SWEET POTATO TART WITH GINGERSNAP CRUST

 I haven't really celebrated Thanksgiving since I've lived in Israel. It falls in the middle of the week and my family here is not really excited about the very American type food of Thanksgiving. Personally, as a kid, I always concentrated on the stuffing, cranberry sauce and dessert. I could leave the rest with no problem.

I haven't baked anything in a while and I  miss it. This tart came just at the right time- I happened to have sweet potatoes on hand. I love it when I can just get to work without having to run to the grocery store to get this or that. The sweet potato puree is easy to make and I had all I could do refrain from sitting down with the whole bowl and just eating it as is!

Putting it together is easy enough and the smell that fills the house as it is baking just yells "autumn". ( I'm sure it is autumn somewhere in the world- certainly not here!) There was quite a bit of the sweet potato filling leftover, so I decided to make sweet potato muffins. The recipe is adapted from the recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Loaf from the first of the Baked books "Baked- New Frontiers in Baking". I switched the pumpkin to sweet potato and made one loaf and the remainder of the batter into muffins. Froze them for an easy to pull out, quick , on-the-go breakfast. Really good!

You can find the recipe for the tart here, at Baked Sunday Mornings.  Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Chocolate Whiskey Tart

Sometimes you come across a recipe that becomes one of your "go to" recipes. One that you know is successful, easy to make in a short period of time and is also adaptable to different flavors. I made this tart the first time a few weeks ago and since then I have come back to it at least 3 times. 

Now, I am not a whiskey lover by any means (more of a white wine person myself) but I always like to make a recipe , at least the first time, according to the original directions and ingredients. I served it at a family Friday night dinner and everyone really went crazy over it. I actually did make one change and used crushed Biscoff cookies for the base. They really deepened the flavor of the whole tart. The whiskey was very evident but in a positive way and gave the tart a wonderful flavor. The options are open as far as different liquor flavors- off the top of my head , I can see trying either Kahlua, Irish Cream or even an orange liqueur. Orange and chocolate go together like peas in a pod (least in my taste opinion!)

Pictures were taken at the very (and I mean very) last minute before the family dove into, and finished off I may add, the tart. I had every intention of sprinkling a pretty design of cocoa powder on top of the whipped cream.....never quite made it that far!Photo quality is not great,(no lighting etc. ,etc.) but you get an idea of what it looked like before barely a crumb was left on the plate (and those were gone in a second after that as well!)

You can find the recipe at Baked Sunday Mornings. Enjoy!

TWD Twofer Pie

I go to all this effort to bake and come out with wonderful results. That's very nice- but then I always seem to forget to take a picture of it! The thought comes right after everyone has dug into the cake, pie or whatever. I suppose I could take a picture half eaten as well- at least people could see that it is being consumed!


In any case, the pumkin-pecan pie chosen for this week's TWD recipe was lovely to look at and even better to taste. I must say, I was becoming a bit skeptical about the recipes in the book, since the last few I've made were quite unimpressive- even nasty tasting.



The crust that Dorie uses did not work at all for me. I prefer using all butter. I went ahead and tried her recipe with a combination of shortening and butter and it just didn't work for me. I had to throw it out! Ouch! It was probably a mistake of some sort that I made and not the recipe , but I went back to my old standard that has worked so well for me over and over again. The recipe comes from Marcy Goldman's Better Baking site- http://www.betterbaking.com/viewRecipe.php?recipe_id=1193



The filling was delicious. I took the pie to a staff Thanksgiving dinner last nite and it was the first to go. I will definitely make this again!



This week my youngest daughter will be entering the Israeli Army. My baby is flying from the nest! The house will seem strange with just the two of us here. On the bright side- more time for baking and another group of tasters for my baked goods. I am looking forward to sending her back each week with a box of yummies. Until next time...........