Cooking!

[Terry Y]

Apple Pie Time! (un-Pony-related)

For the crust: I like to have a full top and bottom crust on my pies, so this will make enough for both to fit on a 9-inch pie pan. Change it up however you like - lattice, for instance.

2.5 cups of all-purpose flour
0.5 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup of chilled butter (in most cases, that'll be two sticks) cut into cubes
6 tablespoons ice-cold water

Combine the flour and salt, then add the butter. Using a fork or a pastry cutter, mash them together until your dough is crumbly. You could use your hands for this, but that will melt the butter, which will lead to a less flaky crust, and make the finished dough harder to work with. Also, it's kinda messy.

Gradually add the cold water to the mix and work the dough until it becomes uniform in consistency. Place in your fridge, and chill for half an hour.

FOR THE FILLING!
Three large Granny Smith apples, peeled and sliced thin
A squirt of lemon juice to keep the apples from browning
1.5 cups brown sugar
Dash of kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2oz. your favorite brandy

Mix it all together and let it marinate for 30 minutes to one hour.

On a floured work surface, roll out your dough to about 1/4 inch. Make sure to make the top crust slightly larger than the bottom crust, to allow for shrinkage. Fill the pie and cover with the top crust. I like to add a bit of egg wash to the top for browning, but that's optional.

Bake at 425F (218C) for 40 to fifty minutes. Keep an eye on it, so it doesn't burn.

Leave to cool for one hour before fighting everyone off who wants a piece. I recommend the rolling pin for that job.

[D.B.]

Sweet & Sour sauce

So this recipe is basically just this one, with the quantities tweaked sightly, plus some added extras.

Ingredients:

• Pineapple juice (1 cup)
• Water (1/3 cup)
• White wine vinegar (3 table spoons)
• Soy sauce (1 table spoon)
• Brown Sugar (1/3rd cup, loose)
• Cornflour (2 table spoons)
• Half a red pepper
• Half an onion
• Chipotle paste (1 tea spoon)

Method:

• Chop the pepper + onion and fry them up
• Add everything else + stir
• Simmer until thick, then pour all over everything!

It doens't come out with the same neon red colour most chinese restaurant sauces seem to have, but it tastes just right.

[c_nordlander]

Wow, cool! I'm gonna have to try this sometime.

[archonix]

Chris made some sort of north african pastry thing stuffed with vanilla and almonds and whatnot. Very sugary sweet. It's delicious. Wish I had the recipe, but she'll be along shortly to wave it at you all I'm sure.

[c_nordlander]

Awww! I was just thinking of posting it actually.

These pastries seem to be known as "cornes de gazelle" (gazelle horns) in Europe, but Wikipedia tells me the actual Arabic name is ka'b al gazal="gazelle ankles". Which makes a bit more sense.

I'm posting the recipe I found online: when I actually made these, I didn't have orange blossom water or orange zest, so I used vanilla extract for a flavouring instead and cut out the coating step at the end. Vanilla worked really well, too.

Filling ingredients:
1 1/2 cup blanched slivered almonds
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon orange blossom water
1 tablespoon clarified butter, melted
1 egg white
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon finely grated orange zest

Pastry ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons clarified butter, melted
1 egg yolk
2 tbsp orange blossom water
water

Coating ingredients:
1/4 cup orange blossom water
1 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar + more for dusting

butter for greasing baking sheets

1. For the filling: pulverise the almonds and sugar to a rough powder, either by pulsing in a food processor or grinding in a mortar. (If using a mortar, don't take too much almonds at once or it will be difficult.) Mix in the other filling ingredients and continue to mix until it forms a stiff paste. Mold into a ball, wrap well, and refrigerate for at least 1h. (If you need to keep the filling for longer, it will keep for up to 48h if refrigerated.)

2. For the pastry: mix the pastry ingredients, either with an electric mixer or manually with a fork, adding as much water as is needed to make the dough come together. Continue to beat ca 2min or until the dough becomes smooth and elastic. Cover the bowl with a damp towel and leave at room temperature for 15min-2h.

3. Preheat oven to 250 Celsius. Grease two baking sheets.

4. Halve the dough and cover one half with a damp cloth while rolling out the other half on a lightly floured surface, to about 1/8 inch thick. Cut fairly large rounds (I used a wide glass as a cutter).

5. With your hands, roll 2 tablespoons of filling (or as much as you think you need) into a ball and place in the centre of each round. Brush the borders of the round with water, using a pastry brush. Fold each round into a half-circle around the ball of filling and press the edges to seal them. (The dough will stretch a bit, so don't worry if it looks like it won't cover the filling.) With a sharp knife, make three small slits on top of each pastry. Bend pastries backwards into a crescent shape and put them on the baking sheets, 1.5 inches apart. Do the same with the other half of the dough. Bake for roughly 10 minutes or until pale golden. (Some sugar from the filling might start melting and bubbling out of them if they're not sealed properly, at least this happened when I did it, but it doesn't hurt the flavour.)

6. Take out the pastries and let them cool for a few minutes. Working quickly, dip each hot pastry in a bowl of orange blossom water, then in the confectioner's sugar. Dust with more sugar if not completely cover. Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool.

Intensely sweet and really filling, so you won't need to eat many before you're satisfied.

[gkscotty]

I've been experimenting with baking. it seems to have gone pretty well!



not tasted yet.

[c_nordlander]

Hope they're as tasty as they look!

[gkscotty]

Tasted. A bit salty, but delicious!

I feel accomplished.

[c_nordlander]

You should. Baking is nowhere near easy.

[Tony_Baritone]

Just avoid any boaking accidents and you'll be fine. Hope they are indeed yummy.

[AssistantCrone]

They look glossy, puffy and delicious. :I

[Terry Y]

Holy crap! Where am I? This all seems so...familiar....

I figured my best way to come back would be posting here.

So...I love Bob's Burgers. And they came out with a cookbook. The recipes are actually legit, so I've been making quite a few of them.

[c_nordlander]

Terry! Welcome back!

That looks... good grief, I may be drooling a little. It's not hard to tell that you're a professional chef (and apparently a professional food photographer as well, if you took that photo).

[Terry Y]

So my wife Jenny got me a nice gift for my birthday: a smoker tube! Basically, it's a hollow metal tube with holes drilled in, and you can fill it with wood chips, seal it up, cover it with hot coals and turn your barbeque into a smoker! It has literally changed my life.

So when I got a whole chicken at the grocery store today, I thought I'd smoke it for about 30 mins before roasting. I was not disappointed.



The bird is seasoned with salt, pepper and a Mediterranean mix Jenny got from a friend. I stuffed it with a whole, smashed bulb of garlic, a lemon (cut in 2) and a few sprigs of fresh rosemary. The veggies on the bottom are onions, celery, carrots and fennel.

As I said before, I smoked it for 30 minutes, then transferred it to a 375F/195C oven for an hour, then let it rest for 20 minutes under a tent of tin foil.

This is without a doubt the tastiest chicken I've ever had in my life. To make it even better, Jenny sauteed some Brussels Sprouts, to which we added the roasted veg from the pan.

And now I'm gonna go sleep for a few days.

[Nidotamer]

... I'm hungry now. Well who am I kidding I'm always hungry but especially so now... You're pretty creative with foodstuffs!