It is official...I am addicted to baking pie! In a previous post I had made my very first apple pie and it turned out surprisingly well. So I thought I would try to make another pie. I decided to make a peach pie. I baked it for my grandma she is the baker in the family. Therefore, I was a little bit nervous as she is a fantastic baker. I can count on my grandma to give me an honest answer on how it tasted. She said for my second pie it was delicious. I love the almost custard texture that is created when baking a peach pie. I would have much rather used fresh peaches, however I did not have any at the time so I used frozen pieces instead. The crust recipe was a little bit different than the one for the apple pie. Although, I still took the extra time to grate the frozen butter instead of cutting it into chunks. This just ensures that the crust will come out flakey and there will be no chunks of butter that will create holes in the crust. Just like the other crust place in fridge to chill for a half an hour to a full hour. Next, the filling very simply mix together in a large bowl: peaches, sugar, flour and lemon juice. I would highly recommend this pie it was delicious topped with whip cream made for a fantastic dessert.
Peach Pie
CRUST:
2 1/2 Cups Flour
3/4 Teaspoon Salt
2/3 Cups Cold Unsalted Butter
1/3 Cup Cold Lard
1/2 Cups Cold Water
FILLING:
6 Cups Sliced Pitted Firm Ripe Peaches (or Frozen Peaches)
2/3 Cups Sugar
1/4 Cups Flour
1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees
2. Mix flour, and salt together in a large bowl.
3. With a cheese grater, grate in butter and add lard and add water
4. Time to get your hands dirty and kneed all ingredients together to make a dough. Separate dough into two balls and place in plastic wrap and let cool in freezer for a minimum of a half hour.
5. While the crust is chilling time to start with the filling. Simply add peaches, sugar, flour, and lemon juice and mix together.
6. When crust has been chilled roll out into a circle to fit your pie plate. Pinching into a circle creating a pie bottom crust shape.
7. Place peach filling into the pie plate with bottom crust.
8. Roll out second ball of dough place over peach filling and pinch together the bottom and top crust. Make sure to cut a few holes into the middle of the pie so the pie can breath. Sprinkle sugar over top to create a sweet crunch.
9. Place pie into the oven and immediately turn the oven down to 350 degrees place pie on the middle rack and bake for thirty to fifty minutes or until golden brown
January 24, 2014
Lemon Cranberry Scones with Lemon Glaze. I thought I would make some scones today. However, I am on a little bit of a health kick so I added whole wheat flour instead of regular white flour. You can make changes to almost any recipe depending on your mood or lifestyle. This is a very straight forward easy recipe. I was extremely pleased with how these scones turned out. The lemon glaze adds a extra sweet tang to every bite. Give this recipe ago, they are a simple delicious snack accompanied with a spot of tea.
Lemon Cranberry Scones with Lemon Glaze:
SCONES:
2 Cups Flour (I Used Whole Wheat)
1/4 Cups Sugar
1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
1 Tablespoon Finely Grated Lemon Zest
1/2 Cup Cool Unsalted Butter, Cut into Small Pieces
1/2 Whipping Cream
1/4 Cup 2% Milk
1 Large Egg
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 Cup Frozen Cranberries
GLAZE:
1 Cup Icing Sugar
1 1/2 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
1. To bake scones preheat oven to 375 degrees and spray with non stick spray.
2. Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl and stir in lemon zest. Cut butter into small cubes and add to mixture.
3. In a separate bowl whisk together: cream, milk, eggs, and vanilla. Add this to the flour mixture and mix all together.
4. Flour a rolling surface and kneed dough making sure all ingredients are together. Shape the dough into a circle shape and cut like a pizza into sections. Place on cookie sheet and brush milk over top of the scone pieces. Bake for 20-25 minutes.
While scones are cooking it is time to make the glaze.
1. Add icing sugar and lemon juice resulting in a thick consistency.
2. When scones are cooled you can go ahead and drizzle icing over the scones.
ENJOY!
January 20, 2014
Muffins have become one of my favourite things to make. Over the past couple weeks I have been baking up a muffin storm. For Christmas my sister got me a mini muffin tin have been experimenting with them since. However, today I stuck to the classic regular size muffins. I came across this recipe for Cranberry-Citrus Muffins and they turned out fantastic. As I was going through the recipe I noticed it called for low fat vanilla yogurt sadly, I did not have any. When a recipe calls for yogurt that you do not have, an easy substitute is to mix a cup of milk with a tablespoon of white vinegar. Let the mixture sit for roughly three minutes before use. The consistency between yogurt and this mixture is very different therefore you will need to go with your judgement on what the batter looks like. Keep the dough thick enough to spoon it into the muffin tins making sure its not too runny. Another thing to keep in mind when using this milk and vinegar concoction is the cook time I found instead of a half hour the muffins were ready in fifteen minutes. Something that I added to the recipe that was not called for was about a half a teaspoon of cinnamon and a dusting on top. This just adds a little extra flavour to compliment the cranberry. To sum up, these muffins were amazing and I think you should try them!
Cranberry- Citrus Muffins:
Prep Time: 20 Minutes
Cook Time: 33 Minutes
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Ingredients:
1 1/2 Cups Chopped Cranberries (I used whole frozen cranberries)
2 Cups plus a tablespoon of All Purpose or Whole Wheat Flour
2/3 Cups Granulated Sugar
2 Teaspoons of Baking Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil
1/2 Teaspoon Grated Lemon Rind
1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
2 Large Egg Whites
1 (1Cup) Carton Vanilla Low-Fat Yogurt
1 Large Egg
Cooking Spray
Mix all the wet ingredients together: oil,vanilla,lemon rind,egg whites,egg, and yogurt and set aside. Secondly, take cranberry,flour,baking powder, sugar, salt and mix in a bowl. Next, slowly add wet ingredients to the dry with an electric mixer. Mix well and spoon into sprayed (cooking spray) muffin tins. Let cook for 15-30 minutes (depending on if you used yogurt or the vinegar and milk mixture) Let cool in tins. And enjoy!
MONDAY, JANUARY 13,2014
My first post! This is so exciting! I have started this blog in the hopes that I can share my love for baking with the world as well as, to get other people to start baking too! I have not gone to school or had training in baking I just have this drive and passion for it. I began baking when I was much younger, starting with the simple Peanut Butter Cookies and the classic Chocolate Chip Cookie. As I have gotten older I have become more interested in expanding not only my cookie skills but also my baking experience in general.
Everything I make is 100% homemade. I love the imperfections of home baked goods. The cookie not being a perfect circle is what makes it so unique! I am looking forward to posting pictures, new recipes and some tips and tricks.