Perfectly Picturesque Peach Pie :)

Paul wanted to put the pie in the window. I wanted to drive the neighbors nuts with the great smell.

The blogosphere has been abuzz with peaches lately.  Peach cobbler, grilled peaches, peach smoothies, fresh stuffed peaches, peach cake…Mmmm!  I don’t live in the States right now but I know how delicious those peaches are and I want you to know how jealous I am.  My husband and I really can’t eat a whole peach pie right now, so I convinced a friend to host a potluck, promising him a delicious and stunning peach pie.  I didn’t have a recipe.

I bit the bullet and bought those expensive imported peaches that are not quite ripe…but it is the best I can get.  So I’ll have to hope my baking skills can make up for it.  As for the recipe, I spent a wonderful moment perusing some great food blogs for ideas.  I decided to go with something akin to my mom’s Dutch apple pie with the beautiful presentation of SassyKitchen, but I couldn’t use her recipe so I was still at square one.  The flavor combinations of Pease Pudding sparked my interest:  Nectarine & Cardamon Ice Cream.  Mmmm…cardamom; Fitting given its prominent role in Arab foods (Arabic coffee) and my current location in the Arab world.  A nice local touch.  Finally, I thought I’d change up the streusel topping by using almonds (thanks to Carina Forum for the idea).

Here is the recipe (email me if you’d like it in cups instead of ounces):

Crust:

2.7 oz butter

5 oz all purpose flour

½ tsp salt

3+ tbsp cold water

1 egg white (used later)

Dice up the butter into cubes/pads and drop it into the food processor.  Add the flour and salt and pulse until you have small pieces (not too long or you’ll have one big blob).  Pour in the cold water, 1 tbsp at a time, pulsing in between tbsps.  Add more water until the dough is moist and sticks together.  Roll out a piece of saran wrap and place the dough in the center.  Knead the dough slightly to make sure you don’t have chunks of butter.  Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

 

Filling:

4-5 delicious and fresh peaches!

8 oz. sugar

1.25 oz all purpose flour

½ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp nutmeg

½ tsp cardamom

Splash of lemon juice

Slice the peaches and put them in a large mixing bowl.  In a separate bowl, combine the sugar, flour, and spices.  (If you want to go the extra mile, grate your own cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom!)  Sprinkle the dry mixture over the peaches and toss.  My peaches were pretty dry and the mixture mostly fell to the bottom of the bowl.  But, the sugar will pull out the juices in the peaches to create a syrup so you should stir this a few times to re-coat the peaches.  I added a splash of lemon juice a.) because my peaches were dry and b.) because I wanted something bright amidst the warm winter flavors.

 

Topping

2.5 oz all purpose flour

2.5 oz almonds

4 oz butter

4 oz brown sugar

Using a food grinder (like a coffee bean grinder), coarsely grind the almonds into a powder.  Combine the almond, flour and sugar in a food processor.  Add the butter in cubes/pads.  Pulse until small balls appear.  (If you blend too much on this one, don’t worry.  Your fingers will just do little more work breaking it into pieces when you put it on the pie.)

Okay – so now you have all of the pieces ready.   

1.  Roll out your pie crust, fold it into quarters and transfer to the pie pan.  Trim the edges right at the top of the pie dish – don’t eat them.  (If you can, blind bake the crust for 10 minutes.)   

2.  Roll the extra edges into a ball and roll it out again into an oval.  Cut this into long strips about ¼ inch thick.  Twist two strips together and repeat until you have enough ribbon to go around the circumference of the pie.  (If you were blind baking the crust, pull it out of the oven!)  

3.  Stir your peaches one last time and pour them into the crust, drizzling any extra syrup over the peaches.  Reserve 5 perfectly cut beautifully colored slices for the top the pie.   

Pre-baked.

4.  Using your fingertips break the topping into small pieces and spread it evenly on top of the peaches (don’t get too close to the edge).   

5.  Now carefully wrap your dough-ribbon around the edge of the pie, hiding the ends as best possible.  Arrange your final peach slices on top and brush the ribbon with egg whites.

6.  Finally, cover your masterpiece with foil and bake.

Bake at 400F for about 30-35 minutes.  Remove the foil and bake for another 10-15 minutes until the crust and topping are beautiful golden brown.  Resist the temptation to eat the hot pie and let it cool – the syrup will congeal and it will look so beautiful when you cut into it!

 The pie is very warm and not too sweet.  I recommend you serve it with some vanilla ice cream.  The cool rich flavors of the ice cream will balance well with the warm fruity flavors of the pie.  

Golden Crust.

Happy BIrthday Katie! (ie. Delicious Cupcake Occassion!)

It was quite the challenge to make Katie's birthday cupcakes.  She is a cupcake connoisseur.  We're a perfect match :)  I love to make them and she loves to eat them (and give me great feedback!).  So for her birthday, I really wanted to make something especially delicious.  The challenge, make her favorite cupcake - Georgetown Cupcake's  Vanilla².  I've never had this cupcake before (and I didn't look up that website until just now), but I definitely succeeded.

I started with the most delicious richest creamiest vanilla recipe I know:  Warren Brown's yellow butter cake.  (Warren Brown is a D.C. chef and a food star...he was making cupcakes before Georgetown cupcake even existed!  He is pretty a big deal.)  I won't say I modified his recipe (it is pretty great) but I did use two specific ingredients he didn't mention.  First, I used this amazing butter I buy from "my cheese guy" in the market.  Second, I used our best vanilla - a pure bourbon vanilla.  (Little did I know that Georgetown Cupcakes also uses a bourbon vanilla!)

I went with a vanilla cream cheese frosting.  (I didn't use a recipe!, but if you'd like one you can check out Georgetown Cupcake's.)  Okay, I will tell you that mine is different because a.) the portions are off (I just eyeball it) and b.) after I've added the maximum amount of powdered sugar the butter/cream cheese can handle, I mix in a splash of heavy cream.  This makes the frosting really fluffy.

For Katie's Birthday I made a green-teal frosting and decorated the large cupcakes with swirls and the small ones with stars.  Then, because I've been dying to use my cute little pearls and because Katie's birthday is worthy of my favorite decoration, I delicately added the cute little balls.  In the car on the way to work this morning I was so excited to give Katie her cupcakes!  Me:  They look like something you would eat at a baby shower or an engagement party! Paul:  You mean wearing a dress and pearls?  Me:  Exactly!!!  

Perfectly Poached

I can't order poached eggs in a restaurant any more.  How do professional chefs eat out?  Now that I know how to poach a damn good egg, I can't order it in a restaurant.  Not like seeing the making of your fast food makes you not want to eat it, but how after spending a weekend in a 5 star hotel you just can't swallow the Super 8.

Now that I understand the art (skills, technique, the precise care) that has to go into making a great poached egg - I just can't order it in a restaurant.  The first one was overcooked and my yolk didn't run. And the egg whites weren't fluffy and playful in my mouth, they were thin rubbery pieces.  The second egg was at a much nicer restaurant and they kept the yolk somewhat....not completely solid.  But the whites were nicely structured in a contained circle and pretty fluffy.  The problem - instead of poaching the egg with all the love and tenderness and attention it demands, they trimmed off the imperfections.  I could tell because they most definitely would have used a Large egg and what was on my plate was the size of a Reese's cup.  Seeing my excitement when ordering and my disappointment (almost disgust) with the quality of the expensive eggs I was served, Paul set his foot down:  No more ordering poached eggs.

So, poaching a great egg isn't rocket science, but it isn't the simplest thing in the world either.  You have to start with a basic understanding of what you are working with (and against), and then you have to play the game really well.  The latter is what makes you a chef.  Sadly, what most are missing is the former - and that is where I come in!

The Water  The water in your pan should just barely cover the egg once it is dropped in.  So this amount will vary depending on the pan, the size of the eggs, etc. so I can't tell you "2 cups."  It should probably be about 2 inches of water.  Many say to add vinegar, which supposedly is the magic wand for amateurs. The vinegar supposedly helps the whites to coagulate, or pull themselves together so they cook faster meaning, so you have more solid fluffy whites instead of the runny kind.  (I don't think the vinegar really helps.  You can screw up royally with it or do a perfect egg without it.)


Hot and still water is super important.  Too hot and the egg breaks apart and too col and it doesn't really cook (and it spreads out).  The water should be just below a simmer.  I'd get the exact temperature for you, but you probably wouldn't use a thermometer anyway - and you don't have to.  The best way to describe this:  If you watch the water heat up you'll notice that lots of small bubbles appear to be stuck to the bottom of the pan.  If they have enough strength to float to the top of the pan, you water is too hot.  You could also put it just below this temperature by turning the stove down a bit or stirring the water.  Cuidado!  Julia Child tells you to stir the water to cool it down before dropping in the egg.  And that is how I learned to make egg drop soup!  The water has to be still.  If the water is moving (waves, current, bubbles) your egg whites will go along for the ride and your egg won't stay together.

The Egg  This is a little nerdy and foodie-ish.  Eggs are very complex and amazing.  First - the color. 
Every once in a while you crack open an egg and the yolk is BRIGHT YELLOW!  Other times it is very pale. Why the color difference?  What does it mean?  It has to do with what the chicken ate. (In the U.S. the feed is pretty consistent so they are usually always the same color, but in Israel they vary greatly!)  I like the bright ones for the color they bring to a dish and because I think they are more rich and creamier (and supposedly there are many more vitamins).  You shouldn't worry too much about the color though.

This egg was slightly older and spread out in the pan.

So when you crack open a fresh egg the whites are very thick and kind of form a blog if you poured it on the counter.  If you start to tip the cracked egg to the side the whole egg follow - like cars on a roller coaster being pulled over the climax.  As an egg ages (we're talking days) the whites get weaker and start to separate.  When you crack open this egg it is more runny and some of the white may drip freely from the egg.  You want fresh eggs (or again, you will be having egg drop soup for breakfast).  This will be really important when you first drop the egg into the water: (assuming you have hot still water) the fresh egg will hold itself together while the old eggs will spread out in the pan like pancake batter.  (Pictured right is an older egg.)

(Left)  See the large white circle around the yolk?  That is the fresh egg white which stuck together and tenderly protected the yolk as it was cooked.  These thick whites will be fluffy and delicious!  The blurry white above that are parts of the white which started to break down, they are weaker and so when I put the egg in they started to float away.  These whites will taste drier and slightly rubbery.

The Poaching Part  First, following the directions above, your eggs should be a room temperature and your water hot and still.  Carefully crack the egg into a small dish.  You do this a.) so that you don't get egg shells in your water and b.) so that you can slowly lower the egg into the water.  Double check the water temperature - if it is too hot you can a.) turn down the temperature and wait or b.) speed up the cooling by stirring the water.  (Julia Child suggests the latter - but be careful to let the water fully settle before putting in the egg or...you know...egg drop soup.)

Lower the dish so that the lip is touching the water and slowly let the egg slide into the pan.  If you whites are thick enough, you can let the first half slide into the pan, wait 3-5 seconds for it to start to turn white, and then slowly let the yolk fall on top.

Don't stick your pretty little spoon into the water and cause waves.  Don't let bubbles start to come up.  Watch like a hawk (at least until you have a good grasp on how long this takes).  When the bottom of the egg is white (solid), use a plastic or wooden spoon to carefully edge the egg off of the bottom of the pan.  The top should still be uncooked and the yolk is still very soft.

Once all of the whites have...well..turned white, carefully scoop the egg out with a slotted spoon.  Gently tip the egg to and fro to allow as much excess water to drip off as possible.  If you want to make your egg look extra fancy, you can set the egg on a cutting board and trim the edges (see below).

After you have mastered the poached egg (no more egg drop soup and no more rubbery pieces in murky water), try getting the perfect yolk:  a thick runny yolk that just coats your fork (or bread).  Mmmm!

Starting with a decently poached egg, most restaurants will trim off the not-so-perfect white edges.  I think this is waste of good eggs, above is the simple trick.

Sweet Farewells

We bid farewell to 3 wonderful colleagues at work.  They are all really fun people and deserved only the best farewell.  So..logically...I was commissioned to bake the cakes!  Yeah!!

Happy Customers Devour My Cakes!

The cake menu included two new specials as well as two of my favorites!  Actually, they are all so delicious I can't say which is my favorite!!!  It was a great challenge to bake 4 cakes after work, while still getting enough sleep to function at work and being able to deliver delicious fresh cakes!  But really, the bigger challenge was the transportation of the cakes!  I only have one cake carrying case and one of the cakes was too big to fit in the case anyway.  My solution:  Clean EVERYTHING out of the fridge so no flavors spoil the cakes, turn the air on full blast in the car, and recruit friends to hold the cakes on the way there :)  It worked!

Chocolate, Chocolate, Yum!

Chocolate Chocolate Yum - I'm still working on names :)  but I don't know what else to call this one.  It is the most decadent chocolate deliciousness!  When you put the first bite in your mouth a great rich chocolate flavor sweeps over you.  The cake is moist and somehow light and melts on your tongue.  Before you know it, the bite is gone!  A chocolate cake is layered and topped with a light (in texture) whipped chocolate ganache frosting and sprinkled with beautiful and playful dark chocolate shavings!  Chocolate...more chocolate...and Yum!
 

Dulce de Leche

Yellow Butter Cake with Dulce de Leche Frosting - So cake two is a take on my cake role model's recipe (Warren Brown of Cake Love in D.C.).  The cake is creamy and hearty (fully of love, and slightly heavy).  The simple flavors of the eggs, butter, and sugar shine without the fuss and vanity of other flavors.  But the real love is in the frosting.  Oh my gosh.  I didn't milk the cow or harvest the sugar cane, but I did MAKE the dulce de leche (thanks for the recipe mom!) and then I beat the butter into submission and delicately folded it all together.  I could eat this whole cake.

JC's Orange Sponge Cake - If I had a signature cake, this is it.  I love it!  I won't ever say my cakes are healthy - they are treats or splurges to be enjoyed in moderation.  To do them justice, I only use the best ingredients..which means real butter, real cream, real sugar, real fruit - real food.  So this cake is healthier because it has fruit (haha), less sugar, and less flour.  The texture is light, the flavor is fresh.  The butter cream frosting (which is usually spiked with Cointreau) hints at something special and sophisticated. And the orange slice is a great final bite to cleanse your pallet.

Sweet Margarita!

Sweet Margarita - This final cake (which I was most excited about) is similar to the Orange Sponge Cake.  I was exceptionally excited about this one because limes are only available about one week a year in Israel - and this was the week!!!  So I made a lime sponge cake which is just a light and fresh as the orange one, but slightly more sour.  To mimic the salt rim on a margarita I added just a touch more salt (which also intensified the flavors!).  I frosted the cake in a lime butter cream frosting with just a hint of orange (to mimic the Cointreau or Triple Sec in a margarita).  Finally, I topped the cake off with a deliciously sinful lime curd.  A curd is basically eggs, butter and lots of sugar boiled down (the sweetest part of the cake condensed into a jelly-like syrup, sans the flour).  Like a rum cake - I would recommend pouring a bit of tequila over the cake after it has cooled, before you frost it.  Of course, I didn't follow my own recommendation (and probably wouldn't).  Instead, I let the lucky cake eater choose to either chase their cake with a shot of tequila (and then the slice of lime), or chase the tequila with a slice of lime cake (instead of a lime)!  It was a huge hit!  If only we had limes, I'd make it again!!!

Framing the First 100 Shekels

You know how you always see $1 bills framed in restaurants and such, representing the first dollar the business owned?  Well...I'm ready to frame my first...100 shekels :) 

I can't say I wasn't thinking of selling cakes, that would be a total lie.  I even went so far as to try to come up with a name for the bakery and collected menus to get ideas for the popular flavors.  But - that was a distant distant daydream.  Until last week.

I had a minor cake crisis last week making a cake for a party when I whisked up my eggs and delicately folded the whole thing together...only to find my oven was still cold.  I asked the host to pre-heat her oven and jumped in the car.  It is about 85-90* out, so the cake...pre-baked....on the way.  I frosted the cake at the party when I arrived (fashionably late) and thought it would be a total disaster...but no.  Instead, a colleague asked if I could make a cake for his birthday.                   AND HE WOULD PAY ME!

I modestly tell him the cost of the ingredients (which is not so cheap in Israel, especially since the State just upped the price of butter!) and he doubles it!  My first cake sold for roughly $30!

But wait...it gets better!!! He and his colleagues were so impressed by my cake (which they ate a day later, so it was a little too dry) that they want to buy "a couple" of cakes from me for a farewell event!  HA!!!  This is taking off much faster than I thought.  My audience will be about 140 people, roughly 30 of which are Americans (so who know cakes) and the rest Israelis and Palestinians (who don't know great cakes)!  Oh, if only all the Israelis and Palestinians could come together around my cakes :)  Hahaha. 

Anyway, it will be quite the challenge in terms of timing (a much bigger scale than I've done before) and in terms of it being a PICNIC!  I'm picturing the frosting just sliding right off the precious little dessert.  Maybe I'll have them slightly frozen..oh then there will be water droplets.  There is also the dilemma of having only one cake carrying case.  Boxes?  Cake platters with plastic bowls taped on top ($5 a bowl)?  If anyone is up for the challenge..it is me! 

S'mores! MMmmmMM!

This past weekend was Lag B'Omer in Israel and despite reading the wikipedia page and asking several friends about it - I have no clue what the holiday celebrates.  All I really know is that they have bon fires and the place to be is right in front of my house.  Last year we were surprised by the wonderful our balcony provided of the festivities; so this year, we invited our friends over to "Observe" the holiday with us.

The odd thing about this Israeli holiday is that they make tepees out of their cardboard and trash and pallets, then light it all on fire, and watch for about 15 minutes as the thing flames.  They usually have a blanket or small table set up with food, and a few select (orthodox) groups will bring music.  Being American I had to put my own touch on things...so I decided we'd have S'mores!

This wouldn't seem like anything too extraordinary but there were actually two friends who had never had them before - so for them it was their best S'more ever. Well..their best 2 S'mores ever because you really honestly couldn't have eaten just one of these.

The other extraordinary thing was there are no graham crackers here!  Shocking!  They have a cookie that is close - but not good enough.  So I....look up a recipe to make graham crackers from scratch.  Didn't look too difficult but it called for brown sugar (which thank god I'd just gotten in a care package from my dad!) and honey which I didn't have - ironically.  What I did have (from the same care package) was maple syrup.  Oh my husband would kill me if he knew I used his maple syrup to make these cookies!  Final ingredient - AMERICAN marshmallows.  They are flavored here...like strawberry and some other crappy taste.  A friend tried the whole "Israeli S'mores with their pseudo graham crackers and flavored marshmallows" - you can find her picture on failblog.

Anyway, the making of the graham cracker was a bit tricky because the recipe said to cook until they were slightly brown - but they were brown to begin with because of the brown sugar and the maple syrup.  The first round (or two) came out a little crunchy.  The later ones were better.  In the end, the dark and light ones looked good together and magically, in the 4 hours between when I tried the first one and when we served them - they got better!

I'd like to tell you that I don't want to brag...but I do.  They were freakin' amazing!  One friend (a foodie!) said they were the best S'Mores he'd ever had in his life!  (No - this wasn't his first.  He is American.)  I put all of the ingredients in a cute little stand (and practiced my food photography skills).

I would have taken more photos of the roasting of the marshmallows or the finished products or friends enjoying them...but my hands were sticky!  This was the only photo I managed to take before devouring this cookie...and making another.

Amazing Books I Should Own

In spite of my dislike for the low quality of subject of the amazing photos on foodgawker.com, they have led me to some interesting food blogs which have led me to some interesting foodie books on Amazon, which have led me to more interesting books!  One of which is Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, with Recipes by Jennifer McLagan.


First, I love this book because it is just enough of the food science to validate the author's points.  (By food science, I'm referring to her description of butter, not to the references to specific vitamins and proteins which, agreeing with Michael Polan, I do not agree with.)  Second, I love her defense of butter and am curious now to experiment with lard - although my husband would hate that.  Third, great photos, a necessity in the realm where you can't smell or taste the food. Finally, history and culture.  This really falls in line with Michael Polan's In Defense of Food, taking his points even further.


I should own this book.