Recipes

ANOTHER Apple Pie

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We had a plethora of apples and the bunch we picked last weekend were going to go to waste so I made my dad an Apple Pie. As my second pie, it is much prettier than last weekends! And the recipe is a bit different too.

APPLE PIE!

Crust:
  • 2 1/2 Cups AP Flour
  • 1 Stick Salted Butter (like Earth Balance)
  • 1/2 (just under) Cup Crisco
  • 1 TSP Cinnamon
  • 1 TSP Salt
  • 8 TBSP Ice Cold Water
Combine Flour, Salt, & Cinnamon. Cut cold Butter & Crisco into flour mixture until small crumbles. Add water and stir with wooden spoon to bring together. Divide Dough into 2 separate balls, one slightly larger than the other. On flat, dry surface generously floured, roll out larger ball of dough. Press into bottom of 9in pie pan. Roll out other dough ball into circular shape with a diameter slightly larger than 9 inches. Once filled with apple mixture, top with second layer of dough.

 

Filling:
  • 6 Cups of Apple Slices (honeycrisp, golden delicious)
  • Juice of One Lemon
  • 1 1/2 TSP Cinnamon
  • 1/3 Cup Flour
  • 2/3 Cup Light Brown Sugar
  • 1/4 TSP Salt
  • 2 TBSP Butter (EB)
Peel & Core Apples. Slice in thin slivers and 1/2 depending on size of apple. Squeeze Lemon Juice on top of apple slices and coat. Toss Apples with Brown Sugar, Flour, Cinnamon, and Salt. Pour into pie pan on top of bottom crust. Cut butter into pieces and place around top of filling. Cover pie filling with top layer of crust. Slice little Xs in top to vent.

 

Bake in 425 Degree oven for about 40 minutes.

 

Jambalaya Pizza

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All weekend Stephen wanted to make Jambalaya. I think he’s wanted to make it for some time now. So on Friday when we went to Wegmans we picked up some vegetarian sausage. We’d never tried replacement sausage before so I quickly Googled the best brands and read that Field Roast was a winner (it definitely was). We bought the standard “Italian” flavor.

Now, last weekend when we went to Wegmans a gentleman convinced us to make our own pizza dough. We make our own pie crust, our own pretzels, and so on but we’d never made our own pizza dough for some reason. Well, we decided to heed his advice & Stephen bought some pizza dough yeast.

Late afternoon we decided to make the pizza crust but we weren’t going to have enough time to make a pizza so we deliberated on what kind of pizza we would make when we got home from a couple of meetings. Why not try to make a jambalaya inspired pizza?

Jambalaya Pizza:

For the Dough:
  • 3 1/4 Cup All-Purpose Flour
  • 1/4 Cup Organic Whole Wheat Flour (a little extra for kneading)
  • Pinch of Salt
  • 1 1/2 Cups Warm Water
  • 1 Package Yeast (2 1/4 TSP)
  • 1 TBSP Brown Sugar
For the Topping:
  • Olive Oil
  • 1 Green Bell Pepper, large dice
  • 1 Medium Onion, slivers
  • 1 Green Finger Chili, diced with seeds & ribs
  • 1 Clove Garlic, minced
  • 2 Field Roast Italian Sausage (vegan)
  • 2 Small Tomatoes, diced (roma would work)
  • Cajun Seasoning
  • Dried Thyme
  • Trappey’s Red Devil Hot Sauce
  • Mozzarella Cheese

To prepare the dough: In a large mixing bowl combine 1 1/2 cup warm water with a packet of yeast and brown sugar. Stir gently and let sit for about 5 minutes to activate yeast. Then stir in the flours using a rubber spatula, until ball forms. Flour a flat dry surface, turn out the dough, and kneed. Add flour as necessary. Tip:  flour your hands! Next oil a bowl and place dough into bowl. Allow 30min-2hour rise time, depending on climate conditions. To expedite, we covered bowl in foil and put it in front of a space heater on low!

Flour (or semolina) a pizza pan or cookie sheet. Punch down risen dough to remove air pockets. Turn out onto pan and spread with fingers to size of pan. Rub lightly with olive oil & cracked black pepper. Cook at 425 Degrees for 5 minutes or until just turning light golden.

Heat olive oil in medium/large frying pan. Add liberal amount of cajun seasoning and sizzle to bring out flavor. Sautee bell pepper & onion over medium heat until tender. Add chili and continue to sautee. Add bite-sized pieces of Italian Sausage. Add garlic & tomatoes to pan. Add pinch of dry thyme. Add plenty of hot sauce (to taste). The vinegar adds a nice kick of acidity and punches up the flavor. Turn heat down while all ingredients cook.

Spread sautéed mixture on slightly precooked pizza dough. Sprinkle with desired quantity of mozzarella cheese. We kept the cheese light this time, just using up the remaining cheese from the fridge.

Bake at 425 Degrees for 10 more minutes or until cheese bubbles and turns light brown. Remove from oven and let cool for at least 2 minutes. I know it’s hard to wait.

Angel Cream Filled – Soft Pretzel Donut Whoopie Pie Sandwich

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Every now and then when I go to the downtown Farmers Market I get a delicious treat from one of the Amish vendors. A Powdered Angel Cream Filled Donut. The best donut I’ve ever had. I was browsing Foodgawker (only my favorite website ever) today and thought “oh my gosh, what if I could make the angel cream donuts????” So I looked up some recipes and came up with this extreme experiment.

I have an aversion to frying my own donuts, I’ve only ever wanted to bake them. You know, cakey baked donuts? Yum. But I didn’t feel like that would work with the angel cream. Then I remembered the Soft Pretzel recipe I love and decided to turn them into a sort of donut instead. This Soft Pretzel recipe makes those mall pretzels that, when smothered in cinnamon sugar, pretty much taste like a slightly salty donut. Again… Yum.

So here’s my experimental recipe…

Soft Pretzel Sandwiched with Angel Cream

Soft Pretzel Donut:

1 Cup Whole Milk

1 TBSP Dry Active Yeast

4 TBSP Brown Sugar

2 1/4 Cups AP Flour

3 TBSP Melted Salted Butter (plus extra for painting)

In large bowl, warm milk in microwave for about 50 seconds. Add yeast and let sit for 5 minutes to activate yeast. Add sugar and let sit 2 more minutes. Add 1 cup of flour and stir with a wooden spoon until comes together. This is important, don’t add all the flour at once. Stir in melted butter (if using unsalted butter add between 1/2 to 1 TSP salt). Then add remaining flour and stir until sticky ball is formed.

Turn out onto floured surface and knead briefly to form soft ball. Place in a clean, oiled bowl and cover to let rise. May take anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 1/2 hours, depending on climate to rise. You want the dough to double in size. Once doubled, preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Punch dough gently and turn out onto floured surface. Separate into balls to form your donuts. Knead into donut shape, almost like a round disk. The number of balls depends on the size you want your donuts. Remember! they will increase in size after baking soda bath & bake. Which brings us to the next step!

Baking Soda Bath:

1/4 Cup Baking Soda

Enough water necessary to bathe your donuts.

Combine baking soda in bowl or pan of water. Dunk the donuts in baking soda bath so that they are completely covered. They only need to be in the mixture for about 10 seconds. They’ll puff up immediately. Remove and transfer to baking sheet.

Brush top of pretzel ball lightly with melted butter. Sprinkle with coarse salt. Bake at 450 Degrees for about 10 minutes or until golden brown.

Icing/Filling:

1/2 stick Crisco Vegetable Shortening

2 Cups Powdered Sugar

2 TBSP Granulated Sugar

1/4 Cup of Whole Milk

Blend until light and fluffy.

Once Pretzels in shape of donuts are cooled, cut in half. Slather with Angel Cream Icing and sandwich sides together. If desired, dunk top in melted butter then powdered sugar or combination or powdered sugar & cinnamon.

These are very dense & rich. I recommend making them SMALL. Mine were a little big and as a result a little dense and a lot to eat. Also, when I was making them I became pretty nervous that the combination would be strange but it was actually delicious. Soft pretzels and angel cream icing? Totally delicious.