Ode to Vermont and Canada

I'm so not feeling the Christmas spirit this year. I want a shirt that says, "Bah. Humbug." However, the bright sunny morning cheered me a little and I decided to celebrate the first day of me not checking my Blackberry all day with some scones.  Not just any scones -- maple-glazed pumpkin scones to be exact. I wanted to make these over Thanksgiving, but a family emergency kept me from my kitchen most of my time off.

You've seen the scone recipe before, so let's get to it. It starts pretty much the same; pulse dry ingredients in the food processor.  Add cold butter.

Here's the departure:  make Trader's Joe's Pumpkin Butter your friend. Y'all might even be best friends after this :-)

Mix it into the cream really well. Instead of a full cup of cream, I used 3/4 C. Add the cream to the flour mixture. 

CI has you do this by hand, I just added mine to Miracle and pulsed until it formed a dough.

                                     

Now comes the messy part. Dump the dough on the counter. Knead very gently to incorporate all the dry bits. Form a ball or two, depending on how you will shape your scones.

I made two balls because I used a 6" cake pan so I could have mini scones.

Press the dough into the pan.

Invert.

Slice (do a better job than I did.) Remember to press straight down. I'll show you what happens later when you don't.

I did better on the second round.

I started with refrigerated instead of my usual frozen butter, so I parked these in the refrigerator while I took a bacon detour. 

I did say MAPLE pumpkin scones. No way I was going to have a hot oven, maple syrup on the counter and bacon in the refrigerator without making maple-glazed bacon again.

Back to the scones.  I heated some butter and maple syrup together.

I gave the scones a beautiful brush-on tan and to the oven they went.

Here's what I got.

Absolutely delicious! The texture was closer to a biscuit or even cake. I prefer my scones on the drier side, but the flavor made up for the break with tradition. The pumpkin butter was pretty sweet, so I would knock out some of the sugar when I try these again. The maple syrup kept the outside of the scones from getting hard, so next time, I'll make half with the glaze on before baking and put the glaze on the other half after baking to see which I like best. 

With Teavana's English Breakfast Tea, these made a wonderful morning treat. On a side note, here's another vote for Silpat -- the burnt syrup just flakes off. Easy cleanup.

Remember my note to press straight down when cutting? Here's what happens when you don't. He's all crooked :-( I'm working on a granite counter, so I use my bench scraper to cut dough. Moving to a cutting board so I can use my knives is too much work. And even still, I think it's just the way I cut and lack of wrist strength. I sometimes have lopsided biscuits too.

Tools of the trade

• Kitchenaid Food Processor
• Wilton Cake 6" Deep Pan
• 2-Cup Pyrex Measuring Cup
• Silpat
• OXO Pastry Brush
• OXO Bench Scraper

A Keeper

My aunt found this recipe for carrot soufflé. It is now a family favorite. I didn't start dinner until 7 something Sunday night and I had a gang of stuff to do. My goal in life was to make this as quickly as possible using as few dishes as possible. Here's how I did it.

Chop a pound of carrots. This was my lazy cooking night, so I started by breaking them down.

Then, I let Miracle do the work. I put the carrots in a 2-qt pot and added enough water to barely cover them. I know. I know. I've preached about my preference for roasting instead of boiling veggies. Again, I made it to the kitchen around 7 on a Sunday night; boiling was faster. Don't forget to add salt to the water.

Hot fresh carrots! Now, we need to cool things down. Here's where I veer from the recipe. Blend the butter and carrots. My aunt uses a blender; you can mash by hand if you want. I planned on using the FP for as many steps as I could. 

Now add the sugar and blend. Don't forget to scrape the bowl.

By now, the mixture should be cool enough to keep from scrambling your eggs and stealing your vanilla flavor. Add both of those now and blend.

Add flour, salt, and baking powder. Blend some more.

Everything should be all smooth. Pour into a greased baking dish. Is CorningWare French White the official bake ware of America?

Bake for 45 minutes. Isn't it pretty?

Look at that texture. And the taste? Oh man ... You won't believe how good this is! Whenever I run across a killer recipe, I file it in my "Husband-Only" cookbook. I'm single now, but when he finds me, he'll eat well! This one made it in with a gold star.

Tools of the trade:

• Totally Bamboo Butcher Block 3 Prep Board Honey
• Shun DM0718 Classic 7-Inch Santoku Hollow Ground Knife
• KitchenAid KFP750OB 700-Watt 12-Cup Food Processor, Onyx Black
• All-Clad Stainless 2-Quart Saucepan
• CorningWare French White 2-1/2-Quart Oval Dish

Crackers - The First Attempt

A few weeks ago, my coworker brought in some Cracked Black Pepper and Olive Oil Triscuit crackers.  They were unbelievably good. That sent me to my cookbooks and the Web for recipes! I started with Rosemary-Parmesan Icebox Crackers from Williams-Sonoma.

Now for some reason, I didn't take enough "making of" shots or either I accidentally deleted them.  However, the recipe is easy so have no fear. In the food processor, combine flour, salt, pepper and rosemary. Now, you know I didn't follow the recipe exactly. I reduced the cheese and amped up the rosemary and black pepper.  I used kosher salt instead of table salt.  Add the butter and pulse until the mixture looks like coarse meal.  Add the cheese and pulse twice.

*Imagine shot of mixture in food processor bowl here*

Roll the dough into a log on a lightly floured surface.  Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least three hours.

The rest is easy -- just slice and bake!  I need more practice with making even thin slices.  I added an extra sprinkle of black pepper before baking.  The first batch was baked on a sheet pan with a Silpat.

They came out okay. They were a little soft and not as dry as I would have liked.

I baked the next two batches directly on a baking stone.  I used a fish spatula to remove the crackers because they were a bit delicate when they were warm.

I liked these much better, but I suspect it's the cheese that's keeping me from getting that dry, crumbly cracker texture.

I tried some different shapes too.

These had a lot of flavor, but too much salt, even with me cutting back on the Parm.  I'll be more careful with my kosher-table salt swap next time.  I'd make these again, but they didn't sastisfy my black pepper Triscuit goal.

Tools of the trade:

• KitchenAid Food Processor
• All-Clad Pizza Baker/Stone
• Kuhn Rikon Cooks' 11-Inch Flexi Spatula

Thanksgiving 2009 - A Little Progress

I am a genius! In a stroke of brilliance yesterday, I decided to take a nap at 4:30. I wasn't officially up until 12 hours later! So, I'm a wee bit behind on my schedule, but no worries. Let's recap the progress. My goal is to really blog about everything I make this year; even if I done an entry about it before. Here we go.




First was the cornbread for the dressing. If you're new to the blog, let me tell you now that I'm in love with Cook's Illustrated. Most of my recipes are theirs. They were no slouches with the All-Purpose Cornbread recipe either. This has the sweetness of Jiffy with a better texture and real corn flavor.



First, and this is where my heritage meets the recipe: heat a cast iron skillet so that it's screaming hot. Cornbread should be made in cast iron. There, I've said it. I put the skillet into the cold oven (on the baking stone) and heat it as the oven preheats.





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Next, process the wet ingredients: buttermilk, corn and brown sugar.





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Add the eggs.





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Perfect! Thick and creamy with bits of corn.





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Before I start with the dry stuff, I take the skillet out of the oven and add canola oil. Do not use butter or extra-virgin olive oil. They will burn. I put the skillet back in the oven while I finish the batter.





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Now, grab flour, cornmeal and and a scale. (Baking is a science; measuring is necessary.)





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Add the leavenings and salt. Table salt for baking, kosher for everything else.







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Whisk together and make a well for the wet stuff.







Grab a spatula and fold unitl moistened. I like to have a few dry bits left before I add the butter.





Bring on the butter!







Get the skillet and plop the batter in there. Hear that? See those bubbles? That's exactly what you want.







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Smooth out the top and bake!







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Golden brown and delicious! Just look at that crust! That piece is for the cook and the chili I pulled from the freezer:-)







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Once cool enough to handle, break it apart and leave it out to dry out overnight.







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Now for the trukey brine. This is recipe is from Emeril Lagassee.



Grab a stockpot. Orange juice, wine (dry please) start us off. I chose a pino grigio.





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It is a brine - salt and sugar are required.







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Add peppercorns, ginger, thyme and bay leaves. Take a moment to rough up the thyme a little to release the flavor. I got lazy and didn't chop the ginger. If I had been putting the turkey in immediately, I would've chopped it. I added the water last.





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I refrigerated the brine separately. My intent was to add the turkey a few hours later, after the flavors had melded. They certainly melded since I fell alseep and the turkey didn't make the introduction until this morning!







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Butterball added a gravy packet this year. That went straight to the trash along with the gizzard, heart and liver. I don't like gravy just enough to know it should be homemade. I have to be in the right frame of mind to eat organ meats, especially gizzards. It happens once every few years.







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Do save the neck and tail. (Butterball didn't think I needed my tail) Use those to make stock for the gravy. This is missing some herbs. I'll add those later. I still have to get some parsley.





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Tools of the trade:



I'll add these later.

Dollar Friendly

You know from the last post that I'm preparing for Thanksgiving, so I have to pinch a few pennies in order to work the masterpiece I'm planning in honor of the holiday dedicated to food. Anyhoo. I was inspired to bring back my red beans and rice after reading a post about Monday red beans and rice on YatCuisine. I paired that with some cornbread. What makes this blog-worthy is the edition of sweet potato fries to the plate.

This was just an off-chance craving. I usually microwave sweet potatoes and treat them like a baked potato. Visions of the sweet potato fries I had while on a commercial shoot in Los Angeles popped into my head. Don't know why, but the vision hit and I had to act.

I used a Cook's Illustrated recipe as the base. It was pretty simple: toss the fries in oil, salt and pepper; throw them into the oven; handle them with care while they are cooking. How could I mess that up?

Here we go. I started by heating a cast iron skillet in the oven. CI recommended a baking sheet; I knew cast iron would be better for me. Leave it in until it's screaming hot.

I wanted to use my never-been-used-in-four-years French fry disc for Miracle. Note to self: potatoes go in sideways. The potato had to be trimmed to fit the feed tube. This is the one time I wish I had a wider feed tube.

I tossed these in canola oil, kosher salt, black pepper, nutmeg and cinnamon. I never eat sweet potatoes without nutmeg. (It just ain't right to not pay homage to sweet potato pie.)

Add a little oil to the skillet and arrange the fries in a single layer. Bake until golden brown on the underneath. Here's the tricky part: flipping the fries. You have to use a thin spatula to get underneath the fries and not leave the caramelized portion on the pan. Enter fish spatula.

After you've turned them, throw them back into the oven until done. So simple and so good. Inexpensive too!

Tools of the trade:

• OXO i-Series Peeler
• Totally Bamboo Butcher Block
• Shun Santoku
• KitchenAid Food Processor
• KitchenAid French Fry Disc
• Lodge Logic 8" Cast Iron Skillet
• Kuhn Rikon Fish Spatula

Buy The Book #2: Sweety Pies

I realized that my last post could have been a part of this series. I was too excited about mastering biscuits to think about it. Oh well.

For my second post in this series, I wanted to use one of my newer cookbooks. I was so in love with Sweety Pies last year, I gave it as a gift. I like a good story with my recipe and this book delivers!

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Let me back up. I was home last week for a funeral and someone brought over a homemade egg custard pie. You would not believe the excitement this elicited from Aunt Carolyn, me and later my big brother. This woman put her foot in that pie! My dessert-loving Uncle Herman later agreed. Needless to say, I was willing to make another attempt at this pie until I got it right. I had a few books to choose recipes from and I chose Sweety Pies because it was newer.

Since the filling was so simple, I tried to go for a more difficult traditional pie crust. I chose the one in Baking Illustrated. Y'all know pie crust has been my nemesis. I wanted to venture away from my beloved Cook's Illustrated Foolproof Pie Dough. Not the smartest move I've ever made, but practice makes perfect.

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Pie crust first. The best-tasting crusts have butter and shortening. Make sure they are both well chilled.

Take the flour, salt and sugar for a spin. Add the shortening and process. The mixture should look like wet sand. Evenly distribute the butter on top.

Process until the butter is the size of peas.

We'll now fast forward. Dump the mixture into a bowl and add cold water. Shape into a disc and refrigerate for at least an hour. Roll it out and get it into the pie plate.

Moving on to the filling. Cream the sugar, butter and eggs. I gave the butter and sugar a head start and then added the eggs.

Look at Sparkle go! Don't be confused; you know I named most of my appliances. I didn't call the food processor by name, but you already know Miracle.

Add your flour, buttermilk and extracts. The recipe called for lemon and vanilla. I think I want to go for just the vanilla next time. The buttermilk made the eggs curdle. Curdled batters always make me nervous.

Here's the result -- a little more golden brown than I planned on, but still good. Do you know how hard it was to wait on the pie to chill so I could taste it?!! I had to go to bed to rid myself of the temptation.

Although good in it's own right, this is not the pie I tasted in Little Rock last week. I just called my Aunt Myrt to see if she can get the recipe!

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Tools of the trade:

• KitchenAid Food Processor
• KitchenAid Hand Mixer
• OXO Bench Scraper
• French Rolling Pin
• Pyrex 9" Pie Plate
• Glass Mixing Bowl