I am so excited to have a new food channel to watch.  If you haven't had the chance, you need to check out The Cooking Channel.  It is a sister channel to Food Network.  It's a lot like Food Network used to be -- with cooking shows and no competitions.  I think it's getting back to the basics of actually cooking.  I like it.  My new favorite show, not surprisingly, is Rachel Allen: Bake.

Rachel Allen is from Ireland, so you get the fun accent, but what I really love about her is that she makes baking accessible.  I think people shy away from baking sometimes because they think it is too hard or takes too much time.  I really love how she debunks that through segments of the show where she is teaching regular, every day people how to bake.  The recipes seem to be pretty European in nature and the measurements given on the show reflect that (luckily, it's "translated" for American bakers on the channel's website) but I think you'll find something for everyone!

I was watching the show the other day while folding laundry.  She was making a tarte tatin.  As soon as she flipped it over, my three-year-old says, "Oooo...that looks good!"  Oh how I love her!  And I had to agree.  It looked amazing.

For those of you who don't know, a tarte tatin is kind of like the French version of an upside down apple pie.  Apples are baked in caramel and topped with pastry dough.  Once cooked, it is flipped over to reveal the sugary, sweet apples.

You may be wondering why I decided to make this because many of you know I am not a pie fan.  Well...as the saying goes, you eat with your eyes first and this truly looked delicious.  Plus, it looked easier than an apple pie.  No slicing of endless apples -- just the quartering of four.  I thought I could handle that and surprise my family.

I do have to say, it was easier to make than a pie.  The crust was easy and came together quickly, although the recipe was very disorganized and I ended up adding too much sour cream because I didn't read until later that I also needed to add an egg.  I don't think it mattered though.  The crust was still tasty and flakier than I've ever made.

I had the most trouble with the caramel.  I mixed the water and sugar and waited for it to caramelize.  It took a bit longer than I thought and by the time it started to brown, I felt like I should have gotten it off the heat right then.  When I added the apples, I was really scared that the caramel was going to burn.  Luckily it didn't.

I finally got it in the oven to bake (still worried it would burn -- but it didn't!).  When it was done, I let it sit a bit before I flipped it onto my plate.   All but one little apple came right out.  I rearranged the apple on the plate and showed my prize to my husband and asked, "Isn't it pretty?"  He looked at it and noncommittally said, "Interesting." 

Hmmmm....

I thought it was pretty.

I decided to wait until my girls were in bed before eating my piece.  My two younger daughters opted for Halloween candy for dessert instead, but Ella, as always, was up for giving it a try.  Unfortunately, for her, it fell flat.  She liked the crust but not the top.  I have to say that the apples cooked really thoroughly.  While they held their shape, itt was almost like thick applesauce and I don't think that appealed to her.  I was a little annoyed, to be honest.  I thought she was going to like it.

I had cut a second small piece, thinking that one of my other girls would eat it, so when my husband took the girls upstairs to help them get ready for bed and I stayed downstairs to "wash the dishes", I had to give it a try.  I took one bite.  Better than apple pie, in my opinion, but I still wasn't sure about it.  I took another bite.  Pretty good.  I took another bite and went through the crust too hard, thus knocking the last bite onto the floor.  I stood back and watched my dog lap it up.  She seemed to like it.  She drinks out of the toilet so I wasn't sure if that was a good sign or not.

After the girls were asleep, I had my official piece.  It was good.  I liked it but I thought it had a bit of a metallic taste.  I'm thinking it was from the cast iron pan I used to make it.  I'd like to give it another try in a different pan.  Once I got passed that, I decided I liked it.  It won't ever be my favorite but that's just my own personal taste.  It has a comforting, familiar quality about it -- perfect for cool fall evenings curled up with someone you love.  An the other hand, it's fancy enough to impress dinner guests and easy enough not to drive you crazy when you make it.  

Goodness all around.


Tarte Tatin
From Rachel Allen

Sour Cream Short Crust Pastry

7 ounces all-purpose flour
pinch of salt
7 tablespoons very cold butter, cut up
2 tablespoons sour cream
1 egg, beaten

In a food processor, pulse together the flour, salt and butter until it looks crumby,  Add on tablespoon sour cream and pulse again.  The mixture should be moist enough to come together when pressed.  If not, add the remaining sour cream.  Add in your egg, slowly, until the dough comes together into a soft ball.

On a piece of plastic wrap, press out the dough into a disc.  Wrap up and chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

Caramel and Apples

4 1/2 ounces sugar
3 1/2 ounces water
2 tablespoons butter
4 granny smith apples, peeled, cored, and quartered
1 egg, beaten

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In an oven proof saucepan, set over low-medium heat, stir the sugar and water together until the sugar melts.  Turn up the heat to medium-high and allow syrup to boil.  Once it begins to boil, do not stir.  The syrup will crystallize.  Once the syrup starts to turn golden brown, swirl it around and take off the heat.  Add the butter and swirl to combine.  Place the apple quarters in a circle around the outside edge of the pan.  Place any remaining pieces in the middle.    Be sure to get them all in and cover the entire pan.  They will shrink as they cook and fit in better.

Place the pan back on medium heat and cook apples for 10 minutes -- to just cook them a little bit.  While they cook, on a lightly floured surface, roll out your pastry dough into a circle 3/4 of an inch wider than your pan.  You may need to make the circle bigger and then cut it out.  Your dough should be about an 1/8 of an inch thick.

After the apples cook.  Turn off the heat.  Cover the apples with your pastry dough.  Tuck the edges in around your apples with a spoon or fork..  Brush top with beaten egg.  Prick dough in several places with a fork.

Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes or until the pastry is golden and the apples are cooked when you poke them.

I suggest serving with some whipped cream or ice cream.  Yum!

I love when I get requests!  

Okay...maybe this wasn't exactly a request but a friend of mine did ask if I had a good fudge recipe and I figured I might as well run with it.  

I am, surprisingly, not a huge fan of fudge.  I know that is bizarre coming from me but it's true nonetheless.  I like fudge but I just don't go crazy for it.  It's not something I make regularly.  My mom is the fudge maker in the family.  She usually makes it for the holidays.  Her favorite recipe is Fantasy Fudge which comes from the back of a jar of marshmallow cream.  I didn't want to use this recipe because the marshmallow makes it really hard to stir.  

A couple of years ago, Ella had a cooking birthday party.  It was a blast!  My best party idea, ever!  I asked everyone to send me a recipe and then I compiled them into a little cookbook to give our guests.  One of the recipes we got, from one of Ella's good friends, was for fudge.  I decided to give it a try.  It is from Cooks' Illustrated and is pretty simple to make.  

I like it for a couple of reasons.  First, it doesn't require any weird ingredients.  Most of them I already had in my pantry.  Although it does have a "secret" ingredient: baking soda. This apparently makes the fudge firmer and drier.  Second, it wasn't overly sweet.  I think that because it wasn't so sweet, it really highlighted the chocolate.  If you make this, be sure to get the best quality chocolate you can get.  Since the chocolate is so prominent you want to make sure you like the chocolate you use.

One thing I didn't like about it is that it wasn't as creamy as I would have liked.  I suspect that has more to do with me than the recipe, but I'm not sure.  The recipe calls to mix together the chocolate and sweetened condensed milk before melting the chocolate but I wonder if it would be creamier if you started to melt the chocolate first.  When I mixed it together, the chocolate didn't melt smoothly and wasn't all shiny like regular chocolate and at times it looked grainy.   I just couldn't tell if it was melting properly.  You definitely don't want grainy chocolate as it is a sure sign the chocolate is seizing up and will soon be inedible. 

Although, I think I might like Fantasy Fudge better (only because of it's creamier texture -- not necessarily because of the taste) I would definitely make this again.  It was really easy and has a nice rich, chocolate flavor.  Plus, I didn't have to go to the store for marshmallow cream.  Next time I do want to try melting the chocolate a bit first to see if that makes a difference in the texture.  

All in all, I'd give this four stars out five.  It really did taste good.  I really liked the flavor and if you are someone who doesn't mind the less than creamy texture, you might even give five stars,  Try it yourself and let me know what you think!

15-Minute Chocolate Walnut Fudge

Note:  I skipped the walnuts.  My kids won't eat things with nuts.  Normally, I like things nut-less (like chocolate chip cookies and brownies) but fudge is the one thing I prefer with nuts.  I would definitely add them next time!

16 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped fin
2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped fine
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp. salt
1 (14-oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts 


Line 8-inch square baking pan with aluminum foil, allowing extra foil to hang over edges of pan. Lightly coat with vegetable oil spray.

Toss chocolates, baking soda and salt in medium heatproof bowl until baking soda is evenly distributed. Stir in condensed milk and vanilla. Set bowl over 4-qt. saucepan containing 2 cups simmering water (or double boiler). Stir with rubber spatula until chocolate is almost fully melted and a few small pieces remain, 2 to 4 minutes.(Make sure to remove fudge because if it stays in the double boiler too long, it's possible that the chocolate will separate producing a greasy fudge.)

Remove bowl from the heat and continue to stir until the chocolate is fully melted and mixture is smooth, about 2 minutes. Stir in the walnuts. Transfer the fudge to the prepared pan and spread in an even layer with a spatula. Refrigerate until set, about 2 hours. Remove from the baking pan by lifting the foil extensions. Cut into squares. 

Fudge can be wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and stored in a cool place up to 2 weeks or frozen up to 3 months. This fudge will change texture and become drier the longer it is stored. If freezing, do not cut the fudge into squares; thaw at room temp, then cut.