Pear and Goat Cheese tartlets

A very delicious appetizer! It is a bit time consuming but so good!

Pear and Goat Cheese Phyllo Tart lets

4 tsp butter
2 onions, finely chopped
2 cups ripe pears, finely chopped, cored and peeled
1 tsp granulated sugar
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
pinch salt
3 sheets phyllo pastry
2 tbsp melted butter
300g creamy goat cheese
2 cloves garlic, minced
pinch salt
24 whole fresh sage leaves

(shopping tips- I suggest buying the goat cheese at Costco or Superstore, it is going to be expensive at your local grocery store for that much. Also, I have never used the sage leaves as they aren't always that easy to find and it is more of a garnish that looks pretty that anything else) Preheat oven to 400.

1) Melt 3 tsp of the butter over medium heat in a fry pan, cook onions for 5 minutes, stir occasionally.
2) Add remaining butter and the chopped pears, cook, stirring occasionally. It should take about 10 minutes until the pears are tender and turning brown.
3) Add sugar, vinegar and a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring until most of the liquid is evaporated. About 2 minutes. Let this mixture cool to room temperature. This can be stored and refrigerated for a day, This way you could do it ahead of time to save time, also if you are having people over you may not want your place to smell like onions!
4) Place one sheet of phyllo pastry, brush sheet with some of the melted butter. Lay a second sheet of phyllo pastry on top, brush with butter, add a third sheet and brush this with butter.
5) Cat layered phyllo lengthwise into 4 strips and crosswise into 6 strips to make 24 squares. Press the squares into mini muffin trays.
6) Mix together goat cheese, garlic and the last pinch of salt. Put 1 tsp of pear mixture and top with 2 tsp of goat cheese mixture, smooth the cheese mixture down on top. Garnish with sage leaf if you have them.
7) Bake for 10 minutes or until pastry is golden and filling is hot. Serve warm, also taste good cold! Makes 24 tarts. I found that it makes more like 30 tarts, but I guess it depends on how accurate you are with your measuring too.

Christmas Baking

Last week I decided it was time to start some Christmas baking. This year I decided I wanted to make shortbread, gingerbread and sugar cookies. When I was at the grocery store waiting in line, I started browsing through the Martha Stewart Christmas issue. I decided to pick it up to maybe find a new Christmas recipe to try. Also, since she is my blog name inspiration, it seemed appropriate. She had a recipe that I had to try. Chocolate Thumbprint cookies, with chocolate ganache filling. I remember making thumbprint cookies as a kid but they were not chocolate so I had to try these! They taste pretty good, way to go Martha! Even if she does make her recipes as complicated as possible.

Chocolate Thumbprints

2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup plus 1 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
2 teaspoons coarse salt
8 ounces unsalted butter, softened
1 1/3 cups sugar, plus more for rolling
2 large egg yolks
2 tablespoons heavy cream (for such a small amount I sometimes would just do half milk and sour cream, instead of buying thick cream)
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1) measure out butter and sit out to soften
2) Preheat oven to 350 Sift flour, cocoa powder, salt in small bowl. Cream butter and sugar in mixer until fluffy. On medium speed add yolks, cream and vanilla. Add flour mixture until just combined.
3) Roll balls using 2 teaspoons dough, roll in sugar. (dough will be quite sticky) Place approximately 1" apart on baking sheets. Using the handle of a wooden spoon (or a knuckle works too), press gently in the centre of the ball of dough to create an indent. Bake cookies rotating half way through. Should take about 10 minutes, until just set, the cookies are similar to brownies, soft not crunchy. Transfer to wire rack after they have cooled slightly. Sometimes the middle of the cookie will puff up during baking, you can push the indent down again.
4) Spoon the ganache into the centre of each cookie. Let stand until firm. They will keep for about 3 days.

Chocolate and Vanilla Bean Ganache
(you should make this once the cookies are out of the oven as it is not supposed to sit long before you use it)

1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/2 vanilla bean, split and scraped, pod reserved (I ended up using a couple of tablespoons vanilla extract instead as I had never used vanilla beans before. I would like to try it with vanilla beans as I know now that the flavour would be a lot richer. I understand, however, they are quite expensive, so you may choose to use extract as well.)
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate finely chopped
1 ounce (2 tablespoons unsalted butter) softened

1) combine honey, cream and vanilla seeds and pod in medium saucepan over medium heat. (if you are using vanilla extract DON'T add it yet as it will just evaporate and you won't get any vanilla flavour) Bring to a simmer, stirring until honey dissolves. Remove from heat, cover and let stand for 20 minutes.
2) Place chocolate in a food processor. Return honey/cream mixture to a simmer, then strain removing solids. (You only need to do this if you used the actual vanilla bean) Poor cream mixture over chocolate in blender, let sit for 1 minute. Process until mixture is smooth, then add butter. Let cool slightly and then add to the middle of the cookies.