mix in the sugar, vanilla and water and beat well at high speed until the mixture is light and creamy. (4-5min)

Frost the cake!

1st Birthday Butterfly Cupcakes!

admin — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 17:22:54 +0000

We had another cupcake order this weekend. It was for a baby girl’s 1st birthday party! The theme was spring and butterflies so we did our best to incorporate the two!

The cupcakes were half chocolate and half vanilla and they all were topped with colored vanilla frosting.

We made the chocolate butterflies by hand. Yes, all 72 by hand!

Annie’s Eats has a tutorial here that can show you how to make them! Click here!

Piping flower petals on cupcakes does take time, but the better you become at it the faster you will get!

We won’t be having anymore orders soon since we are super busy getting Lisa ready for her wedding! We hope to continue after the summer!

Stay tuned for our everyday recipes tho!

Baby Girl Shower Cupcakes

admin — Mon, 24 May 2010 12:52:29 +0000

This weekend we had our second order for cupcakes. The orders just keep getting larger and larger. A good friend of our sister Phyllis was throwing her sister a baby shower. She asked us to make cupcakes and we said OK right away!

We decided on chocolate cupcakes with two different shades of pink frosting.

Half were a bright pink that were piped to look like flowers.

The other half were pale pink in color and piped into simple but elegant swirls.

We had a lot of fun making these cupcakes!

We made a total of 60 cupcakes! Here they were all ready to go!

We have an even larger order for next weekend and we’re so excited! Just wait till you see how cute they’re going to be!

Peach and Blueberry Crostata

admin — Fri, 21 May 2010 12:39:51 +0000

This is the recipe that made us discover our love for the combination of peach and blueberries. We discovered this recipe a year ago and have made it several times since then.

Are you wondering what took us so long to post this recipe?? Well, the answer is that we could never get in a picture because this crostata was always gone in 2 minutes! It seriously is that yummy. We have made this crostata for family and friends that still talk about it months later.

It seriously is that good!

There are a few steps in making this crostata, but each and every step is simple. Sometimes, we make the crust ahead of time. This helps on getting the crostata in the oven faster the day you plan on making it!

Peach and Blueberry Crostata

Adapted from Ina Garten

For the pastry (makes 2 crostatas)

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated or superfine sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 pound (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, diced
6 tablespoons (3 ounces) ice water

With the motor running, add the ice water all at once through the feed tube. Keep hitting the pulse button to combine, but stop the machine just before the dough comes together.

Turn the dough out onto a well-floured board, roll it into a ball, cut in half, and form into 2 flat disks. Wrap the disks in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. If you only need 1 disk of dough The other disk of dough can be frozen.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Roll the pastry into an 11-inch circle on a lightly floured surface. Transfer it to the baking sheet.

For the filling (makes 1 crostata)

1 1/2 pound firm ripe peaches, peeled
1/2 pint fresh blueberries
1 tablespoon plus 1/4 cup all-purpose flour, divided
1 tablespoon plus 1/4 cup granulated sugar, divided
1/4 teaspoon grated orange zest
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) cold unsalted butter, diced

Cut the peaches and plums in wedges and place them in a bowl with the blueberries. Toss them with 1 tablespoon of the flour, 1 tablespoon of the sugar, the orange zest, and the orange juice. Place the mixed fruit on the dough circle, leaving a 1 1/2-inch border.

Combine the 1/4 cup flour, the 1/4 cup sugar, and the salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture is crumbly. Pour into a bowl and rub it with your fingers until it starts to hold together. Sprinkle evenly over the fruit. Gently fold the border of the pastry over the fruit, pleating it to make an edge.

Bake the crostata for 20 to 25 minutes, until the crust is golden and the fruit is tender. Let the crostata cool for 5 minutes, then use 2 large spatulas to transfer it to a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Ina says that each crostata serves 6 but we beg to differ! We think the most one crostata serves is 5, but we go with 4 generous servings for each crostata.

Trust us, your guests will want a nice slice of this crostata!

Enjoy!