Sunday, 5 2010
by food editor Ayu
“As American as apple pie,” how I love that quote. Isn’t it wonderful that every country has it own pastry? Croissant for France, Tiramisu for Italy, Apple Pie for America. There are so many recipes for apple pie and each recipe claims to be the best and the original one, so how you decide on one recipe? You go to your favorite cookbook of course, your favorite cookbook that has the recipe for classic apple pie. Baked cookbook is my favorite cookbook and their recipes are anything but classic, so one classic recipe must mean something really good. And it did! It is a good pie, the crust is perfectly flaky and the addition of whiskey in the apple filling made it ‘different’. Its definitely worth a try! Plus, what better time than fall to bake a fresh apple pie right?
CLASSIC APPLE PIE
makes one 9-inch pie
2 balls of Classic Pie Dough (recipe to follow)
½ teaspoon cornstarch
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
7 medium Granny Smith apples
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon whiskey
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 large egg, beaten
1 tablespoon raw sugar
1. Dust a work surface with a sprinkling of flour. Unwrap one of the balls of chilled dough and put it directly on the work surface. Roll out into a 12-inch round. Transfer the dough to a pie dish and carefully work it into the pie dish, folding any overhang under and crimping the edge as you go. Wrap and freeze the crust until firm, about 2 hours, or up to 3 months.
2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. In a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and the light brown sugar. Peel and core the Granny Smith apples, then cut them into 1/8-inch wedges.
3. Heat the butter over medium heat in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan. Swirl the saucepan occasionally until the butter begins to brown. As soon as the butter is evenly browned, add half the apple wedges and cook over low heat for 10 minutes, or until the apples are softened.
4. Add the remaining apples and the cornstarch/sugar mixture. Mix until the sugar has melted, then add the vanilla, whiskey, and cinnamon to the saucepan and cook for 5 minutes, or until the filling is bubbly and thick. Do not overcool.
5. Dust a work surface with a sprinkling of flour. Unwrap the remaining ball of chilled dough and roll out into a 12-inch round.
6. Pour the pie filling into the frozen pie crust, and top the second dough round. Trim the dough, leaving a ½-inch overhang. Crimp the edges together, brush with the beaten egg, and sprinkle with the raw sugar. Cut 3 steam vents into the pie crust.
7. Bake the pie until the filling bubbles and crust is golden brown, about 1 hour. Cool the pie on a rack for 1 hour. Serve warm or at room temperature. The pie can be stored in the refrigerator, tightly covered, for up to 2 days.
PIE DOUGH
2 balls of dough, enough for 2 single-crust or 1 double-curst (9-inch) pie
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon fine salt
1 cup (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter
¾ cup ice cold water
1. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, and salt together. Cut the cold butter into cubes and toss the ubes in the flour mixture to coat. Put the mixture in the bowl of a food processor and pulse in short bursts until the pieces of butter are the size of hazelnuts.
2. While pulsing in quick, 4-second bursts, drizzle the ice water into the food processor through the feed tube. As soon as the dough comes together in a ball, remove it from the food processor
3. Divide it into two equal balls. Flatten to a disk and wrap each disk first in parchment paper and then in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the disks until firm, about 1 hour. (The dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator before proceeding with the recipe.)
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Wednesday, 1 2010
4 Comments »
Monday, 29 2010
Muntedkowhai was created in 2008 by designer Puiyi Tiffany Pang. She designs beautiful handcrafted jewelry with original and unique designs, unlike the traditional styles you see today. Using unusual materials such as knitted pieces, Muntedkowhai is a visual treat for our Dujour girls!
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Sunday, 28 2010
post by guest food editor Ayu
I’m a firm believer in homemade and living in a third-world country makes me believe that everything homemade (read: everything I made.) is simply just better than anything I get from shops. I was craving a very good warm croissant last week and decided to try my hands on this holy grail of baking. But then I was a bit intimidated by few articles I found on internet; seemed like making croissant is a long and hard work with very precise metrics ingredients.
Surprise came few days later when I was browsing through a vintage New York Times cookbook I got from my granny’s friend. The book has a recipe for croissants that looked very easy to follow and with just few ingredients. I thought “this I could make!” and there I went to my cupboard and started preparing the dough, one and a half hour later I already have dough that were ready to be rolled, laminated, folded and rolled and laminated and folded for the next hours. I spent about half a day from start to finish making this croissant and I had a buttery and crispy croissant for dinner. Yay!
FRENCH CROISSANTS
adapted from the New York Times cookbook
Makes about 16 slightly large croissants
“This recipe produced very bread-y croissants, although they still have
the flaky and crispy crust but you cant avoid the bread alike texture. But
I think the problem didn’t come from the recipe, it came from something
along the process. Since I am now obsessed with perfecting my croissant
making skills, I will continue learning the science behind a perfect warm
croissant.”
Ingredients
4 ½ teaspoons dry instant yeast
1 ½ cups lukewarm milk
4 cups all purpose flour (do not use high gluten flour for bread!)
½ cup white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup cold or almost frozen French butter (please use high quality butter
for better croissants)
1 whole egg + 2 tablespoons milk, whisk together for glaze
Method
1. Dissolve the yeast in the milk
2. Sift together the flour, sugar and salt and stir in the yeast mixture.
Knead until smooth and elastic.
3. Place the dough in a greased bowl, grease the top of the dough and let
rise in a warm place until double in bulk.
4. Roll the dough out in a long strip, dot with bits of the butter, and
fold into thirds. Turn so that an open edge is nearest. Pat and roll into
another long strip, fold into thirds, wrap in waxed paper and chill well.
5. Roll the chilled dough out and fold the ends to the center. Fold again
as above, wrap and refrigerate. Remove and repeat the process a fourth
time.
6. The last time, roll the dough out a little thinner (about one-eight
inch) but do not fold. Cut into triangles and brush one tip of each with
glaze mixture. Roll from the wide end to the tip, pressing to seal, shape
into half moons.
7. Place on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper and cover. Let rise
until double in bulk
8. Brush the top with glaze mixture and bake in a preheated oven (425 F)
twenty to twenty-five minutes or until past golden brown. Serve warm.
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Thursday, 25 2010
Oh dolls, you know how much we love you right? So we are celebrating this festive generosity brewing within us by launching the Dujour 50 Days of Holiday celebration! We have tons of recipes and crafts just for our blog readers, as well as tons of giveaways coming every Friday. Let’s kick off this party by sharing those uber delicious looking cupcakes everyone is already craving from our Set The Table feature in the new Handmade Issue you can preview for free here and get all the goodies for yourself here by subscribing. On to the indulgence!
MINT AND CHOCOLATE CHIP CUPCAKES
Makes 12 cupcakes
The only source of minty goodness is in the frosting. If you love the mint flavor, do like we did and try adding an extra teaspoon to the cake batter as well. We won’t blame you for copying us.
¾ cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
2 ½ tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
a scant ¾ cup sugar
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
a pinch of salt
3 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
½ cup whole milk
1 egg
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
½ cup chocolate chips
1. Preheat the oven to 325 Fahrenheit.
2. Lined a 12-hole cupcake pan with paper cases
3. Put the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter in a mixing bowl and beat on a low speed until you get a sandy consistency and everything is combined
4. Slowly pour the milk and vanilla extract into the flour mixture, beating well until all the ingredients are well mixed. Add the egg and beat well. (scrape any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula) and fold in the chocolate chips.
5. Spoon the batter into the paper cases until two-thirds full and bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes, or until the cake bounces back when touched. Let the cupcakes cool slightly in the pan before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
MINT GREEN FROSTING
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoons mint oil or food flavoring
½ teaspoon green food coloring
1. Beat together butter and sugar until smooth, whisk in the heavy cream and beat until fluffy. Mix in mint oil or food flavoring and green food coloring and beat until all the ingredients mixed in beautifully
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Thursday, 25 2010
Its here! The long awaited, always anticipated, highly beloved Dujour Magazine holiday issue! Take a peek at the preview below, and support us by getting your subscription for less than a cup of coffee at Starbucks! Subscribe here. Enjoy!
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Wednesday, 24 2010
Dujour loves everything and anything sweet, sassy, and cupcakes! Instead of baking a batch, why not “build” your own cupcake? Volume Twenty-Five has an ultra-sweet DIY Cupcake Paper Project – perfect for a rainy or snowy day! Plus, you can have the little ones help as well.
What’s the best part about this cupcake project? No calories gained, dolls! Make yourself a tasty sweet treat and use it as kitchen décor, cake toppers, or whatever your heart’s desire. After this, we know we are going to make our own!
To view the PDF file and for more instructions, visit http://vol25.typepad.com/vol25/freebie-build-your-own-cupcake.html
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