all my baker friends – buy this book -it is a priceless gem! This is a book to curl up with – right now – by the fire or back in bed, on this dreary morning – and just dream…..
You may say, I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one……… John Lennon circa 1971
If you are making a list and checking it twice, I suggest you add this book and Mes Comfitures onto it – it is not too late!
this morning’s views
It is at precisely this time of year that I remember a few things exceptionally clearly from long ago.
One is a visit to the French Pastry Shop on Washington Street in Morristown, N.J. with my Dad after church (and, pardon me for repeating myself – but, this is one of my most important memories from childhood). It was still feeling dark and often gloomy, like a Dickens story, when we arrived and so I remember it to be immediately after 7:00 mass. The proprietor, as I have written on several occasions on this blog, was a lovely French women with salt and pepper hair wound into a french twist. She always had a cardigan sweater on and she’d emerge from the back to wait on us. Her husband was the baker. When I walked into their shop my head spun with the aroma of sweet french confections and I went off into some state of devotion which I am sure was intended for the church part but did not materialize there. Instead, the likes of this place, I can not imagine anywhere else in my memory in this country. That these people were only there for such a short time and then disappeared from sight, but not my memory is a tragedy of sorts – they baked the most delicious coffee cakes ever – that is what we always got – picking one was a torturous chore, and, I broke off a bite or two in the car on the way home – the aroma not allowing for the duration of the drive home.
To say that this image is forever burned in my memory and perhaps was the instance of igniting my obsession with this world of pastry baking, is an understatement. I have been to the Morristown Library and researched their legacy – there is nary a mention of them – basically only that they were there. So incredibly sad. There has never been another example of this wonderment in our area since. I was probably about 8 years old. So-called bakeries have come and gone – and to no stature such as theirs as far as I’m concerned.
Also, in these weeks just leading up to the solstice and for a few weeks after, I imagine great pastry chefs hard at work in their kitchens, always in the dark, and I yearn to go to France to visit every possible place I can. It may sound strange but often I don’t have to actually eat every single majestic pastry creation – it is more the aromas and the visuals that strike me more powerfully! Ohhhhh and shhhhhh. Well, of course I could eat each and every one of them, but I don’t for obvious reasons. If I could board a plane right now, I would.
I’d be happy, too:
photo courtesy l’epicerie
I have a list of people I’d like to meet someday or be, should I be reincarnated into the Pastry world. Christine Ferber would be on both of those lists. Beginning long ago, I became aware of her, bought her books, read about her and imagined her time and again in her kitchen in Alsace. Who wouldn’t want her life, I wondered to myself.
Here are two articles about her from the NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/24/fashion/24iht-rjam24.html
http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/03/this-womans-place-is-in-her-kitchen/?_r=0
photos courtesy NYT
This morning as I took a look to see what was new on instagram, I came upon her Linzer Torte. Every once in a while there is an item that will stop me in my tracks. This one did – not because it was anything new and surprising, but because it came from her and because I immediately wanted to try to make it – and, let’s just say anything with Raspberry Jam is a lure for me.
photo courtesy Christine Ferber
It didn’t take long for me to become obsessed with finding this recipe. I searched and searched. I even got out my book: Mes Tartes – The Sweet and Savory Tarts of Christine Ferber. OMG – it’s not in there and really, it’s nowhere on the internet? My impression of her only increased – she’s not letting that cat out of the bag, I said to myself (sorry Callie)!
But, wait – I found it! On Paris Chez Sharon – a wonderful site to visit – and do! I had to translate it, an option she generously offers, but here it is: this is the exact translation from her blog: I love the comments that come first – you’ll see the vagaries of translation – but read it anyway!
https://parischezsharon.blogspot.com/2016/05/linzer-torte.html
You can see that this is actually a torte and not a tart in the classic sense, being more cake-like in consistency. Most Linzer Tortes these days are expressed in common tart form – a pastry shell in various iterations and the requisite Raspberry Jam. This, is more the real deal!
photos courtesy parischezsharon
LINZER TORTE – post and recipe courtesy ParisChezSharon and Christine Ferber
Left creams and taxed, my Parisian abstinence kitchenette (Photo: Sharon Heinrich)
Whenever we return from Alsace We bring with us a number of products, without which it is impossible to return to Paris guest room. White wines like Pinot Gris or Goortz, Mostar fragrant cheese, jams of Christine Ferber (preferred us used to excellent jam, violets and raspberry jam pears with vanilla) and of course some units of its famous Hlinzr cake. Farber know that every time we come to it, at the end of the visit, and she makes us the cakes are packed in cardboard boxes and tied with green ribbon, ready for the trip to the city of lights.
Abstinence Austrian torte is a cake, it received its name after the city of Linz, Austria. Some say it the world’s oldest cake, as her first recipe was published in 1653. The cake is a special dough with almonds or ground nuts, crispy stir among not just simply work because it is very wet. The dough season with a variety of spices such as cinnamon, cloves, vanilla, cardamom and more. A generous layer over the base of the tart jam, usually raspberry jam or plum, there also prepare it with apricot jam or Rhubarb. Its flavors are reminiscent of the flavors of the rich spice bread with honey, cinnamon, cardamom and cloves, and is considered a delicacy in the winter, especially before Christmas.
Farber’s lab celebrate the jams red (Photo: Sharon Heinrich)
Our last visit Farber’s lab , I decided that this time in our relationship, I can ask her for the recipe. As the waves of love that the Hlinzr Tourette’s suburb, I asked her for her recipe classical cake. Happily, the first lady agreed jams to share their recipe and very glad I told her I was going to share it with you. Thus, we frize with four cardboard boxes tied with green ribbon, cakes abstinence 4, 6, and jam one recipe.
Tourette’s abstinence Christine Ferber
recipe Ring diameter 24 cm height 2 cm
materials :
270 g plain flour
40g ground almonds
3 g of cinnamon
7 grams of cocoa
3 grams baking powder
Pinch of salt
130 g butter at room temperature
130 g sugar
2 eggs M lightly beaten
400g raspberry jam or prunes or apricots
preparation :
1. prepare the dough: the head of the hook mixer mixing elements (guitar) Place the bowl of a mixer flour, almonds, cinnamon, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Mix lightly. Add butter and sugar and continue to blend in flour until butter is absorbed. Add eggs and mix until dough is smooth (dough obtained very humid and sticky).
2. Cut the work surface plastic wrap and place the dough ball. Wrap the ball in plastic wrap and flatten it slightly into the plastic wrap for a larger surface area. Refrigerate for two hours.
3. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and roll it on a floured surface leaf 28 cm in diameter and about 5 mm thick. If the dough is moist / too sticky to work, it helps to lay between two baking sheets and roll.
4. Grease Ring with butter and place it on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Place the risen dough on herring and press the dough into the sides. Remove the leftover dough using a rolling pin to roll the sides. Pierce the dough with a fork and refrigerate for half an hour.
5. Cut into small scraps of dough into circles, hearts, stripes create the decoration on the tart. Refrigerate.
6. Remove the base from the refrigerator and pour it to jam. Decorate circle of dough, pastry or striped hearts form of a grid.
7. Place the tart baking in an oven preheated to 180 degrees. Bake for about 30 minutes, until the dough is baked and the smell of cinnamon fills the house.
I would probably make the cut outs in the shape of Christmas trees!
Oh, the gratitude! And now, off to the kitchen (or maybe back to bed first with the book)!