Madhu Knits and Cooks

Out of Pie Practice - A Brown Butter Pumpkin Pie Mess

Pie doughs have generally caused me trouble in the past.  But boy oh boy, was my latest pie dough attempt a disaster!  Don't let the pretty pictures below deceive you :-)

First, I didn't work the butter into small enough pieces - there were far too many larger-than-pea-size chunks in the dough.  Second, I used too much liquid from the iced water and apple cider vinegar which obscured that the butter needed to be worked more.  I promptly ordered a pastry cutter following this effort so I can work the cold butter in faster and more uniformly, and not end up with a tough unappetizing baked crust.

On the upside, the flavor of the pie was very good and unique thanks to the included carrot juice, which added a sweet yet earthly flavor to the pumpkin.  Thank you my favorite pie book from the Elsen sisters!  However, to finish off the set of disasters, the custard didn't fully set even after 58 minutes of baking which I think might be due to an oven calibration issue.  So that's another thing to fix before my next pie attempt!

Jim Lahey's Pizza Dough - Very Good, But Doesn't Displace My Favorite Recipe

I loved Jim Lahey's pizza restaurant Co. when it was open in NYC, and was so sad when it closed.  It was a regular go-to whenever I was anywhere near that side of town.  And so when I saw that Jim Lahey had a pizza recipe book while browsing my local library stacks, I grabbed it with high excitement.  

The resulting two pizzas I made from the half portion of his no-knead dough recipe were very good with nice salty and yeasty flavors in every bite.  I didn't follow any of his pizza topping recipes, rather just the dough and baking method.

The dough required an 18-hour room temperature rise, which led to a slightly sticky dough that was hard to stretch out nicely.  I imagine my lack of experience shaping pizzas by hand v. rolling probably contributed to this difficulty though.  

What I most liked about Lahey's pizza approach is that he calls for pre-heating a pizza stone 8 inches from the top of the oven at 500 degrees before then turning on the broiler to bake the pizza.  That high heat leads to a nicely cooked pizza in just a few minutes. 

Moving forward, to really make use of this technique, I should pre-heat the broiler for longer before putting in the shaped pizza and leave the dough in the oven slightly longer until there are more black spots across the pizza.  I will probably continue to pre-cook the dough, which I generally do, before adding toppings to avoid the toppings overwhelming the thin dough.  

What I least liked about this pizza was the relatively small pizzas that his portions led to.  One Lahey pie is enough for slightly more than one person, but not quite enough for two.  As a result, for the slightly higher effort of an 18-hour room rise instead of a forget-about-it fridge rise, I think I'll probably continue to default to my standard pizza dough recipe, but now coupling it with Lahey's broiler bake approach.

Churro Brownies - Great Idea, Terrible Execution

Ah, the self-generated errors that I thought I was past in year 13 (!) of this blog.  This latest one was a doozy - not adjusting the recipe to accommodate a Pyrex glass baking dish instead of a standard metal brownie pan. 

The result - an underbaked, gooey mess.  And because I was on my way to an event, I didn't have time to properly attempt to save it, instead just put it back in the still-hot oven to cook a bit more as the oven cooled down.

At least using that method, some of the edges were cooked through when we came home.  The edible edges were fairly tasty too, though definitely overbaked while the center remains a bit gooey.

So I don't really have much to say in this post, except that the batter came together fairly easily.  Especially with microwaving butter, no need to use an electric mixer, just a rubber spatula to combine everything together.

Hope to attempt this the proper way in the months ahead, with perhaps slightly less cinnamon and sugar to accommodate my preference!

My First Quiche - Improvised Spinach, Red Pepper, Goat Cheese, Onion and Chive Version

I have a lot of food guilt.  On top of regular guilt.  My food guilt comes in a variety of forms, from ongoing fear / guilt that I don't eat enough fruit and vegetables, to guilt about not eating at home enough, and to a disheartening feeling that I waste too much food, whether it's at restaurants or home.  

While this guilt usually just sits in my stomach and doesn't change behavior, I recently marshaled my guilt to good with the most frequent source of food waste in our apartment - eggs.  I only really use eggs in baking, and while I try to only buy eggs in half-cartons, I still find that they frequently end up in the trash.  I decided in the spring that this could no longer be my status quo, and I decided to put together an egg-heavy recipe that had the potential to become a staple in my kitchen - quiche.

I modified two recipes I found online, a Cook's Illustrated Leek and Goat Cheese Quiche and a Spinach, Red Pepper, and Feta Quiche recipe from Epicurious.  The result, a spinach, red pepper, goat cheese, onion (why not?), and chive quiche was actually quite good, albeit heavy.  

I made two critical mistakes while making this quiche - 1) I didn't roll the quiche dough wide enough, so the edges didn't quit cover the edges of the pie pan and the dough fell, 2) I used a lot of goat cheese, which I think made it taste a little too rich and sinful (swapping one guilt for another!).  I think if I make slight adjustments for the next round though, I'll have a versatile recipe that can easily use up whatever leftover eggs, vegetables, and herbs are in my fridge.

Spinach, Red Pepper, Goat Cheese, Onion, and Chive Quiche

Ingredients:

• 1 pre-baked pie shell (I used a Cook's Illustrated recipe)
• 1/3 medium onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup diced red pepper, with additional red pepper set aside for garnish if desired
• Approx. 1.5 cups of spinach, chopped
• 4 - 5 chives, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces, divided
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 4 oz. herbed goat cheese, roughly cut into 1/2 chunks
• 3 whole eggs
• 1.5 cups half and half
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

• Start by preparing a pie dough, if you are making your own.  And dough is cooked, adjust oven temperature to 375 degrees.

• Heat olive oil on medium heat in a large saute pan.  When glistening and hot, add onion and red pepper.  Stir periodically until onion is translucent and the red pepper is softened.

• Then add spinach and 1/2 chopped chives, and stir periodically until spinach is just wilted.  Season with salt and pepper.

• Pour mixture into pre-baked pie dough.

• Then whisk together 3 eggs and half and half, and pour on top of quiche mixture.  Sprinkle remaining chives on top of dish, and decorate with other vegetable pieces as desired (e.g., my poor red pepper slices below).

• Place quiche into oven, and bake for approx. 32 - 35 minutes or until center is set.  Serve when warm or at room temperature, and store leftovers in the fridge.

Complicated-Sounding Dessert in 10 Minutes - Blueberry Compote

Leftover berries and a desire to do something different with them?  Try a fruit compote! 

The process for me to make at least a blueberry compote could not have been simpler.  I loosely followed this Cook's Illustrated approach, but really all I did was put some washed blueberries in a small saucepan (I don't even know how many) and then turned the gas on to medium-low.  After the blueberries started to break down, after about 5 minutes, I added in a bit of sugar (maybe 1/4 tsp.), a squeeze of lemon juice, and a pinch of salt.

I cooked the mixture for another few minutes, or until the blueberries fit my view of what a tasty compote would look like, and then served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.  

The flavor was fantastic - sweet, slightly tart, and very potent blueberry notes.  I can't wait to make this simple dessert for guests in the future!

KAF Chocolate Dreams - Great Shortbread Wafers Shaped with My New Geometric Stamps

I have to admit that I've been on a bit of months-long shopping spree at King Arthur Flour's online store.  Among my recent purchases have been a Chocolate Butter Cookie Set, huge 16 oz. container of vanilla extract, biscuit cutter set, and a pasta flour blend.  

What prompted this rash of (impulsive) purchases?  The absolutely delightful geometric cookie stamps that have perhaps transformed me into an actual cookie baking enthusiastic.  The first time that I used these stamps to fashion homemade cookies convinced me that I may be starting a new phase in my baking life.

My first use of these tools were on an almost equally awesome KAF recipe, Chocolate Dreams.  Chocolate Dreams is a simple chocolate shortbread recipe that produces a slightly crisp and dense cookie.  I think their rich chocolate flavor makes them particularly good for adults, though my five-year old niece ate several in succession one afternoon!  

I made just a few modifications to this recipe - I made the cookies slightly larger, resulting in 38 cookies instead of 48, and reduced the baking time to 16 minutes to get slightly softer cookies.  

Out of the oven, they were slightly soft (yet firm) and crumbled a bit.  The next day, they were certainly more crispy and flaky.  And thankfully, both days, they were rich with chocolate flavor and delicious!

Blizzard Lasagna...Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures

NYC was hit by a blizzard earlier this winter.  The blizzard was accompanied by nonstop TV news and weather app broadcasts of stern warnings against venturing outside during the projected 24 - 48 hour period.  

While we generally have an overstocked kitchen, and I did an extra grocery run to prepare even more, somehow I wasn't prepared for what I wanted to make during the blizzard - lasagna.  Among the critical missing ingredients were mozzarella (instead use some white cheddar cheese squares and a cheddar cheese snack, broken up - yes, desperate), an adequate amount of canned tomatoes or tomato sauce (had 2/3 of a cup left), not completely dried out parmesan (mine resulted in grated cardboard flakes), and compliant frozen vegetables.

But the real point of this post is to make two points.  First, as I learned years ago during the "kitchen sink" lasagna episode, it's actually not hard to cobble together a decent tasting lasagna.  Pasta, sauce and cheese can make almost anything taste good!  

Second, a notable exception to that rule-of-thumb is frozen spinach.  This recipe helped me fully understand my dislike of frozen spinach.  I just hate the taste of it, whether it's sautéed, microwaved or baked.  It just tastes too chalky, grainy, and has the flavor of wet grass.  I think the only preparation of frozen spinach that is passable is that used in spinach pappu, and even that dish tastes far better with fresh spinach.  So while this lasagna ended up being passable, the thawed and squeezed spinach, which was mixed with cottage cheese to fill the lasagna, just didn't work.

So note to self - don't use frozen spinach in the future!

Lessons in Pie Mastery Continue - One Step Forward, One Step Back: Maple Buttermilk Pie

As a long, harsh winter overtook the East Coast this year, I continued to experiment with the wonderful Four & Twenty Blackbirds Pie Book.  Following my successful attempts at the Buttermilk Chess Pie, I decided to go on to a seemingly more complicated winter pie, the Maple Buttermilk Pie.  

I made this pie two weekends in a row, and unfortunately, the Pie #1 turned out better than Pie #2, which was (slightly) underbaked so a bit of a liquid mess.  

(Pie #2)

Both pies were also slightly deficient in that the cornmeal crusts that I made both slightly sunk during the baking process, which reduced the amount of custard I could put into the pie pans.  I poured the excess custard into ramekins to separately bake and serve.  The custard ramekins tasted great even though they didn't look great, per the below pictures.

(Custard from Pie #1)

 

(Pie #2 and Accompanying Custard - with Green Chile Chocolate Custards)

I realized after preparing the crusts that I was supposed to use all of the water/vinegar mixture called for in the recipe, instead of just using enough of the mixture for the dough to stick together in a ball.  I think that lack of moisture helped cause the sinking baked dough, because I otherwise seemed to follow the dough instructions to a T.  (A reason to read the entire instructions section before starting work!)

(Dough Ball #1 - Prepared for Rolling!)

(Rolled Dough)

(Pricked and Chilled Dough)

(Sunken Baked Crust #1)

(Slightly Less Sunken Pie Crust #2)

Hopefully the combination of improving my pie crusts with more moisture and slightly overbaking the custard to the eye (so mostly settled instead of very giggly in the center) will help ensure perfect pies.  In the mean time, I am glad that Pie #1 tasted and looked like a real, albeit partial, success!

(Pie #1)

Very Stressful Experience But Great Interim Result - Spiced Pumpkin Cheesecake

For Christmas 2014, I decided to forgo my usual pumpkin pie and instead go for a more ambitious dessert - a pumpkin cheesecake.  I haven't made cheesecake since my day-long attempt at the Frankies Spuntino Ricotta Cheesecake in 2013, and I haven't made a pumpkin cheesecake since 2005 (and that was a joint effort with an expert baker friend).  

But feeling confident in my baking abilities, I decided to spend Dec. 23rd making the Cook's Illustrated Spiced Pumpkin Cheesecake, which with its CI recommendations of removing excess moisture from canned pumpkin, spiced graham cracker crust, and make-in-advance directions seemed like the way to go.

Unfortunately, the initial confidence I had for making this cheesecake quickly fell apart as I was actually preparing it.  First, the new springform pan I had ordered didn't arrive by the 23rd and I was worried about using my slightly leaky and uneven pans at home.  

Second, while starting to follow the recipe, I realized that I was supposed to bake the cheesecake in a water bath in a roasting pan - a roasting pan I did not have.  I tried to see if some of my other baking dishes would work, but none would leave room between the outside of the springform pan and the outer baking dish.  I decided I had no other choice but to improvise, so reading other approaches online, I decided to put the boiling water in a baking dish a row below the springform pan in the oven to keep the oven steamy and hopefully avoid unevenly baking the cheesecake.

Third, I didn't have an instant read thermometer so couldn't fully tell when the cheesecake was baked and may have overbaked it - oh well.  After an hour and a half or so, I decided to turn off the oven, and leave the door slightly ajar with a wooden spatula to let the cool and drier air more gradually reach the cheesecake to avoid it collapsing.  I thought that step may take the place of cooling the cheesecake for 45 minutes in the hot water bath outside of the oven.

And for the final act, as the actually beautiful cheesecake was cooling, enough liquid had escaped the pan and into the foil coating I had put on the outside of the pan, so the outside of the pan was quite slippery.  As such, I dropped the baked cheesecake on the floor and only about 1/2 of it stayed in the pan and survived so speak.  I smoothed out the remaining cheesecake with a knife and decided to serve cheesecake "bars" instead.  

The cheesecake bars were wonderful, but definitely still a disappointment to have gone through all of that stress and effort for a less-than-perfect result.  

So...next year?

2013 Holiday Party - Our First Major Party Spread

We held our first holiday party in late December, and putting together a menu for 10 - 15 attendees with varying taste preferences was definitely a new challenge for me.  I decided to combine mostly a set of the usual suspects with a few options that seem like they could be a) made ahead of time, or b) were relatively simple to construct within a day because I was traveling for work until the night before the gathering.  The biggest challenge was to figure out the right quantity of food to prepare, especially because we didn't know if people would be showing up for dinner, a snack, dessert, etc. given that we might have other holiday parties to compete with.

We ultimately settled on the following menu, which ended up being perfect for this set of guests for this wintery season, albeit during a temporary winter heat wave of 60 degrees! 

• Cook's Illustrated Ultimate Hummus (double batch, prepared in the morning)
• Chilled Low-fat Artichoke Dip (double batch, prepared in the morning, and served with in a bread bowl)
• Classic Mac and Cheese (prepared immediately before party)
• Cuban Black Beans and Rice (prepared immediately before party)
• Chocolate Mousse (prepared in the morning)
• Pumpkin Pie with Fool-proof Pie Crust (pie dough prepared in morning, pie baked in early afternoon)
• Ground Beef Shish Kabobs (Andy made from Saranya Mandava's cookbook)