| | Fri Oct 09, 2009 7:08 pm | | | | Comments: 0 Views: 2432 |
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We had an abuncance of blueberries and pondered upon what to make. Well, blueberry pie seemed like an obvious answer - fresh blueberries, flaky crust, vanilla ice-cream... sounds wonderful, right! And I have to say that this home-made pie turned out lovely; the crust was so flaky and crispy, the blueberries were perfectly sweet with a slight hint of tartness. The pie filled the whole kitchen with that home-baked-pie-aroma, and came out of the oven golden and bubbly. We served this pie with excellent vanilla ice-cream and had to stop ourselves from having too many servings. A quite perfect recipe...
Filling: - 3 pints blueberries, we used fresh picked
- 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 2 tbsp of butter, cut into small cubes
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
Method: Mix blueberries, lemon juice, flour, sugar and cinnamon in a large bowl. Make two batches of pie dough, one for the bottom and one for the top (recipe below). Roll out half the dough to about 13 inches and place on the bottom of a 9 inch pie dish. Add the mixed filling of blueberries and top with butter cubes. Roll out the top dough the same as above and place it over the filling, crimp with a fork if desired. 
We did not have any eggs for a wash so we did a little milk and brushed it over the crust, then added some coarse sugar. Then make a few slices with a knife to let the dough expand from the steam.
We placed the pie in an oven at 425 degrees for 20 minutes then kept it in at 350 degrees for another 25 minutes.
Pie Crust (one batch - make twice the amount to cover for top and bottom):
- 6 tablespoons butter, chilled
- 2 tablespoons Crisco, chilled
- 6 ounces (approximately 1 cup) all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling dough
- 1/2 teaspoon table salt
- 1/4 cup ice water, or less
 Cut butter and Crisco into small cubes and chill for 10 minutes or so.
In the food processor, combine flour and salt by pulsing 3 to 4 times. Add butter and Crisco and pulse 10 times. Remove lid of food processor and add ice water. Replace lid and pulse a few times until it holds together.
I placed the dough in a zip-top bag, squeeze together until it forms a ball, and then press into a rounded disk and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
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| | Wed Dec 31, 2008 2:13 pm | | | | Comments: 0 Views: 21 |
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Here we go, a week after Christmas and it's already New Year! Unfortunately I have been a little under the weather the past week as I got a cold after Christmas, but now I'm feeling better and ready to take on the new year. Sometimes it can be nice to have a cold (as long as it’s not too bad!) as it does give you an excuse to read those books that have been piling up and to simply relax. But now after a few days of relaxing it feels good to have more energy and to get back to working, cooking and talking!
Even though I love Christmas and all that goes with it, I also feel relieved and refreshed once it's all over. And New Year's Eve signals that time perfectly when it's time to throw out the Christmas tree, clean up thoroughly and organize Christmas presents that dont't have a designated spot yet. The time around New Years is also a good time to get inspiration and think about work and life in a new light for the coming year.
Today we are enjoying a calm day with good food and zesty margaritas instead of Champagne – hopefully all the vitamin C will scare off any more colds. I'm making fried goat's Brie cheese with cloudberry sauce for appetizers (it's traditionally a dessert) along with fish roe on top of crackers with avocado, red onion and sour cream. For main meal we are having a beef rib roast and twice-baked potatoes and for dessert white chocolate mousse with cherry salsa. Whew – it's going to be a good day for food!
I always like idea of a new year – new possibilities, new inspiration and new thoughts and conversations. These last couple of months have been filled with activity related to House of Adeline, which has been above our expectations, that has been truly great.
Hopefully the coming year will offer even more progress and new ideas.
So Happy New Year! May the coming year be a good one with new discoveries and good times!
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| | Wed Dec 24, 2008 10:27 am | | | | Comments: 1 Views: 40 |
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December 24, Christmas Eve. Today, is Christmas in my mind. Christmas Eve is the ultimate day during December that all days lead up to – The Dipping Day. That expression refers to how on Christmas Eve you cook ham and then dip bread in the liquid the ham cooked in. December 23 is The Day Before The Dipping Day, and December 22 is The Day Before The Day Before The Dipping Day. That goes on quite far (the day before the day before the day etc..) and can get quite psycho. Nevermind, Today is The Dipping Day - Christmas Eve.
Again, we do not have any snow which is unfortunate but not surprising. We will have to get the atmosphere going with lots of candles, music and of course food and gifts! So far, we have already been through The First Phase: hot chocolate in front of the tree and a small gift opening (not so small actually…) and later on today more phases await with traditional food as well as more Christmas presents.
This year we are making a Christmas ham (in my mind you can’t forego that!), Swedish meatballs, Jansson’s Temptation (potato dish), creamy red beet salad, herring (which only I enjoy) and ris a la malta (rice dessert) among other dishes.
I baked the vört bread yesterday and it came out quite nice and somewhat mild actually – I had expected more of a pronounced flavor since it contains julmust (strong dark soda), porter beer, cinnamon, ginger, cloves etc… Anyhow, it had a good, dense texture and went really well with some strong cheese (I also made a flavorful fig and date compote with glögg which was a nice addition).
Apart from drinking more glögg, I think we also might enjoy some port wine as well as Amaretto later which I’m looking forward to.
So Merry Christmas (God Jul)! Hopefully this year will feature good company, good thoughts and relaxing times!
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| | Mon Dec 22, 2008 10:11 am | | | | Comments: 1 Views: 42 |
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Cookies, cookies, cookies! Ideally I would like to bake, say seven or eight different kinds so when you browse into your cupboard or onto a nicely presented table you see them all lying there, one different from the other. I’m not really interested in eating seven or eight different cookies (I have more of a savory tooth), but I would love to just look at them, arrange them and know that they are there. Pretty. Fine. Ready to eat. Nice presentation.
So far we have made Swedish gingerbread cookies (they top the list of importance), chrusciki and vanilla horn cookies, and that is really plenty, but I do love the idea of baking an unnecessary amount to completely indulge in and treat your friends and family to.
And the same thing goes for candy. This year we have made salted caramels, burned almonds (twice - I doubled the second batch and it came out disastrous, it must have messed up the proportions or the cooking surface ratio) and dark truffles, and I’m about to make whiskey-raisin-marzipan-chocolate rolls (my mother's delicious recipe really calls for portwine, but one takes what one has), as well as white truffles with lime and cinnamon. But I would also love to make crisp chocolate covered Sevilla orange peels, nougat, fudge, fine marzipan figures, knäck, kola, multiple chocolate truffles in a range of flavors, mint pastiller, ice chocolate and other traditional sweets. I could go on all day.
Apart from candy and cookies, I also have plans on baking vortbread which is a traditional Swedish Christmas bread that calls for brewer’s wort (or simply porter and soda, which is all I have access to). It’s a quite dark and heavy bread which you eat Christmas ham on. If I have the time, I also would like to make some hardbread (crisp bread), which is really rather easy and it’s so nice to have around. We'll see, of course then there is food to be cooked as well…
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