Tag: Baking

Baking

Fresh Fall Apples in Pie!

Iris Rose

I know, I know, late again with the post but this time it is not my fault, I swear. Telus had issues yesterday afternoon and, gasp, I had no internet! It was almost like the old days when we talked to each other and interacted without constant beeps and I just need to take this’. Down off of your soap box Barb!

New apples, is there anything better? The Okanagan region Of BC is a really fabulous growing region and the produce is even better if you can buy it at the farm gate or market. DSIL2 was out to that area last weekend and brought me some lovely Honey Crisp apples which I promptly made into pie. Is there anything better than new apples? Yes, new apples baked in pastry of course!

I made a pie for the freezer, one for the bringer of the apples, and six open top apple tarts. I started with my favourite pastry recipe which is lard based but any one of the excellent pie recipes out there will do. I like to make the filling first so that the pastry is fresh to roll out. None of this chilling before rolling for me, such a rebel!

I peeled and cored the apples (I used eight because they were giant, probably equal to about a dozen apples) and cut them into quarters. I sliced the quarters crosswise for the pies and for the tarts, I cut the quarters in half and sliced those crosswise. The apples, as I said, were huge so the slices were too big for the tarts.

After the apples are all sliced up into a large bowl, in a separate small bowl, I mixed half a cup of sugar and a third cup of flour along with a teaspoon of cinnamon. I like to use a fork to mix these together so that there are no lumps. The flour thickens the juice that the apples give off when cooked and the sugar holds the flour particles apart so that there are no lumps in the thickened juice. The cinnamon speaks for itself. I sprinkled this mixture over the apple slices and tossed them gently to coat them.

I made pastry using that favourite recipe and rolled out the bottom crust. I filled the pan with the crust with the apple slices, heaped them up, rolled out an upper crust and covered the apples. I crimped the edges and trimmed off the excess pastry. I baked the pies on a foil lined baking sheet to catch any spilled over juice at 400F for 15 minutes, then 375F for another 45 minutes to an hour. The pies are done when the crust is browned and the juice that bubbles out looks thickened.

I made my tarts with a single crust in some extra-large muffin tins and just filled the crust with apples to the top. The apples cooked down a little but still looked and tasted great.

Enjoy the fall fruits while you can and have a wonderful week. Back to crafting next time but in the meantime, don’t forget the vanilla ice cream to top your pie!

Knitting

Shawl Part 3, Easy Peasy

Iris Rose

Wow, August! Why does the summer go by so fast and the winter so slowly? I guess that there is so much more activity in our part of the world when the air is warm than there is when it is cold. There must be at least five festivals every weekend (or so it seems) and it is nice just to relax outside.  I baked this banana cream pie last night for DH’s birthday today.  You might want to have a slice before you listen to my complaining.

Banana Cream Pie

I still find time to craft amidst all of the activity and have been working on a few new patterns. I have kind of been taking a break from publishing. While I don’t mind constructive criticism and am always, always happy to help, sometimes the negative remarks sting, especially on the free stuff which is way more popular than the paid. I guess that is an unfortunate part of the internet culture, where it is okay to be rude and nasty and hide behind the anonymity.

Okay then, my rant is over and I hope that I didn’t offend anyone. I really do appreciate your support.

 

On to the subject of this blog post, Part 3 of my Shawl in Parts pattern. I am going to change the name when it is done but am waiting to see how pretty it is before I decide on the best name for this lovely shawl. Carry on and have fun!

Shawl Part 3:

You will be working the borders and the centre five stitch spine throughout this part in the same way that you did for Parts 1 and 2. You are going to notice that the stitch used in this part, double moss, tends to pull the work in from the relaxed lace stitch. Remember the miracle of blocking and don’t worry; your shawl will be lovely when finished and blocked.

Row 1: Work your border stitches as before, slip marker, YO, (K1, P1) across to last stitch, K1, YO, slip marker, K5, slip marker, YO, (K1, P1) to last stitch, K1, YO, slip marker and work the border as before.

Row 2: Work your border stitches as before, slip marker, P1, (P1, K1) across to last stitch, P2, slip marker, P5, slip marker, P1, (P1, K1) to last stitch, P2, slip marker and work the border as before.

Work Rows 1 and 2 until you have 115 stitches between the border markers and the centre markers on each side.

That was easy, wasn’t it? Next week we are back to a bit of lace and then we will be on to the final border which I am still conflicted about. I am sure that I will have my inner argument settled and the shawl ready by then.  Have a happy week!

Baking

Irresistable Biscotti

Iris Rose

Okay, here we go. Break out your apron and get your cookie mojo on. I am sharing my favourite cookie recipe, Awesome Biscotti. Even if you do not like the dry and not really flavourful ordinary biscotti, you are going to love these. Just remember to have the coffee or tea ready as soon as they are cool enough to eat.

What you will put together to make this delightfulness:
2 Tbsp butter (soft)
¾ C sugar
2 eggs
3 Tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 C flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 C of addins: nuts (chopped or broken but not too small), dried fruit (cut up if large), chocolate chips of any sort

     

Dried cherries and chocolate chips       Broken pecans and dried blueberries


Got them all together? Here is how to make these ingredients into heaven on a plate.

Start by greasing a cookie sheet or lining it with parchment paper and getting your oven heating to 350F before your hands get mucky. If your cookie sheet has high sides you might want to bake the dough on the back for easy removal as you will need to slide the whole piece of dough off to cool later.

Beat the butter and cream in the sugar. Beat in the eggs and add the vanilla and milk, stirring to mix well. Mix the flour and baking powder and add them to the wet ingredients with a few strokes. Toss in the addins and mix gently to combine it all. You may need to use your hands after stirring to complete the mixing. Do not over handle the dough so that it stays nice and tender.

Press the dough into a rough ball and place it on the cookie sheet. Use your hands (and a little flour if the dough is sticky) to form a flat long loaf in the centre of the cookie sheet. If you decide to make two different kinds as I did, you can use two sheets or crowd them onto one (I hate dishes).


Pop the cookie sheet with the dough loaf into the oven and bake it for about 20 minutes until it is slightly puffed and cracked, lightly browned and firm. Remove it from the oven and set the sheet on a rack to cool. Wait 10 minutes and slide it off the sheet and onto the rack. Do this gently so that the loaf does not break. If you are using a sheet with high sides, as I said before, you may want to bake the loaf on the back of the sheet for easy removal.


Wait 10 minutes and slide the cooked loaf of dough onto the rack to cool a little more. Keep the cookie sheet handy as these have to go back into the oven to cook again. After another 10 minutes use a sharp serrated knife and cut the loaf crosswise into ¾ to 1 inch slices. Turn the oven back on to 325F.


Place each slice cut side up on the cookie sheet. If an occasional one breaks, push it back together the rebake. Bake the cookie slices for 15 minutes, remove them from the oven, turn each one over to expose the bottom cut edge and bake again for 15 minutes. The cookies should be dry on the surface and firm. Remove them from the oven and off the sheet after 10 minutes to cool them completely on a rack.


Is the coffee or tea ready? Have a great week and don’t blame me for the weight gain.

Knitting

Baking for Breakfast

Iris Rose

I like to bake on Sundays.  I usually make bread for the coming couple of weeks and make biscuits or scones or muffins for our breakfast bread.  Last Sunday, because I hadn’t baked for a couple of weeks and my freezer was empty, I really went to town and made bread and muffins and biscuits.

                                                                                      

Multigrain buns, plain biscuits and Blueberry Orange Muffins, breakfast taken care of for the next little while!

Today, instead of yarn crafts, I am sharing my Orange (or Lemon) Blueberry Muffin recipe with you.  I make them in the large, six cups per pan, muffin pans but you can easily make them in the smaller, dozen cup pans.  The recipe makes twelve large or twenty-four regular muffins.  They freeze well and thaw quickly for a quick breakfast.

Start by setting your oven to 375 degrees and either lining your pans with paper cups or spritzing them with cooking spray.

Muffins:

4 cups of flour (all white or half white and half whole wheat

½ cup sugar

2 Tbsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

Zest of two small oranges or one large orange or one lemon

 

Mix these together in a large bowl.

4 eggs

½ cup oil (canola or your favourite one)

Juice of the orange(s) or lemon that you zested

3 ¾ cups buttermilk

 In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, beat in the oil with the eggs, add the juice and buttermilk and stir well to mix all together.

 2 cups fresh or frozen, unthawed blueberries

 Add the blueberries to the dry ingredients and stir gently.  Make a well and pour in the wet ingredients all at once.  Stir until just mixed, do not beat.

Fill the prepared muffin pans to just under the top edge.  Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until lightly golden and slightly cracked on top.  Like a cake, they will spring back when lightly tapped on the top.  Let them sit in the pan for about ten minutes before removing them to a rack to cool.

These are best fresh or frozen to keep longer than a day.  Enjoy!