Savory Butternut Squash Pie

Heather is definitely the queen of pie! She alerted me to the National Pie Day which was on January 23. I know, I know, you've missed it for this year, BUT March 14 (aka 3.14 aka the REAL Pi day) is coming up soon, so all these pie recipes are going to come in handy!

This is one of my favorite savory pie recipes. I love squash. I love cheese. Perfect!



Ingredients
single crust pie dough (I like the vodka pie crust recipe that Heather previously wrote about)
2 lb butternut squash (I usually opt to buy two 1lb squashes because I think the smaller ones taste better!)
2 eggs
generous 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 tsp salt
1 tsp nutmeg
pinch cayenne pepper
2 tbsp butter, softened (optional, this makes a rich pie even richer, but it's so good!)

Directions
1. Preheat your oven to 400. Roll out your pie crust into a 9 inch pie pan.
2. Cook the squash. I prefer to cut it in half, put the cut half down on a large plate and microwave it for 20 minutes. You can also roast the squash in the oven for a richer flavor, but this takes longer! Once the squash is cooked, allow it to cool (if you're using the microwave, it's going to be HOT. You may want to put the plate in the fridge or freezer to speed up the cooling process. Once it's cool, scoop out the flesh into a large bowl and mash it with a fork, this should be easy and you don't want large clumps.
2. Add the eggs and mix well.
3. Add the cheese, salt, nutmeg, cayenne and butter and mix until the filling is homogenous. You don't want to blend this, it should still have a little texture!
4. Bake at 400 for 25-30 minutes or until the squash juuuust starts to brown a little.
5. Allow the pie to cool for at least an hour before serving, though you may rewarm slices in the oven or microwave before serving.

Beer Bread (aka, how to get rid of old cheap beer in your fridge)

Let me tell you about something called Blanco Basura. Blanco Basura is a special product that my friends discovered that proudly claims how its name is Bad Spanish for "White Trash." So yeah, if you actually speak Spanish, it's not my fault. Anyway, Blanco Basura is a special party pack that comes with five beers, a pint of tequila and a shot glass.


(if you're wondering, yes that's an image of a dog peeing)

What a great idea! We knew it wasn't going to taste good, but $10 for a party? Awesome. But the tequila. is. awful. And I really like tequila. So we do the shots of tequila and chase it with a Blanco Basura beer. Hey! After that urine cleverly disguised as tequila, this beer is pretty good! We should totally buy this again! And again! And again! But really, Blanco Basura beer is not that good. So it sits and sits in my fridge for weeks... months even!



Until I decide enough is enough, I gotta get rid of this beer.

Beer bread is so good and so easy! It's hearty and a little sweet and gets rid of that crappy beer no one wants to drink. I've made beer bread with different kinds of beer, but I think lagers work the best. They give the least flavor. Bread is ok if it's a little yeasty, but you don't want it to be too strong. And you really don't want to waste good beer on bread! So use the cheap stuff leftover from that last party.

This recipe is easy and very basic. You can play around with sweetener, use some wheat flour, add butter, spices, cheese, whatever!

Ingredients
3 cups white flour
1.5 Tbsp baking soda
1.5 tsp salt
3 Tbsp sugar (if you want to substitute alternative sugars like honey, agave or molasses, I recommend using at least 1 Tbsp dry sugar)
12oz. beer

Directions
1. Preheat your oven to 350 and grease and flour a 5x9 inch loaf pan.
2. Whisk together all the dry ingredients.
3. Add the beer slowly while stirring with a wooden spoon. If you're adding a liquid sweetener, add half of the beer, then add the sweetener, then the rest of the beer. Stir the dough for about 2-3 minutes. The dough should be sticky.
4. Pour the dough into the prepared pan and bake for 45-55 minutes or until the top of the loaf begins to brown. The bread will rise quite a bit.
5. Remove from pan immediately and allow it to cool on a rack for at least 10 minutes (better if you can wait 30!) until cutting.
6. Enjoy alone or with butter and honey!

Devil's Food Bat Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

It may seem like it's all pie, all the time in my kitchen, but that's not the case. Sometimes there's cake!

My birthday was earlier this month, and this clearly called for cake. I wanted to use my Christmas gift, the King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking book. Yes, you read that right: whole grain cake. This book has an entire chapter devoted to whole grain cakes (and other chapters for cookies, and pies, and oh my!), and I was dying to find out how delicious they could be. Don't worry, this cake is not health food!

What you need:

3/4 cup unsalted butter

1 cup packed light or dark brown sugar

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1 cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder

1 1/2 tsp backing soda

4 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup plain low-fat or whole-milk yogurt

3/4 cup water

What you do:

Preheat the oven to 350. Grease and flour your pans (2 9-inch rounds, 3 8-inch rounds, or one 9x13).

Cream together the butter, sugars and salt in a large mixing bowl till fluffy and light, at least 5 minutes. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flours, cocoa and baking soda. Make sure there are no lumps.

Add the eggs to the butter mixture one at a time, beating well (at least a full minute) after each addition. Mix in the vanilla. Add half the flour mixture and mix until evenly combined. Add the yogurt and water, and mix again. Add the remaining flour, mix, and stop to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl once more, to make sure the batter is evenly moistened. Pour the batter into the prepared pans.

Bake the cakes for 30-35 minutes if making a layer cake, or 35-40 minutes if making sheet cake. Remove from the oven and cool for 15 minutes before removing from the pan. Place on a rack to cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting!

I used the frosting from the carrot cake recipe in the same cook book. To make it, let 1 8-oz package of cream cheese and 6 tbs of butter get to room temperature, then cream them together with 1 tsp of vanilla until light and fluffy. Then add (gradually!) 4 cups of confectioner's sugar. To get the intense blue color seen in the picture, add an entire bottle of blue food coloring. Noel (my partner in cake crime!) was not the biggest fan of this frosting, but I thought it was great. More cakes with different frosting are in the future!

The usual response when I mentioned that this cake is whole wheat: "Sweet, I can have another piece!" I can not recommend the KAF cookbooks enough for baking; they are reliable, and prioritize making delicious baked goods above all other considerations. I can't wait to try more whole wheat cakes!

Orange Ginger Muffins

Makes 12 muffins.

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup canola oil
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup orange juice (about 2 oranges if using freshly squeezed)
1 tablespoon navel orange zest (about 1 orange)
2 teaspoons fresh minced ginger
3 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup coarsely chopped toasted pecans

Place rack in center of oven and preheat to 375 degrees F. Spray a 12 mold regular size muffin pan with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a separate bowl, whisk together oil, egg, and juice. Add the orange zest, ginger, honey, and vanilla, and whisk until just combined. Add to the flour mixture and stir quickly until well combined. Fold in the pecans. Spoon the batter evenly into the 12 molds.

Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until the tops are golden and a cake tester inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack to cool for 5 minutes before removing each muffin and placing on a wire rack to cool.

Butternut Squash, Spinach and Bread Salad

Ingredients:

1 butternut squash

1 small onion or ½ large onion

½ to 1 bunch spinach

about ¼ a loaf of preferably rustic bread

Asiago cheese

salt

pepper

Peel and chop the butternut squash into one-inch cubes. Toss with salt and olive oil and roast at 450 F until tender when pierced by a fork, about 30 to 40 minutes.

Chop onion and sauté on medium for 10 minutes. Add garlic and cook another 5 minutes until onions are tender. You can also cook until onions are caramelized.

Chop day-old (or older, as long as it isn’t moldy) bread into cubes. Toast in a skillet with a bit of olive oil until a bit brown.

Chop spinach into ribbons. Toss all the cooked ingredients and spinach together in a bowl. The heat of the squash will slightly cook the spinach. Add cheese, salt and pepper to your taste.

Potato Onion Cheese Pie

This picture is from a similar pie I made last summer, but the concept is the same! I wanted a nice savory pie for a pie party, and nothing says "comfort food" like potatoes and cheese. Noel chose the spices for this one, and they were genius. The pie had a beautiful yellow color and a warm, almost mustard-y, flavor. Whip up this pie on a gloomy day; it's the pie equivalent of a cozy blanket!

I used baby yellow potatoes, so the slices were bite-sized. If you use larger potatoes, you might want to cut it up so that it's smaller sliced. Of course, that would be completely up to you!

What you need:

Chilled dough for a double-crust pie

3 cups of sliced yellow potatoes

2 medium onions, diced

1 cup of crumbled sharp cheese (I used Gloucester)

2 eggs, beaten

1 tbs turmeric

1 tsp cayenne pepper

Salt to taste

What you do:

Combine all your filling ingredients in a bowl and toss together until everything is evenly distributed.

Roll out the bottom crust and place in a well-greased pie dish. Spoon the filling into the pie. Roll out the top crust and cut a few vents into it, then place on top of the pie. Pinch the edges shut.

Bake at 350 degrees until the crust is golden, the cheese melted, and the potatoes soft - about an hour. Wait at least 15 minutes to slice into this one.

Eat your amazing pie!

Apple Cranberry Pecan Pie

I did two versions of this pie over the winter holidays, and both were scrumptious cold-weather goodness. The first time I used cranberries and goat cheese; the second time I had to improvise the cranberries, with delicious results!

Here's what you need:

dough for a double-crust pie

4 cups of thinly sliced apples

a big handful of craisins

brandy

a big handful of chopped pecans

about 1/2 cup of spreadable cheese - I used a yummy farmer's market cheese, but goat cheese works great, too.

Spices - cinnamon and cloves, or whatever strikes your fancy. Probably about a 1/2 tsp of each.

Here's what you do:

While your dough is chilling, throw the craisins in a saucepan and cover them with brandy. Let them simmer while you chop your apples and get the rest of your ingredients together. They should get plump and soft. Drain them when they're done, but save the brandy for drinking purposes!

Put the apples, brandy-soaked craisins, pecans, cheese, and spices in a big bowl and toss together until everything is evenly distributed.

Roll out half of your dough and lift it into a well-greased pie dish. Fill it up with your apple concoction, then roll out the rest of the dough and cover the top of the pie. Cut some vents in the top crust, or do a nice lattice. Pinch the sides shut and make it look pretty if you're able (I'm not!), and it's ready to bake! Bake at 350 for 45 min. to an hour, or until the crust is golden and the cheese is melty and the cranberries all bubbly.

Wait at least half an hour before slicing into your pie, then eat it up!

Vodka Pie Crust

I keep getting asked about the vodka pie crust I always use to make pie, so here it is. Before discovering this recipe, I always had trouble with pie crusts - they would be too dry and fall apart when I rolled them out, or too wet and end up undercooked. Adding vodka to the dough means you can keep it moist enough to be easy to work with, but still end up with a perfectly light and flaky crust when the alcohol bakes out.

This is a double-crust recipe, which I originally got at Smitten Kitchen. That site has lovely photos and a step-by-step tutorial, but it is rather lengthy and complicated. And the whole point of the vodka crust is that it is easy! Here's how I do it:

2 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

1 1/2 sticks of cold butter, cut into little pieces

1/2 cup of vegetable shortening (I prefer butter-flavored Crisco)

1/4 cup cold water

1/4 cup vodka

Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl, then cut in the butter and shortening. If you don't have a pastry cutter, your fingertips are the next best tool for this job. Just combine until the butter is reduced to pea-sized clumps.

Sprinkle the water and vodka over the dough and lightly stir it together just until you can form it into a ball. If the dough seems too dry and crumbly, add another splash of vodka until it seems workable. The butter should not be evenly distributed; the clumps you see in the dough will melt when baked and create those tender flakes that make a good pie crust so tasty. Divide the dough in half and refrigerate it for at least half an hour before rolling it out for a pie. You can leave it in the fridge for a day or so, or in the freezer for... longer. When it is formed into a pie and baked, it will be buttery and flaky and oh so delicious!

Note: For a while I had the recipe memorized incorrectly, and used a whole cup of shortening in stead of 1/2 cup. The crust still turned out fine, with no discernible difference in taste. I went back to 1/2 cup after I realized the mistake, because I suppose I don't really need extra fat in my desserts, but I took two lessons from it.

1. Pie crust is not an exact science, so don't worry about it too much!

2. Extra butter or shortening never hurt anything.

Go forth and make pie!

Latkes

I know Hanukkah is over, but too bad. Latkes are awesome all year long! This recipe makes a lotta latkes but feel free to halve it if you aren't making them for a party or aren't a fatso. You can freeze extras and reheat them in a toaster oven.

Ingredients
2 lbs baking potatoes (about 3 large potatoes)
1 medium yellow or white onion
1/2 cup matzo meal (or flour or breadcrumbs)
2 eggs, beaten
salt and pepper to taste
2 Tbsp potato starch (optional, see below)
oil for frying (for tips, also see below)
apple sauce and sour cream for serving

Directions
1. Grate the potatoes into a fine strainer over a large bowl. They will start to drain into the bowl, and you want to rinse them with a little water when you're done grating (if they've oxidized and turned red, rinse them till they are white), but catch all the water in the bowl! Squeeze out as much water as you can by pressing on the potatoes and remember, save all the drained liquid!
2. After you've pressed out a lot of the water, pour the potatoes onto a large cheesecloth or paper towels. Squeeze the potatoes until they're pretty dry. You might need to do this with a fresh towel 2 or 3 times.
3. Pour the mostly dry potatoes into another large bowl. Grate the onion into the bowl.
4. Slowly pour the rinsed potato water down the sink. When it's mostly poured out, you will notice a white substance at the bottom of the bowl. This is potato starch! Potato starch is one of the secrets to delicious latkes. It helps give them a good texture. Pour as much of the water out as you can while keeping as much of the starch. It's ok to have a little extra water. Scrape the potato starch into the bowl with the potatoes and onion.
5. Add matzo meal, extra potato starch (if you're using it, it's not necessary and if you don't already own it, it's probably not worth buying just for this use, but it's great for baking so I always have it in my kitchen), salt, pepper and eggs. Mix well. Allow the mix to rest for at least 10 minutes. Some more water will come out of the potatoes, but just leave it there.
6. Heat your fat in a large flat pan over medium heat. My mom swears by duck fat, which is kind of gross to think about but if you ever cook whole ducks, it's easy enough to save the fat that melts out in a jar (hey, some people save their bacon fat, so no judging!) and it will keep in your fridge for months. If you don't want to use that, peanut oil is the best vegetable oil for latkes. It has a really rich flavor and is really saturated/unhealthy/delicious. You can also use olive oil, which would be preferable to canola, but it doesn't matter that much. Don't use butter, it just doesn't work well. Probably something about the flame point or whatever.
7. Put a small piece of potato in the oil. When it turns golden brown, the oil is ready. Make balls of potato mix and gently place them in the oil. Flatten them with your hands or a spatula. Let them cook for 2-3 minutes, then flip and cook for 2-3 minutes on the other size. Remove from oil and allow them to drain on paper towels. Replenish the oil as necessary, but make sure it has heated up before adding the potatoes!
8. Serve immediately with sour cream and apple sauce.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

I first made this cake because I didn't have any flour. But now I make it all the time because it's the easiest cake ever and it tastes really fancy. I probably shouldn't tell anyone that because they will be less impressed with my skills and will just make it themselves. But who cares! This cake is quite rich, be warned! But it's soooo good!

This cake is great because you can modify its flavor. I've made it with Kahlua and instant coffee, and with cayenne and cinnamon. You could make it with mint or orange (or orange liqueur) or any alcohol or fruit flavor you want, really! You can add more cocoa (or unsweetened chocolate) to make it richer or change the amount of sugar to your liking. I'd recommend starting with it as is and then playing with it.

Ingredients
1/2 cup unsalted butter
4 oz. semi sweet baking chocolate or 1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup cocoa powder, sifted
3/4 cup white sugar
3 eggs, beaten
1 Tbsp vanilla
powdered sugar and/or cocoa for dusting

Optional Ingredients (don't use all of them together! just choose a flavor family and go with it)
1 Tbsp instant coffee and 2 Tbsp Kahlua
2 tsp cinnamon and 1 pinch (less than 1/8 tsp) cayenne pepper
1 tsp mint extract
1-2 Tbsp liqueur of your choice (suggestions: Contreau, Amaretto, Rum, Brandy, Bourbon... whatever your vice is, really!)

Directions
1. Preheat your oven to 325 and grease and flour a 8 inch round pan. Don't use a 9 inch pan. This cake is already thin!
2. Over very low heat or a double boiler, melt the butter or chocolate. Use a pan/pot large enough for everything in the recipe so you don't have more dishes to wash! Once melted, remove from heat.
3. Add the remaining ingredients. Taste the batter to make sure you like the flavors. They will likely cook out a little, but cayenne won't! I've put too much cayenne in because I couldn't taste it in the batter and then the cake was too spicy!
4. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the pan before removing it to a wire rack to cool completely.
5. Dust with cocoa powder or powdered sugar if you'd like! This also goes quite well with unsweetened or very lightly sweetened whipped cream and fresh berries!