Thursday, October 24, 2013

Warm Chocolate and Banana Tart Pound Cake for Dorie's Birthday

Photo Source: Desserts by Pierre Herme


It is Dorie Greenspan's birthday today, so our French Fridays with Dorie group is celebrating by each making a recipe from one of Dorie's books.  Hooray! 
 
I have owned Desserts by  Pierre Herme, written by Dorie Greenspan, for around two years and never used it before.  Accordingly, what better book to use for a birthday celebration recipe?  I didn't have the energy or time to make something too complicated, so I chose the Warm Chocolate and Banana Tart, pictured above from the book.  And indeed, that is what I made.  Unfortunately, it slipped out of the fridge, and this is all I have to show you:
 

Yup, a smashed mess.  However, you have no idea how good this smashed mess tasted - I momentarily thought about tossing the thing out and forgetting it ever happened, but once you taste rum-soaked raisins with ooey gooey chocolate ganache and a buttery tart shell, you can't go back.  It tasted devine.  You cannot throw it out - it would be sacrilege. 

I wished fervently that I had a family of four to share this with and dig in with spoons and eat the tart as it was, but alas, there is just me.   I knew that the work crowd was not going to entertain the idea of eating a smashed tart, so I decided to turn the tart into a cake using Dorie's Perfection Pound Cake recipe from Baking- From My Home to Yours.  The end result looked kind of like one of those giant cookies that they sell in the US:
 
 
However, it saved the tart, and I have now made two Dorie recipes for her birthday instead of one.  Here's a peek inside the cake:


This passed the "will I eat it?" test at work, as it all disappeared.  Alas, I know that it did not taste as good as the tart, which I will make again for a special occasion - it was that good.

To make the tart (and I highly recommend that you do), you can find the recipe for the filling online here.  For the tart shell, I just used Dorie's dream sweet tart dough (the book recipe makes too much dough, so I used the recipe out of From Around My French Table which cuts it down to one tart shell). You can get that recipe online from Dorie herself here.  It is a no shrink, no roll recipe - just blitz it in the food processor and press it into the pan.

If you want to make the Perfection Pound Cake on its own rather than to glue together a shattered tart, you can find the recipe here.  I used a half recipe to bind my tart together. 

Happy birthday Dorie!

19 comments:

Liz That Skinny Chick Can Bake said...

Happy birthday, Dorie!!! Your cake looks phenomenal!

yummychunklet said...

Wonderful Dorie birthday post!

Johanna GGG said...

wow that looks amazing - of course you couldn't chuck it in the bin - I would have eaten too much of it rather than put it in a cake - it would probably make great truffles if you rolled it into balls

Jill said...

I'm amazed that you turned the tart into a cake! I think Dorie would be quite pleased.

Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella said...

What a lovely tribute to a woman that inspired so many recipes and challenges! :D

tricia s. said...

Oh I loved this post ! How utterly wonderful that you included the photo of the dropped but incredibly delicious tart. I love it when the Doristas "keep it real" as we sometimes have quite some adventures in the kitchen. Unexpected ones, that is. And what a genius save. My hips would have been all the bigger as I would have simply grabbed a fork :)

Mary Hirsch said...

Gaye, I think this is a great, great Post and I know Dorie will love it. I also baked something from her Baking Cookbook. I don't have the PH cookbook but your scrambled tart looks delicious - no matter what - so I think I will go to the library and pick it up.

Kari said...

I'm all in favour of smashed messes - and also this end cake!

Andrea_TheKitchenLioness said...

What a fabulous save and what a wonderful birthday tribute to Dorie!

Mardi Michels said...

I am sure Dorie would enjoy both of these dishes - look so good!

Veryasia said...

Pretty good post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed reading your blog posts. Any way I'll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you post again soon

Dorie said...

I LOVE this! Three cheers for you for turning the smashed tart into a cake - it was a brilliant idea! Many, many thanks for your sweet, sweet birthday wishes and the tart/cake/brand-new creation. xoDorie

Cher Rockwell said...

Oh no! I am so sorry your tart fell, but your make up dessert sounds pretty delicious as well. (I love that you featured both)

Anonymous said...

Loved the smashed mess...it looks delicious. That's one of Dorie's recipes that I haven't tried. I love her tart dough too - so easy, I sometimes forget!

But your cake looks wonderful too - great save. I'm sure your co-workers appreciated it!

KarenP said...

So sad that you smashed your tart, but great save! The flavor combination sounds wonderful.

Kathy said...

Great save…sorry about your tart! Sounds so yummy!

Adriana said...

I'm in awe at your creativity and resourcefulness. :-)
Way to go, Gaye!

Emily said...

A perfect save plus two great bakes!

Betsy said...

You get a huge gold star for innovation. I love the way your saved your tart. It looks amazing!