Fresh Cherry, Blueberry Pie

Tonight I learned some lessons:

#1: Never give up. And never, under any circumstances, face the facts.

I think I'm pretty good at achieving the right taste in my own cooking.  And if you can't figure out what's in that sauce you had, I can probably do it.  But for the life of me, I don't know why I can't get a pie to look right.

Tonight (not today -- hence the dearth of pictures), I baked a cherry, blueberry "Old Glory" type pie.  It's summer and the cherries are fresh (more on those buggers in a minute), but mostly I just wanted to improve my pie-topping skills.  My last crust was a little disappointing -- aesthetically at least -- and recently I've been dreaming of competing with the likes of the tight lattices, the punny, and the elegant.  I say "dream"  because I'm clearly not there yet.

Tonight I decided to try out a cookie-cutter top; I found a star in the kitchen and decided to go with that. It still looked convincing once I had the pie together and some of the cut-outs on that surface.  I was a little worried about that the uneven surface that comes with fresh fruit, but I didn't realize that my little 5-pointed cut-outs would turn into writhing, starfish-like things once I tossed the pie in the oven.  Oh well. Starfish it is.  Delicious, cherry-topped, egg-washed, floury starfish.  Another day -- Another pie crust.

#2: Buy the damn cherry pitter.

In practice, I consider myself a conservative in the kitchen.  I don't like the Slap-Chop choppers; I prefer to do it by hand.  I don't like the new KitchenAid; I have the old Oster.  So I started tonight's adventure by googling around about how to pit a cherry -- by hand and without a pitter.  The furthest I got though was people telling me to hammer a nail through a board and impale the cherries on it, or better yet to fish-hook the pit out with an S-shaped paperclip.  None of those ideas turned me on though, so I got out my knife.

But after an hour of hacking at these cherries with a sharp paring knife, I give in.  I'm covered in cherry juice and at least 1/4 of all my cherries are in the trash on the pits.  Next time I'm near a kitchen shop, I'm buying a cherry pitter.  

After looking around, I discovered that they range in price and level of complicated like any kitchen utensil.  You can have one that pits a whole bag of cherries, or one that catches the pits.  I don't even want a complicated one though.  I just want one like this or this.

I've been so distracted by the details of cherry-pitting and starfish-lamenting that I've entirely neglected the wonderful pie recipe.  As always, it's simple and it's delicious.  I think this one manages the tart and sweet balance significantly better than the last (blueberry) pie.  It's a great summer pick.  The next time I make this pie though, I'll replace my sweet sea creatures with a full-coverage top crust and sugar in the raw.

Ingredients

3 cups fresh sour cherries, pitted (include juice produced during pitting) (or 4 cups frozen unsweetened)

1 cup fresh blueberries

1 cup sugar

3 tablespoons quick-cooking tapioca or cornstarch (I used cornstarch)

Pastry dough for crusts (any one will do)

To make pie

Preheat oven to 400°F. Line heavy baking sheet with foil and set on middle rack of oven. In large bowl, combine cherries, sugar, and tapioca or cornstarch; mix well and let stand while preparing crust.  Pour filling into crust. Top with pieces of butter. Brush rim of bottom crust lightly with egg wash (1 beaten egg).

Apply to crust. Brush with milk (or soymilk) and sprinkle with 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar.  Place pie on baking sheet in oven. Bake 20 minutes. Cover crust edges with foil collar to prevent overbrowning. Continue to bake until filling bubbles and crust is golden brown, about 30 minutes longer. Transfer pie to rack and cool at least 1 hour.  Serve warm or at room temperature.

Adapted from Epicurious.

Burnt Sugar Almonds (Gebrannte Mandeln)

Let me start by telling you about how easy and great everyone else thinks this recipe is.  The reviews are madly good and other home cooks rave about how wonderful their almonds turned out.  

My first attempt at this recipe, however, ended, well, rather smokily.  I suppose I took the name too literally.  Once I noticed that half of my spatula was gone and that my almonds were suddenly, umm, black, I started over.  This entry is about the second, more experienced, and measurably more successful attempt.  Before we begin, though, some words to the wise from my failed attempt:

• Do not use a plastic spatula.  Common sense - I know.  I thought it might be ok, but the recipe is very sticky and the temperature just gets too hot for too long.
• Do not leave the pan's side.  Just stir until it's done.  Who knew?  This is the least independent food I've ever made.
• Do not use a non-stick pan to cook the almonds. Not sure precisely why, but that was a mistake.

Around Christmas in Germany, you can smell gebrannte Mandeln, or "burnt almonds" at every Christmas market.   Though it's certainly not as common in the U.S.A, I recently had some in New York and was reminded of how much I missed them.  And so, I went searching for a decent recipe and found they are all remarkably similar.  I like this recipe, but I'm sure that almost any one will do.

I also think it might be interesting to try this recipe with another herb or spice added to it for a more gourmet palette.  I could see it pairing well with a cinnamon stick, cardamom, powdered ginger, or rose or lavender oil.  Just don't use anything you'd have to fish out of the sticky mix later (like rosemary or bay).

I started by doubling this recipe and it went off without a hitch the second time.  I was getting a little worried after about 10 minutes of stirring, but everything went smoothly -- this time at least.  If you follow the recipe below, the mixture will stay rather very syrupy until about 15-20 minutes in, when it turns to sand almost instantly.  Just keep stirring.


Ingredients/Zutaten

200 grams whole almonds/Mandeln (ganz)
200 grams sugar/Zucker
100 mL Water/Wasser
1 packet vanilla sugar/Päckchen Vanillinzucker
Some cinnamon
Some butter

To make almonds/Zubereitung

Boil the cinnamon, sugar, vanilla sugar, and water.  Add the almonds and stir them under the mixture.  It will become frothy as it gets closer to being done.

Turn up the heat and stir constantly until the sugar mixture is dry and has a bulky, sandy texture.  Then turn the heat down to medium/medium-low and stir it until the sugar begins to melt again and the almonds start to shine.  

Shake the almonds out onto a no-stick baking pan and spread them around evenly.  In place of a no-stick baking plan, coat the pan in butter.

Zimt, Zucker, Vanillezucker und Wasser zum Kocken bringen, Mandeln zugeben und unter Rühren weiterkochen bis der Zucker trocken wird.  Dann weiterrühren bis der Zucker wieder leicht zu schmelzen beginnt und die Mandeln glänzen.  Ein Backblech mit Butter einfetten, Mandeln draufschütten, zerteilen und abkühlen lassen.

Adapted from Chefkoch.de.

Blueberry Pie

I know. It's been forever since my last post. But a girl's gotta work! (And go to school full time). It's not that I'm not cooking, but somehow it's just seems inopportune to photograph everything while I'm baking up a storm. Now that it's summer though, I'm out of excuses. I've taken your hints to get back to work and have chosen to start off the [mid]summer with a blueberry pie.

The mounds of fresh blueberries took my lattice crust prisoner.

The entire idea for a pie came to me when I was grocery shopping this week. Late at night - as I like to do rather often. Thank heavens we have a 24-hour grocery store here, because it's nice to know I can stare at the food and envision the week's meals without anyone questioning my my sanity. Anyways, blueberries were 6 for 10. 6 pints. $10. No. Way. And so I bought them. It's blueberry season, you know.

A friend of mine is having a birthday this week. Searching for an excuse to bake with them, I then tried to convince that friend that he wanted a blueberry pie with candles stuck into it. A no-go. Just my luck. He hates blueberries.

So I made it anyway.

I like this pie. It's not too sweet. There's not that store-bought goop texture surrounding the berries. It's natural and fresh tasting. It's exactly what it claims to be: a blueberry pie. And I'm all about that.

It was also - as always - easy to make. I just sort of made it up as I went along, so there are only a few ingredients and they all serve to bring out the berries.

Ingredients

Crust:

Any pie crust will work on this pie. Here's one. Here's another. Just double the recipe.

Filling:

5-6 cups of fresh blueberries, rinsed and stems removed

1/4 cup all-purpose flour (to thicken things up)

1/2 cup white granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

2 Tbsp butter (unsalted), diced

To make pie

Preheat oven to 425°F. Prepare the crust. Again, you can use anything here. Fit the dough over a 9-inch pie pan, and trim the edges to a 1/2 inch over the edge all around the pan. Put into the refrigerator to chill for about 30 minutes.

Gently mix the blueberries, sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Depending on how sweet you like your pie, you can cut the amount of sugar. That is the only thing I would do in retrospect. Blueberries are sweet enough on their own - especially when they have 50 minutes in the oven to caramelize. Transfer them to the chilled bottom crust of the pie pan. Dot with diced butter pieces.

I did a lattice top, but you just need some sort of covering for a fruit pie. If you want to cover it entirely, roll out the remaining dough to the same size and thickness as the first and place on top. Transfer the pie to the refrigerator to chill until the dough is firm, about 30 minutes. If you skipped the home-made pie dough and bought a frozen sheet, you probably don't need to do this step.

Remove the unbaked pie from refrigerator. If you covered the pie entirely, score the pie on the top with 4 cuts (for steam). Place the pie on the middle rack of the oven with a parchment paper or Silpat lined baking pan positioned on the lower rack to catch any filling that may bubble over. Bake for 20 minutes at 425°. Reduce heat to 350°F and bake for 30 to 40 minutes more or until juices are bubbling and have thickened. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Adapted from Simply Recipes

Breakfast Bruschetta

I was looking for a breakfast option that was slightly less sinful than whatever egg + meat + bread + butter concoction I usually eat on vacation days. Sunny side ups and sausage, Moon over the Mountain, Croque Madame...I began to feel guilty. This breakfast bruschetta did get a skeptical look from my breakfast companion, but I assure you it was delicious and just as filling as anything else. It also didn't leave me feeling like I should skip my next few meals.

Size

The recipe below is medium brunch/small army size (like 8 people). You can absolutely make this for two people (I did). The amount of fruit you use on each piece of bread will also depend on the bread.

Bread

It doesn’t matter – all in what you prefer. I think something crusty is better for this though. I used a home-made honey loaf with thick slices, but to make it more authentically bruschetta, you need French bread or something similar. You're full after two slices of the bigger pieces though.

Fruit

The original recipe had peach instead of orange, but I worked with what I had and it came out really well. I say don’t go out and buy anything. Just cut whatever small enough.

Yogurt

Again, I didn’t follow the original recipe. It said to use plain yogurt and drizzle honey over the top. While that sounds and tastes healthier, I used peach yogurt and ditched the honey, sprinkling cinnamon and orange zest on top instead.

Ingredients

16 ½-inch-thick slices crusty Italian or French bread


2 tablespoons melted unsalted butter


A few tablespoons sugar

A few tablespoons cinnamon

1 orange, peeled and cut into fine dice


1 banana, cut into fine dice


8 strawberries, cut into fine dice


3 to 4 tablespoons yogurt

Honey for drizzling and/or orange/lemon zest

Preheat oven to 375°F. Arrange bread slices in one layer in a shallow baking pan and bake in middle of oven until lightly golden, about 10 minutes. Note: Thicker bread will get dry inside quickly.

Change oven to broil setting. Brush toasts with butter on one side and sprinkle with cinnamon. Broil slices for a minute or so until they turn golden.

In a small bowl, toss together cut fruit,1 tablespoon sugar, and cinnamon. Heap evenly over buttered side of each toast. Broil toast about 5 inches from heat under preheated broiler for no more than 5 minutes (until the fruit are toasted).

Top each toast with about 1 tablespoon yogurt and drizzle with honey.

Adapted from crumblycookie.net

Brioche Plum Tart

Right, so, technically this is cheating because I’ve baked this before and these pictures are old. That being said, I think you’ll forgive me when you try this recipe. It’s so…classy. I wish I could make it all the time.

I don’t have much experience with brioche and mine still came out wonderfully, so I wouldn’t limit this to daring bakers by any means. It was such an improvement over pastry dough or pie crust too; I can’t begin to do it justice. The brioche dough was delicate but full, soft but just sweet enough to complement the flavors of the plums. The plums themselves are tart, but the taste of the sugar and the nuts stay so individual even when they’re all baked together. Such harmony. Oh man.

A lot of the trick to this tart was just presentation, so have fun with it. Plums can get sloppy, so my original “design” was tossed out the door in favor or a much simpler…umm…heap of plums. Design is an easy cover up on this one though and no one will notice over the amazing flavor tones.

Some things to think about:

• Plums can be hard to find, so plan ahead.
• Channel all your anger into beating up that brioche. It will be better for it.
• Don’t stress over finding the right nuts or the required marmalade. I think you could pretty much use whatever you want and be fine. I wrote in the changes I made below.
• Brioche. Takes. Time. There isn’t that much work involved, but lots of waiting.

Bon appétit!

Ingredients

1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

1/3 cup whole milk, just warm to the touch

2 cups all purpose flour

3 tablespoons sugar

pinch of salt

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

14 ripe plums, preferably italian prune plums

2 tablespoons coarsely chopped walnuts (I used pecans and almonds)

3 tablespoons sugar

1/4 cup plum jam (I used sour cherry with rhubarb)

To make brioche

Put the yeast and warm milk in the bowl of a stand mixer and stir until the yeast is dissolved. Add the rest of the ingredients to the bowl, and fit the mixer with the dough hook, if you have one. Working on low speed, mix for a minute or two, just to get the ingredients together. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat for 7 - 10 minutes, stopping a few times to scrape down the bowl and the hook, until the dough is stretchy and fairly smooth. The dough will seem fairly thin, more like a batter than a dough, and it may not be perfectly smooth - that is fine.

Transfer the dough to a clean bowl, cover with plastic wrap and leave it in a warm place until nearly doubled in size, 30 - 40 minutes.

Deflate the dough by lifting it up around the edges and letting it fall with a slap into the bowl. Cover the bowl again with plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator. Slap the dough down in the bowl every 30 minutes until it stops rising, about 2 hours. Then if you’ve got the time, leave the dough in the refrigerator overnight - it will be tastier for the wait.

To Make The Tart

Generously butter the pan. Press the chilled dough into the bottom of the pan and up the sides - don’t worry if it’s not even. Cover the pan loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

While the dough is in the refrigerator, prepare the filling. Halve and pit the plums. If you are using large plums, cut each half into 2 or 3 slices. Set aside. Toss the chopped nuts with the sugar and set aside.

Remove the tart pan from the fridge and push and press the dough up the sides of the pan. Spoon the jam onto the dough and spread it over the bottom. Arrange the plums cut side down in a concentric circles covering the jam. Scatter over the nut mixture, and cover the tart lightly with a piece of plastic wrap. Place the tart on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat and let it rest in a warm place for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Uncover the tart and bake for 20 minutes. Cover it loosely with a foil tent to prevent the crust from getting too dark, and continue baking for another 10 minutes, or until the fruit juices are bubbling and the crust is firm and beautifully browned - it will sound hollow when tapped. Transfer the tart to a rack to cool for at least 45 minutes before serving.

From crumblycookie.net