Perfect Pie dough

I think pie dough is one of those things that people are really intimidated by. I always was. My dad made many a pie growing up, and always worked so quickly, frantically even, while making the dough. He stressed to me from an early age that you must always keep your dough cold. I can't imagine that he ever measured a single ingredient, or that the dough was made the same twice, but I do remember that whatever he made was always stellar. Well, almost everything, with the exception of the avocado cheesecake he made for an avocado cooking contest. I know! I questioned it too; and I was only 7.

While there is a very simple 3-2-1 ratio to a perfect pie dough, it seems that every little old lady has her own "secret" technique or recipe, that she couldn't possibly give away. I used to work with a friend who insisted that her mother made the best pie dough...with lard. Now, I'm no stranger to pork products; really I'm a huge fan. I came a little too close to actually getting the word 'bacon' tatooed on my inner arm, inside of a heart, and I wasn't even intoxicated. In fact, that tatoo still hasn't been totally ruled out.

But back to the pie dough... While I can appreciate the sly and clever use of a pork product like lard in a dough, if you are even slightly concerned with the state of your arteries, you might just want to go with good old fashioned butter. I do.

My dough making skills have surely evolved over time, through much trial and error. One of the very first pies I made recieved the following comment from an old lady (my competition and toughest critics): "That pie you made was great. But the crust wasn't very flaky..."

Oh, no she didn't. That was the last time I ever heard that, because I pretty much didn't leave the kitchen until I got it right. You know, to where my Grandma would be proud. Aside from the actual ingredients that go into it (in my case butter, flour, salt, and water), it's really all about how you make it.

Although I realize that there are all kinds of wonderful inventions like kitchen aids and food processors ou there, I still like to make some doughs completley by hand.In fact, I've been know to make croissants and danishes without the use of any machinery, but that is something I wouldn't wish on anyone, and I only did it out of what I considered to be complete neccessity: My mixer had broken (due to repeated ass kickings from the aformentioned doughs) and I had regulars at the farmer's market that were waiting for their Bucheron, portabello and basil croissants! I'll be damned if was going to let them down.

In my kitchen, pie doughs and biscuits never see the bowl of a mixer or food processer. I highly recommend making this dough completley by hand, as it is crucial to the flakiness of your future dough, makes your biceps and pectoral muscles enviable, and makes you feel like you really know what you're doing. Also, if you have it, use 1/2 cake or pastry flour, and half all purpose flour. This combination will make the flakiest crust. This recipe is big because I like to roll out the dough and freeze it for a pie on the fly...

Pie Dough: Makes enough for 2 deep dish pies

1# unsalted butter

1 cups ice cold water

1 1/2 tsp salt

12 oz. all purpose flour

12 oz cake or pastry flour

About a half hour before you start, cut up butter into 1" cubes and put them in the freezer. Fill a bowl with ice, and pour water on top. Set aside.

Sift all of the flour onto your work surface. Spread it into an even rectangle, about 1/3" deep. Scatter frozen butter on top of flour, and top with a little flour from your work surface so that the butter doesn't stick to the rolling pin. Begin rolling. It won't be easy at first, but eventually all of the butter will start flattening into long, thin pieces. Use a bench scraper to fold the flour/ butter back into a rectangle and continue rolling until most of the butter is flattened out. Make a well in the center and pour 1 cup of the ice water into the well. Using the bench scraper again, scoop the sides of the dough into the middle, cutting and mixing until the dough is a big shaggy mess. Pat into a rectangle and sprinkle the top with flour. Roll dough into a rectangle twice as large as what you began with, and make a business letter fold. Continue rolling and folding until dough is cohessive. It may not look totally done, but trust me it is. The less you handle the dough, the flakier it will be. Chill before using. Roll to 1/8" thickness.

Grandpa's Santa Rosa Plums

As previously mentioned, I’ve been stalking my grandpa’s Santa Rosa Plum tree for a few years. Its’ branches are full of blossoms right now, but there won’t be any fruit for a couple months. I think its’ real time to shine is the last week of June, first week of July-ish. During those two weeks, everything I bake is full of these spicy, juicy gems… from cobblers to coffee cake. Last year he gave me just about every piece of fruit off of it, so naturally I thought that this year those little suckers were mine. Uh, think again.

My grandpa Phil is an 84 year old man that lived through the depression, fought in World War II, and has never taken a thing in his life for granted. If there is half of a buttered, syrup drenched pancake left on my grandma’s plate at breakfast, grandpa will no doubt wrap it up, only to reheat it later for a snack. As children, my sisters and I knew that if we put something on our plate at grandma and grandpa’s house, we’d better eat it. This made for a lot of trips to the bathroom with napkins full of food in our pockets. But that’s beside the point. That said, you can imagine what old grandpa might be doing with these rare (not really, but he’s only got one tree), fabulous little plums: He was going to can them. Every last one of them. Brutal.

Canning is something that I can appreciate for jams, jellys, and tomato sauces, or as a method of preservation that you might do out of necessity, but grandpa, I beg you, just let me make one batch of plum and almond galettes with spiced honey. I promise you won’t regret it.

My grandparents have lived in the same house for 65 years. On their property they have the coveted Santa Rosa Plum tree, 2 Valencia orange trees, a Fuerte avocado tree, an apricot tree, meyer lemons, and macadamia nuts. About a month ago, when I noticed the blossoms on his plum tree, I mentioned them to Grandpa and this is when he broke the news to me that I wouldn’t be enjoying any of those plums this year. After this he told me that he had three blossoms on his apricot tree and that it didn’t produce much fruit last year. In fact, he said, it hadn’t produced much fruit at all since the first and only year it grew fruit. It was pretty much useless.




That same day grandpa was on the phone ordering some new clothes for grandma and when the lady on the other end told my grandpa that shipping and handling would be $9.99, Grandpa was appalled.

Gpa: “Oh dear, Isn’t there anything you can do to reduce that?”
Lady: “I’m afraid not, sir.”
Gpa:[looking out the window at the useless apricot tree] “Well, in that case , let me tell you about my apricot tree. It only has three blossoms on it. Last year, it had more blossoms, but still no fruit. The first year we planted it….”
Lady: “Sir! Sir! Oh it says here that you are a valued customer and you are to receive free shipping on this order. I don’t know how I could’ve overlooked that… “

Right. Looks like the old apricot tree isn’t so useless after all.

Ever since ye olde plum tree began blossoming, my trips to Grandpa’s have become more and more frequent. Just droppin’ in Grandpa…
A couple of weeks ago, Grandpa gave in and decided I could have ALL, yes ALL of the plums. Phew! For a minute there I actually thought I was going to have to rob my own grandparents of there fruit. Thanks for making it easy on me, Grandpa.

Best Ever Strawberry Shortcake!

My garden is growing. Somehow, no thanks to me I'm sure, it's actually producing produce. I've never grown anything before, and within days of planting this garden, all of my flowers died. So you can imagine my surprise when the edibles kept on keeping on. I live in an apartment complex built in the 1920's in downtown San Diego. It's not your average cookie cutter complex. Almost everyone here has a garden. There are 5 fig trees, 3 peach trees, loquats, (what the eff is a loquat?, you ask.... stay tuned, more on the rat bastards of the produce world later),tomatoes, herbs, and lots of other surprising little gems growing in this eccentric community.

I'm growing three different kinds of tomatoes, mint, basil, rosemary (accidentally, I didn't plant it), watermelon, cantaloupe, strawberries, and butternut squash. The squash is huge and really starting to cramp everything else's style. I'm gonna have to have a talk with him.

Anyhow, upon taking a stroll through my garden yesterday(this didn't take very long; it's only about 10 square feet), I harvested my first strawberry! It was tiny, but full of huge strawberry flavor. I was so impressed with my new found accidental gardening skills, that I was inspired to make my favorite summertime treat: strawberry shortcake.

I love the simplest of things. Especially when it comes to dessert. While I can appreciate the work and thought that goes into a "deconstructed" version of an old fashioned favorite, 9 times out of 10 the original is so much better! There are so many different styles of strawberry shotcake these days, and while none of them is "wrong", by any means, for me, there is only one way to make this classic: the way my dad or grandma would've made it. None of this fancy sponge cake or pound cake business, give me a biscuit!

The inspiration for the following "biscuit" (not a true biscuit, more like a scone), comes from Claudia Fleming's cobbler recipe. When I worked at Gramercy Tavern, I used to eat the tops off of the leftover rhubarb cobblers every night. They are crispy, cakey, and soak up the juices without becoming too soggy...everything you could possibly want out of a shortcake, right? I remembered when I asked about the recipe for them, one of the pastry girls had told me it included hard boiled egg yolks. I thought it was weird, so I did a little research and found out it's an old eastern European technique and then I got to experimenting with recipes. The following recipe is an adaptation of Claudia Fleming's recipe that I found online. This is a huge recipe, so give some away by "canning" them in mason jars, or the same dough can be used as a topping for cobbler.

Serves 10

Biscuit: Conventional oven 375, Convection 350

3 large hard boiled egg yolks, sieved

3 1/2 c + 2 tbsp. a.p. flour
1/2 c + 2 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp + 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

12 tbsp (6 oz.) cold butter, cubed

1 3/4 c heavy cream

Strawberries:

4 pints strawberries

juice of one lemon
1/2 vanilla bean, scraped

1 cup sugar

pinch salt

2 cups heavy cream (preferably manufacturing cream)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 vanilla bean, scraped

pinch salt

In a food processor: sift dry ingredients, add sieved yolks. Add cold butter and pulse until butter is about the size of peas. Add ream all at once, mix just until incorporated. Wrap and chill immediatley.

To do this by hand: In a large bowl, sift dry ingredients and toss with sieved yolks. Add butter to bowl. Using your forefingers and thumbs, smash butter into flakes, being careful not to handle it too much. When most of the butter is smashed, add all of the cream at once, and using only your hands, mix until fully incorporated. Wrap and chill immediatley. You want to keep this dough cold at all times.

For the strawberries:

Clean, hull, and quarter strawberries. Toss with sugar, scraped vanilla bean, and lemon juice. Set aside.

For cream:

Whip together cream, scraped vanilla bean, salt and sugar until medium peaks.

To bake biscuits:

On a lightly floured surface, pat dough to 3/4" thickness. Using a biscuit cutter or a glass, cut into 15 circles. You can keep reusing the dough until it's gone. No need to throw away the scraps.

Chill again until cold. Brush the tops with cream and sprinkle with turbinado sugar. Bake about 25 minutes in a conventional oven, or 28 in a convection., turning halfway through. Cool before serving.

To serve: Cut all of the biscuits in half horizontally. It doesn't matter if they crumble a little, they're delicious nonetheless. Starting and ending with the biscuit, layer biscuit, strawberries and juices, and whipped cream. You can eat this immediatley or store for a couple of days.

Commercial Break Brownies and the laziest girl in the world

It’s tough living in a bakery. While I used to be satisfied with a pretty common mid night snack of say, a spoonful of peanut butter or some string cheese, I’ve recently been waking up to stomach pangs and cravings for blackberry crisp and toffee pecan brownies. I know, I know, it sounds a little involved and indulgent for 3:30 a.m., but when you already have the stuff lying around, it really only takes a few commercial breaks to throw this stuff together.

Maybe you don’t know me, but I’m high strung, lazy and glutenous. This combination of characteristics makes for a very confused individual, with no choice but to be extremely impulsive and indulgent. I would not describe myself as “laid back”, ever. However, I do like T.V. Preferably reality, and the trashier the better. The day I figured out that I could make a fabulous dessert while watching Rock of Love, and not miss a single catfight, was the first day of the rest of my life. Since this new revolution, I’ve made an art out of baking and doing 72 other things at the same time. Here is my recipe for Commercial Break Brownies, and an even more fabulous modification at the end for Pecan Toffee Ice cream sandwiches. This recipe is an adaptation from the Tartine Bakery cookbook. The trick for these suckers is to have all you r ingredients measured out and your chocolate melting before your show starts...

Oven 350, 9"x13" baking dish sprayed with cooking spray

3/4 c unsalted butter

1# chocolate, preferably 64% or higher, Callebaut, Valrohna or Scharfen Berger

1 cup + 1 Tbsp a.p. flour

6 large eggs, at room temperature

2 cups packed dark brown sugar

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp vanilla extract

Melt butter and chocolate together, either over a double boiler, or in the microwave at 45 second intervals, stirring in between. Let cool completley(...otherwise you'll deflate your eggs and since there is no other leavener in this recipe, you wouldn't want to do that.)

Sift flour, set aside. Combine eggs, sugar, vanilla and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat on high until full volume. This should take about 5 to 6 minutes, or the first part of your fave show. Fold the cooled chocolate into the eggs and before it's fully incorporated, add the sifted flour. Fold gently being careful not to deflate the eggs. Pour batter into the greased baking dish, and bake until the top is shiny, slightly cracked, and puffy, about 25. These brownies are so fudgy that a knife will not come out clean when they are done, but they will set up while cooling.

Because these brownies freeze so well, I've been known to eat them straight out of the freezer, which compelled me to throw together the following tasty treat: Split brownie batter between 2 lined, sprayed 11"x17" baking sheets, and bake about 7 minutes. After cooling, transfer to the freezer. Melt an additional 1/2# chocolate. Spread evenly over the top of one brownie sheet and sprinkle with chopped pecans and heath bars. Return to freezer.Remove the parchment paper from the other brownie sheet, and line the pan with plastic wrap. Let there be a lot of overhang here, so that you can wrap the plastic up over the top later. Place the frozen brownie sheet on top of the plastic lined sheet and spread 3 quarts softened vanilla ice cream evenly on top. (Best way to soften is to beat the ice cream with the paddle attachment in your mixer until spreadable.) Top with the pecan toffee brownie sheet and wrap tightly with the overhanging plastic wrap. Return to freezer and allow to set up for at least 4 hours before cutting them into 18 bars. Yum.

If the way to one's heart is through their stomach, let this be your bait.

I've been talking a lot of smack recently about mac and cheese. A classic American favorite, it's become very posh to feature this delightful dieter's nightmare on menus everywhere. Usually there's some sort of clever spin on it...like Cafe Chloe's version with pancetta, gorgonzola, fontina, and gruyere or Urban Solace's with duck confit. I still think they made a mistake by not calling this "quack and cheese". With the exception of Cafe Chloe, most places seem to be doing it just to do it. I'm a firm believer in if you are going to put a kicked up version of any classic on your menu, it better blow the 99 cent version out of the water. So when I was going to a bbq yesterday, I decided to put my money where my (huge) mouth is, and make my own. Make that $21 to be exact.

With so many artisan cheeses readily available at places like whole foods and even costco (maybe not sooo artisan from Costco, but they do carry some decent cheeses), there's really no excuse for using a flat, lifeless cheese. I used a combo of a raw cow's milk gruyere ($12.99/#), 5 year aged Quebec Vintage Cheddar ($11.99/#) from whole foods, and some Parmesan-Reggianno I already had at home. Costco carries a pretty decent aged Cabot Vermont white cheddar for something like $5.99/#, which would work just fine too. Really you can use whatever cheeses you want, just remember the better the cheese the better the mac!

I reccomend putting on some dance tunes while cooking, because trust me, after you eat this you'll be wishing you'd been doing squats while making it.If you're stove is as ancient as mine, and the pilot has to be lit prior to every use, and you have to cross your fingers in hopes that it will actually make a full ring of fire on the burner as opposed to a few flames here and there, the sauce can take a while to make. Be patient...perfection takes time. Also, the pasta will naturally absorb the sauce as it cools, so slightly undercook your pasta, and make sure you eat this while it's still hot from the oven.

Here it goes:

1# macaroni, undercooked, and cooled

sauce:

2 oz (4 tbsp) butter

1/2 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, smashed

1/4 cup flour

6 cups whole milk

1 1/2# shredded cheese

2 tbsp dijon mustard

juice from 1 lemon

big pinch of cayenne pepper

salt and pepper to taste

for topping mix together:

1 cup bread crumbs, preferably panko

1/4 cup shredded parmesan

2 oz melted butter

Cook pasta, cool, set aside. Melt butter in large pot, add onions and garlic and cook til aromatic. Add flour and cook about a minute. Slowly whisk in milk, making sure to tackle any flour lumps. Bring to a boil, and simmer stiring occassionaly until the sauce thickly coats the back of a spoon. On my pathetic excuse for a stove, this took about a 1/2 hour. Take sauce off of heat, whisk in cheese, add mustard and lemon juice, and adjust seasoning with cayenne, salt, and pepper. Strain sauce through a fine mesh sieve over the pasta and toss to coat. Put this into a 9 x 13 pyrex dish and top with bread crumb mix. Bake at 400 until top is brown and crispy, about 25 minutes. Eat immediatley and watch the boys (or girls) swoon.

I'm back

Yeah, so I realize it's been quite some time since I've written anything and that my previous posts were few and far between, but just so you know, I'm back.

I realize that you have all probably been agonizing over the mystery of "whatever happened to Rachel", so here are a few answers as to what I have been up to:

1) Moved downtownish to Normal Heights and love it. I can walk everywhere and I pay way less for so much more.

2) Planted a garden and realized my thumb is a grayish sort of green. All the flowers died, but the edibles are plugging right along, no thanks to me I'm sure. More to come on it's progress.

3)I've been stalking my grandpa's Santa Rosa Plum tree. Last year I was the lucky recipient of every last one of those suckers and I put them to good use, let me tell you. It's blossoming and upon my verbal observation of this, my grandpa reassured me that I wouldn't be recieving a single one this year; for he is going to can them.

4)Being generally lazy and catching up on all of my favorite reality shows such as The Real Housewives of NYC, Keeping up with the Kardashians, Dancing with the Stars, and the ever educational What Not to Wear.

5)Making killer desserts for Blind Lady Ale House. If you haven't been you simply must check it out. It's killer pizza with great ingredients like artisan cheeses and local produce, not to mention the house made sausage on the salsiccia pizza. Spicy sausage, rapini, oregano, and mozzarella cheese. yum! Oh yeah, I'm not a beer drinker but, they've got an amazing selection of craft beers, including one of there own on tap.

6)Doing the dishes.

Any how, just wanted to let you know I'm back and I'm better than ever. No longer over worked and underpayed, Barry and I decided to call it quits with the ol' Flour Shoppe (R.I.P). It was a lot of work, my friends, no joke. I wish I'd blogged about it the whole time, 'cause it was an interesting ride. But the good news is now I'm on to other things. Such as my new obsession with ice cream sandwiches...