Daring Bakers: Crostata (better late than never!)

November has come and gone, but I didn't forget about the Daring Bakers' challenge. The 2010 November Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Simona of briciole. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well. I only got a chance to make this tonight, so here is my take on November's challenge.

The pasta frolla was easy to make and absolutely delicious. It tastes like a sugar cookie that mated with shortbread! (In fact, instead of using the excess to create a pretty decoration on the crostata, I baked them up as cookies then inhaled them.) It's such a great base to any kind of tart or crostata or pie. I was thinking about doing a fruit preserve crostata, but I've already made some fruit pies this year (see here and here), so this time around I needed to try something entirely not me: chocolate.

I used the pasta frolla recipe per the challenge, but pulled the chocolate filling from Rachel Eats and added about a teaspoon of orange zest, so thanks to everyone for making this possible!

This is decadent. It's like fudge in a cookie in tart form.

shrunken chicken pot pies

I've been craving chicken pot pie lately, but here's one of the moderately annoying things about being single -- making a regular 9" pie recipe for something like this would be very, very wasteful since I can't eat a whole pie by myself, I generally don't like leftovers, and even when I force myself to eat them, most of it still goes bad before I get a chance to finish it. I also rarely have enough people over to eat a whole thing before all that stuff happens. One day, when I have a family all my own, I'll be able to make a whole pie. But until then... Solution for a single gal? Mini pies!

I got this cute little lattice pocket pie mold from Williams Sonoma a while back and it made for perfectly portioned pies. Here's a little trick about this sucker, by the way -- it's a dough cutter and mold in one, but when you cut the dough it's not quite big enough for the mold (dumb, I know) so I just cut them then rolled them a little to give it the extra width. Just make sure to wet the edges before crimping or else they're going to come apart. Worked brilliantly. You can freeze them and take one out at a time for a simple meal for one.

Chicken Pocket Pies
adapted from allrecipes.com

1 lb chicken breast or thigh (boneless), cubed into bite size pieces
2 cans chicken broth
1 1/4 C carrots, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
3/4 C green peas, frozen
1/2 sweet onion
4 tbsp butter
4 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
rounded 1/2 tsp salt
pepper, to taste
ground red pepper flakes, to taste
2/3 C milk
2 C chicken broth (from the boiled chicken)
2 9" pie crusts (see below)

Place chicken, celery, and carrots in a medium pot and cover with chicken broth (about 2 cans). Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium and simmer for 15 minutes. Drain, saving the liquid.

In a large saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add onions and sautee until translucent. Stir in flour, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and peppers. Continuously stir to allow flour to mix in and cook a little - about 2 minutes. Slowly add in milk and chicken broth. Simmer over medium low heat, stirring regularly, until thick.

Cut out, fill, and form the pocket pies -- makes 10 using the pocket pie cutter.  If baking right away, set oven to 425, place on parchment lined baking sheet, brush with egg wash, and bake for 16-20 minutes, or  until golden. Otherwise you can freeze them -- when ready to use, take right out of the freezer then follow the same directions above except bake for about 25 minutes or until golden.

Oh. About that crust... That flaky, buttery, lovely crust... It's really just a variation of the crust I used for the galette and peach pies.

Pie Crust for something savory -- you'll need to double this recipe to make the chicken pocket pies

1 stick butter, cut into small pieces and frozen
1 1/4 C flour
1/2 tsp salt
4-6 tbsp ice water

Combine flour and salt. Cut in butter with a pastry cutter or food processor until it forms a coarse meal. Stir in ice water a tablespoon at a time until dough starts to come together into a dough ball. You may need fold/roll it around to get most of the pieces. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight before using.

Definitely keep pie crust cold -- Since I was cutting out shapes, I'd cut each disc into two, then roll/cut only a half at a time to make sure the rest of the dough stayed chilled.

And yay, I get to check another item off my 2010 Hit List!

peach pocket pie

I went to the farmers market yesterday with the intention to buy some sour cherries. Shows what I know - there wasn't a cherry to be found; guess cherry season's over, lol. There were, however, peaches everywhere. And I heart peaches. See - I got 2 lbs. Mmm. Farmers market swag:

Remember that poll I had a couple weeks back when I had all these ideas of what to make? I ended up making the galette, but this time around I'll be using those delicious peaches to make hand pies aka pocket pies. I used the same dough recipe from the galettes, and they translate to these little pies nicely. These were flaky, sweet and fresh tasting. Made a great snack for me and the fam at the Beach Boys concert at Wolftrap today. Look how pretty:

Peach Pocket Pies
adapted from Smitten Kitchen

1 recipe pie dough (split into 2 pieces, wrapped and refrigerated at least 2 hours, preferably overnight)
1 lb peaches
1/8 C flour
1/8 C sugar (my peaches were pretty sweet, so I only used 1 tbsp)
1/2 tsp bourbon
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg, beaten (for the egg wash)

Make the filling: Peel and dice peaches into about 1/2" pieces. Mix in the flour, sugar, bourbon and vanilla until combined.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out 1 of the doughs to about 1/8" thick and cut 4-5" circles - I used one of my bowls to cut them out, but a cookie cutter or the top of a circle tupperware will work. Spoon 1 to 2 tbsp of filling (just the fruit, skip the liquid that forms) onto the half of each circle. Dip your finger into the egg and brush around the circumfrence of the circles. Fold over one half to make a half moon and press down the edges to seal - use a fork to make crimp the edges shut. Repeat with the rest. Put pies into the freezer to chill dough for 20-30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375. Place chilled pies on a parchment lined baking sheet. Brush with egg wash. Sprinkle with clear sanding sugar if you'd like to decorate. Use a knife to poke a small hole in the top of each pie. Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Makes about a dozen pies.

PS - these are awesome with vanilla ice cream :-)

Oh I just have to throw this little aside in there - I went to the Beach Boys concert, right. They sounded the same - upbeat tunes and great harmonies. I was singing along and dancing, hehe. I was also very Very *VERY* thrilled when I saw that JOHN STAMOS was performing with them! He was on guitar, drums, bongos, and even sang a song! He was so clearly loving every moment of it -- I totally flash backed to that episode of Full House when Uncle Jesse got to perform with them. He was dancing and taking pictures with his phone, pulled a girl wearing an Uncle Jesse tshirt onto the stage to dance with him. He was yummy icing to a very fun show (made even more fun by the mini hurricaine we had that drenched the lawn and dropped the temps some 20 degrees... glad I was in the theater so I didn't actually get wet by the rain.). It's the best concert I've been to this year, I think. Oh, and by the way, John Stamos -- still super freaking hot. Wish I had a camera that coulda caught this better... we were in row O and my phone didn't get the best shot, but I tried:

All the more reason to upgrade cameras, hehe.

balsamic strawberry galette

While I did not actually make it to the farmers market on Saturday morning due to the rain, I just picked up some strawberries from the happiest place on earth to make the winning goody from the Poll. 47% of the voters wanted a galette, so here it is! What exactly is a galette, anyways? Basically, it's a free form pie. Instead of forming the crust in a pie plate and worrying about crimping a crust, you basically lay out the dough on a sheet pan, put some filling in the middle, and fold over the edges to create a nice rustic crust. The filling can be just about anything, and summer is great for it because of all the fresh fruit around. In this case, it's strawberries that've been soaking in sugar and balsamic vinegar for a while. You can also use peaches, berries, apples... just make sure it's fresh and sweet and not too juicy so it doesn't make the crust soggy (like I don't think watermelon would work).

I should note that I split the dough and made two mini galettes. Each would make a modest dessert for 4, or a generous dessert for 2. For the first one, I let the dough rest one hour and the berries macerate for the same amount of time. This turned out to be soggier and the berries were okay. I didn't get to make the second set until tonight, so the berries were macerating and the other half of the crust was sitting in the fridge for an extra day. I also made sure to keep the dough as cold as possible, throwing it back into the freezer to chill between steps. And it was downright delicious - not too juicy, the crust was crunchier - more airy and flaky. Quite pleased with the result. Balsamic Strawberry Galette

1 pie crust (recipe to follow)

1 pint strawberries, hulled and halved

3 Tbsp vanilla sugar, split

2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tsp flour

1 tsp ground nuts (in this case almonds)

egg, beaten

turbinado or clear sanding sugar

Put berries in a bowl and sprinkle with 2 Tbsp sugar and vinegar. Macerate for an hour (or more, and if you read the paragraph before the recipe, you'll know I macerated in the fridge overnight).

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roll out half the pie crust until about 1/8" thick then place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Put into the freezer for a few minutes to chill. Strain the strawberries (keep the juicy goodness and reduce down for a yummy sauce later.)

Take back out, then sprinkle the flour, ground nuts, and the other tbsp of sugar in the middle. Make sure to leave an edge that's at least 1 1/2" wide. Placing the berries in the middle on top of the flour, sugar, nut mix. Fold the edges of the dough over the strawberries. Brush with the beaten egg and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the edges are golden. (reminder: this is for a half recipe)

(above: you can see I folded the edge pretty tightly so it didn't cover much of the berries. you don't see the pleating much after it baked up, but it sure was flaky and delish! the great thing about being rustic is you can make the edge/crust as big or little as you like!)

Pie Dough

adapted from Gastronomer's Guide

1 stick butter, cut into small pieces and frozen

1 1/4 C flour

2 Tbsp vanilla sugar

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/4 C ice water (give or take)

Mix the flour, sugar, and salt with a whisk. Using a pastry blender, cut in the butter until it resembles a coarse meal -- there should be some butter clumps that are the size of small peas, but most should be pretty small. Chill in freezer for a few minutes just to make sure the butter doesn't melt.

Form a well in the middle of the mixture and pour in 2 Tbsp ice water. Mix with a wooden spoon, adding more water 1 Tbsp at a time until dough starts coming together. Form into 1 disc (or 2 small ones like I did), wrap with plastic wrap, and refrigerate at LEAST 1 hour - I recommend overnight - before rolling.

UPDATED: This dough is really easy to make with a food processor, too. Basically you'll want to cube the butter and freeze. Then combine the dry ingredients in a food processor and pulse a couple times to combine. Add butter to the dry ingredients and pulse until it's a coarse, pebbly texture. Some pieces should be the size of peas. Add water 1 tbsp at a time, pulsing a couple times with each addition, until a ball forms. Form into a ball, flatten, wrap, and refrigerate.