cherry strawberry pie

The other day I made a half-batch of SK's delicious butter pie crust (which I have loved since I first made it for my Thanksgiving pies). It hung out in my fridge for about a week before I got around to baking into this. I followed-ish her recipe for a sweet cherry pie, but I subbed in mostly strawberries, didn't have almond extract, and used just some splashed of lemon juice from my squeeze bottle because I didn't have a fresh lemon on hand. But the great thing about dessert is that it really hates to go wrong, and I know I'm a pretty generous judge.

I didn't cook it long enough, I think, because the crust could have been flakier and more done through. Also I don't know if I used too much sugar or not enough corn starch, but I had a lot of liquid inside that I sort of poured off (but would be delicious if I was serving it with ice cream, so it isn't the worst problem). All said, I still thought it tasted delicious and sweet and summary, and I've already had almost half of it between last night and today.

Dough for a double-crust pie [I made a 1/2 recipe because I made a smaller pie]

4 cups pitted fresh cherries (about 2 1/2 pounds unpitted) [I used about a cup plus maybe two cups of strawberries]
4 tablespoons cornstarch [I used 2 tbsp]
2/3 to 3/4 cup sugar (adjust this according to the sweetness of your cherries) [I used 1/2 cup]
1/8 teaspoon salt
Juice of half a lemon
1/4 teaspoon almond extract [didn't have]
1 tablespoon cold unsalted butter, cut into small bits [I used 1/2 tbsp]

1 egg, beaten with 2 tablespoons water
Coarse sugar, for decoration

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Stir together the cherries, cornstarch, sugar, salt, lemon and almond extract gently together in a large bowl.

Roll out half of chilled dough (use larger piece, if you’ve divided them unevenly) on a floured work surface to 13-inch round. Gently place it in 9-inch pie pan, either by rolling it around the rolling pin and unrolling it over the pan or by folding it into quarters and unfolding it in the pan. Trim edges to a half-inch overhang.

Spoon filling into pie crust, discarding the majority of the liquid that has pooled in the bowl. Dot the filling with the bits of cold butter.

Roll out the remaining dough into a 12-inch round on a lightly floured surface, drape it over the filling, and trim it, leaving a 1-inch overhang. Fold the overhang under the bottom crust, pressing the edge to seal it, and crimp the edge decoratively. Brush the egg wash over over pie crust, then sprinkle with coarse sugar.

Cut slits in the crust with a sharp knife, forming steam vents, and bake the pie in the middle of the oven for 25 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 350°F. and bake the pie for 25 to 30 minutes more, or until the crust is golden. Let the pie cool on a rack. [Because mine was smaller, I watched it pretty carefully and it took about 35 minutes total.]

upside-down cherry cornmeal cake

Cherries were really cheap the other day at the store, so I bought a lot. I ate most of them, but then I went out of town. When I came back, they were not fully bad but not really that appetizing. As I hate to waste food, I've started deciding that anything that isn't fully bad should just be baked. If that's wrong, I don't want to be right because I get delicious, soft, fruit goodness out of this policy. I looked on SK for cherry recipes, and I went for this one because I had most of the ingredients.

Throughout her post, SK talked about how many things she did wrong because she did it at the last minute and was in a hurry. Well for some completely arbitrary reason, I decided I wanted to make this before a shift at the restaurant, so I was in a hurry and, of course, made a wealth of other mistakes. As a result, it didn't come out perfectly, but because I took half of it to work, most of it got eaten very quickly, and that always assuages my guilt about wasting food. And it wasn't bad. I definitely liked cooking the cherries down first and baking the whole thing in my cast iron, so it was a fun recipe to make.

[I made a half-batch because I didn't have that many cherries, and even so I had a pretty thick layer of cake on top once it baked and rose]

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, divided
1/4 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
3 cups whole pitted fresh Bing cherries or other dark sweet cherries (about 21 ounces whole unpitted cherries)
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup yellow cornmeal (preferably stone-ground medium grind)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs, separated
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup whole milk
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

Position rack in center of oven; preheat to 350°F. Combine 1/4 cup butter with brown sugar and vinegar in 10- to 11-inch ovenproof skillet with 2-inch-high sides. Stir over medium heat until butter melts and sugar dissolves, about 2 minutes. Increase heat to high; add cherries and bring to boil. Remove from heat.

Whisk flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat 1/2 cup butter in large bowl. Add sugar; beat until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in egg yolks and vanilla. Add flour mixture alternately with milk in 2 additions each, beating just until blended and occasionally scraping down sides of bowl. Using clean dry beaters, beat egg whites in another medium bowl until foamy. Add cream of tartar and beat until whites are stiff but not dry. Using rubber spatula, fold 1/4 of whites into batter to lighten slightly. Fold in remaining whites in 3 additions (batter will be thick). Spoon batter over cherries in skillet, then spread evenly with offset spatula to cover cherries.

Bake cake until top is golden brown and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Cool in skillet on rack 5 minutes. Run spatula around edges of cake to loosen. Place large serving platter upside down atop skillet. Using pot holders or oven mitts, firmly hold platter and skillet together and invert. Leave skillet atop cake 5 minutes. Remove skillet. If necessary, rearrange any cherries that may have become dislodged. Let cake cool at least 45 minutes. Cut cake into wedges and serve slightly warm or at room temperature.

lime tartlets

Okay, I'll admit that these are a bit too lime and tart, but I think that is largely due to the chunks of rind in mine because I had limited food processor space/skills (I could have improved on that with more thinking and problem solving) and also maybe lime rind is just more intense than lemon. The recipe (from SK of course) calls for a whole lemon, and I can confidently assert that that would be delicious. I didn't have a lemon, though, on Sunday night at 8 pm when I decided a 4-hour baking endeavor was exactly what was going to happen, so I just used a lime. I then blended in a few strawberries into the batter to make half into strawberry-limeade-esque tarts, which toned down the limeyness a bit. All in all, I still enjoy eating them, but next time they will be better. I did learn, though, that I could substitute fruits and the overall texture and filling would still work for the tart, which I will play with more in the future.

In terms of the crust, it tasted good and worked well, but I think the doubling up on mine was too thick. Maybe I didn't roll mine out thin enough or I'm not sure what, but next time it will be more under control. That said, it wasn't a terribly difficult recipe and did taste good. I will say that I loved the pie crusts I made for my thanksgiving pies, so I might try that recipe next time and see how that works (though it did shrink a bit and this one really doesn't, if that informs your choices).

 crumbly dough - post food-processing, mixing the egg in, pre-rolling out

 above: pre-pre-baking

below: pre-baked, ready for a bit more baking without foil before putting in the filling

Pie Crust


Makes enough for one 9-inch tart crust [or 4-5 4-inch tart crusts, like mine]

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick plus 1 tablespoon (9 tablespoons; 4 1/2 ounces) very cold (or frozen) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 large egg

1. Pulse the flour, sugar and salt together in the bowl of a food processor. Scatter the pieces of butter over the dry ingredients and pulse until the butter is coarsely cut in. (You’re looking for some pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and some the size of peas.) Stir the egg, just to break it up, and add it a little at a time, pulsing after each addition. When the egg is in, process in long pulses–about 10 seconds each–until the dough, which will look granular soon after the egg is added, forms clumps and curds. Just before you reach this stage, the sound of the machine working the dough will change–heads up. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and, very lightly and sparingly, knead the dough just to incorporate any dry ingredients that might have escaped mixing. Chill the dough, wrapped in plastic, for about 2 hours before rolling.

2. To roll the dough: Butter a 9-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom. Roll out chilled dough on floured sheet of parchment paper to 12-inch round, lifting and turning dough occasionally to free from paper. (Alternately, you can roll this out between two pieces of plastic, though flour the dough a bit anyway.) Using paper as aid, turn dough into 9-inch-diameter tart pan with removable bottom; peel off paper. Seal any cracks in dough. Trim overhang to 1/2 inch. Fold overhang in, making double-thick sides. Pierce crust all over with fork.

Alternately, you can press the dough in as soon as it is processed: Press it evenly across the bottom and up the sides of the tart shell. You want to press hard enough that the pieces cling to one another, but not so hard that it loses its crumbly texture.

3. Freeze the crust for at least 30 minutes, preferably longer, before baking.

4. To fully or partially bake the crust: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Butter the shiny side of a piece of aluminum foil (or use nonstick foil) and fit the foil, buttered side down, tightly against the crust. And here is the very best part: Since you froze the crust, you can bake it without weights. Put the tart pan on a baking sheet and bake the crust for 20 to 25 minutes.

5. Carefully remove the foil. If the crust has puffed, press it down gently with the back of a spoon. Bake the crust about 10 minutes longer to fully bake it, or until it is firm and golden brown, brown being the important word: a pale crust doesn’t have a lot of flavor. (To partially bake it, only an additional 5 minutes is needed.) Transfer the pan to a rack and cool the crust to room temperature, and proceed with the rest of your recipe.

Do ahead: The dough can be wrapped and kept in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or frozen for up to 2 months. While the fully baked crust can be packed airtight and frozen for up to 2 months, the flavor will be fresher bake it directly from the freezer, already rolled out.

Filling


1 average-sized lemon (about 4 1/2 ounces; 130 grams), rinsed and dried*
1 1/2 cups (300 grams) sugar
1 stick (4 ounces or 115 grams) unsalted butter, cut into chunks
4 large eggs
2 tablespoons (14 grams) cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon table salt

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven 350°F (165´C). Place the tart shell on a baking sheet, which you can line with foil or parchment paper to make any spills a breeze to clean up.

Slice the lemon into thin wheels, remove any seeds, and toss the rounds — lemon flesh and peel — sugar and chunks of butter into the container of a food processor. Process, scraping down the sides of the container as needed, until the lemon is thoroughly pureed. Add the eggs, cornstarch and salt and pulse until the batter is smooth.

Pour into prepared tart shell. It will fill it completely but if due to slight variances in tart pans, egg sizes, lemon sizes or crust thickness, you have too much, do not pour it past the top of of your crust or it will become difficult to unmold later.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until the filling is set. You can test this by bumping the pan a little; it should only jiggle slightly. In my oven, I find that the point at which the filling is set is also when it starts to get very light brown on top.

Let cool on rack, unmold tart pan and serve. I actually prefer this tart completely chilled, which makes it a great dessert to make in advance of a dinner or party.

* Meyer lemons are the first choice here. They’re milder with thinner skin. But if you know that you do not mind a stronger lemon and rind kick, feel free to use a regular lemon, which will have a stronger flavor and a higher proportion of skin to flesh. If your lemon is not 4 1/2 ounces (Meyers often weigh in closer to 4 ounces) go ahead and cut a wedge out of a second one to keep the lemon flavor in balance with the sweetness of the tart.

pasta, broccoli, and garlic-red pepper sauce

Yes, I have been horribly MIA, but enough with the excuses. As of this past week, I have a 2 month paid internship doing market research, which I am very excited about. As a result of that and working my other part time jobs and have more friends and therefore fun, I am really busy but also increasingly happier here. Thus I signed my lease to stay in ATX another year! Eep!

Today I got up to go take a stand up paddle board yoga class (mouthful), but it was already full when I got to the gym. So I did a spinning class, rented a stand up paddle board and paddled around the quarry for a while, swam a bit, went grocery shopping for some snacks, made a quick lunch (and by lunch I mean my favorite uncooked meal, pictured below - at least I'm getting my 5 daily colors in!), and then took off to Zilker to play sand volleyball for a few hours. It was a great day, but by 6 pm when I got home, I was pooped and thrilled to shower and relax.

I was going back through all the SK recipes I've missed over the past few months, and decided to give this one a try for dinner. I only had frozen broccoli on hand, but I figured I could make it work enough for my standards. It ended up being good - I'm not huge on spicy, but I think my estimations were perfect for my heat level and still being flavorful - and filling, so I was happy. Then I got all sorts of ambitious and dedicated the next four hours to making tartlets, but more on that separately.

1 pound pasta [I used a single person serving of what looked good to my hungry eyes of penne]
1 pound broccoli rabe, heavy stems removed, remaining stems and leaves cut into 1- to 2-inch sections [I used handfuls of frozen broccoli - and put them in still frozen at the same time as she calls for the rabe]
1/2 cup olive oil [I used about 1/4 cup for one serving]
5 garlic cloves, peeled and minced or pressed [I used 2 cloves]
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or more or less to taste [I used about that much of a mix of red pepper flakes, chimichurri mix, and bruschetta mix]
About 1 heaping teaspoon Kosher salt (or more to taste)

To serve: Grated Parmesan or Romano cheese [I used white cheddar because that's all I have!]

Bring a huge pot of salted water to a boil. Add pasta and five minutes before its cooking time is up, add the broccoli rabe. It will seem like too much for the water, but with a stir or two, the rabe should wilt and cook alongside the pasta. Drain rabe and pasta together and pour into serving bowl.

In the same pot or a tiny one, heat the olive oil with the garlic, pepper flakes and Kosher salt over moderate heat, stirring frequently for 3 to 4 minutes, or until the garlic becomes lightly golden. Pour mixture over pasta and toss to evenly coat. Shower with freshly grated cheese and eat at once.