Warm Apple Pie
I recently took a day trip to the King Arthur Flour company located in Norwich, Vermont. Their beautiful building is located just over the Connecticut River from Hanover, NH and boasts a state-of-the-art cooking school, an amazing bakery and store. The day I visited, I lucked out and was able to snag the last seat in the Winter Pies and Tarts class which was a four hour class on making the perfect pie crust and an elegant chocolate tart. I learned a few tips and tricks to help make my pie crusts flakier and walked out with a 9 inch apple pie and chocolate tart. Dinner for us that night was warm apple pie followed by a slice of chocolate tart!
I managed to take time to snap a picture of the pie before it disappeared! By the way, the yummy pie is sitting on top of one of Matt Mead’s lovely European style table runners. My mom, sister and I attended Matt’s Holiday Open House in Concord and purchased some beautiful items from his personal collection as well as the table runner. Stop by his blog for inspiration, great recipes, and to pre-order his new book, Recycled Style. Shop local when you can!
King Arthur Apple Pie
Ingredients:
5 firm medium apples
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon(King Arthur used a Vietnamese Cinnamon)
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon salt
Pastry for one 9-inch double crust pie
Directions:
Peel, core and slice apples and place them in a medium bowl.
Sprinkle the sugars, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt over the apples and toss lightly until the apples are completely coated.
Roll out half the pastry dough and place in a 9-inch pie plate.
Spoon filling into pastry shell
Roll out the remaining dough and place it over the apples. Seal and crimp the crust and vent the top of the pie.
Bake the pie in a pre-heated 375 degree oven, until it is golden brown and bubbly, about an hour.
Pie Pastry Recipe
2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, chilled and divided in half
1/4 to 1/2 cup ice water
Directions:
Combine flour and salt in a mixing bowl
Cut in half the chilled butter using a pastry blender or your fingers. For a tender result, the fat particles should be worked in quickly and remain about the size of currants.
Cut in the remaining butter, this time leaving larger shards, about the size of dried cranberries
Sprinkle about three tablespoons of the ice water over the flour/fat mixture and mix just until the dough begins to mass. You may need to add the additional tablespoon of ice water for this to occur
Remove the dough mass to a work surface, divide into two equal portions and press into flattened rounds about six inches in diameter. Wrap each in plastic wrap and chill for at least 1/2 hour.
Tips:
Try a 50/50 ratio of all-purpose flour and pastry flour for a softer crust
Roll dough from center out and use the plastic wrap on top of dough so it will not stick to the roller
To add sweetness to the dough, add 4 tablespoons of confectioner’s sugar to dry ingredients and 1 teaspoon of vanilla with the water
Happy New Year
I hope the first few weeks of 2013 have been healthy and happy for everyone. We have been busy at the farm clearing brush, pruning out the old blackberry canes and planning events for the upcoming year. First on the list will be some upcoming cooking classes which we hope to announce soon for the months of February and March. In addition, we are excited to announce a blueberry pruning workshop to be held on April 13 at 10am at the farm. Please check our home page of the website for further information about these events.
Knowing that most everyone has probably made the resolution to eat healthier for the new year, I have included a recipe for a hearty salad that includes…what else?…blueberries! Enjoy
Fresh Blueberry Kiwi Salad
4 cups mixed greens
½ cup to 1 cup fresh blueberries
3 kiwis, peeled and chopped in bite size pieces
¼ cup crumbled blue cheese or goat cheese
Combine greens, blueberries, kiwi and tomatoes. Sprinkle with cheese. Add cut up roasted chicken for a heartier meal and top with blueberry balsamic dressing.
Blueberry Balsamic Dressing
1 1/2 cups blueberries
3 Tbl. sugar
1/4 cup good balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon water
1/3 cup walnut oil
Combine all ingredients in sauce pan and cook over medium heat on stove until blueberries have cooked down. Let mixture cool and process to a smooth consistency in blender or magic bullet. Mix with good quality walnut oil.
In the photo below, I used a combination of romaine and kale for the greens and blue cheese for the topping. We made this salad in the Easy Summer Entertaining Cooking Class and used goat cheese from a local farm…yummy.
Happy Holidays!
Santa’s elves are working overtime at the farm this week baking, decorating and pruning blueberry bushes (ugh!) Join us Saturday, December 1 from 9 to 4 for a day of shopping at our farmhouse and also in the town of Strafford for artisan wares at Christmas in Strafford. Below are a few photos of the items for sale on Saturday and check out this easy easy recipe at the end of the post for a quick holiday treat using fresh local honey and goat cheese.
Fresh Figs With Goat Cheese and Honey
Fresh Figs
Goat Cheese
Honey
Pre-heat broiler. Halve the figs and place on cookie sheet. Place a small dollop of goat cheese on each fig and drizzle with honey. Place in oven and broil for 2 to 3 minutes or until the cheese starts to melt…yummy!
Jam It!
In yesterday’s post I mentioned that we now had time to visit some other farms for fresh fruit and produce. One of the best farms around our area for fruit throughout the growing season is Butternut Farm in Farmington, NH which my husband and I recently visited for some awesome peaches and early apples. We definitely have “farm envy” when we visit the lovely farm owned by Giff and Mae Burnap. Lots of peach trees loaded with fruit greeted us the day we picked.
We hauled our bounty home and I created a new jam recipe with the peaches and blueberries (of course)!
Ginger Peachy Blueberry Jam
4 Cups Chopped Peaches
4 Cups Blueberries (frozen is ok)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 cup water
5 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon ginger (or 2 if you love ginger)
1 package of powdered pectin for jams and jellies
Peel and remove pits of peaches. Chop peaches. Sort and wash blueberries or thaw frozen blueberries. Measure fruits into a kettle; add lemon juice and water; add pectin. Bring mixture to a rolling boil and add sugar. Return mixture to a rolling boil and continue stirring for 1 minute. Remove from heat and skim any foam off top.
Fill hot jam immediately into hot, sterile jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe rims of jars with a damp cloth; add canning lids. Process in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes. Enjoy!
It’s not too late to get some great late season peaches at Butternut or the farmer’s markets. Check out Seacoast Eat Local for a list of area farms and farmer’s markets and preserve your bounty with some easy to make jam. Have fun!
The Real Hunger Games!
Not the movie…the new cookbook recently written by Fifi O’Neill titled The Romantic Prairie Cookbook
which features many great farms and their recipes including two recipes from Berrybogg Farm. Fifi and Mark Lohman came to the farm back in June of 2011 and we had a great time watching a photo shoot evolve during a 90 degree day which culminated with a huge thunderstorm and a power outage! Despite the obstacles, the results are fantastic and the entire book is a work of art. I can’t wait to try the Dark Chocolate Chip Raspberry cookies from Raspberry Fields Farm, the Blueberry Sour Cream Coffee Cake from Lizzie McGraw, and Fifi’s own Tourtiere recipe which is a staple at the holidays in our neck of the woods.
March has been a busy month of pruning at the farm in temperatures sometimes 40 degrees above the norm for this time of year. Time will tell what the increased temperatures will do to the plants this season but when we had a similar warm spring two years ago it pushed up our opening date by 10 days. However, warm temperatures or not, we will still hold our annual plant sale on May 5 and May 6 with lots of blueberry, raspberry, blackberry plants and peach trees for sale. Stay tuned for more information.
This year we are planning on holding cooking classes in the new farm kitchen during the summer and fall with help from local caterer extraordinaire Chef Randy Brisson. We will be updating the website with more information on these events but we hope to offer a wide range of classes using local ingredients and of course blueberries!
Happy New Year
Most of us start the new year with resolutions to eat healthy but a yummy, warm dessert also helps to brighten those cold days of winter! The above picture is a blueberry gingerbread cake warm from the oven with a dollop of cold vanilla ice cream. My mom makes the recipe in an 9 inch square pan but this version was made in an 8 inch cake pan to look more like a traditional cake. Either way, it’s a great way to use your frozen bluberries.
Blueberry Gingerbread
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sour milk (to 1 cup milk add 1 tablespoon vinegar)
1 teaspoon baking soda (added to milk)
3 tablespoons molasses
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup blueberries
Cream shortening and sugar; add beaten egg. Combine dry ingredients and alternate with sour milk in which soda has been dissolved. Add molasses and blueberries; mix well. Sprinkle sugar and cinnamon mixture on top. Bake in 9 X 9 pan in 350 degree oven for 50 minutes. Delicious served warm!
Annual Plant Sale and Pruning Tips
We have finally completed pruning all three blueberry fields (almost 6000 plants!) and now we are busy in preparation for the annual blueberry plant sale to be held this Saturday, April 30 ; Sunday, May 1 and if we still have plants May 7. Hours are 9am to 2pm all three days. This year we will be offering the blueberry plant varieties Blueray, Patriot and the so-so-sweet Jersey. We will also have Boyne raspberries and Fall Gold raspberries for sale as well as a small selection of peach trees and rhubarb.
It is still not too late for you to prune your own blueberry bushes. At the farm, we try to complete pruning before the blossoms come out and also before the “dreaded” black fly appears. We have included two videos below of pruning both small and large bushes which should help you get your own bushes into top shape for blueberry production. Keep in mind that it is always helpful to give your plants a dose of fertilizer which can be done after the blossoms drop off. Blueberries are an acid loving plant so an application of 7-7-7 can be sprinkled around the drip line of your bush. Unfortunately, the birds will be your number 1 pest when the berries ripen so you need to learn to share or purchase a netting system from a garden center. Don’t forget that blueberry plants are shallow rooted and love water so try and mulch around your plants with sawdust, bark mulch or even pine needles.
Finally, Anne is in the process of putting together a second cookbook for the farm and she would love to hear from any of you that would like to include your own special blueberry recipes. You can send them through email (info@berryboggfarm.com) or drop a copy of your recipe with your name on it to Berrybogg Farm, 650 Province Rd. , Strafford, NH 03884. We look forward to hearing from you!
97 Days Until Summer!
The sun was out today, the temperature pushing 45 and there is only about a foot of snow left in the blueberry fields so why not think about summer! We hope the weather cooperates and we will be able to start pruning the blueberries within the week but you know spring in New England. In honor of making it through a LONG winter and in anticipation of a great summer, we would like to pass along one of our favorite summer drink recipes : The Blueberry Daiquiri! The above photo was taken last year around the 4th of July and pictures my mom, our friend Jim Cooney and myself sipping a cool daiquiri….cheers!
Blueberry Daiquiri
1 cup blueberries
1/2 cup rum
1/2 to 3/4 cup of simple syrup or 1/3 cup sugar
3 tablespoons of fresh lime juice or 3 tablespoons of limeade
1 to 2 cups of crushed ice
Blend all ingredients in blender until smooth. Should provide 4 large servings or 5 smaller ones.
If you choose to use frozen blueberries then lessen the amount of ice to use. If you use limeade instead of lime juice, you may want to lessen the amount of sugar you use…this is definitely a taste test recipe for the “bartender”. Experiment with your ingredients until you reach perfection!
Simple Syrup Recipe
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
Combine the sugar and water in a saucepan, bring to a boil, stir until sugar has dissolved, allow to cool before using.
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