Bourbon chocolate pecan pie

Laura's Thanksgiving classic, in the original hand-written:

 

And written out for easier searching:

pie crust (eg 1/2 recipe from here)

3/4 c light corn syrup

1 c brown sugar

1/4 c melted butter

3 eggs

3 T bourbon

1.5 t vanilla

1/4 t salt

1 1/4 c pecans (halves & pieces)

2/3 c chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375F. Make the crust and put in a pie pan. Combine everything except the nuts and chocolate, and beat until well blended. Sprinkle all the chocolate chips and 1/2 c of the nuts (ideally the smaller pieces) over the bottom of the crust. Pour in the filling, then sprinkle with the remaining nuts on top (ideally the halves & larger pieces). Bake for 45 min until softly set in the center. Cool, and serve with whipped cream.

Kofta

Based on David Lebovitz, based on Tartine All Day. Beyond Meat ground beef is seriously good in this. Ground lamb is great too, and presumably other animal-based ground meats would also be good. But if you want to surprise and impress a carnivore with plant-based meat, I'd recommend this highly.

1/4 c bulgur

1 lb Beyond Meat ground beef (or animal-based ground meat substitute)

1 shallot (or 1/2 red onion), grated or minced

1/4 c - 1/2 c assorted chopped herbs (parsley, mint, etc)

1 t baharat (or ras al hanout)

1 t cumin

1 t salt

1 t harissa

a few grounds of pepper

Put the bulgur in 1c pyrex. Cover with boiling water (up to around the 1/2 c mark) and let sit while you chop the herbs & etc.

Combine everything else in a medium bowl and add in the bulgur. Squish together with your hands until homogenous. Form into ~15 palm-sized egg-shaped balls.

Heat olive oil in a frying pan over medium. Place in as many kofta as will comfortably fit in your pan, and fry on each side for a couple min until browned (I rotate mine twice, browning on 3 sides). Fry remaining batches.

Tart cherry pie

For years, Laura has been talking about the sour cherries from the tree in her yard growing up, and the pie that her mom would make with them. But we'd never found sour cherries around here—until Yasai had some this week! They were labeled "tart" instead of "sour", and that was accurate (not too sour and not too sweet). So of course Laura called her mom and got the OG recipe. Pretty proud that the resulting pie lived up to Laura's memory! Also including Laura's classic pie crust recipe here, in an appropriate amount for a 9" double-crust pie.

filling:
4 c (or more) sour cherries, pitted (turns out metal straws work quite well as cherry pitters!)
2 T tapioca starch (presumably cornstarch or other thickeners would work too)
3/4 c sugar (up to 1.5 c for tarter cherries, down to 1/2 c for sweeter cherries)
1/2 t almond extract
1/2 t salt

pie crust:
2 c flour
1 t salt
scant 3/4 c shortening
4-5 T ice water + vodka


Preheat the oven to 425F. Pit the cherries and mix all the filling ingredients together, and set aside while you make the crust.

Prep for the crust: Mix the flour and salt in a medium bowl. In a small bowl, put some water, a glug or two of vodka, and a couple ice cubes. Prep the area where you're going to roll out the pie crust.

Now it's time to get your hands dirty! Cut the shortening into pieces and drop into the flour. Rub the shortening into the flour until it's flaky and crumbly. Add 4 T of the ice water/vodka, and gently mix in with your fingers to moisten; add another tablespoon if needed. Press the dough together to form a ball, and divide the dough in half to form two balls.

On your prepped surface, roll out the first ball of dough and transfer to the pie pan. Fill with the filling. Roll out the second ball of dough, cut into strips, and weave the strips into a lattice on top of the filling. Press the edges of the lattice into the lower crust, and form an even edge around the crust (I didn't have quite enough crust to form a nice crimp or anything).

Bake at 425F for 20 min. Cover the edge with foil, turn the heat down to 350F, and bake for another 20 min until nicely browned and bubbling. Let cool for a bit before eating with ice cream and/or whipped cream.

Lockdown bread for lunch

I made this on one of the first lockdown days, and I’ve made it every few days since then. Almost exactly the King Arthur recipe.

Things I love about it:

• Taste and crumb have been great when I overproofed it, when I put the formed loaf in the fridge overnight, and when I made it on the schedule shown here.
• It uses sourdough starter but also uses yeast, so it’s delicious but also speedy. Wake up at a reasonable time and have fresh bread for lunch.
• Besides what you’re feeding the starter, it’s all whole-grain flours, which have been more in-stock in my local stores and also help keep it feeling like healthy-times. 
• Oh and it’s also just a really versatile loaf-pan bread for sandwiches, toast, just some butter, etc.

255 g warm water (a bit more than a cup)
1 t yeast
2 T honey
2 T butter
340 g whole wheat flour (3 c)
227 g happy sourdough starter
1/4 c semolina
1/4 c wheat germ
1/4 c cornmeal
1 t salt
1/3 c assorted seeds/oats

8:05 am: Put a large bowl on a kitchen scale. Add the water and sprinkle on the yeast, and wait a couple min to hydrate. In the meantime, microwave together the honey and butter.

8:10 am: Add all the ingredients to the bowl except the oats/seeds. Stir until it comes together, but don’t knead yet—wait a 10-20 min to hydrate.

8:30 am: Knead in the bowl for 5-7 min. Cover the bowl with a shower cap and let rise until doubled (60-90 min).

10 am: Butter a loaf pan, and put the seeds/oats on a wide plate. Deflate the dough and gather into a log as long as the loaf pan. Roll the dough in the seeds/oats to cover the outside, then place into the loaf pan. Cover with the shower cap and let rise for another 60-90 min. (If this stage is taking an inconvenient amount of time, you can wrap the loaf pan in a plastic bag and stick in the fridge for at least 8 hr.)

11 am: Start the oven preheating to 350F.

11:15 am: The bread will be risen above the edge of the pan. Put in the oven and bake for 45 min. It will get golden brown but not dark, with little or no oven spring.

Noon: You have bread! You should wait at least a few min to let it cool before slicing though.

Pineapple fried rice

Coronavirus quarantine -> restarting the blog!!

This made one very full wok, about 6 servings. I’m clearly out of practice with blogging since I forgot to take a picture of the final product, but here’s a shot of the mise en place:

1 red onion
1 large jalepeno
2in piece ginger
1 bell pepper, or a few multicolored baby bell peppers
2 carrots
2-3c green beans
2-3c diced pineapple (half a large pineapple)
1c cashews
1c diced smoked tofu (or more if you have it)
3 T soy sauce
2 T fish sauce
juice of 1 lime
2 eggs, beaten
4c cooked rice
1/2 bunch green onions
1 bunch Thai basil

Prep: Cook the rice. Mince the jalapeño and ginger together. Julienne the onion, bell pepper, and carrots. Trim the green beans and cut in half. Peel and dice the pineapple (or for bonus points, cut the pineapple in half and scoop out the innards leaving two boats intact). Beat the eggs. Slice the green onions and basil.

Heat sesame oil in a wok. Add the onion, then jalapeño and ginger, then carrots, then bell pepper, then green beans, then pineapple, then cashews, then tofu, stir frying for a minute or two between each addition. Add the soy sauce, fish sauce, and lime. Cook until all veggies are tender and the liquid is partially reduced. Drizzle the egg over the top and cook without stirring until the egg is set, then stir it in. Stir in the rice, green onions, and basil, along with another glug of sesame oil, and cook until the rice is heated through and ideally browning a bit.

For bonus points, scoop some of the fried rice into the pineapple boats and bake. We were tired after a nice long hike so we didn’t do the bonus version this time ;)

Serve with sriracha to taste.

Black forest cake

Slightly modified from King Arthur to accompany an impromptu high tea. Happy birthday Judy and happy holidays to all!

cake:
1 c Dutch-process cocoa powder
2 c flour
2 c sugar
2 t baking powder (or 1.5 t at altitude)
1/2 t baking soda
1 t salt
4 eggs
2/3 c vegetable oil
2 t vanilla
2 c buttermilk

toppings:
2 c whipping cream
1 t vanilla
1/2 c powdered sugar
kirsch, if you have it
21oz can cherry pie filling (eg "Kroger extra cherry pie filling")

Preheat the oven to 350F (or 365F at altitude). Grease 3 9" round cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment paper (it stuck pretty badly without parchment).

In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (cocoa powder through salt) until well combined and any chunks are broken up. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs, then whisk in the wet ingredients (oil through buttermilk) until smooth. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients in three additions, whisking after each addition until just combined.

Divide the batter evenly between the pans and bake for 25-30 min (~20 min at altitude) until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 15 min, then turn out onto cooling racks to cool completely.

In a stand mixer, beat the cream and vanilla until soft peaks form. Add the powdered sugar and beat until stiff.

Transfer one cake layer onto a thin cutting board, then slide onto a serving platter. Brush with kirsch if you have it. Spoon on about a third of the whipped cream and spread to cover most of the surface of the cake, leaving a thin border of cake uncovered (so there's room for the cream to squish out a bit) and making the outer edge of the cream slightly taller than the middle (so it will mostly contain the cherries). Spoon on about a third of the cherry pie filling. Repeat with the other two cake layers. Store in the fridge until ready to serve.

Colorado no-knead bread

Matt's mom has had trouble with bread at >5k feet elevation. After doing some research, I have now made my first no-knead dough and made my first high-altitude bread! Besides sticking to the pan a bit, everything worked pretty much as intended.

3.5 c cool or warm water
3/4 t yeast
1 T honey
4 c bread flour
2 c whole wheat flour
1 T salt

3/4 c caramelized walnuts, whole or coarsely chopped
3/4 c raisins

3/4 c olives, whole or coarsely chopped

cloves from 1 head roasted garlic

Mix the water, yeast, and honey together in a big bowl (or stand mixer) until the yeast and honey are dissolved. Add the flours and salt, and mix (using a wooden spoon, dough hook, and/or your hand) until combined and beginning to get elastic. The dough will be too wet to knead normally, but that's ok. Cover tightly with spray-greased plastic wrap and let rise on the counter for 4 hours until doubled.

Gently deflate the dough and split in half. For each half: spread a little bit of oil on a cutting board, place the dough on the board and press to spread it out a bit, press the fillings on (one with walnuts + raisins, one with olives + garlic), stretch and fold the dough over the fillings to enclose and incorporate, place the dough in a medium spray-greased bowl, and cover tightly with spray-greased plastic wrap. Let rise on the counter for 30min then continue rising in the fridge for 2 hours until almost doubled.

Put a large dutch oven in the oven and preheat to 450F for half an hour. Take out the (hot!) dutch oven, take off the (hot!) lid, dump in the first batch of dough, replace the (hot!) lid, return to the oven, and turn the heat down to 425F. Bake covered for 30min then uncovered for 10-15 min. Transfer to a cooling rack and bake the second batch the same way. The first loaf stuck to the pan a bit, and the second loaf stuck to the brown paper we put down—maybe parchment or grease is the answer? Regardless, let cool at least a little bit before eating.