Mai as in Pie

Apple Lemon with Cinnamon Muffins

I swear I’ve baked before. I’m going to blame all the weird mishaps I had while making these muffins on the equipment (or lack, thereof). Let’s start from the beginning, shall we?

The assignment for my Green Media class was pretty straightforward: find a recipe (preferably for brunch), make it, document it, and bring it to class. Since I’m most comfortable with baking, I looked for options that could be made the night before. (Plus, I am NOT a morning person, so the idea of waking up earlier than usual to cook was out of the question.) I decided on apple lemon with cinnamon muffins from AllRecipes.com, a site I have used many times before. This recipe had a 4/5 star rating, so it seemed promising. I had all the ingredients necessary and was confident I’d be able to pull it off.

I forgot about the fact that I’ve never baked anything substantial in my current house and that we didn’t have the standard measuring cups and spoons needed. Whoops.

Being a strapped-for-cash college student, buying this stuff was not going to happen. I figured I have enough experience to be able to eyeball the amount of each ingredient I would need, so I thought, “Screw it. Let’s just try it and see what happens.” This later became the mantra for the rest of the baking process.

The first mistake I made right off the bat was misreading the recipe. Instead of the stated 4 teaspoons, I added 4 tablespoons. Nice one, me. Just so you can get a sense of what I did, 4 tablespoons is close to, if not more than 12 teaspoons, or triple the amount needed. After yelling in frustration and startling my housemate, I scooped out the excess baking powder, hoping that the amount of this pretty-crucial ingredient wouldn’t come back to haunt me and the muffins. “Screw it. Let’s just try it and hope it works.”

The next few steps went a little better. I alternated between mixing, peeling, chopping, and taking pictures with my camera, hoping that I wouldn’t smudge the screen with my sticky fingers. Note to self: next time, recruit a friend to do the documenting. Trying to do everything definitely slowed me down and I started to get worried about how long the mixed batter was sitting out. At one point, I swiped my finger in the batter for a taste, and was surprised to find a tangy, almost sour flavor. Was the lemon juice and milk creating some weird chemical reaction? My mind flashed back to the acid/base unit from AP Chemistry in high school, but that was in vain because I failed chem. “Screw it. Let’s just see what happens.”

I decided to use two types of apples just because that’s what I normally do when I make apple pie. Granny Smith apples are too tart on their own, so I try to balance the flavor out with the sweeter Fuji apple. Maybe next time I’ll leave the peels on just for some extra color. After adding all of it to the batter, I realized that I may have added too much. Would this weigh it down and cause the muffins not to rise? But I had added all the extra baking powder at the beginning… “Screw it, let’s just bake it and see what happens.”

I scooped the batter into the muffin tin, sprinkled the cinnamon sugar on top, and put it in the oven. There was some leftover batter, so I poured it into a cake pan and made a muffin-pancake thing. After 15 minutes, I went to check on them. At some point, I burnt my finger. That part sucked. I looked around for a better makeshift oven mitt and took out my aromatic and golden-brown creation. Hmm, this should be interesting.

After waiting a few minutes for them to cool down, I tried a bite of the muffin-pancake thing. It reminded me of Apple Jacks Cereal. I noticed how un-muffin-like the texture was; it wasn’t as dense and sweet as muffins are supposed to be. This was probably the effect of the baking powder incident. Ah well. I’ll know for next time.

In the end, I was okay with the results. If I ever decide to make this again, I’d want to add some cranberries or something for taste and color. The entire thing was basically one color (yellow) except for where the cinnamon hit. Also, I couldn’t taste the lemon at all. Maybe I could use orange instead? Whatever the case, I’ll definitely want proper measuring tools. The whole “Screw it, let’s just try it” become a little too much for me. Anywho, I hoped you enjoyed it, Green Medians. I promise I’ll try to better next time. :) Remember to click on the pictures to see bigger versions of them!

Here’s the recipe from http://allrecipes.com/recipe/apple-lemon-with-cinnamon-muffins/detail.aspx, with a few of my modifications:

Ingredients: 

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 pinch salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 10 tablespoons butter (1 stick and 2 tablespoons)
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 cup milk (I used soy milk)
• 1 medium Granny Smith apple and 1 medium Fuji apple - peeled, cored and chopped
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Grease 12 muffin cups.
2. In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together the 1/2 cup sugar, eggs, butter, lemon zest, lemon juice, and milk. Mix the creamed ingredients into the flour mixture until evenly moist. Fold in the apples. Spoon into the prepared muffin cups.
3.  Mix the 1 tablespoon sugar and cinnamon, and sprinkle over the tops of the muffin batter.
4. Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool 1 to 2 minutes before turning out onto wire racks to cool completely.

Blackberry Cobbler

I normally don’t buy blackberries. I can’t remember ever eating a blackberry that was fresh instead of frozen. But then my aunt gave me two containers when she came to visit; I figured I’d mix them in with the strawberries I had. However, they had a slightly bitter aftertaste that I didn’t expect. Is this normal? Or did I just have an odd batch of blackberries? Anyway, after eating a few of them, I decided that I couldn’t take that bitterness and decided to bake with them and hopefully the sugar would mask the taste. I found a recipe for blackberry cobbler online and halved it. I thought it turned out pretty well for my first cobbler! I wasn’t quite sure what the recipe meant when it said wait for a fruit syrup to form after adding sugar, but a thick syrup did indeed materialize. Here’s the halved recipe I used. 

• 1 and 1/4 cups fresh or frozen blackberries 
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 cup butter, melted

1. Stir together the blackberries and sugar in a bowl. Let it stand for about 20 minutes or until a fruit syrup forms. Heat the oven to 375 degrees F. 
2. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, salt, and milk. Stir in melted butter until blended. Spread into an ungreased pan. Spoon the blackberry mixture over the batter. 
3. Bake 45 to 55 minutes or until the dough rises and is golden. 

All I was missing was some vanilla ice cream!

http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/blackberry-cobbler/97b86fd2-7588-497b-866d-8a1bd8b2e491

Poached Pear Pie/Tart (Piart? Taie?) 

Personally, I’d like to call it a poached pear pie because I’m a nerd and I get a kick out of alliterations. But technically it’s supposed to go into a tart…Anywho, last weekend my roommate came home with me for Easter. A few of my relatives were coming down for dinner and I asked my mom if we could make a dessert. Being the chocoholic that I am I would have preferred something really rich and, well, chocolate-y. Unfortunately, that kind of sweetness usually doesn’t bode so well at a Vietnamese gathering. So we decided something involving fruit would be a safe bet. I’d never made a peach pie before so I wanted to try that. I asked my mom if she could pick up a few when she went to the supermarket, but she told me that peaches weren’t in season and that it was doubtful that she’d be able to find any. Drat. 

Cue the serendipitous moment in this story! My aunt and uncle from out of town arrived and brought with them poached and sliced pear ready for baking!! How convenient did that work out? My cousin and I had made pear tart the year before for Thanksgiving, so I had some idea of how to make it. However, my aunt didn’t have the recipe on her so I went online to try to find something as similar as possible. I finally settled on one that looked good and had some positive reviews. Since we didn’t have a tart pan, and the process for a tart shell looked a little too complicated for the time that we had to make it, I decided to just make a basic pie crust from my mom’s Betty Crocker cookbook. 

The recipe calls for almond paste, which my mom thought we had. Here comes the twist: it was nowhere to be found. So I got back on the computer, found an easy enough recipe for homemade almond paste, and got to it. I blanched some almonds I found in the cupboard and roped my roommate into helping me peel the skins off. For some reason, she and I found it oddly fun peeling them off. We’re a weird bunch. But I’m glad that she was there to help me and that we only needed to do about a cup’s worth of almonds or else I would’ve just said, “Screw it. No dessert.” We ground the almonds in the food processor. We stopped when the food processor began to smoke. Not sure why that happened, but I just unplugged it and put it away, hoping that nothing serious was about to happen. 

And then the house burned down… No, just kidding. But how crazy would the story have been if it had?! 

Anyway, after we finally got all the main components done, I assembled the pie/tart. Not wanting to waste the excess crust, I pulled it up and folded it over the pear. I brushed it with milk and sprinkled it with sugar and stuck it in the oven. 

The pie/tart was a hit with the grownups. (Is it weird that I don’t consider myself a grownup? Hmmm.) I think there was a little too much of the almond paste mixture under the pear, so that flavor sort of overwhelmed the pear. But all in all, it was a successful dish, especially considering that all the main components were improvised in some way! 

Standard Pastry for an 8- or 9-inch one-crust pie:

• 1/3 cup plus one tablespoon shortening or 1/3 cup lard (I just use margarine)
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 to 3 tablespoons cold water

1. Cut the margarine into the flour and salt with a fork until particles are the size of small peas. Sprinkle in water, 1 tablespoon at a time, tossing with fork until all flour is moistened and pastry almost cleans the side of the bowl. (1 to 2 tablespoons of water can be added if necessary.)
2. Gather the pastry into a ball; shape into a flattened round on a lightly-floured board. 
3. Roll the pastry about 2 inches larger than an inverted pie plate with a rolling pin. (It should be about 1/8 of an inch thick)
4. Fold pastry in half. Ease it into the pie plate and unfold. Press the dough firmly against the bottom and sides of the plate. 

Homemade almond paste (I halved the recipe, so here’s what I used): 

• 3/4 cup whole blanched almonds*
• 3/4 sifted powdered sugar
• 1/2 egg white
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract (I just used vanilla)
• pinch of salt

*You MUST blanch the almonds! Put the almonds in some boiling water and let them boil for about 2 to 3 minutes. Strain the boiling water and then put the almonds in a bowl of cold water. In a couple of minutes, you should be able to peel the skins off the almonds. Let the blanched almonds dry a little before making the almond paste. 

1. Grind the whole blanched almonds in a food processor. Add powdered sugar, egg white, extract, and salt. Work to a stiff paste. If you like, you can store it in the refrigerator or freezer tightly wrapped in saran wrap or a disposable plastic bag. 

http://www.mysisterskitchenonline.com/2008/12/10/you-mean-i-can-make-my-own-almond-paste/

Pear-Almond Tart

• 6 ounces almond paste (the recipe above should give you about 6 oz.)
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons flour
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1 large egg, plus one egg white, at room temperature
• a few drops of almond extract (optional)
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons rum, Calvados, or kirsch (We didn’t have any of this, so my mom gave me some whiskey. o_O)
• 3 poached pears, cored, drained, and sliced

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. 
2. Beat the almond paste with sugar and flour until smooth. Gradually beat in the butter until smooth, then beat in the egg and the egg white, extract, and liquor. 
3. Spread the almond filling evenly over the tart/pie shell. Fan the pears out evenly over the almond filling, then press them in slightly. (We like to keep the stems and stick them in the middle for decoration.)
4. Bake for about 40 to 45 minutes, or until the almond filling between the pears has browned. Cool slightly before serving.

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2009/11/pear-and-almond-tart-recipe/

Unfortunately, I don’t have my cousin/aunt’s recipe for poached pear. From what I remember, it involves grape juice or red wine. And just be patient with it and don’t be afraid of reducing! I’m sure you can find out how to do it easily. Here’s one that I found that looks pretty simple:

http://wine.about.com/od/howwineismade/r/poachedpears.htm

Do you have any poached pear recipes? Heck, ANY recipes that you’d be willing to share so that I could try? If so, please send them my way! Until then, happy baking!!

Single-Serving Chocolate Chip Cookie

I think I mentioned before that I’m really into single-serving baking now. Something that stinks about baking whole batches of cookies is that you can’t finish them all by yourself when they’re the yummiest: freshly baked from the oven. (Okay fine, I’m sure some people could finish whole batches of cookies in one sitting. But come on, that would be like if you just ate 2 sticks of butter and 2 cups of flour in one sitting. Your stomach would NOT appreciate that.) 

I figured there had to be a recipe out there for single-serving, or at least, a small personal batch, of chocolate chip cookies. After doing some searching on the interwebs, I finally found one that looked promising. And bonus!! the recipe doesn’t call for any eggs. (I really don’t have a problem with eggs, I just don’t want to buy a whole dozen for myself knowing that I wouldn’t be able to finish them by myself very quickly. Plus a regular batch of cookies calls for one egg; if I wanted to halve a recipe, I’d have to split an egg. Have you ever tried splitting both an egg yolk and egg white in half? Yeah. Not fun or easy.)

I loved that this recipe was so simple and easy to do. It does come out to be a fairly large cookie, but you can always split it into 3 or 4 smaller ones if you like. I also decided to just bake it in the toaster as opposed to having to turn on the big one for just one cookie. It came out very tasty, albeit a little dense, and definitely satisfied my appetite. 

• 5 tablespoons flour
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon butter
• pinch of salt
• pinch of baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 to 2 tablespoons chocolate chips (I also added my beloved peanut butter chips)

1. The instructions say to just mix everything together at once in a bowl. I found it easier to mix the butter, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, and water first. Then add the flour, salt, and baking powder. Finally stir in the chocolate chips.
2. Bake as either one large cookie or separate into a few smaller ones. Be sure to pat the dough down so that it will bake evenly. 
3. Bake at 350 degrees F for 12 to 13 minutes. 

http://www.instructables.com/id/Chocolate-Chip-CookieThe-Single-Cookie/