Brabantse witlooftaart (Belgian endives' tart)

For ➍*
2 onions, peeled & chopped finely
5 stalks witloof/endives**, cut into 4, lengthwise***/****
150 g bacon, cubed
2 eggs
5 cl milk
100 g Gruyère (or Emmental) cheese, grated
1 pack puff pastry
nutmeg
salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 200°C. 
Beat the eggs and season to taste. Add the milk and half the cheese.
Line a baking tin or dish with baking paper. Put the pastry in, puncture with a fork.*****
Spread the the vegetables into the tin, crossing the witloof leaves. Put the bacon on top. Pour the egg mixture over.
Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top.
Put in the oven for 40 m.
Serve with a small green salad.

*For a smaller tart (for 2 or as a starter or snack), use 3 endives, 75 g bacon. Use the same amounts for the sauce and cheese.

**Use the best quality witloof available, avoid hydroculture witloof. 
***If wanted, you can add 2 stalks blanched celery (or leek), cut into small pieces.

****If wanted, you can stew the vegetables for 1 or 2 m with  a little bit of butter.

*****If wanted, pre-bake the pastry.

Lemon tart with goat yogurt & speculaas

For ➑
6 gelatin sheets
150 g speculaas / gingerbread
150 g pecans
1 tbs lemon zest
80 g butter
lemon juice from ½ lemon
1 l goat yogurt
200 g lemon jam or lemon marmalade

Soak the gelatin sheets in cold water for 10 m.
Put the biscuits in a bowl and grind finely with a mixer or mortar. Do the same with the pecans. Combine gingerbread and nuts. Add 1 tbs of lemon zest and toss again.
Melt the butter in the saucepan and add the speculaas & nut mixture. Stir together.
Place baking paper on the bottom of the baking tin. Grease or spray the baking rim with butter and stick a strip of baking paper against it. Spoon in the gingerbread nut bottom and press evenly.
Put the lemon juice in a saucepan and place the gelatin leaves in it. Heat this on low heat and let the gelatin leaves dissolve.
Now stir the mixture into the goat yogurt. Stir well and pour this mixture into the pie tin.
Leave to set in the refrigerator for at least 2 h.
Take the tart out of the fridge and spoon the lemon jam or lemon marmalade on it.
Serve for breakfast or as a fresh snack

Twin Peaks cherry pie

For ➑
crust:
125 g flour
125 g butter
10 cl ice water
filling:
75 cl pitted sour cherries
25 cl water
250 g sugar
4 tbs cornstarch
¼ ts salt

Mix flour and butter with fork. Add ice water. Mix with your hands. When blended, roll into ball and refrigerate overnight. To roll out: flour both rolling pin and flat surface, split ball in two, roll out ½ to fit a 32 cm pan and ½ for lattice.

Strain cherries (yields 50 cl juice). Taste for sweetness, more/less sugar may be needed.

Add 25 cl water to make 75 cl juice.

Dissolve cornstarch in 25 cl juice, stir with whip.

Combine 50 cl of juice, 200 g of sugar, add a pinch of salt, and bring to a boil.

Add cornstarch mix, cook until clear, about 5 m. Remove from heat, stir in rest of sugar (blend thoroughly). Pour mixture over cherries, fold with wooden spoon, cool (stir mix while cooling to prevent scum from forming on top).

Pour mix in pie shell. Top completed pie with lattice crust.

Bake at 220°C for 35-40 m.

Serve with a mug of strong black coffee.

Cherry pie was the recurring comfort food in David Lynch's cult television series Twin Peaks' cafe.

Torta alle nocciole (Piedmontese hazelnut cake)

For ➑
200 g shelled hazelnuts, toasted*
150 g flour
3 eggs
200 g sugar
125 g butter
8.5 tbs strong coffee (12.5 cl)
8.5 tbs whole milk (12.5 cl)
1 tbs olive oil
2 tbs rum or Marsala (optional)
1½ tbs baking powder

Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Pulverise the toasted hazelnuts until very fine. Combine with the flour and baking powder.
In a food processor or with beaters, beat the butter and sugar together until smooth and creamy. Add the eggs one by one until well combined. Incorporate with the dry ingredients and mix well. Add the milk, coffee, olive oil and rum and mix until just combined.
Pour into a greased and floured  26 cm cake tin with a removable bottom.**
Bake for about 35 m or until golden brown and springy.
Allow to cool and serve as desired.
Serve with a simple drizzle of honey, a ganache of melted chocolate*** and cream or a simple espresso icing. Or dust with powder sugar.

*To toast hazelnuts, put them in a single layer on a baking sheet in a 180°C oven for about 10-15 m or until lightly browned and the skins look cracked. Watch them carefully as hazelnuts can turn bitter if toasted too long. Remove from the oven and wrap the hazelnuts in a kitchen towel to let steam for a couple of m. Then rub them together to loosen and remove as much of the skin as possible. Cool completely.
**The cake should be 2-2.5 cm thick. A good way is to wrap the mixture in oven aluminum foil completely, then gently press it with your hands into the mold to make it into a nice even round shape.
***To cover the cake in chocolate glaze: gently heat 15 cl heavy cream just to the boiling point and pour over finely chopped 150 g bittersweet or semisweet chocolate (or a combination of the two). Stir slowly until combined. Pour evenly over cake.

Tarte au citron (Brussels lemon tart)

For ➍
juice of 3 lemons or 10 cl
zest of lime or lemon
2 whole eggs
135 g sugar
165 g butter, cut in pieces
for the icing:
250 g cream (40%)
50 g sugar
2 vanilla pods
for the meringue:*
4 egg whites
150 g sugar
10 Breton shortbread cookies, crumbled

Beat the egg whites and sugar for the meringue. Place in a piping bag and make small balls (3 cm) on baking paper.
Bake the meringue for 75 minutes in an oven at 90 ° C.*
Wash the lemons and grate the rind. Squeeze the lemon juice then to obtain your 10 cl.
Heat it, stirring it together with the lemon zest, the 2 whole eggs and sugar until boiling. Take of the fire when it starts to boil and pour into a cold bowl (on ice).
Allow 15 m to cool, then mix in the butter pieces and put in cool place.
Whisk the cream, sugar and sago sticks to vanilla cream (not stiff) and secure in cool place.
Put a spoonful of whipped cream on top of 1 tbs crumbled shortbread cookies. Then spray the lemon cream on, end with a meringue. Decorate with with some zest of lime and lemon.

*Try microwave meringues.

Tatin à la banane (Martinique reversed banana tart)

For ➑
1 sheet frozen puff pastry
2 tbs butter
10 cl rum sauce or caramel sauce*, spiced with cinnamon
3 bananas, cut crosswise into 1 cm slices

Preheat the oven to 220°C.
Working on a clean surface, roll the pastry dough into an 28 cm circle and chill.
Melt the butter in a 25 cm ovenproof skillet. Add the rum sauce and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat and arrange the banana slices in a single layer in the hot rum sauce. Drape the pastry over the bananas, fitting the overhang up the sides of the skillet. Bake in the preheated oven for 22-25 m, until the pastry turns golden brown.
Cool the tarte tatin in the skillet for 30 m before inverting it onto a serving platter.**
Serve with dots of fresh (double) cream.

*Make a quick caramel sauce by mixing 150 g of sugar with 5 cl of water. Bring to the boil. Add the juice of 1 lemon. Cook until golden brown.
**When serving warm, wait 3 m.

Rijsttaart (Belgian rice tart)

For ➑
flaky pie crust dough (pâte brisée) or pâte levée*
75 cl milk
100 g (dessert) rice
75 g sugar (with 2 small bags of vanilla sugar when vanilla bean is not available)
vanilla bean
10 g butter
2 eggs
100 g almonds**
saffron***
powder sugar

Melt the butter in a pan. Add the rice and mix. Scrape the vanilla bean. Add with the sugar and milk, and stir well. Slowly simmer over low heat until the milk is almost completely absorbed. Remove from heat. Butter a pie form. Line the pan with the dough.
Preheat the oven to 200°C. Mix the almond powder and the 2 eggs with the rice. (Add saffron for a yellow colour.***) Pour the rice into the shape, and bake for 30 to 40 m.
When cold, sprinkle the tart with powder sugar and serve.

*Or the crustier pâte feuilleté. You could use ready-made dough.
**Replace the almonds with crushed macarons for the Verviers version. (Belgian macaroons differ from the colourful French, being a nutty cookie, it is a speciality of Verviers.)
***Optional.

Rijsttaart or tarte au riz is a traditional Belgian tart, always made with a rice & milk mixture and some dough (a pâte brisée, or a pâte feuilletée, puff pastry dough, will do).
The base is the sweet rice & milk mixture, already known in Baghdad, and probably brought to the Low Lands by the Spanish in the 16th century. The rather firm rice pudding features on the 1567 Pieter Brueghel painting of a wedding as a not very common treat, with expensive products such as saffron, rice and sugar. In popular lore, heaven was depicted as a place where one would eat rice pudding every day. The rice pie was probably invented by bakers as an easier to handle variant to the rice pudding in plates. It was called 'blanke doreye', meaning 'gilded white', as the pie turned golden in the oven, with the rice being white. 'Doreye' is still the name of the Liège and the Verviers rice pies.

Read the related 'witte rijstpap' (white rice pudding) recipe.

Pâte levée

For ➊ tart
200 g flour
1 egg yolk
1 pinch of salt
1 tbs sugar
15 g yeast
10 cl milk
30 g butter, all at room temperature

Mix all ingredients into a large ball. Cover, and let the yeast do its work for 20-30 m at room temperature.

Roll out and line a buttered pan with the dough. Prick some holes with a fork. Leave to work for 10 m before adding filling.

A light dough using yeast to leaven the pastry for a lighter crust. It is used in the North of France for pies.
Use f.i. in Belgian rice tart.

American avocado pie

For ➑
22 cm digestive biscuits crust
2 avocados, peeled, pitted & pureed
10 cl lemon juice
10 cl sweetened condensed milk

Preheat oven to 175°C.

In a bowl, mix together graham cracker crumbs and melted margarine. Place mixture in a 22 cm pie tin and press firmly into bottom and sides of pan.

Bake for 8 m.

Let it cool.

In a medium bowl, combine avocado, lemon juice, and condensed milk.

Blend well and pour into graham cracker crust.

Chill before serving.

Garnish with whipped unsweetened cream.

*Americans make it with (sweet) graham crackers. You could use petit beurre biscuits instead.

American biscuits pie crust

For ➑
16 digestive biscuits, crushed
55 g butter, melted

Preheat oven to 175°C.

In a bowl, mix together digestive biscuits crumbs and melted margarine. Place mixture in a 22 cm pie tin and press firmly into bottom and sides of pan.

Bake for 8 m.

Let it cool.

*This crust can be used for several pies. The filling is simply poured in the crust, and put in the refrigerator for several hours. Try American avocado pie.

Crostata con crema al limone (Italian lemon tart)

For ➑
crust:
180 g flour*
90 g butter
80 g sugar
2 egg yolks
salt
(50 g almonds, shaved)*
filling:
grated rind of 3 untreated lemons
8 tbs (12 cl) (2-3 lemons) lemon juice
3 egg yolks
2 eggs
200 g sugar
250 g yogurt or cream

Mix all ingredients for the crust. Cover in plastic foil and refrigerate for 30 m.
Roll out till 0,5 cm thick. Grease 24 cm tin with butter, put baking paper in, put dough in, cover with baking paper and blind-baking peas. Blind bake for 20 m at 180°C.
Beat the eggs with the sugar, the rind and the lemon juice. Carefully add cream or yogurt.
Remove top baking paper and peas. Pour in the mixture. Bake 30 m at 170°C.
Serve cold with a sweet wine or iced limoncello.

*Replace ⅓ with ground almonds or sprinkle half-baked crust with 50 g shaved almonds before pouring in the mixture.

Gentse perentaart (Ghent pear cake)

For ➓
125 g butter
150 g sugar
2 eggs
½ beaten egg
210 g flour
salt
1 tbs grated lemon peel
30 g ground almonds
± 8 half pears (can)*
1.25 dl cream
ground vanilla or vanilla essence
apricot glaze**
shaved almonds

Mix 100 g butter, 100 g sugar, 1 egg, 200 g, salt, flour into a smooth dough. Cover and put in fridge for 1 h.

Prepare a loose-based cake tin of 20 cm.

Roll out the dough, put in the form and return to fridge for 30 m.

Heat the oven to 180 °C.

Mix the rest of the flour with 30 g sugar and ground almonds. Add beaten egg and 25 g butter to the mixture. Whip until creamy.

Spread over the dough. Put the pears in a circle on the mixture.

Mix 1 egg, vanilla and cream.

Pour over the pears.

Bake for 30 m in the centre of the oven.

Remove and let cool on rack.

Glaze with (warm) apricot and shaved almonds.

Add a dot of whipped cream, if you feel like it. Serve with a fruit-based drink like cider, a medium dry white wine like Vouvray, or an old Flemish jenever (gin). Or a dark brown sweet beer. Or tea (without sugar or milk), definitely not coffee.

*When using fresh pears, poach them for 15 m in water and sugar.
**Prepare by mixing 1 tbs of water through 1 tbs of apricot jam.

White chocolate & strawberry tart

For ➓ 

375 g sweet shortcrust pastry* 

200 g white chocolate 

500 g mascarpone 

450 g strawberries 

1 tbs icing sugar

 

Preheat the oven to 200 C°. Roll the dough on a flat surface, line a buttered flan tin (23 cm) , blind bake for 10 m. Remove the baking beans and paper and put in for a further 5 - 10 m until golden brown. Set on a wire rack and leave to cool.

Melt the white chocolate with 125 g of the mascarpone in a bain-marie. Transfer to a mixing bowl and, using an (electric) whisk, beat in with the rest of the mascarpone until the mixture is smooth. Pour into the pastry case and set the cake to chill in the fridge for 3 h.*

Wash the strawberries and remove the green. Puree 150 g of them in a food processor, then mix in the icing sugar. Set to chill.

When the cake is set and you're ready to serve, take it out of the fridge, cut up the remaining strawberries and spread them on the cake. Cut the cake up and pour some of the strawberry coulis over the individual pieces.

*Alternatively, use a ready-made pastry case instead. Or bake six rounds of pastry to put in an individual serving cup. Pour chocolate mixture over it and set to cool.

Torta della Nonna (Granny's tart)

For ➑
crust:
500 g unbleached all purpose flour
4 egg yolks
grated zest of 1 orange
1 ts vanilla extract
350 g unsalted butter
200 g powdered sugar
a pinch of salt
filling:
300 g fresh ricotta
4 egg yolks
50 cl whole milk
60 g flour
180 g sugar
decoration:
1 egg yolk
handful of peeled blanched almonds or pine nuts
confectioner's sugar

Prepare the dough by mixing the ingredients gently. Chill the dough for 1 h in the refrigerator.

In the meantime, lightly whisk the yolks and the sugar, then sift in the flour, mixing carefully to keep lumps from forming, and then add the milk in a thin stream, again stirring gently.

Once the mixture is smooth, gently heat it, while stirring carefully, until it begins to thicken. Once it reaches a very slow boil, count to 120 while stirring gently and it is done. Transfer it to a bowl because it will cream to cook in the pot, and let it cool thoroughly. Mix the ricotta into it.

Preheat your oven to 180°C.

Roll out the dough and use half of it to line a crostata pan (a low-sided 25 cm pan). Pour the ricotta mixture into the middle of the pan, forming a mound, and cover it with the remaining half of the dough, tamping the edges down firmly to seal them.

Whisk the remaining egg yolk, brush it over the top of the torta, and scatter the nuts over it.

Bake the torta for 1 h.

Let it cool, dust it with confectioner's sugar, and serve.

The torta della nonna is a classic Tuscan cheese tart, meaning granny's pie, sometimes made with mascarpone instead of ricotta.