COOKIE CHRONICLES - Peanut Butter Break Out!

Peanut Butter cookies!

My dad loved peanut butter....I mean REALLY LOVED peanut butter!  He'd always have peanut butter icing on his birthday cakes and you should have seen his sandwiches!  I swear his PB&Js were more like PB and maybe some J!  And of course, no Christmas Cookie collection was complete without at least one variety of Goober goodie on the plate!

I am my father's daughter so naturally have an affinity for the nutty stuff too.  As is evident in the number of recipes I have acquired that use the stuff!  And why not? Even as a stand-alone, by the spoonful snack, it's a healthy, satisfying nosh.

Peanut butter's not just for sandwiches or cookies.  As a sauce (like Thai Peanut Sauce) it is raised to new levels of flavor - combining its salty complexity with a dash of chili peppers, touch of rice wine and splash of soy sauce. Now THAT'S fine eating! 

Of course, we're not here to talk about peanut butter as a main course.  We're here to talk about cookies....lots and lots of cookies!  And believe it or not, there are lots of different peanut butter cookies to talk about!  We'll work with the basic recipe first, then I'll suggest a few additions.

I've used this recipe for years and believe it originated with my mother...who may have gotten it through the "Fannie Farmer Cookbook."

CLASSIC PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Grease or line 2 cookie sheets.
Mix together
  1 1⁄2 cups all-purpose flour
  1⁄2 teaspoon baking soda
Beat in a large bowl until well blended:
  1⁄3 cup (5 1⁄3 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
  1⁄2 cup sugar
  1⁄2 cup packed brown sugar
Beat  1 large egg
Add it to:
  1 cup peanut butter (smooth or chunky)
  1⁄2 teaspoon vanilla
Beat 'til mixed then:
Stir in the flour mixture until blended. Shape into 1-inch balls and arrange about 2 inches apart on the cookie sheets. Press flat with a fork and cook 1 sheet at a time, about 10 to 12 minutes. Let stand briefly, then remove to a rack to cool.

Flatten with fork

Of course, there's a lot one can do with a basic cookie dough like that!  Start with something simple, like adding some chocolate or peanut butter chips.  Maybe both!  It'll taste like a candy peanut butter cup!

Reeses makes a great chip that's a little version of their candy...works real good in cookies!

Other Versions:
PEANUT BUTTER AND CHOCOLATE DRIZZLE
From your basic Peanut Butter Cookie batter, many great and magical things can come!  For example, melt some semi-sweet chocolate along with a little bit of water (or bourbon if you like) and drizzle it over your baked cookies.  Let them dry thoroughly - overnight isn't a bad idea - before storing.



PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY GEMS
Stick your thumb into the center of your cookies then fill with a jelly or jam of your choosing.  Just like with the chocolate drizzled version, it's best to leave these out overnight to fully dry before storing them!

PEANUT BUTTER RAISIN COOKIES
Just throw raisins into your batter before forming the cookies.
Too, too simple!

 
Still more ideas?

Spicy PB & Cayenne Hotties!

PEANUT BUTTER CAYENNE HOTTIES - yup!  Add some cayenne to the batter and have at it! Warn your snackers! Also, try various amounts....start small, like around 1/8 tsp. if you're not used to working with it....bake small test batches to reach your desired level of spiciness!  Believe it or not, these cookies are terrific - some folk who don't like spicy foods seem to like the combination of peanut and cayenne.



With such a great base as peanut butter, the sky's the limit on what you can do to add variety to your cookie plate. Go for it!  Grab that bit of oatmeal and mix it in!  Same thing with dried fruits and nuts!  Stir in some powdered cocoa for a real treat!  It's hard to go wrong!

As always, feel free to share your ideas, stories, memories and recipes here via the comments section.  You'll get full credit for what you send.  But mostly, remember as always - Enjoy!

COOKIE CHRONICLES - Classic Cookies - Oatmeal Raisin

Cookies with oatmeal

What could be more comforting than a nice warm cup of coco and a couple Oatmeal Raisin Cookies after a long winter's day out in the elements?  And the aroma that fills the house when such a thing is baking is beyond beyond!
A little bread-like, a little desert-like....suddenly all the cares of the world drift away as the cookie's homey nature envelopes the day-weary soul!

There's not a self-respecting cookie plate that would show it's face in public without a good representation of this treat upon it!  Gawd!

There are tons of Oatmeal cookie recipes out there....ranging from simple to sublime.  Some have apples as well as raisins, some include nuts and or chocolate chips, and some even include peanut butter!  My personal favorite is a conglomeration I call Oatmeal Raisin Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter.   As the title indicates, there's a lot going on in that cookie!   I'll include the recipe for it in a separate blog entry.  But for now.....may I present a version of a very simple, very classic Oatmeal Raisin cookie.


OATMEAL RAISIN COOKIES
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F
1/2 cup of butter, softened
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar - I prefer dark brown
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (more if you like cinnamon)
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
3 cups Rolled oats - quick or old fashioned - uncooked
1 cup raisins

Beat butter and sugars in a large bowl until creamy.  Add eggs and vanilla. Beat well. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.  Mix well. Add oats and raisins.  Mix well again...I use a trusty wooden spoon during this part of the process.  It's easier than burning out your electric mixer motor.
Drop by rounded Tablespoons full (or teaspoons full if you want smaller) onto ungreased cookie sheets. Flatten slightly with back of spoon or hand.  Bake 8 to 10 minutes or untily light golden brown.  Cool one minute on sheet. Move cookies to wire rack, cool completely.  Store in air tight container. Makes about 4 dozen.

COOKIE CHRONICLES - Specialty Cookies - Sugar Peppermint Pinwheels and Cut Outs

Randi and Jack

So how are your holiday preparations going?
Between the decorating, shopping, baking and so on it's amazing any of us survive!  But we do.  And our loved ones are grateful for all the effort.

It's important that everyone gets involved though, so don't take it all on by yourself.  Make a party of preparation and you'll be amazed at how much help is available!

Trimming the tree is an obvious reason for a party, why not decking the halls, too?  That's an opportunity for some kinda fun.  For that matter, make it happen all at once if you can.  Keep in mind that others may not want things the way you do, so be mindful of your tolerance level and just what kind of "help" you want!

We've been concentrating on baking in our household because baked goods are our gifts to folks. This requires a lot of work, so the decorations will happen a little later in the month.  Heck! I know some folks who don't get the tree done 'til right before Christmas Eve.  For now I'm decking the kitchen with coats of flour!

Anyway....
Today's cookies are Sugar Cookie based, but then I took a left turn somewhere and went Peppermint Pinwheel.
And since there was some dough left over that was mixed up, I made some Peppermint Cut-Outs, too.

SUGAR PEPPERMINT PINWHEELS

Add butter mix to flour mix

1 cup butter
2 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
4 cups flour (more or less)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon of peppermint extract (more if you like it real minty)
3 Tablespoons flour
10 drops red food coloring

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Cream butter, add sugar and vanilla and beat.  Add eggs one at a time, mix until blended.  Cut dough in half.   Take one section of the dough and wrap it in waxed paper.
Take the remaining dough section, add peppermint extract, food coloring and flour.  Mix until thoroughly blended.  Some folk like mixing with their hands at this stage.  Suggestion: wear gloves if you don't want your hands to turn red!  Of course if they do, at least they'll be minty-fresh!
Wrap in waxed paper. Put both wrapped dough sections in refrigerator for at least one hour.


Prepare surface for rolling dough.  I use an old 1/4 or 1/2 sheet cake pan with waxed paper taped to it.  Sure makes clean-up easy!  Start with either section, but roll it out flat, then add the second layer to it.

Rather than overworking the dough, do this process in small sections, cutting bits off each to make the layers.  I began with the vanilla layer first for this photo.  Kinda looks like pizza, eh?

3 layers rolled

Make sure when you're rolling layers on to one another that you don't mix them together.  You want them to maintain their individuality, as much as possible.  As you can see from the photo, there's sometimes a bit of "bleed through."

Next, roll this dough pizza up like a jelly roll, cut off the rough edges and lookie there!  How pretty!
A real live pinwheel pattern!  Roll up your roll in some waxed paper.  Do the same 'til you've used all the dough.  You'll have some crumbs and cast-offs of mixed up dough....don't throw it away!  We'll use it in the next recipe!

Place your "pinwheel logs" in the fridge for another hour's nap.
Then, Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.
Cut each log into thin slices and place them on ungreased cookie sheets about 1 inch apart. Bake for about 8 to 12 minutes or until bottom is just done. The baking time depends on the slice thickness.  Thinner slices take less time, so you'll have to do a bit of trial and error.

Let the cookies it on the sheet for one minute then put cookies on a wire rack to cool completely.

Sugar Peppermint Pinwheel

 
SUGAR PEPPERMINT CUT-OUT COOKIES

Sugar Peppermint Cut-Outs

Take all of your scraps from the Pinwheels recipe and sort of smoosh them together.  Don't worry about blending anything...the "marbling" will be an interesting affect.

Roll it out and give your cookie cutters a go at it!  Fun! Fun! Fun!  Decorate as you like....sprinkles, sugars, whatever! Peppermint cut-outs!
They go into a 400 degree oven for about 6 minutes.  Let them sit for one minute on the cookie sheet then set them to dry on racks to cool completely.

As always, thanks for your interest in this blog.  Please feel free to share your thoughts, memories, ideas, opinions and even recipes!  I'd love to try some of your favorites!

More cookie madness tomorrow!
For now, Enjoy!

COOKIE CHRONICLES - Sugar Cookies Secrets and Two Recipes

Crank up the Holiday music, it's time for our cookie bake-a-thon!

Christmas (or Holiday if you prefer) cookies are very special, very magical things....from plain to fanciful decorated cut-outs, Sugar Cookies hold a firm place on the plate; one not to be taken lightly.

Although they may seem easy to make, don't let their simple ingredients and recipe descriptions fool you!  It's ever so easy to overwork the dough, especially when making the cut-out variety!

Hand stirring to avoid over work

How does dough get overworked?  Too much handling.  Everything from your hands' heat to over rolling can cause lots of changes within that complex system of ingredients that are trying to mesh together!  Flour's gluten wants to be sticky, fat wants to attach to everything, sugar wants to dissolve...so does salt but they each do their own thing in the process.  In short, that bowl of stuff sitting before you is alive with interaction!  The trick is to make it work for you, not against you.

One thing that helps is to let your cookie dough rest.  I like to separate the dough into two or three balls after it's been mixed, then put the dough in the fridge for about 1 hour before rolling anything.  When rolling time comes, only take one ball out at a time that way the rest remains fresh and retains its workability.

Read your recipe BEFORE beginning the process.  Gather all your ingredients and tools so everything is right at hand.  If the recipe says, sift...sift!  Some say the alternative to this chore is taking 2 Tablespoons out of the measured flour.  Sometimes this works, sometimes not.
I like to play it safe.  So for me, sifting is a lot less trouble than serving sub-par cookies!

If you want to use something like Splenda please know that it will affect your recipe.  Not to discourage using substitutes if you need them!  I found an article that's interesting and educational...a little food for thought so to speak. They experimented by making marshmallows with regular sugar vs. making them with Splenda.  You can read the article via this link: http://www.sheharaw.com/Files/Splenda%20Paper.pdf


Some sugar substitutes are also available for brown sugar.  I've tried Splenda's version, because that's what the household uses so am most familiar with it's proclivities.  I'd appreciate any input about other substitutions, including natural, vegan and so on.   

CONVERSION INFO -
"Regular" Sugars to Splenda substitutes

Granulated White Sugar - 1 cup   -
Splenda Granulated Sweetener - 1 cup
Granulated White Sugar  - 1/3 cup -
Splenda Granulated Sweetener -  8 teaspoons

CONVERSION INFO -
"Regular" Sugar to Splenda Sugar Blend (sugar/Splenda blend)
Granulated White Sugar -  1 cup - 
Splenda Sugar Blend  - 1/2 cup
Granulated White Sugar -  1/3 cup -
Splenda Sugar Blend - 8 teaspoons

CONVERSION INFO -
"Regular" Brown Sugar to Splenda Brown Sugar Substitute
Brown Sugar - 1 teaspoon -
Splenda Brown Sugar - 1/2 teaspoon
Brown Sugar - 1 cup -
Splenda Brown Sugar - 1/2 cup

Thanks to Splenda's website for the info: http://www.splenda.com

Butter vs. margarine vs. shortening?  Hmmm....depends.  Some people can't eat butter, some can.  Some can't abide by anything but margarine...others could care less.  Some swear by shortening like Crisco, others wouldn't touch it with a ten foot spatula.  Where does that leave me?  I've done it all three ways and usually make my choice based on two things: 1) what results do I want? and 2) budgetary considerations.

Result-wise, something like Crisco Butter Flavored Shortening works pretty good, in most recipes.  However I've had some problems combining it with Splenda.  It didn't work at all well, and the resulting taste was nothing like the Sugar Cookie I was expecting.  This combination requires some additional experimentation.
  
Margarine works fine too, providing it's a type that's labeled "good for baking," or something like that. Some margarine is really just for "spreading," rather than cooking or baking.  Read labels!

Butter may burn easier than margarine, but for something like Butter Cookies I'm a purist.

Sprinkles, icing or plain?  Personal choice wins out here.  Have a good time, that's what counts most.  Some folks make a little intention and add a dab of jam or jelly to the center of each round.  Some like to crumble bits of hard candy into the batter and make drop Sugar Candy Cookies. There are a lot of things to do with a good, basic recipe.  The main thing is to have fun!

I'll start with the Non-Sugar Cookies because that way the household can have some cookies to munch on while the others are baked. 

Splenda

SPLENDA Non-SUGAR COOKIES

1 cup unsalted butter*, softened
1 cup SPLENDA^® Sugar Blend
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
           *butter or margarine


Method
Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer in a medium mixing bowl until creamy.
Gradually add Splenda, beating well.
Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in vanilla.

Wrapped dough

Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate mixing bowl.
Gradually add flour mixture to Splenda/butter bit, beating until blended.
DON'T OVER MIX!
Place dough on a lightly floured work surface.
Divide the dough in half; pat each half into a circle and wrap with plastic wrap.
Chill cookie dough for one hour or until slightly firm.


Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
Take the dough from refrigerator, one portion at a time.
Roll each portion to 1/8-inch thickness on a lightly floured surface.
Cut with a cookie cutter, and place on lightly greased cookie sheets.
Sprinkle with decorative candies or colored sugars, if you want.
Bake in preheated oven 8 to 10 minutes or until edges of cookies are lightly browned.
Cool slightly on cookie sheets; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Not every Christmas (or Holiday) cookie on my plate will be made with Splenda, but it's sure nice to be able to have some available for folks who can't eat sugar!

Okay, now for the "regular" ones.....with a little bit of the Archies' "Sugar, Sugar" playing in the background....(didn't Neil Sadaka write that one? Rumor has it that Don Kershner wanted the Monkees to record the song, but was ousted from Colgems before that happened.)

Then it's back to holiday music and the continuation of this baking frenzy!

Sugar Sugar

SUGAR, SUGAR COOKIES
1 1/2 cups butter, softened
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt


Method
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).  
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. 
Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter, round is fine too. 
Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets. 
Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely. 

Sugar, Sugar Cookies

 As always, please feel free to share your recipes on this site....just use the comments box!  Naturally you'll receive full credit and I promise to even try the recipes you send.  For now, Enjoy!

HOLIDAY RECIPE - Turkey with Stuffing Dinner TURKEY PREP

To begin at the beginning is to truly begin, so here it is.

Little City Meats

We begin with the bird....star of the show, piste de resistance, center piece of this culinary celebration....the turkey.  Arguably, fresh is always best but is not always possible.  We have a great little meat store down the street, Little City Meats....it's my dream to one day order a fresh holiday turkey from that place!  
Hey. Dreams do come true!

But until then I went as usual to the local Safeway to take advantage of their special Five Dollar Turkey sale.  Unfortunately they didn't have any of them left, but had a few in the next higher price range. So I got a 19.85 lb Tom Turkey for $9.00!  Frozen, yes...but affordable.  Yay!  While there I trolled the aisles for any other deals and came home with most of the meal shopping done with ten days to spare!  The remaining ingredients were picked up the following day at our local green grocer and  Foods Co. market. No muss, no fuss.

Meanwhile, back at the flat.....
While the turkey hibernated in our freezer for seven days, other preparations were underway.
I made bread....lots of bread....different varieties of bread....for Jack's family's Thanksgiving dinner and our own pending feast, and planned to use some as the bread for our stuffing.  As the time drew nigh, I collected the designated stuffing breads and broke them into pieces and stored the breads in a deep container. This mixture included cornbread, walnut bread and wheat/oat bread.

Stuffing packed to cure

One secret to good stuffing is hard or stale bread, so I left mixture in the container, but loosely covered so it could "stale up."  I didn't want the breads to get "bored," just laying around languishing so I added some of dry spices so they could start developing flavor.   
     These spices included a bit of poultry seasoning of course, a dash of extra sage, dried celery leaves, dried onion flakes, dried garlic flakes, thyme, a dash of pepper and salt (optional). Naturally, seasoning is a very personal thing...each to their own! Please use spices that suit your tastes.
     Once this was done, I set it in the pantry to dry-cure.

I made apple pie and apple sauce for Jack's family's feast and still had time on my hands, so used it to catch up on the blog.  I also took this opportunity to make the herb/butter rub that would be used in the marination of the turkey.  I put some butter in a container, added fine-chopped garlic, onion, poulty seasoning, sage and thyme and mixed it all together then put it in the fridge for a little blending time.

Then, at long last, it was time to begin the turkey process!

First thing was to defrost the thing.  I'm old school on this...a standard take it out of the freezer, put it on a cookie sheet on the bottom shelf of the fridge and let it do its thing for two days, kind of girl.
So that's what I did.

Sink prepared

While that happened I took the time to really clean the kitchen, stem to stern. All this began with a thorough wiping and sweeping. That took the better part of day one.
Day two found me concentrating on the sink, stove and other work surfaces.  Preparing the sink, particularly, took a lot of TLC.  After scrubbing it with cleanser and rinsing with hot water, I went in for the kill with a coarse salt and vinegar wash followed by another hot water rinse.  No self-respecting germ or bit of dirt dared show its face after such an onslaught of purification!

Turkey taking a bath

Then it was time for the turkey to come out of its wraps, face the world and have its Grand Bath. I always inspect the critter, inside and out, looking for things like freezer burn or discoloration.  I also use my nose....sniffing for any signs of purification.
Satisfied that all was fine, I continued by pulling out the package of giblets and neck that had been nestled within the turkey's large cavity, then  put the main body in the sink and turned on the cold water.   NOTE: cold not hot water, this is very important!    

Turkey covered and soaking

There were a few bits of ice inside the cavity, so I decided to let Mr. Gobbler soak in the sink for about 30 minutes.  Since we have a cat who is a turkey fiend, I covered our soaking friend with a couple of cookie sheets while I started the giblet basting broth and gravy base.

The giblets (heart, kidneys and liver) and neck (that long thing) are very useful!  There's a lot of flavor in those goodies and I was determined to unlock that yumminess, so put them in a pan of water on the stove for a good, long simmer.  Soon the house was filling with that familiar, rich, wonderful aroma!

Piercing pathways for flavor

Then it was time to check the turkey's condition, which by then was completely thawed.  I removed the bird to one of the towels, emptied the sink and then rinsed the bird inside and out before patting it dry. Then I pierced the turkey all over, inside and out, to develop "pathways" for flavor.

Now comes one of the most important parts of the process, getting the turkey ready for marination.
I took the butter out of the fridge and opened the lid.  Mmmmmmm!
 
Starting from the inside, I rubbed that bird from stem to stern with the herb butter, making sure to lift the skin along the two breast sides and rub some in there too.  Pretty much anywhere that could have butter rubbed onto it or into it, got it.   Then I sprinkled additional herbs throughout and on top of the turkey.  Same rule of thumb; if it could be spiced, it was.

Then it was time for a very important decision; what liquid or liquids should I use for the marination?

Any body can soak a turkey in wine; I do it all the time.  But gee whiz!  I wanted to do something different!  I saw the remaining oranges from Jack's sister sitting in a basket and began feeling twinges of inspiration.
There was some bourbon in the cupboard. Bourbon does something wonderful to to food, it goes well with oranges and I felt like doing something wild.  Before thinking twice, I added a healthy cup or thereabouts to the marinating bag.

Marinating in the bag

Once that was done I closed the bag and tied it tight, set it breast side down in a large bowl then started it on the first of many hours of marination in the refrigerator.  Four hours later I turned it breast up for another four hour fridge soak.  I did this rotating several times during the 12 hour marination.

NEXT INSTALLMENT: Stuffing and cooking the bird.

As always, feel free to share your recipes here....simply write them as comments, include your name and email....I'll be most happy to give credit where credit is due!  And above all else, Enjoy!

Breadly Speaking

Bread baking for the holidays!!!!   I don't know of a better way to warm up the house on a chilly day (or night) than to crank up the oven and fill the space with that sweet aroma that only comes with the baking of bread!


For Thanksgiving at Jack's sister's house this year, we were asked to bring the bread.  I didn't want to just stop by a store and pick up some biscuits...that would have been okay, but GEE!


Rather than do that, I decided to make a selection of wholesome whole grain offerings....2 corn breads, 1 whole wheat/oat and a whole wheat walnut loaf.  It took a few days, but I loved every minute of it!



The whole wheat/oat bread is a yeast based so it takes a bit longer than the others, which could be classified as Quick Breads. So I started with that.


BREAD A THON  PART ONE - Whole Wheat Oat Bread

1 1/2 Tablespoons active dry yeast
1/2 cup LUKEWARM water - for activating the yeast
1 teaspoon molasses or brown sugar - for activating the yeast
2 1/4 cup HOT water - for softening the oats
1/2 cup unprocessed oats or oat bran
1/2 cup white flour (pure gluten flour will make it rise higher)
1 Tablespoon salt or salt substitute
1/4 cup safflower oil
1/4 cup molasses
6 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (as needed)
2 Tablespoons powdered whole or nonfat dry milk 

First things first....the yeast. I have a very fine opinion of yeast and want to treat it very well throughout the process of it becoming bread.  So I'm careful to make sure the water used for activating it is Lukewarm....not too hot, not too cool. 

Yeast starting to foam

After foaming 15 minutes

I like to feed the yeast with molasses or brown sugar rather than regular sugar.  Either one of these works and seems to get the little yeast critters foaming like crazy!  
After activating the yeast,  put it somewhere warm-not hot! Let those yeasties honker down on that molasses or brown sugar and let it rip!  First time I did that, I was amazed!


The oats or bran need some attention, too. Put them in a small bowl, pour the 1 1/4 cups of HOT water over them and give the whole thing a stir.  I let this rest and moved on to the dry ingredients.

While that was going on, I combined the dry ingredients in a large bowl.  
Hint :  Make sure these ingredients are well blended. This is a good time to add any dry base seasonings, too.   

Blending wet and dry

Then I started adding the wet ingredients - starting with the oats then mixed with a spoon.  This dough can be blended with a sturdy upright mixer with a dough hook, too.   

After that I added the oil, molasses and finally the yeast.  Note that I added the yeast last.  It's a personal preference....not sure why but it's how I've always done it.  Then it was more elbow grease until the dough left the sides of the bowl.

Ingredients well blended-no longer sticking to sides of bowl

Dough division

 Then I turned the dough out onto a slightly floured piece waxed paper,  divided into two equal portions and tucked each portion into its very own greased loaf pan, covering each with a towel for a 30 minute rising nap.   

Bread on the rise!

 During this time, the dough should rise....maybe even double its original size!  Ain't yeast just awesome?!

Grow little yeasties, grow!

The 30 minute rising time was a great opportunity to clean up a little then take a break...so that's what I did!
A little coffee, a little soapy water and the kitchen no longer looked like a disaster area! That done, I double-checked the oven settings, made sure the bread had risen enough, removed the towels then put the filled loaf pans on the on a mid-oven shelf and let them bake for 40 minutes in a 350 degree oven. 

Once done, the loaves were placed on a wire rack to cool before packaging for transport.

Breads cooling on a rack

  These loaves didn't rise a lot...I didn't have any gluten flour, so didn't expect them to grow much more than they did...but they were delicious!  The wheat acted as a perfect foil for the oats sweetness, and like all good breads it had that crunchy exterior and soft interior...it even had enough flavor to stand up with or without butter!  Yum!

Feel free to share your recipes, too!  As always, Enjoy!












 

Pie in the Sky

There's nothing like a basket (or so) of fresh harvested apples! 

Jack's sister has a great back yard filled with seasonal fruits and flowers.  Among these is a wonderful apple tree and we've been blessed with some of its bounty.

All the way home from our visit, the fruit's aromatics teased my senses.  I envisioned pies, cobblers, cakes, cookies, breads and ciders.....roasts with apples, chops with apples, chicken with apples....stuffings, sauces and relishes - to say the least, I had a lot on my mind!

I wanted to make something to bring to Jack's family Thanksgiving dinner....using the apples would make it even more special.  I asked him what he thought and Jack voted for apple pie.  It was up to me to decide which type of pie, crust and so on.

Some may wonder what I mean.  "Apple pie is apple pie, right?"

Well, yes and no.  There are different types, different ways to make it, different crusts.   For example, maybe instead of just plain old apple I might want to throw in some raisins and walnuts....or maybe pears.   I

Baked Pie

may want to make it with a crumb topping, or lattice, or plain old slit-top pie crust, or even just go crazy and make the crust with cereal.  I may even make a "Cookie Pie,"  which is a pie with a thin "cookie" top crust.  For that matter, maybe make the whole crust like a cookie.....who knows?


As far as the fruit goes, I don't peel the apples before pie-ing them.  But if you have digestive problems perhaps you should peel them.

There are a lot of ways to make an apple pie!  Do I make it in a paper bag?  Do I put plain apples in a pie shell, lattice the top and pour sugared, thickened liquid through the lattice before baking?
The sky's the limit!

I decided to try a few different recipes, after we had plenty of apples!

This first one is a standard double-crust pie.  I'll be doing another pie crust in a couple of days, so watch for it! The pie crust is the most complicated part.  Common rule of thumb is to keep everything cold, cold butter, cold liquids, heck even cold bowl and rolling pin!

PIE CRUST 1
 
Chill butter and liquids before you begin. 
2/3 cup + 2 Tablespoons butter
4 Tablespoons liquid  (Try using apple juice (or other fruit juice) instead of water)

2 cups of flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. cloves

Preheat oven to 450 Degrees
Place a cookie sheet in the oven.

Sift flour, salt, cinnamon and cloves into a large bowl. Stir until evenly mixed.   Cut 1/2 of chilled butter into dry ingredients using pastry knife, mezzaluna or two table knives until it reaches a cornmeal state.  Add the remaining butter and continue cutting in until it looks like cornmeal with large bits in it.

Filled Pie ready for oven

Add liquid a little at a time, stirring with a fork, add more liquid until dough, when squeezed in hand, stays together.  Put in the fridge for 30 minutes to allow the flour to absorb all the moisture.

Dust a dry, clean surface with flour.  I use a large sheet-cake pan; plenty of working room and no flour mess on the counter.  Some people roll their dough out in between layers of waxed paper.  If you do, just be sure to dust it with flour first! Otherwise it'll stick.

Pie filled, extra crust around edge

Working quickly roll dough to 1/4 "  thick or smaller. While rolling, turn the dough one-quarter turn at a time to keep rolling even.  When you've reached the desired thickness, roll the dough over the pin and unroll it over the top of a pie pan.   Make sure to leave a little overhang of dough around the edges, this will be part of what crimps the pie together.

For filled fruit pies, pierce bottom of crust before filling it.

APPLE PIE FILLING

Mixing the apples, sugars and spices

5-6 apples cored and sliced
Juice of one lemon
1 cup sugar (mixed brown and white)
2 Tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp cloves
1/8 tsp nutmeg (optional)
1 Tablespoon butter

Crimping the pie edge

Mix apples with lemon juice, corn starch, sugars, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg until apples are evenly coated.
Fill empty pie shell, dot top with butter .  Cover with top crust.
 Fold the excess bottom crust over the top crust edge then crimp using your fingers or a fork.

Venting the top

Pierce the top with a knife to vent the pie. Place pie on pre-heated cookie sheet in the oven.
Cook for 15 minutes at 450 degrees then lower heat to 350 degrees and cook for 50 minutes longer.
If your oven is slow, rotate the pie once during 350 degree cooking.  Pie will be done when top crust is golden brown.

This is just one recipe.  More to come!
Please feel free to share your pie recipes, thoughts and ideas!
Enjoy!

Cutting into pie