Thanksgiving Desserts

We had a very happy Thanksgiving day here in Denver. We played nine holes of golf with the boys in the morning, then enjoyed a feast at our neighbor's house. Our neighbors were kind enough to include us in their Thanksgiving celebrations. The food was delicious, the company was wonderful and the day was much more enjoyable then our usual quiet Thanksgivings on our own.

Here are the desserts we ate after the meal. We came back to our house which seemed to work out well. The kids had a change of scenery and played nicely together throughout the day. I was worried that the pies might not turn out but I think things tasted ok. The pecan pie was something new for me to attempt and I really enjoyed it. The recipe came from Martha Stewart's Pies and Tarts cookbook (http://www.amazon.com/Martha-Stewarts-Pies-Tarts-Old-Fashioned/dp/0307405095/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322262437&sr=8-1) and was easy enough to make. Wow-- what a lot of sugar goes into this recipe! It's all worth it, though, as the pie turned out very nicely.

The apple pie was less of a success, but still tasty. I think most of my desserts benefit from a good dose of freshly whipped cream and this pie was no exception. The dough for the apple pie came from a recipe developed by Cook's Illustrated. The secret ingredient is vodka! Who knew? Apparently vodka does not develop the gluten the same way water does so it works magic in the pie crust. I've had better luck before with this dough; this time it was on the sticky side when I rolled it out. I ended up using a cookie cutter in the shape of a leaf and then put the leaves all around the top of the pie. It looks more of a mess rather than the pretty, fall inspiration I was intending, but it tasted just fine.  As a back-up plan I had a store bought, frozen cherry pie that I threw into the oven. No on even tried it! That was good news as it meant my pies were not so bad after all.

The chocolate turkeys were an idea from www.theidearoom.net. The ideas there are always fun and I enjoy trying recipes and crafts from that website. I couldn't find the candy corn to use for the feathers and tried Mike and Ikes instead. The kids seemed to enjoy them so I guess they were a hit.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Knead Not Sourdough Bread (originally from Alton Brown)

I’ve attempted bread making a few times in the last year. None of those efforts have been all that successful. I tend to put the blame on high altitude baking, although I am sure plenty of other people have figured out how to bake here and at much higher altitudes. I used to enjoy bread from our bread machine when we lived in Bermuda. Here in Denver I tried it and it was yet another kitchen failure for me.

I don’t like to give up easily so I tried to find another recipe. I found this recipe from Alton Brown of Food Network. His ideas nearly always jump out at me because I like his scientific method of cooking. There is a method to his madness and he explains things clearly and logically. I like that approach. Another strong point of this recipe is that he cooks the bread in his Dutch oven. I want to give my mom some more recipes to try in her Dutch oven, so this was worth a go.

Here is the link to his recipe:http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/knead-not-sourdough-recipe/index.html

Ingredients:
17 ½ ounces bread flour
¼ tsp dry active yeast
2 ½ tsp kosher salt
12 ounces filtered water
2 TB cornmeal

I’ll describe how I followed his instructions. Heads up: this is a long process. Don’t plan on taking the ingredients out of the pantry in the morning and having freshly baked bread that same night for dinner. Mix the flour, yeast and salt in a bowl. Add the water and stir. The dough came together fairly easily. I would guess you don’t want to over mix it at this stage. Let it all sit in the bowl covered tightly with plastic wrap for 19 hours. Yes-- 19!!! As it turned out, mine sat for nearly 25 hours. I didn’t have enough time first thing in the morning for the next step so I put it off a bit longer.

After this long wait, the next step is simple but then you wait some more. Put the dough on a floured surface. The directions say to punch down the dough. I am not an experienced bread-maker but hope I did this correctly. I think I’ve heard this called “knocking down the dough” as well. I gave it a solid punch in the middle, folded it over itself, and repeated this process a few more times. Straightforward and not difficult as long as I kept my hands floured. The dough rests another 15 minutes then is shaped into a ball and covered with a small bit of cornmeal. Time for this dough to rest again for another 2-3 hours.

When you are ready for the next phase, put your Dutch oven in the oven for a while to let it preheat. I set the delay function on my oven to turn on about 30 minutes before I expected to return home. This worked really well. I walked in the door, had a hot oven and pan, baked the bread and enjoyed it for dinner less than an hour later. The dough bakes for 30 minutes at 450 F degrees with the lid on, then another 15 minutes with the lid off.

The results were better than I had expected. The crust of the bread was crunchy and golden. The inside could have been cooked just slightly longer but was still soft and springy. (Alton Brown provides the internal temperature but I didn’t have the right tool to check this, I think I’ll get one for next time around.) Other than the long waiting periods, this recipe doesn’t call for any time-consuming effort. I will plan ahead better on my next go-round so that the initial rising period is overnight, the next is in the morning, then the bread will cook just before dinner. I would like to see if I could make this bread in smaller quantities; it seems a perfect bread for a soup in a bread-bowl.

On a funny note, I started this bread on November 17^th and let it rise overnight, baking it the following day. I happened to come upon a very similar recipe late in the evening on the 17^th on another blog I enjoy, Skip to my Lou (http://www.skiptomylou.org/2011/11/17/no-knead-bread/). It turns out that November 17^th is National Homemade Bread Day. Who knew there was such a thing? This bread is worth celebrating!

Dutch Oven Chicken and Vegetables

I debated posting this recipe. Truth be told, the results weren’t what I’d call delicious. My intent was to cook dinner using my dutch oven because my mom would like more recipes for her own dutch oven. I went to buy a cookbook just for that purpose to give to my mom for Christmas but came up empty. Williams Sonoma didn’t have any in stock, and the one that I received as a gift from the same store a year or so ago doesn’t have a ton of recipes that my parents would gravitate towards. The spices were either not to their liking or the recipes didn’t seem to fit in their comfort zone for quick, weeknight meals. So, that brings me to the reason for this post: I’ll show my mom the method I tried and hopefully she can modify it to suit her tastes and needs.

The basics: I used the combination of vegetables that I had in the refrigerator and happened to have some chicken on hand as well. I want to expand my vegetable consumption beyond potatoes and peas, the two usual culprits in my kitchen. Today I still used potato, though I tried not to make it the focus of the dish. Enter brussel sprouts and carrots with an onion thrown in as well. Still not all that adventurous but a variety nonetheless.

Yes, this is as basic as it looks. I used only salt and pepper for seasoning. First I cooked the vegetables for about 10 minutes to soften them slightly and to give them a bit of color. Next I set the vegetables aside in another dish and browned the chicken. I didn’t get quite the color on the chicken that I needed. The heat wasn’t quite hot enough and I rushed through it. I took the chicken out for just a minute, deglazed the pan with ½ cup of white wine (chicken stock would have been fine too) and then put the vegetables back in, topped by the chicken.

I covered the pot with the lid and put it in a preheated oven at 400 F degrees for about 30-40 minutes.

As I mentioned, this wasn’t a stellar dish. I like the idea of a quick and easy meal, but the chicken was a little dry. The vegetables were fine, nothing fancy, but fine. I did attempt a fast sauce at the end of the cooking time but it turned out to be a flop.

Overall, not a bad idea and I’ll try it again with other vegetables and slightly less cooking time for the chicken.

Pumpkin-Cornbread Muffins

I made these pumpkin muffins today with my little guy. He is hesitant to try new foods but seems to enjoy baking so I am making an effort to include him in the kitchen. Today’s challenge for him was looking at the pumpkin when I opened the can of puree. He was not impressed and told me that he didn’t like to eat orange food. Guess what, he still emptied the pumpkin into the bowl and, even better, he ate every last crumb of his muffin when it came out of the oven. For us, that is what I’d call a success!

Ingredients:
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup milk
1 c all purpose flour
2/3 c sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1 egg
1/3 c vegetable oil
3 /4 c pumpkin puree (this is purely pumpkin, nothing added, NOT the pie mix)
Pinch of nutmeg, cinnamon or any other spice you’d like to use

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400 F degrees. I chose to use the convection option on my oven. I find at our altitude of one mile above sea level that convection gives me a better shot at the recipe turning out well. In some instances I add more flour and decrease the sugar, as recommended by high altitude bakers, but today I made this according to the recipe and had no trouble.

Lightly grease the pans. I experimented a bit and tried two mini muffin pans and a regular size muffin pan. I used muffin liners (thanks, Mom, for bringing me those on your last visit!) and also tried one mini muffin pan without liners. I continue to think of baking as a lesson in science for me and was interested to see which trial turned out the best.

Combine the cornmeal and milk and allow to stand for 15 minutes. This seemed to hydrate the cornmeal. After the waiting period the cornmeal and milk mixture was gloppy and much thicker.

Combine the flour, sugar, spices, and baking powder.

Mix all the ingredients together, adding the egg, oil, and pumpkin puree. Stir until combined and then fill your muffin tins. I tend to fill the tins about half way full so that the muffins don’t have a chance to rise too much and bake over the edges. Believe me, I’ve over-filled many a time and then struggle to get the muffins out of the tins.

Bake mini muffins for 15 minutes

Bake regular muffins for 20-25 (I think mine came out right at 23 minutes)

I was surprised to see the difference in my mini muffins. Those with the muffin liners did not rise as much. When I took the muffins out of the liners, the muffins did not come out cleanly. It’s possible I should have let them cool a bit longer. The mini muffins without the liners really turned out nicely. They rose just enough to have that domed shape we look for in muffins but not so much that they baked over the edges. An added bonus: the muffins spilled out of the pan without any hesitation. Perfect!

As one last bit of fun, we put the extra batter into these lovely animal shapes that my mother-in-law had sent to me to encourage the kids to spend more time in the kitchen. Today we used the bee and the dragonfly. Surprise- they turned out great! I can see these as a fun way to make cupcakes for kids’ birthdays; decorating them with icing would make them come alive.

Source: A friend shared this recipe with me. She originally found it on this website (but don’t let the “baby food” name keep you from making these. Every age can enjoy this muffin! http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com

Hand-held Apple Pies

I like the idea of miniature pies: they are cute, tasty, and even when you eat more than one you still think you are not splurging on calories. I originally found this recipe on the Disney Family website. I must have googled "hand-held pies" and this was one option. I changed the recipe ever so slightly, mainly regarding the process of making the dough. I left the ingredients nearly the same.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup of butter (cold works best)
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups flour
1/4 cup ICE water (the ICE part is crucial)

2 T butter
2 cups peeled, cored and diced apples (I used 3 but think even more would have been better. Any extra would have been tasty over vanilla ice cream)
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon

1 egg
1 T water
1 tsp sugar

Let's start with the dough. Using a food processor worked for me very nicely. I am still learning about the best uses for my food processor and dough seems to be one of them. My mom recently ordered one for herself so I think this would be a good place for her to start, too. Combine the flour, salt and cold butter. I cut the butter into smaller pieces first. Add water until the dough starts to form. This picture isn't that clear but it tries to show the dough just as it was coming together: no dough ball has formed in the food processor. You should be able to pinch the mixture together and it should start to stick to itself.

Empty the dough into a bowl or onto a clean countertop and pat it together so that it forms a ball. Flatten it slightly and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Congrats- the dough is done! Place it in the refrigerator to rest and cool while we make the filling.

The filling:
I chose apples this time but you could pick whatever is in season or whatever taste you love. I'm looking forward to trying different combinations for the filling.

Melt the remaining 2 T of butter over medium heat. Add the apples and cook until they soften (5-10 minutes). Next add the brown sugar and cook for another 5 minutes. Stir in the cinnamon and take the apples off the heat. Yum! Just the smell alone will tell you that you are moving in the right direction.

Back to the dough:
I let the dough rest at least 30 minutes, which was longer than it took to make the filling. In my house that means I was getting dinner for the boys or playing a game of Candyland while also trying to remember the dough in the fridge. However you pass the time, it is well worth it to let the dough cool so that it is an ease to roll out when the time comes.

I began by rolling the dough out in a large zip loc bag. I like this method because you don't give the dough the chance to get stuck to the countertop and it is fairly easy to roll the dough to an even thickness. In this case, I had more dough than I expected and it was too thick even when rolled out to the edges of the zip loc bag. No problem. I put a small bit of flour on on the countertop and kept going. I used a regular drinking glass to make my circles. The size was just smaller than I had hoped so once I cut the circles out, I then rolled each circle slightly larger. This last step also thinned the dough out to the right thickness.

Put the sweet little dough circles on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Add a few tablespoons of the filling to each circle. It's helpful to dip your finger into some water then to line half of the circle with the water. This helps the dough seal when you fold half of the circle over. I also pressed on the new edges of my now half-moon pies with a fork to make sure the seal was tight. You can cut a small slit or two in each pie to let out the steam when the pies cook.

The Final Step: Egg wash

You can mix the egg, water and sugar together to make an egg wash. Brush onto the pies with a pastry brush. Now you are ready for the oven. Place the pies in a preheated 375 degree oven for about 15-18 minutes. The pies will be golden brown and bubbly when ready.

We ate ours once they cooled but I think this would also be delicious warm served with vanilla icecream.

ENJOY!!

For my mom

I am starting this blog in hopes of sharing recipes with my mom. She has a growing interest in cooking and I hope that trials and errors in my kitchen save her from similar kitchen fates at her house. We live miles apart so I don't often get the chance to cook meals for her. Maybe I can introduce her to some recipes she'd like on this blog with the intention that she can simply click on her computer and find a new recipe every so often. What do you think, Mom, should we give it a go?
Happy Cooking!