Playing catch-up - Classic Apple Crisp

A couple weeks ago, I was in the mood for apple crisp, and thought I'd try something new.  I found this recipe at King Arthur Flour.   I love anything with streusel, and this one is quite tasty.  I also like the addition of both boiled cider and regular apple cider to the filling.  We originally ate the crisp for dessert, but it also makes a great breakfast.

Keeping the doctor away

I had a really good mail day recently.  It helps that I got tired of the stack of bills needing to be shredded--one evening I switched everything to paperless that I could manage, which means most of the mail now is either total junk or good stuff.  On the day in question, I think I got a new Cook's Illustrated magazine, an issue of Bon Appetit, a Crate and Barrel catalog, a Stash Tea catalog and a King Arthur catalog.  Definitely good stuff. =)  (And you can probably guess, I don't check my mail every day--it had kind of piled up.)  In the back of the KAF catalog, there were some fun Halloween treats, including a picture of Boiled Cider Caramels.  I quickly jumped online to find the recipe.

I will probably end up making the caramels sometime during the holidays.  But I wasn't in the mood to cut up and wrap lots of pieces of caramel.  Then it occurred to me that I could add boiled cider and spices to one of my favorite caramel sauces and come up with something similar.  I decided to go with a classic recipe from Cook's Illustrated, scaling it back by half since this was an experiment.  I added a bit of corn syrup for insurance against crystallization.  Once I'd whisked the cream into the caramel, I added boiled cider one tablespoon at a time until I had a flavor I liked.  I made my own version of apple pie spice by adding a mix of cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg.  I also added more than the original pinch of salt, since I like salty caramel.

The verdict?  I was a bit surprise at how much flavor the boiled cider brings to the caramel, but I'm still trying to decide if I'm happy with the amount of spice.  It seemed a bit heavy on the cinnamon at first, but was better after a day or two.  The caramel is tasty on top of vanilla ice cream and stirred into tea or warm apple cider, but it's really good as a dip for apple slices.  I know, big surprise, right? =)

I'll definitely be making this again, and playing around with it some more.  I'm including my rough recipe if you'd like to try it yourself.  If you haven't made caramel before, here's a good resource from Fine Cooking, including a video so you can see what it's supposed to look like.  (I do things a little differently, based on the Cook's Illustrated recipe.)

Apple Cider Caramel Sauce
(adapted from Cook's Illustrated and King Arthur Flour)

60 grams (2 ounces) water
200 grams (1/2 cup) granulated sugar
22 grams (1 tablespoon) light corn syrup
115 grams (1/2 cup) heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
60 grams (about 3 tablespoons) boiled cider
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
15 grams (1 tablespoon) unsalted butter

Pour the water into a heavy 2-quart saucepan.  Add the sugar to the pan, pouring it into the center so none sticks to the sides of the pan.  Add the corn syrup and swirl the contents to combine.  Cover the pot and bring the mixture to a boil over high heat.  Remove the lid and continue to boil the mixture until it turns straw-colored, about 10 minutes.  Reduce the heat to medium and continue to cook the syrup until it turns dark amber, about 5 minutes longer.  Remove the pan from the heat and add about half the cream.  The mixture will bubble vigorously.  Once the bubbles subside, add the rest of the cream and whisk the mixture until smooth.  Whisk in the salt, boiled cider, and spices, then whisk in the butter.  Allow the mixture to cool until just warm before serving.  The caramel sauce can be stored in the refrigerator for up to a month.  Makes about a cup.

An apple a day

I like baking stuff for breakfast on the weekends.  It's partly because I have more time then, and also because if I make something on Sunday, we can generally eat the leftovers for breakfast for a few days, making weekday mornings a little less hectic.  The only problem is that I'm frequently indecisive about what to make.  I think that scones sound good, for instance, but then can't settle on a recipe.  Part of the problem is that I'm trying to find something that the girls will eat, too.  So when I saw the recent blog post from KAF, I was thrilled.  Fresh apple scones sounded delicious, and even better, didn't have anything in the ingredient list that seemed kid-unfriendly.  (Both girls complain about nuts, and B doesn't like dried fruit "in things.")  Plus I can't seem to help buying lots of apples every time I go to the store this time of year, so it's good to find new ways for us to consume them. 

The scones get a double dose of apple-y goodness--applesauce provides some of the moisture in the dough and there are pieces of chopped apple folded in.  Since the recipe calls for half a cup of (unsweetened) applesauce, I took the easy route and used one of G's single serving cups that she takes in her lunch.  (B likes the blueberry ones, but not the plain.)  There's also a nice amount of spice.  Since I don't have apple pie spice on hand, I used a mix of cinnamon, allspice and freshly grated nutmeg.  In addition to the ground spices, you add cinnamon chips to the dough as well.  I pretty much followed the recipe as written, which I'm not always very good about.  Sometimes it's just easier to make round drop scones, but I did the triangles this time.  The recipe calls for freezing the scones before baking, to keep the butter chilled. I can't fit one of my big sheet pans in my freezer, so I used two smaller quarter sheet (13"x9") pans and put one round of dough on each parchment-lined pan.  Since I like glaze on my scones, I skipped the cinnamon sugar topping.  Once the scones were out of the oven and had cooled for a few minutes, I mixed up a quick glaze flavored with boiled cider and drizzled it on top.

The verdict?  These are quite good.  This is the first time I've actually followed the instructions to freeze the scones before baking (which has come up in other KAF scone recipes), and I could tell a difference in the texture.  I'll be better about remembering to do it in the future, maybe even making the dough the night before & freezing them overnight.  The flavor combination was great.  G was skeptical at first ("I'm not eating those!"), but decided that she'd try one after she concluded that they smelled pretty good.  The glaze worked out well, giving just a little bit of extra apple-y flavor.  

If you'd like to give these a try, you can find the recipe here at King Arthur Flour.  The glaze recipe can be found on their site as well. (here--scroll down; I used milk instead of cream & added a pinch of cinnamon)  These scones are definitely going to be in our rotation a lot for the next few months.

Weekend wind-down 9.16.2012

Welcome to another episode of Di's stream of consciousness week in review. =)  My big accomplishment for this weekend?  Rediscovering how much I love baking bread.  I spent a couple years baking almost all of the bready things that we ate, but then for some reason stopped doing it.  I don't know that I'll go back to doing everything, but I do want to get back in the habit of baking bread on a weekly basis.  Yesterday I made my favorite sandwich loaf recipe, Dan Lepard's Milk Loaf.  You can find the recipe on my friend Nancy's bread blog.  I actually don't use it much for sandwiches for me, but the girls like it, and it makes fantastic toast.  Since I plan to use it mostly for kids' lunches, I made two smaller loaves, in these pans.  I increased the original recipe by one third, and it was just the right amount of dough.  

Once I got started, I was asking myself why I don't make this dough more often.  It's a great method, and such a nice dough to work with.  It's the getting started that's the challenge.  Once I get going, I'm fine.  I did the same thing this evening with another dough.  I meant to make the dough much earlier in the day, but kept putting it off, thinking it would take too much time.  I finally just told myself to get in the kitchen and do it.  The amount of active time I spent?  Maybe 10 minutes.  Now I just have to hold on to that and remember it the next time I'm procrastinating.  

I also made applesauce this weekend, and muffins for Sunday breakfast.  The applesauce was because we're starting to get some good fall apples, and homemade applesauce is the best.  I found some very large Paula Red apples at Central Market, and bought a whole bunch.  Gillian isn't a big fan of the applesauce, but Brianna likes it, so that's one more thing ready for the lunchbox this week.  The muffins were pretty good as well.  Muffins are good for grab & go breakfasts during the week, so that seemed like a good thing to make today.  I've been wanting to make crumb cake, but couldn't settle on a recipe, so I decided to make a basic muffin and add some crumbs on top.  For the base, I made the batter for these doughnut muffins from KAF.  I know from past experience that the muffins end up very domed on top, so I made 16 muffins instead of the usual 12.  I topped each one with some streusel that I modified from a crumb cake recipe.  It worked pretty well, but isn't exactly what I was after.  I plan to play around with it a bit more, so when I get it the way I want it, I'll have to do a full post.

I also did some baking to take to work last week.  I may not always have something to make for dinner, but I always have the stuff to make some sort of cake. =)  In this case, I was looking for something else to make with apples.  I wanted to make this cake that my friend Tracey posted, but actually didn't have everything I needed.  (Now you know another reason why I made applesauce this weekend.)  So I went looking, and found this Apple-Ginger Streusel Coffee Cake.  (I didn't have applesauce, but did have both fresh and crystallized ginger. Go figure.)  I used pecans instead of walnuts, but otherwise made the recipe as written.  I was happy that the recipe called for a 10-cup bundt pan, because it gave me a reason to get out my Heritage Bundt pan.  I got lots of compliments on the cake, and it did look really pretty.  It was very moist, but next time I think I'll add just a bit more salt.  

And for non-baking stuff?  Well, Gillian was under the weather for a good part of the week (still that annoying cold from last week), but finally seemed to be doing better today.  We had an interesting trip to Costco in the rain this morning.  I'm thrilled to have the rain, though, and the cooler temperatures that have come along with it.  It actually feels like we really might be approaching fall.  I also survived a trip to the outlet mall with Brianna last night for some new clothes.  We managed to find some stuff with a minimum of drama, so I can't really complain.  And Jamie had an interesting day on Friday; hopefully this week will be less eventful.  

I think that's about it for tonight.  

Move to the music

I know I survived just fine before I had an iPod and iPhone, but I've recently really started to appreciate the benefits of portable music.  I can listen to music while I'm getting ready in the morning, either from songs on my phone or through streaming my favorite local radio station.  I've also been using the music options to get Brianna & Gillian moving when they're in the shower.  It's like a timer--it's a race to see who can get done in fewer songs.  Sometimes they just dance while they're drying off.  This past week, I found a new use, once I remembered that I had headphones for my phone, too.  Listening to music while I was in the kitchen baking was a great way to avoid listening to whatever Disney Channel show the girls were watching.  I can only take so much of that most days (yet they never seem to tire of it).  And hey, I figure I burned some extra calories as I was dancing around the kitchen.  Fortunately B&G weren't paying any attention to me, so there wasn't any critique of my dance style. =)

I'm thinking that I may have to start using music as a way to get the girls moving a little better in the morning, too.  Way too much time is spent arguing about clothing choices, or just lying on the floor complaining about how tired they are.  Meanwhile, I'm trying to finish packing lunches or figuring out something portable for them to take for breakfast in the car.  Some weeks I don't to a very good job of planning, and by Thursday or Friday I'm scrambling to find them something to eat.  That would be why my girls end up eating cheese sticks (aka string cheese) and dried fruit (cherries for G, apricots or prunes for B) for breakfast. 

We all really like it when we have scones or muffins or bagels available.  (Which reminds me, I meant to make bagels this week, but didn't get to it.  Coming soon!)  If I bake on the weekend, I make enough that we're able to get through 2 or 3 days during the week as well.  Occasionally I manage to bake in the morning before work on the other days.  The secret to being able to have just-baked muffins for breakfast?  Doing most of the prep the night before.  A recent favorite for that treatment has been some great Apple Cinnamon Crumb Muffins that I found over at Two Peas and Their Pod.  The streusel topping uses melted butter, and is quick to mix up.  I store it in a container in the fridge overnight.  In the morning, I just have to break it up into small clumps before putting it on top of the batter--and the crumbs hold their shape nicely in the oven, since the butter has had a chance to firm back up.  I mix the dry ingredients together in the large bowl that I plan to use for the final batter, and cover the bowl with plastic wrap.  (I use white whole wheat flour, btw.)  I even get out the muffin pan and fill the cups with paper liners.  Then the first thing I do in the morning is turn the oven on to preheat while I'm doing other stuff (showering or packing lunches).  I quickly dice up the apples, whisk together the wet ingredients (I've used plain yogurt instead of buttermilk with good results), and stir everything together. I use my #16 disher (which holds 1/4 cup of batter) to fill the muffin cups.  In the 20 minutes or so that it takes for the muffins to bake, I take care of some more of my morning tasks. 

The verdict?  The girls liked these muffins quite a bit.  I also shared a bunch of them with my co-workers, and they were a huge hit with everyone.  It's always a good sign when baked goods are completely gone before lunch time.  Everyone loved the fact that they're a little healthier than the average muffin, but still taste really good.  I highly recommend that you try them for yourself--you can find the recipe here at Two Peas and Their Pod.  

An apple cake for fall

I didn't want the whole month to pass by without at least one Tuesdays with Dorie post.  I don't have the fig cake that was on the agenda for this week.  (Head over to Cookie Rookie for this week's recipe.)  I also passed on last week's Ginger-Jazzed Brownies.  You may have seen why I had some trouble with the biscuits the week before that.  (I made them, but they weren't great, and I didn't take any pictures.  I'm still hoping to make them again.)  The cake I have for you today is actually the first recipe for October, the Apple Nut Muffin Cake picked by Katrina of Baking and Boys.  

In the hopes that my girls would eat the cake, I skipped the nuts and raisins.  Afraid that the cake would be a little plain after that, I added a crumb topping.  This was also a good chance to break out my bottle of King Arthur boiled cider, since I didn't have any regular cider on hand.  I used about 3 tablespoons of the boiled cider, then added milk to make a full 8 ounces of liquid.  I thought about using some white whole wheat flour in place of the all-purpose, but didn't this time.  I fully intend to make this cake again, so I'll see how that works out next time.

The verdict?  The cake was well-received both at home and at work.  I really liked it with the crumb topping, but that's not really a surprise. =)  I know Dorie originally made the cake because she was too rushed for muffins, but I want to try the muffin version next time, keeping the crumbs.  

If you'd like to play around with the recipe yourself, you can find the original on Katrina's blog.  For more about the muffin cake, check out the Links for that week.  For the fig cake, check here.  I promise to do better with posting next month, especially since I get to host again! =)

Wordless Wednesday - Warm apple cider for breakfast

If you can't stand the heat...

..you definitely don't want to come to Texas in April.  Two days running now, we've had highs in the mid-90s.  Blech.  It's way too early for this.  I know that everything is air-conditioned here, but to be honest, I still don't want to bake when it's 91º at 7pm.  Especially after having to spend time outside watering the yard.  Have I mentioned that I hate anything to do with yard work?  I also hate getting letters from the home owners' association because the lawn is brown.  Do they know that we're in a drought?  Do they know that we should be under watering restrictions, assuming we aren't already & I just haven't heard about it?  Grrr.

Okay, rant off.  You can't tell it's sore subject, can you? =)  So on to a much more pleasant topic, this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe.  Jeanette of The Whimsical Cupcake picked A Tourtely Apple Tart for us to make this week.  As you've probably noticed, I didn't exactly make a tart.  I meant to make this recipe over the weekend with Nancy and Tracey, but ran out of time and energy.  By the time Monday night rolled around, so had the aforementioned 90-degree temperatures, and there was no way I was going to have my oven on for a couple hours.  So, much as I like Dorie's tart crust, the tart part went out the window.  

But by this morning, I did have the time and energy to at least tackle the filling.  It's a lot like making applesauce.  Chunks of apple, some brown sugar, a bit of nutmeg, and a couple tablespoons of liquid get cooked together until the apples are almost soft enough to break down when pressed with a spoon.  For my liquid, I got to use something from my most recent King Arthur order, Boiled Cider.  I also added a big pinch of salt.  I admit, I took my apples almost to the point of applesauce, and mashed them up some.   After the apples are cooked (and the liquid is allowed to reduce), you mix in some browned butter and vanilla, and some raisins (and nuts, if you're into that, which I'm not).  Yes, my kitchen smelled amazing this morning.  

The verdict?  Well, I love the filling, so now I really need to make the whole tart. =)  I'll probably do it this fall, if not before, when I can try it with some of my favorite apples (not that I dislike the Macs I used today).  It took me a few minutes to realize that what the filling reminds me of is baked apples, the way we made them when I was a kid.  After coring the apples, we'd fill them with a mixture of raisins, brown sugar and a bit of cinnamon, held together with some butter.  This filling tastes kind of like that, though better because of the browned butter.  Mmm.  I'll probably make just the filling again soon, and pair it with some ice cream as my friend Kayte suggested.  

If you'd like to try the tart for yourself, you can find the recipe on Jeanette's blog.  And to see what everyone else thought of this recipe, check out this week's Links.  

Milestones

Any parent can tell you that there are all sort of milestones that you look forward to with your children.  As babies, you are excited about them learning to crawl and walk and talk and--very important, this one--sleep through the night.  As they get older, you mark different occasions, such as the first day of school and the first loose tooth.  As the mom of an 8-year-old and a 4-year-old, I've been through all of those.  But then last week, I got to make note of a new milestone that I wasn't expecting.  I don't think they have a spot in the keepsake book for your child's first x-ray. =) 

Yes, thanks to my younger daughter Gillian, I've now had the exciting experience of taking my child to the urgent care facility to have her foot x-rayed.  Thank goodness it turned out to be just a bad sprain, no broken bones.  I just really hope that this isn't going to be a trend with her.  I didn't have my first sprain until I was in college, and was even older when I got my first stitches.  Honestly, though, that's pretty surprising, since I've always been quite a klutz.  I've mostly just had lots of scrapes and bruises that I can't remember acquiring. =)  I have to say, it worries me that Gillian is starting all this at 4.  *sigh*

I did have some other, more enjoyable, new experiences over the weekend, thanks to this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe.  Sarah of teapots and cake stands picked Strawberry Rhubarb Double Crisp for us to make this week.  I was happy because this gave me a chance to use my new baking pan that I got recently from King Arthur.  Phyl got one recently and recommended it, and I really like the pretty green color.  Even better, it was on sale!  (and might still be)  

Another new thing with this crisp was the idea of using part of the crumb mixture to make a bottom crust, then using the rest for the top.  I've done that for bar cookies, but not for crisp.  I also like the new idea of adding crystallized ginger to the crumb mixture.  One last new thing--I don't think I've ever used strawberries in crisp, since they can get watery when cooked.  Cooking and thickening the strawberry part ahead of time took care of that problem.  I did make one change to the recipe.  I'm not a big fan of rhubarb, so I didn't use it.  I thought about using cranberries to get some tartness (a good idea from Kayte), but then Nancy suggested using apples to get the same sort of bulk as the rhubarb.  I used some fairly tart Macintosh apples, which worked nicely.  (Oops, just realized that I made one other change--I left out the nuts so my girls would eat it.)  (Okay, last one--I also reduced the sugar to 3/4 cup since I thought it might be too sweet without the rhubarb.)

The verdict?  Yum!  This crisp was really delicious.  The combination of strawberries and apples was very good, and I love the chewy bits of crystallized ginger in the crust/crumbs.  Ginger and strawberries is a great flavor combination that I'm going to have to remember.  Both girls liked it, as did Jamie (though he couldn't quite place the ginger flavor at first).  I ate mine without ice cream, both for dessert and breakfast the next day.  I enjoyed the texture of the bottom crust, and will have to try the same technique with other fruits.  

If you'd like to try this recipe for yourself, head on over to Sarah's blog.  And to see what everyone else thought of this week's selection, check out the Links.

Apple of my eye

I had the following conversation with Gillian last night as she and Brianna were finishing up dinner:

Gillian: "May I please have some ice cream for dessert?"
Me: "No, because we don't have any."
Gillian: "Well, make some!!"
Me: *laughing so hard I can't respond*


In just about any other house, the kids would be asking their mom to buy more ice cream.  But not here, no.  My kids just naturally assume that I can and will make just about anything they want.  I suppose that's a good thing. =)  But I wasn't about to start making ice cream, so I offered her a piece of this wonderful homemade apple pie instead.  She was happy. =)

Pie is one of those things that I definitely prefer to make myself.  Especially with fruit pies, I just don't like the ones you can buy in the grocery store--too much crust, not enough fruit, and way too much gloppy goo around what little fruit there is.  With homemade, you can customize things to be the way you like, and it tastes so much better as well.  The only downside to homemade pie is that I like it way too much, and am likely to eat most of the pie myself.  That's why it seldom makes an appearance outside of Thanksgiving.  But for Tuesdays with Dorie, I'll make an exception.  I missed last week's pie (though it will probably show up here the week of Thanksgiving, I think), but there was no way I was going to skip the All-American, All-Delicious Apple Pie that Emily picked.  

Apple pie is my favorite.  Without question.  I love apples, so I've been happy with all of the apple desserts we've been making for the past month or so.  What made me really happy was having my favorite apple show up at Central Market a couple weeks ago.  I love tart apples, and will happily eat pretty much anything related to a Macintosh apple.  But my favorite of these is definitely the Macoun apple.  (Thanks to Nancy for recommending them to me a couple years ago.)  And they arrived just in time for me to use them in this pie!  

Do any of the rest of you try to get the apple peel off all in one long strip?  I used 5 apples for this pie, and wasn't being that careful, so I only managed it with one apple. =)  My girls think it's cool that I can do that.  Nice that they like something that I do once in a while...

For pie, I like to slice my apples thin and pile lots of them into the pie shell.  I somewhat followed Dorie's recipe for the filling--I used the sugar, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg as listed.  (I love freshly grated nutmeg--I use my microplane to grate it.)  I used flour instead of tapioca for the thickener, since I can't stand tapioca.  (I stood in front of it in the grocery store, but just couldn't bring myself to buy it.)  I also left out the lemon zest--I used it in the apple torte a couple weeks ago, and thought it overpowered the other flavors too much.

I skipped the crumbs to put in the bottom of the pie shell, too.  I have another method for avoiding soggy apple pie--dried fruit.  When I was growing up, my mom always put raisins in apple pie.  I love raisins, so that was fine with me.  It wasn't until I was baking on my own and tried making apple pie without them that I realized that they actually suck up a lot of the extra juice, keeping the pie filling from being too runny.  Cool.  I mostly use raisins, but dried cranberries are also tasty, and I'm sure dried cherries would be good if you like cherries.

I was already deviating a lot from the original recipe, so I did use Dorie's pie crust recipe.  I was only going to make a single crust, but started measuring out the ingredients for the double crust recipe (since it's listed first on the page).  I figured I'd go ahead and make the double version since I was getting out the food processor anyway, and freeze half for later.  Yes, the recipe does call for a double crust.  But besides adding raisins, the other thing my mom always did was put crumbs on top of the pie.  I thought about trying crust on top, but since I make pie so seldom, I wanted to go with my favorite. =)  I've tried different toppings over time, but my current favorite can be found in this recipe from Bon Appetit.  

Once last thing that I do that wasn't in the recipe...  To bake the pie, I first put it on a parchment lined baking sheet (to catch the juices that will inevitably bubble over).  Then I put the sheet directly on the baking stone in the bottom of my oven.  Baking on the stone ensures a nice browned bottom crust.  If you do this, you should make sure that the oven and stone are preheated for quite a while.  (I had good timing--I had the oven on for dinner before baking the pie, so the stone was already pretty hot. I just had to turn the oven up to 425ºF.)  I'm not used to turning the oven down partway through, and ended up baking my pie for 50 minutes at 425ºF.  That isn't a problem with my usual pie crust, which doesn't have any sugar in it.  For Dorie's, which does, I'll make sure to lower the temperature next time, since the edges of the crust got a little dark.  It was late when the pie finished, and I prefer to let it cool to just warm before serving, so I didn't get to try any until the next morning.

The verdict?  Well, if you don't already know, pie for breakfast is the best. =)  I'd much rather eat it for breakfast than for dessert, really.  (My husband thinks I'm a bit crazy. No, not just for that, either.)  As expected, I loved this pie.  I'm still a bit undecided on the crust.  Dorie's crust is definitely more tender than my usual, but mine is more flaky, I think.  Both are good.  And hers makes better pie crust "cookies."  Everyone else here loved the pie, too, even Brianna.  She loves crust, and was even willing to eat some of the raisins.  

For the original recipe, head over to Emily's blog.  And be sure to check out this week's Links to see what everyone else did with their apple pies.  As for me, I'm going to go eat another piece of pie for today's breakfast. =)

Fall cleaning

We’ve lived in our house for almost 9 years. We moved in on Halloween in 2001. A lot of the reason we picked the floor plan that we did was the kitchen. I love my kitchen. It’s set up in a U-shape, with an island in the center. There’s plenty of room for a big kitchen table, too. After living in apartments for quite a few years, it was so nice to have lots of kitchen cabinets, plus lots of shelves in our pantry/laundry room. I’ve always done a lot of cooking and baking, but even with all my stuff, I figured it would take quite a while for me to fill up all of the storage.

Well, this past weekend, I officially ran out of room in the pantry. Well, at least until I came up with a new solution. When we got back from grocery shopping Saturday night, I went to put things away. The problem was, there wasn’t really anywhere to put some of it. Since I do so much baking, I routinely keep extra bags of the most common flours and sugars in reserve. I also have small quantities of a whole bunch of different ingredients that I use less frequently. I didn’t help matters by getting a variety of specialty flours in my first ever KAF order a couple weeks ago. And then there’s the chocolate...especially the assorted chips, both chocolate and otherwise, that were threatening to spill off their shelf. Didn’t leave much any room for other stuff like pasta and canned goods...

So first thing Sunday morning, I headed to Target. (I wanted to go early before they got busy, plus I had some time while cinnamon rolls were proofing.) I came home with six new storage bins, 3 large and 3 small. I was able to organize all my reserve ingredients, as well as a bunch of the chocolate and most of my decorating supplies. (I had no idea I had such a collection of colored sugars until I put them all in one place!). The plastic bins take the spot vacated by my collection of cooking magazines. They used to be stored in magazine boxes there, but after the recent issue with a puddle on the pantry floor, it seemed like a good idea to relocate them to higher ground, away from the washing machine. (We’re still working on a permanent home for them.)

Once everything was neat and organized, I move on to my other Sunday tasks. A bunch of us had plans to get together on Twitter to bake this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe. Cakelaw of Laws of the Kitchen picked the Fold-Over Pear Torte for us to make this week.  This recipe required a bit of organizing as well; it's one of the more involved recipes we've made in a while.  First you need pie crust.  Then you need to fit it into a springform pan.  Next there's lots of dicing and mixing of fruit, then mixing of custard filling.  Finally, the torte is all assembled and baked.

I went with apples simply because I don’t really like pears. I’m not that excited by the flavor of pears, but what I really dislike is the texture. For lack of a better idea, I made my torte with apples. Instead of the dried apricots, I used dried cranberries, since I thought they’d be a nice complement to the apples, and I skipped the nuts. For the crust, I thought about using Dorie’s recipe, but ended up going with a Cook’s Illustrated recipe that I like. It’s an all butter pastry dough that was originally part of a recipe for a freeform tart. It’s flaky and buttery yet sturdy, so I thought it would hold up well in the torte. For the custard filling, I stuck pretty close to the recipe, with one small change. I used the tablespoon of dark rum and one teaspoon of vanilla extract. In place of the rest of the vanilla and the almond extract, I used a teaspoon and a half of Calvados.

I also wanted to dress things up a little bit.  This weekend I picked up some cute mini cutters in fall shapes at Sur la Table.  One of them is an apple, which I thought would be perfect for decorating this torte.  I cut several apple shapes and several maple leaf shapes out of some scraps of pie dough.  I put them on the sheet pan next to the springform pan containing the torte.  I brushed them with water and sprinkled them with turbinado sugar.  I put the sheet pan in the oven and let everything bake for 15 minutes.  Then I carefully transferred the shapes to the top of the torte; the custard had set enough so that they wouldn't sink.  I baked my torte for almost 70 minutes, tenting the middle after about 45 minutes so it wouldn't get too brown.

The verdict?  The torte was good, but not my favorite.  I'm just not that fond of custardy desserts.  Gillian enjoyed it a lot, as did Jamie.  He commented that he really liked the contrast of textures between the filling and crust.  Brianna wasn't a fan, but I'm beginning to think she just doesn't like cooked fruit all that much.  I was disappointed that my crust didn't brown more.  I think that's because the oven temperature was lower than what I usually use for pie, and the dough doesn't have any sugar in it to aid in browning.  (Something to keep in mind for the future.)  I'm not sure I'll make this again, but I'm glad I tried it.

If you'd like to try this one for yourself, you can find the recipe on Cakelaw's blog.  To see what everyone else did with this recipe, check out this week's Links.

The apples don't fall far from the tree

I didn’t realize how good we had it with Brianna in the sleep department. Oh, of course there were issues when B was a newborn. And we went through the annoying stage after she moved out of the crib where she would come back down the stairs repeatedly every night--just because she could. But for the most part, she was a pretty sound sleeper. She still is--not much wakes that child up. If she calls for me in the middle of the night or (even more rarely) shows up at the side of my bed, it’s because something is seriously wrong. In that respect, B is definitely my child. Sure, I have that “sleeping with one ear open” thing that most moms develop, but aside from that, I usually sleep pretty soundly.

With Gillian...well, it’s completely different. I swear, for the first month of her life I never got to sleep lying down for more than 20 minutes at a time. And certainly not in my own bed. Her crib was in our room, but to avoid bothering J, who is a light sleeper (why yes, that would be where Gillian gets it from) we spent a lot of time downstairs in the living room where the pack-n-play was set up. Not that she really slept there. Whenever I’d try to lay her down and stretch out on the couch, it was like she knew. Within ten or fifteen minutes at most, she’d wake up and start crying. And this is my child who doesn’t eventually give up--she can keep it going for quite some time, no problem. So we slept in the recliner a lot. It was either that or not sleep. Life is just like that with an infant, sometimes.  She eventually got better about sleeping, most of the time, anyway. Even now, we seldom go more than a few weeks without a middle-of-the-night appearance by Gillian. And she’s not subtle about it--she just flings open the door to our bedroom. “Mommy!!” Always mommy, never daddy. *sigh* (And yes, J does try to help. It’s never done any good.)

The latest thing? It seems that Gillian has mostly given up napping. Oh, they still have nap time at daycare, and we have it at home on the weekends (it’s rest & reading time for B). But G doesn’t sleep. She plays, or pretends to sleep. She even tells me that she takes a nap. But when I ask her if she slept or if she just rested, usually the answer is “well maybe I just mostly rested.” All in all, it makes for some very cranky evenings in our house. And cranky dinner table scenes, where Gillian is too tired to eat her dinner, but wants dessert. “Can I have some of that apple cake?” “No, sweetie.” “But I want apple cake!!” “Well, sweetie, you can’t have it, because you haven’t eaten dinner and because we don’t have any more.” “BUT I WANT IT!!!”    **beating my head against the kitchen table**  

The apple cake in question?  That would be this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, Double Apple Bundt Cake.  Lynne of Honey Muffin is our host this week.  This was a perfect choice for the beginning of October, as lots of new crop apples are arriving at my favorite store.  I went with my favorite, Macintosh.  The second apple referred to in the recipe title is apple butter.  One of these days, I'll have to try making my own.  For this cake, though, I picked up some wonderful apple butter at Central Market.  (It's from the company that makes my favorite raspberry fruit butter. Mmm.)

The cake batter is pretty straightforward to make.  You cream together butter and sugar, then beat in eggs.  Next up is grated apple and the apple butter.  Then come the dry ingredients--flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger.  The recipe calls for adding raisins and nuts.  I skipped the nuts, since I knew Brianna and Gillian wouldn't like them, so I increased the raisins.  I ended up baking my bundt for 45 minutes.  Once the cake was cooled, I drizzled it with a milk/powdered sugar glaze.

The verdict?  Well, as you probably already guessed, Gillian was a big fan.  Brianna, on the other hand, wasn't as happy.  She doesn't really like raisins in baked goods, and I think she's tired of all the spices.  I enjoyed it (I love most apple things), but will make a few changes next time.  The cake was rather sweet, and increasing the raisins made it more so.  I'd like to try it with the nuts, or maybe sub dried cranberries for some or all of the raisins.  (Thanks for the idea, Amy!)  Also, as soon as I added the glaze, I wished I'd gone with something different.  I think the salted toffee glaze from David Lebovitz's wonderful plum cake would be excellent with this cake.  One thing I am glad I thought of was the ice cream I had with some of the cake.  Brown sugar cinnamon ice cream.  Mmm.  (Post with recipe coming soon, I hope.)  I definitely plan to make this again, so I'll have a chance to play around with it.

If you'd like to try the cake for yourself, head on over to Lynne's blog.  To see what everyone else thought of this week's recipe, check out the Links.  And for some savory Dorie recipes, be sure to check out French Fridays with Dorie. 

Worlds collide

At a lot of the training classes and district meetings that I go to, not everyone knows one another, so we go around and introduce ourselves.  Name, branch, how long with the company, that sort of thing.  And to make it slightly more interesting, sometimes we'll add "and tell something about yourself that no one else here knows."  It's fun to hear what people come up with.  For me, I've mentioned things like:  I played the flute for 10 years, including chamber music in college.  I've visited 36 states, and lived in 8 of them.  My husband and I have been married for almost 8 years, but have known each other for 22 years. Recently, I told them that I write a baking blog.  And I have one ready for next time--I'm part of a fantasy hockey league.

I played fantasy hockey once before, but it was a number of years ago.  I came to be a hockey fan because Jamie (my husband) has been a diehard fan practically forever.  At first, I didn't really know what the heck was going on as I watched games on TV with him.  Eventually it started to make sense.  Then I got really into it.  Then I had kids. =)  So for the past few years, I've been lucky to watch two or three games a season outside the playoffs.  This year, though, I have incentive to pay more attention.  A few days ago, Laurie (our fearless leader of TWD and FFwD) tweeted that she needed one more person for her fantasy hockey league.  I responded, saying that I might be interested.  She assured me that the league was for fun (not super serious), so I figured, why not?  We had our draft yesterday; now we wait for another week or so for the season to officially start.  Laurie commented during the draft that it was a bit weird to have her baking and hockey worlds overlapping.  I can understand that.  For a lot of us, we're different people in different situations, like at home versus at work or at school.  It's a bit weird when people from one world suddenly show up in another, and see a different side of us, and sometimes learn stuff that they didn't know about us.

So aside from Laurie, what does fantasy hockey have to do with this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe?  Well, one of my good blogging friends, Leslie of Lethally Delicious, picked Tarte Fine for us to make this week.  This fairly simple recipe consists of a rolled out sheet of puff pastry layered with thinly sliced apples and topped with sugar (with a bit of egg wash to help it stick).  I think I had this recipe on the brain when I first logged in to set up my FHL team, because when it asked me to pick a name for my team the first thing that popped into my head was Puck Pastry.  I tried to think of something else, since it seemed a bit too silly, but it stuck.  So Puck Pastry it is.  Wish me luck! =)

A few more notes on the tarte... I have a hard time finding all-butter puff pastry dough around here that isn't outrageously expensive, so I made my own. I used the recipe for Quick Puff Pastry from The Art and Soul of Baking. It makes about 2 pounds of dough and I only needed about 8 ounces for this recipe, so the rest is waiting in my freezer. For the apples, I used one of my favorites, macintosh. We're just starting to get New York apples down here, but the new crop of macs showed up in time for this and some of the other apple recipes coming up in the next few weeks. Tart apples are my favorites--macintosh, macoun, jonathan, jonamac, gravenstein. We'll see how many I can get my hands on this year. I baked the tart until the edges were getting nicely browned, about 30 minutes, I think. And I didn't have anything to use for glaze, so I skipped it.

The verdict?  This tart was delicious. I just wish there was more of it. =)  I cut the large rectangle into 6 pieces, as Dorie suggests in the recipe.  But each is so thin, it's gone before you know it, and you're left wanting more.  I could eat buttery, flaky pastry all day long, given the opportunity.  But I was good--I ate one piece after taking the pictures, and had a second for breakfast the next morning.  Brianna and Gillian joined me for breakfast, and really seemed to enjoy the tart as well.  (Jamie got some, too, the night I made it.)  I definitely think I'll be making this one again.  I'd like to try the butter & sugar variation given with the recipe, or at least have something to use for glaze next time.

If you'd like to try this one for yourself, head over to Leslie's blog for the recipe.  And you can find out how the other TWD bakers fared this week over on the Links page.

Measure twice, bake once

I realized recently that I might have a problem.  It seems that I've become dependent...on my kitchen scale.  The biggest clue was a couple weeks ago when my scale started acting crazy, and I started going through withdrawal. By crazy, I mean that I would put something on it, and the scale would say that it either weighed nothing, or weighed 8 pounds.  Not good.  At first I thought it was just that the batteries were dying.  So I figured out what kind of batteries to get (and where to find them, thanks Nancy).  I went out the next morning and got some, came home, figured out how to get the old ones out, and put the new ones in.  I held my breath as I placed a handy mug on the scale, watched the display, and sighed in disappointment as it once again registered over 8 pounds.  I had to face facts--the scale was broken.  Now what?

I tried to make one recipe without it.  I had to use a dry measuring cup for flour.  I don't remember the last time I didn't weigh flour.  It was enough to send me running for the computer to investigate new scales immediately.  I have an online subscription to Cooks Illustrated, and quickly found a report on scales.  I discovered that since I bought my scale, OXO had come out with one.  It had all the features of my scale, with some cool additions.  I've liked all of the other OXO tools that I've acquired (like the rolling pin I love), so I decided to give it a try.  I scouted online for places to buy one, and went out and got it.  Okay, not exactly.  It's worth noting that the scale comes in two versions--5 pounds and 11 pounds.  First I bought the smaller one at Target because I was able to run in and pick it up on my way to work.  My thought was that I never make batches of dough that are more than 4 or 5 pounds.  What I didn't think about was the fact that you have to take into account the weight of the bowls, too.  One of my favorite bowls is glass and weighs at least a couple pounds...  So I figured out where to get the other one, went and bought it, and returned the smaller one.  Total elapsed time from when I first noticed the problems with the old scale until I had the new 11-pound one? Less than 48 hours, even with all the drama.  Like I said, I think I have a problem.  =)

By now you're probably wondering, what does all this have to do with this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe?  This week's recipe is Cran-Apple Crisp, chosen by Em of The Repressed Pastry Chef.  It's very straightforward to make, using the food processor to combine the ingredients for the topping.  Flour, oats, brown sugar, pecans (since I despise coconut), cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg (because I love nutmeg), butter, and salt (because I tasted the topping and thought I forgot the salt--turns out there isn't any in the recipe?!).  My usual method is to put a container on my scale and add the ingredients, taring the scale after each one.  The recipes in the book don't include weights, but I've had success using a weight of 4.5 ounces for each cup of all-purpose flour.  For other ingredients, I use tables in a couple of my cookbooks  that give weights for common baking ingredients.  I've found brown sugar listed as either 7.5 or 8 ounces per cup.  I split the difference, going with 1 7/8 ounces for a quarter-cup.

After I prepared the topping, I cut up apples (using up three Jonamacs that were sitting in my fruit drawer, along with one Macoun), tossed in fresh (frozen) and dried cranberries, and added some vanilla sugar (I cut it back to 1/2 cup, or 3.5 ounces), a bit of flour, and a pinch of salt.  I put the fruit in my oval gratin dish, added the topping, and baked the crisp for 45 minutes.  The recipe says to let the crisp rest for about 20 minutes if you make a single large dish, but we didn't wait that long.  The crisp was definitely on the juicy side because of that, but the juices just mingled nicely with the vanilla bean ice cream that I had made to go with it.

The verdict?  Jamie and I really enjoyed the crisp.  I love apples and cranberries together, and fruit crisp is a favorite of mine.  It makes an excellent breakfast, and the filling thickened up a bit as it cooled overnight. =)  But as we were eating it the night I made it, something seemed off with the texture and taste of the topping.  Hmm.  Then I figured out what it was.  Remember my note about the weight of the quarter cup of brown sugar?  Even better than deciding what weight of sugar to use would have been noticing that the recipe call for half a cup of brown sugar...  Good news is, the crisp was still quite good.  And when I make it again, I think I'll add more of the sugar, but maybe not the full amount.

If you'd like to try this one for yourself, with the correct amounts of ingredients, head over to Em's blog for the recipe.   And check out the TWD blogroll to see what everyone else made this week.  Laurie has given permission for us to post the recipes out of order this month, so there are several tasty things out there for your viewing pleasure.