Book 120 | Martha Stewart Living: Annual Recipes 2003 | Pomegranate Pilaf

by the editors of Martha Stewart Living

What a colorful (the photo doesn't do the colors justice) and festive side-dish to grace any holiday table; or spruce up a weeknight meal, for this was a cinch to make!

To make this lovely pilaf, red onion is sautéed in a small amount of butter until softened. Rice is added and stirred until the grains have been covered in butter, at which time chicken broth is added and brought to a boil, the pan is covered, and the heat is set to low, and the rice is cooked for about twenty minutes, until all the liquid has been absorbed.

Once the rice is cooked, and has been fluffed with a fork, apricots, almonds, pomegranate arils, thyme, salt, and pepper are added and combined; and voilà! You have one beautiful pilaf.


 

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TWD: Phylloccine Ice Cream Sandwiches

Tuesdays with Dorie baking through Baking with Julia
by Dorie Greenspan
Contributing Baker: Gale Gand

Phylloccine [fee-loh-chee-ne]. No, it's not an actual word - and before I read the recipe, I was pronouncing it with a long I and soft C - sounded to me like some kind of additive or something - doesn't it?

It's actually a combination of the words phyllo and fettuccine. You know, like "Brangelina" for Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. The phyllo dough is cut into fettuccine size ribbons to be made into "nests".

This recipe was super easy! After the phyllo is formed into the nests, they are sprinkled with butter and sugar. Once the nests are baked, you top them with ice cream, brown sugar whipped cream (which I omitted), a "salad" made up of raspberry purée, mint and whole raspberries (I went with just a purée), and more fresh fruit, and a sprinkle of powdered sugar if you wish. 

I sprinkled the nests with demerara sugar. I think I would have liked regular sugar better.

With strawberries being super sweet and delicious, I had to make my favorite ice cream - Strawberry-Basil Ice Cream, by David Lebovitz. You can not go wrong with his ice cream recipes.

Originally I was going to go with a mixture of berries for this dessert. In the end, I decided on only strawberries and blueberries.

Looking at this photo, fanned strawberries on the plate would have been prettier..

That said, this would make a beautiful dessert for the Fourth of July, don't you think?

If you are thinking it's too much work, really, it's not. The nests can be made a day ahead, as well as the purée, use your favorite store bought ice cream, and you can always put out the components, and let your guests build their own. :)

This is such a versatile dessert - how about coconut ice cream?!! adorned with tropical fruits like mango, kiwi, papaya, and pineapple!

The options are endless, use whatever floats your boat. 

Surprise your family and friends with this elegant and easy dessert. You can find the recipe on page 405 of Baking with Julia, or by clicking here.  

For other inspiring ideas, check out my fellow baker's rendition of this recipe!

TWD: Apple Danish Braid and a Pinwheel

Tuesdays with Dorie baking through Baking with Julia
by Dorie Greenspan
Contributing Baker: Beatrice Ojakangas 





The dough for this recipe is a laminated dough, much like what we used when we made croissants, but way easier and less time consuming. Those of you unfamiliar with the term laminated dough - this is where a slab of butter is enrobed with dough, then rolled, folded (like a business letter), rolled, folded - several times. The more you roll and fold the dough, the flakier your pastry will be.

For this recipe, the butter was sliced in large pieces and pulsed for a very short time (you want the butter to be no smaller than 1/2-inch in diameter) in a food processor with the flour, before being mixed ever so lightly with the rest of the ingredients, then chilled overnight before proceeding with the rolling and folding of the dough.

The danish braid recipe calls for only half the recipe of the pastry dough. I went ahead and made the full amount and placed the rest in the freezer for a later time, thinking this is going to be good, and just may want to make another!

With the fall weather upon us, I decided to go with an apple filling instead of the recommended  apricot, prune or berry jam, topped with a confectioner's cream or almond filling. I also forwent the coffee glaze (made from coffee and powdered sugar), one - it did not sound good to me, two - it doesn't need it - before baking, the pastry is topped with almonds and sugar.

This was good. I thought it tasted even better the following day; and the boys at the shop devoured the rest - one, whom is watching what he eats, said it was so good, he had two pieces. :)

I'm happy I have more dough on-the-ready in the freezer. I'm looking forward to making pinwheels filled with maybe a pear-cranberry filling, spiced with cardamom. Sound good?

The beginnings of the apple filling.

 

I had enough dough from the scraps to make a pinwheel (OK, enough for two, but I ate that dough).

 How cute are pinwheels?!! I wish I had made all pinwheels. Next batch!

Please visit my fellow bakers to see what version they have baked up. You can find their links on the LYL: Danish Braid link over on the Tuesdays with Dorie website.

TWD: Blueberry Muffins

Tuesdays with Dorie baking through Baking with Julia

by Dorie Greenspan
Contributing Baker: Rick Katz

This was a quick and easy recipe! I was able to bake these up and get in a couple of photos before my Saturday morning bike ride.

These muffins have a soft, light, airy texture, and a crisp flat top the day they are baked. These, like most baked goods are best they day of baking. I had one the next morning that was wrapped in plastic wrap and left on the counter overnight - the top no long crispy - my favorite part.
 
According to the recipe, you fill your cups 2/3 full. Being these are flat topped and not domed, I filled mine to the rim, hopping for a little more top - again, my favorite part. Doing this gave me a total of twelve muffins instead of eighteen the recipe states it will yield.

Cake flour is called for in these muffins to which I was short a quarter-cup-plus. I subbed in all-purpose flour with no problem. I also used non-fat milk (type was not specified in the recipe, but I'm sure it was full fat milk), and non-fat FAGE Greek yogurt in place of the sour cream.  As suggested by another baker, I reduced the salt to one-half teaspoon, and I topped my muffins with some sliced almonds and demerara sugar.

The recipe instructs you to toss the blueberries in a few tablespoons of the mixed dry ingredients to help keep them suspended throughout the batter. This did not work for me. My blueberries still sank to the bottom.

You bake the muffins at 400°F for eighteen to twenty minutes - my muffins were browning rather quickly, so I dropped the temperature down to 375°F for the last ten minutes or so.

As far as blueberries muffins go, aside from the sunken berries - these were good. I could see myself making these again, if I did not have so many other recipes waiting for me.

Maybe I can pass these off as "Blue Bottom Cupcakes".

If you would like to see the outcome of these muffins from all the other talented bakers in our group, head over to the LYL: Blueberry Muffins link on the TWD website.

TWD: Johnnycake Cobblers | Raspberry-Fig Crostata

Tuesdays with Dorie baking through Baking with Julia
by Dorie Greenspan
Contributing Bakers: Johanne Killeen (#1) / Leslie Mackie (#2)

This week we had the option of making one of two recipes.  I decided on both, after reading how easy they each were to put together.


Dessert #1

This cobbler comes together quickly and can be made on a moments notice; especially if you have some fruit laying around that needs using up.

I wish I had fruit laying around - it probably would have been more flavorful. I used a combination of white peaches, white nectarines, and plums. The peaches and nectarines were a tad on the firmer side (equates to not being super flavorful). The plums - perfect. However, they pretty much disintegrated after sautéeing.

The biscuit topping calls for stone-ground white cornmeal (there is an actual cornmeal called johnnycake meal - hence the name of the dessert). I went with your basic Alber's yellow corn meal. The corn meal gives a nice pleasing crunch to the biscuit topping.

The instructions say to bake the cobblers until the topping is a nice golden brown, which mine were. So very beautifully browned. Yet, they were a bit raw in the center. You may want to take a wooden skewer and test it before pulling them out of the oven, and if they are raw, but browned, cover with a piece of aluminum foil and continue baking till done.

To me, these were just OK. I'm thinking some cinnamon, nutmeg, or cardamom added to the filling would be a nice addition.




 Dessert #2

Easy as this is to make, it's not as quick as dessert number one. Once the dough is made, it needs to chill for one hour before rolling out, and again for another thirty minutes after the tart is filled (the filling needs to cool to room temp as well) and completed. The tart also needs to cool completely before slicing. Do not cut into it while still warm as I did, no matter how much you want to. The filling will start to ooze out. This does not make for a very visually appealing slice of pie.

If you look closely at the photo, you will notice this is not your typical lattice work. Normally you place your strips across the pie in even increments, then you fold back every other strip and lay a single strip perpendicular to the parallel strips. Unfold your parallel strips over the single strip, then fold back the opposite strips of last, placing another single strip as before, and continue in this manner until your pie is covered.

Here she has you place one strip vertically down the left side of your tart and then place the next strip horizontally across the top of the tart, crossing the first. You continue this way until your pie is covered. Not only is this way easier and quicker, but there is no way this dough would hold up being folded back and forth as described above. I had a few instances where my dough would break upon transferring from the cookie sheet to the tart.

This dough has an interesting flavor and texture. The texture is almost cookie like, not flaky like your typical pie dough. And the toasted almonds and sesame seeds give it a touch of earthiness.

At first, having a slice of this beautiful dessert slightly warm, I was not impressed. I took half of the pie to a friends house, and she and her husband thought it was tasty, as did my sister, who I took a slice to as well. My sister says the crust reminds her of those cookies at Christmas time that come in the big blue tin - the ones that are shaped like a pretzel. Really the only resemblance is the coarse sugar topping (they are a butter cookie). But that's OK. I think those cookies are delicious. 

However! Having another slice the following morning and then again two days later (hope you are not reading this Kelley! :}), I thought it to be quite good. It's so much better cold.

You simmer half of the fruit with some sugar, flour, lemon zest and butter (as I type this, I don't recall adding butter..) until the fruits break down, release their juices, and the liquid thickens.  Then you add the remaining fruit and some lemon juice to taste.

The dough did not feel sticky to the touch, but it did stick to my rolling pin. I ended up rolling it between two pieces of parchment paper. The dough for the lattice topping is cut into 1/2-inch-wide strips. (As you can see, I cut my strips closer to 1/4-inch-wide.)

The parchment paper made for an easy transfer to the pie tin. (Rather than trying to lightly roll the dough over the rolling pin to transfer.)

After the tart has chilled, brush with egg white and sprinkle with coarse sugar.

Do hop over to browse the TWD LYL: Johnnycake Cobbler/Raspberry-Fig Crostata link, to see what recipe was chosen by the other bakers from our talented group, and to see their take on these desserts.

TWD: Baked Yogurt Tart

Tuesdays with Dorie baking through Baking with Julia
by Dorie Greenspan

This cake was a breeze to put together (especially since I had pie dough in the freezer) and it's so beautiful. Too bad it was lacking flavor, as is the norm with a lot of the recipes in this book.

This tart consists of eggs, sugar, non-fat yogurt, vanilla and flour, then topped with fruit and nuts. I was thinking - there is not much going on here in the flavor arena - maybe I should add something. Granted the recipe calls for two tablespoons of vanilla, that should give it a nice nuance of sweetness, and with the tangy-ness of the yogurt, I forged on as directed.

As I was licking the bowl and spatula clean of the last remnants of the deliciously soft, sweet, tangy batter, I was sure this was going to be a fabulous dessert. Unfortunately, the sweet vanilla and tangy flavor of the yogurt is lost after baking, resulting in a bland tart. (I should have gone with my gut instinct and added some lemon zest or Frangelico to the batter.)

I don't know why, but I envisioned this as having a custard like texture, when in fact it is more cheesecake like. This could have been a really good low-fat, mock cheesecake if it just had some punch to it. Made even less fattening if baked crustless in ramekins instead of a tart shell. I think this is worth playing around with.

With some flavor enhancement to the batter this could be a winner. Maybe even coating the bottom of the tart shell with lemon curd or slices of mango before adding the filling, that would be nice too.

Success meter (1-3): 1

Don't feel you need any artistic abilities to make this. The recipe instructs you to just toss the fruit on and sprinkle the outer edge with the nuts.

My tart pan was only about one-inch deep, so I had some extra batter which I filled a ramekin, sans crust - it turned out quite cute. :)

Please do stop by the Tuesdays with Dorie website to get the links of all the talented bakers in the group. I can assure you, you will find all kinds of adaptations to this recipe, both beautiful, and I'm sure some will be found delicious as well.

Book Ninety-Four: A Passion for Desserts

by Emily Luchetti

What do you think of when you hear parfait? Me, I envision a layered dessert (trifle like) in tall clear glasses, not a loaf shape that is sliced and placed on a plate with nothing other than a sauce drizzled over the top. 

This past Tuesday was my sister's birthday and originally I was going to make a fruitcake, yes fruitcake. We loved my grandmother's fruitcake that she made every Christmas (wish I had her recipe) and we had just been talking about it and decided that is what we would have - until the day before as I was making my grocery list and reading the recipe I found online - best if made at least two weeks ahead! Well that wasn't going to work. 

A frantic search for a new dessert led me to this delicious treat. This is why I love Emily Luchetti's recipes - always easy, elegant, and with wonderful flavor. The parfait is lemony, smooth, pillowy soft and light, and the sauces oh so tasty. I had added my own touch to this dessert - chopped crystallized ginger and fresh raspberries. The ginger was a bit overpowering - next time I would decorate the top with additional raspberries and no ginger. (EDIT: Eating the leftovers a whole week later, this was still delicious - sauces and all. Even the chopped candied ginger tasted really good this time around.)

This dessert is perfect for a beautiful spring day, unlike our first day of spring her in California where it is raining. This being so light and refreshing, we can imagine it's not.

Success meter (1-3): 3

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It's important for you to get the plastic wrap as smooth as possible before filling the loaf pan. The creases will show up in the final product. This was my second time lining the pan. The first was almost perfect, then I noticed a tear in the bottom and had to start over and did not have the patience to get it as smooth as I would have liked.

I can always say I was going for the draped look.

These sauces were so good. I can see using them drizzled over vanilla ice cream, pancakes, crêpes or even on toast.

Happy Birthday Laura!