Shoofly Pie - Home Sweet Home Bakealong (62/100)

I've always been rather fascinated by people of the Amish churches, and the Plain life. Something distinctly appealing about true community life, quilts, farms, barns, preserves and baking. Although, obviously, no internet, no telephones, no blogs, no social media and no films.

Shoofly pie manages quite nicely to transcend cultural, national and chronological barriers. I liked this recipe - it tasted delicious and looked good, although I was glad I went up an inch on my pie plate diameter, as it fit a 10 inch pie plate like a glove.

Baking has slowed a great deal for both of us, but we are still trying to push on through the remaining recipes in Home Sweet Home.

Next up: Homemade Marshmallows.

Home Sweet Home Bake Along (55-60!)

How was it February since I last posted? Dear me, how time seems to run away. I have been baking, quietly, in the background, although I think I'm rather off kilter with Gill!

I have baked:

A very ugly Flourless Chocolate Cake cake. Like Gill I suffered a spring-form tin water ingress issues, despite wrapping the tin in foil. Soggy edges, but a rather pleasant middle.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Shortcakes - I changed the shape on these to a wedge (for ease) and added white chocolate chips for added excitement. These made a rather excellent Sunday night supper for The Fair Physiologist, The Pure Mathematician in Exile and me.

Chocolate Pie - this one is in fact not 57, but I accidentally made 57 here: Chess Pie when I skipped over Chocolate pie believing I had already made it (I think I had, but not during the bake through) - this is fab - chocolate biscuit crust, chocolate pastry cream/custard/pudding, whipped cream. Everything the doctor ordered.

Vanilla fudge - another somewhat dubious fudge attempt on my part - not sure if it is the sugar thermometer or me, but these needed reboiling. Jolly yummy once finished though! My squares were rather thin because I never seem to have the tins demanded by Home Sweet Home.

Cinder Toffee (Honeycomb) cupcakes. Yum. That is all.

Lemon cake. Stupidly tried to make cream cheese icing on the hottest day of the year so far. Very slide-y layers. Jam oozing. It was like the Princesstarta all over again... Still, a few butterfly sprinkles and all was well with the world again. It was well received, despite its ugliness.

Oh. Yes. I also made some espadrilles. The Kindred Spirit wonderfully bought me all the required items for production two birthdays ago. She visited this week, and I suddenly remembered that amid other projects I had forgotten to make them; so I did. And they were fun, and easy, and I have new summer shoes! Yay!

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Home Sweet Home Bake Along (48-52/100)

Sorry it has been so long! Life rather got in the way of blogging, although baking did still go ahead. Therefore this post is a bit of a round up of the last 5 bakes from the Home Sweet Home book. These five bakes have taken us past the halfway mark, which is a nice place to be. I have a great deal of sympathy for and growing amazement with Julie Powell (of "Julie and Julia" fame) - 524 recipes in 365 days sounds an absolute nightmare and rather bonkers to be honest. Hey-ho. On with the baking:

First up were: Chocolate Praline Cupcakes. Still got the leftover praline somewhere. Delicious but far too much of it.

Then came: Mississippi Mud Cake; three layers of far too much chocolatey goodness.

Third were Toffee Pecan Thumbprint cookies: Weird cream cheese dough. Not sure I'd bother again, but they were all eaten, so no complaints on that front.

Next up was Peach Pie: Mine was rather more cooked on top than on the bottom, which is the trouble with a non-fan oven, it turns out. Maybe if I put a pound in a pot for every dish the oven messed up I'd quickly save for a fan one. Hmmm, there's a thought. (Also turns out chocolate pie was next, not peach pie, my addled brain went a bit mad there apparently; hey-ho, will make chocolate pie when Gill is making peach pie!)

Then finally came Cinnamon buns: Always amazing, always fun, always eaten. Yum.

Next up: Grasshopper Slices...

Chess Pie - Home Sweet Home Bake Along 45/100 #CookBlogShare

This week I am once again hosting #CookBlogShare, and really looking forward to seeing what everyone makes. I am continuing baking through the Hummingbird Bakery book, Home Sweet Home, and we are finally coming up to halfway through! Please read on for more details, or scroll to the bottom of this post for the linky.

Somehow I managed to only take the one photo of this bake - I think I was overly distracted by the Charlotte Russe. Chess Pie is a Deep South pie - the origins of the name are somewhat disputed.

Essentially it is a tooth-achingly sweet custard (I thought I'd done something wrong until I read a few blurbs online) with a little cornmeal to make a caramelised crust, all stuffed in a pastry case. It contains diabetes inducing amounts of sugar and is the opposite of anything "clean" or "healthy" - and my goodness me, is it good.

Ingredients:
Crust:
110g cold unsalted butter, cubed
225g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
80g caster sugar
1 large egg
Filling:
100g unsalted butter, softened
400g caster sugar
1tsp vanilla extract
4 large eggs
60ml double cream
1 tbsp fine cornmeal
1 tbsp white vinegar.
Pithy instructions:
Pastry: Rub butter into flour, stir in sugar, stir in egg. Bring together into a dough, then into a ball, do not overwork. Wrap in clingfilm and chill for 30mins, then use to line a 23cm diameter pie dish. Chill for another 20 minutes, then bake blind at 170C for 10 minutes, then remove paper and beans and bake for a further 15 minutes. Leave to cool
Filling: Once the pastry is cool - cream together butter, sugar and vanilla extract. Add eggs one at a time and beat in. Stir remaining ingredients together in a jug, then add to butter mixture. Pour filling into pie crust. Bake at 200C for 10 minutes, then turn the oven down to 150C and bake for a further 40-45 minutes, until the pie is just set, with a very slight wobble. The top will crack as it cools - this is okay. Chill in the fridge overnight before serving.

Next up: Pumpkin Bars

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LINKY:

An InLinkz Link-up

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Caramel Pie - Home Sweet Home Bake Along - 38/100

This pie (well, tart) is one of the few bakes that gets better with time and with repeated tastings.

Initially, I felt it was a bit of a palaver, and my tastes of the filling didn't excite me, but 18 hours later, after the first slice, I was softening to it.

A second (ahem, third) slice another 24 hours later was delightful, the pastry was slightly more tender (it was rather hard initially,) the flavours blended and mellowed. Yum.

My pie is much darker in colour to both Gill's and the one pictured in the book, but that's because I wanted a really intense caramel flavour, so held my nerve until it was about half a second away from burnt before adding it to the custard.

It tastes like a cross between a creme caramel and a banoffe pie, with the best of both.

For the crust
110g cold unsalted butter, cubed
225g plain flour
80g caster sugar
1 large egg
For the custard filling
400g caster sugar
60g plain fllour
500ml whole milk
4 large egg yolks
60g cornflour
pinch salt
100ml water
For the topping and decoration
350ml double cream (I only used 225ml, which was plenty)
20g dark chocolate
20g chopped mixed nuts, toasted (I omitted these - I couldn't see a need for them)

Next up: S'mores Brownies

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Cherry Pie - Home Sweet Home Bakealong 31/100

I like cherries. I really like cherries.

Not quite as much as my colleague who buys them from roadside stalls, waters the roadways of the South with the stones, and has none left by the time she gets home.

But I'm not far behind. Cherry pie is also a favourite thing, but like Gill I didn't find this a particularly useful bake - it is hard to take to work or Bible study.

The Fair Physiologist and The Pure Mathematician in Exile appreciated an impromptu Sunday night dessert, however, so all was well in the end.

Despite the internal egg wash, I think I had a bit of a soggy bottom - it hadn't had quite enough time in the oven, but the top was already a good colour - this might be just getting used to the new non-fan oven, however.

Ingredients:
For the crust
220g cold unsalted butter, cubes
450g plain flour plus extra for dusting
160g caster sugar plus extra for sprinkling
3 large eggs
For the filling
700g fresh, tinned or frozen (then thawed) pitted cherries - I used 350g of jarred cherries and 350g of fresh cherries - someone seemed to have eaten my other jar of cherries. Can't imagine who that would have been *ahem* 
150g caster sugar
30g cornflour
1/2tsp vanilla extract



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