Baking Our Way

This weekend we celebrate both Passover and Easter. As an interfaith couple, this presents both challenges and rewards.

On Friday I made a flourless chocolate cake with berries for the Second Seder we hosted at our house along with M's family on Sat. M led the Seder for his family and some friends and did a wonderful job.

I also made Easter baskets for my side of the family on Sunday with jelly beans, chocolate covered blueberries, homemade chocolate chip cookies, eggs dyed with red cabbage and onion skins, and fudge soap (less fattening than real fudge but smells good enough to eat!).

I think we're navigating our two family traditions quite deliciously.

Hamantaschen!

I made these lovelies on Friday with a recipe from my future mother-in-law. They're filled with strawberry rhubarb jam and blueberry preserves, yum! I doubled the recipe and stored half of the dough in the fridge so I hope to make a second batch this week (and make them smaller!).

Hamantashen
by Helen Mann

• 1/2 c. butter
• 1 c. sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 c. flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 2 T. orange juice
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Cream butter and sugar together and add the egg. Mix flour and baking powder. Add half of the flour mixture, juice and vanilla to creamed mixture. Mix well. Add remaining flour mixture. Work in well and form into 2 balls of dough. Chill several hours or over-night. (Keeps well in fridge for a week).

Flour surface very well. Roll dough to desired thickness. Cut into rounds. Fill with desired filling (prunes or poppy seeds are traditional) and form into triangles by pinching up 3 corners of the circle. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until delicately brown.

Yield: 3 dozen hamantashen



That incredible orange color is due to fresh eggs from Aunt E's chickens!

Cake update

I didn't realize that picking out and designing the cake would be so much fun! We're going with a honeybee theme for the wedding; golden yellow, cream and black with highlights of magenta and moss green. Check out the "inspiration boards" I made on Style Me Pretty. So with that in mind, here are a few sketches from the bakers we visited this week.



The cake will be four or five (!!) tiers, with ivory icing, golden yellow bands on the bottom of each tier, and a matching yellow honey-comb design alternating sides on each tier.



And the topper! My friend Duffy, our beekeeper at The Woodlands, offered to have the bees build us two little heart-shaped pieces of comb! He's done it before, apparently you just put a mold into the hive in your desired shape and the bees will build in it. I think it's probably the most adorable idea ever.

Tons of tiny icing flowers

We're going cake tasting today! I was told to bring photos for inspiration and color palette. Maybe something like this?



With lemony cake, sugary icing, and tons of itsy bitsy flowers?

I made this on Style Me Pretty. There are lots more, if you're interested.

I Heart Apple Pie

Truly.

Perfecting the Pie

I've been working on my pie crust recently, and I think I'm close. I recently combined a few recipes, including my future mother-in-law's crust and the spices from the green tomato pie recipe, and I was really happy with the results. AND it's the first time I rolled out enough dough to cover the whole top of the pie without having to resort to a lattice, score!

Crust:

• 2 c flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
  
• 1 c shortening
• 1/2 c cold water

I often use Crisco and mash it into the flour with a fork until "pea-sized", which works fine. You can also use unsalted butter and cut it into pea-size pieces, then mix into flour. Add water a little bit at a time until dough holds together in a ball. Refrigerate (for several hours, if possible).

Filling:

• 6-7 tart apples
• 1/2 c sugar
• 1 T flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp allspice
• 2 T butter

Sift dry ingredients. Peel and thinly slice apples and combine with dry ingredients. Roll out 1/2 of the dough (a good trick is to sprinkle some water on the counter and lay down some parchment paper, then roll the dough out on that - when ready, just flip the parchment paper over onto the pie dish). Fill pie and dot with butter. Cover and went the top crust. Bake at 425 for 10 mins, then lower to 350 for 50 mins.

Eat Your (Candy-Coated) Heart Out

I'm babysitting again, the same wonderful family I was sitting for last year. It's only once a week, but we've been getting some quality crafting in. For example, this cake. Inspired by a five-minute viewing of the show Cake Boss, we went to the CVS, grabbed a box of yellow cake and some vanilla icing, then went to TOWN with the food coloring, sprinkles, jimmies, and what-have-yous. I think it's a classy cake. And oh so delicious :)

First Whiff

Last week I had my first whiff of fall! You know that decaying leaf smell? Fall is my favorite season - season of squash and apples and trees on fire with color and scarves and knitting and baking. Speaking of baking, check out this bizarre green tomato pie I made.



I know I can always go to my friend Nicole of blue bicicletta for some great seasonal drawings and poems. Here's one I really like:



Enjoy the new season everyone!

It's That Time Again

Time for purple-stained fingers and hours spent under a fruit tree. Or crouching in a strawberry patch. Over the last few weeks I have collected many yogurt containers full of mulberries, serviceberries, sour cherries, currants, and strawberries, and all of them have been foraged from street trees or the yard of my friend Katrina (sad news: Katrina and her husband decided to move out of their house on the corner and I will miss her so. Also, now I will have to beg and plead with the new owners to get access to the fruit trees and the strawberry patch!).





Most of the berries went straight into my belly and the belly of friends (I brought four pounds of fruit on the plane with me to St. Louis last weekend to share with Jaja). The rest I cut up, mixed with granulated sugar, and froze. It works quite well; the sugar keeps the berries from sticking together too much in the freezer and you can scoop them out to eat on top of yogurt or ice cream whenever you want!



I also made this incredibly simply biscuit recipe with the serviceberries. It was scrumptious, I suggest you try it out.

Serviceberry biscuits

• 2 c flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3-4 Tbs Crisco
• 1 c sugar
• 3/4 c milk
• 2 c berries

Mix together dry ingredients. Cut shortening into it with a fork, until course crumbs. Add milk, mix. Gently add berries, mix. Plop onto lightly greased baking sheet and bake at 450 degrees for 12 minutes.

Yum.

Philly Deals :: Restaurant School Bread

I live about 8 blocks away from The Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College, and other than the occasional sighting of someone in a chef's hat and checkered pants, I didn't have much interaction with the college. Then a friend told me that they have a bakery on campus that's open to the public and features the goodies from all of the pastry and baking classes! As you can imagine, everything is high quality (they're being graded) and cheap. The first time I went the guy behind the counter let me in on a little secret; the best deal in the place is their bread. It's baked fresh every day and they sell it for $2 a loaf. White bread, wheat, herb, sourdough, even a sourdough pickle loaf (!), all $2. Now that's a Philly deal.

'Tis the Season

:: For a few more winter decorations (it says "Snowflakes," from funkyshique on etsy) ::



:: For handmade banana-chocolate-coconut bread for all of my coworkers ::



:: For Christmas cactus ::



:: And for handmade vanilla syrup for all of my family members (recipe from Food in Jars) ::

Have an amazing Christmas Eve!

I want to go to there

I can't even handle the cuteness of this. It's a marzipan vegetable garden, which is outside the gingerbread White House, made by White House Executive Pastry Chef Bill Yosses. Check out the article on Obama Foodorama.



These pics are from City Farmer News, a great blog out of Vancouver, Canada.

I was in Washington, D.C. last spring and I tried to get a peek at the vegetable garden but it's not visible from the street. Poo. But I know that sooner or later I will be invited to see it . . .

Pie Crust (Secret Ingredient!)

This year for Thanksgiving my mom decided that she was going to make the crust for her mince meat pie because she had a recipe that she was really excited to try. The recipe came from a cooking class we all went to as a family this summer (for my Dad's birthday, a great gift if I do say so myself). The dough was a dream to handle and the crust came out beautifully so I will share it with you, secret ingredient and all!



Lattice-Top Pie Pastry
by Maral Apelian Banks

Ingredients:

• 2.5 c unbleached all-purpose flour
• 4 Tbs. cream cheese, cold
• 12 Tbs. cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4" chunks
• 3 Tbs. water, cold, more as needed
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 Tbs. sugar
• 4 Tbs. vodka, cold

Combine the vodka with the 3 Tbs. cold water. Keep cold while you proceed.

Process half of the flour, salt, and sugar in your food processor, fitted with the metal blade to combine them. Add the cold butter and cream cheese and pulse until well broken down but before it starts to form a dough (will just begin to hold together in large clumps and all of the flour will be coated with fat). Break the clumps up if they are large and add the remaining flour. Pulse the mixture 3-4 times to just disperse the fat coated flour in the dry flour. Dump the flour mixture into a large bowl and add the water/vodka mixture. Stir the mixture with a rubber spatula to form an evenly combined, slightly sticky dough.

Divide the dough into 2 equal parts. Form one part into a 4" round, flat disk, the other into a 4" square and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 45 minutes and up to 2 days before using.

Roll the round piece of dough to a 12" circle on a well floured counter. Brush away any excess flour and transfer the dough to the pie plate, easing it into the bottom of the dish (there should be about 1" of over hanging dough all the way around. Form a fluted edge and then cover the crust loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate to keep firm. Roll the other piece of dough into a rectable, 10" x 14" and cut into long strips to form the lattice top.

When ready to assemble the pie, beat 1 egg to form an egg wash. Lightly brush the edges of the crust with the beaten egg then transfer the filling into the crust. Form the lattice top, then lightly brush it with beaten egg and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Place the pie into the freezer for 30 minutes to an hour to chill and relax the pastry. Bake the pie for about 1 hour, covering the top with a sheet of foil if it is darkening too quickly. Cool for several hours before serving.

Ta da!

Oh There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays . . .

. . . baking a mince meat pie with Mom (crust recipe to come) . . .



. . . enjoying a sunlit room . . .



. . . knitting and watching the Parade and the Dog Show . . .



. . . having our own little dog show . . .



. . . receiving two dozen perfect brown eggs from Aunt E's chickens . . .



. . . and eating that meal that you know so well, with people you love (and looking forward to the leftovers). I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving!

The Buzzzz

This weekend we hosted another "Sunday Series" event at The Woodlands Community Garden - a beekeeping talk! There is a local beekeeper who is interested in keeping a few hives at our community garden and we decided to host a talk to convince the landscape committee and the board of the cemetery that this is a good idea. One of our gardeners also keeps bees at Bartram's Garden, so the two of them gave an incredibly informative and fun talk.

The weather was gorgeous again, though a little chilly, and everyone bundled up and enjoyed themselves. I even baked and decorated these little bee cookies for the occasion! I used the Vegan Balsamic Fudge Drops recipe from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen and they are incredible, my go-to cookie recipe. I make them all the time, often substituting regular yogurt for the soy yogurt and wheat flour for white. It's also fun to have people guess the "mystery ingredient" (balsamic vinegar, duh).

After the success of this event and the pumpkin carving event my brain is full of ideas for others. Crafting, story-telling, concerts, workshops!! The possibilities are endless, I'm so excited!

Just a little sweet

My dad does not have a sweet tooth (unless we're taking about Entenmann's chocolate donuts or chocolate covered marshmallows at Easter). So it's hard to come up with things to bake for him for holidays. At Christmas I made panettone, an Italian sweet bread that he really likes. It came out a little dry but I will definitely try again next year. And I think I've found another possibility - biscotti.

For Father's Day this year I made the Choco-Cran Biscotti from my "Most Loved Cookies" book by Jean Pare. I've never made biscotti before, but it was a sinch! It's basically just a twice-baked low-sugar cookie.



It wasn't too attractive before I twice-baked it, and it was a little crumbly afterwards, but it's definitely a recipe I will try again.

Urban forager

My strawberry picking adventure has left me with a bug I can't shake. I'm a berry-pickin' maniac. Last week I spent about three hours harvesting mulberries and serviceberries (also called saskatoons or juneberries) in the city, from trees at Bartram's and street trees in my neighborhood. I also found a blog about urban foraging which has been an inspiration - First Ways.



I've been eye-ing these serviceberry trees that I pass on my way to work every morning and I noticed that they were getting quite ripe. So I did my research (made sure they weren't poisonous) and then grabbed some containers and headed over to them. Much to my surprise and delight there was already an urban forager over there and she had brought a ladder! I love this city.



In three hours I collected 6 pints of fruit! Absolutely free!



Serviceberries look and taste like blueberries without the intense tartness that I really love. Instead they are subtely sweet and their seeds taste like almonds. Mmmmmm. I read that they have lots of pectin, so I'm going to collect more soon and make jam, completely sans pectin.



I found lots of mulberry trees at Bartram's, including a white one. The white mulberries were really sweet, in that musky way that mulberries are. The black ones have some tartness to them. Mulberries supposedly fall off the tree when they are ripe, but I didn't collect any from the ground, the ones on the tree were ripe enough for me. They were kind of a pain to clean though, because I took off every single little stem by pinching it off between my finger nails. I might skip that part next time and just deal with a little extra texture.



I made two cobblers with these berries combined, using Joy's blueberry cobbler recipe (which of course references two other recipes so you have to keep flipping between pages). They were delicious! The serviceberry seeds added an almond taste to the whole thing and the pectin made the fruit gel up nicely.





I took one to work for my boss's birthday on Friday and one stays home with me and the boys. It's almost gone, mostly my doing.