Recipe File

This just might be my all-time favorite dessert. It’s the simple essence of sweet apples and crisp pastry with no distractions. We’ve all collected several similar recipes over the years, but this is the best one I’ve ever made.  – Ina Garten, Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics

For the Pastry
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon sugar
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, diced
1/2 cup ice water

For the Apples
4 Granny Smith apples
1/2 cup sugar
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) cold unsalted butter, small-diced
1/2 cup apricot jelly or war sieved apricot jam
2 tablespoons Calvados, rum, or water

Directions

For the pastry, place the flour, salt, and sugar in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Pulse for a few seconds to combine. Add the butter and pulse 10 to 12 times, until the butter is in small bits the size of peas. With the motor running, pour the ice water down the feed tube and pulse just until the dough starts to come together.

Dump onto a floured board and knead quickly into a ball.

Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

Roll the dough slightly larger than 10 x 14 inches. Using a ruler and a small knife, trim the edges. Place the dough on the prepared sheet pan and refrigerate while you prepare the apples.

Peel the apples and cut them in half through the stem. Remove the stems and cores with a sharp knife and a melon baller. Slice the apples crosswise in 1/4-inch-thick slices. Place overlapping slices of apples diagonally down the middle of the tart and

Note: For a really fast apple tart, you can use one sheet of frozen puff pastry, defrosted. Roll out to 10 1/2 x 10 1/2 inches and then proceed with the apples continue making diagonal rows on both sides of the first row until the pastry is covered with apple slices. (I tend not to use the apple ends in order to make the arrangement beautiful.)

Sprinkle with the full 1/2 cup sugar and dot with the butter.

Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until the pastry is browned and the edges of the apples start to brown. Rotate the pan once during cooking. If the pastry puffs up in one area, cut a little slit with a knife to let the air out. Don’t worry! The apple juices will burn in the pan but the tart will be fine! When the tart’s done, heat the apricot jelly together with the Calvados and brush the apples and the pastry completely with the jelly mixture.

Loosen the tart with a metal spatula so it doesn’t stick to the paper. Allow to cool and serve warm or at room temperature.

Reprinted from Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics with permission from Clarkson Potter/Publishers.

The 2008 million-dollar-winning recipe in the Pillsbury Bake-Off® is this fresh take on an old favorite created by Carolyn Gurtz of Gaithersburg, Maryland

Ingredients
1/4 cup Fisher® Dry Roasted Peanuts, finely chopped
1/4 cup Domino® or C&H® Granulated Sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup JIF® Creamy Peanut Butter
1/2 cup Domino® or C&H® Confectioners Powdered Sugar
1 roll (16.5 oz) Pillsbury® Create ‘n Bake® refrigerated peanut butter cookies, well chilled

Directions
1. Heat oven to 375°F. In small bowl, mix chopped peanuts, granulated sugar and cinnamon; set aside.
2. In another small bowl, stir peanut butter and powdered sugar until completely blended. Shape mixture into 24 (1-inch) balls.
3. Cut roll of cookie dough into 12 slices. Cut each slice in half crosswise to make 24 pieces; flatten slightly. Shape 1 cookie dough piece around 1 peanut butter ball, covering completely. Repeat with remaining dough and balls.
4. Roll each covered ball in peanut mixture; gently pat mixture completely onto balls. On ungreased large cookie sheets, place balls 2 inches apart. Spray bottom of drinking glass with CRISCO® Original No-Stick Cooking Spray; press into remaining peanut mixture. Flatten each ball to 1/4-inch thickness with bottom of glass. Sprinkle any remaining peanut mixture evenly on tops of cookies; gently press into dough.
5. Bake 7 to 12 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets to cooling rack. Store tightly covered.
High Altitude (3500-6500 ft): No change.

A runner-up in a 2007 recipe contest sponsored by Plugrá European Style Butter, this recipe exemplifies what Chef Trip Kadey means when he says that compound butters are “a wave of the future when it comes to using butter… Compound butters are a beautiful way to add a burst of flavor to entrees, vegetables or desserts.”

Ingredients
2/3 cup chopped pecans
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tbsp. lemon zest
2 cups fresh basil leaves
1/2 tsp. hot sauce
1/2 cup Plugra Unsalted Butter, softened
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper, fresh ground
Instructions

• Toast pecans in dry small saute pan over medium heat until pecans start to brown.  Stir often.  Add garlic and lemon zest, cook until fragrant, using caution to avoid burning zest or garlic.  Remove from pan to cool.
• Transfer cooled mixture to bowl of food processor.  Add basil and hot sauce; process until smooth.
• Add softened Plugra butter, salt and pepper.  Process until well combined.
• Use immediately or transfer to a 10-inch by 10-inch piece of wax paper; rolled tightly to create long tube shape.  Wrap with plastic and refrigerate up to 3 days or freeze up to 1 month.
• Cut into coin-shaped pieces and use to top grilled fish, steak or chicken; toss with steamed vegetables or hot pasta; or spread over warm bread.

Some traditional Turkish flavors are found in this dish from The Cook-Ahead Cookbook by Cynthia MacGregor. Used by permission.

Servings: 3-4.

1 can (16 oz.) tomato sauce
1 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 cup red wine
1 tsp. dried rosemary
1 tbs. Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup chopped fresh dill
1 lb. ground lamb
1/4 cup freshly grated ginger
1 onion, chopped
1/2 cup sliced, pitted kalamata olives
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 small eggplant, peeled, thinly sliced and slices quartered
1 cup cooked rice
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 tsp. dried basil
1 cup crumbled feta cheese

Heat oven to 350°. In a bowl, combine tomato sauce, wine and Worcestershire sauce.

Place lamb, onion, garlic, rice, seasonings and olives in a 9-x-13-inch baking pan. Add 1/2 of the tomato sauce mixture and knead together thoroughly with your hands.

Press 1/2 of the meat mixture evenly into pan. Layer eggplant evenly over meat. Press remaining meat mixture over eggplant.

Add yogurt and feta cheese to remaining tomato sauce mixture, stirring to combine. Spread it over meat mixture. Bake for 1 hour. Cut into servings with a
pancake turner.

Freeze each portion wrapped in aluminum foil.

Reheat in a 350° oven in same foil on a baking sheet for about 40 minutes.

“My Christmas was bean soup without bread. The boys are not seeing a good deal of fun,” wrote Johnny Jackman in his diary 130 years ago.A trooper in the 9th Kentucky of the Confederacy, Jackman’s lean Christmas was shared by thousands of other young American men in 1863. Food supplies for the armies of the Civil War were usually limited to the basics and deprivations were common. If they filled their journals with reviews of their meals it was because these events were often the highlight of an otherwise dismal day.

In 1864, Jackman’s Christmas holiday was a little brighter: fresh pork, baked sweet potatoes, hardtack.

Civil War historian William C. Davis has compiled an authoritative record of the conflict’s cuisine, describing the menus of the camp commissaries and how selected dishes were prepared. Published by Running Press, Civil War Cookbook combines historic photographs and reportage with handsome studio portraits of meals and kitchen accoutrements. More than four dozen authentic Civil War era recipes are included, from Southern gumbo and rice bread to Yankee doughnuts.

The sweet potatoes Johnny Jackman referred to in his diary may have been prepared as sweet potato pudding for holiday fare. Here’s the recipe Davis found:

Sweet Potato Pudding

6 medium-sized sweet potatoes (white or orange-fleshed)
1 C milk
1 C sugar
3 eggs
Juice of a lemon
1 tsp cinnamon

Boil the potatoes for 30 minutes until soft and mash with the milk to a smooth consistency. Add the sugar, eggs, lemon juice, and cinnamon, and beat until smooth. Pour into a shallow, lightly buttered dish and bake in a moderate oven (375 degrees) for 30 minutes. Serves 4.

Source:

Civil War Cookbook
A Unique Collection of Traditional Recipes and Anecdotes from the Civil War Period
by William C. Davis

(from The Cook’s Tales: Origins of Famous Foods and Recipes by Lee Edwards Benning)

3 medium-size onions, thinly sliced
2 T butter
1 T flour
2 C consomme’
4 C water
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 C scalded milk
6 slices stale French bread, lightly toasted
2 T melted butter
1/4 lb. grated Gruyere cheese

Cook onions until golden brown in butter. Sprinkle flour over them and stir until it is incorporated and free of lumps. Add consomme and water. Cover and cook gently for 20 minutes. Add milk, the secret ingredient. Put a slice of buttered bread in the bottom of a heatproof soup bowl, pour soup on top, and sprinkle with cheese. Place in 450 degree F oven until cheese is melted. Serves 8.

(from The Cook’s Tales: Origins of Famous Foods and Recipes by Lee Edwards Benning)

3 lbs of flour
grated nutmeg
2 oz. ginger
1 lb. sugar (dark brown)
3 t pearl ash (a.k.a. potash, baking soda) dissolved in cream
1 lb. butter
4 eggs

Knead it stiff. Shape it to your fancy. Bake 15 minutes.