mini blueberry apple pie

I've been considering making mini pies for awhile, but it seemed like daunting project since it combines my two main cooking problems: baking and making things look precious. John's annual birthday brunch seemed like a good excuse to try them out since I figured people drinking in the sunshine are a forgiving group to test new recipes on. The baking itself did not go very well. I thought it was going to be so easy, and then as usual one thing led to another and I was angrily cobbling together dough for the crust like a toddler playing with play-dough. Also I should mention its been extremely hot in the city recently and therefore the exact opposite kind of weather you want to turn an oven on in.

Even though they turned out looking quasimodo-like instead of the adorable mini pies with beautiful crust designs I had been admiring online, they tasted delicious. I overheard some people at the brunch talking about how amazing they were and that erased any bad feelings I had about my baking debacle the night before. Taste is the most important thing anyway, right?

This made 12 mini pies, but I had to do a do a sort of sloppy basket weave for the last 3 top crusts becuase I ran out of dough. I think next time I would double the dough recipie and just freeze the leftovers, or make less pies, becuase I can definitely tell you from experience that you don't want to have less then you need.

Ingredients:

crust:
2 cups flour
12 tbs butter
2 tbs water

filling:
3 large granny smith apples
3 cups blueberries (I used frozen)
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon

In a large mixing bowl combine your crust flour and butter. It will mix better if you cut the butter into small chunks, but if your kitchen is as hot as mine was maybe it doesn't matter. Add water and mix with your hands until the butter is evenly mixed throughout.

Wrap in plastic wrap (or if you're me, a plastic deli bag) and let chill in the refrigerator for an hour

In the meantime mix your dry ingredients for the filling in another large bowl

Cut apples into small cubes and stir into dry ingredients

Add blueberries and stir both fruits in well so that everything is coated in sugar/spice mixture

Preheat oven to 350

Remove dough from the fridge. Separate into two pieces. Re-wrap one piece in plastic and return to fridge.

Cover you workspace in a small layer of flour. Roll out dough to about 2 cm in thickness. For some reason I could not find my rolling pin ( I suspect it cracked and was thrown out) so I had to use my SIGG bottle. It works surprisingly well.

Using a small bowl cut circles of the dough and place inside muffin tin. My pan is non-stick, but you might want to grease the pan first just in case.

Slightly over-fill your crust with apple blueberry mixture becuase the apples will cook down a lot. A note of warning though, the blueberries will ooze juice! There is probably a perfect halfway point, but I did not find it. After it baked the top of my tray had a layer of what I can only describe as blueberry oobleck.

Cut off excess dough from around the top of the muffin tin. This is where things started to fall apart for me, but you have the chance to learn from my bad example: leave more room then you think you need around the top of the tin! There has to be a good amount of excess dough to pinch together with your top crust otherwise you will end up like me, trying to frantically stretch and patch up the crust so that it connects.

Take out your second half of dough, roll out and cut more circles to use as the top crust. If you left enough room, you should be able to pinch together the top and bottom crusts without drama. You can also go around the crust with a small fork to give it a pretty edge.

Bake for 35 minutes or until golden

Do not try to take them out of the muffin tray until they are cooled (at least 20 minutes). This will only result in more mangling.

Eat and enjoy. No matter what they look like, they are guaranteed to taste pretty amazing.

cardamom olive oil cookies with pistachio

Don't be too impressed, this is another amazing Bittman recipe and surprisingly simple despite how fancy it sounds. Olive oil replaces butter in the usual cookie formula, but the cookies don't taste overly savory. I guess you can thank ample sugar for that one.

I decided to make these last Saturday (yes this is what I was doing on my Saturday night) because I *thought* I had all the ingredients at home. It wasn't until I had cracked open a few and was looking mystified at the size of my measuring spoon, that I discovered cardamom pods contain very little actual spice. Luckily my friend Kevin was there to convince me not to scratch the whole thing-- and so began the neighborhood quest for cardamom. Did you know cardamom is sort of a rare spice? I did not. After 3 bodegas and two groceries stores we were almost ready to give up, but of course the very last bodega we went to had it sitting in the back by the refrigerators. I'm not going to lie, Kevin and I shouted and high fived in the middle of the store like we'd just won some sort of sports game (possibly frightening the dudes behind us picking out beer). It was worth it though, because the cookies taste amazing. Besides did I really think I could get though a baking project without a small disaster? Impossible.

ingredients:

2 cups flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
1tb cardamom
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup olive oil
2 eggs
2 tbs orange zest
2 tbs orange juice
1/2 cup ground pistachios

I had regular pistachios in their shells, so my first step was to crack a bunch and then wash the nuts under water to remove the salt. Set them aside to dry before you crush them. A plastic bag and heavy object works well if you don't feel like using a food processor.

Preheat the oven to 350

In a large mixing bowl combine flour, baking powder, salt, and cardamom

Add olive oil and sugar, blending well

Add eggs and whisk until smooth. Bittman says the batter should be creamy at this point, but that didn't happen for me. Maybe I need stronger arm muscles or something, but the batter was pretty thick and almost doughy until I added the orange juice in the next step. Truthfully I probably added more then 2tb to get the batter to thin out.

Whisk in orange juice and zest. By now the batter should be regular cookie dough consistency (or maybe it was for you before...show off).

Roll into small balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Use the wet bottom of a cup to flatten the cookies a little and stick on the crushed pistachios.

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until slightly brown on the bottom

lunch box: spanakopita

contents:

spanakopita
baked chick peas
olives

This was my first time making anything with filo dough and it was definitely a learning experience. Despite the very simple instructions on the box, I didn't believe that it actually had to defrost for a full 2 hours before you could unroll it. Well as it turns out, the defrost time is not a suggestion. If you try to unwrap the dough too soon the thin layers will break apart and crumble. In the end I was able to cobble together a workable (and tasty) crust, but the finished pan didn't look as pretty as it could have. Also I clearly need a pastry brush, because trying to brush on olive oil with a paper towel/my hands is way more complicated then necessary.

Interesting fact: gmail spell check does not recognize the word spanakopita. It recommends replacing it with spanking, Spanglish, Spaniard, or spandrels.

ingredients:

3 leeks
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 boxes of frozen spinach
1 cup crumbled feta cheese
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup chopped fresh dill
1/4 cup chopped fresh mint
frozen filo dough (cough fully defrosted cough)

Cut off very bottom and top dark leaves of leeks. Chop and rise well. The inside of leeks are like some kind of sand and dirt sponge.

In a large frying pan cook garlic and leeks in olive oil until leeks are soft. Mix in defrosted and drained spinach.

Turn off heat and let cool. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Beat eggs in large mixing bowl. Mix in cooled spinach mixture, feta, salt, pepper, dill, and mint.

Brush bottom and sides of 9 X 13 in baking pan with olive oil. Now if I had done this correctly, I would have been able to lay down the filo dough 1 sheet at a time to fit the pan until half of the filo dough was used up. You will hopefully learn from my mistake and be more patient.

Spread spinach mixture evenly over dough.

Cover with remaining filo dough. Brush with more olive oil. Bake for 30 minutes or until top crush turns a deep golden brown.

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This chickpea recipie was first recommended to me as an idea for party snacks. It seemed like a good compliment to my spanakopita and a way to add some extra protein to my lunch.

In a large mixing bowl toss two cans of chickpeas (drained of course) with olive oil, cilantro, chili powder, cumin, and paprika. Bake on a covered baking sheet for 30 minutes at 400 degrees.

baking party 2: the return of baking party

John hosted another wonderful baking party this past weekend. I'm going to go ahead and start calling this a Bake Club, since we are all committed to keeping this up on a regular basis. There were some more savory items this time around. John made lasagna and Gigi tried this interesting muffin recipe I found online with some very delicious substitutions. Instead of photographing each batch individually, I just have one plate for you with examples. I'm pretty sure you won't have any trouble figuring out which is which.

Me: Chocolate Earl Grey Cookies. I've been a little obsessed with the Chocolate + Earl Grey flavor combination after I had an ice cream version a couple years ago. Since then I've been settling for occasionally putting half a hot coco mix in with my tea (which is really not that bad), so I was pretty excited to find this recipe online.

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Gigi: Savory Muffins. I know the idea of a savory muffin sounds weird, but they really are delicious. You're just going to have to trust me. Gigi substituted broccoli and sharp cheddar for the green beans and parmesan in the original recipe. They would be the perfect accompaniment to soup or as part of a brunch.

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Christopher: Orange-Scented Olive Oil Cake. Christopher can't remember the name of the book this recipe came from. Considering the taste, it may have been handed to him directly by roman gods. At the risk of angering them, I'll post it out for you here.

(Makes two 9” round cakes)

3 large navel oranges
3 large eggs
2 ½ cups sugar
1 ½ cups olive oil
1 ½ cups milk
2 ½ cups flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt

Set a rack in the middle level of the oven and preheat to 350

Grate the zest from the oranges and place in a large mixing bowl.

Add the eggs and whisk well. Whisk in 1 cup of the sugar and continue whisking until the mixture lightens, about 1 minute. Whisk in the oil followed by the milk.

In another bowl, stir together the remaining 1 ½ cups of sugar with the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk the dry mixture into the egg mixture in three separate additions, whisking smooth after each addition.

Divide the batter equally between the 2 prepared pans (Two 9 inch round pans, 2 inches deep, well oiled, and the bottoms lined with parchment paper cut to fit.)

Bake the cakes until they are well risen, deep golden, and firm in the center when pressed with a fingertip, 50 to 55 minutes.

Cool the cakes on racks for 5 minutes, then unmold, turn right side up again, and cool completely on racks.

*You'll also see on the plate some very simple and tasty tea cookies Christopher's friend Sarah made. If I can get the recipe from here, I'll post it for you later in the comments.



John: Spinach Lasagna. This is a combination of John's mother's recipe and one he found online. I was very skeptical of these no boil noodles, but they totally worked. It's magic!

Ingredients

1lb of "no boil" lasagna noodles
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chopped fresh mushrooms (try artichoke hearts, squash, or zucchini if you aren't a mushroom fan)
1 cup chopped onion (same as one medium onion)
1 tablespoon minced garlic (same as 2 or 3 cloves)
Two 10 oz. chopped frozen spinach packages (Just pop them in the microwave and drain them before mixing them in)
3 cups ricotta cheese (part skim if you prefer)
2/3 cup grated Romano cheese
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil leaves
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 egg
3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (part skim if you prefer)
3 cups tomato pasta sauce
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

If you do not have the "no boil" lasagna noodles bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add lasagna noodles and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.

In a skillet over medium-high heat, cook mushrooms, onions, and garlic in olive oil until onions are tender. Drain excess liquid and cool.

Microwave spinach for 12 minutes. Drain, then squeeze out excess liquid.

Combine ricotta cheese, Romano cheese, spinach, salt, oregano, basil, pepper, and egg in a bowl. Add cooled mushroom mixture. Mix well.

Lay 5 lasagna noodles in bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Spread one third of the cheese/spinach mixture over noodles. Sprinkle 1 cup mozzarella cheese and 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese on top. Spread 1 cup spaghetti sauce over cheese. Repeat layering 2 times.

Cover dish with aluminum foil and bake in a preheated oven for 1 hour. Cool 15 minutes before serving.

baking party

This past Saturday I was lucky enough to be invited to a Baking Party at John's house. What is a Baking Party you ask? It's kind of like a clothes swap, except with baked goods. Everyone picks out a recipe and brings the ingredients they need to the host house. Then you take turns baking and divide up the spoils. Genius! It was the perfect way to spend one of our coldest fall afternoons yet, and at the end of the day I had a full tin of cookies, muffins, and bars to take home.

Here are all the things we made. I will add links to the recipes, since typing them up here would be a little tedious.



Me: Oatmeal Chocolate Chip and Pecan Cookies
These turned out tasty, but I think the recipie called for way too much chocolate chip and pecan. It made the cookies too crumbly, and more importantly I want to taste the oatmeal in an oatmeal cookie. Next time I would half the portions for both.



John: Fruit and Nut Bars
It's like you get to eat all the toppings and fillings for other baked goods in one treat. Be warned, the fact that this uses almost no batter means they are pretty delicate. The trick is to eat them extra fast.



Christopher: Pumpkin Muffins
When you see yogurt and bran in the same recipie you can fool yourself into thinking these are actually good for you. I definitely ate one of these for breakfast this week, despite the fact that it's basically a cupcake in disguise.



Gigi: Pumpkin Cookies
These cookies were probably my favorite of the day. If I could eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner I would.

And in case you were worried that all we did was eat sugar for a full afternoon (Mom and Dad-- I know you read this blog), John also made this delicious lentil soup:



Since he did not have garam marsala or cardamom at home he substituted curry in equal amounts and also added a touch of cinnamon and half a tablespoon of seasoned salt. He also suspects that he may have messed up the tsp and tb measurement and added too much cayenne. Accidental or not, I thought the spiciness was perfect.

gingerbread cookies

As a rule I try to stay clear of baking because I always seem to mess it up, and failing at baking is the worst since you can never salvage it like something stove top. But this blog feels like a push to try some harder recipes -- and also, I just finished reading We Have Always Lived in the Castle and if you've ever read it you will understand why it was imperative that I start cooking gingersnaps on a Tuesday after work. I'm not really sure what the difference is between gingerbread and gingersnaps. The recipe I followed from Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food said 'gingersnaps,' but they turned out very fluffy and cake-like even in cookie form.

So I'll give you a brief walk through of my baking "process" (if you can call it that), and you'll see why I try to avoid it at all costs.

The first problem started before I even took out ingredients, when I decided to half the recipe (the original yielding 30 cookies seemed like more than James and I were up for eating, even on a good week). This resulted in some shoddy math, and having to do things like make 3/4 of a teaspoon by using the 1/2 and the 1/4. Then my mind started wandering -- "wow, it's amazing how bad I am at simple fractions. You'd think this would come up more often . . ." -- and I accidentally mixed up the teaspoons and tablespoons. I had to start over on the dry ingredients.

I did a similar thing with the butter trying to convert 3/4 of a stick and a tub of Smart Balance into the recipe's required 'stick and 3 tablespoons' , only to remember after measuring it all out that the amount needed to be halved. Oops.

After finally winning the battle against batter, I got to the step where you wrap the dough in plastic to chill. Realizing I had no plastic wrap, I was forced to cut up a large ziplock bag instead. It worked...kind of.

Three hours later, when the batter was supposed to be cooled, it turned out to still be too soft. Something I only discovered after it stuck to my countertop.

Here's the thing though: after all that I still ended up with light, fluffy cookies that weren't burnt (not even a little!) on the bottom. This is a first. Did I actually manage the right ingredient proportions in spite of myself? Was it the magic of Alice Waters? Who knows. What I can tell you is that the opening to 'Darjeeling Limited, Hotel Chevalier, is exactly the length of time it takes to bake gingersnaps. Just in case that ever comes up for you too.


ingredients (original proportions):

2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 stick and 3 tablespoons butter
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg

Combine flour, baking soda, and spices (ie: all your dry ingredients) in a mixing bowl.

In another large mixing bowl whisk butter (softened) with sugar until the mixture gets light and fluffy. The idea is to get air bubbles into the butter which will help the cookies rise in the oven.

Add egg, molasses, and vanilla to butter and sugar mixture.

Add your dry ingredients to the bowl and mix just enough that everything is combined evenly. Don't overdo the whisking or you will get rid of all those nice air bubbles you just put into the butter.

Wrap dough in plastic wrap (or apparently a large cut-up ziplock bag will work too) and chill for at least 2 hours.

When dough is ready, roll it into small balls (1 inch or so in size) and place on greased cookie sheet. Pour some more sugar (I used demerara sugar for this step) into a small plate. Wet the bottom of a glass and dip into sugar before flattening each dough ball on the pan.

Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 10 minutes.