My Nana made the best Lemon Meringue pie.  Really, she made many delicious pies – standouts include apple and mincemeat – my favorite though was probably her lemon meringue variety.  The meringue was always so perfectly browned on the peaks, but yet so soft and springy - came out just right every time.   She was a great cook – even her Minute rice was somehow more delicious than any other Minute rice I ever tasted.  And her wax beans – now that was a tasty side dish.  Nana always kept us kids well fed – whether it was refrigerated Little Debbie cakes, fruit cups, or her favorite Jello, we loved going to Nana’s for a special treat.  She passed away at the age of 96 (almost 97!) last week, and although she had not been well enough to cook in a few years, I can remember her delicious lemon meringue pies like they were baked yesterday.

In honor of my lovely Nana, I wanted to post a recipe that will always make me smile and think of her.  Not sure I’ll ever quite be able to replicate it, as I’m pretty sure the reason it tasted so awesome was that it was made with love by my Nana…plus, as my cousin (the formally trained pastry chef) put it when she tried to learn how to make Nana’s apple pie – ‘that’s not a recipe!  That’s guessing!’   But, here’s my best effort.

I remember I tried this once ages ago back in college, and used instant lemon pudding which promptly melted all over my oven when I attempted to brown the meringue – a rookie mistake to be sure!  Now that I’m all grown up though – I decided to make my pie filling from scratch, using the miniature pie maker that my husband got me for Christmas (I swear, this is not a unitasker – I can make mini lemon meringue pie, apple pie, french meat pie, empanadas, pumpkin pie…you name it, I can make it in my mini-pie maker.)  I found a recipe aptly called ‘Grandma’s Lemon Meringue Pie‘ – It was actually surprisingly quick to make, and the meringue was spot-on.  I did feel the filling was a little on the runny side…but then again, I barely let it cool before digging in.  I think my Nana would be proud.

Lemon Meringue Pie – from Emilie S. via Allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 2 lemons, juiced and zested
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 4 eggs, separated
• One nine inch pie crust, baked – or if you prefer, 8-12 mini pie crusts, baked
• 6 tablespoons white sugar

In a medium saucepan, combine 1 cup sugar, flour, cornstarch and salt with a whisk.  To the mixture, add water, lemon juice, and lemon zest.  Cook over medium heat until mixture begins to thicken and comes to a boil.  Add the butter.  Beat egg yolks.  Take 3-4 tablespoons of the hot mixture and add this to the egg yolks, stirring well (this tempers the mixture so you will not have lemony scrambled eggs in your pie.)  Add the egg yolks back to the saucepan and continue to cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thickened.  Remove from the heat and pour into the prepared pie crust.  Time now to make the meringue. First, preheat your oven to 375 degrees.   Take the egg whites and in a large very clean glass bowl (or in your trusty stand mixer) beat on high speed until foamy.  Add sugar gradually, sprinkling over the egg foam.  Continue to beat until the mixture appears glossy and starts to form stiff peaks.  Spread the meringue over the pie, sealing the meringue to the edge of the crust.  Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes, or until the meringue appears browned on top.  Cool completely, and enjoy!

Alright, alright, we know.  It has been over 3 months since this blog was updated.  What can I say, life gets in the way sometimes!  To be honest, it’s just really hard for a working gal to take good food photos during the winter months.  Now that it stays light after 6pm, I’m good again.  Anyway, I’ve been cooking plenty – but this season on Domestic Pursuits, I plan to go with a fresh angle.  I tend to blog about healthy things to begin with, because I’m a pediatrician and as I’m sure everyone in the US probably knows by now, we are all battling an obesity epidemic. (Personally, I want to get back down to my pre-residency size – something about all those hours of overnight work makes you eat a whole lot of fried chicken fingers and midnight chocolate chip waffles!)

Anyway – just because we all should be careful to consider what we consume I wholeheartedly believe it does not mean we should have to eat icky things.  No rice cakes and Slim Fast over our house.  I’ve made it my goal to become more active and eat healthier this year, and this blog posting will be a good start…

…or not.  After all, I am going to start off my healthy kick by blogging about Cheese Babka.  Well, you’ve gotta eat something sweet sometime, or else you’ll fail at your goal!  So here you go, one more rich, delicious baked good posting before the healthy things begin.  This is an Easter treat with Eastern European roots that we enjoy at my in-laws every year, and as we were spending the holiday up north where there are less Eastern European bakeries to frequent, I decided I would whip some up myself.  Cheese is our preferred Babka – definitely no lesser Babka for our dinner!

Get the reference?

Making your own Babka is time consuming, but man is it worth the effort when you have checked every bakery in the area with no luck.  The perk is much of the time is unattended – ie, letting the dough rise and such.  Plus, this makes 3 loaves of Babka – so you can share with friends.  The recipe I found calls for a crumb topping – however, the Babka I usually enjoy does not have this so I simply omitted it.  Compared to other Babka recipes, this really is a healthier Babka – only 4oz butter, and I substituted one whole egg for 2 of the egg yolks.  Plus, I used light cream cheese.  It came out fantastic.

Cheese Babka – adapted from The Bakers Guide

Makes 3 loaves

Dough:

• 2 packages or the equivalent instant dry yeast
• 1/4 cup warm water
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup milk, hot but not boiling
• 4oz butter, softened
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg, plus 1 egg yolk
• 5 cups (22.5oz by weight) all purpose flour, plus more if needed
• 1 egg white beaten with 1 tbsp water for egg wash

Filling:

• 2 x 8oz packages of low-fat cream cheese at room temperature
• 8oz by weight of sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tablespoons flour

Stir yeast and warm water together and set aside for about 5 minutes, or until mixture appears frothy.  Grease 3 standard-size loaf pans.  In the bowl of your trusty stand mixer, add hot milk, butter, sugar and salt mixing well until butter is melted.  To the warm milk mixture, add egg, egg yolk, and yeast mixture.  Add flour gradually to the bowl as the machine kneads using the hook attachment.  Knead for several minutes, or until dough appears smooth and elastic.  (I had to add a little extra flour at this point, probably about 1/4 cup more).  Place ball of dough into a greased bowl, turning to coat complete.  Cover loosely with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place until doubled – about 2-3 hours.

When dough is nearly completely risen, prepare cheese filling by combining all ingredients and mixing well.  Set aside.

Divide dough into 3 equal portions.  On a lightly floured surface, roll one portion out to approximately 1/4 inch thickness.  Spread 1/3 of cheese filling onto the dough.  Fold ends inward and roll the dough up, placing it seam-side downwards into the prepared loaf pans.  Repeat with the other 2 portions of dough.  Brush dough with the egg wash.  Cover lightly with greased plastic wrap (so the bread doesn’t stick to it!)  Let loaves rise again in a warm place for an additional 2 hours or until they again appear doubled, peeking over the tops of the loaf pans.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Place 3 loaf pans side-by-side on a rack placed in the middle of the oven.  Bake for about 45-50 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the center of the loaf.  Cool in pan 5 minutes, then loosen the sides of the loaves.  Cool another 30 minutes.  Then remove loaves from the pans and let cool completely.  Enjoy!

Ok so I recently found the Peppermint Brownie Cake Pops at Starbucks and my life has not been the same since.  They are that delicious.  And somehow, under 200 calories…I’m guessing that’s because they are so small, but really this sweet treat is all I really need to get me through my day.  I also, however, realized that they are sadly seasonal items – so probably sometime this month they will be trickling out of stores near you.  Obviously, I could not let this happen without figuring out a reasonable knock-off recipe prior to the inevitable end of the holiday season.

I have to say, this recipe is a pretty passable version of the deliciousness that is the Peppermint Brownie Cake Pop.  I made it for Christmas this year, and it was a big hit to say the least.  It also is very easy, even if you’ve never tried cake pops before.  Basically Cake Pops are what you make if your cake comes out all crumbly and fall-apart-y.  You combine the cooked and crumbled cake with frosting and form into balls, about 1.5 inches in diameter, then freeze until semi-solid.  For the finishing touch, you put a stick into the ball of crumbled cake (since it’s frozen, it won’t fall apart) and then dip into your choice of coating, which for me was melted white chocolate.  Finally, sprinkle with whatever cute/tasty decoration you wish to use.

We sincerely enjoyed making these, and also eating them...although I do not recommend licking the candy coating off of a butter knife as my sous chef is.

I used a store-bought brownie mix, seeing as I was going to be crumbling it all up and mixing it with frosting to make it even moister and more delicious.  A tip for melting white chocolate here -if you add about 1-2 tsp of vegetable oil, the white chocolate melts much more smoothly, and is about a million times easier to work with.  I suggest using a double boiler for this recipe, (rather than my go-to chocolate melting strategy – the microwave) as it takes a while to dip all of the cake balls into the chocolate, and this will keep your white chocolate good to go the whole time.  Lastly, I would strongly recommend having a block of unused floral foam on hand, so that you can place the sticks into it and have the cake pops harden without a flat side.  Makes them much more pretty.

Peppermint Brownie Cake Pops – a la Starbucks

• 1 boxed brownie mix, prepared according to package instructions and cooled
• 4oz cream cheese, softened  **you may use frosting instead of cream cheese if you prefer a sweeter finished product
• 1 package white chocolate chips
• 1-2 tsp vegetable oil
• 1 bag starlight mints or 1 box candy canes, crushed
• Candy sticks, found in the candy-making section of your local craft store

Place prepared brownies into the bowl of your stand mixer and turn it on.  Add softened cream cheese, and mix until the brownie crumbs are moistened.  Form into 1.5 inch balls and place on a parchment-lined cookie sheet.  Freeze for at least 1 hour.  Remove from freezer and insert a candy stick into each ball.  Place your white chocolate chips and vegetable oil into the bowl of a double boiler and place over a small amount of boiling water.  When the chips start to become glossy-looking, stir until they melt completely and are smooth.  Dip each cake pop into the melted white chocolate.  Immediately dip the cake pop into the crushed peppermint.  Finally, place the cake ball sticks into a waiting block of unused floral foam, so that your cake pops end up perfectly round.  Enjoy!

I always wondered how marshmallows were made – the puffy soft sugary goodness seemed like it would be elusively difficult to replicate in my own kitchen, so I always just bought whatever I could find at the local market whenever we wanted to make S’mores, or have a few in my hot cooca.  As my husband reminded me when I told him of my plan to make marshmallows last week, the first time I saw Alton Brown make them on TV one night, I incredulously stated it seemed pointless to put so much work into making something as simple as  marshmallows.  Turns out, homemade marshmallows really are THAT much better than the store-bought product.  And, they are actually incredibly easy.  Really easy.  Like, 15 minutes start-to-finish make-on-a-weeknight-after-a-long-day-of-work easy.  Bonus, they also use mostly things you already have stashed away in your pantry.  The most time-intensive part is preparing the pans, so your homemade marshmallows don’t stick.  They take very little cooking, and I’m pretty sure they are fool proof.

This year instead of making cookies for family and friends, I opted to make homemade hot cocoa mix and homemade marshmallows for gifts.  The best part is you can flavor them however you want – I chose to make candy cane marshmallows, and vanilla bean marshmallows.  They came out beautiful, and they are super tasty.

Maybe Santa would appreciate some homemade marshmallows tonight instead?

Homemade Marshmallows – from MarthaStewart.com

• Nonstick cooking spray
• 3 (1/4-ounce) packages unflavored gelatin
• 1/2 cup cold water
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 2/3 cup light corn syrup
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 vanilla bean, scraped
• Confectioners’ sugar, sifted (to coat)

Prepare 2 9×9 square baking dishes by coating with cooking spray.  Line each with plastic wrap, and then spray the plastic wrap with cooking spray as well.

In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment (or a large bowl, with a hand mixer nearby), place 1/2 cup cold water and the gelatin.  Let soften for about 10 minutes.  In the meantime, in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, place sugar, corn syrup, water, and salt.  Bring to a full boil, stirring occasionally.  Boil for about 1 minute.  Remove from the heat.  With your stand mixer on high (or hand-mixer on high), slowly drizzle the hot sugar syrup down the side of the bowl.  Add the vanilla extract and the vanilla bean seeds.  Mix on high for 10-12 minutes.  Spray a rubber spatula with cooking spray, and working quickly use the spatula to transfer the warm marshmallow to the baking dish.  Spread evenly in the pan.  Let sit for at least 2 hours (up to 24 hrs).

Remove marshmallows from the pan together with the plastic wrap to a cutting board lightly dusted with confectioners’ sugar.  Peel away the plastic wrap from the side.  Spray a pizza cutter with cooking spray.   Cut marshmallows into 1.5 inch wide strips.  Then cut each strip into 1.5 inch pieces, to form cubes.  Toss with sifted confectioners sugar, and keep in an airtight container.

Candy Cane Marshmallows – adapted from MarthaStewart.com

Follow recipe as above, omitting vanilla extract and vanilla bean.  Instead, add 3/4 tsp peppermint extract.  Transfer quickly to the prepared pans and spread evenly.  Add drops of food coloring (I used red and green) on top of the marshmallows.  Using a bamboo skewer, swirl the food coloring through the marshmallow.  Let sit as above, and then slice as above.  Enjoy!

Happy National Cupcake Day!!! 

My new favorite holiday.

In honor of National Cupcake Day, I thought I’d post a few of our favorite cupcake recipes here on Domestic Pursuits. 

Happy Cupcaking!!

These Chocolate Peppermint Brownie Cupcakes would be absolutely wonderful this time of year.  They are minty and moist and fabulously rich – perfect to bring to a holiday party!  If you prefer a lighter chocolate cupcake with a minty touch, try these Chocolate Mint Cupcakes.

I personally love these Chocolate Whiskey Cupcakes, which involve my favorite Irish trio – Irish Whiskey, Irish Cream, and Guinness.  Enjoy them on St. Patty’s day, or really any day where you feel like embracing your Irish side.  Like National Cupcake Day.

This is one of our favorite recipes here on Domestic Pursuits – Oreo Cupcakes - they are seriously delicious.  We both have a weakness for Oreos here on Domestic Pursuits and these cupcakes definitely indulge this fondness of ours.  I actually think it would be pretty neat to try them with the seasonally distributed mint Oreos one finds at the supermarkets this time of year – or with the similar product distributed at Trader Joe’s, which frankly I think I may like even better. 

Finally, I just purchased more vanilla beans so that I could go ahead and make these Vanilla Bean Cupcakes again.  (Among other soon-to-be-posted Vanilla-y treats….stay tuned for homemade marshmallows!!  And maybe some sea salt caramels too.)

One of my favorite things to make from scratch is pasta.  It’s pretty easy, and very social – a great group activity.  I had never, however, tackled making a filled pasta from scratch because the idea was pretty daunting.   But, if there’s one thing I learned from my old church in Philadelphia though, it’s that you haven’t really cooked until you make ravioli by hand.  Recently I bought myself a ravioli stamp and thought I would give it a try.  My lonely little ravioli stamp sat in my utensil drawer for a few months, until savory pumpkin week finally got me to try out a ravioli recipe!  I have had pumpkin ravioli before – usually they’ve come in a package from Trader Joe’s – and they’re pretty tasty and all, but I wasn’t really sure how it would come out if I made my own.  Turns out, they may be even better.  However, I will warn you it does take some time to put these together.  Figure about 30 minutes to make the filling, and another 30 to make and rest the pasta dough, another 15 to roll the sheets out in your trusty pasta maker.  Then you have to assemble the ravioli.  And then you have to cook the ravioli.  The good thing though is that they are very freezable, so you can pull them out of the freezer any old night and impress people with your homemade ravioli.

The sauce is very, very easy.  (If you wanted to, you could just buy the Trader Joe’s raviolis and put the sauce on it – it would be great I’m sure.)  I did swap out the hazelnuts for walnuts, because well my grocery store just didn’t have any hazelnuts.  And also, who the heck even knows what sorrel is?  Well, I googled it – it turns out it kind of looks like a weed you might find in your backyard.  Being that I couldn’t find that either at the local stores, I ended up swapping it out for my favorite leafy green, spinach.  And it was great.

Pumpkin Ravioli with Walnut Cream Sauce – adapted from Marbalet via allrecipes.com

Ingredients

For the Ravioli:

• 1 and 1/4 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 large carrot, cooked and pureed
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• dash of nutmeg
• 2-2.5 oz parmesan cheese, shredded
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup
• half of one beaten egg
• approximately 1 pound of fresh pasta, rolled into sheets

Saute onion in a skillet over medium heat together with the butter and spices.  To the skillet, add pumpkin puree and carrot puree and stir well.  Remove from the heat, and immediately stir in the Parmesan,  syrup and egg.  Let cool completely prior to filling ravioli!  Remember to keep the pasta moist while working with it so the ravioli stick together.  Lay out a pasta sheet and place about 1 tablespoon of filling (this will depend on your stamper size) about 2-3 inches apart.  Lay a sheet of pasta overtop, squeeze about as much air as you can out of the pockets, and stamp with the ravioli stamp around the filling.  You may lay individually on a cookie sheet and freeze for later use at this point.  To cook, drop into a pot of rapidly boiling water until the ravioli float – then they will be cooked.

For the Sauce:

• 1/2 cup walnuts
• 1.5 cups heavy whipping cream
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 pinch cayenne pepper
• 1 pinch ground black pepper
• salt to taste
• 1 x 10oz package of spinach, thawed and drained

Toast the walnuts at 400 degrees for about 7-10 minutes or until lightly browned.  Place the cream, garlic, and pepper in deep skillet and cook on medium high until the sauce starts to thicken.  When the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, add a dash of salt (to taste) and stir in spinach and half the toasted walnuts.  Put the sauce over the ravioli and garnish with the remaining walnuts.  Enjoy!

I have a confession to make.  As much as I love pumpkin baked goods, I have never tried a savory pumpkin dish.  I’m not a fan of squash, so pumpkin seemed infinitely unlikable.  I definitely had to step out of my comfort zone to make this dish, and I’m thrilled that I did.  While preparing the meal, there were a few times when the sauce smelled way too much like straight up pumpkin puree and I thought that there was no way that it would turn out well.  But it did.  The sauce boasts a mild pumpkin flavor with a hint of nutmeg and sweetly caramelized onion.

While completely different than anything I have ever tried, the seemingly disparate flavors combine product a hearty meal that’s perfect for fall.

Creamy Pumpkin Penne
Yields 2 dinner servings

4 oz penne pasta
2 tsp olive oil
1 small onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
about 2T chopped fresh sage
2 links cooked chicken sausage, sliced
1/2 cup low fat cottage cheese (1% milk fat)
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup nonfat milk
pinch of nutmeg
3oz torn spinach, thick stems removed
grated parmesan or pecorino romano cheese, optional

1. Prepare pasta according to package directions.
2. Over medium-low heat, heat olive oil in a skillet. Add onions and cook gently for about 10-15minutes, until softened and beginning to caramelize. Continue to saute, adding garlic, sage, and chicken sausage.
3. Combine pumpkin puree, cottage cheese and milk in a blender, blending until no lumps are present.
4. Add creamy pumpkin mixture to sausage mixture in skillet, continuing to cook over low heat.
5. Season sauce to taste with salt, freshly ground pepper and a pinch of nutmeg.
6. Drain pasta and return to pot over low heat. Add sausage mixture and spinach, and toss together. Cover for a few minutes to let the spinach wilt. Serve with parmesan cheese, if desired.

Source: Cara’s Cravings

This is a recipe I have been making for years, yet somehow has never made it onto Domestic Pursuits! It’s one of those ones I’ve committed to memory I make it so often, and also it’s the reason why canned pumpkin is a year round staple in my pantry. My excuse is that it’s hard to photograph (it’s hard to make black beans look appetizing!) and it’s nearly impossible for us to keep this around long enough to even try to take a good picture because it is just that delicious. It’s also incredibly easy and whips up in about 30 minutes. If you’ve never made polenta before, you’re missing out – it is very straightforward, and at the same time adding the word polenta to whatever you make gives people the impression you could be the next contestant on Top Chef. It’s also great for those living gluten-free who want a simple, Italian-y and starchy base for tasty toppings.  Quick cooking polenta can typically be found in the Italian section of your grocery store.  I’ve also made this with corn meal – which works and is cheaper, but  takes longer, and tends to splatter a lot which causes a big mess, and also can burn you.  So, my recommendation is to go with the quick cooking variety.

I highly recommend giving this recipe a try. Chorizo is a spicy Spanish-style sausage that most grocery stores stock (at least those in the places I’ve lived); if you can’t find it, linguica would probably be an adequate substitute. I’ve made it with turkey chorizo, chicken chorizo, and plain old garden variety chorizo and it’s come out great every time.

Pumpkin Polenta with Black Beans and Chorizo – adapted from Rachel Ray

Ingredients

• 3/4 – 1 pound chorizo sausage, diced
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 1 x 14oz can of pumpkin puree
• 1 cup of quick cooking polenta
• leaves from 4 sprigs of fresh thyme, finely chopped
• 1 cup sharp cheddar cheese
• salt and pepper to taste

In a skillet over medium heat, brown chorizo sausage for about 1-2 minutes.  Add onion to the pan, and saute until the onion softens. In the meantime, combine chicken broth and pumpkin puree in a large saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat.   Add black beans to the chorizo and onion mixture and heat through.  Remove pumpkin puree and chicken broth from the heat, and quickly stir in the polenta.  (Be sure to remove from the heat so it doesn’t splatter!)  Once the polenta is starting to come together, stir in thyme, cheddar cheese, and salt and pepper to taste.  Serve chorizo and black beans atop a bed of polenta.  Enjoy!

This time of year really is just begging me to make soup.  (Well, maybe not days like today – 66 degrees in New England on November 14th?  Really?)  This recipe has been a long time coming to this blog.  The soup was actually first featured on Domestic Pursuits last year in the background of my whole wheat flaxseed bread post – it really is very tasty, and very versatile.  Aside from the roasting of the pumpkin (which you can avoid, I suppose, by using canned pumpkin puree) this really is a weeknight kind of soup.  Another perk: you can make it with pretty much any squash.  I personally chose pumpkin, this being savory pumpkin week and all, but acorn squash and other similar winter squashes would work just as well.  (I’ve tried it with acorn squash – very awesome!!)   It also goes quite well with whole wheat flaxseed bread.   And aside from the pumpkin this contains pretty much exclusively pantry ingredients – so make it whenever the spirit moves you!!

Thai Pumpkin Soup – adapted from 101cookbooks.com

Ingredients

• 2 pie pumpkins (or acorn squash, or other winter squash)
• Olive oil
• 1 can light coconut milk
• Thai red curry paste
• Chicken broth
• Salt to taste

Cut pumpkins (or other squash) into quarters, and scoop out seeds (save for later garnishing purposes!)  Place pumpkins flesh-side up on a cookie sheet and drizzle with olive oil.  Roast at 375 degrees for about 45 minutes to an hour, or until the pumpkins are tender.  Cool until pumpkins are able to be handled, then scoop cooked flesh out of the pumpkin skins.  Place pumpkin flesh into a large pot, add coconut milk and thai curry paste and bring to a simmer.  Cook on medium high heat until simmering.  Remove from the heat and puree the pumpkin and coconut milk.  Add chicken broth, stirring well after each addition, until the soup reaches the consistency you prefer.  Add salt to taste.  Enjoy!

Addendum:  I made this on Thanksgiving day and made it even tastier by adding 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger, and a splash of lime juice.  Yum!!

Pumpkin is not just for baking!  Lisa and I had so much fun with our sweet pumpkin treats that we decided to embark on a week of savory pumpkin-based foods.  Check back every day this week for another helping of meal ideas where pumpkin is the star.