In the Kitchen: Birthday Edition

This is a special entry as today Amanda celebrates her birthday. The day in which this whole culinary adventure began. I decided I would "build her a cake" to commemorate the occasion. To make it even more meaningful I called upon a recipe that we dreamed up about a month ago. Intially I thought of surprising her, but instead gave in and sought out Amanda's amazing dough-making abilities. The steps are fairly simple but the ingredients you use make all the difference. It utilizes the following:

-dates (we get ours as fresh as can be from Neomonde Baking Company in Raleigh
-walnuts
-cinnamon
-Brie
-pastry dough

As I mentioned before I relied on Amanda to create the dough which would serve as a canvas for the rest of the ingredients. I diced the dates and spread them across the dough.



At this point we decided we would make it into a rustic tart therefore concentrating the filling at the pastry's center. We added the chopped walnuts before hitting it with a dash of cinnamon. Finally, we topped it all off with slices of a French Double Cream Brie.



After folding over the bare edges of the tart, we placed it in a 400 degree oven for 25 minutes. We utilized a tin foil shield over the filling for the last 10 minutes to make sure the brie did not burn. After the crust reached the height of its golden goodness, we transported it to the Big Boss Brewery where we would be meeting with friends to celebrate the occasion and of course, indulge in the evening's culinary pursuits.



A month ago we discussed just how delicious this idea could potentially be knowing full-well how much we enjoyed each ingredient on its own. I'll be honest and say that the flavors present in the tart exceeded my suppositions. The much desired sweetness of the dates starred heavily while being joined by Brie who brought its combination savory/salty creaminess which was well complemented by the nuttiness and texture of the walnut pieces. The rustic style of the tart was a perfect mode in which to eat the pieces of tart by hand. A maneuver deemed entirely acceptable being that we were enjoying it in the presence of beer imbibers reveling in the moment at hand.

Happy Birthday Amanda!