You haunt my dreams.

I can’t stop thinking about pie. All day I’m distracted by the the thoughts of the pie I’m going to make this weekend. Will it use a pastry crust? A crumb crust? A cheddar crust? Will it be a fruit pie? Or a pudding pie? I don’t know why I didn’t start baking pies months ago – they’re just so fascinating.

Maybe this means I need more hobbies. Or, um, friends.

Recipes I want to try:

• Parmesan popovers from Adventures in Shaw. Popovers are an excellent holiday feast food – they’re easy, tasty, and impressive.

• Veal ricotta meatballs at Sassy Radish. God, I love really good, light, flavorful meatballs.

• Fried bacon wrapped dates from Jaleo, sleuthed out by Best Bites.

• Pumpkin whole wheat muffins from Pete Bakes!

• “Faux” pho with tofu, from Mango and Tomato. This awful, rainy weather is perfect for pho.

And in other news:

• The Arugula Files reviews the bar menu at Bourbon Steak, which is both decadent and reasonably priced.

• Lemmonex reviews Masa 14, the hot new tapas restaurant on 14th Street. She is tired of tapas.

• NPR has a good primer on quinces, which I’ve been wanting to try. I looked for them at the farmer’s market last weekend, but didn’t find any – anyone know if they’re available in this area?

• The Tipsy Baker, aka writer Jennifer Reese, has a thoughtful, tough, review of Jonathan Safran Foer’s new book, Eating Animals over at Double XX.

• Gradually Greener previews a promising new social networking site for foodies, Smörgie.

• The Internet Food Association is tired of cupcakes. I, personally, am tired of people who are tired of cupcakes. You’ll notice I tried to defend them in the comments, but, alas, the majority of comments are firmly in the anti-cupcake camp.

• Capital Spice has google-mapped out all the restaurants on Tom Sietsema’s Fall Dining Guide (from the Post), Tim Carman’s 50 Best Restaurants (from the Washington City Paper), and the Washingtonian magazine’s 100 Best Restaurants. Now if only I could read maps.

Happy Friday!

I still haven't drunk all that Guinness . . .

I still have a lot of beer left over from last month’s beer baking binge, and I haven’t really been in the mood to drink lately. I think I’m too busy with all these various baking projects, blogger get togethers, and early morning choir performances. Or maybe it’s that I’m watching too much Mad Men – watching people who are always drunk, or hungover, makes sobriety much more attractive.

This weather has also put me in the mood to bake, so I put two and two together and made some Guinness bread this weekend. I was also inspired by my chat with Tiffany MacIssac, the Pastry Chef at Birch and Barley, who’s been incorporating beer into their breads and desserts. I decided to use the basic hearth bread recipe from The Bread Bible, which Rose Beranbaum suggests as a good basic recipe to use for adaptations.

The beer in this bread is a subtle flavoring – it gives it a slightly more bitter, darker flavor, and a honey-colored crumb. To counteract the smoky, bitter flavor of the Guinness, I upped the amount of honey in the dough, which gave the bread a mellow sweetness. You can’t really tell that the bread uses Guinness, but the beer definitely gives the bread a subtle depth of flavor that I liked quite a bit. Because this loaf uses bread flour, which has a higher protein content than regular flour, the bread is satisfyingly chewy, with a crisp crust and light texture.

This bread is good toasted in thick slices with a good slathering of butter and a sprinkling of sea salt. Or top it with goat cheese, arugula, and Prosciutto for a quick open-faced sandwich. And it’s refined enough that you can enjoy a slice with some cheese and a glass of wine. Or your favorite craft brew. Or even a Bud Light, if that’s what you prefer. I don’t judge.

My favorite way to eat this bread is toasted and topped with a fried egg. I'm classy like that.

Rustic Guinness Bread
Adapted from The Bread Bible, By Rose Levy Beranbaum

For the dough starter
1 and 1/4 cup bread flour
3/8 tsp instant (i.e., “rapid rise”) yeast
2 tbs honey
3/4 cup Guinness, at room temperature
1/3 cup + 4 tbs water, at room temperature

For the flour mixture
1 3/4 + 2 tbs bread flour
1/2 tsp instant yeast (i.e., “rapid rise”)

For the dough
1 + 1/2 tsp salt
Cornmeal, for sprinkling

Make the dough starter: in a mixer bowl, whisk together the bread flour, yeast, honey, Guinness, and water for two minutes, to incorporate air. Scrape down sides of bowl.

Make the flour mixture: in a medium bowl, whisk together the bread flour and yeast. Gently scoop the flour mixture onto the sponge, covering it completely. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in a warm place to rise, 1-4 hours at room temperature. Do not worry if the starter bubbles through the flour mixture – this is fine.

Make the dough: Place mixer bowl on the elecric mixter and fit with a dough hook attachment. Mix on low speed until a rough dough is formed (about 1 minute). Scrape down any stray bits of dough. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and rest dough for 20 minutes.

Sprinkle the salt over the dough and knead on medium speed for about 7 minutes. The dough should be elastic and smooth, and just sticky enough to cling to your fingers. If it is too sticky, knead in a little flour; if it is not at all sticky, add a little water.

Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let rise until doubled – around 1 hour.

Remove dough from bowl to a lightly floured work surface and give it a business letter fold. Gently round dough and return to oiled bowl. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled – 45 minutes to an hour.

Place dough on a lightly floured work surface and shape into a round ball, approximately 6 inches by 2.5 inches high. Line a baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper, lightly sprinkled with cornmeal. Place dough on prepared baking sheet. Cover with a bowl or oiled plastic wrap and let rise until almost doubled, 45 minutes to 1 hour and 15 minutes.

One hour before baking, preheat oven to 475°F. Place one rack in the middle of the oven, and one in the lower portion of the oven. Place a baking stone or baking pan on middle rack, and a cast iron pan in lower rack.

Just before baking, slash the top of the bread with a razor or sharp knife, and gently mist with water. Gently set baking sheet on hot baking sheet in the center of the oven. Toss 1/2 cup of ice cubes into the cast iron pan below and quickly shut the oven door. After 10 minutes, lower heat to 425°F. Bake 20-30 minutes more, until bread is golden brown and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Remove dough from oven and let cool on a rack.

God. I love ice cream.

An ice cream maker isn’t just a kitchen tool – it is a path to dessert freedom. Think about it – can you think of a dessert that is more adaptable than ice cream? Because ice cream (and yes, I’m using it as a generic term here for any frozen, churned dessert, including gelato, sorbet, and sherbet) is essentially just a liquid frozen in an ice cream maker, it is incredibly versatile.

Flavors that can only serve as accents in a cake – like citrus, nuts, or fruit – work perfectly well as the main flavor in an ice cream or sorbet. Because ice cream doesn’t rely on sugar for structure, like a cake does, it’s much easier to control the amount of sweetness in your ice cream. And you can mix pretty much anything into ice cream (within reason). I can have my mint ice cream with some cookies, fudge, chocolate chips, brownies, or anything else good-tasting that I can think of.

Suffice it to say, I love my ice cream maker. And I was very excited to use it to make David Lebovitz’s salted butter caramel ice cream this weekend, although I wasn’t ambitious enough to make the caramel praline mix-in that the recipe called for.

Now, I had originally intended to make this ice cream to go along with my caramel apple walnut pie, which seemed like a natural accompaniment. However, the ice cream wasn’t quite set up when my taste testers arrived, so what I served them was much more akin to caramel sauce.

In retrospect, I think fate was trying to tell me something with the soupy ice cream, because I actually don’t think this ice cream is the right accompaniment to my pie. The ice cream is incredibly rich, with a deep, luscious toffee flavor – and it’s so good on its own that it overwhelms the pie. The subtle sweetness of the pie crust and the tangy interplay between the apples and the caramel gets lost in the richness of the caramel ice cream. Next time, I think I might try the pie with a lighter ice cream, like ginger or vanilla.

No, this caramel ice cream is a big, bold ice cream. It’s deep caramel and butter flavors are rounded out with a bitter, burnt sugar undertone. It deserves to be the star of the dessert plate. I actually think it would be very good in a sundae, topped with some chocolate sauce, caramelized hazelnuts, and whipped cream. But it’s also quite fabulous on its own.

Get the recipe for Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream over at David Lebovitz’s blog.

Slightly melty, yet no less delicious.

It's pie time.

It’s November. We’re officially in the holiday season. It’s cold outside (sometimes). And the fruits in season – apples, quinces, cranberries – are naturally drawn to pie. Nature, tradition, and expectation declare that it’s pie time.

So my November baking project will be focusing on pie. But not just any pie – festive pie. Holiday pie. Dare I even say it – party pie.

My first offering, caramel apple walnut pie, is a regular apple pie tarted up for the holiday season. I mixed roasted walnuts with the apple filling, added a layer of caramel on the bottom crust, and a drizzle of caramel over the top.

Because the caramel is so sweet, I decreased the sugar in the apple filling – giving the apples a nice tartness that contrasts with the sweet caramel. The crunchy walnuts give a textural contrast to the soft apples, and their slightly bitter flavor helps bring out the sweetness of the rest of the filling. Actually, if I were to make this again, I think I’d up the caramel content – make some more of it and drizzle it over the apples, not just keep it in a layer on the bottom of the pie.

Still, the pie crust was flaky and crisp, the apples were sweet and tart without being overpowering, and the caramel drizzled over the top looked rustic and inviting. Pretty good for my first pie attempt in quite some time.

Many thanks to my taste testers, Nonnka and Deborahdawn, who came over on very short notice Sunday to deal with an excess of pie.

Hello, pie. It's been awhile.

Caramel Apple Walnut Pie
Adapted from Mastering The Art of French Cooking (crust) and The Pie and Pastry Bible (pie)

For the pie crust
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
6 oz (1 and 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1/4 inch cubes
4 tbs shortening, chilled and cut into 1/4 inch cubes
1/2 cup ice water, plus a little bit more (just in case you need it).

For the caramel
1 cup sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup heavy cream

For the apple walnut filling
1 cup walnuts
2 and 1/2 pounds baking apples (around 6), such as granny smiths, peeled, cored, and sliced into 1/4 inch thick slices
1 tbs freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tbs packed light brown sugar
2 tbs sugar
1 and 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbs and 1 tsp cornstarch

For the glaze:
1 egg white mixed with 1 tbs of water
Cinnamon and sugar, for sprinkling

For the crust: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and sugar. Place the bowl in the freezer for 15 minutes to chill. Remove bowl from freezer and add the chilled shortening and butter; cut the fat into the flour mixture using your fingers or a pastry cutter, until the fat is the size of small peas. Slowly add the cold water and stir together using a wooden spoon or spatula, until the dough just comes together. Divide the dough in two equal balls, flatten each into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill in the refrigerator for at least one hour.

Alternately, if you have a food processor: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and sugar. Freeze the flour mixture, butter, shortening, and the processor blade for 1/2 hour before using. Fit the blade on the processor, and then add the flour mixture, butter, and shortening to the bowl. Pulse a couple of time, in five second bursts – until the butter and shortening are the size of small peas. Add the ice water through the feeder tube – and pulse until the dough just comes together. Divide the dough in two equal balls, flatten each into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill in the refrigerator for at least one hour.

For the filling: Preheat oven to 325°F. Place walnuts on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Roast in oven for 10 minutes, until walnuts are a deep brown color. Let cool slightly, and then roughly chop. In a large bowl, mix together the walnuts with the rest of the filling ingredients, tossing until everything is evenly distributed and the cornstarch disappears.

Preheat oven to 425°F.

On a lightly floured work surface, roll out one disk of the dough until it is approximately 1/8 inches thick and 1.5 inches larger than your pie pan. Transfer to pie dish and trim off excess overhanging dough with a pair of kitchen shears – leaving almost no overhang. Place in the refrigerator while making the caramel.

For the caramel: in a heavy-bottomed, medium sized sauce pan, spread the sugar in an even layer and heat over moderate heat (I had the most success with medium-low heat). As the sugar begins to caramelize, use a heat-proof spatula or other utensil to push the sugar from the edges to the center of the pan. Continue heating until all the sugar is melted. Continue to cook, stirring infrequently, until the caramel is a deep brown – this will happen quickly. Remove from heat and sprinkle in salt, then pour in cream (be careful, because the mixture may spatter). If the caramel hardens, continue to stir over the heat until the sugar dissolves again.

Pour caramel into a heat proof, microwave-safe bowl, and let cool until warm (it should still be spreadable). Pour approximately 3/4 of the caramel over the bottom pie crust – spreading with a heat-proof spatula to fully cover the bottom of the crust as best you can. Cover caramel with the apple mixture, packing the apples tightly so that there are no gaps in the filling.

Roll out the second disk of pie dough until it is approximately 1/8 inches thick and  1.5 inches larger than the pie pan. Place the top crust over the apples; trim off the excess crust, leaving 1/2 inch overhang. Tuck the overhang under the bottom crust border. Crimp edges of the pie with a fork. With a sharp knife, make several decorative 2-inch slashes in the top crust. Brush the crust with the egg wash and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar as desired.

Place a piece of aluminum foil on a baking sheet; place pie on foil (this is to catch and juices that bubble over). Place in the oven and bake for approximately 45-50 minutes, until the filling is bubbling through the slashes. Remove from oven.

Warm the remaining caramel in the microwave for 1-2 minutes, until liquid (it will boil a little – but don’t worry). Drizzle remaining caramel over the crust.

Let the pie cool for at least 1 hour before serving.

Everyone's indulging their sweet tooth these days.

Is there something in the air? There seem to be a whole lot of sweetness going on in the food media this week. People are baking pies, they’re drinking hot chocolate, they’re making cookies. I think it’s the fall weather and the start of the holiday season – people are just in the mood for sugar. Of course, I’m always in the mood for sugar – everyone else is just catching up to me.

On another note, thanks to everyone who came out to the Food Blogger Happy Hour at The Black Squirrel this Wednesday! As usual, I had a great time – DC Food Bloggers have proven, once again, that we’re a lively, friendly, and welcoming bunch. Can’t wait to see everyone in December.

And now, the recipes I want to try from this week’s Internet surfing:

• The Dirty Radish is baking up sage cookies, which look like a cross between a cookie and a cracker. I love desserts that walk the savory and sweet line, and these look lovely.

• The Sassy Radish makes homemade ricotta cheese. This is one of those things I always mean to make, yet never do.

• David Liebowitz poaches pears. Yes, it sounds so simple, but why do they look so delicious?

• The Arugula Files makes Mark Bittman’s Brussels sprouts with figs and bacon. Yum.

And in other foodie news:

• David Guas, former Pastry Chef for the Passion Food Group, just came out with a new cookbook, DamGood Sweet (also the name of his consulting business). Best Bites interviews Guas about his Louisiana heritage influences his desserts (think banana pudding, lemon icebox pie, and sweet-potato tarte tatin).

• The Washington Post’s Flour Girl tests King Arthur Flour’s new unbleached cake flour. Man, I want to get my hands on some of that floury action.

• DCist interviews Zaytinya’s Mike Isabella about his controversial performance on Top Chef.

• The Internet Food Association revisits an old post, with some updates – what’s the value of culinary school?

• Um, would you buy 7-11 brand wine? What if it were only $4 a bottle? Soon, this will no longer be a hypothetical question. Via Top Shelf.

• Cathy at We Love DC previews the Metropolitan Cooking & Entertaining Show.

• Gradually Greener wonders about the mechanics of hot chocolate pricing.

• And speaking of hot chocolate, Metrocurean looks at some of the hot chocolate cocktails around town.

Happy Friday!

At last, something that won't give me a toothache.

There’s been a whole lot of dessert going on in my tiny apartment kitchen. Cupcakes, turnovers, more cupcakes, ice cream, Oreos – it’s been a regular sugar fest.

So this Sunday, I went down a savory path. I was inspired by that deconstructed vichyssoise pizza over at The Arugula files, so my mind was already turning to pizza. And as I was flipping thorough “Barefoot In Paris,” Ina Garten’s Paris-themed cookbook, I spotted a recipe for Pissaladière. Also called “Provencal Pizza,” it consists of a flatbread topped with sauteed onions, garlic, olives, and anchovies. It looked perfect.

Now, I am an adventurous eater, but eating plain anchovies on pizza is too much for me (even the anchovy-topped pizza at 2Amys isn’t to my taste – and I trust in their ingredients). So I skipped them, and just had the olives and onions. I wasn’t able to find really good quality olives in the Giant (surprise, surprise), so I settled for regular Kalamata’s. They were fine, but I bet a really nice oil-cured olive would have been better. The onions, however, were fabulous – you cook them over the stove before placing them on the pizza, and they go all soft and sweet and silky.

The crust, however, was a little disappointing. I usually love Ina Garten’s recipes – especially for baked items – but the crust was a little too bready, yeasty and soft for my taste. I know that part of it is my oven, but I also think the recipe is over-leavened – an entire packet of yeast to two cups of flour seems like a lot to me. I think I still prefer The Bread Bible’s pizza crust - even in my crappy oven, it still turns out light, airy, and crispy.

Still, the sweet streak has been broken, thank goodness. And this was a lovely savory recipe to break it with.

I'm totally using those onions as a pizza topping again.

Get the recipe for Pissaladière over at The Food Network.

Out of the internet, into the bar.

Beer. Bar food. Food Bloggers. Adams Morgan. It sounds like a recipe for a fabulous evening, no?

If you think so then you should definitely come out to the third monthly food blogger happy hour this Wednesday at 6:00. We’ll be at The Black Squirrel, which has an excellent beer list, laid-back vibe and, although I haven’t sampled it, good bar food too. Look for us on the second floor.

If you’re planning on attending, please leave a comment here, or on any of the “planning committee’s” blogs: The Arugula Files, Gradually Greener, Capital Spice, Capital Cooking, and the Beer Spotter.

November Food Blogger Happy Hour
Wednesday, Nov. 4, 6:00 pm
The Black Squirrel
2427 18th St NW
Washington, DC 20009
www.blacksquirreldc.com

Devil's food cupcakes with almond frosting - just some of the bounty for sale at the DC Food Blogger's Bake Sale.

Thanks to everyone who came out to the first annual (we hope ) DC Food Blogger Spooktacular Bakesale Saturday! We sold out of everything – and raised $500.50 for Martha’s Table. Highlights included watching really cute kids parade around in their Halloween Costumes, talking frosting with Warren Brown (!!!), and seeing the baking talents of DC’s food bloggers -like those cupcakes in the photo from Thrifty DC Cook. Adventures in Shaw did a fabulous job of organizing – kudos to her for putting the event together!

Little kids were especially drawn to the packaging.

Prettily wrapped snickerdoodles from Macheesmo.

Did I tell you it rained?

Also prettily wrapped cranberry muffins from The Arugula Files.

The world needs more loaf cakes.

Chocolate loaf cake from Gradually Greener.

Also, my chocolate peanut butter cupcakes were a hit! And my individual packaging solution – placing the cupcakes in plastic disposable wine cups and wrapping them in cellophane, actually worked out really well.

I topped them with little pieces of chopped peanut butter cups. Yum.

So, as promised on Friday, here is the recipe. I really can’t take credit for them – these cupcakes owe their deliciousness to the combined genius of Martha Stewart and Ina Garten. Who knew that Martha Stewart’s “easy” cupcake recipe would turn out to be such a stroke of genius?

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes
From Martha Stewart

This recipe made between 18-24 cupcakes – it depends on how full you fill the muffin tins.

Ingredients
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup warm water
3/4 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line two standard muffin tins with paper liners.

Sift cocoa powder into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment (this is to get the lumps out of the cocoa – no need to sift the other dry ingredients). Add the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and whisk until evenly combined. Add eggs, warm water, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla, and mix until smooth, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl to assure batter is well mixed.

Divide batter evenly among muffin cups, filling each 2/3 full. Bake until tops spring back when touched, about 20 minutes, rotating pan once if needed. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool completely. Frost with Peanut butter frosting (recipe follows) and decorate as desired (I sprinkled mine with pieces of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups).

Peanut Butter Frosting
Adapted from 2006, Barefoot Contessa at Home, By Ina Garten

Ingredients
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 cup creamy peanut butter (I used JIF – it was fabulous)
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/3 cup heavy cream

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix together the sugar, peanut butter, butter, vanilla and salt until creamy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the cream and mix until the frosting is smooth and glossy.

This was my favorite - I love that unicorn Pegasus!

I had to share some of my photos from Halloween – these costumes are just too cute to keep to myself. Most of these are taken from the Halloween costume contest at the 14th and U Farmer’s Market – and a couple are from my own night out later.

Superdog!

This was a special moment - a duck's first cupcake.

I love this dog - I mean, ladybug.

A tortured 1950's housewife and The Lady In Red.

Pippi Longstocking.

Swine Flu.

Mark Sanford and his Argentinian mistress. DC does political costumes well, no?

Pumpkins from Homestead Farms. Happy Halloween!

Tonight: lots of baking, frosting making, and whoopie pie and cupcake assembling.

Tomorrow: Food Blogger Bakesale and Halloween parties.

Sunday: Singing, cleaning, and possibly collapsing.

For those of you who weighed in on my search for a perfect/doable Halloween costume – many thanks. I finally made my final selection, based on your ideas, laziness, and my current obsession with Mad Men. I loved Meg’s idea of being Lucille Ball, but that costume would take a little bit too much work to put together. Instead, I’m going to be a generic, tortured 1950s housewife. I have a full skirted 50’s style dress that I’ll pair with an apron and pearls, and I intend to walk around with a large bottle marked “Valium” and a martini glass. Hopefully people will get it. If I really get it together, I might hand out these (even if it might be fake, the sentiment rings true).

So now that you’ve heard about my fabulous Halloween plans, I’d love to hear yours. Any creative costume ideas you’re dying to share? Any great parties you want to brag about? Any Halloween-themed food you’re going to be making? Please share!

And now, onto the roundup. Recipes I want to try, as found on my RSS reader:

• Barbecued chicken meatloaf, from Lemmonex (this looks perfect for lunches).
• Fig and honey tart from Serious Eats.
• Fig candy from Gradually Greener.
• Applesauce cake, from Measured Memory.
• Braised kale with farro and Gruyere and Parmesan from The Arugula Files (part of her experiment to actually like kale).

And in other news:

• This tale of cupcake woe over at Sassy Radish, who recently made four dozen cupcakes for a friend’s wedding, is possibly my favorite thing I read all week. Anyone who’s had to make a large batch of any baked good in a home kitchen will sympathize – the batter is too big for your mixer, the frosting is impossible to pipe, etc. Haven’t we all had those days when we’ve been a tad overambitious in the kitchen?

• The Black Rooster, a local dive bar, isn’t closing after all. Via Young and Hungry.

• The Washington Post has a much-needed primer on making stock.

• I cannot wait to find out the results of The Tipsy Baker’s onion ring challenge, which pits homemade onion rings against Burger King’s.

• I love the candy corn street art, from the Mansion Mogul.

• Behold this beautiful pumpkin cake from Rose’s Heavenly Cakes.

Happy Friday! And Happy (early) Halloween!