Heaven knows I do my best to please Gasterea, but looking over my file index of the past five years or so it appears that I’ve sadly neglected one of the pleasures of taste: sweets. Only about once a year — usually at the holiday season just passed — did I shift into my dessert mode.
The reasons for this neglect are manifold; 1 never really had much of a sweet tooth myself and there are so many good sources for pastries right here on the South Fork: Simple Pleasures in Bridgehampton, the General Store in Sagaponack, Dean & Co. in East Hampton, Kathleen’s Cookies ubiquitously.
Then too, those who hop, skip, and run and lead a righteous life, dietarily speaking, are forever on about cholesterol and calories. This belies the fact that restaurants are selling more desserts than ever. It’s the privation and reward syndrome.
Perhaps it’s my South Carolinian provenance (or maybe that I quit smoking last summer), but I find my interest in dessert matters keenly sharpened. Even before I renounced nicotine, I wrote a rather lengthy dessert chapter for a new book of mine which is supposed to be published in June.
Maida Heatter, the acknowledged queen of sweets, has given us several wonderful books with recipes designed for home cooks. The desserts section of my cookbook library has been enhanced considerably by “Chez Panisse Desserts” written by that famous West Coast restaurant’s pastry chef, Lindsey Shere. Another book I would recommend to the enthusiastic dessert maker is “Dolci, The Fabulous Desserts of Italy,” by Virginie and George Elbert. But my most recent craze is the desserts in “Miss Ruby’s American Cooking” by that indomitable Texan, Ruth Adams Bronz, owner of Miss Ruby’s Cafe in the Chelsea district of Manhattan, where my daughter Phoebe is the pastry chef.
Houston Junior League Fudge Pie
This sumptuous chocolate dessert is via Ruth Bronz, who found it in an old cookbook of her mother’s. The high temperature, short baking, results in a “gooey-on-the-inside, crunchy-on-the-outside, heavenly piece of chocolate wickedness.” It is one of the few staples on the ever changing menu at Miss Ruby’s Cafe. Makes three eight-inch pies.
8 ozs. unsweetened Baker’s chocolate
2 cups (4 sticks) salted butter
8 large eggs
4 cups sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3 cups broken pecans
Preheat the oven to 475 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease and flour three eight-inch pie pans.
In a large saucepan over low heat, melt the chocolate and butter together. Beat the remaining ingredients together until glossy. Add the melted chocolate and butter. Beat again until glossy. Pour the mixture into the prepared pans. Bake 20 to 25 minutes, until puffy on top and just done. Cool before slicing.
Lemon Curd Tarts
Here’s another great dessert that is a constant on the menu at Miss Ruby’s. The rich and lemony filling can also be used in lemon meringue pie or as a filling for layer cake. The pastry, Pasta Frolla, which follows, is a very short Italian cookie-like crust. Makes 12 four-inch tarts.
Filling:
Zest of 3 lemons
3/4 cup lemon juice, strained
1 cup sugar
6 eggs
3 egg yolks
1/2 lb. unsalted butter
Pinch of salt
1 cup heavy cream, whipped
Grate the rind of the lemons and set aside. Squeeze the lemons plus however many you need to make up three-quarters of a cup of juice (how much juice each lemon yields varies with the size and condition of the citrus). Beat the sugar, eggs, and egg yolks together in a heavy non-corroding saucepan. Stir in the juice and lemon zest and the butter cut in eight pieces. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture is the texture of a light custard and coats the spoon.
If you don’t feel confident with the direct heat method — which is faster — use a large double boiler. Any large saucepan that sits well above the boiling water in another, slightly smaller pan, can serve as a double boiler. Remove from the heat and scrape into a stainless or china bowl; cover with plastic wrap pressed directly onto the surface of the lemon curd to prevent a skin forming. Chill in the refrigerator, where it will keep well for at least five days.
Pasta Frolla
There may be some of this sweetened pastry dough left over. You can freeze it for future use or sprinkle it with a little sugar and bake it as cookies. Makes 12 four-inch tart shells.
8 ozs. (2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
2 large eggs
Remove the butter from the fridge and slice it into eight parts. Slice each of these in four parts and leave on wax paper. Sift together the flour, sugar, and salt into a large shallow bowl. Make a well in the center and add the butter. Work it into the flour quickly using your fingertips or a pastry blender. When it is crumbly, add the eggs, beaten together, just until it forms a mass — don’t overwork the dough. Shape it into a flattened ball, wrap airtight in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven at 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
Roll out on a floured board to a thickness of one-eighth inch. Unless you have a very large space to work in, it may be more convenient to cut the dough in half and roll out two large circles. Using the top edge of your tart pans as a guide, cut out 12 circles and fit them into the pans; try not to stretch the dough or the tart shells will shrink in the oven. Prick them all over with a table fork.
Tart pans are very shallow, the sides no more than a half-inch high. If you are using deeper tart pans you will have to allow extra dough for each circle to allow for this. Place the tarts on a broad cookie sheet and bake in the lower third of the oven for 10 minutes. Prick any bubbles with a fork and return the tart shells to the oven for another five minutes; they should not color to more than a light gold. Cool the tarts in their pans set on a rack. When cold you may remove them, stack them lightly about four shells high and store them covered with plastic wrap in the refrigerator until serving time. Fill each tart with the lemon curd, smoothing down the surface evenly. Serve with a dollop of whipped cream on each tart.
