TOMORROW IS ST. PATRICK'S DAY! I love this holiday. I like it because I love to drink, and I love telling people my ancestors were Irish, and mostly I love to drink!
I can't drink this year, you know. I can eat, though, and I am almost as good at eating as I am drinking.
I decided I wanted to bake something for work today. Something green, but nothing dyed, because that's usually off-putting. I thought of things that are green and are also dessert-worthy. I remembered that spumoni cake I made for Easter a couple years ago and decided I would make pistachio cupcakes. I didn't want to just add a box of pudding or a handful of crushed nuts to a box mix, I wanted to make pistachio cupcakes, dammit. After searching for awhile on the internet, the same recipe came up over and over - a box of mix, a box of pistachio pudding, awful green food coloring. The cupcakes were bright shamrock green, the icing usually a pale minty color. They were awful. I was discouraged.
Then I came across this recipe from Feast on the Cheap and lo and behold! They used real pistachios! And flour! And sugar! And stuff! And no food coloring, so I decided to try it. I am really, really, really glad I did. It is hands down now my favorite cupcake I've ever made (well, no, any time I put candied orange peel on a cupcake is my favorite cupcake in the world). The only change I made was instead of buttercream icing I used cream cheese because I'm just not a huge fan of buttercream, no matter how many different recipes I try.
PISTACHIO CUPCAKES
1 c shelled unsalted pistachios
1 c all-purpose flour
2 tsps baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
3/4 c sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 c pistachios for decorating (is what I used)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin tin with paper liners.
Pulse the pistachios in a food processor until finely ground. In a large bowl, whisk together the ground pistachios, flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
Combine the milk and vanilla in a spouted measuring cup.
Beat the butter and sugar until fluffy and pale, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time until just combined. On low speed, alternately add the pistachio mixture and the milk in batches, starting and finishing with the flour. Finish mixing by hand and avoid over-beating.
Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tin filling to the top of the liners. Bake for 12 - 14 minutes.
(The only thing I would change is they did not need to be filled to the top. I assumed maybe this instruction was because they didn't rise well, but they rise like any other cupcake I've ever made - definitely fill them 2/3 full like you would with any other cupcake batter. I had those big, flat, icky muffin-tops. Also because of that it only made 10...otherwise it would have certainly made a full dozen.)
Anyway, I lightly chopped up the 1/2 cup of pistachios, slapped on some of my cream cheese icing, and sprinkled with the nuts. Delicious! The guys up here really loved them, too!
On that recipe, she also linked to a key lime pie. You know what's special about a key lime pie? IT'S ALSO GREEN, SISTER.
I knew I was taking a chance pulling two recipes from one source and making them the same night, but I threw caution to the wind when I surfed for other pie recipes and realized they're all about the same!
KEY LIME PIE
For the crust:
1 1/2 c graham cracker crumbs
1/4 c sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
5 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
For the filling:
4 egg yolks
14 oz can sweetened, condensed milk
1/2 c key lime juice
And I had some whipped cream on hand for topping, but I didn't put it on top - I think next time I will since it would be prettier.
Cookie crumbs for decorating:
2/3 c graham cracker crumbs
2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
2 tbsp sugar
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Prepare the crust. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and spices until blended. Stir in the melted butter, combining well.
Transfer the mixture to the bottom of a 9-inch pie plate. Lightly spread the crumbs evenly along the bottom and up the sides of the pie plate. Once evenly distributed, use gentle pressure to press the mixture into the bottom and sides, forming a rim slightly raised at the top edge of the dish.
If opting for the cookie crumble topping, prepare in the same manner, through step 2. Transfer the crumbs to a piece of heavy foil, folding up the sides to prevent spilling in the oven. (It looks like a flat-bottomed, square boat.)
Bake the pie shell and “boated” cookie crumbs for about 10 minutes until lightly browned.
Turn the oven temperature down to 350 degrees.
Meanwhile, prepare the filling. In a medium mixing bowl, using a whisk or electric mixer, lightly beat the eggs. Add the condensed milk, incorporating fully.
Gradually add the Key lime juice. Be careful not to over beat, if using an electric mixer, as the final product will form air bubbles on the surface.
Transfer the filling to the prepared pie crust. Using a rubber spatula, spread evenly to the edges of the crust.
Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. The pie will jiggle – don’t worry as the final setting occurs in the fridge.
Allow to cool for 15 minutes and then refrigerate the pie for 8 hours.
Either spread the whipped cream over the top of the pie, or top each slice with a dollop. Sprinkle with the cookie crumbs.
That's it. I do have to admit that while the pie was baking I was cleaning up and noticed the cinnamon for the crust waiting patiently on the counter for me to add it in. Whoops! It didn't seem to make much of a difference to the guys who ate it.
So now I've got a new website I'm going to spend a lot of time browsing, and some ideas for Easter. Key lime pie? Another spumoni cake but this time with cream cheese icing (and maybe a lemon layer instead of a pineapple)? Or another Death by Chocolate trifle? (mmm) Any requests?
Showing posts with label pah. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pah. Show all posts
Creamed Spinach Casserole, Corn Pudding, Cherry Cream Crumble Pie
Holy shit, you guys.
Holy shit.
Kendra, I bet when you signed in to write your own last couple blog posts you noticed I had this draft up. I was totally preparing to write this big spectacular post about what I make at Christmas time - and then I was going to post a recipe for every day leading up to Christmas.
Awesome, right?
Yeah, well. The internet was down at work ALLLLL WEEEEEEKKKKKK and when I get home I am too busy actually cooking these things to write about them, or stirring Hamburger Helper, or trying to take the frozen pizza out without putting down my Jack-and-Coke.
So I'm going to cram it all into two posts - one dedicated to our Christmas supper at Christy and Jay's, and one for the desserts I brought to my in-laws' house this past weekend.
Christy is not a cook. Seriously. She will straight up tell you, let me clean up your mess, but you do the cooking. So, alright. We sat down the Wednesday before our Saturday night dinner to plan what we were going to cook. A lot of our menu came from my cookbooks - including The Book, which if anyone asks, I'll let Kendra handle that particular question. The Book is overwhelming, to say the least.
Here is our menu:
Garlic Studded Pot Roast (only difference here is we do ours on the stove-top)
Creamed Spinach Casserole (pg 83 of the birthday edition of The Book)
Corn Pudding
Mashed Potatoes
Cherry Cream Crumble Pie (pg 266)
We also had rolls and old fashioned sweet potato casserole, which Christy did make. Good job, Christy!
Creamed Spinach Casserole
2 boxes or bags frozen chopped spinach, thawed
8 oz cream cheese, room temp
1/2 cup crumbled bacon bits
1 stick butter, melted
1 cup, plus 2 tbsp fresh shredded Parmesan
Mix all ingredients (except 2 tbsp cheese) in a greased casserole dish. Sprinkle the reserved cheese on top. Bake at 350 for 30 min or until bubbly.
(this was really, really good - but is GREASY. like when we took it out of the oven i was dubious. reheated, it smells really bad...but i'm not the biggest fan of cream cheese outside of desserts, or when i can straight up smell it. also: you had better like spinach)
Corn Pudding
30 oz frozen corn (changed from two 15 oz cans)
1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp salt
1 c. egg substitute (this was initially a low fat/low cholesterol recipe that I revised - this is the only part I wasn't sure about. We ended up using like 4 eggs)
1 1/2 c. milk
Combine corn, flour, sugar, and salt. Pour into greased baking dish. In a separate bowl, mix egg and milk. Pour over corn but do not stir. Bake 45-50 min, stirring gently a few times during baking.
(This is really good, but VERY BLAND. Add salt and pepper and Tony's. Add some more.)
Cherry Cream Crumble Pie
Filling:
1/2 cup sugar
3 tbsp flour
2 15 oz. cans pitted tart cherries, drained
1 cup sour cream
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/4 tsp almond extract
1 unbaked pie crust
Topping:
1/2 cup quick cooking oats
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup cold butter
1/2 cup chopped pecans
Preheat oven to 400.
In a large bowl, combine the sugar, flour, cherries, sour cream, egg, and extract. Spoon into the pie crust, and bake for 20 minutes.
While pie is cooking, assemble ingredients for topping. Combine the oats, flour, brown sugar,and cinnamon in a bowl. Cut in butter until mixture is coarse and crumbly. Fold in chopped pecans.
After the pie has baked 20 minutes, remove from foil and crumble the mixture on top. Cover the edges of the crust with foil to prevent over-browning, and return to oven. Bake another 25-30 minutes, or until the topping has slightly browned.
Allow to cool for 1 hour before serving.
(ok - this is awesome. it's ugly at first because it's PINK but it comes out great. bring ice cream.)
Holy shit.
Kendra, I bet when you signed in to write your own last couple blog posts you noticed I had this draft up. I was totally preparing to write this big spectacular post about what I make at Christmas time - and then I was going to post a recipe for every day leading up to Christmas.
Awesome, right?
Yeah, well. The internet was down at work ALLLLL WEEEEEEKKKKKK and when I get home I am too busy actually cooking these things to write about them, or stirring Hamburger Helper, or trying to take the frozen pizza out without putting down my Jack-and-Coke.
So I'm going to cram it all into two posts - one dedicated to our Christmas supper at Christy and Jay's, and one for the desserts I brought to my in-laws' house this past weekend.
Christy is not a cook. Seriously. She will straight up tell you, let me clean up your mess, but you do the cooking. So, alright. We sat down the Wednesday before our Saturday night dinner to plan what we were going to cook. A lot of our menu came from my cookbooks - including The Book, which if anyone asks, I'll let Kendra handle that particular question. The Book is overwhelming, to say the least.
Here is our menu:
Garlic Studded Pot Roast (only difference here is we do ours on the stove-top)
Creamed Spinach Casserole (pg 83 of the birthday edition of The Book)
Corn Pudding
Mashed Potatoes
Cherry Cream Crumble Pie (pg 266)
We also had rolls and old fashioned sweet potato casserole, which Christy did make. Good job, Christy!
Creamed Spinach Casserole
2 boxes or bags frozen chopped spinach, thawed
8 oz cream cheese, room temp
1/2 cup crumbled bacon bits
1 stick butter, melted
1 cup, plus 2 tbsp fresh shredded Parmesan
Mix all ingredients (except 2 tbsp cheese) in a greased casserole dish. Sprinkle the reserved cheese on top. Bake at 350 for 30 min or until bubbly.
(this was really, really good - but is GREASY. like when we took it out of the oven i was dubious. reheated, it smells really bad...but i'm not the biggest fan of cream cheese outside of desserts, or when i can straight up smell it. also: you had better like spinach)
Corn Pudding
30 oz frozen corn (changed from two 15 oz cans)
1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp salt
1 c. egg substitute (this was initially a low fat/low cholesterol recipe that I revised - this is the only part I wasn't sure about. We ended up using like 4 eggs)
1 1/2 c. milk
Combine corn, flour, sugar, and salt. Pour into greased baking dish. In a separate bowl, mix egg and milk. Pour over corn but do not stir. Bake 45-50 min, stirring gently a few times during baking.
(This is really good, but VERY BLAND. Add salt and pepper and Tony's. Add some more.)
Cherry Cream Crumble Pie
Filling:
1/2 cup sugar
3 tbsp flour
2 15 oz. cans pitted tart cherries, drained
1 cup sour cream
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/4 tsp almond extract
1 unbaked pie crust
Topping:
1/2 cup quick cooking oats
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup cold butter
1/2 cup chopped pecans
Preheat oven to 400.
In a large bowl, combine the sugar, flour, cherries, sour cream, egg, and extract. Spoon into the pie crust, and bake for 20 minutes.
While pie is cooking, assemble ingredients for topping. Combine the oats, flour, brown sugar,and cinnamon in a bowl. Cut in butter until mixture is coarse and crumbly. Fold in chopped pecans.
After the pie has baked 20 minutes, remove from foil and crumble the mixture on top. Cover the edges of the crust with foil to prevent over-browning, and return to oven. Bake another 25-30 minutes, or until the topping has slightly browned.
Allow to cool for 1 hour before serving.
(ok - this is awesome. it's ugly at first because it's PINK but it comes out great. bring ice cream.)
MERRY CHRISTMAS from some people who don't know how to use a self timer!
Caramelized Banana Tarts
These are the banana tarts I made for 4th of July that I mentioned in a previous post. The recipe comes from a book I picked up somewhere along the way: Celebrating Cobblers and Pies. The book is great, but a little over-the-top. This seemed easy enough for a Saturday, and once you have everything prepped and cooled, it runs pretty smoothly. There are some lapses while waiting, but I like that because I can use that time to clean up the mess I'm making.
There's a lot of components here, so try and keep up. It may get a little confusing when it's all laid out like this.
Almond Tart Dough:
Ingredients:
2 sticks very cold unsalted butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup blanched almonds, finely ground
1 egg
2 tablespoons cold water
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
Put butter and 1/4 cup powdered sugar in food processor fitted with a metal blade. On pulse setting, mix for two minutes.
Add almonds and remaining sugar and pulse for another two minutes, until mixture is smooth.
Add egg, water, salt, and half the flour. Pulse for another two minutes, until mixture forms dough. Add remaining flour and pulse for another minute, until ball of dough is formed. Remove ball of dough from processor, cover in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least an hour before use.
(I don't have a full sized processor, so I used my stand mixer and it worked just fine. The dough wasn't tough or thick at all, so it would probably even work with a hand mixer.)
Pastry Cream:
(makes 3 cups)
Ingredients:
2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
6 egg yolks
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp flour
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
In a small saucepan, bring milk and 1/4 c sugar to a boil.
Meanwhile, in medium bowl, whisk yolks together with remaining 1/4 cup of sugar, cornstarch, flour, and vanilla extract until thick and well blended.
Once milk has reached a boil, lower heart to very low. using whisk, gradually add egg yolk mixture, stirring constantly until bubbles appear and mixture has pudding-like consistency (about 5 minutes). Remove pan from heat at once.
Pour cream into clean bowl and press a piece of plastic wrap against surface to create airtight seal. Refrigerate cream until cold.
Put it all together to make a banana tart:
Ingredients:
almond tart dough
1 egg, beaten
2 cups pastry cream
6 ripe bananas, cut into 1/4" slices
1/4 cup sugar
Equipment:
6 3" tartlet pans
parchment paper
pie weights of dried beans
pastry bag with 1/4" round tip
Preheat oven to 375. Working on a well-floured surface, roll out dough to a thickness of about 1/8" inch. Using a 4 in" ring or large cookies cutter, cut out six circles of dough and place on in each pan, using your fingers to gently press dough into bottom and up sides. Using a fork, make several holes in dough. Trim excess edges of dough.
Cover pans with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 15 minutes.
Place a 6" circle of parchment paper over dough in each pan. Weight down paper with pie weights or dried beans. Bake for 20 minutes.
Remove pie weights of beans and parchment paper, and brush crusts with beaten egg. Bake for another 3 minutes. Remove from oven and place on wire rack until crusts reach room temperature.
Fill a pastry bag with pastry cream and fill crusts, starting at edges and ending in the center. pipe in a circular motion to achieve and even layer.
Arrange banana slices evenly on top, covering all of the cream.
Sprinkle sugar evenly over bananas. use kitchen torch of broiler to brown the sugar until it bubbles and darkens. Wait until bubbles subside before serving.
---------------------------------------------
Alllll right, there were some THINGS. First of all, I couldn't find 3" tartlets at the last minute, so I used a combination of 4 and 6. That's not important information, but I thought I'd throw that out there and say hey! They worked out fine. Because I'm the kind of person who has panic attacks over differences like that.
I would only bake it for about 15 minutes the first time. They came out very browned for shells that were gonna be stuck back in the oven. After the egg white, maybe 2 minutes tops.
Do you have a kitchen torch? I do not. Why does a normal person like me need a kitchen torch? I LOVE getting my hands on the more complicated kitchen utensils, but I have never had a desire for a torch. So I used my broiler, and hoo-boy, did these puppies burn around the edges. I ended up having to construct tiny 4" foil turtlenecks for each tartlet. Say that five times fast.
Will I ever make this again? Er, no, probably not. Do I hope someone else makes them and sends me some, frozen and Fed-exed? Yes!
There's a lot of components here, so try and keep up. It may get a little confusing when it's all laid out like this.
Almond Tart Dough:
Ingredients:
2 sticks very cold unsalted butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup blanched almonds, finely ground
1 egg
2 tablespoons cold water
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
Put butter and 1/4 cup powdered sugar in food processor fitted with a metal blade. On pulse setting, mix for two minutes.
Add almonds and remaining sugar and pulse for another two minutes, until mixture is smooth.
Add egg, water, salt, and half the flour. Pulse for another two minutes, until mixture forms dough. Add remaining flour and pulse for another minute, until ball of dough is formed. Remove ball of dough from processor, cover in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least an hour before use.
(I don't have a full sized processor, so I used my stand mixer and it worked just fine. The dough wasn't tough or thick at all, so it would probably even work with a hand mixer.)
Pastry Cream:
(makes 3 cups)
Ingredients:
2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
6 egg yolks
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp flour
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
In a small saucepan, bring milk and 1/4 c sugar to a boil.
Meanwhile, in medium bowl, whisk yolks together with remaining 1/4 cup of sugar, cornstarch, flour, and vanilla extract until thick and well blended.
Once milk has reached a boil, lower heart to very low. using whisk, gradually add egg yolk mixture, stirring constantly until bubbles appear and mixture has pudding-like consistency (about 5 minutes). Remove pan from heat at once.
Pour cream into clean bowl and press a piece of plastic wrap against surface to create airtight seal. Refrigerate cream until cold.
Put it all together to make a banana tart:
Ingredients:
almond tart dough
1 egg, beaten
2 cups pastry cream
6 ripe bananas, cut into 1/4" slices
1/4 cup sugar
Equipment:
6 3" tartlet pans
parchment paper
pie weights of dried beans
pastry bag with 1/4" round tip
Preheat oven to 375. Working on a well-floured surface, roll out dough to a thickness of about 1/8" inch. Using a 4 in" ring or large cookies cutter, cut out six circles of dough and place on in each pan, using your fingers to gently press dough into bottom and up sides. Using a fork, make several holes in dough. Trim excess edges of dough.
Cover pans with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 15 minutes.
Place a 6" circle of parchment paper over dough in each pan. Weight down paper with pie weights or dried beans. Bake for 20 minutes.
Remove pie weights of beans and parchment paper, and brush crusts with beaten egg. Bake for another 3 minutes. Remove from oven and place on wire rack until crusts reach room temperature.
Fill a pastry bag with pastry cream and fill crusts, starting at edges and ending in the center. pipe in a circular motion to achieve and even layer.
Arrange banana slices evenly on top, covering all of the cream.
Sprinkle sugar evenly over bananas. use kitchen torch of broiler to brown the sugar until it bubbles and darkens. Wait until bubbles subside before serving.
---------------------------------------------
Alllll right, there were some THINGS. First of all, I couldn't find 3" tartlets at the last minute, so I used a combination of 4 and 6. That's not important information, but I thought I'd throw that out there and say hey! They worked out fine. Because I'm the kind of person who has panic attacks over differences like that.
I would only bake it for about 15 minutes the first time. They came out very browned for shells that were gonna be stuck back in the oven. After the egg white, maybe 2 minutes tops.
Do you have a kitchen torch? I do not. Why does a normal person like me need a kitchen torch? I LOVE getting my hands on the more complicated kitchen utensils, but I have never had a desire for a torch. So I used my broiler, and hoo-boy, did these puppies burn around the edges. I ended up having to construct tiny 4" foil turtlenecks for each tartlet. Say that five times fast.
Will I ever make this again? Er, no, probably not. Do I hope someone else makes them and sends me some, frozen and Fed-exed? Yes!
Mulberry Pie
So, I finally got to make a mulberry pie.
I found a recipe I liked, but it didn’t include a crust recipe, so I had to find another recipe for that.
I married these two recipes together and VOILA – PAH!
Foolproof Pie Crust
(from Tammy’s Recipes)
Yields: 3 pies with tops*
2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 ¾ cups whole wheat flour (the author suggests pastry flour but I didn’t have any, so plain ol’ wheat it was)
1 ¾ cups butter or shortening (shortening = flaky crust. I used 1 cup shortening and ¾ cups of butter, because that’s what I had)
1 tbsp sugar
2 tsp vinegar
1 egg
½ cup cold water
In a large bowl mix flours, salt, and sugar. Cut in butter until pea-sized lumps remain.
In a separate bowl, beat vinegar, egg, and water. Add to flour mixture and mix just until dough forms. It will be sticky. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes (I ended up getting busy so mine was in there for about 1 ½ hours).
Roll into shape on floured surface and it’s ready to go. For pie recipes that call for a pre-baked crust, bake at 425 until slightly browned.
*She says it make three medium thick 9 inch pie crusts with tops or two thicker crusts with tops. I was able to baaarely get two out, in fact about ¾ of one pie ended up bare on top. I didn’t think I made it that thick, so, keep that in mind.
Also, when I was rolling and mixing this (and P.S. it turns out my stand mixer cuts in butter – this made me SO HAPPY. I hate doing that part) it STUNK. All I could smell was vinegar and I knew it was going to be awful and I wanted to cry. I was composing hatemail to Tammy while I rolled it out. Obviously, you can’t taste/smell the vinegar when it’s cooked, so it’s all good.
This is going to be my go-to crust recipe from now on!
Ok, here’s the pie filling recipe I used:
Mulberry Pie
(from Taste of Home)
3 cups ripe mulberries, rinsed
2/3 cups white sugar
½ cup flour
3 tbsp lime juice
1 egg
2 tsp cinnamon sugar
Preheat oven to 400.
In large bowl, mix mulberries, sugar, flour, and lime juice.
(Alright, listen – I had to use a TON more mulberries. A TON. I doubled the recipe since I had two crusts so maybe I didn’t measure properly since it is a little difficult to measure sloppy, messy berries, but 3 cups seems way off to me. I used regular sized Cool Whip containers to freeze my berries and I think I remember about two cups going in each one - I ended up using THREE of those, plus the berries leftover from our cobbler, probably another 2 cups. SO, have plenty of berries on hand, just in case.)
Pour into pastry-lined pie plate.
(Here it says to create a lattice top, but I put the whole top on and cut some slits in the top and called it a day. I was tired and not in the mood to create lattice. Ugh.)
Bake in oven for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, whisk egg and cinnamon sugar together. Lower the oven temp to 350 and bake for ten minutes. Take the pie out and brush the egg on top of the crust. Bake for another 20 minutes or until crust is golden brown.
All in all, this was awesome. It was literally (no joke) the BEST PIE I have ever had. And I have eaten a lot of pie. Even Will couldn’t keep his hands out of it, and that’s weird for him. We ate half of a pie by ourselves last night (yes, we both have belly aches this morning).
I plan on spending the rest of my summer afternoons scouting out Mom’s mulberry tree and hoarding the berries! I wonder why you can’t buy them frozen like other berries?
I found a recipe I liked, but it didn’t include a crust recipe, so I had to find another recipe for that.
I married these two recipes together and VOILA – PAH!
Foolproof Pie Crust
(from Tammy’s Recipes)
Yields: 3 pies with tops*
2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 ¾ cups whole wheat flour (the author suggests pastry flour but I didn’t have any, so plain ol’ wheat it was)
1 ¾ cups butter or shortening (shortening = flaky crust. I used 1 cup shortening and ¾ cups of butter, because that’s what I had)
1 tbsp sugar
2 tsp vinegar
1 egg
½ cup cold water
In a large bowl mix flours, salt, and sugar. Cut in butter until pea-sized lumps remain.
In a separate bowl, beat vinegar, egg, and water. Add to flour mixture and mix just until dough forms. It will be sticky. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes (I ended up getting busy so mine was in there for about 1 ½ hours).
Roll into shape on floured surface and it’s ready to go. For pie recipes that call for a pre-baked crust, bake at 425 until slightly browned.
*She says it make three medium thick 9 inch pie crusts with tops or two thicker crusts with tops. I was able to baaarely get two out, in fact about ¾ of one pie ended up bare on top. I didn’t think I made it that thick, so, keep that in mind.
Also, when I was rolling and mixing this (and P.S. it turns out my stand mixer cuts in butter – this made me SO HAPPY. I hate doing that part) it STUNK. All I could smell was vinegar and I knew it was going to be awful and I wanted to cry. I was composing hatemail to Tammy while I rolled it out. Obviously, you can’t taste/smell the vinegar when it’s cooked, so it’s all good.
This is going to be my go-to crust recipe from now on!
Ok, here’s the pie filling recipe I used:
Mulberry Pie
(from Taste of Home)
3 cups ripe mulberries, rinsed
2/3 cups white sugar
½ cup flour
3 tbsp lime juice
1 egg
2 tsp cinnamon sugar
Preheat oven to 400.
In large bowl, mix mulberries, sugar, flour, and lime juice.
(Alright, listen – I had to use a TON more mulberries. A TON. I doubled the recipe since I had two crusts so maybe I didn’t measure properly since it is a little difficult to measure sloppy, messy berries, but 3 cups seems way off to me. I used regular sized Cool Whip containers to freeze my berries and I think I remember about two cups going in each one - I ended up using THREE of those, plus the berries leftover from our cobbler, probably another 2 cups. SO, have plenty of berries on hand, just in case.)
Pour into pastry-lined pie plate.
(Here it says to create a lattice top, but I put the whole top on and cut some slits in the top and called it a day. I was tired and not in the mood to create lattice. Ugh.)
Bake in oven for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, whisk egg and cinnamon sugar together. Lower the oven temp to 350 and bake for ten minutes. Take the pie out and brush the egg on top of the crust. Bake for another 20 minutes or until crust is golden brown.
All in all, this was awesome. It was literally (no joke) the BEST PIE I have ever had. And I have eaten a lot of pie. Even Will couldn’t keep his hands out of it, and that’s weird for him. We ate half of a pie by ourselves last night (yes, we both have belly aches this morning).
I plan on spending the rest of my summer afternoons scouting out Mom’s mulberry tree and hoarding the berries! I wonder why you can’t buy them frozen like other berries?
Red Beans and Blah
Yep, I can feel my slump starting. I haven't cooked all week, because Mom and Dad are awesome. They took us out to eat at Sammy's (how much do I love that that place is right by my house??) Monday night, and we had plenty of leftovers for supper last night. Tonight, I will be relying on the miracle of pre-cooked, flash frozen, mass produced entrees. We'll be having the last of the Omaha meatballs I have in my freezer (I pretend that I don't know they're made from veal. Oh, delicious little sad baby cows, I am so sorry. I don't normally eat you!) with...drumroll...Great Value Brand Cheese Manicotti. Don't judge, now. It's pretty tasty, and the ingredients list passes inspection. Whatever gets me out of these shoes and into the bathtub quickest, I'm for.
While that's defrostifying for tonight's dinner, I will cut up an onion and some smoked sausage and put some red beans on to soak. In the morning I'll rinse them, dump them in a crock pot, and simmer them slow all day. Get home tomorrow, cook rice, fry sausage, make cornbread muffins. Eat. Woooo. Exciting. If you need a step-by-step on red beans, just let me know - but if I remember, you don't love them!
Saturday I'm going to see about getting some cilantro for EVEN MORE SALSA AGAIN SOME MORE. I am 100% not tired of it yet and wishing I had some right now. I have some strawberries that need to be used, too, (they were $1 a carton last weekend! Score!) so I might also make a strawberry pie. You know, the kind with the strawberries set in jello, that we'd have at Aunt Nette's sometimes? We'll see.
(Okay, mostly I just wanted to use the PAH tag, because it cracks me up to see it down there. But I really am thinking of making one!)
While that's defrostifying for tonight's dinner, I will cut up an onion and some smoked sausage and put some red beans on to soak. In the morning I'll rinse them, dump them in a crock pot, and simmer them slow all day. Get home tomorrow, cook rice, fry sausage, make cornbread muffins. Eat. Woooo. Exciting. If you need a step-by-step on red beans, just let me know - but if I remember, you don't love them!
Saturday I'm going to see about getting some cilantro for EVEN MORE SALSA AGAIN SOME MORE. I am 100% not tired of it yet and wishing I had some right now. I have some strawberries that need to be used, too, (they were $1 a carton last weekend! Score!) so I might also make a strawberry pie. You know, the kind with the strawberries set in jello, that we'd have at Aunt Nette's sometimes? We'll see.
(Okay, mostly I just wanted to use the PAH tag, because it cracks me up to see it down there. But I really am thinking of making one!)
Peach Crumble Pie
I finally got in the kitchen this weekend! I guess planting the garden inspired me.
Like I said on the phone, I was all prepared to try a new recipe for supper on Saturday night (Friday was pizza at mom’s), but Will decided we needed a “date.” I was glad to get out, but I’m pretty sure I could’ve made a better meal than what I had at the restaurant. Mostly because the mahi mahi was WAY overcooked, the potatoes tasted like they were from a box, and the only table we could get without a wait was outside on the patio (awesome!) next to a huge table of drunk smokers (not so awesome). The seafood bisque was amazing, though, so whatevs.
Sunday Mom and I made fajitas (SALSA) at her house and I made a pie I ended up bringing to grandma’s (SALSA PIE?).
This came from a Weight Watchers book, but don’t judge! It’s really, really good. And it smells so great when it’s cooking. Even will mumbled “delicious” around a mouthful and that made my heart swell pretty big. What is it about us that makes us equate cooking with love?
Peach Crumble Pie
(quickly – I did make a crust from scratch but obviously just switch that out with a premade one for you peeps with babies. HOWEVER, if you have a second to spare, I would recommend a homemade crust – not a Weight Watchers one, per se, unless you’re counting calories, but doesn’t from scratch taste so much better? Also, I can’t find the crust recipe online, so I’m not going to include it. It’s pretty good and simple though, so I might add it to this post one day if I even become that organized/driven.)
Filling:
3.5 lbs. of peaches, sliced or 3 16 oz. bags of frozen peaches, thawed (I used frozen – fresh isn’t out yet!)
handful of raspberries (again, I used frozen – and about two handfuls…)
¾ cup packed light brown sugar
½ tsp cinnamon, ground
¼ tsp ginger, ground
1 ½ tablespoons cornstarch
1 tsp vanilla extract
Topping:
2/3 cups rolled oats
¼ cup flour
½ cup light brown sugar
¼ tsp salt
2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp water
Preheat your oven to 375.
Combine all filling ingredients and toss until well mixed and coated. Set aside.
For the topping, combing oats, flour, brown sugar, and salt.. Add butter, lemon juice, and water. Stir to combine.
Put your filling in your pie crust, then crumble the topping over. It will pretty much cover the entire filling, so YAY.
Bake for 40 minutes, then loosely tent the top with aluminum foil to prevent top from over browning. Bake an additional 40 minutes longer, until filling is hot and bubbly.
Ok, after the additional 40 minutes my pie still looked pretty liquidy and wasn’t bubbly. I thought maybe it would set a bit more on the way to mom’s, but it never did. I ended up cooking it for another 20 minutes in her oven, not with foil all over, but just around the edge of the crust to prevent burning. It was still a bit soupy to me (more cornstarch maybe next time, but I really think it was due to the frozen fruit instead of the fresh – those raspberries are packed in a ton of water, it seems), but it was awesome. It really made me feel like summer had arrived and it wasn’t like eating a regular ol’ peach pie you can get anywhere because of the raspberries.
Also, I love pie.
Like I said on the phone, I was all prepared to try a new recipe for supper on Saturday night (Friday was pizza at mom’s), but Will decided we needed a “date.” I was glad to get out, but I’m pretty sure I could’ve made a better meal than what I had at the restaurant. Mostly because the mahi mahi was WAY overcooked, the potatoes tasted like they were from a box, and the only table we could get without a wait was outside on the patio (awesome!) next to a huge table of drunk smokers (not so awesome). The seafood bisque was amazing, though, so whatevs.
Sunday Mom and I made fajitas (SALSA) at her house and I made a pie I ended up bringing to grandma’s (SALSA PIE?).
This came from a Weight Watchers book, but don’t judge! It’s really, really good. And it smells so great when it’s cooking. Even will mumbled “delicious” around a mouthful and that made my heart swell pretty big. What is it about us that makes us equate cooking with love?
Peach Crumble Pie
(quickly – I did make a crust from scratch but obviously just switch that out with a premade one for you peeps with babies. HOWEVER, if you have a second to spare, I would recommend a homemade crust – not a Weight Watchers one, per se, unless you’re counting calories, but doesn’t from scratch taste so much better? Also, I can’t find the crust recipe online, so I’m not going to include it. It’s pretty good and simple though, so I might add it to this post one day if I even become that organized/driven.)
Filling:
3.5 lbs. of peaches, sliced or 3 16 oz. bags of frozen peaches, thawed (I used frozen – fresh isn’t out yet!)
handful of raspberries (again, I used frozen – and about two handfuls…)
¾ cup packed light brown sugar
½ tsp cinnamon, ground
¼ tsp ginger, ground
1 ½ tablespoons cornstarch
1 tsp vanilla extract
Topping:
2/3 cups rolled oats
¼ cup flour
½ cup light brown sugar
¼ tsp salt
2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp water
Preheat your oven to 375.
Combine all filling ingredients and toss until well mixed and coated. Set aside.
For the topping, combing oats, flour, brown sugar, and salt.. Add butter, lemon juice, and water. Stir to combine.
Put your filling in your pie crust, then crumble the topping over. It will pretty much cover the entire filling, so YAY.
Bake for 40 minutes, then loosely tent the top with aluminum foil to prevent top from over browning. Bake an additional 40 minutes longer, until filling is hot and bubbly.
Ok, after the additional 40 minutes my pie still looked pretty liquidy and wasn’t bubbly. I thought maybe it would set a bit more on the way to mom’s, but it never did. I ended up cooking it for another 20 minutes in her oven, not with foil all over, but just around the edge of the crust to prevent burning. It was still a bit soupy to me (more cornstarch maybe next time, but I really think it was due to the frozen fruit instead of the fresh – those raspberries are packed in a ton of water, it seems), but it was awesome. It really made me feel like summer had arrived and it wasn’t like eating a regular ol’ peach pie you can get anywhere because of the raspberries.
Also, I love pie.
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