Mixed Berry and Peach Tart

After my recent return from Israel, I immediately went to the library and checked out a dozen baking books, the favorite of which so far has been Baking with Julia Child. I started by making her French apple tart, but decided it could be modified for use with the abundance of berries we had in our freezer. So with a little tinkering with ingredients, some help from my dad, here is what we got. Crust from Baking with Julia Filling: 2 pints mixed berries 5 peaches 2 tbsp. sugar 1 tbsp. cornstarch In a sauce pan, mix together berries, about 2 peaches cut into chunks, the sugar and the cornstarch. Simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes until a nice sauce has formed around the berries and peaches. Allow to cool. Once the berries are cool, pour into pie crust and cover with very thin slices of peaches. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes. And Voila!

Chocolate Tart

So I made this Chocolate Tart for the pie baking contest we had at my school on Friday. It was actually supposed to be a peppermint tart, but I didn't realize that we were out of peppermint extract until I was halfway through making it. The original recipe called for a very complicated crust, but I just made a simple oreo crumb crust. It was very dense and chocolaty. It was good, but in the end, I would have loved to have had some peppermint. Here is the original recipe and crust. I just made a crust of about 20 crushed up oreo wafers and a stick of butter. The baking contest was so much fun. We had 10 pies which were all so yummy. The strawberry rhubarb was probably my favorite. Pie Baking Contest!!