notes from my food diary

June is here, that means it’s strawberry month in Oregon.  If you’ve never tasted Hood strawberries before you missed a whole new meaning to eating really ripe, sweet and juicy strawberries.  Their sizes may be small but their taste surpass all those jumbo, too tart California strawberries you’ll find in the market. These are always locally grown and therefore whenever we buy them, we’re supporting sustainable farms.

I almost always can’t wait for those strawberries, the best to get them is to go to a U-pick farm and pick them yourselves.  Sure, your knees and back will scream at you for getting them squat and bend, but you’ll be rewarded with summer sweet harvest.  Hood strawberries are very tender too so a lot of time your hands will be stained red from just picking them.  Last year I did U-pick and made several jars of strawberry jams.  My last frozen strawberries were made into homemade soft jellos; my husband even dumped them in the bowl with vanilla ice cream and it’s manna for him  

I’m hoping that the weather will be good next weekend because I’ll be going to a U-pick farm to pick strawberries again.  I wasn’t sure if I wanted to make another batch of jams but we’ll see.  This week I managed to make some treats because my husband started to whine that there’s none in the house since his birthday has gone by.  I promised him I’d make cream puffs.  So here’s the cream puffs that I made, this time I’m making them filled with mocha cream.  For a bonus, I sliced some Hood strawberries and layered them in the cream.  Oh, so delicious…  The strawberries were bought this Sunday from Milwaukie Sunday Farmers Market, which was a fun place to visit.  Lots of fresh produce and a variety of other things to find in it, it even has music as the entertainment. 

Mocha Cream Pufffs with Hood Strawberries

Yield about 16 large puffs

For cream puffs:

7 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 cup water

Pinch of salt

1 cup all-purpose flour

4 large eggs, at room temperature

For mocha cream:

2 cups heavy cream

5 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon instant espresso powder

1/2 cup granulated sugar

Small strawberries (Hood strawberries preferred), sliced thinly

Preheat oven to 450 degree F.  Line at least two large cookie sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

In a medium saucepan heat butter, water, and salt until it boils.  Quickly dump all the flour at once and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until the dough pulls away from the sides of pan. 

Remove pan from heat.  Dump the dough into a bowl of a mixer and mix with a paddle attachment with medium speed.  Add eggs, one a time, mixing it well after adding each one.  Mix well until a smooth and sticky dough is achieved.  Transfer dough into a pastry bag or spoon it into the prepared cookie sheets, the size of the puffs will depend on how big you want them to be.  A tablespoon of dough will turn into a good size puff.  Space them about 1 inch apart in the pan.

Bake for 15 minutes.  Reduce the heat to 350 degree F and continue baking for about 30-35 minutes or until the puffs are golden brown.  Remove puffs from the oven and let them cool on wire cooling racks.

Combine heavy cream, cocoa, espresso, and sugar in a mixer bowl.  Whip with a wire whisk attachment on high speed until soft peaks forms, about 2 minutes; scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl with rubber spatula.  Continue mixing until with high speed until stiff.  Use this immediately.

Slice the tops of cream puffs with a serrated knife.  Using a pastry bag or spoon, fill the puffs with cream, put strawberries slices on top of cream and place tops on puffs.  Dust with confectioner’s sugar and serve.  Store in refrigerator and always serve chilled.

Source:  adapted from Sweet Marias Italian Desserts

This month’s challenge from Klub Berani Baking is making classic puff pastry.  I actually did this last week but haven’t gotten time to write the post yet.  Before I starting to ramble, I would like to thank the hosts for this challenge, I was very happy to finally have the push to make my own puff pastry.  I truly enjoyed the experience of making it and would love to do more pastry challenges in the future.

As for the process of making puff pastry, I had to say I encountered little problem this time.  Maybe it’s just my lucky year   There’s a bit butter leaking on the last fold (the sixth time) on the bottom of the pastry but it wasn’t a huge problem.  Everything went smoothly as planned, I was home all day that day.  I remembered I was doing this on Martin Luther King Jr’s day since I didn’t have to work.  My son went to school though because the school used that day to make up for the snow day.  What a perfect day, the house was empty except for the piano technician tuning my piano.  I could concentrate more when there’s little commotion in the house, no whinning, no one running around, no one bugging me!

Because it was cool in my house, I didn’t have to worry about the temperature of the dough.  They stayed pretty cool during the rolling and folding process.  The only thing that I had to be better next time was the rolling process.  I was sure I didn’t roll the dough quite as thin all over.  Some parts were a bit thicker, especially the middle part. 

What I made from the puff pastry was this Sun-Dried Tomato Palmiers.  I made these for a church friend’s baby shower party and since we liked them so much, I made them again last week using this homemade puff pastry.  One of the easiest things to do with puff pastry I must say, because it only involved using ricotta cheese, sun-dried tomato paste and Parmesan cheese.  Good for appetizers and nibblers in between meals

Classic Puff Pastry (Pate Feuilletee)


1 pound (4 cups) unbleached all-purpose flour (or 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour + ½ cup cornstarch)

1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter, 1/2 (4 tablespoons) of 1 stick chilled, the rest (3 1/2 sticks) at room temperature

1 to 2 teaspoons salt (1 for sweet, 2 for savory)

1 1/4 cups cold water (or substitute it with 1 Tbs lemon juice for 1 water if you wish to further temper the gluten in the flour)


*Dough:
————-
Measure the flour into a mixing bowl. Remove ½ cup and set it aside in another bowl.

Take the half stick (4 tablespoons) of 1 stick chilled butter, cut it into small pieces and drop it into the flour. With two knives, a pastry blender or your fingertips, cut or rub the butter into the flour until it resembles cornmeal.

Add the salt (and optional lemon juice) to the water and add this to the flour. Mix gently with a fork until you have a rough dough that pulls away from the sides of the bowl. If you need to add more water, do it a tablespoon at a time until the dough holds together.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until it is smooth and the gluten has been somewhat developed, about 2-3 minutes. Wrap it in plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.


*Butter
————-
Take the remainder of the butter and the reserved flour and mix the two together until they’re well blended and smooth. You can do this with a mixer, a food processor or with a spoon, by hand.

Pat this butter/flour mixture into an 8-inch square on a lightly floured piece of waxed paper. Cover it with second sheet of waxed paper and refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes. By mixing the butter with flour, you stabilize it somewhat so it won’t decide to ‘flow’.


Rolling-Folding
————————

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and put it on a lightly floured surface. Gently roll it into a square about 12 inches on a side. You don’t have to be obsessive about the dimension but be pretty close.

Put the butter square in the centre of the dough square but turn it so that the corners of the butter square point toward the sides of the dough square. Fold the corners of the dough over the butter until they meet in the middle. Pinch and seal the edges of the dough together.

Turn the square over and tap it gently with your rolling pin or by hand into a rectangular shape. Rolling the dough into a larger rectangle 20 inches long and 10 inches wide.

When the dough is the right size, fold the bottom third of the dough up to the centre and the top third over and turn the dough package ¼ turn to the right so it looks like a book ready to be opened. If the dough is still nice and cold and still relaxed, do another rolling and turning the same way. (If it begins feel too soft or wants to resist being rolled, cover it, put it on a small baking sheet and refrigerate it for 15 minutes).

If you’ve successfully rolled it out and folded it twice, you’ve completed 2 turns. Classic puff pastry gets six. Continue refrigerating it after each 2 turns (or more often if necessary) until all 6 turns are completed.


*Chilling
————-
When all 6 turns are done, put the dough in the refrigerator for at least an hour (and preferable overnight) before shaping.


*Shaping
—————
After being thoroughly chilled, the dough can be shaped into croissants, patty shells, twists, straws, etc. Scraps can be chilled and rerolled.


*Freezing
—————-
Like other pastry doughs, you can freeze puff pasty in a non-self defrosting freezer for up to a year if it’s well wrapped. It can also be frozen at any time during rolling, folding, turning process. Defrost it thoroughly before you use it, just to make sure it does not get too soft.


Source: adapted from King Arthur Flour 200th Anniversary Cookbook

Sun-Dried Tomato Palmiers

Makes about 1 dozen

Note:  if you can’t find sun-dried tomato paste, make you own by covering fifteen halves sun-dried tomatoes in boiling water, and letting it stand until softened about 5 minutes.  Drain, then puree in a food processor with 3 tablespoons olive oil.

1 package (17.3 ounces) frozen puff pastry, commercial or homemade, thawed

6 tablespoons ricotta cheese

6 tablespoons sund-dried tomato paste

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese (4 ounces)

On a clean work surface, roll out one shet of pastry into a rectangle about 1/8 inch thick.  Trim to approximately 8 by 11 inches.  Spread half of the ricotta over the pastry.  Spread half the sun-dried tomate paste on top.  Sprinkle with half the Parmesan.  Roll each long edge of the pastry into the center of the rectangle, making sure pastry is right and even.  Repeat process with the remaining sheet of pastry, ricotta, tomato paste, and Parmesan.

Wrap rolls separately with plastic wrap, and transfer to refrigerator until firm, about 30 minutes.  (Rolls can be frozen at this poin up to 1 month,  When ready to bake, remove rolls from freezer; let stand at room temperature until a sharp knife can slice through without compressing them, about 10 minutes.)

Preheat oven to 425 degree F.  Remove rolls from refrigerator, and cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices.  Place 2 inches apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet.  Bake until puffed and lightly golden, 5 to 6 minutes.  Turn palmiers, and bake until golden, 5 to 6 minutes more.  Let cool completely on a wire rack.

Source:  adapted from The Martha Stewart Living Christmas Cookbook

The weather is a bit unusual this time of year because the snow has come early to Portland area this December.  Last Sunday it dumped about 3 inches of snow and as a result schools were cancelled and I ended up not going to work either.  As some of you might wonder why with such small amount of snow all activities got cancelled?  Portland area, west of Willamette river, has many different elevations.  Snow makes it too treacherous to drive on hills and school buses couldn’t go up the hills to pick up children.  It’s the third day of no school, I’m guessing it will be closed for the rest of the week as well because the weather prediction is for more snow today and tomorrow.  Christmas break may become a three-week break instead of a two-week break as usual.  I’m not sure if the children have to make it up at the end of the year, I certainly hope so because I have to make up for my work days next year.

Because I have too much time on my hand, I’m going to write a post about my blueberry turnovers that I made this past week.  The idea was to use up all my frozen blueberries and I found a perfect recipe from the book, The Great Scandinavian Baking Book (first edition).  It may seems like an old repertoire from me, what to do with leftovers and finding a recipe from library’s books.  Do you know that people are starting to borrow more from the library since the economic downturn?  I’m glad I don’t find it out just now, I’ve been using the library since I’ve lived in the US.  If it’s not a coveted cook/baking book, I’d never buy anymore books

Back to the turnovers.  The recipe calls for fresh, preferably wild, blueberies.  Since I used frozen blueberries, I wanted to make sure my turnovers didn’t get drench with blueberries juice while being baked.  I discovered that draining the blueberries in the refrigerator for a few days would solve the problem.  My turnovers didn’t get soggy at all thanks to that.  The only problem that I encountered was that rolling the dough to 20×20 inches was very hard to do.  My pastry mat wasn’t that big and since the dough was so big, it’s a little hassle to throw some flour underneath the dough.  You have to constantly roll, lift, throw some flour, turn repetitively until you get the size required.  I couldn’t get that big, so I gave up by the time my dough reached 18×18 inches.  The thinner you roll the dough the better the crust would be, but I found out that mine was pretty good!  They are the kind of pastry that are not too sweet for either breakfast or afternoon break.

So here is the recipe, I hope you will be tempted to try them:

Blueberry Turnovers (Bláberjahorn)

Makes about 25 turnovers

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons sugar

1 cup chilled butter

1 egg, beaten

2 teaspoons lemon juice

2 to 4 tablespoons ice water

Filling:

1 1/2 cup fresh blueberries, or frozen blueberries, thawed and drained completely

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoons cornstarch

Glaze and topping:

1 beaten egg

Slivered almonds

Pearl sugar or coarsely crushed sugar cubes

In a mixing bowl or in the workbowl of the food processor with the steel blade in place, combine the flour and sugar.  Cut the butter into 1/2-inch dice and add to the flour.  Cut butter into flour using a pastry blender or process using on/off pulses until butter is the size of peas.

In a small bowl, blend the egg, lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons water.  Add to the flour mixture and mix just until the flour is moistened and pastry holds together.  Press into a ball.  Chill if necessary.

Turn dough out onto lightly floured board and roll out to make a large square about 20×20 inches.  Using a ruler as guide, cut with pastry wheel into 4-inch squares.  You will have 25 squares.

Preheat oven to 400 degree F.

Mix the blueberries, sugar, and cornstarch.  Divide the blueberries among the squares.  Fold over berries to make triangles, enclosing the berries.  Place on ungreased baking sheet.  Brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with slivered almonds and sugar.  Bake 13 to 15 minutes until golden.

Source:  adapted from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book by Beatrice Ojakangas

The fifth challenge from Klub Berani Baking is Banoffee Pie. I usually make a regular crust for my pie/tart, but this one requires me to make a rich pie crust using egg yolks. I prefer the regular crust to the rich crust because I hate having leftover egg whites! I don’t have any obstacles making this pie, but there’s a few steps that I didn’t pay attention, that was letting the crust rest in the fridge after being formed to the pan, the crust was rolled too thick, although my tart pan was already quite big in size, and a rectangular tart pan was used instead of a round pie pan. Hello??? I felt like I was lost in translation though the recipe was in English. Thus, I couldn’t say that this is a true Banoffee Pie because it’s misleading, it should be called Banoffee Tart. A few things that I liked to point out was that I didn’t care about the caramel-dulce-le-leche-like sauce (or toffee) for the filling. I didn’t like the taste at all and it’s quite sweet; I didn’t pour all the sauce into the tart, instead I drizzled it when it’s time to eat the tart. Next time, a butterscotch sauce might be a better substitution.  But I like having bananas in tart shell with whipped cream.  One addition to the recipe was that I added lemon juice to my bananas to prevent them from getting brown (just in case). Banoffee Pie

Makes one 20-22 cm pie or tart

Pastry

300g all-purpose flour

150g unsalted butter, diced

5 tablespoons granulated sugar

2 egg yolks

3 tablespoons cold water

Combine the flour, butter and sugar in the food processor and process until well mixed. Then mix in the egg yolks and process in small bursts until the mixture appears crumbly. Add the water a little at a time. As the crumbs get larger, turn the motor off and check that the pastry will come together when pressed between your fingers. Turn the mixture on to a clean board or bench and work very gently into a ball. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Roll out the dough to line 20-22cm flan or loose-bottomed tart tin, prick the base of the pastry with fork several times. Set aside for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 180C. Line the base of the pastry with baking paper and beans, bake blind for 12-15 minutes or until the pastry turns golden brown. Remove the paper and beans. (Return the pastry base into the oven for 5 minutes or until the base becomes dry.)

Filling

75g butter

50g brown sugar

3 tablespoons milk

300g sweetened condensed milk

2 firm bananas

300ml heavy cream

Toasted slivered almonds, optional

Place the butter and sugar in a non-stick pan and heat gently until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil and simmer for one minute, stirring continuously using a wooden spoon. Remove from the heat and add the milk and condensed milk. Return to the heat and bring to the boil. Allow to gently bubble for 5-6 minutes, stirring continuously until the mixture thickens and turns a light golden brown. Cool slightly.

Cut the bananas and put them on the base of the pastry. Pour in the caramel mixture. Leave to cool then chill for at least 2 hours. Serve topped with the whipped cream, spooned or spread over the caramel, and toasted slivered almonds, if using.

Source: Foodtown Magazine, October-November 2007; Cuisine Magazine, November 2002 (with adjustments of pastry making and filling)

I don’t remember when I started but I’m not a big breakfast eater anymore. Usually my breakfast consists of milk, juice and banana during the weekdays, days which I don’t want to think “big” in the morning. Weekends are different. These are the days I could plan ahead, a day that I could be a little creative with my or actually, my family’s breakfast. All my breakfast choices that I’ve written in this blog are mostly comfort foods, foods such as pancakes, waffles, sticky buns, or quick breads. I love those and fortunately my family members feel the same too.

This next recipe that I’m going to share is something that I’ve never thought would be good for breakfast item. But actually it fitted in the theme quite nicely. The recipe is called finger pies, which uses pie crust as the skin that would be cut into small rounds and filled with preserves and chocolate chips. The end result looked similarly like empanadas. Later it would be rolled in confectioners’ sugar, just like cookies! I like the size of the pies especially, that way I could nibble on it while reading my comics in Sunday morning.

The recipe suggested that this type of pie is something that you could do with your kids. The size of the pie and simple ingredients really help. I enlisted my son to help me scatter the chocolate chips after I dropped the preserves in the pastry. It was really fun activity! Because this was a success, I’m sending this for Waiter There Is Something In My… that’s hosted by Johanna from The Passionate Cook. The theme for April is breakfast favorite. It has become a new favorite in my family, so hopefully it’ll be one for you too.

Now that I knew how to make this in a snap, I want to try it with different preserves. I was thinking of making pineapple preserves just like the one I usually use to make Pineapple cookies (Nanas tart) and fill the pie with that. This pie needs a preserves that’s thick and substantial. Time to go get the pineapples! Yay…

Little Preserves and Chocolate Finger Pies

Tender Cream Cheese Pastry
Yields 1 single crust, 9-inch standard pie

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
4 ounces 1/3-less fat cream cheese, softened
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Combine the butter, cream cheese, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the flat beater attachment. Blend for 30 to 45 seconds on medium-low speed. Stop once or twice, if necessary, to scrape the build-up from the beater. Stopping the machine before each addition, first add the confectioners’ sugar and 1/2 cup of the flour. With the mixer on low, blend until the flour is incorporated. Add another 1/2 cup of the flour and blend. Add the remaining flour. When all of the flour has been added and the dough starts to ball up around the beater, stop the machine. Remove the bowl and scarpe the dough onto a lightly floured work surface.

Gently knead 2 or 3 times. Divide the dough into 2 pieces of the same size. Knead each piece into a ball, then flatten it into a disk about 3/4 inch thick. Wrap the disk in plastic and refrigerated for at least an hour, preferable longer, until firm enough to roll but not too solid.

Filling

Raspberry, strawberry, or other fruit preserves
Handful of semisweet chocolate chips

Garnish

Confectioners’ sugar

On a lightly floured work area, roll the dough slightly less than 1/8 inch thick with a floured rolling pin. Using a 3 1/2-inch round cutter, cut the pastry into circles. Remove the scraps, leaving the rounds in place.

Spoon about 2 teaspoons of the preserves into the center of each circle. Scatter a few chocolate chips around the preserves. Moisten the entire edge of the pastry with a wet fingertip or pastry brush, then fold the circle in half and press the edge together to seal. Roll the edge up slightly, forming a sort of rope edge. As you work, transfer each pie to the prepared baking sheet, leaving a little room between them. Refrigerate for 10 minutes. Preheat the oven to 375 ^oF.

Using a paring knife, poke 1 or 2 small steam vents in the top of each pie. Bake until golden brown, about 25 minutes.

Transfer the hot pies to a wire rack. As soon as they’re cool enough to handle, put some confectioners’ sugar in a small bowl. Roll each pie in the confectioners’ sugar, coating it heavily, and return it to the rack. Serve warm or let cool to room temperature before serving.

Source: adapted from Pie by Ken Haedrich