Muffin Mania!

I've been eating fruit nonstop since we got The News, but even my voracious appetite sometimes has trouble keeping up with the natural process of ripening going on in the fruit bowl. So Thursday and Friday were spent "salvaging" soft fruit, by baking it all into muffins!

On Thursday, I took the soft pears, and made Pear-Walnut-Raisin Spice Muffins. The original recipe can be found here. I used whole wheat flour instead of regular, and added a dash of ground cloves, allspice, and a sprinkling of ground ginger.

On Friday, keeping in mind the bunch of bananas that were never touched, I trawled the pages of Google returns, finally settling here for the PERFECT banana muffins. The recipe calls for white chocolate, and since I had to go out and get white chocolate, (and since Baby Brain is NOT a myth, this first necessitated a shower, and then drying my hair, finding something to wear that would kind of fit, finding my keys when I was looking for my wallet instead, finding my wallet, losing my keys, and then wondering if I'd actually put on deodorant (I probably put deodorant on five times a day, so great is my horror of forgetting)), it was well past noon by the time I got to the drugstore (I'd ordered scans of the ultrasound, and they were being printed there), and then they didn't have ANY white chocolate that didn't have coconut in it, so not only did I use wheat flour, I used white chocolate with coconut in it!

I brought samples of both kinds to my toenail painting appointment, and they were gone by the time I was done, so I suppose they're good! (I've had several of the pear muffins, but I don't usually like baked-banana things, so I haven't tried those yet.)

Here are the remains:



I will definitely fill the cups more when making the Pear Muffins (that's the one sad little one, there, in the middle). I have such a fear of overflowing tins that I usually don't fill them up all the way. The recipe said there would be eighteen muffins, and I ended up with twenty-four, due to my timidity. I did not, as you can see, repeat this mistake with the banana muffins!

Coming Clean (Finally)

While I *did* have a head cold, and was out of commission for a long time because of it, I am also entering the second trimester of my first pregnancy. (Yay) And since I am a wimp about being sick at the best times, my first ride on the first-trimester roller coaster of smells, sights, talking about food, hearing about food, thinking about food, etc. has been eventful.

But now that I'm getting back on the cooking and baking bandwagon, maybe we'll see a little more action around here!

Updating

My sinuses have cleared, and I'm actually out of bed. I'm not feeling up to tackling any cooking yet, though, so I'll be going to the Farmer's Market this afternoon to pick up some fresh juice and berries. The berries will be mixed altogether in a bowl with snipped mint leaves. It'll "stew" in the fridge all day, and make a very refreshing appetizer to Matt's Famous Chicken Melts!

*Radio Silence*

The only cooking going on around here lately has consisted of "Open can, pour into soup pot, heat, eat, go back to bed".

We've been stricken with The Head Cold From Hell. Catch y'all later.

Apple and Brandied Currant Tart Filling, part two in a series

Apple and Brandied Currant Tart ~ Chez Panisse


3 pounds baking apples, peeled, quartered and cored. (Reserve skins and cores)
½ c. plus 2 tbs brandy
1 c. currants
10 oz. Galette Dough*
4 tbs unsalted butter, melted
¾ c sugar

Glaze

Reserved skins and cores
1 c. sugar

Preheat the oven to 400.

Peel and core the apples and slice ¼ inch thick and toss with 2 tbs brandy.
In a small saucepan, warm the currants with the remaining ½ c of brandy and ½ c water, over medium heat. Bring to a simmer; remove from heat and leave to plump up.

Remove the pre-rolled dough from refrigerator and place on a buttered or parchment lined baking sheet. Leaving a 2-inch border, arrange the apple slices over the pastry mounding the fruit to a thickness of 3 or 4 slices at the edges. Trim away most of the border, leaving about ½ inch of pastry. (Save the trimmings to make little sugar cookies.)
Finish the tart by folding the exposed border over on itself, crimping to make a narrow pastry rim around the fruit. Brush the edges with melted butter. Sprinkle buttered edges with a tablespoon or so of the ¾ c of sugar, and sprinkle the remainder over the apples.

Bake in lower third of over for 30 minutes, rotating several times to make sure the edges brown evenly. Drain the currants and scatter over the apples. Continue baking 20-30 minutes, until the apples are soft and the pastry edges have begun to caramelize. Slide the tart directly onto the cooling rack, and allow to cool slightly.

While the tart is baking, simmer the cores and skins with 1 c water and 1 c sugar until a thick, rosy syrup is achieved, about 20 minutes.

Strain the syrup and drizzle over the tart just before serving. Serve with vanilla ice cream or creme fraiche.

It was so delicious that by the time I thought to take a picture, there was nothing remaining but some crumbs and a lonely currant on the baking sheet.

The Chez Panisse Themed Dinner Party

Could have been a disaster, but was not, due to loving friends and their forgiving natures!

The fish was the wrong kind, the grilled endives were over-grilled, the beans in the bean soup were a little...not soft, but the wine was flowing (not for me, DD!) and there was cheese and good conversation!

Here is part one of the two part masterpiece of the evening: Apple and Brandied Currant Tart.

I had put Melanie in charge of it, since she knows how to make a pastry crust, and I think that's why it turned out as well as it did!

Here is the crust recipe, with the filling to follow later.

Galette Dough ~ Chez Panisse

2 c. All-Purpose Flour
1 tsp sugar
¼ tsp salt
6 oz. (1 ½ stick) unsalted butter
½ c. ice water

Combine the flour, sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add half the butter to the mixture and work it in with your fingers until the dough is the texture of think oatmeal.

Add the remaining butter and quickly work it in until the biggest pieces are the size of large lima beans.

Dribble the ice water into the dough in several stages, tossing and mixing in between additions. Don’t try to dampen the dough evenly; it should look rather ropy and rough.
Stop adding water while there are still a few bits of dry flour remaining in the bottom of the bowl.

Gather the dough into 2 balls and wrap tightly in plastic. Press down to flatten into disks.
Refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

Roll each flattened ball in a 14 inch circle on a lightly floured board. Dough should be ¼ inch thick.

Refrigerate rolled dough at least ½ hour before using.

(Rolled out circles can be frozen and used the next day.)

Stay tuned for the filling! Coming up next!

Diving into Lent

In case you didn't know, Lent began yesterday and this year, we are attending the Byzantine Lenten services, and observing Byzantine Lenten practices. This means that yesterday was a Strict Fast Day: no meat, eggs, or dairy.

Fortunately, little Miss Veganese Chef over here has quite an arsenal of recipes adhering to these restrictions. Unfortunately (for you guys) all I did was The Lentils (yes, again), BUT, I did accompany it with a rousing (and slightly tweaked) rendition of Spicy Cornbread, the recipe of which follows:

"Sassy"* Cornbread.

Prep:
Seed and chop fine 1 red bell pepper
Seed and dice 1 chile pepper
Squeeze two tablespoons of lemon juice (this was 1 meyer lemon)
Cut the kernels off 1 ear of corn (or thaw 3/4 c. frozen corn)

Preheat the oven to 350, and lightly oil an 8x8 pan with olive oil and dust it with cornmeal.

Heat 1 tbs olive oil in a saucepan, and saute the peppers together until tender, about five minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat, allow to cool.

Mix together 1 c. soy milk, the 2 tbs lemon juice and 1/2 cup olive oil in a small bowl.

In a larger bowl, whisk together 1 c. whole wheat pastry flour (I used regular WW flour) and 1 c. stoneground cornmeal, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda and 1 tsp sea salt. (In place of the chile pepper, I sprinkled a teaspoon of cayenne into the dry mix.)

Add the soymilk mixture and combine, using as few strokes as possible so as not to overmix. Fold in the peppers and corn.

Spread the batter evenly into the pan and bake until a toothpick comes out of the center clean. (20-25 minutes.)

Cool for five minutes. Cut and serve hot or warm.

I found this in a book called May All Be Fed; Diet for a New World. It has some great recipes in it, but at times I found the text to be...I don't know...a little too "OMG! Teh guvermints, it brane-washes teh childrens! Oh noes! Kwesh-tun EBBERY-TING!" You know? (Not that we shouldn't be mindful of our food sources, mind you, but I guess I'm a little overly-sensitive to any hint of hysterical paranoia. Except my own, apparently.)

*Yes. Left out the chile pepper AGAIN. Big fat baby, over here. I blame the potato-loving Irish side of me.