Cranberry Jam

Thanksgiving came and went--we had friends over in our little Boston apartment and we visited family in the coal-topped hills of PA--yet we somehow didn't use our cranberries for Thanksgiving dinners.

In anticipation of the holidays, which we spent, for the first time, away from family and by ourselves in Boston, I made some cranberry jam.  It perfectly triggered waves of nostalgia with its spicy scent and flavor.

Cranberry Jam

(Adapted from Gourmet)

Ingredients

1 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise

1 (12-oz) bag fresh or unthawed frozen cranberries (3 1/2 c.)

1 1/2 c. sugar

1/2 c. fresh orange juice

1/2 c. water

3-4 cloves All Spice

3-4 cloves

1 cinnamon stick

1/2 nutmeg, grated*

* Ingredients I added

Preparation

Scrape vanilla seeds from pod into a 2-quart heavy saucepan.  Add pod and remaining ingredients  (All Spice, cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg, if including) and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.  Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thick, about 20 minutes (jam will continue to thicken as it cools).

Puree jam in food mill set over a bowl, discarding skins and pod (I actually kept the skins for a less jelly-like, more jam-like texture).  Cool, stirring occasionally.

Baked Farm Share Apples

Holy moly, check these out.  My husband wanted baked apples one night for dessert, so we grabbed a couple Farm Share apples and made this simple dish.  Preparation took about 8 minutes, then the apples were left in the oven around an hour and they came out looking like this:

Apple explosion!  But they were sooo good, light and fluffy and warm and subtly sweet.

Baked Apples with Toffee, Bourbon and Molasses

(from Bon Appétit)

Ingredients

6 7- to 8-oz. Golden Delicious apples (we used the red ones from our Farm Share, they were delicious!)

6 tbs. toffee bits (such as Skor) (we didn't have this, so it was omitted)

3 tbs. bourbon

3 tbs. unsalted butter

1 1/2 c. apple cider (we didn't have this either)

3 tbs. mild-flavored (light) molasses

1 tbs. sugar

1/4 tsp. ground ginger

Vanilla ice cream

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 deg F.  Peel skin off top third of each apple.  Using small melon baller, scoop out stem and core, leaving bottom intact.  Stand apples in 11x7x2-inch baking dish.  Add 1/2 tbs. bourbon and 1/2 tbs. butter to cavity of each apple.  Whisk cider, molasses, sugar, and ginger in bowl; spoon over and around apples.  * I was lazy, so instead of doing this I put a little molasses in the cavity of the apples, topped them with brown sugar, and also sprinkled ginger on top.

Bake apples until tender, bating often with pan juices, about 1 hour 20 minutes.  Transfer apples to bowl.  Pour juices from dish into small saucepan.  Boil juices unti thick enough to coat spoon, about 6 minutes. Spoon sauce over apples.  Serve apples warm with vanilla cream.

Sweet Potato Pie

I feel sort of guilty: I keep talking up how I am going to make sweet potato gnocchi with our sweet potatoes but I just haven't been feeling it.  I really want to try the recipe I suggested, so maybe another post will be dedicated to it in the future.  Until then, I will not mention it again.  I need to move on from the potato pasta...

My sweet tooth has been dominating my palate lately.  So, with a tupperware full of cooked sweet potatoes (which I had baked with the intention of making the gnocchi) I turned to one of my favorite Southern pies: sweet potato pie!

This recipe is AMAZING!!  It is the best sweet potato pie I have ever had, and my husband said it was the best he's ever had (and he has had a lot, growing up in TN).  Thank you, Farm Share, unexpectedly, for the produce that made this dessert!  As my husband said, this dessert was "decadent!"  It was surprisingly light and fluffy; smooth with a more complex flavor than the sweet potato pies we're used to.

Sweet Potato Pie

(from Epicurious.com)

Ingredients

2 medium sweet potatoes (about 1 1/4 lbs.)

1/2 stick (1/4 c.) unsalted butter

3/4 c. sugar

3/4 c. whole milk (we used soy milk as substitute)

3 large eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg

I added 1/4 tsp. powdered ginger

1/4 tsp. salt

1 tbs. dark rum

1 tbs. all-purpose flower

1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell*

* For the pie crust, I made my own (see previous posting for recipe) and added 1/4 c. finely chopped pecans.  I used a food processor to chop the pecans as finely as possible.  You have to have pecans somewhere with sweet potato pie!

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  

Prick the sweet potatoes with a fork and roast them on a shallow baking pan in the middle of the oven until very tender, about 1 1/4 hours.  Cool to room temperature.

Raise the oven temperature to 400 degrees F, and place a shallow baking pan on the bottom rack.

Scoop the flesh from potatoes into a bowl and discard the skins.  Mash the sweet potatoes with a fork until smooth.  Melt the butter in a small saucepan and stir in the sugar.  Add the melted butter mixture to the sweet potatoes with the milk and the eggs and beat with a whisk until smooth (I used a standing mixer which worked wonders!).  Whisk in the remaining ingredients (the filling will be quite liquid).  Pour the filling into the pie shell.

Carefully transfer the pie to the heated shallow baking pan on the bottom rack of the oven and bake until the filling is just set, about 40 minutes.  Transfer the pie to a rack to cool.

Apple Pie

I participated in a bake sale once and, for a lack of time, bought slice and bake cookies to make.  I've never been a big baker and for that reason I always ate slice and bake--they were my go-to for casual functions when I was supposed to bring dessert.  However, after reading and emailing a friend the ingredient list (in case we had to disclose ingredients to purchasers who were worried about allergies), I vowed never to bake slice and bake again.

And thus my journey to TRY to become a baker.

It's been hit or miss when baking from scratch.  I made muffins once when a friend was in town that were horrible: eggy, flat, and greasy.  I've also made cookies that turned into pancakes.  I have had a few victories: some really good chocolate chip oatmeal cookies (recipe from Food & Wine--amazing), I did vindicate myself by making some better muffins...and I can do pies.

Apple pie is one of my favorite desserts.  We had a ton of apples from our Farm Share that needed to be eaten, so I made one yesterday! 

With our mandoline, I sliced thin (1/8-inch thick) slices of apple (I didn't even peel the apples).  Between a 1/2 inch-thick layer of apple slices I would sprinkle sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg--and I also drizzled some honey.  I had three layers of apples with the sprinkling in between, topped it with the crust, then threw it in the oven.  Really easy, and aside from the butter in the crust (which, if making pie crust, you know there will be a lot of butter) there is nothing else "unhealthy"--just loads of apples and a touch of sugar!


Pie Crust

Ingredients

* 2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour (I used 2 c. all-purpose, then 1/2 c. whole wheat)

* 1 c. (2 sticks) unsalted butter

* 1 tsp (or 1 3 fingered pinch) salt

* 2 tbs sugar

* 4-8 tbs ice water

Crusts can be frustrating to make, but the key is keeping it cold.  After cutting the butter sticks into small cubes, throw them in the freezer for a while.  Then, add the butter to the flour, salt and sugar mixture and use your fingers (or a food processor) to mix the butter with the dry ingredients.  You want to work the butter and flour into pea-sized lumps of flour.  Then, 2 tbs at a time, add the water until you have a dough.  Don't mix the water in too much (otherwise the dough gets "tough").  After you have a dough you separate it into 2 discs of dough, place each disc on parchment paper, then put them in the fridge to cool.  When ready, roll the dough with a rolling pin and they are ready to bake!  (If the dough is difficult to get off the parchment paper, throw it back in the fridge for a few minutes.  The parchment paper should peel off more easily.)  I used the Ratio book by Michael Ruhlman for the pie crust recipe.

Bake

400 degrees for 15 minutes, then reduce temperature to 375 for 45 minutes.