And, as always, enjoy! If you want more information about why the blog format has changed, and why we're now offering complete written recipes, please read all about that here.
And, as always, enjoy! If you want more information about why the blog format has changed, and why we're now offering complete written recipes, please read all about that here.
And, as always, enjoy! If you want more information about why the blog format has changed, and why we're now offering complete written recipes, please read all about that here.
And, as always, enjoy! If you want more information about why the blog format has changed, and why we're now offering complete written recipes, please read all about that here.
This traditional Italian Easter recipe might not be the kind of pizza you’re used to, or even close, but don’t let that stop you from enjoying what is one of the most amazing combinations of meat and cheese ever to grace a pastry. As long as you can find a pan that works, this is fairly easy to make, and you can... to read the rest of Chef John's article about this Pizza Rustica recipe,please follow this link to become a member.) Follow this link to get a complete, printable written recipe for Pizza Rustica!
And, as always, enjoy! If you want more information about why the blog format has changed, and why we're now offering complete written recipes, please read all about that here.
I love a nice slice of homemade apple pie as much as the next guy, but wanting to enjoy a slice of pie isn’t the same thing as wanting to enjoy three or four slices of pie, which is what generally ends up happening when I make one from scratch. This isn’t an issue for people surrounded by a large hungry family, but for the rest of us, these old-fashioned apple dumplings are a ... to read the rest of Chef John's article about Apple Dumplings,please follow this link to become a member.) Follow this link to get a complete, printable written recipe for Apple Dumplings!
And, as always, enjoy! If you want more information about why the blog format has changed, and why we're now offering complete written recipes, please read all about that here.
When people grow cherry tomatoes for the first time, they
often make the mistake of planting more than one or two bushes, which a few
short months later usually means a ridiculously large harvest, as in more
cherry tomatoes than you can possibly use. Well, this cherry tomato and cheese
galette might help, a little.
While “galette” sounds a little fancy, they’re actually one
of the easier type of pies to make, and above and beyond the simple technique,
they are incredibly adaptable to whatever is in season. Whether that’s sweet
fruit, or savory vegetables, there are very few things you can’t galette.
Just be sure to bake them long enough, since the bottom
needs to brown, as well as you want whatever filling you’re using to dry out a
bit. Your oven time will vary depending on the exact size and shape of your
galette, so once you take it out, peak underneath to make sure it’s browned. Basically,
you should bake this as long as you possibly can, without it burning, so be
brave.
This will also work with larger, sliced tomatoes, but just
be careful you let them drain on some towels first. Other than that, there’s
not much else to worry about, except what to do with those other 5 pints of
cherry tomatoes. Even if you have to go to the store to buy yours, I think this
is well worth the trip, and I really do hope you give this cherry tomato
galette a try soon. Enjoy!
Ingredients for one 12-inch pizza pan sized galette:
This spring vegetable tart only looks hard to make, and
would be a perfect centerpiece for any special occasion meal, just as long as
you put it out on the table a little bit early, since we’ll need to allow
enough time for all the Instagramming that follows. And please, no flash
photography.
As long as you use a wide array of colorful vegetables, and
tuck them into a gnarly base of greens, this easy cheese tart/salad can’t help
but look gorgeous. In fact, the hardest things will be deciding which
vegetables to use, and how to prepare them.
As I said in the video, you can go with anything from raw to
roasted, but my favorite way to prep the vegetables, is to simply blanch them
briefly in boiling, salted water. Just cook them for a few minutes to take off
the raw edge, and then plunge them into cold water, before draining, and
dressing.
Above and beyond the veggies, this cheese filling will work
with any soft cheese, but I think the tanginess of the goat cheese is an
important factor, so if you use something milder, you may want to sneak in some
lemon juice. Regardless, of what specific ingredients you use, I really hope
you give this gorgeous vegetable tart technique a try soon. Enjoy!
Ingredients for a 10-inch round Spring Vegetable Tart:
2 sheets frozen puff pastry (round or rectangular)
(This tart can be made with any type of shell, including
piecrust, phyllo, etc.)
1 large egg beaten with 1 teaspoon of water (for brushing,
and then for the filling)
For the filling:
1 1/4 cups goat cheese
salt, freshly ground black pepper, cayenne to taste
1/4 cup freshly chopped herbs, like dill, parsley, thyme,
tarragon, basil, chives, etc.
the rest of the egg wash
1/4 cup heavy cream
For the vegetables:
2 handfuls mixed colorful salad greens (including something
light and frizzy if possible)
2 to 3 cups of bite-sized fresh vegetables, briefly blanched
in salted water
1/2 cup thinly sliced raw radishes, and cherry tomatoes
For the dressing (this is what I used, but your favorite
salad dressing will work):
A few months ago I saw a pie image on Twitter so creepy, and
disturbing, that I actually questioned whether it was too terrifying to post as
a video. Usually, Halloween-themed recipes have the opposite problem, as they
are almost never actually scary, but that’s not an issue here. By the way, can
someone get sued for giving people nightmares?
Anyway, I eventually traced the image back to what I assumed
would be some sort of food blog, but it was actually someone’s Etsy shop, where
they were selling inedible versions of this basic design. So, I wasn’t able to
see how it was made, but did use their “face” as a rough guide, and despite being somewhat anatomically challenged, I thought this came out looking great.
And by great, I mean terrible.
If you’re disturbed enough to make this, you can use our tourtière recipe for the crust and filling, which is exactly what I did here, except for
whatever reason I added a touch of ketchup to the meat. Of course, this
technique would work for topping any pie, including all your favorite fruit
versions, and the next time cherries are in season, I may just have to give
this one more try. Or not. We’ll see. In the meantime, if at all possible, please
enjoy!
Many holiday main course recipes involve expensive
ingredients, and/or time consuming, complicated techniques, not to mention the anxiety
that comes along with worrying whether all that time and money will have been
worth it. I’m looking at you, dry, overcooked beef wellington.
If you want to avoid all that, maybe consider making tourtière.
This French-Canadian meat pie is hearty, satisfying, easy to make, visually
impressive, relatively affordable, and since it’s best served at room
temperature, doesn’t require any kind of precise timing.
You can also easily tailor this to your own tastes, since
other than the ground meat and mashed potato, pretty much anything goes. Or,
make it just like this. I’ve only had tourtière a handful of times, so I’m
certainly no expert, but I thought this came out extremely well, and I wouldn’t
change anything when I make it again.
Although, I may try it with some beef gravy, as a few of my
Canadian friends have suggested. Some even suggest ketchup, which I did try on
a cold slice, and not surprisingly it was delicious. But, no matter how you
serve this tourtière, I really do hope you give it a try soon. Enjoy!
Ingredients for one 9-inch Tourtière:
For the crust:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, sliced, frozen
7 tablespoons ice cold *water
2 teaspoons white distilled vinegar
*add a little more if dough isn’t pressing together
1 large russet potato, boiled in enough salted water to
cover (reserve water)
1 tablespoon butter
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 large onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup finely diced celery
1 pound ground pork
1 pound ground beef
1 cup potato water, plus more as needed
For the spice blend:
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried sage
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1⁄2 teaspoonground
ginger
1⁄4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground mustard
1/8 teaspoon ground clove
pinch cayenne
For the egg wash:
1 large egg
1 tablespoon water
Please note: Once your filling has cooled, taste for salt,
and adjust before filling the crust.
I can understand certain recipes being relatively unknown, but this buttermilk pie is not one of them. Not only is this easy to make, and
beautiful to look at, it’s also bursting with the kind of bright, tangy flavor that no
other custard-style pie can touch. Like I said in the video, this is sort of like
a vanilla custard, meets lemon meringue pie, meets very light cheesecake. Except
better.
I’ve never had much trouble finding buttermilk, even in regular,
non-fancy grocery stores, but depending on where you live in the world,
apparently that’s not the case. There are many “hacks” for making a substitute,
usually using milk and lemon juice, or vinegar, and I’ll let you Google those at
your leisure, but I’d be more inclined to try some yogurt, thinned out with
some milk.
I think that would be closer to the tanginess of buttermilk,
but as far as the recipe “working,” one cup of any type of dairy product should
yield similar results. Once your pie is made, it can be served “as is,” or
topped with seasonal fruit. I went with raspberries, mostly for the
pictures, but if you were going to do this for the holidays, some persimmons,
and/or pomegranate seeds would also be very nice. Regardless of how you serve it, I
really do hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!
Ingredients for one pie:
Enough pie dough for a 9-inch pie dish (I used half a recipe of our butter crust dough)
For the filling:
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temp
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
zest from one lemon
juice from one lemon juice
1 cup buttermilk
- Prebake crust at 350 F. for 15-20 minutes, let cool, then
fill and bake for another 45-55 minutes, or until the filling is golden and “set.”
There shouldn’t be a lot of stress involved in making this free-form
strawberry tart, since once it’s topped with fresh berries, and thickly glazed,
it will look like something from a Paris pastry shop. And, I did say, “look
like,” not “taste like,” but that’s not our fault. They have better cream
cheese.
If you have a tart pan, go ahead and use it, but going
free-form is always kind of fun, and even though we’re going to handle the
dough a bit more, that’s not a problem with our almost foolproof buttercrust
pastry. Just be sure to build up enough around the outside before you crimp, so
that your tart is deep enough to hold the filling.
I joked about this being so beautiful that nobody will care
what it tastes like, but of course, that’s ridiculous. Do not attempt this
unless you can find some perfectly ripe, sweet strawberries. And when you do, I
really hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!
Ingredients for 6 portions:
1/2 of our buttercrust pastry dough recipe
1 pound fresh strawberries
For the sweet cheese mixture:
8 ounces cream cheese or *fromage blanc
2 tablespoons crème fraiche
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 large egg yolk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest, or to taste
For the glaze:
1/4 cup apricot jam (the clearer, the better), plus 2 teaspoons
water, heated until brushable. Let cool a bit before applying.
*Note: my cream cheese was suspiciously thin, so your mixture
will probably be thicker, and a little easier to work with.
- Bake tart shell at 375 F. for 20-25 minutes, until
golden-brown, fill with cheese mixture, and finish baking for another 20
minutes, or until the pastry is browned, and the filling is set.
This Cornish pasty is one of those rare recipes that novice
cooks will find easier to make than experienced bakers. That’s
because to make this to its original, and very sturdy specifications, you’re
forced to over-mix the dough…a cardinal sin that literally gives pie makers
nightmares.
Like any pastry dough, we’re just adding just enough ice
water to bring everything together, but unlike classic pie dough, we’re going
to knead the mixture for a couple minutes past that point.Thanks to a little thing called muscle
memory, this is not going to be easy for some of you.
Get over it; because once you taste and feel the final
product, it will all make sense. The tougher, but not tough dough is the
perfect delivery system for the meaty filling. Speaking of which, I went with a
fairly traditional version, and provided the recipe below, but this great crust
will work with all sorts of stuffings.
You could use cooked meat in these, but part of what makes
them so good, is how the raw ingredients cook in their own juices, while
encased in the tasty dough. I can’t imagine many things that wouldn’t be great in these.
By the way, this recipe is dedicated to my mother-in-law
Peggy, who requested it about five years ago. It was one of her favorite foods
growing up, and I’m curious to hear how close I got. I hope you give this easy,
and delicious meat pie a try soon. Enjoy!
Ingredients for 4 Cornish pasty
4 cups bread flour (mine weighed in at 1-lb 2-oz)
2 oz (4 tbsp) cold butter
3 oz (6 tbsp) cold lard
1 1/2 tsp salt
about 2/3 to 3/4 cup ice water, or enough to just bring
dough together (start with about 1/2 cup, and then drizzle in more as needed)
For the steak filling:
12oz cubed beef skirt steak
1/2 cup diced onions
1 cup diced gold potatoes
1/3 cup diced turnip
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
pinch of cayenne
2 tbsp butter, cut into 8 thin slices
For the egg wash:
1 large egg, beaten with 1 tsp water
- Bake pasties at 350 F. for about an hour or until browned
and bubbly
I got a food wish for a ricotta cheesecake recently, which
sounded fantastic, but with bikini season rapidly approaching, my love handles
and I thought we’d compromise and do a savory, sugar-free version instead.
I love the simple combination of really good ricotta and
fresh herbs, baked with just enough eggs to hold things together. I was in the
mood for some heat, but things like pepper and cayenne are totally
optional.
As I alluded to in the video, I usually do this as a pie,
which comes out about twice as thick, but I wanted to try it in tart-form and
the pan I used was clearly too large. Next time I’ll simply double the
ingredients, and add about 10 or 15 minutes to the cooking time, and I
recommend you do the same.
Keep this humble pie in mind when the “way too many
vegetables” part of summer rolls around. This could be a great base for using
up leftover veggies in a very fritatta-like way. I hope you give it a try
soon. Enjoy!
Ingredients for 6 thin portions:
1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs, toasted in some olive oil
olive oil to coat pan
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
cayenne or other hot peppers to taste
1/4 cup fresh chopped or torn basil
1 tbsp chopped Italian parsley
tiny pinch nutmeg
1 1/2 cups ricotta cheese
1 oz finely greated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (about 1/2
cup if the real stuff, otherwise 1/4 cup packed of the fake “stuff”)
*Bake at 325 for about 20 to 25 minutes, or until set.
I realize it’s almost over, but I just heard from my friend,
and world-famous pie guru, Kate McDermott, that today was National Pie Day. To
celebrate, I decided to repost my personal favorite pie video – the strawberry rhubarb
custard pie! This sweet/tart pie
is ultra-simple to make, and a great way to enjoy rhubarb’s bright, unique
flavor. Click here to see the original post and ingredients. Enjoy!
Mother’s Day is coming up, and since so many of you brave
souls will be attempting a celebratory brunch, I thought I’d post this
much-requested lemon bars recipe, in case things don’t go as smoothly as anticipated.
Preparing brunch can be tricky anytime, let alone under mom’s watchful (aka
“extremely concerned”) eyes. Can someone please get her a mimosa and walk her
into the garden?
So, even if a few poached eggs break, or the toast gets a
little too golden-black, no worries! If you finish the meal with these
gorgeous, and absolutely impossible to mess-up lemon bars, she'll be as proud
as she will be impressed. Our moms may have taught us the importance of a good first
impression, but its America’s restaurateurs who discovered the importance of a
delicious last impression. There's nothing like a well made pastry tomake one forgive a tough steak.
Other than a baking dish, there’s no special equipment or
techniques required. Both the shortbread base and the lemon custard take only
minutes, and are simply hand-mixed in a bowl.
Basically, if you can move your arm
in a circle, and effectively set a timer (there’s one on your phone), your
lemon bars should look just as good as these (maybe better – see meringue note
below). Anyway, whether you’re going to make these for Mother’s Day or not, I
hope you give them a try soon. Enjoy!
Ingredients for 16 Small Lemon Bars:
For the shortbread crust:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup room temp unsalted butter (1 stick)
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
Bake crust at 350 degrees F. for 22 minutes
For the lemon layer:
2 large whole eggs
1 large egg yolk
1 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp grated lemon peel
Bake at 350 degrees F. for 25 minutes
Garnish with powdered sugar; or top with *meringue (the extra
egg white whipped with 1 tablespoon of sugar) and brown with torch.
*My Meringue If you decide to turn these into lemon meringue bars, do yourself a favor and actually measure the sugar. I couldn’t be bothered to check a recipe, so I only tossed in a teaspoon of sugar, and it should be closer to a tablespoon. The technique is the same; beat the extra white to the ribbon stage (where drips of white stay on the surface for a few seconds), and then add the sugar and continue whipping until you have nice, glossy peaks. My “by eye” batch worked fine, but it was a little too dry, and not quite sticky enough. Be advised. View the complete recipe
When I looked at some other tarte tatin recipes on
YouTube, I noticed that very few showed the “flip on to the plate” step.
They would just skip from the out of the oven shot to the final beauty shot. The
reason of course, is that very few tarte tatins come out of the hot pan
perfectly, and if they showed that, then you may not think they are as awesome as their profile says they are.
So, it’s with much pride that I show you the whole ugly
scene that is the tarte tatin dismount. The good news is, it’s very simple to
slap everything back on the crust before it cools, and none will be the wiser.
This is even easier if you’re doing a version with very soft and tender apples
and lots of caramel, which is my preference, as you’ll see.
If you do a Google image search for a classic, old recipe
like this, you usually see a lot of photos that look alike, but that’s not
necessarily so with tarte tatin. You’ll see an amazingly diverse array, which
is fascinating since they were all made with the same few basic ingredients.
Most of this is a result of cooking time in the pan before baking.
Some feature firm, barely cooked apples, while others cook
the fruit all the way down to a buttery, caramelized jam. The beauty of a
recipe that uses just pastry dough, butter, apples and sugar to make the magic,
is that no matter how yours comes out you’ll enjoy it. Of course, you’ll want
to hedge your bets with some vanilla bean ice cream to be safe. I hope you give
this classic French treat a try soon. Enjoy!
Because I grew up listening to baseball on the radio, whenever I
heard the word “rhubarb,” I wouldn’t think of something edible and delicious
like this amazing Strawberry Rhubarb Pie, I’d think of fights.
Back in the early days of radio, when they wanted to get the
sound effect of an angry mob, they’d tell the performers to repeat the word
“rhubarb,” over and over. It sounds heated and contentious, yet the listener
doesn’t hear any specific words.
Baseball announcers of the same era began to call baseball
fights “rhubarbs,” since they sounded so much like those radio effects. I
didn’t learn about this until recently, and it made me think of all the games
I’d listened to during all those summers, and how never once when I heard
“rhubarb,” did I think of pie.
That was until I got this wonderful recipe from my mother
Pauline, who I believe got it from my Aunt Angela. As you longtime readers
know, both are fantastic bakers and while I love all their pies, this might be
my favorite.
So, when Matt Cain drills Matt Kemp in the back this summer,
and he charges the mound prompting an ugly benches-clearing brawl, and the
play-by-play guy says, “we’ve got ourselves a real rhubarb now,” I will think
of this pie. This delicious, rough and tumble pie. Enjoy!
