Old Glory Pie

In honor of Independence Day, I finally turned on my oven!  I thought I would do something a little different this 4th of July.  Normally I bake the best apple pie ever (it truly, truly is) or my flag cake.  This year, I combined the two...sort of...and made a flag pie with blueberries and red cherries. 
  My favorite thing about this time of year isn't the summer heat (seriously, it's not the heat), the fireworks, the long weekend, the homemade ice cream, or the fresh corn, but the beautiful, endless bounty of fresh berries. (And before you even think it, I know that cherries are not a berry.  In fact, Bubba, Tink, and I just had a long discussion about how much a cherry is not a berry. One of us even resorted to googling "is a cherry a berry," but I won't say who.) So, stock up on all the berries in your local farmer's market or grocery store and toss any berries that don't get eaten into a freezer bag and they will keep until next year.  These blueberries came from a farm less than an hour from our house!


You will need:

5 cups dark cherries (fresh or frozen)
1 1/2 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen)
3 T lemon juice
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 heaping T instant tapioca pearls (1T plus 1/4 cup if using frozen cherries)
1T butter, cut into pieces
two pie crusts

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Wash and pit your cherries (or open up three bags of frozen) and put them in a large bowl.  Wash and check your blueberries for stems and place them in a smaller bowl.  Toss the cherries with 2T of the lemon juice, the blueberries with the remaining 1T of juice.  Mix together the sugar and the cornstarch.  Add 1 cup of the mixture to the cherries and stir gently.

Then add the remaining 1/4 cup of mixture to the blueberries.

If you are using fresh berries, get a heaping T of tapioca and sprinkle the pearls onto the blueberries until you are left with a real tablespoon.  Sprinkle the remainder onto the cherries.  Stir.  If you are using frozen berries, add 1T of tapioca pearls to the blueberries and 1/4 cup pearls to the cherries.  Either way, let the mixtures sit for 15 minutes. 

While the berries and cherries are hanging out (or as the kids would say, chillin' out, maxin', relaxin', all cool) place one pie crust into your pie pan and set the other out on a floured countertop or pastry cloth.  Cut off the bottom of one side so that you have a nice, long, evenly flat side.  Then, using a pizza cutter, cut three long, even pieces for the 3 long stripes.  (You will eventually end up with 3 long stripes, 3 short stripes, and 6 stars.)

Set those aside and cut one more.  Now cut that one into thirds.

If you have a mini star cookie cutter, good for you!  If you had one but lost it (like me) or have never had one you can freehand the stars or use a template.  I used a cupcake decoration.  You need 6 stars.

Now you have your stars and stripes!

Bend a bit of aluminum foil to create a dam for the blueberries in the upper left-hand quadrant of your pie dish. 

Pour your blueberries into your dam, then pour the cherries into the remaining 3/4 of the pie.  Slowly remove the foil.

Place the butter pieces around the pie.

Now add your stars and stripes!  Stars over the blueberries, of course.  :)

Tuck the edges of the stripes into the bottom pie crust.

Bake at 375 for 40-60 minutes.  The sauce will thicken up quite a bit while it bakes.

Don't run to the dry cleaners and the library while the pie is in the oven because it may only need 40 minutes and 60 minutes will make the top crust kind of brown.  But even if you do run errands, the pie is going to taste AWESOME.

My favorite thing about this pie is that the berries (and cherries) really shine.  Their natural sweetness is enhanced by the mere 1 cup of sugar and not overwhelmed.  Have you ever had one of those cherry pies that taste like pure, gooey sugar?  Ick.  This pie is all about the berries.  And cherries, which are not a berry dang it! :) 

You can taste the perfectly ripe blueberries and the tang of the fresh cherries.  This pie is a showcase for berries!  And cherries!! 

I hope you enjoy it every bit as much as we did.  I doubt there will be any left for us for the actual 4th of July.  Guess I'll have to make another one!!

Happy 4th of July!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anything Muffins

I call this recipe "anything muffins" because you can add pretty much any flavor, fruit, or confection to them and they taste amazing. From this one recipe I can make blueberry, orange, lemon poppy seed, cheddar, cranberry, chocolate chip (the kids favorite), and many more. The possibilities are endless. No matter what you add to this base recipe your muffins will be perfect and impressive. You'll never go back to those disappointing mixes.

You will need:
2 cups all-purpose flour (if you haven't switched to King Arthur...hurry up!)
3 tsp baking powder (aluminum free)
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 cup milk (more on what kind later)
1/4 cup oil



Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. I know it seems high. I would never bake a cake at 400 and cookies never bake at higher than 325, but the higher temperature is necessary for muffins. It's what gives them their dome tops!



Add your flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar to a large mixing bowl. If you use King Arthur you don't need to sift. :) Mix well.



Add your milk to a 2-cup measuring cup. Now, what kind of milk. It really doesn't matter, but remember that the higher the fat content, the fluffier the muffin. So use whole if you have it or mix 1/2 skim and a 1/2 whole or 2%. I used a mixture of skim and half and half. It makes a difference and let's face it, you aren't making muffins because they are healthy. Add the egg to the milk cup. (Thank you Smores for donating the egg.) Mix the egg and milk with a fork.



Now add your oil to the milk cup.



Make a well in the center of your dry ingredients.



Add your milk, egg, oil mixture all at once.



Stir just until combined. Overstirring will make tough muffins. The batter will be lumpy.

The fun part! This time around I made chocolate chip muffins for my girls. I added 1/3 cup of mini chocolate chips. Okay...I dumped a good portion of the bag into the mix and it was probably more like 1/2 cup.



Orange muffins: add 1 tsp of orange extract and 1/2 tsp of orange zest, drizzle with an orange powdered sugar glaze
Lemon Poppy seed: 2 tsp lemon extract and 1 tsp poppy seeds
Bacon and Cheddar: 1/4 cup bacon and 1/4 cup cheddar cheese
Blueberry: 1 cup blueberries
Cranberry: 3/4 cup dried cranberries that have been soaked in apple juice (or use craisins)
Snickerdoodle: 1/4 tsp cream of tartar (decrease baking powder by 1/4 tsp) and sprinkle tops with cinnamon sugar
Peanut Butter Cup: 3/4 cup chopped peanut butter cups

Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners and evenly divide batter between each cup. I added a bit too much to each of my muffin cups this time around and only ended up with 11 muffins. You'll get 12 muffins out of this recipe just like I always do...except this time because I was taking pictures. If you do end up with an empty spot or two keep the liner in the cup so that the pan doesn't scorch while the muffins bake. And please excuse the sad state of my muffin tin. It has been baking muffins for me for 15 years and can't help how old and abused it looks.



Bake for 18-20 minutes. Check them at 16 minutes. If they have started to brown on top and a toothpick comes out clean, they are done. Nothing worse than a dry, overbaked muffin.



(My new green frying pan wanted to be in the picture. I never put it away because I like looking at it.)



So fluffy, so tender, soooo delicious. The perfect weekend morning treat!



I don't make these for the kids during the school week because of all the white flour, but they are the perfect muffin for the weekend. Just keep them in a bowl under a towel and your family can snack on them all weekend. They also freeze really well. Wrap in tin foil, place in a freezer bag, and pull one out whenever you want a quick treat. Let it thaw and then warm one muffin in the microwave on half power for 8 seconds.



Enjoy!!

Workout Shake

I hate working out. Really, really hate it, but I love it when I am finished. My preferred workout time is the morning, before breakfast. I can't eat and then work out. Big yuck, but I always need something (cold) when I'm done torturing myself. This shake cools me down, fills me up, and gives me energy to get through the rest of the day. It's my reward for sweating and crying my way through another workout.

You will need:

1/4 cup frozen blueberries (or fresh)
1 scoop soy protein powder
a banana
8 oz water
4 (or more) cubes of ice
blender
1/2 T flaxseed oil (optional)



You can find soy protein powder at any store--I get mine at Wally Mart. It's not at all expensive and lasts a long time, but you do get less than what the canister implies.



That's a new can. Really! It's like opening a bag of chips and more than half the bag is air. I suppose the protein powder "settled?" Hmm. Still, it's cheap and will last you for months.

Add all of your ingredients to the blender in no particular order. (I find that this shake is plenty sweet, but if you want it even sweeter you can add a teaspoon or so of honey.)



Blend.



This shake supposedly makes two servings, but I've found that it really makes about one and a half. I suppose if you weren't replacing your breakfast with the shake it would be two servings. I can usually find a monkey who want to the finish the shake for me or I put the remainder in the fridge and have it for a snack later on in the afternoon. It makes a great 3 o'clock pick-me-up!



The shake comes out a beautiful purple color. My pictures don't do it justice...it's hard to photograph glass.



Enjoy!

Flag Cake

As the 4th of July holiday approaches picnickers and backyard bbq-ers all across the nation frost their sheet cakes and decorate them with blueberries, raspberries, and even strawberries. The red, white, and blue Flag Cake is a unique American tradition. Even non-bakers can throw together a box cake and slap on some berries. It really could not be easier! It is also the perfect project to let your kids help with--and you can feel good about encouraging them to eat the decorations as they help. So, make your favorite cake from the box or from scratch, make some buttercream or open a tub of white frosting, and wash some blueberries and raspberries (or strawberries if you prefer)--make sure you get them really dry so they don't leak all over the cake.



You will need:

a rectangular cake (size doesn't really matter...hee hee)
white frosting to cover the cake
blueberries
raspberries (or strawberries)


If you are familiar with my blog then you know I didn't use a box cake. I made Martha Stewart's flag cake, which uses her white cake recipe. I didn't change much. She used a 12x18 inch sheet cake pan and I didn't have one and couldn't find one at Wally Mart, so I just used a 9x13. It was perfect!



I used buttercream instead of her cream cheese frosting because we aren't cream cheese people. You will probably get a truer white from the cream cheese, but I used Smart Balance sticks, which are pretty yellow and my frosting still came out white. I do recommend giving her white cake recipe a try. It was unbelievably tender and so, so yummy.

I followed her directions. She recommends using a toothpick to outline the flag on the cake. Super easy.



Now call in the kiddies and show them where to place the raspberries. I did the first stripe for them to give them a better idea how to line them up. Then I left them alone and let them have fun.





We didn't try to line up the blueberries at all after the initial outlining. We just took handfuls and pressed them into the frosting.





Boy, oh boy is this cake delicious!!





You will definitely want to store it in the fridge until you are ready to eat it. We dug in right away. :) I would not recommend applying the fruit the night before. Even if you get them super dry, the natural juices tend to leak out after a few hours. The juices give the cake an excellent flavor, but they don't do much for the presentation. We didn't have much left to store in the fridge overnight!



I'll leave you with the perfect bite. Enjoy!

Mini Blueberry Pies

I love those rolled, refrigerated pie crusts. They taste even better than homemade, I think. Well, homemade without lard. Every Southerner knows lard pie crusts are the Crown Jewel. But these store bought crusts are on-hand when you need them and the perfect excuse to make a pie at the last minute. I made these mini pies after dinner one night when the family was begging for a dessert and I didn't have anything planned, but did have two store bought pie crusts and some homemade low-sugar blueberry jam. As fast as these little suckers were eaten, I'm sure I'll be making them again soon!



I unrolled the crusts and used a large biscuit cutter to cut out the mini crusts. I got nine perfect circles from each crust, but had a lot leftover and could have kneaded it out and made more. 9 mini pies is enough for a family of four, though. :)



I had a munchkin spoon about a tablespoon full of jam



onto each pie bottom on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet.



When she finished with each pie I placed on the top crust and used a fork to seal the edges.



Cut three tiny slits into the top of each pie to let out the steam. I brushed the tops with milk and sprinkled on some cinnamon sugar.



Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.




We learned the hard way that the filling gets very, very hot. So be careful when biting into these little guys!