Thursday, March 29, 2012

My 366 Photo Project, Snap Thursday: week 13

Knitty Baker's Snap Thursday
It's Snap Thursday again! My year-long 366 Photo Project adventure continues with the pictures below from March 23-29, 2012.

Continuing with naming an unofficial theme for each month, March's theme is: signs of spring.

See previous weeks here:
one & two
three
four
five
six, seven & eight 
nine
ten
eleven
twelve

March 23: starting the week with pale pink blossoms
in the bright blue sky


March 25: purple Magnolia flowers

March 26: bright yellow flowers on a forsythia bush

March 27: a Japanese Magnolia tree in bloom

March 28: squares and circles

March 29: ending the week with bright white blossoms
in the clear blue sky


Bye for now...

Monday, March 26, 2012

My 366 Photo Project, Snap Thursday: week 12

Knitty Baker's Snap Thursday
It's Snap Thursday again! My year-long 366 Photo Project adventure continues with the pictures below from March 16-22, 2012.

Continuing with naming an unofficial theme for each month, March's theme is: signs of spring.

See previous weeks here:
one & two
three
four
five
six, seven & eight 
nine
ten
eleven 


March 16: fruit for breakfast

March 17: bright purple crocus in perfect bloom

March 18: yellow-cupped daffodils

March 19: flowers on a Star Magnolia tree

March 20: anniversary flowers from my husband's parents

March 21: bright yellow crocus in the dull earth

March 22: another Magnolia tree blossom


Bye for now...

Thursday, March 15, 2012

My 366 Photo Project, Snap Thursday: week 11

Knitty Baker's Snap Thursday
It's Snap Thursday again! My year-long 366 Photo Project adventure continues with the pictures below from March 9-15, 2012.

Continuing with naming an unofficial theme for each month, March's theme is: signs of spring. Lots of pictures of buds and blooming bulbs ahead...

See previous weeks here:
one & two
three
four
five
six, seven & eight 
nine
ten

March 9: still too cold for outdoor chess

March 10: sun peeping through yellow buds

March 11: I had a little ganache left after making my ABC Emergency Blender Cupcakes -
it was perfect with fresh strawberries

March 12: dried seed heads

March 13: the vinca is starting to flower - exciting!

March 14: a geometric patterned ceiling

March 15: daffodils, yahoo! Yellow is such a happy-making color.


Bye for now...

Flakey Pie Crust...filled two ways

I love making pies - especially the crust. I always make my pie crusts by hand and I love the satisfaction when they come out perfectly flaky. I also love that you can fill a pie crust with so many different things - meat, veg, fruit, nuts, chocolate...savory or sweet, it's your choice!

Here are two pies I made recently with an all-butter crust - an onion, bacon and cheddar quiche and a blueberry pie. Both were scrumptious!

cutting in the cold butter by hand using my old trusty pastry cutter

keep going until the mixture is about the size of peas
(although you do want some variation in the size of the butter pieces)

add ice cold water, a few tablespoons at a time, and mix gently with a fork

It's okay that there is still some dry flour as you can see below. In my opinion it's better to be on the dry side rather than the wet side at this stage. The dry flour will be absorbed during the kneading and resting. If the dough is too wet you will end up adding more flour which will end up making your dough tough.

turned out onto my bench for kneading

At this point, you want to knead the dough as little as possible as you form it into a solid mass. Once you add the water (or any liquid) to the flour, too much kneading will overwork the gluten in the flour which will make your dough tough. Over-kneading will also incorporate the butter into the dough more than you want, which will result in a less flaky dough. You want the little butter pieces to stay intact because this helps your crust flake when you bake it (the water in the butter turns into steam and creates separate layers in the finished crust).

So, always try to quit a bit before you think you should! I try to knead my pie (and scone) dough no more than 15-17 times. My granddaddy - the best baker in our family - says 17 times for his scone recipe but sometimes I can get away with 15.

stop as soon as the dough comes together
as you can see, all of the dry flour has now been incorporated

this recipe makes enough for two crusts

oh how I love making pie crusts - beautiful!

flatten each half into a round disk (will help you roll it out more easily)
and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes - an hour or two is better
the cold rest period both re-chills the butter rests the gluten

I like to roll my crusts ot between two pieces of wax paper. This way you need very little extra flour and it is much less likely to stick to the bench or your rolling pin. It also makes it easy to transfer to the pie plate. If using this method, after every few rolls, lift the wax paper off the dough (on both top and bottom). This will keep the dough from stretching and also from sticking to the wax paper. If you find the dough does start to stick, leave it in between the wax paper, slide it onto a sheet pan and pop it into the fridge for 15 minutes to re-chill the butter. Also remember to turn your rotate the dough a little after every roll or two so you can keep it as round as possible.

rolling out my dough

done!

Place your rolled out dough over the pie plate and gently lift and settle it into the corners of the pie plate. You don't want to stretch it here or it will just retreat when you bake it (as you can see my quiche crust did a little!). Trim the edge so you are left with about 1 inch of overhanging dough around the whole thing. Then, tuck the overhanging dough underneath so you are left with a nice thick edge. This will make it easier to crimp or flute.

tuck the overhanging dough underneath to form the edge

flute the edges (as I did for the blueberry pie)
or leave plain (as I did for the quiche)

After fitting the dough into the pie plates, put them back in the fridge for another period of chilling and relaxing. About 20 minutes should do it.

For the quiche filling, I followed Julia Child's base recipe for quiche. Simply put 3 eggs in a measuring cup and then fill to 1 1/2 cups with heavy cream or whole milk (or a combination of the two). Super easy, right?

Nutmeg goes really well with egg dishes so I also like to add a bit of freshly grated nutmeg to my quiche.

my eggs and milk mixture

I love onions - the more the merrier!

grated Irish cheddar went in first, then the caramelized onions, then the bacon
and finally the egg and milk mixture is poured over the top

baked to a golden brown
(about 55 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean)

delicious!


For the second pie I made blueberry. My mom and I had been experimenting with making a blueberry pie that would still have a nice bottom crust; we decided that using frozen blueberries - and not thawing them before you bake - was the best way to keep the bottom crust crispy. We mixed frozen blueberries, a bit of sugar, a bit of flour (to thicken the juices), lemon juice, lemon zest and a sprinkle of spices (cardamom, cinnamon and nutmeg). Dot the top with butter and you are done.

mix all the ingredients in a bowl...can't get much easier than that

pour into the crust and dot with butter

top with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and enjoy


Bye for now...

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Avid Baker's Challenge: Emergency Blender Cupcakes

This month's Avid Baker's Challenge choice is the Emergency Blender Cupcakes from The Weekend Baker by Abby Dodge.

In February we made Glazed Cinnamon Rolls and in January, Nut-Crusted Chocolate-Banana Swirl Cake. Both were delicious so I was looking forward to making these chocolaty cupcakes. But then life got in the way and I was super busy at the beginning of the month so I decided to skip this month. But then...I took a look at the cupcakes that my fellow ABCers made and had a family game night coming up so...I had to give them a go. I'm really glad that I did because they were easy and delicious. I followed the changes that Hanaâ made (you can find her Emergency Blender Cupcakes recipe here) and came out with 12 moist and scrumptious chocolate cupcakes. They were a big hit - my husband ate three (so I guess he liked them!) and the rest disappeared by the end of game night. All of the ingredients are pantry staples, so I will definitely make these again.

A few pictures:

mise en place - pantry staples!

done and ready to be frosted with a quick and easy ganache

ready for game night!

even though they were chocolate on chocolate, they were not overpowering

so moist and delicious!


Bye for now...