Pumpkin pie

Last weekend was Canadian Thanksgiving and I baked my first ever pumpkin pie for the occasion!

As a French national, pumpkin pie is a very foreign concept to me, so I had to research how to go about this. It turns out there are a gazillion recipes. Some use sweetened condensed milk, some use cream, the spice blend varies from baker to baker… I chose to use sweetened condensed milk because, well, I just LOVE the stuff! I also made it my own by adding some cloves, vanilla extract and allspice.

Here's how you can make it.



INGREDIENTS (one 9" pie)
- 1 can condensed sweetened milk
- 1 1/2 cups pumkpin puree
- 2 jumbo eggs
- 1 tsp ginger
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/8 tsp cloves
- 1/8 allspice
- 1/4 tsp salt
- a dash of vanilla extract
- 1 single pie crust (click here for recipe)



RECIPE:
- preheat your oven at 350F
- roll out the pie crust and place it in a pie dish, trim to size, line it with parchment paper, baking weights (I used rice that I keep and reuse especially for this) and blind bake crust for 30 min 350F

Note: keep the trimmings, they may come in handy to doctor the crust back into shape if the dough shrinks during blind baking!
- when the crust has baked for 30 minutes, let it cool at room temperature while you prepare the filling. - to make the filling, mix all the remaining ingredients in a bowl and whisk until smooth

- pour into pre-baked crust, lower the oven to 320F and bake another 60 min

Note: the pie is ready when a toothpick comes out of the filling dry
- serve at room temperature with freshly whipped cream and enjoy!

Apple cheddar pie

I went apple picking a couple of weeks ago. I bought cheddar at the farm store.

'Nuff said.



INGREDIENTS:
- a double pie crust (recipe coming soon)
- 3 lbs of apples
- 1 cup of brown sugar
- 2 tbsp of corn starch
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
- a pinch of ground cloves
- a pinch of salt
- 4 oz sharp cheddar
- not pictured: 1 egg, whisked with a tbsp of water
- optionnal: a pinch of granulated sugar


RECIPE:
- preheat your oven at 425F
- peel, core and slice the apples thinly (I used a mandolin for perfect uniform slices)

Note: if you want, you can sprinkle a little lemon juice on the apples here to keep them from browning too much
- add the sliced apples, sugar, starch and spices to a large bowl and mix until the apple slices are well coated with the spice mixture

- roll out the first crust, place in a buttered pie dish and grate the cheddar

- pour the apple filling into the dish, sprinkle a healthy dose of grated cheddar on top and cover with the second rolled crust

- trim the excess dough (leave about 1 inch of dough around the dish), press the top and bottom dough together so they seal, tuck the dough under and crimp away!

- with a sharp knife, make a few slits on top the the pie crust to allow steam to escape during baking, brush over with a little egg wash and sprinkle with granulated sugar

- bake at 425F for 25 minutes, then lower the heat to 350F and bake for an additional 30 minutes
- ta-da!!!

Ras el hanout - Moroccan spice blend

INGREDIENTS:
- 1 tbsp ground cumin
- 1 tbsp ground coriander
- 1 tbsp turmeric
- 1 tbsp paprika
- 1 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground cardamom
- 1 tsp ground allspice (I only had berries, so I ground them with a pestle and mortar)
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves

RECIPE:
- don't blink, you might miss it...
- ready?
- mix everything together!

Alsacian-like lemon and speculaas spices scented Christmas cookies

Christmas is by far my favorite holiday of the year. I just love everything that is remotely related to Christmas, the presents, mistletoe, holly, fragrant trees and decorations!

Inspired by an Austrian friend of mine, Bianca, I decided to bake Christmas cookies. Being french, I opted for an Alsacian recipe (lemon scented cookies); but because I have lived in the Netherlands for over five years now, I tweaked the recipe by adding Speculaas spices in the mix! Enjoy!

05 December 2009

Ingredients (makes about 15 cookies)

For the cookies:

• 250g flour
• 1/2 pack of baking powder
• 70g icing sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1/2 tsp of Speculaas spices
  
• zest of 1 lemon, finely ground
• 1 egg yolk (use the white for the icing, see below)
• 2 tbsp of creme fraiche (thick cream)
• 100g butter, cubed 

For the icing:

• 125 g icing sugar
• 1 egg white
• 2 tbsp lemon juice 

Pre-warm the oven at 180°C.

Mix the flour and baking powder in a bowl. Add the sugar, spices, vanilla extract, salt, lemon zest, egg yolk and creme fraiche. Stir thoroughly, and incorporate the butter. Knead well; you should have a nice smooth dough (albeit a little crumbly).

Roll the dough on a flat surface, to a thickness of ~1/2 cm. With cookie-cutters (I used heart-, star-, flower-, tree- and angel-shaped ones), cut out the dough in as many cookies as you can. If there is leftover dough, make a ball out of it, and roll it down again until all the dough hass been cut out.

Place the cut-out dough on a baking paper sheet, and bake for ~15 minutes. Once cooked, let the cookies cool down completely before icing them.

When the cookies are cool, mix all the ingredients of the icing, until you obtain a thick white smooth paste. Ice your cookies with a spoon, using the back of the spoon to smooth the icing. Apply as many coats of sugar icing as you please (I used three coats). Let the icing dry completely before manipulating the cookies.

Happy Christmas!!!