Team N September

Blueberry, Basil and Goat Cheese Hand Pies

Ingredients

For Thomas Keller's Buttery Pastry Shell
(via Smitten Kitchen)

2 cups (250 g) all purpose flour, divided + extra for dusting
1 tsp kosher salt
1 cup (2 sticks / 225 grams) cold unsalted butter, cut into small dice
1/4 cup (60 ml) ice cold water

For Filling

1 pint (about 2 cups) blueberries
1/4 cup goat cheese
1/4 cup buttermilk
3 Tbsp honey (or to taste)
1 Tbsp finely chopped fresh basil
small pinch of salt
about 2 Tbsp flour to thicken

For Assembly

1 egg
1 Tbsp whole milk
raw sugar, for sprinkling

Cooking Directions

Prepare pastry crust. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix 1 cup of the flour with all of the salt. Then, with the machine on low speed, add the bits of butter, a handful at a time, until the butter is completely incorperated. Add the remaining flour until just blended, then the cold water until thoroughly incorporated. Dump dough onto a piece of plastic wrap, divide it equally in two, and form each piece of dough into a flat, round disc. Wrap them with the plastic and chill for at least one hour and up to two days. It can also be frozen for up to three months.

Heat oven to 400° F.

Prepare filling. Mix blueberries with all of the ingredients except the flour. Sprinkle flour gradually over top and mix well until desired consistency is reached and mixture is smooth. Cover and chill while you roll out the pastry.

Generously flour your work surface. Place one chilled, unwrapped dough on the flour and flour the top of the dough. Keep the other disk refrigerated while you work. Gently roll your dough out from the center until about 1/8 inch thick. Re-flour your surface as needed, continually lifting and rotating your dough to make sure no parts are sticking. If the dough becomes difficult to work with at any point, chill for a few minutes in the freezer on a baking sheet before continuing.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Cut an even number of circles in desired size using a floured biscuit cutter or the base of a small bowl. (I made 4" pies using the base of a rice bowl.) Lay circles on parchment lined baking sheet. Lightly beat egg with milk for wash in a small bowl.

Top half the circles with a small amount of filling, brush edged with egg wash, top with another round, and seal edges by crimping with a fork. Brush top with wash, sprinkle with raw sugar, and cut to vent. When completed place in the refrigerator to chill and repeat with other disc of dough and remaining filling.

When second sheet of pies are formed, put in fridge and remove the first sheet. Bake for the first batch for 20 minutes or until golden brown on top and bottom. Repeat with second batch, allowing all pies to cool on a rack. 

and the link to give credit where credit is due:
http://localmilk.blogspot.com/2012/07/blueberry-basil-and-goat-cheese-hand.html


Served with Francis Ford Coppola Director's Pinot Noir

White Beer Cookies

Recipe basically from Sean LaFond, Urbana, IL 

It's been a while since Team BJ has made dessert (OK January bit that was a dessert tasting and doesn't count), so we figured a nice beer desert would be in order.  Normally an easy task but a bit trickier with a light beer.  


I was leaning toward bacon beer cupcakes, but the J insists that cake is a lie so we came to a cookie conclusion instead.  


They are pretty cakey for cookies so they are almost just sweet beer biscuits with cookie icing, but hey I like cake.  We are serving them with Harpoon Brewery's UFO White (an unfiltered white Belgian style), which is what we used to make them.

Ingredients

Cookies:

• 2 bottles (12 ounces each) Belgian style white beer (we used UFO White from Harpoon Brewery)
• 5 tablespoons honey
• 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 medium orange, zested
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• Icing:

• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup  powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon orange juice
• 1 tablespoon whole milk 
• 1/2 orange zested

Directions

1. Put the beer and honey to a medium saucepan and reduce over medium heat until you have about 1/3 cup of liquid. You will occasionally have to skim the foam off the top of the beer. This takes about 40 minutes.  Be careful the last 5 minutes or you will have beer caramel, which sounds better than it tastes.  Let this reduction cool to room temperature (ok I am impatient and just stuck it in the fridge till I was ready).
2. Cream the butter and sugar together.   As a side note, creaming butter with powdered sugar doesn't result in fluffy butter, just creamy butter....weird. 
3. Add the egg and blend thoroughly.  It ends up looking like cottage cheese....gross.
4. Then add the vanilla, orange zest, coriander, and beer reduction and blend again.  Now it looks king of like you used a potato ricer on small curd cottage cheese....even grosser.
5. Mix the flour and baking soda together then slowly add to the batter.  Hey it looks like dough...well really wet cookie dough, almost frosting consistency.  If I had though ahead I would have put it in the fridge a bit to make scooping easier....so if you are cooking these put the bowl in the fridge for 20-40 minutes.
6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
7. Scoop mounds of cookies onto an aluminum cookie sheet lined with parchment. Bake for 15 minutes.  My oven is super hot, you might need 20 minutes.
8. Let the cookies cool completely on wire racks.
9. Icing: Using the icing ingredients whisk the vanilla into the sugar. Mix the orange juice and milk together. Add milk and orange juice mixture until you reach the consistency of a thick paste. Using a butter knife put a dollop of icing on each cool cookie and spread it over the top. Put a small piece of orange zest from the grater as garnish. Let the icing harden to desired hardness and consume or store 

Grand Marnier Souffles With Crème Anglaise

Served this with small Grand Marnier shots.

Grand Marnier Souffles

Obviously taken by Rob not me

Gourmet | October 1997
Tom Ponticelli
Four Seasons Hotel, Boston MA

Yield: Serves 8

• 3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter plus additional for buttering ramekins
• 1 cup sugar plus additional for coating ramekins
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole milk
• 7 large egg yolks
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/8 teaspoon orange zest
• 2 tablespoons Grand Marnier
• 8 large egg whites

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Generously butter eight 1-cup (3 1/2 x 2-inch) ramekins and coat with sugar, knocking out excess sugar.
2. In a 1 1/2-quart heavy saucepan melt 3/4 stick butter over moderately low heat and whisk in flour. Cook roux, whisking, 3 minutes. Add milk and cook over moderate heat, whisking, until mixture is very thick and pulls away from sides of pan. 
3. Transfer mixture to a bowl and cool 5 minutes. In a large bowl whisk together yolks, vanilla, oil, and a pinch salt, and whisk in milk mixture and Grand Marnier, whisking until smooth. 
4. In a large bowl with an electric mixer beat whites until they hold soft peaks. Beat in 1 cup sugar, a little at a time, and beat meringue until it just holds stiff peaks. 
5. Whisk about one fourth meringue into yolk mixture to lighten and with a rubber spatula fold in remaining meringue gently but thoroughly.
6. Spoon batter into ramekins, filling them just to rim, and arrange ramekins at least 1 1/2 inches apart in a large baking pan. 
7. Add enough hot water to pan to reach halfway up sides of ramekins and bake soufflés in middle of oven 20 minutes, or until puffed and tops are golden.
8. Remove pan from oven and transfer ramekins to dessert plates. With 2 forks pull open center of each soufflé and pour some crème anglaise into opening.
9. Serve souffles immediately.

Crème Anglaise

Bon Appétit | February 1998
Yield: Makes 1 cup

• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1/2 cup whipping cream
• 1 2-inch piece vanilla bean, split
• 3 large egg yolks
• 3 tablespoons sugar

1. Combine milk and cream in heavy medium saucepan. Scrape in seeds from vanilla bean; add bean. Bring milk mixture to simmer. Remove from heat.
2. Whisk egg yolks and sugar in medium bowl to blend. Gradually whisk hot milk mixture into yolk mixture.
3. Return custard to saucepan. Stir over low heat until custard thickens and leaves path on back of spoon when finger is drawn across, about 5 minutes (do not boil). 
4. Strain sauce into bowl. Cover and chill. (Can be made 1 day ahead.)

Oreo & PB mini pies

Kenny & I borrowed the recipe from ModCloth to make our Oreo & Peanut Butter mini pies. We paired our pies with a Rusty Nail (1 part Scotch/1 part Drambuie).

Oreo PB Mini Pies
2 refrigerated pie crusts
36 Oreo cookies (1 package)
28-ounce container of creamy peanut butter
2 tablespoons melted butter
2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray. Bring pie crusts to room temperature before unrolling.
2. Unroll pie crusts & use the lid of your peanut butter container as a cookie cutter. Cut out as many 4-inch rounds as possible from your pie crust.
3. Press cut dough into each muffin pan.
4. Spread about a teaspoon of peanut butter over each Oreo cookie. When all cookies are covered, double stack your Oreos to an Oreo-PB-Oreo-PB ratio, and place each stack into a pie crust.
5. Any remaining dough is cut into 1/4-inch strips to prepare lattice tops.
6. Brush melted butter and generously sprinkle sugar over the latticed tops
7. Bake for 22-26 minutes, until golden brown. Let them cool before removing from pan.

Shortcake and Fresh Whipped Cream