Baking with Marilyn

Original posting unknown.

Each year, at my day job, we throw a department Thanksgiving party with all the fixings. It’s basically a huge pot luck, where the company provides the ham and the turkey. As usual, I decided to provide one of the desserts. Usually, I bring in one of my standard cookie recipes, but this year I decided to rummage through my stack of recipes that I had cut out and taped into a binder to find something new.

I knew that others were going to bring in the standard pumpkin pie, cheesecake or apple pie. I had been watching one of the numerous baking contests and realized I hadn’t made a tart since I was in high school (with my mother’s help). I knew that I had a recipe for a Linzertorte and decided that I would try my hand at that. I’m not sure which magazine I cut this one out off, but after searching for it online, I believe it is originally from the “Trapp Family Lodge, Stowe VT.” I read through the recipe and realized that it seemed fairly simple. The only problem I foresaw was the lattice work on the top of the tart.

I have never been very good at rolling out pastry. I always have problems with the dough sticking to the rolling pin or the surface on which I’m working. Adding too much flour to your dough can either make the dough too tough or crumbly. I saw a great hack on “The Great British Baking Show,” where one of the contestants used a sheet of parchment paper on top of their dough. I discovered that either parchment paper or plastic wrap would work as well. Recently, I also saw someone on “Christmas Cookie Challenge” using a Silpat (Silicone Baking Mat) instead.

Unfortunately, it was very hot in my apartment the day I was baking, so I was having problems with the lattice working breaking, because the butter was melting and sticking to everything. I decided that rather than having to roll out pastry 8 inches long, that I would just use a small snowflake cookie cutter to cut out the dough for the top decorative crust instead. Granted, it made the tart more Christmas-y than Thanksgiving-y, but I thought it worked well. I had left over dough after decorating the tart, so I just rolled them out and baked them as cookies, since the dough is very similar to that of the Linzer Cookie.

You will need two 8 inch tart pans with a removable bottom. The recipe doesn’t specify how long to bake the tart, but I baked it for approximately 30 – 35 minutes. Other recipes indicate the tart should be baked at 350 degrees for 40 – 45 minutes.