Recipe Notes: Apple Crumble

18 April 2020

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated, September 2019

I'm almost always ready to try a new recipe for an apple dessert, even now when it is well past prime apple season. However, the varieties that the recipe recommends are available year round and the freshness of the apples is less an issue for cooked apples than it is for raw apples. I enjoyed a sidebar in the magazine article that provided one view of the differences between a crumble and a betty, buckle, cobbler, crisp, slump/grunt, pandowdy, and sonker. 

Four pounds of apples (actually a little under with 7 golden delicious and 2 honey crisp apples) were peeled, cored, and cut into ¾-inch pieces. These were tossed with sugar, lemon juice, salt, and cinnamon and the mixture was transferred to an 8-inch baking pan. This was covered tightly with foil and cooked in a 400° oven for 35 minutes. While the apples cooked the streusel topping was prepared by mixing together flour, finely chopped almonds, sugar, and salt then stirring in melted butter, water, and vanilla. After the apples had cooked they were removed from the oven and the topping was scattered over the top. The crumble was cooked until the topping was evenly browned and the filling bubbling. It took 1 hour 25 minutes to prepare the dessert.

The recipe's goal was for a dessert focussed on the apples and it delivered on this promise. The apples are only minimally seasoned, and more importantly minimal sweetened, so their natural flavors come through. The topping is very crunchy with a nice almond flavor. It holds up well over the course of the week or so that we had this dessert. It wasn't as crunchy as when it was fresh but it still provided a good contrast with the softer apple filling. The filling was a little runny the first time we ate the crumble but it firmed up for the times we had it as a leftover. This dessert is worth making again, it is certainly much easier to make than a pie.

Recipe Notes: Easiest-ever biscuits

7 April 2020

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated, January 2019

So far as I can remember I have never made biscuits from scratch. I was vaguely aware there were different styles of biscuits and that they have something of a cult following among some people. But I had only had them made from a tube or with Bisquick for strawberry shortcake, which is how my mother served this dessert. Over a year ago Cook's Illustrated arrived with a recipe for a cream/drop biscuit that was touted as the easiest ever. (I appreciated how the article's description of the different ways to make biscuits.) I marked it as something to try and have just gotten around to it recently.

These biscuits were very easy to make and I have made them twice. A few dry ingredients—all-purpose flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt—were whisked together in a bowl. Cream, which was warmed to 95-100°, was stirred into the dry ingredients until incorporated. The batter was dropped onto a baking sheet from a ⅓-cup measuring cup and baked at 450°. I halved the recipe, using 1 cup of cream which produced 5 biscuits. The first time I made these I baked them for 13 minutes, trying to match the color of the photos in the magazine article, but found these were overdone. This first batch was served with strawberries and whipped cream for dessert. The second time I made these I baked them for 11 minutes; they were paler but not overdone and were served as a side dish with soup. It took just 30 minutes to make the biscuits.

I can't say this recipe has turned me into a biscuit lover. They were okay but I don't think I am going to explore more biscuit recipes as a result of trying this method. It was certainly quick and easy and except for the cream used ordinary pantry ingredients. The biscuits were best when eaten warm, fresh from the oven, when they had a tender crumb and slightly crisp crust. They were not as good when reheated in the microwave to have with jam and butter for breakfast.

Recipe Notes: Triple-Chocolate Cookies

13 April 2020

Recipe from America's Test Kitchen

I'd been wanting to make some chocolate cookies when a post appeared in a Facebook group about an ATK recipe for Triple Chocolate Cookies. I have made Triple Chocolate Cookies before using a recipe from Kitchen Trials and, of course, Chocolate Chubbies, which are a favorite of mine. But I was not familiar with this ATK recipe, which aired on the TV show in 2008, so I gave it a try.

Unsweetened chocolate, bittersweet chocolate chips, and butter were melted in a double boiler and set aside to cool slightly. Coffee powder (the recipe specified 2 teaspoons instant coffee, I used ½ teaspoon espresso powder) and vanilla extract were mixed together in a small bowl and the dry ingredients—flour (just ½ cup!), baking powder, and salt—were whisked together in a bowl. In a stand mixer, sugar and whole eggs were beaten for several minutes until light in color and thickened. The vanilla-coffee mixture was added followed by the chocolate mixture. The flour mixture and semisweet chocolate chips were folded into the batter which then rested for about 20 minutes to set up. Using a #60 scoop (about 1 tablespoon) the cookies were portioned onto baking sheets and baked for 12 minutes. This resulted in two batches or 49 cookies. The recipe indicated it makes 26 cookies using a heaping tablespoon of dough for each. Total time, including the rest time and both batches, was 1 hour 45 minutes.

These are very good cookies, well worth making again! They are rich, intensely chocolate, and chewy. The small size of the cookies is good, too: I eat two at a time for dessert, Diane thought one was the right number because they are so rich. They are still chewy even after sitting at room temperature for a few days. While very good I wonder if I should have baked them for 10 minutes instead of 12. During these shelter-in-place days due to the covid-19 pandemic I am not meeting with people to share these with, so I guess I'll have to eat them myself. 

Recipe Notes: Turkey Burgers

29 March 2020

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated, January 2020

Using ground turkey in place of ground beef does not tempt me often. However, I have used ground turkey for both sloppy Joes and for meat loaf and both of these turned out to be quite good. So when a recipe for turkey burgers appeared in Cook's Illustrated recently, encouraged by my previous experiences with ground turkey, I was eager to give it a try.

Ground turkey is not ground beef and this leads too some interesting differences in how you use it to make burgers. First, the meat is augmented with several ingredients before being shaped into patties: baking soda, soy sauce, butter, panko bread crumbs, gelatin, and grated Parmesan cheese. Second, the burgers are cooked differently. The patty is placed in a cold skillet. After heat is applied and the burgers begin to sizzle the pan is covered. The burgers are cooked for 2-3 minutes per side so this dish comes together pretty quickly, taking just over half an hour from start to finish. Starting with one pound of ground turkey I made 6 patties, three ounces each. Four of these were stored in the refrigerator to be cooked and eaten over the next few days. The leftovers took about one extra minute per side to cook.

It is probably not fair to think of these as hamburgers made with ground turkey, rather they are their own thing and not just some supposedly healthier version of the American classic.  They are good and arguably worth the extra effort that goes into making them. They have good flavor and are juicy and tender, thanks to the added ingredients, with a nice crust. Like hamburgers they have a tendency to tighten up when cooked thus it is very important to make a generous dimple in the middle of the patty before it is cooked. I don't know if we'll have these again but they were worth having for dinner several times this week.