06 August 2010

Summer Cinnamon Rolls


"And they even have zucchini in them!" ...cue dumbfounded looks. Technically, I should have said summer squash - that would explain the self-evident lack of green going on. I made these cinnamon rolls for a friend's fundraiser, and broke my own rule of always trying everything before letting other people at it. My nerves rolled into full gear as I saw people carrying around and munching my little contributions, but I saw only empty wrappers being thrown away so I supposed they were good. I tried one after the event and my assumption was correct: these are great. I haven't had a technical cinnamon bun for a while, so these might not be the most hearken-back-to-your-childhood rolls, but they might just establish a new standard. A soft and light bread wrapped around cinnamon sugar is slightly sweet enough on its own, and once it gets drizzled with a cinnamon sugar icing, the dessert threshold is crossed. A bite of these first hits you with a sweet rush, then a full-bodied cinnamonness, all mellowed pleasantly by the spiral of brioche-like bread.
So...where's the zucchini? Well, I loved Hannah Kaminsky's Zucchini Babka recipe, but I suspected that green flecks wouldn't look so pretty in cinnamon rolls. Luckily our yellow summer squash is overly abundant, and although the larger seeds make for more tedious and vigilant shredding the effect was brilliant: the vegetable component became invisible in both taste and sight, it's presence only noted for its contribution to the incredibly lovely texture of the bread...I can only compare it to clouds.
Please, especially if you are a gardener or know one overrun with yellow summer squash, make these - and trust me, the recipe is easier than it looks! Although having a free and abundant supply of squash isn't necessary - this bread recipe is so good, I'm going to buy squash all winter long to make it.
Summer Cinnamon Rolls
Hannah Kaminsky's Zucchini Babka recipe
with yellow summer squash substituted for the zucchini and cinnamon added with the flour

Proceed as directed until you come to the rolling out part. Grease a muffin pan. Divide the dough into halves, and split one half. Roll out that quarter of dough. Spread melted margarine onto the thinly-rolled dough and sprinkle generously with cinnamon sugar. Roll up and cut into six even pieces; fit into muffin tin. Repeat with the other quarter.
Use the remaining half for even more cinnamon rolls, or make a loaf of bread! I made cinnamon-date bread...because I like dates more than raisins, and because different is good.
Regarding the icing, just mix lots of powdered sugar with a little soymilk and a little cinnamon until you have a thick icing - just so that it barely drizzles from a spoon. Make sure your rolls have cooled off fully before icing!!
Delicious...and you can decide whether or not you reveal the secret garden ingredient.

03 August 2010

Blackberry Pie


Last year I found out about a well-kept secret blackberry patch nearby, and yesterday my mother and I headed up, armed with a couple of pint baskets, to pick. At first glance, the harvest looked slim; but we knew that stick-to-it-ive-ness pays off when it comes to small berries, so we kept at it, foraying deeper and deeper into the bramble. We ended up with legs and arms covered in scratches, but also with 3 and a half pints of blackberries - definitely enough for blackberry pie.
I don't think I'd ever had blackberry pie. Like having enough tomatoes to make ketchup, it is a rare occurrence that one have sufficient blackberries for a pie. My mother convinced me to make a mini-sized pie, so as to leave enough berries for cereal. It's probably for the best, because I would have eaten an entire whole one. It's that good.
(Small) Blackberry Pie

1 cup flour
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon shortening
1-3 tablespoons water

2-3 cups fresh blackberries
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour

Cut the shortening into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse sand. Add enough water to make the dough pull together into a ball. Chill.

Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Gently mix the flour, sugar, and blackberries together. Take the crust out of the refrigerator and divide into halves. Roll each half into a large circle, for the top and bottom crusts. (Or if your dough is especially uncooperative as mine was, just make a patchwork bottom and cut-outs for the top...) Assemble the pie - remember that the blackberries will cook down, so have a generous heap of filling.

Bake for 35-45 minutes, until the crust is lightly browned and the berries are bubbling.

Let cool - this is the hardest part. I broke down and cut it while still warm, at that perfect-with-ice-cream temperature...Enjoy!

02 August 2010

Enough Tomatoes for Homemade Ketchup

During the last couple of weeks, I have driven about a thousand miles with some of my best friends and my genius sister, I've read a book ("Monsignor Quixote", definitely recommended!), and meanwhile, the front yard garden has grown. The butternut squash has invaded the grass, and the zucchini, and the yellow squash, and the cucumbers, and I'm hoping that it doesn't end up strangling our two beautiful cantaloupes.
We haven't calculated the scientific growth rate of zucchinis, but we have learned that it is something incredibly fast. One escaped us the other day, and before we knew it we had a monster zucchini on our hands...
About a billion times the size of a quarter. But fear not...he's friendly.
The best thing about such a successful garden is the quantity of vegetables. While tomatoes at the grocery store have prices that seem to go up each day, we have enough of the gorgeous red fruit to make ketchup...tomato sauce...salsa...and use in salads, grilled cheeses, or salted!
I had never made ketchup before, so I loosely followed this recipe: sautée half an onion, a hot pepper, and two cloves of garlic, all diced finely, in olive oil for five minutes. Add a bay leaf, cinnamon stick, a couple teaspoons of mustard seed and black pepper, a couple whole cloves, and a pinch or two of allspice. (I added a generous amount of chopped sage, one of our garden's success stories.) Then add four large, roughly chopped tomatoes. Stir, bring to a boil, and then simmer for 45 minutes. Blend in a food processor, return to heat, add 1/4 cup vinegar and a couple tablespoons of brown sugar, and then let simmer until reduced to your ideal ketchup consistency.
Let cool, put in glass jars, and keep refrigerated for up to 3 weeks. I never knew making ketchup was so easy!!