Molly Knows Best

We were having a little celebration of the birth of our grandson with My Beloved's younger daughter and her fiancé, so I wanted to make a dessert that they would like. As is so often the case, I turn to Orangette for inspiration. Molly Wizenberg is my go-to girl for anything baked. She understands that only real butter will do and she finds or invents unusual and delicious recipes.

This one she borrowed from Alice Medrich and I borrowed it from Molly. Now, that's a pedigree!

Plum tart. You would have sworn there was cornmeal in there somewhere but there isn't. You would have looked at it and thought, "Too difficult" but you'd have been wrong. This baby is easy and oh-so-delicious.

So, go here and borrow the recipe yourself. It will be the easiest tart you've ever made and one of the best. The crumbly, crisp crust rises up to embrace the plums while they soften and collapse into gorgeous dark red pillows of sweet-tart flavor. Because you have generously buttered your pan, the tart pops right out and slides easily on the removable bottom onto your decorative cake plate.

When in doubt, remember these important words: Molly Knows Best.

In the Pink

Your eyes do not deceive, these apple slices are pink. When I read Molly's recipe for apple tart, I decided to make one of my own, but couldn't resist a little twist or two on hers.

First, I substituted store-bought buttery puff pastry for her pie-type pastry - much easier! Then, I sprinkled the sliced apples with ground allspice. The pink twist came about when I added pomegranate seeds to the apple glaze in her recipe.

I had never opened a pomegranate before so I was unprepared for the glorious jewels of the pips nestled snugly amongst the white pith - in fact, I had to read up online for techniques of opening it! I wanted to add the pips to the apple glaze for the sweet-tart flavor that one associates with pomegranates but I fell for the color, a clear, rich, shiny red.

I added a whole pomegranate worth of seeds to the apple glaze made from the cores and skins of the apples in the tart, boiling them down with sugar to make a syrup for glazing. Painted over the cooled tart, it turned the apples from whitish to a playful pink. The flavor was festive, too, exactly the tangy enhancement to the sweet apples that I was hoping for.

The rest of the guests at Meathenge Labs seemed to agree - even Cookiecrumb, who doesn't like desserts, had a bite and said it was tasty, light and surprisingly pink.