01.24.10
Posted in Beef, Breakfast, Cookies & Candies, Dessert, Dinner, Meats, Persnickety Bits, Pies & Tarts, Poultry, Quick Breads, Sides, Veggies at 7:34 pm by julie
It’s been a few months since I’ve managed to post anything on the blog. I wish I could use the busy holiday season as my excuse, but that really isn’t the case. In truth, I’ve been faithfully cataloging our meals by date, complete with edited photos and recipe notations. However, when it comes time to write up a finished post, I stall out trying to find some way around the admission that most of the food I cook these days is purely utilitarian. I cook largely from the pantry because getting to the grocery store is often problematic, and my pantry is stripped to the basics for financial reasons, so most of the time I feel like the little Dutch boy, constantly plugging the gaps in my recipes with substitutes. I’m also trying to cook for, and around, a 22-month old who is simultaneously going through a picky phase and cutting his 2-year molars. I like to say that cooking is the only hobby I can make time for these days, but it’s not true if I define the hobby aspect as pushing my boundaries with new ingredients and techniques. It’s all I can do to get a coherent meal on the table these days, and writing it in black and white on the blog just drives that point home.
I know I’m not the only one out there whose financial and family responsibilities sometimes overshadow the fun parts of cooking, so I’ll try to get past my writer’s block and get back to the posts. They may not always be exciting or challenging, but hopefully they may help some people who are in a similar predicament. I’ll start by filling in a few of the gaps since the holiday season.
We didn’t cook Thanksgiving dinner on Thanksgiving this year. We were invited up to eat with my husband’s relatives, and shared a great day with them. Nolan ate heartily and had a fantastic time sharing toys and kisses with everyone there. I brought along a batch of whole wheat-walnut butterhorns, a loaf of pumpkin bread with a banana cream swirl (leftover cannoli filling, actually), and two pies, white chocolate pecan and cinnamon crumble apple. We came home with just some the desserts leftover, and the refrigerator almost seemed haunted by a lack of turkey and sides; the extra pie disappeared far too quickly for our health.
About a week later, I gave into my itch and made a mini-Thanksgiving dinner centered around a roasted chicken. I used some pre-mixed turkey brine to flavor the chicken, but miscalculated the percentages, because the chicken came out extremely salty, so much so that the gravy I made from the drippings was nearly inedible. At least it was just a 4-lb chicken, and the sides helped balance out some of the overseasoning: steamed broccoli, apple and onion cornbread stuffing, mashed potatoes, pureed sweet potatoes with sherry and fried onions, and yeasted pan rolls left over from a previous meal. We didn’t much care for the stuffing, which was a little dry and gritty for our tastes, but I may not have added enough liquid. I liked the sweet potatoes quite a bit because they walked that line of sweet and savory; Jeremy thought they were good, but left off the fried onions. For dessert, I made a caramelized walnut tart that was very tasty and roundly appreciated. I should note that all of these items were made from the freezer and pantry.
The week before Christmas, Jeremy came home from Costco with an 11-lb turkey. I admit that my heart fell when I saw it, because we had talked about doing some sort of beef roast for Christmas dinner, and I thought he was changing the menu without a consult. As it turns out, there was just such a good deal on turkeys that he couldn’t pass it up: something like $10 for a turkey that size. This time I avoided the brining, and rubbed my turkey with miso butter; I also baked a loaf of bread in advance so we would be able to have our standard slow cooker stuffing, and tried out a carrot souffle since we were out of yams. The turkey made for great leftovers and stock, but was generally forgettable. The carrot souffle was interesting and worth making again with a few tweaks. I didn’t have sharp cheddar so I just used medium, which costs less. Although I minced the onion as finely as possible, we found their texture to be unpalatable in the otherwise smooth souffle, since they are added raw after the carrots are pureed, and didn’t cook through in the oven; next time I would either grate the onion on a microplane, saute it minced, or possibly cook it along with the carrot. It would definitely be a good change of pace for us from time to time, though, since I always seem to be working my way through a big bag of organic carrots from Costco.
I wasn’t able to make my Daring gingerbread house in December because I ran out of most of my baking spices (cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and vanilla), and needed to save what little I did have on hand for edible baked goods, like molasses spice cookies. The latter were addictive, made from my last little bit of freshly ground whole spices, plus organic molasses and demerara sugar. I also made my personal favorite, pecan snowballs, and tried out some cinnamon-kissed chocolate oatmeal cookies from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking.
With all those cookies in the house, we forsook a fancy dessert to go with our Christmas dinner, which was made all the more festive by my parents’ arrival at the airport at 4pm on the very day. I had anticipated making as much of the meal in advance as possible, and splurging on a beef tenderloin roast that would take less than an hour to cook, but the cost of a standing rib roast was so much more reasonable that I adjusted the plan. The roast was dry-brined overnight in the fridge, and removed to room temperature as we walked out the door for the airport. Upon returning, we opened presents and nibbled on stuffed mushrooms and fresh bread with white bean hummus until the roast and fixings were ready. I went with a porcini jus, sweet potato puree with goat cheese and truffle oil, mustard roasted potatoes, and the cream braised Brussels sprouts that I’ve made for my folks before. The roast beef came out delicious and perfectly cooked, the Brussels sprouts vanished in a flash, the roasted potatoes were adequate, and Jeremy thought the goat cheese masked the flavor of the sweet potatoes (which may have been why I thought they were pretty good).
The leftover prime rib made for excellent sandwiches in the days after Christmas, but the most interesting meal we had was not one I cooked. My father was kind enough to share his new speciality with us: ebelskivers. He’s made many varieties of these tiny round pancakes, both sweet and savory, usually with a dollop of filling hidden inside like a treasure. This time, he filled the ebelskivers with a cinnamon apple filling, and topped them off with powdered sugar. They made perfect, tender little bites, and we all loved them, so much so that I really wish I had an ebelskiver pan now.
That pretty much brings things up to speed. Since Nolan started cutting his 2-year molars just after New Years, he’s barely been eating at all. Suggestions on how to fatten up a scrawny toddler greatly appreciated!
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09.30.09
Posted in American, Cuisines, Dinner, Leftovers, Meats, Pies & Tarts, Poultry at 11:23 pm by julie
The weather here is on the verge of turning cool and wet, and we were in some serious need of comfort swathed in pie crust, so last week I set about making homemade chicken pot pies. I’ve never made them from scratch before, and I have never been a big fan of the frozen version—as with frozen quiches, I find the soggy bottom crust of most potpies appalling. I decided to make individual mug pies with top crusts only. Because I was out of shortening, I was unable to use my new standard pie crust from Baking: From My Home to Yours, so I picked an all-butter crust from Tyler Florence instead, and it did the trick.
For my potpie filling, I went with an adaptation of Ina Garten’s chicken pot pie, scaled back and simplified with boneless chicken breasts. Still, it’s a pretty involved recipe that takes a little while to complete, so you would be best served making lots and either refrigerating or freezing what you won’t be eating right away. This recipe made enough crust and filling for 6 large mugs, and I imagine it would double well. I baked all of them at once, and refrigerated half for another night, covered in foil; they reheated nicely in the oven at 350F for 20-30 minutes, keeping the foil on to protect the crusts from over-browning.
This recipe is extremely adaptable: put in whatever meat and veggies you like, season it up with herbs, wine, or mustard, go nuts. We all really liked it—Jeremy commented about how he wanted to gnaw the crust off the edges of his mug—so I’m sure I’ll make it again sometime this winter.
Chicken Mug-Pies
For the crust:
2 1/4 C all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 C (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cold and cut into small chunks
1/2 C ice water, plus more if needed
For the filling:
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 T olive oil
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
3 C chicken stock, preferably homemade, divided
1 C yellow onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 C medium-diced carrots
6 small red potatoes, medium-diced
1/2 C frozen peas
4 T unsalted butter
1/3 C all-purpose flour
1/2 C heavy cream
For the crust: Combine the flour and salt in a food processor. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Pour in the ice water and pulse just enough to bind the dough into a ball. Squeeze a small amount together, and if it is crumbly, add more ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time. Flatten the dough into a 1″ thick disk, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate while preparing the rest of the recipe (feel free to make the dough the night before if you prefer.)
For the filling: In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Season the chicken with salt and pepper, and cook on both sides just until golden brown. Add about 1/2 C chicken stock, reduce heat to medium low, and simmer until chicken is cooked through and stock has cooked down. Remove chicken from the pan, cool, and shred with two forks; set aside in a large bowl.
In the same skillet, pour in another tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat, and add the onion, garlic, carrots, and potatoes. Season with salt and pepper, saute until they get a little bit of color. Add about another half a cup of chicken stock, cover, and simmer until the carrots and potatoes are just tender and the stock has cooked down, about 4-5 minutes. Pour this mixture into the bowl with the chicken.
Return the skillet to medium heat and melt the butter. Add the flour and cook, stirring, for a minute or two to cook out the raw flour taste. Add the remaining chicken stock and cream to this roux, and whisk to incorporate. Simmer over medium-high heat until the sauce thickens to a gravy-like consistency. Taste and adjust seasoning, then pour over chicken and vegetables; add the frozen peas to the bowl also, and toss well to combine.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Divide the filling equally among 4 ovenproof bowls or 6 mugs. Divide the dough into 4 or 6 pieces respectively, and roll each piece into an 8-inch circle. Brush the outside edges of each bowl with the egg wash, then place the dough on top. Trim the circle to 1/2-inch larger than the top of the bowl. Crimp the dough to fold over the side, pressing it to make it stick. Brush the dough with egg wash and make 3 slits in the top. Sprinkle with sea salt and cracked pepper. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 45-60 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and the filling is bubbling hot.
Source: Food Network.
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06.27.09
Posted in British, Cuisines, Dessert, Dips & Spreads, Foodblog Events, Fruits, Pies & Tarts at 12:55 am by julie
The June Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart… er… pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800’s in England. This was a fun one for me because I’d heard of bakewell tarts, but never seen or tasted one. They turn out to be surprisingly easy to make, and scrumptious with tea—go figure!
Although there are a variety of ways to make a bakewell tart, our recipe was composed of a rich shortbread crust topped with layers of jam and frangipane, a moist almond filling. We were allowed the option of using either store-bought or homemade jam, and since it is strawberry season AND right around Father’s Day and our 10th wedding anniversary, I made fresh strawberry jam for Jeremy, his favorite.
Now, I’ve done jams a few times in the past and it is not my forte. I tend to get paranoid that it hasn’t cooked long enough, thereby far overcooking it and ending up with fruit candy that won’t come out of the jars. This time I carried home 4 pints of gorgeous Oregon strawberries a mile home from the market, and promptly dumped every last one of them out on my front porch as I tried to dig my key out of my pocket. An inauspicious start, to say the least. Since my berries were now all bruised and dirty, the clock was really ticking. I immediately rinsed them all off individually and used them right away, since bruised and/or wet berries will spoil in the blink of an eye. Considering my previous track record, I decided to try my hand at freezer jam, which apparently uses an ungodly amount of sugar and gives the berries a kind of artificial citric acid tang. It was totally easy to do, but I think it didn’t really show off the natural flavor of the fruit, and it set up pretty soft. I followed the instructions exactly, but my berries were quite juicy, so I wonder if that affected the outcome. In the end, I really think I just need to come to terms with traditional jamming and keep practicing.
The next day, with 5 pints of sort-of set strawberry freezer jam at the ready, I proceeded with my tart. I did my crust in the food processor, and it came together in no time. After giving it a short stint in the fridge, I rolled out my crust and got it into the tart pan with a little help from plenty of bench flour and a jumperoo to keep the baby from making a break for the dog’s water bowl every 10 seconds. Then we made frangipane to the tune of “Oh Susannah” and “London Bridge is Falling Down” while the crust set up in the freezer for 15 minutes. Quick smears of jam and almond filling, and the tart went into the oven for half an hour.
It came out darker than I expected, which may be because 200 degrees Celsius is actually 392F, not the 400F that the recipe indicated. Guess I should have looked up the exact conversion. I got it out in time, but I wouldn’t call this frangipane “tanned”.
We gave it a few minutes to cool and set, and then dove into it with dollops of vanilla whipped cream. It was absolutely delicious; all three of us loved it, and it only lasted us about two days. I think I see many more bakewell tarts in our future! In the meantime, be sure to check out all the daring tarts at the blogroll.
I am a member of the Theta Class of Daring Bakers, inducted in July 2007. Below is a list of previous challenges:
Strawberry Mirror Cake – July 2007
Milk Chocolate and Caramel Tart – August 2007
Cinnamon Rolls and Sticky Buns – September 2007
Bostini Cream Pies – October 2007
Tender Potato Bread – November 2007
Traditional Buche de Noel – December 2007
Lemon Meringue Pie – January 2008
French Bread – February 2008
Perfect Party Cake – March 2008
Opéra Cake – May 2008
Danish Braid – June 2008
Filbert Gateau – July 2008
Chocolate Éclairs – August 2008
Lavash Crackers and Dip – September 2008
French Yule Log – December 2008
Tuiles – January 2009
Chocolate Valentino and Ice Cream – February 2009
Lasagne of Emilia-Romana – March 2009
Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake – April 2009
Apple Strudel – May 2009
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04.27.09
Posted in Cake, Dairy, Dessert, Pies & Tarts at 11:18 am by julie
The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge. This month, my two biggest personal challenges were not adapting the recipe too much, and then trying to bake it with a baby who has clearly just taken a crash course in separation anxiety. I wasn’t able to bake my cheesecake until yesterday because I didn’t have cream cheese on hand, and Nolan wouldn’t let me out of his sight from 1:30 a.m. (yes, that’s a.m.) until 11:30 p.m.—he spent two hours sleeping on my chest mid-morning and then I managed to get him in the crib for a second nap in the afternoon that lasted maybe half an hour before he realized he was alone and flipped out. He hung out in his high chair and taste-tested graham crackers while I baked the cheesecake, but when it was ready to decorate and I handed Nolan off to his daddy while I piped some whipped cream and cut us slices, he threw a monumental fit the whole time, even though I was in sight of them. Nolan wouldn’t even let me sit next to them to eat my cheesecake; he wailed and flung himself at me the whole time I was trying to eat.
I had Jeremy look through the Junior’s Cheesecakes
cookbook for flavor inspiration and he chose pumpkin swirl. Not the easiest adaptation because of the extra moisture from the pumpkin, so I had to almost hybridize the challenge recipe to make it work. I went with a 9″ springform pan, double-wrapped with heavy-duty aluminum foil. My crust was graham cracker with just a few gingersnaps thrown in for interest. I’ve made pumpkin pies with all-gingersnap crusts, and we don’t much like them because it’s a pretty strong flavor. As you can see, I decided to push it up the edges somewhat.
I used 8 oz of full-fat cream cheese and the rest was reduced fat. (Junior’s says this is a big no-no, but I forgot to specify when I sent Jeremy to the store for them, and we couldn’t taste the difference, honestly.) I flavored my batter with vanilla paste, then removed half and added pumpkin puree and your typical pumpkin pie spices: cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves. I stabilized the batter with 1/4 C cornstarch, a Junior’s trick, to offset the additional moisture from the pumpkin. I think I saved too much vanilla batter out, though, because it didn’t swirl very well.
It baked at 350F in a waterbath for about 1 hour 15 minutes, until it was set and just barely starting to color on top. Then it came out and rested on a cooling rack for a good two or three hours before covering with plastic and chilling in the fridge. This was also the Junior’s method, and it set up beautifully with no cracks. By the time it had cooled, the cheesecake had clearly pulled away from the sides of the springform, so I knew it would release nicely.
I decorated my cheesecake with maple almond brittle, which I whipped together during Nolan’s brief nap in the crib. I also made vanilla whipped cream in the food processor, which Rose Levy Berenbaum recommends for piping borders as it creates a dense rather than fluffy texture. I didn’t try anything fancy because Nolan was beside himself, but this was the first time I’ve piped something and felt satisfied with the outcome.
The cheesecake was cool but not completely chilled when I cut it, so the center was a little soft yet. We anticipate that it will be firmer today, but I have to draw the line at cheesecake for breakfast. You can see the two flavors of batter a little bit in the cross-section. The cheesecake came out beautifully, with a definite flavor of pumpkin pie that balanced the richness of the cream cheese. The brittle was pretty sweet, but added a good crunch, and I could taste the hint of gingersnap in the crust. Nolan was far too upset to taste it, but I suspect he will really like it too, and he could certainly use the calories more than his parents can. 
Thanks for choosing this month’s challenge, Jenny! It was a delicious one, and I don’t think I’ve made a cheesecake since that towering German chocolate cheesecake over two years ago. (And please be sure to check out the wild creativity going on in the Daring Bakers Blogroll.)
Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake at Midnight (i.e. Turned into a Pumpkin)
Crust:
2 C / 180 g graham cracker crumbs (I added 4 gingersnaps to my grahams)
1 stick / 4 oz butter, melted
2 T / 24 g sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Cheesecake:
3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each (total of 24 oz) room temperature
1 C / 210 g sugar
2 extra-large eggs
3/4 C heavy cream
2 tsp vanilla paste
1/4 C cornstarch
1 C pumpkin puree
1 tsp pumpkin pie spices (I used a blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves)
DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (Gas Mark 4 = 180C = Moderate heat). Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.
2. If you are using a springform, wrap its outside thoroughly with foil. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan. You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too – baker’s choice. Set crust aside.
3. Combine cream cheese, sugar, and cornstarch in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream and vanilla, and blend until smooth and creamy. Set aside about a cup of batter for the swirl, then add the pumpkin and spices to the bowl and blend well.
4. Pour pumpkin batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Top with spoonfuls of vanilla batter, and use a knife to gently swirl the batter in a figure-8 pattern and create marbling. Place pan into a roasting pan, set in the oven, and carefully pour boiling water into the larger pan until about halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. Don’t splash any water into the cheesecake!
5. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done – this can be hard to judge, but you’re looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don’t want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won’t crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve. (I used the Junior’s method to bake—1 hour 15 minutes in the oven with the waterbath, and 2 hours resting on a rack at room temperature before chilling. Not sure if the cornstarch makes the difference here, but it’s never cracked on me.)
Pan note: The creator of this recipe used to use a springform pan, but no matter how well she wrapped the thing in tin foil, water would always seep in and make the crust soggy. Now she uses one of those 1-use foil “casserole” shaped pans from the grocery store. They’re 8 or 9 inches wide and really deep, and best of all, water-tight. When it comes time to serve, just cut the foil away.
Prep notes: While the actual making of this cheesecake is a minimal time commitment, it does need to bake for almost an hour, cool in the oven for an hour, and chill overnight before it is served. Please plan accordingly!
Maple Almond Brittle
1/3 C Grade B maple syrup
1 T light corn syrup
pinch salt
1/3 C sugar
1/2 C sliced unblanched almonds, toasted lightly
In a heavy saucepan combine the maple syrup, the corn syrup, the salt, and the sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil over moderate heat, stirring and washing down any sugar crystals clinging to the side with a brush dipped in cold water, and boil the mixture, undisturbed, until it registers 300 degrees F on a candy thermometer. Stir in the almonds quickly and pour the mixture onto a baking sheet lined with foil or a silpat. Spread the mixture as thin as possible with a metal spatula and let it cool. Break the almond brittle into serving pieces.
Source: Scaled down from Food Network.
I am a member of the Theta Class of Daring Bakers, inducted in July 2007. Below is a list of previous challenges:
Strawberry Mirror Cake – July 2007
Milk Chocolate and Caramel Tart – August 2007
Cinnamon Rolls and Sticky Buns – September 2007
Bostini Cream Pies – October 2007
Tender Potato Bread – November 2007
Traditional Buche de Noel – December 2007
Lemon Meringue Pie – January 2008
French Bread – February 2008
Perfect Party Cake – March 2008
Opéra Cake – May 2008
Danish Braid – June 2008
Filbert Gateau – July 2008
Chocolate Éclairs – August 2008
Lavash Crackers and Dip – September 2008
French Yule Log – December 2008
Tuiles – January 2009
Chocolate Valentino and Ice Cream – February 2009
Lasagne of Emilia-Romana – March 2009
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11.27.08
Posted in American, Cuisines, Dessert, Pies & Tarts at 11:37 am by julie
I’m at a lull in my Thanksgiving preparations, so I thought it was a perfect time to sit down, rest my feet, and quickly write up my new star pumpkin pie. The pictures are from earlier this month, as I first made this pie during my parents’ visit just after Halloween, but you better believe I made this recipe again yesterday. It is easy and delicious, with the perfect blend of spice, sweetness, and a hint of caramel bitterness. The other bonus is that it only uses a cup of pumpkin, so there is some leftover for Nolan’s cereal. I made the almond streusel variation last time, and a plain one for Thanksgiving, since I also made my favorite apple crumb pie.
Caramel Pumpkin Pie
1 9-inch pie crust, partially baked and cooled (I use her basic pie crust recipe for everything now)
1 C sugar
3/4 C heavy cream, room temperature
2 T dark rum, cognac, or apple cider
2 T unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
1 C canned pumpkin puree
1 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp ground ginger
pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
tiny pinch of ground allspice
pinch of salt
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
Lightly sweetened whipped cream, for serving
Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place the pie plate on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat.
Sprinkle 1/2 cup of the sugar evenly over the bottom of a large nonstick skillet. Place the skillet over medium-high heat and staying close by, cook until the sugar melts and starts to color. Once you see a little color, gently swirl the skillet so that the sugar colors evenly. Cook the sugar, without stirring, until it turns deep amber, almost mahogany; the darker the sugar, the fuller the flavor.
Lower the heat to medium, stand back and pour the cream into the skillet. The sugar will bubble and hiss and may clump. Just continue to cook, stirring, until it evens out. Add the rum (or cider) and butter and cook just until the caramel is smooth. Pour the caramel into a heatproof pitcher or bowl and let cool for about 15 minutes.
Working with a whisk in a large bowl, beat the pumpkin with the remaining 1/2 cup sugar, spices, salt, vanilla and eggs, beating until the mixture is smooth. Whisk in the caramel. Rap the bowl against the counter a few times to de-bubble the filling, then pour the filing into the crust.
Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until the filling is puffed and set–tap the pan gently and the filling should not jiggle. A thin knife inserted into the center of the pie will come out clean. Transfer the pie to a rack and cool to room temperature, or cool and refrigerate. When you are ready to serve, spread with whipped cream
Source: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan.
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10.09.08
Posted in Cuisines, Dairy, Dessert, Fruits, Ice Cream, Italian, Pies & Tarts at 7:37 pm by julie
I apologize for the long delay in getting back to the story… Nolan came down with his very first cold last week, and I caught one to commiserate, so we’ve generally been pretty fussy and sleepless around here. For once, the little guy fell asleep on Daddy’s chest instead of mine, so here I am. Anyway, our friends brought over a beautiful cake from Konditorei for the party, but I was feeling like an overachiever and wanted to provide another option, particularly in view of all the luscious fruit that was in season. To keep it relatively simple, I opted for a freeform summer fruit galette, filled with local peaches. Thinking I might combine the peaches with something else, I stopped by one of the berry stands, even though I don’t much care for berries personally. Blackberries are particularly low on my list because I find them to be so gritty and sour, not to mention pernicious and thorny. But somehow, for the sake of politeness, I found myself agreeing to sample all the berries at the stand, and was pleasantly surprised. Not only did I eat my very first non-sour blackberry, but I also realized that boysenberries were in season, and impulsively bought two pints.
I used all my fresh fruit to make a peach-boysenberry crostata following the summer galette recipe in Dorie Greenspan’s book, Baking: From My Home to Yours. (What is the difference, by the way? In some recipes, galettes and crostatas appear to be the same thing, just French and Italian, respectively.) I made the pie crust in my food processor the day before the party, then rolled it and filled it and baked it off the next morning. I’ll definitely use this crust again, as it produced very flaky results and wasn’t too fussy to work with. Wish I could say the same for the peaches, which refused to slip their skins neatly despite two blanchings. The galette was absolutely simple to put together, and looked beautiful until I poured the simple custard over the fruit: it spilled right over the sides of the crust and burned, so it was fortunate I had the foresight to be baking on a silpat. I’m still not quite sure what it added to the finished galette, and it made such a sloppy presentation that I saved it as a tidbit for the guests of honor to sample, rather than putting it out for everyone. It was, however, delicious, both at room temperature and sliced straight from the fridge the next day. Jeremy wasn’t really interested in trying it at first, but said it had really grown on him by the time we finished it off, and I, who love nectarines but not peaches (especially cooked ones), am now very tempted to make the custardy peach pie from the same book next summer.
Since I still had over a pint of boysenberries leftover after the galette, I offered to make Jeremy some boysenberry sorbet or something. He countered with a request for vanilla ice cream with boysenberries swirled through it, so I adapted David Lebovitz’s raspberry swirl ice cream. The recipe calls for slightly mashing and macerating the berries with sugar, then layering it through freshly churned custard-style vanilla ice cream. This sounded good in theory, but when I actually made the ice cream this way, my berries froze up rock solid in the ice cream and made a difficult, if tasty, eating experience, not to mention that the seeds were really bothering me in this application. If I were to do this again, I would either just macerate the berries and spoon them over the ice cream as we served it, or puree and sieve the fruit with a higher sugar content (to keep it from freezing rock solid) before layering it much more thinly in the ice cream, or just stir it right into the custard and lose the swirl aspect. It looked pretty, but just wasn’t worth the effort, and we ended up eating around the berries, which was a terrible waste.
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06.15.08
Posted in American, Cuisines, Dessert, Fruits, Pies & Tarts at 9:27 am by julie
For a while there, it was starting to feel like we already had our summer this year: exactly one weekend of 100F weather about two weeks ago in the midst of a neverending torrent of cool, grey, windy, rainy days. It’s June, for heaven’s sake! At last it is starting to warm up a little. Anyway, we had a surplus of apples in the house, so in honor of the faux-fall weather, I made some apple dumplings for dessert last week.
This is a combination of recipes that works well for me. I generally make the full batch and freeze the extra apples before baking, so we can have apple dumplings on demand for a while. In this instance, I only had time to prep 2 apples before Nolan started fussing, so I refrigerated the dough overnight and used it the next evening for another two apples. It is a soft dough because of the shortening, and didn’t even require warming up to room temperature before I could roll it out. I used gala apples because that’s what we had, and they worked nicely in this context, but I typically use Granny Smiths. I also prefer to serve this with vanilla ice cream, but we didn’t have any.
Apple Dumplings
1 C AP flour
1 C white whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2/3 C shortening
1/2 C milk
6 apples, peeled and cored
Lemon juice
Cinnamon sugar
Brown sugar
Unsalted butter
1 1/2 C water
1 1/2 C sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
3 T butter
In a food processor, combine the flours, salt and BP. Add the shortening, and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs; add the milk all at once and pulse just until the dough forms a ball. On a liberally floured surface, roll out the dough into a rectangle about 1/4″ thickness; cut into 6 squares large enough to completely enclose an apple.
Dip an apple in lemon juice, then roll in cinnamon sugar. Place in the center of a square of dough, and stuff its core with alternating spoons of brown sugar and little cubes of butter, packing it down until you run out of room. Gently pull the dough up around the apple and seal it, trying to avoid leaving any holes that the juices could run out from. They are supposed to be homey and rustic-looking, so patch away if you need to. Place in a small glass or stoneware casserole or pie pan large enough to hold all the apples you want to bake. Repeat with the remaining apples. (If you don’t want to bake and eat all the apples in one sitting, you can wrap each extra one in aluminum foil at this point and freeze them.)
Preheat the oven to 375F. In a small saucepan over medium high heat, bring the sugar, water, cinnamon and nutmeg to a boil. Remove from the heat, add the butter, and swirl to melt. Pour the sugar syrup over the apples, and bake at 375F for 35 minutes, or until the apples are tender when you insert a knife. As they come out of the oven, spoon the caramelized sugar syrup over the apples’ crusts before it cools. Serve with vanilla ice cream if desired.
If you froze some of your apples, you can bake them off right from the frozen state. Just remove them from the foil, stick them in a dish and cover them with freshly made sugar syrup, and bake them for a few extra minutes, until the apples are tender.
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03.14.08
Posted in Chocolate, Dessert, Pies & Tarts at 1:03 pm by julie
Have you ever seen the book Gator Pie? It’s a cute little children’s story about two alligators named Alvin and Alice who come across a pie in the swamp and plan to share it, but more and more gators start showing up and wanting their own fair share. Essentially it’s a non-threatening way of introducing fractions to kids, with pie and reptiles.
I was bound and determined to celebrate Pi Day (today, 3/14, for those of you without math geek tendencies) with an actual pie this year. Since Gator Pie is out of print and I couldn’t get my hands on a copy to remember just what sort of pie all those alligators were fighting over, I had to come up with another alternative. I considered taking another crack at my great-grandmother’s recipe for butterscotch pie: my mother, grandmother and I have all been trying unsuccessfully to make it for years. It always tastes great, but has the consistency of creme anglaise, which doesn’t work so well when you’re trying to cut it into slices. (I suspect we were all using milk with a lower fat content than she did.) That will have to wait for another day, though; butterscotch is not Jeremy’s favorite, and I’m not about to consume an entire pie on my own, even if I totally could at this point in my pregnancy.
Actually, the last time I asked Jeremy what he had been craving in terms of desserts, he asked for a chocolate coconut pie, and I just so happened to have some undedicated egg yolks crying out to be custardized in the fridge. Sounded like fate to me! There are a few different ways of approaching chocolate coconut pies: One of these days I’ll have to make a haupia pie again, for the blog’s sake, but I knew Jeremy was thinking more along the lines of the German chocolate pie from Marie Callender’s, which is awfully tasty too. In the end, I settled on Dorie Greenspan’s chocolate cream pie recipe because it used up all those yolks. Dorie actually has a chocolate-coconut variant with flaked coconut simmered in cream until it gets all thick and gooey, but I didn’t have quite enough cream on hand, so I just tossed coconut right into the chocolate custard.
This pie was delicious and easy as—well, you know what—to make. I started out the day before by making up some pate brisee from my usual recipe (I believe it is the Martha Stewart one, which works pretty reliably but produces more of a tender crust than a flaky one) in the food processor. I love making crust by hand with my pastry cutter, but it tends to take me so much longer than when I use the Cuisinart that the butter starts warming up. On the other hand, with the latter, you have to make darn sure that you don’t over-process, which can happen in the blink of an eye. The little disks of dough rested overnight in the fridge, and got the usual blind-baking treatment (pricked with a fork, weighted under parchment paper; baked at 375F for 15 minutes, then weights removed and the crust continued baking until golden). While the crust cooled, I whipped up the filling, using Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate chips and adding a big handful of coconut at the end. I took Dorie’s suggestion of an ice bath to speed cooling time, piled it in the crust, and that was that! Chocolatey-coconutty goodness with a dollop of fresh whipped cream! I personally think it was better than the Marie Callender’s version, because it was super-creamy and not too sweet. If I were an alligator, I would definitely fight for a slice.
Chocolate Cream Pie
2 C whole milk
4 egg yolks
6 T sugar
3 T cornstarch, sifted
1/4 tsp salt
7 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted
1/2 C (or more!) sweetened shredded coconut
2 1/2 T unsalted butter, cut into pieces, at room temp
1 pie crust, blind-baked
Bring the milk to a boil (I heated mine in the microwave). Meanwhile, in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan, whisk the yolks together with the sugar, cornstarch and salt until well-blended and thick. Whisking without stopping, drizzle in about 1/4 C of the hot milk in order to temper the yolks; then, still whisking, add the remainder of the milk in a steady stream. Put the pan over medium heat, and continuing to whisk constantly, bring the mixture to a boil; boil for 1-2 minutes, then remove from the heat.
Whisk in the melted chocolate and coconut. Let sit for 5 minutes, then whisk in the bits of butter, stirring until fully incorporated. Press surface with plastic wrap and refrigerate; or place the pot in a large bowl of ice cubes and cold water and stir occasionally until the custard is chilled, about 20 minutes. (Store up to 3 days in the fridge at this point if convenient.)
When ready to assemble the pie, whisk the custard vigorously to loosen it up and spoon into the cooked pie shell, stopping just short of the rim. Smooth the top and serve chilled slices with a dollop of freshly whipped cream.
Source: Very slightly adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan (p. 352-353).
Here are a few more pie options, just in case chocolate cream doesn’t tempt your inner gator:
* Mom’s Grape Pie
* Cinnamon Crumble Apple Pie
* Paradise Pumpkin Pie
* Lemon Meringue Pie
This post is my entry for Kitchen Parade’s Pi Day event. I love pie, and don’t make it nearly often enough, so I’m very excited to try some of the other recipes submitted.
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01.28.08
Posted in Dessert, Foodblog Events, Fruits, Pies & Tarts at 10:33 am by julie
It’s the end of the month, so here comes the January Daring Bakers challenge: a classic Lemon Meringue Pie. This was definitely a new one for me, in part because Jeremy and I would ordinarily choose whipped cream over meringue any day of the week and twice on Sunday. I also have to admit I’m not big on lemon desserts in general. But even with two strikes against it, I was not about to let this month’s challenge make me admit defeat…just procrastinate until the last possible moment.
The crust was straightforward since I used my Cuisinart, though I had to add a little additional ice water before it would form a ball. I decided not to make one large pie because it is just the two of us, and this isn’t the sort of dessert that will keep in the fridge. Instead, I rolled out half the dough to make two freeform tartlets and 6 small rounds for parfaits or stacks; the other half of the dough was cut into slightly larger rounds and tucked into the 9 cups of my silicone muffin pan.
Into the oven they all went, and came out nicely golden and crisp and rather shrunken. The muffin-cup tarts fared the worst in the latter department, but I didn’t worry about it too much. At the time I was more concerned about the fact that my camera battery had just died and it was getting along in the evening. We frantically tracked down the charger and watched part of a movie while the battery juiced up again, and finally, at about 9:45pm, I got started on the curd and meringue. I juggled both at once to save some time, and it ended up working out well, though rather hard on the nerves.
Since the curd recipe first called for boiling some water, I separated my eggs and used the pot as a bain marie to warm the egg whites to room temperature. By the time I got the meringue set up and whipping, the curd was ready for sugar and cornstarch, and I just turned off the stand mixer when I noticed the meringue getting to soft peak stage. Meanwhile, the curd thickened up beautifully, and stayed reasonably thick even after I added all that lemon juice, which had been of concern. I used the juice of about three Meyer lemons, gleaned with help of my freshly-acquired—and already dearly loved—wooden citrus reamer. (Meyers are more fragrant and less tart than your standard lemon, which suits our tastes to a tee. It was lucky this is the time of year for them.) My only adjustment to the meringue was to use superfine sugar instead of granuated sugar, just because.
The muffin tartlets each got less than two tablespoons of curd followed by a dollop of meringue. I piled curd in the center of my freeform tartlets, then started getting paranoid that the action of spreading meringue over it would push the curd over the edges and make a horrible sticky, weepy mess. To avert that from happening I barricaded the curd with a ring of meringue around the edges of the crust before covering the middle. That worked well, and would have been easier if I had bothered to pipe the meringue with my pastry bag. Being nearly 11pm and already past my bedtime, I just used a spoon. My meringue sculpting skills could definitely use more practice, but I was running out of energy quickly, so we made do with some rather conservative spikes and swirls. (If you need pretty, go back and look at my yule log from last month’s challenge. I was happy with how that one came out.)
The real test was putting the meringue-crowned tartlets back in the oven. Previous Daring Bakers reported bouts of runny curd and weeping meringue, so I made sure my curd was still hot when I applied the meringue. My real fear was that my oven—which tends to run cold, and never works properly for items that require broiling—would take too long to undercook the meringue and ruin the texture of the curd. I left them for 5 minutes and peeked through the door, still expecting to see stark white foam, but instead, the meringue was already so toasty brown that the peaks were about to start burning. At least that means it was cooked, right?
I gave the tartlets a scant 20 minutes on a cooling rack and served them up, still slightly warm in the center. As you can see from the above photo, there was no weeping or running to be found. The curd stayed nicely set, and the crust was crisp and flaky. The Meyer lemon flavor was not overpoweringly strong, and the meringue actually reminded me of nothing so much as toasted marshmallows. It was a far cry from the tasteless foam I’ve had to scrape off restaurant pies in the past; Jeremy agreed and even went so far as to say that he liked the extra “caramelization” on top.
I have quite a bit of curd leftover, some of which will be used for lemon parfait thingies; I have no doubt we’ll find a good use for the rest. The muffin tartlets have been stashed in the freezer for single-serving desserts this week. I checked on them this morning and discovered that while the crust and curd have frozen, the meringue is still sticky and soft—was that supposed to happen, because of the sugar content or something? Strange and fascinating.
Update 1/29/08: As the above photo shows, they thawed out perfectly after an hour or two of sitting at room temperature. Just as good as fresh tarts. The meringue never did solidify in the freezer, though.
So this was another Daring Baker dessert that surprised us in a good way, allowing me not only to try out some new baking techniques, but push my personal envelope flavor- and texture-wise. We have Jen at The Canadian Baker to thank for choosing this month’s challenge recipe, which can be found here. Be sure to visit the Daring Bakers blogroll to see everyone else’s creations!
Update 2/12/08: I just thought I’d add that I found what I personally considered to be an almost more satisfactory parfait topper than whipped cream: nonfat vanilla yogurt and toasted coconut. With the leftover lemon curd, you could hardly make an easier dessert, and not (quite) so heavy on the hips. When I ran out of curd, I seriously considered making more just to eat it with my yogurt.
I am a member of the Theta Class of Daring Bakers, inducted in July 2007. Below is a list of previous challenges:
Strawberry Mirror Cake – July 2007
Milk Chocolate and Caramel Tart – August 2007
Cinnamon Rolls and Sticky Buns – September 2007
Bostini Cream Pies – October 2007
Tender Potato Bread – November 2007
Traditional Buche de Noel – December 2007
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11.25.07
Posted in American, Cuisines, Dessert, Foodblog Events, Pies & Tarts at 10:04 am by julie
The lovely Leslie of Definitely Not Martha chose the perfect theme for a November Sugar High Friday: The Beta Carotene Harvest. The hardest part was just choosing a recipe with so many luscious possibilities! In the end, I decided to go traditional and make the same old paradise pumpkin pie I’ve baked for the last few years on holidays. I did make things a little more interesting for myself by roasting a sugar pumpkin and making my own puree.
There’s not much to it, as it turns out—at least once I got my husband to quarter the very sturdy little pumpkin for me. Once roasted, the pumpkin flesh reminded me of nothing so much as orange hash brown shreds. I forgot to weigh my pumpkin before cleaning it, but it must have weighed around 4 pounds. After roasting and whizzing the pulp in the food processor, I finished with about 2 pounds of puree.
As I mentioned, I’ve made this pie several times. It has a cheesecake layer topped with a pumpkin custard layer, finished off with walnut streusel—very festive, and it strikes a good balance between your traditional pumpkin pie and something a bit more unusual. I’ve never had trouble with the layers marbling in the past, but I make sure the cream cheese layer is as set as possible before pouring on the pumpkin. A short stint in the freezer helps with that. In this case, I think my fresh pumpkin puree had more moisture in it than your standard canned pumpkin, and I’ll drain the remaining puree before using it in other recipes. It made my custard layer loose enough to swirl entirely through the cream cheese and sink below it. It still tasted as good as always, just not especially impressive to look at.
Old Fashioned Paradise Pumpkin Pie
1 (9 inch) pie shell
Cheesecake Layer:
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 C sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
Pumpkin Layer:
1 1/4 C pumpkin puree, fresh if possible
1 C evaporated milk
2 eggs
1/4 C sugar
1/4 C packed brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
Streusel Layer:
2 T AP flour
2 T packed brown sugar
2 T butter, softened
1/2 C chopped nuts (pecans or walnuts)
Cheesecake Layer: In a medium mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Beat in sugar, then add vanilla and egg. Beat mixture until light and smooth. Chill mixture for 30 minutes, then spread into pastry shell. Place in the freezer for about 20 minutes to firm up (a longer while in the refrigerator would work as well).
Pumpkin Layer: In a large bowl, combine pumpkin puree, evaporated milk, eggs, sugars, spices and salt. Mix until all ingredients are thoroughly combined.
Preheat oven to 350F. Pour pumpkin mixture gently over cream cheese layer. Cover edges of crust with aluminum foil and bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes. Remove foil from edges and bake an additional 25 minutes.
Streusel Layer: While pie is in oven, combine flour and brown sugar in a small bowl. Mix well, then add softened butter and stir until ingredients are combined. Mix in nuts.
After pie has been in oven for 50 minutes, remove and sprinkle streusel evenly over top. Bake for an additional 10-15 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Allow to cool, and serve chilled with some sweetened whipped cream.
Source: AllRecipes
And if that’s not enough beta carotene for you, I’ll be writing up a post in another few days about a less conventional dessert I made with a portion of my leftover sweet potato puree: sweet potato-maple pecan ice cream.
Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
As a final side note, I also found the time to clean and roast the seeds from my little sugar pumpkin. I rinsed and boiled them in salted water, then tossed them with a bit of melted butter and alder-smoked salt, and roasted them in a 400F oven until they were golden brown and crunchy. They were a perfect snack to munch on while we waited for Thanksgiving dinner to finish cooking. Guidelines for toasting pumpkinseeds can be found here and here.
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