Pie of the Month - July

I am starting this post with a picture of some tarts from my local patisserie

(yes, we have one in Cathays!). You need to at least see something pretty on here today.

Fail Pies. Bin Pies. Awful Tarts. You can call July's pie whatever you like, just don't attempt to eat them.

Remember this? Well, I am learning from Judy's bravery and coming out with the truth. Just don't judge me, OK? This isn't going to be pretty.

July was a VERY busy month for me. I had no time to bake anything at all, and as a result, there were few blog posts, and no pie of the month. I also didn't get a chance to make Sanjana's lamington recipe for Lamington Day on 21 July, which is doubly awful because I wanted to try making srikhand.

Anyway, I had it all planned out. I was going to make some pandan egg custard tarts, like the ones I always order in Chinese bakeries. Turns out that you need special mini-tart moulds which are shockingly over-priced in Cardiff, so I decided to just wing it with a mini muffin tin I use for mince pies at Christmas. Oh, and to use pre-made puff pastry.

(If this were an episode of Air Crash Investigations, now would be the point at which the narrator chillingly announces that 'Although the flight crew don't yet know it, the seeds of disaster have already been sown...')

I am not even going to give you the recipe. Or talk about this anymore. I am just sorry that I wasted some of my lovely pandan extract and delicious eggs on this rubbish.

Learn from this people. July is not for pie.

But August will have one, and I shall be back next week with macarons!

Adios.

No food styling for these. As if they're fit for anything but the bin. (Actually, we did eat them.)

Cooking Fears: Genoise Cake and Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Life is too short to wear cheap shoes. It's also too short to drink cheap wine, but most people already know and agree on that. I have a feeling though that you might not be with me on the shoes, so allow me to explain my thinking. Please.

I always flinch when I see the cost of footwear in shops. But when you consider how long you'll wear a good pair of boots for, and how frequently, the cost per wear falls quickly. I bought some brown leather ones in New York a few years ago, and messed up the exchange rate (read: I was schmoozed into buying them by the very friendly shop assistant, and didn't bother to work it out). It was only when my Mastercard bill came the following month that I realised my error, and told myself that I was going to have to wear them at least three times a week over the next three years to make them cost effective. Fortunately, they combine impeccable style with unbelievable comfort and I have not once regretted the purchase. Unlike my cheap sandals from Muji which gave me a blister that took a month and a half to heal. Vile.

One strawberry, or many? It's a tough decision to make.

They have met with the fate of untold numbers of well-heeled Cardiffians' shoes though: worn down soles. It's all this traipsing around on Victorian paving slabs.

Anyway, I thought they were ready for the bin, and was distraught. I'm not in a position, financially speaking, to be chucking money around at the moment. New shoes would mean reverting to my lentils and rice diet, and I had enough of that last month. So I had them re-heeled, which was a first for me. And readers: it should be a first for you too. I have new old shoes, and at a bargain price.

Rewarding first time experiences are great. Like making genoise cake, and Swiss meringue buttercream. I had put it off long enough. I would no longer be slave to my fears. Just because I don't have a Kitchen Aid, does it mean I can't make these things? They both pre-date the stand mixer after all.

Genoise. Nude. Shock!

Rose Levy Beranbaum helped me out on this one. I can't tell you enough that you should buy her book. Buy it. Buy it. Buy it. It'll change the way you bake forever. And it's really cheap on Amazon right now.

Proof that I did this without a stand mixer. What are you waiting for?

Life is too short not to make genoise cakes and Swiss meringue butter cream. Get on it.


Genoise Cake
(from Rose's Heavenly Cakes

You will need:

50g melted butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

5 large eggs at room temperature

125g caster sugar

66g plain flour

60g cornflour or potato starch

Optional jasmine syrup:

60g sugar
60ml water
1 tsp jasmine extract

1. Grease and line a 24cm cake tin. Flour the sides too. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C.
2. Warm the butter: if it contains lots of residue (using unsalted will limit this), pass it through a strainer. Add the vanilla, and pour into a small bowl.
3. Bring a sauce pan of water to a simmer and place a heatproof bowl over it. To the bowl, add the eggs and sugar; stir until just warm to the touch.
4. Remove the bowl from the heat, and beat the egg mixture with electric hand beaters on high speed for at least 5 minutes until it has more than quadrupled in volume.
5. Sift together the flour and cornflour. Remove a little of the egg mixture and whisk it into the bowl with the melted butter and vanilla and set aside.
6. Working quickly, fold in half of the flour mixture into the egg mixture and once it is incorporated, fold in the rest.
7. Scrape down the bowl to insure all the flour has been incorporated and then fold in the butter mixture. Immediately pour into the prepared cake tin.
8. Bake for 20-30 minutes until the top is golden brown and the sides begin to slightly pull away from the pan.
9. Make the syrup: heat the sugar and water in the microwave until dissolved; add the extract.
10. Once out of the oven, turn out the cake onto a wire rack immediately. Cool completely before brushing with the syrup, and icing with strawberry meringue buttercream.

Strawberry Meringue Buttercream
from (Martha Stewart's Cupcakes)

2 large egg whites
1/2 cup sugar
175g butter, at room temperature
2 tsp vanilla
100g strawberries

1. Purée the strawberries. Set aside.
2. Place the egg whites and sugar in a heatproof bowl over simmering water. Stir until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture feels warm to the touch. Remove from the heat.
3. Beat the egg whites and sugar for 10 minutes until stiff peaks form.
4. Add the butter a little at a time and beat in.
5. Beat two minutes more, and then add the purée. Mix in and use immediately, or keep in the fridge for up to three days.

Pie of the Month - May

I swore when making this here pie that I would never attempt pastry again.

No, that's not a positive way in to this, but it is the truth. I think that making pastry on a baking hot day is anyway only mere steps away from full-blown madness, but I had to otherwise we'd have no pie for May. In addition to the heat, the phone would NOT STOP ringing. Sales calls. Recorded messages. The lot. I thought I was going to have to kill myself when I came back after the last call I bothered to answer (stopping to wipe my hands and de-flour and butter myself, as I had done for each and every one of the other calls) to find that my second batch of pastry (for the pie lid) had dried out in the heat and would not roll out.

Stress pie!

But I didn't. I just ran out to the Co-Op and bought a sheet of puff pastry. I wasn't about to make more of my own shortcrust - far too frustrated for that.

Anyway, this month's pie is a butter pie, special delicacy of the North West of England. Not the bit that I am actually from, but the bit slightly further up where my family had the greengrocers. It's a butter pie!

Butter pie is basically just buttered potatoes and onions baked in pastry. Yup. That's it. I know how that sounds, but just think about how good tortilla is for it's simple savoury goodness, and you're there.




Wikipedia tells us that:

The butter pie is thought to have been created for workers from Lancashire's Catholic community, to consume on days (mainly Friday) when meat could not be eaten. To older generations, they are sometimes known as 'Catholic pies' or 'Friday pies'.

I have never heard them called either of those things, but thankfully, I am not yet a member of 'the older generation'. I've also never seen them served 'on a barm cake', but that would be something special!

Yeah, I've gone white trash now. I keep Trex in the fridge...

I made this recipe up, and I think anyone making a butter pie would just use whatever quantities fit their dishes. I think if I made it again though, I wouldn't bother making the pastry, as although it's traditional to make it with shortcrust, the puff was lovely. And obviously, nobody ever makes that themselves.

Apologies for the poor quality photos. I was stressed in the kitchen for this!

Ee up duck, let's gerron wit' recipe.

Butter Pie

You will need:

shortcrust pastry made with half butter/half Trex or lard (for a short crust, aptly enough), or use bought puff pastry
potatoes
1 onion
butter
salt and pepper

1. Peel and cut the potatoes into chunks. Boil until just soft; drain.
   
2. Fry the chopped onion in plenty of butter. Go slowly, and don't let it brown.
3. Line a pie dish with pastry.
4. Layer the potatoes and onions in the lined pie dish. Add LOTS of salt and pepper, and dot with more butter. Be generous.
5. Use the leftover pastry to make a pie lid. Bake in a 200°C oven until browned and piping hot throughout. Mine took about 45 minutes.
6. Serve hot or cold, in generous slices.
   

Pear and Apple Butter

This is not quite what it sounds like. Fruit butters, according to Pam 'the Jam' Corbin, who helps with the Preserving Days at Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage, are so named because they spread as 'soft as butter', but are actually more like a low sugar jam. The method she gives for cider apple butter in Preserves is for an apples-only fruit butter, and involves cooking apples with spices and cider, then sieving the fruit and boiling the pulp with sugar. When cooled, the mixture sets firm, yet melts when spread onto hot toast or crumpets - just like butter.

I love the idea of preserving. I think it's really nice to be able to squirrel something away for winter, or any time of year when whatever it is you are preserving is out of season or not readily available. The deep freeze is an option, of course, and is great for some fruit or vegetables - like raspberries, peas or beans - but not everything. I did consider freezing the left over pears as a purée, but decided against it. Who wants a freezer full of puréed pears? Not me.

Thus I decided to adapt Pam's recipe to include pears. I retained the cider, because I had a bottle in the fridge (of Gwynt y Ddraig, which is Welsh, wonderful and fairly local to me), and her choice of spices, which seemed sensible.

I have tried preserving before, but not always with great success. Last Christmas, Mr. Other P and I made chutney which nobody, including us, liked very much, and the chilli jam we made at the same time didn't set, which was upsetting to say the least. But our pickled onions were out of this world, and we are dab hands at sloe gin. I am happy to say that this pear and apple butter is going on the 'good list', too. Since opening the first jar, I have had some every morning, on toast, and love everything about it - it is thick, juicy, intensely fruity, and gently spiced with cloves and cinnamon. My plan was to give most of it away as presents - a jar of this would be a great Christmas gift - but I like it so much I'll probably keep at least two more jars for myself. If you have similar plans, don't taste it; you won't want to share.

A final word: don't let the fact that you need sterilised jars put you off. Just wash whatever jars and lids you have in hot, soapy water and rinse them, then dry off on a baking sheet in a low oven (I always stick empty jam jars in a box in the shed, so have a ready supply -you can use the lids they came with). This is a really easy recipe - quick enough to get done in one go after dinner on a week night, and great fun to boot.

Pear and Apple Butter

You will need:

1kg pears, peeled, cored and chopped
500g Bramley apples, chopped (don't peel or core - you need the pectin)
juice of 2 lemons
600ml cider
600ml water
sugar (amount follows)
half tsp ground cinnamon
half tsp ground cloves

1. Put apples, pears, water and cider in a large pan and simmer until fruit is soft. If your cider comes in a 500ml bottle, don't worry - just make up the difference in water. Or get another bottle and drink what you don't use! :)
2. Push the mixture through a large sieve to pulp the fruit. The seeds and peel from the apples will be left behind - how convenient!
3. Measure the fruit pulp. Add 300g sugar for every 600ml pulp, and return to the pan. Add spices, and slowly bring to the boil, stirring. When sugar has dissolved, boil rapidly without stirring for about twenty minutes, until the mixture is thick and creamy. Pam says it should splutter - I didn't really notice, but it came out fine, so don't worry if you have quiet butter.
4. Pour into your hot, sterilised jars. Fill to the top, and seal immediately. Don't be shocked when you hear the popping sound of the safety seals on the lids about 3o minutes later - it just means you've created a vacuum, which is what you want!
5. Once opened, refrigerate.