Un-Birthday Pie

“American as apple pie” is a phrase that never sounded right to me. Perhaps that’s because I don’t bake apple pie. See, my favorite apple pie is nothing like the traditional American version. My birthday pie (I’m not a cake girl) has a sour cream base, and a brown sugar crumble topping, and I’ve never even TRIED to make it myself. That is my mom’s job, and she does it beautifully every year. She’s mailed it to me at college, packed it in suitcases, driven it from Philly to Manhattan to deliver it to my birthday party only to turn around and drive back home, and snuck it past airport security so we could have a pre-flight treat. 

The other week, after having had my fill of MY pie, I had some apples on my counter that needed to be used up, and I was getting a little tired of applesauce. Luckily, P. gave me an excellent excuse to make a pie, in the form of an “occupie” party (get it?). So I flipped through a few cookbooks and discovered a recipe from Maury Rubin, the guy behind the City Bakery, for an Indian pudding apple pie. 

The crust is pretty standard, though I followed my mom’s lead and used apple cider in place of water in the crust. The filling, meanwhile, is molasses based, with a good amount of cinnamon and ginger. Whisked together, before tossing in the apple slices (Golden Delicious), it has the same glossy, luxurious look of melted chocolate.

The topping, meanwhile, has got cornmeal, flour, and brown sugar, mixed with butter and a little cream. The recipe specifically calls for coarsely ground cornmeal, which is the one thing I would change. Given the preparation, the grains stayed a little too crunchy for our taste, which might not have been the case if I’d used a medium grind.

In any case, pour the apple mixture into the crust, and top with the cornmeal mixture.

Bake it for a half an hour, then cover with foil and bake another half an hour. 

Et, voila.

Make no mistake, this is an intense pie. It’s also kind of runny. I was hoping it would set up a little better than it did. No complaints about flavor, though.

A Sprout Even a Father Could Love

The only thing I knew about Brussels sprouts as a kid was that my dad didn’t like them.* I guess I also knew what they looked like (itty bitty cabbages!), but I don’t think I ate one until well into my 20s. My first experience might have been at Momofuku Ssam Bar, where at the time they were served roasted with dried hot peppers and possibly pine nuts. They were chewy and crispy and spicy and wonderful. Ever since then, roasted and a little spicy is my favorite to make them.

 

This recipe is an example of the Thomas Jefferson School of Carnivorism. That particular founding father espoused a belief that meat should be used sparingly, as a condiment rather than the centerpiece of the meal. I find that bacon is particularly suited to that treatment. Take a couple of pieces and cut them up into smallish bite-sized pieces. Place them in a single layer in a large baking dish, and stick it in a hot oven while you trim the sprouts. (Tip of the hat to Martha Stewart for this particular technique.)

 

You’ll want to have smallish sprouts here. They don’t have to be teeny tiny, but small enough that you only have to cut them in half to make them bite sized. Of course, if teeny tiny is what you have (the ones we get from Stoneledge are usually on that end of the spectrum, so I’m taking advantage of the absence of a harvest by buying bigger ones), then just peel off any iffy looking leaves and call it a day, no halving necessary. By the time they’re prepped, the bacon should have rendered nicely. Pull the dish out of the oven, drizzle in some olive oil to mix with the bacon fat (mmm… bacon fat…) and then toss in the sprouts. Also some salt, a few garlic cloves, crushed and peeled, and a couple of whole dried red peppers.

 

Let this roast a while longer–at least 20 minutes, though it’ll depend on just how small your sprouts are, and how charred you like them. When they’re almost-but-not-quite ready, add in a good pour of maple syrup and a chopped apple–something tart and firm, as you don’t want it to go completely to mush–and stick the dish back in the oven for 5 more minutes. 

Meanwhile, cook up some pasta. What kind doesn’t really matter, but cut shapes are more suited to this recipe than something like linguine or fettucine. Save some of the pasta water before you drain it, and when you take the sprouts out of the oven the last time, pour in that water. Most of the water will cook off or be absorbed by the veggies, but it’ll help mix up all the flavors before you pour it over the pasta. Grate on some cheese (I like pecorino romano here) and serve. 

 

I think even my dad might try this one.

*It turns out I didn’t even know THAT much, since my dad has reminded me that it’s okra and eggplant he hates; Brussels sprouts are a lifelong favorite. 

Brussels Sprouts, Apple (& Bacon) Pasta

serves 3-4

8 ounces cut pasta

1 lb Brussels sprouts

2 slices bacon

2-3 Tbsp olive oil

3 cloves garlic

3-4 dried hot peppers

1 tart crisp apple

2 Tbsp maple syrup

1/4 c grated Pecorino Romano

salt

Preheat the oven to 400F.

Put on a pot of water to boil for the pasta. Salt it well, and cook according to the instructions on the package. Reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking water, then drain & rinse under cool water until the rest of the dish is ready.

Cut up the bacon into 1/2″  pieces and place them in a large baking dish in a single layer. Stick it in the oven while you trim the Brussels sprouts. Cut off the ends and peel off any bruised outer leaves. If they are bigger than bite-sized, cut them in half. Crush the garlic cloves with the flat of a knife and peel off the skins. Take the baking dish out of the oven, pour in the olive oil, and add the sprouts, garlic, and hot peppers. Sprinkle with salt, stir, and return to the oven for about 20 minutes.

Core and chop an apple. Check the sprouts for doneness and when they seem mostly cooked, add in the apple pieces and the maple syrup. Stir and return to the oven for another 5 minutes. Stir in the reserved pasta cooking water, and then combine with the cooked pasta. Top with the grated cheese, taste for salt, and serve.

Apple Cheddar Take 2

I’ve tried this once before. But apples and cheddar are truly such a wonderful combination that I don’t think it’s redundant to do it again. And I’ve been dying to try this recipe for scones I saw on Leite’s Culinaria. (Apple pie with slices of cheddar slipped under the top crust will have to wait.) I will spare you the suspense and say that, as anyone might guess, futzing around with a generic muffin recipe can never result in a baked good that holds a proverbial candle to a recipe from Bill “Crust Master” Yosses. Furthermore, let us agree that a batch of these scones + a full pot of freshly brewed coffee = Saturday morning heaven.

I have also expounded on the brilliance of Bill Yosses before. This recipe comes from his new cookbook, which is written with the wonderful Melissa Clark, of the Times‘ A Good Appetite column. And as before, Chef Bill has some tricks up his sleeve that make all the difference in the world. To start with, peel, core, and slice the apples–and then bake them for 20 minutes, just long enough so they’re dry to the touch.

Let them cool while you mix up the rest of the batter.

Add the apples to the bowl and stir until just combined.

Spread out the dough on a floured work surface, and roll it into a rough circle. Slice it up into 6 wedges, and spread them out on a baking sheet.

Brush them with an egg wash and sprinkle with sugar, then bake for 30 minutes at 350F, and you’re done.

It should be noted that scones are ideally consumed on the day they are baked, so be prepared to share with some friends, or to eat a lot of scones yourself. Either way, you can’t really lose.

Boozy Baking

This week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe is for a rum-spiked apple cake, derived from one prepared by her evidently recipe-averse friend Marie-Helene. I love apple cakes, and I love boozy baking, so this was clearly going to be a winner no matter what.

My friend A. was over for dinner, and she chopped apples while I made the batter. A. is also slightly recipe averse (I think it’s a French thing), but more specifically measuring cup-averse, so it was a good division of labor. I got slightly nervous putting the thing together, as the batter-to-apple ratio seemed very low, but it came out beautifully.

And then we had this exchange (paraphrased).

A: You know what would make this even better? If we sprinkled some sugar on top and caramelized it.

Me: [raising my hand] Um, I have a kitchen torch.

And there was much rejoicing. And a little fire.

A. (who does not fool around when it comes to dessert) also had the brilliant idea that the cake should really be served with whipped cream, laced with a bit of rum, and possibly some ice cream. And so it came to pass, and there was further rejoicing.

Top Your Own Pizza Party

This past Sunday, L., M., P., and our respective +1s came over for the latest round of Cook Club. We had all semi-tacitly agreed that it would be a more casual affair this time, and for whatever reason, I settled on making pizza. I made a bunch of antipasti/salads, prepped the toppings, made the dough, went a little crazy at Murrays’, and let everyone do their own thing. 

The pre-pizza spread: kidney beans with shallots and parsley; pan-seared shishito peppers; Treviso potato salad (with radicchio, from Lynne Rossetto Kasper); Sweet and Sour Grilled Pumpkin (which I’ve made before); Shredded Collard Greens with Walnuts and Pickled Apples; and sweet-tart salad of basil, sorrel, and apple (also from Rossetto Kasper–this was the star of the show, I think).

Really, though, the point is the pizza. Because of the limited amount of space in my oven, and also in my kitchen, we made our pizzas in pairs. But pizza only takes 10 minutes to cook (which I know to be a fact, from my summer working at Panzone’s) and cheese retains heat better than just about anything, so we all still ate at roughly the same time. I’d made pesto, and tomato sauce (from the many pounds of tomatoes A. and I picked up at Stoneledge), roasted peppers, made “oven-candied” tomatoes, cooked up some sausage, caramelize some onions, and bough pepperoni and mushrooms.

Enough with the preamble. Here are our beautiful creations:

For dessert, we had cookies and ice cream. There had been a request for a repeat of the pink peppercorn ice cream I made back in May, and who am I to deny someone ice cream? It’s a pretty basic vanilla custard base, with the addition of a tablespoon of ground pink peppercorns (separate post to come on that, probably). And then when you make ice cream, you wind up with a lot of unused egg whites–so I was pleased to find a recipe for something called Chocolate Puddle Cookies on 101 Cookbooks that requires a lot of them.

More photos of everything here.

It was, as always, a lovely evening in wonderful company. I am so, so glad that we started Cook Club. I think we could probably be eating take out and drinking box wine (not to knock box wine–there are some really good ones out there) and have just as good a time together, but thankfully, we have the option to have homemade meals with good friends, and who could ask for more than that?

A Meeting of the Minds and Stomachs

This was a long time coming.

“This” referring to a food-centric meeting of Moody Food and the CSA Files.

N. was in town last weekend, and miraculously so was I, so we scrambled to get something on the calendar. As it happens, it was Eat Drink Local week, and Something ended up being dinner at Almond followed by dessert chez moi. N. is phenomenally talented in the kitchen, but allergic to measuring spoons and cups, so there is not a whole lot of baking going on in the Moody Food kitchen. So I offered her a few options, and she put in a request for Orangette’s Apple Tart Cake (an excellent choice).

It’s sort of an odd recipe, really. It’s not quite a tart, not quite a cake. There’s a thin cake-like base, and then slices of apples layered on that, topped with an egg-y sugar-y wash of sorts.

For the base, run a food processor with sugar, flour, butter, egg, and a bit of vanilla and baking powder. Press it into a buttered & floured springform pan (mine is 9 1/2″, not 9″, and causes no noticeable problems). Then you will need to peel, core, and slice a bunch of apples. This is the only remotely difficult part of this recipe. Peeling apples is kind of annoying, and slicing them into equally-sized pieces is also sort of a pain. And THEN you have to layer them on top of the base in concentric circles. The recipe calls for three large apples, which will seem like way too much, but it’s ok. Squish them all in anyway. You’ll probably need to go back and add in a few pieces here and there, just to use them all up, and it seems like work, but do it. I like the way it looks if you alternate the direction of the slices on each circle, because every once in a while, I can bring myself to care about presentation.

Bake that in a hot oven for 45 minutes, and then pour the egg wash on top–a mix of egg, sugar, cinnamon, and melted butter. I am in the process of switching my whole spice cabinet over to Penzeys, and I have to say, their Extra Fancy Vietnamese really makes a difference. Really, though, just use the best cinnamon you can find, and bake another 25 minutes.

Orangette says this is better made the day before you intend to eat it, and I am not one to argue. I baked this Saturday afternoon for our Sunday dinner, and it was wonderful, with a bottle of Sauternes, and a little Thai basil ice cream and a little raspberry sherbet on the side…

Next time she’s here, we’re going to cook together properly. Which may or may not end up being something for the French Fridays with Dorie project we’ve both signed up for.

No matter what, I can predict that dessert will be my responsibility.

Cheesy Apple Goodness

There are people who put cheddar cheese into their apple pies. I’m not really sure if it’s worked into the crust, or grated into the filling, or just hidden in between the layers, like that surprise smear of wasabi that often clears out your sinuses when you aren’t paying close attention to your sushi. Whichever way it’s done, it’s not how I make apple pie. The only apple pie for me is my mom’s, known as Fishmarket Apple Pie (or sometimes Birthday Pie, because that is what there is for my birthday, as cake is for people who don’t know better). And you cannot put cheddar into that pie. Trust me.

The truth, though, is that I do not generally make apple pie at all, because my mom does such a great job that there is no point in getting in on that game myself. I do, however, get in the muffin game. Often. And somehow I got it into my head the other week that there needed to be some apple cheddar muffins in my life.

I started with Deborah Madison’s cheddar muffin recipe, figuring that if you can add a cup of fresh corn kernels (one of her suggested variations), then adding a cup of chopped apples in more or less (more) kernel-sized pieces should work, too. In addition to that, you’ll need some flour, cornmeal, baking powder, grated cheddar, eggs, milk, vegetable oil, and honey. Oh, and some fresh ground pepper, which was sort of an afterthought, but I’m really glad I included it.

Mix together the dry ingredients in one bowl, the wet ingredients in another, and have the cheese and the apple bits ready. The egg/milk mixture goes into the flour/cornmeal, and is fully combined. Then stir in the grated cheese. For this, I think the sharpest cheese available is best, to contrast with the tart sweetness of the apples. And it should be grated on the coarse side.

Next, in go the apples. I prefer to leave the skins on, especially if they’re red apples, because it’s prettier. And on that subject: Macintoshes would be great. These were (I think) Macoun. Granny Smiths or something else tart would be lovely, also.

Then you just need to pour it into your muffin tin. I always prefer to use paper liners, on account of being lazy. Buttering and flouring muffin tins is tedious work, and cleaning them out is even more so. But do whatever you like.

Bake at 375F for 20-25 minutes, until a tester comes out clean. (The one thing I’ve noticed about my beloved Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone is that I always need to round down the temperature and/or cooking time on muffin recipes. I suspect that maybe my muffin tins are a bit smaller than Ms. Madison’s, but it is a consistent adjustment I always have to keep in mind, and it’s easy enough if I actually remember.)

Apple Cheddar Muffins
adapted from Deborah Madison
Makes 10-11 muffins, depending on the size of your tin

1 1/4 c flour
1/2 c cornmeal
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper
2 eggs
1 c milk
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 1/2 Tbsp honey
2 c grated sharp cheddar
1 c chopped apples

Preheat the oven to 375F. Prepare a muffin tin, either with paper liners or by buttering & flouring.
Combine the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, mix up the eggs, milk, vegetable oil, and honey. Grate the cheddar coarsely and chop up the apples into pieces, no larger than 1/2″ cubes.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, and mix until just combined. Add in the cheddar, and then the apples.
Spoon into the muffin tin, and bake for 20-15 minutes, until a tester comes out clean.