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.
Showing posts with label Surprise Ingredient. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Surprise Ingredient. Show all posts
Friday, June 10, 2011
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
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.
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