Baking - Retro Food For Modern Times

Category: Baking

20
Aug
2019

Honey, I Shrunk the Pies!

categories: Cook A Long, Desserts, Pastry, Pastry Desserts, Pieathalon, Vintage Recipes

Happy Pieathalon People of the internet! Yep, it’s that special time of year when a group of bloggers get together and bake the good, the bad and the ugly of vintage pies! It’s also my birthday week so it’s double the celebrations for me! Pie and champagne! Life, my friends, is good indeed!😍

Let’s get down to it, shall we?

The Pie

Pie choice day is always exciting. What will that email from Yinzerella reveal? There is always a slight worry in the excitement – I am happy to have an odd pie – but not too odd. One of my favourite parts of Pieathalon is that I get to eat a pie so I always give a little silent prayer. “Please do not let this contain anything disgusting like offal or beetroot. Or sugary onions.” Speaking of the sugary onions, my recipe came from The Nostalgic Cook who sent Jenny the Sweet Onion Pie recipe last year!

Luckily the Gods, (and Kari and Yinzerella) smiled down on me. The pie I received was a gorgeous sounding Honey Cream Cheese Pie from Sunset’s New Kitchen Cabinet Cookbook from 1938. It is described as a “not-quite-so rich version of the very rich German Cheesecake. This Honey Cream Cheese Pie will be welcomed by everyone”. It was more than welcomed by me. I had most of the ingredients which is important when you are leaving the country for a month! I did not want to buy things only to have to throw away any leftovers because we were going away!

This book looks great. I love the little cartoony insets. The recipe page also had a v cute cartoon for a less than appealing sounding carrot mould.

Speaking of which…remember a few Pieathalons ago, when I made the Lime Jello Pie? I totally forgot that I had moved it to the fridge in the garage so the housesitters could use the main fridge. When I opened the garage fridge about a week after we got home, it was like I had just put it in there. It had not changed one iota in the month it had been in there.

Terrifying!!!!!

The Song

Every year I get a song stuck in my head at Pieathalon time. For my first Pieathalon it was Waterloo by Abba. For the lime jello pie I went a bit hair-metal and subbed in the words “Lime Jello Pie” into “Sweet Cherry Pie”

There were two contenders this year. The first was, of course “Sugar Pie Honey Bunch” by the Four Tops. But nah, too obvious. The song that stuck was “Honey Child, what can I do?” by The Ballad of The Broken Seas. Which became Honey Pie what can I do? Which then morphed into….no, we’ll get to that…

Ch…ch…changes

The recipe for the pie says that it is big! Enough for 8 which was way too big given our impending departure. There were three eggs in the original recipe and everything else was easily divisible by three so I decided to make a third of the original recipe. And also that small pies were going to be easier to distribute out if we didn’t eat them all. It might be weird to give the neighbours who are picking up our mail a half-eaten pie. But I think, perfectly acceptable to give them a few freshly baked tartlets as a pre-emptive thank you.

The Bake aka Honey Pie what did I do?

I baked my pies on Saturday afternoon where there was a LOT happening. We were still booking some accommodation so there was stuff happening on the internet, there were phone calls, there was washing and packing and I don’t know just a lot of things going on. I was also obsessing about the nutmeg. Personally, I don’t like it so was trying to decide if I used it on all of the pies, or none or some.

But the making of the pies went perfectly. There was enough mixture for the 6 small pies and some leftover. I had a little taste of the raw filling, it was really good!!! I nutmegged three of the six tarts, popped them in the oven and went to hang out the washing.

When I came back inside I noticed a jug of milk on the bench. And realised that I had totally left the milk out of the recipe!!!!

It was too late to do anything about it. I briefly contemplated pulling the pies out of the oven, scraping out the filling, adding the milk and refilling them but they were already a little bit too set for that.

So, there was nothing to do but to sit and wait to see how these milkless tarts would turn out.

My song quickly became “Honey pies what did I do?”

The Verdict

The honey cream cheese pies looked so gorgeous when they came out of the oven, gorgeous golden domes. The smell of the baking was divine. And they tasted delicious!

We had one each while they were still warm from the oven and they were like a cross between a cheesecake and a Portuguese tart. So tasty.

I don’t know what the milk would have done to these but they were so good without it that I will not add it in when I make these again, which I will definitely do!

We had no leftovers to give neighbours or anyone else! I ate the last one the following night as we waited for the Uber to take us to the airport. With a little glass of sparkling wine, it was the perfect end to Pieathalon 2019 and the start of the holiday!

Thanks as ever to the amazing Yinzerella who organises this whole shebang each year!

You can find her Pieathalon recipe over at Dinner is Served 1972 and check out all the other pieathletes per the links below. Why not start with Kelly over at the Velveteen Lounge who got my recipe for Angel Pie?

Here is the full list of this year’s participants. Some of the links will not be working yet, I will update later today as people post their recipes!

Battenburg Belle baked Betty Crocker’s Hawaiian Pie

Doctor Bobb made a Macaroon Pie

Camilla channeled Alf from Home and Away and made a Flaming peach pie!

Yinzeralla got surreal with a Dali Oasis Leek Pie

Greg got arty, but did not choke on his Artichoke pie

Jenny found her inner Italian with a spaghetti pie

Kaci at the Homicidal Homemaker bammed some berries and produced some Bamberry turnovers

Kari at The Nostalgic Cook, who provided my recipe got a bit saucy with a Cheese Applesauce Pie

Kelly, the angel over at Velveteen Lounge made my Angel Pie

Surly got a Salmon Custard Pie. Oh dear, I might be surly too….

Peter whipped up some low calorie goodness with a Weight Watchers Cherrie Pies…?

Poppy made Banana Split Pie…I do hope she didn’t fall on the peel!

SS got fidgety with a Huntingdon fidget pie

And finally, here is the musical accompaniment for this post!

Thanks again to Yinzerella for organising this and Kari for the fab recipe!

Have a great week!

14
May
2019

Triple Cheese & Triple Onion Empanadas

categories: Cheese, Film Club, Pastry, Vegetarian

These triple cheese and triple onion empanadas were inspired by two events. The first was my visit to Tasmania in January. There was a stall selling triple cheese and onion empanadas at the Salamanca Markets. I didn’t eat any because I was full of scallop pie but the memory stayed with me. The second inspiration was one of our Film Club pics. And the third, oh yeah, I forgot to mention at the start that there was a third.

It’s empanadas? Hell yeah!

The three kinds of cheese I used for the empanadas were feta, smoked cheddar and parmesan.

And the three onions were Spanish, Spring and leek.

The film that inspired this recipe is the documentary Three Identical Strangers.

This was the documentary choice in our first round (we are now about to start round 2) and it was a brilliant choice from one of my friends. I had never even heard of this film before this but I was so glad Film Club brought it to my attention.

The film begins with three young men, discovering that they were triplets who were separated at birth and adopted out to different families. Their reunion is the stuff of media wet dreams and the boys achieve a degree of fame with numerous froth pieces showing them dressing the same, talking the same, moving in unison, etc. And initially you think this is all the film is going to be about….how are they the same? How did their different upbringings make them different? What is nature, what is nurture?

Except it doesn’t quite turn out like that because the film then takes a dark turn. And just as you are recovering from that twist? It takes an even darker turn. I’m not going to spoil… but the end? OMG! I don’t think I have ever been that angry at the end of a film before. Talk about the heart of darkness.

I think this is a really clever piece of film making, the timing and pacing is perfect, the story being told is totally compelling. I can highly recommend this film. Except be prepared to be FURIOUS at the end.

If you are watching at home, my triple cheese and triple onion empanadas would make a great movie snack.

I can also heartily recommend the Aji Pique ( a Colombian hot sauce) I made to go with the empanadas. The recipe stated that in Colombia, they use this oosauce on everything fish, eggs, meat, chicken and I can totally see why!

For the empanadas it adds a sharp, spicy tang that complements the smoky cheesy filling and the crisp pastry.

Next weekend, why not bake up a batch of these empanadas and watch Three Identical Strangers?

Here’s the trailer.

Here’s the recipe!

Triple Cheese and Triple Onion Empanadas

Print Recipe

A film watching (or anytime) snack, these triple cheese and triple onion empanadas are a delicious vegetarian snack!

Author: Taryn Fryer

Ingredients

Scale

3 sheets of Shortcrust Pastry
1 egg separated

For the Filling

1 tsp olive oil
1 leek, finely chopped
1 red onion, finely chopped
4 spring onions, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic,crushed
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
200g Smoked Cheddar cheese
200g Feta Cheese
100g Parmesan
1 egg, beaten
Salt and Pepper

For the Glaze

1 egg, beaten

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

For The Filling

Heat the oil in a frying pan.
Add the leek, Spanish and spring onions and reduce the heat to low.
Cook, stirring occasionally until the onions are softened (around 10 minutes).
Add the garlic and cook until the onions are golden (another 10 or so minutes).
Set aside to cool.
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Grate the Smoked Cheddar and Parmesan,.
Crumble the feta into a bowl and add the other cheeses.
Mix in the beaten egg, the smoked paprika and the cooled onion mixture

To Assemble

Cut each sheet of pastry into 4 rounds.
Spoon the cheese mixture onto the middle of each of the rounds.
Brush the edges of the pastry with the egg white. Fold over and seal.
Alternatively you can use an empanada press to seal the edges of the pastry.
Brush the tops of the empanadas with the egg yolk.
Place the empanadas in the oven for around 20 minutes. Around halfway through, turn them over and brush the other side with the egg yolk.
Serve with the Aji Pique.

I served my empanadas with some Aji Pique, which is a Colombian Hot Sauce.

The recipe for this can be found here.

26
Jan
2019

Lamington Layer Cake

categories: Australasia, Cake

The Lamington is a classic Australian Cake. New Zealand may try to claim the pavlova but there is no doubt about the origin of this delicious cake! It’s ours New Zealand and you can’t have it! Normally lamingtons are made in individual serving sizes but I made mine as one large Lamington Layer Cake meant to share. Because that’s what cake is for right?

On the downlow? Cake is also about eating it all yourself and not giving any of that sweet deliciousness to anyone else….

So what is a Lamington?

For a plain Lamington, you cut sponge cake into squares, dip the squares in chocolate icing then coat the squares in dessicated coconut.

Simple. Delicious.

My version sandwiches layers of sponge with strawberry jam and cream for a fancier version. My mum gave me a jar of the most delicious strawberry jam and I wanted to use it in the Lamington Layer Cake because when I was growing up, our local bakery always had raspberry jam in their lamingtons. So, me, you can’t have a lammy without jam!

Why Lamington?

The Lamington is named after Charles Wallace Alexander Napier Cochrane-Baillie (otherwise known as the 2nd Baron Lamington). He was the Governor of Queensland from 1896-1901.

One day, some totally unexpected guests dropped by Government House. And horror of horrors! All they had in the house to serve said guests was some stale sponge cake.

For a start…what kind of arsehole turns up at anyone’s house unannounced? If you turn up at my house unannounced, you’d be lucky to get stale cake. I’d pretend I wasn’t home until you went back from whence you came. Or maybe give you some Beetle Pie to teach you a lesson!

You turn up at the Governor’s unannounced?

Luckily for history, Governor Lamington had a French chef, Armand Galland, in residence who was less misanthropic than I am. Galland dipped the stale cake in chocolate and rolled it in coconut. The guests LOVED it and asked for the recipe. 😍😍😍

Lady Lamington was very impressed and asked Galland to make the cakes for all future official events. Over time these little cakes came to be called lamingtons. The first recipe for them was published in 1900 and people have been baking and rolling and dipping ever since! In 2009, the lamington was officially declared a Queensland icon in 2009.

Lord Lamington? Not a fan, describing them as “those bloody poofy woolly biscuits”. By all accounts though, he was a total dick who once killed a koala by shooting it out of a tree (whilst on a walk with ecologists to talk about conservation) so who cares what his opinion on anything was.

If you would like to join those guests in getting a recipe for Lamington Layer cake, look no further than the link below But don’t forget the jam!

Lamington Layer Cake – The Recipe

(From womensweeklyfood.com.au)

Happy Australia Day for those who celebrate it! Enjoy the long weekend if you’re in Australia and try to keep out of the heat! Everyone else, have a wonderful week!

18
Dec
2018

Semolina, Coconut and Marmalade Cake

categories: Cake

I’ve been reflecting on the comment I made in the post on the Stuffed Monkey about how I don’t like the taste of orange peel and, to be honest, I feel it made me sound like a big baby. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I actually don’t like the taste of dried orange peel but….and it’s a big but…(not a big butt, I’m no Sir Mix A Lot) I thought that in the general spirit of pushing myself out of my comfort zone that is this blog, I should try things before dismissing them. And my last recollection of dried orange peel comes from Hot Cross Buns from back in the days when I was kissing tv screens. Which is all a very long way of saying that I made Yotam Ottolenghi’s Semolina, Coconut and Marmalade Cake.

And it was delicious.

Who knew marmalade was actually quite nice? I bought one that was full of peel too! They don’t call me a dare devil for nothing! Yes, you’ll lfind me and my newly found tolerance for slightly bitter jam living right over there on the edge!

The recipe for this cake came from Yotam Ottolenghi’s book Jerusalem. The recipe can be found here:

Semolina, Coconut and Marmalade Cake

I should mention here that this is a syrup cake. Which means that once the cake is baked you add some sort of syrup to it. In this case it is an orange blossom water flavoured syrup. HHowever,one thing that was very different in this cakes to other syrup cakes I have made is the technique off applying the syrup. In previous recipes that I have made you usually stab the cake all over with a skewer and pour the syrup over. In the Ottolenghi version you kind of paint the syrup into the cake.

This seemed daunting at first. There was a lot of syrup. And initially ,I thought it was going to take forever. And you know, I have things to do! In the end ,the slow painting of syrup onto cake became quite meditative.

This is a good cake to make if you need time to ponder an issue…like does God exist? Should I buy those shoes? And what exactly is semolina anyway?

So, fear of marmalade conquered. I have a bit left in the jar, maybe in the not too distant future, I will tackle my dislike of bourbon enough to make these babies!

Bourbon and Marmalade Glazed Drumsticks

Although, come to think of it, I’m not that fond of drumsticks either.

In the meantime though, I feel like I have earned the title Lady Marmalade. Except that song was about a hooker so I may have to rethink that title!

Have a great week!

28
Nov
2018

Beetle Pie

categories: Pie

Beetle Pie? WTF is going on at RFFMT? Is this the month of disgusting sounding food? Well, maybe…but I also just got sent a copy of The Nightmare Before Dinner: Recipes to Die For: The Beetle House Cookbook by Zach Neil and couldn’t wait a year for Hallowe’en to share a recipe with you.

And as with last week’s Stuffed Monkey, the yumminess of the Beetle Pie is directly proportional to the yechhhh factor of its name. That is to say….it’s totally delicious. Let me convince you by unpacking it into its component parts:

Chocolate wafer crust
Pistachio custard filling
Blackberry jam topping
Whipped cream and fresh blackberries to garnish

Yeah, baby!

There are so many things to talk about this week. I really want to tell you about the book that contained the Beetle Pie recipe but that will have to wait. Because while researching this post I came across an absolutely bonkers tale from history involving a very different type of beetle pie.

So buckle in….because we are taking a trip in the way back machine all the way to 1863.

1863 was a huge year in history. In America, Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address. The Red Cross was founded in Switzerland. And, in London, the first tube train ran between Paddington and Farringdon. And some five miles away from Paddington, in Brixton, Mrs Elizabeth Wilton baked a pie for her neighbour’s coachman, Edward Gardiner.

The relationship between these neighbours was…..strained. Mrs Wilton liked to have German bands (and Negro singers) playing loud music in her house a few times a week. This was not appreciated by the neighbourhood in general and her sickly, elderly neighbour specifically. Words were exchanged. And sometimes more than words. On one occasion, Mrs Wilton was seen throwing bricks at the neighbour’s windows! She was feisty!

She was also batshit crazy! One day, she baked the German band a pie. They took it to the local pub to eat. However, the pie was not filled with apples or rhubarb or cherries. Or anything normal. Because this was a pie baked by Elizabeth Wilton who was as mad as a box of frogs.

The pie filling was a pair of ladies knickers!

Not to be outdone, one of the band members then donned the knickers, returned to Mrs Wilton’s house and danced in front of her door for a while.

I imagine that dance looking a little like this:

Loud music? Brick throwing? Underwear pies? Revenge door dancing? It’s 1863 people! Calm the hell down and go catch one of those newfangled tube trains. We won’t be needing your kind of mad arse white trashery until we invent reality tv in about 120 years!

But all this is merely to set the context under which the hapless Edward Gardiner received his pie.

Now, I don’t pretend to know anything about the life of coachmen in 1863 but from what happened next, I’m guessing it was hungry work. Or maybe, they didn’t get paid a lot so hunger was par for the course. Or maybe Edward Gardiner was just not too quick on the uptake. Because despite the lingerie pie precedent, it took him a good “six or seven mouthfuls” of Mr’s Wilton’s pie before he realised that

It tasted revolting
It was filled with black beetles and,
“A nasty stuff resembling mustard, but it was not mustard.”

The “nasty stuff” was later discovered to be gamboge, a yellow tree sap used as a laxative.

Not So Fast Eddie eventually took what was left of the pie to the local police station. Where the sergeant claimed to have never seen “anything more filthy or disgusting” and that he had to open all the police station windows to get rid of the “intolerable stench”.

Let me just repeat. The sergeant took one whiff. Eddie G? Six (or seven) mouthfuls…

The next day, Mrs Wilton turned up at the police station bearing…..yep…you guessed it. A freshly baked pie!

Which upon examination was found to contain a painted toy pear.

Which was found to be full of black beetles!

Later, in court, Mrs Wilton admitted having made the original beetle pie “as a lark”.

The judge agreed that it was a practical joke and not meant to cause injury and she was released from custody.

A few months later the irrepressible Mrs Wilton was back in the police station. This time she was charged with knocking off a policeman’s hat whilst being drunk in public.

I love this woman!!!!!😍😍😍

There is no record of whether she baked the charging officer one of her very special pies!

I hope you loved the story of the utterly eccentric Elizabeth Wilton and her black beetle pies as much as I did!

I found the entire story on The Skittish Library. It’s a fabulous site, why not pop over and see what other delights Estelle has to offer!

And make a beetle pie in celebration of Elizabeth Wilton and her pie making badassery from 1863!

Have a great week!

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