I was reading an issue of the New England Journal of Medicine this morning. The first article I read was a case study of a 55-year-old woman who presented with joint pain and aching bones. She had been a cigarette smoker for decades, although I don’t understand the phrase they used to describe how much she smoked. She was described as having a “29-pack-year smoking history.” When I read that to Peter, he said that that’s actually not a very frequent smoking habit, about a pack and a half per month. That changed my reaction, which, initially, was smokers kind of test Fate on a regular basis, don’t they? But I guess what it really indicated was that this person developed non-small cell lung carcinoma through a relatively small dose. In other words, she was not a chain-smoker, though she had smoked for decades at the time she sought medical help for her symptom. I guess it was fortunate(?) that her symptoms pointed specifically to the type of cancer she had because the symptoms were not in her lungs, but in her joints and bones (though I suppose one with a medical background may be more inclined to look for systemic illness). She commenced chemotherapy, but died within months, nonetheless.
I looked at a photo and x-ray images taken of a kid who’d swallowed a US quarter. Strangely, it was oriented vertically, trapped in his trachea with its plane perpendicular to the kid’s tongue. I don’t know how anyone, even a 14-year-old boy, swallows a quarter, not a coin of inconsequential size, “accidentally.” After it was removed, it left damaged mucus membrane.
I prepared tarts yesterday evening after playing Mah Jongg with Corinne, Barb, and Corrine’s coworker and friend, Barbara. It was a pleasant way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Barb and Corrine tasted the brownies I’d made last week, and commented that they were quite tasty. All of them had the cookies I baked the evening before. I had flavored the cookies with maple extract, but sweetened them with dark brown sugar, which added molasses. Corrine said they tasted mildly of rum, which makes sense. Rum is made from molasses, after all.
The tarts were a combination of three separate recipes: lemon curd, pastry cream, and rough puff pastry.
The lemon curd was the easiest for me, as I’ve been making lemon curd for many, many years, going on three decades now:
Lemon Curd for Tarts
2 large lemons, washed to remove wax
3 oz. granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 oz. unsalted butter
1/4 t table salt
Zest and juice the lemons. Discard the pith, seeds, membranes.
Melt and cool the butter.
Add zest to sugar, salt, and lemon juice. Stir to dissolve sugar a little bit.
Place all ingredients, including eggs, into a heavy-bottomed nonreactive saucepan and heat over medium heat, whisking constantly, until it thickens and turns opaque. Lower heat to low and continue whisking constantly for another five to ten minutes. Set curd aside to cool.
Pastry Cream for Tarts
1 c whole milk (I used lactase-added)
1 c heavy cream
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 T potato starch
99 g granulated sugar
2 t vanilla extract
1/4 t table salt
Beat eggs thoroughly in a medium-sized bowl. Add sugar and keep beating until eggs lighten slightly.
Pour milk and cream into a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Whisk in potato starch and salt.
Stir over medium heat until mixture begins releasing wisps of steam and thickens slightly, indicating the starch is fully cooked.
Temper eggs by adding one cup of the hot milk-cream mixture, streaming one half cup at a time, while whisking constantly.
Pour egg mixture into saucepan with remaining milk-cream mixture and stir until thickened and smooth. Stir in vanilla extract. Set aside to cool.
Flaky Butter Pastry for Tarts
60-130 ml water (smaller mount for sea level; higher amount for 6200′ altitude, where I live)
1 T granulated sugar
1.25 t table salt
150 g whole wheat flour
150 g a-p flour
225 g butter, cut into small cubes and frozen
Boil 75 ml water, remove from heat, dissolve salt and sugar in it, pour into a heatproof, sealed container, and set aside to cool before placing in fridge to chill until ready to use. Place remaining water in a measuring cup with ice.
Weigh flours into a large bowl. Drop butter cubes into the bowl, and toss to coat. Wearing gloves, flatten butter cubes between thumbs and fingers into small sheets, making sure to continue tossing to coat all the butter pieces. Place covered bowl in freezer for fifteen minutes.
Put your gloves back on.
Dump the flour-butter mixture onto a very lightly floured countertop. Gather into a pile, then make a divot in the middle.
Add the chilled salted and sweetened water to the flour mixture, tossing to distribute liquid without “working” the gluten, thereby reducing gluten development and providing a flakier finished pastry.
Roll pastry, gathering the bits and folding a few times, until it’s a cohesive rough rectangle or circle. Wrap tightly in plastic and chill for 15 minutes in fridge. Make sure curd and pastry cream are cool, or place them in the fridge, too.
Assemble Tarts
oven to 425 F.
Dust countertop with flour.
Remove pastry from fridge and roll out to about 3/32″ thickness, turning over with a bench scraper each time you change rolling orientation to prevent the pastry from sticking to the countertop.
Cut out circles of pastry that will accommodate your baking pan cups. To figure size needed, measure the base of the cup. Add double the depth of the cup, then add a half inch to accommodate shrinkage.
Fit pastry circles into the baking cups in the pan.
Measure about 2 T of pastry cream into each pastry cup, then follow with a 1 T dollop of lemon curd in the center of the cream.
Bake tarts for about 25-30 minutes, until you can discern some of the layers in the pastry when you open the door and peek inside.
Cool tarts in pan on cooling rack completely.
Loosen the tarts with a butter knife and large spoon and store in an airtight container until ready to serve.
Maple Cookies (makes about 30)
1.25 c (scooped and leveled) a-p flour
1 c (scooped and leveled) whole wheat flour
1/2 c unsalted butter
1/2 c vegetable shortening
2/3-3/4 c turbinado or brown sugar
1 t vanilla extract
2 t maple extract
1 large egg
2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1 t table salt
Combine flours, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside.
Soften butter and beat in shortening and sugar, scraping bowl afterwards.
Add egg, extracts, and salt, beating until mixture is smooth and creamy.
Scrape the bowl again.
Add the flour mixture all at once, and mix in, slowly at start to prevent flour from flying everywhere.
Place plastic wrap on surface of pastry and place bowl in fridge.
Chill pastry for 30 minutes, minimum.
Heat oven to 375 F.
Scoop batter by tablespoonfuls on silicone- or parchment-lined baking sheets.
Bake cookies for 12-13 minutes, until lightly browned.
Cool cookies on pans on cooling racks for 5 minutes, then place them directly onto a cooling rack until cooled completely. Store in an airtight container.
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