APPLE CRISP

When apples are harvested in Massachusetts, there are some lovely choices for traditional desserts.  Apple Crisp was my mother's favorite.  This is her recipe...

Ingredients:

5 to 6 tart apples
1/2 cup of dark molasses
1/2 cup of superfine sugar
1/2 tsp. of cinnamon
1/2 tsp. of nutmeg
juice of one lemon
1/2 stick of melted butter

1 1/2 cups of Bisquick
1/2 stick of butter at room temp
pinch of sugar and salt
1/2 tsp. of cinnamon
1/2 tsp. of nutmeg


Peel, core and slice apples.  Place in a deep bowl.  Add molasses, superfine sugar, cinammon, nutmeg, lemon juice and butter.  Let the fruit soak in the juices for about 30 minutes to develop flavor.

Butter and sugar an 8" x 8" square pan.  After soaking time, put apples in bottom of pan.

Preheat oven to 400F while preparing the covering.

In a deep bowl, combine Bisquick, butter, sugar, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Mix with fork and spoon over the apples.  Bake for 30 to 40 minutes until crust is golden brown.  Serve with freshly whipped cream.

 



Savory Pot Pie

 

Savory pot pie can be a culinary challenge since the dough must be made properly to develop the layer of flavors necessary to raise the bar on pot pie.  To make the dough more tasty, I used beef suet instead of lard for this crust and made an infusion of rosemary and chicken broth for the dough liquid.  I allowed the dough to refrigerate overnight to get a little more flavor and made the pastry dough with a combination of butter and suet.  I used some of the leftover pot roast and threw in fresh corn.  The result was really good.

 

Pastry:

 3 ounces of suet

3 ounces of butter
2 cups of self-rising flour
Salt and pepper

A little combination of rosemary infused chicken broth (as needed)

Cut the fats into the flour.  Add salt and pepper and drizzle the broth in as your food processor churns the dough.  Turn the dough into a buttered bowl and cover with plastic wrap.  Refrigerate for at least eight hours.

Pie:

Warm the leftover pot roast to room temperature.  Preheat oven to 400F.

Roll out pastry dough and put on the bottom of a pie plate.  Cut pot roast into cubes.  Cover with corn.  Add dots of butter.  Cover with leftover gravy.  Roll out top crust and set over the pie plate.  Pinch edges of the dough.  Spray with butter flavored Pam.  Bake for 30 minutes or more until crust is golden brown.

Featherlight Biscuits

Featherlight Biscuits

 

 

Biscuits can be tricky.  Two important tips:  preheat the oven to 450F and don't work the dough more than necessary.  It is very important to remember that any dough you work with your hands is affected by the heat in your hands. 

 

 

Recipe:

 

2 cups of self-rising flour



1 stick of butter at room temperature

dash of salt

3/4 cup of buttermilk

1/2 cup of peccarino romano cheese (or any other cheese you like)

 

Cut butter into flour using two knives or a pastry cutter.  Add remaining ingredients (use a little more milk or cream if needed).  Turn dough onto surface, roll out and cut eight biscuits.  Place biscuits on an unbuttered baking sheet.  Bake for ten minutes or until golden brown.

Heavenly Biscuits

HEAVENLY BISCUITS

 

 

Preheat oven to 450F

 

2 cups of self-rising flour



1/2 cup of Butter Crisco

1/4 cup of domestic parmesan romano cheese

1 cup of buttermilk

2 to 3 tablespoons of soda water

Poppy Seeds (optional)

Blend butter Crisco into flour using two knives or a fork.  Add remaining ingredients.  Put a little flour on your work surface and cut out biscuits.  Bake for ten to fifteen minutes or until golden brown.

These are light, fluffy and delicious!

Beef Cacciatore

Beef Cacciatore

 

 

Beef cacciatore (just pick a protein) is nothing more than an Italian stew.   In Tuscany, where my grandfather was born, this would not be made with beef but instead, a simpler protein like chicken.  You throw a few things into a crock pot, or make it more traditionally in a heavy stew pot and throw it in the oven.  You add this and that, and it becomes a tender, lovely and inviting dinner.  You can serve it equally over pasta or rice.  I will give you the traditional way my grandmother, Lucy Piermarini, taught me how to make it and also offer you the crock pot version.  Either way, you end up with a delightfully flavored dish.

Ingredients:

2 to 3 lbs. beef

½ lb. of pork fat (cut into lardon shape)
½ lb. of pancetta
1 bitter onion, peeled and chopped
3 to 4 carrots, peeled and chopped
4 stalks of celery (with tops), chopped
1 head of garlic (throw in microwave for 20 seconds).  After garlic cools down, remove peels and crush all the softened garlic with a fork (reserve in a bowl).
3 bay leaves
3 cups of beef stock
1 can (8 oz.) of good tomato paste
1 tsp. of crushed black pepper
1 bottle of good red wine

In a very large stew pot (I use Le Creu

 

set), put a tbl. of extra virgin olive oil.  Over slowest possible heat, sauté the salt pork and the pancetta.  When browned, remove from the heat and place on paper towels to absorb fat.  Set aside the bacon and pork. 

In the same pan, over lowest heat, sauté the onions, carrots and celery until the onions turn translucent.    Remove the vegetables and set aside.  Turn the heat up slightly.  Add the wine and beef stock to deglaze the pan.   Stir for a few minutes until all the brown stuff at the bottom of the pan is now in the liquid. 

 

At this point, everything goes back into the pot and you can throw this in the oven at 200°F for several hours.  Alternatively, at this point, you could transfer everything into a crock pot.

For the crockpot version, simply sauté the pork fat and pancetta and the onion mixture and then throw everything into the crockpot.

To use other proteins, simply substitute chicken stock or white wine for a poultry or pork protein.  For dark meat, use the beef stock and red wine.

The most important thing to remember is that the longer it simmers, the better the flavor.  It also becomes much better if you freeze the remainder of the stew.  

 

My grandmother would have served this with polenta because polenta is less expensive than rice or pasta.  I also love to serve this with orzo.   

APPLE PIE

There is nothing more wonderful than the smell of apple pie when it is baking in the oven…the kitchen, perhaps the entire house, is filled with the overwhelming aroma of cinnamon, nutmeg and apples, inviting anyone and everyone to enjoy the finished pastry.

Traditionally, the best apples for making apple pie are tart, firm and varieties that meld well with the flavors imparted during the maceration process (read on).  My mother-in-law, Elizabeth Marshall, insisted (and rightfully so) that the best apple for apple pie is the Northern Spy.  Unfortunately for me, this apple is only available for a short window of opportunity in the fall.  I get by with Granny Smith apples.

If you are going to make the effort to make an apple pie, do several at a time and freeze two or three (unbaked) after carefully wrapping in plastic wrap (or a freezer pie box).  This ensures that you have a beautiful dessert just waiting in the freezer for drop-in company.

This recipe is one I’ve developed over the years and includes a process which gives the apples ample time to take on the flavor of the spices used in the completed pie.  I also prefer (I know I sound like a broken record) Butter Crisco®

for both the pie crust and the filling.  (See previous blog entry to learn how to make pie dough).   For this particular pie, you need a minimum of twelve apples and two crusts (ready made crust is fine).

Preheat oven to 400° F

Filling:

You will need a large deep, ceramic bowl and a potato peeler.

 12 tart apples

1 lemon (at room temperature)
1 ½ tsp. of cinnamon
1 ½ tsp. of nutmeg plus freshly grated nutmeg (if you have it)
1 ½ tsp. of ginger
½ cup of melted Butter Crisco®
2 to 3 tbl. of black strap molasses

Peel, core and slice apples.  Put in bottom of the bowl with the juice of one lemon and the remainder of the ingredients.  Stir occasionally.  Allow the apples to set at room temperature for at least an hour or two.  The longer you allow the apple slices to steep in the liquid, the better the filling will taste (the process of steeping fruit in a liquid is called maceration).

Assembly:

Take prepared brust and roll out one to two inches more than the circumference of your pie plate.  Put the dough in the pie plate.  Add the filling.  Dot with butter.  Top with second pie crust and crimp edges of the pie.  Brush the top crust with a little warm water using a pastry brush and sprinkle with granulated sugar (I use turbanado or bar sugar).    Bake for one hour or until knife inserted in pie is clean.

Rustic Country Bread

Important Note:  if you do not have a temperature controlled kitchen, do not attempt to make bread on a humid or rainy day.  The bread dough will just not rise properly.

Preparation:

Get a big ceramic bowl and oil the sides and bottom with extra virgin olive oil.  Set aside and have a clean linen towel ready.

I suggest that you go down to Home Depot and buy six large ceramic tiles and put them on the bottom rack of your oven for bread making.  They are a lot cheaper purchased this way then buying a baking stone for bread and pizza.

Bread Dough

2 tbl. of active yeast

Measuring cup and ¼ of tepid water

3 cups of all purpose unbleached flour

1 tsp. of salt

1 tsp. of sugar

2 tbl. of heavy cream

1 pat of butter

¼ cup of water

You can cover the bread dough with poppy seeds, sesame seeds, etc. after the dough rises.  Just sprinkle a little on the counter and roll the finished loaf in the seeds.

Prove Yeast

Put yeast in dry measuring cup.  Add ¼ cup of tepid water.  Let sit for five minutes.  The water temperature is crucial to proving the yeast.  If your water is too hot, it will kill the yeast and your dough will not rise. 

Put dough hook in food processor.  Add flour, salt and sugar.  Pulse.  When yeast is ready (it will look milky and smell yeasty, add the yeast to the flour mixture and pulse for ten seconds.  Add cream, butter and a couple tablespoons of water (room temp).  Pulse.  Add water accordingly as the processor turns the flour into dough.  Stop adding water when the dough is coming off clean from the sides of the processor. 

Put dough in prepared ceramic bowl and cover with the linen towel.  Allow the dough to rise for one hour.  Punch the dough down after first rise.  Roughly knead the dough and turn it over for second rise.   The dough should have risen to fill the bowl halfway.  When you punch down the bread dough, turn the dough over a few times and smooth it into a nice round ball.  Second kneading will be more important.

Kneading the Dough

Spread out a large linen cloth on your counter (if you don’t have marble or granite).  You do not need this if you are working on marble or granite.  You will need several cups of flour.  Spread some flour on your counter or your cloth.  Put the dough in the middle and knead the dough with buttered hands.  Add flour sparingly as you do this, just to keep the dough consistency correct.  Knead for about five minutes, until you have a smooth round ball of dough.  The goal here is to remove any large air pockets.  You want to press and roll the dough out at the same time, allowing the large air pockets to fill in as you work the dough.  Let the dough rest for a couple of minutes after kneading.

Heat  Oven to 350F

Boil Water

This sounds a little strange but have several cups of boiling water ready before you put the bread dough in your oven.

If you have a bread peal, have it handy.  Put bread dough on the bread peal and place it on the heated oven stones.  Throw a cup of boiling hot water in the bottom of your oven and quickly shut the door of the oven. (This step is totally unnecessary if you have a brick oven.)

Bake your bread for about 45 minutes to an hour.  Bread is done when the crust is golden and when you tap it, you get a nice crisp sound.  Or, you can stick a toothpick in it and if it comes out clean, bread is done. 

Baking