Italian Sausage Bread

This Sicilian recipe would be perfect with a beer while watching college football on a fall Saturday afternoon. 

 

Roasted Delicata Squash Pie

Fall is in the air, the thought of pumpkin spice dancing in your head. What better time to make a pumpkin pie 100% from scratch? Well, truth be told, I've been there and done that. Fresh pumpkin is a bear to work with and contains a lot of liquid. Unless you like your pie runny, you're going to have to reduce the fresh pumpkin flesh before you even think about making a filling. That being said, if it is pumpkin pie you crave, opt for 100% pure canned pumpkin. Fast forward to 2017. I was recently introduced to Delicata, a wonderful, creamy, sweet fleshed winter squash. These thin skinned, nutty/sweet flavored squash require no peeling! The skin is tender enough to eat once cooked. The texture is creamy and lends itself perfectly to pie filling. 

Delicata squash, as beautiful as it is tasty. The yellow skin with bright green stripe is quite striking.

The first step in making fresh, locally sourced, Delicata squash pie, is preparing the squash. This step is a recipe in it's own right. The slightly caramelized squash makes a great side dish. 

Roasted Delicata squash

Ingredients

• 3 medium Delicata squash (3Lbs. whole)
• 4 Tbs. olive oil (Divided)
• 1/2 tsp. salt

Directions

Preheat the oven to 450F and arrange the oven rack in the middle of the oven.

• Wash the squash thoroughly in cold water, with a soft vegetable brush or your fingers.
• Remove the stem, slice lengthwise with a seriated edge knife.
• Remove the seeds with a spoon or melon baller.

• Slice into 1/2" half moon shaped pieces.

• In a medium sized bowl, toss the squash with 3 Tbs. of the olive oil and the salt.
• Grease a rimmed cookie sheet with the remaining 1 Tbs. of olive oil
• Arrange the squash on the greased cookie sheet, in a single layer. They can be crowded, but not overlapping.

• Roast the squash in the preheated oven for about 15 minutes on each side, until slightly caramelized.
• Sprinkle with a little more salt and serve warm as a side dish or set aside to cool, for use in another application. 

The pie pastry

For this step, feel free to use your favorite pie pastry recipe, or *shudder* use store brought.

My pie pastry recipe, will give you enough to make four single pastry 9" pies. Which means you will always have a pie pastry at the ready!

• Follow the link below, to my "Very Berry Pie" for the pastry recipe.
• Will's, astonishingly easy to handle, pie dough

 I just happened to have some pie dough, that had been defrosting overnight in the fridge

The chilled dough was easy enough to pat out into a 12 inch round.

The pastry was then transferred to the pie plate and the edges trimmed. I saved the excess (maybe I will try something creative). The pie plate was covered with plastic and placed in the fridge. Now for the filling.

 Delicata pie filling

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups evaporated milk or cream
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 3 medium (3 pounds whole with the seeds, before cooking) Delicata squash

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 425F. 

• Puree the roasted squash in a food processor.
• Combine the evaporated milk, sugars, spices, salt, and eggs. Add to the squash and pulse until smooth.
• Pour the filling into the prepared pie shell and sprinkle with cinnamon.
• To bake: Place the pie on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake it for 15 minutes at 425°F. Reduce the oven's temperature to 350°F and bake for another 40 to 45 minutes, until the pie is mostly set and a 1" to 2" circle in the center still wobbles a bit when you nudge the pan. Remove the pie from the oven and cool it completely before slicing.

Pureed Delicata squash.

The rest of the filling ingredients whisked together. 

The combined filling in the shell. I have to take more care with my end-game. Fluting the crust is my albatross. Now into the preheated oven.

The pie is out of the oven and looking good. My only negative observation- it looks like a little too much filling. See you later with the taste test!

The verdict is in, first as to my concerns, 1. The crust: It looks just fine. It is not fancy or a show stopper, but it looks, pretty okay. 2. The filling: Once the pie cooled, the filling settled into the pie. Not too much filling, instead over stuffed, just like the Pie king likes it!

From a taste stand point, the pie was as close to perfect as anyone could hope. The total of 1/2 cup of sugar, made for a not overly sweet pie. The natural sweetness and nutty flavor of the delicata rings out. the filling was creamy and delicious. The crust was crispy and tender.  

 Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed hearing about delicata pie, as much as I enjoyed making it. Please leave a comment, let me know what you think. I value your feed back. Try the recipe for yourself, you and your guests will love it. Please share your photos and story.

 Peace,

 The Roadside Pie King

Cranberry season!

Hello Friends,

 Today's blog post has two parts, both using cranberry as the main ingredient. Part one, cranberry raisin pumpkin bread, is a recipe from the book,  Baking with Julia, by Dorie Greenspan (Pg.108.) This recipe, a two day bake, makes a wonderfully tender, rich, brioche like bread. Well worth the time. Part two, is a rustic cranberry coffee cake/pie. By contrast, I threw this one together in 20 minutes. The recipe is from my new friend Diane. Diane, is the owner of Diane's Dynamics, a blog page dedicated to the homesteading lifestyle. I will drop links to both Dorie's page and Diane's page at the end of the post. Go there and you will find the exact recipes. Lets get started!

Cranberry raisin pumpkin brioche bread

This recipe make three small loafs, I made two big ones. I used, 91/2x6x3 loaf pans. You will definitely need a mixer for this dough. The dough is sticky, heavy and takes a while to come together. Additionally, you will need some experience. There are a few variables you will have to work with, such as the amount of liquid in your pumpkin. I had to use my experience in bread making to add enough extra flour to form a nice dough. The dough took a good 20 min. to come together, at medium speed, in my kitchen aid mixer. Here's what it looked like

The dough takes some time, but once it comes together it makes a nice, albeit sticky, dough. 

I left the dough to rise at room temperature for two hours. By then it had doubled. I gently deflated the dough and put it in the refrigerator for a slow, cold, overnight ferment. By the next morning it had doubled again. At this point the dough would sit till it reached room temp. I set an instant read thermometer for 68F. 

After about five hours we were up to temp. I rolled the dough onto a lightly floured counter, split it into two equal halves. One at a time, I carefully stretched the dough into 15x 8 inch rectangles. Then I rolled the dough up jellyroll style from the short end, carefully sealing as I rolled. Alas, I should have did a letter fold and a bench rest before rolling, I missed a step. No worries, it came out okay. Now the shaped breads are in the pans for the final proofing. 

 After a two hour proof they were doubled, puffy and ready for the oven; so I popped them in.

They cooked in a well preheated oven at 350F. for 35 minutes. They came out perfectly done. 

I really like this holiday treat bread. It's so good plain, or toasted with butter! It takes some time and a little work, but well worth the effort!

The last photo is a sneak peak at part two!

You can get the recipe over at Dorie Greenspan's page:  This Bountiful Backyard

Don't forget to come back and tell me how it worked for you.

Part two:

Cranberry, orange coffee cake / pie

I had about three cups of nice plump juicy cranberries left after using one cup in the brioche bread. 

My friend Diane shared her recipe for this "peach" of a cranberry pie with me. While the bread was in the oven I quickly assembled the needed components.

• Unsalted butter
• Cranberries
• Sugar (I used Brown)
• Orange juice and zest
• Salt
• Eggs
• Vanilla
• A.P. flour

That was the hardest part of this recipe. Now all that was left was to mix it all together in the pie pan.

I was not sure if the pie was going to be too tart. To my delight, it was not! It was so tasty and just tart enough! This will definitely grace the Falzon holiday table this year! Thanks Diane, this is a winner! I owe you a chicken dinner! Stop back soon, The Delicata squash in the photo will be pumpkin/ squash pie soon!

Diane has the full recipe at her homestead: 

Diane's Dynamics Cranberry Pie

  

Pasta Fagoili - Crock Pot

100% Whole grain Rye Tang zhong method bread

Hello friends,

 I experimented with a new formula and technique today. The formula is my own. 50% white whole wheat, 50% whole rye. In an attempt to keep this whole grain bread from being dense, I wanted to try the *Tang zhong method. 

I am not sure if my proportions of Tang zhong to total flour is exactly correct, however, the bread turned out great! the loaf has a thin crust with a nice crunch and a light and tender crumb. Success! Stick around and I will take you though the process. 

From Cookipedia:

*Tang zhong (also known as a 'water roux') is a method used in bread making to create soft and fluffy bread which was originated by the Japanese. However, it was popularized throughout south-east Asia in the 1990s by a Chinese woman called Yvonne Chen who wrote a book called The 65° Bread Doctor. Using this method also allows bread to stay fresh for longer without needing to use artificial preservatives.

To make the tang zhong, you mix together one part flour with five parts liquid (by weight) to make a smooth paste. This is usually water, but can be milk or a mixture of both. The mixture is then heated in a saucepan until it reaches exactly 65°C (149°F), removed from the hob, covered and left to cool until it is down to room temperature, when it will be ready to use. It would be useful have a digital thermometer with a probe when making this as other types of thermometer tend to be too large. If you are not making your bread immediately, the tang zhong will keep in the fridge for a couple of days, but will need to be brought up to room temperature before use. The tang zhong is added to the main flour with the liquid and mixed in and kneaded as normal.

The amount of tang zhong used should be about 35% of the weight of the main flour. It is best to make a little extra, because the liquid will evaporate slightly during heating. To make a loaf weighing about 1kg, I would suggest using 480g flour, 200g liquid and 170g tang zhong (made with 30g flour and 150g liquid), which will give a hydration of about 68%. You can of course adjust the amount of liquid either side of the 200g, but the tang zhong proportions should not be adjusted.

The water roux is cooling, while the whole grains absorb as much liquid as possible. I let both rest for about 20 min.

After mixing the roux with the flour, I had a very shaggy dough. Less than 1/4 cup of extra dusting flour and close to 15 min. of kneading, resulted in a very nice, non sticky dough ball.

                                          It took some work, but the dough is looking good.

                                    Quick check of the temperature, before the bulk ferment.

                               After 1-1/2 hours, the dough has doubled; holds a dimple. 

 Pre-shaping: I spread the dough out into a rectangle, dimpled the surface. 

Folded into thirds, and put to rest, covered with plastic wrap, for 20 min.

After the rest, starting from the short side, I begin to roll and seal.

Rolled tight, like a jellyroll

 

Ends tucked under

                                                           Into the greased loaf pan. Set aside to rise

After 30 min. the dough looks about doubled. Into the oven for 35 min.

I did not get any oven spring at all. I was a bit concerned. I feared I has created a brick!

To my delight, that was not the case! This bread is a peach! I will make this bread, again and again!

If you like my blog, please share, like and leave a comment.  Please feel free to copy and paste the formula and try it for yourself. Thanks for reading!

50%Whole Wheat 50% Rye Bread: By Tang zhong Method

Author: Will Falzon 

Ingredients:

For Tang zhong

35 gm Wheat Flour

175 ml Water

For the Dough

200 gm White Whole Wheat Flour

200 gm Whole Rye Flour

170 ml Water

1 Envelope Instant Yeast

2 tbsp Molasses

3 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp Salt

1 tsp caraway seed

All of the Tang zhong

Instructions:.

Prepare the Tang zhong, Combine the flour and water in a small sauce pan. Heat over a medium flame, stir continuously, to 150 deg. F. Set aside to cool.

In a small bowl add the water. Dissolve molasses and yeast in it. Set it aside and let the yeast activate. (Optional with instant yeast)

In another bowl, add wheat flour, rye flour, salt, caraway seed, oil and yeast mixture. Stir it well to make a shaggy dough. Set aside to let the whole grains absorb the water, about 20min. While the tang zhong cools.

Add the cooled Tang zhong to the shaggy dough. Stir it in thoroughly.

Take the dough out on to a dusted surface. keep kneading, till you get a soft, smooth and non-sticky dough. Approximately 15 min.

Place the dough in a greased bowl and cover it. Let it rise until it is doubled in volume. Approximately 1 Hour and a half

Take the dough out, on to a dusted surface, punch it down gently, to release the air.

To shape the loaf, spread it into a rectangle, rest for 20 min. shape and roll up tightly, into a log.

Place the shaped log into a greased loaf tin.

Cover it with a greased cling wrap, let it rise until it doubles in volume.

Preheat the oven to 400 degree F. Apply water on the loaf with a brush. Bake it in the lower half of the oven, for 35 minutes.

If the top of your bread is browning faster then cover it with aluminum foil and continue to bake.

Once done, take out the bread from the oven, place it on a wire rack to cool completely. Brush the top with some olive oil, cover it with a moist cloth or towel. It will help to cool the bread faster, without losing its moisture.

Now cut the slices and enjoy it.

Recipe Notes

Apple Pie

Yesterday, my bride was going to be out all day. That left me, with the kitchen to myself! I quickly decided, to try my hand at an end of summer apple pie. For this bake I used two recipes as reference, with minimal changes as follows:
The filling:  http://www.joyofbaking.com/ApplePie.html
1. substituted the pastry formula
2. Used Tapioca flour instead of corn starch

The Pastry: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Cafe-Azuls-Pastry-Dough-107241

1. I used "only" three sticks of butter

Lets get started!
First, I made sure everything I used to make the pastry spent time in the fridge or freezer. The pie pan, silicone mats, the vinegar and so on.

After I spiced and salted the filling, I let it sit at room temp. for about an hour to release the natural juices.

Meanwhile, I got started on the pastry. All the dry ingredients, with the fat ready to cut in.

The fat is cut in, ready to add the wet ingredients. It is important not to over work the dough; If it seems to be dry add a Tbs. of water at a time, till you can squeeze it together into a ball. Over working, will make the pastry tough. Smile, live and learn.

In my haste to keep the dough cool, I neglected to get any photos of the coming together, folding. Ready for a rest in the fridge, to chill out.

The pastry is chilled and ready to roll!

The pastry was surprisingly easy to roll out! This is the part where I have failed in the past. Now the bottom and top pastry dough, go back in the fridge, to chill. While I work on the filling.

I drained the filling in a colander for 30 minutes, probably could have went longer. However I got exactly 1/2 cup, just as the recipe called for. I Reduced the liquid with the butter. Time to pull it all together!

After adding the tapioca and the reduced liquid to the filling. I Then, placed the pastry and filling in the pan.

Carefully, I place the top pastry. Truth be told this pastry was very easy to handle.

The top pastry, vented, with the edges fluted. I made a mess fluting the crust. I will get better with practice. I was told this is called a rustic pie. I think, that is just a nice way of telling me, I screwed the pooch! However, as you will see, it did not come out half bad. "Rustic" LOL.

After 55 minutes out of the oven!

10 minutes later, out of the pan clean, on to the cooling rack.

The proof is in the tasting. The filling was divine. The pastry was just a little tough. I over worked the dough; instead of using my first instinct, to add a little more water. Not a fail, but next time, I will do better!

 Until next time, peace out!

 Will F,
AKA
 The baking Fool!