life is just a bowl of…

Posted in fruit, pie by baxterandmain

Cherry season!

Cherry pie is my most favoritist kind of pie and while I have made many of them over the years I’ve never actually done so with fresh cherries so thought it best to amend that as soon as possible. Now, unfortunately I don’t have one of those little tools that helps you pit things like olives and cherries so I did so by hand. Don’t so much recommend that…

…though apart from squirting a little cherry juice in my eye, the hand-pitting worked out just fine.

I’m going to let you in on a little secret: I’m not great with rolling out crust and pinching the ends all fancy and purty. Don’t get me wrong, the crust tastes just fine, but it usually looks like a hot tranny mess as the kids (used to) say. There are holes. Sometimes I have to pull extra dough from the side where the crust is thicker and use it to patch the holes. But let me let you in on another secret: no one seems to care that they’re not always the most picture-perfect-looking pies ’cause they taste pretty darn good.

With that being said, this is the first time I have ever attempted a lattice crust.

Not bad, but you can definitely see where I had to do a bit of stretching and patching. But to be honest with you I don’t trust baked goods that look too perfect. Same thing goes for people, but we’ll save that for a later date.

The lattice crust required me to use a utensil that rarely gets attention in my house:

I’m referring to the pizza cutter of course. The rolling pin gets all sorts of love chez moi.

And I think the extra effort was worth it!

I promise to get some vegetables or at least savory dishes on the blog soon. Clearly you see where my preferences lie…

Rustic Cherry Pie (adapted slightly from a recipe found in the Spring ’11 edition of Edible Grand Traverse magazine)

4 cups pitted tart cherries
1 cup sugar
¼ cup flour
Pie crust (see recipe below)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a 9-inch pie plate with one crust and place into freezer. Put cherries in a mixing bowl. Mix sugar and flour together; stir into cherries. Pour cherry filling into unbaked frozen pie crust. Top with a full crust or lattice pastry.

Bake for 20 minutes at 425. Lower heat to 350 and bake for another 40-45 minutes, until filling is bubbly. In last 20 minutes of baking cover crust with aluminum foil if crust is browning.

Two Crust Pie Pastry (from Betty Crocker’s Cookbook)

2 cups all-purpose or unbleached flour
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons shortening
4 to 5 tablespoons cold water

Mix flour and salt in medium bowl. Cut in shortening, using pastry blender or crisscrossing 2 knives, until particles are size of small peas. Sprinkle with cold water, 1 tablespoon at a time, tossing with fork until all flour is moistened and pastry almost leaves side of bowl (1 to 2 teaspoons more water can be added if necessary).

Gather pastry into a ball. Shape into two flattened rounds. If desired, wrap flattened rounds of pastry in plastic wrap and refrigerate about 30 minutes to firm up the shortening slightly, which helps make the baked pastry more flaky and lets the water absorb evenly throughout the dough.

Roll pastry on lightly floured surface, using floured rolling pin, into circle 2 inches larger than upside-down pie plate. Fold pastry into fourths and place in pie plate; or roll pastry loosely around rolling pin and transfer to pie plate. Unfold or unroll pastry and ease into plate, pressing firmly against bottom and side and being careful not to stretch pastry, which will cause it to shrink when baked.

1Aug2011

chess pie, take two

Posted in fruit, pie by baxterandmain

After making the chess tart a few weeks ago I quickly researched other versions of chess pie and found one that involves two things I know and love: blueberries and mascarpone cheese. I happened to have some mascarpone cheese leftover from something I baked a few weeks prior, so thought it was a sign from the heavens.

This pie was not as sweet as the chess tart and the blueberries and mascarpone complimented each other well.

A short post today but will be back later in the week with a rustic cherry pie. My favorite!

Blueberry Mascarpone Chess Pie (recipe by John McMillan published in Fresh Home magazine)

Pie dough (see recipe below)
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
½ cup 2% milk
½ cup butter, melted
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, divided
½ teaspoon vanilla
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
¼ cup Mascarpone cheese

Roll dough out and place in 9-inch pie plate; flute edges. Line unpricked pastry with a double thickness of heavy-duty foil. Bake at 450 for 8 minutes. Remove foil; bake 5 minutes longer. Cool on a wire rack.

In a small bowl, whisk the eggs, sugar, milk, butter, 1 tablespoon flour and vanilla. Toss blueberries with remaining flour; fold into filling.

Pour into crust. Drop cheese by teaspoonfuls over filling.

Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean (cover edges with foil during the last 25 minutes to prevent overbrowning if necessary). Cool on a wire rack. Refrigerate leftovers.

One Crust Pie Pastry (from Betty Crocker’s Cookbook)

1 cup all-purpose or unbleached flour
½ teaspoon salt
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon shortening
2 to 3 tablespoons cold water

Gather pastry into a ball. Shape into flattened round. If desired, wrap flattened round of pastry in plastic wrap and refrigerate about 30 minutes to firm up the shortening slightly, which helps make the baked pastry more flaky and lets the water absorb evenly throughout the dough.

Roll pastry on lightly floured surface using floured rolling pin into circle 2 inches larger than upside-down pie plate. Fold pastry into fourths and place in pie plate; or roll pastry loosely around rolling pin and transfer to pie plate. Unfold or unroll pastry and ease into plate, pressing firmly against bottom and side and being careful not to stretch pastry, which will cause it to shrink when baked.

27Jul2011

a souvenir for you

Posted in cake, fruit, gluten free by baxterandmain

I did not do much shopping on my recent trip. I think this partially has to do with the fact that I work in the retail industry and the last thing I want to do most days is shop for stuff after being surrounded by it all day. Sure, I still do my fair share of shopping, but it just doesn’t hold the same thrill it once did. This is probably why I now measure most trips (and even just my daily life, for that matter) on food eaten and enjoyed. And much food was eaten and enjoyed on this trip.

One of the best things I ate while in England was lemon polenta cake. Polenta cake? Craziness. Polenta is often associated with savory Italian dishes, but it can also be used in sweet dishes too. Love the versatility. I also am growing to love lemon desserts more and more as I get older. They are refreshing and usually not overly sweet and therefore the perfect ending to a large meal.

So when I returned from my trip I immediately started researching recipes and found one for this very cake and it just happened to be from an English foodie: Nigella Lawson. I used to watch her program on the Food Network and loved how she never measured things perfectly and unapologetically licked spoons after mixing batters. Sort of like an English version of Paula Deen who I also think is the bee’s knees.

I read recipes like I read books and I could tell that this one was going to be good. I was also pleased to see that it does not contain wheat flour as I have been meaning to experiment more with gluten-free baking because I have a sneaking suspicion that I might have a wheat sensitivity. Apart from the polenta (or cornmeal as many of us know it here) there is also almond flour which is very light and surprisingly easy to find even in conventional grocery stores.

The result? At the risk of sounding immodest, I’d say it was just as good as what I ate across the pond…

Lemon Polenta Cake (adapted very slightly from a Nigella Lawson recipe found at www.foodnetwork.com)

Cake:

1 3/4 sticks (14 tablespoons) soft unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
3/4 cup superfine sugar
2 cups almond meal/flour
3/4 cup fine polenta/cornmeal
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder (gluten-free if required)
3 eggs
Zest 2 lemons (save the juice for the syrup)

Syrup:

Juice 2 lemons (see above)
Heaping 1 cup confectioners’ sugar

For the cake: Line the base of your cake pan with parchment paper and grease its sides lightly with butter. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Beat the butter and sugar till pale and whipped, either by hand in a bowl with a wooden spoon, or using a freestanding mixer.

Mix together the almond meal, polenta and baking powder, and beat some of this into the butter-sugar mixture, followed by 1 egg, then alternate dry ingredients and eggs.

Finally, beat in the lemon zest and pour the mixture into prepared pan and bake in the oven for about 40 minutes. It may seem wobbly but a cake tester should come out with just a few crumbs and the edges of the cake will have pulled away from the sides of the pan. Remove from the oven to a wire cooling rack, but leave in its pan.

For the syrup: Make the syrup by boiling together the lemon juice and confectioners’ sugar in a small saucepan. Once the confectioners’ sugar has dissolved into the juice, you’re done. Prick the top of the cake all over with a toothpick, pour the warm syrup over the cake, and leave to cool before taking it out of its pan.

Make Ahead Note: The cake can be baked up to 3 days ahead and stored in airtight container in a cool place. Will keep for total of 5 to 6 days.

Freeze Note: The cake can be frozen on its lining paper as soon as cooled, wrapped in double layer of plastic wrap and a layer of foil, for up to 1 month. Thaw for 3 to 4 hours at room temperature.

24Jul2011

blueberry morning

Posted in dessert, fruit by baxterandmain

Fact: I ate blueberry cobbler for breakfast this morning. I had some left over from a cookout I hosted yesterday and the options were either the cobbler or yogurt and fruit and I eat yogurt and fruit for breakfast 297 days a year so the choice was clear.

I was kind of a picky eater when I was a kid and sometimes my mom would let me eat her home-made pies for breakfast. She says she figured they had fruit in them and fruit was good for me, so why not. I like this line of thinking and figure it applies to cobblers too.

I’ve been really into making pies lately but for this go-round decided to make a cobbler instead because they are slightly more low maintenance and I’m all about low maintenance. No rolling out pie crust here. In fact, cobblers encourage you to be sloppy and their recipes usually instruct you to “pile” “heaping” measuring cups full of dough on top of the fruit. Awesome.

Looks like a pretty well-rounded breakfast, no?

Blueberry Cobbler (from www.epicurious.com)

3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 cup granulated sugar
6 cups picked over blueberries
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 stick (1/2 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into bits

In a large bowl stir together the cornstarch, sifted, and the granulated sugar and add the blueberries and the lemon juice. Toss the mixture until it is combined well and transfer it to a buttered 10-inch (6-cup) deep-dish pie plate.

In a bowl combine well the flour, the brown sugar, forced through a sieve, the baking powder, the salt, and the cinnamon, add the butter, and blend the mixture until it resembles coarse meal. Add 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons boiling water and stir the mixture until it just forms a dough. Drop 1/4 cupfuls of the dough over the blueberry mixture and bake the cobbler on a baking sheet in the middle of a preheated 400°F. oven for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the topping is golden and cooked through. Serve the cobbler warm with ice cream.

17Jul2011

going to market

Posted in Uncategorized by baxterandmain

I’ve been a baking machine this morning so later in the week I will return to sharing recipes and images of the goods I made, but for now I will share a few photos I took while at an indoor food market in Stuttgart, Germany. Upon reflection these closely resemble pictures I snapped at food markets in Barcelona and Madrid a few years ago. The variety at European markets is outstanding!

Germans love sausage. Below is but a fraction of what this particular vendor had to offer: