The Great Gatsby came out this weekend. Like everyone else in the world, I read it in high school and loved it. I especially remember wondering what a mint julep was--they seemed to always be drinking mint juleps! When I went off to W&L, mint juleps were a spring term tradition. Alumni weekend usually fell on Derby weekend, two forces conspiring for fraternity boys to descend upon the Lexington Kroger and clear it out of mint.
Last weekend, Andrew and I made plans to make mint juleps and watch the Kentucky Derby. So I made derby pie. It is the perfect, almost sinful combination of chocolate, pecans and bourbon. I used the America's Test Kitchen recipe almost exactly--aside from swapping pecans for walnuts, because pecans are better. Otherwise, it was perfect. You get a pretty strong taste of bourbon, which I love. The consistency of the pie would still be good if you left out the bourbon, but why would you do that?
Derby Pie from America's Test Kitchen
The star chefs at America's test kitchen recommend refrigerating and then freezing your crust before you bake it. I didn't do this, and I think it turned out fine. I would use pie weights if you have them. (I didn't, but my crust puffed up so much I finally went to Bed Bath & Beyond and dropped $5 on some ceramic weights the next day!)
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Cover your chilled pie crust with parchment paper and pie weights. I used my homemade pie crust (recipe here). Bake 20-25 minutes or until the dough doesn't look wet. Remove pie from oven, take off parchment paper and weights, and reduce temperature to 325 degrees.
Chop 3 ounces bittersweet chocolate into small pieces. Sprinkle the chocolate on the bottom of the hot crust and let it sit and melt. After 5 minutes, spread the chocolate into an even layer.
Cut 1 stick unsalted butter into small pieces. Melt it in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly, until butter is a nutty brown. Remove from heat and slowly stir in 3 tablespoons bourbon. Let cool 5 minutes.
Whisk together 3/4 cup sugar, 1/2 cup light brown sugar, 2 tablespoons cornstarch and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Add 2 large eggs plus 1 yolk and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Slowly add the warm butter mixture.
Chop 1 1/2 cups walnuts or pecans. (America's Test Kitchen says to toast the nuts first; I didn't and thought they were still delicious.) Add nuts to the mixture and pour the whole filling into the chocolate-lined crust. Bake 35 to 40 minutes until center only jiggles a little. Cool on a wire rack for 4 hours, or in the fridge.
Showing posts with label pie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pie. Show all posts
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Monday, November 19, 2012
Thanksgiving: Stuffing, Carrots and Pecan Pie
I'm back! As you may have noticed from the incessant Christmas ads, Thanksgiving is upon us. Thanksgiving is really one of my favorite holidays because it's so unpretentious. It's about eating a delicious meal with people you love. Better yet, it's about preparing a delicious meal with the people you love. It's worth waking up early to throw on an apron, watch the Macy's parade and brown flour for the gravy. Every family has their own traditions: in my family, it isn't Thanksgiving without rice, at least five types of cranberry sauce and wine jelly with boiled custard. Well, that isn't strictly true. We've had Thanksgiving with a lot of different people, not just with family in the same city every year, which I think is great: you can have the same holiday in many different ways. Which is why it's okay that I've married into a mashed potatoes family...
However, I firmly believe that Thanksgiving shouldn't be the only day of the year when you go all out and cook your favorite foods. For this reason (and because Andrew got a free turkey with his flu shot), we had turkey dinner when my parents came to visit last week.
My parents' visit was wonderful. Daddy hadn't been to Tallahassee before, and Mommy had only been to help me move some of my stuff down before the wedding, so we got to spend the long weekend showing them everything the beautiful town of Tallahassee has to offer. We went to Wakulla Springs, Maclay Gardens, the fair... and Mommy's college friend Susan and her husband Mike came to visit! We saved turkey for the night they were coming because we would need help eating it.
So here are some of my favorite recipes that I made last week and one that I'll make tomorrow night to take to Tampa. If my mom sends me some other family favorites (wine jelly and cranberry chutney??), I'll post them; they don't seem to be in my recipe file just yet!
Grandmama's Sausage Stuffing
My grandmama was an absolutely incredible cook. I remember Thanksgiving weekends helping her roll out and cut the yeast rolls for dinner (a competitive item when my twin cousins, uncle and I were at the same end of the table). This is her stuffing recipe, which I think is absolutely fantastic. We didn't put it in the bird last week, since it makes the cooking take longer, but if you have time it's worth it.
Cut 1 pound sausage (the kind that comes in a giant roll) into 4 slices. Cook it on the stove, breaking it up into small pieces while it cooks. Once all the sausage is browned, take it out and put it in a bowl.
Meanwhile, take 1 pound of soft white bread. Old bread is great; if it's fresh, set the slices out to dry a little so they harden. In my family, we try to save heels and crusts in the freezer and thaw them for stuffing. Then cut the bread up into small pieces.
Chop 1 large or 2 medium onions, and cook it in the sausage grease until soft and clear. Mix the onion, sausage and bread together, and add salt and pepper to taste.
If you're cooking it outside the bird, add chicken broth (I used 2 cups for the whole thing) and heat in a 350-degree oven for 30 minutes. The chicken broth softens it, since it's missing out on those yummy drippings from the bird.
Carrots Vindalee
I believe this is a more recent recipe in my family's Thanksgiving arsenal, but it is a great one. This is the only version of cooked carrots Andrew will eat. It's from the "Mountain Elegance" cookbook by the Junior League of Asheville, NC. (Thank you to Auntie Flo for correcting my original, poorly remembered version!) You can never have enough vegetables at Thanksgiving, and the orange brightens up the plate.
Cut 4 or 5 carrots into thin slices. Chop 1 celery heart, including the leaves. Cook the carrots and celery on the stove covered in dry white wine and a tablespoon or two of sugar. The wine should cook down so it isn't soupy. Add a teaspoon or two of dill and enjoy!
The Jackson, MS Junior League Pecan Pie
This is what I'm making for Thanksgiving this year and I'm so excited. Not only is it delicious--better than any other pecan pie you have ever eaten ever--but it is incredibly fun to make. I'm even going all out and making my own pie crust (thanks, Eleanor!). This recipe came from Becky Heishman, a good family friend. Daddy likes to call it PEAKEN pie.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Bake a 9-inch pie shell for 3 or 4 minutes. Cook 1/2 cup butter, 1 1/4 cups sugar and 1/2 cup light corn syrup over low heat until the butter melts. Do not let it boil. Cool slightly.
Lightly beat 3 eggs (the recipe notes, "Do not unloose your inner masochist"). Stir them into the mixture--be careful not to add the eggs while it's too warm or they will start to cook and you will be very embarrassed in front of your auntie who's chopping carrots. Mix the eggs in well.
Finely chop 1 1/2 cup pecans, and add them to the mixture with 1 tsp vanilla. (I like to reserve 1/2 cup or so pecans to arrange a pretty pattern on the top, but you don't have to.) Pour filling into crust and bake for 40-45 minutes. Pie should be soft in center when removed from oven.
However, I firmly believe that Thanksgiving shouldn't be the only day of the year when you go all out and cook your favorite foods. For this reason (and because Andrew got a free turkey with his flu shot), we had turkey dinner when my parents came to visit last week.
 |
| At Wakulla Springs |
So here are some of my favorite recipes that I made last week and one that I'll make tomorrow night to take to Tampa. If my mom sends me some other family favorites (wine jelly and cranberry chutney??), I'll post them; they don't seem to be in my recipe file just yet!
 |
| The feast. I love any excuse to pull out the fine china and crystal. Andrew, as you can see, loves milk. |
My grandmama was an absolutely incredible cook. I remember Thanksgiving weekends helping her roll out and cut the yeast rolls for dinner (a competitive item when my twin cousins, uncle and I were at the same end of the table). This is her stuffing recipe, which I think is absolutely fantastic. We didn't put it in the bird last week, since it makes the cooking take longer, but if you have time it's worth it.
Cut 1 pound sausage (the kind that comes in a giant roll) into 4 slices. Cook it on the stove, breaking it up into small pieces while it cooks. Once all the sausage is browned, take it out and put it in a bowl.
Meanwhile, take 1 pound of soft white bread. Old bread is great; if it's fresh, set the slices out to dry a little so they harden. In my family, we try to save heels and crusts in the freezer and thaw them for stuffing. Then cut the bread up into small pieces.
Chop 1 large or 2 medium onions, and cook it in the sausage grease until soft and clear. Mix the onion, sausage and bread together, and add salt and pepper to taste.
If you're cooking it outside the bird, add chicken broth (I used 2 cups for the whole thing) and heat in a 350-degree oven for 30 minutes. The chicken broth softens it, since it's missing out on those yummy drippings from the bird.
Carrots Vindalee
I believe this is a more recent recipe in my family's Thanksgiving arsenal, but it is a great one. This is the only version of cooked carrots Andrew will eat. It's from the "Mountain Elegance" cookbook by the Junior League of Asheville, NC. (Thank you to Auntie Flo for correcting my original, poorly remembered version!) You can never have enough vegetables at Thanksgiving, and the orange brightens up the plate.
Cut 4 or 5 carrots into thin slices. Chop 1 celery heart, including the leaves. Cook the carrots and celery on the stove covered in dry white wine and a tablespoon or two of sugar. The wine should cook down so it isn't soupy. Add a teaspoon or two of dill and enjoy!
The Jackson, MS Junior League Pecan Pie
This is what I'm making for Thanksgiving this year and I'm so excited. Not only is it delicious--better than any other pecan pie you have ever eaten ever--but it is incredibly fun to make. I'm even going all out and making my own pie crust (thanks, Eleanor!). This recipe came from Becky Heishman, a good family friend. Daddy likes to call it PEAKEN pie.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Bake a 9-inch pie shell for 3 or 4 minutes. Cook 1/2 cup butter, 1 1/4 cups sugar and 1/2 cup light corn syrup over low heat until the butter melts. Do not let it boil. Cool slightly.
Lightly beat 3 eggs (the recipe notes, "Do not unloose your inner masochist"). Stir them into the mixture--be careful not to add the eggs while it's too warm or they will start to cook and you will be very embarrassed in front of your auntie who's chopping carrots. Mix the eggs in well.
Finely chop 1 1/2 cup pecans, and add them to the mixture with 1 tsp vanilla. (I like to reserve 1/2 cup or so pecans to arrange a pretty pattern on the top, but you don't have to.) Pour filling into crust and bake for 40-45 minutes. Pie should be soft in center when removed from oven.
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Spinach quiche and (bonus!) an Old-Fashioned
Neville has been complaining that he can't cook curtains, so we're back with food this time! Maybe it's the French major in me, but I have always loved a good quiche. Served with greens drizzled in balsamic vinaigrette, it is a surprisingly filling meal. One of the coffeeshops in Westfield, New Jersey, where I went to high school, has a different type of quiche every day, which I would often get for lunch as long as it didn't contain asparagus. When I lived in Aix-en-Provence last summer, I would often grab a tartelette aux épinards for a quick lunch in town. My spinach quiche still brings back memories of strolling through downtown Aix with my friends, getting fresh peaches at the market and speaking nothing but French.
I started developing this recipe when I was living on $11 a day in Richmond for my poverty minor. It is quick, easy and incredibly forgiving. If you go with a pre-made crust, you can get it in the oven in less than half an hour. It calls for yogurt instead of sour cream, so it's very good for you but still has that nice tartness in the center. I use plain, fat-free yogurt; vanilla has a lot of extra sweetener added, which could throw off the flavors. The recipe is super-flexible: you can add just about whatever vegetables you feel like to it. I saw a beautiful quiche on Pinterest that had sliced tomatoes on top. When I get to it, I'm going to experiment with a quiche Lorraine (ham and cheese) like my host mom made in France, but I think that would call for nicer cheese. If you're adding a lot more stuff, cut out an egg or two so the crust doesn't overflow.
The quiches I made tonight were a little different. Andrew asked me not to use onion this time (dislike of onion is his only flaw, I promise), so I used these cute mini-tart pans to make six mini-quiches. Three had onion, three didn't. The extras will be great for lunch the next couple of days! I kept the whole process separate but equal, so his portions wouldn't be tainted with delicious sauteed onion. However, this is the regular recipe. If you're making it with the two regular crusts, I would freeze one for later once it's partially baked. As my family likes to say, it's money in the bank.
Spinach Quiche
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Prick your crust (1 deep-dish unbaked pie crust, 2 regular crusts or 6 mini-tarts) with a fork and bake for 5 minutes.
Thaw 10 oz frozen chopped spinach by running water over it in a colander or microwaving it. Squeeze out as much excess water as you can. Meanwhile, chop one small onion and 3 cloves of garlic, and sautee them in a little olive oil. Add spinach and cook until dry. Make sure to break up any clumps. If you're adding other vegetables that want to be precooked, toss them in with the spinach.
Beat together 5 eggs, 1 cup plain yogurt and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper. Stir in 4 ounces shredded cheddar cheese and the spinach mixture. Pour into the pie crust.
Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes. Then decrease the temperature to 350 degrees and bake for 30 more minutes. Let cool before serving.
As I said above, normally I use a pie crust from the grocery store, but I was inspired to make my own for almost literally the first time ever. Fans may recall from my first post that I made pie crust by hand in home ec in eighth grade. It was unpleasant, and the ensuing apple pie was nowhere as good as ones I have made following my grandmama's recipe--with storebought crust. (My family has a thing about apple pie, but this is not the time.) Anyway, my experience with the chocolate tart and my food processor taught me that pie dough does not have to be terrifying. So I tested out this recipe, which was given to me by my BFF, bridesmaid and notorious pie lover, Eleanor! This made more dough than I needed for my mini-pans, so I will be creating a pie sometime soon...
Pie dough from Eleanor
Mix together 4 cups flour, 1 tablespoon sugar and 2 teaspoons salt. Cut in 1 3/4 cups shortening or butter. Separately, mix 1 tablespoon vinegar, 1 large egg and 1/2 cup cold water. Add this mixture to the flour and shortening. Chill. Roll into desired shapes. May be frozen. Makes enough for 1 and a half pies.
Finally, I have a bonus recipe that comes from my very tall husband. We procured bitters this afternoon and he made my new favorite drink for me! I first tried it at the Southern Inn in Lexington after graduation. Tonight, it helped motivate me while I quiched. This old-fashioned is pictured next to a scarf-in-progress with the Trident, the symbol of W&L, knitted into it. Andrew has so many talents!
Andrew's Old-fashioneds
Put 2 maraschino cherries and a slice of orange in the bottom of a glass. (An old-fashioned glass is best, but do we need to say it?) Add 1 teaspoon sugar and a splash of club soda. Muddle everything together into a paste. Add 2 ounces of bourbon. Mix together and add several ice cubes.
 |
| Lavender fields from Haute-Provence to get you in a French mood |
The quiches I made tonight were a little different. Andrew asked me not to use onion this time (dislike of onion is his only flaw, I promise), so I used these cute mini-tart pans to make six mini-quiches. Three had onion, three didn't. The extras will be great for lunch the next couple of days! I kept the whole process separate but equal, so his portions wouldn't be tainted with delicious sauteed onion. However, this is the regular recipe. If you're making it with the two regular crusts, I would freeze one for later once it's partially baked. As my family likes to say, it's money in the bank.
Spinach Quiche
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Prick your crust (1 deep-dish unbaked pie crust, 2 regular crusts or 6 mini-tarts) with a fork and bake for 5 minutes.
Thaw 10 oz frozen chopped spinach by running water over it in a colander or microwaving it. Squeeze out as much excess water as you can. Meanwhile, chop one small onion and 3 cloves of garlic, and sautee them in a little olive oil. Add spinach and cook until dry. Make sure to break up any clumps. If you're adding other vegetables that want to be precooked, toss them in with the spinach.
 |
| Here we have one wife working two skillets for one onion-averse husband |
Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes. Then decrease the temperature to 350 degrees and bake for 30 more minutes. Let cool before serving.
 | |
| The cheese makes a delicious golden topping... |
As I said above, normally I use a pie crust from the grocery store, but I was inspired to make my own for almost literally the first time ever. Fans may recall from my first post that I made pie crust by hand in home ec in eighth grade. It was unpleasant, and the ensuing apple pie was nowhere as good as ones I have made following my grandmama's recipe--with storebought crust. (My family has a thing about apple pie, but this is not the time.) Anyway, my experience with the chocolate tart and my food processor taught me that pie dough does not have to be terrifying. So I tested out this recipe, which was given to me by my BFF, bridesmaid and notorious pie lover, Eleanor! This made more dough than I needed for my mini-pans, so I will be creating a pie sometime soon...
 |
| Look how cute they are! |
Pie dough from Eleanor
Mix together 4 cups flour, 1 tablespoon sugar and 2 teaspoons salt. Cut in 1 3/4 cups shortening or butter. Separately, mix 1 tablespoon vinegar, 1 large egg and 1/2 cup cold water. Add this mixture to the flour and shortening. Chill. Roll into desired shapes. May be frozen. Makes enough for 1 and a half pies.
Finally, I have a bonus recipe that comes from my very tall husband. We procured bitters this afternoon and he made my new favorite drink for me! I first tried it at the Southern Inn in Lexington after graduation. Tonight, it helped motivate me while I quiched. This old-fashioned is pictured next to a scarf-in-progress with the Trident, the symbol of W&L, knitted into it. Andrew has so many talents!
Andrew's Old-fashioneds
Put 2 maraschino cherries and a slice of orange in the bottom of a glass. (An old-fashioned glass is best, but do we need to say it?) Add 1 teaspoon sugar and a splash of club soda. Muddle everything together into a paste. Add 2 ounces of bourbon. Mix together and add several ice cubes.
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