Thanksgiving Weekend Treats

This year for Thanksgiving weekend we have had many of our family's favorite including filbert and pumpkin pies, turkey using America Test Kitchen's version of Julia Child's cut up method on a bed of my in-laws homemade stuffing, roasted Brussel sprouts, local wines, and mashed potatoes.

This year we've added some new recipes that have instantly become family favorites too.

First, the New York Times published an amazing recipe for Cranberry Sauce with Pinot Noir.  Allspice, cloves, cinnamon, rosemary, vanilla bean, orange, black pepper, and wine make for a scrumptious side dish.

I made Winter Breakfast Muffins with cranberries, raisins, and vanilla yogurt from Elin England's Eating Close to Home. Everyone including the cat liked them.

We had a beautiful batch of persimmons from our last CSA box of the season.  I found this interesting recipe for Persimmon Leather to be made in a toaster over.  I've made a couple of batches of these with Fuyu persimmons in the regular oven at 450F for about 15 minutes until the juices are running.  They're sweet little bites.

Lastly, I made a dinner salad/side dish with blanched collards, garlic bread crumbs toasted in olive oil, and toasted filberts from Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.  I think that this is the antithesis of "Snicker Salad" that was one of the top recipes Googled in several states as reported in the New York Times this week.  I loved reading through this to see regional variations on food preferences.

What a joy it is to have a long weekend to have time to experiment with new recipes and savor the results.   

Day 7 Amish Friendship Bread

It seems reasonable that while I'm waiting for my starter to mature that I should try out the other recipes I have floating around for sourdough starter.  I was reminded of this Friendship Bread recipe by a student on the first day of our Bread 101 course who shared a friendship bread as one of her early bread memories.

I was reminded of receiving a bag of starter from a friend's Mom along with a recipe to make this recipe.  Her recipe was almost identical to several available on line include this from this website devoted entirely to "Amish Friendship Breads."  The instructions included 5 days of mushing the bag, day 6 adding flour, sugar and milk to the starter and then allowing it to be in the bag for another 3 days before baking.  The quantities are large enough to give each of 3 friends a bag of 1 cup of starter and make 2 loaf pans each time this bread is baked.  My friends were experimenting with how to make a recipe that calls for 2 cups of sugar, a box of instant vanilla pudding, and all while flour could be more healthy with less oil, whole wheat and soy flours, and applesauce.    I find it really fascinating that this starter seems to rely very heavily on sugar and milk especially since discovering just how easy it really is to begin a starter with just flour and water.  There are warnings in many places about not refrigerating this starter and never touching it with metal. 

For this version, I decided that I didn't need to spend an extra 9 days mushing a bag of starter because mine is very active already.  I also wanted to experiment more with reducing the sugar and using whole grain flours.  The recipe suggests baking in either 2 loaf pans or a bundt pan. I found it easier to just use the one pan.  It's a sweet bread, and I like the addition of the blueberries and nuts.  I cannot imagine adding in another 1 cup of sugar as called for in the recipe because I think the sweet would just be overpowering.

Amish Friendship Bread

1 c starter

1/2 c flour

1/4 c milk

1/2 c canola oil

1/2 c applesauce (our tree)

1/2 c sugar

1/2 c milk

3 eggs

1 1/2 c Red Fife Wheat (from Lonesome Whistle Farms)

1/2 c rye flour (from Lonesome Whistle Farms)

1 1/2 t vanilla

1/4 t salt

2 t cinnamon

1 1/2 t baking powder

1/2 t baking soda

1/2 c chopped filberts (from Thistledown Farm)

1 c blueberries (from Thistledown Farm)

Mix all the ingredients together.  Preheat oven to 325.  Grease one bundt cake (or 2 loaf pans).  Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.  Bake for one hour.

It still tastes good even if a cat jumps onto it while chasing a fly...

Escarole, Orange, Filbert Salad

After several attempts at cooking escarole this winter including in soup and pizza, I decided to try one more buch from our Open Oak CSA raw in a salad. I found this lovely salad recipe for blood organes, escarole (from Open Oak CSA), and filberts (from Thistledown Farm) (I left out the cheese included in the original.)

For the dressing I used juice from an orange, olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic (from Open Oak CSA), salt and pepper.

It was a very refreshing salad on a winter day, and stored well in the refrigerator for a few days.

(Not nearly as fancy as the picture from the original recipe, but delicious nonetheless.)

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Baking cookies is a good afternoon activity at our house. And, really, chocolate chip cookies make life better.

This is a recipe adapted from my childhood. I have been really interested in the changes that the author of the Sneaky Chef makes to recipes by adding in vegetable purees and ground nuts. My favorite of her additions are what we call "orange plops," which are a mixture of cooked carrots and cooked yams/sweet potatoes that are then pureed. I freeze these in 1 T portions in my ice cube trays, store them in the freezer, and then add to almost anything with eggs, tomatoes, and lots of cookies. The plops I used in this particular batch of cookies only had yams, which we're also using for baby food.

The wheat flour from our Lonesome Whistle CSA has such a great flavor, but a completely different texture from white flour which certainly changed the character of the cookies. I love this description of the wheat from our farmers, "Farmer David Fife first cultivated this variety in Canada in 1842 from a few seeds he brought over from Scotland. This wheat is considered a landrace variety and can adapt to many climatic conditions. Artisan bakers consider this the premier whole grain bread flour for flavor and texture."

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

1/2 c butter

1/2 c brown sugar

1/2 c white sugar

1 t vanilla

1 egg

1 c Red Fife flour (from Lonesome Whistle CSA)

1/2 t baking powder

1/2 t baking soda

2 T yams cooked and pureed (aka orange plops)

1 c oatmeal

1 T flax seed ground

1 c chocolate chips

1/2 filberts chopped (from Thistledown Farm)

Cream butter and sugar. Add in eggs and vanilla. Add remaining dry ingredients. Spoon dough in 1t of dough portions onto cookie sheet. Bake 375F for 10 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

Monkey Bread

While I was working over the weekend, my husband and son decided to step in as guest bloggers to make Monkey Bread from America's Test Kitchen. There is a great step-by-step guide and recipe on the America Test Kitchen blog for this gooey pull apart sweet bread.

I came home to the wonderful smell of baked goods.

They followed the recipe precisely, but when they coated each of the 64 dough balls with cinnamon sugar also added filberts (from Thistledown Farm). So beautiful and delicious!

Christmas Blueberry Roll

Yum. This is one of my favorite family Christmas recipes. It never tastes quite as good as when my mom makes it (I know she doesn't use whole wheat flour and probably adds more blue berries), but the combination of gooey blueberries in sweet bread is just delicious. Everyone in our family has been snacking ALL day long!

Swedish Tea Ring

Dough
1 c scaled milk
1/2 c sugar
1 t salt
1/2 c margarine

Heat milk until just before it boils. Remove from the stove and put into mixer. Stir in sugar, salt, and margarine. Let mixture stand until lukewarm and the sugar and margarine has melted.

2 1/2 t yeast
1/4 c warm water
1 t sugar

Dissolve yeast in water and 1 t sugar. Let grow about 15 minutes until bubbly. Add to milk mixture.

1 egg beaten
4 cups unsifted flour (mixture of whole wheat and white)

Add to egg and 2 c flour to milk mixture. Beat until smooth. Add additional 2 cups of flour to make a stiff batter. Place in a lightly oiled bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Cool in refrigerator for at least 2 hours of up to 2 days.

Filling
2 c blueberries (from McKenzie River Farm)
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 c flour
1/2 c chopped nuts (Filberts from Thistledown Farm)
1 t cinnamon
3 T melted butter

Mix sugar, flour and cinnamon together. Add blueberries and nuts.

Roll our dough into a square. It can be made into 2 smaller rolls (rectangle 7"x14") or one larger roll. Smaller rolls are easier to handle.

Put melted butter on dough once rolled out. Spread filling over the dough.

Roll up and pinch the edge to seal.

Form into a ring on a greased baking sheet (stuff in more blueberries before sealing ends together) with the sealed edge down.

Cut 2/3 through the ring at 1 inch intervals.

Twist each section sideways.

Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled (about 1 hour). Bake at 375F for 20-25 minutes.

Mexican Wedding Cakes, Russian Tea Cakes, Snowballs

These crowd pleasing cookies are called Mexican Wedding Cakes, Russian Tea Cakes, and Snowballs in our family. My husband's mother included this recipe in a lovely book she made for us of family recipes. I wanted to use up a little rye flour that was in my freezer so tried to make these with rye flour rather than wheat flour. I liked the taste, which was a little "earthier." My four-year old proclaimed that they were delicious and ate many cookies!

Recipe
1/2 c butter
4 T powder sugar
1/2 c ground nuts--filberts (from Thistledown Farm)
1 t vanilla
1 c rye flour (from CSA)
Powdered sugar for top

Grind nuts in food processor. In mixer, beat butter until soft, add sugar and beat well. Mix in flour, nuts, and vanilla and beat well. Roll into small balls or scoop with melon baller and place on cookie sheet. Bake 325F for 10-12 minutes until lightly golden. Remove from pan and roll in powdered sugar or dust tops and bottoms with powdered sugar.

More Butternut Squash

Several weeks ago we made butternut squash ravioli adapted from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. The original recipe calls for a brown butter sauce with pecans and sage; however, we were out of both so I used filberts and the other herbs. The ravioli and sauce were delicious, but it was quite a project to make the ravioli pasta. I still had butternut squash and filberts left from my thanksgiving pies, and wanted to try it again. This week, I didn't have the time or energy to make the pasta. I decided to use gyoza wrappers to make the ravioli; however, unfortunately, the ones we bought at the store were moldy when I opened the new package. I had a handful of lasagna noodles, mozzarella cheese, spinach, and mushroms at home, so I decided to make the butternut squash filling into a lasagna.

Butternut Squash Lasagna

12 lasagna noodles

large handfuls of spinach (from CSA)

5 mushrooms sliced

6 oz mozzarella cheese diced

Olive oil

I often make a tomato based lasagna without cooking the noodles first, but decided that because this time I was not going to use a sauce, I needed to cook the noodles first.

Sautéed chopped mushrooms and baby spinach with garlic in olive oil. Layer cooked lasagna noodles with butternut squash filling, spinach, mushrooms, and cheese. Add another layer of noodles and repeat toppings. Add one final layer of noodles, cover with cheese.

Add water to the bottom of the pan. Cover with tin foil and bake 350F for 30 minutes. (I neglected to cover the pan at first and the noodles on top got a little too crunchy.) When cooked through, top with brown butter sauce (this really finishes the pasta--it's not nearly as good without the flavors of the sauce).

Butternut Squash Filling

2 c butternut squash roasted (from CSA)

2 T butter

Salt and pepper to taste

1/2 c Parmesan cheese

1/2 c bread crumbs (I've tried this with just a toasted and food processed piece of bread and matzo meal--both work fine)

Mix all of the ingredients together in the food processor until very smooth.

Brown Butter Sauce

4-6 T butter

1 clove garlic

2 T dried parsley

2 t dried thyme

1/2 c chopped filberts (from Thistledown Farm)

Add all ingredients to skillet and cook until butter is melted

Two Thanksgiving Pies in One Day

My favorite holiday pie has always been a filbert pie (aka hazelnut) recipe that my mom was given by a friend who grew filberts in the Willamette Valley. When I had my first Thanksgiving dinner with my husband's family, I made my family's favorite filbert pie. Every year since then, my extended family has said that I'm not allowed to attend Thanksgiving dinner unless I bring a filbert pie.

I also offered to bake a pumpkin pie this year. In October, I made a pumpkin pie with a pie pumpkin. This time I wanted to use the butternut squash from our Open Oak Farm CSA to see how the flavors compared. I used a sweet potato pie recipe from The Fannie Farmer Cookbook, which I chose for the simple reason that it used regular milk rather than condensed or evaporated. I thought the original recipe was a little bland, so this time I increased the amount of nutmeg and cinnamon and added in ginger and cloves too.

On Tuesday before Thanksgiving I set out to make both of these pies in one afternoon with help from my 4-year old and lots of breaks to take care of my 4-month old. We managed to get both made over a 4-hour time span!

We started out making two 9-inch pie crusts with a simple salad oil crust recipe. This was the first time that I've tried to make this recipe completely with whole wheat flour. Sifting was essential, but the crust was very crumbly. The nice part about using the salad oil is that the crust is easy to put back together even if it crumbles.

Salad Oil Pie Crust

(makes 2 9-inch pie crusts)

3 c sifted flour (red wheat flour from our summer CSA)

1/2 t salt

3/4 c salad oil

6 T milk or water

Mix flour and salt. Add liquids and stir quickly with a fork or pastry cutter. Add few additional drops of liquid as needed.

Form dough into two balls and roll between sheets of wax paper. Transfer to pie dish.

After both pie crusts were finished, we began working on the fillings.

Filbert Pie

2 cups filberts toasted and coarsely chopped (from Thistledown Farm)

3 eggs

1/2 c brown sugar

1 c corn syrup

1/4 t salt

1 t vanilla

1/2 c melted butter

To toast filberts, spread shelled filberts in a single layer in a shallow pan. Toast at 275 F for 20 minutes. Use "skinned" or "unskinned." To remove skins, rub nuts between hands or with a rough cloth when cool. Store in an air tight container, freezer, or refrigerator. For the pie, chop coarsely and set aside.

Beat together eggs, sugar, syrup, salt and vanilla in a large bowl. Melt and slowly add butter to above mixture so as to not curdle the eggs. Stir in filberts. Pour mixture into a 9" pie shell.

Bake 375 F for 30-45 minutes until set in the center. Cool. Serve in very small servings because it is very rich.

And on to the squash pie.

Butternut Squash Pie

2 cups mashed cooked squash (Butternut from CSA)

2 eggs

1 1/4 c milk

3/4 c sugar

1/2 t salt

1 t cinnamon

1 t nutmeg

1/2 t ginger

1/2 t cloves

4 T butter melted

Preheat oven to 425F. Cook squash. I put the whole uncut butternut squash in the oven and cooked it for a little over an hour at 350F. After it cooled I scraped out the seeds into the compost and put the flesh into the refrigerator. It was a little chunky (unlike the pumpkin filling from a can), so I put the squash, milk, and eggs in my food processor until the mixture was smooth and frothy. Transfer to mixer and add in remaining ingredients. Pour into 9-inch pie pan.

Bake 10 min at 425F. Turn temperature down to 300F and bake for an additional 50 minutes or until a test knife comes out clean.

My helper really enjoyed licking the pumpkin pie beater. He proclaimed that it was, "Really, really good." I think the pies look nice too. I'm looking forward to testing them on Thursday!