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Happy Halloween! I can hear the voices of my neighbor’s little kids outside. All of that excitement. All of that anticipation. I feel it too! It’s starting to get dark now and I have our bowl of candy at the ready in the mud room. Kaweah just came back from a brisk walk around the neighborhood with Jeremy while I was manning the door for early trick-or-treaters. She was so excited she ran up to me and gave me the sniff down as if she hadn’t seen me in days (she was gone for all of 15 minutes). See, when kids ring the doorbell, Kaweah thinks they are UPS or FedEx delivery people. All of our FedEx and UPS peeps in our neighborhood carry dog treats. Add to that, the fact that kids are closer to eye level with Kaweah and she is so excited you think her bottom half is going to wiggle off. I’ve eaten three baby Twix already. I’ve got to stop now.

at the ready

So there is some good news to share. I have a nice deal from Fine Cooking that allows me to give gift subscriptions at nearly half the rate. Tell you what I’m gonna do: I will award TWO subscriptions to Fine Cooking! And, since some folks can’t seem to get their deadlines straight, I will grant amnesty and allow all comments up until the time we hold the drawing. I don’t know when we’ll get to it - so if you haven’t commented yet, do so now by clicking here.

Today is the last day of NaBloWriMo. Hallelujah! It was a fun, but I’m definitely looking forward to not blogging daily for at least 11 months…

rev up that vanilla bean action

Even though Halloween is my favorite holiday, I don’t carve pumpkins because… it makes me sad. I hate to toss out old pumpkins just like I hate to dispose of dead pine trees in December. I quite love seeing what others come up with for jack-o-lanterns and I am forever mesmerized by flickering lights and fire. But me - I carved my last pumpkin when I was in elementary school. It was the size of a cantaloupe and I quickly carved a simple, smiling, generic jack-o-lantern face and entered it into a contest at the neighborhood Halloween bash that evening.

egg yolks - can you guess where this is going?

When it was time to go home, I walked the length of the tables laden with enormous, elaborate, grotesquely beautiful carved pumpkins adorned with huge ribbons. Grand Prize! First Place! Second Place! As I neared the end, my feet practically tripping over the long grasses in the night, I saw the smallest one there. It was mine, but I almost didn’t recognize it because it was so minimalist in comparison to the masterful entries lined up like an infantry of monsters. My pumpkin was happy. There was a blue ribbon with the words “cutiest pumpkin” scribbled on the tag. Nobody said Virginians could spell, okay.

straining custard

I tucked my pumpkin under my arm, half embarrassed that I had thought it was a kids’ competition (it was not), half proud of my little gourd for garnering a ribbon despite my misunderstanding. When it eventually rotted away, I was a little heartbroken. I don’t know why I get sentimental about squashes, conifers, cookies with happy faces on them… I just do.

fresh grated nutmeg

But as long as I don’t put a face on the pumpkin, I am more than happy to eat one! Pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, pumpkin soup, pumpkin anything - and especially pumpkin ice cream.

canned pumpkin added to the mix

Of course, I went straight to David Lebovitz’ book for a recipe, but didn’t find one. I noodled around the internet and essentially turned David’s vanilla ice cream recipe into a pumpkin ice cream recipe.

spiced custard base

In the interest of time and sanity, I used canned pumpkin. The ice cream isn’t so much a pumpkin ice cream as a pumpkin pie ice cream. I like pumpkin. I love pumpkin pie. Er, I mean I luv punkin’ pai. I like the ice cream, but I think Jeremy turned our freezer down (colder) and it was as solid as granite. As it thawed, the texture was a little more like semifreddo than creamy ice cream. I think there was too much liquid in the pumpkin. Maybe if I used fresh roasted pumpkin purée instead?

Pumpkin Ice Cream

1 cup milk
2 cups cream
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar (perhaps use brown sugar)
6 egg yolks
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
15 oz. can of pumpkin purée, unsweetened (perhaps puréed roasted pumpkin)
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground ginger

Warm the milk, sugar, 1 cup of cream, and salt in medium saucepan. Scrape seeds from the vanilla bean into the warm milk and add the bean as well. Cover and remove from the heat. Let steep at room temperature for 30 minutes. Pour the remaining cup of cream into a large bowl and set a mesh strainer on top. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs yolks. Slowly pour the warm cream mixture into the egg yolks while whisking constantly. Scrape the mixture back into the saucepan and stir it constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula until mixture thickens and coats the spatula. Pour custard through strainer and stir it into the cream. Put the vanilla bean into the custard, add the vanilla extract, pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger. Stir until cool over an ice bath. Chill the mixture completely in the refrigerator. When ready to churn, remove the vanilla bean (rinse it and reserve it for another use) then freeze the mixture according to the ice cream maker’s instructions.

Whoa, it’s been a while! But I’m finally back to my Daring Bakers Challenge, this time with pizza thanks to our awesome hostess, Rosa of Rosa’s Yummy Yums. I was thrilled that she picked a nominally savory (you could make it sweet, and I’m sure Tartelette did!) recipe.

the daring bakers: we knead to bake!

The only pizza dough I’ve made is the recipe out of the KitchenAid recipe book. You know the one I’m talking about - the book that comes with the KitchenAid stand mixer. It’s a good recipe and we have taken to making thin crust pizzas with it. This month’s challenge was a little different. For one thing, it required cold water instead of warm water.

cold water

That’s because it called for instant yeast instead of active dry yeast. What’s the difference? Funny you should ask. There is indeed a difference. I know this because I used active dry yeast the first time, thinking it was the same. It is not the same.

pouring olive oil

When I made the pizza dough with active dry yeast, the yeast never activated and we didn’t get that lovely aroma when the dough baked, or those nice pockets of air in the bread… Since it was thin crust, we could overlook the mistake and it was fine, just not delicious.

the dough

The second time around, I had instant yeast in hand. See, I’m trainable. I noticed that this dough wanted to jump out of the mixer, so I took it out and kneaded by hand - which is a really therapeutic activity.

chopping into 6ths

brushing with oil (i had no spray thingy)

The dough balls went into the refrigerator overnight. The next day after they had been out for 2 hours, it was time to toss the dough. Problem with that is I’ve had tendonitis in my wrist for over a month and it was nearly impossible to toss the pizza and get a shot of it. I asked Jeremy to try it, but I could see that was going nowhere fast. I stretched the dough on my fists, but no tossing. They turned out well enough.

favorite toppings: mushroom and pepperoni

I kept the toppings simple since this was our second go of it. I also used sauce from a jar because my patience was wearing *this* thin. We don’t have a pizza stone and my pizzas were small enough that they worked just fine on a baking sheet (right side up). I let ours bake for 10 minutes instead of 8. I’m not sure if that is because I like my pizzas more bubbly or because our altitude requires more cooking time.

right outta the oven

The crust was beautifully crispy with that wonderful yeasty flavor of fresh bread. Jeremy ate two of the pizzas in one evening. I had a good time of it and now I have two pizza dough methods to choose from when I want to make pizza. Thanks so much to Rosa for hosting. Be sure to check out the rest of the Daring Bakers’ creations this month and pay homage to our beloved founders Lis and Ivonne

awesome!

Basic Pizza Dough
Original recipe taken from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice by Peter Reinhart

Makes 6 pizza crusts, about 9-12 inches/23-30 cm in diameter.

4 1/2 cups all purpose flour, chilled
1 3/4 tsps salt
1 tsp instant yeast
1/4 cup olive oil or vegetable oil (both optional, but it’s better with)
1 3/4 cups water, ice cold (40° F/4.5° C)
1 tbsp sugar
cornmeal for dusting

day one
Mix together the flour, salt and instant yeast in a big bowl (or in the bowl of your stand mixer). Add the oil, sugar and cold water and mix well (with the help of a large wooden spoon or with the paddle attachment, on low speed) in order to form a sticky ball of dough. On a clean surface, knead for about 5-7 minutes, until the dough is smooth and the ingredients are homogeneously distributed. If it is too wet, add a little flour (not too much, though) and if it is too dry add 1 or 2 teaspoons extra water. [NOTE: If you are using an electric mixer, switch to the dough hook and mix on medium speed for the same amount of time.The dough should clear the sides of the bowl but stick to the bottom of the bowl. If the dough is too wet, sprinkle in a little more flour, so that it clears the sides. If, on the contrary, it clears the bottom of the bowl, dribble in a teaspoon or two of cold water. The finished dough should be springy, elastic, and sticky, not just tacky, and register 50°-55° F/10°-13° C.] Flour a work surface or counter. Line a jelly pan with baking paper/parchment. Lightly oil the paper. With the help of a metal or plastic dough scraper, cut the dough into 6 equal pieces (or larger if you want to make larger pizzas). [NOTE: To avoid the dough from sticking to the scraper, dip the scraper into water between cuts.] Sprinkle some flour over the dough. Make sure your hands are dry and then flour them. Gently round each piece into a ball. [NOTE: If the dough sticks to your hands, then dip your hands into the flour again.] Transfer the dough balls to the lined jelly pan and mist them generously with spray oil. Slip the pan into plastic bag or enclose in plastic food wrap. Put the pan into the refrigerator and let the dough rest overnight or for up to thee days. [NOTE: You can store the dough balls in a zippered freezer bag if you want to save some of the dough for any future baking. In that case, pour some oil(a few tablespooons only) in a medium bowl and dip each dough ball into the oil, so that it is completely covered in oil. Then put each ball into a separate bag. Store the bags in the freezer for no longer than 3 months. The day before you plan to make pizza, remember to transfer the dough balls from the freezer to the refrigerator.]

day two
On the day you plan to eat pizza, exactly 2 hours before you make it, remove the desired number of dough balls from the refrigerator. Dust the counter with flour and spray lightly with oil. Place the dough balls on a floured surface and sprinkle them with flour. Dust your hands with flour and delicately press the dough into disks about 1/2 inch/1.3 cm thick and 5 inches/12.7 cm in diameter. Sprinkle with flour and mist with oil. Loosely cover the dough rounds with plastic wrap and then allow to rest for 2 hours. At least 45 minutes before making the pizza, place a baking stone on the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven as hot as possible (500° F/260° C). [NOTE: If you do not have a baking stone, then use the back of a jelly pan. Do not preheat the pan. Jen used a regular baking sheet, not the back of it.] Generously sprinkle the back of a jelly pan with semolina/durum flour or cornmeal. Flour your hands (palms, backs and knuckles). Take 1 piece of dough by lifting it with a pastry scraper. Lay the dough across your fists in a very delicate way and carefully stretch it by bouncing it in a circular motion on your hands, and by giving it a little stretch with each bounce. Once the dough has expanded outward, move to a full toss. [NOTE: Make only one pizza at a time.] During the tossing process, if the dough tends to stick to your hands, lay it down on the floured counter and reflour your hands, then continue the tossing and shaping. In case you would be having trouble tossing the dough or if the dough never wants to expand and always springs back, let it rest for approximately 5-20 minutes in order for the gluten to relax fully,then try again. You can also resort to using a rolling pin, although it isn’t as effective as the toss method. When the dough has the shape you want (about 9-12 inches/23-30 cm in diameter - for a 6 ounces/180g piece of dough), place it on the back of the jelly pan, making sure there is enough semolina/durum flour or cornmeal to allow it to slide and not stick to the pan. Lightly top it with sweet or savory toppings of your choice. Slide the garnished pizza onto the stone in the oven or bake directly on the jelly pan. Close the door and bake for about 5-8 minutes. [NOTE: After 2 minutes baking, take a peek. For an even baking, rotate 180°.] If the top gets done before the bottom, you will need to move the stone or jelly pane to a lower shelf before the next round. On the contrary, if the bottom crisps before the cheese caramelizes, then you will need to raise the stone or jelly. Take the pizza out of the oven and transfer it to a cutting board or your plate. In order to allow the cheese to set a little, wait 3-5 minutes before slicing or serving.

I typically encounter few problems when cooking or baking things that I eventually post on Use Real Butter. There may be some recipes that I merely feel “meh” about and hold off posting those for times when I’m out of posting material. And then there are times, like this past week, when I try a recipe and it didn’t come out as I had hoped. This actually happened with TWO such recipes and the end results are kind of important to me (okay, okay, I AM OCD). I even told Tartelette I wasn’t sure I wanted to bother redoing them this weekend. But redo them I did… and with the proper results. That makes me feel better.

Most of today was spent working on a rather odd project that I’m pretty sure not a one of you has ever embarked on making before. More on that tomorrow. I’m quite jazzed about it.

The other day I had a few Granny Smith apples lying about with no designated purpose. I didn’t think too much about them until I was working out and the thought of caramelized apples bounced into my head. I tossed about the idea of a deconstructed apple crisp, but I’m not as keen on deconstruction as say… reconstruction. If you will recall the apple cranberry crisp from not to long ago, I went for the same theme, but different presentation.

the oatmeal streusel topping pressed into tartlet pans

I sliced up the apples and browned them in sugar and butter until caramelized and gooey. Smelled heavenly. They cook down to a pretty small yield, so I suggest one apple per 4-inch tartlet shell.

cooking the apple slices

The shells came out rather crunchy. Even though I love crunchy, these were too hard to break through easily with a fork. Perhaps I should have made them much thinner, or cooked them for less time. I think the next time, I will use a short dough with some oatmeal mixed in for the shells.

fill with caramelized apples

I had some homemade vanilla ice cream and cranberry sorbet in my freezer. Adding a few scoops to the tartlet, I was able to recreate the flavors from the crisp, but in different form.

apple cranberry crisp revisted

Apple Tartlets with Vanilla Ice Cream and Cranberry Sorbet

crust
1 1/4 cups flour
1 cup rolled instant oats
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar (packed)
3/4 cup unsalted butter, soft

apples
4 apples (Granny Smith or other tart and crisp apple), peeled, cored, sliced
4 tbsp butter
4 tbsp sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

vanilla ice cream
cranberry sorbet

Cut the sugars into the softened butter. Mix in the flour and oats until coarse crumbs are formed. Press the dough into 4-inch tartlet pans (I got 4, but maybe I should have made them thinner and gotten 6). Bake at 350F for about 10 minutes or until just golden. Remove from pans and let cool on cooling rack.

Melt the butter in a saucepan. Toss the apples with the sugar and then add to the saucepan. Add the cinnamon. Cook the apples over high heat, stirring the apples until they brown and the sugar and butter turn to a thick caramel. Remove from heat.

Fill the tartlet shells with caramelized apples. Top with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a scoop of cranberry sorbet.