In need of inspiration

I don't think pretzels and cheesy sharks are quite the thing.

In other words, HELP!  I'm scheduled to bring an appetizer to a club meeting tonight.  Normally, I don't have too much trouble finding a recipe, and I had planned to bring carrot cupcakes (with cream cheese frosting).  But yesterday I learned that we're in need of savory dishes more than sweets, and I can't seem to commit to an idea.  (Especially one that doesn't involve another trip to the grocery.)

I need something that can be served at room temperature and that can be prepared from start to finish in two hours or less (including any baking or cooking time)--the little Cherub's nap time is my only window of cooking opportunity today.  I have mushrooms, some baby spinach, some cheddar, some parmesan, cream cheese, a couple boneless chicken thighs, eggs, heavy cream, butter, parsley... 

I am thinking mini quiches, maybe some mushroom and some spinach, but does anyone have a better idea?  Come on, help me out!

Magic maple custard pie

It was Sunday afternoon.  The Chef (not me) had a lovely pork shoulder braising away on the stove top, with baked tomatoes and roasted cauliflower rounding out the menu.  A Sunday dinner deserves a Sunday dessert, right?  Something autumnal, not too fussy.  Something like pie.  I made a couple of batches of dough in the food processor while I thought about filling.  

I've tried several other recipes for pie crust, some involving vinegar or vodka, and some of these have been spectacular. But they're fussy.  The recipe I always come back to is 2 1/2 cups of flour, a pinch of salt, 2 sticks of butter and about 6 tablespoons of ice water.  Pulse the flour and salt a couple of times in the food processor.  Slice the butter into chunks and add them to the flour.  Pulse until the butter is in pea-sized lumps (about 20 pulses).  Add the ice water and pulse a few seconds, until the dough starts to stick together.  Dump it all onto a floured counter and squish it into a ball.  Divide the ball in half, press each half into a 6-inch disk, and wrap in plastic wrap.  Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.  If you're only making one single-crust pie, put the second disk into a freezer bag and freeze for a rainy day.  I bet that didn't take 10 minutes, and it's a million times better than that Pillsbury stuff.

"I love dat pie!"

Now, what to put in this pie?  I found two variations on a maple syrup pie, one with eggs and one without.  I chose the Smitten Kitchen recipe, because it seemed less sweet and had more maple syrup.  It did require blind baking the crust, but I left that for the Chef to do while I dashed out for some cream. I didn't have any freshly ground nutmeg--I haven't replaced the nutmeg that fell victim to a curious two-year-old in the spice cabinet--so I used 1/4 teaspoon of ground mace.  And I didn't bother straining the custard, so there were a couple small bits of crystallized syrup in the filling.  Maybe I'd strain it if I were making it for company--or maybe not.

We may rename this recipe Magic Pie, because when I brought it to the table, half of it disappeared in an instant.  Some people ate the custard first, and then the crust.  I looked the other way while plates were being licked.  It's easier on the dishwasher, you know.  There may have been prolonged begging for seconds, but I cruelly reserved the rest of the creamy maple goodness for Monday's dessert.

I'm afraid I was too busy being unfussy to take photos of the process.  But for those who are curious, I have that extra disk of dough to turn into something this week, and I promise to document the next one. 

Easy enough for a weeknight: pizza on the grill

Remember Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day?  Here's one thing you can do with this dough from the master recipe:  PIZZA.  And this time I made it on the grill, so I didn't set off the smoke alarm or have to sweep cornmeal from every surface of the kitchen.

I spent exactly five minutes assembling and mixing the dough and putting into a bowl.  I let it rise about two hours on the counter, and then put the bowl in the fridge.When I was ready to make pizza, I took a handful of dough (about 1/4 of the dough in the bowl) and, using lots of flour on my hands and on the dough, gently stretched it into a ball.  Roll it out on a generously floured silpat, prick the dough with a fork a few times, and slide the dough right onto the oiled, preheated (500 degrees) grill rack.

At this point, I turned two of the three burners down to low.  Close the lid and bake it on the grill for about 3 minutes, or until you start seeing some grill marks and the crust is baked enough to flip.  I grilled the second side only a minute or two, and then slid a thin cookie sheet under it and took it off the grill.  If I were making pizza for a crowd, I would bake all the crusts up to this point ahead of time, let them hang out on cooling racks, and then put the toppings on at the last minute and slide the pizzas onto the grill, two at a time, just before serving.  Again, the grill should be at around 500 degrees, but turn the burners down so you don't scorch the crust.  I think it took another five minutes or so until the cheese was melted and the crust was bubbly and golden.

I got the tip about using lots of flour and a silpat from the Artisan Bread blog.  There is a ton of great advice to be had from the authors and the commenters over there.  But really, it's hard to go wrong with this dough. Mix it up after dinner, put it in the fridge on your way to bed.  Tomorrow all you have to do is roll it out and slide it onto the grill!

Do you have a favorite homemade pizza recipe?  What's your favorite topping combination?  I only showed you the kids' cheese pizza above; I forgot to take a picture of the grilled eggplant I put on our pizza.  Mmmmm...

Coconut lime banana bread, oh my

This banana bread recipe is so good, I haven't made any other kind since I first tried it.  It's so good, my mother-in-law asked me for the recipe.  I've been meaning to try it without the coconut and lime glaze, too, but we like this combination so much I haven't gotten around to it yet.  I'm pretty sure you could substitute pecans or walnuts (or yes, chocolate chips), and just use a plain glaze (milk and powdered sugar)--or no glaze at all.  I think this recipe has 1/4 of the butter that my old recipe has, and half the sugar.  Healthier, but incredibly moist and tender.  I guess the secret is the yogurt and more bananas.  Make sure they're really ripe and mushy--I like to keep dying bananas in the freezer, skin and all.  Just thaw them on the counter for a short time, cut off the ends, and squeeze the bananas right into your measuring cup.  You hardly need to mash them.

My favorite home baking resources

Hearth bread dough from the King Arthur Flour Cookbook

We eat a lot of bread in our house.  Yes, I bake some of it, but not nearly all of it.  I'm still buying bagels and sandwich bread nearly every week.  The problem is, I haven't gotten into a good bread baking routine.  The adults like crusty European style bread; the kids like softer American style, at least for their lunchbox sandwiches.  I am a convert to no-knead bread, thanks to my cousin Betsy's recommendation of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.  I can't say enough good things about this book, and the lovely authors who maintain their own blog and are willing to answer all your questions!  I have not nearly baked my way through the book yet, but I hope to.  Keep the dough in your fridge, and you can have fresh bread or pizza every day.

Hearth bread, sliced and ready for the freezer

An oversized boule from the Artisan Bread master recipe

My other go-to baking book is the King Arthur Flour 200th Anniversary Cookbook. Thank you, Steve and Elaine, for giving us this book however many years ago!  It has several master recipes, and then spends several pages explaining how each ingredient works and how you can vary them.  My book falls open to the buttermilk pancake recipe, which I make almost once a week, and the kids often eat the leftovers (which are great reheated, unlike pancake mix pancakes) during the week.  I also love their muffin recipes.  Did you know that if you preheat your oven really high (500), and then turn it down to 400-ish when you put in the muffins, you will get muffins with big domed tops?  (That is, if you follow the other Cardinal Rule of Muffins: Thou shalt not mix the batter for more than 20 seconds.)  I promise to share the banana chocolate chip muffin recipe that I've perfected using the King Arthur basic recipe.  It's pretty healthy (whole wheat flour, not much sugar, lots of fiber), but if you drop some chocolate chips in it, the kids will eat it!

For cakes, I go everywhere.  I first started baking wedding cakes from The Wedding Cake Book by Dede Wilson.  I also use Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Cake Bible and The Gourmet Cookbook.  I can usually find a cake recipe for any special occasion from one of those books.  For cupcakes, I keep returning to a great recipe for vanilla cupcakes from the magazine Cook's Country.  It makes two dozen moist and buttery cupcakes--perfect for a birthday party.  And lately, as I've mentioned before, the first place I search for new recipes (or better versions of old favorites) is Smitten Kitchen.  I'm thinking about making this cake for a birthday gathering for a very special aunt next month.

What's your favorite baking book or resource?  Please share in the comments!  The best recipes always come from personal recommendations!

Olive oil granola

I'm not going to bother you with my regular old, everyday granola recipe.  Just make this.  It's sweet, salty and fruity all at the same time. And if, for whatever strange reason, you run out of olive oil in your pantry, you can substitute vegetable oil or melted butter, and you will still have very good granola.  But it won't be this.

A quick Google search will reveal that every other food blog in the universe has already made a version of this granola, most of them based on the recipe given by Melissa Clark in The New York Times.  I had a perfectly yummy granola recipe, developed from several sources, so it took me a while to try this one.  So many wasted months....

My biggest change was to reduce the sweetness.  I thought about reducing the oil as well (my usual recipe only has 1/4 cup), but I was afraid to lose the fruitiness of the olive oil, so I left it alone.  Also, I like my granola in big clumps, so I'll share my method, which has the added benefit of reducing the baking time.  As always, granola is forgiving, so substitute your favorite combination of nuts and seeds.

3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

1 1/2 cups nuts (the original calls for raw pistachios, which I forgot to get, so I subbed almonds)

1 cup raw pumpkin seeds (pepitas), hulled (mine were already roasted and salted, so I skipped the salt later in the recipe)

1 cup shredded coconut

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1 tsp kosher or sea salt (skip if your nuts or pepitas are already salted)

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp allspice

1/3 cup maple syrup (or try honey)

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.  Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Mix the syrup and olive oil together in the measuring cup and pour into the bowl.  Mix well.  Spread mixture on two rimmed baking sheets lined with Silpats (parchment would probably work, too).  Bake for 30 minutes, or until golden brown, stirring once halfway through. baking.  Remove from the oven and let cool completely in the baking sheets.  Break granola into large clumps and store in an airtight container.  Serve with yogurt (Greek yogurt is my favorite) and fresh or dried fruit.  Or just eat it straight out of the container at random times during the day.

Get every last bit coated with oil and syrup.

I think I got the tip about the Silpat from my friend Sara--no more scrubbing the pans, and it's easy to fold the mat and pour the last few bits of granola into your container.

Fresh out of the oven--but wait until it cools!

Yes, that is my empty bowl.

Snickerdoodles

One of the kids' favorite non-chocolate cookies is the snickerdoodle.  It's one of my favorites, too.  I've used several recipes, as long as it's made with butter.  Today I enlisted the help of three kindergarteners.  I mixed up the dough while they were at school, which gave it enough time to chill.  (The chilling time is especially important when hot little hands are going to roll the dough, otherwise it's too sticky to work with.  But if you're in a hurry and don't have "help," you can skip it.)   I scooped the cookies with my mini ice cream scoop (the best tool ever for making cookies-it goes faster and your cookies are beautifully uniform) and the girls rolled them in cinnamon sugar.  They ran off to play while I baked the cookies, and then, of course, it was time for a tea party.  :)