The Deep Dish

My mom has put up with a lot the past 27 years. With three kids, all through diapers, puberty and college at once (and that is just the tip of the iceberg!) she deserves more than a National holiday devoted to herself. My mom is also quite the cook, and has pretty much been my inspiration to linger around in the kitchen at any chance… a tradition passed down to her by my Nana. I decided to welcome spring and celebrate my mom with both a fancy lunch at Farrah Olivia as well as a strawberry-rhubarb pie with the first of the Spring bounty.

The recipe for the pie filling comes from Elise at Simply Recipes, and this pie marks the first time using rhubarb in any of my desserts. With its poisonous leaves and celery-like appearance, rhubarb can be a bit perplexing to a first time taster. Indeed, when I tried rhubarb for the first time last year at Buzz (pre-Josh Short,) its tartness was strange yet satisfying. And what could be better than pairing it with sweet strawberries? Like Forrest and Jenny (cough, forgive my terrible film reference) or macaroni and cheese, this is a pair that was meant to be together.

Do you remember my Thanksgiving pie debacle last year? This pie experience was the complete opposite in every single way. I made my pie crusts the day before, and after that, the most work that has to go into the pie is prepping the filling and assembly (with a heart in the middle for steam to escape, natch!) One minor gripe is that the beautiful crimps that I put in my pie crust (this was my first attempt at crimping my crust,) melted down within its first five minutes inside the oven. But this was a very minor gripe because didn’t I tell you? I think I’ve found my go-to pie crust recipe! I borrowed this recipe from Shuna, who borrowed it from the Baker’s Dozen Cookbook, which coincidentally has been sitting on my shelf for the past six months, at least! Anyhoo, this pie crust was a delight: buttery, flaky, sturdy and a breeze to put together. I much prefer an all-butter crust, so this will probably be the recipe I stay with for a least a short while.

At the end of the night, there was only one piece of pie left. Even my dad, who hates sweets, asked for his own piece. I also sent a slice to a friend, who said it was “the best pie [she'd] ever tasted” And Mom? Well Mom and I sat together eating that one last piece of pie on Monday night:

“You really did a great job on this pie,” she said.

I smiled. It was the least I could have done for the best mom ever!

For the pie crust recipe, please visit Eggbeater.

For the filling, please visit Simply Recipes.

I’m a little behind the times here, but I just wanted to stop by and share this article with you that was featured in last week’s Washington Post Food Section. Short, but still sweet, Nick Malgieri points out some of his favorite bloggers, among them Bea from La Tartine Gourmande, Anita from Dessert First, Dorie, and there’s even a mention of The Daring Bakers themselves! Congrats to all those mentioned!

Unfortunately, (and in spite of the fact that I have secretly wanted to for a few years now,) I’ve never been a participant of “Hay Hay It’s Donna Day”… but only for one very good reason: I had never experienced the true genius of Donna Hay ! I am actually kind of ashamed to say that I waited this long to buy my very own copies of Modern Classics 1 and 2, but as the saying goes, better late than never, right? As I am someone who is passionate about food as well as developing a fondness for photography, I have found my new books to be a welcome addition to my “Foodie Canon.” So I opened my new edition of Modern Classics 2 and chose one of the quintessential Australian recipes from the book: Lamingtons. So if I happen to have any Australian readers out there (and I really hope I do,) I would like to dedicate this post to you.

Lamingtons remind me of the snack cakes I used to dream would be in my lunch box during elementary school. They are squares of sponge cake dipped in a thin, chocolate icing and covered in dessicated coconut. I had first heard of Lamingtons by way of NPR, from an article I was reading at work a while ago. But seeing the recipe in Donna Hay’s book refreshed my curiosity regarding these cakes and so I planned on baking them during my first long weekend in quite some time.

So, you might ask exactly where does the sponginess come from in the cake? This cake is all about whipping your eggs perfectly…. and as I have reiterated time and again in my posts, I have a fear of cooking with eggs. Even though I have become more comfortable with using eggs, and have even completed some successful custards, I am still a little uneasy, to say the least. But if there is one thing I cannot stress enough about baking, it is try, try again.

Thus, when my first attempt at making the sponge didn’t exactly “pan out,” and I was left with a wimpy sponge, I immediately made a new batch. And what a difference a second try made in this case. I could not have asked for a better sponge. Thankfully, I found that Donna’s recipe was relatively simple to master in a short period of time.

But tell me, please - did I do something wrong with the icing? After following Donna’s directions letter by letter, I was left with glue for a gingerbread house… and then after considerable thinning with water from the kettle, it was still not quite right. Was it my Scharffen Berger cocoa or too high a proportion of confectioners’ sugar? In other words, the dipping and topping stage of the Lamington operation was quite the drama, and quite messy as well. My poor dainty sponge was pretty much devoured by the heavy chocolate icing. On the other hand, my little cakes were pretty impressive when they were finished and laid to rest on cooling racks. And even though the Lamington will never take the place of either Violet Crumbles or Tim Tams, at least I did perfect my sponge just a little bit.

Continue reading ‘Hay Hay, It’s Lamington Day!’