Seasonal Tarts for the Holidays with Michelle Polzine

A hands-on in-person cooking class. Alongside the tasting of baked goods, a seasonal salad will be served with wine or beer. This class is limited to 12 students. Review our registration and cancellation policies here.

If you’re like Michelle Polzine, you like desserts that are not too crazy, but just a little off the well-worn path. This class features three tarts that may appear simple but are guaranteed to satisfy both the gourmands and the old fussbudgets at any holiday dinner. In addition, these tarts are resplendent in wonderful local and seasonal produce.

Using Michelle’s favorite dough of all time, we’ll make open-faced, double-crusted, and upside-down tarts, with lots of secret and not-so-secret goodness throughout.  You’ll go deep on rolling, shaping, and building flavors and components into our tarts, and what to serve alongside. We will produce streusel, frangipane, and two different caramels to build our three tarts, plus three different creams to accompany them.

The open-faced tart will feature Devoto Gardens’ apples, holiday-appropriate cranberries for pop, earthy black walnut streusel, and Meyer lemon cream bringing it all together. For those with a soft spot for pumpkin pie, the squash and amaretti tart is for you! This tart features freshly roasted seasonal squash cooked in a rich, buttery caramel to fill this double-crusted beauty. Sweetened crème fraîche highlights the squash’s savoryness and pomegranate seeds add spark! Lastly, a classic tarte tatin rounds out the menu: brown butter, caramelized sugar, and tart apples under a blanket of delicious dough. Finished with vanilla cream, the result is simple and satisfying!

Each of these can be assembled the night before, with just the baking left to do the day of your holiday affair, leaving you plenty of time to look as fresh and lovely as your beautiful desserts!

MENU

Apple Cranberry Tart with Black Walnut Streusel and Meyer Lemon Cream

Roasted Red Kuri Squash and Amaretti Tart with Whipped Crème Fraîche and Pomegranate Seeds

Apple Tarte Tatin with Vanilla Bean Cream
 

This menu contains the following common allergens: Egg, Tree Nuts, Dairy, Wheat. If you have allergies or dietary restrictions that concern your ability to cook along, please e-mail info@18reasons.org before purchasing a ticket.

Let’s Cook Together! 

Michelle Polzine is a Chef who lives in the Mission in San Francisco. She has worked in many restaurants, and once had her own, the now-closed 20th Century Cafe. She also wrote a cookbook, "Baking at the 20th Century Cafe" which is all about baking, and there are wonderful recipes for lots of things you may have never heard of, but need to know about!

_{Photo courtesy of Michelle Polzine}