Cherry Almond Crumble Pie

Fourth of July sparklers

"Is apple pie Fourth of July-sie?" asked my friend Christie.
"Of course!" I responded, "It's the classic American pie!"

That's all it took for Christie to decide that she was making her famous Apple Crumble Pie for a 4th of July potluck. Her pie is "famous" because it's the reason her husband married her (or so he claims). I guess I should feel lucky that Christie was already married by the time that C had the chance to try her apple pie! (It's really good.) Since Christie was making apple pie, I offered to make a cherry pie.

I first made cherry pie for 4th of July in 2012. The juicy, red filling against the slightly browned crust seemed patriotic. It just needed a few blueberries for a burst of blue. The crumble topping was delicious and made mostly of oats and shredded coconut. This year, I wanted to change it up. I used the same technique for the cherry filling but I used sweet cherries and decreased the sugar. The major change was the flavor. In addition to cherry, I wanted to add almond.

I owe the idea to a Blueberry Almond Streusel Galette. I first made the galette with blueberries, then again with a combination of blueberries and cherries, and then, upon C's request, with cherries alone. There was no contest: the cherry version was our favorite. A galette didn't seem nearly as American as pie, so I decided to put the galette filling into a pie pan. The streusel topping called for crumbled almond paste, so I had a fair bit on hand. To use up the almond paste, I decided to mix it into cream cheese for a cream cheese layer under the cherry filling. Oh, and I cut out stars from the extra pie dough to give the pie a little patriotic flair!

Objective
Make a cherry pie similar to my 4th of July Cherry Pie, but flavored with almond paste.

Materials
Pie crust:
1 cup + 2 tbsp. whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 tbsp. sugar
dash salt
5 tbsp. butter, cold and cut into cubes
1 tbsp. shortening, cut into cubes
1/4  cup milk (give or take)

Cream cheese filling:
3 oz. almond paste, grated
1 tbsp. sugar
3 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Cherry filling:
16 oz. sweet cherries (if frozen, thaw and save juice)
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp. cornstarch
1 cup of cherry juice (+ water if needed)

Crumble topping:
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup almonds, finely chopped
2 tbsp. brown sugar
2 tbsp. almond paste, grated
2 tbsp. butter

Methods
1. Prepare the dough for pie crust: In a food processor, pulse the flour, sugar, salt, butter, and shortening a few times until the mixture becomes pea-sized crumbs. With the food processor running, slowly stream in the milk, only adding enough to bring the dough together (it should be crumbly and there will be a little bit of unincorporated flour). Pour the dough out onto a piece of plastic wrap and, using the plastic wrap, gather the dough into a ball and knead a few time to incorporate any loose flour. Flatten into a disk, wrap, and refrigerate for about 45 minutes before assembling the pie.

2. Make the crumble topping: Stir together the flour, rolled oats, ground almonds, and brown sugar. Use your fingers to rub in the butter and almond paste until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Refrigerate until you're ready to assemble the pie.

3. Make the cream cheese filling: blend together the almond paste and sugar (use a food processor if you have one). Add the cream cheese, egg yolk, and vanilla. Blend until smooth. Refrigerate until you're ready to assemble the pie.

4. Make the cherry filling: In a medium saucepan, whisk together the cherry juice/water and cornstarch. Add the sugar and cook over medium heat until thick and bubbly. Add the cherries and continue to cook for 5 minutes.

5. Assemble the pie: Roll out the pie crust to fit a 9 or 9.5" pie plate. Lay the crust in the pie plate and crimp the edges however you desire. Next, spread the cream cheese filling over the bottom of the crust. Pour the cherry filling over the cream cheese layer. Sprinkle the crumble topping over the rest of the pie. Place on an a baking sheet to catch any drips while baking.

6. Bake the pie at 400º for 40 minutes. After 20 minutes, tent the pie with foil, turn the temperature down to 350º, and continue baking for 20 more minutes. Move to a wire rack and cool completely before serving.

Results
Yum! Almond flavored, thin layer of cherry filling and delicious crumble topping. This is the perfect excuse to use frozen or canned cherries because you're making it into a jammy filling.

Discussion and Future Directions
The long ingredients list suggests that this is a challenging and laborious pie. It's certainly not as easy as dumping cherry filling into a pie crust and baking it, but it's definitely easier than making a lattice top!

The cream cheese is a nice way to break up the almond paste and improve the texture. It becomes a smooth, cheesecake-like layer (though it's very thin and just there for flavor, not texture). You could double or triple the cream cheese layer for more of a cheesecake pie. You could eliminate the cream cheese layer altogether and double the cherry filling for a traditional, deeper-dish cherry pie. You could skip the crumble topping and layer 50 stars over the top for an even more stunning display! If you prefer double-crusted pies, double the crust recipe, lay a round over the top of the filling and make slits. Perhaps a star? Maybe some sort of flag pattern? The sky is the limit!

This is the pie to make if you love almond flavor. If you prefer cherry alone, give my 4th of July Cherry Pie a try! If you have local, fresh, perfectly ripe cherries, I would opt for the 4th of July Cherry Pie instead of the Cherry Almond Crumble Pie because it would give the cherries a chance to be the star. Here, the cherries and almond share the stage.

Supplementary Materials

Banana and Zucchini Muffins

Remember when I ate 30 different veges in 30 days and vowed to post more recipes with vegetables? No, you probably don't because you're probably here for the brownies and  ice cream. Me too. Unfortunately being healthy is important and balancing the food groups is key to a healthy diet. That's why today's vegetable (and fruit) recipe takes the shape of a muffin!

While cleaning out the freezer, I found 1/2 cup of shredded zucchini that got shredded and frozen just in the nick of time (meaning that it was probably too squishy for anything else but not yet moldy). "Bring on the zucchini bread!" I thought, only to realize that zucchini bread, zucchini cake, and zucchini blondies all require more zucchini than I had on hand. It seemed counter-productive to have to go to the grocery store to acquire more zucchini in order to salvage that measly 1/2 cup. I could have made zucchini cupcakes, but I wasn't feeling chocolate.

Meanwhile, in the fruit bowl sat a bunch of very sad looking bananas. Three of them became SoNo Baking Co. Cookbook's Banana Cream Tart. (You can find a copy of the recipe here.) The rest needed to be frozen or baked into something delicious, and since we are moving abroad in 30 days (um, exactly 30 days from now… what!), they certainly weren't going into the freezer. Enter: Banana Zucchini Muffins. Why? Because there is no such thing as "not enough zucchini" or "too many bananas." Zucchini is the gift that keeps on giving and banana is the fruit that's better to forget about until it's black and squishy. Paring them together is just plain thrifty, not to mention delicious.

Objective
Make banana zucchini muffins with [mostly] whole grains. Adapted from Taste of Home's Zucchini Banana Bread.

Materials
Dry:
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon flaxseed meal
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Wet:
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 egg
1/4 cup olive oil (light in flavor)
1/2 cup banana, mashed (about 2 small bananas)
1/2 cup zucchini, shredded

Optional:
1/2 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped

Methods
1. Preheat the oven to 325º. Prepare a muffin pan by lining with paper cups or greasing (or place silicone muffin cups on a baking sheet) and set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together the dry ingredients. In another bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry. Do not over mix, stir only until the ingredients are incorporated. Fold in the walnuts (if using).
3. Pour the batter into the prepared muffin cups. Fill the muffin cups 3/4 full.
4. Bake 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool completely on a wire rack, then flip out of the muffin pan.

Makes 10 small muffins.

Results
Incredibly moist, soft, and healthy? Ok that last part is stretching it. Best within 24 hours or they get sticky to the touch from all the moisture.

Discussion and Future Directions
When C got home from call, the first thing he did was walk into the kitchen and stuff an entire muffin into his mouth. "What do you think?" I asked. His response was a muffin-muffled, "Good!" I wasn't sure he could actually breathe, and since taste requires smell and smell requires breathing, I wasn't convinced. However, a few hours later when he woke up from his post-call nap, his eyes lit up. "Muffins!" he remembered, then walked into the kitchen and returned with three. He proceeded to butter them and eat them slowly. This time I believed him when he told me they were good.

Rhubarb Cocktails (Review)

People are often impressed that I can bake.  Remember the yellow cake I made for one of my ESL students' 60th birthday? "You made this? Wow!" said the birthday girl after she realized that it was a real cake and not a plastic one. I have no idea why she thought I would bring a plastic cake, but hey, who knows? Maybe she received a plastic cake in the past!

A few weeks later, it was another student's birthday. Since I made vanilla the first time, I decided on chocolate cake with a Texan flair: Texas Sheet Cake from the Homesick Texan. I left out the chile powder because I wasn't sure how well that would go over. I assumed they would like it because 11 of the 12 students are from Central and South America. But, what if the birthday girl didn't like spicy food?

Really, they can be a tough crowd! We were learning adverbs this week and I was trying to think of an example of an annual event to teach the word "annually." Trying to give a relatable example, I used the World Cup assuming that my students were soccer fans. Plus, I'd walked away from the USA-Ghana game to go teach, so it was the first thing that popped into my mind. "El Copa Mundial!" I said, hoping to get a "VIVA MEXICO!" or "VIVA HONDURAS!" out of someone. Maybe if my argentinos had been there I would have gotten a stronger response; instead, I heard crickets chirping. Then I realized that the World Cup is quadrennial and well, I changed the subject. Thankfully, one of my students threw out "Rodeo." Whew! Since someone was able to give a better example than I was, I knew that they understood the word.

The moral of that story is that I can't make assumptions when it comes to my students. They are adults ranging in age from 25 to 60 with real life experiences. They certainly aren't the caricatures of people used as examples in my high school Spanish textbooks. They don't all love soccer and they probably don't all love spicy food. Instead of chile powder, I went heavy on the cinnamon. "Canela, no?" one of my students asked. "You made this? Wow," said my 60 year-old student, "You can get married."

Where am I going with all of this? I'm getting there. Whenever someone is impressed that I can bake, I tell them that baking is mostly about recipe selection. Baking differs from cooking because, for the most part, you can't taste and add along the way. What you put into your dough or batter and your baking parameters are going to dictate the outcome (well, that and the ambient temperature, humidity, amount of stirring, precision of measurement, etc.). I don't find baking challenging because baking is all about following the recipe. Sure, you can go on to adapt recipes or create your own, but for the novice baker, your goal is to follow the recipe exactly. Maybe that's easier said than done. I'm a scientist, so that's my job. Baking is a lot like chemistry lab (but hopefully only microbiology lab if you're using yeast or starter).

What I do find challenging is mixing drinks. C is a drink-mixing all-star. Really, I think he could make or reproduce anything. And if I mess something up, he can taste it, tweak it, and fix it into something delicious.

For the summer solstice, I wanted to make a summery cocktail. Enter the Rhubarb & Strawberry Collins. I muddled and poured and stirred. Exit a boozy rhubarb milkshake. My highball ended up watered down and lacking flavor. C was on call at the hospital (his last call shift for at least 13 months!!), so it was up to me to do the tweaking and fixing. I tried salvaging it by adding more rhubarb syrup but it wasn't quite right. Inspired by Rhubarb Floats from Not Without Salt, I added ice cream. It wasn't a knock-your-socks-off kind of drink, but I was happy to drink it.

Why rhubarb? I bought a half pound of rhubarb on a whim with the intention of baking. Instead, we (well, C) made it into rhubarb simple syrup. Basically, chop up your rhubarb (we used 3 stalks), add enough water to cover it and add an equal (or half for a longer infusion) portion of sugar, simmer 20-30 minutes until the rhubarb becomes mush and the liquid becomes a syrup, strain, and chill. Save the mushy "compote" for something else and use the syrup for cocktails. There aren't a ton of rhubarb cocktails to choose from, though it's not hard to find a rhubarb version for most of the classic cocktails. It's a little trickier to use than say grapefruit juice because the juice and flavor are in the simple syrup, so balance is key.

Our Rhubarb Cocktail Recommendations:

C's vote: Ginger Rhubarb Bees Knees from The Bonjon Gourmet
Ingredients: muddled ginger, rhubarb syrup, gin, lemon juice, and orange bitters, shaken with ice.
Tweaks: more lemon juice.
Flavor: tart and fruity, like a rhubarb drink should be (according to C).

A's vote: Rhubarb and Rose Ramos from Food52
Ingredients: London dry gin, lemon juice, lime juice, rhubarb syrup, cream, and rosewater, stirred then topped with ice and soda water.
Tweaks: left out the egg white for lack of pasteurized eggs.
Flavor: rhubarb ice cream in drinkable form.

Obviously the quality of the base spirit and liqueurs plays a role, but I think the secret to mixing drinks is the selection of ingredients: pairing flavors and picking up on the subtleties of each component. For example, I used the wrong base spirit when trying to make a melon infusion. I picked an aromatic, herbal gin instead of a milder dry gin, so the juniper and herbs overpower the melon. I suspect the other secret is practice by way of trial-and-error. I'm still a novice drinker let alone drink-mixer. Because I don't drink much and and I don't drink often, I'll probably just stick to baking! Anyway, I already have a resident "mixologist!"

My highball attempt. Note the beautiful rhubarb syrup!

Espresso Milkshake from Summermoon (Austin, TX)

One Saturday in late March, we ditched Houston and headed to Austin. It was a beautiful sunny morning with hardly a cloud in the sky; there was enough of a breeze to stay comfortable in the 80°F weather. We saw plenty of bluebonnets and wildflowers along the highways and I even convinced C to stop for pictures along highway 36. I was shocked he stopped after we'd spent a whole Saturday the prior weekend driving around looking for bluebonnets, with success!

Just like our first trip to Austin, our first stop in town was at Summermoon Coffee Bar. Last November, C had a "golden weekend," those coveted two days off in a row that only come around every few months, so we visited his best friend from high school who lives in Austin. As soon as we arrived, we stopped at a coffee shop for a "study date" so that C could knock off a few sets of practice questions for his third (and final) medical licensing exam (which he passed! Woo hoo!). While he studied, Elliot and I goofed off.

At one point, Elliot disappeared and returned with an espresso milkshake for C. I'm not a coffee drinker (nor is Elliot), but  C convinced us to try it. It was amazing. Creamy, but not from ice cream, sweet, ever-so-slightly chocolatey, with an earthy, coffee flavor. Summermoon fire-roasts their coffee in-house, so their coffee has a distinct woodiness. Every time I bring up that milkshake, C laughs at me because I claim that I don't like coffee. He also got a kick out of me finishing all of his lattes in Guatemala. Ok, I'll admit it: coffee is growing on me. Now, can I have another espresso milkshake, please? I set off to recreate it at home.

This second time we were at Summermoon, I watched the barista make the milkshake. First, he put ice cubes and a tiny bit of moon milk in the bottom of the blender. He grabbed a to-go cup and drizzled in chocolate syrup. Then, he poured hot espresso into the blender. After that, I got distracted, but I'm pretty sure he added more moon milk (and maybe more ice cubes), blended it, and poured it into the plastic cup. I started drinking it, and the rest is history. It was gone by the time we made it to the Barton Creek Green Belt for our walk.

According to Summermoon's Facebook page, an espresso milkshake is "espresso, moon milk and ghiradelli sweet ground chocolate, blended with ice." So, what is moon milk? Summermoon's top secret, homemade creamer/milk made of 7 ingredients. Coupled with the wood-fired coffee, moon milk gives their drinks a uniquely delicious flavor that their devotees can't get anywhere else. Though many of their patrons are convinced it's made of crack cocaine because it's so addictive, I have the impression that moon milk is made of cream, sweetened condensed milk, other milks and vanilla.

Materials
ice cubes
sweetened milk?
espresso
chocolate syrup

Methods
1. In a blender, combine the ice cubes and milk. Pour in the hot espresso. Blend.
2. Drizzle chocolate syrup into a cup and pour in the milkshake.

Ok, that's not a helpful recipe. I don't even know what one of the ingredients is. So, I tried another route. I stopped at Whole Foods and picked up a jug of double espresso iced coffee with almond milk. I tried blending it with both ice and ice cream but neither gave me the desired result. To be fair, I wasn't digging the flavor of the coffee (I like almond milk, but apparently not with coffee). When I told my mom about the experience she asked, "Why do you always try to recreate things? Why not make it a treat for yourself whenever you're in Austin?" Though I don't want to, I will listen to her. Next time you find yourself in Austin, Texas, head over to Summermoon and try their milkshake!

Interested in making an espresso milkshake on your own? Here's the closest recipe I could find based on the ingredients I saw added (though it uses espresso powder instead of espersso). Give it a shot (pun intended) and report back!

Balsamic Roasted Strawberry Ice Cream

Strawberries and melons are my favorite summer fruits.  I rarely buy melons because I can never finish a whole melon before it goes bad. We even struggle to eat strawberries quickly enough! I frequently panic once I notice that one or two of the strawberries in a carton is moldy. Often, I'll make the remaining berries into a galette, but if I'm not in the mood to make crust, I sit on the internet looking for strawberry recipes feeling defeated. Once, I made a strawberry compote from two pounds of strawberries that were going bad. Aat the grocery store, I suggested that 2 pounds was probably too much, but I was told "don't worry. I'll eat them." That's a phrase I will never believe! So, then we ended up with a giant bowl of strawberry compote that was on the brink of going bad and the only way I could think of to use it was on waffles! The rest of it was frozen. It's probably still in the freezer somewhere..

The next time we had molding strawberries, I gave up.  I washed the strawberries, sliced them and froze them. Unlike the bag of whole frozen strawberries we have lurking in the bottom of our freezer, sliced strawberries can go into the blender and come out smooth, so I made a lot of smoothies. Smoothies are great, but ice cream is so much better.

I've had my eye on a recipe for roasted strawberry ice cream for the past few years.  Whenever I had strawberries, I forgot to roast them.  The same thing happened with bananas. I kept planning to make banana bread with roasted bananas, but every time I made banana bread, I forgot! When I finally bought bananas with the intention of roasting them, I made the banana bread and was disappointed with the results. I didn't think that roasting the bananas made a difference. Fortunately, I wasn't disappointed with my roasted strawberry ice cream!

Objective
To make strawberry ice cream with roasted strawberries. The recipe is a combination of both Zoe Bakes' Strawberry Ice Cream and Homesick Texan's Strawberry and Guajillo Chile Ice Cream.

Materials
For the roasted strawberries:
12 oz. fresh, ripe strawberries, washed with tops cut off
2 tbsp. granulated sugar
1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar

For the ice cream:
3 cups half-and-half
2 tbsp. light corn syrup
1/2 cup granulated sugar
juice of 1/2 lime

Methods
1. In a small bowl, toss the strawberries, 2 tbsp. sugar and balsamic vinegar. Set aside for an hour to macerate (or leave in the fridge while you go to work, run errands, whatever). Preheat the oven to 300ºF. Roast the strawberry mixture on a foil lined baking sheet until you can easily mash the strawberries with the back of a fork. Remove from the oven and thoroughly mash the strawberries.
2. In a large bowl (batter bowl if you have one), stir the mashed strawberries, half-and-half, corn syrup, 1/2 cup granulated sugar and lime juice. Leave in the fridge to chill completely (4-6 hours, or even better, overnight).
3. Once the base is cold, freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's directions. Move to a pre-chilled bowl with a lid and freeze until firm (2-3 hours). Eat within a few days for the best texture.

Results
Creamy, strawberry goodness! Excellent flavor, though its pink color edges toward brown.

Discussion and Future Directions
This is a lovely, light in feel strawberry ice cream. This one wont leave your mouth coated with fat. Excellent to eat in a bowl and also excellent blended with a little milk to make a quick and easy strawberry milkshake! Be sure to eat it quickly, because it will freeze fairly solid in the freezer since it's not as high in fat as a traditional ice cream. If you leave it in the freezer for awhile, just know that it will take awhile to soften up before you can eat it.

This ice cream would be the perfect end to a dinner party with friends or a Memorial Day barbecue. It's sweet, fruity and creamy, but light. It's sure to be a crowd-pleaser!

Coleslaw, Two Ways

I just told you about my experience taking the VegOut! Challenge to eat 30 vegetables in 30 days. Did you find it a little annoying that I didn't share any recipes for all those vegetables? I did. Sure, I gave you links to a few good ones, but that's not the same. I felt a little guilty telling you how great of an experience it was to eat 30 vegetables without giving you suggestions for eating 30 vegetables on your own! My food blog has started to morph into a dessert or baking blog, so my new goal is to post more recipes for main dishes and sides. Bring on the veges!

I'll start by sharing recipes for cabbage and fennel which I made into coleslaw, two ways. At the end of our 30 vegetables challenge, we had red, green, and Chinese cabbage in the fridge plus a giant jar of sauerkraut. I figured coleslaw would be the easiest way to use cabbage. Both of the recipes that I'm about to share make a reasonable amount that could easily serve 6-8 people. For a larger crowd (it's almost BBQ season), scale up. You won't mind having leftovers.

The first slaw is coleslaw with fennel. Fennel is an anise-flavored bulb-like stem supporting bushy leaves and tiny yellow flowers. Fennel seed is commonly used in Middle-Eastern and Asian cooking. You've probably bitten down into a fennel seed while eating sausage pizza. I thinly sliced the bulb-like stem and added it to my shredded cabbage and onion. The bulb provides a crunch and a sweet, licorice-like flavor. I left fennel seeds out of the dressing (I've never liked the texture), but feel free to add them for additional flavor.

Coleslaw with Fennel
(adapted from Simply in Season)
1/4 green cabbage, shredded
1/4 red cabbage, shredded
1/2 fennel bulb, thinly sliced, pieces of core removed
1/2 white onion, chopped
4 carrots, shredded

Dressing:
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 1/2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 tbsp. honey
1 tbsp. cilantro
1/2 tbsp. dijon mustard
1/2 tsp. fennel seed (optional)
1/2 tsp. black pepper

Directions: Whisk together the dressing and pour over the salad. Toss to mix. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

The second slaw is a family favorite. It's calls for a boiling oil-and-vinegar dressing that was originally poured over just two ingredients: green cabbage and onion. I added red cabbage and carrots for color and added nutrition (bring on the antioxidants and vitamin-A precursors!). My grandma got this recipe from Cam Hubanks at the Avenue Bar in Madison, Wisconsin, one of our family's favorite spots to go for a Friday fish fry.  

Oil-and-Vinegar Coleslaw
(Adapted from Cam's Coleslaw)
1 small green cabbage, shredded
1 small red cabbage, shredded
1/2 onion, finely sliced
2 carrots, shredded

1/2 cup sugar
1 cup white vinegar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tbsp. salt
1 tbsp. celery seed
1  tbsp. sugar

Directions: Sprinkle 1/2 cup sugar over the cabbage and vegetables. Set aside. Combine vinegar, oil and spices in a saucepan. Heat until boiling. Pour over the cabbage. Stir to combine. Cover and refrigerate. Keeps well. Please note that if you use red cabbage, the color will bleed.

The Avenue Bar no longer serves Cam's oil-and-vinegar coleslaw. Instead, they serve a traditional creamy, celery seedy coleslaw that's also very good.  Regrettably, I don't have that recipe to share with you. Instead, you'll have to try these two non-traditional versions. Enjoy!

Strawberry Pi Pie

Did you notice people acting a bit irrational yesterday? You can't blame the full moon (that's tomorrow). You can't blame Friday the 13th (it was off by a day). No, yesterday was Pi Day, 3.14159 day. Today is the day after Pi Day, which means that everything is rational again. That's why I started the day with a slice of a leftover Strawberry Pi Pie before yoga. I'm sure it was the pie that gave me the extra energy I needed to kick up into my forearm stand!

This weekend is sandwiched between two holidays: Pi Day and St. Patrick's Day. Last night, we made spontaneous dinner plans with our good friends, The Brown Family. We decided that the only way to celebrate properly would be to have sandwiches and pie for dinner. C made Ruebens with leftover corned beef from our premature St. Patty's Day dinner and I made a strawberry pie. I hemmed and hawed over what kind of strawberry pie to make. My go-tos are strawberry rhubarb sour cream crumb pie and strawberry balsamic galettes, so I decided on a plain and simple strawberry pie. To sweeten the pie, I chose to use apricot jam (because we have a lot of it and I'm sick of looking at it in the fridge).

Objective
To make a very simple strawberry pie.

Materials
Crust:
2 oz. rye flour
2 oz. whole wheat pastry flour
4.5 oz. all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. sugar
pinch salt
a couple shakes of cinnamon
12 tbsp. butter, cold and cut into small cubes
4 oz. ice cold water
1 tsp. apple cider vinegar

Filling:
2 lbs. fresh strawberries, de-stemmed and sliced
2 tbsp. granulated white sugar
1/4 cup apricot jam
2 tbsp. all-purpose flour

Decoration:
cream
coarse sugar

Methods
1. To make the crust: combine the flours, sugar, salt, and cinnamon in a food processor. Pulse to combine. Add the cubes of butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the apple cider vinegar to the ice cold water. Continuing to pulse the food processor, slowly pour the water through the feed tube. Only add as much water as it takes to bring the dough together. Pour the dough out of the food processor onto a large piece of plastic wrap. Use the plastic wrap to squeeze the dough together into a ball. Flatten and chill (1 hr in the fridge or about 15 minutes in the freezer).
2. While the dough is chilling, slice the strawberries and toss them in a medium-sized bowl with the granulated sugar. Set aside to macerate.
3. Remove your dough from the fridge/freezer. Gently roll the dough out to a small rectangle. Fold in thirds, then gently roll the dough back to a small rectangle. Fold again. Cut the dough approximately in half with one half being a little bigger than the other. Flatten into 1/2"-1" thick circles. Chill again until the butter is cold (30 minutes should be sufficient).
4. In a small saucepan, combine the apricot jam and the juice from the macerated strawberries (a strainer is the easiest way to collect the juices). Stir and bring to a boil over medium heat. Let it boil for a few minutes until it begins to thicken. Pour over the sliced strawberries. Add 2 tbsp. flour and stir to combine. Set aside.
5. Preheat the oven to 375º.
6. Remove your dough from the fridge. Roll the bigger piece to a circle that fits in a 9" pie plate with 1/2" overhang. Gently lay the dough in the pie plate. Fold the overhang under the dough to create a lip around the edge of the pie plate. Using a fork, prick the sides and the bottom of the pie crust. Pour the strawberry concoction, juices and all, into the unbaked crust.
7. Roll out the remaining piece of dough to a circle that lays flat on top of the filling and meets the edge of the crust. Pinch the edges of the crust into whatever pattern you prefer (click here for ideas), being sure to seal the top and bottom crust together. Use a sharp knife to slice air vents in the top crust (be creative: if it's Pi Day, maybe write "Happy 3.14159 Day" or simply "π"). Brush the pie with cream and sprinkle it with sugar.
8. Before placing the pie in the oven, set it on a large baking sheet in case the juices bubbles over. Bake for 35-45 minutes or until the juices are bubbling and the crust is golden brown. (If it's getting late and you start to get impatient, you can crank the heat up to 400º to help the pie along.)
9. Let the pie cool for an hour or two to allow the filling to firm up (or slice into it hot and flood the bottom of your pie plate with juicy filling. Slice and serve with freshly whipped cream.

Results
A happy Pi Day, indeed. Delicious crust, slightly tart filling easily sweetened with a dollop of whipped cream.

Discussion and Future Directions
To be totally honest, I think strawberry pie and berry pies in general are kind of strange. Growing up, we only had pie for holidays. Cream pies and pumpkin pies were standard. We never had a fruit pie (unless you count coconut cream). I was 22 when I had my first berry pie. It was a delicious homemade raspberry pie. I got the "recipe" (if you can call a list of ingredients with amounts like "a few cups of berries" and "as much sugar as it takes" a recipe) but I never made it.

So, if I think berry pies are strange, why did I make one for Pi Day? Because I was being irrational. Luckily, it turned out beautifully. It even started an intellectual debate about how to calculate the volume of a pie. People were throwing around ideas like "calculate the volume of a cone, then subtract the volume of the small cone that is taller than the pie." I offered calculus. Use integrals and the disc method and rotation around an axis. Needless to say, we decided the pie was better eaten than measured, so we left the math for another day. Happy (belated) Pi Day!

Supplementary Materials

Guatemala: Avocado "Grilled" Cheese

Our first afternoon in Guatemala was spent exploring the colonial town of Antigua. We walked along the cobblestone streets and admired the crumbling architecture. Formerly, Antigua was the capital of the colony of Guatemala. After a series of earthquakes destroyed much of the city, the capital was moved to what is now Guatemala City. Daily life in Antigua is marked by a juxtaposition of modern and as the name of the town suggests, antigua (old or ancient). Without a second glance, the people walk past beautifully crumbling old churches and buildings that were once central to every day life. Some of the ruins have been preserved as museums. Others have new functions or simply became empty, chained lots. Founded in 1543 as Santiago de los Caballeros and now called La Antigua in reference to formerly having been the capital, Antigua is a town with lot to tell.

What does Antigua have to tell? The first lunch we had in Guatemala was at a café across from Parque Central called Café Condesa. The building it occupies was once the house of a count. As the legend goes, the count walked in on his wife (the countess) with the butler. The house was undergoing renovations, so as a punishment, the count buried the butler in mortar and bricks. Many years and a few owners later, the house was undergoing further renovations. It is said that the construction crew found a body in one of the walls they tore down. That's just one of Antigua's many legends.

As I fretted over choosing a sandwich, I read about the legend of the count. Once I knew the history, I knew I had to choose La Condesa (The Countess): wheat bread with melted cheese, avocado, lettuce and tomato.

Objective
Recreate La Condesa sandwich from Café Condesa in Antigua, Guatemala.

Materials
2 slices whole wheat bread
2 slices cheese (Gouda & Swiss if you have them)
1/2 avocado
salt & pepper
tomato
lettuce
jalapeño hot sauce

Methods
1. Very lightly toast the bread. Place one piece on a broiler-safe pan. Top with the two slices of cheese. Broil until the cheese melts, just a few minutes. Do not let the bread burn.
2. Meanwhile, mash up your avocado with salt and pepper, to taste. (I used a mortar and pestle.)
3. Place a large leaf of lettuce on the second piece of toast. Slather the lettuce with the avocado. Top with sliced tomato and add the slice of toast with the melted cheese, cheese side down.
4. Slice the sandwich in half and serve with jalapeño hot sauce on the side. (If you're making this for yourself, you can just add the hot sauce while you mash the avocado because you know how much heat you can tolerate.)

Results
Yum! Warm and creamy with a little bit of a kick.

Discussion and Future Directions
While it will never taste quite right because I'm not in Guatemala, and sometimes the experience and company make the meal, this is a very good imitation. Though Café Condesa does not serve the sandwich with hot sauce, they should! Luckily for me, C ordered huevos rancheros which was served with a side of jalapeño hot sauce. We liked the hot sauce so much that we bought a bottle and brought it back to the USA. Knowing that we have a limited supply, my next goal is to recreate La Condesa's jalapeño hot sauce. Be sure to use jalapeño hot sauce (picante) and not jalapeño salsa!

Supplementary Materials

Orange Ricotta Muffins with Blueberries

Nearly three weeks after orange picking, I'm still on an orange kick. We lost one orange to mold, but the rest were eaten or juiced just in time to bring home 11 grapefruits. Don't worry, I don't foresee an inundation of grapefruit recipes any time soon. The last one I tried was a grapefruit meringue pie and while C maintained that it was good (and finished the pie), I thought it was disgusting. There's something about the flavor of grapefruits that I don't like--not the tartness, but the flavor. I'll stick to orange recipes! Today, that orange recipe is for orange ricotta muffins.

The last time I had leftover ricotta cheese I decided to bake muffins. I wanted to make lemon ricotta muffins with thyme and blueberries. I left out the blueberries and made Cooking Light's Tuscan Lemon Muffins but with a little barley flour and thyme sugar on top. I was out of olive oil, so I used canola. I think that might be why my muffins smelled and tasted fried. They were also a fairly dry. I was very disappointed. I left myself notes for how to try improving the recipe, but decided it would be best to just start over with a new recipe. I chose Orange Ricotta Chocolate Chip Muffins from Two Peas and Their Pod because Maria's recipe called for butter in place of oil. I hoped these would turn out better than just barely edible.

Objective
Use up leftover ricotta cheese to make muffins with homemade orange extract.

Materials
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup granulated white sugar
2 tbsp. brown sugar
zest from 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup ricotta
1/2 egg, beaten
2 tbsp. orange juice
1/2 tsp. orange extract
1 cup blueberries, frozen.
Topping:
2 tbsp. turbinado sugar
zest of 1 orange

Methods
1. Preheat the oven to 350º. Grease 8 muffin cups or line them with paper liners. Set aside.
2. Prepare the topping by combining the turbinado sugar and orange zest in a small bowl and rubbing the zest into the sugar (or use a mortar and pestle). Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in the ricotta, beaten egg, orange juice, and orange extract. Stir in the flour mixture and mix until just combined. Fold in the blueberries.
4. Divide the batter evenly between muffin cups. Sprinkle the sugar topping over the muffins.
5. Bake at 350º for 20-25 minutes (less if you used fresh berries) or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Set on a wire rack to cool completely.

Results
These muffins are airy, lightly sweet, and orangey with juicy bursts of blueberry. Best warm out of the oven.

Discussion and Future Directions
I almost didn't try this recipe in favor of a second batch of Clinton Street Baking Co.'s Sunshine Yogurt Muffins. I'm so glad I did because though the recipes are similar, they make very different muffins. The Sunshine Yogurt Muffins give you a burst of tangy, citrusy sunshine to get you moving in the morning (really, they named the muffin perfectly). These muffins are airy, lightly sweet, and orangey with juicy bursts of blueberries. They lack the tangy component imparted by the lemon/lime of the Sunshine Yogurt Muffins.

The combination of orange and blueberry is very tasty. I'd considered adding finely chopped hazelnuts or dried cranberries, but I'm glad I chose blueberries because of the juices they impart. I prefer to make blueberry muffins to blackberry or raspberry because they don't have annoying seeds that get stuck in your teeth. If I had fresh cranberries (or even better yet, sugared cranberries) on hand, they would have been a great alternative for a tangier muffin. Requiring just 1/2 cup of ricotta cheese, a batch of these muffins is a great way to use up leftover ricotta you find hanging out in your fridge!

Supplementary Materials

Review: Homemade Shredded Coconut [Oatmeal]

Did you know that you can make homemade unsweetened shredded coconut? You can! A few months ago when we had a friend in town, we went to the Mexican market to check out the produce.  The boys saw people walking around drinking coconuts and began to reflect on the spring break trip they took to Cancun their first year of college. They decided to get a coconut each for old times' sake. After they finished the coconut water, they had already cracked open coconuts that I refused to let go to waste. The last coconut we had went into Coconut Pancakes from the Homesick Texan. We've had a few flavors of pancakes this past year and coconut was my favorite by a long shot (C's favorite was Maple Chorizo Crumpets from Little Goat in Chicago; he frequently asks why I've never made them again).

However, our friend follows a strict diet that I can't really explain. All I know is that he doesn't eat grains or milk, so pancakes were out. I was planning a big Ethiopian meal, so I didn't really want to bake. I was determined not to let the boys throw the coconuts in the trash, so how could I preserve them? Shredded coconut! I got out the food processor and put in the shredding disc. I fed chunks of the coconut through the feeding tube and let the food processor do it's magic. To be honest, it wasn't as easy as I'd expected. While a portion of the coconut shredded, a significant amount got stuck in odd places. Anyway, I took about half of what was shredded, spread it out on a baking sheet lined with foil, and baked at 250º until the coconut started to desiccate (and brown a bit). I let it cool completely and stored it in a glass container with a tight seal. I've had it at room temperature for the past two months and it's still good. I froze the rest of the shredded coconut fresh to use for other things (um, pancakes).

I'm starting to worry about my homemade shredded coconut going bad (though with the amount of fat in coconut, it's probably not a huge concern). I stirred some into yogurt with granola, threw a little into a smoothie, used about 1/2 cup in a 9x9 pan of Dark Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Bars from Half Baked Harvest, and added some to coconut oatmeal in an effort to use up coconut milk (see recipe below). I've still got about 1/2 cup that I think I'll save to use as topping to make something extra pretty. Because it's already a little toasted, it's extremely convenient!

Coconut Oatmeal For Two
Based on April Bloomfield's English Porridge
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup coconut milk (or other milk)
1/4 cup steel cut oats
1/4 cup old-fashioned oats
pinch salt
1 tbsp. flaxseed meal
2 tbsp. to  1/4 cup shredded coconut (why not homemade?!)
1 tsp. to 1 tbsp. brown sugar, to taste

Bring water and coconut milk to a boil. Add steel cut oats, old fashioned oats, and a pinch of salt. Simmer until the oatmeal thickens and reaches the consistency you desire. Stir in the flaxseed meal, shredded coconut, and brown sugar. Sprinkle with more shredded coconut and brown sugar before serving.

HOMEMADE SHREDDED COCONUT: The Verdict
If I bought a coconut for something and had leftover coconut, I would definitely do this again. The roasting/desiccating method produces pre-toasted unsweetened shredded coconut. From 2 coconuts, I had at least 3 cups of shredded coconut (and it gains volume when it dries). To buy that at the grocery store would cost an arm and a leg compared to my $3 coconuts! Freezing the coconut may be equally convenient for baking or cooking and is certainly easier to prepare, but wouldn't be best for the beautifully browned toasted bits that make everything prettier. This makes a great DIY day project!

Cherry Mascarpone Gelato

Mascarpone is a food that deludes me. Whenever I see it, I want it. Whenever I have it, I have no idea what to do with it. I'm convinced that I will find something amazing that just isn't quite right without it. So far, the best thing I've made with mascarpone was a berry pizza at a pizza night we had with another couple. The mascarpone was mixed with honey, spread on pizza, and baked. Then the whole thing was topped with fresh blueberries and strawberries. While we were all full from our zucchini vege pizza and C's salmon and dill pizza, we found the room for small slices of this dessert pizza because it was so tasty.

Other than that, I've used it in a batch of disappointing tuscan lemon muffins (they tasted like they were fried from the oil) and a fully-homemade lasanga. It tastes just like cream but it's very thick, so I don't have a clue how people use it as spread on muffins, etc. That just sounds gross.

There is an Italian cafe and market here in Houston that makes a delicious berry mascarpone gelato. I knew I had to try it myself. I scoured the web for recipes, but none of them seemed quite right. I wanted more than a tablespoon or two of mascarpone, but less than a cup (if you look at the nutrition label, you'll know why). I decided I'd try adapting my vanilla gelato recipe (based on David Leite's Pistachio Gelato). I wanted to reduce the fat in the gelato because the mascarpone would add plenty.

Objective
Make gelato with berries and mascarpone.

Materials
Custard base:
15 oz. sweet red cherries (in order of preference: fresh, frozen--thawed and drained, canned and drained)
2 tbsp. sugar
2 1/2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup cream
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar (may add up to 2 tbsp. to taste)
1/2 cup mascarpone
1/4-1/2 tsp. almond extract (or vanilla) to taste, optional
Gelato:
3 oz. chocolate, melted over a double boiler and placed in a small sealable bag
1/4 cup slivered almonds, chopped (optional)

Methods
1. Preheat the oven to 350º. Place the cherries in an 8x8" baking dish. Toss with 2 tbsp. sugar. Roast for 30 minutes or until the juices start flowing and bubbling. Chop 1/4 to 1/2 of the cherries and put them in the fridge to chill. Put the rest in the blender with the whole milk and cream. Blend until the cherries are smooth.
2. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, warm but do not boil the milk/cream/cherry puree. Meanwhile, in the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together the egg yolks with 1/2 cup sugar until pale. When the cream is warm, transfer 1/4 cup to the whipped egg yolks while continuing to whisk. Pour this tempered mixture into the rest of the warm milk mixture and stir to prevent the eggs from cooking.
3. Continue to cook over medium heat. Stir the mixture until it thickens (around 175-180º). The custard should coat the back of a spoon (think the texture of pudding, but maybe a little less thick). Remove from heat. Transfer the custard to a large measuring cup or batter bowl with a spout.
4. Prepare an ice water bath in a large bowl. Place the custard container in the water bath and stir the custard occasionally until cool. Whisk in the mascarpone. Stir in the almond or vanilla extract. Chill completely (overnight is best). Make sure the bowl of your ice cream maker is in the freezer chilling.
5. To prepare the ice cream: Have the melted chocolate at your side and start churning the ice cream per the manufacturer's instructions. In the last few minutes, add the chopped cherries and almonds (if using). Slowly pipe in the melted chocolate. Transfer to a freezer-safe bowl and freeze until firm (2-3 hours).

Results
The cherry flavor wasn't as strong as expected (probably because I used canned cherries). It's not overly sweet and you can taste the cream flavor of the mascarpone.

Discussion
The pistachio gelato still reigns as the best gelato/frozen dessert I've made to date. The custard base is a great starting point for other recipes because I know I like the texture (smooth and rich but doesn't feel fatty or leave a layer of fat over your teeth). This time around, I reduced the cream a bit to compensate for the mascarpone. Next time, I would add one more egg yolk and only use 1/4 cup mascarpone. An additional egg yolk might add to the richness/thickness of the gelato to compensate for some of the missing cream. Less mascarpone would not only reduce the total fat, but it would improve the flavor (at least for me as I don't love the flavor of cream). If you love the flavor of cream, you'll probably like it it as is. I don't know that roasting the cherries added anything (again, probably because I used canned). I think I would put the whole 15 oz. in the blender and not leave any chunks. I'd just have the flecks of chocolate and almonds for crunch (if I was in the mood for crunch).

Verdict on mascarpone? I'm still not sold. It still doesn't seem worth the price or effort (not to mention calories). Do you have any amazing mascarpone recipes? I'd love to try them!

Hatch Chile Ice Cream Sandwiches

It's hatch chile season. If you don't know what a hatch chile is, don't worry, you're not alone. I didn't know what a hatch chile was until last year when my boyfriend moved to Texas. One evening, he went to dinner at an upscale Mexican restaurant that had a seasonal "hatch chile menu." Early summer is "flor de calazaza" or squash blossom season; late summer is hatch chile season. This is the time of year when grocery stores dedicate space to hatch chile everything and chefs design special sauces and meals highlighting the chile in their own unique ways. These are important things to know if you ever move to Houston.

The hatch chile is essentially an anaheim chile, but grown in the Hatch Valley of New Mexico. Different varieties have been cultivated for different heat scores. The fame given to this specific variety is year-to-year consistency and many people think the flavor is superior to other varieties. I don't know that I've ever had a regular old anaheim chile, so I can't put my vote one way or the other. What I can tell you is that when we tried "mild" vs. "hot" side-by-side at the grocery store, the roasted "hot" hatch won ten-times over. The "mild" hatch was not good: it lacked heat and any sort of delicious flavor. The "hot" hatch definitely brought the heat, but it also had flavor. Maybe we just got a bad mild chile. I'll have to try again!

We bought 2 bags of roasted "hot" hatch chiles and I bought 2 fresh hatch chiles. We used them for chile con queso, tomatillo vegetable stew, tomato pork stew, corn and rice stuffed peppers, zucchini and tortilla chip fritatta, and chocolate chip cookies. The winners were chile con queso, tomato pork stew, and chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches. The vege stew was a little to acidic from the tomatillos without something basic to balance the flavor. The stuffed peppers and fritatta were lacking in flavor. You really can't go wrong with chile con queso as long as it includes chile and queso. We got the recipe for the tomato pork stew from a recipe card lying in the crate of hatch chiles. It was really delicious, though I might like some more textures in it (maybe some sort of grain). The idea to make hatch pepper cookies came from the hatch pepper chocolate chip cookies they were selling at the grocery store. They didn't have samples, so I knew I needed to try baking a batch myself.

Objective
Make chocolate chip cookies with hatch chiles and whole grains (since I'm still on a quest for the perfect whole grain chocolate chip cookie). Recipe based on the original Toll-House recipe, but with reduced sugar and whole grains.

Materials
1/2 cup butter, partially softened, partially melted
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tbsp. toasted wheat germ
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup hot hatch chile, roasted, de-stemmed/skinned/seeded, patted dry, and chopped
1/2-3/4 cup dark chocolate, chopped
Vanilla ice cream (~1/4 cup per sandwich)

Methods
To make the cookies:
1. Cream the butter, dark brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in the egg and vanilla.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flours, wheat germ, baking soda, salt, and chopped hatch chile. Stir into the creamed mixture until just combined. Stir in the chopped chocolate.
3. Chill the dough for 30 minutes to 1 hour (this is important or you'll get puffy, cake like cookies that take over your entire pan). Shortly before the dough is done chilling, preheat the oven to 375º.
4. Use a teaspoon to form dough balls and place about 2 inches apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet or seasoned baking stone. Bake for 12 minutes, or until the edges are brown and the middles are still a little wiggly. Cool on the pan for 3-5 minutes, then cool completely on a wire rack.

To make the ice cream sandwiches:
1. Set the ice cream on the counter to soften for a few minutes then scoop the ice cream and smash it between two cookies. Alternatively, let the ice cream soften quite a bit (stirring it helps a lot). When smooth, spread it over the bottom of a baking dish to a depth of 1/2". Return it to the freezer to firm-up. Use a biscuit cutter or circular cookie cutter to cut out circles of ice cream. Use a spoon to lift the ice cream out of the pan and place it between two cookies.
2. Return the ice cream sandwiches to the freezer until ready to eat. Makes 1 dozen ice cream sandwiches (with a few extra cookies).

Results
The cookies are very soft and chewy. They spread out a lot while baking, but that made them ideal for ice cream sandwiches. The heat is fairly subtle and you can't taste it in every bite. With ice cream, the cookies are even better. The dairy helps with the heat and gives the cookies a way to shine, since as straight up cookies, they're a little thin (but not crispy).

Discussion and future directions
I've been trying different recipes for whole grain chocolate chip cookies. So far, my biggest complaint has been that people reduce the butter to make them healthier and that kind of ruins the texture. I tried 100% whole wheat flour and whole wheat pastry flour with oat flour, neither of which was quite right. I decided to try a 50:50 whole wheat pastry flour to all-purpose flour ratio here, but with the additional moisture from the chiles (and dark brown sugar), I needed to add more flour to get the dough to the right texture. I chose to increase the all-purpose flour, though you could swap amounts. Did you know that you can use wheat germ in cookies? There are  a few recipes floating around for chocolate chip cookies with wheat germ, like this one from King Arthur Flour. I started out with just a couple of tablespoons to try it. I didn't even know it was there, so I'd happily try it again with more.

I think this recipe would also be great as cookie bars or modified into hatch chile blondies. These are fun because they are different. No one expects to heat when they bite into a cookie. Making them into ice cream sandwiches is optional, but recommended. Ice cream sandwiches hit just the right spot on a hot August afternoon in Texas, hatch chiles optional.

Supplementary Materials

Zucchini Butterscotch Blondies (Updated)

Warning: Do not make these blondies when you're home alone. Last night, my roommate came home to find half of a zucchini, a block of chocolate, and a cup of melted butter on the counter. He immediately voiced concern, wondering what on Earth I was making this time. I reassured him that I'd made this recipe before and that it was very good and that there was no need for skepticism! 

Once the blondies were cool, I ate a corner piece to try them and went to bed. The next morning, I found the blondies half-eaten (see the photo below), proof that there was no reason for him to be worried! This recipe is a crowd pleaser, and now, it's a little healthier. The recipe has always included vegetables (well, botanically speaking, fruit), but now, there's less sugar and a little bit of increased nutrition from the whole grain. This is a great dish to take to a picnic or potluck because if you keep it around the house, you'll realize you ate the whole batch in about 36 hours. (I wish I were kidding.) If you're taking it to a gathering of 10 or more, I suggest doubling the recipe. I doubt there will be leftovers.

Objective
Revamp my Zucchini Butterscotch Blondies with the addition of whole grain flour and less sugar.

Materials
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp. brown sugar
1/4 cup + 1 tbsp. white sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup zucchini, freshly grated (1 small zucchini)
1/2 cup butterscotch chips
1/2 cup dark chocolate, finely chopped (or semisweet chips)


Methods
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease an 8x8 inch baking dish.
2. Beat butter, brown sugar, white sugar, egg and vanilla.
3. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, then sift it into the butter-sugar mixture. Beat until just incorporated.
4. Stir in the grated zucchini, half of the butterscotch chips and all of the chocolate.
5. Spread the batter evenly in the 8x8 inch baking dish. Sprinkle with the remaining butterscotch chips.
6. Bake 30 minutes. Cool completely before slicing.

Results
These are not too sweet, which allows the butterscotch flavor to shine without being overpowered by the sugar. They are extremely moist and crumbly, which prevents them from feeling like cake.

Discussion and Future Directions
Immediately out of the oven, these looked very cakey. I was heartbroken and scrambled to find a sticky-note or recipe card or loose sheet of paper with the recipe I'd been working to perfect in St. Louis. I was worried that I'd written it down wrong in my blog post. Was there too much baking powder? Did I really use baking soda instead of baking powder? I figured I'd let them cool and see how they turned out.

They turned out great. The moisture from the zucchini helped give them a denser, not chewy, but thicker texture. Increasing the amount of butterscotch chips and decreasing the amount of sugar made them taste like butterscotch without making you pucker at the sweetness. I think these are an improvement over my previous recipe if you aren't looking for something super sweet (which is often expected with butterscotch cookies or other butterscotch treats). Don't like butterscotch? Feel free to replace the butterscotch chips with chocolate chips, but you might want to add an extra tablespoon or two of each of the sugars. I highly recommend you try this with your next zucchini! I also recommend that you shred some zucchini to freeze so that you have it on hand for zucchini bread, zucchini cake, and zucchini blondies once summer, and with it zucchini season, is over.

Supplementary Materials

Blueberry Sour Cream Crumble Pie

As we were getting ready for bed one night, C asked me to tell him a story. Having just finished baking a pie, I decided to tell him a story about the first pie I ever made. It took me awhile to remember which pie actually was my first pie. My first pie was apple. I was in high school, and for some reason, I decided I needed to make a pie. I told my mom that I wanted to make apple pie and she gave me the Oh-no-way!-I'm-not-getting-involved-in-this!-If-you-start-it-you'd-better-finish-it-yourself attitude that comes along with anything it the kitchen that she considers "fussy." If I remember correctly, my dad happily volunteered his hands for apple peeling. Anyway, after hours pie making and baking, I realized that I don't really like apple pie.

You know what's funny? I knew I didn't like apple pie, but nevertheless I decided to try again while I was in graduate school. I made not only one but two apple pies the same day (I always intended to blog about the second and post more of the beautiful pictures that my friend took, but never got excited enough about apple pie to actually do it). I ended up feeding about 60% of the two pies to said friend and inevitably threw out what was left after it sat in the fridge for a few too many days.

The pie that I often confuse with my first pie is a strawberry rhubarb sour cream crumb pie. It was the first pie I made post-GF diet. I made it on a summer day with fresh rhubarb from the farmers' market. It was delicious, but still, I could only get excited to eat a piece, or maybe two. I made it for the third time last summer and again, wasn't as excited to eat it as I was to make it. Finally, I was realizing that pie just isn't my thing. However, I've learned over the years that men love pie. We have a friend who bakes her husband a pie a month because he loves pie so much. C frequently asks me when he's going to start getting his pies of the month! Since they say that the best way to a man's heart is through his stomach, I continue to make pie, even though I don't really like to eat it. Plus, I really can't pretend that I don't get satisfaction from pulling a beautiful homemade pie out of the oven.

Each of the past two nights, I've made a blueberry pie with 2 pounds of blueberries that I saw and had to have. I started with this gorgeous Buttermilk Blueberry Pie from Adventures in Cooking. I was very glad that I made it into a mini pie, because while I really enjoyed the blueberries (and the adorable cut out stars), the "custard" was chunky and chewy and really ruined the pie. Without ice cream, all would have been lost. Instead of the logical choice to make a blueberry pie straight-up, I decided to go the "sour cream crumb pie" route for a certain man I know who loves crumble topping. Apparently baking two pies with the same fruit two ways is my modus operandi.

Objective
Adapt my Strawberry Rhubarb Sour Cream Crumb Pie recipe to make a blueberry pie with crumble topping. I made the pie crust with a variation of the rye rough puff pastry from Peach Galettes.

Materials
Makes a 9" pie (or a 6" pie)

Crust (makes enough for two 9" pies; freeze leftovers):
3.25 oz. rye flour
1.0 oz whole wheat pastry flour
4.25 oz. all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
3 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
6. oz unsalted butter, cold and cubed
2 oz. ice water + 1/2 tsp. apple cider vinegar

Filling:
4 cups fresh blueberries (2 cups)
1 cup sour cream/Greek yogurt (1/2 cup)
1 cup sugar (1/2 cup)
2 small limes, juiced (1 lime)

Crumble topping:
1/4 cup whole wheat flour (2 Tbsp.)
1/2 cup oats--quick cooking is fine (1/4 cup)
1/4 cup brown sugar (2 Tbsp.)
1/4 cup unsalted butter, cold and cut in cubes (2 Tbsp).

Methods
1. Preheat oven to 450º. Grease and flour pie pan and set aside.
2. To make the pie crust: Whisk together the flours, salt, sugar, and cinnamon. Rub the butter into the dry mixture with your fingers until you have pea-sized crumbles. While stirring, slowly add the water+apple cider vinegar. Mix only long enough to moisten the flour and make a dough. If it doesn't hold together when squeezed, add a little more water. Form the dough into a ball, flatten, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour or more. Roll out to 1/8" thick. Lay into the pie plate. Trim the overhang to 1/2 inch over the edge. Fold the edge under and crimp the edges. Use the trimmed edges to cut out fun shapes for decorating the top of the pie (optional)
3. To make the filling: Gently place the blueberries into the crust. Mix the sour cream (or yogurt), sugar, and lime juice. Pour over the blueberries.
4. To make the crumble topping: In a small bowl, stir together the dry ingredients. Add the butter, and rub the butter into the dry ingredients by pinching it between your fingers. Crumble over the filling. The crumble should cover the entire pie. If you decided to make decorative shapes, brush them with water, sprinkle them with sugar and arrange them on top of the crumble.
5. Bake at 450º for 15 minutes (or 10 minutes for smaller pie), then reduce the oven temperature to 350º, cover the pie with a tent of foil, and continue baking for 25-30 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack. Chill before serving.

Results
This is the "beauty and brains" version of blueberry pie. Not only does it look pretty, it tastes like blueberry with a little tartness. The crust is a lovely brown and flavorful. The crumble gives texture and oat flavor. Oh yeah, and it's even kind of healthy if you make it with protein-packed Greek yogurt!

Discussion and Future Directions
Since I used Greek yogurt instead of sour cream and added oats to the crumb topping to make it crumble topping, this pie could aptly be called "Blueberry Yogurt Parfait Pie." However my fear was that people would think that it was an unbaked pie. Instead, it's a whole grain crust filled with a creamy, tangy blueberry filling, topped with oaty goodness then baked to release the juices and solidify the cream just a smidgen. The end result is a wonderfully flavorful, juicy purple pie. I couldn't be more pleased with how it turned out.

I didn't cite my Strawberry Rhubarb Sour Cream Crumb Pie recipe because I have no idea where I found it. I've tried searching for it online but can only find recipes that include flour (and often egg) in the filling. My recipe doesn't. I was beginning to wonder if that was an Abby-opps and I wrote the recipe down wrong. Sure enough, I just found an e-mail to myself from June 5, 2011 for Strawberry Rhubarb Sour Cream Crumb Pie that specifically says "Mix sugar and 1/3 cup flour with sour cream and pour evenly over fruit." There's also a note that it freezes well. As if this pie could be around long enough to freeze!

Clearly this pie doesn't require that extra 1/3 cup flour in the filling. In fact, it's gluten-free pie filling if you omit it! The crumble could easily be made gluten free by using the right oats (or just using oat flour and omitting flour all together). I'm also envisioning this served in little ramekins without even bothering to give it a crust. Fewer calories? Bonus! Oh my gosh, so many options!

Believe it or not, I had fun making and eating this pie. That makes it doubly rewarding! This recipe is a keeper, through and through.

Supplementary Materials

Vanilla Gelato with S'more Fixin's

Summer isn't complete without a bonfire surrounded by good friends. Growing up in Wisconsin, someone had a bonfire nearly every weekend when the weather permitted. The summer after my senior year of high school, I hosted a lot of bonfires because my family lives on a lake and we have a fire pit in our backyard. It's a really nice setting for a bonfire. Around the 4th of July, it's the perfect place to roast marshmallows and watch the fireworks being launched by neighbors. Our apartment complex in Houston has two fire pits sandwiched between a waterfall and a pond. While it's nice to have them, it's just not the same as back home.

A few weekends ago, we rented a beach house in Matagorda, Texas with some of our good friends. We were hoping we'd be able to have a bonfire on the beach. I made homemade amaretto marshmallows and homemade graham crackers for the occasion. I ran out of time to make homemade chocolate bars, but don't think I hadn't thought of it! Unfortunately, due to the lack of rain, there was a county-wide burn ban. We probably should have known that we wouldn't be able to have a fire because we'd already seen bone-dry ponds and waterways at a wildlife refuge just north of Matagorda.

I hoped we'd be able to use our grill to roast marshmallows instead of a bonfire, but the mosquitoes were so voracious that we were unwilling to leave the house except to run to the beach and back. (Thinking back, there was a fireplace in the house. If only I'd put two and two together...) In the end, we came home with as many homemade marshmallows and graham crackers as we took to the beach house. Defeated, C and I lit a "firewood" candle and made s'mores in our living room. Long after the graham crackers had been eaten, the marshmallows still sat on our counter. Determined to not let them go bad, I decided I'd try them in ice cream.

Objective
Make s'more ice cream using the basic custard recipe I used to make End of Summer Pistachio Almond Gelato.

Materials
Vanilla Gelato (makes about a pint of frozen gelato):
1 1/4 cup whole milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tsp. vanilla bean paste
1/16 tsp. salt
2 egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar

S'more Fixin's:
1/2 cup chopped marshmallows (about half the size of a mini marshmallow)
1 cup chopped graham crackers (~3 graham crackers)
1.5 oz. chocolate (I used Cordillera Cocuy 70%)

Methods
To make the gelato base:
1. In a medium saucepan (with a heavy bottom if you have it) over medium heat, warm the whole milk, cream, vanilla bean paste, and salt. Warm it thoroughly but do not boil. Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks and sugar until pale (use an electric mixer if it's convenient).
2. When the cream mixture is nearly at a boil, remove it from heat. Temper the eggs by whisking about 1/4 cup of the hot cream mixture into the eggs, then slowly stirring this mixture into the rest of the hot cream.
3. Place the pot back on medium heat. Stir constantly until the mixture begins to thicken (somewhere around 175°-180°). Stir until the custard covers the back of a wooden spoon and doesn't drip when you touch it.
4. Pour the custard into a large measuring cup or batter bowl (the spout will help you later). Place the custard in an ice bath to cool, stirring frequently. When the mixture is cool, place plastic wrap directly on the custard to seal it in the container. Refrigerate overnight (or however long it takes to chill completely--the colder the better).
To make the fixin's and gelato:
1. Place the oven rack next to the broiler and preheat the oven to 350°. Line a small baking sheet with aluminum foil and sprinkle with the chopped marshmallows. Bake the marshmallows until they are lightly browned on top. Take them out of the oven and move the foil with toasted marshmallows to a wire rack to cool slightly. Scrape the toasted marshmallow into a medium bowl with the chopped graham crackers. Stir to mix (kind of like making Rice Krispies). Set aside.
2. In the top of a double boiler, melt the chocolate (stirring frequently). Once melted, turn of the heat, but keep the chocolate in the double boiler so that it doesn't re-solidify.
3. Prepare your ice cream maker and churn the gelato base according to them manufacturer's instructions. (Note: It will freeze very quickly because it's a small batch. When adding the fixin's, you may need to use a spatula to help keep the ingredients moving in the machine.) Once the base is more-or-less solid, gradually add chunks of the mallowy-graham crackers (a fork is helpful because it will be really sticky). Finally, put the melted chocolate into a plastic bag and cut off one of the corners. Slowly stream the melted chocolate into the churning gelato. This will make little flakes of chocolate instead of chunks.
6. Scrape the gelato into a freezer-safe container with a lid. Place the gelato in the freezer and allow it to solidify, 30 minutes to an hour.

Results
Yum! I could have eaten the entire batch in one sitting. The gelato itself is nicely flavored and not too sweet. The texture is very creamy and thick like a custard. The s'more fixins fit into the texture nicely because they are all soft.

Discussion and Future Directions
I am very glad I chose to use my homemade marshmallows for s'more gelato! (I'm calling this gelato and not frozen custard or ice cream because the recipe for the original custard base was called a gelato and because the fat content is a lot lower than ice cream.) I was pleased that the gelato turned out as smooth and creamy as the pistachio gelato. I had trouble with the texture when I tried using the recipe for chocolate gelato. I think I've found the magic ratio of whole milk:cream:eggs for my taste. The texture is very much like that of a frozen custard vs. an ice cream, but, it's not so fatty as to leave your teeth coated in cream. I very much appreciate frozen desserts with a clean mouth feel. Nothing ruins ice cream like the inability to get it out of my mouth when I'm done eating it!

The fixin's turned out perfectly! I read a lot of recipes for different takes on s'more ice cream. None of them seemed quite right. The texture of fresh marshmallows in ice cream was distracting. Roasting them in the oven and stirring them into graham crackers gave the flavor of a s'more without making the marshmallow noticeable. I was nervous about the graham crackers getting soggy and debated whether or not that would be a good thing or a bad thing. I considered brushing them with melted chocolate to help them maintain a little crunch, but I'm glad I didn't. Instead, they provided soft little pockets of flavor. Finally, I was very pleased that I chose to make chocolate flecks or "stracciatella" instead of adding chunks of chocolate. Hershey's Milk Chocolate is soft enough that chunks would probably be ok, but anything more firm would hurt to bite into when frozen. Since I prefer dark chocolate to milk chocolate, I knew I wanted to use my secret stash of 70% chocolate. I buy it in big individually wrapped chunks from the grocery store. The first time I went to buy chocolate that way, I smelled every single dark chocolate and picked the one that smelled the best--Cordillera Cocuy 70%. I'm hooked. (So hooked that I recently bought a chunk the size of small hardcover novel.)

I'm also hooked on this gelato. It's definitely better than s'mores. Truthfully, I don't really like s'mores because they're so sweet they give me stomach aches. My mom argues that you have to have one s'more a summer for it to be considered summer. This gelato is my new s'more substitute. Not only does it taste better, but as an added bonus, I don't have to go outside in the hot, sticky Houston summer and get attacked by mosquitos to enjoy it! What a great and cooling take on the summer essential!

Supplementary Materials

Angel Food Cake with Rhubarb Curd Whipped Cream

While I lived in St. Louis, I did a lot of baking to avoid graduate school. I found that baking  was gratifying because I could produce something delicious, which I found a lot more fulfilling than failed experiments. Baking, particularly for others, was the easiest way that I found purpose. I even started this food blog to encourage my creativity (with writing in addition to baking). During my 18 months in St. Louis, I had a lot of baking/cooking successes and a few failures. I rarely made the same thing twice, which allowed me to try a lot of new recipes (and not worry about mastering past failures). This also forced me to learn a lot of new techniques. Some of the highlights were my first gelato, mousse, homemade lemon curd, meringue for an angel food cake, and a pumpkin pie made from a squash. I even made homemade granola, everything bagels, and mini "piecakens" by baking little pies in a mini muffin tin and baking them inside of cupcakes. Since moving to Houston, I've had two extra mouths to use as taste testers! I experimented with scones,  puff pastry, muffins made with steel cut oats, and sunflower seed butter. I made a pie with lard crust. I made a creamy pie with brandy and chocolate liqueur. Most recently, I made homemade graham crackers and homemade amaretto marshmallows for s'mores.

So why all of this back story? The recipe I'm sharing today pulls techniques from a few of my most successful St. Louis kitchen experiments. Of all of these kitchen experiments, my favorite was probably homemade angel food cake. I found a recipe for angel food cake from John Barricelli (see this recipe for an orange version). This recipe seemed to have a lot of angel food cake no-nos. First of all, it requested a nonstick tube pan. It called for granulated sugar instead of superfine baker's sugar or powdered sugar. The cake was to be baked at 350º instead of the typical 300º. The oven rack was to be placed in the middle position, not lower in the oven like most recipes. But what really set it apart from all other recipes I'd seen was that it called for dissolving half of the sugar in the egg whites over a double boiler, then whipping it into meringue. Needless to say, I was skeptical of the recipe, but knew I had to try it. And how did it turn out? Perfect. It had exactly the right airy texture without the metallic taste you get from boxed angel food cake mixes. Since I made the first vanilla angel food cake, I've made a chocolate version, and now the version with rhubarb frosting that I'm sharing today.

I wanted to use pink frosting in honor of my great grandma, Nan, who made me angel food cakes frosted with pink Cool Whip for my birthday when I was a little girl. I was lucky enough to be able to spend 12 of my now 25 birthdays with my great grandma. I knew I wanted a frosting more sophisticated than Cool Whip, but what? What summer food is pink? Rhubarb! With 12 egg yolks left over from the angel food cake, I thought I'd throw half of them in rhubarb curd. I stirred the rhubarb curd into whipped cream for pink frosting (I got the idea from Behind the Skillet). The angel food cake was adapted from John Barricelli's recipe and the rhubarb curd from Everyday Flavours.

Objective
Make an angel food cake with rhubarb curd whipped cream frosting.

Materials

Angel Food Cake:
12 egg whites (about 1 1/2 cups)

1 1/2 cup sugar, divided

1 tsp. lime juice

1/2 tsp. cream of tartar

1/2 tsp. coarse salt

1/2 tbsp. vanilla paste

1 cup cake flour, sifted

10-inch tube pan (do not grease)

Rhubarb Curd:
1 pound rhubarb, chopped into 1/2" pieces
1/4 cup sugar
6 egg yolks
1/2 - 3/4 cup sugar
pinch salt
Juice of 1 lime
1/4 cup seedless raspberry puree*
3-4 tbsp. unsalted butter

*blend raspberries (frozen is fine) until smooth, then strain

Rhubarb Curd Whipped Cream Frosting:
1 recipe of Rhubarb Curd, fully chilled (you may use less)
1 cup heavy whipping cream

Methods

To make the Angel Food Cake:
1. Preheat the oven to 350° with the rack in the middle. Place the tube pan on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and set aside. Set up your stand mixer with the whisk attachment for later use.

2. In the bottom of a double boiler, bring 1 inch of water to a boil. In the top, whisk together the egg whites, 3/4 cup sugar, lime juice, cream of tartar, salt, and vanilla paste until the sugar dissolves. Move the mixture to the bowl of your stand mixer. Whisk, starting on low speed and gradually increasing to high speed, until the meringue is glossy and forms stiff peaks (do not beat them so long they dry out). Using a large rubber spatula, fold in the flour and the remaining 3/4 cup sugar.

3. Gently scrape the batter into the tube pan. Tap the pan a few times to to remove air bubbles. Smooth the top of the batter by running a rubber spatula over it.

4. Bake the cake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until the cake springs back when touched and is lightly browned. Invert the cake onto a wire rack or wine bottle to cool for 1 hour. Release the cake from the pan by gently pulling the cake away from the sides of the pan. You may need to run a plastic knife around the edge, but be careful not to cut into the cake. Let the cake cool completely on a wire rack.

To make the Rhubarb Curd:
1. In a small bowl, mix the chopped rhubarb with 1/4 cup sugar and juice from half of a lime. Stir and set aside for 30 minutes to an hour. Place into a medium saucepan and cook on medium heat until the the rhubarb is completely broken down (about 10-15 minutes). Cool briefly. Transfer to a blender or food processor and puree. Set aside.
2. In the top of a double boiler over boiling water, whisk the egg yolks, 1/2 cup sugar, salt, and juice of 1/2 lime. Whisk to begin to dissolve the sugar. Add the rhubarb puree and seedless raspberry puree. Whisk until the mixture comes to 160ºF. Remove from heat and strain through a fine meshed sieve. Gradually stir in the butter, tablespoon by tablespoon. Move the curd to a container with a lid, place plastic wrap directly on the curd, and chill.

To make the Rhubarb Curd Whipped Cream Frosting:
1. Whip 1 cup heavy cream to medium peaks.
2. Fold in 1/2-1 cup rhubarb curd.

Results
The cake turned out great (though I was a little too vigorous trying to get it out of the pan and ripped part of it). The texture was light and a bit sticky and had a nicely browned crust. The rhubarb curd tasted like (surprise) rhubarb. While it wasn't as thick as I tend to make lemon curd, it was easy to stir into whipped cream. I would call the color a light mauve. I added a drop of magenta food coloring to the whipped cream to intensify the color of the frosting a smidgen.

Discussion and Future Directions
I really love this angel food cake and am so glad I gave it a try that St. Louis morning. I simply cannot imagine ever eating a boxed angel food cake again. Mind you, this angel food cake in particular is more challenging than a boxed mix because it requires the double boiler and you have to know a thing or two about meringue to know when you're at a stiff (and not dry) peak. There are a number of simpler angel food cakes on the internet that simply require folding dry ingredients into the meringue. I've never made any of those recipes, and now, there's no need because this recipe is perfect. Don't have a double boiler? Neither do I! It was one of the items that didn't make it from St. Louis to Houston because I didn't want to make the space to pack it (now I regret that decision because it was a very nice depth and made of glass, which I prefer to metal because it is nonreactive). Instead, I set a glass Pyrex bowl in a saucepan and it worked very well. If you try this, just make sure that you cover most of the edge of the pot or you'll risk steam burns.

Now onto the rhubarb whipped cream frosting. I don't think I anticipated how much the curd would taste like rhubarb! Also, I'd seen a lot of pictures of yellow rhubarb curd, so I found myself pleasantly surprised by the dusty rose/mauve color of mine (see the photo below).  For the light, airy sweetness of the angel food cake, I thought a tart, refreshing topping would be perfect. While I liked it, I was a bit overzealous with the frosting and wished I only lightly frosted it. Too much frosting overpowered the lightness of the cake. After all, we eat angel food cake because it's "healthier" than other cakes. It certainly packs carbohydrates with the sugar, but at least it's cholesterol free (without the frosting..)! If I made the frosting again, I think I would pipe it along the edges instead of use it to completely frost the cake.

This was a great dessert to make for my summer birthday. I took it along to a combined birthday party. Another friend made chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting and someone brought homemade peach greek frozen yogurt. With all of the desserts we had, I was pleased to be able to take home about half of the cake for snacks. I even managed to save one piece for my actual birthday!

Supplementary Materials