TUMP [EP#387 – ASYLUM BLACKOUT]
2 years ago
Showing posts with label baking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label baking. Show all posts
Mmm pie. Pumpkin pie is such a quintessential fall pie that I thought this was an excellent second pie. I was very happy with the filling, but wasn't thrilled with this crust paired with this pie, which lead to 2 more pies. The recipe is from my favorite baking site, joyofbaking.com.Now the crust is what you call pate brisee, french for short dough, because of the high ratio of fat to flour. The most important thing to remember is that butter needs to be really cold. I didn't have access to a food processor when I was making this, so I actually used a frozen stick of butter and then grated it using a cheese grater. This allowed me to be able to combine the flour with the butter and ice water without over mixing, which leads to a tough less flaky crust.
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| From Drop Box |
My adventures baking pie started in the summer, when I made my very first pie: Chocolate Pie. This was a good starter in some senses, because the crust was a simple Graham Cracker crust. Plus it has chocolate, and not only do I love chocolate, I was preparing it for the wake of my friend Dan, a budding chocolate maker. If I remember correctly I actually prepared the crust and filling the day before, since the filling needs to be refrigerated overnight.
Ok, I know, my Jamaican readers (if you exist!) must be thinking really, a blog post on bun and cheese? Have you run out of things to blog about? But consider that I'm not in Jamaica, so procuring bun and cheese for Easter requires effort.
In Jamaica one of our Easter traditions is to eat bun and cheese. Jamaican Easter Bun looks nothing like hot cross buns, and I'm not sure if it tastes like it either, but I suspect the tradition ought to have some relation. There are several ways to make Easter bun. My cookbook, Enid Donaldson's The Real Taste of Jamaica, Rev. Ed.
, has 4 recipes! Each recipe uses a different leavening agent: Baking Soda, Baking Powder, Yeast and Stout. I decided to do the baking powder version, partially because the Yeast recipe yields 7 loaves, partially because I prefer bun with just raisins, not mixed peel, and partially because I wanted to try making it with port. So without further ado, the recipe (found on Pg 114 of the first ed.):
, has 4 recipes! Each recipe uses a different leavening agent: Baking Soda, Baking Powder, Yeast and Stout. I decided to do the baking powder version, partially because the Yeast recipe yields 7 loaves, partially because I prefer bun with just raisins, not mixed peel, and partially because I wanted to try making it with port. So without further ado, the recipe (found on Pg 114 of the first ed.):
I know, I've been in a crazy baking mood. The problem is that I go online and see these yummy recipes and then I start craving the end product. That's how I ended up baking lemon bars for our movie night (2010: The Year We Make Contact).
So the key to good lemon bars is apparently the lemons. You should use freshly squeezed lemon juice and lemon zest. Lemon zest is from the outer skin of the lemon. You get it from using a lemon zester, or if you're a poor grad student like me, from using a grater and grating the outer skin. Make sure you don't get the inner white rind, it's very bitter, and zest the lemons before squeezing them.
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| From Randomness |
I found a great site for baking recipes, http://joyofbaking.com/, and I've been putting their recipes to good use - at least I think it's been good. So far, I've tried their biscuits and scones. I seem to have managed to not take pictures of the scones, so I'll just have to make more this weekend. But for now, biscuits!
The main trick to making biscuits is using really cold butter and not over mixing or over kneading the dough. In fact, my biggest baking tip is to bake with cold butter. If you microwave the butter or use margarine, then you've completely killed the recipe and you're better off using a mix.
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| From Randomness |
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| From Randomness |
The main trick to making biscuits is using really cold butter and not over mixing or over kneading the dough. In fact, my biggest baking tip is to bake with cold butter. If you microwave the butter or use margarine, then you've completely killed the recipe and you're better off using a mix.
