"Fruitcake" oatmeal cookies

Amazeballs. Best after completely cooled with a nice cup of tea (or milk tea!). And yes, you can eat them for breakfast because they are oats and fruit!

1 C butter, softened (preferably Kerry Gold)
1 C sugar
1 C packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 t vanilla extract
2 T dark rum
2 C flour
2 C rolled oats
1 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
1/2 t salt (increase to 1 t if using unsalted butter)
3/4 C golden raisins
3/4 C diced candied fruit, including citrus peel (i.e. https://nuts.com/driedfruit/glazedfruit/mixed-peel.html)
1 C chopped toasted pecans (optional but delicious)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Cream the butter and sugars together, then the add eggs one at a time, mixing well to incorporate. Mix in the vanilla and the rum. In another bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. In three batches, mix the dry ingredients into the wet, then fold in the fruit and nuts.

Drop by generous tablespoon onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes.

Makes 4-6 dozen.

"Norwegian" Apple Pie

I found this pie crust recipe that calls for vodka, which sounded really interesting to me, especially after reading the theory behind it - vodka evaporates, so the crust is supposed to turn out super-flaky. The desire to make a caramel apple pie came to me a few weeks ago, until I read a post on Something Awful in which the Norwegian goat's milk cheese, gjetost, was used. I just happened to have a block of gjetost in the fridge, so I looked up recipes for gjetost apple pie and found one involving both sour cream and cardamom (two of my favorite edibles). Of course, I left out the cinnamon. :D

Start with the filling, since I think it's better after marinating for a while in the fridge. I used Honeycrisp apples because again, those were on-hand. In a large bowl, stir together 2 tablespoons of sour cream, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, 1/2 cup of sugar (or evaporated cane juice), 1/2 teaspoon of cardamom, a pinch of Kosher salt, and 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour.

Next, peel and quarter your apples, remove the cores and cut them into about 1/2" slices. My three apples weighed just over 1.5 pounds, which is enough for a deep-dish pie. Use less if you're using a regular pie tin. Then toss the apple slices in the sour cream mixture, cover, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours (that's all the time I had, but more would probably be better).

Time for the crust, which I'm doing in the food processor. Cut up 3 sticks of butter (I, of course, use salted butter) into small cubes, then place in the freezer for about 10 minutes. If you're making the crust by hand, put the cubes back into the refrigerator. Get out the food processor (or a large bowl) and add 4.5 cups of flour and 1/2 a tablespoon of Kosher salt. Give it a quick whir (or whisk). Add in the butter cubes and pulse (or rub or cut) until the mixture resembles course crumb. Sprinkle 1.5 tablespoons of vodka and 1/2 cup of water over the flour/butter and pulse (or stir) just until the dough holds together. Pour the dough onto your work surface and form it into a block, then wrap it in cling-film and let it rest there for 1 hour.

After 1 hour, roll out half of the dough on a floured surface into a 10" circle (leave the other half on the counter until it's time to cover the pie). Lightly press the dough into your tin. I overlapped the rim just a bit since I wasn't using a proper pie tin and I wanted the side to stay in place during blind baking. Trim the excess dough (I left it a bit rustic because that's just how I am). Turn your oven to 300°F and then put the tin in the freezer for 15-20 minutes.

Take the tin out of the freezer and cover the crust with parchment or aluminum foil. Fill the lined crust with dried beans, rice, or pie weights. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the crust is cooked but not browned. Remove the lining and weights and bake for 5 to 7 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool. Turn the oven up to 350°F so it can preheat while the bottom crust cools.

Shred 2 to 4 oz of gjetost, depending on your taste. Once the bottom pie crust has cooled, sprinkle half the cheese over it, then spoon in the apples after giving them a final toss in the sour cream mixture. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top of the apples.

Roll out the remaining half of dough into another 10" circle. I have another of the tins I used for the pie, so I used it as a guide for trimming. Lay the upper crust over the pie, pressing it gently into the inside rim of the bottom crust. Brush with egg wash (1 egg beaten with about tablespoon of water). Cut fun shapes out of the dough scraps and brush both sides with the egg wash before gluing to the top crust. Make slits or a small hole in the top crust to let out the steam.

Bake at 350°F for 35 to 45 minutes until the crust is golden and the filling is bubbly. Let the pie cool for at least 20 minutes. Remember to take a picture before you cut it. Oops! Serve slightly warm so the cheese is still melty (we took it over to my mother-in-law's house and set it on top of the warm oven).

Note: the apples still had a slight crunch, so if you don't like that sort of thing, either let the apples sit in the liquid for longer and/or slice them thinner.

Another note: don't use a cake tin if you can help it - getting that first slice out is ridiculously difficult. I just don't have a deep-dish pie tin (yet!).

403 Fruit

I made this collage a while back. I needed an artistic outlet for my fruit obsession. May I suggest tasting all of these fruits before you perish?

Oh how I love fruit

L to R
Hachiya persimmon, white peach, date, papaya, starfruit, blackberry, black cherry, green apple, plantain, red Bartlett pear, blood orange, pluot, mango, ackee, pomegranate, pineapple, rose apple, avocado, fig, blueberry, kiwi, black currant, soursop, dragonfruit

I really should add the elusive Buddha's hand:

http://veganascent.blogspot.com/2010/12/buddha-hand-citron.html

The flavor and fragrance of this fruit is absolutely mesmerizing. I can't wait to get my hands on one this summer so I can candy the peel... And then just sniff it all day long. I imagine it's what the afterlife smells like if you were a good person.

Pear Tarte Tatin

I think it's fitting that my first real food post is of the one dessert I've been making for years: Pear Tarte Tatin. Sorry for the no step-by-step photos; you'll just have to believe me when I say that bubbling away in this here cast-iron skillet is butter, sugar, and pears; and that a fine pastry crust was crafted beforehand.

By the time I managed to take the final terrible photograph, we had already eaten some of the delicious, albeit messy, result. A dollop of lightly-sweetened whipped cream (homemade or GTFO) may have accompanied our plates.

How does one construct this dessert?
As this is my first food post, I'll stress now that I will not be writing out a traditional recipe. I'm going to descibe the foundation of the dish, which allows for much more creativity. Not every creative variation will be successful, just as not every scientific experiment proves something.

That said, NO FREESTYLE PASTRY! I of course use a recipe for the pie crust. My preference is the "Deluxe Butter Flaky Pastry Dough (Pâte Brisée)" from  The All New Joy of Cooking. I do it all in the food processor with frozen salted butter. In fact, I never even buy unsalted butter; I don't see the point. As if this salted caramel craze is a new thing... um... some of us have always loved salty sweets.

Let me explain why I use pears instead of apples in my Tarte Tatin. Pears are simply more interesting than apples. My absolute favorite are the Red Bartlett variety. They taste like flowers - I kid you not. Supposedly, the red ones are unique only for their color, but I swear their flavor is different (better) than the green ones. The trick with using pears in this dessert is to find perfectly ripe, yet firm fruits. I suppose if the pears were a bit soft, the world wouldn't end, but you certainly don't want to cook them into a mealy mess. If you worry about such a thing, perhaps try the hardy D'Anjou pear (it comes in red, too); just know that the pear flavor will be milder.

Here's what you do:

1. Peel, core, and halve enough pears to line your oven-proof skillet (I prefer cast-iron because it's what the Tatin sisters would have used, but the type of skillet best used is a very common debate).
2. Procure 2:1 sugar and butter (salted, of course). Melt the butter and then pour the sugar evenly over the bottom of the skillet. You want enough butter-sugar slurry in the bottom of the skillet into which to firmly mold the pears (maybe 1/4-inch). If you're not sure where to start, go with 1 Cup of sugar and 1/2 Cup of butter.
3. Then, mold the pears into the slurry... think about this for a moment, though... this "pie" is going to be upside down... I'll give you a hint: the pears will get flipped once...
4. Turn on the heat. HIGH.
5. The idea here is to poach the pears in the caramel while browning them and simultaneously stiffening the goo (you can see in the photo above that the liquid is quite bubbly), though keeping the fruit relatively firm.
6. Once the pears get some nice color on the underside, use a fork or paring knife to carefully flip them (see in the middle photo - still very bubbly, but with nice caramelization on the fruit, actually could have used more).
7. Let the pears and caramel bubble away for a while until the liquid is very dark. Should you stick a metal spoon into the boiling liquid and after a moment, it turns into a hard, dark amber material, that's probably good. The final baking will change the consistency a bit anyway.
8. By this time, you've rolled out your pastry to the correct size such that it can be carefully lain upon the pears and tucked in around the edge of the skillet.
9. Here's where the only other recipe-type element comes in: bake this concoction at 375°F for about 30 minutes, until the crust is golden.
10. Let it rest in the skillet for another 30 minutes, then run a knife around the edge of the skillet to loosen it for the flipping. Tightly hold a large plate on top of the skillet and quickly flip the Tarte Tatin onto the plate. If pieces of pear have stuck to the skillet, replace them into the tart and no one will be the wiser. Or just eat them if you're not concerned about the final appearance of the dessert.

What to take away here:

• Pastry is pastry; use what you like, but always use a recipe
• Fruit is fruit; use what you like (I've seen accounts of tomatoes being used)
• Believe it or not, it's very hard to burn this thing unless you let the toffee turn black or leave it in the oven too long
• Even if you can't get the toffee to set right, how can butter, sugar, fruit, and golden pastry be bad?
• A cranky Frenchman or food-snobby American girl might tell you that nothing except butter, sugar, fruit, and pastry belongs in a Tarte Tatin, especially cinnamon, and that is indeed true!

This just in: I just watched Jacques Pepin make a Tarte Tatin and he does it quite differently. I actually think his method would work really well with a softer fruit, like persimmons... hmm... (that's called "foreshadowing").