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bakery

Fruited Crostini and {Warming To Your Soul} Split Pea Soup

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I am heading out the door again this morning. Back behind the wheel to burn up about 500 miles of road. This one is the most delicious and wonderful of my recent jauntings. I am headed to Columbus, Ohio to attend the wedding my most beautiful and amazing business partner, Lauren. She and her handsome beau, Ryan, are tying the knot on Saturday- and it is going to be a time. It will be a blessing to me to be in the presence of their love and share in their pronouncement of devotion. Truly a blessing.

What’s even better for me is that for the first time I won’t be hitting the road alone. My beautiful fiancée, Pam, will be with me. I am SO thrilled. She flew up from Louisiana last week, dodging between floods, power outages and fuel scarcity- to settle safely and warmly in my little apartment in the sky.

You might ask who is doing Lauren’s cake, and the answer is there are many hands in this one. Paola, Lauren’s assistant baked the cake, I am finishing the icing (I’m surprising Lauren with butter cream, she thought she had to contend with fondant) and driving it out, we are stashing it in the kitchen of Columbus cake expert and friend, Jan Kish, then Ruth Drennan, another dear friend and cake baker, will be decorating and finishing the cake. This is one wedding where there will be dancing and laughter and much good food eating. It’s really the best thing EVER!

As I write it’s 5:00 am, and the snow had been falling all afternoon evening here. A bitter slap in the face on the heals of Sandy- which was not welcomed in the least. My heart goes out to my dear NYers who have been struggling this week, only to be hit with another set back. So many without heat- this has really got to suck. (pardon the French, but seriously, what other word??)

So to add just another comfort food to the growing list, some warm hearty split pea soup. Nothing extraordinary here, except for the accompanying biscuits. To offset the smoky and earthy tones of the soup I made a salty and sweet cracker/crouton to go with. It’s the same recipe as the Seeded Rosemary Fig Crackers, just baked in an 8″ square pan and exchanging equal amounts of chopped dried apricots, poppy seeds and flax seeds. I sliced them a little thicker too. BTW, a slice of sharp cheddar on top of this would be a divine addition.

So I’m off to hit the highway.

Stay tuned, I am expecting some very exciting news today or tomorrow- and when it’s official I’ll let you know.

Meanwhile, keep warm and carry on.

 

Road Food- The Energy Bar For A Queen

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Well, whaddyaknow, but I am back on the road again. Took a 2500 mile road trip (solo) last weekend down to Southern Florida and back, this weekend I am flying out to Dallas for my Fiancee’s induction into the Women’s Softball Hall of Fame (YES! she IS amazing!!!), and the weekend after that I drive another 1500 mile loop out to Indianapolis.

I will say that road food has improved in some ways in recent years. It’s now possible to get fresh fruit cut and prepared, salad, and non fried meals on the go. It really is wonderful to see these offerings, and even better to see that people are opting for them.

Yet even with these better options, I do my best to take along a snack bag that I can ice down and bring some of my own things. Not only is it cheaper and removes any mystery, it also saves time. I carry fruit and low fat mozzarella sticks, sometimes yogurt in containers and- of course- these bars.

There are a lot of power bar recipes out there these days- I am certainly not reinventing the wheel here, but I will admit that I like mine the best. First off they are not overly sweet, which I find is a real problem for these bars. Yes, they are meant for energy, but pure honey, agave or syrups are just too much for me. I feel like that starts leading these treats into the direction of candies and I’m not really keen on that.

I use dates as my base. It’s a great option- high in fiber, iron and not overly sweet. Personally I am not a date fan on their own, but when combined with the other ingredients, you can’t tell they’re in there.

So this is one of those recipes that you have some latitude. I will provide you with my recipe, but feel free to tweak to your hearts content.

Here are my combinations:

Date/Oats/Peanut Butter and Dried Cherries
Date/Oats/Pistachio/Cinnamon
Date/Oat/Cocoa Nib/Coconut

I store mine in the fridge in small grab and go bags. They’re great post work out, or just to keep in your bag when you’ve got one of those long days ahead of you.

One note: Though they are healthy and full of nutritious ingredients, they ARE calorie dense- so in the words on Bonquiqui “Don’t go CRAY-ZAY”

The Method is the same for all- place all the ingredients into a food processor and whizz to even consistency. If your mixture is a little dry, add a teaspoon of water one at a time until you get a sticky clay feel. You want to avoid mushiness, but too dry and they crumble. Err to the moister side of things.

Date Oat Peanut Butter and Dried Cherries:

2 C pitted dates
3T fresh ground peanut butter
1c instant oats
1 fist-full of dried cherries
Pinch of salt

Date Oat Pistachio Cinnamon

2c pitted dates
1c instant oats
1c shelled unsalted pistachios
1t ground cinnamon
pinch of salt

Date Oat Coca Nib Coconut

2c pitted dates
1c instant oats
.5c cocoa nibs
1c shredded unsweetened coconut

After you’ve made your doughs you can either pat them into a square pan then cut into bars, or pinch and roll into balls. I obviously rolled the CocoNib balls in more coconut- but you can also roll them in finely chopped nuts, or nothing at all.

They store for a real long time in the fridge- if you can get them to last that long.

Mapled Apple Hand Pies In a Brown Butter and Smoked Almond Crust

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My version of Abby Dodge’s Apple Hand Tart
I am a fool for hand pies. I love them. I can make them all day. And who doesn’t like to eat a gem of a hand pie? I know I just posted an apple tart recently, but I made these pies today in honor of my new friend Abby Dodge, who has just come out with another outstanding book, this one called, Mini Treats and Handmade Sweets ~100 Delicious Desserts to Pick Up and Eat! Please read all about it here.
Abby is an incredible baker and an even more incredible person. I met her earlier this year at the NYC Cookbook Conference. She has an amazing grace and calm about her that I found mesmerizing. I am also terrifically jealous of her gorgeous gray hair- but that’s another subject. Abby has produced a long list of fantastic baking books, and each one should be on your shelf.
So here I am making pretty baked things to support my friend’s new book. So now you can forgive two apple treats in one week, yes?
Her recipe is titled: Brown Butter Apple Hand Tarts. The dough is made by first melting and browning the butter, and recipe uses eggs too. I’ve never made this type of crust before so I was intrigued. You can read about my other handpie dough recipes here, and you can see that I love to experiment.
For my version of her recipe, I added in a generous heap of finely chopped smoked almonds. This gives the crust an even earthier tone and a fantastic crunchy texture. The apples I kept pretty close to the recipe, though I split her 4 Tablespoons of honey into 2T of honey and 2T of maple syrup.
So there you have it.  Gorgeous afternoon delightfulness.
You can get the recipe here, and to recreate my version you would make the following changes:
For the crust:
2.5 c all purpose flour + 1c finely chopped smoked almonds, salted
omit salt in recipe
For the filling:
2T honey + 2T maple syrup
Happy Baking All!