and this pie will probably kill you.
literally.
three sticks of butter and two cups of pecans. the fat content alone is probably in the 200% daily value range.
hopefully the recipe will be coming soon.
apple pie.
i have made this at least three times this summer, all different ways. regular pie, mini pies, hand pies, pop tarts. it’s all quite versatile.
for the crust. it is fool proof. from america’s test kitchen. the are perfect.
2 1/2 cups flour, 2 tablespoons sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, 12 tablespoons butter cut and chilled, 1/2 cup vegetable shortening (crisco), cut and chilled, 1/4 cup vodka, 1/4 cup ice water.
blend the dry ingredients in a food processor. add the butter and shortening until covered in flour. add the vodka and ice water until it is all incorporated.
the vodka helps keep the dough moist, whereas 1/2 cup of water would dry it and it would be much harder to work with. it has to do with gluten and ethanol. and more science things. fun food fact.
transfer dough to a bowl. create a ball.
divide the dough in half and refrigerate for thirty minutes or so.
apple filling. you will need 5-7 tart apples, 5-7 sweet apples, 1/2 cup of granulated sugar, 1/4 cup of brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of lemon zest, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon, 2 teaspoons of lemon juice.
peel, core, and slice apples. 1/4 inch thick.
mix all ingredients together.
place in a dutch oven. or a sauce pan. i just like the color of my dutch oven.
stir frequently at medium heat for about 15-20 minutes.
and then transfer to a colander to drain juices created while in the dutch oven.
preheat oven to 425.
place apples in the pie crust. sprinkle with the apple juice. add the second crust. brush with egg whites and sprinkle with sugar. bake for about 25 minutes until golden.
and i forgot to take pictures of the final result…
adapted from america’s test kitchen family baking book.
any fruit you can think of is in this crisp.
this crisp involves literally any fruit you can think of. seriously.
for the topping you will need 3/4 cup of toasted almonds, 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup oats, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 2 tablespoons sugar, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg, 1/8 teaspoon salt, and 5 tablespoons of melted butter.
combine all the ingredients excluding the butter. mix in the food processor for a couple of pulses.
drizzle the melted butter on top of the mixture and pulse again until mealy.
like this.
this is how you peel rhubarb.
rhubarb ribbons.
set your oven to 400.
the fruit filling requires and kind of fruit you like. this crisp was strawberries, apples, rhubarb, blueberries, raspberries, cherries, and that might be all.
in addition to the fruit you will need 4 teaspoons of corn startch, 4 tablespoons of sugar, 2 teaspoons of lemon juice, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.
mix all the ingredients listed together.
place in a baking dish and bake for 20-25 minutes.
add the crisp to the top of the fruit. bake for an additional 15 minutes until golden.
delicious.
peach ice cream.
i just realized the other day that i am approximately an 11th generation (or somewhere around there) southerner.
so i made peach ice cream. really easy peach ice cream.
you will need 14 oz of condensed milk, 5 oz of evaporated milk, 1 1/4 cups whole milk, 4 peaches, 2 tablespoons of sugar, 1/4 cup lemon juice, 1/4 teaspoon of salt and 3/4 cup of peach nectar (i used goya).
you will need to peel the peaches. the best way is to first boil a saucepan of water. cut an ‘x’ at the bottom of each peach. place the peaches in the boiling water for about 30-60 seconds each and then submerge in ice water for 60 seconds. it’ll peel right off!
whisk together the milks and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
blend the peaches (you need to cut them, you won’t want to blend the pits) with the sugar, lemon juice, and salt.
whisk together the peach nectar, milks, and blended peaches.
place in you ice cream maker and it’ll be around 20-40 minutes, depending on the machine’s instructions.
summer is almost over.
adapted from southern living magazine.
chocolate gelato. it might be better than ice cream.
this is such a delayed baking post. all subsequent posts will most likely be equally delayed. because i am horrible slow. obviously.
but ice cream is probably my favorite thing in the world. well…besides coffee. that will always be number one. i think i love ice cream so much because it runs in my genes. my grandfather and his father had diners in pennsylvania (i swear this state has more ice cream than any other) and made ice cream.
but this is gelato. which is basically ice cream, but less cream.
you will need 1/2 cup dutch process cocoa (i can never find this so i usually use hershey’s special dark), 2 cups of whole milk, 5 ounces of bittersweet chocolate, 3/4 cup of sugar, and
4 egg yolks.
whisk the cocoa and 1 cup of milk in a saucepan over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. when it boils add the chopped chocolate and whisk until totally incorporated.
and then in another saucepan whisk the remaining milk and sugar together until warmed. and in a regular bowl whisk the yolks. add some of the warmed milk-sugar mixture to the whisked eggs (add it to the egg bowl). whisk constantly. and add it back to the saucepan with the rest of the milk-sugar mixture.
cook over low heat stirring constantly until the egg-milk-sugar mixture thickens. strain the custard into the chocolate mixture (now in a bowl), and combine. set in a ice bath for about 20-30 minutes.
place the gelato in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s directions.
and then when the gelato is finished, it should be thick, creamy, and cold. you should probably put it in a freezer-safe storage container.
kind of easy and most definitely delicious.
adapted from david lebovitz’s ready for dessert.
his blog is also quite swell.
whoop whoop. whoopie pies.
this is what the amish eat. that’s why they are too much fun. pocket sized cakes. and they are actually a lot easier than one would think.
it’s really just like baking a cake. mix the dry ingredients. 1 2/3 cups of flour, 2/3 cup of cocoa powder, 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda, and half a teaspoon of salt.
and then in an entirely new bowl mix together (with a beater, unless you enjoy pain) 4 tablespoons of unsalted butter and 4 tablespoons of vegetable shortening. like crisco. add 1 cup of packed brown sugar slowly until just about combined. and then add one egg and 1 teaspoon of vanilla.
and then you can begin to add everything together. the flour-baking soda-salt-cocoa mixture added to the butter-shortening-sugar-egg-vanilla mixture in three parts alternated by 1 cup of milk. so flour, milk, flour, milk, flour. it should look like the above.
and then you just plop them on baking sheets that are covered in parchment paper with preferably a scoop. or just a spoon. whatever you have. set your oven to 375. and bake for 10 minutes. one at a time.
the photographs in whoopie pies by sarah billingsley and amy treadwell the whoopie pies do not have cracks in them. but i think they look more rustic. you can basically say anything is more rustic when you just kind of mess up a little.
and then there is the filling. this would be a vanilla buttercream. i was able to use one of my fourteen bags of powdered sugar. 3 cups to be exact. and 1 stick of butter. beat them together so it looks crumbly. and then you can slowly add 3-4 tablespoons of heavy cream. and then 1 teaspoon of vanilla and a tiny pinch of salt.
fin.
and then you just assemble it. one side with filling. and sandwich together.
so adorable.
i haven’t mastered the art of french cooking.
as it turns out, i have been making bad quiche for quite some time.
so i turned to my mastering the art of french cooking book and learned how. but i still didn’t do it quite right. first wrong thing. i used a gluten free baking mix to make the crust. bob’s red mill. the recipe is right on the bag. super easy. super cheating.
and then three different quiche recipes were combined. mushroom, cheese, and onion.
and nothing was super measured right.
or super fresh.
but the vegetables were sauteed. but you are kind of supposed to toss them with flour. which didn’t happen. doing this though will prevent the vegetables from sinking to the bottom.
there were, however, two eggs used. along with 2/3 cup of heavy cream, 1 teaspoon of salt, a dash of pepper, and a pinch of nutmeg. which were then whipped together. and then the onions and mushrooms were added.
and poured into the prebaked gluten free crust. and then sprinkled with swiss cheese on top.
it was quite good. but not quite french.
the recipe is from julia child, louisette bertholle, and simone beck’s mastering the art of french cooking.
the simplest things are sometimes the best things.
this is actually weeks old, but my life has been all consumed with work and other various things i’d rather not say on the void that is the internet.
this is my grandmother’s recipe for blueberry muffins. i made two different kinds. blueberry and an altered raspberry muffin.
combine the dry ingredients (2 cups of flour, 2 teaspoons of baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 3/4 cup of sugar). and then you need to melt vegetable shortening, 1/2 a cup to be exact. this probably needs to go in a large separate bowl. add an egg to the shortening and whisk until combined. add the 1 cup of milk to the egg-shortening mixture and mix. slowly add the dry ingredients. it should be full of lumps.
i always use frozen blueberries. they are smaller i guess. so a little less obtrusive. about 1 cup.
i also don’t use cupcake liners for muffins. it doesn’t feel right. set your oven to 400 and then bake for about 15 minutes.
this is quite a lovely way to let them cool.
done. with blueberries.
for the raspberry muffins. dust an overflowing cup of raspberries with flour, it will prevent them from sinking to the bottom. i used the same ratios and methods as above, but instead of shortening i used butter, as an experiment. so just replace the 1/2 cup of shortening with 1/2 cup of melted unsalted butter. it really did make a difference in textures. the shortening in the blueberries made a more dense muffin, whereas the butter made a lighter cake-ier raspberry muffin. strange. like science.
and finished. don’t you just absolutely adore the cotton?
pretty little cake.
things aren’t always as they appear.
because this is a mini cake. not a real cake. and it’s not a new recipe. because i’m boring.
and it’s only four layers.
get out of there cat!
see? it’s a mini mini mini cake. even my kitten is larger than it. this isn’t the only thing she stuck her face in today. she also ate a vanilla cupcake.
quite lovely chocolate chip cookies.
as of today i now have two jobs. one at the sandwich shop and one at the gap. food and retail. hopefully i will still have time to bake and paint. i found this recipe on tasteologie and originates from cook’s illustrated. it claims to be the perfect chocolate chip cookie. which everyone claims to have. but i think this actually is. cook’s illustrated is like food scientists. you can watch them here, which is something i will totally be doing all summer.
today i felt like measuring all the ingredients first. i put them in these adorable glass measuring cups. like on martha stewart. so whisk together 1 3/4 cup of flour and 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda in a bowl. then you can measure everything else if you like. 1/2 cup of sugar and 3/4 cup of dark brown sugar. and then 1 teaspoon of salt and 2 teaspoons of vanilla. and 1 whole egg and 1 yolk. And then finally 1 1/4 cup of chocolate chips. now everything is neat and tidy.
oh and you also should have 14 tablespoons of unsalted butter. this is one part i failed. take 10 of the 14 tablespoons and melt in a pan on the stove. and then brown the butter until it is golden brown and smells like nuts. obviously, my butter did not turn brown, it is still yellow. and then you pour the brown butter into a bowl and add the remaining 4 tablespoons and stir until melted.
whisk in the salt, sugars, and vanilla. it looks like this. and then whisk in the egg plus yolk. for approximately 30 seconds. and then stop and don’t touch it for three minutes.
repeat the whisk for thirty and stop for three. and then repeat it again. a total of two repetitions. it should look super shiny and glossy. like this.
mix in the flour-baking soda mixture until it is one with the butter-sugars-salt-vanilla-egg plus yolk mixture. add your chocolate chips. and then you will most likely want to scoop them with a scoop on cookie sheets with parchment. only put about 8 per sheet because it lets them bake better.
my cat loves butter.
set the oven to 350 and bake for about 10-15 minutes rotating halfway. my oven took 15. it’s supposed to make 16, but i guess i had a smaller scoop, so mine was about 24.
it’s like crisp and chewy. basically perfect. perfect chocolate chip cookies.
