Food

In a perfect world, Ina Garten and Martha Stewart are my aunts, the Neely's are our next-door neighbors, and Deb Perelman is my best friend. You see, Deb is the genius behind the Smitten Kitchen (smittenkitchen.com). The Smitten Kitchen is my go-to website for awesome recipes. In the past day, I have used two recipes from her blog.

First was a pie crust so righteous that I can't claim any credit for it. After I put the pie (apple!) together, I cut up the scraps and dusted them with cinniesugar and baked them ahead of the pie, as a little treat while we waited for the pie to bake and cool. Even those little scraps were freaking fantastic. This is tremendously flaky piecrust, with layers of strata that just flaked off. Anyway, here is the recipe:

2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup of ice water
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 sticks of cold butter

First, dice the butter, separate the cubes, and then stick it in the freezer for about 10 minutes. Then mix the flour, sugar, and salt in a bowl, and stick that in the freezer too. Then make your ice water. After everything has chilled for at least 10 minutes, combine the flour mixture and the butter. Cut the butter into the flour with a pastry cutter. I have heard of people using 2 knives, but this sounds like a pain the ass and possibly a safety hazard. The semi-frozen butter is going to be hard to work with, but keep cutting the butter in until it is the size of small peas. Then, drizzle about a half cup of the ice water in, and knead it with your hands. keep adding water to it a bit at a time until the dough comes together. I think I used just over 3/4 c. in total. When you are done, little butter chunks should be visible in the dough. Split the dough lump in two pieces (enough for 2 single crust pies, or one double crust), shape into disks, and then wrap up in saran or toss in a zippy and throw in the fridge for at least one hour. After the dough has chilled, roll it out, using flour to prevent sticking, and place in your pie pan. Trim the scraps, dust with cinniesugar, and toss in the oven at 400'F until crisp and browned, while you are filling your pie. I filled my pie with apples, and baked at 400'F for about 55-60 minutes, but I think my oven is funny, so just keep an eye on it. Bake, cool (or not!), enjoy!

Second recipe is one I have tried for the first time tonight. I was thinking about this recipe for a few weeks. It's a salted caramel butter sauce. Now, I do make caramel candies, and these taste similar to them, but it has a richer, deeper flavor than the candies. It's quick to make and it's perfect over apple pie!

1 c. sugar
1/2 c. plus 2 tbsp heavy cream at room temperature
6 tbsp salted butter cut into pieces
(I also added 1 tsp kosher salt to mine beause I think Deb's butter is saltier than mine)

Melt the sugar in a pot at least 5 inches deep, over medium heat. The sugar will caramelize and clump up. Keep stirring! It will eventually melt and turn a dark copper color. At this time, dump the butter and salt (if using) into the caramel. The mix will bubble and kind of separate. Stir for about 30 seconds. Turn off the stove and remove pan from heat, and slowly pour in the heavy cream. Stir until smooth. Pour into a jar (makes about 1 1/3 cups of sauce), and put in the fridge. The sauce will solidify a bit, so when pouring over ice cream or pie, you will need to microwave it. Pure caramelly perfection.

I could say I deliberately didn't include pictures so you would be forced to make your own to see what it looks like, but the truth is that I just didn't have my camera handy.