Honey-Walnut Pie and Homemade Butter Crust

The Setting: Blue and gray are duking it out in the sky...looks like gray is winning.

The Soundtrack: The dishwasher. Oh, how I love that thing! Seriously, sonnets are in order.

Steaming up the Oven: Nothing. So far, it's been a peanut butter and Kashi kind of day.

The Scenario: An alternative to the sweet Southern staple that's become a holiday hit.

Growing up, I never liked nuts until I tried pecan pie. The first bite of that gooey, ultra-sweet filling transformed the nut from just another thing I'd been avoiding (like veggies or the obligatory glass of milk with dinner) to something I actually wanted to eat (like ice cream, or, well, pie).

Last year I all but burnt myself out on pecan pie attempting to perfect my recipe. So this year I decided to do something slightly different but equally festive for the holidays.

Honey and walnuts are a classic combination. Here, they are complimented by butter for richness, brown sugar for depth, and a combo of cinnamon and cardamom for subtle complexity.

The flavor will vary marginally depending on the type of honey used. Honeys are a lot like wines in that they can be blends or varietals. Tupelo, orange blossom, clover, and other varietals are made from nectar gathered from their namesake blossoms, while "local honey" and your standard supermarket squeeze-bear are generally blends. I have no idea what combination of plants the bees of Northern Indiana and Southern Michigan prefer to pollinate, but that's what went into my pie. Whatever honey you choose will bring its own nuances to the recipe--select accordingly.

When fully cooked, the top of this pie will puff and crack slightly, almost reminiscent of the top of a cake. But don't be fooled: underneath the puffy, nutty exterior lies a gooey, honeyed caramel that is nothing but pie.

Honey Walnut Pie
This is one of those recipes that makes you get why people say "easy as pie." Simply whisk up the filling, pour it over the walnuts in the unbaked crust, and bake!

1 unbaked pie crust (recipe follows), fitted into a greased pie pan, placed on a baking sheet
2 cups walnut halves
3 large eggs
1 ¼ cups brown sugar
1/3 cup honey
4 T melted butter
¼ tsp fine salt
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
¼ cup flour
¼ tsp cinnamon
Dash cardamom

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and make sure a rack is positioned in the center of the oven.

Prick the bottom of the pie crust all over with a fork.

Spread the walnuts out evenly in the unbaked pie crust.

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the remaining ingredients.

Pour this mixture over the walnuts.

Cover the pie with aluminum foil, and bake for 35 minutes.  Carefully remove the foil, rotate the pan in the oven, and bake an additional 32-35 minutes.  Don’t worry if the pie cracks slightly--this is normal and can actually be a good indication that the pie has cooked enough to set.

Allow the pie to cool at least 20 minutes to set before cutting.

The pie will keep, covered with aluminum foil, at room temperature for up to 5 days, but it is best eaten within 1-2 days.

All-Butter Crust

Shortening is often used either in place of or in combination with butter to produce flaky pie crusts, but I prefer an all-butter approach. Butter is more flavorful and is naturally free of trans fats. My favorite butter to bake with is Kerrygold, but more often than not, I use the cheap, store-brand stuff. For the liquid component, I have used everything from water to cream to coconut milk, and even spiced rum. Whatever liquid you choose, be sure that it is cold, and use only as much as it takes for your dough to come together. The instructions below are for the food-processor method, but this dough can also be made by hand. Use a fork or a pastry cutter to cut very cold (but not frozen, which is too hard to cut in effectively by hand) butter into the dry ingredients until the largest clumps are the size of a pea and the rest of the mixture looks like grated Parmesan cheese. Add the liquid about 1 T at a time, using either a fork or a wooden spoon to incorporate just enough of the liquid so that if you press a clump of the mixture together, it will form a soft dough.

3/4 cup (12 T, or 1 1/2 regular sticks) cold, unsalted butter
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour (or whole wheat pastry flour), plus a little extra for sprinkling
2 T sugar
½ tsp fine salt
3-6 T ice water or very cold milk or cream (substitute some of the liquid with vodka if desired*)

Use a knife to cut the butter into cm-sized cubes. Freeze the butter cubes for at least 15 minutes.

Pulse the flour, sugar, and salt together in a food processor several times to mix.

Add the butter to the processor and pulse several times until the mixture has a sandy appearance and the largest clumps are about the size of a pea. The mixture will resemble Parmesan cheese.

Remove the liquid-shoot insert from the processor. Turn the processor on and pour about 1 T of the liquid through the shoot at a time, just until the mixture starts to come together in a mass. Use only as much liquid as necessary and avoid over-mixing.

Turn the dough out onto a large piece of parchment paper and press into a large, flat disk.

Wrap gently in the parchment, and place in the fridge until ready to use (or up to 48 hours).  Allow the dough to sit at room temperature for 15-20 minutes before rolling if it has been in the fridge for more than an hour. This will make it easier to roll out.

When ready to use, unwrap the disk, lightly sprinkle it all over with flour, and place another sheet of parchment on top so that the dough is sandwiched between the two sheets. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough out to a thickness of ¼-1/8^th inch.

Gently peel the dough off the parchment and transfer to a buttered pie pan, aiming to align the center of the dough with the center of the pan.

Gently lift the edges of the dough and ease it into the sides of the pan to avoid stretching the dough, which would cause it to shrink during baking. 

Trim the overhanging edges of the dough so that about 1 inch hangs over the edge of the pan all the way around.

Gently tuck or roll the overhanging dough under itself so that it sits up on the edge of the pan.

Use your fingers and thumb to crimp the edges if desired. 

Gently press parchment paper or plastic wrap onto the surface to cover and chill until ready to use. The unbaked crust can be stored like this in the fridge for 1-2 days.

Note 1: I used to make this dough using my food processor's dough blade, but I have found that the metal blade mixes the dough more quickly and more evenly.

Note 2: If desired, dough scraps can be re-rolled, cut out with festive mini-cutters, and placed atop the pie either before baking or before the second phase of baking (after the foil is removed).

Use a paring knife to add detail, such as veins on leaves.

*Aggressively mixing water and flour helps to develop the flour's gluten, which makes for strong, crusty French baguettes, but tough, chewy, gluey pie crusts. This is why it is best to use as little liquid as possible and to mix the dough as little as possible. Alcohol does not activate the gluten like water does, so it may be used in place of some of the liquid to achieve lighter, flakier results.

Thanks for reading! Here's to Being the Secret Ingredient in your life.

Harvest Slaw with Fustini's White Balsamic

The Setting: Chilly weather and Cheerio-covered floors.

The Soundtrack: Nashville.

On the Stovetop: Cranberry Bliss Bars.

The Scenario: My favorite fall lunch.

A while back I wrote about my day trip to Holland, MI, and my purchase of delicious white balsamic vinegar from Fustini's Oils and Vinegars.

I promised I'd share some of my favorite uses for this underrated pantry staple, and it's finally time to deliver.

This crunchy, hearty salad is less of a recipe and more of a serving suggestion, as nothing need be measured or precise.

I call it Harvest Slaw because it's full of autumnal flavors like crisp pears, toasted pecans, and sweet dried cherries.

Usually these compatriots adorn a bed of something more delicate like baby spinach or spring mix. The bright hue of those greens provides a beautiful visual contrast that, let's face it, would have made for much more stunning photographs. But I have recently become an advocate of packaged slaw mix as a salad base.

Despite its wallflower coloration, cabbage (the primary component of slaw mix) is surprisingly full of micronutrients. In addition to being healthy, it tends to be much cheaper and much more shelf stable than the prettier pre-packaged greens--which means I can buy a couple bags of slaw mix just to have on hand, and they're much less likely to turn to slime in the fridge before I reach for them.

Here, their sturdy, crunchy texture and nondescript flavor provide a refreshingly easy-to-eat palette for a big bowl of crisp, creamy, warm, cool, tangy, and sweet.

Simlpy pour some slaw mix into a bowl.

Splash with white balsamic vinegar and sprinkle with freshly grated black pepper.

Add a chopped pear (I usually use the Comice variety).

Top with a crumbling of creamy blue cheese, and finish with some freshly toasted, chopped pecans and dried cherries (I like to add the cherries to the pan when I toast the pecans so they both bring a little warmth to the salad and help bring out the flavor of the cheese).

And if, like Hoosband, you can't call it a meal unless there's meat, feel free to add a little ham.

Thanks for reading! Here's to Being the Secret Ingredient in your life.

Whiskey-Pecan Ice Cream and Easy Fudge Pie

The Setting: White skies; stark, charcoal-colored trees; it looks like someone hit the grayscale button outside my window.

The Soundtrack: The washer, the dryer, the dishwasher; a much-needed day of cleaning in progress.

Steaming up the (microwave) Oven: Various containers of leftovers.

The Scenario: When life--or whiskey--gets a little too intense, just add chocolate.

When Hoosband saw "Bourbon Ice Cream with Toasted Buttered Pecans" on the list of Jeni's fall flavors, he immediately added it to our shortlist of recipes to try.

We agreed to substitute Tennessee whiskey for the bourbon since the bottle of Jack on the counter had been collecting dust for the better part of a year and looked like it needed a little love.

Everything started out so well. The pecans roasted beautifully; the cream and sugar simmered blissfully; the only thing that could make this better was booze.

Then, as I poured one-half cup of whiskey into the warm ice-cream base, the smell of oak-aged alcohol smacked me upside the head. A second glance at the recipe revealed I'd used a quarter-cup too much. So much for a little love--this was beginning to look like a serious relationship...for better or for worse.

When Hoosband and I tasted the ice cream the next day, my fears were confirmed.

The ice cream was gorgeous: perfectly scoopable, a textural dream. The flavor, however, was somewhat lost in the sensation of having just thrown back a shot or two.

It conjured up memories of dive-bar nights and head-spinning morning-afters, best left in the dorm-room days.

It needed something to soften the blow...something to bring it from "night I'll never remember" to "dessert I'll never forget."

It needed something...like chocolate.

The next day I paired it with a simple fudge pie, and it completely transformed the experience.

I'd still recommend sticking to the called-for quarter-cup of booze as opposed to the highly excessive half-cup. But the combination of chocolate, pecans, whiskey, and cream is so much greater than the sum of its parts.

Serve it for company. Serve it for the holidays. Or when, in the extreme situation, you need a little hair-of-the-dog, serve it for breakfast--no judging here.

The following recipe is excerpted with permission from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home by Jeni Britton Bauer. My notes are in blue.

Jeni's Bourbon and Buttered Pecan Ice Cream
2 cups whole milk
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 1/2 ounces (3 tablespoons) cream cheese, softened
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/4 cup Bourbon  I used Jack Daniel's Tennessee whiskey
Salty Buttered Pecans recipe follows

PREP Mix about 2 tablespoons of the milk with the cornstarch in a small bowl to make a smooth slurry.

Whisk the cream cheese and salt in a medium bowl until smooth. If you have trouble whisking the cream cheese, microwave it for about 10 seconds to soften it a bit more. Fill a large bowl with ice and water.

COOK Combine the remaining milk, the cream, sugar, and corn syrup in a 4-quart saucepan, bring to a rolling boil over medium-high heat and boil for 4 minutes. Remove from the heat, and gradually whisk in the cornstarch slurry.

Bring the mixture back to a boil over medium-high heat and cook, stirring with a heatproof spatula, until slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Remove from the heat.

CHILL Gradually whisk the hot milk mixture into the cream cheese until smooth. Stir in the bourbon. Gradually is the key word--if you add it all at once, it will be very difficult to get out all the lumps. Speaking of lumps, I like to strain my mixture into a clean bowl at this point, just to make sure the ice cream will be silky-smooth. Use a spatula to help work the mixture through the strainer.

Pour the mixture into a 1-gallon Ziploc freezer bag and submerge the sealed bag in the ice bath. Let stand, adding more ice as necessary, until cold, about 30 minutes. I generally make the mixture the day before I want to freeze the ice cream so it can chill thoroughly in the fridge overnight.

FREEZE Pour the ice cream base into the frozen canister and spin until thick and creamy. For best results, always freeze the canister for AT LEAST 24 hours before using.

Pack the ice cream into a storage container, folding in 3/4 cup Salty Buttered Pecans as you go, press a sheet of parchment directly against the surface, and seal with an airtight lid. The parchment is awesome at helping to prevent freezer burn. Every time you scoop out ice-cream, be sure to press the parchment back down over the remaining ice cream to help keep it tasty. Freeze in the coldest part of your freezer until firm, at least 4 hours.

Makes 1 generous quart.

Salty Buttered Pecans
3/4 cup pecan halves or quarters I used coarsely chopped pieces
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine the nuts with the butter and salt in a bowl, tossing to coat. Spread evenly on a baking sheet and bake for 10 to 15 minutes, turning once, until crisp and aromatic. Let cool completely.

Excerpted from Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home by Jeni Britton Bauer (Artisan Books). Copyright 2011.

Fudge Pie
1 unbaked pie crust, fitted into a greased pie pan, placed on a baking sheet
4 T butter
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
2 oz cream cheese
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp fine-grain sea salt
2 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup all-purpose flour

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and make sure a rack is positioned in the center of the oven.

Prick the bottom of the pie crust all over with a fork.

Place the butter and chocolate in a large, microwave-safe bowl or 4-cup Pyrex measuring cup, and microwave for 1 minute.

Add the cream cheese to the chocolate and melted butter, and whisk until smooth. Whisk in the sugar and salt, then the eggs and vanilla, and finally the flour.

Pour the mixture into the prepared pie crust and bake at 350 for 35 minutes. Cool at least 20 minutes before serving (I like it best the next day).

The pie will keep, covered in aluminum foil, at room temperature for up to one week.

Thanks for reading! Here's to Being the Secret Ingredient in your life.

Coco Zin Ice Cream

The Setting: A crisp, fall day.

The Soundtrack: Storage Wars.

Steaming up the Panini Press: Two hot Cubans. (Sandwiches, that is.)

The Scenario: Watch out, Haagen Dazs. There's a new chocolate ice cream in town.

If it weren't for the copious containers of Haagen Dazs chocolate ice cream I consumed in between sleeves of Saltines during my pregnancy with Oia, I never would have made it through the first trimester.

Even now, if I had to make a list of my top-five-favorite foods, ice cream and chocolate in various forms and combinations would sweep at least the top four spots.

When I'm in the mood for textural variety and over-the-top flavor combinations, Ben and Jerry's wins with Chubby Hubby, Coffee Caramel Buzz (formerly Bonnaroo Buzz), and Oatmeal Cookie Chunk.

But when pure, clean, simple chocolate ice cream is what I crave, nothing has ever hit the spot like creamy, chocolate Haagen Dazs...that is...until now.

Jeni's Coco Zin sneaks a hint of red wine into a deep, dark, chocolate ice cream to deliver a rich, flavorful complexity that plays up the natural fruitiness of the cacao and intensifies the chocolaty experience without sacrificing the lush, velvety mouthfeel of quality ice cream--no easy task.

To accomplish this, Jeni calls for a combination of unsweetened cocoa powder and bittersweet chocolate.

Head's up: when it comes to chocolate, there's no legal distinction between the terms "semisweet" and "bittersweet." Their correlation to cacao percentage varies from brand to brand, and between two different brands, the terms are often synonymous. Basically, it's all dark chocolate.

 Just look for a product with 55% to 70% cacao and no dairy added.

A product's cacao percentage represents its combined amounts of cocoa butter (the fat from cacao bean) and cocoa solids (the rest of the bean). Products with identical cacao percentages may contain different ratios of cocoa solids to cocoa fat. So when it comes to dark chocolate, where milk is not a part of the equation, the main thing the percentage tells us is how much sugar is involved--the higher the percentage, the lower the sugar.

It's tempting to use chocolate chips instead of finely chopping bar or block chocolate. But this is not always the best option when "good chocolate" is called for, as chips tend to contain higher amounts of stabilizers, which can throw off the results in some recipes.

As far as the cocoa powder goes, Jeni does not stipulate between natural or Dutched. My default is always natural, and it gave me amazing results here.

A note on serving: I thought it would be a nice touch to make meringue shells to hold giant scoops of this perfect chocolate ice cream, but the Coco Zin was better on its own. Turns out the perfect pairing for this ice cream is the wine you use to make it.

The following recipe is excerpted with permission from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home by Jeni Britton Bauer. My notes are in blue.

Jeni's Coco Zin Ice Cream
"Mouth-filling, palate-gripping, intense chocolate with a fudge-like texture and a pleasantly dry finish." --Jeni Britton Bauer

CHOCOLATE SYRUP
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder I used Ghirardelli
1/2 cup Zinfandel or other dry red wine I used Gnarly Head Old Vine Zin
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 ounces bittersweet chocolate (55% to 70% cacao), finely chopped I used a Ghirardelli baking bar

ICE CREAM BASE
2 cups whole milk
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 1/2 ounces (3 tablespoons) cream cheese, softened
1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup

PREP
For the chocolate syrup:
Combine the cocoa, wine, and sugar in a small saucepan, bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar, and boil for 30 seconds. Remove from the heat, add the chocolate, and let stand for 5 minutes.

Stir the syrup until smooth. Set aside.

For the ice cream base:
Mix about 2 tablespoons of the milk with the cornstarch in a small bowl to make a smooth slurry. Whisk the cream cheese, warm chocolate syrup, and salt in a medium bowl until smooth. Fill a large bowl with ice and water.

COOK Combine the remaining milk, the cream, sugar, and corn syrup in a 4-quart saucepan, bring to a rolling boil over medium-high heat and boil for 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and gradually whisk in the cornstarch slurry. Bring the mixture back to a boil over medium-high heat and cook, stirring with a heatproof spatula, until slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Remove from the heat.

CHILL Gradually whisk the hot milk mixture into the cream cheese until smooth. Gradually is the key word--if you add it all at once, it will be very difficult to get out all the lumps. Speaking of lumps, I like to strain my mixture into a clean bowl at this point, just to make sure the ice cream will be silky-smooth. Use a spatula to help work the mixture through the strainer.

Pour the mixture into a 1-gallon Ziploc freezer bag and submerge the sealed bag in the ice bath. Let stand, adding more ice as necessary, until cold, about 30 minutes. I generally make the mixture the day before I want to freeze the ice cream so it can chill thoroughly in the fridge overnight.

FREEZE Pour the ice cream base into the frozen canister and spin until thick and creamy. For best results, always freeze the canister for AT LEAST 24 hours before using.

Pack the ice cream into a storage container, press a sheet of parchment directly against the surface, and seal with an airtight lid. The parchment is awesome at helping to prevent freezer burn. Every time you scoop out ice-cream, be sure to press the parchment back down over the remaining ice cream to help keep it tasty. Freeze in the coldest part of your freezer until firm, at least 4 hours.

Makes 1 generous quart.

 Excerpted from Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home by Jeni Britton Bauer (Artisan Books). Copyright 2011. 

 

 Thanks for reading! Here's to Being the Secret Ingredient in your life.