Sour cream pie crust

The idea behind this recipe came from the fact that I needed to make pie crust for my apple-cheddar pie and I had leftover sour cream I needed to use.

After doing research on google, I found a recipe on Serena Bakes Simply from Scratch and decided to use her recipe as a base for mine. Check out her wonderful blog for the original recipe and other delicious treats!

Here's how I made mine.


INGREDIENTS (for a double crust):
- 2 1/2 cups of AP flour
- 1 stick of butter, very (very!) cold, diced
- 1/2 cup of sour cream, cold
- 1/4 cup of granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup ice-cold water
- a large pinch of salt


RECIPE:
- in a large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients, the butter and incorporate the butter quickly with your fingers or a pastry cutter until the flour looks like fresh bread crumbs and the butter is the size of a green pea

Note: you want to work really quickly here, with very cold butter. The butter should stay solid as much as possible so that those little nuggets can melt when the crust bakes. That will ensure a flaky crust!
- add the cold sour cream and mix with a spatula

- add ice-cold water by the spoonful (not all at once!) until the dough can hold when pressed together
Note: the dough should not be sticky here. You just want enough water so you can form a ball.

- shape the dough into two discs, wrap them in plastic and refrigerate at least one hour or until ready to use

Note: you can absolutely freeze the dough at this point
Note 2: if you will use this batch for a double-crusted pie, make one of the two discs slightly larger than the other one (the top disc should be a bit bigger)
- after the dough has rested, roll out on a floured surface and make your favorite pie!

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!!!

Zucchini, chevre and spicy cured sausage quiche

This recipe is a tweaked recreation of a quiche my sister made and told me about yesterday. It sounded so good that I just had to try and make it for myself.

She used real spanish chorizo, a spicy cured sausage, but unfortunately it is very difficult to procure this kind of chorizo where I live. Same thing goes for the goat cheese that she used: she used an aged french chevre, but that is not readily available here either... *insert sad face*

Oh, one more thing... You'll notice that in the ingredients picture, there is a roll of pie crust. Ahem... ok, well I failed Like A Boss at blind baking mine, so I adapted my regular quiche-to-be into a crust-less one. As annoyed as I was at the time, it also shows you how I actually proceed in the kitchen and how it is important to be able to adapt when things don't go as planned :)

Hope you'll like!



INGREDIENTS (for 4 people as a side dish, 2 people as a light dinner):
- 1 large zucchini, diced
- 1/2 onion, diced
- 1 small brie-like goat cheese, or any aged goat cheese you like (or can find), cubed
- about 1/2 cup hot dry sausage of your choice (spanish chorizo or sopressata would be best, but I used hot italian sausage that was available at my supermarket), diced
- 2 large eggs (i know only 1 is pictured, but I ended up adding another one, mid-recipe)
- 1 cup of light cream (only 1/2 cup is pictured, but I added another 1/2 cup mid-recipe)
- optionnal: 1 pie crust (i was planning on using it, but failed miserably... you'll get the details further down)
- salt, pepper to taste
- a sprinkle of smoked paprika (not pictured, but added mid-recipe)


RECIPE:
- preheat your oven at 350F
- crisp up the diced sausage in a dry pan on high heat, until it has rendered a little fat and is golden, reserve on the side

- saute the onion and zucchini in the drippings and a sprinkle of smoked paprika, cook for a few minutes on medium heat and let cool on the side

- in a bowl, mix the eggs and cream

- add the cheese, sausage cubes and zucchini, pour in a dish sprayed with cooking spray and sprinkle with a little smoked paprika

Note: this is where you would have used your pie crust, pre-cooked for 15 minutes at 350F, but as you can see in the picture below, my pie crust was a super-fail! so I improvised and did without!
oopsies!!
- bake in the oven at 350F for 35 minutes, or until firm

- let cool for 10 minutes before serving with a side salad (I used fresh spinach, lemon juice and olive oil)

- enjoy!