Cranberry Crumb Bars

Happy almost Thanksgiving! I have a lot to be thankful for...my loving family, great friends, and amazing fiance. My job at a wonderful organization. Food, especially cheese and chocolate. The gorgeous wedding dress that I just ordered (!!). My cozy apartment and cute neighborhood with all the most delicious bakeries and restaurants packed onto one block. I could keep going! What are you thankful for this year?

Do you guys read Smitten Kitchen? If you don't, you must! Deb, the writer and photographer, not only takes incredible photos but creates simple, reliable recipes. Her blog is the first one I look to when I need to find a recipe or I need inspiration. So of course I was SO excited when the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook came out last month! I dropped the ball on ordering it so I just got it in the mail this week and spent hours flipping through it, bookmarking the recipes I want to try (which turned out to be nearly all of them).

These Cranberry Crumb Bars are the perfect holiday dessert - lightly spiced, with a perfect balance of sweet and tart. Let's be honest, very few of us actually want to eat a big piece of heavy cake or pie after a hearty holiday dinner. Make these instead!

Cranberry Crumb Bars (from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook)

Crumb:

2 sticks unsalted butter, chilled and cubed

3 cups all purpose flour

1 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon cloves

1/8 teaspoon allspice

1 large egg

Filling:

1/2 teaspoon orange zest

1 1/2 tablespoons orange juice

3 cups (12 oz) fresh cranberries

1/2 cup sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Deb recommends lining the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch baking pan with parchment paper - I didn't have any and just greased the pan with butter, which worked fine! In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and spices. With a pastry blender, fork, or your fingers, work the chilled butter and the egg into the flour mixture until it is the texture of coarse meal.  Pour half the crumb base into the prepared baking pan and use your fingers to press it evenly into the bottom of the pan.

For the filling, pulse all ingredients in a blender or food processor until the berries are roughly chopped (I may have taken mine a little too far but it still worked!).

Spread the cranberry filling over the crust base, and sprinkle the remaining crumb topping over the top.

Bake the bars for 30 to 35 minutes, until light brown on top. Cool completely, then cut into squares.

The bars are perfect served with vanilla ice cream on the side...yum!

Oh, one more thing - I'm thankful for Poppy. Especially thankful that she didn't jump on the table and start eating the bars I was trying to photograph!

Indian Flatbread and Spicy Tomato-Shallot Jam

I've mentioned this before, but Gabe's (my fiance) mom and stepdad recently moved to St. Helena, in the beautiful Napa Valley wine country. It's always great to go up and visit them, and we are getting completely spoiled by all the amazing wine and food in the area! Plus, it is incredibly beautiful up there in the fall - all the grape vines are turning yellow and orange and the air smells like Cabernet...seriously.

On Saturday, we took a cooking class through the Napa Valley College cooking school and it was SO much fun! The class was based around flatbreads and dips and spreads, with a Middle Eastern theme. Gabe and I were in charge of making an Indian Chapati (flatbread) and a spicy tomato-shallot jam. Other people made pita bread with white bean hummus, lavash with mushroom pate, Moroccan chickpea bread (my favorite!) with an eggplant dip, and naan with cilantro mint chutney. It was a carb fest for sure!

The chapati is a similar to a tortilla, and is cooked in a dry pan over the stove. Then it's brushed with butter (yum) and sprinkled with a mixture of spices. The tomato-shallot jam was SUPER spicy but a perfect complement to the bread. Next time I might make it a little more mild and add it to salads or spread it on sandwiches!

Chapati (Indian Flatbread):
Dough - 
4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups warm water
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
Salt and spice topping - grind all spices together with the salt using a mortar and pestle or pepper grinder or the end of a rolling pin...get creative!
1/3 cup melted butter
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon sesame seeds
1/4 cup kosher salt

Tomato-Shallot Jam:
1 tablespoon mustard seeds
3 tablespoons olive oil
About 2 tablespoons shallot, minced (about 1/2 of a shallot)
1/2 cup cider vinegar
2 tablespoons cumin
1 cinnamon stick
10 garlic cloves, minced
3 pounds tomatoes, chopped (Roma are best but you can use any kind!)
1/3 cup brown sugar
Salt to taste
3 Serrano chiles, minced (Optional!! Only use the chiles if you really like spice. Or just dial it down to one chile. Also consider wearing gloves while chopping them...seriously they're that hot!)


Ok, let's break it down. I know it's a lot of ingredients and obscure spices, so just use as many of them as you can, no need to go out and by $50 worth of new spices for one recipe. Also please excuse the iPhone photos!

For the Chapati, mix the flour, water, and oil to make a soft, pliable dough. Once it comes together, let it rest in a bowl covered with plastic wrap for 30 minutes.

Divide the dough into 16 pieces. Roll each piece out on a lightly floured surface until they're about 7 inches in diameter. As we learned the hard way, they will stick together like crazy, so spread them all out on a counter or a baking sheet until you're ready to cook them.

Heat a heavy frying pan (cast iron or stainless steel would be best) over high heat on the stove. Cook one Chapati at a time, about 30 seconds on each side until the dough bubbles and develops dark blisters. They're HOT so use tongs to flip them!

Brush them with melted butter and sprinkle with the spice and salt mixture, then eat up while they're warm.

Ok, it's tomato-shallot jam time! In a large saucepan, heat the oil and mustard seeds until the seeds begin to sizzle and pop. Then add the cider vinegar and simmer for 5 minutes. Add all the remaining ingredients and stir well, then let it all simmer for 30 minutes on low heat, stirring occasionally. 

The mixture will reduce and start looking less like a salsa and more like a jam. You can use the back of a spoon to mash up the tomatoes a little and help the process along.

Once the jam has cooked for about 30 minutes, taste it and add salt as needed. We probably added about a teaspoon, if not more!

Here's the amazing spread we all created!

And the finished Chapati...perfectly crispy.

Don't worry, I wouldn't leave you without a Poppy picture...here she is in the bathtub. It's not my best work but I love the mischievous look in her eyes.

Life Lately

Whew, so much is going on around here lately! My wonderful friend and old college roommate has been visiting and we've been exploring all of the amazing food the Bay Area has to offer. Here's just a small sampling...

Halloween!

I made soup...it had smoked paprika in it. I took pictures of all the ingredients but got so excited to eat it that I forgot to take a picture of the final product - oops!

We went to the Ferry Building in San Francisco aka food heaven.

Vegan donuts. SO GOOD.

I'm so obsessed with the building - so many pretty details!

Salted caramel vegan donut about 2 seconds away from being devoured.

It was a beautiful, warm fall day in the city.

Gorgeous ladies!

Happy hour drinks including my favorite cucumber basil gimlet...

All gone!

Gabe carved a Cheshire Cat pumpkin.

Margaritas and vegan Mexican food at Gracias Madre - amazing!!

Finally, we have a special edition of the Poppy picture for Halloween. Gabe created these and I think they're pretty brilliant.

As Cartman from South Park

And a ghost

And appropriately, as an evil witch on a broom : ) Happy Halloween everyone!

Inspired!

This past weekend, I took a food photography and styling class hosted by Joy the Baker and Tracy of Shutterbean at the beautiful Teahouse Studio in Berkeley! It was so fun to meet both of those talented ladies and gain a ton of photography, styling, and blogging knowledge from them!

Here's what went down...

Lots of picture-taking, sometimes while standing on chairs

Pumpkin Bourbon Milkshakes...more on that in a second!

The cozy, beautiful Teahouse!

Ingredients shots for granola

Mmmm ginger

Here's the Pumpkin Bourbon Milkshake. It was so hard to focus on taking pictures of it because I just wanted to stick my face in it...I mean, daintily sip it from a pretty straw.

It was such a fun day! Thanks Joy, Tracy, and all the other awesome people who were there.

Apple Pie with Pecan Crumble

Well, I must admit there hasn't been too much exciting cooking going on here recently. Part of last week and weekend, we were in Atlanta for the wedding of two great friends. It was our first time in the South and we loved it! Of course we had to sample the local cuisine - some favorites included dinner at South City Kitchen where we had an appetizer of fried green tomatoes that were enrobed in goat cheese before frying...oh my goodness I could have eaten them for my whole meal! 

Fried green tomatoes...excuse the camera phone photo

Anyway, Atlanta was so much fun but we were tired and jet lagged for most of this past week, so motivation for cooking was pretty low. I've finally gotten back into the swing of things this weekend, and experimented with a new pie recipe today! It's a twist on classic apple pie, incorporating pecans into the crust and the crumble topping. The pecans add a rich, nutty flavor, and a little bit of crunch to contrast with the sweet apples. 

This post and recipe is dedicated to my wonderful parents who got me a BEAUTIFUL new camera for my birthday, which I used for the first time for this post! Thanks mom and dad : )

Apple Pie with Pecan Crumble
For the crust:
1 cup finely chopped pecans
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, very cold
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar

For the filling:
4 tart apples, peeled and chopped into 1/4 inch (or so) pieces
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup flour
Juice of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

For the crumble topping:
1 cup finely chopped pecans
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, very cold
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt

For the crust, combine all ingredients except the butter in a large bowl. The butter should be very cold - I usually freeze it and take it out just 15-20 minutes before I'm ready to use it. Cut the butter into small cubes and using your hands or a pastry cutter, incorporate the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture is crumbly, with the crumbs being pea-sized or slightly larger. Drizzle in just a tiny bit of cold water - start out with a tablespoon and add more as needed - to help bind the dough together. The dough should be slightly moist but not sticky - if it gets sticky, just add a sprinkle of flour. Form the dough into a ball, then press it down so it's about 1 inch thick. Wrap it tightly with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for about an hour.

While the dough is chilling, you can get to work on the filling and topping! In a large bowl, combine the peeled and chopped apples with the brown sugar, lemon juice, flour, and spices. Yep, that's all there is to the filling - so easy!

For the crumble topping, use basically the same technique as the crust. Cube the cold butter and combine it with the dry ingredients until it's well incorporated and forms small clumps. Set it aside for later!

Finally, take your crust out of the refrigerator and roll it out. It's a bit prone to cracking, I think because of the texture of the pecans, but it's ok! Just smooth out the cracks and no one will notice. Press the crust into a pie pan, fill it with the apple mixture, and then top it off with the crumble. 

Bake at 350 degrees for about 40-50 minutes, or until it is bubbling and golden brown. Let it cool for at least an hour before serving. It's the perfect fall dessert!

Here's Poppy, lounging in an Anthropologie box that she has claimed as her new bed. It's filled with tissue paper and she just loves it...oh so comfortable and cozy!