Pie

I had a sweet tooth last night and decided to make an apple pie with some apples I've had in the crisper since September (surprisingly still crisp!). Apple pie is close to my least favorite pie (I love pumpkin pie, any berry pie, and rhubarb strawberry). I tend to make desserts that I'm not crazy about in a half-hearted attempt to limit myself, unfortunately it usually doesn't work. With that said, this pie is crazy-delicious. The contrast between the sweetness in the crumble topping, the tart bite of the apple filling, and the salty-crispness of the crust is just lovely. I even had it for breakfast this morning. I'm a purist as far as serving - I want pie uninterrupted by ice or whip cream, but this would be nicely complimented by either (if you're into that sort of thing).

Cinnamon Crumble Apple Pie
Originally from Bon Appetit (October 2003)

Crust
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
3 tablespoons (or more) ice water
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

Filling
3 1/4 pounds Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, sliced 1/4 inch thick
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Topping
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/8 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

Preparation

For crust:
Mix flour, salt, and sugar in large bowl. Add butter; rub in with fingertips until coarse meal forms. Mix 3 tablespoons ice water and lemon juice in small bowl to blend. Drizzle over flour mixture; stir with fork until moist clumps form, adding more water by teaspoonfuls if dough is dry. Gather dough into ball; flatten into disk. Wrap in plastic; refrigerate 30 minutes.

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 400°F. Roll out dough on lightly floured surface to 12-inch round. Transfer to 9-inch-diameter glass pie dish. Trim overhang to 1/2 inch; turn edge under and crimp decoratively. Refrigerate while preparing filling and topping.

For filling:
Mix all ingredients in large bowl to coat apples.

For topping:
Blend first 5 ingredients in processor. Add chilled butter cubes; using on/off turns, cut in until mixture resembles wet sand.

Toss filling to redistribute juices; transfer to crust, mounding in center. Pack topping over and around apples. Bake pie on baking sheet until topping is golden, about 40 minutes (cover top with foil if browning too quickly). Reduce oven temperature to 350°F. Bake until apples in center are tender when pierced and filling is bubbling thickly at edges, about 45 minutes longer. Cool until warm, about 1 hour. Serve with ice cream or whip cream, or just eat plain.

Biscotti Extravaganza

Biscotti are cookies baked multiple times. From wikipedia:

Biscotti originates from medieval Latin word biscoctus, meaning "twice-baked": it defines biscuits baked twice in the oven, so they could be stored for long periods of time, which was particularly useful during journeys and wars. Through Middle French, the word was imported into the English language as "biscuit".

I like to make mine slightly less sweet than a cookie (I've decreased the sugar from the original recipe by about a third) with slightly savory flavors (thus, anise), but these are a sweet treat best served with tea or coffee. The original recipe calls for white chocolate, but I find white chocolate kind of weird - it's not even really chocolate. Dark chocolate and cranberries are a decadent, sweet-tart combination.

Dark Chocolate Dried Cranberry Biscotti
Modified from Bon Appetit recipe

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups dried cranberries (about 6 ounces)
8 oz dark chocolate (again, I used Callebaut)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in medium bowl; whisk to blend. In a large bowl, beat sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla extract and almond extract extract until well blended. Mix in flour mixture, then dried cranberries. Divide dough in half. Using floured hands, shape each piece into 2 1/2-inch-wide, 9 1/2-inch-long, 1-inch-high log. Transfer both logs to prepared baking sheet, spacing evenly.

Bake logs until golden brown, about 30 minutes. Cool completely on sheet on rack. Maintain oven temperature. Using serrated knife, cut logs on diagonal into 1/2-inch-wide slices. Arrange slices, cut side down, on same sheet. Bake 10 minutes; turn biscotti over. Bake until just beginning to color, about 5 minutes. Transfer biscotti to rack.

Stir chocolate in top of double boiler until smooth. (I don't own a double boiler, so I just melt the chocolate in a small heavy ceramic bowl on the element of my stove, which works just fine). Using fork, drizzle chocolate over biscotti. When drizzling, it's best to move the fork in wide strokes over multiple biscotti at once, as it looks better than dripping it directly over individual biscotti. Let stand until chocolate sets, about 30 minutes.

Biscotti

These have a subtle licorice flavor. Serve with a glass of port, or a cup of coffee. Yum. 

This is what I spent my snow-day doing. 

Anise Almond Biscotti

(recipe originally from Bon Appetit)

3 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/3 teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

1 1/4 stick (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted

3 large eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon anise-seed

1 cup sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a medium bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt. Mix sugar, melted butter, eggs, vanilla extract and anise-seed in a large bowl. Add flour mixture to egg mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until well blended. Mix in almonds. 

Divide dough in half. Using floured hands, shape each dough half into 13 inch by 2 1/2 inch wide log. Transfer both logs onto prepared baking sheet, spacing a few inches apart. 

Bake logs until golden brown (logs will spread), about 30 minutes. Cool logs on baking sheet. Maintain oven temperature. 

Using a serrated knife, cut logs on diagonal into 1/2 to 1 inch wide slices. Arrange slices, cut side down, on baking sheet. Bake 12 minutes. Turn biscotti over, bake until golden brown, about 8 minutes. Transfer to cooling rack, and allow to cool completely. 

I like candy.

With the snowy, frigid weather, I was inspired to make some treats. These are a wonderful combination of sweet and tart, and somehow Christmas-ey (and in my opinion, much tastier than these). I suggest using organic oranges because conventionally grown oranges are sprayed with pesticides, although the organic oranges at our grocery store looked like they'd been rolled all the way here from Florida. I also suggest using a high quality chocolate (I used Callebaut) because your finished product is only as good as the ingredients you start with. This makes quite a few candies, four oranges resulted in about 4 cups of candy. 

Candied Orange Peel

(Recipe originally from Use Real Butter)

Peels of 4 Oranges 

3 Cups sugar

1 Cup water

1 Cup sugar for rolling peels

8 oz+ chocolate

Slice off navel and stem ends of oranges, then cut into quarters. Peel the orange, being careful not to tear the quarters. (I kept the orange wedges for a snack, but it'd be a great addition to a fruit salad, if you're so inclined.) Some recipes suggest scraping out some of the white pith with a spoon, but I don't think it's necessary.

Cut the peels into 1/4 inch slices. Place the peels into a large pot and cover with cold water. Heat the water on high, and once it boils pour off water. Repeat boiling process twice more - this helps remove some of the bitterness from the peel. 

Combine sugar and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat until the temperature reaches 230F (a candy thermometer would be a great help here). The sugar will be boiling rapidly and have a slightly golden tinge. Add orange peel and reduce the heat to a simmer. Simmer until peels are translucent, about 30 minutes.  Remove peels from syrup with a fork or tongs, and set on a rack to dry for several hours.*

Once the peel is dry, roll each in sugar; this will remove any residual stickiness. They're delicious as is, or you can enrobe them in chocolate. Melt chocolate in a double boiler. Dip each peel in dark chocolate, and place on a sheet of parchment or wax paper to dry (roughly 15-30 minutes). Enjoy.

*I tried eating one of the orange sticks just after it had been boiled and was cool enough to eat. The flavor was still VERY intense.  After they dried overnight, the flavor was mellower, so don't despair if they start out too strong. 

Cuisant

I love to cook.

The Joy of Cooking is a great cookbook for basic recipes. When I need to know how long to cook squash, how to make basic pancakes, or just to determine what a souffle involves, this is where I look. We have a mini-paper back copy that's throuroughly stained and dog-eared from tons of use.

Gourmet is great inspiration for flashy dishes, and just how to embellish a basic dish. I love that epicurious.com offers a searchable database of Gourmet's recipes with reviews. I generally like to know whether something is good before I spend time making it, and the reviews often offer great additions and tweaks that make dishes even better.

Cooking by Hand is my most recent cookbook obsession. This book makes you want to brine your own olives (insane), and create your own balsamic vinegar which you store in your attic for 20 years. The closest I've come to either of these is making my own yogurt. There is a huge section on meats, butchering, etc, which I just pretend isn't there (because we're vegetarian and the idea of making sausage kills my appetite). But, it's a great read, and makes me even more determined to put in a huge vegetable garden next spring.

Pain Perdue

Recently, French toast, or pain perdue (lost bread) as we like to call it, has been our favorite meal. I've made it three times in the last month, and in general, there are few things that we eat this frequently. Usually the meal starts as a use for old stale bread. I often buy ciabatta from our local bakery and don't get around to using it, thus, pain perdue! The most recent time I made it, I didn't have stale bread (which makes it tastier, I think), so I used fresh whole wheat bread.

It was still pretty lovely slathered in dark maple syrup, even though it looks kind of terrible.

Pain Perdue
modified recipe from the Joy of Cooking
Serves two (roughly three slices each)

3 large eggs (I can be pretty snobby about eggs, and only buy organic, free range, foofie eggs)
1 cup milk (I often use a combination of whipping cream and soymilk, because these are other items that are often leftover in the fridge)
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 or more slices slightly stale bread - I use as many as will soak up all the liquid
1 tablespoon butter

In a large bowl beat eggs until mixed. Stir in milk and vanilla. Add two slices of bread and let soak for a few minutes. Meanwhile, melt 1 tablespoon butter in large skillet. Add soaked slices of bread to skillet. Let cook on each side until brown. Flip, and brown second side. Repeat with each slice of soaked bread. I usually put the oven on low, and put a plate in the oven to store the slices until they're all done.

Serve with cinnamon, powdered sugar, butter, or just plain grade b maple syrup.