A Better Than Prize Winning Cherry Pie

This weekend I made what might be the most scrumptious cherry pie that has ever been made. It was just sweet enough to be pleasant, but not tooth-achingly sweet like pies made with canned pie filling tend to be.

I would have loved to have made it from fresh cherries, but they were too expensive to get enough for a pie, so I went with the canned cherries that are in the fruit aisle – NOT pie filling. There were three different kinds of cherries to choose from. I took a can of tart cherries and a can of cherries that were in a heavy syrup (neither one had high fructose corn syrup). I was worried that the$ two cans (one was 15 oz. and the other was 14.5 oz.) wouldn’t be enough for the pie, but it actually was the perfect amount.

The recipe I based my pie on was titled “Prize Winning Cherry Pie.” I made a few modifications to it, and, all modesty aside, I think my pie would have beaten the one from the recipe.

Better-than-Prize-Winning Cherry Pie

• Double pie crust – enough for a top and bottom crust of one 9″ pie
• 2 15-oz cans pitted, red cherries (see above for comments on what I used)
• 3/4 c + 1/4 c cherry juice (drained/reserved from canned cherries)
• 1/3 c flour
• 1/2 c sugar (you might need more or less depending on whether your canned cherries are in syrup or not)
• 2 T lemon juice
• 1 T butter
• 1 t almond extract
• pinch salt

Line your pie plate with the bottom crust – being careful to gently lay the dough in without stretching. Trim only if necessary. You want about 1/2″ – 1″ of extra dough around the rim to help seal the top crust on. Refrigerate.

Drain the cans of cherries, saving 1 cup of the juice. I got exactly 1 cup from the cherries I drained. If you’re a little shy of a cup, add enough water to equal the 1 cup you need.

Pour 3/4 cup of the cherry juice in a small pan and bring to a boil. Whisk the flour into the remaining 1/4 c cherry juice. When the juice in the pan comes to a boil, add in the flour/cherry juice mixture, stirring constantly. The mixture will thicken almost immediately. Cook for a couple of minutes, then slowly add in the sugar. Cook 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat.

Add in remaining ingredients and stir to combine. Mix in cherries. Set mixture aside to cool for 20-30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Roll out pastry for top crust.  If making lattice top, cut into strips.

Pour cooled cherry mixture into pie crust.  Cover with top crust, crimp top and bottom crusts together. If you didn’t make a lattice top, cut several steam/vent holes in top.

Place pie in oven on middle rack. Place a baking sheet on the rack directly below to catch any filling that might overflow. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Turn oven temperature down to 350 degrees and continue baking for 25-35 minutes.

The crust should be dark golden brown, top and bottom (obviously the bottom crust can only be seen if you’re using a glass pie pan). Don’t be afraid to leave the pie in the oven a bit longer if it just doesn’t look done.

Remove pie from oven and set on a cooling rack. Best served at room temperature or slightly warm with ice cream.

Clam Chowder in a Bread Bowl for Dad

When I was a teenager, and wanted something from Dad … money, the car, permission, etc. … I always opened the conversation with the question,”Daddy, Do you know how much I love you?”

And he would always answer with a question of his own, “What do you want this time?”

Well, this weekend I had the opportunity to show Dad how much I still love him. It was his birthday weekend, which, as in most families, means he chooses the meal.

And thus it was that on this gorgeous 80+ degree weekend in a valley in the Greater Puget Sound region, I baked bread bowls and made a kicker pot of clam chowder.

Dad, I love you enough to not only cook clam chowder for you on a hot day, but I also grilled some of the proscuttio-wrapped asparagus that you wanted to try.

Happy Birthday!

Bread Bowls

Recipe from Jacques Pepin’s Complete Techniques cookbook

9 c all-purpose, unbleached flour
3 envelopes yeast (6 3/4 tsp)
3 1/2 c water (at approx. 80 degrees)
1 T salt

- Mix the yeast and water together, and place two-thirds (6 cups) of the flour in the bowl of an electric mixer.

- After 2-3 minutes, stir the water/yeast mixture again. Wait another 5 mins. until the water starts to bubble on top. Add the yeast mixture to the flour and using the dough hook, beat on medium for about 5 mins. Add the salt and keep mixing for a few seconds.

- Add 2 more cups of the flour and keep beating on low for 1 minutes.

- Place dough on counter and knead by hand with the rest of the four. More or less flour will be needed, depending on weather, humidity, etc. Reserve at least 1/2 cup flour for the end. Work the dough by folding it with the palms of your hands. Continue kneading 7-8 mins. Sprinkle with more flour if it is sticky and absorbent. The dough should be satiny and resilient.

- Sprinkle the dough with flour and place it in a large bowl to allow for expansion. Cover with plastic to prevent a skin from forming on the top and to retain moisture. Allow to rise for 2 hours in an 80-85 degree area.

- After 2 hours, check the dough by plunging 2 fingers into it. If the depression made by your fingers remains, the dough has risen enough.

- Knead the dough for a few seconds to knock down the air bubbles. Let the dough raise a second time, or divide it into whatever shapes you wish.

At this point, I divided mine into 9 very large “buns”, let them rise a second time. About 1/2 hour before I thought they would be ready for the oven, I turned the oven on to 450 degrees and set a pan of water on the bottom rack to create steam.

Since we would be using the bread for soup bowls, I wanted a really good crust on the bread. Right before I put the bread in the oven, I tossed a couple “handfuls” of water on the hot oven floor to create steam and turned the oven down to 400 degrees. Then 5, 10 and 15 minutes after I put in the bread, I repeated the water-throwing process. It baked about 20 minutes more, to an internal temp of 210 degrees.

Next up…the chowder recipe…

Time Travel and Pie

I have come to believe that the internet is a time portal.

I sit down to check out a couple quick things and the next time I blink, and hour’s gone by. Or two.

Sometimes three.

So if you visit my house and find that I didn’t get my kitchen floor mopped, and wonder why there’s laundry piled up, know that it isn’t my fault. I just got caught in a time warp.

Then sit down and have some of Smitten Kitchen’s Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie.

Strange how I can always find the time to cook, though. Isn’t it?

Austin’s Chocolate Cake

Like most families, we offer the kids their choice of dinner and dessert for their birthdays. And for the past six years or so, Austin’s birthday cake has always been the one that I created in response to his indecision. His two favorite desserts are chocolate cake and french silk pie. And trying to choose between the two for his birthday dessert was causing him to totally stress out.

So I combined the two. Made a chocolate cake with french silk pie filling between the layers. It became an instant classic in our home, and ever since, the combination is known as Austin Chocolate Cake.

The only thing I have struggled with over the years is the icing. Because of the filling, it needs to be kept in the fridge. Which meant that the traditional buttercream frosting just didn’t work. Buttercream is best at room temp.

So last year I experimented with a ganache, and that was the answer. The cake I use is a chocolate wacky cake (otherwise known as a crazy cake or vinegar cake). It isn’t too sweet, has a good chocolate flavor, and is fairly substantial. You could use whatever your favorite chocolate cake recipe or mix is.

My recipe for french silk pie uses raw eggs. I know where my eggs come from, so I have no problem with it, but if you would rather not use raw eggs yourself, you can either use the liquid egg whites that are sold in the little milk-type cartons, or there are even eggs that are pasturized in the shell.

Happy Birthday, Austin!

Austin’s Chocolate Cake Cake:
Cake:
3 c flour
4 T cocoa
1 t salt
2 c sugar
2 t baking soda
3/4 c salad oil
2 c water
2 t vinegar
2 t vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Butter & flour 2 round cake pans. Mix all ingredients together with mixer.
Divide batter evenly between prepared pans.
Bake 35-45 minutes until done according to the toothpick test.

French Silk Filling
Mix until light and fluffy:
1/2 c Butter
3/4 c Sugar
Melt & cool slightly
2 oz semi-sweet chocolate
Add chocolate to butter & sugar mixture. Mix to combine.
Add:
1 t vanilla
1 egg
Beat until smooth & silky.
Add:
1 egg
Continue beating until smooth, light and silky.
Fold in:
4 oz Cool Whip or equivalent of whipped cream, beaten with 1 tsp gelatin powder to stabilize.

Chill to firm before using for filling.

Eggs + Air = Deliciousness

Even though I disdain Valentine’s Day as a “made-up” holiday, I am willing to use it as an excuse to make a delicious dinner.

The highlight of this year’s valentine’s meal was the souffle at the end.

Paul and I have a very special relationship with souffle. It was the dessert we had at our very fancy, way-out-of-our-price-range, first anniversary dinner. It is now funny to think of how overwhelmed we were by the sheer fanciness of everything.

It was a prix fixe menu. Not wanting to appear too unsophisticated, we ordered iced tea instead of sodas. I have no recollection of what appetizers or salads we had, though I know they were there. For the entrees, I went with the pepper-crusted steak while Paul thoroughly enjoyed the duck. And then we had dessert.

This was the first time ever that we had been required to commit to a dessert before the meal even began. But, as our very kind and patient waiter explained, souffles take time.

The dessert of the day was the Grand Marnier Souffle. We each had one placed in front of us, then the waiter plunged two spoons into the middle of them to make way for a dollop of whipped cream.

We were enchanted and impressed, and loved every moment of it. And ever since then, the souffle has held a special place in our hearts.

At that time, with my limited cooking skills, I never even considered trying to recreate the dish. Eight years ago I was braver and made my first souffle for our 10th anniversary.(Holy Cow! How OLD am I?) It was very egg-y tasting. Think puffy, sweet scrambled eggs. Not a good thing.

But over the years, my cooking skills have continued to improve, and I had a fridge-full of fresh, beautiful eggs that were calling to me. So I tried again, and it worked.

The recipe I used can be found here, so I won’t retype it. The only think I did differently was not using orange oil, since I didn’t have any.

Otherwise, it was really easy. Buttered and sugared the ramekins, and made the recipe up to the point of beating the egg whites. Then, after dinner, it was a simple matter of beating and folding in the egg whites, spooning everything into the ramekins, and baking.

And savoring.