Red Currant Cherry Pecan Pie

I have been sick with a bad head cold for a two weeks now, and have not really felt like doing anything, let alone baking. However, today, on a day where we had nothing to do, where I could rest and watch movies all day, I felt like baking again. More so, I wanted pie and the only way I was going to get pie was to make some myself as I am feeling a bit better, but not good enough to go to the store. Also, since I didn't feel like going to the store, I had to scrounge my cupboards, fridge and freezer for ingredients to make said pie. Thankfully, we have a garden in summer that produces enough so that we can freeze a few fruits and vegetables. I found blueberries, cherries, currants in the freezer, and a ready-made pie crust in the fridge. I then set out to find a recipe that fit these ingredients. I found a perfect sounding one on the Canadian Living website for Red Currant Cherry Almond Pie.

I had issues from the start though...

I opened the pie crust and noticed it looked funny (grayish) and smelled a little funny (musty). What I thought was going to be a quick and easy pie suddenly was not quite so easy. Luckily, the recipe I chose had a link to a flaky pie crust recipe. I had watched my husband make pie crust before and helped a friend make one for a banana cream pie a few weeks ago, but I had never made one on my own. I got to use the new rolling pin my step-mother gave us. Since my husband was aware of my inexperience with pie crust, he checked in on me every few minutes. He once again instructed me not to "over handle the dough". This seems to be the ever present, most important rule in everything I bake!

I made the bottom crust with no problems, except for not really knowing how much was the right amount of water to add, and I froze the second on a cookie sheet, as directed.



I thawed the berries while making the crust, though they required a bit of rinsing to speed the process up. I mixed the fruit with the flour and sugar, which made a thick, goopy, and almost unnatural looking pink mixture. I did not have the almond extract the recipe calls for, so I used vanilla extract instead. The recipe also called for blanched almonds to be laid in the bottom pie crust, which I did not have. I used chopped up pecans instead. I then poured the mixture into the bottom pie crust and got the top one out of the freezer. The crust that was in the freezer had become so hard that I couldn't work with it. I tried picking it up and feared it would break. There was no way it was going to mold to the bottom crust/pie the way it was, so I let it sit out for a bit to soften up. Once it did, it attached to the other pretty well, especially when pinched together with the other.



I cut the slits in the pie, brushed the pie with the specified milk and sugar mixture and put in the oven. The pie did not brown in the recipe specified baking time, so I left it in the over longer (an extra 20 minutes!). I assumed this pie was supposed to brown, since every other pie I have made has browned at least a little bit. Granted, those were always made with pre-made pie crusts... Also, the milk and sugar mixture pooled around the edges of the pie so much I worried it would be soggy. So, halfway through baking I tried to soak some up with a paper towel.

The pie looked good, but when I cut a piece, there was a very sticky film (from the milk and sugar mixture I assume) on top of the crust and it was very hard. I don't know if it was that sticky film, or the fact I left the pie in longer so it would brown, that made the crust so hard to cut through. The crust is also not as light and flaky as I would have thought. Maybe I over handled the dough, or again, maybe I overcooked it.

After we both tried a piece, I asked my husband for his opinion. He said the pie was very sweet, more so than he likes. I thought it tasted good, but I would agree with him on the sweetness - not what I would expect from tart currents and tart cherries. Overall, I would say this pie was pretty good - a decent turnout from what I had around the house, and for my first time making my own pie crust. Maybe the next one will go better.

Strawberry Lemon Vodka Cupcakes

I think I had my first fail.

A couple weeks before this Valentine's Day, a holiday we don't normally do anything for but have dinner just us, my husband and I both mentioned we wanted to do something more. I enlisted a friend to help make decorations, I borrowed a friend's Le Creuset so I could make Julia Child's boeuf bourguignon, and I set out to find the perfect dessert. I thought I had found it when I saw Strawberry Vodka Lemon Cupcakes on the Baking Bites Blog.

The morning of the holiday, 2 hours before we were to be at a reservations only brunch, I started the cupcakes. I made the recipe just as directed and, while mixing in the flour and milk, I noticed it was becoming almost taffy-like. After the third alternating mixture, the batter started wrapping itself around the mixers and got worse the more I tried to mix. With that consistency, I did not believe it would make anything worth eating. I called in my husband in for a "baking consult". He suggested that I either mixed too much or packed the flour too tightly so the mix was too dry.

Since I really wanted to have cupcakes for my guests (and lets face it, for me), I decided to give it a second go. I made sure to not pack the flour tightly and mixed each alteration much less than I did previously. The same thing happened, but not quite to the extent of the first batch. I was still worried it would not make anything worth eating, but as I had 45 minutes to shower, dress and get to brunch, I decided to bake them and see what happened. They came out looking like a dense, doughy muffin or biscuit. They tasted good, but were not light and fluffy or cake-like; they were kind of like the consistency of a buttermilk biscuit.

I was at a loss. I wanted a light, fluffy, cake-like cupcake that I could put a pink whipped cream frosting and chocolate hearts on. I wanted something that felt more like Valentine's Day, and these sort-of-muffin things were not it. When we got back from brunch, I scoured the net for an easy recipe, since I had to make it between dinner preparations. It also had to fit the ingredients I had on hand. I still had some strawberries and just enough flour and sugar for another try. I used up all the zest, lemon juice and vodka in the first two batches so I had to make do without those. But, there was still hope.

I found an Easy Strawberry Cupcake recipe that claimed to be "delicious and loved by everyone". They proved to be all that. The batter for those went just like I expected, though I made a few changes: I mashed the strawberries in a bowl with a potato masher and substituted some of the vanilla extract with lemon extract. I made a whipped cream frosting with red food coloring to turn it pink and just a touch of lemon juice for flavor. My husband melted down the rest of the dark baking chocolate we had and made chocolate hearts to top them with. They were beautiful, delicious, and a great end to my cupcakes trials of the day.

Unfortunately, with all the problems and other cooking going on, I neglected to take pictures of the whole process, except the taffy-like dough (above). However, we did get some good ones of the finished product, and even a rare picture of me posing with my baking.

I was glad to have some cupcakes to serve our guests, but I really wanted to know why the first recipe didn't work. Did I somehow mess up the recipe twice, was there a typo in the recipe, or was that just how they were supposed to turn out? I went to the blog and read some of the comments. I found that others thought the recipe turned out more like muffins as well. So, maybe it wasn't my fault they turned out that way after all.

Though early on I felt like I was having my first failure, in the end, I don't think I can call it a total failure. I had to make three different batches of cupcake mix to get one to turn out like cupcakes, but the second batch I mixed made for nice muffins and the third was great for dessert. I ran out of vodka and lemon zest. However, I didn't need the vodka to make a good dessert, and I had lemon extract to substitute for the zest. Finally, I feel like I learned a little about what consistency and ingredients, including how much of each, makes different kinds of baked goods. This whole baking adventure as I like to call it started as a way to get me off the couch, but has turned into so much more, and learning is part of that.

Happy Valentine's!

Pear Cranberry Tart

I am sure most of you have been in the situation where you had an event to go to, needed to bring a dish to pass, and were very short on time. This was my dilemma last weekend. I wanted to bring something awesome since we were going to the house of friends who really know how to cook, and I had been thinking I could write about what I made. But, with so little time, how could I make something totally from scratch or totally great? My husband and I debated over whether using pre-made dough counted as something worthy of blogging about. We decided that as long as the majority of the thing was not pre-made (i.e boxed mixes), and I didn't do it that often, it was ok. I finally decided on a pear cranberry tart recipe, that uses pre-made dough for the crust, that I found in the February issue of Bon Appetit (a wonderful magazine that my mother-in-law so kindly let me steal from her).

First, you halve, core and chop up 2 ripe pears. This was something new for me as I don't normally eat fresh pears - there is something about the texture and the skin that bothers me. Therefore, I didn't know how to pick out a fresh pear. I also didn't know how to core a pear. Good thing my husband was with me! He showed me how to pick out a not too soft pear, one with just a little give and showed me how to cut around and under the core of it, saving as much pear as possible.


After the pears are chopped, you saute them for a few minutes, add some sugar, dried cranberries, cranberry concentrate and, according to the recipe, some jelly. I, however, added lemon curd instead of the jelly since we had some I had been wanting to use, and I thought it might taste good. According to the recipe, the mixture should get thick a few minutes after adding the concentrate. I let mine sit for more than a few minutes because it was not thickening. I re-read the recipe and realized I was only supposed to use 2 tbsp of concentrate, rather than the whole can I dumped in! I was in such a hurry, I didn't even think that a whole can didn't sound right when I dumped it in. Some quick thinking and a strainer saved the day, though!


Once the fruit mixture is ready, you cool it, pour it over the rolled out pre-made pizza dough, sprinkle with sugar (I also added cinnamon) and bake. I served this tart warm and with a scoop of ice cream. It went over very well with our friends, who couldn't guess it was not totally from scratch, and would never have guessed I almost messed it up. When I told our friends the crust was made of tube pizza dough, they were quite surprised but said it explained the slight crispiness to it. We each ate a quarter of the tart, it looked and tasted so good. My friend even licked her plate clean! That seems like quite high praise for such an easily made thing. I would suggest this tart for any time you need quick, crowd pleasing, all season recipe (you could change the fruit per what is in season).



Recipe:

1 tbsp butter

2 large Bosc pears (halved, cored, cut into 1/2 inch cubes)

2 tbsp sugar

1/4 cup dried cranberries

2 tbsp frozen cranberry juice concentrate, thawed

1 tbsp currant jelly

1 tube refrigerated pizza dough

Preheat oven to 425 degrees

Line heavy rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper

Melt butter in nonstick skillet over medium heat

Add pears and saute until almost tender

Sprinkle with 1 tbsp sugar, toss and cook for 1 more minute

Add cranberries, juice concentrate, jelly

Saute until pears are tender and juice gets thick, about 3 minutes

Scrape pear mixture onto plate and freeze for 5 minutes

Unroll pizza dough onto prepared sheet

Cut 1 inch wide strip off end forming a 9 inch square out of dough

Pull dough strip till twice its length and cut in half crosswise

Scrape pear mixture into center of dough square and spread to cover, leaving 1-2 inch border

Fold up border over edge of filling and place 2 dough strips diagonally over filling

Press ends of dough strips to border to adhere

Sprinkle with 1 tbsp sugar

Bake until golden brown and cooked through, about 22 minutes