Hawaiian Pizza

People love to hate. I have a love-hate relationship with the world. The world loves to hate me. – Andy Dick 

There’s probably no other round of dough that can stir more love or hate responses from people than Hawaiian pizza. You either love pineapple on a pizza or you don’t. The only other ingredient I can think of that puts people in such opposite camps is anchovy.

Before rising to at least double.

I love Hawaiian pizza, and I love anchovy/black olive pizza. I could even possibly see all three combined! Call me weird if you want, but there something about the sweetness of baked pineapple that just hits the spot.

So is Hawaiian pizza “Hawaiian”? No. Apparently it was invented by – get ready for it – a Canadian! The pizza was first made by Sam Panopolus of Satellite Restaurant located in Chatham, Ontario in 1962. 

This information is first-hand – straight from the man himself, as opposed to Wikipedia, which got the place and man right, but date and restaurant wrong.

So there’s the nut of it. A pizza called Hawaiian, made by a man of Greek ethnicity on the shores of Lake Erie. 

It is said that the restaurant also tried to popularize an Hawaiian burger but it never caught on. Think I may try that this summer, with grilled pineapple slices, basted with brown sugar and melted butter. Mmmm...

The combination of pineapple, ham and cheese is a favourite of anyone who loves sort of sweet and sour flavours, and also Australians, where it makes up about 15% of all pizza sales.

You can use tomato sauce on any pizza as opposed to buying special pizza sauce. Just make sure it's on the thick side or your pizza will be watery. You can mix some tomato paste in with it if you wish to help keep it together. Mine was homemade, so I didn't have that problem to deal with.

One thing that recipes don’t tell you (mine included) is that whatever sauce you use should be a little on the sweet side. If yours isn’t, fix it by adding a little honey or brown sugar. Just a little though – it’s not dessert!

Hawaiian Pizza

Crust: 8 hours  |  Pizza prep: 15 min  |  Bake 20-25 min

Pizza crust

2 cups flour

1 cup water (110°F)

2 tsp yeast

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp honey

1 tbsp olive oil

Hawaiian toppings

1 cup tomato sauce (basil if possible)

1 tsp chilli flakes

1 medium onion, chopped

1 medium green pepper, chopped

200 g sliced ham

5 slices pineapple, chopped

200g mozzarella, grated

a little salt

1 tsp cracked blackpepper

1 tsp dried basil or oregano

Mix together all the crust ingredients in a large bowl. Knead briefly (1 minute), them place back in the bowl. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and a towel. Let rise out of any cool drafts for 8 hours until at least doubled. (Go to work, go shopping, go to bed...)

Once the crust has risen, oil a 13x18 baking sheet with a little olive oil. Preheat the oven to 425°F.

Spread the crust out and let it rest until the oven comes to full temperature, about 15 minutes.

Then add the toppings starting with the sauce, chilli flakes, onion and green pepper. Sprinkle with a little salt. Then add the ham, pineapple, mozzarella, black pepper and basil (or oregano).

Bake for between 20-25 minutes, until the crust is nicely browned on the bottom. Let cool for 2-3 minutes before serving. Hot pineapple can burn your mouth!

…………………………………

If you like this post retweet it using the link at top right, or share using any of the links below. Feel free to comment. I'll always try to respond. If you like this post, feel free to share it. All I ask is that you credit me and share a link back to the original.

Success with Pie Crust

There are no mistakes or failures, only lessons. – Denis Waitley 

I’ve pre-empted my regularly scheduled programming to bring you this important public service announcement. It’s about how to make a decent pie crust.

This was brought about by Fb comments from a friend who feels they are a bit pie crust challenged. I was going to post an Indian spiced steak recipe. Oh well, another time.

A lattice crust is woven from strips.Turn the bottom crust OVER
as opposed to under after trimming.

Many excellent bakers break out in a cold sweat when confronted with the prospect of having to make a pie crust. That’s a real shame. It’s actually very easy. There’s plenty of things far more difficult. Try making a sabayone.

Strike while the iron is hot, so the saying goes. Now is the perfect time to reacquaint yourself with pie crust since this year’s apples are now in farmers markets. I have some on my table. Every time I walk by I smell them. Who doesn’t love apple pie?

I pride myself on my pie crust. Sometimes I have a dud, but most times it’s flaky and pretty good (if I do say so myself). The trick is to just bring the dough together and not knead it until it's smooth. Rough dough is flaky dough. I learned that from my dad, who was an impatient baker. His always came out well.

I’m posting two recipes, but have more buried in individual posts on this site. Search “pie.”

The first is what you would find in Fannie Farmer and most other cookbooks. The second I dug up somewhere else. It uses vinegar and egg. You can also substitute some vodka for part of the cold water.

All trimmed and vented, ready for the oven.

You can use three different sources for “fat.” Lard, vegetable shortening or butter. I find lard the best. Regardless, all three have to start off well chilled before cutting in. I find butter softens the fastest.

You don’t have to have a pastry cutter, either. You can get an excellent result using two table knives and dragging then across each other through the fat – like crossing swords.

The whole point of making a pie crust is making flakes. This is done by flattening out to paper-thin small pieces of lard in the flour as you roll the crust. Overworking it (or my dad used to say, “mauling”) is a bad, bad thing.

Two things that will kill a crust?

1. Cutting in the fat too small. No pieces, no flakes.

2. Kneading it so much that the dough is smooth. Smooth means no pieces of lard.

Remember those two simple rules, and you’re good to go.

If you’re making an open single crust pie, use 3/4 of the recipe (1.5 cups flour, etc). Don’t ask me why, but it seems that is the rule.

Before adding the wet ingredients.

Recipe 1: Traditional 9" double crust

Prep: 15 min  |  Chill: 30 minutes

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp salt

3/4 cup shortening or lard, chilled

1/2 cup very cold water

Recipe 2: Not-so-Traditional 9" double crust

Prep: 15 min  |  Chill: 30 minutes

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tbsp sugar

2/3 cup lard

1/2 tsp salt 

1egg

2 teaspoons vinegar 

1/4 cup ice cold water

After adding the wet. Mix first with a fork. Only use your hands
enough to bring it together. It must not be smooth.

Make the crust by cutting the lard into the dry ingredients until the size of peas. Mix together whatever wet ingredients you are using. Stir into the dough with a fork until just combined. Then briefly use your hands.

Do NOT force it together. It needs to be ragged. Any additional flour left in the bowl can be incorporated by using it on your board to roll out the crust. 

Chill the dough in the mixing bowl for 1/2 hour until ready to use. While that is happening, make your filling.

Divide the dough in half and roll out using enough flour so it doesn’t stick to the board. Line a 9” pie plate with half of the rolled pastry. Do not trim the edges. Let it hang over the sides at least 1” the whole way around. Add your filling. 

Top with the remaining crust. Trim both top and bottom doughs about 1/2-3/4” out past the plate rim. Fold both in under the inner edge of the plate. Pinch together, crimping the edge. Cut several vents in the top.* 

Bake according to the temperature and directions of your filling recipe. 

Let cool slightly before serving to allow your filling to set. Most fillings are thickened somehow and need that cooling time to firm up.

*HINT: I cut six vents in the top of a strawberry cranberry pie. I found it very easy to cut along the vents to serve and the crust didn't break apart or collapse. Six vents equaled six slices. If you wish, cut 8 vents and divide the pie into that many pieces. This is a trick I will be using a lot in the future!

........................................................

Feel free to comment. They’re always appreciated. I’ll answer quickly, and as best as I can. If you like this post, feel free to share it. All I ask is if you repost, please give me credit and a link back to this site.

Old-fashioned Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow. – Gilbert K. Chesterton 

Word to the wise: I cut 6 slits in the top. It's neater to cut along them,
so if you want 8 slices, make 8 slits.

This weekend is supposed to be a weather write-off. So why not take a quick pop out to the grocery store and stay inside and make a pie?

There’s nothing quite as tasty as strawberry-rhubarb pie. I just wish that strawberries were available locally at the same time as rhubarb. Our rhubarb patch out back is doing quite nicely this year.

This is a friend's patch. Ours is somewhat smaller.

You should be able to find rhubarb in the grocery store now, if not very soon. It is one of the first “local grown” crops to come onto market every spring and is loved (or hated) by many. Let’s face it – rhubarb is tart. Some like it, some don’t.

A favourite way to enjoy rhubarb is to therefore combine it with other fruits that are sweeter. Although there are many that could be chosen, the most common pairing is strawberries. This is even though local strawberries don’t become available until the last week of June.

Thank goodness for imports (I guess). That’s what I used to make this pie. Oddly enough, many of the USA grown strawberries are from Nova Scotian plants. The Annapolis Valley is a major exporter.

Strawberries aren’t a problem, but the amount of rhubarb can be. By that I mean too much, not too little. If you have a patch of your own, you probably have much more than you can reasonably use.

So the thing is to preserve it for later. I find the best way is to chop fresh stalks into 1” pieces. This is the size you would use for a pie filling and many other recipes. Then blanch the pieces in boiling water for about 1-1/2 to 2 minutes – with no salt. Then simply drain, bag and freeze.

To harvest, simply pull the stalks and break off the leaf.

If you deal with your over abundance of rhubarb in this way you can have the next best thing to fresh any time of the year!

For those who don’t know, here’s some important information. Rhubarb leaves contain oxalic acid which is poisonous. You would have to eat quite a lot of the leaves to die (about 5kg), but even a little will give you quite an upset well before that level is reached. The stalks also have some oxalic acid, but far less than the leaves. So never eat rhubarb leaves.

I pride myself on my pie crust. Sometimes I have a dud, but most times it’s flaky and pretty good (if I do say so myself). The trick is to just bring the dough together and not maul it until it's smooth. Rough dough is flaky dough. I learned from my dad, who was impatient in making his crust. It always came out well.

This crust recipe is a keeper. The addition of the egg and vinegar may have had something to do with it, but I mostly blame it on using lard, as opposed to shortening. You can substitute vegetable shortening if you must… but try the lard.

Crust goeth before a fall. Or is that pride...?

Old-fashioned Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

Prep: 30 min  | Bake: 40-50 minutes

Crust: Prep: 15 min

2 cups all-purpose flour, plus additional flour for rolling 

1 tbsp sugar

2/3 cup lard

1/2 tsp salt 

1egg

2 teaspoons vinegar 

1/4 cup ice cold water

Filling: Prep: 15 min

3 beaten eggs 

1 cup sugar 

1/4 cup enriched flour  + 1 tbsp

1/4 teaspoon salt 

1 tsp cinnamon

This is one of my favourite pies, plus apple, blueberry,
custard, cherry, chocolate...

1 tsp lemon zest

2 1/2 cups 1-inch slices rhubarb 

2 1/2 cups sliced fresh strawberries 

Pastry for 9-inch lattice top pie 

Make the crust by cutting the lard into the flour/sugar/salt until the size of small peas. Mix together the vinegar, egg and water. Stir into the dough until just combined. 

Do NOT force it together. It needs to be ragged. Any additional flour left in the bowl ca be incorporated by using it on your board to roll out the crust. 

Chill until ready to use.

Combine eggs, sugar flour, salt, cinnamon and lemon rind and mix well. Chop and toss the rhubarb and strawberries together. 

Line a 9” pie plate with half of the rolled pastry. Do not trim the edges. Fill with the cut fruit. Pour egg mixture over the top. 

Top with the remaining crust. Trim both top and bottom doughs about 1/2-34" out past the plate rim. Fold both in under the inner edge of the plate. Pinch together, crimping the edge. Cut several vents in the top.* 

Bake in a preheated 400°F oven for between 40-50 minutes. 

Let cool slightly before serving to allow the filling to set. Vanilla ice cream goes very well with a slice.

HINT: I cut six vents in the top of this pie. I found it very easy to cut along the vents to serve and the crust didn't break apart or collapse. Six vents equaled six slices. If you wish, cut 8 vents and divide the pie into that many pieces. This is a trick I will be using a lot in the future!

........................................................

You know, I really like comments... I really do.

Questions? Comments? Derogatory remarks? Just ask! I’ll answer quickly and as best as I can. If you like this post feel free to share it. If you repost, please give me credit and a link back to this site.

The Pie that’s a Cake: Boston Cream Pie

The essence of life is finding something you really love and then making the daily experience worthwhile. – Denis Waitley

Way better than store-bought.

You’ve seen them at the grocery store in the desserts cabinet of the baking section. Glossy chocolate atop yellow cake that’s been spit and filled with cream… with one glistening maraschino cherry (with a stem) on top…

It looks delicious. Don’t be fooled. 

If I had a dollar for every time I was sucked in by the allure of those Boston Cream Pies I would be a rich man. Well maybe not rich, but I would have all those dollars, plus what it cost me to buy the cakes!

The ones we purchase at both our grocery chains leave something to be desired. Have you ever bought a black forest cake or birthday cake at one of those counters? If you have, you know what I mean. I know they're doing their best, but they taste…"fake”. 

Fake cake. How is that even possible?

A Boston Cream Pie isn’t an insignificant undertaking. There’s three recipes involved: the cake, pastry cream, and glaze. Luckily each recipe is very easy.

I made mine on New Years Day (part of my "try things I don’t like" resolution) and needed the better part of a day for the baking, cooling and assembling.

But it was worth it. Oh my, was it worth it. Four pieces worth it. Never, ever, ever, ever again will I allow one of those cakes to fall into my shopping basket at the grocery. The difference is dramatic to say the least.

But why is this cake called a pie? For that we have to look at some history.

History of the Boston Cream “Pie”

In times past the dividing line between cake and pie was far less defined than today. Home cooks were well versed in making baked goods and would have had all the necessary bakeware for them at hand.

Cook's tip: To cut one cake into layers make a small slit in
the side and then pull thread through. Works like a charm.

In the New England of the 1800s pie dishes were far more common than cake tins. The first version of this cake may very well have been baked in pie tins, hence the name. Boston Cream Pie is quite similar to an earlier baked standard called “pudding cake pie.”

In 1856 the Parker House Hotel opened in Boston. It was the first Boston hotel to have both hot and cold running water. Fancy. They also had an Armenian-French chef, M. Sanzian. It is he who is credited with popularizing the “pie” in its present form.

His dessert was called Parker House Chocolate Cream Pie. As it moved beyond Boston, it retained the Massachusetts tie in its name – Boston Cream Pie. I don’t know if the chocolate refers to the topping, as today, or if the cake was actually chocolate. If anyone knows let me know in the comments.

Regardless, it gained wide popularity. No wonder. It's a fantastic dessert.

In 1996, Boston Cream Pie was declared the official state dessert of Massachusetts. It beat out Toll House cookies and Indian pudding, two other stellar desserts.

Boston Cream Pie

Prep: 15 min  |  Bake:  50-60 min

1-1/4 cups sugar 

3/4 cup butter, softened 

2 large eggs 

1-1/2 cups cake flour

1/4 cup cornstarch

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup milk

1 tbsp vinegar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 

Preheat oven to 350°F. Place a piece of waxed paper on the bottom of a 9” spring form pan. Close the paper up into the ring to make a seal. Butter and flour the inside. Set aside.

Combine the butter and sugar in a bowl. Cream together until the mixture is light and fluffy. Then add the eggs, one at a time, beating each in well.

Sift together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients, then half the milk, 1/3 more dry, the remainder of the milk, and the remaining dry. Beat well and then stir in the vinegar and vanilla.

Immediately pour the batter into the prepared pan and place it in the oven. Bake on the middle rack for 50 to 60 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the centre. 

(Timing note: while the cake is baking, make the pastry cream and chill it.)

Remove from oven and let the cake cool completely in the pan on a rack. Once cool, cut the cake into two equal layers.

Invert the top layer onto a cake plate or other tray (so the cooked top is facing down). Spoon the pastry over the cut side and smooth it out. Place the second layer of cake on top.

Make the glaze and immediately pour it over the cake. Smooth it out with a knife so it reaches the edge. The glaze will will set up in about 15 minutes.

Vanilla Pastry Cream

Prep: 5 minutes  |  Cook: 10 minutes  |  Chill : 1 hour

1-1/4 cups whole milk

3 egg yolks

¼ cup granulated sugar

6 tbsp flour

1 tbsp butter

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

In a small saucepan, warm 1 cup of the milk over low heat until it is just scalding (scalding is when small bubbles form at the edge of the pan but the milk is not boiling). 

While the milk is warming, whisk together the remaining 1/4 cup of milk and the egg yolks in a bowl. Then add the sugar and flour and mix until completely smooth.

Once the milk is steaming, add 1/4 cup of it to the eggs and whisk well. Then add another 1/4 cup and whisk again.

Transfer the egg mixture to the rest of the hot milk and continue whisking. Cook on medium heat until thickened, about 5 minutes. The custard will fall in ribbons from the whisk. 

Remove from the heat, stir in the vanilla extract and butter, and chill. Place plastic wrap directly on the surface of the pastry cream before refrigerating to prevent a skin from forming.

This pastry cream recipe can be used to fill many other pastries as well – not just this cake.

Soft Chocolate Glaze

Time: 5 min

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1/4 cup cocoa powder

2 tbsp milk (or more)

1 tsp vanilla extract

In a small bowl, combine the powdered sugar and the cocoa powder. Using a fork or whisk, stir in the milk until the mixture is smooth and glossy. Stir in the vanilla extract.  

If not using immediately, put plastic wrap directly on the surface to prevent a skin, but you should use it right away as it has a tendency to set up and will be harder to get smooth later.

Even set up the glaze will be easy to cut. It will just be harder to get on the cake than if it's used right away.

........................................

If you like this post feel free to share it using any of the links. If you repost, please give me credit and a link back to this site. Questions? Comments? Derogatory remarks? Just ask!

Recipe: Maple Walnut Pumpkin Pie

It could be argued that there is an element of entertainment in every pie, as every pie is inherently a surprise by virtue of its crust. – Janet Clarkson, Pie

Crunchy maple walnut topping on creamy pumpkin filling.

Related recipes:

Two layer pumpkin cheese pie

Pumpkin orange cake

Pumpkin cheesecake with pecans

“The gift that keeps on giving.” That’s what I’m going to call sugar pumpkins from now on.

I purchased one before Thanksgiving for (I believe) 99¢ at Wiles Farm Market in Wileville (just outside Bridgewater). I wanted to make a pumpkin cheesecake for the family feast. I was being frugal. A can of pumpkin costs about $3.00. I discovered my recipe only took 1/4 of it.

The crust ready to be filled.

From the leftover part I made a pumpkin orange cake. Another 1/4 of the pumpkin used. Two desserts and only half the thing gone – and the one I bought wasn’t big, maybe 8" across. It was really starting to overstay its welcome in my crisper. 

So this day I decided to shoot the works and cook all of what was left, and then find a dessert that would fit what I had.

What I had was 1-1/2 cups of pumpkin purée. Cakes, muffins, cookies, flans and pretty much anything that wasn’t a pumpkin pie were out. I would still have leftovers. But pie – although delicious – can be a bit uninspired when you’re starting to get sick of pumpkin.

I wanted a pie with a twist, and I found that twist in a few recipes i discovered that called for sweetened condensed milk in the filling. I had never heard of that before.

I had also purchased some walnuts—Sobeys bulk bins $2/100g—the night before and figured they could be included. They’re used in pumpkin quick bread, after all...

Once I had settled on the walnuts I started to think maybe a caramel on top would be nice. But I had tried that a few years ago with a cheesecake. The caramel set up so hard I had to crack it to cut the dessert. So maybe caramel wasn’t the right direction. (I fixed that problem in the recipe for cheesecake at the top of this post.)

I had also purchased, at disgustingly high cost, some maple syrup last week. I really should tap trees come spring. Maybe a maple flavoured streusel topping would be a better fit. I could throw some maple syrup into the pie filling for good measure too. That would help knit it all together.

The result of my twisted thought process is the recipe I am posting today. A little of this, a little of that, and a lot of what I already had in my pantry.

The filling tastes like a delicious cross between pumpkin pie and custard, but far more on the pie filling side than custard. The maple walnut streusel is crunchy and easy to cut – a nice counter to the soft filling in the flaky crust.

If you seem to have way too much pumpkin hanging around your kitchen, or are afraid you will after Halloween, you may want to give this recipe a try. It may not be a traditional pumpkin pie, but it may become a tradition in your family!

Maple Walnut Pumpkin Pie

The streusel will spread slightly in the oven.

9” pie crust:

1-1/4 cups white flour 

1/4 tsp salt 

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/3 cup vegetable shortening 

4 to 5 tbsp very cold water

Pie filling:

1-1/2 cups cooked pumpkin 

300 ml can sweetened condensed milk 

3 large eggs 

1 tbsp maple syrup

1 tsp cinnamon, ground

1/2 tsp ginger, ground (or substitute 2 tsp very finely grated fresh ginger)

1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt 

Maple walnut stresuel:
1/4 cup packed brown sugar 

2 tbsp maple syrup

1/3 cup all-purpose flour 

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 

3 tbsp melted butter 

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Make the crust by mixing the flour, salt and baking powder together in a bowl. Add the shortening and cut it in to the size of small peas. Then add the water and mix with a fork. Start with 4 tablespoons. Use the last tablespoon only if you need it to bring the dough together. Wrap and refrigerate while you make the filling.

Preheat oven to 425°F. Whisk the pumpkin, sweetened condensed milk, eggs, maple syrup, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt in bowl until smooth. 

Roll the crust out and fit it into a 9” pie plate. Flute the edge whatever way you desire. Pour the filling into crust. Bake for 15 minutes at 425°F.

After the first 15 minutes, reduce the heat to 350°F and baking for an additional 35 to 40 minutes. You can tell if the filling is done by inserting a knife partway into the pie (not close to the crust, not dead in the centre). If it comes out clean it’s ready for the streusel. 

Mix the streusel ingredients together while the pie bakes. Crumble evenly over the surface of the pie and return it to the oven for 15 more minutes.

Remove from the oven and let cool completely before serving. 

………………………………….

If you like this post feel free to share it using any of the links. If you repost, please give me credit and a link back to this site.

Questions? Comments? Derogatory remarks? Just ask!

Thanksgiving: Two Layer Pumpkin Cheese Pie

I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual... O how I laugh when I think of my vague indefinite riches. No run on my bank can drain it for my wealth is not possession, but enjoyment. – Henry David Thoreau

It's a pie, it a cheescake. No it's a cheese pie! (Bicolour, too!)

Thanksgiving. In Canada it’s here again – already. The seasons fly by, as do the years. It seems like only yesterday we started fixing our house to be put on market. That was June. Now it’s October.

The leaves haven't really fully turned colour in the village
where I grew up. Must have made decorating the church
harder than usual.

I can’t believe how fast time seems to be going. Before we know it Halloween and Remembrance Day will be past and Christmas will be upon us. And then there will be a new year where it starts all over again.

But today is the day for giving thanks. What am I thankful for? I have a wonderful family, great true friends and a spouse I can’t imagine living without. Sure I’ve had my fair share of “duds” in my life, but all in all I’ve been very lucky.

I am thankful for my life so far. I count the people and experiences that didn’t work out as life lessons. If you don’t learn from your past you are doomed to repeat it. I would not be who I am without what has happened to me.

I am thankful for my upbringing. My parents were wonderful examples of how to live. My dad genuinely loved life and people. Everyone who met him liked him. My mother was the “strict” one. It was probably because she was a teacher.

She taught me among the most important lessons in my life, not only a love of learning and inquisitiveness, but also—and probably most importantly—the true meaning of love.

I am also thankful for my dog Henry. He is a light of my life.
He loves me too. Just don't get in his way...

My father began exhibiting symptoms of depression shortly after retiring. Or so we thought. He was treated for about a decade. It was only later that we discovered it wasn’t depression but Pick’s Disease – an uncommon degenerative condition related to Alzheimer's.

My dad died at home five years ago. My mother took care of him instead of packaging him off to a nursing home, and made the quality of his last years far better because of her. Her marriage vows, including “in sickness and in health,” were more than mere words, as the vows I took are to me.

I am thankful for my friends, both old and newer. I grew up in a small village and all of us were completely accepting of each other. Don’t let anyone ever tell you that rural Nova Scotia is closed minded. If anything it is the opposite. Friends from my youth are still among the best we have.

I am thankful for what little I have. Don’t worry if you don’t have scads of money. The best things in life are not those we can store in a bank, but those we store in the vault of our heart. Yes, we all need enough to live, but pursuit of monetary gain at the expense of all else is not the way to live. Those who think otherwise are deluded.

Happiness is a fresh breeze on your face, sunshine on your back, a crackling fire, the smell of good food bubbling on the stove and the warmth of love from those you care about.

This crust always turns out well.

What has all of this to do with pumpkin pie? Nothing. But it has everything to do with thankfulness. And this day we are also thankful for the harvest – pumpkins included.

But I suppose I had better get to the topic of this post.

This is a bi-colour cheesecake in a flaky pie crust – one layer white, the other orange. It’s a bit different from the usual pumpkin cheesecake. Until I made this pie I didn’t really realize how little flavour the actual pumpkin adds to a pumpkin cheesecake. 

It’s actually more the pumpkin pie spices that carry the flavour. Both the white and pumpkin layers contain them. I would imagine you could make a acceptable “pumpkin” cheesecake without any pumpkin at all!

This crust is now by far my favourite. I don’t know what the vinegar and egg actually do but it’s something. This crust always turns out very flaky.

I know this post may be a day late for my Canadian readers, but not my American ones. Keep this recipe in mind for any holiday. It would be a hit.

One last point. I am thankful for one more thing: you. All of you – near and far – who come back to my blog day after day. You have given me an outlet and voice, and a feeling that I am not as alone as I would otherwise feel. You have expanded my world. 

Thank you.

This is the assembled pie. I boiled my own pumpkin (top
left). Drain it and use the beaters to purée it. Simplicity.

Two Layer Pumpkin Cheese Pie

Prep: 30 min  |  Cook 40-45 min  |  Yield: 9” pie

Crust:

1 cup unbleached flour (plus more for rolling)

2 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/3 cup shortening, chilled

1 lg egg

1 tsp vinegar

1 tbsp cold water

Mix the flour, sugar and salt in a bowl. Add the shortening and cut in until the mixture resembles small peas. 

Mix together the egg, vinegar and water in a small bowl. Pour over the flour and mix just until blended. Do not over mix.

Place a little four on a rolling board. Roll the dough out to fit a 9” pie plate. Fit the rolled dough into the pan, leaving about 1” overhang. Fold the overhand down under the plate and flute the edge as you wish. Prick the bottom with a fork.

Chill the pastry while the filling is being mixed.

Out of the oven in 45 minutes. Look – no crack!

Filling:

2 pkg Cream Cheese (225g each or 8 oz), softened

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon, grated

1/2 tsp nutmeg, grated

1/2 tsp cloves, ground

2 eggs

2/3 cup cooked sugar pumpkin (or canned)

Preheat the oven to 325°F.

Beat together the cream cheese, white sugar and vanilla together until smooth. Then add the salt and spices and beat again.

Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down the sides with a spatula to ensure all is incorporated smoothly.

Pour half of the cream cheese into the pastry-lined pie plate. Beat the pumpkin into the remaining batter and carefully pour it over the top of the white filling.

Bake in the preheated oven for between 40-45 minutes. The middle will look set.

Let cool completely for at least 3 hours or overnight. Serve with whipped cream.

………………………………….

If you like this post feel free to share it using any of the links. If you repost, please give me credit and a link back to this site.

Questions? Comments? Derogatory remarks? Just ask!

Recipe: Easy Greek-style Pastry

The fine arts are five in number, namely: painting, sculpture, poetry, music, and architecture, the principal branch of the latter being pastry. – Antonin Carême

Look at all the layers. Amazing.

It’s amazing – when you stumble across a new piece of information it seems to then pop up everywhere. This is true of autoloysis. I spoke about it in my baguette post two days ago. It made some stunning bread.

Just before kneading.

Essentially, autolysis in dough-making is the mixing of water and flour and letting it sit. The enzymes in the wheat are activated and begin the process of developing the gluten strands. 

For bread, this turned out to be a really good thing. 

But this is pastry. Very “flaky” pastry, and the technique – which I didn't know the name of three days ago – improves the end result. I put flaky in quotation marks because this isn’t flaky like pie pastry. In pie dough little bits of shortening or butter are distributed in the flour and make the individual flakes.

This dough is flaky like phyllo, but shaped in a block, not individual sheets.

Kneaded and ready to rest.

I am of the opinion that the resting made it far easier to roll out extremely thin sheets of dough without breaking or tearing. Let me explain how it’s made. 

The flour and water is allowed to rest and then divided into four pieces. Each piece is rolled out as thin as you can possibly get it. It's far more pliable because of the autolysis action. Softened butter is then slathered (no other word for it…) on each sheet and it is then folded up. 

That "envelope" of dough gets put in the centre of the next piece of rolled, buttered dough and folded inside. This is repeated for all four pieces. So you have many, many layers of dough separated by many, many layers of butter.

What you get in the end is sort of a “puff” pastry but not with all the gnashing of teeth that accompanies cold butter being beaten into submission. Mind you, the end result is not quite as tender. 

Divided and ready to roll.

This dough is more for delicacies like Spanakopita or cheese pie where flaky yet a little more substantial is required. But I’m not saying this is “tough”.

A note: the thinner you roll the individual sheets the flakier and more tender your end result will be. It takes a little elbow grease but well worth the final result. Roll, roll, roll!!

It can be used for pastry if you wish. I made an apple braid (photo at top). Just be prepared for something a little more sturdy than a flaky pie crust.

It’s quite stunning to look at and pride-inducing to think you made all those separate layers of dough.

This is not a quick technique but well worth the (minimal) effort. It took me 1/2 hour to roll and fold all the dough together. But look at the picture at the top of the post. Don’t you think it’s worth it to say “I did that”!

Roll the first sheet out, cover with butter and fold as
directed in the recipe.

Easy Greek-style Pastry

Time: 1 hour  |  Refrigerate: min 3 hours before use

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup water

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter or more, softened

Place the flour, baking powder and water in a bowl. Mix together and then knead until you have a fairly smooth ball, about 5 minutes.

Let the dough rest for 30 minutes.

After the 30 minutes you will see the dough has relaxed somewhat. Cut into four equal pieces.

Using a little four as possible, roll each piece out into a square about 16” x 10” (if you can). Roll it as thin as you can reasonably get it.

The result of the first folding.

Take 1/4 of the butter and cover the face of the pastry. Starting on the long edge, fold it in thirds, like a letter. 

Butter the face of the dough and then fold in thirds again. The end result is a rectangle of multilayered dough.

Do the same with the remaining dough, except before folding place the already folded dough in the centre and fold up around it.

When you’re done you’ll have a block of dough that looks like store-purchased puff pastry.

Cover in plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator until ready to use, substituting this dough for that in your recipe.

Roll out the second sheet, butter and place the first square of dough
on it. Then fold the dough around it.

Repeat with each piece of dough until you have rolled, buttered and wrapped each piece.
The dough is ready to be refrigerated.

………………………………….

If you like this post retweet it using the link at top right, or share it using any of the links below.

Questions? Comments? derogatory remarks?