Opening Day

To start I should tell you I 'm not the best writer. So, if you came here for good grammar and spelling you came to the wrong place. I am a professionally trained pastry baker specializing in traditional baking methods, organic vegan baking and recipe creation. I am also teaching myself a lot about gluten free baking and run a household of five. So, if you came here for some of the best tasting real food around… settle in, and I'll do my best.

I love to bake and I love to talk about what I'm doing in the kitchen- especially with my husband. While he appreciates the taste and love I pour into his food, I don't think he loves the long explanations of what I'm doing and why. Hopefully this blog will be as fun for you as I know it will be for me. To my friends out there that ask me questions about food, or the people that are still using Crisco in your pie crust -this blog is for you.

I was raised by my mother, a baker working in Eugene Oregon. I grew up spending a lot of time in a bakery with many bakers. My sister and I spent many late nights on the crusty, flower ridden employee couch dreaming of our beds while my Mother finished frosting a beautiful white chocolate wedding cake she had baked earlier that day. She would then cover it with white chocolate shavings and beautiful fresh flowers from the local flower market. We also spent our time there at the large bread table "helping" the bakers roll out dough. We nagged the bagel baker Earl for being a smoker and played shop in the front of the store after hours. The tall stacks of flower were the best to sit on. When your only 5 and 6 years old being up on the stacks made you feel like a giant. We would bring bowls of water to the top of the flower stacks and mix loose flower we found into the bowls, pretending we were every bit as good of bakers as the workers around us. My mother was the bakery manager. She created tons of famous recipes, many of which that particular bakery still sells. She could make and create anything you asked her to and it was always the best you ever tasted. She would take us to Portland and other places to try the bakeries there. She would sit down with the cookies, cakes and other pastries we purchased and break them open, feel the texture between her fingers, smell them and finally taste them. It was like watching a scientist, only a very beautiful scientist with long golden hair, flowing skirts, thin worn out t-shirts, and converse all-star high tops. My sister and I also spent a lot of time telling my moms co-workers that we wouldn't ask her out for them- namely Earl the smoker. Eventually one of them caught her eye. He was the front store manager. He became my step-Father and the two of them started their own locally famous New York inspired bakery and deli. My step-Dad loves good traditional Jewish food. He is a 55 year old New York Polish Jew and was raised on some of the best food in the world. He could walk a few blocks from his front stoop to some of the best bakeries and deli's in the world. A great match for my mother. Dinner was ready every night at 6pm in our house and every night it was amazing! Unfortunately for me it meant a lot of dishes, but most nights it was worth it. For my family life is food, really good food.
 
It came as a shock to us after so many years of great food, bread, and pastry eating, when both myself and my mother became gluten intolerant. I also have a daughter that cannot drink pasteurized cows milk. And after many years of tall glasses of chocolate milk, my step-Father became intolerant to it as well.

With lots of baking under our belts, my mother and I have developed some great recipes for lots of our favorite pastries. My mom would say they are not recipes, because nothing is written down and is mostly just pulled out of the old hat (not to mention she is the hardest food critic to pass by). I have named this blog “The Bakers Daughter” because I am the daughter of a diva, a baking diva. My goal is to make food that has her and others coming back for seconds and packing some home for later. I may even throw in craft ideas now and then.

Feel free to ask any questions you may have and I'll do my best to answer them. If it is a bread question I'll ask my Mom (or Daniel -an employee of my parents and the best bread baker I've ever known). I may be the Baker's Daughter, but yeast and I just don't get on very well. Mom says I'm too impatient with it, I say its one of the seven wonders of the world and so I'll leave it to them.




Are you ready for the holidays?
Canned Apple Pie Filling
& Apple Cider Caramels

Firstly, you will need a water bath Canning pot, seven quart-size mason jars with new lids and some good music. Get your peeler out and gear up the arm and wrist muscles, we're coring and pealing about eight lbs of apples for this one. Make sure you have a cool water bath with 1 TBS lemon juice and a couple dashes of salt for the apples to sit in until you are ready to cook them. This bath will prevent your apples from turning brown while they wait. Store sliced apples in a gallon size zip lock bag in the fridge after 5 min bath if you are going to wait a day to can. With this filling you'll be set for the holidays and into spring depending on how much apple pie or apple crisp you make. I am going to show you a very quick, fail-safe crust for the bottom and a delicious streusel for the top. If you think you may need more pie filling for the holidays just double the recipe.
OK get out your:
1. Water bath canner
2. 7 quart size Mason jars
3. Peeler
4. 8 lbs Apples
5. 3 cups cranberries
6. Large bowl for cool water bath
7. 1TBS Lemon juice and a few dashes of salt
8. Large soup pot

OK, you've got your apples ready and I've got mine so lets get canning. You will need:
1 1/4 cup butter
2 cups organic cane sugar
3 cups organic dark brown sugar
4 TBS lemon juice
1 1/2 Vanilla
2 1/2 TBS cinnamon
1 TBS nutmeg
1 tsp salt
2 cups apple cider (can sub apple juice)

 Add every thing above to your large
soup pot and melt together stirring constantly. Once everything is hot and completely mixed together start adding your apples. Stir them into you sugar sauce you've made making sure the apples are all covered in your sauce and cover for 5 min on medium heat. Then stir again bringing the apples on the bottom to the top. Cover for 5 min again and repeat until all apples are evenly cooked to a soft but still crunchy consistency. You should have lots more juice now in your pot than you started out with. This is due to the apples releasing juices as they cook. If you need to turn the heat down please do. My medium heat my not be as hot as yours and you don't want to burn your apples or your sauce. Add Cranberries towards the end of cooking your apples. They don't take long to cook and you are still going to process everything after this step.

Now depending on the size of your soup pot you may not be able to fit all your apples in at once. That's OK just scoop your apples out into the large empty bowl you used for your cool water bath. Your cooked apples can wait there while you finish cooking the rest of your apples. Use a large spoon with holes so liquid can drain out. Make sure you leave the sauce behind in your soup pot to cook the rest of the apples in.

When all your apples are cooked separate them from the sauce in your soup pot.

Simultaneous to cooking the apples you need to be sanitizing your Mason jars and lids in your Water Bath Canner. Place jars inside and completely cover with water. Cover and bring to boil. You can then turn off the burner and add the lids. You don't want the lids in when the water is hard boiling because it can damage the wax coating on the lids. Cover and come back to them when you are done cooking your apples.
Make sure you have a metal rack in your Canner to keep the gars from touching the bottom of the pot.

OK, next comes the fun part. Pull a hot jar out of the Canner using tongs and dump its water out into the sink. Place it on your counter and start packing your cooked apples and cranberries into the jar. Once you have filled it half way add some of the sauce in the soup pot to the jar until the apples are just covered.  Continue adding apples and cranberries until they reach 1" from the top. Then add sauce to cover the rest. Some people use a funnel for this so they don't get their jars dirty. You don't need one if you wipe your jars off well when you are done packing but if you have started and would like one just grab an old plastic container and cut a hole in the bottom and place it on the top of your jar. You should have 1" space left in the jar at the top. VERRY IMPORTANT: Use a XS spatula or a spoon handle and stir up the apples to get out any air bubbles in the jar. Air bubbles can break the lids seal to the jar when processing. Remember to have enough sauce to just cover the apples. If some are floating that's OK, just Get the air bubbles out and leave a 1" space.

Make sure you wipe the top of the jar clean using a clean wet rag (paper towel) and then dry. Take out the lids from the hot water bath and wipe and dry them as well. Pace a lid on the top of the jar and tighten with a ring. It should be tight but not so tight you cant get the ring off. You want your jars and fruit to stay hot so this should all be done as quickly as you can, but not so quickly you make mistakes.
Place the jar in the Canner and continue this process until all jars are filled and in the Canner. Cover jars with water 3" above the jar lids, place Canner lid on the pot and bring to a good boil (process) for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes turn off the stove and let stand for 10 min. Pull the jars out and let them stand on your counters for 5 hours with out moving them. You should hear little popping sounds. This is the pressure sealing the lids. The lids should look slightly concave when they have sealed. When they are completely cooled and sealed put them in your cupboard for later  :)

When using as a pie or turnover filling: add 1/2 TBS of flour and 1 pasture raised egg yolk. Mix the flower and egg yolk together first. Empty the jar contents into a bowl and stir in the yolk and flower mixture. Make sure you don't have any flower lumps. Your ready to bake.

You can substitute eggs with powder egg replacements and butter for 'Earth Balance' (vegan non-hydrogenated butter). I like to use as much of the real thing as possible and organic, local and pasture raised products, but I realize not every one has access to them and some of you out there are vegan.

The flower in the filling recipe can be Wheat flour or any gluten free flower you like best. I recommend using tapioca Flower for this filling if you are gluten free.

These make great holiday gifts. Tie a ribbon around the top with a cute tag and you've got a beautiful and delicious gift. This can be used in more than just pies. Use this filling in crisps, turnovers, cookies and anything ells you can come up with.

Send me a picture of your finished product! I'd love to see what you've done.

Apple Pie Crust 

& Streusel Topping

 OK, I'm going to do this gluten free. My mother said she couldn't tell this was gluten free, and this was the first time she has ever not been able to tell! If you don't want to use gluten free just sub any flours I use for regular unbleached flour. Mixing is everything! All those wives tails about ice water in your crust and so forth, just set them aside. What we are after is not completely incorporating the flour and butter together. You want your dough to be rough and clumpy, never smooth. If you insist on using Crisco in my recipe because you don't want to use butter (which by the way is sac-religious in my book) please use coconut oil instead. Crisco is a hydrogenated oil and WILL give you cancer. Real fat is good for your body and brain. Sugar fats are the ones to stay away from. To all you vegans out there, coconut oil is a great alternative to butter. Nothing can ever trully substitute butter in baking, but if you insist then please use the coconut butter. Coconut oil will give you a VERY flaky, beautiful crust. 

For the crust you will need:

1/2 cup rice flour

1/2 cup tapioca flour

1/4 cup oat flour

1/2 c butter

2TBS sour cream

Chop your cold butter into 4 pieces add flour in your blender and turn on your mixer to a low or med-low speed for 10-15 seconds. Mix until dough is in large smooth clumps. 

Then take out your dough and press it together into a thick disc shape and place onto your buttered pie pan. Press your dough onto the pan so that it covers the whole pan with an equal thickness. Don't worry, just do the best you can. Now place your crust into the 410 degree oven and bake until golden. No, you do not need a bag of beans on top your crust. 

 While this is baking lets start the streusel. 

You will need:

1/2 cup rice flour

1/4 cup tapioca flour

1/4 cup oats (you can add more if you like lost of oats in this.

1 cup sugar (add equal amount to extra oats you add more oats)

1tsp cinnamon 

Chop your cold butter into 4 pieces. Add cold butter and flour together into your mixer. If you want to add  1TBS of coconut oil here too you can. It makes it really pretty good. Turn on and mix until almost completely incorporated. Add sugar and cinnamon- keep mixing. Your sugar should be breaking apart the connections your flour and butter had, giving it a sandy texture. IF you need to add more sugar to achieve this go ahead but only a TBS or 2 more.  Then add oats and mix until rough, clumpy, and sandy. It should feel on the dry side. 

Take your pie crust out of the oven, add your apple filling (with flour and egg yolk, or just four or egg yolk) and put your streusel on top of the filling. Spread it evenly around on your pie using it all. make sure you can't see any apples poking out. 

Put your pie in the oven and bake at 410 degrees until your streusel is a beautiful golden and slightly brown color- like a honey color. Another really great way to tell its done is if you can smell the pie from in another room. 

This pie will make every one at your table very happy. I love how simple it is to make. I really don't like rolling out dough- Its so messy, you have to refrigerate it and if dough gets too warm it will stick to your counter and the rolling pin. Also, if you roll out your dough you end up loosing a lot of the flakiness due to the flour used in rolling it out and overly incorporating the butter (unless you roll in extra butter). 

Send me a picture of your pie! I'd love to see it :)

~The Bakers Daughter