easy summer dessert: key lime pie

I first tasted key lime pie when I was a kid. We came to Florida for winter break, and drove down to the Keys from Ft. Lauderdale. My mother convinced me to taste key lime pie, no small feat, I’m sure, and it was love at first taste. For the rest of the trip, we tried key lime pie at almost every place we ate–we were trying to find the best one in the Keys.

Years later, when I was living in Dallas, I discovered this recipe. I printed it out from the Food & Wine website, and its been in my recipe binder since. This was about 10 years ago. I’ve tried it with bottled key lime juice and with fresh. Take my advice, it is just as good with bottled, and you’ll save yourself a lot of pain and suffereing of juicing the teeny-tiny key limes. Unless you have a tree, or your friend with a tree gives you some, don’t be seduced by the cute little limes in the market. They’re nothing but trouble. I use Nellie and Joe’s key lime juice, and I’ve never had trouble finding it in the market.

The recipe includes directions to make your own crust. Do it at least once. It is ridiculously easy. And it is so much better tasting than a pre-made crust. In a pinch, I’ve used the pre made crust, but I’ve always regretted it. You don’t have to grind your own crumbs, but I ran out of pre-ground crumbs….I was lucky that I had a box of graham crackers. Use one bowl for the crust and while it bakes use the same bowl to make the filling. One bowl, one whisk, one spatula and one fork. Could it be any easier?

Key Lime Pie
I’ve not changed a thing about this recipe. It is perfect.

1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs (about 7 oz)
1 stick unsalted butter, melted
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
3 large egg yolks
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar (I almost always forget to put this in)
2 14-oz cans sweetend condensed milk
2/3 cup Key lime juice

1. Preheat the oven to 350. In a bowl, stir together the crumbs, melted butter and cinnamon. Evenly press mixture into a 9 inch pie plate. Place the pie plate on a cookie sheet and bake for about 12 minutes, until firm. Remove the crust from the oven and reduce the temperature to 325. Leave the plate on the cookie sheet.
2. While the crust cools slightly, mix the filling in the same bowl. Whisk the egg yolks and cream of tartar until frothy. Stir in the condensed milk, and then whisk in the juice until fully encorporated.
3. Pour the filling into the crust and bake for about 15 minutes, or until set.
4. Cool on a rack and refrigerate once cooled.

Tuesdays with dorie: Sticky Buns, redux (on a sunday)

Today we had some friends over for brunch. I hadn’t seen Laura and James in about 18 years. They met at sleepaway camp the summer we all worked there together, and she moved to London to be with him. They were in town for a family B’nai Mitzvah, and managed to carve out time to see us. They brought their three boys, Charlie, Harry and Ben. We had bagels, lox, and all the trimmings. And I took the opportunity to make the remaining ‘log’ of sticky buns that was sitting in my freezer, taunting me.

So, before I went to bed last night I mixed up some butter and light brown sugar. Some of my fellow TWD-ers said that the butter and sugar separated during baking and ended up with a puddle of butter when they turned it out onto a dish. They all reccomended mixing them together and then spreading it into the bottom of the baking tin. I followed their reccomendation, though I went lighter on the butter, the recipe called for one stick per pan, and I went with about half of that, but with all the sugar, 1/2 cup:

I spread that mixture in the bottom of a round cake pan and then sliced up my log of brioche dough/cinnamon/sugar/nuts:

and I sprinkled some chopped pecans on the butter/sugar mixture, and then I put in the pinwheels of yummy-ness

I covered it all up with some saran wrap and put it in the fridge to defrost and rise overnight. When I woke up this morning it looked the same as when it went in last night. I had about 4 hours to get it to rise and bake before my guests arrived. So, I put it into my proofing box. AKA my microwave with the door ajar.

I was worried that even in a warmish house (78 degrees) that it woudn’t be warm enough to get the yeast activated and rising in such a short time after a week+ in the freezer and an overnight in the fridge. David thought I was crazy. But it worked like a charm. At about 10:45 I took this out of the microwave

I put it on a foil lined baking sheet and into the oven it went. and about 45 minutes later I took it out. Laura and James cheered me on as I flipped it over to find this:

I had to scrape out some of the caramel and nuts that stayed behind, but there was no pool of unencorporated butter.

After our bagels, we all tasted the sticky buns. I shared one with David, Laura ate one, James and Ben shared theirs. Ben could not get enough. Ben is only 2. I’m sorry I didn’t get a shot of him eating this, I really think he enjoyed it more than any of us. He actually came back to the table and had another.

Personally, I think I’m more interested in cinnamon buns that have a confectioners sugar glaze on the top, this was too sweet for me. But they were delicious, there is no denying that. Would I make it again? Probably not, we’re not pecan sticky bun type people. If I did make them again, I would definitly skip the ‘lamination’ step in the recipe. I think they’d be just as good without it, and slightly (ever so slightly) lower in fat and calories. I don’t think anyone would miss the extra butter. Making them in the tin all together like this made them better than the individual one that I made earlier in the week.

Tuesdays With Dorie: Sticky Buns (and Brioche)

I didn’t take very many pictures for this week’s recipe. In fact, I only took one….for the finished product. Our assignment this time was to make Pecan Sticky Buns (recipe on page 190.) But first, we had to make Brioche (recipe on page 43)

The brioche wasn’t difficult, but it was time consuming. First we had to make a sponge, and that had to sit for 40 minutes, then the dough, and that had to rise for 2 hours, and then overnight in the fridge. But the thing about this dough that I really didn’t like was the fact that the recipe called for  1 1/2 sticks of butter to be added to the dough. It only had 3 1/2 cups of flour, so we’re not talking about a huge amount of dough here….so it was intended to be VERY buttery. I cut it down to just one stick, I just didn’t have the heart (pun intended) to encorporate that much butter into the dough. As it was, I had to add much more flour into it because the butter was making it so sticky. Only once the dough was finished having its overnight rest in the fridge was it ready to be formed into the sticky buns.

And we had to add yet more butter to the dough. The recipe instructs us to roll and fold the dough as for puff pastry twice, so that we get layers of butter in the dough, thereby making these the “ne plus ultra of sticky bundom.” I had already decided to cut the recipe in half, and turn the balance into just plain brioche. So I divided my dough in half and only used about 2 tablespoons of butter (the recipe calls for 3/4 of a stick per 1/2 of the dough) to ‘laminate’ the dough. And then it rested in the fridge for a while. When I was good and ready, I rolled it out, and brushed on an egg wash, spread some cinnamon/sugar and nuts over it, and rolled it up. Into the freezer it went.

And it stayed in the freezer until this afternoon. I trimmed off the ends and baked them up with some (more) butter and brown sugar in two individual muffin cups. They came out looking beautiful.

But they were so sweet, they made my teeth hurt. I’m looking forward to reading how other people dealt with the recipe and perhaps find some modifications for when I bake off the rest of them this weekend for brunch

But, here’s the thing. I baked Challah last week using the recipe on page 93. The recipe is suprisingly similar to the brioche. It has more milk, less butter, and makes more dough. I can’t tell you how much more I liked it than the brioche. The dough is so easy to work with, and made a beautiful challah. I brought it to a potluck dinner and the best compliment I heard was “it looks like it came from a deli, but I bet you made it”

So, I’m not planning on making this brioche again, and sticky buns don’t exactly fit into my life very often, but the challah recipe is definitely a keeper. Lynn and Nicole are the hosts for this week. They’ll have the recipe on their blogs, in case you have any desire to try it after my glowing review. As always, there will be a LYL (leave your link) post on the Tuesdays With Dorie website. I know I’ll be curious to see how everyone else liked this recipe.

borekas–putting it all together

Once your filling is made, clear off your work surface and your schedule. Its time to fill the borekas. I like to do this in the evening, or when the kids are at school so I have uninterrupted time….you know what I mean.

Here’s a video that shows how I seal them. The method I use is the first one she shows:

it takes practice, and the first ones you make probably won’t be beautiful. I seal mine with my right hand, and the boreka is in the left hand. find a way that works for you. you can do it. I promise!

Dough

3/4 cup oil
1 1/4 cup water
1/2 tsp salt
5 cups flour

put the oil, water and salt into a pot and bring to a boil. Allow to cool slightly

When tepid, add to flour and blend throughly. This will not be a beautiful bread dough.

Break off portions about the size of a walnut (golf ball) and roll on lightly floured board into rounds 3-4 inches in diameter and approximately 1/8 inch thick. The dough is easiest to work with when still warm. So, work quickly.

fill with 1 tablespoon of filling and follow directions from the video to close. Make sure it is completely sealed  so the filling will not run out while baking

place on a parchment lined (or greased) cookie sheet, and bake at 375 for about 45 minutes or until a light golden brown. Once cool, they can be frozen.

makes approximately 45 borekas. I sometimes have leftover filling, and I make 1/2 of the dough recipe to finish it off.

Borekas, a photo essay. Part one

This is something we grew up eating….my Nona made them and would bring them to us, usually in large ‘recycled’ plastic bags. When I went to college, she would pack them into boxes and send them, but only when it was winter. She didn’t want to send them in the warmer weather. When I moved to Dallas, I would bring them back with me when I came home for a visit. Now that I live in Florida, its too hot to ship them, and, lets face it, I’m too old to be receiving care packages from Nona, and she has macular degeneration which has rendered her unable to do things like this. Dorothy LOVES them, and its one of the only things that I can send with her to lunch and she will eat, so I started making them myself. And you can too.

Baking for the teachers: Triple Chocolate Espresso Brownies

Sometime last week I volunteered to make dessert for the faculty and staff at Dorothy’s school. It is teacher appreciation week and someone is bringing in lunch, and I thought, “Dessert! They must have dessert!” And then I asked how many people I’ve been baking for. 55. Fifty five people. Gulp.

I spent one evening brainstorming. And then I started baking–or rather, mixing.) I have already made several slice and bake cookies. Lemon Poppyseed Cookies, World Peace Cookies, and Margarita Cookies (yes, they taste like a margarita. I swear.) Those are all in the freezer waiting to be sliced and baked on Monday. I have also built a small stash of eggwhites in the freezer, so I’ll be making merengues, and today I’m baking brownies. And they’ll live quite happily in the fridge until tuesday.

When I was home for Passover, I stole my mother’s copy of Baking Illustrated. Its an encyclopedia of baking, by the Cooks Illustrated people, so you know you can trust the recipes.

This brownie recipe is super easy. You melt some chocolate and butter over a double boiler. Whisk up some eggs, sugar and vanilla. Add the chocolate. Then stir in the flour. That’s it. Two bowls.

Chewy, Fudgy Triple-Chocolate Brownies (with espresso)
From Baking Illustrated. Makes 64 1-inch brownies

5 oz bitersweet chocolate, chopped
2 oz unsweetend chocolate, chopped
8 oz unsalted butter, cut into pieces
3 Tablespoons cocoa powder
1 1/2 Tablespoons instant espresso powder (optional)
3 eggs
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup all purpose flour

Preheat the oven to 350. Line an 8 inch baking pan with aluminum foil. spray with cooking spray

Place the chopped chocolates and butter into a glass bowl and set that over a pot of simmering water. Stir occassionally. when melted, whisk in the cocoa and espresso, if using. Let cool.

Whisk together the eggs, sugar, vanilla and salt, and then whisk in the chocolate

Stir in the flour with a wooden spoon until just combined. Pour into prepared baking dish

Bake for 35-40 minutes, until puffed slightly and a toothpick comes out with some crumbs on it. Cool on a wire rack (still in pan). Cut into 1-inch squares.

Can be wrapped in plastic and refrigerated up to 5 days. Do not cut brownies until ready to serve

Tuesdays With Dorie: Hungarian Shortbread

My first reaction to reading the recipe for this week was “Holy #$%^, that’s a lot of butter.” The recipe called for 1 lb of the stuff. I decided to only make 3/4 of the recipe since the proportions worked well when divided. And who needs all those cookies lying around? This was an EASY recipe. And easily adapted, I think. I think some lemon zest in the cookie dough would add some needed tartness, and the jam in the center can be changed according to your whim. I wasn’t in the mood to search for rhubarb to make the jam called for in the recipe, or to make something special for this, so I went into my pantry and found a jar of blackberry/raspberry preserves that I recieved in a jam exchange. Yes, I participated in a jam exchange last year.
I followed the suggestions of those who made the recipe before me and par-baked the bottom crust for 15 minutes. When I pulled it out of the oven butter had pooled in the nooks and crannies of the dough. I made a conscious decision to not think about that. I slathered on the jam, added the rest of the dough and put it back in the oven….conciously trying not to think about all the butter that was in there.

In the end, I cut the cookies up and put them into a tin and sent them to school with my daughter. They went into the faculty lounge, and I heard from several teachers that they were delicious. I loved the way the crust was crackly and covered in confectioners sugar….it reminded me of an Entenmann’s crumb cake! I haven’t had a bite of one of those in years. And that’s okay!

The book suggests cutting the cookies into 3 inch square cookies, or 1 1/2 by 3 inch rectangles. I couldn’t do that. I cut mine about 1 1/2 inches square. nobody needs to eat that much butter. I only kept two of these pictured cookies. One for me and one for David. I cut mine in half and ate it slowly, as the day progressed.

It was delicious. Sweet, but not overly so. The jam provided a nice fruity taste against all that butter. All. That. Butter.

The recipe for Hungarian Shortbread can be found on page 327 of the book. Our hosts for this week are Lynette of 1 Small Kitchen and Cher of The Not So Exciting Adventures of a Dabbler. You can find the recipe on their blogs. You can also visit Tuesdays With Dorie for the LYL (leave your link) post to see how the other bakers’ shortbreads came out. I’m sure there will be many delicious offerings!

What’s for dinner? Breakfast!

It was a waffle kind-of night here. Yesterday he asked me to make waffles for dinner. He’s carbo-loading for a triathalon on Sunday, so today I picked up some buttermilk and put it together for dinner tonight.

I’ve been making waffles from the buttermilk pancake recipe in The Joy of Cooking for years. I think the buttermilk helps make them lighter, and I like the tang that the buttermilk brings to the party. When the boys started eating, and we moved into our current home (it has an enormous fridge/freezer) I got tired of doubling the recipe and then having an odd amount of buttermilk leftover. I’d freeze it, but that got tiring, and I wasn’t a huge fan of making waffles almost every weekend. So, I gave in and scaled the recipe to use the entire quart of buttermilk. I use Friendship. And, as always, I replaced about 1/2 of the flour with white whole wheat flour.

It sounds totally crazy to make that much waffle/pancake batter. But I have enough freezer space so that its not an issue in terms of saving them, and the kids love to have waffles for breakfast. I end up with about 22 waffles if I make the quart of buttermilk.

I’m sure they’d be delicious with bananas or blueberries mixed in. I dare not try that with my children. they surely won’t eat something that good.

Basic Pancakes/Waffles
measurments for making the recipe with the whole quart are in parenthesis

1 1/2 cups (5 1/4 cups) flour     you can replace up to 1/2 with whole wheat flour)
3 Tablespoons (3/4 cup) sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons (1 Ttablespoon + 2 1/4 teaspoon) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon (2 1/2 teaspoons) baking soda      omit if using regular milk
3T (one stick) salted butter, melted and cooled
1 1/2 cups (one quart) buttermilk
2 (7) large eggs
vanilla extract

In a large bowl (especially if you are making the larger version) mix the dry ingredients. Make a well in the center, and add the eggs, buttermilk, butter and vanilla.

Mix well, but do not overmix.

I like to let my pancake batter sit for a few minutes before cooking

cook according to the directions for your waffle maker, or make pancakes.

better late than never: Kosher for Passover Brownies

It never ceases to amaze me that my friends love this recipe enough that they want me to make it even when its not Passover. I always think of Passover foods as reasonable facsimiles of the foods they are copying. But everyone, and I mean EVERYONE who tastes these brownies loves them. This year I made a batch and brought them to my cousin’s house in NJ for the 1st seder, and then made another for the 2nd seder. They always get gobbled up. They’re rich, fudgy and chocolatey–exactly what you want out of a (passover) brownie, I guess!

So, even though Passover ended a few weeks ago, I made them for this weekend. A friend opened up her house for a craft night, and we crafted, ate and talked….all night long.

Kosher For Passover Brownies
Good for Passover…..and all year round.

1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup ( 2 sticks) unsalted butter or unsalted Passover margarine, melted and cooled
3 eggs
1 tablespoon brewed coffee
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
1/4 teaspoon salt (Omit if using salted butter)
1 scant cup matzoh cake meal
1/2 cup finely chopped toasted walnuts (optional)
approx 3/4 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Line an 8 inch square baking pan with aluminum foil, you could butter the foil….but I always forget.

I’ve gotten this down to a one bowl recipe: melt the butter in the microwave in the bowl you indend to use, let it cool slightly

Add the sugars, coffee, cocoa, eggs and cake meal. Stir until combined, then add the chocolate chips and/or the walnuts.

Pour into the baking pan, smooth out the top and bake for about 25-30 minutes. Don’t overbake!

What’s for dinner? Vegetable stif-fry with tofu and peanuts

I don’t recall where I found this recipe, but its a definite keeper. Its got a ton of vegetables, tofu for protein, a little bit of spice and a lot of yumminess.

Its super easy. The hardest part is chopping the vegetables. And lets face it….that’s not such a difficult job.
Matchsticks of peppers, carrots and mushrooms

a little hit of lime in the sauce, which I also toss with the tofu to get a little flavor in there….if you know what I mean.

I’m looking forward to leftovers for lunch tomorrow!

Vegetable stir-fry with tofu and peanuts
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 T lime juice
1/2 t sriracha
1 T canola oil
2 carrots, cut into very thin strips
1 red bell pepper, cut into very thin strips
8 oz shiitake mushrooms, stems removed and caps thinly sliced
2 cups bean sprouts
firm tofu, cubed
2 scallions, thinly sliced
1/4 cup chopped peanuts
rice, for serving (or linguine, or rice noodles)

Mix the soy sauce, lime juice and sriracha in a small bowl. toss a small amount into the cubed tofu and let sit.

heat the oil in a large frying pan. Saute the carrots and bell peppers until tender, then add the mushrooms, then the tofu and bean sprouts.

Add the rest of the sauce and serve over rice. sprinkle some chopped peanuts and sliced scallions over as garnish.