On Baking (& Cooking!) Binges, Plus a Mango-Pear Roll-Up Tart

Do you ever rush home after work and try to run around pulling dinner together? I really can’t be bothered, to be honest. Aside from the fact that I eat yoghurt for dinner, I’m not going to stress about dinner for the DH. I’ll make it the night before! (Or he can make it himself. *grin*) And when I cook, I tend to do more than one dish; I like to spin all the plates at the same time! Turn up all the burners! Use all the mixing bowls! (Not so much do all the dishes, but needs must.) Tonight was one of those nights.

I came home, steamed some broccoli, made some cheese sauce, ate some, packed some cheesy broccoli for lunches tomorrow (having run out of my IBS-friendly lettuce), then went on to the next dish: the Cranberry Pear Roll-Up Tart from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking Chez Moi, that my bake-a-long group is making this week! While that was in process (the dough had to rest), I prepped some vegetables for roasting that I plan on serving tomorrow with (store-bought) veggie meatballs and homemade gravy, and then moved on to making a pizza, which is currently rising on my kitchen island. I thought about making some wine jelly, but decided I should probably call it a night, since I still have to finish making the lunches, do a load of laundry, possibly put together a photobook for a Christmas gift to send overseas, and write up this blog post. And of course, I can’t forget the most important bit…eating the fruits of my foodie labour! *insert nom-ing noises*

The Cranberry-Pear Roll-Up Tart is a strudel by any other name. Ish. Basically, as opposed to a thin and flaky pastry as in a strudel, one uses a pie crust. And in my case, as opposed to cranberries, one uses chopped mangos. And the odd chunk of cantaloupe. Mostly because I didn’t want to go shopping to buy a bag of cranberries, plus I felt the dried cranberries that I always have in my cupboards just didn’t appeal to me. And I had a ripe mango that was looking at me beseechingly. (The cantaloupe I threw in because I thought I wouldn’t have enough filling. I was wrong. So I added the leftover filling to my fruit salad for lunch tomorrow. #wastenot!) Dorie’s recipe calls for raspberry or strawberry jam, plus dried and fresh ginger. Me being me, I swapped out the raspberry jam for wine jelly. Again, partially because I had some lying around, and partially because I didn’t want to go shopping.

So. You make up the pie dough, and shape it into a rectangle; you mix up the filling and let it sit to draw out the juices, which you then discard; and then you spread the filling in the centre of the dough and roll it up like a jelly roll. You end by pinching the seams closed, brushing with an egg wash, and sprinkling with sugar. I used pearl sugar because I don’t have sanding sugar, and again, I didn’t want to go shopping. (Are you sensing a theme here?)

The verdict? Deeeelicious! Although I have to say, the pear-mango fruit mixture was interesting with the ginger. My taste buds were a tad confused. Thanksgiving in the Caribbean is the best flavour description I can come up with. But it worked!

The verdict from the DH?

  “Mmm! Mango strudel! Can I bring it to work tomorrow?”

Which no, he cannot, because…it’s all gone! I packed it into our lunches and we each ate two slices tonight when it was warm out of the oven. Because it’s just so good! I’d definitely make it again. It’s something that would be nice to serve with coffee. Retro 70’s coffee klatsch, anyone?

Next Post: Maybe the Grind-Your-Own Garam Masala that I’ve been teasing you all with lately. Or…maybe something else! We’ll see what I’m craving later on this week.