Free-Form Apple Onion Tart

Pastry:
1½ cups flour
1 tsp. sugar
½ tsp. salt
8 T. butter
1 T. white vinegar
4-5 T. ice water

Onions:
1 lg. red onion, peeled, root intact
2 lg. spanish onions, peeled with root intact
2 T. olive oil
2 T. dijon mustard
3 T. thyme
salt/pepper
3 T. balsamic vinegar

Apple Filling:
4 golden delicious apples
2 T. butter
2 T. sugar
pinch of nutmeg

Pastry: In the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour, sugar, and salt, and pulse to sift together. Add the butter, pulsing to mix until the mixture resembles sand. Mix together the vinegar and 4 T. water. Mix vinegar mixture into the flour, enough that the dough comes together. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured board, and knead until smooth. Shape into a flat, round, cake. Wrap in foil and refrigerate 20 minutes.

Onions: Preheat the oven to 400° F. Cut each onion into 6-8 wedges, keeping some root on each piece to hold together. Mix olive oil, mustard, thyme, salt and pepper in a bowl. Add the onions, and toss gently to coat. Arrange onions in a baking dish, rounded sides down. Sprinkle with vinegar. Cover with foil, roast for 45 minutes. Remove foil, roast for 30 minutes more, until very tender.

Apples: Peel, core, and quarter apples. Cut each quarter into 3 pieces. In a large skillet, melt butter, add apples, and sprinkle with sugar and nutmeg. Cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes.

Set oven at 400° F. Roll out dough on a floured surface to about 9x11 inches. Transfer to floured baking sheet. Place apples on dough, and onions on top of apples. Curl up edge of dough around filling. Bake for approximately 35 minutes, or until pastry browns.

From the Boston Globe, probably 15 years ago but I don't have the original recipe--Jay sent me a copy.

Dad's Famous Brownies

So when I was a little kid, my Mom worked nights and my Dad took care of us evenings, feeding us and getting us into bed. Possibly because we inherited my Mom's sweet tooth, possibly because he began to get into cooking and baking at that time, possibly just to buy good behavior on the part of his children, my Dad started making brownies from scratch and modified the recipe from whatever cookbook it originally came from. They became famous. In fact, I'm sure I'm always very well behaved whenever I eat them.

I got the recipe from him at some point and modified it a bit more, mostly when I lived in Germany and was using slightly different ingredients. I started making them for kayaking trips and was once threatened to be left behind if I ever showed up for a trip without them. Yeah, I made a lot of brownies in Germany. Now, I may be gilding the memory but I swear they were absolutely no-fail excellent then. I don't know what's happened, but I can't seem to get them right since I've been back in the States. What's wrong?! Susan, I am counting on you here. Molly and I made them last night and they were so ridiculously runny in the middle, I had to bake them a lot longer. Should I adjust time or temperature? I am using a glass pan here and wonder if that could be it, but for the life of me I don't remember what I made them in in Germany. argh. Don't get me wrong, they're still terribly yummy, but I have a serious consistency issue. No, not that kind, they are very consistently....runny in the middle when the edges are done.

14 T. butter
2 c. sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1¼ c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
generous ¾ c. cocoa powder (don't measure, just scoop away with a ¼ cup measure, and the more rounded it is the deeper the chocolate)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, and grease a pan (13x9 if you want cakier, 9x9 if you want fudgier...maybe I was using 13x9 in Germany?!).

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over low heat. Remove from heat, allow to cool slightly, then stir in the sugar. When you're sure it's cool enough, stir in the eggs and vanilla, mixing thorougly. Combine dry ingredients in a bowl, then beat into butter mixture well. Spread in pan. Bake 30 minutes or until brownies start to pull away from sides of pan...but do not overbake or they get tough once they've set.

Yeah, I know, this is not a recipe for the faint of heart. But Susan, you'd really be sacrificing for the team if you had to bake these a couple of times and play with them in the interest of helping the recipe.

Linzer Heart cookies

from The Silver Palate cookbook (only modified slightly). Must be made every Valentine's day, along with whatever raw meat pink wheat flour cookies Monika chooses.

¾ pound butter, softened
1¾ c. confectioner's sugar, divided
1 egg
2 c. unbleached all-purpose flour, sifted
1 c. cornstarch
2 c. grated almonds
½ c. red raspberry preserves

Cream butter and 1 c. of the sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and mix well. Sift together flour and cornstarch; add to creamed mixture and blend well. Mix in almonds thoroughly. Gather dough into a ball, wrap in wax paper, and chill for 4 to 6 hours.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Roll dough out to ¼-inch thickness between sheets of parchment paper. Using heart-shaped cookie cutters, cut out cookies, leaving ¼-inch space between each one. Peel the excess dough from around them, and re-wrap and refrigerate or freeze to be rolled out again in a few minutes. Slide cookies, still on parchment, onto a baking sheet. Bake cookies for 10-15 minutes, or until evenly and very lightly browned. Remove and cool on a wire rack.

Spread the bottom halves of the cookies lightly with raspberry preserves, and top each one with a remaining cookie. (This is especially nice if your cookie lids have inner heart-shaped holes in the middle for the preserves to show through.) Place confectioner's sugar in a sifter and dust cookie tops with it.

Who me, fixated on all things Linzer?

Poppy seed muffins

As Alton Brown would say, these aren't really muffins, they're cupcakes.  But they're good.  It's a very runny batter, like a cake batter instead of muffin batter.  I didn't realize what a huge recipe I was making until I was already too far along to back out, so I made a dozen muffins and two small loaves.  The glaze is nice, but so sweet that I wish I had backed off on the sugar in the muffins themselves.

Poppy Seed Muffins

3 eggs
2½ cups white sugar
1⅛ cups vegetable oil
1½ cups milk
1½ teaspoons salt
1½ teaspoons baking powder
1½ tablespoons poppy seeds
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1½ teaspoons almond extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup white sugar
¼ cup orange juice [I used lemon juice]
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon almond extract
2 teaspoons butter, melted

1. Beat together the eggs, 2½ cups white sugar and vegetable oil. Add in milk, salt, baking powder, poppy seeds, vanilla, almond flavoring, and flour. Mix well.
2. Bake in paper lined muffin cups (filled ¾ full or 3 small greased loaf pans) at 350° F (175° C) for 15-20 minutes for muffins and 50-60 minutes for loaves. The tops should be browned and a toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean.
3. Remove muffins as soon as you can while still warm/hot and dunk tops into glaze. Turn right side up and cool on a cookie rack. With loaves just pour the glaze evenly over the three loaves while still in pans. Let cool to a warm temp. and remove from pans. Yes, it is a little messy but it is really good.
4. To Make Glaze: In a saucepan over low heat, combine ¾ cup sugar, orange juice, ½ teaspoon vanilla, ½ teaspoon almond flavoring and 2 teaspoons melted butter. Warm in pan until the sugar is dissolved. Pour over loaf pans or dunk muffin tops into glaze when cooled to room temperature. (Omit the glaze altogether if you don't like the mess.) 

Allrecipes.com

Linzertorte

From the recipe by Stephanie Jaworski at Joy of Baking.com. I used store bought ground almonds and hazelnuts, and measured most of this by weight. I also used store bought raspberry preserves, and salted butter, and all of it worked well. Some recipes have some cocoa powder in the crust; maybe next time.

1 cup (150 g) ground almonds
½ cup (57 g) ground hazelnuts
1½ cups (210 g) all purpose flour
⅔ cup (135 g) white sugar
zest of one large lemon
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
¼ tsp. salt
½ tsp. baking powder
14 T. (195 g) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2 large egg yolks
1 tsp. vanilla extract
one cup raspberry preserves
confectioner's sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 10 inch tart pan or springform pan. Place the nuts, flour, sugar, lemon zest, cinnamon, cloves, salt and baking powder in a food processor, and process until well blended. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture looks like fine crumbs. Add the egg yolks and vanilla extract and pulse until dough just begins to come together. Gather the dough in a ball and divide into two pieces, one slightly larger than the other. Wrap the smaller ball of dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate.

Take the larger ball of dough, and press into the bottom and up the sides of the tart pan (or approximately 1 inch up the sides of a springform pan). Spread the raspberry preserves over the bottom of the crust. Remove the smaller ball of dough from the refrigerator and roll it between two pieces of waxed paper, into a rectangle about 10 x 6 inches. With a sharp knife or fluted pastry cutter, cut the dough into 10 ½ inch wide strips. Gently transfer the strips to the tart pan, without trying to weave them. Trim the edges of the strips in the tart pan. Take the leftover scraps of dough, rolll them into a long rope approximately ¼ inch thick, and place the rope/pieces around the outer edge of the tart where the strips meet the bottom crust, pressing in the edges and sealing. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. Cook on a rack before unmolding. Keeps well cooled overnight in the refrigerator; dust with powdered sugar before serving.

Apple Coffeecake

From Julie Allen, via the "Sailor's Delight" WHOI cookbook.

½ c. walnuts
2 tsp. cinnamon
1½ c. sugar, divided
½ c. butter
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 c. sour cream
2 apples, peeled and sliced

Mix nuts, cinnamon, and ¾ cup sugar in small bowl. Mix butter, remaining sugar, eggs and vanilla in a separate bowl. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; add to batter. Beat in sour cream. Spread half of batter in a greased 9-inch tube pan or bundt pan. Arrange sliced apples on top of batter. Cover with nut mixture and then the rest of the batter. Bake 40 minutes at 375 degrees.

I made this a couple of weeks ago and I am just getting around to posting it; I remember thinking that it was good, but I had some ideas for improvements. I have, naturally, now forgotten them. Darn. The only thing I remembered is that I substituted pecans for walnuts, and liked that. I also melted the butter, like in a muffin recipe, instead of creaming butter and sugar; that also worked well, though I am not sure if it's what was intended. I made it in a silicon bundt pan and wasn't sure it would hold together, what with the thick apple layer, but it did nicely. I think one main thing was that the baking time was really different than what the recipe said. Wish I remembered how.

Royal chocolate fudge cake with raspberries

I cleaned off my desk and finally found this old favorite recipe. I promised Mary a copy of this recipe last May (Hi Mary!), and just now found it again to type up. Sorry!

½ cup butter, melted
1 tsp. vanilla
1¼ cups sugar
4 eggs
4 heaping tablespoons cocoa
½ cup flour
½ tsp. baking powder
handful of chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 10 inch round cake pan or springform pan.

Food processor: Combine all of the ingredients except the chips in the bowl of a food processor. Blend for 30 seconds, scrape down the sides, and blend for another few seconds. Add the chips, and pulse briefly to blend them in. If mixing by hand, whisk the eggs and vanilla into the slightly cooled butter, then mix in the sugar. Blend the dry ingredients, then beat in slowly and thoroughly, giving it 30 extra strokes after it looks completely mixed. Beat in the chocolate chips.

Pour the batter into the pan, and bake for 25 minutes or until a cake tester in the center comes out clean, but the cake is not dry--be careful not to overbake. Allow to cool in pan, then remove.

Frosting/Topping (not sure what to call this)
½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
3 or 4 T. butter (depending on how soft you want it to turn out)
½ tsp. vanilla
optional: can add 1 T. Amaretto, Rum, Bailey's Irish Cream, etc.

Melt together over low flame in a small pot, stirring as it melts, then beating until smooth and well mixed. Turn off the heat, and leave it for approximately one minute, whisk again, and pour on like a drizzle. If you wish to spread it more like frosting, allow to cool slightly longer, until spreadable.

I usually top the cake with raspberries, then drizzle on the chocolate mixture. It also works to split the cake into two thin layers, putting raspberries and chocolate mixture in the middle, and some more on top.

This cake is a specialty of my friend Paula, who often mails it to people--make the version with two layers and the goodies in the middle, wrap really well in plastic wrap, and freeze. Once frozen, pack it well and ship immediately. It arrives in good shape a couple of days later!

Candied Ginger Shortbread Hearts

Originally from Gourmet, and found through epicurious. I don't know what the deal is with heart-shaped shortbread (see this recipe, too!). I usually shape this into a log of about 2 inches diameter before refrigerating, then slice it into ¼ inch thick slices and bake. It's easier, and with the ginger these look pretty and interesting anyway, so they don't need the shape.

Makes about 40 cookies

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
½ cup firmly packed light brown sugar
½ teaspoon ground ginger
2 cups all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup finely chopped candied ginger

confectioners' sugar for sprinkling the cookies

In a bowl with an electric mixer cream together the butter, the brown sugar, and the ground ginger until the mixture is light and fluffy and add the flour and the salt. Beat the dough until it is just combined and beat in the candied ginger. Halve the dough, roll out each half ¼ inch thick between sheets of wax paper, and freeze the dough on baking sheets for 10 to 15 minutes, or until it is very firm. Working with half the dough at a time, remove the top sheets of wax paper and cut out cookies with a 2¼-inch heart-shaped cutter. (The dough should be cold so that the cookies retain their shape.) Arrange the cookies 2 inches apart on the baking sheets, bake them in batches in the middle of a preheated 300°F. oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until they are pale golden, and transfer them to a rack. Gather the scraps, reroll the dough, and make more cookies in the same manner. Let the cookies cool completely and sprinkle them with the confectioners' sugar, sifted. The cookies keep in an airtight container for 5 days.

New England Molasses Gingerbread Cookies

Another must for the annual Christmas cookie making. Originally from Bon Appetit, found through epicurious, and just right. The icing is also my standard recipe for cookie piping now.

Dough
6 cups (about) all purpose flour, divided
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1½ teaspoons ground cloves
¾ teaspoon salt
11 tablespoons (1 stick plus 3 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature
⅔ cup solid vegetable shortening
1 cup sugar
1 cup mild-flavored (light) molasses
1½ teaspoons grated lemon peel
1 large egg
¼ cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons water
1 teaspoon baking soda


Icing
3 cups powdered sugar
1½ tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1½ teaspoons light corn syrup
Water
Food coloring (optional)

Decorations (such as colored sugar crystals)

Preparation

For dough:
Combine 5¼ cups flour, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt in medium bowl; whisk to blend well. Using electric mixer, beat butter and shortening in large bowl to blend. Add 1 cup sugar, molasses, and lemon peel and beat until smooth. Beat in egg and buttermilk. Stir 2 teaspoons water and baking soda in small cup to blend; beat into butter mixture. Beat in flour mixture in 2 additions. Stir in more flour, ¼ cup at a time, until slightly firm dough forms. Divide dough into 3 equal parts. Shape each into disk. Wrap disks and chill until firm enough to roll, at least 2 hours. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Keep refrigerated. Soften slightly before rolling out.)

Working with 1 disk at a time, roll out dough between sheets of waxed paper to 16x12-inch rectangle, occasionally lifting paper to smooth out wrinkles. (Alice's note: I usually roll with at least one sheet of baking paper, which I leave them on to bake.) Using 4- to 5-inch cutters, cut out boy and girl gingerbread people. Pull away excess dough around cutouts; flatten, wrap, and chill excess dough. Slide rimless baking sheet or inverted baking sheet under waxed paper with cutouts and chill until firm. Repeat with remaining dough disks, refrigerating cutouts on waxed paper on baking sheets. Roll out excess dough and make more cookies, using all of dough. (Cutout cookies can be made 1 day ahead. Cover; keep chilled.)

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°F. Using thin metal spatula, lift chilled cookies off waxed paper and transfer to baking sheet, spacing 1 inch apart. Bake until darker at edges and just firm to touch in center, about 12 minutes. Cool on sheet 5 minutes. Transfer to rack; cool completely. Bake remaining cookies, 1 sheet at a time.

For icing:
Sift powdered sugar into medium bowl. Mix in lemon juice and corn syrup. Mix in enough water by teaspoonfuls to form smooth icing soft enough to pipe but firm enough to hold shape. Divide into 3 or 4 portions and tint with food coloring, if desired.

Spoon icing into pastry bag (or bags if using more than 1 color) fitted with small (1/16- to ⅛-inch) plain tip. Arrange cookies on work surface. Pipe icing onto cookies in desired patterns. Apply decorations as desired. Let cookies stand until icing is dry. (Can be made 3 days ahead. Store cookies airtight between sheets of waxed paper at room temperature.)

Shortbread cookies

Shortbread is eggless, which makes it a must for the annual Christmas cookie rolling/cutting/baking/decorating fun with Kedhar! This recipe works well with cookie cutters, and tastes wonderful. It's from the Silver Palate cookbook.

Shortbread Hearts

3 sticks sweet butter, softened
1 cup confectioner's sugar
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, sifted
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. vanilla extract
¼ cup granulated sugar

Cream butter and confectioner's sugar together until light. Sift flour and salt together and add to creamed mixture. Add vanilla and blend thoroughly. Gather dough into a ball, wrap in wax paper, and chill for 4 to 6 hours.

Roll out chilled dough to 5/8-inch thickness. Using a 3-inch-long heart-shaped cookie cutter, cut out cookies. Sprinkle tops with granulated sugar. Place cut-out cookies on ungreased cookie sheets and refrigerate for 45 minutes before baking.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Bake cookies for 20 minutes, or until just starting to color lightly; cookies should not brown at all. Cool on a rack. Makes approximately 20 cookies.

For Christmas, we decorate these with frosting, which can make them a bit sweet, but getting to work with the dough and eat his creations makes one little boy very happy.

Sugar cookies for decorating

My Mom's standard sugar cookie recipe, especially for Christmas. These are perfect for decorating. Courtesy of First Presbyterian Church, according to Mom, but I don't know if that's my First Presbyterian Church of childhood or not. It seems to me that an inordinate percentage of Presbyterian Churches are First.

½ cup shortening
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 Tbsp. milk
¼ tsp. anise oil
3¼ cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt

Cream together shortening and sugar, then add eggs, milk and anise oil. Sift together the dry ingredients and add to the sugar mixture. Divide into 3 balls, shape into flattened disks, and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate until firm. Using one disk at a time, roll to ⅛ inch, using powdered sugar instead of flour for rolling. Cut into shapes using cutters, and transfer to a greased cookie sheet or one with parchment. Bake at 375 degrees F for 7-10 minutes or until very light brown.

If desired, paint before baking with egg yolk and 2 or 3 drops of water and cake coloring. Or, sprinkle with colored sugar before baking, or decorate with frosting after cooled.

Apple Cake Cockaigne

I am considering cooking my way through all of the cockaigne recipes in the Joy of Cooking. Why not? They are supposed to be the favorites!

1 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. sugar
5 to 6 Tbsp. butter
1 egg
½ tsp. vanilla
milk
4 cups sliced pared apples
1 cup sugar (white, brown or a mix)
2 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Grease a 9- or 10-inch round pan. Do not use a springform one, or protect the oven underneath from dripping sauce. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and 2 Tbsp. sugar. Cut in 2 to 3 Tbsp. chilled butter until it is crumbly like pastry dough. In a measuring cup, beat 1 egg with the vanilla, then add enough mild to bring it up to ½ cup. You will have a very sticky dough. Pat it into the greased pan with a floured palm or greased spoon or spatula. Arrange sliced apples on top (if they are dull, sprinkle them with lemon juice first). Combine the cup of sugar and cinnamon with 3 Tbsp. melted butter. Sprinkle on top. Bake about 25 minutes.

Chocolate Orange Cake

This recipe is from Nigella Lawson's Feast. Susan had remembered it as a clementine recipe, and we had some, so that's how we made it. It was good but I didn't love it as much as I'd thought I would, maybe because it is classed as a flourless chocolate cake, but is not so decadent as what I had in mind, though quite nice.

2 small or 1 large thin-skinned orange, approximately 14oz total weight
6 eggs
1 heaped teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
2 cups ground almonds
1¼ cups superfine sugar
½ cup unsweetened cocoa
orange peel for decoration if wished

Put the whole orange or oranges in a pan with some cold water, bring to the boil and cook for 2 hours or until soft. Drain and, when cool, cut the oranges in half and remove any big seeds. Then pulp everything -- pith, peel and all -- in a food processor, or see below if you're proceeding by hand.

Once the fruit is cold, or near cold (though actually I most often cook the oranges the day before I make the cake), preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and line an 8 inch springform pan.

Add the eggs, baking powder, baking soda, almonds, sugar and cocoa to the orange in the food processor. Run the motor until you have a cohesive cake mixture, but still slightly knobbly with the flecks of pureed orange. Or you could chop the fruit finely by hand, and with a wooden spoon beat the eggs one by one into the sugar, alternating with spoons of mixed ground almond and cocoa, then the oranges, though I have to say I've only ever made this the lazy way.

Pour and scrape into the cake pan and bake for an hour, by which time a cake tester should come out pretty well clean. Check after 45 minutes because you may have to cover it with aluminum foil to prevent the cake from burning before it is cooked through, or indeed it may need a little less than an hour; it all depends on your oven.

Leave the cake to get cool in the pan, on a cooling rack. When the cake is cold you can take it out of the pan. Decorate with strips of orange peel or coarsely grated zest if you so wish, but it is darkly beautiful in its plain, unadorned state.

Makes about 8 slices.

Peanut butter cookies with chocolate chunks

I made this recipe from epicurious, but would make it with a few changes next time. I might increase the peanut butter, but would definitely decrease the honey or sugar, as it was a little too sweet for me to really get that nice balance of salty and sweet that's so good with pb and chocolate things.

• 1 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup old-fashioned oats
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup old-fashioned chunky peanut butter (about 9 ounces)
• 1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 5 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

Mix flour, oats, baking soda and salt in medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat peanut butter, brown sugar, butter, honey, egg and vanilla in large bowl until well blended. Stir dry ingredients into peanut butter mixture in 2 additions. Stir in chopped chocolate. Cover and refrigerate until dough is firm and no longer sticky, about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 2 heavy large baking sheets. With hands, roll 1 heaping tablespoonful of dough for each cookie into 1 3/4-inch-diameter ball. Arrange cookies on prepared baking sheets, spacing 2 1/2 inches apart. Bake cookies until puffed, beginning to brown on top and still very soft to touch, about 12 minutes. Cool cookies on baking sheets 5 minutes. Using metal spatula, transfer cookies to rack and cool completely.

A pie bird and a vegetable oil pie crust

For her birthday last year I got Shelley a copy of Mildred Armstrong Kalish's book Little Heathens. It is her story about growing up on an Iowa farm, and she includes a number of recipes. The one that she most brags about is her vegetable oil pie crust--how, because it doesn't have butter/shortening/lard in it, it can be re-worked extensively and not get tough. Shelley was intrigued, and while in MN we picked a huge supply of blueberries one morning. Why not make pie and try the recipe?

For one double crust pie, or two single crusts:

3 cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup vegetable oil
1½ tsp. salt
⅜ cup skim or whole milk

"Blend all together with a fork, and form into two equal balls using your hands. Roll out between two sheets of wax paper. Peel the top paper off the dough using a spatula. With the paper side up, carefully fit the crust into the pie pan. Now carefully remove the wax paper. If the crust tears, don't worry. Using your fingers, carefully paste over the hole. Take care not to stretch the dough. Unlike the old-fashioned lard dough, you can handle this mixture as much as you like. You will probably never make the old-fashioned dough again." (Kalish, page 132)

I did more mixing of the pie filling, and Shelley suffered through more dough mixing and rolling. It wasn't easy. We also tried Karen's pie bird for the first time. The pie bird sits on top of the bottom crust, and has filling put in around it and then the top crust fitted on top, with the top of the bird sticking out. It has an opening in the bottom that leads up through its beak, so that it allows steam to vent from the pie, and I guess also any extra liquid, hopefully keeping the pie from running over, and also supporting the crust in the middle on the bird's shoulders. Wikipedia tells us that the connection between pies and birds goes back a long way, and mentions the nursery rhyme "Sing a Song of Sixpence."

The pie bird was a great success, and the filling was yummy (sorry no recipe--we used one of Karen's that I didn't write down), but the crust was panned. It was difficult to work with and hard once baked--less flaky, more cardboard. We actually struggled to cut through the bottom crust of the pie. Hmm. After all that, Karen admitted to us that she had tried a vegetable oil pie crust once before, with the same result. I guess we three will go back to making the old-fashioned dough again.

Mocha Fudge Cake

Preheat oven to 375, and butter and flour a Bundt pan.

1 cup flour
1½ tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1¾ cups sugar
5 large eggs, separated
2 sticks butter, softened and cut into pieces
½ cup plus 1 T. cocoa
1 T. instant coffee powder
2 tsp. vanilla
¾ cup sour cream (can use plain yogurt)

In a small bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt. Set aside.
put sugar and egg yolks in food processor, process for 1 minute or until thick and light colored. Add butter and process an additional minute. Add cocoa, coffee, vanilla and process another minute. Add sour cream and process for 2 seconds. Add flour mixture and pulse but don't overmix.

Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry. Fold ¼ of the egg whites into the batter, then fold in the rest. (Since I am lazy and at this point have a full food processor and a big mixer bowl full of egg whites, I carefully fold batter into egg whites and the cake has always been fluffy enough.) Carefully turn mixture into Bundt pan, removing air pockets with a knife if necessary. Bake 35 minutes or until it starts to pull away from the sides; you can also use a toothpick test as backup. It usually needs longer than 35 minutes. Cool in pan, then turn out onto plate and finish cooling. Frost with the following:

¼ cup water
2 T. butter
1 tsp. instant coffee powder
3 oz. sweet cooking chocolate, broken into pieces
1 cup confectioner's sugar

Heat the water, butter and coffee in small saucepan. Process the chocolate for 30 seconds in the food processor, then pour in water mixture slowly, while processing. Add sugar and process for 5 seconds. Let stand until thick, then drizzle on cake.

This recipe comes to me from my Dad, but I believe it is from Abby Mandel's Cuisinart Classroom.

Raspberry lemon muffins

She lives, she breathes, she even bakes muffins!

1 1/4 cups sugar, divided
4 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest (about 2 lemons' worth)
2 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 large egg
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
juice of 1 lemon
1 cup frozen raspberries

Preheat oven to 375°F. Mash 1/4 cup sugar and lemon peel in small bowl until sugar is slightly moist. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat remaining 1 cup sugar and butter in large bowl until smooth. Beat in egg. Beat in buttermilk, then vanilla, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, and half of lemon sugar. Beat in flour mixture. Very briefly mix in raspberries.

Divide batter among muffin cups. Bake muffins until lightly browned on top and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Brush tops of muffins lightly with lemon juice; sprinkle with remaining lemon sugar and cool.

Modified from this recipe on epicurious.

Eggs & Cake

For Saturday brunch today, Cardamom Coffee Cake from the original Moosewood Cookbook, and bacon and eggs baked in ramekins. The cake was as rich as the Ashkenazic Sour Cream Coffee Cake we've made before, and it's a nice, easy way to make eggs.

Cardamom Coffee Cake

1 lb (4 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
2 c light brown sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
2½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 tbs cardamom
2 c sour cream (or yogurt or buttermilk)
¼ c light brown sugar
1 tbs cinnamon
½ c walnuts, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease and flour a 10-inch tube or bundt pan.

In a LARGE mixing bowl, beat butter with 2 cups brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Stir in the vanilla.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, soda, salt, and cardamom in a separate bowl.

Add the flour mixture, ⅓ of it at a time, to the butter mixture, alternating with the sour cream. Stir just enough to blend after each addition. Don't beat or otherwise overmix.

Combine ¼ cup brown sugar, cinnamon, and walnuts in a separate small bowl.

Spoon approximately ⅓ of the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle with half the nut mixture, then add another third of the batter. Cover with remaining nut mixture, then top with remaining batter. Lightly spread into place.

Bake approximately 1¼ hours or until a knife inserted all the way in comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 20 minutes, then invert onto a plate. Cool at least 30 minutes more before cutting into it. Enjoy!!

Serves 18

Dutch Baby Bunny

This is easy, and good brunch food. I guess it's a dutch pannenkoeken. I often make one when I'm home for lunch and don't have handy leftovers. Either a full recipe or 1½ recipe go well in a 12" cast iron skillet. It's good with or without bacon, though you may want to add more salt if you make it with unsalted butter and no bacon. We don't usually have vanilla sugar, so I use granulated sugar and add a little vanilla extract to the liquid. They usually puff up higher than the one in this picture.

Dutch Baby Bunnies

½ cup flour
2 tbl. vanilla sugar
¼ tsp. salt
4 tbl. butter [I usually use 2-3 tbl.]
½ cup milk
2 eggs
3 strips bacon, cooked and crumbled

Preheat oven to 400ºF.

Put the butter in the skillet and place a 10" cast iron skillet into the oven to melt the butter. Watch out--- don't let it burn.

Combine the dry ingredients (except the bacon), then the wet ingredients in a separate bowl, and mix the wet into the dry, then add the bacon.

Remove the skillet from the oven. Pour the batter into the skillet and bake for 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Remove the skillet from the oven and transfer the bunny to a serving plate.

Sprinkle with more vanilla sugar and top with desired topping [usually maple syrup for me]. Cut into wedges and serve immediately.

From I'm Just Here for More Food by Alton Brown

No-knead Bread, Take 3

Another attempt at no-knead bread. I weighed the flour instead of measuring, using 300 g white flour and 130 g wheat flour. I doubled both the yeast and the salt. The total water is about 1 1/2 cups water. I'm getting better at working the wet dough (the only hard part is folding it before the final rise), and it's getting better. It still doesn't rise quite as high as I think it should, but it's very good, with an excellent crust. I'll keep making it.