Pie

Strawberry Hand Pies

June 14, 2011

It has been just a little while since my last post… but I have valid reasons! I have been incredibly busy with school (who decided taking summer courses was a good idea????????), baseball (Adam and I both play on two seperate teams, so three or four nights a week we are at one game or another) and everything else you could think of. Adam and I went to Osoyoos for a weekened, there have been wedding showers for Adam’s cousin who is getting married this summer (next month!!) and Birthdays.

Yup, It was MY birthday this month =) In fact, a week ago. June 5. I decided this year I wasn’t going to make my own birthday cake, mainly because that was also a very busy weekend! The Friday night Adam had two baseball games, and then Saturday I was part of a fundraiser for our baseball team, and It also happened to be a Vancouver Canucks playoff game night! In case you didn’t notice, or are not from Vancouver, the Canucks are ALMOST the Stanley Cup Champions. We have one more game to stress over tomorrow night! We actually went downtown last night to take part in the festivities, but alas, we did not win. So there was no celebrating. Anyways, back to more important things, like my birthday =). So by the time Sunday rolled around, I was in no mood to make a cake. As well, back to summer school, who decides to have an assignment due on a Sunday!? Didn’t they realize it was my birthday… hehe.

So I woke up bright and early to finish an essay, and then spent the rest of the day celebrating. It is also my friend Alysha’s birthday the same day! Same name (spelt differently) and same birthday. A year apart. So we have spent the last few together for at least part of the day. We went and had our nails done with my mom, and then had lunch. Afterwards, Adam had planned dinner and a surprise. We drove to Stanley Park and enjoyed a ‘drink’ on the Seawall in plastic champagne glasses, and some dessert! He knows me well =) After that, we went to Seasons in the Park a beautiful restaurant in Queen Elizabeth Park. It was really delicious, and the view was awesome.

As you might remember, Adam wanted birthday pie for his birthday dessert. And I thought I would carry on the tradition and make myself some little hand pies. They were just so cute and I had been wanting to make them since last summer. We are also having our good friends over for dinner tonight, so obviously I needed to have something sweet for post-dinner discussion.

These are extremely easy, and I even made it with whole wheat flour to make it ‘healthy.’ It has fruit! And whole wheat flour, its gotta be good for you! You could do it with any fruit im sure, and I love how the little pies look like Sand Dollars! So cute.


This one  looks like it got bitten by a Vampire! hehe

Whole Wheat Strawberry Hand Held Pies

recipe for basic pie dough as I have used before here

Ingredients:

  • 1¼ cups whole wheat flour (or a mix of AP + WW)
  • 1 tbsp. sugar
  • 8 tbsp. cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
  • 3 tbsp. very cold water

Directions:

  1. Combine the flour, and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.  Mix briefly to blend.  Add in the butter pieces and mix on medium-low speed to cut the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse sand and the largest butter pieces are not much bigger than peas.  Mix in the cold water on low speed just until the dough comes together.
  2. Shape the dough into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

*makes about 7-8 hand held pies, double recipe for more

Strawberry Filling

  • approximately 1 1/2 cups strawberries, cut into small pieces
  • 3-4 tbs sugar, more or less as you desire
  • zest of a lemon
  • 1 *scant* tbs of flour

Directions:

In a small saucepan, on medium heat combine all ingredients. Let simmer for about 10 minutes, sitrring occasionally. Allow to thicken.

Once it has reached desired consitency, remove from heat and cool slightly.

******
To Assemble Hand Pies:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

*You may wish to have an egg wash, simply mix one egg with a splash of water and whisk. Alternatively, you can use water only*

Remove dough from refrigerator. Roll out onto slightly floured surface. Using a round cookie cutter, cut out disks. Place one disk on a greased cookie sheet, (optional, you can add a pinch of graham cracker crumbs on top to not get a soggy bottom), and using a spoon place a dollop of the strawberry filling in the middle leaving a border around it. Place another disk on top of the filling, and using your fingers pinch the sides together slightly. Some of the filling may ooze out, but that’s ok. Repeat for remaining disks and filling.

You may wish to use the egg wash or water, and brush the tops of the hand pies. You can also sprinkle with sanding sugar, or regular granulated sugar. Use a knife to create vents in the top carefully.

Place in pre-heated oven and bake for 20-25 minutes depending on how brown you would like them. I took them out at 20 minutes, however if you decide to use regular AP flour, they may take a little longer to become flaky and golden brown.

Once baked, let cool slightly on pan and carefully transfer to a cooling rack.

Enjoy! These would be delicious with a scoop of ice cream!

Dessert, Mother's Day

Cream Puffs with {Vanilla} Pastry Cream

May 10, 2011

It’s a day or two late – but oh well! I hope all the mother’s out there had a wonderful sunday! I know my momma did – because I made sure she did!

We had a nice little brunch celebration with our family, and then over to Adam’s parents for dinner, and then to my baseball game! Did I mention I was playing again? I’m so glad I decided to play. It’s been a lot of fun and the girls on my team are awesome.

Anyways! Back to Mother’s Day. We planned out a little brunch action – me and Alysha that is. Although, my brother surprised us all with his mad poached egg skills! I for one am no egg maker. Mainly because I don’t eat eggs, I usually avoid them because they make me feel sick due to a slight allergy. Plus I am a terrible fried egg cook, scrambled I can handle but nothing else. So when my mom requested Eggs Benny for her mom’s day brunch I was a little hesitant! Luckily my brother has become a poached-egg-specialist and saved the day. We had an english muffin, with smoked salmon, provolone cheese, egg and hollandaise sauce! Yummmmm. I ate it, even though I shouldn’t have. I also made little waffles to go with it topped with berries and whipped cream. Needless to say it was a yummmmy brunch!

OF course there needs to be dessert. But, I didn’t think we would be too hungry after all that, so I thought about what we could eat that would be tasty but light and dessert-y. I actually made this last week for the first time as a practice run to make sure I could do it! I found the recipe here, and the first time it worked out perfectly! Althought I only made half the recipe, and when I made the full recipe I had to do it in two batches and the second batch deflated a little, I think maybe the batter sat on the counter too long while the first batch baked?? So maybe i’ll do it one at a time next time.. one half that is. They are not too sweet, just sweet enough and can be made with any flavours.  Just perfect after brunch! I also made some chocolate dipped strawberries.

Whole Wheat Cream Puffs with Vanilla Pastry Cream
recipe slightly adapted from: eatgood4life blog

Ingredients

Small: Yields 45-50
Medium: Yields 35-40
Large: Yields 25 

1 cup water
4 tablespoons butter (4 ounces)
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 eggs

Preheat oven to 425F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper/ baking sheet.

Put water, butter and oil in a medium-size saucepan over medium-high heat and melt. When the butter has melted, add the flour and salt all at once and stir vigorously.  Cook and stir until the mixture forms a ball that doesn’t separate, about 20 seconds.

Remove from the heat and cool for about 5-10 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each one and until the dough is smooth.

Drop heaping tablespoons of dough about 2-inches apart onto a greased baking sheet.  Or transfer the batter to a pastry bag with a round tip and pipe circles about 2-inches in diameter and about 1-inch apart onto baking sheets previously lined with parchment paper. Round off the tops with your finger, so the top is not ‘pointy’ otherwise it will get overly brown.

Bake puffs for about 11-12 minutes at 425 F (medium sized ones, for small ones 10-11 minutes at 425F and 6-7 minutes at 375F). Reduce the temperature to 375 F and bake for an additional 6-8 minutes until they are golden brown and puffy.Turn off the oven and open the door a crack and leave cream puffs inside to cool for 20-30 minutes. Remove the cream puffs from the oven.

Allow to cool completely before cutting in half, and filling with desired cream.
You can fill them with simple whipped cream and strawberries as I did the first time I made them, or this time I made Vanilla Pastry Cream filling, and then topped it with some whipped cream as well and dusted with icing sugar.
Pastry Cream
from Joy of Cooking 75th Anniversary Edition
Ingredients:
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 2 tbs. flour
  • 2 tbs. cornstarch
  • 4 large egg yolks
  • 1 1/3 cup milk
  • 1 vanilla bean, or 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Directions:

Beat first four ingredients in a bowl/stand mixer on high speed until thick and pale yellow, about 2 minutes.

In a saucpan on medium heat bring to simmer milk and vanilla. Remove vanilla bean once finished.

Gradually pour 1/3 of the hot milk into the egg mixture, whisking to combine. Scrape the egg mixture back into the pan and cook over low to medium heat, whisking constantly and scraping bottom and corners of pan to prevent scorching, until the custard is thickened and bubbling slightly.

Continue to cook, whisking for about another minute.

Using a clean spatula, screap custard into a bowl. Cover the surface with wax paper or parchment, or plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming. let cool, then refrigerate up to two days.

Once filled, keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

Enjoy!! What’d you do for mother’s day? Are you a mother?? Were you treated to brunch!?

My momma and I!

Dessert, Vegan

Inside Out Peanut Butter Cups??

April 28, 2011

These. are. delicious. Even saying it is an understatement. I picked up Alicia Silverstone’s book The Kind Diet last weekend. It’s a great read, with lots of tips and info about trying to go vegan, or simply adding a few vegan items to your diet. It also includes recipes as well. I also got Heidi Swanson, of 101 cookbooks, latest book Supernatural Everyday and it’s also so good! I wanted to try and make everything, every picture looks so delicious.

These are vegan, if made with proper butter, and are a way healthier version of the yummy, but bad for you, Reese’s PB cups. I am a total peanut butter freak. Definitely have it every morning on my oatmeal, so naturally these were delicious.

I would only change a few things about them, for one, I might not even use butter at all, or scale it way back with only a tbs or so, instead of 1/2 cup! And, she says to pour the chocolate on top of the peanut butter right away and then chill, but I found that my peanut butter was too warm and runny, and the chocolate sank to the middle. Hence the inside out PB cups. But, of course they are still so so so good!!

My changes for next time: Less butter, and I would refrigerate the peanut butter layer for a bit before I added the chocolate to appear more like a reese’s peanut butter cup. I also used natural smooth PB and not the crunchy, so maybe that made a difference? Either way, it tastes de-licious!!

 

Definitely make these for a sweet treat this weekend!!

Recipe slightly adapted from: The Kind Diet
Servings: Makes 12

Ingredients
  • 1/2 cup Earth Balance butter substitute (I would probably use a Tablespoon next time.. )
  • 3/4 cup crunchy peanut butter (preferably unsweetened and unsalted)  (I used natural, unsweetened, unsalted and smooth)
  • 3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs or 10 graham cracker squares
  • 1/4 cup maple sugar or other granulated sweetener ( probably don’t even need added sugar either, their pretty sweet with the chocolate )
  • 1 cup grain-sweetened, nondairy chocolate or carob chips ( I used organic carob )
  • 1/4 cup soy or rice or nut milk ( I only had regular skim milk )
  • 1/4 cup chopped pecans or almonds or peanuts
Directions

Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners. Set aside.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the peanut butter, graham cracker crumbs, and maple sugar and mix well. Remove the mixture from the heat. Evenly divide the mixture, approximately 2 Tbsp. per cup, among the muffin cups.

*I would refrigerate them at this point, and add the chocolate layer afterward*

Combine the chocolate and milk in another pan. Stir over medium heat until the chocolate has melted. Spoon the chocolate evenly over the peanut butter mixture. Top with chopped nuts.

Place in the refrigerator to set for at least 2 hours before serving.

Seriously. So. Good.