Apple Cake

Apple Cake.  One of my favorite desserts.

Okay...  all desserts are my favorite desserts and the one I'm eating at the moment is my most favorite dessert.  I just love dessert.  I'll pass up the whole buffet and head straight to the sweets table.

And I'm not particular.  I hold a bowl of rice pudding to the same high esteem as a homemade apple pie or a gooey 6-layer cream cake.  Or a cookie.  Or a tart lemon tart.

I think my only real criterion is that they be hand-crafted.  Yes, there are lots of store-bought and/or packaged products out there and not all of them are engineered with ingredients whose sole purpose is to trick our taste buds into thinking we're eating something good.  But I really do prefer my desserts - and food in general - to be real.

Enter the Apple Cake.

It's beauty is in its simplicity.  It's a fantastic dessert and it's a wonderful Sunday Morning Coffee Cake.  You seriously get to have your cake and eat it, too.

Apple Cake

  • 3 cups flour
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1 cup oil
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 4 tsp sugar
  • 1/2 cup orange juice
  • 4 eggs
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 3 tsp baking powder
  • 5 large apples

Preheat oven to 350°.  Peel and cut apples into small chunks.  Add 4 tsp sugar and 2 tsp cinnamon and stir together.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and set aside.

Beat together eggs, OJ & vanilla.  Add oil, mix in flour mixture.

In a well-greased tube pan, pour alternate layers of batter and apples.  Sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on top.

Bake at 350° for 1 1/2 hours or until cake tests done.

Cool before slicing.

 

Enjoy!

05-01-11-apple-cake-1

 


Malt Shoppe Pie

In one of our Family Reunion Cook Books, my aunt and my cousin submitted a recipe for "Malt Shoppe Pie."  Essentially, ice cream, cool whip, and crushed malt balls spread into a chocolate cookie crust.  Very simple, and very yummy!

The cook books are well over 20 years old and none of us use cool whip, anymore, (or store-bought cookie crusts, for that matter) but a substitute of whipped cream and a homemade cookie crust took mere seconds.

And so worth those few seconds!

As with any cooking, the quality of the ingredients dictates the final result.  One can make an acceptable dessert using acceptable ingredients, or make a superior dessert using superior ingredients.

I have my feet planted in both worlds.  Sometimes "acceptable" is perfectly fine.  Other times, one wants to take it over the top. I made a variation of this a few years ago and put a chocolate ganache on top.  That was taking it over the top.

This version used really good ingredients - premium vanilla ice cream, real heavy cream (look at the ingredients on the next carton of heavy cream you buy - if it lists anything other than cream - don't buy it!) malt balls without partially hydrogenated fats or high fructose corn syrup, and vanilla bean vanilla wafers.

It makes a difference.

Malt Shoppe Pie

  • 2 cups vanilla wafer cookie crumbs
  • 3 tbsp butter, melted
  • 1 qt vanilla ice cream, softened
  • 1 cup heavy cream, whipped
  • 10 oz malt balls, crushed

Mix crumbs and butter and press into bottom of a 9" springform pan.  Bake at 350° about 10 minutes.  Cool.

Soften ice cream.  Whip cream and blend with ice cream.  Mix in malt balls.

Spread into cooked crust, cover with wrap and freeze.

You can cover with a ganache, sprinkle more crushed malt balls on top, or just serve it as-is.

It really does rock!

 

 


Nutella Pear Tart

Extra pastry dough is a great thing to have around the house.  Especially when Victor is in the kitchen!

We had a mere two pears in the house but he made do with a filling that really worked well!  We had chocolate bars and a jar of the chocolate hazelnut spread I made a while back.  Perfect filling for a pear topping!

Nutella Pear Tart

  • 1 pastry crust
  • 2 pears, sliced wafer-thin
  • 8 oz dark chocolate, melted
  • 1/2 cup nutella
  • 1/4 cup coffee

Roll out dough and place in tart pan.  Bake at 350° about 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Meanwhile, melt chocolate.  Stir in nutella and then add about 1/4 cup coffee.  Mix well.  Chocolate may appear to seize.

Spread evenly in warm tart shell.  Cover with thin-sliced pears.  Brush with fruit jam glaze.

Heavenly.


Chocolate Orange Cake

 

If chocolate cake is my friend, chocolate orange cake is my best friend.  Bestest best friend.

We have lots of recipes for cakes but when it comes to simple, basic, and never-fail, Victor heads straight to his battered copy of the Better Homes & Gardens Cook Book.

Cake-baking is a science, and it can either be a complicated science or an un-complicated science.  BH&G makes in uncomplicated.  Simple, basic ingredients and instructions.

He tweaked the basic chocolate cake recipe by adding orange zest and 1/2 cup orange juice to the batter (and cutting the milk by 1/2 cup.)  The icing is just butter and powdered sugar with orange zest and orange juice.  All fresh-squeezed, of course!

BH&G Best Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

  • 3/4  cup  butter, softened
  • 3  eggs
  • 2  cups  all-purpose flour
  • 3/4  cup  unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1  teaspoon  baking soda
  • 3/4  teaspoon  baking powder
  • 1/2  teaspoon  salt
  • 2  cups  sugar
  • 2  teaspoons  vanilla
  • 1-1/2  cups  milk

Directions

1. Allow butter and eggs to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, lightly grease bottoms of three 8-inch round baking pans or two 8x8x2-inch square or 9x1-1/2-inch round cake pans. Line bottom of pans with waxed paper. Grease and lightly flour waxed paper and sides of pans. Or grease one 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Set pan(s) aside.

2. In a mixing bowl stir together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder; and salt; set aside.

3. In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Gradually add sugar, about 1/4 cup at a time, beating on medium speed until well combined (3 to 4 minutes). Scrape sides of bowl; continue beating on medium speed for 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition (about 1 minute total). Beat in vanilla.

4. Alternately add flour mixture and milk to beaten mixture, beating on low speed just until combined after each addition. Beat on medium to high speed for 20 seconds more. Spread batter evenly into the prepared pan(s).

5. Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 35 to 40 minutes for 8-inch square pans and the 13x9x2-inch pan, 30 to 35 minutes for 8- or 9-inch round pans, or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool cake layers in pans for 10 minutes. Remove from pans. Peel off waxed paper. Cool thoroughly on wire racks. Or place 13x9x2-inch cake in pan on a wire rack; cool thoroughly. Frost with desired frosting. Makes 12 to 16 servings.

For the holidays, this also makes a great peppermint chocolate cake by substituting 1 tsp peppermint extract for 1 tsp vanilla.  And peppermint icing, of course!

Love It!


Bailey's Irish Cream Cheesecake

 

When Marie brought over the corned beef, she evidently said she would bring dessert.  Victor heard it but I missed that part.  And ya can't have people over for dinner without having dessert, so I decided a cheesecake was in order.  But since cheesecake is about as Irish as corned beef and cabbage (really - it's an American invention - they don't eat it in Ireland)  I thought I would at least give it an Irish twist.  Bailey's Irish Cream.

Cheesecake is one of my most favorite desserts - real cheesecake, that is.  There should only be a few ingredients.

Bailey's Cheesecake

The Crust:

  • 1/2 cup walnuts, coarsely ground
  • 1 cup chocolate cookie crumbs
  • 1 tbsp cocoa powder
  • 4 tbsp butter, melted

The Filling:

  • 4 pkgs cream cheese, room temperature
  • 4 eggs
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 4 oz melted good quality dark chocolate (I used Valrhona)
  • 1/2 cup Bailey's Irish Cream

Ganache:

  • 4 oz melted good quality dark chocolate
  • 4 oz Bailey's Irish ream

Preheat oven to 350º.  Mix crust ingredients and press evenly into bottom of 10″ springform pan.  Set aside.

Cream the cheese until light and fluffy.  Mix in eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add sugar and then the melted chocolate.  Add the Bailey's, mixing until smooth and light.

Pour into pan and bake 60 – 70 minutes. Remove from oven and cool.

Mix Bailey's with melted chocolate.  Spread ganache on top and refrigerate.

As if this wasn't enough, Marie brought over outrageously-good white cupcakes with coconut icing.

I had both.

 


Pear Pie

Ya know how sometimes you bake a pie and it just comes out perfect?!?

Well...  this isn't one of them.

It has chosen to break up and crumble.  It tastes pretty awesome, but those lovely slices just ain't there.  To misquote A Chorus Line, Taste Ten, Looks Three.

I actually know what I did wrong...  First was not baking off the cookie crust before filling.  The second was cutting it while it was still warm.

Oh well.  The important part is the taste.  It's a winner.

Pears are an often overlooked pie ingredient.  they really work well and can take on a variety of other flavors.  You can add raisins or walnuts change out the spices...  Just have some fun.

And if it doesn't come out in perfect slices?!?  So what?!?  Put it in a bowl with some ice cream.

Pear Pie with Ginger Cookie Crust

Crust:

  • 2 cups triple ginger snaps
  • 1/2 cup walnuts
  • 6 tbsp butter, melted
  • 1/4 cup sugar

Place cookies, walnuts, and sugar in food processor.  Process until you have a fine crumb.  Add butter and mix well.

Press into 10" pie plate. Bake in pre-heated 375° oven about 7 minutes. Cool before filling.

Filling:

  • 4-5 pears, peeled and sliced
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 4 tbsp butter
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 1 tsp allspice
  • 1 tsp cinnamon

Mix pears with dry ingredients.  Add butter and mix well.  Spoon into cooled pie crust.

Top with crumb topping and bake at 350° about 50 minutes.

Crumb topping:

  • 1 cup triple ginger snaps
  • 1/4 cup walnuts
  • 3 tbsp butter, melted
  • 2 tbsp brown sugar

Process as for pie crust.  Sprinkle atop pie before baking.

 


Chocolate Cake

 

The chicken soup made me feel better, so I made a chocolate cake.

A really yummy, strawberry-and-cream-filled chocolate cake.

The cake comes from Ina - the Barefoot Contessa.  Really simple.  It's definitely my go-to cake.  It's rich, moist, chocolaty, and the perfect recipe for making something dramatic and tall.  It calls for 8" round pans and I do think it's important to use them.   I have 3"-deep 8" round pans that weren't that expensive and really do make a difference when baking a cake.  Having some good quality cake pans really is the secret and if you're going to spend the extra five minutes to make a cake from scratch, it deserves a good pan!

Ina's Chocolate Cake

  • 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Butter two 8-inch round cake pans and line them with parchment paper; butter the paper. Dust the pans with flour, tapping out any excess.
  2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle, mix the flour with the sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt at low speed. In a medium bowl, whisk the buttermilk with the oil, eggs and vanilla. Slowly beat the buttermilk mixture into the dry ingredients until just incorporated, then slowly beat in the hot coffee until fully incorporated.
  3. Pour the batter into the prepared pans. Bake for 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of each cake comes out clean. Let the cakes cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then invert the cakes onto a rack to cool completely. Peel off the parchment paper.

I went a little overboard with the strawberries and cream.  I used a full two pounds of berries and 2 pints of whipped cream to put this thing together.  We're gonna have cake for a week.

After splitting the layers I spread the bottom layer with whipped cram, arranged halved strawberries, covered with more cream, added another layer, and repeated.

Totally decadent and totally fun.

And if you're looking for cake pans, try Fantes in South Philly.  They deliver.


Chocolate Cake

 

I'm a few days late with this one, but the cake was so good I thought I'd get it up here...

I don't use a lot of cake mixes but I do like to keep one on the shelf for those moments when I want a semi-instantaneous dessert.  I shy away from the national brands and their unnatural ingredients.  If I'm going to be a slug, I at least want to be a reasonably healthy slug.

Another thing I do is use 8" cake pans for layer cakes.

Most of the cake pans one finds at the grocery store or home store are 9" pans.  An 8" pan makes a higher layer that is much easier to split for additional fillings - and it makes a more impressive-looking finished cake.  Much more "bakery" professional.

And we do eat with our eyes...

Chocolate cake just screams for a berry filling and raspberry jam is a natural companion.  But another berry good companion is the raspberry's cousin, boysenberry.

Boysenberries are a cross between a raspberry, a blackberry, and a loganberry.  Loganberries are a cross between a raspberry and a blackberry.  It's a raspberry/blackberry/raspberry/blackberry.

And it makes a great jam!

Putting the cake together is simple.  Split the layers, spread the jam, and ice.

And here's a layer-splitting hint: To get an evenly-sliced layer, use dental floss!

Yes.  Dental floss.  Simply wrap the floss around the cake layer where you want it sliced and pull.  The floss slices right through the cake with no muss and no fuss. Just keep the two ends even as you pull.

Simple.


Nutella Sandwich Cookies

I LOVE La Cucina Italiana Magazine.  Love it.  Where else would one find a recipe to make homemade gianduja - a nutella-like spread - and in another issue, cookies using the spread as an ingredient and as a filling?

My tummy is smiling tonight!

The kudos for both recipes go to pastry chef  Karen DeMasco.  The cookie recipe is rather unique in that it calls for sauteing rolled oats in butter before adding them to the dough.  What a great idea!  The whole kitchen smelled great before I even started!

Both the gianduja and cookie recipe will be regulars at our house.  The spread will last easily a month on the shelf and three times that in the refrigerator (not that it's likely to last that long around here!)

I used a 1 tablespoon scoop and got 54 cookies from the batch.  Those will make 27 sandwich cookies.  That's a lot of cookie.  These guys are rich!

I used my homemade gianduja, but the recipe was created for off-the-shelf Nutella.

Nutella Sandwich Cookies

Recipe by Karen DeMasco

Ingredients

For the cookies:

  • 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) cold unsalted butter plus 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1 cup rolled oats (preferably Quaker)
  • 3/4 cup Nutella
  • 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour plus more for dusting
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 2 teaspoons kosher salt
  • 1/4 cup Demerara sugar (see Note)

For the filling:

  • About 1 cup Nutella

Special equipment: parchment paper

Instructions

For the cookies: Heat oven to 350º. Line 3 baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a large skillet, melt 4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter over medium heat. Add oats and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant and lightly golden, about 5 minutes; transfer oats to a large metal bowl and set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, combine room temperature butter, Nutella, brown sugar and granulated sugar. Beat on medium speed, frequently scraping down the sides of bowl, until fluffy and well combined, 3 to 4 minutes.

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt. In two additions, add flour mixture to butter mixture, mixing on low speed until well incorporated, then add oats and mix until dough comes together and oats are incorporated.

Lightly flour the palms of your hands. Scoop 1 level tablespoon dough, roll into a ball, then flatten to about 1/8-inch-thick. Place on a prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough, spacing cookies at least 1 inch apart. Sprinkle with Demerara sugar. Bake, rotating the pans halfway through, until the cookies are puffed and golden, 12 to 15 minutes. Transfer cookies on parchment paper to wire racks to cool completely. (Cookies can be stored, unfilled, in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.)

To fill the cookies: Using an offset spatula or butter knife, spread about 1 tablespoon Nutella over the flat sides of half of the cookies. Sandwich with remaining cookies, flat sides together.

Once filled, cookies are best same day, but can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days.

Note: Demerara is a natural brown sugar, an English version of turbinado sugar but with a slightly larger crystal size. When sprinkled on cookies and pie crusts, it adds sparkle and crunch. Turbinado is a good substitute while granulated sugar will work in a pinch.


Christmas Cookies

It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas!  It's almost semi-miraculous since the cold-from-hell had made my sniffer almost worthless.  But Christmas Baking waits for no man, so Typhoid Timmy headed in to the kitchen with Victor to make a batch of Aunt Emma's Apricot Cookies.

This was supposed to be the weekend Gino and Elizabeth baked cookies with us, but they wisely chose to stay out of the quarantine area.  There will be more cookies and other years.

(And yes, the hands were washed often and no sneezing or coughing over the cookies occurred.)

Victor had made the apricot filling yesterday and made the dough this morning.  My job this year was to roll and cut.  It's the easy part.

The dough was perfect.  Very easy to roll and cut.

Victor did the filling and forming.  Definitely the more labor-intensive part of the job.  I know.  It's the job I usually do.  he had me roll this year.  I immediately agreed!

Aunt Emma's Apricot Cookies

Filling:

  • 1 pound dried apricots, chopped fine (soaked overnight – we soak in apricot brandy!)
  • 3 cups sugar
  • grated lemon rind (we use about a tablespoon – the amount was never specified)

Drain apricots. Place in saucepan with lemon rind, sugar, and water to cover. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and cook until water is absorbed.  Be really careful — it burns easily.  Cool.

Dough:

  • 2 pkg dry yeast
  • 5 cups flour
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/2 pound lard (Yes, lard. Shortening just doesn’t cut it.)
  • 4 egg yolks
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 1 shot whiskey
  • Juice and rind from 1 lemon

Proof yeast with 1 tsp sugar and 1/4 cup warm water.  Cut lard into flour, as you would for a pie dough.  Make a well in the mixture and add all the other ingredients, including yeast.

Work dough with your hands and form into a ball.  (Don’t overwork.  Use a light hand.)  Refrigerate overnight.

Roll cold dough to about 1/8″ thick.  Aunt Emma would cut the dough into triangles, place a scant teaspoon of filling at the wide end, then roll up and shape into a crescent similar to a croissant. It takes a bit of practice. The easier way is to cut squares, fill, and fold over. Cut into 2″ squares or circles. Place scant teaspoon of filling, fold and seal. Shape into crescent.

Bake at 325° until golden brown on lightly greased sheets or ungreased parchment paper. (Investing in a box of parchment paper is the only way to fly!!)
Cool completely and dust with powdered sugar.

And since we were low on bread, I baked a loaf of the no-knead bread from my Mom's cook book that I made last week.  It was really good and this one looks to be just as good - if not better!


Lemon Polenta Cake

Today has been a non-stop cook-and-bake day at our house.

I baked bread and a fruitcake, and Victor made pasta for tomorrow and a Lemon Polenta Cake for dessert tonight!

Gastronomic heaven.

The Lemon Polenta Cake comes from the Food Network's Nigella Lawson.  He saw her make it on TV and decided we needed one.  This is further proof that a well-stocked larder always comes in handy.  We had the ingredients in the house.

And OMG!  Am I glad we did! This is G-O-O-D!!!

Lemon curd in cake form is a perfect description.  It is lemony-tart, moist but not wet or under-cooked, and it has a perfectly luscious texture.

Everything about it is good.

I am seriously resisting going back for more.

Lemon Polenta Cake

Nigella Lawson

Directions

This cake is a sort of Anglo-Italian amalgam. The flat, plain disc is reminiscent of the confections that sit geometrically arranged in patisserie windows in Italy; the sharp, syrupy sogginess borrows from the classic English teatime favorite, the lemon drizzle cake. It is a good marriage: I love Italian cooking in all respects save one - I find their cakes both too dry and too sweet. Here, though, the flavorsome grittiness of the polenta and tender rubble of ground almond meal provide so much better a foil for the wholly desirable dampness than does the usual flour.

But there is more to it than that. By some alchemical process, the lemon highlights the eggy butteriness of the cake, making it rich and sharp at the same time. If you were to try to imagine what lemon curd would taste like in cake form, this would be it.

Although I am greedily happy to slice and cram messily straight into my mouth, letting damp clumps fall where they will, this cake is best eaten - in company at least - with spoon and fork. Either way, consider it a contender for teatime comfort and supper-party celebration alike.

Ingredients

Cake:

  • 1 3/4 sticks (14 tablespoons) soft unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
  • 1 cup superfine sugar
  • 2 cups almond meal/flour
  • 3/4 cup fine polenta/cornmeal
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder (gluten-free if required)
  • 3 eggs
  • Zest 2 lemons (save the juice for the syrup)

Syrup:

  • Juice 2 lemons (see above)
  • Heaping 1 cup confectioners' sugar

Special Equipment: 1 (9-inch) springform pan

For the cake: Line the base of your cake pan with parchment paper and grease its sides lightly with butter. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Beat the butter and sugar till pale and whipped, either by hand in a bowl with a wooden spoon, or using a freestanding mixer.

Mix together the almond meal, polenta and baking powder, and beat some of this into the butter-sugar mixture, followed by 1 egg, then alternate dry ingredients and eggs, beating all the while.

Finally, beat in the lemon zest and pour, spoon or scrape the mixture into your prepared pan and bake in the oven for about 40 minutes. It may seem wibbly but, if the cake is cooked, a cake tester should come out cleanish and, most significantly, the edges of the cake will have begun to shrink away from the sides of the pan. Remove from the oven to a wire cooling rack, but leave in its pan.

For the syrup: Make the syrup by boiling together the lemon juice and confectioners' sugar in a smallish saucepan. Once the confectioners' sugar has dissolved into the juice, you're done. Prick the top of the cake all over with a cake tester (a skewer would be too destructive), pour the warm syrup over the cake, and leave to cool before taking it out of its pan.

Make Ahead Note: The cake can be baked up to 3 days ahead and stored in airtight container in a cool place. Will keep for total of 5 to 6 days.

Freeze Note: The cake can be frozen on its lining paper as soon as cooled, wrapped in double layer of plastic wrap and a layer of foil, for up to 1 month. Thaw for 3 to 4 hours at room temperature.

This is definitely going into the dessert rotation!


Pear and Raisin Pie

I had a craving for a pear pie yesterday.  I hadn't had one in a long time and decided I was going to bake one when I got home from work.  I broke down and bought a frozen pie crust.

I don't know why I do this stuff.  I should know better.  I'm always disappointed.  It's not that this particular crust was bad.  It wasn't.  It just wasn't all that good.

And then there's the time-factor.  Folks talk about a frozen crust being this big time-saver.  Well...  I guess it is if you planned the pie days in advance, thawed the crust in the refrigerator and pulled it out and filled it with your jar of pre-made pie-filling it may be a time-saver, but what about if you decide you want to make a pie today?  Or, right now?

It's a different story when you're waiting (and waiting) for the dough to thaw enough to unfold it.  And after two hours on the counter it's still going to break into quarters no matter what, so out comes the rolling pin to put it back together.

The pie could have been made, baked, and cooled by the time the damned dough almost thawed.

Time-saving, indeed.

And I really am beginning to think that even a bad homemade crust is going to taste better than a store-bought.

They just do.

So while the pie shell may have been a bit disappointing, the filing was superb.  Very simple, yet richly flavored.  Boiling down the pear nectar really concentrates that pear flavor and a bit of lemon juice adds the tartness to offset the sweet.

Really good.

The recipe is based upon a Bon Appetit recipe from years ago.

Pear and Raisin Pie

  • 1 cup pear nectar
  • 1 cup raisins
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup cornstarch
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg
  • 1/2 tsp ginger
  • 3 lbs pears, peeled, quartered, cored, cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices

Pie pastry for double crust

Preheat to 400°. Prepare double crust according to your favorite recipe. (see below fr mine)

Boil nectar in heavy medium saucepan until reduced to 1/3 cup. Pour into large bowl and mix in raisins. Cool. Mix in sugar and remaining ingredients, then pears.

Spoon filling into crust. Seal top crust to bottom crust.  Cut slits in top crust to allow steam to escape.

Bake pie until pears are tender, about 1 hour.  Cool.

And make a pie crust.

Pie Crust


This may be the easiest pie crust in the world!  Try it with 2/3 butter and 1/3 (not shortening) if you have it available.

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/3 cup pastry/cake flour
  • 2 sticks butter, frozen
  • pinch salt
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 1/2 cup ice water

Using a food processor, add flours, salt, and sugar. Pulse to mix.

Chop up frozen butter and add. Pulse until butter is incorporated and mixture looks grainy.

Slowly add ice water and pulse until mixed.

Turn out onto counter. Press and form mixture into two disks . I usually use right away, but you should really wrap it in plastic and refrigerate about an hour to allow the flour to properly absorb the water and to relax the gluten.

Roll out crust and place in pie plate. Crimp edges and fill.