Showing posts with label Baking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Baking. Show all posts
One thing I really love about the summer months is the availability of fresh garden tomatoes. Each year I usually take advantage of their abundance and bake us a Country Tomato Pie.
I cannot tell a lie, its fabulously tasty, but it is a bit of work with making and rolling out the pastry, etc. A most delicious solution to this is this Rustic Tomato Pie I am sharing with you today.
In fact I think this Rustic version is even more delicious!!
We have not grown our own tomatoes this year. The pandemic means we were not able to get out and about to get seedlings, etc. Instead I have been buying a crate of fresh heirloom tomatoes from The Tomato Stall every couple of weeks.
And let me tell you, they have been worth every penny. You have never tasted such delicious tomatoes apart from growing your own. Grown on the Isle of Wight, they are just beautiful and so flavour filled! (And no they have not paid me or given me free tomatoes to say that. I have bought my own tomatoes.)
They are really fabulous tomatoes, and so pretty.
Far too pretty to hide underneath something like the cheese filling in my regular tomato pie recipe.
May I present my Rustic Tomato Tart, a flavour filled riff on my Country Tomato Pie.
It lacks nothing that is present in the original recipe. There are plenty of thick and juicy ripe tomatoes. Fresh herbs, basil and thyme . . .
Two tasty cheeses . . . gruyere (which is a swiss cheese) and Parmesan . . . and rich mayonnaise . . .
The cheeses get mixed with the mayonnaise and fresh herbs and spread on a base of all-butter puff pastry, and then topped with a layer of rich caramelised onions . . .
I treat the tomatoes with salt and sugar while I am caramelising the onions, which draws out some of the moisture and helps to enhance the flavours of these delicious beauties.
These get layered on top of the caramelised onions . . . I like to scatter plenty of coarse black pepper on top of the tomatoes.
You won't need salt as they've already been salt treated.
I then dolloped more of the mayo mixture here and there on top of the tomatoes. Not a lot, just a bit here and there . . .
The edges of the tart are brushed with a mix of egg yolk and cream . . . it helps to gild the edges when baking . . . so pretty . . .
The tart then gets baked in a fairly hot oven . . . .
Just long enough to get that puff pastry crisp and golden brown . . .
Long enough to turn that mayo, herb and cheese filling into something incredibly lush and unctuously delicious . . .
The tomatoes just barely cooked . . . but still retaining quite a lot of their beautiful textures and flavours . . .
Just look at their beautiful jewel-like colours . . . gold and ruby and russet . . . stunning.
I tore up a few more basil leaves to garnish the finished tart. Perfection. This Rustic Tomato Pie was pure and utter perfection.
Rustic Tomato Pie
Yield: 6
This delicious tomato pie is a lot easier to make than the regular one, but every bit as delicious if not more so!
Ingredients:
- 5 to 6 ripe tomatoes, cut into 1/2 inch thick slices
- 1 tsp granulated sugar
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 TBS butter
- 1 medium onion, peeled, halved and cut julienne
- 220g mayonnaise (1 cup)
- 60g grated Gruyere cheese (1/2 cup)
- 90g grated Parmesan cheese (1/2 cup)
- 2 1/2 TBS chopped fresh basil, plus extra to garnish
- 1 tsp fresh thyme leaves, chopped
- coarse black pepper
- 1 sheet of all butter puff pastry
- 1 large free range egg yolk
- 1 TBS milk or light cream
Instructions:
- Slice your tomatoes. Sprinkle them with the seasalt and sugar and then sit them in a colander set over a bowl to drain.
- While they are draining, melt the butter in a skillet. Add your sliced onion and cook them slowly over medium low heat, stirring occasionally for 25 to 30 minutes until lightly caramelised. Remove from the heat.
- Stir the mayonnaise, both cheeses and the chopped herbs together.
- Preheat the oven to 190*C/375*F/ gas mark 5. Line a large baking sheet with some baking paper.
- Unroll the puff pastry and place onto the baking sheet. Score a rim 1/2 inch around the outsides of the sheet of pastry. Prick all over the centre using a fork. Spread with 3/4 of the mayonnaise mixture, reserving the remainder to dot the top of the tart.
- Sprinkle the caramelised onions over the mayonnaise mixture on the tart base.
- Pat the tomato slices dry and arrange them over the top of the caramelise onions in a decorative manner. Season with some coarse black pepepr.
- Dollop the remainder of the mayonnaise mixture here and there on top of the tomatoes.
- Whisk together the egg yolk and cream/milk. Brush this mixture on the border around the tart edge.
- Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until crisp and golden, and the cheese filling has melted.
- Garnish with some fresh basil and serve, cut into squares.
I doubt I will ever bake my regular tomato pie again. This was so easy to make and incredibly delicious once done . . . I mean puff pastry . . . I adore puff pastry. I have created a new favourite!
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Today I small batched one of my favourite cookie recipes, Loaded Cowboy Cookies.
With there only being two adults in the house these days I don't find as much use for baking as I used to when I was raising five children.
Back then my biggest complaint was that I had to bake almost every day as everything got swallowed up. These days if I bake a full recipe of anything, dollars to donuts it gets wasted or given away.
But store bought cakes and cookies are never on par with the ones you make yourself. That's why I prefer to bake my own everything if I can.
Home baked goods just taste better and I can actually pronounce and identify everything that is in them.
I remember first baking these cookies when my middle son was in nursery school. He's turning 39 in November so you know I have been baking these cookies for a very long time.
The original recipe came from a church cookbook.
The ladies guild of the church I was attending at the time published one and these were a favourite of ours from that book.
And no surprise there, they are delicious. I baked them for my son to take for his turn to bring a snack on snack day and they proved so popular that the teacher asked me for the recipe.
I cannot imagine a parent being asked to bring in homebaked goods anymore. There are too many children with allergies, etc. these days.
Things have surely changed since then.
I cut the original recipe down by 2/3 so that it makes only one dozen (LARGE) cookies.
They are lovely, crisp edged and nice and chewy in the middle.
Filled with toasted pecans, chocolate chips, sweet flaked coconut, old fashioned oats . . .
Perfect to be enjoyed with a glass of cold milk while you are in the throes of a colouring fest . . .
Or with a nice hot cuppa when you are taking a well deserved mid morning break.
They are actually pretty perfect any time of the day. I think so at any rate.
You could make smaller cookies, in which case you would get perhaps 2 dozen. I would scoop by heaped tablespoons and bake for 10 to 12 minutes in that case.
Loaded Cowboy Cookies
Yield: 12 large cookies
Crisp edged, chewy in the middle, incredibly moreish cookies stuffed with chocolate chips, oats, coconut and toasted pecans.
Ingredients:
- 140g plain flour (1 cup)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- pinch salt
- 120g unsalted butter, at room temperature (1/2 cup)
- 95g granulated sugar (1/2 cup)
- 100g soft light brown sugar (1/2 cup, packed)
- 1 large free range egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 180g chocolate chips (1 cup)
- 80g old fashioned oatmeal (1 cup)
- 60g flaked sweetened coconut (3/4 cup)
- 60g toasted chopped pecans (1/2 cup)
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Line two large baking sheets with baking paper. Set aside.
- Sift together the flour, soda and baking powder. Stir in salt.
- Cream together the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Stir in the flour to combine. Stir in the coconut, oats, chocolate chips and toasted nuts.
- Scoop by 1/4 cup fulls, shaping each into a ball and place 3 inches (at least) apart on the baking sheets.
- Bake for 15 to 17 minutes until the edges are lightly browned. They will be chewy in the middle. Let cool on the baking sheet for several minutes before scooping off to a wire rack to cool with a metal spatula.
- Store in an airtight container.
What was the favourite cookie that you used to bake for your own children when they were growing up? I sure wish I lived close enough to my grandchildren that I could bake for them these days. That would be a real treat for me!
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan@aol.com
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The recipe I am sharing with you today is not only a small batch recipe, but it is incredibly nostalgic. These are the kind of cupcakes our Grandmothers might have baked, and some of them probably did! Moist, delicious and spiced with warm baking spices!
The original recipe was published in The Farmer's Wife magazine in 1930. It turned out to be very popular, and I am not surprised!
It won tons of blue ribbons at county fairs through the United States. It had to be a blue ribbon winner to get published in the magazine. I got the recipe from a cookery book entitled The Farmer's Wife Baking Cookbook, over 300 blue ribbon recipes.
These are the kinds of recipes I love most of all! Simple, comforting . . . family friendly . . . historic. With no bells and whistles.
To be honest when something is so tasty, it doesn't need bells and whistles. I did choose to ice them with a homemade lemon buttercream and who can blame me for dressing them up a tiny bit with some cupcake sprinkles.
Cupcakes were made for sprinkles, don't you think?
I loved having a cupcake when I was a child. A cupcake is like having a "party" for one. A tiny moist cake . . . all of it just for you!
These are fabulously flavoured with warm baking spices . . . cinnamon and nutmeg . . . actually the original recipe called for mace, but I didn't have any. If you do have some, feel free to substitute mace for the nutmeg.
Sweetened with molasses and brown sugar . . . which lend a depth of moistness to the cake and a wholesome sweetness . . . both go very well with warm baking spices.
I was tempted to add sultanas, but decided not to mess with the integrity of the cupcake the first time I baked them. It was enough that I was cutting the recipe in half.
The lemon frosting was one I concocted in my head. I've always done that. Made frosting up as I go along . . .
Its simply a couple tablespoons of room temperature butter, beaten together with 1 heaped cup of sifted icing sugar, a few drops of lemon extract and a TBS or so of cream or milk.
Just enough to give you a nice fluffy consistency.
If you like your cakes with an old fashioned flavour and flair, then this is the recipe for you!
Plantation Cupcakes
Yield: 6
prep time: cook time: total time:
An old, old recipe which was first published in the Farmer's Wife Magazine in 1930. The original recipe made a dozen. I downsized to six.
Ingredients:
- 55g white vegetable shortening (1/4 cup)
- 2 TBS soft light brown sugar
- 1 large free range egg
- 87g molasses (1/4 cup)
- 85g plain flour (3/4 cup)
- 1/8 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 60ml milk (1/4 cup)
- lemon buttercream frosting and sprinkles to finish (optional)
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*f/ gas mark 4. Line a 6 cup muffin tin with cupcake liners.
- Cream the shortening and sugar together until light. Gradually beat in the egg until well mixed, then add the molasses.
- Sift together the flour, spices, salt, baking powder and baking soda.
- Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture alternating with the milk, making two dry and one wet addition until well blended. Divide between the paper lined muffin cups.
- Bake for 20 minutes until well risen and a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean.
- Cool completely before frosting.
If you would like to bake a full dozen cupcakes, just message me and I will be happy to send you the original full sized recipe! In the meantime, enjoy!
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