A Pie with Zing for Father's Day

Sweetie asked for a creamy pie for Father's Day, which is kind of funny considering all the fruit we have in the house...cherries, both red and Rainier versions,  plums from our tree, strawberries from the farm stand, raspberries, mandarins, apples and bananas.

Still, a creamy pie is less common than a fruit pie, so I went back to my recipes for banana cream and coconut cream and even chocolate silk. None of them seemed right, so I switched to doing a search on the Internet. After a bit of surfing, I found Atlantic Beach Pie on the Delish website and it sounded promising. It has a cracker crumb shell and a filling that included both lemon and lime flavors. A can of sweetened condensed milk thickened the filling and then it was baked for a short while and chilled. For garnish, whipped cream was decorated with wisps of lemon and lime zest.

As I often do, I made some changes. I prefer a graham cracker crust and I like that flavored with cinnamon. Making those two changes probably makes this nothing like an Atlantic Beach pie, but it ended up being a great change, especially when I used some melted butter, along with the softened butter, to pull the graham cracker crumbs together.

I also like a strong citrus flavor in a filling, so I stirred some extra lemon and lime zest into the filling. It really made the citrus zing and sing. I still used zest on the mounds of whipped cream for both decor and flavor.

This is the sort of recipe that has some parts that can be done on the day or you can do some and then finish on another day. The crust and filling can be done on one day, covered well, then kept in the fridge for a day or two before serving. The whipped cream and zest decor are done right before serving.

This is a delicious pie. Sweetie said it might be his favorite of all my pies. Of course that may be because he was thinking about a second piece!

I'm giving you the recipe as it is on Delish, except for the zest in the filling. If you prefer a graham cracker crust, use your favorite one or look one up on the 'net. I tried to modify this one and it took a lot of trial and error, so I wouldn't recommend doing that.

ATLANTIC BEACH PIE from Delish website

 Ingredients:

Cracker Crust

2 1/2 sleeves butter crackers (about 75 crackers/250 grams)
1/2 cup soft butter 
1/4 cup light brown sugar

Lemon-Lime Custard Filling

4 large egg yolks
2 large eggs
1 (14-oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice (from about 2 large lemons) {Note: zest the lemons first}
1/3 cup fresh lime juice (from about 3-4 large limes) {Note: zest the limes first}
1/2 teaspoon, each, lemon and lime zest

Whipped Cream Topping And Assembly

1 cup heavy cream
3 Tablespoons light brown sugar  
1 tsp. lemon zest
1 tsp. lemon zest
Flakey sea salt

Directions

Cracker Crust

Step 1 In a food processor, pulse crackers until finely ground with a few pea-size pieces remaining, 25 to 30 pulses. Add butter and brown sugar and continue to pulse until butter is incorporated and a crumbly dough starts to form, about 15 pulses.

Step 2 Transfer cracker mixture to a 9" glass pie pan. Press into an even layer in bottom and up sides of pan. Freeze 10 minutes.

Step 3 Preheat oven to 350°. Bake crust until deep golden brown and smells nutty and fragrant, about 15 minutes. Let cool slightly, about 10 minutes.

Lemon-Lime Custard Filling

Step 1 In a medium bowl, whisk egg yolks, eggs, and milk until combined. Add lemon juice and lime juice and whisk until smooth.

Step 2 Pour custard into pie shell. Continue to bake until center of pie is set but still slightly jiggly, about 18 minutes. 

Step 3 Transfer pie plate to a wire rack and let cool 1 hour. Place in refrigerator and chill until cold, about 2 hours. 

Whipped Cream Topping And Assembly

Step 1 Using an electric mixer on medium-high speed or a whisk, in a medium bowl, beat cream and brown sugar until stiff peaks form, 5 to 7 minutes. Using a piping bag or spatula, top cooled pie with whipped cream.

Step 2 Sprinkle with lemon zest and lime zest and a pinch of sea salt.

Step 3 Make Ahead: Pie can be made 4 days ahead. Cover pie plate with plastic and chill.

Fully Irish Bread

I've made Irish soda bread often, usually using the recipe given to me by Aunt May, a woman fully Irish and a great baker. The version of soda bread that I made recently is fully Irish because it's made with King Arthur Baking's Irish wholemeal flour which has flecks of bran and wheatgerm in it. It adds texture, flavor, and makes it just a bit crumbly, which I love.

As long as you have buttermilk (which not everyone does) and that specialty flour, most of the rest of the ingredients are pantry and fridge staples. I did tweak the recipe a bit by adding a 1/2 cup finely chopped pecans. This addition is particularly noticeable when the bread is warm. I've yet to try toasting a slice, but I bet that would be even better...warm and toasty. Yum! If you don't have the wholemeal flour, substitute whole wheat flour, or even just another cup of all-purpose. Lack of whole grain flour should not stop you from making this wonderful quick bread.

As with other quick breads where you want the bread to be tender, the less you handle this dough the better. Because you're also going for a rustic, craggy look, just pat the dough into roughly a round, cut that deep cross in the center and call it good. As the bread bakes it will become a bit more solid with a wonderful golden brown crust. Butter, jam, lemon curd and fruit are all great toppings for a slice. Just let it cool 10 or 15 minutes before slicing. Too warm soda bread will just fall apart if you slice it too soon!

Irish Soda Bread with Wholemeal Flour and Pecans

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup King Arthur Baking Irish Wholemeal flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons sugar

8 oz. (1 stick) cold butter, in thin slices

½ cup finely chopped pecans

2 cups  plus 2 tablespoons buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl sift the dry ingredients over the butter and cut in well with a fork or pastry blender. Add the pecans ; mix well. Add the buttermilk and mix just until moist - don’t over-handle. Some dry stuff is OK but the dough should be sticky. Pat into a round on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Cut a cross on top. Bake 45 minutes at 350 degrees F. Cool a bit before slicing.

Strawberries and Rhubarb

It's been a while since I last posted, so you get a two-fer. We have a recipe for a galette and one for hand pies with a tender, buttery dough.

  Strawberries and rhubarb go really well together. Rhubarb, a kind of produce that I always think of as a spring treat,  is pretty expensive in the market, so I was thrilled when a friend who grows rhubarb gifted me with a few stalks. The dessert I decided to make first was a galette, so simple if you have pie dough already. The strawberries are from the farm stand on Hwy 12 that has the BEST strawberries. They are always sweet and juicy, never woody or tasteless. They do become overripe quickly, so we are always on the lookout for ways to use them. The second gift of rhubarb inspired me to make handpies. The pie dough is a butter-rich one that you make in a food processor. It's a little more difficult to handle than the ready made pie dough from the market, but it is really worth the effort.

For the galette, I started with a round of pie dough from the market, rolled it out a bit to make it a little larger because you fold dough towards the center with a galette.

The hulled and sliced strawberries were combined with the sliced rhubarb and some cornstarch, plus some sugar that had been rubbed together with a tablespoon of lemon zest freshly zested from a Myer lemon from our garden. 

It made a delicious and fairly easy dessert. Do try it yourself if you can get good strawberries and some rhubarb.

Another similar dessert with the same filling are little hand pies. They look a bit like toaster pop tarts, but are worlds better. I used a butter rich food processor pie dough and a filling that was a bit heavier on the rhubarb. A little sanding sugar on top and you have a wonderful treat. It had a great level of tartness, the buttery and tender crust and a bit of juice from the fruit. Turned out to be too delicate to eat out of your hand, but this is the time when a fork and plate are worth washing up.

Strawberry Rhubarb Rustic Galette
Serves 6-8

1 round rolled out pie dough - I use Pillsbury Ready Crust
1 pint fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced
1-2 stalks fresh rhubarb, washed and sliced into 1/2 inch slices (you want about the same amount of fruit as the strawberries, or a bit less) 
zest of 1 small lemon (about 1 tablespoon)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt

sanding sugar or granulated sugar (optional)

Roll the pie dough into a 12-inch round. Place it on a large piece of parchment paper and place that on a baking sheet (I used a 12-inch pizza pan).

In a medium bowl mix together the two fruits. In a small bowl place the zest and the sugar and, using clean fingers, rub the sugar and zest together until mixture resembles damp sand. Add the cornstarch and salt and mix well. Pour this mixture over the fruit mixture, then gently stir to combine. (I used my clean hands to combine, but a large spoon or a flexible spatula would probably work just fine.)

Mound the fruit mixture in the middle of the rolled our dough

You may have used your hands to do the mounding. I did! Then wash your hands, but leave them wet, or wet them if not already wet. The wet hands means that as you handle and pleat the dough the wetness will help the pleats hold together.

Use wet hands to pleat the dough up and over the fruit. Usually there is a small to medium opening in the top where you can see the fruit. This is a rustic pie, so don't worry if some pleats are closer together than others.

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F. If desired, put a baking stone on the lowest rack.

Use a pastry brush to lightly brush water over the dough and sprinkle lightly with granulated or sanding sugar. This step is optional.

When oven has finished preheating, bake the galette, with the parchment still on the baking sheet. If you are using a baking stone, place the baking sheet directly on the stone. This pie often releases a bit of juice. The parchment and baking sheet will capture that for easy cleanup. Placing the parchment on the stone or the pie on the stone will mean cleaning the stone and probably the bottom of your oven.

Bake until the pie dough is deep golden brown and the fruit is bubbling. Remove to a cooling rack and cool at least 1/2 hour. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Rhubarb-Strawberry Hand Pies
Makes 8

1 recipe butter-based food processor pie dough
1 1/2 pints strawberries, hilled and cut into dice
1-2 stalks fresh rhubarb, rinsed and cut into 1/2 inch pieces (you want a bit more rhubarb than strawberries for the hand pies, so be generous if you can).
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch

Granulated or sanding sugar (optional)

Make the food process or pie dough and let it chill. When shaping the discs prior to chilling, you may want the shape to be more square than circular.

While the dough is chilling, make the filling. Combine the strawberries and rhubarb in a medium bowl, then add the sugar and cornstarch and mix to combine. Set aside.

Once the dough is chilled, roll out one half the dough into a rectangle...or as close as you can to a rectangle about 10 x 12 inches. Use a ruler and sharp knife to cut the dough into a 9-inch x 11-inch rectangle with parallel sides and with corners at 45 degree angles. Then cut the dough in half one way and in half the other way.

You will end up with 4 rectangles, each 4.5 x 5.5 inches.

At the bottom of each rectangle mound about 3 tablespoons filling. One by one, wet the dough around where the filling is, then fold the dough over the filling, pushing down on the edges of the dough to seal. Use the tines of a fork to seal around the three sides. Place each one on a parchment-lined baking sheet. (I fit 4 on a parchment-lined pizza pan.) Repeat all the above steps with the second half of the dough.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

While the oven is heating, if desired, use a pastry brush to brush 1/2 & 1/2 or cream over the top and sealed edges of the hand pies, then sprinkle with sanding sugar.

Once the oven is up to temperature Bake the hand pies, switching the baking sheets front to back and upper rack to lower rack and vice versa to ensure even browning and baking. Bake until  hand pies are browned and the filling is bubbly...or even leaking a bit from the pie. Cool on a cooling rack until room temperature. Served warmed or at room temperature. These are somewhat delicate, so not the best for shipping.

                                                            Ready to bake

For both of the above recipes, leftovers should be stored, tightly covered, in the fridge.

Playing around: A great addition for the filling for either of these would be adding about a 1/2 teaspoon freshly minced fresh ginger to the filling, well combined with the other ingredients.

Warm Buttermilk Cake with Strawberries

We have gotten to berry and stone fruit time. A great thing to have on hand to go with those fruits is a single layer, moist, easy cake. Add some whipped cream or vanilla ice cream and fruit and it's impressive, too.

 This is a great cake for making strawberry shortcake, too. The recipe is HERE. It's pretty easy but quite delicious.

 You can also make a chocolate version like I did HERE. I served it with cherries and cream for a quick Black Forest style cake. As you can see, Sweetie really likes whipped cream. Hard to see the cake, but I can tell you, it's great.

If you like you can also change it by adding a couple teaspoons of lemon zest (rubbed into the sugar before mixing with the eggs) for a Lemon Cake.

Yay for late spring! Summer will be here before you know it!

Landon's Wedding

Memorial Day Weekend is a great time for visiting family and for events. Sweetie and I spent some time in Phoenix at the wedding of Landon and Natalie.

Since I'm a step-grandmother, I've only know my grandson Landon since he was in high school. He's always been an extrovert, by all accounts, and he brings a lot of light and joy into people's lives at the same time. Sweetie and I have bedrooms in the farmhouse for family.  Landon and girlfriend Natalie stopped here for a night in each direction last fall when they were traveling from Phoenix to Oregon and then back. They were going there for Thanksgiving with his mother and brother and step-father. At that time Landon told us that they were almost engaged. Soon after, they announced their engagement and asked us to save the date for their wedding. They are a wonderful couple and seem to be well suited as well as very much in love.

The wedding was a few days ago, held at the church in Phoenix where Natalie's dad is pastor and Landon is in charge of Youth Ministry and at least some of the music. Dozens of their fellow church members transformed the church gym into a beautiful reception venue. The wedding itself was held in the inspiring church. Natalie's father both walked her down the aisle and conducted the ceremony. First grandson River was best man and youngest grandson Raine was a groomsman.

Because the groom's side of the family included a number of step-parents and half siblings as modern families often do, it was an interesting mix. Lots of group photos in the hot sun in the church garden, including one we were part of where we really didn't know half the people...all related to my daughter's husband's family. He was in the picture, too, plus his three sons and his wife and us. Not too happy with his oldest son because he probably spent a total of five minutes with us during the two days we were there, despite the fact that we were seated a few feet away for hours during the evening of the wedding. My guess is that he was just following the lead of the pastor.

I would love to say that the weekend was delightful, but the reality is that except for window dressing moments like the photos, we were shunned. Turns out that we were perceived to be 'unbelievers' and that, apparently, trumps manners in this conservative church. We never did meet the father of the bride/pastor.

Still, we are happy for our grandson and his bride. He was raised in a conservative religion and is immersed in this one. I doubt that he even knew that virtually no one spoke to any of us. Our son-in-law did go over and interact with his family members (also very conservative churchgoers), and when we left there were some hugs, mostly outside and away from most of the guests, but otherwise we were observers in a crowd of over 300 church goers who studiously ignored us. At one point when our son-in-law's family left because his Mom was worn out, I mentioned to one of the women standing by their table that they weren't returning, so the table and chairs were free to sit at (people were standing along the wall at this point because there weren't enough seats) and she looked startled that I had spoken to her, uncomfortable that I had, and she did thank me...but no smile and she didn't sit down right away but looked around with a bit of an anxious look on her face. I guess I broke through the shunning and she wasn't sure that it was OK to listen to me.

Highlights include a really wonderful song that Landon composed and sang to his bride, a beautiful choreographed dance the bride and groom did, followed by a dance Landon did with his mom that was lively and fun to music that included 'she's my Mom!' The Mexican food dinner was delicious. An interesting experience but one I hope to not repeat.

Early Peaches in a Pie

I've heard about the Dry Creek Peach stand for years, but it's up by Geyserville and I don't travel to that part of the county often, so I never visited. A few days ago I read that they already had peaches...about two weeks earlier than usual. I love peaches, but the ones that I get in the market are uninspiring. They tend to be hard and with little flavor. You can ripen them in a brown paper bag, but then they are ripe and still flavorless, plus they are often bruised with large dark areas from rough handling when they were hard.

So Sweetie and I found that we had the time, so we drove up the the Dry Creek Peach stand and purchased a flat of the first peaches of the season. The Dry Creek Peach folks were delightful and since they grow 30 varieties, we will likely be visiting them again and again. 

The peaches! They are heavenly! Because they were picked ripe, the skins come off easily...no need to dip them in boiling water to loosen the skins. They are also wonderfully juicy and full of peach flavor.

Of course we started eating them plain. Sweetie even ate his with the peel still on. I prefer them without the peel. Then I combined them with some other fresh fruit we had on hand...raspberries, pineapple and banana. Delicious!

The next day I made a peach pie with them and it is a really great pie. It took about 6 peaches to make the filling. I used a ready made pie dough crust for the bottom, made a filling with those slices peaches, freshly ground nutmeg, some flour and cornstarch mixed and a tablespoon of lemon juice. They were sweet enough that I didn't add any sugar. On top I put a streusel of brown sugar, flour, butter and chopped pecans. I'm afraid that the streusel  burned a bit during the first part of the baking, but I covered the whole top with foil for the 350 degree F part and it didn't burn any more. Next time I'll cover it sooner.

This is an exceptional pie, especially if you use tree ripened fruit. True peach season in most of the U.S is in June and July, so see if you can find some good peaches...and have some pie!

Peach Pie with Streusel Topping

5 cups peeled, sliced peaches, pits discarded

1/4 cup all-purpose flour mixed with 1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated if possible

few grains of salt

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup chopped pecans

8 oz. (1/2 cup, 1 stick) soft butter

one egg white

one 9” unbaked pie shell ( put into freezer until ready to fill the pie)

Mix peach slices with flour mixture,  lemon juice, nutmeg and salt. Pile into chilled pie shell that has been brushed with slightly beaten egg white. 

Make the streusel: In a medium bowl mix together the brown sugar, flour and pecans. Add the soft butter, cut into pieces, and use clean fingers to smoosh the butter into the flour mixture until combined. The mixture will be barely crumbly.

Break apart the streusel mixture into small-ish lumps and scatter evenly over the peach filling.

Bake in a preheated 425 degree F oven for 10 minutes. Place foil over edges of pie shell if they start to become too brown or if the top becomes too brown. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F and bake about 45 minutes, or until filling is bubbly and crust is golden brown.

Let cool at least five minutes before serving. I served mine at room temperature.

My Mom's NOTES: The filling (without the streusel topping) can be frozen: Line 9” pie pan with heavy foil and put in peach mixture. Fold over and seal the foil. Put into a zip lock bag (gallon size) and freeze. When ready to bake, continue as above, putting frozen pie filling into an unbaked pie shell brushed with egg white as above. You can do the same thing with the apple pie filling. You may have to bake either pie with frozen filling 10 minutes or so longer.

Happy Mother's Day!

This has been an interesting fortnight (fourteen nights) for the Sebastopol Lachmans. We celebrate today, Mother's Day, that I'm finally sleeping in my own bed. Two weeks ago today Charlie and I celebrated our 46th wedding anniversary. The next day I noticed that I got a couple of bug bites when I sat in the chair near the fireplace. A day or two later that happened when I sat in my easy chair and also I seemed to have bites when I got up in the morning. By the 29th my sleep was poor and on the 30th I ended up sleeping on the couch in the living room. Turns out that a friend had visited with her dog, as she often does, a week or so before and the dog was carrying fleas which decided that I was a tasty person. Since my friend, Charlie, and the dog are not tasty, they had no idea. Neither did I, apparently, until I couldn't sleep much.

Long story short (well except for the stuff above) we spent most of this week doing damage control and eliminating the pests. Finally slept in my own bed last night and it was great! I now know what to do and not do (including things I can do to prevent being the vector that spreads the fleas!) and am ready to have a great Mother's Day with Charlie.

Katherine sent beautiful flowers. She and Aaron sent an even more beautiful card, especially because of what they wrote inside. We plan on talking on the phone today. I'm hoping that I can visit virtually with my siblings and other family this afternoon.

Soon I'll have time to return to the kitchen and garden and will share that with you here.

Hope that each of you celebrate Mother's day in your own way, including those who celebrate the memories of your mothers who have passed. My Mom, Nancy is the person in the photo at the top of the post. Love 'ya Mom! 

Zoe's Lemon Drizzle Cake and Memories of Ireland

I discovered Substack newsletters about a year ago and found some interesting reads. One of the authors is Zoe Francois of Zoe Bakes. She is an engaging writer and has a ton of wonderful recipes, especially if you are a paid subscriber as I am.

Recently she wrote about an Irish version of the popular English treat, the lemon drizzle cake. This cake is simple, with one layer, and very lemon flavored. It has a drizzle of lemon juice and granulated sugar that you drizzle over the top of the cake while it is still warm, soon after you take it out of the oven. This gives the top a bit of sweetness and some crunch...not a lot, but just enough.

I made the cake Sunday and enjoyed it with Sweetie to help celebrate our anniversary. We enhanced it with sliced strawberries from the Hwy 12 farm stand that has the absolute best strawberries. We've been waiting for the fresh local spring strawberries and this cake went soooo well with them.

Part of Zoe's newsletter talked about an upcoming trip to Ireland that she will be taking. She has invited her readers to sign up to go with her and has arranged an extensive tour for food lovers that sounds awesome. Too bad the price is way above my travel budget.

Still, it is of interest to me because the group will be staying at Glin Castle in Glin, Co. Limerick, the town where my maternal grandfather grew up! Sweetie and I have visited the cousins there twice and it would have been fun to see the inside of Glin Castle where the Knight of Glin and his family have resided for hundreds of years. When we were there it was closed to the public.

If you're interested in my first Ireland journey, the first installment can be found HERE, with the post about Glin being HERE. There are a number of interesting posts in between and following if you want to know more about that part of Ireland in western Co. Limerick and some in Co. Clare.

If you want to make the Lemon Drizzle Cake, here is the recipe (with my comments in italics). The only true change that I made was that I took half the granulated sugar and mixed it in a small bowl with all the lemon zest until the sugar was like damp sand. The other half of the sugar was beaten with the butter, then I added the zested sugar and beat it some more. Probably not necessary, but I know that mixing the zest with the sugar helps separate the zest some and the sugar absorbs the lemon oil in the zest. Otherwise the zest tends to clump because of all the inherent lemon oil. Do it that way or just follow the recipe as written and you will have a delicious, moist lemon cake, perfect with a cup of tea. You can pretend you are in Ireland looking at the Shannon River and enjoying all the shades of green.

Lemon Drizzle Cake

The sharp acidity of citrus is the star of this cake. When it is taken out of the oven, a generous drizzle of granulated sugar and lemon juice is poured over and absorbed into the warm cake. The granulated sugar provides a crystallized crunch while still permeating the soft sponge. Slice this and serve whenever the mood takes. It keeps well for up to three days in an airtight container and freezes well, too.
Servings: 10

 Author: Cherie Denham

Ingredients

• 200 g / 7 oz unsalted butter at room temperature
• 200 g / 1 cup caster (superfine) sugar
• Zest of three lemons
• 3 eggs at room temperature
• 2 Tbsp. Greek yogurt
• 2 Tbsp. milk
• 200 g / 1 2/3 cups self-raising (self-rising) flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder

For the Lemon Drizzle

• Juice of 2 lemons
• 85 g / 1/3 cup granulated sugar
  
  

Instructions

1.                  Preheat the oven to 350℉ / 160℃ / Gas 4. Line an 8-inch (20 cm) deep cake pan (what I used) or 900g / 2 lb loaf tin with baking parchment*.

2.                  Cream together the butter, sugar, and lemon zest in a food processor until light and fluffy. Alternatively, you can use a freestanding mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (what I used) or handheld mixer. Gradually add the eggs to the mixture, mixing well after each addition. Add the yogurt and milk, and blend until creamy.

3.                  Sift the flour and baking powder together, then gradually add into the wet ingredients.

4.                  Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan, smooth the surface and bake in the oven for 45-50 minutes until golden and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.

Lemon Drizzle

1.                  Meanwhile, during the last few minutes of baking, mix together the lemon juice and sugar in a bowl.

Assembly

1.                  Once the cake is baked, remove it from the oven and prick it all over with a skewer, about every 1/2-inch. Spoon over the drizzle while the cake is still warm. Leave to cool completely in the pan.

Serve at room temperature. Will last for a few days on the counter.

Notes

*If you are using a regular cake pan, you will want to create a parchment sling that comes up and over the sides of the pan to make it easy to lift the cake out of the pan. I used a parchment circle on the bottom. By letting the cake cool completely before I removed it from the pan, it was firm enough to just turn out onto a plate, I removed the parchment, and turned it over so it was right side up.

Another Kringle

One of our favorite Christmas day treats is a Raspberry Almond Kringle pastry. I usually make the pastry part the night before and then add the jam and almonds and drizzle on Christmas morning.

This past week I had a work day in town with fellow P.E.O. scholarship nonprofit members as we prepared for an upcoming state convention. Our Sebastopol chapter is a hostess chapter this year.

It was also the birthday of our chapter AJ delegate to convention, so we had a surprise birthday party for her. Since it was a morning gathering, with coffee, I decided to bake and bring the Christmas morning pastry, but without the almond paste. Now that I've had it both ways, I do like it better with the almond paste, but it's still very tasty...and easier, plus less expensive...without the almond paste.

You can easily tailor this to your own taste buds by using a different flavor of jam, adding another kind  of nut or even a different nut paste instead of almond paste...a pistachio paste and strawberry jam sounds yum!...or adding a citrus zest to the dough or the drizzle...you get the idea.

If you need to have it ready early as I did, bake the bottom pastry, top it with the cream puff pastry and bake it, then wrap well and leave it on the counter overnight. In the morning unwrap, add jam, nuts and the confectioners sugar drizzle and you're ready to serve. If you cut small pieces this can serve quite a few people, but it's hard to eat a small piece and to not want another one! Plan accordingly, right? 

Almond Raspberry Kringle
Based on a recipe from King Arthur Flour

BASE

• 1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) butter, cut into pats
• 1 cup  all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
•  1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup cold water

PASTRY TOPPING

• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) butter
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
•  3 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract

FILLING

• about 1/2 cup seedless raspberry jam
• 2-3 tablespoons sliced almonds

GLAZE

• 1 cup confectioners'  sugar
• 2 tablespoons milk, enough to make a thick but pourable glaze
• 1/8 teaspoon almond extract
• pinch of salt

Instructions

1.    Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease (or line with parchment) a baking sheet that's at least 18" x 13"; or a 14" round pizza pan.
 

2.    To make the base: Combine the butter, flour, sugar and salt, mixing until crumbly. I used a pastry blender to cut the fat into the flour mixture. Add the water, and stir to make a soft, sticky dough. I used a fork and added the water slowly as I do for pie crust.

3.    Wet your hands, pick up the dough, and shape it into a 12" x 8" oval ring on the sheet pan; or a 10" ring in the pizza pan. This will be messy going, but just keep wetting your fingers and pushing it into a ring. An easy way to approach this is to first divide the dough into four pieces; roll each piece into a 9" rope, then connect the ropes and shape them into a ring.

4.    Once you've made the ring, flatten the dough so it's about 1 1/2" wide; basically, it'll look like a train or NASCAR track. 

5.    To make the pastry topping: Place the water, butter, and salt in a saucepan, and heat over medium heat until the margarine is melted and the mixture is boiling.

6.    Immediately add the flour, stirring with a spatula until the mixture is cohesive and starts to form a ball.

7.    Transfer the batter to a mixing bowl. Beat in the eggs one at a time, making sure each is fully incorporated before adding the next. Add the almond extract at the end.

8.    Spread the pastry along the ring, covering it completely; you'll now have a much wider ring, though it won't be completely closed in the center; it should still look like a ring.

9.    Bake the kringle for 50 to 60 minutes, until it's a deep golden brown. When the kringle is done, remove it from the oven, and allow it to cool completely on the pan.

10. To add the filling: First, have the sliced almonds all ready beside the pan of kringle; you'll be sprinkling them atop the jam as soon as you put it on.

11.    Stir the jam with a fork to break it up and then spread it over the kringle in a thin, even layer, mostly in the middle. Sprinkle sliced almonds atop the raspberry jam, pressing them in gently. Allow the kringle to cool completely.

12.    To make the glaze: Stir together the confectioners' sugar, salt, almond extract and enough milk to make a pourable glaze. Drizzle it over the kringle.

13.    To serve, cut the kringle in 2" slices.

If you prefer, you can bake the base, and cooked dough topping the day before serving, then wrap well and let sit on the counter overnight. In the morning add the jam, almonds and glaze. 

As long as I'm posting, I want to show you Sweetie's fishermen's hat I repaired yesterday. He has had this hat for a long time and it's his favorite. It also looks really good on him, so it was worth repairing when the liner shredded from too many years of wear...and then the crown started to have a slit.

First I used an iron-on mending patch to fix the crown. This is a wool cap, but I used a sturdy twill patch in the same color. Well, similar color. The hat is showing a lot of fading in various places, so it's more charcoal than black. Then I cut out a tissue pattern for the liner and used some heavy weight black silk charmeuse that I had from a previous project to cut an oval to replace the old liner. A couple sessions of hand sewing and he had his cap back. It still looks kind of beat up, but he likes it that way. The hat will probably fall apart before that new liner shreds, so it's good to go for another 10 years or so.

Another piece of my week is the garden. Despite it being only mid-April, many of the iris are finished blooming and we even have a daylily in bloom. They usually bloom in July! Everything seems fast-forwarded this year, but we are still getting rain this coming week and nights have returned to being chilly. The Black Krim tomato starts that I bought today at the hardware store will have to stay in the sunspace for a week or so until the nights warm up a bit. I might plant one to see if the fast-forward effect works on container plants, too. Anyway, I'll finish off with a photo of a daisy in the garden. It's almost as big as my hand!

Ways With Chicken To A Pot Pie

 I don't know about you, but my family eats a lot of chicken. Sweetie likes boneless, skinless chicken thighs. I'm a fan of a whole roast chicken. It's been years since I've had them, but I enjoy fried chicken breasts and drumsticks. And then there are all the things you can make with already cooked chicken. Chicken Pot Pie is one of my favorites and what we had for dinner.

A few days ago our market had a special on whole chickens...$2.99 a pound. These were plump organic chickens and looked so good that I bought one...for just under $10. Once home I roasted it with some onions and Yukon potatoes and some lemons and one mandarin orange, plus herbs. Delicious! Yesterday I took the rest of the cooked chicken off the bones and then added water to the pot...and simmered it all, including the bones, into a rich broth.

Today I made pot pie, using the leftover chicken, the broth, some sautéed onions, garlic, carrot and mushrooms, more herbs, some boiled potatoes, some microwaved frozen mixed veggies and a bit of this and that. Heated together, topped with a pie dough round and baked in a hot oven just until the pie dough was golden, it made a wonderful Chicken Pot Pie for a rainy evening.

We shared it with Rainbow Girl, my great friend from Oregon, who visited for a couple of days. Good times!

Chicken Pot Pie with Pastry Topper

3-4 yellow Finn potatoes (or Yukon gold), washed and cubed

3 tablespoons butter

1/2 yellow onion, chopped

2-3 carrots, sliced into half-coins

5-6 large mushrooms, halved, then sliced

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

1/3 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon poultry seasoning

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

salt and pepper

1 3/4 cups chicken broth

1/2 cup milk

2  - 2 1/2 cups cooked, cubed chicken (I used chicken from a roasted full chicken)

1 - 2 cups frozen mixed vegetables

1 round (half package) pre-rolled pie dough, like ReadyCrust

 In a large pot with a lid, add the cubed potatoes to enough water to cover. Place over high heat, bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cover. Continue to simmer for about 20 minutes, until potatoes are tender when pierced with the point of a sharp knife.

When potatoes are cooked, drain them, but keep them warm.

 Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

 Meanwhile, prepare the onion, carrots, mushrooms and garlic:

 Melt the butter in the pot the potatoes were cooked in. Add the onion and carrots. Over medium heat, cook, stirring often, for 2-3 minutes or until onion is beginning to be translucent. Add mushrooms and cover. Cook on low, stirring occasionally, for another 3-5 minutes, until mushrooms have released their liquid and liquid has cooked off. Add garlic and stir. Cook another 30 second.

 Add the flour, poultry seasoning, dried thyme and salt and pepper to taste to the cooked veggies. Stir for 1 minutes to allow the flour to cook a bit.

 In a large measuring cup, measure the chicken broth. Add the milk. Stir this mixture, all at once, into the veggie/flour mixture and continue stirring over medium heat until the mixture thickens slightly. It's OK if mixture bubbles a bit once it has thickened.

 Add the cubed chicken and stir to combine.

In a microwave safe container, cook the frozen mixed vegetables for 1-2 minutes to warm. Add warmed mixed vegetables to the pot with the chicken and sautéed veggies. Add the warm, cooked and drained, potatoes. Stir to combine everything, then spoon mixture into a greased round casserole. Top with pie crust and cut vents. Bake in preheated oven, in center, until the crust is golden brown and pot pie mixture is bubbling. Remove from oven.  Serve at once, including some of the crust in each serving.

 Makes 6-8 servings.

Oldie and Goodie with Fresh Spinach

One of the posts that are most often accessed on this blog is the one for Spinach Rice Casserole, a wonderful recipe from the Moosewood Cookbook...a throwback to 1977!

In the past I've always made it with thawed frozen spinach, because it's easy and works well. Yesterday I made it with fresh baby spinach because Sweetie brought home fresh spinach instead of fresh mixed greens. It's an easy mistake because the local greens...both kinds... are packaged in plastic bags with no labels. Unless you look closely, they all look the same.

So why do I need greens instead of baby spinach? You can make a great salad with baby spinach. The reason is that the oxalic acid in spinach doesn't get along with my kidneys and causes stones. So, I don't usually eat much spinach, even though I love it. 

Since I had the fresh spinach I knew that this casserole was a great place to use some of it up. There isn't enough in the casserole to cause a problem unless I eat a huge amount of it, which I won't. I cut the recipe in half and baked it in an 8-inch by 8-inch glass baking dish.

So you get to see this great recipe again, AND learn how to make it with fresh spinach! I did make two changes... I used soy sauce instead of tamari and I increased the sunflower seeds so that they pretty much covered the top of the casserole. You will still have a great dish is you just use the amount given in the recipe.

Spinach-Rice Casserole
based on a recipe from Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen, 1977

2 cloves minced garlic
1 medium yellow onion, peeled and chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt (More, to taste)
3 tablespoons butter (I used 2 tablespoons olive oil)
2 lbs. raw, chopped spinach
4 cups cooked brown rice
4 beaten eggs (I used the equivalent amount of egg substitute)
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups grated cheddar
1/4 cup chopped parsley
2 tablespoons tamari (optional)
a few dashes each - nutmeg, cayenne
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
paprika

Saute' onions and garlic with the salt in butter (or oil). When onions are soft, add spinach (I sort of stacked the spinach and cut in one direction about 1/2 inch apart, then turned the cutting board and cut crosswise. It took some time to cut all that spinach!). Cook 2 minutes. (Alternately, thaw and drain a 10 oz box frozen chopped spinach. Add to onion mixture, but don't cook any further.)
Combine the onion mixture with the brown rice, eggs, milk, cheese, parsley, tamari, nutmeg, cayenne. Spread into buttered casserole and sprinkle sunflower seeds, paprika on top.
Bake, covered, 25 minutes at 350 degrees F. Uncover and bake 10 more minutes.

Serves 4 - 6