Nutmeg Maple Cream Pie!

I decided to make this recipe for Bryan's birthday tomorrow. Kristina was planning to make her epic chocolate fudge cake, so I wanted to make something that was both non-chocolate, and non-cake. This seemed super seasonal and looked delicious, so I thought I'd give it a shot! (Original recipe from Smitten Kitchen)


Ingredients
3/4 cup maple syrup
2 1/4 cups heavy cream
4 egg yolks
1 whole egg
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 9-inch pie crust


1. Par-bake pie crust: I used the same crust as I did in the Custard Pie last week.

Look! New pastry blender! It makes life SO much easier!

 

I tried rolling out the crust on parchment paper -

EXCELLENT idea. No flouring, no mess, easy transfer. 

Pie crust on the cookie sheet, and wrapped

in tinfoil before adding filling - MUCH better

method than last week's custard pie.

Only bake the crust for 5 to 10 minutes, until the edges just start to brown up. It will finish cooking as the filling cooks.

2. Prepare filling: In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, reduce maple syrup by a quarter, 5 to 7 minutes. 

 Stir in cream and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat.

3. In a medium bowl, whisk together egg yolks and egg. Whisking constantly, slowly add cream mixture to eggs. Strain mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a cup or bowl with pouring spout. Stir in salt, nutmeg, and vanilla.

4. Pour filling into crust and transfer to a rimmed baking sheet. 

Bake until pie is firm to the touch, but jiggles slightly when moved, about 1 hour. Let cool to room temperature before serving.

After baking for an hour at 300 degrees this was 

nowhere near done. I had to bake it for an

additional 30 minutes at 360 degrees.

I was a bit worried when this came out of the oven... 

it looked like the top was on the verge of burning, but it 

seemed way too liquidy... but I took it out anyway,

and it looked much better after refrigerating overnight.

I sadly have to wait until tomorrow to taste, but from dipping my finger in the filling... it is going to be fabulous! I'll update on reactions tomorrow.

Update! I brought this into school for Bryan's birthday (early surprise!) but he was out sick. We ate it anyways, and the reviews were really good! I think it basically tastes like the fall holiday season - wonderful. Will definitely make again!

Chocolate Salted Caramel Cupcakes

Let me preface this by saying that I am an eternal lover of all things salty and sweet. Once I stumbled upon this gem of a recipe, I just had to give it a shot. This is a Martha Stewart recipe that I found online at 52 Cupcakes.


Summary of the lessons learned after making this recipe multiple times - this recipe makes about 18 cupcakes, but you should still halve the batch for both the caramel and the frosting. also, heat the caramel to 375 for a firmer caramel filling.


The Cupcakes
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 
3/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups sugar 
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda 
3/4 teaspoon baking powder 
3/4 teaspoon salt 
2 large eggs 
3/4 cup buttermilk 
3 tablespoons vegetable oil 
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 
3/4 cup warm water 

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line mini muffin tin with paper liners. Whisk together flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. With mixer on low speed, add eggs, buttermilk, oil, extract, and the water; beat until smooth and combined.

Honestly, the first time I made this recipe, 

this batter looked super thin to me, so I added about

 1/2c flour. After that, it still  looked super thin. But... I decided 

to try a test batch, so  I baked a couple and they looked fine, so

this recipe may need a bit more flour, but it should still look

 thinner than the average cake batter when you put it in the oven.

The second time I made these cupcakes the batter looked fine...

i'm guessing i just screwed it up the first time. I would recommend

making the batter as-is.

Spoon the batter into liners about three-quarters full. Bake 15-20 minutes, or until tester comes out clean. Cool completely.

Use a paring knife to cut a cone-shaped piece (about 1/2 inch deep) from the center of each cupcake and throw away the pieces. 

Throw away the pieces?!? What is Martha TALKING about!

Absurd.

Salted Caramel Filling
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups sugar 
2/3 cup water 
1 tablespoon light corn syrup 
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream 
2 1/2 teaspoons sea salt, preferably fleur de sel 

Directions
Heat sugar with the water and corn syrup in a heavy saucepan over high, stirring occasionally, until syrup is clear; clip a candy thermometer to side of pan and stop stirring.

use a bigger pan than you think you'll need to...

later when you add the cream, it will expand, 

and you'll be grateful that you're not trying to

clean caramel off of your stovetop.

Boil, gently swirling pan occasionally, until mixture is caramelized and just reaches 360°F. 

the second time i made this, i accidentally

heated the caramel to 375 - excellent. the caramel

was a bit richer tasting, and had a firmer set in 

the cupcakes.

Remove from heat and slowly pour in cream; stir with a wooden spoon until smooth. Stir in sea salt.

Use immediately; if caramel begins to harden reheat gently until pourable.

Let me just say that my first batch of caramel did NOT 

come out nearly this well. This is what it looked like. 

... yea.  For some reason I turned down the heat after 

it started to boil, had it on a low boil for seriously an hour. 

then when I got frustrated that it wasn't caramelizing,  I

turned the heat up high, stirred furiously, and it just all crystallized. 
dumb idea. alton brown would be ashamed of me.

anyways, here's another shot of my pretty pretty caramel.

See, I did do it right! (eventually).


As written, this is really salty caramel (good, depending 
on your palette). The second time I made these I only 
added about 1 tsp sea salt, and they were great. 

Spoon 1 to 2 teaspoons warm Salted Caramel Filling into each hollowed-out cupcake. You will notice the caramel will sink into the cupcake a little, just fill it up a bit more.

Yea,  "1 to 2  teaspoons?"  I think I ended up with a little more

than a tablespoon  in each. As the caramel soaked into the

cupcake I just kept refilling them - I definitely had more than enough

caramel i'd halve the recipe next time.

Let the caramel cool completely.


Dark Chocolate Frosting
Ingredients:
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon boiling water
2 1/4 cups (4 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 pounds best-quality semi-sweet chocolate, melted and cooled

Directions:
Combine cocoa and boiling water, stirring until cocoa has dissolved.

With electric mixer on medium-high, beat butter, confectioners' sugar, and salt until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed to low. Add melted and cooled chocolate, beating until combined and scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in the cocoa mixture. 

Yea... the first time i made this, it was
 way too thin. Way. I ended up more than 2 
more cups of powdered sugar until it was an 

appropriate consistency. 


the second time it was fine. 
just make sure not to melt the butter, just soften it.

Use a pastry bag with a medium open-star tip (I used Wilton #17) and pipe Dark Chocolate Frosting onto each cupcake.Garnish each cupcake with a swirl of caramel and a pinch of sea salt. Enjoy!

Here's the best series of pictures yet  :D

YUM!

Custard Pie

It's a bit surprising to me how seldom I have updated this blog recently, particularly considering how much I've been cooking. But I'm back! My new plan is one cooking/baking entry per week, and then the occasional political post.

On to the topic at hand... Custard Pie! This is the first pie I've ever made from scratch. Ever. I found the basic recipe in a cookbook of my roommates, "Better Homes & Gardens New Cook Book" (updated for the 90s!), and edited it little by little from there.

First, the crust.

• 1 1/4 c flour
• 1/3 c shortening
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 c cold water

In a medium size mixing bowl, cut the shortening into the flour and salt. Then add the water 1 T at a time, mixing with a fork after each tablespoon added.

You're supposed to use a pastry blender to cut the 

shortening, but, alas, I don't own one.  Instead, 

I improvised. What did I use, you ask? Potato masher.

Form the dough into a ball, then flatten onto a lightly floured surface.

Roll out dough until it's about 12 inches in diameter. 

Here again was a need for me to improvise. I don't 

own a rolling pin.  And didn't know if my roommates 

had one. What did I use?

Ah yes, my trusty bottle of Jameson...

After the dough is rolled out, roll it onto the rolling pin (or Jameson), and transfer over to your pie dish.

Then you want to push the crust down so it lays flush against the pan. Then trim the outside edge so that it only overhangs about half an inch. Then you'll want to fold the excess under (to build up the crust). Also, generously prick the bottom and sides of the crust with a fork. Here you can decided to fork the edges or form the edge in some other way.

I decided on a nice fluted edge... simple to make, way 

cuter than just pressing a fork into the crust.

Bake at 450 degrees for 6 minutes, then take out of the oven.

Moving on to the filling!

• 4 eggs
• 2 1/2 c milk
• 1/2 c sugar
• 1 t vanilla
• 1/2 t almond extract
• 1 pinch salt
• pinch of pumpkin pie spice

Whisk eggs until well mixed. Add sugar and vanilla, mix well. Slowly add milk. 

The recipe then suggests that you put the pie crust on the oven rack before you fill it, to help avoid spills. 

Unfortunately, my oven appears to be slightly off balance, 

especially when  one of the oven racks is pulled out. 

So...  spills.

Sprinkle pumpkin pie spice over top, and put aluminum foil around the edges of the crust to prevent burning. 

I know, I know, it looks like a mess... you try putting 

foil around a pie pan in  a hot oven with  a liquid 

center without spilling all over the place! 

Bake for 25 minutes in a 350 degree oven, remove foil, then bake for an additional 15-20 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the middle of the pie comes out clean. Basically, if you jiggle the oven rack or the pie pan, and the middle still looks liquidy, it needs to stay in a little longer. Wait for it to cool, and enjoy!

Now, I had a few snafus in making this pie... because of all the spills, and the generally odd suggestion of pouring the filling and wrapping foil around the pan with the pie in the oven (and therefore the preheated oven stayed open), I'm pretty sure the oven was nowhere near 350 when I actually closed the door to bake. I removed the foil 20 minutes later, and half an hour after that, the custard was still loose. I returned to check every 10 minutes, and maybe a half an hr later, it finally seemed ready to come out. The knife came out clean, and it didn't look or feel too giggly.

Sadly, after letting the pie cool for about a half an hour... it tasted kinda like raw egg.  So... I tried to put the pie back in the oven. After an extra half hour in the oven, it still tasted way to eggy. I rate this recipe a fail. :(

Update! After last week's success with the Maple Nutmeg Cream Pie, I think I'd be open to trying this recipe again. I'd bake ow, then turn up the heat to finish. Also, maybe let cool completely in the fridge before sampling. Who knows? Maybe it'll work next time!