Nothing-in-the-House Baking Co. Debut at the DC Meet Market!

After about a week of late-night baking marathons, grocery store runs and just one minor exhausted breakdown, Nothing-in-the-House Baking Co. finally made its debut this past Saturday at the DC Meet Market! My lovely assistant and housemate Bobbie and I set up the stand with picnic baskets and wooden library boxes, ticking from America's milltown Lowell, MA, stamped tags and tin pie pans. Then Bobbie and our friend Diana engineered the Nothing-in-the-House banner with clothes pins, stencil letters and twine, and a borrowed stapler from the handy man neighbor at Picnic Gourmet Spreads.


But what do you care about the decor--let's get to the baked goods! Though I didn't make quite everything I had hoped (a savory tomato galette, clementine curd stuffed doughnuts, and more fried pies were also on the list), we offered a good selection of tarts and doughnuts, whoopie pies and even a vegan & gluten free cookie! Here's the menu:

Nothing-in-the-House Baking Co. at the DC Meet Market, August 18th
-Berry tartlets 
-Chocolate peanut butter pretzel tartlets 
-Plum frangipane tartlets 
-Shaker lemon tartlets
-Carrot cake doughnuts with a cream cheese glaze -Glazed 'n' raised doughnuts (with blackberry, caramel & plain glazes)
-Stone fruit & bourbon fried pies
-Chocolate stout & espresso whoopie pies with salty caramel buttercream
-Vegan & gluten-free iced oatmeal cookie

It was a beautiful, mild August day with just a hint of fall in the air. The stream of customers started right off the bat with a fan who had visited the Tarts by Tarts stand at Crafty Bastards and has been looking for our baked goods since! That was a very encouraging way to kick-off the market and over the course of the day it was so wonderful to see a lot of old friends (some I had not seen in years, like Lisa & Sarah!) and meet new folks jazzed about baked goods.

Though I still have to tweak that carrot cake doughnut recipe, and forgot to sprinkle sugar on the fried pies, I was really pleased with everything else and received some great feedback and excitement about future appearances and the pie CSA.


Around lunchtime, my friend Kate arrived, daisies in tow, to help sell, and she did an amazing job, hawking whoopie pies to all the other vendors who were stuck in their stalls! She also bought us delicious Bones BBQ sammiches. Throughout the day we jammed to DJ Dianamatic's French pop tunes, and in the afternoon our friends Clear Blue Sky arrived to play a short honky-tonk set, which went just perfectly with those fried pies.

By 4:00 we were sold out--with that, some money in the pocket, and all the great folks we met, I'd call it a success! Then Bobbie, Kate and I loaded up the car and drove promptly home for a much-needed nap.

I'd like to send a special thanks to all who made this debut possible: Bobbie & Kate for their really generous time and support, Mary for the late-night butter run, Luigia for the tent, Morgan & Kenan for the tables, Marion & John and housemates for the food processor, Kari for helping to get this whole thing 'tarted with Tarts by Tarts, The DC Meet Market, the other helpful & friendly vendors, and everyone who stopped by the stand, bought something, or just took a card, put their name on the mailing list, and said hello. I'm looking forward to doing it again soon (the next DC Meet Market is September 15th!). In the meantime, stay posted on upcoming Nothing-in-the-House Baking Co. events and the upcoming pie CSA here. Thank you!

Chocolate & Peanut Butter Pretzel Tart

That's us. A wild combination. Sometimes it's all about putting two and two together. At NELP, the first year I taught, we had the "Get out of your lunchbox" collective, that was all about unlikely combinations, taking a risk on strange sandwiches and ice cream toppings: Crushed potato chips, chocolate and bacon? Watermelon, crystalized ginger and mint? Peanuts, banana chips and sea salt? Some were hits and some were far misses, but the point was in the risk and experimentation.

I'm not sure who first came up with the peanut butter-chocolate-pretzel combination, but whether it was Hershey's or some mom in the Midwest, it's a real winner. Thanks to the power of Pinterest, I came across this recipe for a chocolate & peanut butter pretzel tart from Hot Polka Dot, and immediately added it to the dessert menu for the Dougherty family party (you'll see this tart on the dessert table). This wild combination features a pretzel crust (!!!) and a rich chocolate 'n' peanut butter ganache filling, mimicing chocolate-peanut butter covered pretzels (try them if you haven't...Trader Joe's has some, or dip your favorite co-op's bulk bin choco-pretzels in PB!). I altered the tart a little bit by adding additional salt to the crust, but I have a bit of a salt tooth, so you may want to salt to taste. The recipe calls for "regular" peanut butter--the sweetened and salted Jiff, Peter Pan or Skippy variety that you grew up with. But if you prefer using natural peanut butter, add sugar (and salt, if unsalted) to the filling.

Chocolate & Peanut Butter Pretzel Tart
Adapted from Hot Polka Dot

Ingredients
For crust:
1/2 c. + 2 Tblsp. unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 c. confectioner's sugar
1 1/2 c. crushed pretzels
1 tsp. coarse kosher salt
1 1/2 c. flour
1 large egg

For filling:
8 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped (or use chocolate chips)
3/4 c. heavy cream
2 Tblsp. unsalted butter
1/2 c. smooth peanut butter (Use run-of-the-mill salted and sweetened peanut butter. If you use natural, make sure it's smooth, and you'll want to add sugar to taste--probably 1/2 c.)

Directions
For crust:
1. In the bowl of a standing mixer, combine butter, confectioner's sugar and half of the crushed pretzels until mixture is well mixed. Add the flour, salt, egg, and remaining pretzels until the mixture is well combined, but pretzel chunks remain.

2. Form dough into a flattened ball, wrap and plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least one hour, and up to overnight.

3. Once dough is chilled, remove it from the fridge and let it sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, butter and flour a 12-inch tart pan and set it aside. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough between 2 pieces of wax paper, into a 15-inch circle. Transfer the dough to the tart pan and press into the bottom and sides to form a crust (it will be a little crumbly, so you may have to piece it). Fold the excess dough back over the sides to form a strong double crust. Roll a rolling pin over the top of the tart pan to ensure that the crust is level with the top of the pan. Pierce the bottom of the crust with a fork in several places and place in the freezer for 30 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Remove tart from freezer, once chilled. Butter one side of a piece of aluminum foil and place it buttered-side down on the inside of the tart crust. Place tart on a baking sheet and bake for 20-25 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 10 minutes or until golden brown. Remove tart from oven and let cool completely before filling.

For filling:
1. Put chocolate in a heat-proof bowl and set aside. Combine cream and butter in a medium saucepan and place on medium heat until it just comes to a boil. When it begins to boil, pour it over the chocolate, cover the bowl, and let it sit for 3-5 minutes. Remove the lid and whisk in the chocolate until it is completely melted and has a ganache-like consistency. Pour it into the cooled tart shell and smooth with a spatula.

2. Meanwhile, warm the peanut butter in the microwave or on the stove until it is slightly runny. Pour it over the chocolate ganache, and drag a butter knife through it to create swirls. Chill for at least 10-15 minutes to set. Serve at room temperature. Enjoy!

Passion Fruit Meringue Pie at a Backyard Family Party

It's been two Saturdays in a row of backyard cookouts here at the Dollhouse. Details and desserts of this weekend's fête are on their way, but last weekend's was a multi-excuse party for my rad housemate Bobbie's family, The Doughertys, who, among parents and four sisters were celebrating a 30th wedding anniversary, 2 graduations, and a return home from the Peace Corps.

As the family of honor staked down the yellow circus tent, lit grills, and strung streamers in the backyard, Kari and I, in perhaps the last Tarts by Tarts collaboration for a while, took to the the kitchen, charged with the making of desserts. We composed a versatile menu that included that pecan layer cake, key lime pie bars, and jumbleberry pavlova by Kari and lime tarts, and a peach-pecan pie and chocolate and peanut butter pretzel tart by me (more info on those coming soon!).

I also contributed a passion fruit meringue pie, elements of which were requested by both Bobbie and her older sister Cait. Cait had just returned from the Peace Corps in Panama, where she ate a lot of passion fruit, and Bobbie is a resident of the dollhouse, where she eats a lot of meringue...so I brought the two together in a passion fruit meringue pie with a macadamia nut-gingersnap crust.

This passion fruit pie is related to lilikoi (passion fruit in Hawaiian) pie, though where classic lilikoi pie generally features an airy chiffon filling, the pie I made calls for a denser curd, topped by a marshmallowy meringue. Combined with the macadamia nut crust I used for the Florida grapefruit-white chocolate pie, this is a tropical take on a classic favorite.

 Passion Fruit Meringue Pie with a Macadamia Nut Crust

Ingredients
For crust:
7 oz. roasted macadamia nuts
3/4 c. ground gingersnap cookies
1/4 c. dark brown sugar
1/4 c. (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted

For filling:
1/4 c. lemon juice
2 3/4 c. passion fruit purée or nectar
1 c. + 2 Tblsp. sugar
1/4 c. cornstarch
1/4 tsp. salt
4 egg yolks (save whites for meringue)
3 Tbslp. unsalted butter cut into chunks

For meringue:

4 large egg whites, room temp. (can use whites from the yolks used for the curd)

1 c. sugar

2 Tblsp. corn syrup

1/8 tsp. salt

Directions

 For crust:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Finely chop nuts in food processor. Add ground gingersnap cookies, sugar, and butter and pulse until moist crumbs form. Press mixture firmly into bottom and sides of a greased and floured 9-inch pie pan. Bake crust 10 minutes or until golden. Let cool on a wire rack before adding the filling.

For filling:
1. Combine lemon juice, passion fruit purée, sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a medium saucepan and cook over medium heat until it begins to thicken. Add in egg yolks, whisking after each addition. Continue to cook until mixture coats the back of a spoon, or reads 185 degrees F on a candy thermometer. Remove from heat and stir in the butter. Let cool to room temperature. Once cooled, pour filling into pie crust, cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for about 2 hours.

2. Once curd has chilled, pour into the baked and cooled crust and refrigerate until the meringue is ready.

For meringue:
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Place egg whites in the bowl of a standing mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form and set aside. 

2. Stir sugar, corn syrup and 1/4 c. water in a medium saucepan over low heat until sugar dissolves. Insert a candy thermometer in the saucepan and increase heat to medium-high. Boil without stirring, occasionally swirling pan, until thermometer registers 238 degrees F, 6-8 minutes. Remove from heat.

3. Meanwhile, beat whites again briefly until soft peaks form. Slowly pour hot sugar mixture down the side of the bowl into the whites and beat until meringue is firm and has a glossy sheen.  Continue to beat until cool, about 4 minutes. Remove pie from the fridge and spoon meringue over the passion fruit curd, making sure the meringue seals the edge of the pie. Sculpt decoratively with the back of a spoon.

4. Bake until meringue is toasted, about 3-5 minutes.  Chill pie for about a half-hour before serving. Keep in the fridge until it's gone.

There was a bountiful Southern-style cookout with pulled pork and brisket, potato salad & slaw, cornbread and deviled eggs, keg beer and tequila shots (mostly enjoyed by the aunts). Then after an interlude of backyard micro-pong, puzzles, and madlibs, we warmed the pie, topped the pavlova, and paraded out the desserts, which quickly coralled everyone--pongers and shot-takers alike (as you can see in the photo below, which I believe features three Dougherty sisters, and definitely features lots of pretty gals in pretty dresses).

If you were smart, like Scott here, you took a little sliver of each, and paced yourself in the Dessert Enjoyment Zone (DEZ) so the impending sugar crash didn't keep you from a torch-lit game of Catch Phrase and a late-night jaunt out to a Mt. Pleasant dance party.