Pie Dough Recipe

- 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

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, and salt together. Cut the cold butter into cubes and toss the cubes 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.)

Cherry Pie How-To

1. Preheat the oven to 350F, grease the cupcake tin generously. Roll out the pie dough and cut out using round cookie cutter. Transfer to cupcake tin.

2. Spoon the pie filling into each mini pie crust, do not over fill. Top each of mini pies with the remaining pie dough.

3. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

One of so many things I hate about living in Jakarta is the lack of fun chocolate candies, read: American goodies. Just few weeks ago, we weren’t able to find Mars Bars, Snickers, Hershey’s and M&M’s anywhere in Jakarta, although one fancy supermarket has started stocking all goodies I said above, my favorites still have not make any appearance, Reese’s peanut butter cup and Twix.

The closest place I can get my Reese’s and Twix fix is Singapore which means like few hundreds dollar worthed plane ticket. So that means, all I can do is begging anyone who is going to a place where Reese’s and Twix existed to bring me some of those home. My dear friend went to Singapore and of course I asked her to bring me those goodies, she brought me very few Reese’s peanut butter cups which I immediately turned into brownies. I devoured ‘almost’ the whole pan of the brownies and yet, my chocolate peanut butter crave is just got worst.

And my decision to make these chocolate peanut butter krispy bars couldn’t be any more right. These bars are probably the best stuff I have ever made. They satisfy that salty-sweet crave and give you the extra crunch from the krispy bars. The only problem is, how to manage yourself from finishing the whole thing, because maybe, they worth the calories.

CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER KRISPY BARS

recipe from Baked: New Frontiers In Baking

1 3/4 cups crisped rice cereal
¼ cup sugar
3 tablespoons light corn syrup
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
5 ounces good-quality milk chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup creamy peanut butter
3 ounces dark chocolate (60 to 72 percent cocoa), coarsely chopped
½ teaspoon light corn syrup
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick or 2 ounces) unsalted butter

1. Make the crispy crust: Lightly spray a paper towel with nonstick cooking spray and use it to rub the bottom and sides of an 8-inch square baking pan. Put the cereal in a large bowl and set aside.

2. Pour 1/4 cup water into a small saucepan. Gently add the sugar and corn syrup (do not let any sugar or syrup get on the sides of the pan) and use a small wooden spoon to stir the mixture until just combined. Put a candy thermometer in the saucepan. Cook over medium-high heat and bring to a boil; cook until the mixture reaches the soft ball stage, 235 degrees F.

3. Remove from the heat, stir in the butter, and pour the mixture over the cereal. Working quickly, stir until the cereal is thoroughly coated, then pour it into the prepared pan. Using your hands, press the mixture into the bottom of the pan (do not press up the sides). Let the crust cool to room temperature while you make the next layer.

4. Make the milk chocolate peanut butter layer: In a large nonreactive metal bowl, stir together the chocolate and the peanut butter. Set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and cook, stirring with a rubber spatula, until the mixture is smooth. Remove the bowl from the pan and stir for about 30 seconds to cool slightly. Pour the mixture over the cooled crust. Put the pan in the refrigerator for 1 hour, or until the top layer hardens.

5. Make the chocolate icing: In a large nonreactive metal bowl, combine the chocolate, corn syrup, and butter.

6. Set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and cook, stirring with a rubber spatula, until the mixture is completely smooth. Remove the bowl from the pan and stir for 30 seconds to cool slightly. Pour the mixture over the chilled milk chocolate peanut butter layer and spread (actually, I found it easier to just roll it around until it coated smoothly, avoiding the risk of picking up any of the peanut butter layer with it) into an even layer. Put the pan into the refrigerator for 1 hour, or until the topping hardens.

Cut into 9 squares and serve. The bars can be stored in the refrigerator, covered tightly, for up to 4 days.

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

CHOCOLATE FILLING

1 cup chocolate chips
¼ cup sugar
3 tablespoons unsalted butter

PAIN AU CHOCOLAT ROLL

1. Roll out the croissant dough to 1/8 inch thick rectangle, spread the chocolate filling (recipe below) evenly over the rolled out dough.
2. Carefully roll the dough into a log and pinch the edges to seal, cut the log into eight equal pieces. Transfer to baking tray lined with parchment paper and let rise until double in bulk or for 2 hours (remember to let croissant dough rise in a cool place, warm place would melt the butter in the laminated dough.), after one hour, pre-heat the oven to 400F.
3. Prepare the glazing (1 egg + 2 tablespoons of milk, whisk.) and brush the top of each rolls with glazing mixture, bake for 20 minutes or until past golden brown for extra crispy pain au chocolate rolls.

“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.)

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.

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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