Apple Pie

I made this recipe with the vodka pie crust last weekend, and thought it was the best apple pie I've ever made. I think that's party due to the variety of apples I used, which were all picked at my grandma's house. They are mainly old-fashioned varieties, and I couldn't name any of them for you. America's Test Kitchen suggests using a mix of Granny Smith and Macintosh. Macintosh are my favorite apples, but they can be very hard to find in most grocery stores (I think they must not travel well, as they are very thin-skinned); use whatever good baking apples you can find in your neck of the woods.

The allspice in this recipe is an unusual touch. I liked it a lot, but if you don't care for it or want a more traditional flavor, you can omit or reduce. Mary actually ground the allspice in our mortar and pestle, which made it stronger than the average stuff in a jar. (I know! We are like the freakin' Ingalls here!). It is correct that the recipe contains no thickener or gluten, which adds to the fresh flavor. It holds together well, as long as you are together enough and patient enough to bake it early in the day and wait at least four hours to slice it.

Apple Pie
(America's Test Kitchen, from the original The Best Recipe book, no longer in print)

*4 lbs apples (preferably half each Granny Smith and Macintosh, about 8 medium total. As I mentioned above, I used a mix, and a couple more than 8)
*3/4 cup sugar
*1 1/2 tbs juice and 1 tsp zest from one lemon
*1/4 tsp salt
*1/4 tsp nutmeg
*1/4 tsp cinnamon
*1/4 tsp allspice

-Prepare your dough (obviously!)and refrigerate
-Remove one piece of dough from refrigerator. Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 425.
-Roll out one disc of dough on floured surface into a 12" circlish shape (I can never manage a perfect circle). Fold dough into quarters, place dough point in center of your deep dish or regular pie plate (Pyrex is best) and unfold. Ease gently into sides of pan, leaving overhang. Put back into fridge.
-Peel and core apples and slice into 1/2" or so slices, larger than you might normally do. Toss with remaining ingredients. Turn into the pie shell, making sure all the juices make it in, mounding in center.
-Roll out second dough disc and place on top. Trim edges to 1/2" overhang, tuck under themselves, and crimp. Slice an "A" into the top crust with a sharp knife.
-Bake until top crust is golden, about 25 minutes. Reduce heat to 375, and bake until juices bubble through slits in crust and crust is deep golden brown, about 30-35 minutes longer.
-Cool on rack, at least 4 hours.

Vodka Pie Crust

The folks at America's Test Kitchen recently said this was their most ground-breaking recipe, or something to that effect. After trying it, I might agree with them.

Don't get too excited, though, if what you are hoping for is some sort of drunken pie (at a core level, I know that is what we are all searching for). The vodka in this recipe brings nothing boozy at all to the finished product. Instead, it magically creates a product that is very workable and forgiving in the dough stage, and incredibly flaky once baked. I made this, in an apple pie, last weekend for a University of Oregon football party at Jeff's Sports Bar (Nan and Jeff's garage, that is) and it was a hit. I think I'll try it again at Thanksgiving.

This is a generous amount for a double-crust pie. I had quite a bit left, probably enough for a third crust (so you could, for instance, do a pumpkin pie and an apple pie with one recipe). Stash the extra in your freezer in a flattened, well-wrapped disc.

The ATK folks say "vodka is essential to this recipe...do not substitute. The dough will be more supple and flexible than most standard pie doughs and will require more flour to roll out, up to 1/4 cup".

And here's how these things go in my house: Get invited to a football party, with a theme of Thanksgiving Dinner. Promise to make pie, knowing I was almost out of vodka but had an emergency bottle stashed in the freezer. Get the dry ingredients mixed, then pull said bottle out of freezer and realize it's wasabi vodka. Search liquor cabinet. Find a tiny remaining bit of Absolut Citron. Shrug, and use it, though add an extra tablespoon of water as don't have quite enough. The lemon taste was undetectable, and the crust was perfect, so there you go. My lack of planning and procrastination is once again reinforced.

Vodka Pie Crust

*2 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour (12 1/2 ounces)
*1 tsp salt
*2 TBS sugar
*12 TBS cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4" slices
*1/2 cup solid cold shortening, cut into big pieces
*1/4 cup cold vodka
*1/4 cup cold water

-Process 1 1/2 cups of the flour, the sugar, and the salt in the food processor just until combined. Add butter and shortening and process until dough starts to collect in lumps, resemble cottage cheese, and all flour is coated (about 15 seconds). Scrape processor bowl with spatula and redistribute dough around blade. Add remaining flour and pulse until mixture is evenly distributed and the mass has been broken up, 4 to 6 quick pulses. Empty mixture into bowl.
-Sprinkle vodka and water over mixture. Use rubber spatula to fold and mix, pressing down on dough until it is slightly tacky and sticks together. Divide into two balls, wrapping each in plastic wrap and pressing into 4"discs. Refrigerate at least 45 minutes, or up to 2 days. You can also freeze for a shorter amount of time, if you were in a hurry. Theoretically.

Use plenty of flour when rolling out; don't worry as much as you would with typical dough that using too much flour will make it tough. It will be fine. Don't worry if it's really moist.

No-Knead Bread

This bread is sweeping the food blogging world (man, is my life exciting! Always on the cutting edge). According to notmartha.com, it " Appeared in the article The Secret of Great Bread: Let Time Do the Work by Mark Bittman in the November 8th, 2006 New York Times

Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery"

Allow at least a full 24 hours to make this, possibly more. It takes very little hands-on time during that period, but I found it needed close to 24 hours to sit the first time, and then a several hour rising period at the end of it, plus baking time. It was probably only 15 minutes of hands-on time in that period, including cleaning pots and pans. The long rise lends a wonderfully yeasty flavor (and there is a very small amount of yeast in the recipe). The bread is slightly sour and has a wonderfully flaky, crispy crust.

I baked it in a 6 qt stockpot, oven proof. Notmartha recommends a smaller pan, 4 quarts or so, but I didn't have one the right size and the loaf I made turned out beautifully. Wonderful dipped in olive oil, or toasted with butter and honey.

Recipe, with notmartha's and my adaptations:

Time: About 1 1/2 hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising

- 3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting (I have had good luck with both kinds of flour, and also with substituting one cup of whole wheat flour)
- 1/4 teaspoon instant [aka Rapid Rise, QuickRise, Instant Active Dry, Perfect Rise, or Bread Machine Yeast] yeast
- 1 3/4 teaspoons salt
-1 1/2 cups water
- Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed for flouring towels (I use cornmeal).

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees. [I put it on top of my fridge.]

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice-cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes (I've always skipped this step with no problems).

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with cornmeal (what I use), wheat bran, or rice flour; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart [about a 4-quart pot is preferred] heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 10 or 15 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Yield: One 1 1/2-pound loaf.

World Peace Cookies (Korova Cookies)

These, along with the no-knead bread, are all over the food blogging community. I plan to try the bread, maybe even later today, and did make the cookies right before Christmas. They really are fantastic; rich and deeply chocolatey and easy. The saltiness of them works beautifully with the chocolate. Other blogs I'd read had suggested this was not really a recipe for children, but my 9 year old loves them and has been sneaking them. I still think the ginger cookies are the best cookies ever, but these come close. The recipe I used comes from Splendid Table from Dorie Greenspan, who says this:

I once said I thought these cookies, the brainchild of the Parisian pastry chef Pierre Hermé, were as important a culinary breakthrough as Toll House cookies, and I've never thought better of the statement. These butter-rich, sandy-textured slice-and-bake cookies are members of the sablé family. But, unlike classic sablés, they are midnight dark — there's cocoa in the dough — and packed with chunks of hand-chopped bittersweet chocolate. Perhaps most memorably, they're salty. Not just a little salty, but remarkably and sensationally salty. It's the salt — Pierre uses fleur de sel, a moist, off-white sea salt — that surprises, delights and makes the chocolate flavors in the cookies seem preternaturally profound.

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 stick plus 3 tablespoons (11 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel or 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt (I had coarse sea salt; I crushed it in a mortar and pestle, which was a very quick job and worked fine)
  
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into small bits (I used the good, inexpensive pound plus 72% dark chocolate from Trader Joe's).

*Sift together flour, cocoa, and baking soda.
*Beat butter in standing mixer until creamy and light. Add sugar and beat. Add salt and vanily and beat until creamy.
*Dump in dry ingredients. Drape a towel over mixer (or use the splatter guard, which I just remembered now that I have) VERY CAREFULLY (you don't want it to get caught in the beaters of death) and pulse 5 or so times, one second each, until flour is somewhat incorporated.
*Mix at low speed about 30 seconds until batter is just combined. Do not overmix.
*Add chocolate pieces and mix again briefly.
*Divide dough into two on pieces of waxed paper. Shape into rough log and wrap in paper, then roll out until it's about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Chill for three hours at least in fridge; may freeze at this point.
*Preheat oven to 325. Line baking sheets with parchment or Silpat (I think greasing the sheets would be fine, too.)
*Slice log into 1/2'"slices. Note: this is a lot thicker than most icebox cookies, but it works. T hey may crumble when sliced-that's OK, just squish them back together. Arrange on sheet, leaving 1" or so between them.
*Bake 12 minutes only. They will still look underbaked; that is ok. Cool for at least 5 minutes on sheet before transferring to rack. Eat warm or cool.

Insanely Fabulous, Over the Top Ginger Cookies

"These cookies are the bomb" said husband. Coworkers agreed, and I ate at least 42 of them myself. Mary loves them as well, even though they are spicy and strong-flavored (not always a plus for kids, as we all know). The recipe is easy and kids like helping roll the cookie into balls and then into sugar (my least favorite part). I've been on a molasses and ginger sort of kick lately-due to the holidays, I'm sure. I always want to lock myself in the house and listen to Christmas carols and cook and eat and watch the snow for the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Of course, there is no snow, and the rain is depressing. And on December 26th, I'm so sick of carols I could happily take a sledge hammer to Christmas with the Jackson 5. But right now, this early, there still COULD be snow, and the carols are beautiful, and the lights on the house look fantastic, and there are these wonderful cookies. The chopped crystallized ginger adds great flavor but also makes the cookies moist and almost candied in the center. The large quantities of spice and the unexpected black pepper are essential. Don't be afraid.

Modified from a recipe from epicurious.com.

Makes about 70.

*4 cups all purpose flour
*2 TBS ground ginger
*1 TBS + 1 tsp baking soda
*2 tsp ground cinnamon
*2 (scant) tsp ground cloves
*10 "turns" of fresh ground black pepper.
*1 1/4 tsp salt
* 1 1/2 cup chopped crystallized ginger (the Baker's Cut from Trader Joe's is perfect-and cheap)
*2 cups dark brown sugar
*1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
*2 large eggs
*1/2 cup molasses

*White sugar (to roll cookies in; can substitute raw sugar)

*Mix first seven ingredients in large bowl to blend.
*Whirl chopped ginger in food processor til it's a mix of powdery ginger goodness and some larger chunks. Add to dry ingredients and blend.
*Using mixer, beat butter and brown sugar til creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Add molasses and beat to combine. Gradually mix in dry ingredients and crystallized ginger, beating only until combined.
*Chill dough for about an hour in the fridge.
*Heat oven to 350. Grease cookie sheet or line with parchment paper or Silpat.
*Roll cookies into balls of about 1". Roll balls into sugar. Place a couple inches apart.
*Bake 10-11 minutes. Cookies will be cracked when done but will look raw between cracks. That's good! Cool for a minute on pan then remove to cool on racks.

Classic Corn bread

I love this. It's simple, it's fast (I timed it tonight, and not rushing at all, with a fussy baby in tow, I had it mixed and ready to go by the time the oven was hot). My husband likes it with chopped jalapenos mixed in; I prefer it with butter and honey, and Mary (the 9 year old) likes it best plain. It works very well in an 8"x8" Pyrex pan, but oh, if you're lucky enough to have a cast iron cornbread pan then it will be even more beautifully crisp and golden.

This recipe came from an old Good Housekeeping cookbook, that seems to be no longer in print. I've made some adjustments. It has less sugar than the most common cornbread recipes, and uses butter instead of vegetable oil (always an improvement). It doesn't keep more than a day, but it almost never hangs around that long, anyway.

1 cup flour
3/4 cup cornmeal, preferably yellow
2 TBS sugar
1 tsp salt
1 TBS baking powder
1/3 cup butter, melted
2/3 cup milk
1 egg, beaten

*Heat oven to 425. Grease an 8"x8" pan or cast iron cornbread mold.
*Mix dry ingredients.
*Mix wet ingredients and pour into dry. Stir just until moistened, pour into pan.
*Bake 25 minutes (closer to 20 in cast iron).

Gateau au Yaourt (Yogurt Cake)

This is an amazingly easy, flavorful cake. Mary and I are about to make our second of the week-this time for a dinner party. We've added about 3/4 cup of frozen blueberries and it's wonderful-nice for breakfast, too. As part of my effort to get my daughter engaged in cooking, I let her pick a country's cuisine this week, and thus we ended up cooking French food Tuesday night. We made a Quiche Lorraine that was superbly, artery-cloggingly good (from Cooks Illustrated; I'll post the recipe soon) and this cake, from the wonderful French cooking blog Chocolate&Zucchini. Mary loves this cake, and it's so simple she could probably bake it by herself (a good kids' first cake). We made it with thick Greek yogurt, but I think it would be fine with a yogurt that was less-rich. I'd like to try it with almond extract. Maybe tonight.

Gateau au Yaort

Update: Didn't have quite enough yogurt tonight so added a couple of tablespoons of peach yogurt, and substituted almond extract for the rum. It was good, didn't take much different. I forgot to sprinkle the top of the the cake with raw sugar before baking, which I did last time, and missed the sweet caramel crunchiness. It was a hit with our guests, nonetheless.

Chocolate Stout Cake

This is one fantastic recipe. It's insanely easy and incredibly delicious. I've had multiple recipe requests, and have made it twice in the last couple weeks. It makes a huge amount-the original recipe makes an enormous 3 layer cake, but I haven't tried that. Cut it in half to make a bundt cake, if you'd like. First attempt, I made a bundt cake and 12 cupcakes (most reviewers of the original recipe found it made 20 cupcakes-we went to town eating the batter first-apparently 8 cupcakes' worth). Second attempt, 40 cupcakes. It's supposed to freeze well, so 10 of the cupcakes (unfrosted) are in my freezer. The ganache recipe for frosting is very easy, and leftovers are great melted on icecream. Some reviewers complained about the recipe tasting of beer, but none of us noticed that (dammit)-it has a nice, rich, yeast taste.

Modified slightly from Epicurious.com (from Bon Appetit-a recipe requested from the Barrington Brewery in Great Barrington, Massachusetts).

Cake
2 cups stout (I used Guinness-almost 2 bottles, drink the leftovers)
2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups Dutch-process cocoa powder

4 cups all purpose flour
4 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
4 large eggs
1 1/3 cups nonfat yogurt (what I used) or sour cream

Icing
2 cups whipping cream
1 pound semisweet chocolate, chopped

For cake:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter three 8-inch round cake pans with 2-inch-high sides, bundt pan, or put paper liners in cupcake tins (can make cupcakes in batches). Butter very well-ideally using the Baker's Joy spray.

Bring 2 cups stout and 2 cups butter to simmer in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.

Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt in large bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat eggs and yogurt in another large bowl to blend. Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. If making full recipe, you'll probably have to add the last of the flour by hand, even if using a Kitchenaid, as it makes so much batter. Using rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined. Divide batter equally among prepared pans. Bake cakes until tester inserted into center of cakes comes out clean, about 35 minutes (Start cupcakes for 15 minutes; probably will take longer.) Transfer cakes to rack; cool 10 minutes. Turn cakes out onto rack and cool completely.

For icing:
Bring cream to simmer in heavy medium saucepan. Remove from heat. Add chopped chocolate and whisk until melted and smooth. Refrigerate until icing is spreadable, stirring frequently. If you refrigerate too long and it gets too hard, let it sit on the counter or zap briefly on low in the microwave to soften enough to spread.

If making bundt cake, spoon ganache over cake while still fairly warm.

If making layer cake, place 1 cake layer on plate. Spread 2/3 cup icing over. Top with second cake layer. Spread 2/3 cup icing over. Top with third cake layer. Spread remaining icing over top and sides of cake.