For years I’ve yearned to visit the Galápagos Islands, that archipelago of isolation that sits 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador. These are the islands where Charles Darwin landed in 1835. While the Galápagos Islands are recognized for the theories they launched, today they are more famous for the inhabitants.
Unfortunately, life has always nudged a Galápagos trip to the back of the bus. While I don’t often give into it, aging and the hesitancy to travel alone have begun to rear their ugly heads. Perhaps the endangered Galápagos tortoises and I would never meet. It just wasn’t happening.
Peach Ice Cream by David Lebovitz, The Perfect Scoop
A month ago, the stars aligned. I was asked to join 15 others for an 11-day December Origins of the Species Adventure to the Galápagos. We’d be traveling aboard an 144’ vessel called the Integrity. Within a week I’d agreed, booked a flight to Quito, Ecuador, and dusted off my passport.
However, there is one huge hiccup about this trip which we need to discuss.
Miss Colorado Peach 2015
First, let’s talk peaches. Since the prime season for our Colorado peaches is short, I’m greedy and, each week, buy big. I think this week’s show-stoppers are worth sharing. This week-end, why not try Brown Butter-Peach Tourte by Dorie Greenspan or David Lebovitz’s Peach Ice Cream.
Dorie’s tourte is peaches, butter and crust. C’est tout. There’s little sugar or flour and only a dab of vanilla and lemon juice. The delish is a result of the butter which simmers until it turns ‘fragrant and is golden browned to a caramel flavor.’ When your cut-up peach chunks swim in this, it’s heavenly.
Because of the butter, the top crust, sprinkled with sugar, gets browner, melting as it bakes. Here’s where you can be creative, simplify the process or bake to your taste. Since the magic of this dessert is the filling, the crust is your choice. Choose a sweet tart dough, pie dough (no shame in store-bought) or a strudel concoction. This delight is in the filling.
Memories were made from lazy summer days when we helped make hand-cranked peach ice cream. Magic, right? Lebovitz created the simplest stone fruit ice cream recipe I could find. It’s delicious. I know that because I enjoyed most of it myself. After making the mixture and refrigerating it to cool overnight, I found I needed unexpected oral surgery. (I will spare you the 2-day play-by play.) When I returned home, there was very little I could eat. I remembered Lebovitz mentioning this peach ice cream ‘is indeed best when spooned right out of the machine, just moments after it’s been churned.’
I followed David’s advice and poured the chilled mixture into my ice cream maker. Thirty minutes later I was standing at my kitchen counter, drowning my sorrows with this delicious ice cream. For the past two days it’s been my comfort food. With 2/3 of the quart gone, I’m definitely on the mend.
And, that’s important, because I need to be in top form to deal with the hurdle in my upcoming Galápagos trip. From the Brochure’s Itinerary: 11:00 am Snorkeling: The group usually snorkels once every day. You may be out for 30 minutes to an hour, and may even have two opportunities to snorkel in one day.
Snorkeling and swimming are an important part of this journey. The problem is, I don’t. While I can probably dog paddle and keep myself afloat, I don’t swim. My face in the water, nooooo. Twenty years ago Michael paid major money for my private snorkeling lesson in Hawaii. I was doing fine, being attentive and preparing to walk into the Pacific when my instructor said, “And, if you begin to hyperventilate, here’s what you do.”
Alarmed, I immediately laid my equipment on the sandy beach and left, leaving my husband a bit perturbed. (There were times that man was a saint.) Please understand, I am not proud of this and am determined to jump into those waters and swim with whoever wants to join me, whether marine iguana, sea lion or turtle. I am (a brave) woman!
FEAR OF WATER – IT’S THE PITS.
To that end, I am reading this book, will buy my snorkeling equipment next week and have the availability of The Gant’s two pools. My sweet friend, Carol Kurt, my naturalist colleague in all things who has just returned from Galápagos, has offered to “learn me.” She is confident and determined. As am I. I have four months. The clock is ticking.
As for now, I’m off to polish off the peach ice cream while I “Learn How To Swim and Snorkel Even if you are Afraid of the Water.”
BROWN BUTTER-PEACH TOURTE by Dorie Greenspan, Baking Chez Moi
INGREDIENTS:
Filling
2 pounds ripe but firm peaches (about 5)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
Tiny pinch of fine sea salt
¼ teaspoon pure vanilla extract (or a drop of pure almond extract)
Juice of ¼ lemon
Crust
1 partially baked 9- to 9½-inch sweet tart dough crust, cooled
1 12-inch sweet tart dough circle, refrigerated
Sugar, for dusting (I used Turbinado natural cane sugar)
DIRECTIONS:
1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
2. Using your favorite method for peeling and dicing peaches, cut each peach into one-inch chunks. Put the peaches in a strainer, over a bowl, to catch extra juice.
3. Place the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat and allow it to melt and bubble. When it reaches a light caramel color, pull the pan from the heat. If you spot small dark brown spots on the bottom of the pan, that’s fine. You’ll also catch the whiff of warm nuts. After a minute or two, pour the butter over the strained peaches. Add the sugar, flour, salt and vanilla. Gently stir together. Finish with the lemon juice.
4. To assemble the tourte, ut the tart pan on the lined baking sheet. Give the filling another stir and scrape it into the tart shell, smoothing the top. You should have just enough filling to come level with the edges of the crust. Remove the circle of dough from the refrigerator while it’s resting a minute or so, brush the edges of the tart shell with water. Position the circle of dough over the crust. Press the rim with your fingers to glue the two pieces together, pressing on the rim as you go.
5. Use a knife to remove a circle of dough from the center. Brush the surface lightly with cold water and sprinkle generously with sugar.
6. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, or until the crust is deeply golden brown and the butter is bubbling. Transfer the tourte, still on its baking sheet, to a rack and allow it to cool until it’s only just warm or at room temperature before serving. As it cools, the buttery syrup will be reabsorbed by the peaches, which is just what you want—so don’t be impatient.
Storing: You can partially bake the bottom crust up to 8 hours ahead and you can have the top crust rolled out and ready to go ahead of time, but the filling shouldn’t be prepared ahead. Best served the same day but if you’ve got leftovers, refrigerate them. The crust will lose its delicateness, but the dessert will still be satisfying.
PEACH ICE CREAM by David Lebovitz, The Perfect Scoop
Yield: 1 quart
INGREDIENTS:
1 ½ pounds ripe peaches [about four large peaches]
½ cup water
1/4 cup sugar
½ cup sour cream
1 cup heavy cream
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
A few drops freshly squeezed lemon juice
DIRECTIONS:
1. Peel the peaches, slice them in half, and remove the pits. Cut the peaches into chunks and cook them with water in a nonreactive saucepan over medium heat, covered, stirring once or twice, until soft and cooked through, about 10 minutes.
2. Remove from heat, stir in the sugar, then cool to room temperature.
3. Purée the cooked peaches and any liquid in a blender or food processor with the sour cream, heavy cream, vanilla, and lemon juice until almost smooth but slightly chunky.
4. Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator and freeze in your ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions.
When I issued my dinner invitation, I said, “Wear Your Lipstick,” and they did. L to R, Steve Chase, Donna Grauer, Donna Chase and the birthday boy, Bernie Grauer.
Since October, 2010, when French Fridays was launched, we Doristas have danced around Dorie Greenspan’s French table. While our jigs were virtual, the 300 recipes she created and we made were delightfully genuine. Now, after 4 1/2 years, it’s kinda shocking to realize I’ve successfully muddled through Around My French Table, more than 300 recipes from my home to yourscookbook.
Marie-Hélène’s Apple Cake by Dorie Greenspan was chosen to be included in Food52’s Genius Recipes cookbook.
To mark this journey’s end, we are all choosing our most treasured recipe. For me, that’s easy. I salute Marie-Hélène’s Apple Cake. Admittedly, when I bring this dessert to the table, no one is impressed. This rather plain Jane, single-layer cake has no WOW factor…until you take the first bite. As one dinner guest exclaimed recently, “This is the real deal.”
The apple cake batter, in its springform pan, home before it visits the oven.
It gets better. Last April, FOOD52, an award-winning community-based cooking site, published a cookbook, Genius Recipes, 100 Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook. That’s a heavyweight moniker for any cookbook but it’s become a New York Times bestseller. Here’s the kicker. Marie-Hélène’s Apple Cake by Ms. Greenspan is one of the 17 chosen desserts. I rest my case.
THE BOOK
The completion of this 4 1/2-year effort called for a celebratory dinner. Since friend Bernie Grauer’s birthday dovetailed with this completion, I planned a small party. “It’s a Genius Dinner,” I told my friends. “Wear your lipstick,” I requested.
Here’s the menu with links to the recipes, all taken from FOOD52’s Genius Recipes, 100 Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook:
The beef brisket is ready for the oven, to cook, and cook, and cook some more.
What I can say about this evening is it was bittersweet and delicious and hilarious. From the bottom of my heart, thank you, Grauers and Chases, for making it so.
Doesn’t every milestone beg to be remembered? My artist friend, Ellie Gould, who was just elected president of the Arizona Watercolor Society, did just that. This week I received two gorgeous watercolors of the AMFT cookbook cover and yours truly in a chef’s coat. Already at the framer. Merci mille fois, Ellie.
Chicken In A Pot is the cookbook cover of Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan. Watercolor by Ellie Gould.
It is with a heavy but grateful heart that I wrap up this French Fridays experience. Dorie and my Dorista colleagues unwittingly helped me rebuild my life. At a time when my only goal was to survive each day, this blog thing and French Fridays came along. Writing and cooking, what could be better? Crazy as it may seem, having to create a post every week insisted upon organization and structure. Michael and I were in a decade-long battle without an end game, no light at the end of any tunnel. For me, completing a post each week was a goal, an accomplishment and fun.
Some of the French Fridays gals who attended the 2013 International Food Bloggers Conference in Seattle.
As I’ve said often, during the past four years this French Fridays gang has become more than a virtual community for me. Whether it was rallying around Dorie, the perfect mix of cooks with a common interest, a fortunate accident of serendipity or just my perception, I cannot say. The French Fridays group has been magic. What lies ahead in each of our virtual worlds, no one knows. In the real world, however, I’ve made wonderful friends and those relationships will continue.
We all love Dorie and I think that she loves us back. International Food Bloggers Conference 2013
Let me end with an appreciative nod to an unheralded group of supporters who always “wear their lipstick.” All my French Fridays colleagues have spouses, partners, kids or extended families living nearby who need to be fed and nourished every day. Since I am single, my reality is whether I put a meal on the table or not makes no difference. Wanting to join French Fridays but not wanting to waste the food I make every week, I’ve relied on others.
It was great fortune that my Henderson, Nevada neighbors were foodies. Lawyer Michele Morgando, also a judge, also a graduate of the Culinary School at The Art Institute of Las Vegas, was (and, still is) my tutor. Ray Dillon and Dominick Prudenti, such great friends to the Hirschs, once owned a successful deli in New York. Adriana Scrima, Sicilian by birth, cooks with an Old World flair. Fresh. Local. Homemade. Many Nevada friends jumped in to help when I began my blog. Failure was not an option. I miss you all.
It all began in Henderson, Nevada with L to R: Adriana, Dominick, Ray, Bobby (Adriana’s husband) and Michele.
In closing, it’s no coincidence that the three ladies pictured below were featured in my last posts. When I moved back to Aspen, Coeur à la Crème was the first French Fridays recipe choice. Holy Moley. Donna Grauer offered, as she has many times, to help. A dinner gathering, with contributions by Charlotte McLain and Donna Chase, followed. This sparked a realization that maybe food blogging could create the social life I desired here. “Wear your Lipstick,” became my watchword. Thanks, friends.
Charlotte and the Donna Deux, February 2013
Coeur à la Crème, my first French Fridays with Dorie post from Aspen. February 2013
“People who love to eat are always the best people.” Julia Childs
Celebrating French Fridays with Dorie, a watercolor by Ellie Gould
This is a toque-worthy day in our French Fridays with Dorie world. With this week’s mouthwatering recipe, our group will have literally cooked-the-book. The cookbook is “Around My French Table, more than 300 recipes from my home to yours” by the incomparable Dorie Greenspan. What began in October 2010 with Gougères, those exquisite pâte à choux pastry puffs flavored with Gruyère cheese, is ending with Chicken in a Pot, the Garlic and Lemon version. So happens, it’s featured on AMFT’s cover.
Chicken in a Pot – the veggies are prepared and then tossed in a large skillet for a sauté.
To observe this remarkable milestone I planned an intimate dinner to acknowledge another remarkable milestone, a very special birthday. However, there were some caveats:
1. Since Chicken in a Pot is not a particularly simple recipe, I would need sous chef assistance.
2. Once fully cooked, the seal on the Chicken in a Pot needs to be broken with a screwdriver!
3. Like many occasions at my table, this would be a Lights on Bright blog post. Wear lipstick.
4. Having never made this recipe before, it might be a disaster. My back-up choice, frozen pizza.
After the chicken is browned on all sides, it joins its veggie friends for a roast in the oven.
I called my friend, Charlotte McLain, and asked if she and the birthday boy, her husband, Michael, were free for dinner. I explained we would be cooking the cover recipe of my AMFT cookbook. Besides being a professional musician, Charlotte is an extraordinary chef. She happily accepted my invite. We made a plan.
The homemade dough is rolled out, stretched into a long rope and secured around the pot. To save time, I used fresh pizza dough from Whole Foods.
Charlotte mixed together a red cabbage, kale, broccoli, raisins and nuts slaw.
Eventually I explained the screwdriver thing to her, suggesting that I hoped the pot wouldn’t blow when the seal was broken. She chuckled, kinda. We decided, at tool time, Michael would be in charge. Her husband, a Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies and Philosophy at Rhodes College in Memphis, is a fun guy and a very good sport.
READY!
Michael Hirsch’s old, old screwdriver, sterilzed and embellished.
Our unforgettable evening, one for the memory book, can best be told through photos. Michael insisted on choosing a superb wine and brought his last bottle of 2005 Willenborg Pinot Noir. The birthday dessert was Marie-Hélène’s Apple Cake, my favorite Dorie/AMFT sweet treat. The recipe for the chicken is below. I’ve linked to the apple cake recipe.
To be truthful, Michael and Charlotte are a little apprehensive.
Not knowing what was going to happen, do you notice something missing. Glasses, perhaps?
Michael is rethinking being a good sport. Charlotte just steps back.
C’est Manifique.
Chicken in a Pot, the Garlic and Lemon version.
CHICKEN IN A POT, THE GARLIC AND LEMON VERSION by Dorie Greenspan,
Serves 6 – 8
INGREDIENTS:
½ preserved lemon, rinsed well
1 cup water
¼ cup sugar
5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and each cut into 8 same-sized pieces (you can use white potatoes, if you prefer)
16 small white onions, yellow onions, or shallots
8 carrots, trimmed, peeled, and quartered
4 celery stalks, trimmed, peeled, and quartered
4 garlic heads, cloves separated but not peeled
Salt and freshly ground pepper
3 thyme sprigs
3 parsley sprigs
2 rosemary sprigs
1 chicken, about 4 pounds, preferably organic, whole or cut into 8 pieces, at room temperature
1 cup chicken broth
½ cup dry white wine
For the Dough:
1½ cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup hot water
(To save myself some time, I used fresh store-bought pizza dough from Whole Foods to seal the pot.)
DIRECTIONS:
1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 450 degrees.
2. Using a paring knife, slice the peel from the preserved lemon and cut it into small squares. Discard the pulp.
3. Bring the water and sugar to a boil in a small saucepan, drop in the peel, and cook for 1 minute. Drain and set aside.
4. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet over high heat. Add the vegetables and garlic, season with salt and pepper and sauté until vegetables are brown on all sides. (If necessary, do this in 2 batches.) Spoon vegetables into a 4½- to 5-quart Dutch oven or other pot with a lid and stir in the herbs and the preserved lemon.
5. Return the skillet to the heat and add another tablespoon of olive oil. Brown the chicken on all sides, seasoning it with salt and pepper as it cooks.
6. Tuck chicken into the casserole, surrounding it with the vegetables.
7. Mix together the broth, wine, and the remaining olive oil and pour over the chicken and vegetables.
8. For the Dough, put 1½ cups flour in a medium bowl and add enough hot water to make a malleable dough. Dust a work surface with a little flour, turn out the dough, and, working with your hands, roll the dough into a sausage.
Place the dough on the rim of the pot — if it breaks, just piece it back together — and press the lid onto the dough to seal the pot.
10. Slide the pot into the oven and bake for 55 minutes.
11. Now you have a choice — you can break the seal in the kitchen or do it at the table, where it’s bound to make a mess, but where everyone will have the pleasure of sharing that first fragrant whiff as you lift the lid with a flourish. Whether at the table or in the kitchen, the best tool to break the seal is the least attractive: a screwdriver. Sterilize the screwdriver. Use the point of the screwdriver as a lever to separate the lid from the dough.
12. Depending on whether your chicken was whole or cut up, you might have to do some in-the-kitchen carving, but in the end, you want to make sure that the vegetables and the delicious broth are on the table with the chicken.
SERVING:
If the chicken is cut up, you can just serve it and the vegetables from the pot. If the chicken is whole, you can quarter it and return the pieces to the pot or arrange the chicken and vegetables on a serving platter. Either way, you don’t need to serve anything else but some country bread, which is good for spreading with the sweet garlic popped from the skins and dunking into the cooking broth. A pot at the table is because it makes for easy dipping.
FRENCH FRIDAYS with DORIE is a wonderful virtual group of food bloggers who have cooked their way through Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table Cookbook. To see the other Dorista’s efforts this week, go to our FFWD link.
Listen up. French Fridays is joining a global revolt. Created by English chef Jamie Oliver, who crossed the Pond to transform the way America feeds its children, we Doristas are proud to hold our whisks high and march into battle. It’s Food RevolutionDay. For the past 3 years, we have set aside this special Friday to support Oliver’s mission of inspiring kids to be food smart.
Applesauce Spice Bars
My secret weapon for FRD are the irresistible Applesauce Spice Bars. These amazing sweets are loaded with healthy – diced apples, plump raisins, chopped nuts and unsweetened applesauce. Spiced up with cinnamon and allspice and frosted with a swoon-worthy brown-sugar glaze, one of these tasty bars will multiply your happy tenfold. Family, friends, or guests? Smitten. Just crumbs left. The recipe is below.
The beauty of these tasty bars are that they are made in one pot. The batter is delicious enough to eat (and, I did) or pour over ice cream!
Now I’m game for this revolution but who wants to do battle alone? Not me. So I texted my California family and asked if they’d care to revolt with me. With a little prodding from Melissa, their mother, both Emma, 13, and Clara, 11, agreed, saying there’s nothing they’d rather do! Although I wasn’t privy to the negotiations, I think it revolved around, “It’s Grandma. Her Blog. You will participate.”
Clara (and, her Dad) are the designated Lefse griddle bakers. Lefse is a traditional soft, Norwegian flatbread made with leftover potatoes, flour, butter, and milk or cream.
Food Revolution Day is about getting kids food savvy, setting them up for a long, healthy life. Over 42 million children worldwide under the age of five are now overweight/obese. That’s doubled since 1980. YIKES. As a result, childhood diabetes is on the uptick. Readers, it’s time to throw up a Stop Sign.
The Bars are ready to pop into the oven.
Out of the oven and cooling while I make the glaze.
Emma and Clara know their way around their kitchen. However, it was two years ago, when their mom opened her own business, working long hours, that they stepped up their game. During most weeks, they make a meal plan, Melissa does the shopping and some prep, but it’s the girls who have the meal ready-to-go by dinnertime. Both of them make their own school lunches and, if treats are to be baked, they do it. Since we often trade text photos of what we’re making, this could be an ideal time for more food conversation.
After spreading with the brown-sugar glaze, it’s time to cut them into bars.
Our family eats healthy but we also don’t discount sweet treats. Since Emma’s speciality is Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies which her Mother had already requested for her Mother’s Day stash, she would bake a batch. I was in for Applesauce Spice Bars. Clara’s choice was a dilemma, bagels and pretzels which she’d never done or baked donuts. “The best treats I have ever made,” she said, “were Nutmeg Cinnamon Donuts with Maple Frosting.”
She made all three.
Emma’s making meringues with her Mom while her Dad makes breakfast.
Our food conversations meandered around the best things they make….
Emma: “I love to make Lemon Bars, Macaroons and, of course, Oatmeal- Raisin Cookies with Chocolate Chips. I make the part of dinner that is not meat. [note: Emma is a Vegetarian.] And, I LOVE nachos.”
Clara: “I can make Omelettes, Donuts (baked), all types of Cookies, Burritos, Ham, and Sausages.”
and, their worst disasters.
Clara: “My worst disaster was when I accidentally used powdered sugar instead of granulated sugar (the cookies tasted GREAT though). I also made a cornbread and it sunk. It tasted and looked weird, but I do not know what I did.”
Emma: “Once I make a toffee brownie thing in a pan for a Superbowl party but it tasted bad. It was kinda bitter and gross! “ =(
Emma’s Oastmeal-Raisin -Chocolate Chip Cookies
Wanting to know if they enjoyed this kitchen thing and wished to expand their repertoire, I asked what more they’d like to learn to cook. Their wants ranged from fancier main course dishes and ice cream (“I want my Mom to teach me.”) to quiche and brownies.
Clara’s first-time-ever bagels and pretzels
As I sit writing this post tonight, on the eve of Food Revolution Day 2015, I feel grateful, very grateful and also sadly alarmed. My grandchildren are not who we are trying to reach on this important day. Emma and Clara are not targeted by the California-based Jamie Oliver Food Foundation. They have not met hunger nor suffer nutritional deficiencies. Their parents are tough taskmasters, seeing to their nourishment and filling their bellies with healthy, organic foods. Those kids are already food smart and have the best shot to live a long, healthy life.
My alarm is about the 2.6 million children worldwide who die each year because of hunger-related causes. In the United States alone, 15.8 million children live in food insecure households. It gets worse. Thirty to 40% of the food supply here is wasted. That’s more than 20 pounds of food per person per month. It gets worse. The tab for that lost nourishment is creeping towards almost $200 billion. Hooray and thank you to food activists Oliver, Alice Waters, Ann Cooper and Michelle Obama for their efforts to bring more nourishing choices to America’s school lunchrooms.
Statistics: *WHO, March 2013; United Nations Environment Programme, N. America; Feeding America
APPLESAUCE SPICE BARS by Dorie Greenspan, Baking from my home to yours Cookbook
(Makes 32 bars)
INGREDIENTS:
The Bars
1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter
1 cup (packed) light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon applejack, brandy or dark rum (optional)
1 baking apple, such as Rome or Cortland, peeled, cored and finely diced or chopped
1/2 cup plump, moist raisins (dark or golden)
1/2 cup chopped pecans
The Glaze
2-1/2 tablespoons heavy cream
1/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar
2-1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
DIRECTIONS:
1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9-x-13 inch baking pan, line the bottom with parchment paper, butter the paper and dust the inside of the pan with flour. Tap out the excess flour and put the pan on a baking sheet.
2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt.
3. In a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan, melt the butter over low heat. Add the brown sugar and stir with a whisk until it is melted and the mixture is smooth, about 1 minute. Remove the pan from the heat.
4. Still working in the saucepan, whisk in the eggs one at a time, mixing until they are well blended. Add the applesauce, vanilla and liquor, if you are using it. Whisk until the ingredients are incorporated and the mixture is once again smooth.
5. Switch to a rubber spatula and gently stir in the dry ingredients, mixing only until they disappear. Mix in the apple, raisins and nuts. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula.
6. Bake for 23 to 25 minutes, or until the cake just starts to pull away from the sides of the pan and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer the baking pan to a rack and let the cake cool while you make the glaze.
7. For the glaze, in a small saucepan, whisk together the cream, sugar, butter and corn syrup. Put the pan over medium heat and bring the mixture to the boil, whisking frequently. Adjust the heat so that the glaze simmers, and cook, whisking frequently, for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the vanilla.
8. Turn the cake out onto a rack, remove the paper and invert the cake onto another rack, so it is right side up. Slide the parchment paper under the rack to serve as a drip catcher. Grab a long metal icing spatula and pour the hot glaze over the cake, using the spatula to spread it evenly over the cake. Let the cake cool to room temperature before you cut it.
Storing: Kept in a covered container, the bars will be fine for about 3 days at room temperature. Because of the glaze, they cannot be frozen.
French Fridays with Dorie is an international group of food bloggers who are cooking their way through Around My French Table cookbook by Dorie Greenspan. Visit our link here. Merci to Canadian blogger Mardi Michels of http://www.eatlivetravelwrite.com/ who not only supports Jamie Oliver’s efforts but also encourages the FFWD participation.
Two years ago, having just moved back to Aspen, I was invited to join good friends at a local restaurant for dinner. Our paths hadn’t often crossed for the previous eight years so this was a celebration. What I recall most about that glorious evening – there was much to remember – is the small white bakery box sitting on my plate when I arrived. It was nondescript except for an elaborate bow that enclosed it.
Oven-Ready.
After slipping off the ribbon, I discovered two individually wrapped, exquisite-looking chocolate chip cookies meriting an immediate Wow!, Mmmm, from a nearby table. A perfect Welcome Home gift. No one reading this Post fails to recognize the thought, time and effort that went into those cookies. Since 1965 the Pillsbury Doughboy (initiate stomach poke) has said it best, “Nothin’ says lovin’ like something from the oven.”
My Speculoos are ready to share at a potluck dinner.
Although many of my friends often gift me with splendid homemade goodies, I’ve never reciprocated. Time to step up my game. Both of my French Fridays with Dorie recipes this week, Speculoos or Cheez-it-ish Crackers, are the perfect hostess thank-you, table favor, get-well-soon token or just because. These are easily made, delicious, and do-aheads that can park themselves in the freezer until needed.
It’s Springtime in the Rockies and time for babies. Mama Canada Goose is taking loving care of her 7 little goslings at the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies.
Wait, there’s more. For me, packaging homemade food and bakery items is a frustrating task. Yes, there are excellent books, good magazine articles and Pinterest Boards devoted to this subject. Let’s get real. At 5:30pm, when you still need to shower, dress and feed the dog before a 7pm dinner invitation, who remembers that clipping about a perfect receptacle for the cookies you’ve just baked. Nothing to do but grab a paper plate and Saran Wrap. Yuck. Readers, I’ve solved that problem also. You can thank me later.
The Cheez-it-ish Crackers are ready to bake in the oven.
First, the baked goods. In Belgium Speculoos say Christmas and are made in celebration of Saint Nicholas’ name day. Here, where these crisp brown-sugar delicacies have recently become quite popular, any month is fair game. Make them big or small (I chose a 2” round cutter.), thick or thin and spicey, spicier or spiciest. This is an elegant cookie, perfect with coffee, tea or espresso. A snack, with milk. Dessert, with ice cream or sorbet. The recipe is below.
Cheez-it-ish Crackers. It’s not possible to eat just one.
Cheez-it-ish Crackers are the perfect nibble with before dinner drinks. I don’t often serve hors-d’oeuvres. To me, Dorie’s Herbed Olives,Sweet and Spicy Cocktail Nuts and these Crackers are just the right touch with wine, champagne or mixed drinks. Made in a food processor, these are slice-and-bake, finger food. I used a 1 1/2” cutter. This recipe is also below.
Now here are two packaging ideas that, hopefully, will carry me, maybe, you, through the summer. This spring I’ve stopped by the many thrift shops in our Valley searching for tin containers or boxes imprinted with company names and logos. These are plentiful, colorful, inexpensive and always well-made. After washing them thoroughly and lining them with decorative waxed paper, they are the perfect containers for cookies, cupcakes, muffins, scones and bundt cakes. Voilà.
Secondly, between Target and Michael’s I’ve stashed a healthy inventory of paper products, stickers, ribbons, sacks and tissue to last for the rest of my life. Realizing I’m prone to exaggeration, that, dear Readers, is the truth. There is nothing I can make that won’t fit nicely into something. Voilà, encore.
SPECULOOS by Dorie Greenspan, Around My French Table
Be prepared: The rolled-out dough needs to be chilled for at least 3 hours.
Makes about 50 cookies
INGREDIENTS:
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
7 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 (packed) cup light brown sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
Tip: If you prefer spicier, add more ginger and cloves.
DIRECTIONS:
1. Whisk the flour, salt, baking soda, and spices together in a bowl.
2.Working in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment beat the butter at medium speed until creamy. Add the sugars and beat until well blended, about 2 minutes. Add the egg and beat until well-blended.
3. With the mixer on the lowest speed, add the dry ingredients in 3 additions, mixing only until the flour disappears into the soft dough. You may have some flour at the bottom of the bowl, or the dough may not be entirely smooth, but that’s normal. Using your hands (always my first choice) or a spatula, reach into the bowl and knead or stir the dough 2 or 3 times, just enough to eliminate any dry spots.
4. Divide the dough in half. Working with 1 piece of dough at a time, roll the dough between two sheets of wax paper or plastic wrap until you have a circle that’s a scant ¼ inch thick. As you’re rolling, turn the dough over a couple of times and pull away the paper or plastic, so you don’t end up rolling creases into the dough. Put the rolled-out rounds of dough on a tray or cutting board and refrigerate for at least 3 hours. (The dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen, well wrapped, for up to 2 months.)
5. When you’re ready to bake, center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
Choose a cookie cutter and remove 1 circle of dough from the refrigerator. Peel off the top piece of wax paper or plastic and cut out as many cookies as you can from the dough, carefully lifting the cutouts onto the lined baking sheet.
6. Bake the cookies for 8 to 10 minutes, or until they are lightly golden and just slightly brown around the edges. Allow the cookies to rest on the baking sheet for a couple of minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack to cool.
Kept in an airtight container, the cookies will be fine for a week.
Mom, Dad, and 7 goslings.
CHEEZ-IT-ISH CRACKERS by Dorie Greenspan
INGREDIENTS:
8 tablespoons (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 16 pieces
1/4 pound grated cheese (cheddar, Gruyere, and Emmenthal, are all good choices)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
pinch of cayenne pepper
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
DIRECTIONS:
1. Add the butter, cheese, salt, and both peppers to the bowl of your food processor. Pulse until the butter is broken into smaller pieces and the mixture forms small curds. Add the flour to the food processor and pulse until curds form again. Keep pulsing. The dough gets very dry and crumbly first but then comes together into curds).
2. Turn the dough onto your work surface and knead briefly to bring it together. Divide in half, shape each half into a disk, and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour or up to 3 days.
3. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment.
4. Remove one disk from the fridge and roll it to a scant 1/4-inch thickness between sheets of parchment. Using a small cookie cutter,about 1 1/4-inches, cut rounds from the dough. Transfer to the prepared baking sheet – you don’t need to leave much space in between, these don’t spread.
5. Bake for 15-17 minutes, or until the crackers are firm and golden. Use a spatula to transfer the crackers to a wire rack to cool.
The crackers are good warm or at room temperature. Store in an airtight container. They’ll be good for at least 4 days.
FRENCH FRIDAYS WITH DORIE is an international group of food bloggers who are cooking their way through Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table Cookbook. Thanks to Kathy Van Bruinisse at Bakeaway with Me for reminding me to bake these tasty crackers. Visit our FFWD link by clicking here.
My Work. My Office. My Friends, Marcia (l) and Donna (r). It’s all good.
Relevance, today’s post and my French Friday’s recipe,Chicken B’stilla, is all about that word.
What I knew for sure, after Michael’s death, was I wanted to find myself. In those ten years, I’d lost Me. I also realized that everything about that experience must be treasured and mined. I needed to do better. Be a better person. I needed to make those years count, not only for my sake but to acknowledge a spouse who had gone through hell. That’s exactly, as some of you realize, what these past three years have been about.
Chicken B’Stilla, a sweet/savory Moroccan Classic and my recipe choice for this week’s French Fridays with Dorie.
We all have needs. That’s especially true as we age. Hey, Baby Boomers, do you hear me? I’ve never been important in that important, important manner. Never had much of an ego or yearned for power. My competitive gene got lost about five years ago. I do cling fiercely to my desire for independence and self control. If someone’s going to mind my business, it’s going to be Me. But most importantly, if only for myself, I need to remain Relevant. Be purposeful. If you’re truthful, so do most of you.
Baby Spinach salad with Dates & Almonds by Ottolenghi & Tamimi, Jerusalem cookbook, is the perfect greens side dish for Chicken B’stilla.
This blog and my returning to Aspen to be a volunteer forest ranger again is what’s floating my boat, pushing all my buttons. Lights on Bright allows me to be expressive, tell my story and keeps me cooking. Rangering covers everything else from keeping fit to constantly educating myself to social engagement with the vacationing public. Most importantly, the short-staffed, underfunded USFS is adamant about the value of our boots on the ground. Smokey Bear needs Me.
The delicious cinnamon/sugar topping provides the sweetness for this sweet and savory pie.
If only I had a video of the first time I stopped by The Gant’s front office before leaving on a patrol. For safety’s sake volunteers must tell someone daily where they’ll be working. I was all decked out in my ill-fitting, unfashionable uniform and sporting every badge and medal the USFS will legally allow. I’m wearing my Smokey cap, have binoculars around my neck, my backpack in place and am carrying my hiking poles. It’s a Look. Keep in mind, I also am old enough to be each employees’ grandmother.
My friend, Deb, also a volunteer ranger and I are trying to get in shape for the season!!!
I am not exaggerating. Those 5 kids staffing the front desk were shocked. Amazed. And, after a few seconds, laughing. I handed them an index card filled with information. “Here’s the deal,” I said, while leaning over the desk. “I am going to work and I need to check out and in with someone. You’re it. I’m hiking Midway today. If I’m not back by 6pm, call the USFS. I am serious.”
You can make the chicken and sauce a day ahead. The first step is to marinate the chicken pieces in onion, garlic and spices.
Suddenly, they all regained their be serious-composure. “We got it, Mrs. Hirsch,” Zach promises me and, for the past two seasons, they always have. Usually when I check back in with them, I am totally spent, exhausted. They are enthusiastic cheerleaders and make me feel proud of myself. We all need that.
The first four buttered filo sheets make the shell of the pie.
This week’s recipe, Chicken B’stilla, puts Relevance in a different spotlight. More than 35 years ago I took a cooking class with the renown food writer and Mediterranean food expert Paula Wolfert. On that extraordinary day, one of the dishes she made was the classic Moroccan delicacy, B’steeya. It is a sweet/savory chicken pie made with phyllo dough and eaten with two fingers. Although I easily mastered the two-finger approach, the recipe itself is involved and complicated. I never made it.
Crunchy, spicy pita croutons are a tasty addition to this salad. These are also delicious as a topping for soups or as munchies.
Today, Ms. Wolfert, 77 years old and living in Sonoma, suffers from Benson’s syndrome, a variant of Alzheimer’s. She doesn’t cook and fights her personal memory battle everyday. However, Paula Wolfert, an icon in the culinary arena, will always be relevant. Her nine pioneering cookbooks on Mediterranean cuisine and the learning experiences she’s provided for others are a lasting legacy.
Toasted almonds are layered on the bottom.
There is a Chicken B’stilla recipe in Around my French Table. My colleagues made it in January 2011 before I joined French Fridays. To honor Paula and knowing Dorie would carefully walk me through this recipe, I decided to conquer this classic. Surprisingly, 35 years later, it was not involved nor complicated. However, it was delicious and definitely party fare. For greens, I made Ottolenghi’s Baby Spinach Salad with Dates & Almonds from his Jerusalem cookbook. Perfect.
After the chicken and sauce is poured into the shell, I added another layer of almonds and then 4 sheets of filo for the top.
I linked to the salad recipe. The Chicken B’stilla information is below. Much of this dish can be made ahead. This is too unique and delicious to be put aside another 35 years. Try it.
CHICKEN B’STILLA by Dorie Greenspan, Around My French Table
Six Main Course Servings
INGREDIENTS:
8 chicken thighs, skinned
2 large onions, coarsely chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
3/4 teaspoon ground coriander
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Big pinch of saffron threads
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
salt
3 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
3 large eggs
2 Tablespoons honey
freshly ground pepper
1 Tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
1 Tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
8 sheets filo (each 9 x 14″)
About 6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
3 ounces sliced almonds, toasted and chopped
Cinnamon sugar, for dusting
DIRECTIONS:
1.Put the chicken pieces, onions, garlic and spices into a Dutch oven or other large casserole and give everything a good stir. Cover and let the chicken marinate for 1 hour at room temperature. (The chicken can be marinated in the refrigerator for as long as 1 day.)
2. Add the chicken broth and 1 teaspoon salt to the pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Lower the heat so that the liquid simmers, cover the pot, and cook for 1 hour, at which point the chicken should be falling-off-the-bone tender.
3. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the chicken to a bowl. strain the broth, saving both the liquid and the onions. When the chicken is cool enough to handle, remove the meat from the bones and cut it into small cubes or shred it.
Clean the Dutch oven and pour the broth back into it, or pour the broth into a medium saucepan. Whisk in the lemon juice, bring to a boil and cook until you have about 1 cup liquid. Reduce the heat to low.
4. Beat the eggs with the honey and whisking all the while, pour into the broth. Heat, whisking constantly until the sauce thickens enough that your whisk leaves tracks in it, about 5 minutes. Pull the pan from the heat and season the sauce with salt and pepper.
5. Stir the chicken and reserved onions into the sauce, along with the cilantro and parley. (You can make the chicken and sauce up to 1 day ahead and keep it covered and refrigerated.)
6.Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with foil.
7. Place the filo sheets between sheets of wax paper and cover with a kitchen towel. Brush a 9″ round cake pan, one that’s 2 ” tall, with melted butter. Brush 1 sheet filo with butter and center it in the pan, so that the excess hangs over the edges. Brush another sheet and press it into the pan so that it’s perpendicular to the first sheet and forms a plus sign. Place a third and then a fourth buttered sheet into the pan so that they form and X; the overhang from all of the sheets should cover the edges of the pan.
Sprinkle half of the almonds over the filo. spoon in the saucy chicken, spreading it evenly across the pan, and top with the rest of the almonds. Fold the overhanging filo over the chicken.
8. Butter the remaining 4 sheets of filo, stacking them one on top of the other on the work surface. Using a pot lid or the bottom of a tart pan as a guide, cut our a 10 to 11″ circle. Center the circle over the cake pan and gently tuck the edges of the dough into the pan, working your way around it as though you were making a bed. Brush the top of the b’stilla with a little butter and sprinkle with some cinnamon sugar. Place the pan on the baking sheet.
Bake the b’stilla for 20 minutes, then lower the temperature to 350°F and bake for 20 minutes more. If the top seems to be getting too brown at any point, cover it loosely with foil. Transfer the b’stilla to a cooling rack and let rest for about 5 minutes.
9. Lay a piece of parchment over a cutting board, and have a serving platter at hand. Turn the b’stilla out onto the parchment lined board and then invert it onto the serving platter, so that it is right side up. Serve the b’stilla now, cutting it into wedges, or serve it warm or at room temperature.
French Fridays with Dorie is an international online cooking group making its way through Around My French Tablecookbook. To link to our site, go here. Thanks to Teresa who blogs at One Wet Foot for reminding me of this recipe. Please note the various spellings of B’stilla and B’steeya. Filo or phyllo? Fe Fi Fo Fum.
