Canadian Maple Butter Tarts

Posted by Scott Dresen Wednesday, December 24, 2014 2:43 PM 1 comments
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When I was a kid, my Canadian Grandmother and Aunts always made butter tarts.  Holidays, birthdays, funerals, anytime we were visiting, etc.  At least, that's what I remember.  They were always baking them.  And they were fantastic.

So, I got the urge to make them this Christmas season as part of my quest to learn how to make a decent pie crust.  I landed on a recipe I really like and it is as follows:


Crust

I used my 3-2-1 Pie Crust recipe to make the tart shells.  Once the dough is rolled out very thin, I used a 4" round cookie cutter to cut the tart shells and put them in the muffin tin to be used for baking the tarts.


Filling Ingredients

1/2 cup (125 mL) packed  brown sugar

1/2 cup (125 mL) pure maple syrup (Grade B)

1 egg

2 tbsp (30 mL) butter, softened

1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla

1 tsp (5 mL) vinegar

1 pinch salt

1/4 cup (60 mL) currants

1/4 cup (60 mL) chopped walnuts


Filling Preparation

In bowl, whisk together brown sugar, maple syrup, egg, butter, vanilla, vinegar and salt until blended; set aside. 

On a lightly floured surface, roll out pie crust dough to 1/8-inch (3 mm) thickness. Using 4-inch (10 cm) round cookie cutter (or empty 28 oz/796 mL can), cut out 12 circles, rerolling scraps once if necessary. Fit into 2-3/4- x 1-1/4-inch (7 x 3 cm) muffin cups. Divide currants and walnuts among shells. Spoon in filling until three-quarters full. 

Bake in bottom third of 450 F (230 C) oven until filling is puffed and bubbly and pastry is golden, about 12 minutes. Let stand on rack for 1 minute. Run metal spatula around tarts to loosen; carefully slide spatula under tarts and transfer to rack to let cool. 


Eating

These butter tarts pair nicely with a fine Calvados!


3-2-1 Pie Crust

Posted by Scott Dresen Saturday, December 20, 2014 3:21 PM 0 comments
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Making pie crust is nothing new and there's nothing really unique about this post other than this pastry craft is new to me. So, I'm documenting a method I used today so I can refer back to it in the future when I need to given this method worked well for me.

Ingredients
3 Cups Flour
2 sticks of butter, at 4 oz each
1 cup ice cold water
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt

Note: keep all ingredients as cold as possible, especially the butter. Reason being when you add water to all purpose flour, you get gluten as a result. The colder the mixture, the less gluten will form and your crust will be more flakey and less tough than if you over-mix or over-knead the dough.

Prep
Butter - I froze the butter for 15-30 minutes prior to use to make sure it was very cold. I then cut the butter into patties and quartered it so that I ended up with pieces of butter about the size of hazelnuts.

Water - I put ice cubes in water and placed the cup in the freezer to get the water very cold

Making the Pie Crust   
1. Combine the dry ingredients in the Kitchen Aid mixer mixing bowl
2. Add butter chunks to the dry ingredient mixture
3. Mix slowly for 2 minutes
4. Add majority of water and mix slowly.  Perhaps 30 seconds or so.
5. If mixture still appears dry a bit, add a bit more tablespoon by tablespoon up to the one cup in the recipe.
6. Once dough is at the consistency you want, transfer the contents of the bowl to a lightly floured surface.
7. Bring the chunks together and press down in a flattening motion, don't wad it up in to a ball.
8. As you're pressing down on the dough, fold it over on itself so you make layers of the butter/flour mixture to create a more flaky crust.
9. Form the dough into a square and wrap it in saran wrap.

 Resting the Dough
Once you have the dough formed into a square and wrapped, put it in the fridge for at least an hour before you start rolling it.

 Rolling the Dough
When ready, lightly flour the rolling surface and roll the dough to your liking. Never move your body whey rolling the dough. Always pick the dough up and turn it 90 degrees and continue rolling. This ensures that your dough doesn't stick to the surface and tear.

 Using the Dough
Use the dough for whatever you're making - butter tarts, fruit pie, pot pie, whatever.

Shun Cooking Knives

Posted by Scott Dresen Sunday, December 14, 2014 9:03 PM 0 comments

Cindee's birthday present this year was our start into high end Japanese cooking knives.  We've long talked about buying a set and I finally decided to pull the trigger.

After a bit of research which left me with more questions than answers, I settled on knives from Shun.

Calling to mind the handcrafting techniques of ancient Japan, Shun Premier knives possess the grace and beauty of hand-forged knives of old. Every blade is made of VG10 steel, clad with 16 layers on either side of stainless Damascus, then beveled for lateral stability and incredible precision. Where the steels meet, a wavy line called a hamon is formed -- similar to the line formed when samurai swords are tempered using a clay-baking technique. The striking hammered finish ("Tsuchime" in Japanese) acts as a series of hollow-ground cavities, reducing drag and quickly releasing food from the blade. The walnut PakkaWood handles nestle comfortably in the hand, and the Shun logo embossed on the bottom adds balance and beauty to the knife, whether in the hand or at rest in the block.

The first time Cindee used these knives, it was not the experience either of us expected.  She started cutting vegetables with the largest knife.  After briefly slicing through some onion, she encouraged me to give it a try.  I was simply amazed.  Using the knife was like cutting through butter.  I couldn't believe how good the knife felt in my hand and effortlessly sliced through the onion.

All in all, I was duly impressed and scared in the same moment thinking about how easy this knife could slice through my 9 3/4 fingers if I wasn't careful.  To the point, Cindee has nicked herself several times already using these knives.

We have a very good set of Wusthof knives we use for most of our cooking.  But, these Shun knives will quickly supplant the Wusthof collection when we're cooking up a storm.

Heritage Meats

Posted by Scott Dresen Friday, July 11, 2014 10:07 PM 0 comments

Scottish Highland Beef Brisket
Before supermarkets and distributors made mass-produced livestock dominant on the market, American farms raised a wide variety of farm animal breeds. These were developed over centuries for being able to thrive in their particular climate and environment, and for the flavor and texture of their meats.
Red Bourbon and Narragasett Turkeys, Dark Cornish chicken, Buff geese, Berkshire pork, Tunis lamb, Red Poll beef and American bison, are only a few of the wide range of heritage breeds being raised by American farms.
Despite being ideally suited to their particular climate and vegetation, forming an integral part of the land's ecosystem, many of these breeds have become rare, and in some cases almost extinct. This is mainly because they do not respond profitably to the challenge of mammoth industrial meat and poultry production. In fact, there are only a handful of livestock breeds that do "respond well" to factory farming. These animals have been artificially bred out of most of their natural instincts and will thrive and rapidly become indecently obese on entirely artificial diets.
Heritage meats are different from their industrial counterpart: They often have less excess fat, a tighter muscular grain, and superior flavor.
Rescuing heritage breeds is preserving our cultural heritage, a part of America's bio-diversity and a resource for future generations. It also means enjoying some of the best meats in the world while helping small farmers and breeders survive.
Raising these breeds can be more costly and time consuming than raising the more common ones, which were developed for productivity. This makes heritage meats tipically more expensive than supermarket fare, but those who have tasted them agree that the cost -and the wait- are well worth it.

------------------------------------------------------------------Above Segment Originally Posted at Local Harvest------------------------------------------------------------------

Within the Grand Rapids area, Duba & Company market and sell heritage meats (I'm sure they'll ship anywhere if you want to buy from them).  I recently had the opportunity to purchase my first order from Duba.  I bought several pounds of hamburger, steaks, and a beef brisket.  All of the beef coming from Scottish Highland cattle.  It goes without saying, the beef I purchased from Duba is absolutely the finest tasting beef I have ever eaten, bar none.

But, don’t take my word for it.  Go online to their website, call, or email Jeff Duba and order some hamburger and taste it for yourself.  If you don’t think it’s the best you’ve ever eaten, send me whatever is left over and I’ll eat it!!  If you do like it, order some more of their products and support the local producers of this excellent beef.


To learn more about both Heritage and Heirloom foods, here is a good place to start: Slow Food Ark of Taste

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