The Theme is... Butter!

So apparently the theme of my cooking this week has been butter. Lot's of it. In fact I'm starting to feel a little Julia Child-esque with all this butter usage. So those of you who are trying to lay off the butter, I suggest you just stop reading now before you see all the good things that lots and lots of butter produces (as I try not to think of what eating it will produce on the hips).

This recipe I'm posting today (I have another buttery recipe for later in the week) is for Cherry Hand-Pies. I have wanted to make hand-pies ever since I saw this post last summer. Then cherries went on sale last weekend and I thought, "What better use of cherries than hand-pies!" (I'm beginning to see a pattern in my baking that turns all those healthy fruits into something sugary and so-good-it-has-to-be-bad-for-you delicious). While the results were well worth all the time and effort, I do have to warn you that these hand-pies are a bit high maintenance. First off, unless you are someone who owns a cherry pitter (and if you do, I would like to know who you are so I can borrow it), pitting and chopping all those cherries is a bit time consuming. Of course, it didn't help that my assistant turned out to be a cherry thief!

Aside from the thievery in the kitchen, the crust is about as high maintenance as they come (lot's of time chilling between steps), but the flaky, buttery end result will make you forget all about it. Of course if you don't want to fuss with cherries, you can always substitute in your favorite pie filling.

Cherry Hand Pies
Sweet Cherry Pie Filling

4 cups (about 2 1/2 pounds) pitted and chopped cherries
4 tablespoons Corn Starch
2/3 cup sugar (you can adjust this to taste)
Juice of half a lemon

1. Combine all of the ingredients together and spoon into hand-pie dough.

Hand- Pie Crust
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
16 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/2 cup sour cream (or plain Greek yogurt)
4 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup ice water

1. combine the flour and salt in one bowl and the pieces of butter in another bowl, place both bowls in the freezer for one hour.
2. Remove the bowls from the freezer. Make a well in the center of the flour and add the butter. Using a pastry blender (or two knives) cut in the butter until the mixture resembles course meal. This will take some time as the butter is frozen! Make another well in the center of the mixture.
3. In a small bowl whisk together the sour cream, lemon juice, and ice water. Add a little bit at a time to the flour mixture, using a fork or your fingers to mix it in until a lump of dough forms. Remove the lump and add more water mixture repeating this process until it has all been mixed in. Combine the lumps to form one ball of dough. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for one hour.
4. While the dough is in the refrigerator, make the filling using the recipe above (or another pie filling of your preference!)
5. Remove dough from refrigerator. Divide dough in half and roll out on a lightly floured surface to 1/8 inch thick. Using a 4 1/2 inch biscuit cutter (or other round object that you can substitute - I used a bowl) cut out the dough and place circles on a parchment lined baking sheet. Place in refrigerator for about 30 minutes and cut out the other half of the dough.
6. After the dough has chilled for 30 minutes, remove and allow to sit for 1-2 minutes until dough is pliable. Spoon 1-2 tablespoons of filling onto one half of the circle. Brush edges with water and fold over, sealing edges with fingers. Using a fork, press the edges down to give it a decorative look. Place hand-pies back in the refrigerator for another 30 minutes.
7. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Remove pies from refrigerator and make a small slit in the top of each pie. Brush tops with milk and sprinkle with sugar. Bake until the hand-pies are golden brown and slightly cracked, about 20-30 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on a rack.

Enjoy with coffee or milk!

The Cake Boss

My life for the next 8 weeks consists of a slew of bridal showers and weddings- it's going to be a busy summer! This week was a bridal shower for a new, but very dear friend. It was such a joy to celebrate her upcoming marriage with her, and of course I enjoyed the opportunity to try a new recipe.
First, I have to admit that when I saw these amazing root beer float cupcakes I almost couldn't help myself. . . Can anyone say 4th of July though??
After talking some sense into myself about the root beer float cupcakes, I finally decided on something a little more elegant- Strawberry Chiffon Shortcake. Strawberry season is here (is it ever not when you live in Southern California?) and I love the simple elegance of strawberry desserts for events such as bridal showers.

This particular recipe is from Joy of Cooking via none other than Smitten Kitchen. Like any new recipe I try (and yes, sometimes the old ones) it wasn't without a few minor catastrophes, but in the end it turned out pretty well I think.


Catastrophes? Well, en route to the bridal shower, the middle layer slid out and landed in my hand/ on the side of the cake plate (I wasn't driving). At that point I wasn't sure whether to cry or throw the cake out the window. Fortunately, my husband quickly - ok not too quickly because, face it I was holding a cake and a handful of strawberries- brought us home and we repaired the damage. While I was still slightly panicked, my husband turned to me and said, "I've seen Cake Boss" and calmly reconstructed and cleaned up the cake! So I guess watching all those food shows paid off!

Strawberry Chiffon Short Cake

I created my cake in 3 layers because I ran out of whipped cream and time, but the recipe makes 4 layers which makes for a good sized slab of cake.

Cake Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups of sifted cake flour
1 1/2 cups super fine or regular sugar, divided
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt
3/4 of a cup cold water
1/2 vegetable oil
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 large egg yolks at room temperature
8 large egg whites at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon cream of tarter

Filling:
2 cups heavy cream
6 tablespoons confectioners sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 quarts strawberries, bulled and sliced

1. Take eggs of refrigerator and allow to come to room temperature. Prepare two 9 inch round baking pans by lining with parchment paper and lightly spraying with cooking spray. While you can do this without the parchment paper (I did), the edges of your cake will come out much prettier and smoother if you use the parchment. Preheat over to 325 F.

2. Sift the flour and then measure out 2 1/4 cups. I'll admit it was early and I didn't have time to go get cake flour, so I used regular, but the cake flour would have made for a less dense cake, so I recommend it.
Sift the flour, 1 1/4 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt together- do this twice.

3. In a separate bowl beat the egg yolks, water, oil, lemon zest and vanilla on high speed until the mixture is smooth. Add the flour mixture and stir until smooth.

4. In another bowl combine the egg whites and cream of tarter. Beat until soft peaks form and then add the other 1/4 cup of sugar and beat until stiff (but not dry) peaks form. Using a rubber spatula add 1/4 of the egg whites to batter and gently fold in. Add the rest of the egg whites and continue to gently fold them with the spatula until egg whites are no longer visible, but being careful not to deflate the batter. Scrape into the two pans and spread evenly. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until the top springs back at your touch and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool on racks for at least an hour.

5. Make the whipped cream by beating together the heavy cream, confectioner's sugar, and vanilla until it makes stiff peaks.

6. Once cakes are cool, run knife around the edge and flip onto a plate. Create the layers by cutting each cake layer in half using a bread knife. Begin with a cake layer and then top with whipped cream and a layer (or two) of strawberries, followed by the next cake layer. I only did 3 layers and then froze the extra layer for later use . . . or you could always eat it then and there. . . I won't tell!