Pumpkins and Baking

Carved a pumpkin last night just in time for Halloween—well, 2 weeks early but I like to get ahead of things and I had some free time…

Anyway, I have always liked making jack o lantern’s, and prefer to make my pumpkins especially scary. I won’t offer any step by step instructions because I’m sure you all know how to carve a pumpkin BUT here are some pictures of the process:

Since, we are on the subject of pumpkins, I thought I should also share offer recipes for roasting pumpkin seeds, and baking pumpkin (or butternut squash) pies.

I’m not one to waste food—which I am sure you already gathered from my banana bread post—so I definitely wanted to utilise my pumpkin in a few ways. I know the recipe is called pumpkin pie, but you can use any kind of squash. I used Butternut Squash because that's what I had laying around.

I was always under the impression that one should make a pumpkin pie with sugar pumpkins only. We don’t have them here in the UK (or at least to my knowledge), so I went with butternut squash instead. Tasted just as good as pumpkin and I was even able to make 2 pies with just one medium sized squash.

Recipes after the JUMP

Ginger Cookies

I will let you all in on a little secret: while I enjoy pastries, I don’t really have a “sweet tooth.” But because I LOVE baking, I end up sharing most of what I make with friends and students. Since the apple crumble has all been eaten, why not bake again.

Side note: In Greek culture, we have something called κέρασμα, which means “to treat.” Basically, it is customary to treat all houseguests to a pastry/cookie/delicacy—anything that you have available really—as a token of appreciation for visiting you. Because this idea has been drilled in my head since I was a child, I always make sure to have something on hand to share with my guests.

After looking in my cupboard, and still relishing the aroma of my afternoon cup of gingerbread coffee, I decided to make Ginger Cookies (the recipe is a combination of a few recipes I found on Google). Personally, I prefer cookies to be soft and chewy, rather than hard and crumbly—not saying I don’t eat hard cookies, but if I do, I HAVE to dunk them in coffee, or milk. This recipe is in fact for soft cookies, but I’m sure you can alter the cooking time a bit and make them harder if that’s what you prefer instead.

On to the baking!

Coffee and Pie

I was going to write about North and South today, BUT I’ve changed my mind. I’m actually teaching the text next week, so I think it would be nice to include what my students thought of the novel as well. Crossing fingers they will enjoy it as much as I have.

Today I bought the most delicious coffee beans from Toast, a small shop selling loads of different coffee beans and teas (for those living in Durham, the shop is located in the indoor market, and the owner is lovely and such a big help). As you can probably tell by the title of my blog, I am a huge coffee drinker; to be honest, I detest tea (gasp)—the only time I drink it is when I’m deathly ill, and it HAS to be a fruity  tea loaded with lemon and honey.

Anyway, I was running low on my hazelnut coffee, so I went for a walk in the indoor market hoping to find some. Quick point: I always prefer to support local business owners, which is why I went to the indoor market, rather than Tesco or Whittards (would also like to add that Whittards is INSANELY expensive, for no good reason). Furthermore, in my opinion, buying local is always a better choice; not only do you buy local produce, but the shop owners are always really helpful (the fish monger is always eager to tell me what is fresh and how to prepare whatever fish I buy). But I digress.

I ended up really liking the rich aromas of the Gingerbread and French Vanilla coffee beans, sooo I bought a half kg bag of each for £25. For the Americans that read this blog, I realise this sounds like a lot, especially if you do the exchange, and especially because you can buy a kg bag of Eight O’Clock Hazelnut Coffee from Waldbaums for $20 BUT trust me when I say, for the UK, it is pretty decent. Run on sentence aside, I decided on grinding only the Gingerbread coffee beans, and leaving the French Vanilla ones to be stored. I always feel that if you grind your coffee, you should use it right away so that it doesn't go stale. In order to preserve the freshness of the French Vanilla beans, I will store them in an airtight container and refrigerate them—this way, when I get through my Gingerbread (in about a month) I will have a fresh batch of French Vanilla coffee waiting for me. And if I ever feel like a change, I can always grind whatever amount of French Vanilla I want to use right before roasting. 

Just a disclaimer: there's a huge, boring debate on whether or not you should refrigerate or freeze coffee beans, and whether or not you should grind beans immediately before roasting... blah blah...So you all know, I'm just sharing my own personal opinion, which is based on 15 years of drinking coffee. 

I know I promised all of you a picture of the apple crumble, and so, having prepared myself a slice to go with my freshly brewed pot of Gingerbread coffee, here it is:

Delicious.

Apple Crumble

Apple Crumble

First post and first pie!

I woke up this morning with a huge craving for apple pie. Maybe it’s due to the weather (crisp mornings and rainy afternoons, for those not living in the Northeast of England) or the leaves turning different colours, or the abundance of apples in the food markets—I don't know, it doesn’t matter—I wanted pie.

Now, I know there are hundreds, if not thousands of apple pie recipes out there. However, over the years, having tried many combinations of recipes, I finally created one that was perfect. I promise you mine is easy and delicious. You have to try it!

Just a quick note before I dive right in—rather than make my own crust, which would be a pain seeing as I don’t have a food processor, I went the easy route and bought ready-made shortcrust pastry (I know, I know, shameful). 

Moving on.

Now, the secret to a crispy, non-soggy crust is Blind Baking. For those who are not familiar with this concept, you partially bake the crust before adding your filling—and yes, it is as easy as it sounds. 

Onward.