Tuesdays with Dorie: Pizza Rustica

As some of you read this Tuesday morning I will be delivering a speech to a large group of peers.  This is the first of its kind and I am trying not to throw up thinking about it.

I made this on Saturday as another way to put off preparing for said presentation.  I began by making the ricotta cheese. Yup, you read that right.  It's super easy-give it a try.

Fresh Ricotta (with one egg added)

Then I mixed in all the other ingredients: rest of eggs, prosciutto, mozzarella, pecorino, and a handful of freeze-dried salad herbs because I didn't have parsley.  I actually did have parsley, but didn't find it until after the fact.

Cheese Mixture

The crust recipe called for butter or lard.  I had lard on-hand.  Don't judge.  It came together lovely in the food processor.

I rolled out the bottom crust into a somewhat-round circle.  I really need to get one of those pie crust measuring mat things.

I placed it into the pie plate and patched as necessary.  Then I rolled out the top piece and sliced it with a ravioli cutter my Critic had in the utensil drawer.  I knew I loved him for a reason :)

And My Critic Says: Not my cup of tea. Too quiche-y.

I on the other hand liked it a lot!  Then again I do like quiche.  I loved the sweet crust and the savory filling.  It was perfect for breakfast the next morning, and I plan to share it with 2 friends; Amy and Abi :)

For the recipe, please visit Emily of Capitol Region Dining and Raelynn of The Place They Call Home.  Check back in two weeks for Lemon Pound Cake, which I'm really looking forward to!

Tuesdays with Dorie: Chocolate Truffle Tartlets

I've been baking/cooking like crazy - Valentine's dinner and dessert, supper club, plus some goodies in-between.  I was afraid these wouldn't get eaten as quickly as I'd hoped.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE chocolate, but we've been eating A LOT lately.  I didn't want these tartlets to get lost in the chaos of all the other deliciousness.  I wanted them to have their own spotlight, so I took a few days breather from the kitchen and whipped up these babies the night before posting :)

I started the dough on a lazy Sunday and was surprised at how quickly it came together - 5 minutes?  I think it took more time to clean up then to mix it up.

I had 4 - 4.5" tartlet pans so I had to bake in two batches.  The dough was really easy to work with and baked up perfectly.


I mixed up the chocolate according to recipe.  I used a majority of bittersweet chocolate with an ounce or so of semisweet.  I added the milk and white chocolate chunks and since I already had planned for making two batches, I thought of dividing the chocolate mixture in half and using two different mix-ins.  One half I did the biscotti as the recipe calls for; I used store-bought since I was short on time.  The other half of the chocolate got chocolate covered pretzels since I had them handy.  I figured the salty crunch would be a big hit.


I forgot to poke the crusts on the first batch, but it didn't matter any.  The tops remained very glossy, so glossy I didn't think they were done, but I took them out anyway.  The second batch weren't glossy at all, they looked dry like the recipe said they're supposed to.  I like the look of the glossy better.

These were seriously amazing.  I never thought I could have made something like this.  I didn't taste the pretzel ones yet, but how can they be wrong?  Since I'm going out of town this week, they're going in the freezer until I get back!

And My Critic says:  Oh man is that rich! Almost like a gooey brownie.  Put some ice cream on top!

For the recipe please visit Spike of Spikes Bakes, Jaime of Good Eats, Sweet Treats, Jessica of Cookbookhabit and Steph of A Whisk and a Spoon.  They all did a fabulous job!