Quiche Lorraine

I haven't posted on my blog for a long time. But after making this quiche I couldn't help but want to share it with the world. It's from the book "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" by Julia Childs. You know most quiches that I have eaten are like scrambled eggs in a flavorless pie crust. But not this quiche, this quiche has a rich buttery flaky crust with a more custardy type filling. I absolutely LOVE it. I never thought that you could use the word "divine" to describe something like quiche, but this one definitely deserves the word.

Pate Brisee (OR Pie Crust for those of you who don't know what that is)

1 C flour

6 T butter

2T butter flavor shortening

3 to 4 T ice water

1/8 t sugar (to be honest I left the sugar out, it said it was optional for color)

Measure the flour and salt into a bowl, add the butter and shortening and cut in with a pastry blender until the crumbs are about pea size. Add the ice water to the bowl and mix it with a fork. Grab the dough and knead it a couple times to form a ball. 

Now, this is generally where I roll out the pie crust, but Julia Childs had more wisdom to impart that I was excited about. What you do next is "fraisage" the dough. It is a fancy french technique in which you take the HEEL of your hand, place it on the dough and smear it across and away from you about six inches. Repeat until all of the dough has been smeared. As I was doing this I was thinking to myself that this reminded me of something that I would catch my toddler doing, and I would probably be embarrassed if anyone walked into the room just now. Fraisage is supposed to blend your butter into the dough better. I smeared my dough until I could see that no butter clumps were left.

Gather the dough into a ball again, knead a couple times if needed. Cover the dough in an airtight container, or put in a plastic bag and put it in the refrigerator for an hour until firm.

Roll out the dough and put it in a pie tin or quiche pan. Prick with fork, line with parchment and put weights or beans in to hold down the crust.

Partially prebake the crust at 375* for 10 mins. You may want to wrap the sides with foil to prevent them from overbrowning. I always keep an eye on it during this stage because my oven is tricky. Make sure bottom of the crust is cooked.

Filling

3 to 4 oz bacon sliced to medium thickness or I used cubed ham

3 eggs or 2 eggs and 2 egg yolks

1 1/2 to 2 cups whipped cream or half and half

1/2 t salt

pinch of pepper

pinch of nutmeg

1 to 2 T butter cut into pea sized dots

Mix all ingredients except the butter together and dump into pie crust. Sprinkle the butter over the top and cook for 25 to 30 mins or until the top is browning and puffs up. (I had to cook mine ten minutes longer because it looked like a puddle at 30 mins.)

White Chocolate Cinnamon Cherrylicious Ice Cream adapted from "I'm Dreaming of a Chocolate Christmas"

I have to admit, when I first saw this recipe I thought of it as more of an experiment with flavors rather than something that I would enjoy; but when I took the first bite of this ice cream.... I was in heaven. It has a very velvety texture with a hint of cinnamon and the cherries add a nice sweetness to it. The flavors blend very well surprisingly! The original recipe called for cinnamon liqueur, which I didn't have so I substituted with cinnamon candy flavoring and it turned out great. I also added white chocolate chips for more texture.
8 oz white chocolate
1 1/2 C half and half
2 C heavy cream
3/4 C sugar
3 large eggs
2 cap fulls or 1/2 t of wilton cinnamon candy flavoring
1 C drained maraschino cherries coarsely chopped
1 C white chocolate chips

1. Melt the 8 oz chocolate in 1/2 cup of the half and half in the top of a double boiler or in a medium glass bowl in a microwave oven and stir until smooth.
2. Bring the heavy cream and the remaining  1 cup half and half and 1/4 C of the sugar to a boil in a large saucepan over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar, 5-6 mins. Remove from heat.
3. Place the remaining 1/2 C sugar and the eggs in a medium bowl. Whisk until thoroughly combined. Ladle 1/2 C of the hot cream 2 T at a time, into the eggs and whisk gently to incorporate.
4. Pour the egg and cream mixture back into the saucepan and whisk until thoroughly combined. Add the melted chocolate and whisk until combined. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it reaches 185*, 2 to 3 mins. Use a digital thermometer for an accurate reading.Pour through a fine gauge strainer into a stainless steel bowl. Place the bowl into an ice water bath until it cools to 40ish degrees F. Add the cinnamon flavoring and stir gently to combine. When the mixture has cooled, freeze in an ice cream machine according to manufacturer's instructions.
5. Transfer the ice cream to a 2 qt plastic container. Use a rubber spatula to fold in maraschino cherries and white chocolate chips until evenly distributed. Cover the container and place in the freezer for several hours before serving.

Challah Bread

I got this recipe out of Joy of Cooking.

This traditional Jewish Sabbath bread, blessed and served before Friday-night dinner, is a sort of butterless brioche. And is super yummy at breakfast time.



Combine in large mixing bowl or the bowl of a heavy duty mixer and let stand until the yeast is dissolved, about 5 mins:

1 package of active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
1/2 C warm water

Add:
1/2 C all purpose flour
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 egg yolks, lightly beaten
3 T vegetable oil
3 T sugar
1 1/4 t salt
Mix by hand or on low speed until thoroughly blended. Gradually stir in

2 1/2 C bread flour

Knead for about 8 mins by hand or with the dough hook on low to med speed until the dough is smooth and elastic and no longer sticks to your hands or the bowl. Oil the bowl and coat the dough in the oil. Cover with plastic wrap and  let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Punch the dough down and knead briefly, and refrigerate covered until doubled in volume again 4- 12 hours. The dough is now ready to be shaped.  Cut the dough into 3 equal parts. Roll out the dough into long strips about 18 in long. Braid them as you would braid your hair. Make sure the ends of the dough are secured together.
Wisk together:
1 egg and a pinch of salt. Brush over the dough. Cover loosely with oiled plastic wrap and let rise for 45 mins

Brush again with the egg wash and bake in oven at 375* for 30-35 mins.
Tap the loaf to make sure it sounds hollow and the crust should be golden brown. Let cool completely.

Gingerbread Cheesecake

My favorite smell at Christmastime is fresh gingerbread from the oven. I have been eyeing this recipe for some time and finally had a reason to make it. It smells absolutely divine... and is from my favorite source: Martha Stewart.    The recipe

Ready to POP! Baby Shower

This is a baby shower that I threw for my little sister who was having a boy. She gave me the suggestion of having popcorn and I thought that she was crazy. But then I saw an invitation online that said "Ready to Pop" with a pregnant lady and popcorn on it and I thought it was perfect.

I put popcorn and suckers in these favor bags for the ladies to take home.

These were really easy, I just got a store bought cheesecake and molded and dipped them.

These were a Giada De Laurentis recipe, they didn't exactly turn out pretty, but they were delicious!

These cupcakes were a hit. I found the recipe for them online and my sister in law made them.

This was made out of Dum Dum's suckers

Santa sugar cookies

These cookies  are super cute and delicious. I found the recipe when I was looking for a sugar cookie recipe that matched Granny B's pink cookies.

Sugar cookie recipe

Cream: 1 C butter

Work in: 1 C sugar

Add: 2 eggs and 1/2 t vanilla

sift together 3times:

3C flour 

1/2 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

1 t baking powder

 Add alternately with the dry mixture in thirds to the butter/sugar mixture:

1/2 C sour cream

Chill 2-3 hours

Roll out and cut into shapes. The dough will be fairly sticky if it gets warm so put it back in the freezer if needed.

Bake at 375 degrees for 6-8 mins

Frost with favorite frosting

Butter Frosting

4 T butter

2 1/3 C Powdered Sugar

Milk

3/4 t vanilla

for Chocolate frosting add 3 T cocoa

Put the butter in the bowl and beat with the electric mixer until fluffy. Then add about half the powder sugar. Then beat in 1 Tablespoon milk and the vanilla. Slowly add in the rest of the powdered sugar. Add more milk if needed. Add food coloring if desired. The recipe makes enough frosting to ice half of a cake mix. I usually double the recipe for the cookies maybe even triple it if I am decorating them.

Amazing Peanut Butter Cookies...

REESE'S PEANUT BUTTER CUP COOKIES
1/2 c. butter or margarine (room temp.)
1/2 c. peanut butter
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 bag mini Reese's peanut butter cups
Cream butter, peanut butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla. Add flour and baking soda. Roll into small balls and place in ungreased mini muffin pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes (look for cracks on top). Immediately press Reese's PB cups into the center of each cookie. Let cool for 10 minutes in pan. Remove carefully (do NOT flip pan over...chocolate will still be melty) and let cool completely on a wire rack. Makes approximately 2 1/2 dozen.

I didn't put them in muffin tins I just rolled them into balls and they were fantastic!!!