Strawberry Almond Galettes, Three Ways

It's a funny thing, cooking for family and close friends, to intimately know a set of likes and dislikes that are not your own, to intuit for someone else's palate. It's a unique kind of joy to see someone enjoy a dish (or, in the case of 14-year old brothers, give me a lukewarm, "eh, it's okay") you carefully adapted to their tastes.

I go between about 3 different kitchens each year, spreading my time and blog posts between my kitchen at home in Indiana, my dorm kitchen(s), and the kitchen of wherever I am in the summer.  (Since college, I've cooked regularly in about 7 different kitchens, which means, among other things, that the difficulty of my recipes and the quality of my photos varies a lot depending on where I am. I'm looking at you, sketchy oven-less dorm kitchen in Venice). 

Anyways, during the 7 to 8 months of the year in which I'm at school, the primary recipients of my baking have been my roommates. They're somewhere between family and friends, and we've gone so far as to assign ourselves family roles (I'm the son, in case you were wondering).

Clockwise, from top left: Dad, Mom, baby sister, Grandma, and brother.

Awkward freshmen first day of school photo

Frolicking in the Boston snow

I've gotten to know their tastes very well in the past three years: Imani with her lactate pills, Lynette blithely adding sugar to her marinara sauce (I still think this is weird), Jannet carefully scraping pumpkin pie filling out of her pie. Baking is always a bit of a balancing act, of remembering who can eat what (I totally saw you pick all the chocolate chips out of my scones Jannet, though it was sweet of you to try to hide them). 

With some free time on my hands last weekend, I decided to personalize individual strawberry galettes for the roommates; it's really only about a recipe and a half, with two different crust options and a few add-ons. I made one with a dairy-free crust, one with a higher crust-to-filling ratio, and one with a honey glaze for extra sweetness.

So there you go. Three slightly different strawberry almond galettes, and a recipe easily adapted for whoever you're feeding.

For the love of pie,
Caroline

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Strawberry Almond Galettes

Click here for the printer-friendly recipe.
Yields: 4 galettes
Adapted from The Candid Appetite

Ingredients:
For the Crust
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, cold and cubed
½ cup buttermilk, very cold

Alternately, for the dairy-free crust
2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
⅓ cup water

For the Fruit Filling
1.5 pounds fresh strawberries, washed and hulled 
¼ cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
½ cup almond meal

Assembly
1 egg
¼ cup raw sugar, for sprinkling (granulated can be substituted)
¼ cup honey (optional

Directions:
Make the crust. Mix together the flour, sugar, and salt.

Add the cubed butter, and either with your hands or in a food processor (NOT with your hands IN the food processor!), work the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs.

Mix in the buttermilk 1 or 2 tablespoons at a time, adding just enough so that the dough comes together. It should be very crumbly.
Gather the dough together and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least one hour, or overnight.. 

Mix together the apples, 1 tablespoon of flour, 1 tablespoon of sugar, 1 teaspoon lemon juice, and the cinnamon. In another bowl, mix together the berries, 1 tablespoon of flour, 1 teaspoon lemon juice, and 1 tablespoon of sugar.

Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces and chill in the refrigerator for one hour, or overnight.

If making the dairy-free crust, whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt. Add the vegetable oil and water, until just combined. Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces and chill in the refrigerator for one hour, or overnight.

Prepare the filling. Slice the strawberries about ¼ inch thick. Toss together with the lemon juice and sugar.

The easiest way to roll out the dough and assemble the galetes is directly on the foil or parchment paper you’ll bake them on. Cut out pieces of parchment paper (NOT wax paper!) or nonstick foil that are about 12x12 inch squares. Lightly flour the foil and roll out one of the pieces of dough into a circle about 10 inches in diameter. 

Spread about 2 tablespoons of almond meal onto the dough, leaving a one inch border around the edges. Place about ⅔ cup of the strawberry filling on top of the almonds. Gather the edges of the dough by folding sections of the dough over the filling.
Repeat for the other 3 pieces of dough.
Refrigerate the galettes for at least 30 minutes before baking.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Whisk the egg, and brush the mixture over the crust of the galettes. Sprinkle with raw sugar.

Bake at 400 for 15 minutes, then lower the heat to 350 and bake for another 10-15 minutes, until the crust is golden brown. 

If desired, add about 1 tablespoon of hot water to the honey, and brush over the filling for extra sweetness and shine. Let cool and enjoy!

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Banana Cream Pie

For my roommates and me, Pride and Prejudice is the ultimate girls' night movie. There's quite a few squeal-worthy moments: the first time Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth make eye contact, Kiera Knightly's witty "dah-ncing" comment she throws over her shoulder at Mr. Darcy, touching hands as he helps her into her carriage, the rain scene, their silhouettes nuzzling each other in the dawn, and of course, the "Mrs. Darcy" scene at the very end in the firelight. 

It's a beautifully romantic, with grand English landscape shots and glittering ballroom scenes, pepped with old-fashioned and quaint yet wonderful gestures of love. There's something about Regency England that inspires "Keep Calm and Find Mr. Darcy" posters (not that we had one hanging in our suite or anything) and makes you wonder if chivalry really is dead for good.

I'm quite found of this picture, really I am, yet I'm also glad I've spent most of this semester dismantling this ideal. My big final paper for my history and literature major this year was about The Odd Women by George Gissing. It's gritty and rather disillusioned, peppered with off-putting characters (and not of the cute Mrs. Bennet variety) and misogynist passages. The novel's title is an allusion to a population phenomena in 19th century Britain, in which women outnumbered men by a good half million. It traces the lives of a few of the "odd women" (also flatteringly referred to as "superfluous women") who could not be evenly paired off in marriage; they exist on the edge of destitution, unable to find a husband to support them and kept from finding a sustainable profession by society's gendered expectations.

The Odd Women reveals the darker under-story beneath the idyllic romance and independent, intelligent women in Pride and Prejudice. It is a portrait of the grim economic need behind Lizzy's and Jane's marriages and suggests an alternate reality, one of debasing and restrictive gender roles and shabby-genteel existences in one-room flats. The Odd Women reminds us that for all we want to laugh with the witty narrator at Mrs. Bennet's matchmaking, her fears for her daughters' futures are quite valid; marriage with Mr. Collins is a heck of a lot better than starving.

Yet Gissing's grim novel also contains an element of hope. Among the odd women are a pair of feminists who aim to improve women's education and expand their professional opportunities. One of them, Rhoda, tells her friend, "You had other examples before you...who live bravely and work hard and are proud of their place in  the world."

There's something rather heroic in those words, in this idea of living bravely, facing the world and the male-dominated professional sphere on your own, struggling as best as you can to make a living for yourself at a time when such a practice was completely against social mores. Lizzy Bennet might be free-thinking and skilled at verbal dueling, but it's these stern, no-nonsense feminist working women who are really heroines.  It's hardly as romantic as the Pride and Prejudice movie, yet its hopeful idealism against this grim backdrop is far more compelling. 

Which brings me to this banana cream pie. I have that Odd Women quote written on a post-it on my wall, right next to one with hastily scribbled instructions for banana cream pie. I made it some four months back, and it's become associated in my mind with essay writing; I baked this pie over Thanksgiving break, squeezed in between drafting final papers. I had originally planned to publish this recipe before Christmas, but my multiple Ireland papers just kept dragging on.

It's delicious, nostalgic, and comforting, reminiscent of that dessert made with instant pudding, bananas, and Nilla wafers, but made more classy. (Fact: everything looks fancier when it's in a tart crust.) I think it was worth the wait--and the papers.

-Caroline

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Banana Cream Pie

Click here for the printer-friendly recipe.
Yields: one 9-inch pie
Loosely adapted from The Candid Appetite and Hummingbird High

Ingredients
For the Crust
1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup butter, very cold, cubed
¼ cup buttermilk, cold

For the Banana Cream Filling
1 ¾ cups whole milk
3 egg yolks
½ cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 medium very ripe bananas
1 ½ cup cold heavy cream
½ powdered sugar

Directions
For the Crust
Whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt.
Add the butter. Using your hands or a pastry cutter, work the butter into the flour until it is in small pieces. Alternately, place the flour in a food processor, and the butter, and pulse until same result is achieved.

Mix in the buttermilk, one or two tablespoons at a time until the dough barely comes together.Gather the dough together in a ball and refrigerate for at least an hour, or overnight.

Roll out the dough into a circle, about 10-11 inches in diameter, depending on the size of your pan. When if you place the pie plate face-down on the dough, there should be about an inch of dough around the edge. Place the dough into the pie plate or tart tin, and trim and shape the edges. If you’re using a tart pan, Roll your rolling pin over the top to trim off the excess.

Freeze the pie crust for 30 minutes to an hour. 

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Cover the pie with a piece of foil, and weigh it down with baking beans. Bake for 10 minutes, remove the foil and beans, then bake for another 10 minutes, until the crust is golden brown around the edges. Let cool completely.

For the Filling
Heat the whole milk in a medium saucepan until it is just simmering.

In another bowl whisk the egg yolks and sugar until the yolks are pale and fluffy. Whisk in the cornstarch and salt.
Temper the egg yolks: slowly pour the milk into the egg yolks, whisking constantly the whole time. Pour the egg mixture back into the saucepan and heat until the mixture comes to a boil; let boil for 2-3 minutes, whisking constantly the whole time.

Take the cream off the heat and and stir in the butter, followed by the vanilla. Transfer to a bowl, and cover with plastic wrap, placing the plastic directly on the surface of the cream. Allow to cool to room temperature, and then refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or overnight.

Pour the heavy cream into a large mixing bowl and whisk until it forms soft peaks. Whisk in the powdered sugar. 

Fold about half of the whipped cream into the custard mixture. Set aside the other half.

Slice two the bananas into ¼ inch slices. Layer them on the bottom of the pie crust, spread half of the custard mixture on top, followed by another layer of bananas, and another of custard.

Slice and serve the pie, garnishing with the remaining whipped cream, and additional banana slices, if desired

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Feel Good Cake + Vegan Chocolate Pudding from The Holistic

Vegan? Nutritious? Caroline, where's the butter and sugar I came here for? I guess that stuff is alright, but really? How about I just slip out and come by next week...

Noooo, don't leeeeave meeee! (Insert image of me clutching your shirttail while digging in my heels and making skidding noises across the floor like in the cartoons).

Okay, you still there? Promise? Because you see, this cake is actually pretty terrific. I recently started working with the amazing Alice and Nina, two undergrads here at Harvard who founded The Holistic, a healthy foods start-up. One of their main products is this lovely Feel Good Cake, which they were kind enough to let me sample and photograph.

I first met Nina sometime freshman year, very briefly in the communal kitchen of the Matthews dorm. While I was gleefully working a hunk of butter into some scone dough (these scones, I think), she was making raw vegan brownies that she sold to people on campus.

In the past two years, Nina and Alice have expanded The Holistic (while travelling the globe with a toaster oven, baking cakes, how cool is that??), doing catering events and retail, and perfecting this Feel Good Cake. It's an all-natural, gluten-free, vegan chocolate cake, made from things like chickpeas, avocado, and almond flour (and has no refined sugar!). While I won't lie and say it tastes exactly like butter and sugar-based chocolate cake, it is delicious, rich, and moist, indulgent without being too heavy. 

I don't approve of the gluten-free or paleo fad (or rather, going gluten-free when you don't actually have a wheat allergy), but I do believe in eating healthy (really guys, I do!), being aware of what we eat, and knowing where it came from. Nina and Alice have created a cake that really is good for you, and isn't just masquerading as healthy under the guise of being "gluten-free." That doesn't mean you should go and eat a whole cake and call it dinner (I believe moderation is just as important as healthy eating), but it is made with ingredients that are naturally healthy and nutritious.

Nina and Alice are looking to expand The Holistic outside the Boston area, and launched a Kickstarter campaign to get the funding. (So hop on over to their page if you think this cake looks amazing and you want to get your hands on some.)

They were also kind enough to allow me to share their vegan chocolate pudding recipe with you today. If anything, it's better than traditional chocolate pudding, richer and more chocolate-y. This pudding gets its creaminess from avocados, and is ridiculously easy to make (easier than its egg and cornstarch-based counterpart!) It's a perfect afternoon snack to have on hand and might just keep you from reaching for the junk food. 

So give this pudding a try, and check out The Holistic's Feel Good Cake. It's not the end-all be-all to healthy eating (I have some issues with the "super food" idea too), but it's a good start. And, you know, delicious.

-Caroline

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Vegan Chocolate Pudding

From The Holistic
Yields: 2 servings

Ingredients
1 medium ripe avocado
1/3 cup maple syrup, agave nectar, or honey (or to taste)
5 tablespoons cocoa powder or raw cacao powder
1/4 cup water* (see notes)

Directions
Peel the avocado and remove the pit. Place in a blender with the maple syrup (or your sweetener of choice). Blend well until smooth.

Add the cocoa powder and water, and blend again until smooth. 

Pour into serving cups and serve at room temperature, or chilled. Decorate with fruit, if desired.

Caroline's notes:
*You could probably sub in almond or rice milk here, or coconut milk for some extra richness.

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Raspberry Lemon Cheesecake with a Coconut Macaroon Crust

It was cold, gray, and flurrying in Boston when I went downtown last Friday. The snow started falling thick and fast by late afternoon, still beautiful, even though we've already seen so much of it this year. 

The holiday lights are still up in the Boston Commons, wound around all the trees, the only foliage they have right now. It could have been Christmas, as I walked through the public gardens in the snow with a cup of hot chocolate from Burdicks, coming across these fabulous Elsa and Olaf snowmen in the park. Definitely Christmas rather than the first day of spring. 

I've been dreaming of fruit desserts for the past few weeks, ready for the color and bright flavors of spring baking. As much as I love chocolate and caramel and spice, I'm ready to come out of hibernation.  

So this cheesecake is a piece of wishful thinking, made the first weekend of spring as the wind blew and the skies dumped more snow on us. Raspberries are nowhere near in season, and the lemons must have traveled far and long to make it to Boston. But I found a mini citrus zester at a little local kitchen wares store when I was shopping on Newbury Street (who wants to buy clothes when you can buy mini microplane zesters?). So of course, I couldn't resist making some sort of bright lemon dessert. 

This cheesecake is certainly that, creamy and citrusy, its rich velvety smoothness dotted with spots of juicy raspberries. Instead of a traditional graham cracker crust, I made a coconut macaroon crust; its creamy, nutty flavor works perfectly with the fruit. (Plus let's be real, I was too lazy to crush up some graham crackers). 

Anyways, I hope your first day of spring was somewhat more seasonal than mine. Either way, you should make yourself a raspberry lemon cheesecake; we all need a little bit more sunshine in our lives.

Plus for those of us in Boston, bikini season is a longgggg way away. So let's dig in.

Caroline

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Raspberry Lemon Cheesecake with a Coconut Macaroon Crust

Click here for the printer-friendly recipe
Yields one 9-inch cake

Ingredients
4 eggs, at room temperature, divided
2 cups sweetened shredded coconut
¼ teaspoon salt, divided
24 ounces cream cheese (three 8-ounce packs), at room temperature
1 ¼ cups sugar
¼ cup lemon juice
zest of two medium lemons
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup sour cream
1 cup fresh raspberries, plus extra to garnish 

Directions
Preheat the oven to 325 F. Line a 9-inch springform pan with foil. Grease the foil with butter or vegetable oil.

Make the crust. Place two egg whites in a mixing bowl. Reserve the egg yolks for later. Add the coconut and ⅛ teaspoon salt, and mix well.

Press the coconut mixture evenly into the bottom of the pan. Bake for 15 minutes, until golden brown around the edges.

Make the filling. Beat together the cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in ⅛ teaspoon salt, lemon juice, lemon zest, and vanilla extract.

Mix in the eggs one at a time, mixing until just combined. Do the same for the two egg yolks left over from making the crust. Don’t overmix at the point, or else your cheesecake might crack in the oven.

Fold in the sour cream, followed by the raspberries. Pour the batter into the springform pan, on top of the crust. Bake for 50-55 minutes, or until the center is just set, but still slightly jiggly. Turn off the oven, crack the door open, and let the cheesecake sit in the oven for another 15 minutes before taking it out. Cool completely, then refrigerate overnight.

Slice and serve with additional raspberries.

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