Apple Pie with All-Butter Crust

I've been less and less satisfied with the pie crusts I've been producing. They've been getting more and more complicated to put together. Do I have Crisco? (I never have Crisco, since I only ever buy it once a year.) Wet the flour with vodka...no, not vodka, calvados! With a spray bottle! With ice cubes in it! Dig out the food processor. Pulse process--is the butter pea-sized yet? (You can look back at my original post for apple pie to see all the steps I'm talking about.) And it would take me forever to roll out the dough, and it was cracking, and it never seemed flaky. Maybe I just suck at pastry, I thought.

So, I was looking for something else to try. I found Smitten Kitchen's recipe for all butter, really flaky pie dough. She [Deb Perelman] had been using the same Cook's Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen recipe that I had been working with. One by one, she enumerated all the problems she had with what she'd been doing. And she proposed ditching the shortening, the vodka, the food processor...all the things that had made pie crust such a pain. That left just five ingredients--flour, butter, sugar, salt, and water--and minimal equipment. Could it be that easy?

Triple Chocolate Espresso Brownies

Brownies should taste like chocolate. This should not be a revolutionary concept, and yet, some 50-odd years since they created the boxed brownie mix, chocolate flavor can be missing from the one dessert where it should be highlighted.

Supermarket brownie mixes are not necessarily bad (Epicurious' brownie mix taste test came up with an interesting winner), but when I do make boxed brownies, they are kinda...blah. I feel like I'm in back in school preparing for the drama club bakesale. I usually end up gussying up the final product with mint icing and/or chocolate ganache (here is a ganache recipe from Allrecipes.com that I use).

Let me digress a bit. My aversion to the boxed brownie made me think of one of the marketing legends of post-war America. The story goes that manufacturers of cake mixes were puzzled by the stagnant sales of their just-add-water mixes--why were so many women who could save time by using their product refusing to buy them? The answer, said their research, was that women felt they weren't "really" baking the cakes; the very simplicity of the just-add-water mix made them feel guilty, as if they weren't contributing to the process and couldn't take pride in the results. The marketer's solution? Remove the dried eggs from the mix. If a housewife cracks an egg, she feels as if she's "really" cooking. Sales of cake mixes soared. (There's some truth to this, although the real story is a bit more complicated than that...Snopes.com has a good narrative of the add-an-egg legend, with citations.)

So, to come back to the present, am I simply falling prey to residual guilt over the ease of the boxed brownie? Maybe, but for scratch brownies like these, I will bust through the reverse snobbery. The recipe below is from the May 2000 issue of Cook's Illustrated. If you want a brownie that's actually fairly sophisticated, and packs in the chocolate, this recipe is an excellent option that is not very difficult to make. These are dense and rich, rich, rich with chocolate--so rich, that I recommend that you cut these brownies small (1½ in. x 1½ in.). CI recommends cutting the brownies to an inch wide, but that is far too small--1½ inch square makes this a nice "two-bite brownie".

The espresso adds a real depth of flavor to the chocolate, and somehow makes it taste more chocolatey. If you are going to add ganache to these, I also highly recommend adding rum or liqueur, such as Irish Mist.

Ingredients

• 5 oz. semisweet chocolate (about 60% cacao), chopped
• 2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, in 4 chunks
• 3 tablespoons Dutch cocoa powder
• 1 ½ tablespoons instant espresso powder
• 3 large eggs
• 1 ¼ cups white sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup (5 oz.) all-purpose flour

Hardware

• 2 pieces aluminum foil, 12" wide
• 1 8" x 8" square baking pan, preferably straight-sided
• vegetable cooking spray 
• heat-proof bowl (stainless steel works really well, but Pyrex or something similar will work as long as it's of the right size to fit the chocolate and the pot of water)
• pot (to fill with water to gently melt the chocolate)
• toothpick (for testing doneness)

1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray baking pan with nonstick vegetable cooking spray. Fold the two 12-inch pieces of foil lengthwise so that each measures 7 inches wide. Fit one sheet in bottom of greased pan, pushing it into corners and up sides of pan; overhang will help in removal of baked brownies. Fit second sheet in pan in same manner, perpendicular to first sheet. (You're creating a sling that will help you remove the brownies from the pan after baking.) Spray foil with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In medium heatproof bowl set over a pan of almost-simmering water, melt chocolates and butter, stirring occasionally until mixture is smooth. Whisk in cocoa and espresso until smooth. Set aside to cool slightly.
3. Whisk together eggs, sugar, vanilla, and salt in medium bowl until combined, about 15 seconds. Whisk warm chocolate mixture into egg mixture; then stir in flour with wooden spoon until just combined.
4. Pour mixture into prepared pan, spread into corners, and level surface with rubber spatula; bake until slightly puffed and toothpick inserted in center comes out with a small amount of sticky crumbs clinging to it, 35 to 40 minutes. (Start checking the brownies at 25 minutes to avoid dry, overbaked brownies.)
5. Cool on wire rack to room temperature, about 2 hours, then remove brownies from pan using foil sling. Cut into 1½-inch squares and serve. (Do not cut brownies until ready to serve; brownies can be wrapped in plastic and refrigerated up to 5 days.)

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Surviving Halloween has never been a problem for my diet. For some reason, I find candy in any form, including chocolate, eminently resistable. However, if you have been reading this blog for any length of time, you know my weakness--baked goods. Pies, pastries, cookies, they all make me weak in the knees  (and in the backbone).

However, if I am going to consume the calories, I want the experience to be worth it, and that means the texture needs to be just right. The pastry should be buttery and flaky, and the cookies must be chewy and moist. (This is why I usually find storebought cookies less than tempting, and also perhaps why I've become ever-so-slightly obsessed with baking my own once I found out how easy it was.)

If, like me, you are a fan of a chewy cookie, this is a great recipe, based on Alton Brown's infamous "The Chewy". A couple tips--using bread flour, which has more protein, in place of all-purpose flour makes for more gluten (what makes good bread chewy) in the finished product. Chilling the dough before baking keeps the cookie from spreading too much in the oven, allowing the exterior to set before the interior has lost too much moisture. Finally, an overbaked cookie will never be chewy and moist, so underbaked is best. The center of the cookie should not be completely set--try to pull the cookies when you can just pick up the edge of a cookie, and it bends, not breaks; then let them finish up outside the oven on the hot cookie sheet for 5 minutes before moving to a wire rack to finish cooling. If the cookie looks baked all the way through, it is already too late (sob!)

With these tips, your cookies should still be chewy goodness three days after you've baked them.

Ingredients
2¼ cups bread flour
2 sticks unsalted butter
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼  cup sugar
1¼ cups brown sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons milk
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (I recommend Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet chips)


Hardware
Ice cream scooper (Alton Brown recommends "a #20 disher, to be exact", but if you don't have one, try a 1/8 cup measure or 2 tablespoons)
Parchment paper
Baking sheets
Mixer (stand or hand)
wire cooling rack

Directions
1. Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Melt the butter in a heavy-bottom medium saucepan over low heat. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda and set aside.
3. Pour the melted butter in the mixer's work bowl. Add the sugar and brown sugar. Cream the butter and sugars on medium speed. Add the egg, yolk, 2 tablespoons milk and vanilla extract and mix until well combined. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture until thoroughly combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.
4. Chill the dough, then scoop onto parchment-lined baking sheets, 6 cookies per sheet. Bake for 14 minutes, checking the cookies after 5 minutes, or until golden brown around the edges (but not yet set in the middle). Rotate the baking sheet for even browning. Cool for 5 minutes on the cookie sheet, then remove cookies to a wire cooling rack. Store in an airtight container.

Cranberry Shortcake

"Cranberry shortcake?"

Don't sound so dubious, this will be delicious. I first made this dessert last year for some friends during one of our infamous card nights (Euchre, anyone?) But I've been eating this dessert for much longer than that--every fall that I can remember, the restaurant at the annual church fair serves up hundreds of these things. This is one of the stars of the fair, every year.

There are some truly heinous recipes for cranberry shortcake out there. Many of them are methods of using up leftover Thanksgiving cranberry sauce. Imagine jellied cranberry sauce over pound cake or angel-food cake and you get the idea. This recipe uses fresh cranberries and has a great tart-sweet flavor. It's also incredibly easy to make.

My personal prejudice when it comes to any dish that calls itself "shortcake" is that nothing that could, on its own, be called "cake"--that is, angel food cake, chiffon or yellow cake, pound cake, etc.--should ever be involved. "Shortcake" means one thing, and one thing only: biscuits. This recipe calls for buttermilk biscuits, which I've included instructions for, but if you don't feel like going to that kind of effort, just use Bisquick--it'll be fine.

Ingredients
Fruit

2 cups of fresh cranberries
1 medium apple

1 banana
2/3 cup sugar

Biscuits
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (10 ounces)

2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons sugar

3/4 teaspoon table salt
2/3 cup buttermilk, cold (see note)*
1 large egg
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

Whipped cream
1 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Hardware

food processor

hand mixer or stand mixer

3 bowls (for whipped cream, biscuit dough, and cranberries)

baking sheet

Directions

For the Fruit:

1. Coarsely chop cranberries and apple. (Make this easy on yourself and pulse in a food processor. Who wants to chop 2 cups of cranberries?) Add sugar to taste and mix until blended.
2. Refrigerate cranberry mixture 2 to 3 hours to mingle flavors.
3. Dice the banana and add to mixture shortly before assembling shortcakes.

For The Biscuits:

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 475 degrees.
2. Whisk flour, baking powder, 1 tablespoon sugar, and salt in large bowl.
3. Whisk together buttermilk and egg in medium bowl; add melted butter and stir until butter forms small clumps.
4. Add buttermilk mixture to dry ingredients and stir with wooden spoon until dough comes together and no dry flour remains. Continue stirring vigorously for 30 seconds.
5. Using greased 1/2 cup dry measure, scoop up mound of dough and drop onto parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet (if dough sticks to cup, use small spoon to pull it free). Repeat with remaining dough, spacing biscuits about 1 1/2 inches apart, to create 4 biscuits.
6. Sprinkle remaining tablespoon sugar evenly over top of biscuits. Bake until tops are golden brown and crisp, about 15 minutes. Transfer to wire rack and let cool 15 minutes before assembling.

For The Whipped Cream:

1. Using hand mixer or stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, beat cream, sugar, and vanilla on low speed until bubbles form, about 30 seconds.
2. Increase speed to medium; continue beating until beaters leave trail, about 30 seconds longer.
3. Increase speed to high; continue beating until nearly doubled in volume and whipped cream forms soft peaks, 30 to 45 seconds longer.

To Assemble:

Split each biscuit in half and place bottoms on individual serving plates. Spoon portion of cranberry mixture over each bottom. Top cranberries with 2 tablespoons whipped cream, cap with biscuit top, and dollop each shortcake with some of remaining whipped cream. (Or, add more cranberries and even more whipped cream.) Serve immediately.

Makes 3-4 servings

*Don't feel like buying buttermilk? Add lemon juice to regular milk (at least 2% fat) in the ratio of 1 tablespoon to 1 cup, and let stand for 15 minutes. Use for an equal volume of buttermilk in any recipe.

Brown Sugar Cookies

These are also known as the Coma Cookies...diabetics need not apply! The recipe comes from the March 2007 issue of Cook's Illustrated, and it's always been a big hit for gifts, bake sales, and just a little dessert now and again. It's also another great pantry standby because all the ingredients are things I commonly keep on hand--plus, they're really easy and fun to make!

The brown sugar combines with the browned butter for a rich, caramel-like flavor. I tend to go for a chewier cookie, so I add an extra few tablespoons of melted (not browned, since some moisture is lost in browning) butter.

Ingredients:

• 14 tbs unsalted butter (1 3/4 sticks)(I add the remainder of the second stick of butter for a chewier cookie)
• 1/4 cup granulated white sugar (about 1 3/4 ounces)
• 2 cups packed dark brown sugar (14 ounces)
• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour plus 2 tablespoons (about 10 1/2 ounces)
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp table salt
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 tbs vanilla extract

Hardware

• stainless steel saucepan or skillet
• 2 cookie sheets
• parchment paper (although aluminum foil does in a pinch)
• heatproof bowl
• medium to large mixing bowl
• spatula
• shallow dish or pie pan

Instructions

1. Heat 10 tablespoons butter in 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat until melted, about 2 minutes. Continue to cook, swirling pan constantly until butter is dark golden brown and has nutty aroma, 1 to 3 minutes. Remove skillet from heat and transfer browned butter to large heatproof bowl. Stir remaining 4 (6 for chewy cookies) tablespoons butter into hot butter to melt; set aside for 15 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 large (18 by 12-inch) baking sheets with parchment paper. In shallow baking dish or pie plate, mix granulated sugar and 1/4 cup packed brown sugar, rubbing between fingers, until well combined; set aside. Whisk flour, baking soda, and baking powder together in medium bowl; set aside.
3. Add remaining 1 3/4 cups brown sugar and salt to bowl with cooled butter; mix until no sugar lumps remain, about 30 seconds. Scrape down sides of bowl with rubber spatula; add egg, yolk, and vanilla and mix until fully incorporated, about 30 seconds. Scrape down bowl. Add flour mixture and mix until just combined, about 1 minute. Give dough final stir with rubber spatula to ensure that no flour pockets remain and ingredients are evenly distributed.
4. Divide dough into 24 portions, each about 2 tablespoons, rolling between hands into balls about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Working in batches, toss balls in reserved sugar mixture to coat and set on prepared baking sheet, spacing them about 2 inches apart, 12 dough balls per sheet. (Smaller baking sheets can be used, but it will take 3 batches.)
5. Bake one sheet at a time until cookies are browned and still puffy and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft (cookies will look raw between cracks and seem underdone; see photo below), 12 to 14 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through baking. Do not overbake.
6. Cool cookies on baking sheet 5 minutes; using wide metal spatula, transfer cookies to wire rack and cool to room temperature.
   

Apple Pie

Cook's Illustrated, and its television show, America's Test Kitchen, are really my go-to source for all things cooking-related: recipes, tips, ratings of brands or gadgets. Whether I want to know the cheapest cut of meat that will taste good and pan-sear well, which brand of olive oil is a best buy, or a tip to get around a problem I didn't have the knowledge or the equipment to fix, Cook's Illustrated is where I look first.

So the recipe I've been experimenting with for apple pie, which is usually my responsibility at holiday dinners, is based on the one in The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook (a.k.a. my culinary bible). I've edited it over the past few holiday seasons based on my own experience, tips from family, and recipes from Alton Brown (a.k.a. The Man). It's still a work in progress, but below is the recipe as I've developed so far.

Hardware

• 1 9-inch pie plate
• rolling pin
• cling wrap for refrigerating dough
• food processor (not absolutely essential, but incredibly time-saving)
• spray bottle for dispersing liquid into dough
• baking sheet

Ingredients
For the crust:

• 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling out the dough
• 2 tbs sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 8 tbs Crisco or vegetable shortening, frozen or chilled in ice water
• 12 tbs butter, unsalted, frozen, in ½-¾ inch cubes (don't stress about getting the butter completely uniform in size)
• 6 to 8 tbs of vodka, brandy (or Calvados...Alton Brown recommends applejack) or liquor of choice; in a spray bottle with ice (water can be substituted if you prefer not to use alcohol in the recipe)

For the filling:

• 2 lbs (4 to 6) Mclntosh apples, peeled, cored, and cut into wedges, about ½ inch wide
• 1½ pounds (3 to 4) Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and cut into wedges, about ½ inch wide
• ¼ cup + 1 tbs white sugar
• 2/3 cup light brown sugar, tightly packed
  
• ¼ cup dark brown sugar, tightly packed
• 2 tbs flour
• 1½ tbs lemon juice
• 1 tsp fresh lemon zest
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tbs cinnamon
• 2 tsp nutmeg
• a dusting of ground clove

Directions
For the crust:

1. Process the flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor until combined. Scatter the shortening over the top and process until the mixture has the texture of coarse sand, about 10 seconds.
   
2. Scatter the butter pieces over the top and, using short pulses, process the mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs, about 10 pulses. Transfer to a bowl.
3. Use the spray bottle containing the liquor/ice mixture, gently mixing with a rubber spatula after every 5-6 sprays. Press the dough together with the spatula until the dough sticks together. (Test by grabbing a bit of dough and squeezing it in your fist. The dough should come together easily, but not be sticky.) If the dough does not come together, distribute the remaining liquid until it does.
4. Divide the dough into two even pieces and flatten each into a 4-inch disk. Wrap the disks tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour or overnight.
   
5. Let the chilled dough soften slightly at room temperature before rolling it out and fitting the bottom crust into a 9-inch pie plate.

To Make Ahead: The dough can be refrigerated, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, for up to 2 days or frozen for up to 2 months. Let the frozen dough thaw on the countertop until malleable before rolling.

For the filling:

1. Adjust an oven rack to the lowest position, place a rimmed baking sheet on the rack, and heat the oven to 500°F (260°C).
2. Toss the apples with ¼ cup of the white sugar, the light brown sugar, and the salt. Transfer the apple mixture to a colander and set to drain in the sink for about 45 minutes.
3. While the apples are draining, roll out the top crust to a 12-inch circle.
4. Transfer the apples from the colander back into the mixing bowl. Add the flour, spices, dark brown sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Mix to combine.
   
5. Spread the apples in the unbaked pie crust bottom, mounding them slightly in the middle. Loosely roll the top crust around the rolling pin, then gently unroll it over the apples.
   
6. Trim all but 1/2-inch of the dough overhanging the edge of the pie plate with scissors. Seal the edge by pressing the top and bottom crusts together, then tuck the edges underneath. Crimp the edges, and cut four vent holes in the top. Brush the crust with the egg white and sprinkle with the remaining 1 tablespoon of sugar.
7. Place the pie on the heated baking sheet and lower the oven temperature to 425°F (220°C). Bake until the top crust is golden, about 25 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet, reduce the oven temperature again to 375°F (190°C), and continue to bake until the juices are bubbling and the crust is deep golden brown, 30 to 35 minutes longer. Transfer the pie to a wire rack and cool to room temperature before serving.

To Make Ahead: The pie can be stored at room temperature, wrapped tightly in aluminum foil, for up to 2 days.