I'm makin' pies

First you have to play this just to get in the mood…



I don't usually make an abundance of pies during the holidays and 4 is about my limit. In the last week though there just seems to be some many excuses for pie that I've made 7 pies and I have 4 more to make this week! I'm getting good at the home made crust. And since a friend requested the recipe and how to, here we go.

This recipe came from one of Justin's high school friends and I've been using it for over 10 years!

Josh's Homemade Pie Crust

(makes double crust)

2 cups flour

dash of salt

1 Tbsp sugar (omit if you are making quiche or anything savory)

2/3 cup + 2 Tbsp butter or shortening or butter (you should really use butter)

4-6 Tbsp ice water (8 Tbsp if you live in the dry West)

Cut the butter or margarine into the flour until it's roughly pea sized crumbles. (I'm a butter kind of girl. I never use shortening for this and never margarine. It's worth the splurge. You are eating pie for crying out loud, it's not worth trying to keep the lbs off! You will cry yourself to sleep thinking on how good it could have been if you'd only used butter. Just trying to save you the drama of disappointment here.)

Fill up a glass with water and some ice cubes. Dip out the water and add to the dry mixture. Toss it until everything is sort of wet and looks like it will stick together. 

The trick is to not over work the dough. All of those crumbs of butter will melt away in the oven and create little air pockets in the crust to make a delicious flakey goodness. 

Work the dough just enough to get it to stick together while you roll it out. A peel is really helpful if you have one, other wise you have to use more flour. Roll it out and then drape it over your rolling pin and transfer to your pie plate. 

Trim the left over so that the dough hangs about 1/2" over the edges. Roll the draping edges under to rest on the edge of the pie plate. Using your thumb and forefinger on your right hand and your forefinger on your left, push your left finger up against your right all the way around to create a zigzag design. If you look closely, it will have a marbled look to it with the pockets of butter in there!

I learned a long time ago that your pie can be elevated from just yum to spectacular with a homemade crust and decorations for the top. Use the left over dough to cut out shapes to place on top of the pie when it's done. They can be baked on a cookie sheet until lightly brown and crispy and then used on top after the pie is finished baking (unless you are using a lot of them for a fruit pie, in which case you can bake them with like a top crust.

Brush the pie crust and the decorations with a little 1/2 & 1/2 and dust with sugar before you put it in the oven.

Bake for 15 min @450 and then 15 min at 350 if you are planning to use it for a cream pie or something that doesn't get baked after filling. Otherwise, just fill it and bake it with your pie. Cover the edges before they get too brown if your filling isn't done when your crust looks finished.

Have fun!

Simple Weekend Treats

We made mini cinnamon rolls last weekend. They kids did them completely by themselves and were so proud. Try them with your little guys, they are easy peasy!




Mini Cinnamon Rolls

• Crescent Rolls
• Butter 
• Cinnamon
• Sugar
• Maple Syrup
• Powdered Sugar

Unroll the Crescent rolls and pinch together all of the seams. Brush melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Roll them up starting at the long end. Slice and put them sideways into a mini muffin pan. Bake as directed on the package maybe for just 8-10 min.  Cut in 2 Tbsp butter into 1 cup powdered sugar, add about 3 tbsp maple syrup and then milk to make it smooth. Spread the icing over top while they are still warm. Walla!

Bread

Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.

John 6:35

I don't know why bread has such a monumental effect on me.

There is nothing exciting about it's appearance and yet as far as I am concerned, there is literally nothing better than a loaf of crusty bread, good quality olive oil and a bottle of red wine. It feeds my soul. Why is that?

Maybe it's just an association that I have grown over the years to have with it. Perhaps, based on something like the verse above. It plays such a huge role in the life of the Christian metaphorically. And it's the core of Jesus's message to the Gentiles.

Or did you ever read the Box Car Children? As a child having read the story, I often thought of those four poor, orphaned children, where a loaf of bread was such a tremendous gift to them. Every banquet, dinner party or reception that served crusty rolls, had me savoring every bite of that simple treat thinking back on those kids and how tasty it must have been to their hungry stomachs.

When JP and I got married, for some reason, I thought my ultimate goal in domestic success was to be able to one day make leavened bread in it's finest form, crusty on the outside, warm and soft on the inside. Just like the French.

So after about 4 years of marriage and numerous failed attempts at bread making (I've put all this pressure on myself throughout life!), I got acquainted with a bread maker, which was a Godsend. And since then I've made all sorts of really tasty breads with just the push of a button. The other week, our poor bread maker decided it had had enough and needed a sabbatical. Horror! What were we going to do?!? So as we wait for our part to come in the mail, I decided to try my hand once again at the old bread making by hand. And, dang it, it was going to be crusty, just like the bakeries in town.

I searched for hand made crusty bread, chose the first recipe I found (which was from the The New York Times; I figured it was some professional trying to adapt the process to those of us cursed with anything containing yeast) and ALAS! I can do it! I'm here to tell you that I have arrived (and I'm barely over 30!). So here's the recipe. Try it for yourself. You will never turn back, I promise.

And for those of you living close to our new mommies, please take them some. Lord knows they won't have time any time soon to get to this frivolous cooking!

Simple Crusty Bread

Adapted from “Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day,” by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François (Thomas Dunne Books, 2007)

Time: About 45 minutes plus about 3 hours’ resting and rising

1 1/2 tablespoons yeast

1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt

6 1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour, more for dusting dough

Cornmeal.

1. In a large bowl or plastic container, mix yeast and salt into 3 cups lukewarm water (about 100 degrees). Stir in flour, mixing until there are no dry patches. Dough will be quite loose. Cover, (with a towel) but not with an airtight lid. Let dough rise at room temperature 2 hours (or up to 5 hours).

2. Bake at this point or refrigerate, covered, for as long as two weeks. When ready to bake, sprinkle a little flour on dough and cut off a grapefruit-size piece with serrated knife. Turn dough in hands to lightly stretch surface, creating a rounded top and a lumpy bottom. Put dough on pizza peel (parchement or wax paper works for this as well) sprinkled with cornmeal; let rest 40 minutes. Repeat with remaining dough or refrigerate it.

3. Place broiler pan on bottom of oven. Place baking stone (all I had was a stoneware pie plate which works but you can only bake one at a time) on middle rack and turn oven to 450 degrees; heat stone at that temperature for 20 minutes.

4. Dust dough with flour, slash top with serrated or very sharp knife three times. Slide onto stone. Pour one cup (I'm gonna try 2 cups water to see if it will get any crispier) hot water into broiler pan and shut oven quickly to trap steam. Bake until well browned, about 30 minutes. Cool completely.

Yield: 4 loaves.

Variation: If not using stone, stretch rounded dough into oval and place in a greased, nonstick loaf pan. Heat oven to 450 degrees for 5 minutes. Place pan on middle rack.

I know 6 cups of flour seems like a lot, but go ahead and make the whole batch. That way you have the dough all ready to go for the next meal and just have to pull off a piece! We hammered two loaves over dinner last night but then maybe we are gluttons. If you are using refrigerated dough, then let rest 1 hour and 40 mins before sprinkling with flour and slicing the top. Now go ahead, humor me and scroll back to the top. That really is MY bread. Isn't it beautiful?!? Now let's see if I can actually do this again...