Lemon Meringue Pie

This pie was not easy to make, and once I finished it I said that I probably wouldn't be making it again...

Then I had a bite.

But really how annoying is it to make a three component, gazillion-step recipe, with instructions to "Serve that day" (after cooling to room temperature). I did it though, and my friends and I were verrrrrrrry happy to dive into it the night I made it and find the lemon filling just the slightest bit warm, indicating how fresh it was. I had literally started making the thing early in the morning and my friends came over at like 8pm! And really, the pie the next day, having been refrigerated overnight, was great too, but it did bead up on top of the meringue. However, the filling and meringue did not separate or get oozy, and the flavor didn't dull, so I might make this one day ahead of time if I needed to. Well... at least I might do the crust ahead because that took hours of chilling in between steps, but I'd do the filling and meringue the same day - these components cannot be made separately ahead of time.

The recipe is from the ol' tried and true American Classics cookbook from Cooks Illustrated (and America's Test Kitchen). It's in fact the dish pictured on the cover, so I see it allllllllllll the time and was finally compelled to make it.

The recipe seriously is long and tedious (and I'd have to re-type it since it's not online), so I won't post it unless there is a request for it. I'm happy to do it though if anyone wants it, so just ask!

An interesting part of this pie is the crust, which is rolled out with graham cracker crumbs rather than extra flour. This makes the crust a little... heartier I guess is the right word. It does not get soggy next to custard fillings.

For this kind of pie, and many others, you have to bake the pie crust before putting in the filling. Pie crust is tricky, I don't care what anyone tells you. You make the dough, chill it, think it's lookin' good. You roll it out, still doing OK. Get it in the dish, crimp the edges with a fork or somehow manage to make the edges look decent - homemade looking, but decent. You're feeling good. You might even chill it for a while at this point, but then you throw it in the oven and it SHRINKS majorly and it BUBBLES up in the middle like a sopapilla. It can ruin your day.

I liked this pie crust recipe (which can be rolled graham cracker crumbs or flour depending on the type of filling), even though I had previously sworn by Martha's pate brise (an all butter dough). This one has butter and shortening. You can see from the before baking and after pics that it only shrank a little, and did not bubble up. Oh happy day!

Two main steps made this possible: 1: proper chillage (once it's in the pie dish, refrigerate 40 minutes and then freeze 20 minutes just before baking), and 2: pie weights (I have ceramic ones, but the link I made to heavier, metal ones on a chain is the kind I want for Christmas, hint hint anyone!). Some cookbooks will tell you that dry beans work just as well as actual "pie weights" but they do NOT. They are not heavy enough. You line the crust with foil to prevent too much browning, and press in the pie weights in, then bake. After 25-30 minutes you remove the foil and weights and allow it to continue cooking to brown for 5 or so more minutes.

Here's the pie as it went into the oven. A tip for any meringue pie recipe is to make sure that the meringue touches the edges of the crust all the way around the entire pie. This will make it stick and prevent the meringue from pulling into the middle.

It's so hard not to dive in as soon as it comes out of the oven!

So much baking, unlike cooking, is nerve-wracking because you discover if you've succeeded or failed at the same time as your guests do. But whatever the outcome, at least you've tried, right?! And always try to follow Julia Child's advice to NEVER APOLOGIZE; NEVER EXPLAIN. Everything turned out precisely how you intended it. (Or at least that's what they'll think!)

Another Chicken Dinner

Note: I don't know what is going on with some of the fonts and font sizes in this post - I can't fix them!

A lovely dinner for 4 or fewer: Lemon Chicken with Croutons, Spinach in Puff Pastry, and Plum Cake Tatin. All three recipes are from Ina Garten's book Barefoot in Paris. I can pick up any of her books and make a million combinations for an awesome meal.

This is a very complete meal, with the bread in the chicken dish and the vegetable as either the first course or the side dish. You can add any extra vegetables or potatoes in with the chicken to roast; I added quartered button mushrooms. If I'd had carrots I definitely would have tossed them in too.
Next time I make this - and I most definitely will - I'll not put all the croutons on the platter under the chicken with all the juices like the recipe instructs. I'll put some around the chicken, whole or cut into pieces, on the platter, and try not to let them get completely soaked because they end up very quickly (big surprise:) just soggy. The best part of having croutons is the crunch! I might make a gravy out of the juices too, or reduce it a little, or add a squeeze of fresh lemon to the juices right before pouring them over the chicken next time. But without taking those extra steps it was still really great! Lemon zest over top on the plate was a perfect final touch for me because I love lots of lemon flavor with chicken.
A perfect bite! Chicken, mushroom, caramelized onion, crouton, with pepper and lemon zest:
Lemon Chicken with Croutons
Ina Garten, Barefoot in Paris

• 1 (4 to 5-pound) roasting chicken
• 1 large yellow onion, sliced
• Good olive oil
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 2 lemons, quartered
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 6 cups (3/4-inch) bread cubes (1 baguette or round boule)
• Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Take the giblets out of the chicken and wash it inside and out. Remove any excess fat and leftover pinfeathers. Toss the onion with a little olive oil in a small roasting pan. Place the chicken on top and sprinkle the inside of the cavity with salt and pepper. Place the lemons inside the chicken. Pat the outside of the chicken dry with paper towels, brush it with the melted butter, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Tie the legs together with kitchen string and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken.

Roast for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours, or until the juices run clear when you cut between the leg and the thigh. Cover with foil and allow to sit at room temperature for 15 minutes. (The onions may burn, but the flavor is good.)

Meanwhile, heat a large saute pan with 2 tablespoons of olive oil until very hot. Lower the heat to medium-low and saute the bread cubes, tossing frequently, until nicely browned, 8 to 10 minutes. Add more olive oil, as needed, and sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Place the croutons on a serving platter. Slice the chicken and place it, plus all the pan juices, over the croutons. Sprinkle with salt and serve warm.

I made a lot of tiny changes to this spinach in puff pastry recipe, so I'll note them within the recipe below.

Spinach in Puff Pastry
Ina Garten, Barefoot in Paris

• 4 T. (half a stick) unsalted butter
  
• 2 cups chopped onions (about 2 onions)
• 1 T. chopped garlic (3 cloves)
• 2 - 10 ounce - boxes frozen chopped spinach, defrosted
  
• 1/3 cup chopped scallions (2 scallions)
• 1 cup grated Gruyere cheese (I used small cubes of Swiss - flavor is perfect and it's cheaper!)
• 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese
• 4 extra-large eggs, beaten (I only had 2 large eggs to use, and it turned out just fine. More eggs would have made the filling firmer, but I didn't mind because I was serving this on a plate with a fork anyway.)
  
• 1 T. dry bread crumbs, plain or seasoned
• 2 t. kosher salt (do use this full amount - it seemed like a lot to me so I didn't, but then it needed to be salted later)
  
• 3/4 t. pepper
• 1/2 t. ground nutmeg (I left this out)
  
• 1/4 cup toasted pignoli (pine) nuts (Left these out too)
• 2 sheets (one box) frozen puff pastry, defrosted overnight in the refrigerator (Without fail I forget to do this or don't plan ahead. Leave the frozen puff pastry on the counter near a hot stove for a little while and it will be fine. Just make sure it doesn't get too warm or it will get sticky.)
  
• 1 extra-large egg beaten with 1 T. water, for egg wash (so I ran out of eggs, right? So I used melted butter in place of egg wash, no problemo.)
  

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Heat the butter in a saute pan and cook the onions over med-low heat for 5 to 7 minutes, until tender. Add garlic and cook for one more minute. Meanwhile, squeeze most of the water out of the spinach and place it in a bowl. Add the onions and garlic, scallions, both cheeses, eggs, bread crumbs, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and pignolis. Mix well.

Unfold one sheet of puff pastry and place it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Spread the spinach mixture in the middle of the pastry, leaving a one inch border. Brush the border with egg wash. Roll out the second piece of puff pastry on a floured board until it's an inch larger in each direction. Place the second sheet of pastry over the spinach and seal the edges, crimping them with a fork. Brush the top with egg wash but don't let it drip down the sides or the pastry won't rise. (At this point I used a sharp knife and trimmed all four sides.) Make three small slits in the pastry top, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and bake for 30-40 minutes, until the pastry is lightly browned. Transfer to a cutting board and serve hot.

And, dessert! Hot, sweet, fruity, cakey, delicious! There are some interesting steps to this dish, but it's fun to make and can be made mostly ahead of time and then baked while you're eating dinner. I thought it looked so cool too, like an upside down cake. The red color is from the plums alone, darkened from the caramel. Andrew, my 2 year old, called it "jelly cake" because it did look like red jelly.

The intimidating part of this recipe is the sugar syrup. You have to cook water and sugar in a saucepan over high heat until it turns "a warm amber color, about 360 degrees." I think that a digital thermometer is an ESSENTIAL piece of kitchen equipment, but if you don't have one, still do make this recipe!! Cook the syrup until it turns brown - take it a little farther than you're probably comfortable with, but keep a close eye on it the entire time it's on the heat because it will burn fast once it's beyond it's perfect stage. However the syrup looks, because you will be skeptical, just continue with the recipe and it will turn out just fine.

Plum Cake Tatin
Ina Garten, Barefoot in Paris

nocoupons

• 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for greasing the dish
• 10 to 12 purple "prune" plums, cut in half and pitted (I just chose the purple ones over the orange/purple ones; they weren't labeled "prune." It took 5 and a half of them.)
  
• 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar, divided
• 2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature (I used large because that's what I had.)
  
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• Confectioners' sugar (optional - I think unnecessary)
  

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Generously butter a 9-inch glass pie dish and arrange the plums in the dish, cut side down.

Combine 1 cup of the granulated sugar and 1/3 cup water in a small saucepan and cook over high heat until it turns a warm amber color, about 360 degrees F on a candy thermometer. Swirl the pan but don't stir. Pour evenly over the plums.

Meanwhile, cream the 6 tablespoons of butter and the remaining 3/4 cup of granulated sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, until light and fluffy. Lower the speed and beat in the eggs one at a time. Add the sour cream, zest, and vanilla and mix until combined. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt and, with the mixer on low speed, add it to the butter mixture. Mix only until combined.

Pour the cake batter evenly over the plums and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool for 15 minutes, then invert the cake onto a flat plate. If a plum sticks, ease it out and replace it in the design on top of the cake. Serve warm or at room temperature, dusted with confectioners' sugar.

Apple Butter Hand Pies

I would not put this recipe in the Easy category, but I still recommend you try it! This is like a pastry or turnover, a cookie-like crust with an apple butter filling. I made two batches of these, and the first was a little tricky, but I got a feeling for how the dough behaves so the second batch was much easier. Here's what I learned to share with you so it will be easier on your first go round! You really have to work quickly with this soft dough when rolling and filling it because it rapidly becomes too pliable when the fat warms up. For this reason, also be sure to turn off any above the counter lights because they may work against you. I had this problem the first time, so I just stopped mid-rolling and threw it in the fridge for a few more minutes. When I got it out again I was prepared to work much faster and without the bright lights. Also, I doubled the recipe but only used half the lemon zest called for, and still found the lemony scent and flavor to be almost too much, so in the recipe retyped here I took the liberty of halving the amount. For the first batch, which I made at my mom's house, I had a 4 1/2 inch round cookie cutter available but preferred to use one a bit smaller, and I used about the same smaller size for the second batch too (I used the rim of a large cup actually). Each batch made 22 hand pies. Last tip: do not worry if/when (really, when) the dough cracks and stretches open while folding them over; the filling will not run out, bubble over, crack much further, or burn. It will be completely fine.

Apple Butter Hand Pies
Recipe from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook
Makes 14
(recipe easily doubled)

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 large egg
3 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
2 tablespoons buttermilk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
Grated zest of 1/2 a lemon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups Apple Butter
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine butter and 1 cup sugar. Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add egg to the sugar-butter mixture, and beat until just blended.

Add cream cheese, buttermilk, and vanilla extract, and beat until well combined. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, lemon zest, and salt, and add to the cream-cheese mixture. Beat until completely blended. Transfer the dough to a piece of plastic wrap, and using your hands, press the dough into a 1-inch-thick patty, wrap well, and refrigerate for at least one hour. If preparing ahead of time, the dough can be stored at this point for up to one month in the freezer.

Divide the refrigerated dough in half. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out one half of the dough to 1/8-inch thickness. Using a 4 1/2-inch-round biscuit cutter, cut seven circles out of the rolled dough. Transfer the circles to a parchment-lined baking sheet, and place in the refrigerator to chill for about 30 minutes. Repeat the rolling, cutting, and chilling process with the remaining half of dough.

Remove the chilled dough from the refrigerator, and let stand at room temperature until just pliable, 2 to 3 minutes. Spoon about 2 tablespoons apple butter onto one half of each circle of dough. Using your fingers or the back of a spoon, spread out apple butter. Keep apple butter on half the circle, and spread until it is about 1/2 inch from the edge, making sure apple butter is not completely flattened. Quickly brush a little cold water around the circumference of the dough, and fold it in half so the other side comes down over the apple butter, creating a semicircle. Seal the hand pie, and make a decorative edge by pressing the edges of the dough together with the back of a fork. Repeat process with remaining dough. Place the hand pies on a parchment-lined baking sheet, and return to the refrigerator to chill for another 30 minutes.

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Combine the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar and the cinnamon in a small mixing bowl. Remove the chilled hand pies from the refrigerator, and lightly brush with cold water. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar generously over the pies, and place pies in the oven to bake. Bake until the hand pies are golden brown and just slightly cracked, about 20 minutes. Remove the pies from the oven, and let stand to cool slightly before serving. Serve warm or at room temperature.

I think the one on the upper right must have just fallen off the cooling rack.......

Plum Tart and Ina Garten

I halved Ina Garten's recipe for plum tart for dessert tonight, and it was really good, not too sweet. We had it with whipped cream and blackberries we picked last weekend.
Plum Tart (recipe halved; makes 4-5 servings)
Barefoot Contessa Parties! Cookbook

1 cup all-purpose flour
6 T. finely chopped walnuts
6 T. light brown sugar, lightly packed
6 T. cold unsalted butter, diced
1/2 egg yolk (messy but it can be done!)
1 pound firm, ripe plums, pitted and cut lengthwise into quarters or eighths

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Combine the flour, walnuts, and sugar in a large bowl. Add the butter and the egg yolk. Mix, either by hand or with an electric mixer, until crumbly.

Press two-thirds of the crumb mixture in an even layer into the bottom of a 8x8 dish or small tart pan. Arrange the plums in the pan, skin side down.

Sprinkle the rest of the crumb mixture evenly over the plums. Bake the tart for 30 to 40 minutes, or until it's lightly browned and the plum juices are bubbling. Remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

I absolutely LOVE Ina Garten. She is my favorite celebrity chef and I have all of her cookbooks and use them regularly, especially Barefoot Contessa Family Style. Her website is great if you have all the cookbooks because there is an index for ALL the recipes by category, plus menu ideas.

Ina's launching a book tour next month for Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics, and I fully indend on being at Sur La Table in Arlington on October 29th between 12 and 2pm!