All right. So I guess it's inevitable that I'll always be behind schedule on either baking or blogging.
Anyway, this pie was for Monday, August 8th. It's a Peach Cream Tart.
The crust is a sweet pastry, flavored with sour cream. I think it was a nice touch, but the sour cream made it a bit stickier than a normal crust, so it clumped up and made it tougher to press into the tart pan. The sides of the crust ended up a bit thicker than the bottom.
1 1/4 cups flour
1 stick butter
2 tablespoons sour cream
I made this one just like the normal pie crusts, substituting the sour cream for the water step. So cube up the butter and freeze it for about fifteen minutes. Pulse it into the flour in three additions, then add the sour cream and pulse a few times until incorporated. Then press the clumps into the tart pan, starting on the sides. Chill for half an hour, and preheat the oven to 375F. Then bake for fifteen minutes and reduce the oven to 350F.
6 peaches, peeled and sliced thin
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 egg yolks
3/4 cup sour cream
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
While you're slicing the peaches, toss them in the lemon juice to prevent them from browning. Then arrange the slices in overlapping circles in the crust. They might stack up higher than the crust in places, but they'll cook down a little so don't fret.
Mix the other stuff in a separate bowl until smooth, then pour over the peaches. Pour extremely slowly. It's pretty viscous and the cracks between the peaches are pretty small. If you have to, pour some in and just let it settle down for a few minutes before adding more. Once you get it all in there, pop the pie into the oven for an hour or so. It may be difficult to tell if the custard is set, with all those peaches in there. Mine hadn't set entirely when I took it out, but I didn't know it until I sliced the pie. Still delicious, though!
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Thursday, August 18, 2011
quiiiiiiiiicccccccchhhhhhhhhheee
I baked this quiche a week late, but it has been rolling around in my head for a while.
Because I love me a Reuben sandwich.
Good ol' pie crust, blind baked just like the rest of the quiches. Then I laid down a nice bed of sauerkraut, then corned beef, and some Swiss cheese to top it off. The usual egg base was modified to include a bit of my homemade Russian dressing. I reduced the half and half to about 3/4 cup, and finished it off with the Russian dressing. I used about two thirds of a 25oz jar of sauerkraut, and 8oz of the corned beef. There was prolly about half a cup or so of cheese on top, and I might consider adding some inside as well.
Reuben Quiche 2.0 hopefully will include a rye crust. I might try using either rye chips or some rye bread crumbs in place of some of the flour. Oughta be delish.
Because I love me a Reuben sandwich.
Good ol' pie crust, blind baked just like the rest of the quiches. Then I laid down a nice bed of sauerkraut, then corned beef, and some Swiss cheese to top it off. The usual egg base was modified to include a bit of my homemade Russian dressing. I reduced the half and half to about 3/4 cup, and finished it off with the Russian dressing. I used about two thirds of a 25oz jar of sauerkraut, and 8oz of the corned beef. There was prolly about half a cup or so of cheese on top, and I might consider adding some inside as well.
Reuben Quiche 2.0 hopefully will include a rye crust. I might try using either rye chips or some rye bread crumbs in place of some of the flour. Oughta be delish.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
WINNER
So I've been doing all these crazy things with fruit curds, right? And I made one that reminded me vaguely of blueberry, right? Well I decided to see how blueberry would work out in this recipe.
I tried puréeing blueberries to strain the mush for some juice. No dice. It turned out way too thick.
So I just used the purée. Pow.
Half a cup plus about a tablespoon to replace the lemon juice and zest in the Lemon Meringue Pie makes a Blueberry Meringue Pie.
If there should be a winner of the Fruit Curd and Meringue Experiments, this is the one. Shit it's tasty.
I tried puréeing blueberries to strain the mush for some juice. No dice. It turned out way too thick.
So I just used the purée. Pow.
Half a cup plus about a tablespoon to replace the lemon juice and zest in the Lemon Meringue Pie makes a Blueberry Meringue Pie.
If there should be a winner of the Fruit Curd and Meringue Experiments, this is the one. Shit it's tasty.
The Marty
I was bothering everyone I know about pie ideas, as usual, and Marty gave me a good one. He told me to make something with custard and graham crackers. He said I had to call it The Marty. It was such a simple idea, and one I'm a big fan of. I had to make it different from the straight-up custard pie I made earlier, so I decided to make an Eggnog Custard Pie.
I made the graham cracker crust with the same recipe as many before, and I put it in my new tart pan. It worked quite nicely, I think, but the very wet filling soaked through it. I think it worked pretty well anyhow.
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 (12oz) can evaporated milk
2/3 cup water
1/3 cup bourbon
pinch salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Mix the eggs and sugar together, perhaps with an electric beater. Then add the rest of the ingredients, reserving a bit of nutmeg to sprinkle on top. Mix to fully combine, then pour very slowly into the crust. It's quite wet, so you'll want to put it on a cookie sheet or sheet of foil with the edges turned up; some of the filling oozed out of the pan as it cooked. Bake at 350F for 55 minutes, until mostly set.
As Emily says, it tastes like Christmas. One thing I might try next time is to separate the eggs and beat the whites to soft peaks, whisking them back in at the end. It should make the pie fluffier and a bit less wet in the end. Additionally, I'm not entirely certain why there's water in the recipe. I might try to fudge that out with something much more delicious.
I made the graham cracker crust with the same recipe as many before, and I put it in my new tart pan. It worked quite nicely, I think, but the very wet filling soaked through it. I think it worked pretty well anyhow.
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 (12oz) can evaporated milk
2/3 cup water
1/3 cup bourbon
pinch salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Mix the eggs and sugar together, perhaps with an electric beater. Then add the rest of the ingredients, reserving a bit of nutmeg to sprinkle on top. Mix to fully combine, then pour very slowly into the crust. It's quite wet, so you'll want to put it on a cookie sheet or sheet of foil with the edges turned up; some of the filling oozed out of the pan as it cooked. Bake at 350F for 55 minutes, until mostly set.
As Emily says, it tastes like Christmas. One thing I might try next time is to separate the eggs and beat the whites to soft peaks, whisking them back in at the end. It should make the pie fluffier and a bit less wet in the end. Additionally, I'm not entirely certain why there's water in the recipe. I might try to fudge that out with something much more delicious.
Saturday, August 13, 2011
About a month left...
A month of Pies!! That's just about 16 pies. I did the math tonight; it turns out I'll have baked sixty one pies on Labor Day. That means a nice round sixty pies from Memorial Day to Labor Day, but you'll remember I started the Saturday prior to Memorial Day. Pretty classy.
Anyway, I'm pretty behind on the blog (as usual). This pie was Monday, August first, but you'll recall that I was at a Brewer's game with Ian's; it was actually baked that Wednesday. Anyway, it's one that was also made last year but after the blog went poopy.
It's a Creamy Watermelon Pie. Pretty tasty and among the easiest pies ever.
I used the same, good ol' pie crust, though the recipe I used called for a graham cracker crust. I think it would be quite tasty with either. If you use the regular one, bake at 425F for ten minutes with weights and ten minutes without. A graham cracker crust should be baked at 350F for about ten minutes.
1 cup sugar
1 (8oz) package cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
2 cups balled or cubed watermelon, small pieces
Blend everything but the watermelon together, then fold in the fruit. Then put it in the baked pie crust and chill for at least two hours. I cut the chill short and it was pretty soupy.
We brought it up to the capitol lawn for Concerts on the Square. Always a nice time, made better by pie.
Anyway, I'm pretty behind on the blog (as usual). This pie was Monday, August first, but you'll recall that I was at a Brewer's game with Ian's; it was actually baked that Wednesday. Anyway, it's one that was also made last year but after the blog went poopy.
It's a Creamy Watermelon Pie. Pretty tasty and among the easiest pies ever.
I used the same, good ol' pie crust, though the recipe I used called for a graham cracker crust. I think it would be quite tasty with either. If you use the regular one, bake at 425F for ten minutes with weights and ten minutes without. A graham cracker crust should be baked at 350F for about ten minutes.
1 cup sugar
1 (8oz) package cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
2 cups balled or cubed watermelon, small pieces
Blend everything but the watermelon together, then fold in the fruit. Then put it in the baked pie crust and chill for at least two hours. I cut the chill short and it was pretty soupy.
We brought it up to the capitol lawn for Concerts on the Square. Always a nice time, made better by pie.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Staff meeting Quiche
The fourth and final pie that I baked all at once for our staff meeting/party at Ian's: Roasted Poblano and Corn Quiche.
As with most quiches of late, I used the standard crust, baked at 375F for ten minutes with pie weights and ten more without. I also used the same eggy stuff I've used quite a few times; you'll find the ratio on the Quiche Lorraine recipe (and each one since, I think).
On to the good stuff: I also roasted up a couple of Poblano Peppers, an ear of sweet corn, and sautéed some onions and mushrooms. I used Fontiago Cheese I got at the Farmer's Market.
It turned out really well, though I burnt one of the peppers and had to discard about half of it. This meant that there was less pepper in it overall, and I think I would even go so far as to increase to three or four peppers.
It didn't take long to make this quiche disappear during the staff meeting. I would say it was a hit.
As with most quiches of late, I used the standard crust, baked at 375F for ten minutes with pie weights and ten more without. I also used the same eggy stuff I've used quite a few times; you'll find the ratio on the Quiche Lorraine recipe (and each one since, I think).
On to the good stuff: I also roasted up a couple of Poblano Peppers, an ear of sweet corn, and sautéed some onions and mushrooms. I used Fontiago Cheese I got at the Farmer's Market.
It turned out really well, though I burnt one of the peppers and had to discard about half of it. This meant that there was less pepper in it overall, and I think I would even go so far as to increase to three or four peppers.
It didn't take long to make this quiche disappear during the staff meeting. I would say it was a hit.
More pie for our trip
This is the third dessert pie I brought to Milwaukee, a Blueberry Bavarian Cream Pie. Quite yummy.
I finally picked up a tart pan with a removable bottom. A bunch of recipes use them for crusts that have a crumblier crust that wouldn't be very easy to ball up and roll out. I've attempted them before and tried squishing their bits into my glass pie plates, but they usually end up stuck to the pan. It also has sides that come up very near perpendicular, so it's easier to get the crust even around the corners. The lower angle of the pie plates tends to create thick corners. Of course, the removable bottom makes it super easy to get the pie out of the pan entirely, which makes serving easier. Overall, I like the pan a lot. I might try getting two or three more so I can use them exclusively.
So yeah, this crust is a bit different; it's a sweet pastry and is put together differently.
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 stick butter, slightly softened
1 egg yolk
Mix the sugar and flour in a bowl, then make an indent in the center. Mix the butter and egg yolk together in the indent with your fingers. Once it's combined, mix the flour and sugar into it. Once it reaches that crumbly-but-sticks-together-if-you-squeeze-some-of-it stage, sprinkle it into the tart pan. Squish it against the pan, starting on the sides and making the corner a nice 90 degrees. I used a fork. Then chill the crust for thirty minutes. Bake at 400F for 20 minutes or so, until golden brown.
2 cups whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons powdered gelatin
2 tablespoons cold water
6 egg yolks
2/3 cup sugar
4 cups blueberries (I actually had some extra that didn't fit. Snack!)
Heat the milk and vanilla on medium heat just until it boils. Let cool for ten minutes. In a small bowl, bloom the gelatin with the water. Whisk the eggs and sugar together in a mixing bowl and, while whisking, slowly add the warm milk. Return to saucepan on medium heat. Stirring constantly, heat to 180 degrees or until the mixture coats the back of a wooden spoon.
Fill a bowl with ice water in the sink. Divide the contents of the saucepan (known as Crème Anglaise), taking one cup to become the Bavarian Cream. The remainder will be served as a topping or side for each slice. Cool it in the ice water, whisking occasionally.
Meanwhile, combine the one cup of hot Anglaise with the bloomed gelatin. Mix well, until gelatin is completely dissolved. Fold in as many of the berries as will fit, then pour into the pie crust, spreading to make it even. Chill until fully set, about two hours.
The Bavarian Cream was surprisingly stiff. I had never had it before, so I had no concept of it. To explore this, I've been preparing Bavarian Creams separately. The first batch followed a similar recipe exactly, which used whipped cream to lighten the consistency. These were also quite stiff, so I'm experimenting a bit. I used less gelatin, which resulted in a softer cream. I quite like it. I also want to try using brandy to spike the desserts.
All in all, this was a fun pie that opened new avenues for me. I am excited.
And it was delicious.
I finally picked up a tart pan with a removable bottom. A bunch of recipes use them for crusts that have a crumblier crust that wouldn't be very easy to ball up and roll out. I've attempted them before and tried squishing their bits into my glass pie plates, but they usually end up stuck to the pan. It also has sides that come up very near perpendicular, so it's easier to get the crust even around the corners. The lower angle of the pie plates tends to create thick corners. Of course, the removable bottom makes it super easy to get the pie out of the pan entirely, which makes serving easier. Overall, I like the pan a lot. I might try getting two or three more so I can use them exclusively.
So yeah, this crust is a bit different; it's a sweet pastry and is put together differently.
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 stick butter, slightly softened
1 egg yolk
Mix the sugar and flour in a bowl, then make an indent in the center. Mix the butter and egg yolk together in the indent with your fingers. Once it's combined, mix the flour and sugar into it. Once it reaches that crumbly-but-sticks-together-if-you-squeeze-some-of-it stage, sprinkle it into the tart pan. Squish it against the pan, starting on the sides and making the corner a nice 90 degrees. I used a fork. Then chill the crust for thirty minutes. Bake at 400F for 20 minutes or so, until golden brown.
2 cups whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons powdered gelatin
2 tablespoons cold water
6 egg yolks
2/3 cup sugar
4 cups blueberries (I actually had some extra that didn't fit. Snack!)
Heat the milk and vanilla on medium heat just until it boils. Let cool for ten minutes. In a small bowl, bloom the gelatin with the water. Whisk the eggs and sugar together in a mixing bowl and, while whisking, slowly add the warm milk. Return to saucepan on medium heat. Stirring constantly, heat to 180 degrees or until the mixture coats the back of a wooden spoon.
Fill a bowl with ice water in the sink. Divide the contents of the saucepan (known as Crème Anglaise), taking one cup to become the Bavarian Cream. The remainder will be served as a topping or side for each slice. Cool it in the ice water, whisking occasionally.
Meanwhile, combine the one cup of hot Anglaise with the bloomed gelatin. Mix well, until gelatin is completely dissolved. Fold in as many of the berries as will fit, then pour into the pie crust, spreading to make it even. Chill until fully set, about two hours.
The Bavarian Cream was surprisingly stiff. I had never had it before, so I had no concept of it. To explore this, I've been preparing Bavarian Creams separately. The first batch followed a similar recipe exactly, which used whipped cream to lighten the consistency. These were also quite stiff, so I'm experimenting a bit. I used less gelatin, which resulted in a softer cream. I quite like it. I also want to try using brandy to spike the desserts.
All in all, this was a fun pie that opened new avenues for me. I am excited.
And it was delicious.
Saturday, August 6, 2011
More Brewer's trip pies
Sorry for additional delay... I can't seem to avoid it. Oh well.
This pie was devised by Paige at Ian's. I was asking for pie suggestions at work because I was plotting to bring lots of pies for them. I figured it would make sense for them to eat pies they would like. The Lemon Icebox Pie I wrote about previously was inspired partially in a similar way; Jack and Staci were telling me stories of such a pie that they had both enjoyed. I had many times encountered recipes for Lemon Icebox Pies, but hadn't really paid them much mind. I sort of assumed they might be a fruit curd type thing, as with a Lemon Meringue Pie. I was quite wrong and, based on the resultant pie, quite pleased that I was.
Anyway, Paige requested a chocolate and peanut butter pie. I have often attempted peanut butter something-or-others, with mixed success. On one hand, these attempts have always failed to create a cohesive pie, yet they have always been delicious. This Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie was no different. It was basically soup; delicious, peanut-butter-and-chocolatey soup.
For this pie, I baked the same Chocolate Pie that I made earlier in the summer, minus meringue, plus a peanut butter mousse. Most recipes I've come across make a point of telling you not to use natural peanut butter for these things, but I think that's just silly. However, I've found they have some consistency issues when I simply substitute my preferred peanut butter. So I went searching for a recipe that called for natural peanut butter. This one turned out beautifully, if lacking form. Then again, it's mostly just whipped cream, so it stands to reason it'd be about that consistency.
1/2 cup chunky natural-style peanut butter
1/4 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
Pinch of coarse kosher salt
1 cup chilled heavy whipping cream, divided
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Peanut butter, brown sugar, and salt go in a bowl. Beat them together with an electric beater and slowly add 1/4 cup of the cream. Then add another 1/4 cup and beat just to combine. In a second bowl, beat the other half-cup of cream, sugar, and vanilla until peaks form. Fold the whipped cream into the peanut butter mixture in three additions, then chill. When both parts of the pie are fully cooled, spread the peanut butter mousse over the chocolate custard. Keep chilled until ready to serve.
The fact that our cooling methods for our trip were perhaps sub-par to keep the mousse solid-ish may be all that contributed to the soupy nature of the pie. I'd have to try again, making sure it's entirely chilled until the moment of serving, to be certain. Otherwise, I may substitute some cream cheese for some of the heavy cream to give it a little more firmness.
This pie was devised by Paige at Ian's. I was asking for pie suggestions at work because I was plotting to bring lots of pies for them. I figured it would make sense for them to eat pies they would like. The Lemon Icebox Pie I wrote about previously was inspired partially in a similar way; Jack and Staci were telling me stories of such a pie that they had both enjoyed. I had many times encountered recipes for Lemon Icebox Pies, but hadn't really paid them much mind. I sort of assumed they might be a fruit curd type thing, as with a Lemon Meringue Pie. I was quite wrong and, based on the resultant pie, quite pleased that I was.
Anyway, Paige requested a chocolate and peanut butter pie. I have often attempted peanut butter something-or-others, with mixed success. On one hand, these attempts have always failed to create a cohesive pie, yet they have always been delicious. This Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie was no different. It was basically soup; delicious, peanut-butter-and-chocolatey soup.
For this pie, I baked the same Chocolate Pie that I made earlier in the summer, minus meringue, plus a peanut butter mousse. Most recipes I've come across make a point of telling you not to use natural peanut butter for these things, but I think that's just silly. However, I've found they have some consistency issues when I simply substitute my preferred peanut butter. So I went searching for a recipe that called for natural peanut butter. This one turned out beautifully, if lacking form. Then again, it's mostly just whipped cream, so it stands to reason it'd be about that consistency.
1/2 cup chunky natural-style peanut butter
1/4 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
Pinch of coarse kosher salt
1 cup chilled heavy whipping cream, divided
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Peanut butter, brown sugar, and salt go in a bowl. Beat them together with an electric beater and slowly add 1/4 cup of the cream. Then add another 1/4 cup and beat just to combine. In a second bowl, beat the other half-cup of cream, sugar, and vanilla until peaks form. Fold the whipped cream into the peanut butter mixture in three additions, then chill. When both parts of the pie are fully cooled, spread the peanut butter mousse over the chocolate custard. Keep chilled until ready to serve.
The fact that our cooling methods for our trip were perhaps sub-par to keep the mousse solid-ish may be all that contributed to the soupy nature of the pie. I'd have to try again, making sure it's entirely chilled until the moment of serving, to be certain. Otherwise, I may substitute some cream cheese for some of the heavy cream to give it a little more firmness.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Piesplosion
I baked four pies in one day and they were all gone in less than 24 hours. New personal best!
I believe that I mentioned that Ian's took a trip to the Brewer's game yesterday. It's an annual event that brings employees from multiple Ian's stores together for food, drink, and a sweaty bus. And some baseball, I guess.
Anyway, I saved up pies for the week preceding so they would all be fresh for the party.
The lineup:
Lemon Icebox Pie
Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie
Blueberry Bavarian Cream Pie
Roasted Poblanos and Corn Quiche
So these pies, in no particular order, comprise the pies for July 25th, 27th, and 29th, with the quiche on the 30th. They were actually baked on the 31st and 1st of August. I will start with the Lemon Icebox Pie because WHOA it was easy.
This one is in a graham cracker crust. I did the whole recipe for this, based on Alton Brown's cheesecake recipe.
30 graham cracker squares (AB does 33, but I like 30)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 stick butter, melted
Graham crackers go in a plastic bag and get punched repeatedly. You'll get some that are tiny little crumbs right away, but try to break up the biggest ones. Some variation in size of crumbs is what you're looking for, not some tiny ones and some huge ones. Anyway, then toss in the sugar and mix it around a bit. Transfer to a bowl and then add the butter. If you add it slowly while you mix the crackers, it's a little easier to get even. Otherwise you might end up with some really wet clumps and some that are practically dry. You can always just keep mixing it to even it out, but the quicker it gets to the oven, the crisper the crust will be. That's what we're aiming for here. I used a springform pan because I really dislike trying to pack graham cracker crusts in normal pie plates. So once I got a nice base using about half to two-thirds of the crumbs, I sprinkled the rest right around the sides and used a fork and my fingers to convince more of the crumbs to stack up along the outside edge. It was easier than I expected and turned out quite attractive. Sadly, I could only get it about halfway up the side (which works for this pie, since the filling is smallish. But usually you're making a cheesecake when you're using a springform, which fills up the whole thing. So the edge of the crust wouldn't really turn out for that). Then into the oven at 400F for ten minutes- ish. I think you can just bake the crust at whatever temp you've already got the oven on. Since this pie doesn't need any other baking, it's just the crust you're doing. I think the recipe I got this from said 300F, but it was a cheesecake and I think 300F is just what the cheesecake needed to bake at. I liked the way this one turned out at 400F, so it must not be too picky.
So that crust description got kinda long, but this next part is so short it'll make up for it.
1 (8oz) package of cream cheese, at room temperature.
1 (14oz) can of condensed milk
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Put it all in a bowl and mix until smooth. Pour into crust and chill overnight.
WOO. I used a hand mixer to speed it up, but it flung a bit of stuff around, and the zest kinda got stuck on the beaters. I would recommend mixing it with a spatula to start, getting it about even consistency then beating with the mixer to work out the lumps. Then go back to the spatula and scrape the goodness off of the beaters, mixing to incorporate.
Yeah, I added a little and it got longer, but not by much! But hey, this is an easy pie, and super tasty. It's all about that lemony tartness! It's the best.
I believe that I mentioned that Ian's took a trip to the Brewer's game yesterday. It's an annual event that brings employees from multiple Ian's stores together for food, drink, and a sweaty bus. And some baseball, I guess.
Anyway, I saved up pies for the week preceding so they would all be fresh for the party.
The lineup:
Lemon Icebox Pie
Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie
Blueberry Bavarian Cream Pie
Roasted Poblanos and Corn Quiche
So these pies, in no particular order, comprise the pies for July 25th, 27th, and 29th, with the quiche on the 30th. They were actually baked on the 31st and 1st of August. I will start with the Lemon Icebox Pie because WHOA it was easy.
This one is in a graham cracker crust. I did the whole recipe for this, based on Alton Brown's cheesecake recipe.
30 graham cracker squares (AB does 33, but I like 30)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 stick butter, melted
Graham crackers go in a plastic bag and get punched repeatedly. You'll get some that are tiny little crumbs right away, but try to break up the biggest ones. Some variation in size of crumbs is what you're looking for, not some tiny ones and some huge ones. Anyway, then toss in the sugar and mix it around a bit. Transfer to a bowl and then add the butter. If you add it slowly while you mix the crackers, it's a little easier to get even. Otherwise you might end up with some really wet clumps and some that are practically dry. You can always just keep mixing it to even it out, but the quicker it gets to the oven, the crisper the crust will be. That's what we're aiming for here. I used a springform pan because I really dislike trying to pack graham cracker crusts in normal pie plates. So once I got a nice base using about half to two-thirds of the crumbs, I sprinkled the rest right around the sides and used a fork and my fingers to convince more of the crumbs to stack up along the outside edge. It was easier than I expected and turned out quite attractive. Sadly, I could only get it about halfway up the side (which works for this pie, since the filling is smallish. But usually you're making a cheesecake when you're using a springform, which fills up the whole thing. So the edge of the crust wouldn't really turn out for that). Then into the oven at 400F for ten minutes- ish. I think you can just bake the crust at whatever temp you've already got the oven on. Since this pie doesn't need any other baking, it's just the crust you're doing. I think the recipe I got this from said 300F, but it was a cheesecake and I think 300F is just what the cheesecake needed to bake at. I liked the way this one turned out at 400F, so it must not be too picky.
So that crust description got kinda long, but this next part is so short it'll make up for it.
1 (8oz) package of cream cheese, at room temperature.
1 (14oz) can of condensed milk
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Put it all in a bowl and mix until smooth. Pour into crust and chill overnight.
WOO. I used a hand mixer to speed it up, but it flung a bit of stuff around, and the zest kinda got stuck on the beaters. I would recommend mixing it with a spatula to start, getting it about even consistency then beating with the mixer to work out the lumps. Then go back to the spatula and scrape the goodness off of the beaters, mixing to incorporate.
Yeah, I added a little and it got longer, but not by much! But hey, this is an easy pie, and super tasty. It's all about that lemony tartness! It's the best.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
How could I forget?
Quiche! I've been saving this week's pies for the Ian's staff trip to a Brewers game on Monday, but I totally forgot that I brought back the quiches!
I brought Ben with me to the farmer's market on Saturday (July 23rd) and he helped me pick out some baller ingredients for a quiche. We got some fingerling potatoes, swiss chard, green onions, crimini mushrooms, Hook's Gorgonzola cheese, and a nice big tomato.
This one's with the same pie crust as usual, baked at 375F for ten minutes with pie weights and then ten more without them.
I cut the potatoes into small pieces and boiled them. Nothing fancy.
Then I sautéed the onions with a couple tablespoons of butter, adding the mushrooms once the onions started to soften. As the mushrooms started to soften, the swiss chard went in as well, chopped small, stems and leaves alike. Once all that is sautéed and beautiful, it went into the crust with the crumbled cheese. Some of the potatoes went on top, at which point I had already basically filled up the whole crust. Then I topped it all off with a few nice, big slices of tomato.
I used the same eggy mixture as with a few quiches before: 2 eggs and 2 yolks; 1 1/4 cup of half and half, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon white pepper, and a bit of nutmeg. after I poured it in, it seemed to find a crack or two in the crust and some of it just leaked out. Oh well.
Baked for 30 minutes or so, and then I brought it in to work. Everybody chowed down on it, and everyone had good things to say. I think it was fantastic. Tons of stuff going on in there, and man was it good.
I brought Ben with me to the farmer's market on Saturday (July 23rd) and he helped me pick out some baller ingredients for a quiche. We got some fingerling potatoes, swiss chard, green onions, crimini mushrooms, Hook's Gorgonzola cheese, and a nice big tomato.
This one's with the same pie crust as usual, baked at 375F for ten minutes with pie weights and then ten more without them.
I cut the potatoes into small pieces and boiled them. Nothing fancy.
Then I sautéed the onions with a couple tablespoons of butter, adding the mushrooms once the onions started to soften. As the mushrooms started to soften, the swiss chard went in as well, chopped small, stems and leaves alike. Once all that is sautéed and beautiful, it went into the crust with the crumbled cheese. Some of the potatoes went on top, at which point I had already basically filled up the whole crust. Then I topped it all off with a few nice, big slices of tomato.
I used the same eggy mixture as with a few quiches before: 2 eggs and 2 yolks; 1 1/4 cup of half and half, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon white pepper, and a bit of nutmeg. after I poured it in, it seemed to find a crack or two in the crust and some of it just leaked out. Oh well.
Baked for 30 minutes or so, and then I brought it in to work. Everybody chowed down on it, and everyone had good things to say. I think it was fantastic. Tons of stuff going on in there, and man was it good.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
The last (for now) experiment
This one is pomegranate.
They're a little trickier to juice, but here's what I did. Slice the top and bottom or the pomegranate, and score the sides top to bottom four to six times around. Submerging in a bowl of cold water, break it apart by planting your thumbs next to each other on one end, fingertips on the other, pulling apart with your fingers. Then gently remove each juicy little pod by rocking it out of the pithy stuff. The good stuff will sink while the waxy stuff that tastes like an empty coffee cup floats, so once you've removed all of the seeds just get rid of all the stuff that floats. Drain off the water and put the seed pods into a blender or food processor. 30 seconds should be plenty. Then strain it out to get rid of the seed bits, leaving just the juice. Take a half-cup of this juice (I used three pomegranates but had some left over, so two might have done the trick) to your fruit curd recipe, and voilà!
This one was also a little odd, but delicious. It tasted not entirely unlike pomegranates, but also tasted slightly like blueberries. The purple-ish color that the fruit curd turned out was also reminiscent of blueberries, so you could prolly fool your friends into thinking it was a Blueberry Meringue Pie. Makes me want to try that too, so maybe next week I'll get a whole load of blueberries at the farmer's market.
They're a little trickier to juice, but here's what I did. Slice the top and bottom or the pomegranate, and score the sides top to bottom four to six times around. Submerging in a bowl of cold water, break it apart by planting your thumbs next to each other on one end, fingertips on the other, pulling apart with your fingers. Then gently remove each juicy little pod by rocking it out of the pithy stuff. The good stuff will sink while the waxy stuff that tastes like an empty coffee cup floats, so once you've removed all of the seeds just get rid of all the stuff that floats. Drain off the water and put the seed pods into a blender or food processor. 30 seconds should be plenty. Then strain it out to get rid of the seed bits, leaving just the juice. Take a half-cup of this juice (I used three pomegranates but had some left over, so two might have done the trick) to your fruit curd recipe, and voilà!
This one was also a little odd, but delicious. It tasted not entirely unlike pomegranates, but also tasted slightly like blueberries. The purple-ish color that the fruit curd turned out was also reminiscent of blueberries, so you could prolly fool your friends into thinking it was a Blueberry Meringue Pie. Makes me want to try that too, so maybe next week I'll get a whole load of blueberries at the farmer's market.
Monday, July 25, 2011
Citrus again
More along the same lines: Grapefruit this time, for Wednesday, July 20th.
So if you've figured out the way this works, you'll know that it's basically just a half-cup of grapefruit juice and a tablespoon of grapefruit zest to change this recipe.
Unlike the strangeness of the watermelon, this one definitely tasted just like grapefruit. I think it worked really well. Folks at Ian's who tried it agreed on the whole.
I don't know what else to say. Try it!
So if you've figured out the way this works, you'll know that it's basically just a half-cup of grapefruit juice and a tablespoon of grapefruit zest to change this recipe.
Unlike the strangeness of the watermelon, this one definitely tasted just like grapefruit. I think it worked really well. Folks at Ian's who tried it agreed on the whole.
I don't know what else to say. Try it!
I took a break.
From Saturday the 9th to the following Saturday, no pies were baked. I had to deal with some insanity regarding my rent (which I think I mentioned earlier, as I was writing a post during this time), and there was already too much pie in the house, so I was just catching up on eating.
BUT THEN
Pies returned. Monday the 18th was another in the series of fruit curd and meringue experiments. This time: Watermelon.
Now, I know watermelon isn't a very traditional juice or pie or anything even close. But bear with me here. It's all exactly the same as the lemon and clementine varieties, except you use a half-cup of fresh-squeezed watermelon juice. Just cut out the watery flesh of a watermelon, and squish it. Strain out the seeds and pulp, and you're ready to go.
I have to say, the flavor was strange. Not strange as in non-delicious, just not what I expected from watermelon juice. I had a bunch of extra juice and drank it during my shift at work, and it shared the weirdness. I brought the pie in to work as well, and they enjoyed it. It certainly was tasty.
BUT THEN
Pies returned. Monday the 18th was another in the series of fruit curd and meringue experiments. This time: Watermelon.
Now, I know watermelon isn't a very traditional juice or pie or anything even close. But bear with me here. It's all exactly the same as the lemon and clementine varieties, except you use a half-cup of fresh-squeezed watermelon juice. Just cut out the watery flesh of a watermelon, and squish it. Strain out the seeds and pulp, and you're ready to go.
I have to say, the flavor was strange. Not strange as in non-delicious, just not what I expected from watermelon juice. I had a bunch of extra juice and drank it during my shift at work, and it shared the weirdness. I brought the pie in to work as well, and they enjoyed it. It certainly was tasty.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
And now for something...
different. Not completely, I guess, because it's still a pie.
My friend Anna sent me this recipe and it looked so good I just couldn't wait. Too bad I didn't have a food torch. It was still super delicious even without the brûlée top. There is one thing I think I would like to try if I make this pie again: flambéing the top with rum or some such liquor. It should serve the same purpose as the torch, I just didn't think of it until the pie had been eaten.
This is the Apricot Mango Crème Brûlée Pie.
The recipe uses a sweet pastry crust rather than my standard all-purpose one, so I went for it. It's basically the same process, but with some powdered sugar thrown in.
1 1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick butter, cubed
ice water in a spray bottle
Flour, sugar, salt into a food processor, then some butter, then the rest of the butter, then some water, and repeat the water until it's just wet enough to stick together nicely. Dump into into a bag and squish it all together, then into the fridge for thirty minutes or so. Then roll it out and transfer to a pie plate. Then to the freezer for about fifteen minutes, and finally into the oven. 375F should do nicely, ten minutes with pie weights and ten or so more without. Then reduce the oven to 300F. Hooray, pie crust.
1 cup mango in small pieces
1 cup apricot, also small pieces
1/4 cup honey
1 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
Now, my fruit was a little underripe, especially the mango. If necessary, go buy your fruit a couple days early. Those stone fruits are often enough sold well before they are ripe. Then, in a saucepan, heat the honey on medium and add the fruit. Sprinkle the cornstarch over and stir it in well. Cook about 15 minutes or so, until the fruit is broken down a bit and it's all pretty thick. Pour into the bottom of the crust.
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1 3/4 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar for brûlée topping
Beat the eggs and sugar in a bowl and combine the cream, vanilla, and salt in a saucepan. Heat just until it boils, stirring constantly. Then turn off the heat and let it cool for about ten minutes. Very slowly add the cream to the eggs while whisking them. Once it's fully combined, pour it over the fruit in the crust. Pop that bad boy in the oven for about 40 to 45 minutes until the edges are set. The center will still be a bit wobbly, but it will set as it cools. Stick it in the fridge for at least two hours. Just before you serve the pie, pour the sugar in an even layer over the pie, and flame it up in whatever method you like. Using a kitchen torch is prolly simplest, but if you pour a little bit of liquor over the sugar and light it up, I think it would work nicely. Just be careful with the open flame as such.
Like I said, I hadn't come up with the work-around for the torch and my fruit wasn't quite ripe, but man that was a tasty pie. The custard was super creamy and rich. The fruit was a little crunchy, but still, yum.
My friend Anna sent me this recipe and it looked so good I just couldn't wait. Too bad I didn't have a food torch. It was still super delicious even without the brûlée top. There is one thing I think I would like to try if I make this pie again: flambéing the top with rum or some such liquor. It should serve the same purpose as the torch, I just didn't think of it until the pie had been eaten.
This is the Apricot Mango Crème Brûlée Pie.
The recipe uses a sweet pastry crust rather than my standard all-purpose one, so I went for it. It's basically the same process, but with some powdered sugar thrown in.
1 1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick butter, cubed
ice water in a spray bottle
Flour, sugar, salt into a food processor, then some butter, then the rest of the butter, then some water, and repeat the water until it's just wet enough to stick together nicely. Dump into into a bag and squish it all together, then into the fridge for thirty minutes or so. Then roll it out and transfer to a pie plate. Then to the freezer for about fifteen minutes, and finally into the oven. 375F should do nicely, ten minutes with pie weights and ten or so more without. Then reduce the oven to 300F. Hooray, pie crust.
1 cup mango in small pieces
1 cup apricot, also small pieces
1/4 cup honey
1 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
Now, my fruit was a little underripe, especially the mango. If necessary, go buy your fruit a couple days early. Those stone fruits are often enough sold well before they are ripe. Then, in a saucepan, heat the honey on medium and add the fruit. Sprinkle the cornstarch over and stir it in well. Cook about 15 minutes or so, until the fruit is broken down a bit and it's all pretty thick. Pour into the bottom of the crust.
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1 3/4 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar for brûlée topping
Beat the eggs and sugar in a bowl and combine the cream, vanilla, and salt in a saucepan. Heat just until it boils, stirring constantly. Then turn off the heat and let it cool for about ten minutes. Very slowly add the cream to the eggs while whisking them. Once it's fully combined, pour it over the fruit in the crust. Pop that bad boy in the oven for about 40 to 45 minutes until the edges are set. The center will still be a bit wobbly, but it will set as it cools. Stick it in the fridge for at least two hours. Just before you serve the pie, pour the sugar in an even layer over the pie, and flame it up in whatever method you like. Using a kitchen torch is prolly simplest, but if you pour a little bit of liquor over the sugar and light it up, I think it would work nicely. Just be careful with the open flame as such.
Like I said, I hadn't come up with the work-around for the torch and my fruit wasn't quite ripe, but man that was a tasty pie. The custard was super creamy and rich. The fruit was a little crunchy, but still, yum.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Citrus is easy
So the next entry in The Fruit CAME: Clementine.
Since these are all basically the same recipe, the post for each will really only be what I changed, as well as some reactions to the pies.
To turn the Lemon Meringue into Clementine Meringue, I substituted some clementine juice for the lemon juice and orange zest for the lemon zest. Clementines are significantly more difficult to squeeze. After two or three I devised a way to squish each half of a clementine against the flat of my widest knife that worked pretty well. Clementine zest, on the other hand, is pretty much impossible to come by. Instead, I went with an orange. That worked out well.
In my opinion, this pie was a little too sweet. The tartness of the lemon curd is just about my favorite thing ever. But don't write it off based only on my opinion; Marty at Ian's says this is his favorite pie out of all those I've brought in. Everyone who tried it liked it. It was definitely worth the experiment.
Since these are all basically the same recipe, the post for each will really only be what I changed, as well as some reactions to the pies.
To turn the Lemon Meringue into Clementine Meringue, I substituted some clementine juice for the lemon juice and orange zest for the lemon zest. Clementines are significantly more difficult to squeeze. After two or three I devised a way to squish each half of a clementine against the flat of my widest knife that worked pretty well. Clementine zest, on the other hand, is pretty much impossible to come by. Instead, I went with an orange. That worked out well.
In my opinion, this pie was a little too sweet. The tartness of the lemon curd is just about my favorite thing ever. But don't write it off based only on my opinion; Marty at Ian's says this is his favorite pie out of all those I've brought in. Everyone who tried it liked it. It was definitely worth the experiment.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Lemon Meringue (and ensuing madness)
You'll notice there was not a Quiche Saturday in there. I'm sort of at a loss for quiche inspiration, so they'll be on hiatus until we get a new round of interesting veggies I can play with.
So I skipped forward to Monday, July 4th. (Technically, the fourth is when I baked the berries-that-are-not-all-berries pie, and the Lemon Meringue was the following day. Pies have all been off schedule for a while, but they've all been accounted for (except quiches)). I realized that even though I had baked this pie last year, it was after the blog side of things had fallen into disrepair. So I decided to revisit it.
Not only that, but I decided to play around with this one in the next series of pies. I wish I had a snappy name for it. How about 'the Fruit Curd and Meringue Experiments.' The Fruit CAME for short.
Anyway, Lemon Meringue is the first because it is the recipe that all those to follow are based on.
This starts out with the standard pie crust; in fact, this recipe is the rest of the Good Eats episode from which my pie crust method comes, I Pie.
Bake the pie crust blind at 425F for ten minutes with your pie weights and ten or so more without.
Beat your meringue up while it's baking. Beat 4 egg whites (the yolks are in the lemon curd part, so keep them around) with a pinch of cream of tartar. After they get to stiff peaks, slowly add 8 tablespoons (1/2 cup) of sugar. (I say eight tablespoons because it's easier for me to add that in bit by bit. If you had a stand mixer you could just slowly pour in a half cup as it's running, but I have to set down my hand mixer to add the sugar so I go by the tablespoon.) After it's all been added, beat for a few more minutes, until you can rub a small amount of meringue between your fingers and there's no grit from the sugar. Cover and stash in the fridge until everything else is ready.
4 egg yolks
1 1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup water
1/3 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup lemon juice (fresh squeezed is where it's at)
1 tablespoon lemon zest
3 tablespoons butter
A helpful instrument for this recipe would be an egg timer or stopwatch. Three times while cooking the curd, you'll be letting it boil for a full minute, so any implement that you can use to time out sixty seconds will make this quite a bit easier.
Beat the egg yolks in a mixing bowl until they lighten slightly in color. Combine the sugar, water, salt, and cornstarch in a saucepan over medium heat and whisk to combine. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently, then continue to cook for sixty seconds while stirring.
Remove from heat and temper the egg yolks by adding a whisk-full at a time of the hot mixture to the eggs, beating together and working quickly. After quite a few whisk-sized transfers (shoot for about a third of the hot stuff) return the saucepan to the heat and add the tempered eggs to it. Bring to a boil again, then cook for sixty seconds for a second time.
Turn the heat down to low and add the lemon juice, zest, and butter. Stir slowly until fully combined then return to a boil. Cook for a third sixty seconds after it's boiling. Then pour the curd into the pie crust.
Beat up the meringue one more time, for about thirty seconds. Top the curd with the meringue and let cool for at least two hours. Overnight is prolly best.
I LOVE this pie. Like whoa. Strong contrasts in both flavor and texture make the pie experience great. Crispy crust, creamy filling, fluffy meringue paired with the sweet-tart flavor combo: YUM.
So I skipped forward to Monday, July 4th. (Technically, the fourth is when I baked the berries-that-are-not-all-berries pie, and the Lemon Meringue was the following day. Pies have all been off schedule for a while, but they've all been accounted for (except quiches)). I realized that even though I had baked this pie last year, it was after the blog side of things had fallen into disrepair. So I decided to revisit it.
Not only that, but I decided to play around with this one in the next series of pies. I wish I had a snappy name for it. How about 'the Fruit Curd and Meringue Experiments.' The Fruit CAME for short.
Anyway, Lemon Meringue is the first because it is the recipe that all those to follow are based on.
This starts out with the standard pie crust; in fact, this recipe is the rest of the Good Eats episode from which my pie crust method comes, I Pie.
Bake the pie crust blind at 425F for ten minutes with your pie weights and ten or so more without.
Beat your meringue up while it's baking. Beat 4 egg whites (the yolks are in the lemon curd part, so keep them around) with a pinch of cream of tartar. After they get to stiff peaks, slowly add 8 tablespoons (1/2 cup) of sugar. (I say eight tablespoons because it's easier for me to add that in bit by bit. If you had a stand mixer you could just slowly pour in a half cup as it's running, but I have to set down my hand mixer to add the sugar so I go by the tablespoon.) After it's all been added, beat for a few more minutes, until you can rub a small amount of meringue between your fingers and there's no grit from the sugar. Cover and stash in the fridge until everything else is ready.
4 egg yolks
1 1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup water
1/3 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup lemon juice (fresh squeezed is where it's at)
1 tablespoon lemon zest
3 tablespoons butter
A helpful instrument for this recipe would be an egg timer or stopwatch. Three times while cooking the curd, you'll be letting it boil for a full minute, so any implement that you can use to time out sixty seconds will make this quite a bit easier.
Beat the egg yolks in a mixing bowl until they lighten slightly in color. Combine the sugar, water, salt, and cornstarch in a saucepan over medium heat and whisk to combine. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently, then continue to cook for sixty seconds while stirring.
Remove from heat and temper the egg yolks by adding a whisk-full at a time of the hot mixture to the eggs, beating together and working quickly. After quite a few whisk-sized transfers (shoot for about a third of the hot stuff) return the saucepan to the heat and add the tempered eggs to it. Bring to a boil again, then cook for sixty seconds for a second time.
Turn the heat down to low and add the lemon juice, zest, and butter. Stir slowly until fully combined then return to a boil. Cook for a third sixty seconds after it's boiling. Then pour the curd into the pie crust.
Beat up the meringue one more time, for about thirty seconds. Top the curd with the meringue and let cool for at least two hours. Overnight is prolly best.
I LOVE this pie. Like whoa. Strong contrasts in both flavor and texture make the pie experience great. Crispy crust, creamy filling, fluffy meringue paired with the sweet-tart flavor combo: YUM.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Improptu Pie
The pie for Friday, July 1st was a surprise, even to me. I hadn't made anything until Monday, and Ben, a friend of mine, brought some of his friends over to hang out for a bit. Then they told me that they were having a baking adventure. Cake, cupcakes, and cookies would all be in attendance, so I figured, 'why not add a pie?' They were well stocked with all sorts of berries, so we made ourselves a Many Berry Pie.
It started out with a double helping of your good ol' pie crust. This time, though, no blind baking. The whole thing bakes together. Just roll out both halves of the crust and put one into the pie plate. Freeze them both together until it comes time to assemble the pie.
For the fruity insides, you'll want about 4 cups of assorted berries. We used about two cups of strawberries and two-thirds of a cup of each blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries. 'But Hats,' you might say, 'those are not botanically berries! Aside from blueberries, you're talking about aggregate fruits! You should call this the Berry and friends pie.'
Oh well. We can call it the Many Berry(-of-which-most-are-botanically-not-berries) Pie. But that's a mouthful, and I'd much rather have a mouthful of pie.
4 cups of berries (or things like it)
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup minute tapioca
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter, cubed and chilled
Liven up the tapioca mix with a splash of water and let stand for five minutes to soak it all up. I do this because the bits occasionally end up on top of the fruit and stay relatively dry throughout the rest of the process. When this happens, you end up with little crunchy tapioca bits. It almost feels like pie bones. Not fun. Then toss the sugar and fruit with the tapioca and spices (that's everything other than the butter). Let stand for fifteen to twenty minutes, to let some juices soak out. A few minutes before you've finished letting the fruit soak, pull the pie crusts out to let them approach room temp (otherwise the top crust will be too frozen and will not cooperate when you try to assemble the pie). Transfer the fruit mixture into the crust, then dot with the cubed butter. Place the other crust on top and seal together by pinching along the edge. I made a fancy lattice top by slicing the crust into inch-wide strips and laying them over the top, weaving them together to make it all beautiful.
The pie looked good, but I did not get to try it. By the time we had finished all of the baking for our baking extravaganza, it was like 2 in the morning, so we opted for sleeps.
It started out with a double helping of your good ol' pie crust. This time, though, no blind baking. The whole thing bakes together. Just roll out both halves of the crust and put one into the pie plate. Freeze them both together until it comes time to assemble the pie.
For the fruity insides, you'll want about 4 cups of assorted berries. We used about two cups of strawberries and two-thirds of a cup of each blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries. 'But Hats,' you might say, 'those are not botanically berries! Aside from blueberries, you're talking about aggregate fruits! You should call this the Berry and friends pie.'
Oh well. We can call it the Many Berry(-of-which-most-are-botanically-not-berries) Pie. But that's a mouthful, and I'd much rather have a mouthful of pie.
4 cups of berries (or things like it)
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup minute tapioca
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter, cubed and chilled
Liven up the tapioca mix with a splash of water and let stand for five minutes to soak it all up. I do this because the bits occasionally end up on top of the fruit and stay relatively dry throughout the rest of the process. When this happens, you end up with little crunchy tapioca bits. It almost feels like pie bones. Not fun. Then toss the sugar and fruit with the tapioca and spices (that's everything other than the butter). Let stand for fifteen to twenty minutes, to let some juices soak out. A few minutes before you've finished letting the fruit soak, pull the pie crusts out to let them approach room temp (otherwise the top crust will be too frozen and will not cooperate when you try to assemble the pie). Transfer the fruit mixture into the crust, then dot with the cubed butter. Place the other crust on top and seal together by pinching along the edge. I made a fancy lattice top by slicing the crust into inch-wide strips and laying them over the top, weaving them together to make it all beautiful.
The pie looked good, but I did not get to try it. By the time we had finished all of the baking for our baking extravaganza, it was like 2 in the morning, so we opted for sleeps.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Dream Pie come to life?!
This backlog needs to get caught up! I will do my best to crank these out. In fact, I will stick two pies in this post (because one of them I have already sort of explained).
That would be Wednesday, June 29th's pie, Chocolate Strawberry Banana Pie. Don't get your metaphorical panties in a bunch; that Monday's will follow. I'm only getting out of order because that one actually has a whole recipe with it. This one is basically just the Chocolate Pie from a couple weeks earlier (whose meringue's failure you may remember inspired an egg imbalance), but with two kinds of fruit instead of the meringue. It was pretty tasty, but the extra moisture in the fruit made the custard set in a strange way.
Back to Monday the 27th for the remaining entry in Strawberry Banana Week(-and-a-bit), a Strawberry Banana Cheesecake. This was my first attempt at a Franken-recipe, using a banana cheesecake recipe and a strawberry cheesecake recipe. I think it turned out quite well, though next time I would use significantly less lemon juice in it. The tartness overpowered the banana flavor. I will do my best to reproduce the recipe that I created.
The crust was, as usual, graham cracker. I believe I used a slightly reduced recipe from the full size, 33 cracker squares version. I'm thinking I likely went with about two-thirds or three-quarter-ish, something like 22 cracker squares and 6 tablespoons of butter with 3/4 tablespoon of sugar. Bake that bad boy at 350F for ten minutes or so.
10 oz strawberries
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons lemon juice
Prep this strawberry stuff first. Start out by slicing the strawberries up in little pieces, then toss them with the sugar. Let them sit in a strainer over a bowl for a couple hours or so to let the juices drain out. Squish the fruit to get as much of the juice out as possible, then take the juice over medium-high heat to reduce. Puree the solids, and mix them back into the reduced juice with the lemon juice. I think it's possible I used 2 tablespoons of lemon juice instead of 2 teaspoons, which would explain the overly tart result. Who knows.
16 oz cream cheese
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sour cream
As with any cheesecake, make sure that everything is room temp before you start. Beat the cream cheese for a bit then add the sugar. Beat those for a few minutes before adding the eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Then add the bananas and beat, then half to two-thirds of the strawberry stuff and beat that. Add the vanilla and salt, beat, and finally add the sour cream and beat. Pour it into the springform over the crust, and drop little bits of the remaining strawberry stuff to make it beautiful. Pop that bad boy in the oven for about an hour, until the edges are set but the center still a little wiggly. Turn off the oven and let the cheesecake cool in the oven.
Quite tasty. Other than reducing the lemon juice, I might also add a third banana. 'Cause bananas are delish, and the banana flavor was a little understated.
That would be Wednesday, June 29th's pie, Chocolate Strawberry Banana Pie. Don't get your metaphorical panties in a bunch; that Monday's will follow. I'm only getting out of order because that one actually has a whole recipe with it. This one is basically just the Chocolate Pie from a couple weeks earlier (whose meringue's failure you may remember inspired an egg imbalance), but with two kinds of fruit instead of the meringue. It was pretty tasty, but the extra moisture in the fruit made the custard set in a strange way.
Back to Monday the 27th for the remaining entry in Strawberry Banana Week(-and-a-bit), a Strawberry Banana Cheesecake. This was my first attempt at a Franken-recipe, using a banana cheesecake recipe and a strawberry cheesecake recipe. I think it turned out quite well, though next time I would use significantly less lemon juice in it. The tartness overpowered the banana flavor. I will do my best to reproduce the recipe that I created.
The crust was, as usual, graham cracker. I believe I used a slightly reduced recipe from the full size, 33 cracker squares version. I'm thinking I likely went with about two-thirds or three-quarter-ish, something like 22 cracker squares and 6 tablespoons of butter with 3/4 tablespoon of sugar. Bake that bad boy at 350F for ten minutes or so.
10 oz strawberries
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons lemon juice
Prep this strawberry stuff first. Start out by slicing the strawberries up in little pieces, then toss them with the sugar. Let them sit in a strainer over a bowl for a couple hours or so to let the juices drain out. Squish the fruit to get as much of the juice out as possible, then take the juice over medium-high heat to reduce. Puree the solids, and mix them back into the reduced juice with the lemon juice. I think it's possible I used 2 tablespoons of lemon juice instead of 2 teaspoons, which would explain the overly tart result. Who knows.
16 oz cream cheese
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sour cream
As with any cheesecake, make sure that everything is room temp before you start. Beat the cream cheese for a bit then add the sugar. Beat those for a few minutes before adding the eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Then add the bananas and beat, then half to two-thirds of the strawberry stuff and beat that. Add the vanilla and salt, beat, and finally add the sour cream and beat. Pour it into the springform over the crust, and drop little bits of the remaining strawberry stuff to make it beautiful. Pop that bad boy in the oven for about an hour, until the edges are set but the center still a little wiggly. Turn off the oven and let the cheesecake cool in the oven.
Quite tasty. Other than reducing the lemon juice, I might also add a third banana. 'Cause bananas are delish, and the banana flavor was a little understated.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Quiche Break
'Cause you know how we roll. Quiche Saturdays are going strong. Of course, this was a while ago.
In the interest of time (and because I'm stressing out about receiving an eviction notice (our rental company's accounting department entered the wrong number at the beginning of our lease, and then yelled at us for not paying the four hundred dollars more every month, but refused to just look at the lease I signed and correct the numbers)) (maybe I should stop complaining), I will just tell you how I made this quiche on June 25th.
Just like the rest of the quiches, the standard pie crust was used. I blind baked it at 375F for ten minutes with weights and ten or so more without.
Then I got improvisational. I used the eggy bit from the Quiche Lorraine recipe (cause it was tasty) with some parmesan cheese, and I diced up a nice fresh tomato from the farmer's market. It was a pretty hefty one. So kinda like this:
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
1 1/4 cups half and half
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
pinch nutmeg
1 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese
1 large tomato, diced
Mix up the eggs and cream and spices, then whisk in the cheese. Spread the tomato in the crust, then pour the egg mixture on top. Bake for about thirty or thirty-five minutes.
In the interest of time (and because I'm stressing out about receiving an eviction notice (our rental company's accounting department entered the wrong number at the beginning of our lease, and then yelled at us for not paying the four hundred dollars more every month, but refused to just look at the lease I signed and correct the numbers)) (maybe I should stop complaining), I will just tell you how I made this quiche on June 25th.
Just like the rest of the quiches, the standard pie crust was used. I blind baked it at 375F for ten minutes with weights and ten or so more without.
Then I got improvisational. I used the eggy bit from the Quiche Lorraine recipe (cause it was tasty) with some parmesan cheese, and I diced up a nice fresh tomato from the farmer's market. It was a pretty hefty one. So kinda like this:
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
1 1/4 cups half and half
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
pinch nutmeg
1 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese
1 large tomato, diced
Mix up the eggs and cream and spices, then whisk in the cheese. Spread the tomato in the crust, then pour the egg mixture on top. Bake for about thirty or thirty-five minutes.
Monday, July 4, 2011
More like Slacker-brary
GEEZ I AM BAD.
A week and a half of no posts!? Punishable by death.
Well, let's just get to it. I've got a week and a half of pies to tell you about! Let's go chronologically, so this is the pie for Friday the 24th. Now, you may remember that it was Strawberry Banana Week. I know, I know, who can remember that long ago? But it was, believe me.
And Friday was the Strawberry Banana Pie. It was pretty good even though I wasn't sure how it would work. I think next time I might try to increase the fruit portion. It was a little short.
The other thing I changed from the recipe was the crumble topping. I used half as much. It was still pretty dry, which is another reason to increase the fruit.
It starts with the standard pie crust again. I blind baked it at 375F for 10 minutes or so with pie weights. It will go back in the oven, so keep the oven on.
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons cold butter
1/2 cup flour
1/2 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 tablespoon nutmeg
1/4 cup apple juice (I used apple cider because I already had some in the fridge)
1/4 cup honey
3 ripe bananas, sliced
1 cup chopped strawberries
1/2 cup sugar
The first block goes in a food processor. pulse it up until it's combined, then pop it into the fridge.
In a saucepan, heat the apple juice and honey on medium-low heat. Add the bananas, then once the honey is fully melted, add the strawberries and sugar. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes, until the fruit breaks down a bit and the mixture is beginning to thicken. Pour warm mixture into the crust, then sprinkle the crumble topping on top. Then back in the oven for about twenty minutes, until golden brown on top. Let cool for 30 minutes or so.
Now let's see if I can crank out the rest of these recipes for you.
A week and a half of no posts!? Punishable by death.
Well, let's just get to it. I've got a week and a half of pies to tell you about! Let's go chronologically, so this is the pie for Friday the 24th. Now, you may remember that it was Strawberry Banana Week. I know, I know, who can remember that long ago? But it was, believe me.
And Friday was the Strawberry Banana Pie. It was pretty good even though I wasn't sure how it would work. I think next time I might try to increase the fruit portion. It was a little short.
The other thing I changed from the recipe was the crumble topping. I used half as much. It was still pretty dry, which is another reason to increase the fruit.
It starts with the standard pie crust again. I blind baked it at 375F for 10 minutes or so with pie weights. It will go back in the oven, so keep the oven on.
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons cold butter
1/2 cup flour
1/2 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 tablespoon nutmeg
1/4 cup apple juice (I used apple cider because I already had some in the fridge)
1/4 cup honey
3 ripe bananas, sliced
1 cup chopped strawberries
1/2 cup sugar
The first block goes in a food processor. pulse it up until it's combined, then pop it into the fridge.
In a saucepan, heat the apple juice and honey on medium-low heat. Add the bananas, then once the honey is fully melted, add the strawberries and sugar. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes, until the fruit breaks down a bit and the mixture is beginning to thicken. Pour warm mixture into the crust, then sprinkle the crumble topping on top. Then back in the oven for about twenty minutes, until golden brown on top. Let cool for 30 minutes or so.
Now let's see if I can crank out the rest of these recipes for you.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
The Pie of your dreams.
Well, mine. Sort of.
So after I finished my Strawberry Banana Pie (which is really just strawberry pie with bananas), I tried to watch a movie, but I fell asleep. This lead to dreams, as it often does.
However, last night was not just any dream.
It was a dream about pie.
Basically, I was baking a pie for my younger sisters, now ten and eight years old. It was a great pie, and within this week's delicious theme! I made a chocolate custard and added the sliced bananas and strawberries. Apparently my psyche realized the flavor possibilities granted by chocolate even before I did.
But it makes sense, right? Chocolate and bananas? Decadent. Chocolate and strawberries? Luscious. Chocolate and strawberries and bananas? WHOA.
So I might have to make an extramural pie this week. Unless my wonderful readers (all thirteen of you) can come up with two more ideas! Then Strawberry Banana Week can continue to next week.
I really enjoy when events defined as periods of time extend past the stated period of time. Like when Pokemon Profile Picture Month became Pokemon Profile Picture Year-and-a-half. And when Commando Week became Commando The-rest-of-my-life.
Well, back to business: Strawberry Pie plus Bananas
Now, this is sort of a repeat recipe. I'm using the Strawberry Pie I posted last year (the first one; the second one wasn't nearly as good) but with some bananas instead of half of the strawberries.
So crank out a crust, then blind bake it at 425F, ten minutes with weights, ten to fifteen without. This crust won't be getting any more cooking time, so it's gotta be all the way done.
Then, the filling:
2ish bananas
1/2 quart strawberries, mashed
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup water
3 tablespoons cornstarch
Mix the water and cornstarch to get them to combine. Also, mix the sugar into the strawberry pulp on medium heat until it boils, which shouldn't take very long. Then slowly add the cornstarch and water after mixing slightly again to make sure none of the cornstarch has settled out. Once it's all in there, cook until it thickens; prolly around ten minutes. Then line your crust with sliced bananas. I sliced mine nice and thick again, and used about two and a half sort of small bananas. Then pour the strawberry goop on top, and let cool. You could even chill it.
Pretty simple, right? I think it would be good with some whipped cream.
Oh, I just thought of another possibility for Strawberry Banana Week!! Cheesecake! Occasionally Cheesecake Mondays being a thing and all, why not?
So after I finished my Strawberry Banana Pie (which is really just strawberry pie with bananas), I tried to watch a movie, but I fell asleep. This lead to dreams, as it often does.
However, last night was not just any dream.
It was a dream about pie.
Basically, I was baking a pie for my younger sisters, now ten and eight years old. It was a great pie, and within this week's delicious theme! I made a chocolate custard and added the sliced bananas and strawberries. Apparently my psyche realized the flavor possibilities granted by chocolate even before I did.
But it makes sense, right? Chocolate and bananas? Decadent. Chocolate and strawberries? Luscious. Chocolate and strawberries and bananas? WHOA.
So I might have to make an extramural pie this week. Unless my wonderful readers (all thirteen of you) can come up with two more ideas! Then Strawberry Banana Week can continue to next week.
I really enjoy when events defined as periods of time extend past the stated period of time. Like when Pokemon Profile Picture Month became Pokemon Profile Picture Year-and-a-half. And when Commando Week became Commando The-rest-of-my-life.
Well, back to business: Strawberry Pie plus Bananas
Now, this is sort of a repeat recipe. I'm using the Strawberry Pie I posted last year (the first one; the second one wasn't nearly as good) but with some bananas instead of half of the strawberries.
So crank out a crust, then blind bake it at 425F, ten minutes with weights, ten to fifteen without. This crust won't be getting any more cooking time, so it's gotta be all the way done.
Then, the filling:
2ish bananas
1/2 quart strawberries, mashed
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup water
3 tablespoons cornstarch
Mix the water and cornstarch to get them to combine. Also, mix the sugar into the strawberry pulp on medium heat until it boils, which shouldn't take very long. Then slowly add the cornstarch and water after mixing slightly again to make sure none of the cornstarch has settled out. Once it's all in there, cook until it thickens; prolly around ten minutes. Then line your crust with sliced bananas. I sliced mine nice and thick again, and used about two and a half sort of small bananas. Then pour the strawberry goop on top, and let cool. You could even chill it.
Pretty simple, right? I think it would be good with some whipped cream.
Oh, I just thought of another possibility for Strawberry Banana Week!! Cheesecake! Occasionally Cheesecake Mondays being a thing and all, why not?
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Strawberry Banana week! Monday: banana plus strawberry
So my roommate Chris has been getting adventurous with pies this summer as well. He asked me a week or so ago if I had come across a Strawberry Banana Pie recipe. It's one of the most common fruit combos out there, and there ought to be a pie, right?! Well, it's proven sort of tough to find a recipe I could get behind that wasn't just one or the other with some extra fruit. Chris eventually found one that, while I have my reservations about, looks like it might work.
We begin, then, with a Strawberry Banana Cream Pie. Basically a Banana Cream Pie plus Strawberries.
I used a graham cracker crust, which I think was a poor choice. I mean, usually when I try to pack a graham cracker crust in a pie plate, it doesn't quite work out. I reduced the recipe as follows, so it would at least fit in the plate, but it soaked up some liquid from the pie innards, and it's just not a graham cracker crust without the crunch! So I think next time I would go with a standard pie crust, baked at 425F for ten minutes with weights, then ten or so more without, to crisp it up.
Then, custard!
2 cups whole milk
6 egg yolks
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch, sifted
pinch salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons butter
The recipe I used (at least for the custard) is a little complex. In my experience, you can just throw the stuff together in a pan and cook on medium heat, stirring constantly. Then after it thickens, take it off the heat and add the butter and vanilla. Stir again until completely incorporated.
Then slice some bananas and line the bottom of the crust. I cut my bananas pretty thick, and used about one and a half nanners. Then I put some custard on top, then sliced some strawberries nice and thick and made a layer of those. Then some more custard, and then some whipped cream. If you remember the whipped cream from last summer, that's the good stuff.
Yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking. I JUST fixed the egg imbalance. Now I've posted two more yolk-heavy recipes! Oh well. I'll figure it out. Don't let it keep you up at night.
We begin, then, with a Strawberry Banana Cream Pie. Basically a Banana Cream Pie plus Strawberries.
I used a graham cracker crust, which I think was a poor choice. I mean, usually when I try to pack a graham cracker crust in a pie plate, it doesn't quite work out. I reduced the recipe as follows, so it would at least fit in the plate, but it soaked up some liquid from the pie innards, and it's just not a graham cracker crust without the crunch! So I think next time I would go with a standard pie crust, baked at 425F for ten minutes with weights, then ten or so more without, to crisp it up.
Then, custard!
2 cups whole milk
6 egg yolks
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch, sifted
pinch salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons butter
The recipe I used (at least for the custard) is a little complex. In my experience, you can just throw the stuff together in a pan and cook on medium heat, stirring constantly. Then after it thickens, take it off the heat and add the butter and vanilla. Stir again until completely incorporated.
Then slice some bananas and line the bottom of the crust. I cut my bananas pretty thick, and used about one and a half nanners. Then I put some custard on top, then sliced some strawberries nice and thick and made a layer of those. Then some more custard, and then some whipped cream. If you remember the whipped cream from last summer, that's the good stuff.
Yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking. I JUST fixed the egg imbalance. Now I've posted two more yolk-heavy recipes! Oh well. I'll figure it out. Don't let it keep you up at night.
Quiche Saturdays! Fun times for all!
I'm just gonna get to the point on this one. I still have a pie to bake and another pie to tell you all about.
So quiche: Today's (I mean, Saturday's) Quiche Lorraine (whaaaa? this one has a fancy name?) is an Emeril Lagasse recipe.
Regular pie crust again, and this time we're going to blind bake at 375F for ten minutes with weights, then ten more without. Then the oven stays at 375F.
6 ounces thick cut bacon, cut into narrow strips (it was about 7 slices of bacon, I think)
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
1 1/4 cups half and half
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
pinch nutmeg (I used a quarter teaspoon of that too. I like nutmeg, okay?)
1 cup Gruyere or Swiss Cheese (I used closer to a cup and a half of Gruyere)
Fry up the bacon until it's crispy and fantastic. Transfer it to some paper towels and let drain. If you're like me and bought a pound of bacon (if not, you're doing it wrong), then go ahead and fry it up and have a snack. POW.
Then beat up the eggs, and add the rest of those things. If you shred the cheese really fine, it'll whisk in pretty easily. Mix well, then put the bacon on the bottom of the crust. Pour the egg stuff in slowly; the rushing liquid may push some bacon around, so be delicate. Then bake 30 to 35 minutes, until the eggs puff up a little and start to brown on top. Like the custard pie, it'll keep cooking for a bit, so it's cool if the center is still a little wiggly.
The extra yolks in this recipe are a welcome addition. It's richer, yet still really fluffy and moist. Fantastic pie, and I've learned a lot about meringues and custards and crusts this week. Good stuff.
So quiche: Today's (I mean, Saturday's) Quiche Lorraine (whaaaa? this one has a fancy name?) is an Emeril Lagasse recipe.
Regular pie crust again, and this time we're going to blind bake at 375F for ten minutes with weights, then ten more without. Then the oven stays at 375F.
6 ounces thick cut bacon, cut into narrow strips (it was about 7 slices of bacon, I think)
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
1 1/4 cups half and half
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
pinch nutmeg (I used a quarter teaspoon of that too. I like nutmeg, okay?)
1 cup Gruyere or Swiss Cheese (I used closer to a cup and a half of Gruyere)
Fry up the bacon until it's crispy and fantastic. Transfer it to some paper towels and let drain. If you're like me and bought a pound of bacon (if not, you're doing it wrong), then go ahead and fry it up and have a snack. POW.
Then beat up the eggs, and add the rest of those things. If you shred the cheese really fine, it'll whisk in pretty easily. Mix well, then put the bacon on the bottom of the crust. Pour the egg stuff in slowly; the rushing liquid may push some bacon around, so be delicate. Then bake 30 to 35 minutes, until the eggs puff up a little and start to brown on top. Like the custard pie, it'll keep cooking for a bit, so it's cool if the center is still a little wiggly.
The extra yolks in this recipe are a welcome addition. It's richer, yet still really fluffy and moist. Fantastic pie, and I've learned a lot about meringues and custards and crusts this week. Good stuff.
Shoo Fly Pie
I'm all caught up with baking, but now I'm way off on the blog side. Oops. I'll try to crank through 'em all today. Today's pie shouldn't take too long.
So on to business. Shoo Fly Pie; it's basically molasses pie, but it's a pretty unique one. Definitely a pie I will bake again.
In related news, I've been fiddling with blind baking my crusts a bit. Often, when I blind bake a crust that then needs to go in for some more baking (like quiches, primarily), they end up a little dark and crunchy. So when we get the video together, I'll add some extra info on blind baking that I've figured out with some trial and error. Until then, I'll be specific with the details for that pie.
Let's talk about molasses! This pie (baked yesterday for Friday; I 'swapped' it with the one I had originally intended for Friday when I decided to give this week a theme) is another I shamelessly hefted from an episode of Good Eats, Pantry Raid X: Dark Side of the Cane.
Start with the good ol' pie crust. When you blind bake it, go for 425F and bake for ten minutes with the weights, then seven additional minutes without the weights. then reduce the oven to 350F.
5 1/2 ounces all-purpose flour
4 ounces dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 cup boiling water
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
8 ounces molasses, by weight
1 whole egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
In a food processor, mix up the first four. (Yeah, yeah, I know... more measures by weight. If you don't have a scale, find a converter online. It shouldn't be difficult with a quick Google search.) Scrape it down and blend some more just to make sure it's all pretty homogeneous. Then reserve a quarter cup and set them aside.
In a separate bowl, pour the boiling water over the baking soda. Crazy science!! Just watch the episode of Good Eats; Alton Brown says it better. Add the other wet stuff, and whisk to combine. Then add the larger portion of the dry stuff and whisk again. Pour the mix into the crust and sprinkle the quarter cup of the dry stuff on top. Pop 'er in the oven for about 40 to 45 minutes, until it starts to look dry or crack on top. Let it cool for about two hours before slicing.
For as wet as the mix is going in, the filling fluffs up a lot and doesn't seem at all like a pie from the texture. But man, it is tasty. So you know what? Pie it is. DELISH.
So on to business. Shoo Fly Pie; it's basically molasses pie, but it's a pretty unique one. Definitely a pie I will bake again.
In related news, I've been fiddling with blind baking my crusts a bit. Often, when I blind bake a crust that then needs to go in for some more baking (like quiches, primarily), they end up a little dark and crunchy. So when we get the video together, I'll add some extra info on blind baking that I've figured out with some trial and error. Until then, I'll be specific with the details for that pie.
Let's talk about molasses! This pie (baked yesterday for Friday; I 'swapped' it with the one I had originally intended for Friday when I decided to give this week a theme) is another I shamelessly hefted from an episode of Good Eats, Pantry Raid X: Dark Side of the Cane.
Start with the good ol' pie crust. When you blind bake it, go for 425F and bake for ten minutes with the weights, then seven additional minutes without the weights. then reduce the oven to 350F.
5 1/2 ounces all-purpose flour
4 ounces dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 cup boiling water
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
8 ounces molasses, by weight
1 whole egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
In a food processor, mix up the first four. (Yeah, yeah, I know... more measures by weight. If you don't have a scale, find a converter online. It shouldn't be difficult with a quick Google search.) Scrape it down and blend some more just to make sure it's all pretty homogeneous. Then reserve a quarter cup and set them aside.
In a separate bowl, pour the boiling water over the baking soda. Crazy science!! Just watch the episode of Good Eats; Alton Brown says it better. Add the other wet stuff, and whisk to combine. Then add the larger portion of the dry stuff and whisk again. Pour the mix into the crust and sprinkle the quarter cup of the dry stuff on top. Pop 'er in the oven for about 40 to 45 minutes, until it starts to look dry or crack on top. Let it cool for about two hours before slicing.
For as wet as the mix is going in, the filling fluffs up a lot and doesn't seem at all like a pie from the texture. But man, it is tasty. So you know what? Pie it is. DELISH.
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Egg Custard Pie and by custard I mean I need to use up egg yolks
I've been a little off track with everything lately. Pies are coming a day or so late. Hopefully I will get back on schedule by Monday, since that's my day off of work.
In other news, I need more ideas! What should I put in pies? I don't want to repeat last summer's pies, but I hit a lot of the classics. It makes it tougher for this summer...
Anyway, on to business: Custard Pie
Rather than a pudding-style custard cooked over the stove, this is a light, moist baked custard, like a quiche. Except it's sweet, and without extras like three kinds of pork.
So start with the standard pie crust. The recipe I used wasn't clear whether to blind bake it or not, so I went for it. In hindsight, the edges got a little crunchy, and having the flaky crust mingle with the very wet custard allowed them to combine to an extent. I think having the crust cold should help keep the custard separated. Still tastes fantastic, though!
So however you decide to do the crust, the custard is pretty simple:
3 eggs
3 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups milk
Beat the eggs and yolks together well, mix the other stuff together, and then combine both. Pour it into the crust, then pop it in the oven. The oven should be at 450F for about fifteen minutes, then reduce to 350F for 25 to thirty minutes. The edges should just be set, and the center will set even after it comes out of the oven. You might need to rotate the pie at some point during the baking. I rotated it about ten minutes before I took it out.
Regardless of my pie's spongy, egg-soaked crust, YUM. I've been chowing down on this bad boy all by myself. I doubt anyone else will get the chance to have a slice.
In other news, I need more ideas! What should I put in pies? I don't want to repeat last summer's pies, but I hit a lot of the classics. It makes it tougher for this summer...
Anyway, on to business: Custard Pie
Rather than a pudding-style custard cooked over the stove, this is a light, moist baked custard, like a quiche. Except it's sweet, and without extras like three kinds of pork.
So start with the standard pie crust. The recipe I used wasn't clear whether to blind bake it or not, so I went for it. In hindsight, the edges got a little crunchy, and having the flaky crust mingle with the very wet custard allowed them to combine to an extent. I think having the crust cold should help keep the custard separated. Still tastes fantastic, though!
So however you decide to do the crust, the custard is pretty simple:
3 eggs
3 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups milk
Beat the eggs and yolks together well, mix the other stuff together, and then combine both. Pour it into the crust, then pop it in the oven. The oven should be at 450F for about fifteen minutes, then reduce to 350F for 25 to thirty minutes. The edges should just be set, and the center will set even after it comes out of the oven. You might need to rotate the pie at some point during the baking. I rotated it about ten minutes before I took it out.
Regardless of my pie's spongy, egg-soaked crust, YUM. I've been chowing down on this bad boy all by myself. I doubt anyone else will get the chance to have a slice.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
I'm having trouble coming up with witty titles pie
That is what I will call this pie. If you stop by and want to try it, please ask for it by name.
So this is a Butterscotch Pie. I found the recipe because I was looking for a way to use egg yolks. You see, after the Chocolate Pie on Friday had a sorry meringue, I decided I would have to practice meringues. So we made some delicious meringue cookies, and I used nine egg whites. We used a couple of the yolks to make a chocolate mousse for the cookies, but I was left with six yolks without a home. After I share Monday's pie's recipe with you, I'm going to go figure out a way to use up the rest of 'em.
I was feeling lazy, so I made a graham cracker crust for this pie. I halved the recipe I told you about with the Rhubarb Cheesecake, because I can't really get them to cooperate with pie plates. So it only went about halfway up the sides, but I think it turned out well. It's a really good flavor complement, and the butterscotch custard/pudding dealie was pretty small too, so it didn't even overfill the crust.
For the filling:
3/4 cups brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
1 tsp salt
2 cups milk
3 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons butter
Mix the dry ones together a bit in a saucepan. Beat the egg yolks a bit with some milk and then add the wet stuff to the pan. Cook on medium heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens. Keep at it for about 30 seconds or so more, to make sure it's all thickened. Then turn off the heat and stir in the vanilla and butter until fully combined. Pour onto the crust, and chill.
Yeah, it's a lot like the chocolate pie if you skip the meringue layer. And the chocolate... Same process, I mean. And also quite tasty.
If I had used a standard pie crust, I think doubling the filling would have been smart. For the halved graham cracker crust, however, it's perfect the way it is.
So this is a Butterscotch Pie. I found the recipe because I was looking for a way to use egg yolks. You see, after the Chocolate Pie on Friday had a sorry meringue, I decided I would have to practice meringues. So we made some delicious meringue cookies, and I used nine egg whites. We used a couple of the yolks to make a chocolate mousse for the cookies, but I was left with six yolks without a home. After I share Monday's pie's recipe with you, I'm going to go figure out a way to use up the rest of 'em.
I was feeling lazy, so I made a graham cracker crust for this pie. I halved the recipe I told you about with the Rhubarb Cheesecake, because I can't really get them to cooperate with pie plates. So it only went about halfway up the sides, but I think it turned out well. It's a really good flavor complement, and the butterscotch custard/pudding dealie was pretty small too, so it didn't even overfill the crust.
For the filling:
3/4 cups brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
1 tsp salt
2 cups milk
3 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons butter
Mix the dry ones together a bit in a saucepan. Beat the egg yolks a bit with some milk and then add the wet stuff to the pan. Cook on medium heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens. Keep at it for about 30 seconds or so more, to make sure it's all thickened. Then turn off the heat and stir in the vanilla and butter until fully combined. Pour onto the crust, and chill.
Yeah, it's a lot like the chocolate pie if you skip the meringue layer. And the chocolate... Same process, I mean. And also quite tasty.
If I had used a standard pie crust, I think doubling the filling would have been smart. For the halved graham cracker crust, however, it's perfect the way it is.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Pork (and pork and pork and eggs) Pie
No, not the traditional British pie. It's Quiche Saturday! (Even if I'm a couple days late with this post...)
I'm getting the hang of quiches, so I went ahead and winged it. I got some breakfast sausage, ham, and bacon at the Farmer's Market (it's not all fruit and veggies!) and a hybrid (that's part goat and part cow's milk) cheddar cheese.
About a cup or so of the cheese goes on the bottom of the pie crust after it's blind baked, then I arranged as many of the sausage links as I could fit in the crust. Between the links, I packed in as much ham as I could (I think about a half pound, maybe a little less). The sausage links were whole, and I got the ham in slices then chopped them up in smaller chunks. I fried the bacon a bit, so it was still soft, then weaved a fancy bacon-lattice top for the pie. Then five eggs and a cup of half and half (well, about 3/4 cup of half and half and the rest was milk, cause I didn't have quite a cup left...), beaten up real good and poured over the whole thing. Bake it at 375F for about an hour, until the eggs are fully set. I covered the top with foil about halfway through, because some of the bacon had crisped up and was getting pretty dark.
It was really good. Like, three pigs' worth of delicious.
I'm getting the hang of quiches, so I went ahead and winged it. I got some breakfast sausage, ham, and bacon at the Farmer's Market (it's not all fruit and veggies!) and a hybrid (that's part goat and part cow's milk) cheddar cheese.
About a cup or so of the cheese goes on the bottom of the pie crust after it's blind baked, then I arranged as many of the sausage links as I could fit in the crust. Between the links, I packed in as much ham as I could (I think about a half pound, maybe a little less). The sausage links were whole, and I got the ham in slices then chopped them up in smaller chunks. I fried the bacon a bit, so it was still soft, then weaved a fancy bacon-lattice top for the pie. Then five eggs and a cup of half and half (well, about 3/4 cup of half and half and the rest was milk, cause I didn't have quite a cup left...), beaten up real good and poured over the whole thing. Bake it at 375F for about an hour, until the eggs are fully set. I covered the top with foil about halfway through, because some of the bacon had crisped up and was getting pretty dark.
It was really good. Like, three pigs' worth of delicious.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Now what?
Without the surprise pie ingredients inspiring my pies, it was tough to choose one to bake on Friday. I was bothering my friends for ideas, and finally one caught my attention. Chocolate pie. Simply, chocolate pie. Nothing fancy, just a dense, rich chocolate custard with a fluffy meringue to contrast.
Because I like chocolate.
Again, same ol' pie crust, blind baked, and let it cool while you're making the custard and meringue. Also, turn the oven down to 350F after the crust is done.
2 egg whites
pinch cream of tartar
4 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons cocoa (or 1 1/2 squares baking chocolate)
5 tablespoons flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups milk
2 egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon butter
Start with the meringue. They're pretty finicky. Make sure the bowl and the beaters on the mixer are VERY clean. Any amount of fat that might be there can foil your attempt to make a nice foam from the egg whites. Equally, when you separate the eggs, try not to touch anything. Oil on your skin can kill the meringue too. Beat the whites with the cream of tartar until it foams up. Keep beating and very slowly add the sugar. When you get stiff peaks, you're all done. Cover it and put it someplace relatively dry and cool.
Then the filling. If you have a flour sifter, sift the flour and cocoa powder together. Cocoa is particularly fond of forming little chunks that refuse to combine into liquids. Then add the sugar and salt, mix 'em up. Beat the egg yolks into the milk and mix those into the dry stuff as well as you can. Cook on medium heat while stirring until it thickens. Then simmer and stir for another sixty seconds. Turn off the heat and stir in the butter and vanilla until fully combined. Pour the custard into the crust.
Give the meringue a little 30 second beating. This will blend any sugar that hadn't dissolved fully in the first go around into the meringue. The sugar is the part which prevents the water from falling off of all the bubbles (which is what would make your meringue fall in on itself or shed a layer of water between it and the custard).
Then bake the whole deal (you're just cooking the meringue here) at 350F for fifteen or twenty minutes, until the meringue is golden brown.
Yummy pie. However, next time, I think I would either double the recipe or one-and-a-half it. The meringue was particularly thin (which is also due to the fact that I was too hasty with it...) and the chocolate layer, while rich and delicious, could have been more substantial. You can't have too much delicious, right!?
Because I like chocolate.
Again, same ol' pie crust, blind baked, and let it cool while you're making the custard and meringue. Also, turn the oven down to 350F after the crust is done.
2 egg whites
pinch cream of tartar
4 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons cocoa (or 1 1/2 squares baking chocolate)
5 tablespoons flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups milk
2 egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon butter
Start with the meringue. They're pretty finicky. Make sure the bowl and the beaters on the mixer are VERY clean. Any amount of fat that might be there can foil your attempt to make a nice foam from the egg whites. Equally, when you separate the eggs, try not to touch anything. Oil on your skin can kill the meringue too. Beat the whites with the cream of tartar until it foams up. Keep beating and very slowly add the sugar. When you get stiff peaks, you're all done. Cover it and put it someplace relatively dry and cool.
Then the filling. If you have a flour sifter, sift the flour and cocoa powder together. Cocoa is particularly fond of forming little chunks that refuse to combine into liquids. Then add the sugar and salt, mix 'em up. Beat the egg yolks into the milk and mix those into the dry stuff as well as you can. Cook on medium heat while stirring until it thickens. Then simmer and stir for another sixty seconds. Turn off the heat and stir in the butter and vanilla until fully combined. Pour the custard into the crust.
Give the meringue a little 30 second beating. This will blend any sugar that hadn't dissolved fully in the first go around into the meringue. The sugar is the part which prevents the water from falling off of all the bubbles (which is what would make your meringue fall in on itself or shed a layer of water between it and the custard).
Then bake the whole deal (you're just cooking the meringue here) at 350F for fifteen or twenty minutes, until the meringue is golden brown.
Yummy pie. However, next time, I think I would either double the recipe or one-and-a-half it. The meringue was particularly thin (which is also due to the fact that I was too hasty with it...) and the chocolate layer, while rich and delicious, could have been more substantial. You can't have too much delicious, right!?
Friday, June 10, 2011
The last of round one's surprise ingredients! (And how Ryan is bad at clicking "publish")
So if you've been keeping track, you'll know that i was given the task of making pies from the following ingredients:
Cranberries (whole, frozen)
Yogurt (plain, unsweetened)
Yuca root (waxy and brown on the outside, starchy and white on the inside)
and finally
Pears! Just regular pears. D'anjou, if you're hip on pear varieties.
Yeah, I saved the easiest one for last. Whatev.
Anyway, here it goes. Again, the standard pie crust is the one to use for this recipe. However, since we don't cook the insides separately and it isn't a quiche, don't blind bake the crust. You'll see this as a trend with double-crusted pies, though on this one I made a streusel-type crumble top. Start by preheating to 375F.
6 pears (The recipe I used recommends D'anjou or Bartlett, but I don't have enough pear experience to make that call.), peeled, cored, sliced thin
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1.5 oz flour (OH SNAP we're weighing flour again... if you don't have a food scale, a third of a cup is a pretty close estimate)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt (at this point, I've got a pretty good one-eighth-teaspoon pinch)
1.5 oz flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons cold butter, in small pieces
As you're getting the pears sliced, toss them with the lemon juice to prevent them from oxidizing. In a separate bowl, mix the rest of 'em from the first chunk. Toss the pear slices with the flour to get it all nicely coated, then spread them out in the bottom of the crust.
Use a couple forks or a pastry cutter to combine the flour, sugar, and butter of the second chunk of ingredients until it's all crumbly. Them sprinkle it out over the pears. Bake for about an hour, or until the top is lightly browned.
My surprise ingredient shoppers only bought four pears for me, and since they got the surprise ingredients just over a week before I baked this pie, those ones were quite soft and ripe. The other two, on the other hand, were very firm. I think it made the texture really interesting! Most of the ripe pears sort of dissolved into the filling and made it all gel together really well, while the firm pears stayed pretty firm, so there were chunks that had a nice crispness. Overall, everyone really liked how this one turned out. It disappeared in just over a day, which is pretty quick for pie around here. I don't know how that can be a phenomenon, pie staying in the house of four college guys, but it happens. So if you're in the neighborhood, stop by! I bet I'll have some pie for ya.
Cranberries (whole, frozen)
Yogurt (plain, unsweetened)
Yuca root (waxy and brown on the outside, starchy and white on the inside)
and finally
Pears! Just regular pears. D'anjou, if you're hip on pear varieties.
Yeah, I saved the easiest one for last. Whatev.
Anyway, here it goes. Again, the standard pie crust is the one to use for this recipe. However, since we don't cook the insides separately and it isn't a quiche, don't blind bake the crust. You'll see this as a trend with double-crusted pies, though on this one I made a streusel-type crumble top. Start by preheating to 375F.
6 pears (The recipe I used recommends D'anjou or Bartlett, but I don't have enough pear experience to make that call.), peeled, cored, sliced thin
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1.5 oz flour (OH SNAP we're weighing flour again... if you don't have a food scale, a third of a cup is a pretty close estimate)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt (at this point, I've got a pretty good one-eighth-teaspoon pinch)
1.5 oz flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons cold butter, in small pieces
As you're getting the pears sliced, toss them with the lemon juice to prevent them from oxidizing. In a separate bowl, mix the rest of 'em from the first chunk. Toss the pear slices with the flour to get it all nicely coated, then spread them out in the bottom of the crust.
Use a couple forks or a pastry cutter to combine the flour, sugar, and butter of the second chunk of ingredients until it's all crumbly. Them sprinkle it out over the pears. Bake for about an hour, or until the top is lightly browned.
My surprise ingredient shoppers only bought four pears for me, and since they got the surprise ingredients just over a week before I baked this pie, those ones were quite soft and ripe. The other two, on the other hand, were very firm. I think it made the texture really interesting! Most of the ripe pears sort of dissolved into the filling and made it all gel together really well, while the firm pears stayed pretty firm, so there were chunks that had a nice crispness. Overall, everyone really liked how this one turned out. It disappeared in just over a day, which is pretty quick for pie around here. I don't know how that can be a phenomenon, pie staying in the house of four college guys, but it happens. So if you're in the neighborhood, stop by! I bet I'll have some pie for ya.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
More surprise ingredients!
I'm a little off schedule now... but it shouldn't be a problem to get back on track. Monday's pie used yet another of the surprise ingredients: Yogurt. Not too much of a stretch, really. Mara suggested straining it and substituting for the cream cheese in a cheesecake. And since Occasionally Cheesecake Mondays are a thing, things just fell into place.
Straining the yogurt took quite a while, so I didn't get the cheesecake in the oven until Tuesday. And then when I got home from work today, it felt like swimming to just sit on the couch. I decided I would spare the house from the heat of using the oven an hour or so.
Anyway, cheesecake.
I strained two 32 oz containers of plain yogurt to try to get the weight equivalent of four packages of cream cheese. It was pretty close. Using cheesecloth, I strained the yogurt most of Monday in a colander inside a bowl. There was a little room under the colander so the yogurt wasn't resting in its juice. For the first several hours, a lot of water drained off. I poured it off every hour to hour and a half. I think it drained pretty evenly, but I mixed the yogurt a few times through the day in case certain parts were holding more liquid. If I had done it in smaller doses, I prolly could have rolled up the cheesecloth and squeezed out a lot of the liquid, but I just went at it with the whole darn thing. It took a lot longer, but oh well. Anyway, when it was getting late, I just stuck the bowl/colander/cheesecloth/yogurt stack into the fridge and let it keep draining all night. I weighed it in the morning, and I think it was about 1 pound 13 oz, compared to the 2 pounds the recipe called for. Close enough. Or I was getting impatient.
4 (8oz) packages cream cheese OR 2x 32oz yogurt, strained
1 1/2 cups white sugar
3/4 cup milk
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
Go ahead and prep the graham cracker crust we used last week. Instead of reserving a third of the crumbs to stick on the sides of the finished cheesecake, I just patted them all on the bottom of the springform pan and baked it a few minutes longer. Impatience and all...
Preheat the oven to 350F for the cheesecake.
Then, mix up the insides! The recipe I followed does it one way (and incidentally, I did it that way), but I'm going to suggest a different order. To your yogurt (or if you want to go traditional, four 8oz packages of cream cheese), add the sugar and beat until smooth. Beat the eggs in one at a time, then add the sour cream. Hold the milk until the end, mixing the flour and vanilla into it. It should be easier to whisk the flour into the milk than to convince it to combine with the rest of it. Then set aside the electric beater and gently stir the milk mixture into the rest with a big wooden spoon or something. Slowly pour the deliciousness into the crust. Let it rest for a few minutes to allow some of the bubbles that inevitably got trapped in the goo to rise out. If you're confident, try gently striking the pan on the surface of the counter. It'll help the bubbles shake loose. Then bake for 60 minutes.
Lots of people have trouble with cheesecakes cracking on top. Here're a few tips to prevent that. First，make sure the ingredients (especially if you use cream cheese) are room temperature. That will allow them to all combine evenly. Another is having too much air in the custard. So knocking those bubbles out is the first step. But cooling too fast is usually the biggest offender. So when it's done baking, just turn off the oven and leave it in there for a few hours. Be patient!! The cheesecake will thank you.
I've been enjoying this one so far! It has a slightly different flavor and texture. Definitely yummy.
Straining the yogurt took quite a while, so I didn't get the cheesecake in the oven until Tuesday. And then when I got home from work today, it felt like swimming to just sit on the couch. I decided I would spare the house from the heat of using the oven an hour or so.
Anyway, cheesecake.
I strained two 32 oz containers of plain yogurt to try to get the weight equivalent of four packages of cream cheese. It was pretty close. Using cheesecloth, I strained the yogurt most of Monday in a colander inside a bowl. There was a little room under the colander so the yogurt wasn't resting in its juice. For the first several hours, a lot of water drained off. I poured it off every hour to hour and a half. I think it drained pretty evenly, but I mixed the yogurt a few times through the day in case certain parts were holding more liquid. If I had done it in smaller doses, I prolly could have rolled up the cheesecloth and squeezed out a lot of the liquid, but I just went at it with the whole darn thing. It took a lot longer, but oh well. Anyway, when it was getting late, I just stuck the bowl/colander/cheesecloth/yogurt stack into the fridge and let it keep draining all night. I weighed it in the morning, and I think it was about 1 pound 13 oz, compared to the 2 pounds the recipe called for. Close enough. Or I was getting impatient.
4 (8oz) packages cream cheese OR 2x 32oz yogurt, strained
1 1/2 cups white sugar
3/4 cup milk
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
Go ahead and prep the graham cracker crust we used last week. Instead of reserving a third of the crumbs to stick on the sides of the finished cheesecake, I just patted them all on the bottom of the springform pan and baked it a few minutes longer. Impatience and all...
Preheat the oven to 350F for the cheesecake.
Then, mix up the insides! The recipe I followed does it one way (and incidentally, I did it that way), but I'm going to suggest a different order. To your yogurt (or if you want to go traditional, four 8oz packages of cream cheese), add the sugar and beat until smooth. Beat the eggs in one at a time, then add the sour cream. Hold the milk until the end, mixing the flour and vanilla into it. It should be easier to whisk the flour into the milk than to convince it to combine with the rest of it. Then set aside the electric beater and gently stir the milk mixture into the rest with a big wooden spoon or something. Slowly pour the deliciousness into the crust. Let it rest for a few minutes to allow some of the bubbles that inevitably got trapped in the goo to rise out. If you're confident, try gently striking the pan on the surface of the counter. It'll help the bubbles shake loose. Then bake for 60 minutes.
Lots of people have trouble with cheesecakes cracking on top. Here're a few tips to prevent that. First，make sure the ingredients (especially if you use cream cheese) are room temperature. That will allow them to all combine evenly. Another is having too much air in the custard. So knocking those bubbles out is the first step. But cooling too fast is usually the biggest offender. So when it's done baking, just turn off the oven and leave it in there for a few hours. Be patient!! The cheesecake will thank you.
I've been enjoying this one so far! It has a slightly different flavor and texture. Definitely yummy.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Saturday=Brunch
And Quiche! And Farmer's Market, so fresh veggies for inside the quiche!
As with last week, we were way full before the quiche was done for all the other brunch things we made. Oh well. Leftovers!
The one is an Asparagus, Leek, and Gruyere Quiche.
As with other quiches, I used the standard pie crust I've talked so much about.
1 tablespoon butter
1 leek, halved and thinly sliced (discard the darker green parts)
1 pound asparagus, thinly sliced
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup shredded gruyere cheese
4 eggs
1 1/4 cups half and half
While the crust is blind baking, melt the butter on medium heat and add the asparagus and leek. Season with salt and pepper and cook for a few minutes.
Then once the crust is done baking and cooled for a bit, spread the cheese in the bottom of the crust, then the asparagus/leek. Beat the eggs with the half and half, and pour them over the other stuff in the crust. Mine barely fit. Bake at 350F for about an hour, until the eggy bit is set.
I fell asleep from food-coma in the middle, and it cooked for about an hour and a half... a little dark on top, but yummy nonetheless.
As with last week, we were way full before the quiche was done for all the other brunch things we made. Oh well. Leftovers!
The one is an Asparagus, Leek, and Gruyere Quiche.
As with other quiches, I used the standard pie crust I've talked so much about.
1 tablespoon butter
1 leek, halved and thinly sliced (discard the darker green parts)
1 pound asparagus, thinly sliced
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup shredded gruyere cheese
4 eggs
1 1/4 cups half and half
While the crust is blind baking, melt the butter on medium heat and add the asparagus and leek. Season with salt and pepper and cook for a few minutes.
Then once the crust is done baking and cooled for a bit, spread the cheese in the bottom of the crust, then the asparagus/leek. Beat the eggs with the half and half, and pour them over the other stuff in the crust. Mine barely fit. Bake at 350F for about an hour, until the eggy bit is set.
I fell asleep from food-coma in the middle, and it cooked for about an hour and a half... a little dark on top, but yummy nonetheless.
Busy weekend, and lots of pies!
And I'm way behind on blog posts.
Going all the way back to Friday: Nantucket Cranberry Pie
Another Surprise Pie Ingredient inspired this one, but cranberries make a more obvious pie ingredient, so it wasn't too tricky.
I found this recipe on a food blog, and at first I thought to myself "What?! this isn't a pie either!" However, the author shared my concern, and quelled it for me. The way she describes it "It's pie in Nantucket."
So there.
Also, it's REALLY easy. So much so that I was tempted to try baking it on a grill. Alas, we didn't have as much grill space I thought there would be at the barbeque, so I baked it in the oven like a normal person.
Start by preheating the oven to 350F and greasing up a cake pan generously with butter.
Here's all the stuff:
2 (heaping) cups cranberries
3/4 cups pecans, chopped
2/3 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 stick butter, melted
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
a little extra sugar
Spread the cranberries in the bottom of the cake pan, then the pecans on that, then sprinkle the sugar over as evenly as possible. Then mix the rest of the stuff (other than the extra sugar, that's for later) in a bowl and pour it out over the fruit/nuts/sugar in the pan. It's pretty thick, so try to pour it out as evenly as you can, cause it'll be tricky to spread it. Then bake for 45 to 50 minutes. A few minutes before you take it out, sprinkle that other sugar on top.
SUPER YUM. I will make this pie MANY times in the future. So many great things about it; tart cranberries, crunchy nuts, sweet, crispy topping... the only thing is that it doesn't come out of the pan with all the gooey insides and you have to scoop it all out separately so it doesn't make nice slice-of-pie-shaped servings. Instead I just ate it out of the pan. After the other people dug their slices out.
Going all the way back to Friday: Nantucket Cranberry Pie
Another Surprise Pie Ingredient inspired this one, but cranberries make a more obvious pie ingredient, so it wasn't too tricky.
I found this recipe on a food blog, and at first I thought to myself "What?! this isn't a pie either!" However, the author shared my concern, and quelled it for me. The way she describes it "It's pie in Nantucket."
So there.
Also, it's REALLY easy. So much so that I was tempted to try baking it on a grill. Alas, we didn't have as much grill space I thought there would be at the barbeque, so I baked it in the oven like a normal person.
Start by preheating the oven to 350F and greasing up a cake pan generously with butter.
Here's all the stuff:
2 (heaping) cups cranberries
3/4 cups pecans, chopped
2/3 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 stick butter, melted
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
a little extra sugar
Spread the cranberries in the bottom of the cake pan, then the pecans on that, then sprinkle the sugar over as evenly as possible. Then mix the rest of the stuff (other than the extra sugar, that's for later) in a bowl and pour it out over the fruit/nuts/sugar in the pan. It's pretty thick, so try to pour it out as evenly as you can, cause it'll be tricky to spread it. Then bake for 45 to 50 minutes. A few minutes before you take it out, sprinkle that other sugar on top.
SUPER YUM. I will make this pie MANY times in the future. So many great things about it; tart cranberries, crunchy nuts, sweet, crispy topping... the only thing is that it doesn't come out of the pan with all the gooey insides and you have to scoop it all out separately so it doesn't make nice slice-of-pie-shaped servings. Instead I just ate it out of the pan. After the other people dug their slices out.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Rhubarb Cheesecke Reactions and "Yuck, a Pie!"
First order of business: That was really tasty! All parties involved with the consumption of Rhubarb Cheesecake said it was delicious. The tartness complemented the creamy goodness that is cheesecake in a wonderful way. Presentation-wise, I felt the cheesecake was a little short. It only filled up about two of the three inch depth of my springform pan. So next time, I might try making the recipe 1.5 times as big.
Then on to the first of the surprise pie ingredients!
Zim was really excited about bringing back a yuca root as one of my surprises. I was baffled.
I looked it up, and it appears that it is related to tapioca, so it wasn't too much of a long shot. So I moved on to googling for recipes.
The yuca pie recipe I found had me wary.... For one thing, the recipe had no crust, seemed overly starchy, and was slightly leavened. So my brain thought 'CAKE!' and 'IMPOSTOR!' But it seemed interesting, so I just went for it.
2 cups shredded yuca root
1/2 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks butter (see last paragraph)
1 cup sugar
2 cups coconut milk
1 cup coffee
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 stick butter
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup powdered milk
1/2 cup water
Preheat the oven to 375F and mix the first four in a bowl. No big deal.
Cream the butter and sugar together. This works best if the butter is room temp, not melted. I was in a crunch for time, so I melted mine. Add the rest of the wet things and spices and combine. Then mix in the dry bowl. Butter and flour whatever vessel you choose for this goop. I used two round cake pans, but you could easily use a 13x9 or some such baking pan.
Bake until it gets firm and golden brown.
While that's going on in the oven, melt the butter from the last block of ingredients in a saucepan. Add in the sugar, powdered milk, and water. Stir constantly over low to medium heat until it thickens.
I had mine on pretty low heat, and the mixture liked to get stuck to the bottom a lot. If I didn't scrape it off pretty quickly, it would burn. so my recommendation would be to use a silicon spatula that you can use to constantly scrape the pan and stir to keep an even consistency.
When the oven part is done, pour this goop on top.
Overall, I am pleased with the taste. It's sweet, chewy, dense, and creamy. However, the butter, or god, the butter. It is swimming in it. I am wary that my melting the butter rather than creaming it at room temp made it fail to incorporate, but I also think that there is just too much of it. Hopefully if you want to try this recipe, you have read the whole post before staring to cook. That way you can attempt to prevent the buttery overload I experienced. I ended up putting the finished product on a cooling rack over a baking sheet and letting some of the butter drip out, then setting them on paper towels to soak out a bit more.
Then on to the first of the surprise pie ingredients!
Zim was really excited about bringing back a yuca root as one of my surprises. I was baffled.
I looked it up, and it appears that it is related to tapioca, so it wasn't too much of a long shot. So I moved on to googling for recipes.
The yuca pie recipe I found had me wary.... For one thing, the recipe had no crust, seemed overly starchy, and was slightly leavened. So my brain thought 'CAKE!' and 'IMPOSTOR!' But it seemed interesting, so I just went for it.
2 cups shredded yuca root
1/2 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks butter (see last paragraph)
1 cup sugar
2 cups coconut milk
1 cup coffee
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 stick butter
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup powdered milk
1/2 cup water
Preheat the oven to 375F and mix the first four in a bowl. No big deal.
Cream the butter and sugar together. This works best if the butter is room temp, not melted. I was in a crunch for time, so I melted mine. Add the rest of the wet things and spices and combine. Then mix in the dry bowl. Butter and flour whatever vessel you choose for this goop. I used two round cake pans, but you could easily use a 13x9 or some such baking pan.
Bake until it gets firm and golden brown.
While that's going on in the oven, melt the butter from the last block of ingredients in a saucepan. Add in the sugar, powdered milk, and water. Stir constantly over low to medium heat until it thickens.
I had mine on pretty low heat, and the mixture liked to get stuck to the bottom a lot. If I didn't scrape it off pretty quickly, it would burn. so my recommendation would be to use a silicon spatula that you can use to constantly scrape the pan and stir to keep an even consistency.
When the oven part is done, pour this goop on top.
Overall, I am pleased with the taste. It's sweet, chewy, dense, and creamy. However, the butter, or god, the butter. It is swimming in it. I am wary that my melting the butter rather than creaming it at room temp made it fail to incorporate, but I also think that there is just too much of it. Hopefully if you want to try this recipe, you have read the whole post before staring to cook. That way you can attempt to prevent the buttery overload I experienced. I ended up putting the finished product on a cooling rack over a baking sheet and letting some of the butter drip out, then setting them on paper towels to soak out a bit more.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Surprise pies?
While I was working on the Rhubarb Cheesecake yesterday, some friends offered to drive me out to the supermarket, in case I needed some things. Being that I didn't know what I would need in the coming days (since I have yet to plan out any of the pies I'm baking), I declined. But when they offered to pick up ten bucks of SURPRISE PIE INGREDIENTS, I was intrigued. They obviously had a lot of fun picking things out, and after hearing some of their ridiculous ideas (including cleaning supplies (???) and energy drinks), I was excited about what they did bring back. I'll let you know when I use them in the pies to come.
In other news, I baked a pie yesterday!
Wait, you probably knew that...
Anyway, the recipe I used on allrecipes.com had a flour/butter/sugar mixture for the crust that I was doubtful of, so I went with the good ol' standby graham cracker crust. I've realized that the graham cracker crust I posted last year was flawed, so here's the one I used yesterday, straight from Alton Brown's cheesecake recipe.
33 graham cracker squares
1 stick butter, melted
1 tablespoon sugar
Put the graham crackers in a ziplock bag, and pound them with whatever you prefer to smack things with. I just punch 'em. Then transfer them to a large bowl and mix in the sugar and butter. Spread about a third of the crumbs on a baking sheet and press the other two thirds in the bottom of a springform pan. Bake both at 300F for about ten minutes.
The filling comes in three bowls. As long as your cream cheese is at a nice warm room temperature and the rhubarb is already chopped, they all mix up while the previous step is in the oven. However, the oven temperature changes each time, so after the crust is done, raise the temperature to 375F and let it preheat.
Bowl One:
3 cups chopped rhubarb
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon flour
Toss 'em all together, put them onto the crust, and pop 'em in the oven for fifteen minutes. Reduce the oven to 350F after the fifteen minutes are up, but in the meantime...
Bowl Two:
2 (8oz) packages cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
Beat the cream cheese with the sugar until it's creamy, then add the eggs one at a time. Scrape the sides of the bowl after each addition is combined, and beat for a few seconds after the last scrape-down. As soon as the fifteen minutes from the last step are up and you lower the temp, pour Bowl Two's mixture onto the rhubarb and pop it back in for 30 or 35 minutes, until set.
Bowl Three:
1 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
You can prolly wait twenty minutes or so before mixing this one up, because it's pretty quick. Once Bowl Two's cooking phase is done, turn off your oven and pour Bowl Three on top. Spread it all out, then pop it into the fridge to cool.
I'll let you know how it goes over!
In other news, I baked a pie yesterday!
Wait, you probably knew that...
Anyway, the recipe I used on allrecipes.com had a flour/butter/sugar mixture for the crust that I was doubtful of, so I went with the good ol' standby graham cracker crust. I've realized that the graham cracker crust I posted last year was flawed, so here's the one I used yesterday, straight from Alton Brown's cheesecake recipe.
33 graham cracker squares
1 stick butter, melted
1 tablespoon sugar
Put the graham crackers in a ziplock bag, and pound them with whatever you prefer to smack things with. I just punch 'em. Then transfer them to a large bowl and mix in the sugar and butter. Spread about a third of the crumbs on a baking sheet and press the other two thirds in the bottom of a springform pan. Bake both at 300F for about ten minutes.
The filling comes in three bowls. As long as your cream cheese is at a nice warm room temperature and the rhubarb is already chopped, they all mix up while the previous step is in the oven. However, the oven temperature changes each time, so after the crust is done, raise the temperature to 375F and let it preheat.
Bowl One:
3 cups chopped rhubarb
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon flour
Toss 'em all together, put them onto the crust, and pop 'em in the oven for fifteen minutes. Reduce the oven to 350F after the fifteen minutes are up, but in the meantime...
Bowl Two:
2 (8oz) packages cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
Beat the cream cheese with the sugar until it's creamy, then add the eggs one at a time. Scrape the sides of the bowl after each addition is combined, and beat for a few seconds after the last scrape-down. As soon as the fifteen minutes from the last step are up and you lower the temp, pour Bowl Two's mixture onto the rhubarb and pop it back in for 30 or 35 minutes, until set.
Bowl Three:
1 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
You can prolly wait twenty minutes or so before mixing this one up, because it's pretty quick. Once Bowl Two's cooking phase is done, turn off your oven and pour Bowl Three on top. Spread it all out, then pop it into the fridge to cool.
I'll let you know how it goes over!
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Kickoff Successful!
Well, sort of. I expected more folks to come eat, so we made a TON of food. By the time the quiche was ready, we were all pretty full. So we ate it later in the day. It was tasty!
Anyway, here's the recipe for the quiche:
1 teaspoon butter
1 1/2 cups chopped onions
1/4 pound mushrooms, chopped (I used a bit more; about a third of a pound, I think.)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon crushed dried thyme
1 1/2 cups shredded Swiss cheese
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Start out with the standard pie crust I told you about last summer. We also shot some good video of the process (stolen straight from Alton Brown's Good Eats) that we'll share with you after we get a chance to clip it all together properly. After it's blind baked, let it cool for about fifteen minutes. Set the oven to 375F, and get the rest of it going.
To start the filling, melt the butter in a skillet and sauté the onions until they soften up. Add the mushrooms and spices and sauté for about five minutes until they're soft and browned and delicious.
In the bottom of the pie crust, spread the Swiss cheese the sautéed mushrooms. Beat the four eggs, milk, and flour. Pour the mix onto the cheese and mushrooms. I had a little extra that wouldn't fit.
Pop it into the oven for about 40 minutes, until the center is firm. Let the quiche cool for at least twenty minutes, and serve it up! Yum.
I would have posted this yesterday, but I ended up falling asleep after I got done with work and I was in a funk all evening. So here it is, and later tonight or tomorrow I will post the recipe for the Rhubarb Cheesecake I'm working on right now.
Anyway, here's the recipe for the quiche:
1 teaspoon butter
1 1/2 cups chopped onions
1/4 pound mushrooms, chopped (I used a bit more; about a third of a pound, I think.)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon crushed dried thyme
1 1/2 cups shredded Swiss cheese
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Start out with the standard pie crust I told you about last summer. We also shot some good video of the process (stolen straight from Alton Brown's Good Eats) that we'll share with you after we get a chance to clip it all together properly. After it's blind baked, let it cool for about fifteen minutes. Set the oven to 375F, and get the rest of it going.
To start the filling, melt the butter in a skillet and sauté the onions until they soften up. Add the mushrooms and spices and sauté for about five minutes until they're soft and browned and delicious.
In the bottom of the pie crust, spread the Swiss cheese the sautéed mushrooms. Beat the four eggs, milk, and flour. Pour the mix onto the cheese and mushrooms. I had a little extra that wouldn't fit.
Pop it into the oven for about 40 minutes, until the center is firm. Let the quiche cool for at least twenty minutes, and serve it up! Yum.
I would have posted this yesterday, but I ended up falling asleep after I got done with work and I was in a funk all evening. So here it is, and later tonight or tomorrow I will post the recipe for the Rhubarb Cheesecake I'm working on right now.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Today is the day!
So we're cooking up all kinds of delicious breakfast/brunch stuff, including a Mushroom Swiss Quiche (whose recipe I will post later)! I wanted to take a moment to let you all know that we'll also be putting together a cooking-show-dealie. Anna has been shooting little clips of me talking about things and buying things at the Farmers' Market. I'll let you know when we get it up for your viewing pleasure.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Publicity!
Well, we've got about a month to go until the Piebrary goes live for 2011, and goodness am I getting excited! To go along with it, Ian's decided to give us a little publicity. And going with the theme of 'right around' Memorial Day, we're gonna start up that weekend, on Saturday the 28th. And I think we're going to try to keep up the Quiche On Saturdays theme from last year (that we weren't very good at).
Anyway, a few operational changes for this year (mostly to help us get rid of pie (because somehow, this was an issue last year) so I have enough space in my fridge and dishes to make more pies with): First, we'll adjust to baking every other day. Second, I want to get some tasting panels together to get some feedback other than my own.
SO
Two things need to happen. Look at our Google Calendar, Piebrary Direct, (which is pretty much empty so far) and suggest pies on days when we don't have a pie to bake. I'm thinking we'll bake Monday/Wednesday/Friday/Saturday. That means tasting panels Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday (because if we bake quiches on Saturday, we'll eat them that day (since they're best hot) and follow them up with the Friday pie for dessert), so we'll need four to twelve mouths each of those days. The second thing that needs to happen is that people who like to eat pie lend their tongues and opinions on the tasting days. Sounds complicated.
We'll figure this out. We've got a month, folks! Get ready, and get excited! Piebrary, hoooo!
Anyway, a few operational changes for this year (mostly to help us get rid of pie (because somehow, this was an issue last year) so I have enough space in my fridge and dishes to make more pies with): First, we'll adjust to baking every other day. Second, I want to get some tasting panels together to get some feedback other than my own.
SO
Two things need to happen. Look at our Google Calendar, Piebrary Direct, (which is pretty much empty so far) and suggest pies on days when we don't have a pie to bake. I'm thinking we'll bake Monday/Wednesday/Friday/Saturday. That means tasting panels Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday (because if we bake quiches on Saturday, we'll eat them that day (since they're best hot) and follow them up with the Friday pie for dessert), so we'll need four to twelve mouths each of those days. The second thing that needs to happen is that people who like to eat pie lend their tongues and opinions on the tasting days. Sounds complicated.
We'll figure this out. We've got a month, folks! Get ready, and get excited! Piebrary, hoooo!
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