TWD—It’s a Twofer: Mini Madeleines and Depths-of-Fall Butternut Squash Pie

 

Do those look mini to you?  They’re not.  I don’t have a mini madeleine pan, but decided to make the cookies in my regular madeleine pan anyway, I missed the week for TWD when they made the Traditional Madeleines (page 166).  The recipe for the minis turned out well.  I liked the lemon flavor.  The only thing I thought was that they needed to be a little sweeter.  So, I made a simple lemon glaze (with just fresh lemon juice and powdered sugar until it was the consistency I wanted).  Ah, better! ;) 

The recipe made about 16 regular sized madeleines.  The very last one was made with just a little bit of the remaining batter and turned out well as a mini.  It would have been fun and worked well to have made a bunch of them with the smaller size.  They were good either way.

A few of them, including the mini in the front there were baked more since it was smaller and was in the same pan as the rest of them, but I preferred the ones that were just slightly more crisp on the outside.

Want the recipe for these?  Di at Di's Kitchen Notebook will have the recipe on her blog. 

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Next up—Depths-of-Fall Butternut Squash Pie, chosen by Valerie whose blog is une Gamine dans la Cuisine.  She’ll have the recipe on her blog. 

I decided to only make half the recipe.  But how would I make half a pie?  I made a galette!

I used a different pie crust recipe instead of Dorie’s, which IS a good recipe and makes great crust.  I used this pate brisee recipe (basic pie dough) from Paige’s blog, A Cooking Life.   She gives a wonderful tutorial on how to make a perfect tender, flaky all butter pie crust.  I’ve made it many times, but now she has recently put a step-by-step on her blog that is so helpful and informative.  (Check it out.)

I made enough dough for one pie crust.  Knowing I was just make a smaller galette, and that Dorie’s pie has a top and a bottom, I knew this would be enough dough to almost completely cover it and I was happy with the way it turned out.  I thought the flavors in Dorie’s pie were interesting with butternut squash, pear, dried cranberries, cinnamon and nutmeg and walnuts.  I made the recipe just as it was written. 

 

Don’t get me wrong here.  I like the pie.  It’s good.  But I decided something while tasting it—I prefer squash in savory foods.  I think I would like pumpkin or maybe even sweet potatoes in this instead of the butternut squash.   Actually, what I really think would be best for this pie is just pears (or apples) and cranberries and walnuts.   So there. ;)

Check out Valerie’s gorgeous pie, especially if you want the recipe (linked above).

Tuesdays With Dorie is coming right down to the wire!

Apricot Empanadas---Secret Recipe Club

I don’t like to read novels.  There I said it.  Don’t hate me, but I don’t care for the Harry Potter series or any other fiction (not that I hate any of it).  I just can’t sit and read things that aren’t true.  That said, I do enjoy reading non-fiction.  I love it when someone writes true, heartfelt things that have really happened to them.  I think that is one of the things I love about most of the blog world.  We are all here writing about things we love and find important in each of our lives and sharing it with others.

This month for the Secret Recipe Club, I had the pleasure of getting (randomly selected) one of my favorite food bloggers.  Will Suzanne of Thru the Bugs on My Windshield please stand up and take a bow?  I got to meet Suzanne last year.  She lives in Texas, but through her and her husband’s travels all over the country, sometimes on motorcycles with bugs on their teeth windshield, Suzanne came to Utah last year.  We met---

in Salt Lake and had lunch at a fabulous Mexican restaurant, Red Iguana.  Before that, I hadn’t actually been acquainted with Suzanne’s blog for very long—she hadn’t been at it that long.  But food bloggers become friends very quickly I’ve learned and the chance to meet any of them is always such a fun, welcome thing.  It only seems right to meet for food’s sake!

Suzanne is warm and friendly and she’s witty, thoughtful and just one of those kinds of people who are wonderful to just sit and chat with (over chips and salsa, of course, hehe).  She’s got a great sense of humor, too!  Suzanne made me feel like I was meeting up with an old friend. 

I have spent the last month, since learning I had Suzanne’s blog for this month’s Secret Recipe Club, reading pretty much every post Suzanne has written (she started her blog in March of 2010).  I know, why would I bother reading all her posts?  For the Secret Recipe Club, all I needed to do was pick a recipe from her blog and make it.  As I was looking at all her yummy posts and great photography, I couldn’t stop.  Suzanne’s writing is entertaining, thoughtful, and REAL stuff.  None of that magic wand wizardy stuff.  She writes in a charming way and always throws in just enough and the right kind of humor—like this---

This Dairy Queen photo (from Suzanne’s blog), has a little caption under it that says “Texas Stop Sign”.  If you’re on the road, wind in your hair, riding your bike and you see one of these signs—STOP!

Maybe you’re on a hundreds of miles empanada run on your motorcycles.  That’s what Suzanne and her husband did all in the name of some empanadas.  That’s dedication and determination and well, just a little bit crazy!  I love it!  While on this bike ride through New Mexico, they ate at a place that Suzanne described as having a tasty morsel that never pleased her palate more—and they were apricot empanadas.    She later recreated them and sold me on the deal as well.  (You must read this post (Empanada Run) and see all of Suzanne’s photos.  She’s got leather boots on and is sitting on a bike for the first time when she was a teenager and then tells about how she became crazed with motorcycle riding.  She’ll reel you in hook, line and sinker and you’ll spend a few hours trying to read all her posts.  They are that good.  THAT is my kind of reading.  Real stuff.  Real people. 

Ready for the oven, my pretties!

I followed Suzanne’s recipe for the sweet dough exactly as she had written and it is a great dough to work with and simple to make.  I’m happy that the dough is put into two disks—because I have one of those ready in the freezer for when I just need another apricot empanada (or two)—and then I’ll need to run, run, run after that!

Suzanne’s apricot filling is made with reconstituted dried apricots, but I had some fresh ones from last summer in the freezer and decided to use those and make a filling with them.  That stuff is good and could be used for all kinds of things!  I also made a thick blueberry compote to try in a few of the empanadas, but although good, they don’t hold a candle to the apricot filled ones.  I almost need to stop talking about them or I’m liable to get that extra dough out of the freezer sooner than later.

Apricot Empanadas, adapted by Katrina, Baking and Boys!, from Suzanne, Thru The Bugs on My Windshield

Empanada Sweet Dough: (Made the dough exactly as Suzanne did)

3 cups all purpose flour (360 grams)

¼ cup sugar (50 grams)

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup unsalted butter, cut into 16 pieces

2 large eggs

3 tablespoons ice water

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

½ to 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Add the flour, ¼ cup sugar and salt to the bowl of a food processor. Pulse to combine. Add the butter one tablespoon at a time, pulsing a few times for each one. After 8 tablespoons have been added, add one egg and pulse together. Add remaining butter one tablespoon at a time, then add the second egg. Pulsing a few times after each, add a tablespoon of the cold water at a time just until the dough starts to form a ball.

Remove the dough from the food processor and form it into two disks. Wrap each separately in parchment paper and chill them in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

Apricot Filling:

2 cups frozen apricots, (or fresh, pitted and cut into quarters)*

½ cup water

1/3 cup granulated sugar

½ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ginger

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

*You can also use dried apricots—the amounts and directions are different, you can get that on the link to Suzanne’s blog

In a medium sized saucepan, combine all of the filling ingredients. Stir together. Bring to a boil, then simmer for about 30 minutes. Mash with a fork when the fruit is soft. Stir occasionally while the filling is simmering. Let cool.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to about ¼ inch thick. Cut circles 3 to 5 inches in diameter, depending on size you’d like. Set each round on a baking sheet, then fill each with just a teaspoon or so of filling. (Don’t overfill.) Fold over and secure edges with fork tines. Be careful not to press down too hard. If the dough is really soft, set the baking sheet in the fridge or freezer for a few minutes to firm the dough. (You can freeze empanadas and have them ready to bake, just add a few minutes to the baking time and bake them while still frozen.) Fix about 12 to a baking sheet.

Mix together the 2 tablespoons of sugar and the cinnamon and sprinkle the tops of each empanada with it.  Pierce each with a fork so they have a little steam room inside.   Bake for 25 minutes or so. You can also store a disk of the sweet dough wrapped in parchment and then a zip lock bag in the freezer to use later.

Delicious!

You know, I’ve actually made a number of other recipes from Suzanne’s blog—like this Fresh Crispy Pear Salad—loved it and so did the company we had over that I served it to a few months ago!

I have also made a version of her Very Southwestern Stuffed Poblanos.  I didn’t get those blogged, but check out her post!

I could not have been more thrilled with my secret blog this month and would love to get together with Suzanne again sometime.  That is what this wonderful world of food blogging is all about.  Thanks to Amanda for her hard work in getting this fun group up and running.  She’s even put it all together on a new website—check it out!  Secret Recipe Club

Dinner! Chicken & Arugula Meatballs in Tomato Sauce and Pear Salad

We had some friends from Kansas who are in Utah for the holidays come over for dinner a few days ago.  For some reason that day I was craving spaghetti so I planned to just make that for dinner.  Kevin reminded me that Dan doesn’t like spaghetti, as in there's only one food he really dislikes and it’s spaghetti.  Not the sauce, but the actual spaghetti pasta, it gives him the heebie-jeebies.  Weird.  He said he likes all other pasta.  I then remembered some meatballs I’d had in one of Paige's classes back in Kansas and I decided those are what I’d make and serve with penne pasta.

Try as I might, I can’t seem to do justice to savory food in photos.  Kevin got me a light box for Christmas, maybe once I figure that out I’ll get better.  But I did snap a few pictures of these fabulous meatballs.  One of the keys to making these is to make them small—the more the merrier, then everyone can have a plateful of meatballs instead of just one or two big ones.  This recipe makes 60 meatballs with one pound of ground poultry.  Another great reason to make these meatballs is that they freeze well.  Check out Paige's post about them from a few months ago.  These are perfect for pulling out of the freezer when you need a quick meal.

The meatballs were very well liked by our company (they begged for the recipe ;).  Paige has posted the recipe on her blog, which is adapted from an article in Food & Wine magazine back in the 90’s. 

Chicken & Arugula Meatballs in Tomato Sauce, by Paige Vandegrift, adapted from Food & Wine Magazine (My changes are in red—Katrina)

2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for sautéing the meatballs (I ran out of olive oil and used canola)
3 thin slices pancetta or bacon, (about 2 ounces), chopped (I used bacon)
2 garlic cloves, minced
5 oz. arugula (or spinach), stemmed and finely chopped (I used spinach)
1 pound ground chicken (dark meat is best) (I used ground white turkey meat and it was a 19 oz. package)
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons plain dry bread crumbs (I used Panko bread crumbs)
½ cup freshly grated Pecorino-Romano cheese (about 1 ½ ounces)
2 tablespoons drained capers, chopped
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Salt and freshly ground pepper
3 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 large shallots, minced
¼ cup brandy, white wine or water is also fine (I used some chicken stock)
One 35-ounce can Italian (Roma) peeled whole tomatoes with juice, coarsely chopped in a food processor (this is a difficult sized can to find, a 28-oz. can is fine, but you can add half of a 14-oz. can if you like a lot of sauce) (I used both a full 28 oz can and a 14 oz can)
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh thyme (I used about 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme)
Salt and freshly ground pepper

In a large non-reactive skillet, heat the 2 tablespoons of oil. Add the pancetta/bacon and cook over moderate heat until crisp, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the arugula and cook, stirring, until wilted, 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a plate and let cool.
In a large bowl, combine the ground chicken, bread crumbs, cheese, capers, egg, ¾ teaspoon of salt and 1/8 teaspoon of pepper. Add the arugula mixture and beat until well blended. Roll the mixture by teaspoonfuls into ¾ -inch balls.
In a large skillet, heat some more olive oil. Add half of the meatballs in a single layer and cook over moderate heat, turning, until browned all over, about 3 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the meatballs to a large plate. Repeat with the second batch of meatballs, adding more oil if necessary. Discard the fat and wipe out the skillet.
In the same skillet, melt the butter over moderate heat. Add the shallots and cook until softened, about 3 minutes. Add the brandy/stock/water, whichever you’re using, raise the heat to high and cook until evaporated. Add the tomatoes and thyme and season with salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer and cook until the sauce is thickened, about 8 minutes.
Add the meatballs to the sauce and simmer over low heat until hot through and very tender—15 to 20 minutes. Serves 4 to 6.  Serve with one pound of any pasta if desired.

I sauteed them in three batches.

Mmmm!

Almost ready!

These are some great meatballs and a simple tomato sauce.  To go with the pasta and meatballs, I decided to make a Fresh Crispy Pear Salad that Suzanne at Thru The Bugs on My Windshield posted recently.  I just served the salad with some mixed greens and it was great as well. 

 

You can get the recipe on the link above to Suzanne’s blog.  Check out her amazing pictures!  Served with some good crusty whole grain bread, this meal was perfect and I could eat it everyday and was happy to share it with company!

TWD—Fold Over Pear Torte

I find some of the recipes we do in this group that don’t have a picture in the book and no one is too sure what it should look like are often interesting to see that everyone’s look totally different from one another.  So, I had no idea what this was supposed to look like, and after checking out a few blogs that have already posted theirs before I finished my post, I still don’t know just what the correct look is for the torte.  A few I looked at seem like their crust went all across the top.  Not happening here.  Here’s mine.

At one point over the last week, I was going to make half the recipe for this torte because I had half the dough left from making mini tarts for FFWD's mustard tart and because I was just a little skeptical about anyone around here really liking the torte.  Kevin isn’t big on pears.  I’m not big on custard.  But I ended up using that leftover dough for something else.  So I ended up making the full recipe, because sometimes that is just easier than doing math.

I whipped up the crust dough for this on Sunday and it chilled until I finished making the torte on Monday.  When I went to buy pears at the grocery store last week, for some strange reason, the only pears they had at that time were Asian pears.  So I got some of those.  They weren’t ripe at all, so they sat in a paper bag for three days and I was hoping they’d ripen.  I don’t think they were as ripe as they should have been yet.  Because of that, after putting together the chopped fruit and the custard and adding it all to the prepared crust, I baked that thing for probably an hour and a half.  After it had baked for 80 minutes, and the crust still wasn’t too dark at all, I left it in the oven, took a phone call and forgot to reset the timer.  So I lost track of how long it baked.  But I think it was somewhere around 90 minutes.  (The recipes suggests 60-70 minutes.)  Now you’d think that would be enough time, but the pears aren’t as soft as I would have liked.

That and when I first looked at the finished torte, I thought it looked kind of unappealing.  And I even thought to myself that the pears kind of look like chicken.  Is it a pot pie?  I didn’t say anything to anyone, and when Scott came in the kitchen and saw it, he pointed to it and said, “What is that, chicken?”  So while I think the crust looks good (and tastes good), I wasn’t thrilled with the whole torte.

 

I knew I should have just sliced the pears like you would for apple pie and I knew for my sake I should have just left out the custard.  I think this would be really good more like an apple pie, sliced Bartlett pears piled high and then maybe a crumbly topping added.  Sometimes, I really feel like making the recipes exactly as written, but know in my gut that I’m better off changing things a bit.  I followed along this time.  I tasted the photographed slice of torte, the custard is just too much of an eggy taste for me.  Scott ate the rest of the piece.  We now still have the rest of the torte that I’m not sure will get eaten.  Live and learn and I’m always glad when I participate in this group week to week and learn new things.  So don’t feel bad for me that I didn’t care for this.  I usually really like the added flavor of almond extract, but also thought it didn’t really go well with this and as usual, I left out the rum.

You can check out the other tortes this week on the TWD website and get the recipe from Cakelaw.  Her torte looks really good.  Maybe mine had too many pears.  I used three, but those three Asian pears were huge.

I used all the pears, apricots and walnuts as well as all of the custard filling and this is what it ended up looking like as it was about to go in the oven. 

And now I must tell you that as much as I REALLY want to get around to all the other TWD blogs and am already behind, I’m taking Parker, Taylor and Sam and we’re going to Idaho on Wednesday to see my parents.  They don’t have school for fall break on Thursday and Friday, so I thought we’d take the extra long weekend and make a trip home.  (Scott is staying home to go on a scout campout and Kevin will stay with him.)  So I apologize right now if I don’t make it around this week.  I’ll be back (and yes, you can say that just like The Terminator.) ;)  Catch ya’ll later.