ON SOUR CREAM PEACH PIE

by | Aug 23, 2014 | Dessert, Food, Recipes, Vegetarian

DSCF4808

My mother was throwing a family brunch to celebrate my sister moving back from Wisconsin. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to impress all my loved ones with this Thomas Keller quiche we made a few months ago, but I was gently reminded that it rounded out to be a $30 quiche. Instead we decided to make a pie with some sad looking peaches that were withering in the back of the fridge. What better way to say I love you than “I was going to throw this away but instead I’m making you eat it.”

I cobbled the recipe together with bits and pieces from my favorite butter-loving mavens. I’m going to cut this pie a little bit of slack because I had enough crust leftover to make a galette, but I will say that I started out with a pound of butter and finished off the evening with just enough to make some eggs the next morning. What I’m saying is that it’s delicious.

DSCF4546

I used a pretty standard crust. Lots of butter, lots of shortening, lots of chilling.

DSCF4592

DSCF4634

DSCF4658

While your crust is chilling, peel some peaches and make your filling. This was super simple. Just cream together sugar, egg yolks, sour cream, and vanilla.

DSCF4695

It turns out we didn’t have nearly enough peaches….oops! This turned out to be more of a plum-peach pie. IMHO the plums added some much-needed color and fruits fruit, so if you find yourself in the same pickle just remember that when there’s a streusel top, it don’t much matter what’s underneath. Pie!

DSCF4822

Crust

  • 1.5 sticks very cold unsalted butter
  • 3 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1/3 cup very cold vegetable shortening
  • about 1/2 cup ice water
  1. Dice the butter and return it to the refrigerator while you prepare the flour mixture.
  2. Place the flour, salt, and sugar in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse a few times to mix. Add the butter and shortening. Pulse 8 to 12 times, until the butter is the size of peas.
  3. With the machine running, pour the ice water down the feed tube and pulse the machine until the dough begins to form a ball.
  4. Dump out on a floured board and roll into a ball.
  5. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

 

Filling

  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 3 egg yolks
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 4 cups peeled, sliced peaches (or whatever ya got!)

 

Crumble Topping

  • 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/3 cup packed light-brown sugar
  • 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • Pinch of salt
  • 6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter (cut into small pieces)

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 425F.
  2. Roll out the crust and place it in a 10-inch pie dish. Prick generously with a fork.
  3. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, mix together the sugar, sour cream, egg yolks, and vanilla extract. Place fruit into crust. Pour custard filling into the pie crust and place in oven. Bake for 30 minutes.
  4. Make the streusel topping: In a medium bowl, add the sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Using a pastry cutter or a fork, cut in the butter until it resembles pea-sized pieces or smaller.
  5. Remove the pie from the oven and sprinkle the streusel topping over it evenly. Return to the oven and bake an additional 10-20 minutes, or until the topping is browned. If needed, cover the edges of the pie with foil to prevent over-browning.

Easy as pie 😉

On Lemon Olive Oil Cake

by | Aug 3, 2014 | Dessert, Food, Recipes, Vegetarian

lemon-olive-oil-cake-1

I was recently diagnosed with a rare blood disease. It sounds really intimidating, but there are several episodes of House and at least one Hollywood movie about it. If you’re going to get pinned with an incurable disease, at least its something glamourous, right? Anyway, the long and short of it is that every once in a while you get some belly pains and the extent of the medical advice thats been given to me has boiled down to “EAT CARBS”. Now I can feel totally justified to roll my eyes at all the bread-shamers out there while enjoying some guilt free indulgences.

I’m not typically a huge cake fan (I know, I’m a monster), but the balding female nutritionist I was sent to told me to try incorporating more sweets and pizza into my diet, so hey, doctor’s orders. Like most ladies my age, I have a pinterest and know my way around a search for “rustic cake.” All of the lemon cakes that caught my eye took me back to the same recipe, so we decided to use that as the base.

2

We had to double the recipe to make three 6″ layers. I separated half of the advised lemon zest and grabbed some rosemary and infused the olive oil in an ISI. You’ll want to discard the zest and rosemary after infusing, they’ll tend to lack much flavor. The result was brighter, if not a little subtle. Probably would have benefited from leaving the ingredients to mingle longer or started by infusing into alcohol and mixing that with the olive oil.

3

4

The recipe we started from seemed a little fussy, but the batter texture ended up beautifully fluffy.

5

6

We ditched the recommended glaze and took some inspiration from the frosting on cinnamon rolls we made for a recent family brunch (they were great, a recipe you should definitely try). I used a block of cream cheese and a 6 oz. container of creme fraiche. Use the whisk attachment to combine those with half a cup of powdered sugar. I tend to err on the side of less sweet, so you might want to add more sugar for a less tangy frosting.

lemon-olive-oil-cake-7

The cake was dense and moist without being overly sweet. If you’re anything like me, you’ll have eaten enough of the icing in the process to cure you from wanting to indulge in more than a small slice, but your coworkers will thank you tomorrow. Safety warning: I can’t say for sure which of these flowers are safe for human consumption, but judging by the amount of times in my life I’ve been told not to eat berries off of bushes I’m going to assume that some of these are not. 

ON ICE CREAM SANDWICHES

by | Jan 31, 2013 | Dessert, Food, Recipes, Vegetarian

IMG_4505-Edit-Edit

I still remember the tune of the Ice Cream man back in my hometown of Des Moines Iowa. We’d tumble down the grassy hill from the pool or sprinkler once the do-da do-das hit our ears. Uncle Al made the treats on his farm, with the milk of his cows and the help of his wife Sue. This isn’t one of his recipes, but I still think of him each time I make them. His deep hearty chuckle, white moustache, round belly, and disgusting yellow teeth. He knew all of us by name, and would save our favorites if he was running low.

(more…)