Cape bakers share sweet and savory recipes
Gwenn Friss
May 6, 2020 at 7:27 AM May 6, 2020 at 7:27 AM
For decades, Lisa Raffael made her Aunt Ann's fruit-tart recipe for family occasions, including Mother's Day.
"It was one of the first recipes I ever made and it made me want to become a baker." says Raffael, owner of Delicious Desserts in East Falmouth.
The recipe, she says, "pushed every button of creativity. The taste was a bonus; I just loved making it.
"When I made it, it made me feel like it was a baker's rite of passage -- from childhood baking to grown-up baking."
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But when Raffael graduated from Cambridge School of Culinary Arts in 1992 and opened her custom cake shop on the Cape that same year, she stopped making the beloved tart.
"When I became a 'professional,' that's when I stopped making it because of the instant pudding and sour cream. It just didn't feel professional," she says.
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Although the easy recipe with everyday ingredients never made it into the shop's lineup of many-layered chocolate ganache tortes and wedding cakes for 150, the recipe still holds a spot of honor in Raffael's handwritten recipe-card file.
When the Cape Cod Times asked if she had an easy Mother's Day recipe for beginning cooks, the tart recipe was the one she reached for.
"I am sad that I won't be able to make it for my own mom. She's 90 and lives in New Hampshire and I really want to visit her this weekend, but I know I shouldn't, so I guess I won't," she says, referring to social-distancing guidelines.
When Raffael walks her pug, Chocolate Chip, each day, she FaceTimes her mom so they can all walk together.
With most weddings on hold, some until 2021, the baker has been staying busy by making and selling cake stacks. Each $8 stack is an 8-ounce decorative mason jar of cake layered with buttercream frosting. They are available in a variety of flavors by emailing Raffael at lisa@deliciousdesserts.net. With local shipping averaging $8.50, orders placed by 11 a.m. Thursday will be filled by Mother's Day, she says.
ANNIE'S TART
1 1/2 cups flour, all-purpose
1/2 cup chopped pecans, optional
1 package instant vanilla pudding
6 ounces Cool Whip
Fruits of your choice for top
Tart shell:
Mix flour, butter, pecans and sugar together until a crumbly mixture forms.
Line 9-inch tart pan with dough, gently pressing dough into pan.
Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Cool completely.
Beat pudding, milk and sour cream together.
Fold in Cool Whip. Fill tart shell.
Garnish as desired with fruit of your choice.
Tart can be glazed by heating up any jam/jelly and brushing lightly all over the fruit.
Recipe courtesy of Lisa Raffael
In 2004, Maureen Maloy, then of Sandwich, represented Cape Cod as one of 100 finalists at the Pillsbury Bake-Off in Hollywood. Although her Five Spice Shrimp Puffs didn't win the $1 million prize, she came back to the Cape and opened Mermaids Pantry in Marstons Mills.
Four years ago, she moved to Scottsdale, Arizona, and remarried, becoming Maureen Woods.
Now working as a real estate agent, Woods still bakes — whether it is to make a house feel, and smell, like a home or simply to use up leftovers.
For Mother's Day, Woods recommends a savory tart or quiche as an easy brunch. If the pandemic makes it hard to find cream, she says, feel free to substitute condensed evaporated milk, which is a great item to keep in the pantry because it is shelf-stable and versatile.
"I would probably do goat cheese, fresh basil, leeks and zucchini because zucchini just came into season at my local farmers market," she says, noting that the great thing is you can use almost any combination of fillings you want.
Basic proportions, she says, are two eggs and ½ cup of cream or evaporated milk; for quiche, 5 eggs and a cup of (cream or) evaporated milk.
Woods explains that a savory tart has just enough of the egg-and-cream mixture to hold the other ingredients in place, while quiche is a lighter, airier egg dish baked in a deeper vessel.
"I use a pie-shell crust, mixing flour and cornmeal, lard (or Crisco) and butter. If you only have butter, ain't nothing ever wrong with butter," Woods says, laughing.
She sometimes kneads fresh herbs and spices (cracked black pepper works well) into the crust.
Woods shares a Mother's Day tart recipe "inspired by my weekend visit to Blue Sky Organic Farm in Litchfield Park, Arizona."
MOTHER'S DAY EGG TART
For crust:
12 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons lard/shortening
Ice water, about ¼ cup as needed
Cube butter and lard. Combine all ingredients except for the ice water in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until small crumbs form. Slowly drizzle ice water into the feed tube (approximately 1/4 cup) with motor running until dough comes together in a ball.
Divide dough into two disks, and wrap in plastic or place in zippered plastic food-storage bags. Refrigerate 30 minutes.
4 zucchini, sliced
2 large leeks, white and pale green parts sliced thin
8 ounces goat cheese, crumbled
1/2 cup heavy cream or evaporated milk
1/4 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
Roll out one disk of tart dough and use it to line the pan. Scatter the leek slices, chopped basil and crumbled goat cheese on the bottom of the crust. Top with zucchini arranged in concentric circles. Beat together eggs and cream or evaporated milk. Mix in salt and pepper. Pour eggs/cream mixture evenly over vegetables.
Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.
Serve with your favorite white wine
Recipe by Maureen Woods