blue artichoke

I'm not really a morning person, but once I wake up, that's it, no going back to sleep for me. Such was the case yesterday; I can get a lot accomplished when I wake up early. I can make desserts. Still on the pie kick, I turned a crate of quickly ripening giant peaches into an awesome peach pie, with a double crust. The pie was particularly exciting, as it was my first double crust pie. It was much easier than I expected, and looked amazing. I took a picture of the little beauty cooling on the windowsill, but I was salivating too much to hold the camera steady. Just picture the cheeriest golden-brown topped pie you can imagine; that's what it looked like.

Summer Peach Pie with Vanilla and Cardamom

No need to peel the peaches – the peel provides great color, texture and flavor. Just gently rub off the peach fuzz with a kitchen towel.

2/3 cup plus 2 teaspoons sugar
½ vanilla bean, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch pieces
3 tablespoons unbleached all purpose flour
1 teaspoon (scant) ground cardamom
3-¾ pounds firm but ripe unpeeled peaches, halved, pitted, each half cut into 4 slices (about 10 cups)
2 Best-Ever Pie Crust dough disks*
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
Whipping cream (for glaze)
Vanilla ice cream

Position rack in bottom third of oven and preheat to 400°F. Combine 2/3 cup sugar and vanilla bean in processor; blend until vanilla bean is very finely minced. Sift vanilla sugar through strainer into large bowl; discard any large bits in strainer. Mix flour and cardamom into vanilla sugar. Add peaches to flour-sugar mixture and toss gently to coat.

Roll out 1 pie crust disk on floured surface to 12-inch round. Transfer to 9-inch-diameter glass pie dish. Trim dough overhang to 1/2 inch. Spoon peach mixture into crust; dot with butter. Roll out second pie crust disk on lightly floured surface to 12-inch round. Drape dough over peach filling; trim overhang to 1 1/2 inches. Fold top and bottom edges under, pressing together to seal. Crimp edges decoratively. Using small sharp knife, cut 2-inch-long X in center of top crust to allow steam to escape. Brush crust lightly with whipping cream; sprinkle with remaining 2 teaspoons sugar.

Place pie on rimmed baking sheet. Bake until crust is golden, peaches are tender, and juices bubble thickly through cut in top crust, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Transfer pie to rack and cool until lukewarm, about 2 hours.

Serve pie lukewarm or at room temperature with vanilla ice cream.

Serves 8.

Best-Ever Pie Crust
2 ½ cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
½ cup chilled lard or frozen nonhydrogenated solid vegetable shortening, cut into ½” cubes
5 tablespoons (or more) ice water

Blend flour, sugar, and salt in processor. Add butter and lard; using on/off turns, blend until mixture resembles coarse meal. Transfer mixture to medium bowl. Add 5 tablespoons ice water and mix with fork until dough begins to clump together, adding more water by teaspoonfuls if dry. Gather dough together. Divide dough in half; flatten each half into disk. Wrap each disk in plastic and refrigerate at least 1 hour. DO AHEAD Can be made 3 days ahead. Keep refrigerated. If necessary, soften slightly at room temperature before rolling out.

Makes 2 pie crusts (enough dough for 1 double-crust pie, 1 lattice-topped pie, or 2 single-crust pies).

Bon Appétit, July 2007

To go along with this awesome pie, I made homemade vanilla ice cream (round 2). This batch was much better than the first in the flavor department. It used only 3 egg yolks and a real vanilla bean, so it tasted more like traditional vanilla ice cream and less like the vanilla-flavored egg custard I made the first time around. The texture, though, was decidedly subpar, more like iced milk than ice cream. It had none of the smooth creaminess of the first batch, probably because it used 5 fewer egg yolks. I'll try adding another egg yolk or two in the future; perhaps I'll be able to find the delicate balance between the vanilla flavor of the second batch and the creaminess of the first batch.

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

Substitute two teaspoons pure vanilla extract if you don't have a vanilla bean. The most reasonably-priced vanilla beans I've found are at World Market.

3 1/3 cups 2% reduced-fat milk
1 cup half-and-half
1 (6-inch) vanilla bean, split lengthwise
1 cup sugar
3 large egg yolks

Combine milk and half-and-half in a medium, heavy saucepan. Scrape seeds from vanilla bean; add seeds and bean to pan. Bring milk mixture to a boil. Remove from heat. Remove bean; discard.

Combine sugar and egg yolks; beat with mixer at high speed until thick and pale. Gradually add half of hot milk mixture to sugar mixture, stirring constantly with a whisk. Return milk mixture to pan. Cook over medium-low heat 2 minutes or until thermometer registers 160°; stir constantly.

Place pan in an ice-filled bowl. Cool, stirring occasionally. Pour mixture into the freezer can of an ice-cream freezer; freeze according to manufacturer's instructions. Spoon ice cream into a freezer-safe container; cover and freeze 1 hour or until firm.

Yield: 8 servings (serving size: 3/4 cup)

CALORIES 213(30% from fat); FAT 7.1g (sat 4g,mono 2.3g,poly 0.5g); PROTEIN 5.9g; CHOLESTEROL 96mg; CALCIUM 186mg; SODIUM 76mg; FIBER 0.0g; IRON 0.3mg; CARBOHYDRATE 32.1g
Cooking Light, JULY 2006

As if those desserts weren't enough, we had quite a tasty dinner that was healthy enough to justify such indulgent treats. This is a great summertime recipe because it is light and quick to prepare; also, it is one of the best assembled-from-packaged-foods meals that I've had in a while.

Greek Pasta With Tomatoes and White Beans

You can vary the recipe by using chickpeas instead of cannellini beans and grated Romano cheese in place of feta. I used the called-for cannellini beans and a whole package of feta, which I think is 4 oz. I also used spinach penne, and plenty of salt and pepper.

2 (14.5-ounce) cans diced tomatoes with basil, garlic, and oregano
1 (19-ounce) can cannellini beans or other white beans, rinsed and drained
1 (10-ounce) bag fresh spinach, chopped (about 8 cups)
4 cups hot cooked penne (about 1/2-pound uncooked tubular-shaped pasta)
½ cup (2 ounces) finely crumbled feta cheese

Combine tomatoes and beans in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer 10 minutes. Add spinach; cook 2 minutes or until spinach wilts, stirring occasionally. Place 1 cup pasta on each of four plates; top each serving with 1-¼ cups sauce and 2 tablespoons cheese.

Yield: 4 servings

CALORIES 474 (12% from fat); FAT 6.4g (sat 2.5g,mono 1.3g,poly 1.6g); PROTEIN 22.5g; CHOLESTEROL 13mg; CALCIUM 343mg; SODIUM 1553mg; FIBER 10.6g; IRON 8.3mg; CARBOHYDRATE 84.7g

Cooking Light, JANUARY 1998

Getting to Know All About You: Have you ever been mugged?

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After the inaugural batch of vanilla custard ice cream, I've been eager to try making fancier, flavored ice cream. I headed to the farmer's market to buy fresh peaches, only to learn that the late frost damaged the peach crop this year. What few there are sell quickly and are expensive. So, I bought a 4# crate of giant peaches at Sam's, and set to work. The idea was the same as the vanilla ice cream: make a custard and, once chilled, stir in a fruit puree. The custard procedure in this recipe, though, was very different from the traditional method. In the traditional method, you heat the milk or cream to just short of boiling, stir it slowly into a mixture of egg yolks and sugar, then return it to the pan to cook and thicken. This new method had me boil the milk/cream, then simmer it, then cover it and let it stand awhile before stirring it into the sugar/yolk mixture. I don't like this method because it is all based on rigid timing, not by the look or feel of the milk. I think the milk scorched a bit when it boiled or maybe simmered too hot or sat too long. I don't know, but it separated during the second heating stage. It may also have been because I used a whipping cream and half-and-half combo instead of all whipping cream, but I don't think that was the culprit. Once it froze, though, you couldn't tell that it had separated.

This recipe, though, used so many pots and bowls and strainers that I had to rewash a few times in the midst of preparation to have a clean bowl. And it took forever. I started making the ice cream eager and anticipatory, but by the time I finished, I was a snarling grump. I had a kitchen full of dirty dishes, no counter space (which led me to knock over the pan and spill ~1/3 of the milk mixture when trying to strain it into the egg mixture) and a wall and floor covered in ice cream goo. I hoped that I hated the ice cream, because I never wanted to go through the ordeal of making it again.

Unfortunately, it's excellent. It has nice chunks of peaches, not too sweet or eggy (like the vanilla batch) and a light and refreshing peach flavor. I learned a few tricks the first time around about freezing the ice cream, so this batch was not nearly as messy (in the churning/freezing stage, that is).

Peach Ice Cream

5 large ripe peaches(about 2 pounds)
4 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 tablespoons peach schnapps
2 1/4 cups milk
2 2/3 cups heavy cream
8 large egg yolks
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil. Meanwhile, prepare an ice-water bath; set aside. Place peaches in boiling water for 1 to 2 minutes; remove with a slotted spoon, and cool in ice-water bath.

2. Peel and pit peaches, reserving skin and pits. Slice each peach into 10 wedges, place in a nonreactive saucepan, and stir in lemon juice and 2 tablespoons sugar. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until peaches are tender and liquid has thickened slightly, 10 to 15 minutes. Let cool.

3. Stir peach schnapps into peach mixture. Transfer to the bowl of a food processor, and pulse to a chunky purée, 10 to 15 pulses; set aside.

4. In a large saucepan set over high heat, bring milk, cream, peach skins, and pits to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low; simmer 5 minutes. Cover, and let stand 15 minutes.

5. Meanwhile, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, combine egg yolks, salt, remaining sugar, and vanilla. Beat at medium-high speed until mixture is thick and pale yellow, about 3 minutes.

6. Strain milk mixture into egg mixture; discard solids. Beat at low speed to combine. Cook over low heat, stirring, until mixture coats the back of a wooden spoon, 3 to 5 minutes. Pass through a sieve into a bowl set in ice-water bath. When chilled, stir in peach purée. Freeze in an ice-cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions, in two batches if necessary. Store in an airtight plastic container in the freezer for up to 1 week.

Makes 6 cups.
www.marthastewart.com

I have another recipe for peach ice cream that I'd like to try out. It looks much easier than this one; hopefully it will taste just as good, or else I'll be stuck making this one again. And I would make it again. It's excellent.

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 03:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I told you about all the delicious pork we ate over the weekend, and the chess pie, but I didn't tell you about our other dessert: homemade ice cream. We received a Kitchen Aid attachment ice cream maker as a wedding present; I think that was the one gift that GC was most excited about. I started collecting ice cream recipes, but the maker stayed in its box on the top shelf of our kitchen gadget nook. The problem has been a lack of freezer space. That freezer bowl is big and our freezer just never seemed to make room for it. However, after being out of town for the last several weekends in a row, I didn't do much cooking on those few days home between trips. We ate a lot of leftovers, and I didn't add anything to the freezer. So, finally, I made ice cream, for the first time ever.

I made vanilla, which isn't difficult for someone who has made countless batches of pastry cream and egg custard in culinary school. The ratio of ingredients vary, but the process is the same. The mixing part was a bit messy, ok, very messy, but I've learned what not to do and think the next time will go a bit smoother. The final product was really good, though more egg custardy than vanilla ice creamy. GC liked it OK, but said it isn't nearly as good as the homemade vanilla ice cream his granddaddy makes. It's difficult to compete with the nostalgia of summer days spent running through the sprinkler, playing in the grass and eating your grandfather's fresh, hand-cranked ice cream. I'll have to get his recipe.

Frozen Vanilla Custard

2 c. milk
8 egg yolks
1 c. sugar
2 T. vanilla
½ t. salt
2 c. whipping cream

Heat milk in a large saucepan over med-high heat just until bubbles appear; don’t boil. Remove from heat. Whisk together yolks and next 3 in a large bowl until thick and pale. Gradually whisk warm milk into yolk mixture; return to saucepan.

Cook over very low heat, stirring constantly, until milk mixture thickens and reaches 160, ~5 minutes (If you don't have a thermometer, or are, like me, too lazy to use one, it's ready when small bubbles begin to form at the edges and the milk starts steaming a bit). Remove from heat and strain into a bowl. Cool, stirring occasionally. To cool it faster, place the bowl in another larger bowl with ice and water. Make sure the water doesn't splash into the ice cream mixture. When cool, stir in 2 c. whipping cream; cover and chill 1h.

Pour mixture into freezer container of an electric ice-cream maker; freeze as directed.

Makes 1 ½ quart.

Southern Living Cooking School, Summer 2006.

Though I used skim milk in this recipe, the ice cream is almost too rich and creamy for me. Don't get me wrong, it's great, but I can't eat a whole lot at one time. I suppose that's for the best, considering how fattening this ice cream is. Next time, I'm going to try to lighten it up a bit somehow, perhaps using half-and-half in place of the whipping cream, and maybe try peach or strawberry. Or, my favorite, mint chocolate chip. If I can keep space in the freezer, that is...

Getting to Know All About You: What's your favorite kind of ice cream?

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