My Oh My! Oh Pie!

What do you do with a case of apples? I think that equals about 88 apples..hmmm...a friend of mine decided she had an unwanted case of apples and was going to throw them away when I said I'd take them. You know me, I like to give everything a second chance. But, a case of apples - where other to begin than with pie!

I think I'd take a piece of pie over chocolate cake any day. I like cake, I love chocolate, but I like home made fruit pies even better. There's just something about them that makes you feel loved, and you never get that bogged down feeling like you do after eating a wedge of cake.

I have made this pie plenty of times, it is relatively simple, but has a few steps. I encourage you to read through it first, because from start to finish, it takes about 3 hours, but you are not working the entire time, just waiting for delicious pastry to rest and sweet apples to macerate.

Enjoy!

Apple Raspberry Pie
Makes one 9" double crust pie
Adapted ever so slightly from The Joy of Baking
Crust: You can make the pastry up to two days in advance (just keep refrigerated)
225g unsalted butter, chilled, cut into ½” pieces
350g all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons white sugar
¼ – ½ cup ice water

Pie Filling:
3 large tart apples (I use Granny Smith), peeled, cored and sliced ¼” thick
3 large sweet apples (I use Gala), peeled, cored and sliced ¼” thick
¼ cup white sugar
¼ cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon (if using only apples, increase cinnamon to ½ teaspoon)
¼ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch
170g (1 pint) fresh raspberries

1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon white sugar

To make crust:
Place into bowl of food processor all ingredients in the same order listed (ie, butter on the bottom, flour next etc), except water. Pulse until mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Pour in ¼ cup water in slow stream and process until the dough JUST comes together. If necessary, add a little more water.
Turn dough out into a large bowl. Press into bottom of bowl until dough comes together. It may look a little dry at this point. Using a sharp knife, cut the dough in half and place one half on top of the other, press down to make one piece again, and repeat twice more.
Divide the dough in half, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for one hour to relax the gluten.

After chilling, cut the pastry into two pieces (1/3 and 2/3) and roll the pastry on a lightly floured surface, to fit pie plate, about 30cm round to fit a 9” dish. Brush off excess flour and trim pastry to fit plate. Repeat with pastry for the lid. Cover both with plastic and place back in the refrigerator.

To make filling:
In a large bowl, combine the sliced apples, sugars, lemon juice, cinnamon and salt. Let the apple macerate for two hours at room temperature.
Then, place the apples and their juices in a strainer over a bowl, and leave for 15 minutes to catch juices. When you have strained off at least ½ cup juice, place the juices and the butter in a small saucepan and place over medium-high heat until reduced to 1/3 cup and the juices are thickened and syrupy. Set aside to cool slightly.

Mix the strained apples with the cornstarch, the fresh raspberries and the reduced juices. Mix well and then place fruit and syrup into pastry shell. Brush edges with a little water and close with pastry lid. Seal edges, and using a sharp knife make five 2” slits from the centre of the pie out to allow steam to escape. Place in refrigerator while oven heats.
Brush with lightly beaten egg and sprinkle with white sugar.

Preheat convection oven to 375F (400F standard oven), and place pie on a baking sheet to catch any juices.

Bake for about 30 minutes (turning halfway for even browning) and then cover the edges with a foil ring to prevent over-browning. Bake for another 15-30 minutes until nicely browned on top and you can see the juices bubbling through the slits.

Remove from oven and cool 2-3 hours before slicing. Pie will keep at room temperature for 2-3 days.

Raspberry Almond Friands

Raspberries...almonds....YUM! I love these little oval cakes. They are sweet, but not too sweet, and chewy because of the almonds, but because of their petite size, you never feel as if you have eaten too much. (Says me, who has already eaten three today!).

I think these little cakes, called friands, first appeared in cafes in Sydney about 15 years ago. I bet they are so passé now that you can't even buy them. I love the plain raspberry ones, but you could almost use any fruit, add some zest and whatever other flavourings you like and they would turn out just as delicious. And, I have never seen them in Ottawa, or anywhere I have travelled in North America. Perhaps it's an Australian-French made-up bakery delight.

One place I used to buy them from in Sydney, baked them in a jelly-roll type of pan, cut them into triangles and dusted liberally with icing sugar. They were so good!

I used a non-stick pan which kind of looks like a muffin pan, but with oval holes in it. When I bought it in Australia, surprise surprise, it was called a friand pan. I don't know what else it could be called, or where to buy it here, but I bet mini muffin pans would work just as well. You could probably get a friand pan shipped from Peters of Kensington in Sydney.

My almonds were purchased already ground from the Mid-East store on Belfast. They are relatively cheap and if you are not planning to use them all within a couple of weeks, just wrap tightly and store in the freezer.

I don't know why I had an inkling to make these, it just felt like now was the right time. I had raspberries, I had almonds and I figured this would work out nicely.


Raspberry Almond Friands
Makes 12

1 & 1/3 cup ground almonds
1 & 3/4 cup icing sugar
2/3 cup flour
1 teaspoon lemon zest
8 egg whites, beaten only to get the whites to a smooth consistency - not to inflate
150g unsalted butter, melted
1 cup raspberries (or other fruit - blueberries, blackberries, strawberries)

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease the pan you are using.
Mix together the almonds, icing sugar, flour and lemon zest. Stir in the egg whites until just combined. Add the melted butter (and it looks like a big greasy mess at this point, but keep stirring - miraculously, it all gets mixed in) and stir until combined.
Portion the batter evenly between the holes in the pan. Top with raspberries (I used 5 per friand) and bake for 25-30 minutes or until they are just pale golden. Remove from oven and leave to cool in pan for 5 minutes. When cool, dust with icing sugar.

Enjoy!

Penne with Arugula and Walnut Pesto

I have been entering a competition using Catelli Healthy Harvest Pasta in which the challenge changes every week. I entered for the first time last week and then challenge was to use whole wheat spaghetti with fruit. It took a while for me to think of something creative enough to prepare. I was thinking peaches, and then I was thinking should I try a dessert, but then I settled on creating a peanut chicken curry with coconut milk and adding fresh pineapple and lime juice. It actually worked out quite nicely.

This week the challenge was to create a recipe using whole wheat penne and nuts or seeds. Immediately I thought of a pesto - classic nuts & herbs with pasta, but the taste of whole wheat pasta is earthy and nutty in itself and I thought it would pair wonderfully with walnuts.

The rest of the recipe came together when I scoured through my fridge (my latest resolution is to never throw food away again. It drives me crazy to think of how much I throw away on a weekly basis...not anymore!). I found parsley which was a good base and then I had a whole container of arugula which would add some peppery bite, garlic, lemon juice, parmesan cheese, olive oil and it was pretty much done. I added some sauteed mushrooms because they were in my fridge, but also because it seemed to lack something by itself. Turned out, it added another earthy element to the pasta.

For a super easy dinner, this was it. And I didn't buy anything special (except the pasta which you have to include to enter the competition). Feel free to mix up the ingredients - more parmesan cheese, less salt, different herbs, you name it, you could probably do it!

Let's see what they come up with next week to make us all think outside the box! If you like the recipe go to the Catelli website and cast your vote!

Penne with Arugula and Walnut Pesto
Makes 4 serves

1 packed cup flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
1 packed cup baby arugula
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup walnuts, lightly toasted
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup cold water
1 package (375g) Healthy Harvest Whole Wheat Penne
1 tablespoon butter
1lb mushrooms, thickly sliced

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook penne for 13 minutes, drain and set aside.

In the meantime, combine the parsley, arugula, garlic, walnuts, parmesan cheese, lemon juice and salt and pepper in the base of a food processor.

Pulse until the mixture is coarsley chopped. With motor running, slowly pour in olive oil and water and process until almost smooth. You may need to add a little more water if too thick. Set aside. You are looking for a smooth-ish paste texture. Soft enough that it will fold through hot pasta, but firm enough that it will hold it's shape if you make it into a ball shape.

Melt the butter in a large pan and brown mushrooms. You may need to do this in two batches so the mushrooms brown nicely.

Combine the pesto and mushrooms with the penne and mix well. Serve with extra parmesan cheese on top.

Enjoy!

Vanilla Poached Pears

Fruit and custard. I remember my Grandma used to stew her own apples and serve them topped with warm custard. I can't remember if she made her own custard or if it was made from powder in a can, but it was such a delicious dessert, we always looked forward to visits with Grandma.

And then, about three years ago I was invited to a luncheon with a friend and for dessert we had a lovely poached pear. Ever since, she has been asking if I could make up the recipe, and well, finally, here it is.

By combining both memories - the restaurant and Grandma's version - I came up with a vanilla poached pear with a white chocolate creme anglaise.

Poached pears, if kept in their syrup, will keep for quite some time in the refrigerator, the creme anglaise maybe two days.
Once poached though, you can slice them on top of cereal for breakfast, add them chopped to a pancake mixture, stir them through fruit muffins, add them to a sandwich with some sharp cheddar - basically, the list is endless. You can switch up the flavouring to whatever you have available, or whatever you feel like. Fresh ginger would be delicious, ginger and pears just seem to have a "thing" for each other. Anise would add a licorice flavour, you could add whole cloves or cinnamon sticks, bay leaves would be great too.

Just remember to use almost-ripe pears. Bosc seem to hold their shape the best, but Bartlett work just as well too. Mini pears would look so cute.

Enjoy!

Vanilla Poached Pears
Makes 8 poached pears

2 cups sugar
6 cups water
1/2 vanilla bean
1 cinnamon stick
8 almost ripe pears

Combine the sugar and water in a large pan. Add the vanilla bean and the cinnamon stick. Stir well.

Peel the pears leaving the stems attached and place into the sugar mixture.

Bring to the boil, then reduce heat to a really gentle simmer and cook 20-25 minutes or until pears are tender and a small kinfe can insert easily into the base. Cool in syrup. (See - it's so easy)

White Chocolate Creme Anglaise
Makes 3 cups

1 cup cream
1 cup milk
1/2 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped out
1/3 cup white sugar
4 egg yolks
100g white chocoate, chopped

Bring the cream, milk and vanilla (pod and seeds) to a simmer.

Meanwhile, mix together the sugar and the egg yolks, whisking until the yolks have turned a pale yellow colour.

Place the chopped chocolate into a clean medium size bowl.

When the cream/milk mixture just starts to bubble around the edges, pour a little (about 1/4 cup) at a time into the egg mixture, stirring constantly, until at least half of the milk mixture is added to the eggs. Pour the eggs back into the saucepan with the milk and using a wooden spoon, stir constantly over medium heat until the mixture is thick enough to just coat the back of the spoon.

Using a fine mesh strainer, strain the custard over the chocolate in the bowl (discard the vanilla pod). Stir until the chocolate has melted.

Serve warm with the poached pears, or cover and refrigerate for up to three days.

Cheddar Biscuits

I woke up on Sunday morning and was craving the light buttery taste of cheddar biscuits for breakfast, obviously dripping with butter.

This recipe has been in my repetoire for a very long time. I don't even remember where the recipe came from - was it passed on from a friend? I really have no idea.

I like to use this same recipe on top of chicken pot pie, I just shape the biscuits and put them on top of the pot pie raw, and bake until the biscuits are done. The chicken pot pie is generally bubbling over and hot by that point as well.

They are delicious beside a bowl of steaming soup. I even split and toast them the next day (and the next if there are any left) and smother them in butter for breakfast. Probably not the healthiest choice, but definitely the most delicious choice.

You can make mini versions for crowds to snack on, or bigger versions to make into sandwiches. This recipe is really versatile too, sometimes I will add fresh chopped herbs, or a touch of chilli powder, depends on how I feel.

Enjoy!

Cheddar Biscuits
Makes six 3" round biscuits

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled, cubed
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons melted butter, for brushing

Preheat oven to 450F.

Into the bowl of your food processor place in this order the butter, flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt. Pulse until butter is mixed in. The dry mixture should look like coarse sand with a few lumps.

Transfer mixture to a large bowl and toss through shredded cheese (you can add any herbs or other flavourings here). Using a fork to begin, pour in buttermilk and mix to combine. The mixture should just come together when you squeeze it into a ball. If you need to add more buttermilk, do so, but do it sparingly. If your dough is too wet you will end up with a heavy finished biscuit.

Here's the trick to make them flaky - you want to squash the mixture down into the bottom of the bowl. Then, cut the dough in half down the middle and place one half on top of the other. Squish the dough into the bottom again. Do this two more times to make lots of layers. Your dough should also come together quite nicely at this point.

Place dough onto lightly floured flat surace and roll to 3/4"-1" high. Cut out into desired shape and place onto baking sheet.

Brush tops with melted butter and bake for 15 minutes, or until the tops are nicely browned, and when you lift up the biscuit, the bottom has started to brown as well.

Remove from oven and leave to cool for 5 minutes (if you can!).

Sweet Potato Salad

The sun is shining and it feels as if the days are beginning to get longer (it's still light out for a couple of minutes when I get home from work these days). Is Spring really almost here? The groundhog says at least another 6 more weeks, but I say enough!

It's time for a salad, but not just a leafy green thing you eat when you really don't want to eat anything else, I want it full of good stuff and I want it to fill me up.

I basically pulled everything from my fridge and pantry and came up with this delight. It's still a touch seasonal with the sweet potatoes and cranberries, but it's brightened up with fresh peppers and green onions and a crunch of toasted sunflower seeds is a nice nutty surprise.

And, the best thing is that while the sweet potatoes are roasting you can prepare the rest of the salad - it's so easy.

Enjoy!

Sweet Potato Salad
Makes 6-8 serves

Potatoes:
4-6 orange sweet potatoes (about 1kg)
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 sprig fresh rosemary, leaves finely chopped
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Salad:
1/2 cup toasted sunflower seeds
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1 red pepper, 1/4" dice

Dressing:
1/2 cup cranberry juice
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon honey
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 375F.
Scrub potatoes really well, but do not peel unless you are absolutely against eating the skin (it's really good for you, as well as it cuts down on one step in the kitchen). Cut into 1/2" cubes and place in a large bowl with the canola oil, chopped rosemary, cumin, ginger and salt & pepper. Toss well and place in a single layer on a baking sheet and roast for 25-30 minutes or until potatoes are tender and golden. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.

While potatoes are cooking, combine dressing ingredients in a small bowl and mix well.

Combine cooled roasted sweet potatoes with sunflower seeds, cranberries, green onions and red pepper. Pour over dressing and mix through.

Really, how easy is that?

Sunday Brunch

I have recently decided that it's time to invite more people to our house. It feels like it's been a good couple of years since we've done any serious entertaining. I guess I got pregnant (couldn't drink, felt extremely fat and tired), we had the baby (still fat, still couldn't drink and even more tired), then we moved (twice in less than 4 months, so really, really, really tired), and now we've been in our new house for a year, our baby is sociable and sleeps through the night (I am also back to my pre-pregnancy weight and can drink again), so it feels like it's the perfect time to make a semi-return to our pre-baby lifestyle.

We had friends over for wine last Sunday night, I had a lovely cheese board ready and cooked up some pot stickers and spring rolls with a sweet soy chilli dipping sauce. And, it was a success. Tired on Monday, but our first "event" went well.

This week we invited 3 couples and their kids for Sunday brunch. It really reminded me not to EVER have more than 2 kids....they just make too much noise on a Sunday morning, and it reminded me that I really should pay more attention as to who my husband is inviting over. I counted 6 and in the end there were 8 adults and 5 kids. I can't even find an excuse for making such a huge mistake. Thank goodness it was brunch, and we have a toaster!

Sunday rolls around quite quickly for me. I generally work Saturdays, so some serious planning was necessary. I did all my shopping on Saturday and Sunday I was up early getting ready.

I cooked 2lbs of bacon and 2lbs of breakfast sausage in the oven, roasted 2 big bunches of lovely fat asparagus with tomatoes and garlic as well. I made a simple arugula salad and a cheese quiche, pancakes, sliced baguette and cooked up about 5lbs of home fries. I also baked a Banana Cranberry Bread, which was so moist, but not too sweet. And then, we finished off with a pavlova topped with fresh cherries (pitted), strawberries and raspberries.

Champagne was chilled for the Mimosas and cranberry juice on hand for the kids.

What a delightful way to start the day!

Banana Cranberry Bread
Recipe adapted slightly from Simply Recipes

3 ripe bananas, mashed with a fork
1/3 cup melted butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 & 1/2 cups flour
1 cup fresh (or frozen) cranberries

Preheat oven to 350F.
Lightly grease a loaf pan, making sure you get into all the corners.
In a large bowl, combine the mashed bananas with the melted butter. Add the sugar, egg and vanilla. Mix in the baking soda, salt and flour, stirring until just combined. Fold through the cranberries and pour mixture into prepared loaf pan.
Bake for approximately 1 hour, cool on a rack for 30 minutes, then turn loaf out. It stays really moist if you leave it in the pan to cool.
And, it lasts for about 5 days wrapped tightly on the counter. Don't refrigerate (or if you do, make sure you bring it back to room temperature, or warm it slightly, before serving).

Enjoy!