Maryville Farmers' Market Dinner

  Here is the back of my car, filled with desserts for the Maryville Farmers' Market Dinner.  While I wish blogger would understand which pictures need to be rotated, you do get the idea.  There are 130 pieces of cheesecake and 130 apple tarts.  The sheeps' milk caramel sauce is in the front seat.  I drove the desserts out to the farm, M & J Farm in Friendsville about an hour ago, and had to leave them there for the other chefs to plate.  They were kind enough to indulge me, because Bella had been in the kennel since I left for work 12 hours ago.  I couldn't possibly leave her in there while I spent another 6 hours to plate dessert!
  The whole dessert is the first plated dessert I've made in a year, since last year's dinner, not counting my several GULP desserts this year.  It was fun but somewhat terrifying!  It seemed to me that I kept making rookie mistakes, but noticed that every time I did, I had the experience to know how to fix the mistake.
  The cheesecake is an old recipe of mine, a no-bake cheesecake that is very light and creamy.  I made it with the Brebis cheese our cheesemaker, Adam Spannaus makes.  It was a bit curdier than I thought it would be, and I had to smash the batter through a screen, but it came out quite delicious.  It's on a gingersnap crust, a bit of spice under the simple cheese-and-vanilla taste of the cheesecake.  I hadn't made gingersnaps in a long time, and the smell that filled the kitchen was intoxicating.
I love them when they're still warm and not quite ready to "snap," but even when cool, they're like biting into autumn to me.
 
The tarts are made with Stayman Winesap and Mutsu Apples, one tart and sweet and the other juicy.  The crust is a favorite from LaRousse Gastronomique, a classic French culinary reference book.  I baked them in muffin tins to keep their shape, important when you're making as many as I needed, and counting on them all coming out perfectly.  Which they did!  And now they are all waiting to be enjoyed by farmers, farmers' market supporters and happy Maryvillians, waiting to be fed.