Goodbye Gourmet

So I normally don't just write off the cuff.
AND I never skip writing in word (I like to do the whole CTRL-C/CTRL-V thing).
AND very rarely do I ever skip over the recipes that are queued up to be written about next. I prefer order to chaos in this very mad world.

However, today my friend Glenn (who is a brilliant blender of flavors and a lover of bacon) gave me some sad news I felt like I needed to discuss/share/get off my chest/mourn.

Gourmet magazine is closing it's doors. (First, Pegleg and now this...two major deaths in a very short time span.) Read my favorite article about it here.

Having only recently discovered Gourmet and being as devastated by this as I am. I can't imagine what some readers are going through.

I feel cheated. I feel like I will miss out on tons of amazing recipes I will not even think to look for. Not to mention the photography that really drives home the desire to sit in the kitchen and cook. As dramatic as it sounds, Gourmet gave new meaning to cooking with every issue. (At least for me.)

This is the statement posted on their website:
"PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT GOURMET MAGAZINE WILL CEASE PUBLICATION AFTER THE NOVEMBER ISSUE.

SUBSCRIBERS CAN LOOK FORWARD TO RECEIVING BON APPETIT MAGAZINE FOR THE REMAINDER OF THEIR SUBSCRIPTION. THE GOURMET.COM WEBSITE WILL REMAIN AVAILABLE DURING A TRANSITIONAL PERIOD, AND ACCESS TO GOURMET RECIPES WILL ALSO REMAIN AVAILABLE VIA SISTER SITE EPICURIOUS.COM AND THE EPI IPHONE APPLICATION.

WE REGRET ANY INCONVENIENCE, AND LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR CONTINUED READERSHIP. FOR QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR GOURMET MAGAZINE SUBSCRIPTION, PLEASE FOLLOW THIS LINK TO SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES.

THE OCT. 23-25 GOURMET INSTITUTE EVENTS WILL NOT TAKE PLACE. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION IS AVAILABLE AT GOURMETINSTITUTE.COM."

All caps. Obviously, they were yelling. And the Novemeber issue - does that mean there's no farewell? It's October 7th - that issue has to be at the publisher already.

This is not the first magazine I've had the distaste of having go under while in the middle of my subscription. The first magazine I lost was a little periodical by the name of Blueprint, under the Martha Stewart umbrella. It was fabulous. Kind of like ReadyMade meets InStyle meets Architectual Digest, but maybe not really. Blueprint, as a publication, was only around for about ten months or so (maybe a year) and I was heartbroken to see it go. However, I understood that in this world where everything is a click away - it's difficult for a little magazine to get press and the time frame it has to rise to the top so it can stay afloat is a lot narrower that it once was. A lot of information is free out there - there's less incentive to pay for it.

Did I ever think that Gourmet would go? Not at all.
Gourmet has been around for 70 years!

Needless to say, Glenn and I will be super sad to see Gourmet go. The last couple months I've enjoyed getting the glossy cover in my mailbox and opening it up to perfect photographs that left you wanting more and awaiting to devour the story behind the recipe.

We're being compensated with Bon Appetit for the remainder of our issues. Which is better than nothing. However, I don't like it as much. I can't really explain what I like less about it, but it's just too hoity toity or unrealistic for the average person or something. Gourmet always had a nice balance of recipes if you wanted to be adventurous and recipes if you wanted to be a pantry cook. (And it's content I don't find to be as good.) Hopefully, with time, Bon Apetit will win me over, but I'm not sure it has the visual, intellectual, or writing style that will agree with me.

Who knows why Conde Nast chose Gourmet over Bon Apetit to close. Maybe if there had been more celebrity or TV shows or buzz surrounding the magazine it wouldn't have been shuttered.

I guess at the end of the day the moral of the story is this:
The printed word is becoming extinct. Not only does it put some talented people out of business, but it takes the tactile processing out of the equation. I'm a visual person, I need pictures and I need to feel things to get me motivated, creative, and focused - without printed work, I'm probably not living up to my potential.

So friends, go out and read a newspaper (that costs money and is not free). Skip over that People magazine (they have enough money) and go for a small, more specialized publication (at the very least pick up Star instead). Any by all means, spend the extra four bucks and get Gourmet's last issue. Maybe you'll be inspired to get in the kitchen, to try something new, to clip recipes, or maybe it will end up in your recycling bin. At the very least, give it a shot, because I'm sad to see it go.

Java Jive

Genetics…whether we like it or not we’re pretty much stuck with what we’re given. I’ve got some great genes going for me, along with a pretty good character. However, my genetic make up has “blessed” me with being short in stature.

In grade school, if we lined up by height to go to the bathroom or in gym class or at the music recital I was always at the ‘short’ end of the line, being one of the shortest if not the shortest. Because I was so little I was teased quite a bit. (At least that’s how I’ve decided to remember the teasing. I’m sure it had nothing to do with the fact that I was a little nerdy, or had braces and glasses at the same time, or went through a ridiculously awkward phase, or that my favorite pair of jeans were green. – Green goes with everything. It was all because I was short.) As I got old, I learned how to appreciate my short-comings. I had the smallest hands and my handprint fit perfectly on a 4”x4” square, no one else’s did. I could wiggle my way into the tightest spots to pick up a fallen item. I can still fit into the third seat in the trunk of my parent’s station wagon, but it’s rather uncomfortable. I’ve embraced my height, it just took me a while to get used to it, or grow into it. One of my nicknames in college was Travel Size because I am so little I could fit in random places and was easily packable. (I think I just compared myself to a travel size shampoo.)

Anyway, while I am short, I know for sure there are shorter people out there and while I have become comfortable with the fact that I’m not very tall, I do everything in my power so I do not become shorter/shrink/etc. One of the things I’ve adopted, since I was probably 8, is that I don’t drink coffee. I don’t even really like coffee so it’s not a huge loss for me. However, if you’ve ever been out with me and we have been offered coffee I politely decline, stating that ‘It stunts my growth.’ It is very possible I will not grow again and that my height is here to stay, but on the off chance I have a crazy growth spurt in my future or there is some sort of sudden scientific research, I’m going to steer clear of coffee.

But I know there are people out there that NEED their coffee every day. There are those of you that can drink it at all hours of the day. There are those who can’t start the day without it. There are the people who like their coffee black (like their women – as my father would crassly say) and those who like it super sweet macchiato, caramel, whipped cream with a cherry on top. My co-worker Matt loves his coffee. He drinks a lot of coffee. All the time coffee. Even at 3pm, he has his mug with coffee in it. He had a birthday in August and he gave me free range on his birthday cake flavor. I wanted to make something that I thought he would like and that would encompass his highly caffeinated personality and all around awesomeness. I originally thought of doing a crazy chili chocolate cake of some sort, but settled on the coffee. Coffee’s a little more classic, just like Matt.

Coffee Supreme Cake (Cake adapted from Nestle Toll House's Mocha Buttercream Chocolate Espresso Cake, Frosting adopted from Cake Mix Magic)

Chocolate Coffee Cake Ingredients:
4 oz Semisweet Chocolate, chopped
2 cups All Purpose Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
½ tsp Salt
1 ½ cup Brown Sugar (I used half light brown sugar and half dark brown sugar)
2 sticks Unsalted Butter, room temperature
4 Eggs
2 TBSP Instant Coffee
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 cup Buttermilk

Filling Ingredients:
25 Snack Size Heath Bars, crushed

Caramel Coffee Frosting Ingredients:
½ cup Unsalted Butter
1 cup Brown Sugar
¼ cup Milk (I use whole milk)
2 TBSP Instant Coffee
3 cups Powdered Sugar, sifted
¾ tsp Vanilla Extract

Cake Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and line with parchment paper 2 – 9” round cake pans. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or placing it in the microwave for 45 seconds. Whether double boiling or microwaving, make sure you are stirring it. (Be careful not to burn it in the microwave!)
Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl.
In a large bowl, beat the brown sugar, butter, eggs, instant coffee, and vanilla until smooth.
Gradually, add the melted chocolate to the sugar/butter mixture until everything is evenly combined.
Beat the flour mixture into the sugar/butter/chocolate mixture in three additions, alternating with the buttermilk.
Bake the cakes for approximately 30 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Frosting Directions:
In a medium saucepan, combine the butter and brown sugar and place over medium heat. Stir mixture CONSTANTLY until it comes to a boil. Once it comes to a boil, add the milk and bring the mixture back up to a boil. (This second boil should happen relatively quickly.) Stir in the instant coffee.
Remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in the powdered sugar and vanilla. While the frosting is still warm, spread it over the cake.

Assembly:
*Please note – you will make your life a lot easier if you cook your cake first and don’t make the frosting until they are cool since the frosting needs to be spread while it’s warm. Once the frosting cools it becomes quite fudgey.
After the cake has cooled, place one layer top side down on a platter. Lather the top of the bottom layer with half of the frosting. Sprinkle on top of the frosting half of the Heath bar chunks. Place the second layer on top, coat with frosting, and sprinkle the remaining Heath bar chunks on the top of the cake.

There is not enough frosting to cover the sides of the cake, if that’s something you’re interested in make sure to double the recipe and use a slightly larger saucepan. Definitely, sift the powdered sugar, I didn’t and my frosting stayed a little on the chunky side.

This cake is super coffee-y. If you have problems with caffeine and it keeps you up, make sure to use a decaf instant coffee to be on the safe side. But if you are a java junkie it will definitely suit your needs. The Heath bars add a little caramel flavor to it. If the crunch and caramel weren’t there it could potentially have been too overpowering. My co-workers couldn’t get enough of the frosting. It was sweet and thick and the sugar crystals from the powdered sugar melted in your mouth with a big burst of coffee. I’m not even a big coffee fan and I found this cake delicious.

This cake may lead you to have stunted growth if you are a young child, however, if you are not or if you like coffee I recommend it. I was skeptical, but I would make this cake again in a heartbeat. Until then, I will be riding around on Cherry Bomb, my children sized mountain bike from when I was 13, because I haven’t gotten an inch taller since then.

Red Food Coloring and Volcano Fizz

I originally tried to set this opening the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song, but I just couldn’t do it. I’ve got nothing. I have been working on this post for two weeks. Maybe it’s writer’s block or maybe I was uninspired, or maybe Red Velvet cake is not as exciting as I had hoped.

I first learned about Red Velvet cake in my teens when I saw Steel Magnolias. Julia Roberts character was getting married and in the South they do groom’s cakes. (That’s just how they roll…) So they did this red velvet cake in the shape of an armadillo. So when you cut into it, it kind of looked like blood. As a teenager, I remember finding this fascinating, disturbing, and all around awesome. This is most likely because of my twisted sense of humor.

I didn’t try Red Velvet cake until some years later. I loved them! I went through a brief obsession with them…purchasing them and making them from Duncan Hines mixes. I even went as far as making a red velvet cake with brown sugar cream cheese frosting and covered with a pound of delicately fried bacon. (You may think that sounds disgusting, but it was probably the most delicious cake I have ever made.) However, I had not made a Red Velvet from scratch – ever.

In mid-August we celebrated my co-worker Kyle’s birthday. Kyle is originally from Georgia. So to honor his roots and his favorite kind of cake ever, I tackled the Red Velvet cake. Never to be boring, I wanted to spice it up and add a twist. I did a ton of research on Red Velvet cakes to see if I could pair them with anything or change them, but there really wasn’t anything out there that showed a creative red velvet cake. Everything was very basic: Red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. Luckily, I have wheels turning in my head constantly and I settled on doing a pecan praline brittle in the middle. (I thought about doing an almond brittle, which sounded awesome, but I’m allergic to almonds so I opted to change the nut.)

Red Velvet with Pecan Praline Brittle Layer Cake (Cake adapted from Pinch My Salt's Family Recipe)

Cake Ingredients:
2 ½ cups cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 TBSP cocoa powder
2 oz red food coloring (2 entire individual bottles)
½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 ½ cups of sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp baking soda

Pecan Praline Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
¼ cup water
1 cup pecans, chopped

Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients:
1 ½ - 8 oz packages of Cream Cheese, room temperature
1 ½ sticks Unsalted Butter, room temperature
5 cups Powdered Sugar
2 TBSP Sour Cream
1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Red Velvet Cake Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Butter and flour 2 – 9” cake rounds.
In a medium bowl whisk together the cake flour, baking powder, and salt. (It is SUPER important to use the cake flour and not All-Purpose flour. All purpose flour is not going to work as well, be fluffy, or taste good. BUY the CAKE FLOUR. It took me a while to find in the baking aisle, but that’s because it comes in a box, not a bag.)
In a small bowl, mix the cocoa and the food coloring together until they form a thin paste.
In a large bowl, beat the butter, vanilla, and sugar together. Once they are creamed together, add the eggs one at a time, mixing between each egg.
Add 1/3 of the flour mixture and ½ of the buttermilk. Scrape down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Alternating, until everything is combined.
In a small bowl, mix the vinegar and the baking soda together. (Yes, it will fizz.) Quickly add the mixed vinegar/baking soda mixture to the cake batter and mix it together. Split the batter between the two pans.
Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

Pecan Praline Brittle:
Line a jelly roll pan with parchment paper. In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar and the water. Cook over medium heat, without stirring. The mixture will become a deep amber color (caramel forming). It takes about 15 minutes or a little less. Keep your eye on it, because it goes from amber to burning VERY quickly. Remove the boiling sugar from the heat and stir in the pecans. Pour/spread the pecans on the parchment paper and let them cool.

Cream Cheese Frosting Directions:
Beat the cream cheese and the butter in a large bowl until fluffy. Beat in the sugar, then the sour cream and vanilla. Beat until smooth.

Assembly:
Place one of the red velvet layers, top down, on a platter or cake stand. Put a considerable amount of cream cheese frosting to cover the top of the cake. Break the brittle into smaller pieces and place on top of the cream cheese frosting. Carefully, add some more cream cheese frosting over the pecan brittle. Place the top layer of the cake on top of the brittle. Frost the top and sides of the cake with the remaining frosting. (You might have a little left over, but it goes great with graham crackers as a nice snack.)

So my pecan praline brittle was a little burnt, because I overcooked my sugar. However, I still used it. I thought of tossing it, because it was really smokey, but luckily it worked and balanced out with the sweetness of the frosting and the cake. The brittle was a little difficult to cut through because it was, well, brittle.

The cake itself was good, moist and rich and bright red. However, I think that it was a lot of extra work without a lot of reward. It tasted delicious and was obviously better than a boxed cake, but spending $10 on red food coloring was kind of absurd and timing the baking soda with the vinegar was a little too much work for me. (I felt like the volcano science experiment in the 5th grade. My volcano was a giant rock we drilled a hole in. It was pretty life – like.) But if you have the time, patience, and aren’t afraid of dying your fingers a little red, definitely try to make it from scratch. Or make it from scratch just once, so you know what’s up.

Kyle loved the cake, as did the rest of the staff. So as long as our Georgia peach was happy and it wasn’t in the shape of an Armadillo, then it was a job well done.At work we sell these crazy little dolls called Sonny Angels. They're vegetable head dolls with little angel wings and little male genitals. They are a huge joke at work. You buy the box and you don't know which one you're going to get. They have become the cake topper for all the staff birthday cakes. They're a little crazy, but they're our cult classic.

S'more update

Tonight I went to Uncommon Ground.

We ate a S'more Tart.
Graham Cracker crust, chocolate ganache, with bruleed homemade marshmallows.
It was great! Especially because the chocolate was cold and the marshmallows were hot. If only the crust had been a little thicker. But the ambiance and the company made up for it...after all everything tastes better in a warm orange light.

However, as a self proclaimed authority on S'mores - It was delicious and you should go try it with a nice cup of tea or a glass of Pinot Noir.

Campfire Classics

We grew up in the great outdoors. Our first family camping trip took place between San Jose, California and Reno, Nevada, and back. (It actually might have been our first American road trip too now that I think about it.) We were visiting our Aunt, Uncle, and cousins who live in Cali. It was quite an adventure for all of us. We rented a big conversion van so we all traveled together and stayed in a couple random camp grounds. We ate A LOT of Ramen, which was perfect because we had never had Ramen before and I didn’t OD on it again until college. So we ate Ramen and went camping and I used all my birthday money to buy Wedding Day Midge, who also came camping with us. Besides seeing tumbleweed for the first time and enjoying trying to wrap my 9 year old arms around a giant redwood, my favorite thing about our entire vacation was sitting around the campfire, telling a round robin story, and eating S’mores.

Our round robin stories always started with someone saying something and then the next person finishing off the thought and adding a new one until a story developed. For some reason, I still remember parts of one of those stories. Part of it might have been because it was SO outrageous and ridiculous or because I have this vivid image of the family sitting around the fire telling it. The main character was Barbie (I was nearing the end of my Barbie age, but she was still a part of our lives at that time) and she chose Peabody to be her boyfriend. (Peabody was one of the boys Barbie could choose in the 1950’s Barbie Prom game, which we played non-stop during that trip as well as a handful of times throughout my childhood. We never had it, but some of my awesome friends and family were the owners of this amazing board game.) There was some sort of accident/problem, but the moral of the story was “Always wear clean underwear when you leave the house because you never know what kind of trouble you’re going to get into.” (My dad may have gotten Barbie and Peabody whacked during that story, but the details are blurry.)

This moral and S’mores have stuck with me for almost 20 years, but this blog is not devoted to my undergarments, so lets move on to the other topic:
S’mores…
Nothing beats the taste of fire burned marshmallows between chocolate and graham crackers – so simple and so delicious.

I’ve dappled in s’more desserts in the past, including some super cute mini graham cracker cupcakes where we toasted the marshmallows over the stove and smashed them in between a halved cupcake with chocolate. They were quite interactive and pretty delicious, however, they weren’t overly complicated and using graham crackers would have been just as easy and delicious. I was also a S'more last year for Halloween, so our ties run deep.

My co-worker Tracy’s birthday was a week ago, and since we work in the outdoor industry I decided to track down a spin on S’mores and make her birthday cake. My friend Lauren sent me a recipe she found online for a S’more cake, so I decided to take my spin on it.

S’more Cake Adapted from Baking Bites
Graham Cracker Cake Ingredients
½ cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup sugar
3 large egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups graham cracker crumbs (If you buy a box of graham crackers it’s two enveloped packages so 2/3 of the box)
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
1 cup milk
3 large egg whites

Chocolate Ganache
1 cup Semi-sweet Chocolage Chips
¼ cup Half and Half
2 TBSP unsalted butter
2 TBSP corn syrup

Marshmallow Filling
1 – 7 oz jar Marshmallow Fluff

Graham Cracker Cake
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease 2 – 9” round cake pans with cooking spray and line the bottoms with parchment paper.
In a large bowl mix together the butter and sugar until it’s creamed together. Add the egg yolks and the vanilla.
In a smaller bowl mix together the graham cracker crumbs, baking powder, and salt. Stir in a third of the graham cracker mixture with the butter and sugar, followed by half of the milk, alternating until you end with the graham cracker mixture.
In a separate bowl beat the egg whites to soft peaks.
Fold the egg whites into the graham cracker mixture in two batches, making sure it’s folded in completely with no white streaks.
Divide evenly into pans.
Bake for about 24 minutes until it’s dense and a toothpick comes out clean.
Let cakes cool for a couple minutes before dumping them and let them finish cooling on a wire rack.

Chocolate Frosting
Using a double boiler melt the chocolate chips and butter until smooth. While still under the flame add the corn syrup and stir until combined. Turn the heat off on the double boiler and add the half and half. Stir until smooth. It has more of a ganache consistency than a thick frosting.

Assembly
Place one layer of the cake, bottom side up, on a plate. Spread half of the chocolate ganache/frosting over the top of the bottom layer. Spread the entire layer of fluff on top of the chocolate. The fluff is not easy to spread. It kind of glops on and is a sticky mess.
Stack the next graham cake layer on top of the fluff. Spread the rest of the chocolate frosting over the top of the cake layer. It looks awesome if the chocolate drips down the side of the cake.

I made the cake the night before I took it to work and stuck it in the fridge overnight. Something about the fluff makes it a little volatile. Overnight, the entire top of the cake slid off the top and did not look like the nice stack it had been when I put it in the fridge at night. Because I had stuck it in the fridge, the fluff was not only sticky, but kind of hardened too, which made shifting the top half back onto the cake a little difficult. The cake continued to do this off and on while it was in the process of being eaten. I think it only took 2 days to polish it off…so it wasn’t overly annoying. I’d probably increase the chocolate frosting when I make this again so I can pour the frosting over the fluff as well as underneath it and on the top of the cake. It might help keep the marshmallow encased and help it from sliding. I thought that maybe I frosted the cake while the frosting was too warm and that caused the marshmallow to slide, however, it kept happening so I don’t think that’s the reason.

I know Barbie and Peabody would have loved to go on a date at the soda shoppe and eat S’more cake and I think you’d like it too. Just remember to wear clean undies.

This may not be the most flattering angle...but you get the point. I love S'mores!

Death by Cake...

Pegleg Penny has joined those great Chefs and kitchen utensils in the sky. During an intense batch of cream cheese frosting, Pegleg gave a last little hum of the engine and just stopped spinning. She was there until the end, but it is with a heavy heart that I write this entry. This happened over three weeks ago and I am still saddened by it.

In honor of Pegleg I will share some of her favorite memories in the kitchen.

Pegleg suffered her first injury shortly after she came to live with me at the Wellington house. I accidentally put the beater with the flat disc in the improper side. Her leg got stuck. Maybe I should have recognized that moment foreshadowing her fate, but not being one to let the mixer win, I took her casing apart and fixed her up like new. Well as new as possible, she definitely had some war wounds.

While Pegleg had a TURBO button, we rarely needed to use it. She had an abnormally fast heart, much like myself, which really expedited the beating of egg whites and getting the job done. Naturally that makes her more prone to passing out on the street while exercising.

Her favorite thing that we ever made was a cake for our friend Andrew. It was a Red Velvet cake with a brown sugar cream cheese frosting and a pound of fried bacon on top. Miss Piggy’s Delight for sure.

She was always dressed to the nines in her sleek silver outfit.

Her favorite song was Blueberry Pie as sung by Bette Midler and No Scrubs by TLC.

Her political views tended to be more Independent than anything. In the 2008 election her write in candidate was Eric Ripert. He was her Silver Fox. (The fact that he’s French is only a minor detail according to PP.)

Her lifelong goal was to have as many high profile romantic conquests as Gael Greene. She did not have the opportunity to meet Burt Reynolds, Clint Eastwood, or Elvis, but she did have an on again, off again relationship with the Microplaner.

Pegleg’s favorite TV show was the Price is Right, but she only liked it when Bob Barker was on.

The chef she most wanted to meet was Gale Gand. Gale’s pastry just astounded PP to the point where she was slightly obsessed. Pegleg was so jealous of my little sister who had the opportunity to meet Gale like 6 years ago.

The one thing you would never guess about Pegleg was that she was an excellent letter writer. She believed in the power of snail mail and of people getting an actual piece of correspondence physically in their hands. Pegleg tried to write 10 letters a week. (That postage was pricey!) She was a big fan of sending fan mail, although she never received any back. She wrote weekly to the cast of the Harry Potter movies (she has a thing for redheads), Mayor Daley (on ways to improve Chicago), Kathy Griffin (she was obsessed with fame), Oprah, and more recently she went on a letter writing campaign to Sony Pictures in an attempt to stop the production of the movie Julie and Julia. Pegleg went on and on about it not doing Julia Child justice and how her great, great, great, cousin, three times removed had been Julia Child’s mixer and how dare they write such blasphemy.

Pegleg’s favorite memory of me was when I made a Gingerbread, Mascarpone, Candied Apricot Trifle for Christmas last year and burned the tip of my finger to a blister because I stupidly stuck my finger in the boiling sugar. She thought it was funny. I laughed about it later.

Pegleg’s favorite movie was the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast. Ironically enough, she uttered her last breath creating a cake to take to an outdoor version of the play my friend Nicole was in. Pegleg loved the dancing kitchenware in Be Our Guest. As a young mixer, she would twirl around the kitchen practicing the choreography. (High School Musical 2 was her second favorite movie because they have a great kitchen song scene in there too.)

You could say Pegleg had a strong sense of self or you could say Pegleg was a little flighty. No matter what, that girl could cook. I miss her greatly and I leave you with her parting recipe. It’s not completely original, but it’s an adaptation of sorts because that’s how we worked best, adapting to make things ours.

Pegleg Penny’s Spice Cake of Death (Death in a good way, of course)* Adapted from Spice Cake with Blackberry filling and Cream Cheese Frosting

Cake Ingredients
2 cups All Purpose Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Ginger
1 tsp All Spice
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Nutmeg
½ tsp Salt
2 cups Sugar
2 sticks of Unsalted Butter, very soft
¼ tsp Orange Extract (or 1 TBSP Orange Peel)
4 eggs
1 cup Sour Cream
½ cup of Whole Milk (I used ¼ cup of fat free milk + ¼ cup of light whipping cream)
Blackberry Filling:
2 – 12 oz containers of Blackberries
½ cup Sugar

Cream Cheese Frosting:
1 ½ - 8 oz packages of Cream Cheese, room temperature
1 ½ sticks Unsalted Butter, room temperature
5 cups Powdered Sugar
2 TBSP Sour Cream
1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Cake Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour 2 – 9” round pans and 1 – 5/6” round pan. (I made 2 cakes with this recipe, 1 – 9” layer cake, and one smaller cake I could take the to outdoor play. You can definitely make the 9” layer cake a three layer cake. The smaller cake I split in half horizontally because it was considerably thicker than the larger layers.) Line the bottoms of the pans with parchment paper.
Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, ginger, all spice, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt into bowl and set aside.
Beat the sugar, butter, and orange extract together in a large bowl. Once they are sufficiently mixed, beat in the eggs one at a time.
Stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture, alternating with the sour cream and the milk.
Divide into the prepared pans.
Bake approximately 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. The thicker, small cake took a couple extra minutes (about 28 minutes total).

Filling Directions:
Mix berries and sugar in a bowl. Using a fork, work your way through the fruit, mashing it up. Don’t make it too fine, keep it chunky. Let it stand up to an hour, but no less than 20 minutes.

Cream Cheese Frosting Directions:
So I used a little different Cream Cheese frosting recipe than I normally use. This one has the sour cream in it. Since I had bought sour cream for the cake I decided to give it a try, while I prefer my simpler recipe, it was still tasty.
Beat the cream cheese and the butter in a large bowl until fluffy. Beat in the sugar, then the sour cream and vanilla.

Assembly:
For the two layer cake, place bottom layer on serving platter/plate, top side down. Spread a good amount of frosting over the top of the cake. Make the frosting a little thicker around the outer edges of the cake so that when you spoon the filling in it doesn’t seep out. Place the second layer on top of the bottom layer, top side up. Frost the top of the cake and it’s sides so that there is a nice thick layer of frosting. Refrigerate cake until an hour before you’re ready to serve. If you immediately serve from the fridge it’s just a little too cold. For the smaller thicker cake, cut cake horizontally into two equal layers. Follow the same assembly directions.

Pegleg gave out during the final stretch of cream cheese frosting. However, my roommates, knowing how sad and upset I was to lose PP have replaced her with a white KitchenAid hand held mixer. She may not have as much moxy, yet, we’re only just getting to know each other.

Iron Chef Challenge - Strawberries

Warning: This is a rather long post. It’s THREE recipes in one sitting…

At the end of June, we had a big family party, a reunion of sorts. When you think of my immediate family we’re not too big (there are only 5 of us: Mami, Papi, and the three of us kids), however, when you think of my mom’s side of the family it gets slightly more complicated. Not only is my mom one of six siblings, but add to the equation spouses, kids, kid’s significant others, and we literally have enough family to make up two baseball teams with relief players (this is including my 90 year old Gramma as pitcher of course). My mom’s side of the family, while originally based in Chicago, is now spread out all over the US. We have both coasts covered with some area in between. Because of this distance, it’s pretty awesome when we all get together.

To me, the fam is pretty special. I love to soak up as much time with my Aunts and Uncles as possible (maybe because I get some great dirt on my mom) and I enjoy getting to know my cousins a little better (mostly because there’s always a gem of a story to unearth). The big family party was set for Saturday and we were going to have a family dinner on Friday night at Gramma’s. My Uncle was going to cook dinner, so as the good little wannabe Chef that I am, I offered to make desserts. Having made the cakes for Gramma’s 90th and being impressed with some of my ridiculous concoctions that I’ve made for other family holidays he opened his arms to me. A week before the dinner I started to panic. I offered to make dessert without taking into account things like the amount of people that were going to be there (like 22 people or something ridiculous) AND it also seemed to have slipped my mind that the Jewel grocery store 37 seconds away from my house was closing it’s doors that week for remodeling. Couple these factors with normal work stress, attempting to have a life of my own, and minor daily annoyances and if you looked at me wrong, I probably would have burst into flames.

Luckily, I work best under pressure. I may not do my best work, but I’m focused, organized, and boy do I zero in on the prize and go for it.

So I set to work brainstorming. I couldn’t just make 200 cookies for my family – that was way too boring. And I had to make something gluten free so that my mom could enjoy it. I also wanted to use my tart pan still (I know – it’s a little obsessive) and I had recently purchased a cake carrier that was asking to be carried. I decided to make this a challenge – to pick one theme to carry through all the desserts. That way nothing was conflicting/overpowering and it made sense when presented in a group setting.

Strawberries. I love working with fresh fruit. I like the balance it has with chocolate or without chocolate and how it adds a lighter aspect to something. I also enjoy them by themselves. So in my own little kitchen stadium I began my Strawberry Challenge. Make 3 desserts, enough to feed 20 people and allow for seconds, in one very long night. I scoured the net for recipes. I settled on making three things, which I gave them each a spin of my own. I made Chocolate Covered Strawberries with semi-sweet and white chocolate, Fresh Fruit Tart, and what I like to call – A Slice of Strawberry Heaven (Gluten Free). To say everything came out perfect, would be a huge understatement. The fact is: I ran into a ton of kinks. There was intense troubleshooting, a 7 am bike ride to the Jewel down the road, and the remaking of a dessert before I had to be at work at 9:30 am. Even with all the stress and trouble, everything actually turned out delicious. And I want to mess with all these recipes some more so I can get them just right, however, I’ve OD’d a little on strawberries so I’m going to steer clear of them for a little while and focus on other delicious desserts before I bring them back.

Without further blabbing, here are the recipes. They’re definitely a work in progress, but have fun with them. They are delicious after all.

Chocolate Covered Strawberries (Taken from Food Network) These are also Gluten-Free!

Ingredients:
2 lbs of whole Strawberries (about 40)
12 oz Semi-sweet Chocolate (chopped)
6 oz White Chocolate (chopped)

Directions:
Wash and dry the strawberries really well. If they are wet the chocolate doesn’t set on them as nicely.
Put the Semi-sweet and White Chocolate in two separate heat proof bowls. I used my metal bowls. Make two separate double boilers to melt the chocolate by filling two separate saucepans with a couple of inches of water and heat until the water simmers. Make sure when you place your bowl on top of your saucepan that the water does NOT touch the bottom of the bowl.
While waiting for the water to simmer, line jelly roll pans with wax paper or parchment paper where you’ll set the dipped strawberries (or you can line your counter with it too).
Because I was doing so many strawberries I melted the Semi-sweet Chocolate first. I turned the heat down to low and waited for the chocolate to melt, stirring it until it was smooth. Once the chocolate was melted I turned the heat off.
Hold the strawberries by the stem and dip into the chocolate. As you lift it from the chocolate twist the strawberry so the excess falls back into the bowl or twists onto the strawberry. Set the strawberries on the parchment paper. Continue with the rest of your strawberries.
Follow the same rules stated above to melt the white chocolate. Once the white chocolate is melted, dip a fork in the white chocolate and whip it back and forth across the strawberries. It takes a couple times to get the whip of your wrist right, you might make a little mess and wind up with white chocolate all over your kitchen. But once you get the movement down they look gorgeous.
Let the strawberries set and them place them in the fridge. To package them you can stack them on top of each other between parchment paper. Don’t leave them out too long because you run the risk of the strawberries getting juicy and the chocolate shrinking back off of them (this is especially the case if you don’t dry them well enough).
This is a very easy dessert that is a crowd pleaser every time.

Fresh Fruit Tart Adapted from recipe found in Gourmet Magazine, 1998

Ingredients:
Crust:
1 ¾ cup Cinnamon Graham Crackers, ground (about 20 Trader Joe’s Cinnamon Graham Crackers)
1 stick of Unsalted Butter, melted
¼ cup of Sugar

Mascarpone Filling:
8 oz Mascarpone
1 cup Heavy Cream
1 cup Powdered Sugar
1 Lemon (zested)

Fruit Topping & Glaze:
3 ½ - 4 cups of Fresh Fruit (I used 1 ½ cups of sliced Strawberries, 1 cup Raspberries, and 1 cup Blueberries)
2 TBSP Strawberry Marmalade
2 TBSP Cointreau (or other berry/fruity liquor)

Directions:
Crust:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place a metal small measuring cup in the freezer to chill and help push the sides of the crust up the tart pan (optional).
Grind the Graham Crackers in the food processor until they are fine, mealy, texture. Stir in the sugar. Next stir in the butter until it’s incorporated.
Pour the crust mixture into a 9” tart pan. Coat the bottom of the tart pan with the crust mixture and push it up the sides of the pan as well. Using the cold measuring cup will help with this.
Bake in the oven for 13 minutes.
The crust slid down on me and cooked a little funny. If this happens, as soon as you pull it out of the oven, use the measuring cup or the back of a spoon to push the sides back up the side of the pan. Allow the crust to cool about 15-20 minutes before filling it. The crust should be fine.
Mascarpone Filling:
Beat the Mascarpone, whipping cream, sugar, and lemon zest until stiff peaks form. (It is, by far, the easiest step.) Once the crust is cool, spoon and spread the Mascarpone filling into the crust.
Fruit Topping and Glaze:
Slice the strawberries and mix with the raspberries and blueberries in a big bowl.
Place the Marmalade and the Cointreau in a small saucepan and simmer until the liquid is reduced to 3 TBSP, stirring constantly. This takes about five minutes.
With a pastry brush or spoon, spread some of the glaze over the top of the Mascarpone filling. Pour the rest of the glaze in with the fruit and stir it up so the fruit is coated. The fruit will get a nice sheen to it from the glaze. If you are serving this right away, toss the fruit on top of the tart, if not set it aside and wait to cover the tart.

I made the mistake of dressing the cake way before it was time. The liquid from the fruit and the glaze seeped through the crust and made everything soggy, making a huge mess in my kitchen. I had to turn the tart over on a plate to stop it from oozing. As a perfectionist, this made me hop on my bike at 7 am and go to Jewel to re-make the dessert. I took the first, soggy dessert to work and it was a huge hit. I waited to put the fruit on top of the tart until I got to my Grandma’s. It was a big hit and tasted delish, but the crust was a little hard. So the juices are definitely needed to soften the crust, but just do it a little before you’re ready to serve and not 24 hours before because it is a sticky gross mess to clean up.

Gluten Free Strawberry Heaven
Gluten Free White Cake Ingredients: (Cake adapted from a recipe Amanda’s Random Ramblings
1) 1 cup White Rice Flour
2) 1 cup Sorghum Flour
3) 1 1/3 cup Tapioca Flour
4) 2/3 cup Potato Starch
5) 2 cups Sugar
6) 4 tsp Baking Powder
7) 1 tsp Salt
8) 2 tsp Xanthan Gum
3 sticks of Unsalted Butter, softened but NOT melted
6 eggs
3 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 cup Whole Milk

Chocolate Ganache:
16 oz Semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
1 ½ cup Heavy Whipping Cream
4 TBSP butter

Strawberry Buttercream and Strawberry Filling:
(This is where the recipe went awry. Everything was going well until I tried to concoct a strawberry buttercream. I think I looked at way too many recipes and didn’t think things through properly. I am going to write about how I made it a giant mess and what I think I would omit to fix it. Please do not get mad if it turns out badly, it can be fixed.)
1 cup Strawberries, pureed
½ cup Unsalted Butter, melted
4 cups Powdered Sugar
¼ cup Milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp Strawberry gelatin
2 envelopes regular Gelatin
1 cup Strawberries, sliced - to place between cake layers

Gluten Free White Cake Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Grease 2 – 9” Round pans.
Combine all your dry ingredients (ingredients 1 through 8) in a bowl and mix them together (best done with a large spoon since there are so many).
Place your softened butter in a larger bowl and beat until fluffy.
Add the dry ingredients to the fluffy butter until they are all combined. Turn up the juice on your mixer and mix until the butter/dry ingredients reach a crumbly consistency.
In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and vanilla (I used the empty dry ingredients bowl). Add the vanilla/eggs to the dry ingredients and beat until it’s smooth and thick. Add the milk to the batter and beat until it’s combined.
Divide the cake batter between the round pans. Place in the oven and cook for approx. 44 minutes. Check on it after 30 minutes. I think because I doubled the original recipe and made pretty thick cakes it took a little longer than I had anticipated.
Cool the cakes in the pans for 10 minutes and then dump onto a cooling rack.
This was hands down, one of the best gluten free cakes I’ve made. It’s a little more difficult because there’s no chocolate in it to mask the gluten free texture/tastes. It didn’t taste exactly like white cake, but it had a nice fluffy consistency to it and didn’t taste too heavy or mealy.

Ganache:
Do not make the Ganache until the cakes have completely cooled and are ready to be covered. Make sure to put a cookie sheet under the cooling rack to catch the dripping chocolate ganache.
Place the chopped chocolate in a heat proof bowl.
Heat the cream and butter over medium heat, stirring constantly. Bring the cream and butter just to a boil and pour over the chocolate.
Let it stand, undisturbed for 5 minutes. Use a whisk and stir until smooth.
Pour the chocolate ganache over the tops of the cakes. Make sure to spread/cover the sides of the cakes.
Let the chocolate cool.

Strawberry Buttercream:
Beat all the ingredients together (except for the sliced Strawberries) until stiff peaks form. This does not happen, sadly. There’s too much liquid, no matter how long you beat. Poor Pegleg’s leg got tired, and my arm got tired of holding her. That’s why I attempted to add the gelatin to try to thicken it up. No dice…Then I thought if I refrigerated it, it would stiffen up a bit. It was still a soupy mess. Then I just prayed and decided to use it anyway. I think if I had omitted the milk it would have come out ok, but I can’t be positive.

Assembly:
I placed on ganached layer on the cake carrier and spread a little Strawberry Buttercream Soup over the top of the first layer. I then placed the sliced strawberries on top of the first layer. I placed the second ganached layer cake on top of the first one. Then, I poured the Strawberry Buttercream Soup over the ganached layers. I was hoping it would stick to the chocolate, it kind of slid everywhere and created a huge mess. Because it was so slippery, the strawberries started popping out of the center of the cake. By this time it was well past 1 am. I was crying. I’m not big on crying, but I was so exhausted and frustrated. I was sure this was going to rival the peanut butter crust disaster.
I stuck the cake in the fridge and hoped for the best, knowing that nothing good could come of it. It looked like a terrible unappetizing mess. I’m sure it tasted ok, but looking at it you definitely did NOT want to eat it. You could have potentially gotten cooties from just looking at it.
As I was sluggishly cleaning the kitchen and wallowing in self pity and disappointment I was thinking as to how I was going to fix this cake. I couldn’t let it go to waste, I had spent a lot of time on these gluten free layers and the ganache was beautiful. I couldn’t just serve the tart and strawberries, there wouldn’t be enough to feed the masses. I was already getting up to go to Jewel at 7 am, there had to be something I could do.
I sifted through the culinary encyclopedia in my brain and reverted to something I knew I could execute awesomely – Cream Cheese Frosting!

So early in the morning, I carefully removed the slippery, strawberry, soupy covered cakes from the cake carrier base and cleaned the base. (Since everything had dripped everywhere.) I whipped up a batch of cream cheese frosting. Placed the cake back on the carrier and frosted it.

Cream Cheese Frosting
1 – 8 oz package Cream cheese, softened
½ cup butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups powdered sugar, sifted

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese, butter, and vanilla until smooth and fluffy. Little by little add the powdered sugar until it’s light and creamy. It’s pretty easy and really tasty.

as the Whoopie Pies, I know it was damn good and thAnd the cake was DELICIOUS! It was absolutely phenomenal. It had just the right amount of sweetness and fruitiness. The chocolate added a great layer to the flavors and kept it from being bland with just a white cake and strawberries. I don’t really like attention and have a hard time taking compliments, not because I don’t appreciate them, but part of me only half believes them. I made a disaster into a success and while I was completely exhausted, the clink of forks and the going back for seconds was some of the most rewarding praise I’ve ever received. (Writing that seems kind of silly, but it’s truly how I felt.) My family, they don’t sugar coat things. They tell it like it is and when my mom said that she liked this cake almost as goodat’s that no one had been filled in on the backstory.

Maybe it’s a tale of success, maybe it’s just a story of luck, but for once I felt like I knew what it was like to take lemons and make lemonade.

Field Trip: Fritz's Pastry

A couple weeks ago I went on a field trip on my day off. It was fabulous. I had received an email a couple days before from Daily Candy. Daily Candy highlights awesome things in Chicago: new things to try, new places to go, trends that are on the up and up. It’s quite handy. Not to mention, their ‘reports’ are brief and witty, making for a good read.

So, Daily Candy told me about this awesome new bakery – in my neighborhood. Since it was a beautiful day, I decided to take a little trip. I visited Fritz Pastry on Diversey.

I ate a Lemon Marcaron (not to be confused with a macaroon). Which tasted like a little bite of lemon bar flavored heaven crossed with some crunchless meringue. Then I had a brioche with hazelnut and milk chocolate. I also had a chocolate croissant.

I liked this bakery. It was warm and well lit. Reasonably priced. Everything tasted very good and the service was great. The only thing I wished for was free wi-fi.

I'm a cherry ghost...

I'm an ocean

I'm all emotion
I'm a cherry ghost
-Wilco

Rainier cherries.
If you haven’t tried them – go out and get them.
I first discovered them the summer I lived in Washington, DC. I went to the Eastern Market (a fabulous farmer’s market with a flea market, an arts and crafts area, and the most gorgeous fresh fruits and veggies) and was mesmerized by these cherries that weren’t a deep red. They’re lighter in color with a sweet, yellow flesh. I ate pounds, upon pounds of the cherries. Until my lips were chapped from the tartness and the corners of my mouth itched from cherry juice.

When Rainier cherries become available every year, a little piece of cherry heaven is sent down from Mother Nature to me. My taste buds do a little dance and I over indulge my cherry passion. Don’t get me wrong, I do like the regular deep red Bing cherries, but I don’t like them as much. When I buy them, it’s to satisfy a hunger and a desire for seasonal fruit, tap dancing taste buds are not a part of the equation.

Maybe I love Rainier cherries so much because they remind me of my skin baking in the summer heat, or strolling through the farmer’s market in DC, or maybe it’s because winter is officially over and there’s fresh, seasonal fruit. Whatever the fact may be, I love these cherries. So I will spend $5 a pound on these suckers.

After I had eaten my way through about two pounds of cherries (single handedly) in less than a week. I decided I should try to make something with them. Hopefully, I wouldn’t eat them all before I figured out what to make.

I decided on a pie, a traditional forum for cherries. I decided I couldn’t just do the cherries because it would way too sweet. I also didn’t want to mess with a pie crust topping, I wanted to try more of a crumble topping. So I hunkered down and did a ton of online recipe research. I used a gluten free pie crust recommended by Shauna James Ahern, Gluten Free Girl, and mixed all these recipes to make the topping.

Cherry Ghost Pie
Pie Crust Ingredients: *Pie crust taken from Shauna James Ahern's Favorite GF Pie Crust
1 cup white rice flour
½ cup sorghum flour
½ cup potato starch
3 TBSP brown rice flour
3 tsp sugar
¼ tsp kosher salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 stick cold, unsalted butter
1 egg
2 TBSP apple cider vinegar
¼ cup ice water

Topping Ingredients:
¾ cup white rice four
½ cup dark brown sugar
½ cup chopped walnuts
½ cup unsalted butter
¼ tsp kosher salt
¼ cup old fashioned oats

Filling:
1 pound Rainier cherries (approximate)
4 nectarines
1 cup sugar
3 ½ TBSP Gluten Free Flour (I used the pre-mixed Bob’s Red Mill)
1 tsp cinnamon
Pinch of kosher salt

Pie Crust:
Mix the dry ingredients (including the sugar and cinnamon) together in a large bowl. Cut the butter into little pieces (about ½” thick) and drop into the dry ingredients. Using a butter knife, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until it has a mealy consistency. (I used my hands a little bit to help speed the process along. You can also use the food processor to accomplish the desired texture.) Make a well in the dry ingredients. Drop the egg and apple cider vinegar into the well. Stir the egg and vinegar into the dry ingredients gently with a fork. Stirring from the center to the outer edges of the bowl. Once all the ingredients are incorporated, drizzle ice water into the mixture, a little at a time, stirring between each addition. Stir in enough water for the mixture to become dough. You do not want the dough to be too wet!

Lay out a piece of parchment paper and drop the dough onto it. Cover the dough with another piece of parchment paper (in other words a parchment paper sandwich). Gently roll out the dough until it’s thick and the size of a pie plate. Refrigerate the dough as long as possible. Ideally, an entire day/night, but I left mine in for an hour and a half and it came out great.
Remove the dough after it has refrigerated for a while and let it thaw out for about 10-15 minutes.

Roll the dough, between the two layers of parchment, until it’s the size of your pie pan, taking into account the extra area needed for around the sides. I also made the sides about a half inch taller than the pan itself. (I had cut up way too much fruit.) Remove the top layer of parchment, and invert the pie crust into the pie pan. Pinch/crinkle the sides so they fit the pan.

You do not need to pre-bake the pie crust.

Filling:
Pit the cherries and slice them in half. Pit and slice the nectarines. Mix them in a bowl with the sugar, flour, cinnamon and salt. Let the fruit soak in their own juices for a little while (about ten minutes).

On a side note: There are cherry pitters out there. I don’t have one and have never used one, however, it would have been nice. So I did some research on how to pit the cherries easily without a pitting tool. There were suggestions on using a paperclip and a bobby pin. I tried the bobby pin. It was more messy than helpful. I had cherry juice running down to my elbows. The cherries were ripe enough that I could just use my hands to break the cherries open and take the pits out.

Topping:
Thoroughly mix all the topping ingredients together. (AND that’s it – it’s so easy!)











Assembly:
Spoon the filling into the pie crust. Sprinkle the topping over the filling.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 375 degrees. Cover a jelly roll sheet with tin foil and place pie on top of the pan. (The pan is there to catch any over bubbling juices.) Bake the pie, on the bottom rack, for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, tent with foil, and continue to bake for about another hour. Check on it periodically, you don’t want the crust to burn. It’s ready when the filling starts to bubble and the topping in a golden brown.

Enjoy!

Things I’d do differently:
I think I let the cherries sit was too long because they were already pretty ripe. Because they were so ripe, I felt like their flavor was weak and got lost. Very muddy flavor-wise. While the nectarines retained a little snap to them and had quite a bit of flavor still.

My sister and brother both thought the cinnamon was a little over powering. I would half the amount of cinnamon in the filling so it wasn’t too much. This may have also been caused by the cherry blandness. I would also only do 3 TBSP of the gluten free flour, instead of 3 ½ TBSP. You could taste the flour a little and GF flour does not taste like regular flour.

For the topping, I would mix all the ingredients together EXCEPT the oats. I would sprinkle the oats on first, directly on top of the fruit, and then sprinkle the rest of the topping over the oats and fruit. I think the oats needed to absorb a little liquid and get a little more tender.

At the end of the day, the pie was good. Much better than my last attempt. I was a little disappointed in the cherry consistency, but it was all trial and error. I couldn’t find any specific Rainier cherry pies out there to use as a study. I would make it again, with a couple modifications. At the end of the day, there is no better fruit than the Rainier cherry. Just go out and try it.