Cranberry-Oat-Pecan Bread
From Spoon: In the midst of renovating our living room this weekend, naturally I had to find time to bake something. I didn’t feel like running out to the grocery store in my plaster-and-paint-spattered work clothes, so I pulled off my dust mask, rummaged through the cupboards and fridge, and came up with this quick bread.
Ted repairing the old plaster walls
I love baking with cranberries through the winter, so always stockpile a few extra bags in the freezer during the holidays. But dried cranberries or diced dried apricots would work too – the bread will just be a little sweeter. Or, go whole hog and swap out the fruit for chocolate chips (the choice my son said he would have made.) If your cranberries are frozen (and even if they’re not), the food processor makes quick work of chopping them – I took the real lazy way out and threw in my toasted pecans too.
Because I’m trying to get more whole grains into my baking, I used a combination of all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour and old-fashioned rolled oats – and the result has classic quick-bread crumb with a little extra crunch. If you like a grainier texture, feel free to tinker with the formula, but I wouldn’t use all whole-wheat flour, or the bread will be too dense. The combination of maple syrup and light brown sugar gives it a mild sweetness, needed to balance the tartness of the cranberries. If you do use sweetened dried fruit or chocolate chips, you may want to reduce the amount of maple syrup.
Cranberry-Oat-Pecan Bread
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 egg
1 cup milk (I used low-fat)
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1/4 cup light brown sugar
6 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup fresh cranberries, chopped (if frozen, don’t thaw them)
1 cup pecans, toasted and chopped
demerara sugar for sprinkling on top, if you like
Preheat the oven to 350. Grease a loaf pan. Nut toasting tip: while the oven is heating, put the pecans on a flat baking dish or piece of foil to toast for about 10 minutes (they will be done when you begin to smell them, but be careful not to let them burn).
In a medium bowl, combine the flours, baking soda and powder, salt and cinnamon.
In a large bowl, beat the egg until white and yolk are combined. Stir in the milk, oats, maple syrup, brown sugar and melted butter, mixing just to blend completely. Stir in the cranberries and pecans.
Scrape the batter into the greased loaf pan. Sprinkle the top with demerara sugar if you wish. Bake the bread for 1 hour, or until a tester inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Cool to room temperature before slicing.
For another good way to use fresh cranberries with whole grains, see our post on Cranberry-Cornmeal Soda Bread from the winter of 2010 here.
Chef Rob Evans for Share Our Strength Maine: Photo of the Week
Chef Rob Evans shows his support for Share Our Strength, Southern Maine Chapter
From Shutter: I am very fortunate to make a living combining two things that I love: photography and food. I feel very strongly that there is an obligation to give back. I am blessed in so many way and fortunately in addition to not going hungry, I get to eat and experience some of the best food grown, cooked, served, and enjoyed. It seems logical to me, since I make my living around food, chefs, and restaurants, that I give back by donating my photography skills to a food-related organization. What could be more important than making sure no child goes hungry? My choice of charity is Share our Strength of Maine.
A couple of weeks ago I was asked to start photographing a series of Maine chefs that are willing to get involved with Share Our Strength. The concept is to play off of the National Share our Strength campaign with actor Jeff Bridges. The first chef is Rob Evans, owner of Hugo’s and Duckfat, both in Portland, Maine. You would think that being at the helm of two restaurants, the James Beard Award winner and Food Network “Chopped” Champion would be too busy. But that is not how Rob thinks.
Since 2006 Rob has made it a personal mission to raise funds to feed hungry children across Maine, which despite its beautiful summer homes along the coast, is a very poor state. In addition to having taken the lead of the Taste of the Nation events for the past three years (with fellow chefs Sam Hayward and Larry Matthews), Rob is taking things one step further. He is expanding the Share Our Strength dinner series across the state to raise awareness and money for this important issue. He believes that no child in America should grow up hungry. And I agree.
Over the coming weeks I will be sharing some of those photos with you.
To find out more about Share our Strength please go to the National site or Share our Strength, Maine. They can also be found on Facebook here.
A Chocolate-Pear Tart for Dinner with Friends
What could be better on a cold winter’s night than a dinner with dear friends, especially when it starts with martinis and finishes with chocolate?
We know – everyone’s still hot on their resolutions to eat less, eat lighter, eat healthier. That’s all well and good … but somewhere in there, there has to be room for an occasional indulgence, and for lots of us, that means CHOCOLATE.
Shutter is a milk chocolate fan; hand him a Kit Kat bar and he’ll be very happy. Me, I’m a chocolate snob; it has to be dark, and the good stuff (and fair trade too – I don’t want my pleasure to come at the expense of Ivory Coast child slaves, as reported today on CNN). Dark chocolate is good for you, we’re now told, lowering blood pressure and cholesterol. Even Dr. Weil puts “plain dark chocolate (sparingly)” at the top of his Anti-Inflammatory Food Pyramid.
Meze to start the evening
The first course was a rich onion tart
Nothing beats pot roast for winter comfort
Pot roast, onion tart and sauteed zucchini
So when we were invited to good friends’ on recent Saturday night, and I offered to bring dessert, it had to include dark chocolate. After their superb meal – those crisp martinis with homemade hummus, olives and Greek feta, followed by an onion tart, pot roast and sauteed baby zucchini – this luscious treat completed the evening.
Pear and Bittersweet Chocolate Tart
Pear and Bittersweet Chocolate Tart
This recipe is from one of my very favorite new baking books, “In the Sweet Kitchen,” by Canadian baking genius Regan Daley. I’ve turned to it again and again since I first used it in my weekly column for The Record last year – that column and the recipe for Daley’s amazing Oatmeal Stout Cake is HERE.
First, make the Pate Sucree (French for sweet tart pastry):
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, chilled, cut into small pieces
2 egg yolks, lightly beaten
In a food processor, combine the flour, sugar and salt. Pulse several times just to blend. Add the bits of cold butter and pulse until the largest pieces of the mixture are about the size of the fat peas. Add the egg yolks and pulse two or three times, just until the mixture looks moist and crumbly and comes together in a clump when you squeeze it. Don’t overwork it.
Flour your fingers and press the dough evenly over the bottom and up the sides of a 10 to 11-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. Wrap the whole thing in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 375. Prick the bottom of the tart shell all over with a fork. Line the bottom with a piece of parchment paper or foil and fill with pie weights or dried beans. Place pan on a baking sheet. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the edges are just coloring and the bottom is beginning to cook. Remove the liner and weights and bake for another 10 minutes or until lightly browned all over. Let the shell cool while you make the filling.
4 ounces best-quality bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
5 or 6 medium-sized pears (Anjou or Bartlett), ripe but still firm
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
3/4 cup granulated sugar, plus 2 tablespoons for sprinkling
Seeds of 1/2 vanilla bean, or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
Preheat oven to 400. Scatter the chopped chocolate evenly over the bottom of the cooled tart shell. Peel and halve the pears, the core them using a melon baller to scoop out just the round seed area. Place one pear half, cut-side down, on a cutting board. Using a sharp, thin-bladed knife, slice the pear into very thin slices horizontally, keeping the shape intact. Gently press hour hand down upon the curve, fanning the slices back towards the wide end of the pear, like dominos. Slide a butter knife under the sliced pear half and transfer it to the tart shell, with the narrow end facing the center. Repeat this process with the other pear halves until the tart shell is full, but don’t crowd it; any space between the fanned pear halves will be filled with the custard.
In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs, yolks, 3/4 cup sugar and the vanilla seeds or extract. Add the cream and whisk to combine. Pour this custard over the pears, being careful not to overfill it (you may have some custard left over). Sprinkle the tart with the 2 tablespoons of sugar and put the tart on a baking sheet.
Bake the tart for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 375 and continue baking until the custard is just set in the center, about 40 to 50 minutes more. Allow tart to cool completely before slicing.
Yellow Winter Vegetable Soup
January should be soup weather, but here in northern New Jersey – where we had our only snowfall so far on Halloween, go figure - some days it feels like winter, others you could swear spring is just days away. But whether the thermometer says 20 or 60, I’m making soup anyway – once a week on Sundays – because having homemade soup in the fridge feels like money in the bank. It’s an easy Sunday supper; I can tote it to the office for a cheap and healthy lunch; Ted and the kid can help themselves to a filling snack all week long.
Chicago food writer Martha Bayne has turned a weekly soup dinner called Soup & Bread into meaningful community outreach. What began as a way to beat the winter doldrums has raised significant funds for hunger relief efforts and brought disparate groups of people together for food and fellowship. Her new cookbook, which we featured in our weekly column for The Record last week, tells the story of Soup & Bread and is a source of dozens of terrific soup recipes.
I settled on Yellow Winter Vegetable Soup because its nutrient-rich combination of sweet potatoes, rutabaga (don’t you love to say that word?), carrots and Granny Smith apple seemed the perfect antidote to the rich foods of the holidays. It is both comforting and refreshing, and it’s sunny color will cheer up the dullest of winter days. The column and recipe are HERE.
We’re back and blogging for 2012!
Happy New Year!
We know, it’s been a loooong time. We hope, dear readers, that you have missed us at least half as much as we’ve missed writing and taking photos for Spoon & Shutter, but work and other obligations have temporarily sidetracked us. Chief among our very few resolutions for 2012 is posting much more regularly.
To kick things off, we thought we’d revisit some of our favorite columns written and photographed for The Record from the past few months – “In Your Kitchen” features newly released cookbooks and recipes; the photos are shot in our kitchen and elsewhere in our home. It appears in the newspaper every Wednesday.
Crack Pie from “Momofuku Milk Bar” by Christina Tosi
1. Working backwards, our most recent column featured the decadent “Crack Pie,” – yes, that’s the name, and it’s trademarked – from New York City’s celebrated Momofuku Milk Bar. If you haven’t had enough sweet treats over the last couple of weeks, or, if you love to bake and want a challenge, this recipe is for you. Find it HERE.
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Cheese Popovers with Fried Eggs and Creamed Spinach from “Martha’s Entertaining” by Martha Stewart
2. Our just-before-Christmas column featured a delightful brunch dish from Martha Stewart‘s stunning new book, “Martha’s Entertaining.” You don’t need a holiday to enjoy these Gruyere cheese popovers with lightly creamed spinach and fried eggs. The column and recipe are HERE.
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Seared Pork Fillet with Sausages and Creamy Mushroom Sauce from “Jamie Oliver’s Meals in Minutes” by Jamie Oliver
3. Jamie Oliver‘s latest book, “Meals in Minutes,” was featured in a late October column, and we loved his all-in-one recipe for seared pork fillet, sausages and creamy mushroom sauce. Come to think of it, I may make this again on one of these cold evenings. And we take issue with those killjoy doctors of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, who just included the book on their annual unhealthiest cookbooks list – lumping Jamie in with Paula Deen and Guy Fieri … really? Get the recipe HERE.
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CQ’s Royal Cottage Casserole from “The Casserole Queens Cookbook” by Crystal Cook and Sandy Pollack
4. Hearty casseroles are cold-weather comfort food for us, and although this column is from September, I’ll be returning to the retro-hip “The Casserole Queens Cookbook” written by two vintage apron-wearing friends from Texas. Their Cottage Casserole has it all – beef, vegetables and a cheesy mashed potato topping – the recipe is HERE.
