It's Still not Spring, so I Keep Baking

It's snowed ten inches and I'm still baking. It's cold here; we're conserving the oil as much as we can. We don't want to have to buy more,  but I'm sure we will. This winter has dragged out longer than we want. I want to play in the mud with Elsa after it rains. But we are sequestered in the house--under blankets, over pillows and watching the snow from the window. It falls like ellipses do--silent and anticipatory and anticlimactic. 

But I'm dreaming of warmer days. Weather patterns that tan my skin and then drench it in a storm. I want the windows open and the garden to explode by my fingertips. I want the chickens to stretch and bury themselves in dirt and I want the dogs' paws streaked in mud and grass stained. I want it more than anything right now.

And so I keep baking. Thinking of warmth. Keeping the oven on. Thinking of s'mores and marshmallows and handpies around fire pits. 

Fluffernutter Handpies

Ingredients:

• 2 discs of preferred pie dough
• 1/2 cup marshmallow fluff
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1 yolk + 1 TB water (for egg wash)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400*F
2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat
3. In a bowl, mix together marshmallow fluff and peanut butter
4. Fill piping bag with peanut butter mixer
5. Roll out one disc of pie dough
6. Cut out 3-4 rounds out of each disc (I used a 5-inch lid as the cutter)
7. Repeat with second disc
8. Place on baking sheets
9. Pipe about 2 TB of peanut butter mix on one side of the disc
10. Brush a bit of egg wash around the perimeter of the disc
11. Fold over, press with a fork to crimp, and cut 3 slits on the top to vent
12. Brush tops with wash
13. Repeat with remaining dough
14. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden (note)
15. Allow to cool before eating

Note: Marshmallow fluff expands when heated. I kept a good margin for the expansion, but don't be surprised if the crust breaks a little--they taste just as delicious.

Chicken and Lentil Mini Pot Pies!

What a peaceful few days it has been. Each day, our house begins to feel more like a home. Less hand-me-down. We got a new mattress last week and sleep so much better these last few days. 

Our three dogs sleep in bed with us and we curl around one another. Murphy sleeps at the top of the bed, Milo at the bottom, and Elsa comes and goes throughout the night. And when the alarm hits 6:30 we are all up for coffee and oatmeal and to start the day.

I spend most days alone since I work from home and Nolan does not. This means  make dinner for everyone, too. Most nights I roast a chicken or vegetables and maybe some hummus to snack on before he comes home at 9. Other days, I want nothing but junk food: fries and a salad that is more ranch dressing and chicken tenders than lettuce and tomato.

But one afternoon I had the whole day with nothing to do. No work, no cleaning, no posts, so I experimented with some lentils I've had since we moved in and the rest of the chicken that was sitting in the fridge and made this dish: Chicken and Lentil Mini Pot Pies. So easy, so satisfying, and the most work is boiling the lentils, if you're using some leftovers like I did.

Chicken and Lentil Mini Pot Pies!

So easy, so delicious, and the crust is a perfect compliment to this recipe. I used Ina Garten's pie crust recipe, but did not add sugar.

Ingredients:

• 1 pie crust (see author's note above)
• 1 large chicken breast, shredded
• 1 cup green lentils, prepared by box directions
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 2 gloves garlic, finely diced
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• Egg wash (one egg + 1 tablespoon water, whisked)

Directions:

1. Grease a large muffin tin (or a regular-sized muffin tin, but the baking time will be reduced by about 5 minutes!)
2. In a large bowl, mix together all ingredients except the egg wash
3. On a floured board, cut your dough in quarters and roll out about a 1/4 inch thickness
4. Cut out a round that is large enough to press down into the muffin tin (I just used a 6-inch plate and it worked perfectly!)
5. Mold each round into the muffin tin
6. Scoop your mixture into each cup
7. With the remaining dough, cut out a round to fit on top
8. Place each top on your cups and brush a bit of egg wash on the perimeter of the top rounds
9. Press top and cup together and brush more egg wash for each to have a nice golden brown
10. Poke a couple holes on top to vent
11. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown
12. Allow to cool before unturning from pan
13. Enjoy! Can keep for up to 2 days!

Simple Apple Tart

It's been hovering in the teens all week and I cannot stop myself from sleeping in a little longer than I usually do. The dogs are allowed out for ten minutes at a time; I worry about colds and infection. They roam the fence and bark at a brown rabbit that has been in our back yard for a week. I worry the ground is too frozen for a burrow. I wonder how he got so lost.

And in the fog of steam from my coffee and steam from my breath, I bake to remember the fog of my childhood. Baked apples and Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Oatmeal cookies and sweetened rice with milk. It's winters like these, the kinds that are quick and silent as a dagger, that make me glad I'm back in Pennsylvania.

I'll wait out this Polar Vortex from the comfort of my kitchen, the yellow light of the oven glowing in the palest shade of orange I have ever seen.

Apple Tart with Oatmeal Crust

I used a 14" tart pan for this recipe and I do recommend you doing the same, both for presentation and ease. I adapted my crust from this one and found it super simple and delicious, bringing me back to cinnamon oatmeal Quaker packets along the way. Feel free to try any other type of fruit for this tart, though I am particularly partial to apple.

Ingredients for Oatmeal Crust:

• 3/4 cup quick cooking oats
• 1/2 cup AP flour
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
• 6 TB butter, cold and cut into cubes
• Pinch of salt
• 1-2 TB ice water

Directions for Oatmeal Crust:

1. Prepare your pan and preheat oven to 350*F
2. In a food processor, combine all ingredients except the water
3. Pulse until fat is pea-sized
4. Turn motor on and add ice water until a dough just barely forms from the liquid
5. With floured hands, press crust into your tart pan
6. Bake for 12 minutes
7. Turn oven up to 400*F

Ingredients for Filling:

• 6 TB light corn syrup
• 2 TB molasses
• 1 egg + 1 yolk
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 TB cinnamon
• 2 TB butter, melted

Directions for Filling:

• Whisk all ingredients 
• Pour over par-baked oatmeal crust

Assembly and Final Directions: Thinly slice two apples and top your tart filling with these. Add a squeeze of orange juice or rum for a spike and sprinkle with a tiny bit of sea salt and a little more cinnamon. Bake for an additional 15 minutes or until filling is set. To prevent your crust burning, you may want to use a bit of aluminum on the edges.

Allow to cool slightly before releasing from the pan and serve warm or cold with confecioner's sugar and ice cream.

"Peaches and Cream" Cornmeal Galette

The stunted peaches make for a good pie. Bruised and small, they drop like stones. I catch them before the birds have a chance. They’re more stone than flesh. They’re more figment than statue. They’ll be gobbled up when the cicadas come; so I made a couple pies now to enjoy with coffee in the morning.

"Peaches and Cream" Corneal Galette

Ingredients for the crust

• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 ¾ cup flour
• ¼ cup sugar
• 2/3 cup cornmeal
• 4 TB butter, cold
• 3 ½ TB shortening, cold
• 1 egg
• 2 TB vanilla
• 6-8 TB ice water

Ingredients for the filling

• 2-3 peaches, sliced
• Juice and zest from half a lemon
• 2 TB sugar
• 1 TB flour (can exclude if your fruit isn't that juicy)
• 1 cup crème fraîche (highest quality you can get. I am in love with Vermont Creamery’s)
• 2 TB butter, softened
• 1/3 cup confectioner’s sugar
• 2 TB honey
• 1 TB vanilla extract
• Egg wash, one egg mixed with 1 TB of water, for sealing and browning
• Extra granulated sugar, for sprinklin

Directions

1. In a food processor, combine salt, flour, sugar, and cornmeal
2. Add fats and pulse until the size of peas
3. Add egg and vanilla, pulse to combine
4. With motor running, add water, one tablespoon at a time, through feeding tube
5. When dough begins to form, turn food processor off
6. Turn out onto a floured work surface and pat into a disc
7. Halve, shape into two smaller discs
8. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for half an hour
9. Preheat oven to 400*F and prepare a sheet pan with parchment paper
10. While dough is resting, slice your peaches and add zest and juice of your lemon
11. Put in bowl with sugar and flour, set aside
12. Whisk together crème fraîche, confectioner’s sugar, butter, honey, and vanilla until well-combined, set aside
13. After the 30 minutes has lapsed, remove one disc from refrigerator and put on your floured work surface
14. Roll out into an 8-inch disc and transfer to your prepared parchment to continue work
15. Leaving a one-inch margin on all sides, spoon half of your crème fraîche into the center of the disc and spread thinly around
16. Add peach slices
17. Using a pastry brush, dip into egg wash and run along the perimeter of your one-inch margin
18. Fold crust toward center, crimping and pressing to seal
19. Repeat with second disc
20. Add egg wash to crust and sprinkle with sugar
21. Bake for 28-35 minutes, checking at the 25 minute mark for any burning
22. Eat immediately, if possible, but can stay in a sealed container for two day

This post was inspired by Vermont Creamery, who excel at making quality dairy products. Check out their website, Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter for more information. Thank you!

Springtime...and a Tart

My mother has given up trying to plant anything beautiful in the yard of hers. Too much bad dirt, she says. Stunted apple trees and peaches that never seem to ripen in any hurry. Grapevines that choke the chickenwire fencing. The ground is shale, the rocks are jagged. The dirt is bad. The earth is worn down by the creekbed.

My mother gave up on making a garden, so she buys her produce from the dollar store. She buys flowers to hang from the porch rafters. She waters them with a soda cup she got at the gas station in town.  A bird’s nest pops up one afternoon and then baby birds pop up the next. One fell out of the nest and my dad threw it out behind the fence so the dogs wouldn’t get it. He didn’t tell my mom, kept it a secret from her I guess you could say.

There isn’t anything beautiful in that yard of hers.

Not that it’s promised, it never has been. The shale is rough and cuts up the hands. Grass grows in patches until late June, when it springs all at once. Then the dandelions, then the peach trees, then the snow. It’s a cycle I forgot. One I witness from my bedroom window. I’m staying here for a while, until my sister has her baby and I know what the hell it is I want out of life.

But it rained for three weeks straight and I drove the turnpike with my sunglasses on until eight at night. The mountaintops in the distance have steam on their fingertips and the bees that built their hive by the mailbox are plump and greedy. Lazy, tired. They don’t move when I draw the red mailbox arm up. They don’t move when my father comes home with a pizza for dinner. They dance along the mulch and draw cuneiforms in response to rainclouds. They know tomorrow it might rain. They know tomorrow their queen may be washed away. They know that the bird behind the fence might still be there and there’s nothing to do about it but wait for the grass to grow and the peach trees to twist their thirsty branches up, up, upwards.

It’s springtime in Pennsylvania. And I forgot how its reality comes in waves of dreams and pigment. In flashes of thunderstorms and screen doors slamming shut. It’s springtime and I wear a sweater on the porchswing. I avoid the baby birds, the beestings, and mailman. I sit and squint my eyes, wondering if it’s just as beautiful down the road as it is right here in this moment.

Pear and Strawberry Tart

Ingredients for Fruit Filling

• 2 pears (preferably Bosc), cored and sliced thinly
• 8-10 medium-sized strawberries, hulled and sliced thinly
• 2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon fresh ginger
• 1 tablespoon orange zest
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 tablespoon Gran Marnier (option, but I had some leftover from this post, so I said why not)
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Directions for Fruit Filling

1. In a large bowl, gently mix all ingredients together to macerate strawberries and infuse the pears
2. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for one hour
3. While waiting, work on crust

Ingredients for Crust

• ½ cup butter, softened
• ½ cup shortening
• ½ cup confectioner’s sugar
• ¼ cup white sugar
• 1¾ cup AP flour
• ¼ cup almond meal
• ½ tablespoon of vanilla extract
• 3-4 tablespoon ice water (fill a small glass of ice water and scoop out from it as you go instead of measuring beforehand)

Directions for Crust

1. In a food processor, pulse together all ingredients except the ice water 5-8 times or until the fat is processed to the size of a pea
2. With the motor running, slowly drizzle in ice water, one tablespoon at a time. When dough begins to come together, stop motor
3. Turn dough out onto a floured work surface and pat into a disc
4. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for half an hour

Ingredients for Ricotta Topping

• ½ cup ricotta, full-fat
• 2 tablespoon confectioner’s sugar
• Pinch of salt
• ½ tablespoon vanilla extract

Directions for Ricotta Topping

1. Mix all ingredients together in a small bowl until combined

Assembly and baking instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350*F and prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil
2. Take rested dough out of the oven and roll into a round that is roughly ¼ inch thick (will be about 14” in diameter)
3. Transfer dough to prepared baking sheet
4. Spoon fruit filling into center of round and allow for a one or two inch edge around the circumference
5. Fold edges inwards to keep the filling in
6. Dot the fruit filling with ricotta mixture
7. Mix one egg with a little water and brush the dough with your egg wash
8. Sprinkle with a little more white sugar
9. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until crust is golden and brown
10. Serve immediately, but can keep for about 4 days