July 4th upcoming! column-Strawberry Shortcake!

Hi again! Sorry about the comments thing--I know you're trying to comment but I'm not posting for some reason--pilot error, I'll get it soon. What thunderstorms we're having, brrr!rr! Got completely soaked today.

Make hot chocolate--heat a cup of milk in the microwave, add a square or two of (maybe chopped) semi-sweet or milk chocolate, stir until melted. REAL hot chocolate.

Newest column Wednesday I think. It so changes but right now I'm thinking popovers, maybe chocolate ones. Yum?

Hope you all are summering well. It's a wonderful time. So often flat-out too, so remember to breathe.
Gotta go. Lightning!! (Remember that song--Thunder! Lightning! The way you love me is frightening!!! Okay so I'm not getting on that show! But I like that song...)


I'm scooping myself here--thanks blog readers! Hope you enjoy this treat!!

Strawberry Shortcake or biscuit?
For traditionalists, there is no choice: it's the biscuit, crusty golden-brown under the sweet strawberries and whipped cream.
But the melding crowd weighs in: a soft cake becomes imbued with the delicious juice of the red strawberries.
Although I like both, I have perhaps more sympathy with those that like the softer cake--but we, my friends, are in the wrong.
According to the iconic Fannie Merritt Farmer, who wrote her famed cookbook in 1896, and my edition, updated impeccably in 1942 by Wilma Lord Perkins, strawberries and cream combined with a soft sponge cake are called "Strawberry Baskets."
Therefore, here is a recipe for the old traditional biscuit Strawberry Shortcake, much easier to make now than in earlier, more old fashioned days. Some in the past just poured cream over the biscuit and berries, and did not whip the cream as it was more difficult to keep cold. To make the cream cold enough to whip, the dedicated used their frozen pond ice from the winter, which was kept buried in layers of wood shavings in the cold house. Nor did our forebearers get shipments of luscious berries throughout the colder part of the year as we do from the Southern hemisphere and California. Strawberry Shortcake was an annual treat for the most part--sometimes the lucky had a very small fall crop--but strawberries were usually just in June.

Strawberry Shortcake

Biscuit
2 c. flour
3 tablespoons white sugar
2 t. baking powder
5 T. butter
1 egg
2/3 cup cream

Strawberries
16 oz.--1 lb.--strawberries (medium size container)
optional:
1 lemon, zest & juice or balsamic vinegar--few drops of the best
1/4 cup sugar

Cream
1 container heavy cream
1 T. sugar (or more--taste to see if you like it sweeter)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Put all the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Stir lightly with a fork until combined. Make a well or hole in the middle of the mixture and break the egg into it and add the cream. Stir wet ingredients together gently and then stir into dry ingredients until just combined. Cut or use your fingers to make the butter into pea-sized pieces. Mix into ingredients in the bowl. Roll out on a floured counter and cut with a biscuit cutter or the top of a glass or cup. Bake on an ungreased cooking sheet at 350 degrees until golden brown. Pry one open and make sure they are done in the middle.

Cool the biscuits a few minutes so you don't curdle the whipped cream. Then cut the biscuits open while still warm and pile strawberries on and slather with whipped cream. Put the top back on if you wish.

Preparing the strawberries: wash and hull all strawberries and cut them into mouth-sized pieces. Add lots to each biscuit. If desired, you can sprinkle them with sugar and let them macerate--although I have never found this to make them very sweet. If the berries need sweetening, 'tis better to cut them into very small pieces, mash them and cover them with sugar. Don't let them sit too long or they might disflavor, but 15 min. of this is usually enough to sweeten any berries. When in doubt, taste and adjust. The gourmet may wish to try using lemon to flavor the berries or balsamic vinegar, which bring out the sweet taste of the berries by tart contrast (it's actually good.)

Whipping the cream: the neatest way to whip cream is to do it in a jar. Take the cold heavy cream and fill a regular, peanut butter size glass jar about three quarters full--you've got to leave room for the cream to expand as it whips--put the lid on tightly and shake it. Just make sure to keep your hands from warming the jar too much or you will make butter. Hold it firmly but coolly. When the cream starts to thicken, open the jar and put in the sugar. Shake 'till whipping consistency, then stir in vanilla.
Enjoy!

pictures

Pictures are coming again, I swear!!

some Noisy Oven newspaper columns

This column ran on April 18, 2007 (many thanks again to all my newspaper readers):

Blognote: You can make your own puff pastry and freeze it. Spelling correction: tart to tarte, please mention any others. Here's the traditional recipe on the traditional site, which is totally delish: http://www.tarte-tatin.com/english/page/recette-en.html

Fantastic 40 minute Apple Tart

Have only 40 minutes and 4 ingredients? Have only 6 apples and company's coming? Need an easy recipe that doesn't require you to do a lot? Make this version of Tarte Tatin!
Note: This is not exactly Tarte Tatin, and someone who is into tradition will tell you so. In France, where the sisters Tatin invented the Tart, there is a club that dresses up and goes around enthroning people and giving them a scroll for making or appreciating the traditional, 101-year-old recipe (which uses, among other small differences from mine, a flaky or shortbread pie crust.) My favorite part is their banner, which has as one of its quarters a giant circle full of many Tarte Tatins...mmm. This recipe, though it will not get you enthroned as Chevalier-Compagnon des Lichonneux de Tarte Tatin, is lovely, elegant and delicious. It will be really appreciated.

1 frozen puff pastry sheet, thawed

1/2 stick butter, softened

1/2 c. white sugar

7-9 Gala apples (can use 6 if desperate), peeled, cored, and cut into eighths (one of those apple corers that cuts the apple into slices is handy for this)

cast iron skillet

Open package of frozen puff pastry to thaw -- take it right out of the wrapper and open the pastry out flat as much as possible. Peel, core, and cut apples into eighths.
Smear the butter over the whole bottom (inside) of a cast iron skillet -- it will seem like way too much but isn't! Sprinkle sugar on top, then arrange apples, in slightly overlapping pattern, on top of sugar. Put on low heat and let cook for 20 minutes -- do NOT stir. Do NOT burn. (If worrying about getting the apples too dark, turn off pan for a few minutes -- the heat in the cast iron pan will continue to cook the apples.) Juices will bubble and apples will turn golden brown.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Put thawed pastry on top of apples in skillet. Bake in oven until pastry is puffed and brown, about 20 minutes usually.
Cool 10 minutes, then flip out onto plate. Scrape out any extra juice or apples in pan and put in top. Eat warm. It's great!

Tips: My family prefers Gala apples, with mild taste and good texture, but you can use other types of apples or even other fruits. Softer fruits will be more tender. You may need to adjust cooking times for different apples or fruits -- just make sure they are cooked through and making a delicious golden brown sauce.
The apples alone can be served without crust (I call this "Caramelized Apples"), or with vanilla ice cream. Ice cream can also be served with the whole tart.
Pie crust, flaky or shortbread, can used instead of puff pastry, also. Follow either cooking directions on package or your own recipe, but check for doneness when cooking -- you may need to change how much cooking is needed. (Remember: bottom's on top while cooking, so this will be easy.)


Peanut Butter Brownies for Picnics
ran May 2007 in print

It's the time of year for picnics! Pack a nice lunch--cold meat or hard-boiled eggs, crusty bread, potato salad, tiny tomatoes, lemonade, thin watermelon slices--and peanut butter brownies!
If you don't like peanut butter, try using broken up candy bars that you like--even those with added ingredients that are unusual. I have known this recipe to be made with broken up milk chocolate and pretzel pieces.

5 squares Baker's unsweetened chocolate or Ghirardelli semi-sweet (if you like less dark)
1 stick butter plus 1 T. butter
2 eggs
1 1/2 c. sugar
2 t. vanilla
1 1/2 c. flour
1 c. mini peanut butter cups or broken-up peanut butter filled candy bar

Break or chop chocolate into 1-inch chunks. Microwave or melt chocolate with butter until just liquid. Chocolate doesn't always look melted even when it is--stir it a little to see. Cool chocolate and butter--until they are still liquid but not hot. Beat eggs and sugar together in a big bowl until lemon-colored, with a fork or whisk. Add cooled chocolate and butter (if you add them hot, they will cook the eggs in the bowl.) Add flour and stir until just combined. Stir in 3/4 cup of peanut butter cups or candy bar. Grease a glass pie pan and pour in the batter. Arrange remaining 1/4 c. of peanut butter cups or candy bar on top, making sure the pieces are half submerged. Cook at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes, until a knife inserted one inch from the edge comes out clean. Make sure you are not testing for doneness through a piece of melted peanut butter cup or candy bar. Cool in pan 10 -15 minutes. Stores well. Tastes great in the outdoors.

Falling in Chocolate
ran in print June 2007

A magnet on my fridge says, "Forget love, fall in chocolate." Okay, let's do it--or at least, let our desserts fall in chocolate. Anything is better dipped in chocolate--if you have no dessert, take potato chips, melt some cooking chocolate, dip the chips and voila! Store-bought cookies can be dipped in chocolate to become a partly homemade treat. Strawberries are classic. If you want the beautiful, slightly salty Chocolate Tears, dip lightly roasted cashews in this delicious chocolate coat.

Chocolate to coat:

2 squares Ghirardelli semi-sweet cooking chocolate (use the thin bars, much easier to melt)
1 t. butter

Break chocolate into pieces. Melt in microwave for about 25 seconds, completely stir together. May need to microwave for another 15 sec.
Chocolate bars that you eat may be used too, but they won't be as dark in flavor, which you may prefer.
It's traditional to cover about half of the cookie, cake, strawberry, other fruit, potato chip, etc. in the chocolate coat by dipping them or using a utensil you like to smear it on and then arrange them all nicely on a plate or dish. You may make fancy swirls and elaborate dips, but warning: you may end up splashed with chocolate. There are worse fates.
This chocolate coat/dip may also be used as fondue (although it's too thick for the fantastic chocolate fountain--it can be thinned with milk or more butter.)
This recipe may be doubled or tripled, etc., depending on how much you want. Microwave chocolate and butter in small batches or in a good pan on top of a very low flame on the stove top, because you really don't want to burn chocolate very much as it smells and tastes awful. With a little, very little, burn you can add a little salt, and finely chopped nuts if you're daring, and call it: Smoked Chocolate Fondue.

The Fastest Chocolate Fudge Recipe Ever

1/4 t. salt
12 oz. milk chocolate Ghirardelli chips
4 oz. Ghirardelli thin semi-sweet cooking chocolate, broken into quarters
4 1/2 T. butter
1 can (14 oz.) Eagle brand condensed milk--minus 1/4 c. (take 1/4 c. out of the 14 oz. and don't use it.)

Stir all ingredients together in a large glass bowl. Microwave for 1 min, 20 sec. (exactly on my microwave, check yours for the time needed for entirely melted, but just melted, chocolate). Stir when it comes out, should start thickening right away. Refrigerate. Try to let it solidify before you eat it, although of course it's great warm and melty. Excellent for emergency administration of fudge.
Make a Fast Rocky Road by cooling this two minutes after microwaving and stirring, and then stir in mini-marshmallows, chocolate chunks or chips, and nuts if you like them, preferably roasted and salted nuts. Then refrigerate.
This is best the first day. Be sure to wrap either version of the fudge tightly in wax paper or plastic after cooling as it dries out quickly.

Chocolate Covered Fudge

Make the Fastest Fudge Recipe Ever. Leave at least a few pieces to solidify, and cut into bonbon, candy-sized pieces. Coat them with slightly cooled chocolate coat using a spoon or knife. Cool. Enjoy. The tops of the bonbons may be decorated for gifts, company or fun with very fine small icing flowers or dots.

Whoa, here we are!!

Hi! Welcome to the new blogspace of The Noisy Oven!
We are very excited to be back! My apologies to anyone who was looking for us while I was down. But now we have a new space and address and I hope you'll read and talk to me here. And cook with me!!!
I have some extremely exciting news: I have become a member of the Daring Bakers!!!!!!