Plum & pear pie without a soggy bottom

This was another winner and believe me the photo does not do the pie justice in terms of its deliciousness. Plus it doesn't reveal the relative simplicity of this pie recipe--but that's where I come in. The recipe for the crust (which goes only on top of the fruit-this is a bottomless pie!) calls for an egg, room temperature butter, and a great deal more sugar than that which you would typically use. As a result it doesn't boast the flakey texture of most pie crusts, but I really didn't miss it. I don't think anyone who tried this pie did either because it disappeared quickly! AND, the fact that I didn't have to worry about keeping the butter cold made it a dream to whip together (this one really is 'easy as pie' to make). My only regret was not having had ice or whipped cream to go along with the pie, but hey there's always next time.

I found this recipe on the smitten kitchen blog but the recipe was originally written by Nigel Slater. He explains that his idea for this pie was born out of the perpetual problem of juicy fruit in pies creating a soggy bottom. Here, the recipe avoids soggy bottoms by  eliminating the base pastry completely. He compensates for the lack of pastry down below by creating an extra thick pastry on top.

One final note: I substituted pears for apples in my pie. My sister in law suggested this, having tried the recipe herself and I have to say that I loved the texture of the pears along side the plums. Plus, I'm a total sucker for pears in pies in general. Having said that I do imagine that apples would taste really good in here too.

Plum and pear pie without a soggy bottom
Adapted from recipe by Nigel Slater

For the top of the pie (the crust):


100 g of butter
100 g of sugar
one egg 
175 g of  flour (I used pastry flour), 
1/2 tsp of baking powder
a pinch of salt for flavor
milk for brushing the crust before baking


For the filling:
about 8-10 plums 
2 pears (or apples)
2-3 tbsp  of sugar
ground cinnamon,

Use a standing mixer to combine the butter and sugar until they become creamy in texture.

Beat the egg then mix in with butter and sugar. Now add the flour, salt, and baking powder. Roll dough into a ball and then place on a floured work surface. Knead for a minute or two until smooth and soft. Wrap in plastic wrap or stick in an air-tight container and refrigerate for 20-30 minutes.

Set the oven at 180C. Cut the plums in half and remove pits.

Cut the fruit into large pieces, toss with the sugar and cinnamon and put into a lightly buttered 9 inch pie dish.

Roll out the pastry on a floured board, not paying too much attention to the shape, and then place on top of the fruit filling. It doesn't matter if the crust breaks as you place it on top of the fruit. Also you may want to cut a slit into the pastry to allow release of air during baking. Also, there will likely be an eruption of the juices onto the pastry which is a good thing, not a bad, and just contributes to the overall deliciousness.

Brush the pastry lightly with milk and bake for 40 minutes Dust with  sugar and serve warm with ice or whipped cream and don't count of leftovers.

Food in Jars

I'm very excited about my newest food blog discovery: Food in Jars. Check the site out. Most of her recipes involve canning in one way or another. They are all quite creative and offer great inspiration. This is an especially timely discovery, since we have just started to discuss and plan the crafty holiday gifts that we will prepare this year. If you're a loved one and reading this, I just might have given you a hint regarding what you can expect to receive in December. Just maybe. But you'll have to wait and see to be sure.

Mushroom ragu and a new cookbook!

Wow- I discovered an amazing new series of cookbooks, Canal House Cooking. You can purchase these seasonal publications individually or subscribe to and receive each volume when it comes out. Volume 5 was just released but I bought volume 2--for now (volume 1 is already out of print. Used copies can be bought on amazon-but for a pretty penny. Whereas the books go for 20$ new, these out of print copies are selling for over 100$ !)

But I can understand why people are willing to pay so much to own a complete series, because the cookbooks are just lovely. The photography is amazing, the colors of the books are gorgeous and the publications have a homemade and scrap-booky feel that is just so comforting in our otherwise clean, glossy, and technological world. I find myself wanting to curl up with this cookbook and just flip through the pages, savoring the images and the colors.

Oh yeah, and on top of all that gushing, the recipes are simple and relatively practical, seasonal, and as I found out tonight, they turn out quite delicious.



I cooked up their recipe for Mushroom ragu on polenta. Here is what they say about this dish:

"We love all sorts of mushroom varieties and this stew lends itself to using a mixture of different shapes, textures, and flavors. If you don't have time to make polenta, serve the ragu over thick slices of crusty toast that have been lightly rubbed with a peeled clove of garlic. Set a poached egg on top of each and grate some parmigiano-reggiano or pecorino over the eggs"


Well it was the middle of the week and I didn't have time to make the polenta and so I went the toasted bread route. I hope to try the polenta version soon, but for now, the toasty-bread/eggy/ragu combo was delicious.

Here's the recipe (with a few adaptations):

For the polenta:
1 cup polenta
Salt
2 tablespoons butter

For the Ragu:
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 tablespoons butter
1 coarsely chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
2 pounds shitake (or other) mushrooms)
Thyme
2 tablespoons sherry (I used wine and it was fine)
4 whole peeled plum tomatoes from a can
2 cups chicken stock
1/2 bunch parsley leaves, chopped
Salt and pepper

For the polenta, put 5 cups of cold water into a dutch oven. Stir in the polenta and salt to taste. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring often. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook the polenta. Stir occassionally until it's tender (probably will be 45-60 minutes). Stir in more water as needed if it gets too thick before it's finished cooking. Stir in the butter and season with salt. The polenta can sit like this while you make the ragu.

For the ragu, heat the olive oil and 2 tablespoons of the butter together in a large skillet over medium heat until the butter foams. Add the onions and garlic and cook these until they become soft and translucent, 3-5 minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring occassionally, until they begin to soften, about 3 minutes. Add the thyme and sherry. Add the tomatoes, crushing them with your hand as you drop them into the mushrooms. Then add in the stock, the parsley, and the other 2 tablespoons of butter. Simmer the ragu over medium-low heat until becomes stewy and thick, about 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper as needed. Spoon the mushroom ragu over the warm polenta, or the bread if you are using that. 

Raw pizza

You might be saying to yourself, "raw pizza..gross," as images of soggy dough covered by cold sauce and topped with shredded uncooked mozarrella cheese float through your head. But no, this recipe wasn't invented to perpetuate the chipmunk-inspired "raw food" fad. Ovens and elevated cooking temperatures are actually required. In fact, I am calling this a "raw" pizza only because the recipe doesn't ask you to bake the pizza with the various toppings and cheese on top. Instead, you bake your crust, load it up with soft cheese(s), veggies, and herbs and wha-la! You eat it as is. No further baking required. I am a fan of this idea because of the resultant food textures. You have (in theory, at least) a crisp dough and crust, topped with a subtle and soft cheese, and then with herbs and flavorful and crunchy greens and veggies. Yum.

It is perhaps unfortunate that today I had one of those strange moments of ill-conceived inspiration during which I said to myself something along the lines of the following: "Hmm I have a great idea. How about I substitute a different ingredient for everything that is actually listed in the original recipe and hope for the best?" Well I wouldn't exactly call my product the best, but it was good and more than anything else I'd say that my raw pizza pointed to the potential awesomeness that might result if one actually, say, followed the instructions that the recipe provides.

By this point I know that you are gripping your seat and wondering what on earth i did to change around this recipe. Well, please, allow me tell you. Firstly, I changed the flour. The recipe calls for 1.5 cups of all purpose flour. Instead, I mixed together 0.5 cup buckwheat flour, 0.5 cup pastry flour, and 0.5 cup whole wheat flour. Secondly, the recipe calls for 0.25 cup butter. In my attempts to cook a bit more on the healthy side (and despite my proclaimed love for butter that we discussed previously) I substituted 1/4 cup of olive oil for the butter. Third, the recipe calls for rolling sesame seeds into the dough before it is baked. I simply skipped this step completely. Finally, I completely changed the vegetable topping, sauteing spinach and onion with olive oil and lemon juice and spreading on top of ricotta and goat cheeses instead of layering thin slices of zucchini.

I do think that this recipe has a lot of flexibility to adjust, alter and substitute. While I was happy with the flavor of the dough I was disappointed that it was not more crisp. Perhaps next time I will have to return to my use of butter. All in all though I was pleased with this recipe and I definitely plan to revisit it in the future.

In any case the original can be found here, on the Chocolate and Zucchini site.

Home-made energy bars

I have to rank this as one of the best recipe discoveries that we have made-ever. Really. Truly. No joke. Let me begin to list the ways that this recipe is amazing: 1.) it's relatively easy to throw together, 2.) it's simple and 3.) flexible, 4.) the bars are healthy, and 5.) they actually taste good! This recipe is a delight, too, because the bars actually stay together, unlike the product from many of the other granola bar recipes that I have tried. These fruit and nut bars serve as a great alternative to the store-bought granola or power bar.

There are many ways that one could adjust this recipe: add some extra spices, use alternative sweeteners to maple syrup, add in some butter for added flavor (see on love and butter for more on this subject), add in cocoa powder and/or chocolate chips, use almond or peanut butter instead of the nuts...the possibilities are endless.

Really I speak from personal experience. When I baked these, I depended on what I had in my kitchen at the time. I didn't have almonds but I had almond butter,. I didn't have raisins but I did have cranberries. I didn't have apricots but I did have prunes and figs. And so on. I was very happy with the result despite all of these changes and I am just so pleased to have this recipe in my life.

Here the original recipe, by Elie Krieger, can be found here:

Energy Bars

On love and butter

Food thoughts by an insomniac

I'm having one of those toss in the bed unable to sleep nights. Sometimes on such nights, a little uninhibited knoshing does the trick and makes me sufficiently sleepy. I open the refrigerator and take little bits of cheese, spoonfuls of yogurt, and slowly shovel these into my mouth. I open boxes of cereal and often without even bothering to put the content into a bowl, munch away on the dry grains. After a few minutes my tummy feels full and I happily return to bed. Sometimes I leave behind crumbs and open cereal boxes, which serve as evidence of my late-night kitchen escapades. Other times I wipe the kitchen clean and it's as if nothing ever happened. Never mind that there's hardly any cereal left for the morning. It's all worth it and tastes much better at midnight anyways.

In any case, I've wasted too much time already. I'm off to the kitchen.

First apple pie of the season! and Joyce Maynard

I hadn't made a pie in ages but got a sudden urge on Friday evening after a long and tiring week. And so I ran to the grocery store and bought a pound of apples before my pie baking energy escaped.

In addition to being inspired to bake by the crispness of fall and my need to do something that doesn't involve staring at a computer screen, I had recently stumbled upon Joyce Maynard's website, where I discovered an entry on pie making. Apparently, Joyce Maynard is not only a writer and story teller, but also a pie maker. She teaches her late mother's pie making style and boasts, "I'm guessing the number of my pie students has probably reached the quadruple digits now, and I'm not about to stop. I have been known to travel with a rolling pin." I love Joyce Maynard's pie making spirit, the fact that her teaching of the craft serves a sort of homage to her mother, and that she uses the process of pie making as a metaphor for life. (For example, in her pie making video, Joyce Maynard says that she cuts that apples into uneven pieces since this is the way life is; uneven and unpredictable.)

Apparently, in her recently published book, Labor Day, one of the main characters teachers another to make a pie:

" We were his ticket across state lines. That was the story. I’d watched enough episodes of Magnum P.I.. to get it. Only then Frank turned around to face us, and he was holding a knife.These peaches, he said, looking even more serious than before. If we don’t put them to use soon, they’re goners. What did you have in mind? my mother said. There was a sound to her voice I could not remember ever hearing. She was laughing, not the way a person does if you tell them a joke, but more how it is when they’re just in a good mood and feeling happy. I’m going to make us a peach pie, like my grandmother did it, he said. First thing, he needed a couple of bowls. One to make the crust. One for the filling. Frank peeled the peaches. I cut them up. Filling is easy, Frank said. What I want to talk about is crust.You could tell, the way he reached for his bowl, that this man had made more than a few pies in his life."

The passage continues and provides detailed instructions for making a pie crust. The recipe calls for 3 cups of flour (for a double crust pie), 1 stick of butter, about an equivalent amount of shortening, salt and sugar.

After reading this I was inspired to try Joyce's recipe for pie crust making myself. While I have experimented with using butter, and shortening, separately in pie crusts, I hadn't ever before tried to use both in roughly equivalent amounts.

All in all I was pleased with the pie that I made. However, I had some trouble rolling out the dough. My theory is that this problem results from the fact that I took the oft-cited rule of pie crust making that one should never add too much water to an extreme. As a result, the raw pie crust dough was dry and therefore crumbly and difficult to roll. When baked the pie crust was tasty but remained a bit soggy. After this experiment using shortening + butter I decided that I prefer an all-butter crust, to a butter/shortening one, because of the far superior flavor that the butter provides. The apple filling that I made was quite delicious and consisted of ~ 1 pound of apples, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, sugar, lemon juice, rum, and corn starch.

After this pie making experience I was left with renewed energy for pie making, and with ideas for future pies. Stay tuned for more!