Fourth of July & Apple Pie

I hope you all had a wonderful Independence Day! We enjoyed beautiful weather with cool breezes down by the San Diego shoreline of La Jolla. La Jolla's meaning “The Jewel” is so befitting for this glorious town. Only a forty-five minute drive from Temecula, the crystal aqua ocean is so dazzling, like a clear and perfect gem with coves cut out so perfectly along the coastline and the quaint backdrop of shops, restaurants and homes.

We shopped a little and walked around town being serenaded by reggae music coming from a second story café and watched the hustle and bustle of tourists while we ourselves enjoyed art galleries and chic boutiques..like Armani Exchange, one of the few clothing stores open for the day.

That evening we headed back home for our own festival of sorts with an all American dinner and dessert, ending the evening with a view of Temecula’s own fireworks extravaganza.

Apple Pie

This is a simple pie with my favorite pastry dough recipe from Dorie Greenspan. I really think the two crusts that I continually use are Dorie’s and Nick Malgierri’s. I always have perfect results with these two recipes!

Dorie Greenspan's Pie Crust
Crust Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 tablespoons chilled non-hydrogenated solid vegetable shortening, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 tablespoons (or more) ice water

Crust Preparation
Mix flour, sugar, and salt in processor. Add butter and shortening; pulse until coarse meal forms. Add 2 tablespoons ice water; pulse until moist clumps form, adding more water by teaspoonfuls if dry. Gather dough into ball; flatten into disk and wrap in plastic. Chill 2 hours. DO AHEAD Can be made 1 day ahead. Keep chilled. Let stand at room temperature 30 minutes before continuing.


Apple Pie Filling
8 Red Apples (I used Mac Intosh)
3 tablespoons Turbinado sugar
¾ teaspoons cinnamon
¼ cup Mighty Mango Naked Juice (you can sub with juice of your choice)
½ stick butter
Bowl of cold water with a few tablespoon lemon juice;
I egg yolk and 1/8 cup cream for brushing dough.


Directions
Make crust and set aside in the refrigerator till your ready to fill. Keep remaining scraps to make dough strips for the top of your pie.

Peel and core apples. Keep in bowl of lemon doused water till time to slice.
Slice apples1/8 of an inch thick. In large mixing bowl add apple slices, sugar, cinnamon and mango juice. Stir to coat apples well. Fill pastry shell with apples. Cut slices of butter and dot apple pie filling.

Use extra dough to make strips for lattice. If you don’t want to do this you can roll out another sheet of pastry to cover the pie filling. Brush outer dough with egg yolk mixture. Place either strips or another sheet of dough cut to fit over pie filling. Pinch to seal edges. If you completely covered the pie make some vents on top of the dough to release steam while baking. Brush the top of the pastry dough with remaining egg mixture and sprinkle with Turbinado sugar.

I cover the top of my pie with foil for the first 15 minutes so it doesn’t get too brown. I would rather the apples cook all the way through on a lower temperature and longer cook time. Uncover the pie for the last 40 to 45 minutes.

Bake at 400° for 50 minutes to an hour.
Check periodically.
Serve warm with ice cream!

Buon Appetito!
Laurie

StrawberryBlue Custard Tart

Why do I love Summer.. let me count the reasons.. strawberries, blueberries, cherries, watermelon... the epitome of freshness and flavor found in the market stalls and down the grocery aisles.
The warm season is definitely on here and there is nothing I crave more than fresh fruit and cold beverages to get me by.

I know I have been making lots of desserts lately, but my wonderful husband is kind enough to take them with him to the office so I don't have to be tempted with them here at home. Anyway.. I much prefer a ripe juicy naked strawberry to quench my sweet tooth!

This recipe is adapted from a custard tart from The Joy of Baking as well as utilizing one of my favorite pastry crust recipes by Dorie Greenspan. For the recipe I subbed the half and half with cream cheese to give it a bit more depth and texture. My husband loved the cheesecake I made the previous week so I knew the addition of cream cheese would be a welcome one.

Buon Appetito,
Laurie

Crust Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 tablespoons chilled non-hydrogenated solid vegetable shortening, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 tablespoons (or more) ice water

Crust Preparation
Mix flour, sugar, and salt in processor. Add butter and shortening; pulse until coarse meal forms. Add 2 tablespoons ice water; pulse until moist clumps form, adding more water by teaspoonfuls if dry. Gather dough into ball; flatten into disk and wrap in plastic. Chill 2 hours. DO AHEAD Can be made 1 day ahead. Keep chilled. Let stand at room temperature 30 minutes before continuing.


Strawberry Glaze
1/4 cup strawberry preserves
1/2 tablespoon Cognac, Calvados, Rum or Water

Strawberry Glaze Directions
In a small saucepan heat the strawberry preserves until boiling. Remove from heat and strain to get rid of lumps. Add the Cognac or water.


Cheese Custard
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated white sugar
2 large eggs
¼ cup cream cheese
½ cup milk
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon Brandy

Cheese Custard Prep
In a large bowl whisk the flour and sugar together. Mix in the eggs and stir with a wooden spoon to make a smooth paste. Do not let this mixture sit too long as it will form a crust.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan over medium heat, heat the milk till warm, add the cream cheese and let meld with milk. Cook till it just starts to simmer. Take off heat and add vanilla and the liqueur. Gradually whisk into the egg mixture stirring constantly. Set this mixture aside while you prepare the apples.


Pastry Crust
Roll out the pastry and fit it into a 8 or 9 inch tart pan. Prick the bottom of the shell and chill for 20 minutes.


Preheat oven to 400°
Place rack in center of oven. Line the unbaked pastry shell with aluminum foil. Fill tart pan with pie weights or beans, making sure the weights are to the top of the pan and evenly distributed over the entire surface. Bake crust for 20 to 25 minutes until crust is dry and lightly browned. Remove weights and cool crust on wire rack. When cool, spread a thin layer of warm glaze over the bottom and sides of the tart to seal the crust and prevent it from getting soggy. Let the glaze dry between 20 - 30 minutes.


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
Arrange the fruit in concentric circles on top of the cooled and glazed tart shell. Carefully pour the custard over the apples to just below the top of the tart pan (do not fill all the way or the custard will drip between the crust and the pan). Sprinkle lightly with the Cinnamon Sugar.

Place tart pan on a larger baking sheet to make it easier to remove from oven and bake for about 25-30 minutes or until the custard has set.

Almond Amaretto Chocolate Deluxe Cheesecake

This past weekend we had a wonderful time celebrating "Father's Day". My kids wanted to go all out for a fun filled weekend. And me, I got to do all the fun prep work like buying the gifts and making my husbands favorite dessert, "Cheesecake". I always have fun in the planning stages and I love spoiling my husband!

In the evening we went to one of our families favorite restaurants in Temecula's newly renovated outdoor Promenade mall, Lucille's Smokehouse BBQ. See the review here. It is the perfect place for a noisy family of six. Although.. we had to wait for an hour and a half to be seated and the outdoor overhead misting system wreaked havoc on my hair, and it wasn't even that hot outside!

Dinner was wonderful. The meat at Lucille's is slow smoked in a beefy in-house smoker with the tastiest attention to their sauces. We have had the family sized portion of racked ribs, BBQ chicken whole and sliced in sandwiches, slow smoked tri-tip steak sandwiches, cob salad with smoked chicken and their hearty Angus beef burgers.. all wonderful, tender and finger lickin good! But this time around I am here to talk about their desserts. The first time we went My husband and I split the pecan pie accompanied by a luscious bourbon sauce. Sooo Good! On Father's Day we hadn't intended to order dessert because I had a Cheesecake waiting at home, but while eying that creamy deluxe chocolate cake that flew by it was really hard to pass it up. My husband had the wonderful idea of turning my plain old Almond Amaretto Cheesecake into the dessert I have posted here, the "Almond Amaretto Chocolate Deluxe Cheesecake".

Emeril Lagasse couldn't have said it better.. "Baam!!" We only purchased one slice of Chocolate cake, but these slices for $6.00 are large enough to share. Creamy, satiny, tender, smooth, moist, rich, and "deluxe" are all words to describe this cake. My daughter loved it so much that last night she purchased a slice to have with her in line at the movie theater while waiting for doors to open for the midnight premier of "The Transformers" movie.

So my cheesecake plus the added slice of chocolate cake royalty made a wonderful dessert to end a fabulous Father's Day celebration!

Almond Amaretto Chocolate Deluxe Cheesecake

Ingredients
1 Cheesecake recipe (follows)
1 Chocolate Deluxe cake
1 Almond Graham cracker crust recipe (follows)
Chocolate Syrup or a thinned out ganache
Sweetened Whipped Cream

Crust
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 cup blanched almonds (whole or ground)
1 stick butter, melted
2 tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. Amaretto Liqueur

Cheesecake
3 sticks of 8 oz cream cheese, softened to room temperature
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup heavy cream
3 Tbs. Flour
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
2 tbsp Amaretto Liqueur

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees°.

In a food processor grind almonds still mealy. Mix together with graham cracker crumbs and the remainder of crust ingredients. Lightly press into a springform pan slightly going up an inch on the sides. Set crust aside.

Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, vanilla, Amaretto and blend until smooth and creamy.

Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Cover bottom securely with foil. I do this so butter from the crust does not drip in my oven. I almost think this also prevents the bottom from cooking to quickly while the thick middle is cooking.

Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is a little jiggly in the center. You don't want it to be completely firm at this stage. Turn the heat off and open the door of the oven so it is ajar. Let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won't crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. At least 12 hours. I like to make my cheesecakes a whole day in advance to serving.

Top with a whole creamy, satiny, tender, smooth, moist, rich, and "deluxe" chocolate cake! We served it with a drizzle of warm chocolate syrup and whipped cream. The chocolate cake with almonds and Amaretto is naturally a winning combination but you can surely alternate nuts or do without. Pine nuts also make a wonderful addition to a cheesecake crust!

Buon Appetito!
Laurie