French Silk Pie

Pie has always been a scary thing for me. Actually it wasn't the pie that was so scary, it was the pie crust that really intimidated me. I've tried a few times to make pie crust and had things go horribly awry. In an effort to address my fears and in hopes of powering through, I decided to make a couple of pies. This is the first of my most recent attempts.

All-Butter Pie Crust
from Tasty Kitchen

2 cups flour
11 Tbsp butter
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cups ice water

1. Measure flour and salt into a bowl. Cut the cold butter into small chunks and throw on top of the flour. Cut the butter into the flour until butter is in small crumbly pieces. Add ice water a tablespoon at a time while stirring the dough mixture with a fork until it comes together easily but isn't sticky. Bring it all together and pat into a ball. Wrap in plastic and put in the fridge.
2. When you are ready to roll out your pie crust, lightly flour your work surface. Handle the dough as little as possible; the less you touch it, the more tender and flaky it will be. Starting in the center, roll the dough out into a circle, about 1/8" thick. When you've reached your desired thickness, place the rolling pin in the middle and gently fold the crust over the rolling pin. Lift the dough onto your pie plate and unfold it.
3. If you need to pre-bake the crust, prick the bottom of the crust with a fork and bake at 450F for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

Ingredients:

Butter ready to be cut into the flour.

The dough after the addition of the 1/4 of water. It was still really crumbly at this point and I added the entire 1/4 cup (which the recipe writer said that I probably wouldn't need all of).

In light of my previous pie crust failures, I decided to go against my instincts and trust the recipe. I got the dough to sort-of stick together long enough to get it wrapped in plastic and stuck in the fridge, hoping that it would become more of a dough consistency overnight.

My wishful thinking proved foolish. In the morning, I unwrapped the dough ball and it immediately crumbled. In my frustration, I added more water...which resulted in being too much water. Then I added some more flour. This is my final product of dough, all rolled out. It ended up being really thick but I had trouble getting it to roll out any more than this.

Aside from being pretty thick, the transfer to the pie pan went well and the dough looked good.

The final pie crust baked and ready to be filled. I'm going to go ahead and review the crust now. This wasn't great. It was super-hard, like difficult to even cut. The flavor was good though. It was so hard though, that it really detracted from the overall pie. That's sad because the filling is awesome.

French Silk Chocolate Pie

by Cook's Country

1 cup heavy whipping cream, chilled

3 large eggs

3/4 cup sugar

2 Tbsp water

8 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled

1 Tbsp vanilla

8 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces and softened

1. With electric mixer on medium-high speed, whip cream to stiff peaks, 2-3 minutes. Transfer to small bowl and refrigerate.
2. Combine eggs, sugar and water in a large heatproof bowl set over a medium saucepan filled with 1/2 inch barely simmering water. With electric mixer on medium speed, beat until egg mixture is thickened and registers 160F, 7-10 minutes. Remove bowl from heat and continue to beat egg mixture until fluffy and cooled to room temperature, about 8 minutes.
3. Add chocolate and vanilla to cool egg mixture and beat until incorporated. Beat in butter, a few pieces at a time, until well combined. Using spatula, fold in whipped cream until no streaks of white remain. Scrape filling into pie shell and refrigerate until set, at least 3 hours and up to 24 hours.

Filling ingredients:

Melted chocolate. So shiny.

Beating the eggs in the poor-man's double boiler.

The bowl I used was almost too small for this. The egg mixture grew quite a bit and I was pretty worried at one point that it would outgrow this bowl. It hadn't by the time I stopped. I was never quite able to get it up to the 160F point and I mixed for quite a bit longer than the 7-10 minutes touted in the recipe.

After standing there with the electric mixer at the stove for at least 15 minutes, I decided to switch to the standing mixer. It was a much needed break for my arm.

The filling after adding the chocolate, vanilla, butter and whipped cream. It's super creamy.

The final product: the filling is rich and creamy and very chocolatey. It really is quite good. It's much better than any other French Silk I've tried and that's mostly due to its intense chocolate taste and incredibly creamy texture. I don't know if it's the butter or the whipped cream (or the combination of the two) that makes this so creamy and dreamy, but whatever it is works wonderfully. I would recommend cutting this in at least 10 pieces (as opposed to 6-8) as it is fairly rich. Even though it's a bit more complex than others, I think this will be my go-to chocolate pie recipe (my husband really likes chocolate pies). I plan to use it often in the future...if I can make a decent pie crust, that is.

Tiramisu

Birthday Tiramisu!! My husband adores tiramisu and has been asking me to make it for years. Since I've had trouble finding the requisite ingredients and/or time to take on such a seemingly daunting task, I kept putting it off. This year my husband directly asked for it for his birthday. He didn't ask for gifts; he asked for tiramisu. And since we live in Chicago, with all of its wide variety of cultural markets, I knew I could find the right ingredients so I had no excuse not to give it a shot.

This is the recipe I chose: thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen/recipes/desserts/tiramisu-2/

I love Pioneer Woman and was super excited to try this as my very first of her recipes. I did some minor tweeks, like took out the alcohol and made it a two-layer rather than a three-layer dessert, partly out of necessity and partly because of personal preference. Here is the resulting recipe:

Tiramisu
adapted from Pioneer Woman(Tasty Kitchen)

5 whole egg yolks
1/4 cups Plus 4 Tbsp sugar, divided
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 pound mascarpone cheese, softened
1-1/2 brewed espresso or VERY strong coffee
1 Tbsp vanilla
2-3 Tbsp Sugar in the Raw (or regular granulated sugar)
7 oz Ladyfingers (or Savoiardi)
cocoa powder, for dusting

1. In a saucepan, bring some water to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. Find a mixing bowl that will fit over the top of the pan, but not sink all the way in. Put all 5 egg yolks in the mixing bowl. Add 1/4 cup sugar and whisk until pale yellow in color. Place the mixing bowl on the saucepan with the simmering water. Cook over the simmering water, scraping the sides and bottom occasionally for 5 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 45 minutes, or until cool.
2. Place the mascarpone cheese in a bowl and stir until smooth. In a mixing bowl, combine whipping cream and remaining 4 Tbsp sugar. Whip until soft peaks form. To the bowl of whipped cream, add the softened cheese and the chilled egg yolk mixture. Fold mixture gently. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours.
3. Measure 1 1/2 cups espresso or VERY strong coffee. Add 2-3 Tbsp Sugar in the Raw and 1 Tbsp vanilla. Arrange the ladyfingers in a single layer in a 9x13 pan. Spoon 1/2 to 1 Tbsp of the coffee mixture over each ladyfinger. Cover with 1/2 of the cold cream mixture and spread into a thin layer. Sprinkle with a layer of cocoa powder (so no white can be seen). Repeat process one more time.
4. Cover and refrigerate for a a few hours before serving.

Makes 8-10 servings.

The ingredients.

Cooking the egg yolks.

The mascarpone cheese. I love the texture! It is kind of like ricotta cheese in texture and cream cheese in flavor. I actually didn't have to go very far to find this cheese; our regular supermarket, Dominick's, has a decent cheese selection which included mascarpone.

Whipping the cream. I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to go back to Cool Whip again. The last few recipes I've made (which I will be posting here shortly) have included whipping your own whipped cream and it is SO much better. Seriously, 3 extra minutes are definitely worth it and you get to add whatever you'd like to it (sugar, vanilla, mint extract, cream cheese) to specialize it for the dessert. Magic!

Mixing the cream, cheese, and egg yolk mixture. In this form, it looks...funky.

But just a minute later and it looks like this (and tastes unimaginably good).

Now the Pioneer Woman's recipe calls for Marsala in the coffee mixture (as well as the egg mixture). I didn't want to do the whole alcohol thing (especially since Tyler's not a big fan of the alcohol flavor in tiramisu) so I just skipped it. I decided that just to make sure things weren't too strong or too bitter, I'd add a little sugar to the coffee to sweeten it up (as the Marsala would have inevitably done as well). We like the combination of Sugar in the Raw with coffee but regular sugar would work just as well. I added 3 Tbsp to my very strong, regular coffee but I also had a bit more than 1 1/2 cups of coffee. If you're starting with 1 1/2 cups of coffee you might want to reduce the amount of sugar just a little to avoid it turning out too sweet.

The layer of ladyfingers soaked in coffee. Pioneer Woman's recipe calls for 7 oz of ladyfingers. I bought two packages of ladyfingers (at Jewel Osco, which is another regular supermarket in our area; it has a nice deli/bakery section that makes tiramisu, thus I was able to find the ladyfingers for sale) but that only turned out to be 6 oz. The 1 oz did make a difference and prevented me from making this a three-layer dessert. I thought about switching to a square baking dish, but finally decided against it when I laid the cookies out in the pan and realized that I would have some left over (I don't like to waste!). I'm actually glad things turned out this way because I think it would have been very difficult to get enough cream on each layer in the three-layer version.

Ladyfingers covered in cream.

This little tool came in quite handy for this recipe. It made dusting with cocoa powder much easier (and cleaner) than any alternatives that I had. Dusted with cocoa powder. You want to make sure that the entire layer is covered and that you can see very little white through the cocoa.

A note on cocoa powder: I used the special dark cocoa powder and I think that made a positive difference in this recipe. It made things just slightly less sweet and definitely added depth to the overall flavor combination.

The final product: layers of delectableness (yes, I made that word up). This was very, very good. For me, the cream mixture made the entire dessert. It was better than the cream of any of the other tiramisus we've tried (and tiramisu is our favorite dessert to order at a restaurant). The consistency was ideal and the flavor addictive. The dessert as a whole was much less sweet than any else we've tried but not bitter. My only reservation is the ladyfingers I purchased; they were not as crispy as I expected (more spongey). Next time I might make the extra leap and make my own ladyfingers. My husband would disagree with that assessment, though, and has told me that if I made this recipe precisely the same way for the rest of our lives, he would be quite content (isn't he sweet?!).

Brownie Bliss

Last week I finally made these brownies. I've been eyeing the recipe for quite a while but never found the time to actually try it out. Since we had a potluck to attend, I thought this might be a good opportunity to try it out and be able to sample the product without eating the entire pan.

Chewy Brownies
From Cook's Illustrated (with minor adaptations)

1/3 cup cocoa (the darker, the better)
1 1/2 tsp instant espresso (optional)
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp boiling water
2 oz unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
4 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp salt
6 oz bittersweet chocolate, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

1. Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease pan or line with foil and grease foil (for easier cutting later).
2. Whisk cocoa, espresso powder and boiling water together in large bowl until smooth. Add unsweetened chocolate and whisk until chocolate is melted. Whisk in melted butter and oil. Add eggs, yolks, and vanilla and continue to whisk until smooth and homogeneous . Whisk in sugar until dissolved. Add flour and salt and mix with rubber spatula until combined. Fold in bittersweet pieces chocolate pieces.
3. Scrape batter into prepared pan and bake until toothpick inserted halfway between edge and center comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached, 30 to 35 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and cool 1 1/2 hours.
4. If pan was lined foil, lift foil and brownies from pan and return to wire rack to cool completely. Cut into 2-inch squares and serve.

Makes 24 brownies.

The ingredients (minus the oil since I forgot to set it out and the espresso powder since I wanted these to be kid friendly).
This is a suggestion from Cook's Illustrated that worked great! To finely chop the chocolate, use a serrated knife. Instead of chopping, it's almost like you're finely grating it.

The cocoa, boiling water, and melted chocolate. Anything with this much chocolate has to turn out good, right? A note on cocoa: the original recipe called for dutch processed cocoa; I couldn't find that in our grocery store so I used the Hershey's Special Dark cocoa and it worked great.

Mixing in the flour.

I'm really bad at chopping chocolate. I either have way too big of chunks (because I'm too lazy to spend the time) or it crumbles into those super-fine shreds seen above. Since this recipe called for chocolate chunks (and I was feeling impatient), I decided to try a different tactic. We got out our Pampered Chef chopper and my magical kitchen elves pounded away. This still wasn't probably the best tactic and resulted in some pretty small chocolate chunks (but was way faster!). Next time around I may just buy chocolate chunks to save myself the time and effort. I'm a wuss like that.

I ran out of foil or I would have tried the foil method. It sounds like it would make getting pretty brownies so much easier. But who am I kidding? Nobody eats brownies because they're pretty.

The finished brownie. The original recipe calls for letting the brownie cool completely before cutting. Being that I'm impatient and chronically unprepared, I didn't have time to let these cool completely before cutting into them. As a result, the brownies were pretty sticky and did not cut up nicely. They still tasted fantastic though. This is by far the best homemade brownie recipe I've tried. The brownie had a lot of chocolate taste and a wonderful, chewy consistency (unlike the somewhat dry versions I've tried before). Pretty or not, this recipe gets a gold star from me!

Marshmallows

Homemade Marshmallows. I didn't even know it was possible until I found a recipe on this site. I was intrigued so I looked around a bit for other recipes. Apparently they were all the rage a little over a year ago. Who knew? Obviously not me. They sounded like fun and a good opportunity to try out the new stand mixer (it can be done with a handheld but doesn't sound like fun).
I chose this recipe because I already follow this blog (and I get weird excitement from actually trying recipes from the blogs I follow) and it seemed simplest. I also found this recipe and will try it another time (it doesn't have eggs so my son would actually be able to eat them).

Homemade Marshmallows
from Smitten Kitchen

1 cup powdered sugar
3 1/2 envelopes (2 Tbsp plus 2 1/2 tsp) unflavored gelatin (less than 1 complete pkg)
1 cup cold water, divided
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/4 tsp salt
2 large egg whites
1 Tbsp vanilla

1. Oil bottom and sides of a 9x13x2-inch metal baking pan and dust bottom and sides with some powdered sugar.
2. In the bowl of a standing electric mixer or in a large bowl sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup cold water, and let stand to soften.
3. In a 3-quart heavy saucepan cook granulated sugar, corn syrup, second 1/2 cup of cold water, and salt over low heat, stirring with a wooden spoon until sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to moderate and boil mixture, without stirring, until a thermometer registers 240F, about 12 minutes. Remove pan from heat and pour sugar mixture over gelatin mixture, stirring until gelatin is dissolved.
4. With a standing or hand-held mixer beat mixture on high speed until white, thick, and nearly tripled in volume, about 6 minutes if using standing mixer or 10 minutes if using a hand-held.
5. In a separate medium bowl with cleaned beaters beat egg whites until they just hold stiff peaks. Beat whites and vanilla into sugar mixture until just combined. Pour mixture into baking pan . Sift 1/4 cup powdered sugar evenly over top. Chill marshmallow, uncovered, until firm, at least 3 hours and up to 1 day.
6. Run a thin knife around edges of pan and invert pan onto a large cutting board. Lifting up one corner of inverted pan, with fingers loosen marshmallow and ease onto cutting board. With a large knife (or oiled pizza cutter) trim edges of marshmallow and cut marshmallow into roughly 1-inch cubes. Sift remaining powdered sugar back into your now-empty baking pan, and roll the marshmallows through it, on all 6 sides before shaking off the excess and packing them away.

Makes approximately 96 1-inch cubed marshmallows.

Ingredients (please excuse the photos; our camera is broken so all pictures are from the camera on my cell phone).

The oiled and sugared pan. I was trying an experiment with graham cracker crumbs on half the marshmallows. I was looking to make a smore in one step. I think I'll have to keep trying because while not horrible, it wasn't the effect I was looking for.

Beautiful marshmallowness. The beating seemed to take longer than 6 minutes but I don't know precisely how long it took. I'm really glad I wasn't having to stand there and hold the mixer that long. Such freedom!

Finished marshmallow goo. It's white and very pretty. Just don't touch because you'll never get free if you do (think strings of melted marshmallow everywhere).

Marshmallow sheet out of the fridge and ready to be cut. It's surprisingly springy.

Cut up marshmallows. After this comes my very favorite part of this recipe. After cutting the marshmallows, you roll them in powdered sugar. I found the best (and certainly most enjoyable) way to get the excess sugar off the marshmallow is to simply bounce the marshmallow off a clean corner of the baking pan. It's super fun and made me giggle like a fool.

And another super fun part of making marshmallows at home is trying fun things with them, like dunking them in chocolate or rolling them in graham cracker crumbs. Those were the only things I tried with this rendition but I'm sure you come up with all sorts of creative flavor combinations (like toffee pieces or sprinkles for a little crunch).

The final product: homemade marshmallows are way, way better than the store-bought variety. They're light and airy with a delightful amount of sweetness. Seriously, so good. Try them.

"New" Toy

I went away to my parents for a few days and returned to find that husband had gotten me a "new" toy. The toy is technically older than I am but we'll ignore that fact and think of all the fun new things it lets me do. I haven't had a stand mixer before and this thing still works great! Hooray for the opening of brand new vistas (and for my husband's grandmother who allowed him to bring this home when he found it in her basement: thanks!!)!

Mmm...Cupcakes

I have a confession to make. I'm a blog stalker. Sort of. I've been reading this blog for quite a while. I found it through a link on my sister-in-law's blog and fell in love. All the color and all the super-fun things she does with her kids...it's pretty addicting. We've been in the Wichita area for the entire summer so I kind of feel like I should run into her or someone from her family at any time. It would probably be pretty awkward since of course she wouldn't have a clue who I am but I kind of hope I do get to meet her sometime.
While in the Wichita area, I decided to take her suggestion and tried out Sugar Sisters. It's a super cute bakery that specializes in cupcakes but has just about anything else you can imagine as well (like some very interesting coffee-drink concoctions that involve brown sugar...yum). Even though, it was much too early in the morning to try something with this much sugar, I went for the chocolate peanut butter cupcake. It...was...dreamy. The cupcake was moist and delicious. But it was the frosting that really sold it for me. I have difficulty even describing how good it was...peanut buttery but not overwhelming, creamy, magical. If you live in the Wichita area, you have to go try this place out. If not, you can stare at the picture and dream.

Strawberry Jam

Long ago, in college, one of my professors gave us the assignment to write a list of 100 things we would like to do before we die...a bucket list of sorts (although this is before the movie came out). I remember loving the assignment and coming up with all of those things. While I don't remember everything I wrote down...or even most...I do remember that learning to make jam was on the list. My grandma cans the best homemade jam and I always thought that would be a fun tradition to carry on. My favorite variety is her elderberry jam (my husband ADORES her peach) and since I have not a clue where to find elderberries we decided to use my mom's homegrown strawberries to start with. Let the adventure begin!
My mom washing and dehulling a whole lot of strawberries. This was definitely the most tedious part of the process and she did the lion's share. For that I say, "Thank you."

The strawberries, sugar, and pectin warming and preparing to boil. For this first batch we used the cooked strawberry jam recipe that came with the Sure-Jell. Boy it smelled good!

Unfortunately, it boiled over. The mixture grew so quickly once it started boiling that we weren't able to complete the full minute cooking time the recipe called for.

It also foamed up quite a bit but since we were trying to keep this allergen-free for my son, we didn't add the butter/margarine that is supposed to take care of that problem. We just tried to scoop the foam off and avoid what we couldn't skim.

We also were working without a canner so we tried my mom's canning technique. It involves filling the jar and putting the lid on very tight. Then you immediately flip the jar upside down and allow it to set for a few minutes. After those few minutes, you flip the jar right-side up and hope that you eventually hear the popping sound of it sealing. It can take a while for some of the jars, even a hour or more, as you wait for the contents to cool. Luckily nearly every jar sealed this way for us. Our back-up plan was to use paraffin wax to seal the jam.

The final product: the jam tasted good but our first batch didn't set up. For our second batch we tried the cooked strawberry jelly recipe instead (even though you aren't supposed to have whole fruit in jelly) which worked much better and set up quite nicely. Set or not set, it tastes great (and if we don't decide to recook the first batch will work really well as an ice cream topper)!

A Return to the New

It's been quite some time since I lasted posted a recipe. I hadn't realized just how long until I went to start this post and the blogger dashboard told me that my last post was in February! Wow. I don't want to leave you with the idea that I haven't cooked in 4 months because I have. It's just that my pregnant body wasn't liking any kind of food for quite a while during that and then I just wasn't feeling up to trying something new. It sounded too hard. After a while it was easy to just continue going back to my old standards but really...how fun is that? It's time to break out of my mold (and once again remember to document my efforts).

Orange-Beef Stir Fry
from Better Homes and Gardens

12 oz beef top round steak
1 tsp finely shredded orange peel
1/2 cup orange juice
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp instant beef bouillon granules
1 Tbsp cooking oil
4 green onions, bias-sliced into 1-inch pieces
1 clove garlic, minced
6 cups coarsely shredded fresh spinach
1 can (8 oz) sliced water chestnuts, drained
2 cups hot cooked rice

1. Trim fat from beef. Partially freeze beef. Thinly slice across the grain into bite-sized pieces. Set aside.
2. For sauce, in a small bowl stir together orange peel, orange juice, cornstarch, soy sauce, sugar, and bouillon granules. Set aside.
3. Preheat cooking oil in a wok or large skillet on medium-high heat. Stir-fry green onions and garlic in hot oil for 1 minute. Remove green onion mixture from wok.
4. Add beef to wok. Stir-fry for 2-3 minutes or until cooked through. Push beef from center of wok.
5. Stir sauce and add to center of the wok. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Add spinach and water chestnuts. Stir all ingredients together to coat with sauce. Cover and cook for 1 minute more or until heated through. Serve immediately over hot cooked rice.

Serves 4.

The ingredients (minus the orange juice).

The beef. I know that I definitely used more than the 12 oz of beef that was called for in the recipe. I couldn't think of a good side to go with this (that I wouldn't have to purchase too many ingredients for) and I wanted to stretch it a bit. I think this was more in the 20 oz range but I don't remember exactly now. I also bought the top sirloin steak because it was what we found in the grocery store (and it wasn't overwhelmingly expensive).

A horrible picture of the sauce.

The final product: this was really pretty good. The sauce had a nice orange flavor but wasn't as overpowering as you find in most restaurant versions of orange chicken. The flavors complemented each other well and the water chestnuts added a good crunch to the overall texture. I still felt like it was missing something to make it go from "good" to "ooo, wow I need some more." I think I might mess with the vegetable combination to see if we could add some color and a bit more interest to this solid, albeit boring, meal.