Saying goodbye to the Barefoot Bloggers

Well, it appears that this will be my last post with the Barefoot Bloggers. I was taken off the member list because I didn't participate for two months over the summer, and I respect the decision of the group's mods (though I won't say I'm happy about it). I did make both of September's recipes though, and I think they came out pretty well, so I still wanted to post about them.

Both of the September recipes were cake recipes - apparently a coincidence but sort of a difficult situation given the fact that there's only two of us and we'd never eat that much cake (nor should we!) Luckily, though, I had an out - my office has a dessert party every month to celebrate all of the employee birthdays during that month, so I just offered to provide the cake this time. Everybody won in that situation - I had an appropriate way to offload a metric buttload of cake, and our office administrative staff didn't need to go to spend the money on a store-bought cake and go to the trouble of picking it up.


Please ignore the horrible photos - the lighting in the conference room at work is less than optimal.

The first cake was a white sheet cake with chocolate ganache frosting, and was a particular challenge because A)I don't own a sheet pan of the right size and shape to make it as directed, and B)the recipe was given fairly bad reviews on foodnetwork.com, claiming the cake was dry and too sweet, Luckily, my best friend Cristen happens to be an amazing baker (check out her mail order bakery on Etsy!), so I showed her the recipe and asked her advice on how to fix it. She recommended omitting the cornstarch to fix the dryness issue, and cutting the sugar back to 2 cups. I also followed the recommendations made in the FN reviews to reduce the baking soda by a 1/4 tsp, as the indicated amount is apparently too much for the flour called for, and added lime zest in addition to the requisite lemon because I had a flavor combination of raspberry and citrus in mind for the finished product. These all seemed to be good alterations, because the cake came out reasonably moist and with just the right amount of sweetness and a complex citrus flavor (the extra cup of sugar called for in the recipe definitely would have been too much) though it seemed unusually dense to me and had a weird swiss-cheese-like crumb with big air holes.

Lacking the proper pan, I also opted to make this a layer cake instead of a sheet cake and baked it in two batches in a 9" square cake pan.

For the ganache frosting, I opted for white chocolate instead of semisweet. I don't have a real double boiler and have had awful luck with the standard rig of a bowl over a pan of hot water, so I opted to make the frosting by heating the heavy cream in a pan with the vanilla, corn syrup, butter, and more lemon and lime zest, then poured the hot cream over the white chocolate chips in a bowl and let it sit until the chips were melted and could be stirred evenly into the cream. After a stint in the fridge the frosting thickened to the perfect spreadable consistency.

For filling and additional topping I made a raspberry mousse of sorts by folding seedless raspberry jam into some stiffly whipped cream (plus a drop or two of red food coloring, because the all-natural jam I bought didn't have the lovely red hue of normal jams).

To assemble, I leveled off both cakes and spread the top of the first layer with store-bought lemon curd, then spooned on a generous amount of the mousse and spread it edge to edge. Then I added the second layer of cake and spread it with more lemon curd, then covered the entire cake with the ganache. On the day I served it, I poured the remaining mousse over the top of the cake and spread it so that it would spill over the sides a bit. In retrospect, I wish I'd either put the mousse into a piping bag and piped it neatly around the edge of the cake, or used just plain raspberry jam thinned with a bit of water and drizzled it over the top - the way I did it, I think it was kinda ugly. Ah well, lessons learned.



The second cake was Beatty's Chocolate Cake, a deep chocolate cake with mocha buttercream. The secret ingredient in this cake is brewed coffee, which isn't recognizable as an individual flavor in the finished cake but which enhances the flavor of the chocolate. Aside from turning this cake into a layer cake as well, I pretty much followed the recipe as written, and as far as I'm concerned it was perfect. The cake was exactly what I think of when I think of chocolate cake - soft and moist with a fluffy crumb and a deep, dark chocolate flavor that wasn't too sweet.

The buttercream recipe was perfect too, smooth and rich with an ideal balance of chocolate and coffee. I was actually really proud of my buttercream, because this was the first time I'd ever made one from scratch and I was absolutely convinced that it was going to break on me when I added the melted chocolate. The key, I found, was simply going slowly and not overmixing the frosting - I added the chocolate one large spoonful at a time and mixed it slowly with my handbeater on its lowest setting, and only beat it until the chocolate was evenly worked into the butter and sugar base. It was so much easier than I would have expected, and so much tastier than any store bought or bakery buttercream that I've had. I'll never be afraid to make real frosting again!

With all the coffee and chocolate, my immediate thought was to turn this into a sort of tiramisu, which I did by making a filling of sweetened mascarpone blended with powdered espresso, and lining the sides of the cake with ladyfingers. After creating and filling the cake layers (same technique as witht he first cake, minus the crumb-coat layer of lemon curd - this cake was so moist it didn't need it) and spreading the whole thing with that beautiful buttercream, an extra sprinkle of chocolate chips finished the job. If the first cake was a bit of an ugly duckling, I think this one was much closer to the beautiful swan I envisioned.



Though both cakes were tasty - extremely so, as a matter of fact - and my coworkers seemed to prefer the white cake option, the mocha tiramisu cake was the hands-down winner in my eyes. The cake and frosting were simply superior to the sheet cake recipe, and although I love raspberries and citrus together I am generally hard-pressed to come up with a better dessert flavor combination than coffee and chocolate. The only thing that might have made it better would have been a bit of spice, either a warming sweet spice like cinnamon or a tingly heat from some kind of chili. Perhaps next time.

So with this I wave farewell to the Barefoot Bloggers - its been fun and I've learned a lot, but I suppose its time to move on and seek out other opportunities. I'll be looking for new groups to join, so stay tuned!

Barefoot Bloggers: Meringues Chantilly

I'm a couple of days late on February's second challenge for the Barefoot Bloggers, but to tell the truth I think I might have been even more late if this dessert hadn't turned out so spectacularly well - I just couldn't wait to tell you all about it!

Ina's Meringues Chantilly, chosen by BMK of Reservations Not Required, are composed of a simple vanilla meringue base topped with orange-scented whipped cream and stewed mixed berries. Certainly a lovely combination on their own. But in my part of the world, its still winter, and not only are berries not exactly at their best right now, but I'm in desperate need of food that evokes memories of warmer weather if I'm going to make it to spring without a serious case of cabin fever. So, I opted to take a more tropical approach to this dish, and man oh man did it work.



I followed Ina's directions for the meringues (which, from past experience and a lot of research, could use some clarification in parts - there's an awful lot of subtlety involved when making meringues, and her recipe as-written doesn't address a lot of the more common tips and tricks and pitfall advice that I've seen in more thorough recipes) though I only made a half batch. For flavoring, I replaced the vanilla extract with coconut and ground up a 1/4 cup of Just Tomatoes brand dried mangoes in my coffee grinder to mix with the sugar that would be added to the egg whites.

If you've never had Just Tomatoes dried fruit, I really recommend checking them out - these aren't soft, chewy dried fruit like you normally find in the grocery store. They're crisp and crunchy with no moisture left in them at all, with an intense fruit flavor that you just can't get otherwise. (If you've ever had Special K Red Berries, think about what the strawberries are like - that's basically what these are.) They can be eaten out of hand or added whole to other things (cereal, yogurt, oatmeal, or baked goods come to mind) but what I'm starting to experiment with is grinding them up to make intense fruit powders. Imagine mixing dried raspberry powder with ground coriander and ginger to make a spice rub for pork, or shaking up some strawberry powder with aged balsamic and olive oil for a super smooth and flavorful salad dressing, or stirring some peach powder into white chocolate ganache for truffles. The possibilities for applications are endless, especially considering the variety of fruits and even vegetables on offer from the company. Don't get scared off by the price - the potential for unique and creative recipes is endless.



The ground mangoes were absolutely perfect here - after the meringues had their long slow bake and even longer drying time in the oven, the mango flavor had intensified and bloomed, yielding a crispy airy bite with the unmistakable sweet-tart flavor of mango and a subtle aromatic whiff of coconut underneath. Some of my meringues came out a bit chewy in the middle, which I think was partially caused by a slightly truncated bake time (forgot to set my oven timer at first and had to guess to make up the time) and some difficulty whipping the egg whites to their proper soft peaks. I really think that Ina has you add the sugar too early, and that the use of regular granulated sugar was a mistake - it was too heavy and weighted down the meringue so that no matter how long I beat it, it never got quite stiff enough. That's why my meringues didn't come out with those nice ridges as well, despite being piped with a star tip - once they hit the heat, they couldn't hold their shape (though at least they didn't spread much).

No matter, the flavor was perfect and that's the post important thing, especially since they would just soften up later anyway under the fruit and cream toppings.



To go along with my tropical mango meringue shells, I decided to make a pair of fruit toppings: a very simple blackberry sauce made with a half-pint of blackberries (the only kind that looked good at the store), a bit of white sugar, some lemon juice and lime zest; and a fresh mango salsa dressed with lime juice, brown sugar, and some fresh basil and mint cut in a chiffonade. The whipped cream topping also got a hit of lime zest and a tiny splash of coconut extract to bring the whole thing full circle.

I assembled them as per Ina's instructions - a dollop of blackberry sauce on the plate, spread out a bit so it'd peak out beneath the meringue that was set on top of it. Top the meringue shell with a dollop of whipped cream, then a big spoonful of the mango salsa and another drizzle of the blackberry sauce. Finish with a small spoonful of whipped cream and some fresh mint, and dessert is served.



This, people, was the best dessert I have ever made in my life. I'm calling this restaurant-worthy.

The combination of flavors was exactly what I wanted, tropical and summery and reminiscent of a hot day in the Virgin Islands, with a nice balance of sweet and tart, verdant herbs and bright citrus, aromatic fruit and creamy dairy. The interplay of textures was exciting - slightly crisp meringue becoming chewy and toothsome under the fruit and cream, tender sweet morsels of mango, smooth cool whipped cream, slightly crunchy seeds in the blackberry sauce. Totally perfect. I do think it tended a bit too much to the sweet side of things, which I would remedy next time by cutting down on the sugar in the meringues, the blackberry sauce, and the cream. The mango in the salsa was also a bit underripe so it wasn't as soft and juicy and intense as it would be in the summer. But even with those small shortcomings, this was excellent. Mouthwatering. Craveable. Totally deserving of a spot at the end of a fancy dinner party, or as a regular offering on a restaurant menu. Honestly, it's THAT good.

And I get to have it again tonight.

I love my life.

Barefoot Bloggers: Banana Sour Cream Pancakes

I know I'm late on this. Like, really late. Shame on me. But better late than never, right?

To tell the truth, I didn't even tackle the first of this month's Barefoot Bloggers recipe challenges until after the date it was supposed to be posted. This was partly due to my having nearly forgotten to check this months challenges in the first place, and partly because when I saw what they were, well, I just wasn't thrilled. Its all sweet stuff this month, and the Banana Sour Cream Pancakes that were chosen by Karen of Something Sweet by Karen didn't appeal to me much at all.

You see, I can't really eat bananas, at least not when they're fresh. Everytime I've ever ingested bananas in any form other than baked goods I've ended up with terrible stomach cramps, and even if I absolutely LOVED the flavor of bananas (which I don't) it wouldn't be worth putting myself through the agony that would come afterward. So, as a general rule, I stay away. I might have the occasional banana nut muffin, but that's about as far as I go.

I thought for a moment that maybe, because these were pancakes, the bananas would be cooked enough that I'd be able to eat them. But then I looked at the recipe and saw that we were supposed to add fresh diced bananas to the pancakes while they were on the griddle, which meant they wouldn't cook much at all. Then we were supposed to top them with MORE fresh bananas after they were cooked. Nope, couldn't do it. I would've spent my entire Saturday paying for my breakfast.

I considered taking a pass on this one, but then I thought about it and realized I probably could make these so they'd be safe for me to eat, if I adjusted the technique a bit. I thought that if the bananas were mashed up into the pancake batter as they would be in banana bread or muffins, they'd have a much better chance of cooking completely than if I was basically just searing some banana chunks into one side of the pancakes. So that's what I did.


My bananas were somewhat less than super-ripe, so they were a bit of a challenge to mash, but I managed with some good old-fashioned elbow grease and a particularly sturdy fork. I used a hand mixer to beat in the eggs, sour cream, sugar, lemon juice (didn't have actual lemons so I just squeezed in some juice from a bottle... blasphemy, I know) and vanilla, but held off on adding the milk because I knew that the mashed bananas would add a fair amount of moisture on their own and didn't want to end up with batter that was too runny. Instead I just mixed in the dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking powder, and some cinnamon and black pepper for a little extra oomph) and then added milk a small amount at a time until the batter looked more or less the way pancake batter should.

As I heated up our new cast iron griddle pan on the stove and let the batter rest, I considered topping alternatives. I could've just stuck to plain maple syrup, but I figured I'd already gone totally off the map with the pancakes themselves, I might as well try and be creative with the topping. I had some raw shelled almonds in the freezer, and thought that maybe a spiced toasted almond syrup would be a good match (although obviously walnuts would have been a better choice).



I quickly chopped up about a half cup of whole nuts and tossed them into a shallow frying pan on the stove to toast over low heat. By the time they were nice and golden brown my griddle was hot, and it was time to deal with the pancakes, so finishing my topping would have to wait.



My first set of pancakes didn't work out so well. I greased the pan with a bit of butter, then tried to use a ladle to dish out the batter. Only then did I realize that it was actually much too thick because I couldn't get the batter out of the ladle! I employed a silicone spatula to empty the ladle, and then realized that the ladle created much too large a portion, so the pancakes were way too big to cook correctly. This fact was made even worse because I hadn't allowed the griddle to heat up enough to cook evenly, so the parts of the pancakes that were in the middle of the pan burned, while the outer parts barely even set. Too thick batter + too much batter + improperly heated pan = three strikes, you're out. Batch number one ended up in the garbage.

Ugh, waaaaaaaay too thick.

I wiped down the griddle to start fresh, put it back on the heat so it could actually get fully got, and added some more milk to the batter so it'd be easier to portion and pour. And thankfully, the second batch and every one after that worked just about right - it was still a little tricky to time because the batter was still a bit thick, but I managed to make it work. Each batch of finished pancakes went into the oven which was heated to its lowest temperature to keep warm while I finished the rest.

There we go, much better.

The pancakes were taking just enough time to cook to give me time to finish off my topping, so I put the pan with the almonds back on the heat, added a handful of dried sweetened cranberries (never been a huge fan of dried fruit, but I LOVE dried cranberries, because unlike most dried fruit they aren't sickeningly sweet), a small spoonful of ground cinnamon and a generous amount of pure maple syrup.


I let this just warm up and thicken a bit while I finished off the pancakes, and by the time they were done the cranberries had plumped and absorbed some liquid, the syrup had thickened a bit, and the nuts had candied themselves. I added a squeeze of lemon juice to finish it off, and plated up our breakfast.


These were some seriously dense pancakes, but tasty. The banana flavor was mild, but definitely recognizeable. Honestly though, I think the topping was the real winner - crunchy nuts, chewy tart cranberries, and lightly spiced real maple syrup would make for a sweet and slightly complex finisher for any pancake recipe. I'm actually envisioning a topping with even more add-ins - pumpkin seeds, walnuts or pecans, perhaps some dried apricots or cherries - and calling it a trail mix topping. I think it'd especially be good over some buttermilk buckwheat pancakes for an earthy flavor contrast.


Truthfully, I think these probably would have been great pancakes had I made them according to the recipe. And they might be worth making as directed, but with a different fruit - some sort of berry, perhaps, or some peaches (perhaps with some cream mixed in with the warm maple syrup). But even having mangled the recipe as I did, they were quite a tasty breakfast, filling and warming. And, my alterations accomplished what they were supposed to - the bananas got totally cooked, so, no tummy troubles later!

An Unplanned Holiday Meal

I know this is really late enough to be embarrassing, but I really wanted to share our Christmas Eve dinner with all of you, mostly because I pulled this one out of my hat all by myself and with basically no advanced preparation. Believe it or not, it is entirely possible to make a delicious and impressive holiday meal more or less on the fly.



See, when we did our meal planning for Christmas week, we did so with Christmas Day's shenanigans in mind but completely forgot about Christmas Eve until AFTER we'd done all of our grocery shopping. I think that J would have been fine with just eating one of our planned meals that evening, but I simply could not allow Christmas Eve to go by without something special on the menu. Luckily, my job gives me a lot of time off around the holidays and I knew that I would be home all day Christmas Eve, giving me plenty of time to plan the meal, make a grocery store run, and cook.

I spent most of my free time on Monday and Tuesday thinking about it. I knew I wanted ham, because that just screams Christmas to me, but I also knew that I didn't want to just buy a ham and bake it. Baked, glazed, spiral-sliced ham is probably one of the most delicious food inventions I can think of, but I wanted to do something different. Something creative. Something a bit more sophisticated. I had the time, I thought, so why not use it to my advantage and experiment a bit? Of course, I also didn't want an entire spiral-sliced ham sitting in the freezer afterwards, because after all, there's only two of us.

I knew I had some puff pastry shells sitting in the freezer, and for some reason that stuck in my mind. I suspect it was partly because I'd seen Ina Garten make a simple appetizer of deli ham and swiss folded up in a sheet of puff pastry on her show over the previous weekend, and I just couldn't stop thinking about how deliciously easy that would be. I wasn't quite satisfied with repeating that idea, though the pastry component kept knocking around my head.

Similarly, I got myself latched onto the ham and pineapple combination, which is nothing new for sure but is definitely always delicious. I had several thoughts on that - ham and pineapple skewers, perhaps, brushed with a sweet chili glaze and broiled until caramelized and crunchy on the outside. Or ham steaks dusted with cinnamon and ancho and pan-seared, topped with sweet and sour pineapple chutney. Or maybe a riff on Ina's dish, adding thin-sliced pineapple rings to the ham and cheese puff pastry filling, somewhat reminiscent of Hawaiian pizza. Nah, none of that really rang true either.

At the same time I was considering sides. I still had some kale leftover from the farro salad a few days before, and some prima donna cheese, and thought that the addition of a potato would make a pretty fantastic gratin. And of course, once potatoes came onto the playing field, there were ideas for her-roasted potatoes and mashers and croquettes to contend with. Even sweet potatoes starting kicking around in my head, vying for attention, crying about how a chipotle-lime sweet potato mash would be a killer pairing with that ham steak idea, or how some sweet potato steak fries would be easy to make if I already had the oven/broiler on for those skewers. And then there were green veggies options - sauteed spinach, salads, green beans, broccoli. About the only side I was sure of from the get-go was my mom's orange and maple glazed carrots, because I love them dearly and feel no Christmas season is complete if I haven't had them at least once.

So, Christmas Eve arrived, and there I was with two days-worth ideas for mains and sides and not a single, satisfying, cohesive menu among them.

That morning I sat down with some paper and a pencil and wrote out all of the ideas that I'd narrowed down from the masses, and started drawing lines and sketching permutations, exploring the potential of each possibility. And an hour or so later, after a bit of brainstorming and a new main dish on the menu, I was off to the store with shopping list in hand and a meal planned that was simple, festive, creative, and (I hoped) delicious.

And so it was.

Sauteed Ham and Pineapple w/Black Pepper-Brown Sugar Glaze
in Puff Pastry

Maple-Orange Glazed Carrots

Simply-Dressed Arugula Salad
(red wine vinegar, good extra virgin olive oil, dijon, minced chives, salt and pepper)

Potato and Young Kale Gratin
with Prima Donna and Fresh Chive

The meal may have tasted fantastic, but the most rewarding part was sitting down on Christmas Eve with the man that I love, and enjoying a meal that I'd put together from the ground up with all the love and joy of the season as the secret ingredient.

I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday season, and I have nothing but high hopes and good wishes for all of us in the year to come.

Homemade Membrillo, Pork Roulade

I love membrillo (quince paste) and have seen other bloggers make their own, but assumed I'd never have access to the fresh fruits to try it myself. As such, I'm not sure I can adequately communicate my excitement when I discovered fresh quinces at Iavarone on our last shopping trip. I think I considered it for all of 5 seconds before picking out three firm, unblemished fruits and dropping them into our cart. Homemade membrillo would be mine, after all!

That afternoon I took myself away to the kitchen to deal with my quinces. A quick search online taught me that quince were similar in texture to apples, but harder and drier, and had a tough core and skin that must be removed. This was an accurate description, and the fruit was easy to peel but difficult to cut. With a little elbow grease I managed to get all three fruit cored, sliced, and diced, and into a large saucepan they went along with some cold water, a squeeze of fresh lemon, and about a cup and a half of white sugar. From here it was easy - I just cooked the fruit over medium heat until it softened and turned a dull red, which I must say took a lot longer than I expected, close to an hour and a half. The fruit never really broke down, so when it was done I took my stick blender to it to create a smooth, slightly grainy paste. The flavor was lovely, sweet and floral and aromatic, but subtle. I poured it into a tupperware container, and after sitting in the fridge overnight it had stiffened properly into a firm, sliceable block of membrillo.



There's something really beautiful about this stuff, isn't there? Shiny and jewel-like with that lovely knobby texture on the surface, it spreads like a jam but can be cut into cubes or slices with ease. Its sticky, mind you, but I don't mind getting a little messy for something this tasty.



Now, the obvious thing to do with membrillo is to eat it with a good manchego cheese, perhaps some marcona almonds, a few water crackers. But, J and I being who we are, we had to come up with something more interesting. We had a bit of prima donna cheese in the fridge (because when do we not?) and a small pork tenderloin, and after a bit of thought came up with the idea for a quince-glazed pork roulade filled with grated prima donna and herbs.



I took a knife to the tenderloin and used a lengthwise accordion cut to create a large, thin, flat surface with the meat. A 1/2 cup or so of the membrillo was warmed up on the stove with an equal amount of water and a sprig of fresh rosemary, and kept on the heat long enough to infuse the glaze with a subtle evergreen aroma. I seasoned the pork with salt, freshly ground black pepper, a sprinkle of garlic powder, and some chopped fresh rosemary, then spread a thin layer of the glaze all over the meat. I grated some prima donna, about half a cup, and piled it near the middle of the meat, leaving an inch or so around all the edges to try and prevent leakage during cooking. Then a quick roll and tie with some butcher's twine, and it was ready for some heat.

The roulade was seared on the stovetop first, then placed in the oven at about 450 degrees to roast. I brushed it with the glaze 3 or 4 times as it cooked, creating a golden brown sticky-sweet crust.

Meanwhile, J made some simple panko-crusted zucchini slices but cutting two small zucchini into 1/2" slices, seasoning with salt, pepper, and paprika, and dredging with egg and light, crisp panko crumbs. They were lightly panfried in some vegetable oil and then left to drain briefly on some paper towels as I removed the pork from the oven and set it aside to rest and let the juices redistribute and the filling firm up a bit.

Once untied and sliced, the pork retained its shape to yield lovely spiral slices with a thin layer of sweet and savory cheese filling. To plate. we dolloped each serving with a bit of the remaining membrillo glaze and a bit more freshly grated cheese, with the fried zucchini alongside.




My goodness, this was good. The combination of flavors - salty, tangy, sweet, herbaceous - was just fantastic on the mild tender pork. The meat itself could have used a brining period prior to cooking, and next time that's what we'll do, but the concept behind the dish was definitely sound. The slightly sweet, crisp zucchini slices made a nice fresh-tasting foil to the richness of the meat, and all together it made for a fantastic meal.

And the best part is, I have plenty of membrillo leftover to enjoy. I wonder what else we can make with it?

The easiest way to share a pie...

...is to make multiple pies in miniature!



One of the biggest challenges of cooking for two, for me anyway, has been finding ways to experiment with desserts and baked goods. Most people I know would just bake a cake if they felt so inclined, then just keep it around and gradually eat it over the course of a few days or a week. But, truth be told, neither J nor I have ever had a particularly strong sweet tooth, and although we enjoy having dessert once in awhile we tend to lose interest and let things go to waste if we have a lot of a single thing sitting around. And since we've been making a concerted effort to improve our eating habits over the past year and a half or so, even if I were able to produce some fantastic sweet treat that we could both eat forever without getting sick of it, we wouldn't allow ourselves the indulgence.

Of course this doesn't stop me from baking on a relatively regular basis, and both of our workplaces have gotten rather spoiled from being gifted with our leftovers (apparently I have something of a reputation at J's office, and anything he brings in disappears in half an hour, tops). This is particularly easy to do when it comes to things like muffins, quickbreads, biscuits and scones, and even yeasted breads, as they can all travel well and can be either baked in individual-sized portions or divided with ease. These types of things have made up the vast bulk of my baking experiments for nearly three years.

But, there's so many other things I want to try! I'll always love making muffins but sometimes, I just want to do something different and challenge myself a bit. But the additional challenge is always finding a way for J and I to enjoy something new, without ending up drowning in custard and buttercream for a week.

My favorite solution to this problem is to bake in miniature.

Now, I have a particular fondness for all things tiny, so I don't mind much that miniaturizing regular desserts almost always creates twice as much work. Some folks would balk at that, and understandably so, I think - making these itty-bitty apple pies took me a LONG time last weekend, and there are a lot of other things I could have done with that time. But the finished result was absolutely worth it: buttery, flaky, peppery crust filled with sweetly spiced diced apples and topped with decorative pie-crust cutouts, each one just the right size for a single diner's after-dinner sugar fix. J and I were each able to have one the day I made them, and the rest were packed away in tupperware and carried into the office the next morning, to be devoured by my coworkers before 10am. I consider those hours in the kitchen to be time well spent.

Of course, I ended up making too much apple filling, and had to use it up by (you guessed it) baking muffins. I think I'll just have to accept eventually that my destiny lies in a muffin tin.



Miniature Apple Pies

I made these pies using the excess half-batch of dough made for this weeks Barefoot Bloggers challenge, to which I had added a generous amount of kosher salt and black pepper, so my crust was savory rather than sweet. However, I very much enjoy the interplay of savory and sweet in a dessert, probably because my tolerance for sugar is a little on the low side, so I actually thought the crust was perfect for this. You can, of course, use your favorite pie crust recipe, or use store-bought. I promise to look the other way if you do.

Also, as I said, I had way too much pie filing when I made these, so I'm guesstimating on how much you'll ACTUALLY need. I'd recommend making extra though, just to be safe, because there will always be uses for sugared and spiced apples. Put them on yogurt, or in some oatmeal, or just eat them straight out of the bowl. Or, you know. Make some muffins.

Pie Crust Dough (you'll need about the same amount that you'd use for a single-crust pie, whether its homemade or store-bought)
2 medium-sized baking apples (granny smiths are common, but I used a couple of massive sweet Mutsus that we'd picked ourselves a couple weeks ago)
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground clove
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Spray the cups of a standard 12-cup muffin tin with non-stick baking spray (I'm a big fan of Pam For Baking, myself) or butter and flour them.



Peel and core the apples and cut into a small dice, somewhere between 1/2" and 1/4". Place in a bowl with the lemon juice, brown sugar, and dry spices. Stir to coat every piece of apple with the sugar and spice mixture, then set aside to macerate while you prep the dough.



Roll our your pie dough so that its slightly less than 1/4" thick. Using a round cookie cutter thats slightly bigger in diameter than the muffin cups, cut out 12 rounds of pie dough. Collect the scraps and reroll if necessary.

At this point, if you'd like to decorate your finished pies with crust cutouts, roll out whats left of your scrap and use miniature cookie cutters to make itty bitty crust cookies (or, freehand it with a sharp knife). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place them an inch or two apart. They can be baked as-is or brushed with an egg wash and sprinkled with sugar for a crunchy sweet topping (this is what I did). I recommend turbinado sugar.

Now here is the slightly tricky part. Carefully lift each round of dough and place into one of the cups of the muffin tin, and use your fingers to very gently press it into the bottom of the cup, making sure its flush to the bottom and sides with no air bubbles but not tearing it. You may need to work the dough further up the sides of the cups by pressing it upwards with your fingers. I won't lie, this is a fiddly bit of work and its very easy to end up with holes. The good news is that its easy enough to patch those holes by tearing off little bits of dough from your inevitable pile of scrap and just pressing them into the crusts to seal. Just be sure that you do patch any holes that appear, or you'll have pie filling running all over the place when the pies are baked.



Once all your little dough rounds are in and you have a tray full of mini pre-pies, take a fork and prick the crusts all over to allow steam to escape - this is called "docking" and will prevent bubbles from forming in the crust when you parbake it. But don't worry, these holes won't be big enough to cause filling-leakage.

Slide the muffin tin (and the baking sheet with your cutouts, if you made them) into the oven and bake for about 10 minutes, until the crusts are just starting to crisp up and take on some golden brown color - this will prevent them from getting soggy bottoms when they're baked with the filling. Remove from the oven and set the baking sheet with the cutouts aside to cool. Spoon a heaping tablespoon of apple filling into each crust (or more, if necessary - you want the filling to be rather mounded, as it will cook down and become more compact after it bakes, so if you need to go back and add a bit more to each one after filling them all, go ahead). Spoon any syrup that's collected at the bottom of the bowl over the pies for a little extra moisture and flavor.



Return to the oven for another 15-20 minutes, until the filling is hot and bubbling and the edges of the crusts are a nice rich golden brown. Remove from the oven and let stand in the muffin tin for a moment to cool - now would be a good time to add the crust cut-outs, so that they'll stick while the filling is still warm and gooey. Then remove the pies to a wire rack to cool completely. Or, eat immediately, if you're so inclined. Mmmmm, warm-from-the-oven apple pie.



Remember, these are designed specifically for sharing, so spread the love! Give some to a neighbor or invite some friends over, or just do what I did and bring them into work. I guarantee, people will love you.

Optional: If the pie-crust cutouts are a little too fussy for you, you could bake the pies "naked" or make a streusel topping from some cold butter, flour, brown sugar, and oats if you like them. Just top the pies with streusel when you fill them, and they'll bake up with a sweet and crunchy topping that everyone will love. I do not, however, recommend actually making these double-crust pies - in their diminutive size, the ratio of crust to filling would be way off.

Poor Man's Surf-n-Turf (+dessert!)

I think the classic surf and turf dinner consists of filet mignon and lobster tail - delicious, I'm sure, but a little rich for us right now. Besides, with my food allergies, its entirely possible that I can't eat lobster at all. I don't actually know, I've been too scared to find out. I know, I know, I'm a wuss. Shut up.

Anyway, this is our significantly-cheaper version of the classic, because even if we can't afford filet and lobster we just can't resist the perfect pairing of tender, beefy steak with delicate, moist shellfish. And when you don't even have to go out for dinner for a great steakhouse meal, well, why would you ever want to?

That being said... well, honestly, this just didn't come out that good. It sounded great in theory, and I think if we'd thought a little more about execution it probably would have been. As it is, the steak was tasty but slightly overcooked and light on the seasonings, and the shrimp were WAY overcooked, so dry and rubbery I honestly couldn't bring myself to finish them. I can't even remember the last time we overcooked shrimp, let alone overcooked them THIS badly. How embarrassing.

It certainly looks good, doesn't it? Sigh.

It wasn't a total failure, because the steak itself WAS quite beefy and plenty juicy, and I think the seasoning would have been great had we ramped it up a notch. It was very simple - just some kosher salt and black pepper, plus a few grinds from my new favorite spice mill, and some finely-grated fiore de sardegna cheese that we toasted into a crust under the broiler right before serving. It needed more of both, I think, because the flavors were there but were a bit subtle for my tastes, and the cheese crust didn't really adhere to the meat as well as I'd like, probably because it was too thin.

I'm not really sure what happened with the shrimp - J cooked both the shrimp and the steak on the grill, and normally he's flawless with that, but the shrimp were in a pouch rather than directly on the grill grates, so I think it may just have been an issue of visibility. They DID taste good, lightly seasoned with kosher salt, black pepper, and lemon, but I just couldn't get around the texture. Not a big deal though, because we've turned out enough perfectly cooked shrimp that I'm willing to call this one a fluke, an error in judgement, and just pretend it never happened. Next time will be better.

However, check out that broccoli up there. THAT was tasty. Broccoli is just about my favorite vegetable in the whole world (I was one of those weird kids who actually got excited when my mom made it with dinner) and I've been cooking it for as long as I've been cooking, basically, so I've pretty much got perfectly cooked just-tender broccoli down pat (although I do still screw it up sometimes). I switch up the flavors depending on the meal its accompanying, but my method is simply to melt equal parts butter and olive oil in a pan over low heat so that the fats in the butter don't burn before it melts completely, then crank it up to medium-high and toss in a whole mess of fresh broccoli florets. (and the stems sliced-up, if I'm feeling frugal and don't want to waste them. Last night was one of those nights.) Then I'll add whatever seasonings I happen to be using - last night was garlic and onion powder, soy sauce, black pepper, and a few grinds of the same dry porcini used on the steak (and yes, I do occasionally use garlic and onion powder instead of fresh when I don't feel like chasing bits of garlic and onion around my plate. Again, last night was one of those nights.) - and basically stir-fry the broccoli until its nice and green and slightly browned around the edges, and is tender but still just a bit crisp in the very middle of the stalks. Mushy broccoli is not something anyone likes. Or at least, I certainly hope not.

This technique works just about every time, as long as I pay attention and don't walk away for too long so that it burns, or add to much liquid for flavor so that it takes forever to boil off and gets mushy. Sometimes I switch up the soy for lemon juice, or use fresh garlic and onions, or use balsamic vinegar and honey, or a sweet chili sauce - no matter what, its always good. And honestly, I don't care that the shrimpwere less-than-stellar, because I can just about always make do with a big ol' bowl of broccoli and nothing else and be completely satisfied. The fact that this time, the broccoli came with a pretty decent steak, was just a bonus. A big bonus.

If you ignore the blurriness of this photo, you'll notice that we were drinking Bedell wine, yet again. This time it was the Taste Red, and it was every bit as good as I remembered and a really lovely pairing with the rich, savory, meaty steak. I do think we just might need to repeat this meal and get it right, so we can have an excuse to buy another bottle.

Now, dinner may not have been a hit, but dessert... oh, dessert was a home run. And it was SO EASY.

A couple of weeks ago I picked up some late season rhubarb at Chelsea Market, wanting to make a strawberry rhubarb pie for J. (Who has never even tasted it. *gasp!* *shock!* *dismay!* I know!) However, being the scatterbrain that I tend to be, I completely neglected to buy strawberries at the store, and lacking the transportation or the strength of will to go back out to the store at the time, I decided to make rhubarb preserves instead, figuring that just about anything I could think to make with rhubarb would work just as well with rhubarb preserves. Besides, the preserves themselves were shockingly delicious - they're extremely simple, made with just about 5 cups of fresh diced rhubarb, 4 cups of sugar, and a bit of water to bring everything together, and although I will admit the preserves might have come out a bit too sweet, and I'll knock the sugar back by half a cup next time, the finished product is shockingly complex on the tongue - sweet, floral, fresh, just barely tart and bitter beneath the sweetness. Delicious.

Finally this weekend I had the presence of mind to pick up a punnet of strawberries, but I found that I was no longer in the mood to go to all the trouble of baking a pie. But I also found that I had about half a container of whipping cream in the fridge, leftover from a batch of vichyssoise last week, and some good aged balsamic vinegar in the cupboard. Bingo!

Forgive the yellow-ness of my living room lighting - I promise that in actuality this was white and red and gorgeous.

Rhubarb Fool with Balsamic and Black Pepper Strawberries

I made this in about 35 minutes total last night, with about half an hour of that time being completely inactive while the strawberries macerated. Yes, it really is that quick, and just about the easiest desert I think I've ever made. But you would never, ever know then when you taste it. This, my friends, is divine.

1 cup fresh strawberries, washed, hulled, and sliced
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp aged balsamic vinegar (Mine is an 8 year aged and is sweet and syrupy while still hanging onto the signature balsamic fruity tang. If you don't have a vinegar that is quire that sweet, or if your fruit is on the tart side, you may need to adjust the sugar content.)
1/2 tsp fresh-cracked black pepper (Would love to try pink peppercorns in this!)

1/2 cup whipping cream
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 cup rhubarb preserves

Combine the strawberries, sugar, balsamic and black pepper in a bowl and stir to coat the berries and help the sugar begin to dissolve. Cover with plastic wrap and stash in your fridge for at least half an hour, or longer if you can manage it - the longer they sit, the better they'll taste.

Pour the cream into a cold metal bowl and whip the heck out of it, preferably with a hand mixer or a stand mixer if you have it, but go ahead and use a whisk if you have that much arm muscle. You want to whip until you see soft peaks, then add the sugar and continue to whip until stiff peaks form and the sugar dissolves into the cream. Just don't over-beat, or you'll end up with butter!

Very gently fold in the rhubarb preserves - it doesn't need to be perfectly combined, and actually, little ribbons of preserves running through the cream look quite pretty. And there you go - you've got a fool. (I do love the name of this dish!)

To serve, spoon some of the strawberries into the bottom of a dessert cup or bowl, then gently top with a generous amount of the rhubarb fool, and finally with another spoonful or two of the berries and a drizzle of the sweetened balsamic/strawberry syrup left behind in the bowl. Garnish with a bit of fresh mint if you have it, and serve to your grateful guests. Trust me, they'll love you for this, no matter how mediocre dinner turns out.