Designer Apple Pie

Over the holidays, I purchased several new cookbooks, including Flour by Joanne Chang.  The first recipe I was inspired to try was the one for homemade Pop Tarts.  They turned out well, but they were better eaten than seen... I simply don't have the counter space necessary to roll out pastry dough as large as what is called for in that recipe.



In any case, I only used half the amount of pâte brisée required, because I decided (rightly) that I didn't need to eat eight "Pop Tarts."  What was I going to do with the extra pie dough?  Oh to have such "problems"!

I decided to make a pie that I've had my eye on ever since I saw the recipe for it, oh so long ago: Rose Levy Berenbaum's Designer Apple Pie.  I'd always been too intimidated to try it before now, but it turns out that I needn't have feared -- it was actually extremely easy!  Granted, I didn't make the leaf border (I don't have a leaf cutter, and also not enough pie dough), but the most beautiful part of this pie, to me, is the arrangement of the apples.  The leaf border does make it look extra nice, but I think it turned out well  without it anyway.



I think one of the keys to making the apples look nice is to slice them very thin.  This takes no time at all with a mandoline -- I used a handheld OXO one that cost less than $10.  When arranging the slices in the pie, alternate how the apples overlap from ring to ring (go clockwise for one ring, then counterclockwise the next, then clockwise, etc.) -- RLB's recipe doesn't say to do this, but that's what I did and I think it added something, visually.   The apricot preserves at the end are VERY important to give the apples color and shine.  When you take the pie out of the oven, even though it's done, the apples look pale and almost like they haven't been cooked.  The preserves really add a lot.  Finally, though the recipe calls for about 6 apples, I only used 3 1/2 medium-sized ones (Granny Smiths and Pink Ladys).  Unfortunately you won't really know how many you need until after they've been macerated, which means if you find out you need more when you're layering, you have to go through a number of steps to get additional apple slices ready.  So it might be better to err on the side of caution.  Despite using fewer apples, I still got the required amount of juice out of them, either by being lucky, or because I let them sit for an hour plus.



As for the pâte brisée, I'm a big fan.  It was easy to put together, buttery, flaky, and delicious.  Like all pastry dough, however, the trick is that you need to keep it very, very cold for the best results.

Designer Apple Pie (recipe adapted from Rose Levy Berenbaum's The Pie and Pastry Bible)

Ingredients:

• 1 9-in pie crust dough (RLB's cream cheese pie crust is phenomenal, or try Joanne Chang's pâte brisée, recipe below)
• 2 1/2 lbs apples (about 6), peeled, cored, and thinly sliced
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 tbsp + 1 tsp cornstarch
• 1 egg white, lightly beaten
• 1/4 cup apricot preserves

Method

1. Remove the dough from the refrigerator. If necessary, allow it to sit for 10 minutes or until it is soft enough to roll. On a floured pastry cloth or between 2 sheets of lightly floured plastic wrap, roll pastry to 1/8-in thick or less (about a 12-in circle).
2. Transfer it to the pie plate. Tuck overhanging crust under, to create an edge. Cover the pastry lightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate it for minimum of 1 hour and maximum of 24 hours.
3. Preheat oven to 425°F at least 20 minutes before baking. Line the pastry with parchment, pleating it as necessary so it fits into the pan, and fill it with pie weights such as dried beans or peas. Bake for 20 minutes. Carefully lift out the parchment and pie weights. With a fork, prick the bottom and sides and bake 5-10 minutes more, until the crust is a pale golden color. Check after 3 minutes and prick any bubbles that may have formed. Cool the crust on a rack for 3 minutes, so it is no longer piping hot, then brush the bottom and sides with the egg white.
4. In a large bowl, combine the apples, sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon juice, and salt.  Toss to mix. Allow the apples to macerate for a minimum of 30 minutes and a maximum of 3 hours at room temperature.
5. Drain the liquid from the apples; you want to retain this. There should be at least 1/2 cup of liquid. Boil down this liquid with the butter until syrupy and lightly caramelized. Swirl the liquid but do not stir it.
6. Meanwhile, transfer the apples to a bowl and toss with the cornstarch until all traces of it have disappeared.
7. Pour the hot syrup over the apples, tossing gently. (If liquid hardens on contact with apples, allow them to sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes or until moisture from apples dissolves it.)
8. Arrange the apples, overlapping the slices in concentric circles in the pie shell, starting from the outside edge. Keep adding more apples, using the tip of a knife to insert them in between the other slices, until you have used all of them. Pour any remaining apple juices evenly over the apples.
9. Brush the baked pie crust rim with egg. Cover the pie loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate it for 30 minutes before baking to chill the pastry. (This will help maintain flakiness.)
10. Preheat the oven to 425°F at least 20 minutes before baking. Set an oven rack at the lowest level and place a baking stone or baking sheet on it before preheating. Place large piece of greased foil on top to catch any juices.
11. Cut a round of foil to fit over the pie and crimp it in 3 or 4 places to create a dome. Cover the pie with the foil and cut 3 steam vents in the foil, about 3 inches long.
12. Set the pie directly on top of the foil-topped baking sheet and bake for 45-50 minutes, or until the juices bubble and the apples feel tender but not mushy when pierced with a small sharp knife.
13. Remove the foil and bake for 5-10 minutes more, or until the top of apples is golden brown. If at this point the apples still haven't browned a bit, move the oven rack higher and bake another 5 minutes or so.
14. Heat the apricot preserves until hot and bubbly.  For a "cleaner" look, strain it through a sieve.  Brush the glaze over the apples (and the crust edge, if you like). Cool the pie on a wire rack.

Pâte Brisée (recipe adapted from Flour, by Joanne Chang)

Makes enough for one 9-inch double-crust pie

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) cold, unsalted butter, cut into 12 pieces
• 2 egg yolks
• 3 tbsp cold milk

Method

1. Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or a handheld mixer), mix together the flour, sugar, and salt for 10 to 15 seconds, or until combined. Scatter the butter over the top. Mix on low speed for 1 to 1 1/2 minutes, or just until the flour is no longer bright white and holds together when you press a bit between your fingers.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and milk until blended. Add to the flour mixture all at once. Mix on low speed for about 30 seconds, or until the dough just barely comes together. It will look really shaggy and more like a mess than a dough.
3. Dump the dough out onto an unfloured work surface, then gather it into a mound. Using your palm and starting on one side of the mound, smear the dough bit by bit, starting at the top then sliding your palm down the side and along the work surface, until most of the butter chunks are smeared into the dough and the dough comes together. Do this once or twice on each part of the dough, moving through the mound until the whole mess has been smeared into a cohesive dough with streaks of butter.
4. Gather up the dough with a pastry cutter, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and press down to flatten into a disk about 1-inch thick. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours before using. The dough will keep in the refrigerator for up to 4 days or in the freezer for up to 1 month.

Strawberry Sour Cream Pie

This is one of those pies you dream about taking to a gathering -- it looks beautiful, tastes great, and leaves the impression that you must've spent ages on it.  Depending on how good you are with pie crusts, if you make your own or buy it from the store, that may or may not be true.



You know, I've never actually understood the phrase "easy as pie."  Making pies has never been particularly easy for me, because making pie involves making crust, and if you're like me, the crust is everything.  So if the crust comes out mediocre, or worse, actually bad, it ruins the entire pie.  Yet for a pie crust to come out well, it's a rather careful and involved process, as least for those of us who only make it every so often.  Cold fat (butter and/or lard) is necessary for that flaky texture that makes eating pie crust such an unforgettable experience when it's done well.

Over the years, I've made my share of pie crusts, more than some, far less than others.  After nearly every effort, I came away with the frustrated thought that it simply wasn't worth the time and effort.  I just couldn't seem to keep the dough cold enough, or roll it out thin enough, or whatever the problem might be.  Or if it came out well, the stress and energy I'd put into it just didn't seem worth it when I could buy perfectly acceptable (if not mouth-wateringly delicious), time friendly, ready-made pie crusts.  Then my tastes became more sophisticated, and the store-bought ones stopped being acceptable.  That fact, plus my lack of skill at making a good pie crust, combined to equal no homemade pies for me for a loooong time.

Those days may be over.  Okay, I still haven't perfected making pie crusts.  But now I've found a pie crust recipe that at least makes the effort worthwhile, it's so good.  What is this amazing recipe that has changed my outlook on homemade pie crusts?  It's none other than Rose Levy Berenbaum's own favorite, her flaky and tender cream cheese pie crust.  It's delicious -- just as sinful tasting as something called "flaky and tender cream cheese pie crust" would taste -- and, while a bit involved to make, is quite doable by the home baker.



This wonderful pie crust in combination with the incredibly easy-to-make creamy strawberry filling, results in a superb pie.  You don't need to prebake the crust.  You simply mix up the filling, roll out the pie crust, fill it, and bake it.  In the last few minutes you broil the pie for a few minutes to caramelize the top -- as you can tell from the photos, I'm still trying to get used to the broiler function on my oven.  Unfortunately it was a bit too hot or I put the rack up one level too high, and it ended up making the top look rather more burnt than golden, but that flaw is mine and not the recipe's.  The top of the pie should be as golden as the crust.

Another reason this pie is great to take to a gathering is because unlike many other pies, a single slice holds together very well, making for an attractive helping.  Unfortunately I don't have photos of this, as single slices were devoured too quickly to photograph, but you can see for yourself.

Strawberry Sour Cream Pie (crust by Rose Levy Berenbaum, filling by Worth the Whisk)

Ingredients (Crust):

• 8 tbsp unsalted butter, frozen and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 1 1/3 cups + 4 tsp pastry flour
• 3oz cream cheese
• 2 tbsp heavy cream
• 2 tsp cider vinegar
• 1/8 tsp aluminum-free baking powder
• 1/8 tsp sea salt

Method (Crust):

1. In a food processor, pulse flour, salt and baking powder to blend.
2. Add the cream cheese and process until coarse, resembling corn meal.
3. Add the frozen butter cubes and pulse until the mixture is roughly peanut sized.
4. Add the cream and vinegar and pulse until mixture is the size of small peas.
5. Scrape dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Use latex gloves or cover hands with plastic bags and press dough until it holds together in one smooth flat disc.
6. Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate at least 45 minutes, preferably overnight, before rolling out.

Ingredients (Filling):

• 1qt fresh strawberries, rinsed, hulled, and sliced
• 1 1/4 cup sugar, 1 tbsp reserved
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup sour cream (any kind but nonfat)
• dash of salt

Method (Filling & Assembly):

1. Preheat oven to 450°F.
2. Into a large mixing bowl, sift the flour, sugar and salt. Add sour cream and blend just until creamy (it will look like wallpaper paste).
3. Gently fold in the berries; don’t overmix.
4. Pour the filling into your unbaked pie shell.  Using a spatula, gently spread to edges but do not pack down; there should be some air holes throughout.
5. Sprinkle the top with reserved 1 tbsp of sugar.
6. Bake the pie for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350°F and bake an additional 30 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.
7. The center of the pie may still look undercooked.  Broil the pie for a few minutes, until the sugar on top has caramelized and the top is as golden brown as the crust.

Dahlia Lounge

I always enjoy dining at Dahlia Lounge. It's upscale but not stuffy, and the food is great. A friend and I had dinner there last night (as part of Seattle's Restaurant Week), and it was great, even if it wasn't one of my favorite meals that I've had there.

I don't always take a picture of a restaurant's bread selection, but this one turned out well so here it is. We both went for the plain sourdough first, but it turned out that the walnut and olive (?) bread was excellent.


Here's the appetizer "salad" I started out with. Shrimp and octopus, mmm. I don't remember what the "sauce" was.


My entree: Pan seared Alaskan halibut, la ratte fingerling potato, ham hock, collard blossoms, with ramp vinaigrette. Very good, but if I could go back in time I might not have selected it. It's halibut season now, so every restaurant's serving it, and it's just not that interesting. Still, the server recommended it so I felt that I would regret it if I didn't order it.


J.'s dessert, Tom's World Famous Creme Caramel. I've never understood why this dessert has this name. I suppose it must have some culinary history I'm ignorant of, because as far as I've seen, when people talk about a Tom Douglas restaurant's dessert, it's always the triple coconut cream pie. Plus, I like custard and this is good, but it's basically flan and flan isn't my favorite dessert.


And here's the star of the show, the triple coconut cream pie. I love the flavor of coconut, but I'm not a fan whatsoever of the shavings. I happily put up with them in this pie, however. It's wonderful. The recipe for it is in one of the Tom Douglas cookbooks that I actually own, but I haven't gotten around to making it myself yet.

Rustic Chocolate Pie

When I say the name Alice Medrich, what do you think of? Most people would say "chocolate." I wish my name were synonymous with something so highly regarded and beloved, but that's another blog. This one is to celebrate Alice and her magic with that ingredient so close to many people's hearts. I have nearly all of her cookbooks, but I was intrigued when I was thumbing through February's issue of Better Homes & Gardens and saw that she had featured some chocolate and vanilla recipes. Initially my interest was in her vanilla recipes, since she's so well known for her chocolate ones. However, of course what ended up capturing my attention and holding on to it was her recipe for rustic chocolate pie.



See, the other thing about Alice Medrich is that her desserts are typically elegant, beautiful, and (somewhat) time consuming. This was the first recipe I'd seen of hers that was "quick and dirty" (but sounded delicious all the same). That's not to say that there aren't others; I've just never seen them. So, of course, I had to make it.

I'm not going to lie... the crust was not fun. I haven't perfected my crust-making yet, and I found this one to be rather trying. I know enough about making crust to know that the trick to flaky crust is to use very cold ingredients, and to handle the final dough as little as possible. Also, you should use as little moisture as you can -- just enough to make the dough come together. Well, I used the maximum allowed in the recipe and the dough was still flaking all over the place, even after chilling overnight. So that wasn't fun. I've had more success with other crusts, and may use those in the future when making this pie.

The pie overall, however, was great. I ate a piece of it warm, right out of the oven, and it was gooey and rich. I also ate it cold, after it was in the refrigerator, and it was like eating a chilled, fudgy brownie on top of a very light, almost-not-there pie crust. I actually preferred the latter, but your mileage may vary.

Note: The recipe calls for 1/4 cup of sugar, but I cut that in half to 1/8 cup. I'm not big on overly sweet desserts, and the more I cut down the sugar in my desserts, the better they seem to taste. Again, your own experience may differ from mine. I didn't bother with the optional serving suggestion. The chocolate I used was Trader Joe's dark chocolate, which as a minimum of 54% cacao.

Rustic Chocolate Pie (recipe by Alice Medrich, from February 2010 issue of Better Homes & Gardens)

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 5 tbsp cold, unsalted butter
• 1 1/2-2 tbsp cold water
• 6 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate (not to exceed 62% cacao), coarsely chopped
• 2 eggs whites, at room temperature
• 1/8 tsp cream of tartar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
• 3 tbsp pine nuts, toasted (optional)
• chocolate shavings (optional)

Method

1. To make crust, in bowl thoroughly mix flour and 1/4 tsp salt. Cut butter in chunks and add to bowl. With two knives or pastry blender, cut butter into flour, tossing to coat with flour until largest pieces are size of pine nuts and remaining resemble coarse bread crumbs. As you work, scrape flour up from bottom of bowl, and scrape butter from knives or pastry blender. Do not let butter melt or blend completely into flour. Drizzle 1 1/2 tbsp cold water over flour mixture while tossing and mixing, until just moist enough to hold together when pressed. Add remaining water if needed. Turn out on plastic wrap. Gather into flat disk, pressing in any loose pieces. Wrap in plastic; refrigerate 30 minutes or up to 3 days.
2. Position rack in lower third of oven. Preheat oven to 400°F. Let dough stand 30 minutes at room temperature, or until pliable enough to roll without cracking. On lightly floured surface, roll dough to 14x9-inch oval, about 1/8 inch thick, rotating and dusting with flour to prevent sticking. Brush excess flour from dough; fold in half to transfer to a piece of parchment slightly larger than dough. Unfold dough. Loosely fold and roll edge, without pressing, to form rimmed crust. Place parchment with pastry on baking sheet. Bake 10 to 12 minutes, or until light golden brown (crust edge will be a little raw inside).
3. Meanwhile, for filling, melt chocolate in microwave on 50% power (medium) about 2 minutes. Stir frequently until chocolate is almost completely melted. Remove from microwave. Stir until melted; set aside.
4. In bowl beat egg whites with cream of tartar and vanilla until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar and 1/8 tsp salt. Beat until whites are stiff but not dry. Pour pecans and melted chocolate over whites; fold with spatula until batter is uniform color.
5. Remove crust from oven. Reduce oven to 350°F. Dollop filling on crust. Spread to 1/2 inch thick. Bake 10 minutes, or until surface looks dry and slightly cracked (fudgy inside). Cool on baking sheet on rack. Serve warm or cool. Cover and refrigerate after 2 hours or up to 24 hours. To serve, sprinkle pine nuts and chocolate shavings.

Cherry Limeade Icebox Pie

I'm late with this one. I made it back in March, but I haven't gotten around to posting it until now. This was easy, sinful, and delicious. It's something I'd probably make once a year, no more than that. Too many calories!



I followed the original recipe from LiveJournal, here. I've adapted it below in a more traditional recipe form.

The pie is creamy, sweet, a bit tart, and generally addictive. My favorite part of pies has always been the crust, so in future for my own personal preference I'll probably make half the amount of filling and it'll be perfect. I found myself leaving a lot of it on my plate. That's not the case for many people though, so make it to your own taste! The recipe provided below is the original unaltered recipe that makes the full pie.



Cherry Limeade Icebox Pie

Ingredients

• 1 large graham cracker crust (such as Kebler Extra Portions piecrust)
• 1 14oz can of sweetened condensed milk
• 1 16oz container whipping cream, chilled
• 1 5.1oz box of instant vanilla pudding
• 1 bag of frozen sweetened cherries or strawberries, thawed (I used a jar of sour Morello cherries, which has plenty of juice)
• 1/2 cup fruit nectar (from the thawed fruit, you may need to crush some to get this yield, or obtain it by some other means)
• 1/2 cup lime juice

Method

1. Take the clear cover off the pie crust and strip out the paper insert and remove the hardened glue. Wash with warm water and soap and set aside (you'll need to cover the pie once it's been formed).
2. In a medium bowl, mix the lime juice, cherry juice, condensed milk and pudding mix. The mixture will be thick and sort of purpley-pink. (If you want to make the color more interesting, you can add in a few drops of red coloring for a more vibrant shade.)
3. In a large bowl, pour in the whipping cream and beat it until you get soft peaks, about the same consistency of Cool-Whip.
4. Gently fold the pudding mix into the cream. Don't worry too much about the streaks of mix and pudding. Marbling is fine, and actually adds an interesting texture when you bite into the pie.
5. Scrape out the whipped mixture into the pie plate and smooth it out. (When I had added half the mixture, I plopped in a few cherries then put the rest of the mixture on top. Note, however, that after freezing the cherries will be quite frozen solid and will "interrupt" the otherwise creamy pie, so do this at your own preference!) Then cover and pop it into the freezer to firm up for an hour or so.
6. At this point you can add cherries on top of the pie and let it refreeze, or you can simply serve them on the side or not at all.
7. When firmed up to a soft frozen state, slice and serve.

A couple of yummy photos from the original post:

A Post-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving, I went to have hot pot with my cousin. The rest of our family is in Los Angeles, and without them, it wouldn't have felt like a real Thanksgiving anyway. We considered doing the turkey and fixings and the whole bit, but with just two of us, it just didn't seem worth the bother. Plus having turkey or poultry of any kind just hadn't particularly appeal to me for some time.

Then came post-Thanksgiving, with everyone posting pictures from their Thanksgiving feasts. Everyone's food looked so good. On top of that, I finished a writing project I'd been working on, the reward for which was being able to crack open The Zuni Cafe Cookbook, which had arrived a couple weeks before. I was just flipping through it when I came across a recipe for buttermilk mashed potatoes. I thought about the 15-lb bag of russet potatoes I had sitting in my kitchen. I thought about how good a piece of roasted chicken would taste with mashed potatoes. Uh oh. I was hooked.

The next day, I went to the store and bought a cooked rotisserie chicken (that's right -- I wanted instant gratification), canned pumpkin, and some salad fixings. Then I went home and made myself a truly satisfying post-Thanksgiving meal, including chicken, buttermilk mashed potatoes, garlic Brussels sprouts, salad, and even pumpkin pie.



The chicken was a little cold by the time everything else was ready, but that was okay. It wasn't the star. It provided some lovely contrast and texture (nothing replaces meat when it comes to making my mouth and stomach satisfied), but it was all the components working together that made the meal great. I of course did not have room for pumpkin pie after everything else, but it was still cooling anyway.

Speaking of the pie, I was pretty happy with the way it came out. On Thanksgiving day my cousin had given me a generous slice of pumpkin pie that her "dessert slave" had made, and it was probably the best pumpkin pie I've ever had. It had a candied ginger and walnut topping on it, and was made with fresh roasted pumpkin. Maybe one day I'll have the energy/will to roast my own pumpkin then make a pie out of it, but that day was not yesterday. Until my cousin can track down the recipe for that one, I found a similar one online that I adapted to my own preferences (less sugar, and hazelnuts instead of walnuts -- I'm just not a big fan of walnuts).



The mashed potatoes were excellent, even though I used russet potatoes rather than the yellow potatoes Judy Rodgers suggests (as much as I love yellow and red potatoes, well, I had 15-lbs of russets!). She also claims that the buttermilk in them helps them keep really well, so since I love mashed potatoes, I went ahead and doubled her recipe.



The Brussels sprouts were a revelation. I'm fairly new to Brussels sprouts, and I've given several recipes a try, but this very simple method using olive oil, garlic, and salt was by far my favorite. They were so good I could have eaten them as a meal all on their own. Well, on any day but post-Thanksgiving day. Granted I'm not very experienced with buying Brussels sprouts, but I had never actually seen them on the stalk before. When I saw a beautiful stalk of them for only $2.50 each, I nabbed one. The sprouts were much fresher/cleaner than the ones I've purchased before off the stalk.



As for the salad, I used red-leaf lettuce and after making the potatoes, Brussels sprouts, and pie, I was too beat (and eager to start eating) to add anything else, though normally I would have included diced tomato (or halved cherry tomatoes), thinly sliced radishes, etc. I did, however, make the delicious yet simple balsamic vinaigrette that my cousin introduced me to awhile ago.

Perhaps best of all was getting to eat the leftovers of everything. I even busted out some of my stored bacon grease to make a cream gravy for the potatoes. Dipping bites of rotisserie chicken in mashed potatoes and gravy = heaven.



And now, onto the recipes! There are quite a few of them, but hopefully it won't be hard to find the one you're interested in.

Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes paraphrased from The Zuni Cafe Cookbook

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lbs potatoes (preferably yellow, but russets will work fine), peeled and chopped into 1 1/2" chunks
• 2-3 tbsp milk, heavy cream, or half and half, heated
• 2-3 tbsp buttermilk, room temperature
• 3 tbsp butter, just melted so it's still warm
• parsley or chives, to garnish (optional)
• salt
• water

Method

1. Place potato chunks in a pot, then cover with cold water by about an inch. Add salt -- about 1 tsp per quart -- and mix, until you can just taste it in the water.
2. Heat until boiling, then simmer for 8-15 minutes, until the potatoes are tender.
3. Drain water. Put the potato chunks in a large bowl and mash. Add the heated milk/cream, mash. Add the buttermilk, mash. Finish with the melted butter. Whip/mash well.
4. Salt the mashed potatoes to taste.
5. Garnish with parsley or chives, if desired.

Judy Rodgers says it's good to have the cream and butter heated so that their addition doesn't cool down the potatoes too much. Buttermilk can't really be heated or it will separate. (I put it in the microwave for about 10 seconds, to at least take the chill off.) It seems so obvious now, but I can't tell you how many years I've been making mashed potatoes and just adding cold milk and cold butter, then wondering why it was impossible to keep mashed potatoes hot.

Cream Gravy from Homesick Texan

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp pan drippings, bacon grease or vegetable oil
• 2 tbsp flour
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1 tsp cracked black pepper
• salt to taste

Method

1. Combine fat with flour in a hot skillet, continuously stirring, cook on medium for a couple of minutes until a dark roux is formed.
2. Add milk slowly to skillet, and mix with roux using either a whisk or wooden spoon (be sure and press out any lumps).
3. Turn heat to low and continue stirring until mixture is thickened, a couple more minutes.
4. Add pepper and salt to taste.
5. If gravy is too thick for your taste, you can thin it by adding either more milk or water a tablespoon at a time.

Garlic Brussels Sprouts

Ingredients

• 8-10oz Brussels sprouts, washed, stemmed, trimmed, and halved
• 3 large garlic cloves, minced
• 2-3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• salt to taste

Method

1. Heat oil on medium-low heat in a saucepan large enough to hold the Brussels sprouts in one layer. (I used my wok.)
2. When oil is hot, carefully add the Brussels sprouts -- the water droplets clinging to them from their wash will probably make the oil sizzle and crackle, possibly violently.
3. Stir fry a bit, then turn each sprout onto its flat side.
4. Cover the pan, turn the heat down a little lower, then cook until the sprouts are tender and their flat sides are nicely browned (about 10-12 minutes).
5. Add the garlic and stir fry for about 30 seconds.
6. Add salt to taste, stir fry a few seconds more, then serve.

My notes: You don't want to use heat that's too high because they'll brown too quickly without having enough time to get cooked by the steam. Also, I find that salt greatly enhances Brussels sprouts. It won't save them if they're cooked beyond hope, but salting them a bit more generously than you might salt other foods is highly recommended by me!

Pumpkin Pie with Hazelnut and Ginger Streusel

Ingredients:

• 1 pie shell, frozen or homemade

For the Pie Filling

• 3 eggs
• 1 can (15 ounces) solid-pack pumpkin
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

For the Streusel

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 4 tbsp cold butter
• 1/4 cup chopped hazelnuts
• 1/3 cup finely chopped candied or crystallized ginger

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, pumpkin, cream, sugar, salt, and all the spices.
3. Pour the mixture into a prepared pie shell.
4. Bake at 350° for 40 minutes.
5. To make the streusel, in a small bowl combine the flour and brown sugar. Using a pastry blender or fork, cut in the butter until crumbly. Mix in the hazelnuts and ginger.
6. Remove the pie from the oven, and gently sprinkle the streusel over the filling.
7. Bake for an additional 20-30 minutes longer or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

Here's the pie, pre-streusel topping.

A messy, but delicious slice of pie.

My notes: This pie is plenty sweet, even though I cut the sugar in the filling from 3/4 cup to 1/3 cup, and the streusel topping from 1/2 cup to 1/3 cup (from the original recipe). I can't imagine how cloyingly sweet it would have been if I hadn't made those adjustments. When I make this again, whether for this recipe or the one my cousin finds, I'll probably toast the hazelnuts ahead of time and skin them as well. I already cut down on the liquid some since I cut down the sugar, but if I made this again I would probably cut it down even further.

Balsamic Vinaigrette Salad Dressing

Ingredients

• 1 small shallot, sliced or diced (about 1 tbsp)
• 1 tsp red wine vinegar
• 2 tsp balsamic vinegar
• 2-3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Method

1. Soak shallot in a small bowl with the vinegars for 10-15 minutes.
2. Add the olive oil and mix well, then toss with salad.

My notes: I usually use 2 tbsp of olive oil, but that's because I like my dressing a little more acidic. My cousin prefers using 3 tbsp of oil for a milder taste.