Happy belated Pi day! Whole grain shoofly pie

I'm always surprised at how many people have never had shoofly pie.  Some people haven't even heard of it.  Which is too bad because the confection of my Pennsylvania Dutch ancestors is delicious.  In taste and texture, it's almost more of a coffee cake than a pie.  It's not overly sweet, and it's a great treat to have with tea in the middle of the day, and for that reason I decided to make it (very slightly) healthier by incorporating whole grain flours. 

Yep, that's the middle digits of pi on my pie plate.

First, a quick description of how it's made for uninitiated.  You start with a traditional pie crust (unbaked).  Next, you pour in a molasses-egg yolk-baking soda-hot water mixture.  And last, you pour a good amount of spiced crumb topping that is a little like a streusel topping but with a greater flour:butter ratio.  The crumbs sink into the molasses mixture, and as it bakes, it develops a gradient from nearly 100% molasses-y custard on to bottom to nearly 100% dry sugary crumbs on top.  This picture, taken a few days after baking, kind of shows the gradient, but it was hard to capture.

My recipe originated in one of my Mom's old cookbooks called the Pennsylvania Dutch Cookbook.  I transcribed the recipe into my little recipe book years ago.  The few changes I've made: spelt flour instead of white flour,  the fillings are multiplied by 1.5 because my pi plate is pretty deep, and I use butter instead of shortening in the crumbs.  I was also pretty generous in rounding up the spices cause I like spices a lot.  The crust I used was not from the original recipe, but one I made and froze at Thanksgiving from Cook's Illustrated - side note: I actually froze this pie crust cause I wasn't convinced it was going to be any good!  It was too wet!  But it was wet because the crew at America's Test Kitchen used vodka instead of some of the water, which doesn't develop the gluten like water does, but makes the dough easier to work with.  I just couldn't believe it when the dough was so tacky, but it's an amazing innovation.  Last note, there are plenty of recipes out there for whole grain pie crusts, I'm sure they would work great in this application.  Onto my version of shoofly pie...

Ingredients
1 unbaked pie crust

2 egg yolks
0.75 c. molasses
10 fluid ozs. boiling water
1.5 t. baking soda

1.5 c. spelt flour
0.75 t. cinnamon
0.25 t. freshly grated nutmeg
0.25 t. ground ginger
0.25 t. ground cloves
0.75 c. brown sugar
3 T. butter, cold, cut into 0.25 inch chunks   

3.  Preheat oven to 400.  Roll out pie shell, form in pi(e) plate, and refrigerate until it's ready to fill.
1.  Beat egg yolks, then blend in the molasses.
4.  Dissolve baking soda in boiling water.  Slowly, while whisking, incorporate the water-soda into the egg-molasses mixture.  Set aside.
1.  Combine the remaining dry ingredients, including brown sugar.
5.  Add butter and work into crumbs with your fingers.  Crumbs will be very dry.
9.  Pour liquid into pie shell and top with crumbs.
2.  Bake at 400 for 10 min.
6.  Reduce to 325 and bake for another 35-40 min.

Anyone catch the secret code in the recipe?  Happy π day!

Red spaghetti squash hash

I'm not going to claim I knew where I was headed when I made this the other night.  It was one of those "uhhhhh what do I want for dinner ... let's see [head in fridge] ... errr... there's kale, spaghetti squash ... and beet puree, what the hell am I gonna make with this??"  I was actually surprised that I really liked the end result.  And I'm proud to say that it's February and the spaghetti squash marks the last of the CSA produce (the beets too but they were in the freezer).  Took me long enough!

I had defrosted and pureed previously roasted beets to make a recipe - Quinoa and Beet Pancakes - from a cookbook I just got, Kim Boyce's Good to the Grain.  What a great cookbook, the cakers were awesome.  You can see another blogger's result from making this recipe here - they really are beautiful pancakes.  This reminds me of red flannel hash due to the color, but is meatless and probably tastes quite different, but that's what inspired me to put poached eggs on top.  Poached eggs on top of anything generally make it awesome.   This isn't the best picture - Andy took it from his phone once we were halfway through - sorry, but it gives you an idea!

Half eaten spaghetti squash hash

serves 2-4
Ingredients
1 small spaghetti squash
2 T. butter
1 T. olive oil
1 head flowering purple kale
1/2 t. salt
4 cloves garlic
1/3 c. beet puree
1 t. thyme
1/4 c. parmesan cheese
4 eggs
2 t. vinegar (white, white wine, or apple cider)

1.   Cut squash in half, scrape out the seeds.  Place cut sides down in a microwave safe casserole with about 1/4 inch water.  If you can only fit one half cut side down, do them one at a time.  Microwave for 10 minutes on high.  Let it sit a few minutes in the microwave to cool off.  Check for doneness - WARNING - will be VERY hot, use mitts.  Microwave for additional minutes till done if necessary.  It is done when the strands come loose with a fork.
2.  When cool enough to handle, transfer strands to the casserole dish (dried) and toss with butter, salt and pepper to taste.  (You probably want to do this step when the kale is almost done)
3.  Meanwhile, heat oil in a skillet.  Tear up kale in large bite sized pieces, put in skillet with salt, and saute till just wilted.  Add about 1/4 c. water, garlic, and cover.  Cook for about 10 minutes or till done.
4.  Add beet puree and thyme and stir till it is warm. 
5.  Have a straight sided skillet heating with about 2 inches of water and the vinegar.  When it's at a simmer, very carefully break each egg into a saucer, and use the saucer to transfer the eggs in the simmering liquid, one for each quadrant of the skillet.  I do four eggs at once in my largest skillet, but if you haven't poached eggs like this before, you might want to start with one or two so you're not worried about them bumping each other.  Monitor the heat so you're maintaining a very gentle simmer.  After 3 minutes, remove the eggs.  I use a slotted spatula for this cause I do find they occasionally are slightly stuck to the bottom of the skillet.  You may want to gently shake them or flip onto a slotted spoon to remove excess water - just be careful not to break the yolk - they're delicate!
6.  Top the hash with the eggs and parmesan, serve.  This could be breakfast for four.  Andy and I each had two eggs for dinner but did not finish the hash.  I may need to poach another egg to have with the leftovers!

Scrambled duck eggs with piperrada

The summer produce keeps on rolling!  Last week, we got about 2 gallons of peppers and a gallon of tomatoes.  We also did a special order of a dozen duck eggs.  I had never had duck eggs before this... so I wasn't sure what to expect.  For our first duck egg breakfast, I just cooked them over easy and we had them with some toast and grilled tomato slices.  They were only okay.  I didn't love the texture; the yolks are a bit stickier than an over easy chicken egg yolk, and the whites were much firmer.  But they were very rich.  It made me think they'd be better scrambled.  And I have to say, they definitely were.

The peppers and tomatoes that went into the piperrada

I made this for breakfast by myself on Friday.  I had some time to kill after dropping Andy off for the airport shuttle at 5:30am (he went to Montana, and his friends got their elk, he'll be coming home on Monday with a cooler full!)  I love cream cheese in scrambled eggs, and at the risk of over-rich-ifying the duck eggs, added a small amount.  I think they went great together.  Inspired by a NY Times recipe, I stewed some of the peppers and tomatoes from the CSA, trying to mimic a Basque piperrada.  Not sure how close I got, but it tasted great!  I thought about cooking everything in the same pot, but decided against it cause I wanted to be able to control the heat on the duck eggs.  Also had some leftover roasted red potatoes.  Now that's a breakfast.

Piperrada (makes a good amount!)
1 T. olive oil
12 small peppers, cut into strips (probably equivalent to 8 medium sized bell peppers.  Use a mixture of types, if possible, I think it imparts some depth... our CSA calls our peppers "Italian peppers" which look like bell peppers, and "chile peppers" which look like hatch or poblanos)
salt
4 tomatoes
2 bay leaves
2 t. smoked paprika
1 t. thyme

1.  Heat the olive oil over low heat.  Add the peppers and some salt and cook about 10 - 12 minutes, stirring only occasionally (longer's fine too, this is basically a stew).
2.  While the peppers are cooking, boil a medium pot of water.  Cut a shallow cross into the skin on the bottom of the tomatoes.  Submerge the tomatoes in the water for about 15 seconds.  Plunge the tomatoes into ice water.  Slip the peels off.  Roughly chop the tomatoes.
3.  Add the tomatoes, bay leaves, smoked paprika, and thyme.  Cover and cook for 12 - 15 minutes, stirring only occasionally.
4.  If it looks watery after 12 minutes, remove the cover and turn the heat up a little.  There should be liquid, but you probably want it more sauce-y than liquid-y.  Mine probably could have used a little more time but I was hungry.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Scrambled duck eggs (serves 1, multiply as you wish)
1 t. butter
2 duck eggs (size?  most of the ones we got were close to the size of chicken eggs... except for one giant one.  I used the chicken egg sized ones)
2-3 t. cream cheese
Freshly ground pepper
Salt, Maldon smoked sea salt if you have it

1.  Heat the butter in a sautee pan over low heat.
2.  Whisk the ducks eggs, add in some salt and pepper.
3.  Pour into sautee pan.  Use a spatula to stir and break up the curds nearly constantly.  You want to cook these guys slowly, it probably took about 5 minutes to cook my two eggs.  More than 2 eggs will take longer.   The texture at the end is closer to a small curd cottage cheese than, say, the egg patty you might get at a bagel shop on your breakfast sandwich.
4.  When they're nearly done, add the cream cheese and break apart with the spatula.  I like it mostly broken up but with an occasional tasty little chunk. 
5.  Season at the table with the smoked sea salt and more pepper.

Does anyone else have ideas on ways to cook duck eggs?  I have 6 left.  If you have an idea leave a comment!

Happy Father's Day Waffles

This post is a little late, but I made waffle mix for my dad Frank and Andy's dad Buzz for Father's Day, and they asked for the recipe. So here it is! It is based off of this 101cookbooks recipe, but is a little different.

We got a new waffle maker recently (a nice Belgian style model), and ever since I've been making lots of waffles. I think they might be the perfect food; the high surface area to volume ratio makes for ample browning reactions and maple syrup absorption sites. I love these waffles with maple syrup, fruit (had some pureed strawberries and whole blackberries on hand last time), and some plain yogurt on top. I've also had them with the amazing fig butter I made one time, also from a 101cookbooks recipe.

1.5 T poppy seeds
1 c. oat flour
1/2 c. corn meal
1/2 c. rye flour
1-2 T. sugar
1 T. baking powder
scant 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 c. unsalted butter, melted and cooled a bit
2 c. buttermilk
3 large eggs, whisked

1. Preheat your waffle maker.
2. Combine the dry ingredients.
3. Melt the butter, cool a little, then whisk into the buttermilk.
4. Whisk the eggs, then whisk into the butter-buttermilk.
5. Pour the wet mixture into the dry, and lightly fold to combine. Do not over stir.
6. Follow the waffle maker directions. I like to use a pretty high heat setting (mine goes up to 7 and I put it at 6), and let it go for a little longer after the beep.

Addendum: on my waffle maker, I think this makes 5 or 6 waffles. They are definitely best eaten right away. They get a little soggy if they are sitting around. But they freeze and reheat pretty well. To serve after freezing, microwave for 25-35 seconds, then put in the toaster on a very low heat setting. In my toaster I can put each waffle quarter in one toast slot.

Sesame-ginger granola

I've been on a granola making kick lately. Fairly often I find I'm not in the mood for breakfast cereal. Besides the fact that they're super expensive for the ingredients that are actually in them, I just find them very boring. The main advantage I see to making your own granola are that you can control what goes into it, thus you can make a breakfast food that you are totally psyched about eating in the morning. A basic granola recipe is 6 cups rolled oats ("old-fashioned," not quick or instant) plus 2 c. seeds, nuts, and/or other grains, spices, and half a cup to a whole cup of honey or other sweetener, and up to a half a cup of oil or nut butter. I don't really like dried fruit in my granola so much, but you can add as much of that as you want to - just add it after baking so the raisins don't turn into tooth-destroying little rocks.

I love anything with sesame in it, so I was looking to make a sesame heavy granola. I think this one worked out really well. The texture is interesting and perhaps not very typical - somehow it ended up containing lots of chewy bites of oats, sesame seeds tahini and honey. The tahini I used was kind of old and thus very seperated into the solids and the oils; even heating didn't not homogenize it well. The chewy bites contrasted nicely with an overall crunch. It's almost like having sesame candy for breakfast. If you prefer a thoroughly crunchy granola I think you could just bake it longer and/or hotter.



The granola below is less than 2/3 the price (per ounce) of Bear Naked granola, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, or even Cheerios, and it is way more interesting. The main cost is actually the tahini, so you can see how making a more basic granola (with just nuts and raisins, for example) would be even cheaper. I've listed the costs of the ingredients for illustration - I just grabbed prices off of online listings pretty quickly - the honey seems too expensive, I think if you buy the 1/2 gallon containers like I do it's a lot cheaper. It's also super easy - the active working time is just a few minutes. The only tricky part is making sure it doesn't burn. At only 300, burning is much less likely, but you should still check on it and stir. Most recipes I've seen call for 325 or 350 but using tahini (or peanut butter) makes it easier to burn, so I think 300 is best.

Ingredients
6 c. oats ($1.52)
1/2 c. sesame seeds ($1.04)
1/2 c. wheat germ ($0.30)
3 T. ground ginger ($0.67)
1/2 t. salt (negligible)
1/2 c. honey ($1.49)
1/2 c. tahini ($1.61)
1 T. canola (or other neutral) oil (negligible)
2 T. orange juice (negligible)

1. Pre-heat the oven to 300.
2. In your largest mixing bowl, stir together oats, sesame seeds, wheat germ, and salt.
3. Over medium-low heat, stir together honey, tahini, oil, and orange juice until smooth (if possible).
4. Pour the hot liquids over the oat mixture and toss till well coated.
5. Spread the mixture onto two jelly roll pans (cookie sheets with sides).
6. Put in the oven for 25-30 minutes, stirring about every 5-8 minutes, and switch oven positions halfway through. Keep an eye out for any burning.

Total price: $6.63
Total weight: 32.1 ounces
Price per ounce: $0.21
Price per serving (8 servings): $0.81

Variations
They are infinite. But one of my other favorites has pumpkin seeds, pecans, a few tablespoons of cocoa powder, and 1/2 c. peanut butter instead of the tahini.

Pumpkin pie oatmeal

I've been having trouble making the time to put up my recipes. But I intend to keep doing it! I've got about 6 recipes I want to put up, so hopefully they will be here soon. But in the meantime, here's a super quick one.

I don't intend to put much breakfasty stuff on here, but this is one of my more brilliant breakfast ideas lately. It stems from the deluge of pumpkins coming from the CSA and elsewhere. It's delicious, and a lot healthier than pumpkin pie.

Serves 1, but can be easily scaled up:

1/2 c. old-fashioned rolled oats (never, ever eat instant oatmeal, it's gross IMO)
1 c. milk
2 T. pumpkin puree, from a can or your own
1/2 t. ground ginger
1/4 t. ground nutmeg
1/4 t. ground cinnamon
small handful pecans, toasted if you have the time
brown sugar, milk to taste

Combine oats, milk, and pumpkin in saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then reduce to low heat. Rummage through spice cabinet and add spices as you find them. Cook a few minutes till it looks creamy and delicious. Serve with pecans, brown sugar, and more milk.

Variations:
I think this would also be great with steel cut oats, soaked overnight and then cooked with pumpkin and spices.