The Bread is in the Baking

So I'm going to let you in on a secret: I've made pie crust from scratch maybe twice. And I work in a pie cart. WHAT'S WITH THAT?
First off, my main job in the pie cart is helping roll out crust and assemble the pies. I also help with making the savory pie filling sometimes and cutting up fruit and veggies. But my boss always comes into the cart with dough already made, so I still don't know how to make the amazing flaky crust he's got.
I always thought making pies didn't take any skill. What's the big deal? You make some dough, roll it out, cut up some fruit throw it in the crust, pop it in the oven. But I realized that yes, this is all easy except for one thing. The crust.
Bad pie crust is the worst. It either just falls apart or is really chewy. You need something in between and it also needs to have a good flavor all of it's own.

Well, after scouring the internet I found out a way to make some pretty damn good flaky crust.
Instead of using cold water use hard alcohol. Since the alcohol evaporates more than water does your crust becomes flakier, but still holds together.

After looking at some different recipes I mashed a couple together to make the dough and then used my own knowledge on what tastes good together (and what was in my kitchen) for the filling.


Vanilla Peach Gallete

For the pastry dough:

1 1/2 cup flour
3/4 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup sugar
6 ounces cold butter, cut into pieces
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons vodka (I’m going to assume that the more expensive you use the less alcohol-y your crust will taste)

For the fruit filling:

4 peaches, peeled and sliced
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup sugar
the juice of 1/4 of a lemon

1 egg (for an egg wash)

Place a rimmed baking sheet onto the center rack of the oven. Preheat oven to 400º.

To make the pastry dough, add the flour, salt, cinnamon and sugar to a deep bowl; whisk to combine. Scatter the butter pieces over flour mixture and use your fingers to cut in the butter (this can alternately be done in a food processor). Sprinkle the vodka over the butter-flour mixture and stir with a fork until the dough forms a ball, pat the ball down into an even disk. Wrap in plastic and let rest in the refrigerator for an hour.
After you've peeled and cut up the peaches, In a bowl toss them with the sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and lemon juice. Place the now cold dough on a lightly floured piece of parchment paper, dust the top of the dough with more flour and place another piece of parchment paper on top. roll the dough out, peeling the parchment paper off the dough and flipping after every couple of rolls until you have a 16-inch circle. Place the dough and the bottom piece of the parchment paper on a cookie sheet.
Carefully place the fruit into the center of the dough leaving the excess juice behind. Fold the dough border up and over to cover the fruit, forming a crust. Bake 40 to 45 minutes, or until pastry is a deep golden and the fruit is bubbling in the center. Let cool for 10 to 15 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Total Time: About 2 1/2 hours

I came home from work today and I was craving something sweet, but being low on money I could only use supplies I had in my kitchen and the only oil I have in my kitchen right now is olive oil. I'd seen some cake recipes floating around the interwebs with olive oil in them instead of vegetable oil or butter and was interested in giving one of them a whirl.
This one was the only one that fit my parameters exactly and it came out really great (so great, I'm pretty sure I've eaten half of the cake by myself...). This cake is dense and silky with wonderful flavor and the glaze really helps bring out more of the flavor.

Lemon Olive Oil Cake
3/4 cup olive oil (don't feel the need to use really fancy olive oil, I got mine from Trader Joes)
1 large lemon
1 cup all-purpose flour
5 egg yolks
4 egg whites
3/4 cup plus 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 cup powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8 inch springform, or 9 x 5 inch loaf pan with olive oil and line with parchment paper. Grease the parchment paper and then dust with flour.

Grate the lemon zest from the lemon and mix together with the flour in a medium bowl. Juice the lemon.

Quickly beat together the egg yolks and 1/2 cup sugar for about 3 minutes and then slowly beat in the olive oil and 1 1/2 tablespoons of lemon juice. Add the flour mixture and fold in gently with a wooden spoon or spatula.

  Using a mixer, beat 4 egg whites high speed with the whisk attachment until foamy. Continue to beat on high, slowly adding 1/4 cup of sugar until soft peaks form. Fold the egg whites into the cake batter until just combined. Pour into the prepared baking pan and sprinkle with the remaining sugar.

Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Prepare the glaze by whisking together the powdered sugar 1 tablespoon of the fresh lemon juice. Add more lemon juice if necessary to get the desired consistency and pour over the cooled cake. 

I bought a bunch of apples with the intention to snack on them, which is what I have been doing, but since there's only one of me and I only eat a few every couple of days, I'm not eating them fast enough. I stumbled on this recipe on Food Gawker, which is a WONDERFUL recipe site. I love it. Anyhow, I thought "Perfect!" and then realized I didn't have any cinnamon (I live in the dorms, okay?) but I did have pumpkin spice, so I used that instead and it came out great.

The recipe is a bit messy, but if you're careful it's really not much worse than anything else you'll make. I've cut some of the rising and proofing times down and cut some ingredients I didn't care for or have (orange zest, cinnamon, dark rum) and I chose not to make a glaze (it's sweet and sticky enough as it is), but if you want to see the real recipe it is here.

 Apple Spice Bread

Ingredients for the Dough:
1/2 Cup (4oz) Water, lukewarm
1/4 Cup Runny Honey

1 1/2 Tbs Dry Active Yeast
7 Tbs Vegetable Oil
2 Large Eggs
17oz. All-purpose Flour (about 4 cups, but it's best to weigh it)
1 1/2 Tsp Salt
1/2 Tsp Ground Cinnamon
1 1/2 Tsp Vanilla Extract

Ingredients for the Apple Filling:
2 Medium/large Apples, cored and diced in 3/4" chunks
1 Tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/4 Cup Sugar

Mix the warm (not hot) water with the honey and yeast. Then add the rest of the ingredients for the dough. Mix and then knead them, using a mixer with a bread hook, or by hand, until you have a soft, smooth and elastic dough (about 8-10 minutes).

Put the dough in a oiled bowl and let it rise, covered, for 1 1/2 hours or until it's puffy and nearly doubled in size. Lightly grease/butter a 9inch springform pan or cake pan (I suggest you use a springform pan, they work really well).

Toss the apple chunks with the sugar, pumpkin spice.

Gently deflate the dough, transfer it to a lightly greased work surface, and flatte n it into a rough rectangle, about 8 x 10 inches.

Spread half the apple chunks in the center of the dough.

Fold a short edge of the dough over the apple in order to cover it, patting firmly to seal the apples and spread the dough a bit. Spread the remaining apple atop the folded-over dough. Cover the apples with the other side of the dough, again patting firmly (Basically, you've folded the dough like a letter, enclosing the apples inside.). Take a long knife and cut the apple-filled dough into 16 pieces. Cut in half, then each half in halves, etc. (This is the messy part)

Lay the dough chunks into the pan (Crowd them so that they all fit in a single tight layer and just tuck fallen apple pieces in among the dough pieces, or simply spread them on top.).

Cover the bread gently with lightly greased plastic wrap or a damp towel and let it rise for about 1 hour until it has almost doubled in height. Twenty minutes before the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 325° F. Place the bread in the lower third of the oven. Bake it for 45 minutes, or until the top is at least light golden brown all over and has no white spots.

Remove the bread from the oven, and after 5 minutes loosen the edges and carefully transfer it to a rack.

Total Time: About 3 1/2 hours

Okay, so before I made this, I thought that making your own icy treats was really hard. I'd see ice cream recipes and just think "nope, too hard. Can't do that" and move on to the other recipes.
So now I'm just going to tell you from experience:
MAKING ICE CREAM IS REALLY REALLY EASY.

You just need the right machinery to make it, and by machinery I mean you need an ice cream maker.

This recipe for frozen yogurt is really good, I adapted it from a recipe from Tartlette. The original recipe on that site is for Asian Pear Frozen Yogurt, but they aren't in season so I used raspberries instead, from the backyard.
Fancy fancy!

Raspberry Frozen Yogurt

2 Cups of fresh raspberries (or whatever fruit you want to use)
1/4 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon or lime juice
16 oz. Greek yogurt (use a little less if you don't like it too tart)
1/2 cup sugar (use a little more if you like it sweeter)
generous pinch of fine sea salt

Rinse and strain raspberries and sprinkle lemon/lime juice over them then place in blender and puree until the raspberries have become a smooth jam-like consistency. Mix greek yogurt, sugar, salt and raspberry puree in a large bowl, cover with plastic and place in the fridge for 1 hour.
Churn the mixture in your ice cream maker according to manufacturer's directions (which is about 30 minutes of really really annoying noise).

NOTE: This recipe does take some planning in advance, your ice cream mixing bowl needs to be frozen before you can churn it, which takes about a day to do. My family just leaves the bowl in the freezer all the time, so whenever we feel like making something with it, it's ready to use.

Total Time: About 2 hours