When BBC Good Food India wrote to me saying they would like to feature Passionate About Baking as their blog of the month, my heart skipped a beat! BBC Good Food UK is one of my favourite magazines, and their newsletter is one I eagerly await in my mailbox. This time around BBC Good Food was all set to enter the Indian market. I created these Apple Brown Sugar Meringue Pies for the feature!I love the way BBC Good Food follows seasons, is full of refreshing new takes on meals and recipes while offering you traditional fare alongside. The first issue of the India edition is pack to the gills with FOOD … ♦ eat in ♦ eat out ♦ eat away ♦.The inaugural issue has over a 100 triple tested . Turn the pages to find mouthwatering standout Pan Asian, no fuss Mediterranean, stunning desserts, delicious one pots {veggie}, everyday value meals … and Gordon Ramsay’s panna cotta’. The cover tempts you with the words … Life is Sweet!
To learn more about BBC GoodFood India you can stop by here and here. Also do join the BBC Good Food India survey which comes with the promise of great rewards. One lucky participant stands to win a culinary holiday to the Fontana fredda vineyards in Italy. Other prizes include a gift pack containing a voucher for two for a great dining experience at any of three fabulous restaurants in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore – Olive Bar & Kitchen, Manchester United Café and Aromas of China.
Not so long ago I made an Upside Down Mango Quark Cheseecake inspired from a recent issue of the BBC Goodfood newsletter. For my feature in the magazine, I decided to go with apples since they spell the essence of the season for me. I made these little pies, topping them with brown sugar meringues because I find meringues entirely charming!Apples suddenly seem to offer me never ending inspiration and each time I look at them, I think of the million possibilities. I had some whites on hand {waiting for macarons that didn’t take shape}, so I toyed with an apple version of the lemon meringue pie. The pies were fun, delicious fun!Each bite was full of autumnal warmth … apples, cinnamon, brown sugar, walnuts. Can’t go wrong with those flavours this season, can you? The brown sugar meringue reminded me of little Cocos tufts on her head. She’s always around … always curious!
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This recipe is off to “Cook.Eat.Delicious-Desserts!” @ Simply Food where the month’s theme is Apples .
“I think if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what’s next.”
Steve Jobs
It’s been a sad last week. Think apple and think Steve Jobs, a man whose vision and brilliance silently and beautifully changed the way we look at things. He brought beauty into our everyday lives, gave ‘A is for apple’ a new meaning, i-tuning our very existence.With his passing away, the world lost an icon, a genius who became an inspiration and a daily connect to millions across the world. I long to get a Mac one day to add to the rest of my i-stuff. RIP Steve Jobs … these simple Bite Sized Apple Pies are a tribute to your brilliance!Apple seems to be ruling my thoughts of late. A few days ago I received a fabulous new cookbook, a book intriguingly called ‘The Apple Lover’s Cookbook‘ by Amy Traverso. I was the lucky winner at a giveaway sponsored by Pam & Kristy @ Three Many Cooks, and Kristy was sweet enough to mail it to me from the US. Gracias!! This is a book made of ‘apple dreams‘, quite the perfect book for Fall. For me, autumn means mainly apples and the book is bursting with apple ideas. Boomarked to make are Apple Chips with Spiced Yogurt Dip, Apple Clafoutis, Squash & Apple Gratin, Oatmeal Apple Pancakes, Baked Apple Oatmeal Pudding, Buttermilk Apple Buckle, Williamsburg Wrapples, Apple Brownies, Quick Bread-and-Butter Apple Pickles, Classic Applesauce. Who would have thought there could be a book deliciously dedicated to this wonderful fruit, a fruit Amy aptly refers to as the fruit of the future.
It’s the Secret Recipe Club time of the month again, another month that threatens to get over even before it begins. The kids are home for an autumn break, the pup on the threshold of doggie terrible teens and a wedding in the family are quite an explosive and happening combination. To add to it, our entire region has been hit by unprecedented power cuts that leave us ‘powerless‘ for almost 6-8 hours a day.
The Secret Recipe Club is the brainchild of Amanda of Amanda’s Cookin’.The idea behind the club – Each month you are “assigned” a participating food blogger to make a recipe from. It’s a secret, so don’t tell them you are making something from their blog! Click on the link if you want to join!!
Sometimes it’s difficult to keep up, and my post is a day late even though I managed to bake these pies in 2 batches 2 days ago when I scrabbled for my assigned secret site – Mrs Happy Home Maker. With a name like that, happiness for the home maker in me was guaranteed. Since I had apple on my mind, I narrowed my search to just that. To my delight the lovely lady Crystal loves apples too! I was short on time and done in by power-cuts, so these Bite Sized Apple Pies seemed perfect! Of them Crystal says, “These apple pies come in a tiny package, but they have a BIG flavor. Only 5 ingredients & you can have them ready to gobble up in 30 minutes too, and that’s probably my favorite part. It’s like apple pie on demand.”CUTE is the word. You must look at the Happy Homemakers post as she guides you through wrapping these up as ‘mummies‘! I did a ‘roll’ up to save time as my pastry wasn’t so well behaved given the warmish weather. The filling is adapted from Williamsburg Wrapples from the Apple Lover’s Cookbook. Once baked, these pies were delicious and gone in a heartbeat; the best little bites I’ve made in a while. {I used the left over pastry trimmings to make Pinktober ribbons for a few pies}. Simpler if you have refrigerated pie crust on hand, but simple even if you decide {or have to, as in my case} make your own. An absolute joy to make, delightful as they came out of the oven, they filled the house with warm fall flavours. The pastry stayed crisp even after the bites cooled down, and were a huge hit. With a drizzle of unsweetened cream, or without, we enjoyed them loads. Must thank the very talented and fun Crystal, the face behind Mrs Happy Homemaker for these pies on demand. So glad I met you via the SRC!Crystal writes a real fun blog, full of exciting new ideas like ‘Making’ you crave Mondays’ and ‘Crazy Cooking Challenges’. She tempts you to delve deep into her blog with her energy and step by step pictures.
“Looks like you could use an extra hand.”
American Pie
We’re already trotting through the second week of September, the days are whizzing by! Just when I thought I’d done the SRC for the month, a Plum Almond Ginger Summer Fruit, I found a reminder in my inbox. Whoa we’re into the next month, a race against time as always, yet this club is fun! I made delicious Apple Strawberry Basil Hand Pies that I picked & adapted from Beantown Baker, my secret blog for September.
The idea behind the club – Each month you are “assigned” a participating food blogger to make a recipe from. It’s a secret, so don’t tell them you are making something from their blog! Click on the link if you want to join the fun!!
Jen @ Beantown Baker lives in Boston with her hubby and two cats. She works as an engineer by day, and is baker by night when she gets home and enjoys spending her free time in the kitchen. She loves all desserts and has a huge to-bake list. Her hubby serves as her number one taste tester and her lucky coworkers and friends get to enjoy baked goods on a regular basis. It was wonderful to explore her blog as we seem to have so much in common, beginning with a ‘love for baking’! It was like a treasure chest, I flitted from one post to another, so much to do and so little time! I thought I’d bake these utterly delicious looking Strawberry Peach Basil Bars but sadly the stone fruit season has drawn to an end. Then I chanced upon these Strawberry Hand Pies …YES!! I’ve been charmed by hand pies forever but have never got down to making these sweetly delicious sorts! They reminded me of pop tarts! I went with whatever fruit I had on hand… apples and frozen strawberries. In a last minute moment of inspiration, I threw in some fresh basil! YUM! I also tried a few different shapes, including a roll up and a lattice!They turned out to be delicious, though I think I rolled the dough a tad too thin. As Jen says, “The pastry dough is VERY easy to work with. And quite tasty.” I kept my pies vegetarian and gave the pastry a low fat cream wash, followed with a sprinkling of vanilla sugar. Hand pies are convenient food, great grub on the go and and can be sweet or savoury. Almost every culture has a version of their own, mostly baked.
Hand pies are semilunar-shaped pastries with either a sweet or savory filling, formed by placing a dollop of filling onto a circular piece of biscuit-style dough and then folding it over and crimping it shut. They may be baked, fried or deep-fried.
English Cornish pasties are said the most famous in this category, and go back to the 1800’s when miners wives would freshly bake shortcrust pastry with a beef filling, and pop the pies wrapped in a towel or newspaper into the miners pockets. Miners would hold the pies with the crimped edges, their hands dirty with arsenic and coal etc, eat the pie and throw away the crimped edge. Many countries have popular versions of hand pies. India has the addictive samosa, a savoury patty, deep fried and absolutely delicious. Traditionally with a stuffing of potatoes, peas {and sometimes cottage cheese and raisins}, the filling is wrapped in a triangle of pastry and deep fried. We munched through cartloads of these in school, college and while I was working. I have a Chicken Mince Cocktail Samosa posted here which makes for great cocktail / party snacks. Other versions include the Spanish empanada, the Italian calzone & Jamaican patties. Have you heard of any others? OK we have more … Malaysian curry puffs {thank you Jehanne@ The Cooking Doctor}, Indian gujiya {thank you Fahad @ Simply Fahad-istic}.
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Recipe: Apple Strawberry Basil Hand Pies
Summary: Delicious and comforting hand pies, charming bites somewhat like pop tarts. Dough from Alton Brown, filling from Dinner and Dessert, originally from Smitten Kitchen – makes about 15. Adapted from Beantown Baker
Prep Time: 15 minutes Total Time: 45 minutes Ingredients:
Pastry Dough
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
75gm unsalted butter, chilled
3/4 cup milk
Juice of 1/2 lime
Filling
3-4 apples, peeled, cored, diced small
1 cup frozen strawberries, chopped fine in processor
Juice of 1/2 lime
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
1/2 vanilla bean, scraped
Handful of fresh basil, chiffonaded
Glaze
2 tbsp low fat cream { or an egg wash of 1 egg mixed with 1 to 2 teaspoons water}
1 sachet vanilla sugar
Method:
Make the Filling
Toss all ingredients well in a big bowl, and keep aside.
Make the Pastry Dough
In the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Pulse for a few seconds and then pour into a large mixing bowl.
Add the shortening and knead it into the flour with your hands until it is crumbly.
Add the milk all at once and mix in with a spatula until it begins to come together.
Lightly flour your hands and the countertop and turn the dough out onto the countertop. Knead the dough ball, folding over 10 to 20 times. {Thermomix: Add flour, baking powder and salt to TM bowl. Run on Speed 6/5 seconds. Add remaining ingredients and run on Speed 6/ 7 seconds. Turn to knead and run for 1 minute.}
Using a rolling pin roll the dough to 1/3 to 1/2-inch thickness, then cut into rounds using a 2 1/4-inch ring. Roll each round as thinly as possible or to 5 to 6 inches in diameter.
Spoon 1 to 2 tablespoons of filling onto the dough, brush the edges of half of the dough lightly with the cream / egg wash, fold over and seal the edges together with the tines of a fork, dipping it into flour as needed. Gently press down to flatten and evenly distribute the filling and snip or cut 3 slits in the top of the pie.
Brush a little bit of cream / egg wash on the outside of the pie and sprinkle with vanilla sugar.
To bake pies, preheat the oven to 180C. Place finished pies onto a lined cookie sheet and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown.
Serve warm {after about 20 minutes as the filling can be very hot} or at room temperature. We liked them chilled too with a drizzle of unsweetened low fat cream as dessert!
“Cookery is not chemistry. It is an art. It requires instinct and taste rather than exact measurements.”
Marcel Boulestin
Yes, I was back at a delicious food blog, The Mansurov’s, a favourite, but lack of time the past 2 months has kept me away from most of my faves. I have no idea what happened to time, but can’t believe that it’s December already! Hello? Still so much to do before the year goes by, bookmarked posts to try, breads to bake, cookies to make, fruit to soak for the cake, drafts to finalise … time to hit the panic button! If 11 months flew by so fast, then the rest of 2010 will be gone in a heartbeat!I’ve always wanted to bake a chicken pie at home, ever since we had some at Harry’s in Sydney way back in November 2008. Harry’s pies were served with peas and mash, and probably had gravy too. It’s been on my list to make forever, but I’ve never found a recipe that appealed to me a 100%. I had a vision in my mind … it would have a yummy ‘chicken with veggies’ interior, held together by a luxurious creamy sauce, with this puff pastry top etc. I repeatedly ‘chickened’ out each time, and my home made puff pastry found other use.This time as well was the same, well almost. Push came to shove, and we had folk for dinner. I sorted out almost sorted out the menu, but couldn’t get the right main course. Browsing the net, I saw this at Lola’s and I just knew it had to be the one. Her opening lines were as delicious as the dish itself. Just the fact that this is where French cuisine met Russian had me virtually eating the julienne right off her blog. Seriously, something strangely beautiful happens to the flavours of the sauce when you roast the flour before you add the butter. I think Lola mentioned clarified butter somewhere in her conversation. Will try that the next time… mmm!It’s become a favourite in our house already. I’ve made it twice in the last 2 weeks. Am contemplating making a vegetarian version of the julienne, maybe using broccoli, mushrooms, roasted bell peppers and cauliflower. The sauce is creamy and comforting. Once it bakes with the chicken and mushrooms, and stands for a short while, it takes all the ingredients into a ‘warm embrace‘ of sorts. YES, it’s quite the dreamy chicken pie I’ve been waiting for!Changes? Yes, but just a few and more for want of substitution. No full fat cream available here, so I went with low fat cream. Added milk to thin the sauce out as mine was very thick the first time around. I added a grating of Gruyère, chopped garlic greens and roasted bell peppers too. The second time around, I sautéed chicken and mushroom in a huge wok and mixed the warm white sauce through. I then ladled them out into the ramekins. I found it easier to work this way as I was making the dish for a crowd. It’s a great make ahead main course dish, and nice for the hoilday season. You can set up the individual ramekins, or one large serving. Top with mozzarella at this time, {or even later}, cover it with foil and refrigerate it. Before serving, heat in the oven covered for about 15 minutes, and then grill for about 10 minutes on high until the cheese is bubbly and golden on the edges. Don’t skip the mozzarella and the pinch of cayenne … it does contribute beautifully to finishing the dish well!
Chicken, Mushroom & Roasted Pepper Julienne Adapted fromMansoravs Makes 12-14 small ramekins Prep: 45 mins | Bake: 20 mins | Oven: 180C Ingredients:
6 small breasts of chicken, cooked, chopped
200gms button mushrooms, sliced fine
3 cloves of garlic, chopped fine
1 large onion, chopped fine
4-5 stalks garlic greens, chopped fine
3 roasted bell peppers, red & yellow, chopped
3 tbsp vegetable oil
Salt to taste
1 tsp pepper
2 tbsp flour
50gm butter
200ml low fat cream {I use Amul 25% fat cream}
50gm Gruyère, grated {or cheddar}
1 1/4- 1 1/2 cup milk {as required}
200gms shredded mozzarella {I use Himalayan Buffalo Mozzarella}
Paprika Method:
Heat 3 tbsp oil in a large wok. Sauté the chopped onions, garlic and garlic greens until fragrant, and the onions begin to colour a bit. Add the chopped chicken and mushrooms, and stir fry on high heat till the liquid has evaporated. Season with salt & pepper, and red chili flakes if you like. Take off heat, stir in the roasted peppers, cover and keep warm.
Now make the white sauce.
In a dry heavy saucepan, gently roast the flour on very low heat till light brown and fragrant. Add the butter and stir through well. Almost immediately begin to pour the cream in, whisking with a balloon whisk constantly to avoid lumps getting formed. Follow the cream with about 3/4 cup of milk, keep stirring and adding more milk as required. The sauce should be thick, and will continue to thicken as it cools. Grate in some Gruyère or cheddar, a grating of nutmeg if you like, season with salt and once the cheese has melted through, mix it into the warm reserved chicken, mushroom, bell pepper.
Divide this equally into 12-13 ramekins, or turn into one big baking dish, top with mozzarella, a pinch of cayenne and bake at 180C for 15-20 minutes, until the cheese is bubbling and beginning to turn a little golden. Stand for about 10 minutes, and serve hot. Serving suggestions:Char-grilled broccoli salad, potato-mushroom croquettes, and a rustic garlic bread.
“It is, in my view, the duty of an apple to be crisp and crunchable, but a pear should have such a texture as leads to silent consumption.”
Edward Bunyard
They’re rolling off shelves this year; apples are ruling the bazaar. Rosy, red and delicious like in Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs, my heart leaps with joy when I see local varieties tempting us with almost a forbidden promise! No more guilt ridden shopping for imported fruit this year. The past few years saw a drastic fall in local apple production. Tempting, shiny rosy apples bore the Washington stamp, with Chinese Red Fuji and Australian Granny Smith jostling for space alongside – priced high and positively jet-lagged. This year has been wonderful with record breaking local production in the Kullu valley, which is nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas. A snowfall in the higher climbs of the mountains 2 days ago brought more relief to the native population of the region as prospects for an record high output shine! Good for them, and good for us too!
With local produce flooding the market, and the family reeling from an overdose of apple crumble, the next best option was apple pie, a first for me. I have loads of ‘apple to bake somethings‘ bookmarked, but had an open apple pie in my head! My father came by and dropped kilos of apples and small pears a few days ago. Some HAD to be baked, and the idea of a pie had me enchanted. The lad had seen me dig into cookbooks, turning pages, screeching to a halt at a delicious looking American Apple Pie. He had been on my case since, but I was in no mood to do a double pastry one. Calories had to be cut, and I decided that my next best bet was an open pie, and the tiny pears would go in too.
This was my first ever Apple Pie … and was it good! I added the pears to keep the apples company. The pie is baked for about an hour, loosely covered with foil. This way the apples get cooked but retain a bit of bite, the pears silently accompanying them {somewhat like the quote above says}! The walnuts and currants add to deep warm flavours, tying in nicely with the cinnamon and nutmeg. I let the pie cool for a bit to let the juices thicken. The hub liked it served warm with some low fat unsweetened cream, and the rest of us enjoyed it cold, with the cream of course!
Pears are an excellent source of dietary fiber and a good source of Vitamin C. An apple, on average, contains more antioxidants than a large vitamin C dose of 1,500 mg. Apples are also full of phytochemicals that help with antioxidant activity, as well as in preventing cancer. Antioxidants combat particles in the body called free radicals, which can significantly damage the cells and may contribute to the development of certain cancer types. Apples can help turn all this around … read more here
Which brings me to the mingle. I am happy to host Monthly Mingle this month, the brain child of lovely Meeta of What’s For Lunch Honey. Being a HUGE fan of ‘fruit in baking‘, it was my my natural choice for the theme. Trying to include fruit in bakes, keeping it seasonal as far as possible, continues to be a passion with me. I enjoy following fruits in season, and discovering what more I can do with them. I loved doing the Chocolate Plum Clafoutis that Meeta beautifully wove into the MM badge below, and also recently, a Quark Mousse with Roasted Balsamic Strawberries.If you bake with fruit this month, do send it to the Monthly Mingle. I will set the table up at the end of November, where we can meet over tea & coffee, fun, food, stories and laughter … and of course fruity bakes! Would love to see what you did with fruit this Oct/Nov, and yes, pumpkin is very much a fruit{Er, as is a tomato, well technically!!}. Also, If you don’t have a blog, but still have a picture, do drop me a mail at vindee{at}airtelmail{dot}in, and I will be happy to include you in the round-up.
Create a dish that fits the Fruit in Baking theme as described above, and post it on your blog from now till 22 Nov 2010 {Entries must be in English, please}.
Your creation should be prepared for the current Monthly Mingle theme and only shared with a maximum of 2 other blog events. Let’s try and keep the creations as fresh as the ingredients you use.
You must provide a link to this post and/or the official Monthly Mingle page.
Once you’ve posted your dish, please send your entries to vindee{at}airtelmail{dot}in with your name, location, post link and a 300px wide picture {not bigger than 1 MB}
I am kicking the event off with this ‘Open Apple & Pear Pie’, and hope you’ll join me with ‘FRUIT in BAKING’.
Apple & Pear Open Pie Pastry recipe and inspiration from Baking Course, Isabel Moore Shortcrust Pastry
1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
6 tbsp/80gm butter, chilled, cut into pieces
2-4tbsp iced water Method:
Run the flour and salt in the bowl of your food processor for a few seconds. Add butter and run until you get fine breadcrumb like mix.
Drizzle in 2 tbsp of water. The dough should begin to come together. Take out flour mix into a large bowl. Add another tbsp of chilled water, and knead the dough till it is smooth and silky. Add more chilled water if required, but make sure the dough is silky and pliable {This is important, else it won’t roll out}
Once it leaves the sides of the bowl cleanly, make into a ball, flatten, wrap in cling-wrap and chill for 30minutes. Filling:
4-5 medium apples, cored, peeled, diced
8-10 small baby pears, cored,peeled, diced
Juice of one large lime
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup black currants
2 tbsp cornflour
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg Method:
Toss the ingredients together in a large bowl as soon as the fruit is cut, mixing well. Assemble pie…
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Roll out the pastry to line a 9″ pie dish {greased if you like}, and line the dish. {I used a 10″ loose bottomed dish, so the dough fell slightly short}. Add the filling to the pie base, dot over with 2 tbsp of unsalted butter, and bake at 180C for 20 minutes. Then cover cover loosely with foil and bake for a further 40 minutes. Cool on rack. Allow to sit for a while so that the juices thicken. Note:Serve warm, at room temperature or chilled with unsweetened whipped cream, or a dollop of slightly sweetened cinnamon cream. Vanilla ice cream would certainly offer luxury on a warm slice!
