Potato-Bacon Torte by Melissa D'arabian

Submitted by diner524

"This is a recipe that I am posting for safe keeping. I love potatoes and bacon and never thought of using them in a torte. You could also use refrigerated pre-made pie crusts, wouldn't be as good, but quicker!! You could also add in some minced garlic and/or onions to the potato layers for more flavor and you could use a different type of cheese. On the show she served this as a main dish along with a salad and applesauce granita."

 

• Ready In: 1hr 20mins
• Ingredients: 12
• Yields: 1 torte/pie
• Serves: 6-8

ingredients

• 4 slices bacon
• 3 sprigs fresh thyme
• 2⁄3 cup heavy cream
• 3 medium baking potatoes, peeled
• salt & freshly ground black pepper
• 1⁄4 cup gruyere cheese, grated
• 1 egg yolk, whisked with a splash of water
• 2 pie crusts, recipe follows

• Pie Crusts

• 1 cup butter, cubed and chilled (2 sticks)
• 2 1⁄4 - 2 1⁄2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 8 -10 tablespoons ice water

directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
2. In a skillet over medium heat, cook the bacon until just crispy. Drain on paper towel lined plate and set aside. Crumble the bacon when cool to the touch.
3. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, heat the thyme and cream over low heat to a bare simmer. Turn off the heat and let steep for about 5 minutes. Remove the thyme sprigs.
4. Remove the pie pan from the refrigerator. Slice the potatoes in half lengthwise and then finely slice the potatoes. Working in circles, arrange the potato slices in the pie crust, stopping to season each layer with salt, pepper, and about 1/4 of the crumbled bacon. Continue layering until the pie pan is nearly full. Top with an even layer of the cheese and gently pour cream around and over the entire pie, allowing it to seep down between the potato slices. (You may not use all the cream.)
5. Roll out the remaining disk of refrigerated dough. Cover the pie with the dough and crimp the edges closed. Brush the top and edges of the crust with egg wash. Make a few slits in the center of the top crust, for the steam to escape, and put the pie pan on a baking sheet. Bake the torte until the crust is browned and crispy and the potatoes are cooked through, about 50 to 60 minutes. If the crust edges get too brown, cover them with some strips of aluminum foil. Remove the pie from the oven and let rest at least 15 minutes before cutting into wedges and serving.
6. For the Pie Crusts:.
7. Put the butter, flour, and salt in the food processor, and pulse lightly just until the mixture resembles wet sand. Add the water, 1 tablespoon at a time, pulsing briefly after each spoonful of water. Keep adding water until the dough just begins to gather into larger clumps. Transfer equal amounts of the dough into 2 resealable plastic bags and pat each into a disk. Let rest in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. Remove 1 of the disks from the bag to a flour coated surface. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out to a 10-inch round. Gently fit the rolled dough into a 9-inch pie pan, and refrigerate while you prepare the torte ingredients.
8. Yield: 2 (9-inch) pie crusts.

Reviews

[Angel91805]

Very tasty! And one of the few successful pie crusts I've ever made. No more refrigerated pie crusts for me! Very easy and earthy and yummy. DH was impressed.

 

[TasteTester]

This is a really fantastic recipe. I was wondering if the filling of this torte would taste similar to a scalloped potato dish, but it is so much better than any scalloped potatoes I have ever tried. It has so many great flavors -- the cream steeped with thyme, as well as the gruyere cheese, really give this torte and earthy, delicious flavor, and the bacon just takes it over the top. I minced half of an onion and mixed in 1/4 tsp. of garlic powder, and layered it in the torte. The thyme and gruyere, though, are really the key to giving this dish a unique and outstanding flavor. I can't tell you how much we loved this -- besides serving this for dinner, it would be great to serve at brunch as well. This is a 10-star recipe I will make over and over, and it's going into my "Top Favorites of 2010" cookbook!

 

[foodtvfan]

The pastry in this recipe is easy to make and good for any recipe calling for a butter pastry. When layering the potatoes and bacon in the pie shell, I poured a little cream/thyme mixture on each layer instead of pouring it on at the end of layering to make sure it got through to each layer. Served it with a green salad and toasted slices of garlic bread for dinner. You could add other vegetables and omit the bacon for a vegetarian version of this torte if you like. It would also be a great way to use up leftover cooked vegetables.

 

[PsychoBirdie]

Excellent. Can have a side, main dish, or a buffet item to bring. I changed cheese to mozzarella as my family is not very cheese adventurous & added 3X the bacon. It was wonderful. Made at lent & omitted the bacon adding sautéed onions & broccoli for a meatless treat. Melissa's recipes always come out wonderfully.

 

[rgraham206]

Absolutely delicious! I also use the crust recipe for quiche & fruit pies, too.