Against the Grain V32#6 Full Issue

Page 82

ATG Food + Beverage Roundup — Holiday Favorites Column Editors: Nicole Ameduri (Licensing Manager, Springer Nature) <Nicole.ameduri@springernature.com> and Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe (Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) <Lisalibrarian@gmail.com>

Nicole’s Picks — Holiday Staples These are three of my cold-weather staples that I make throughout the holiday season.

Biscuits Makes 12 biscuits 2 cups all-purpose flour 1 tablespoon baking powder 1 tablespoon sugar ½ teaspoon cream of tartar ¼ teaspoon salt ½ cup butter ¾ cup heavy cream Preheat oven to 450 degrees In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, sugar, cream of tartar and salt. Using a pastry blender, cut the butter into the flour to form coarse crumbs. Make a well in the center of the ingredients and pour in the cream. Lightly blend with your hands, being careful not to overwork the dough. Place dough onto a floured surface and make into a smooth ball and then roll out until about 1 inch thick. Use a round cookie cutter to cut out as many biscuits as possible. Gather the dough, reroll and cut more biscuits. Place the biscuits on a baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes.

7 inches in diameter. Brush off any excess flour and place on a large baking sheet. Filling In a large bowl, toss the apples with the brown sugar, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and flour. Make sure the apples are evenly coated. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Divide the apple filling into 4 equal portions. Place 1 portion of the apple filling into the center of each dough circle. Decoratively arrange the apples, leaving a 3/4-inch border all the way around. Fold the border over the apples along the edges, pinching edges together as necessary. I like to save the left over dough and cut maple leaves out of it. You can be creative.

Apple Tarts Makes 4 tarts Dough 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces 1/3 cup ice water Filling 2 ½ cups peeled and sliced Granny Smith apples ¼ cup light brown sugar ¼ cup sugar ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg (I highly recommend grinding your own nutmeg. The taste will be much more vibrant than if you buy ground nutmeg.) 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons butter Dough In a large bowl, combine the flour and salt and refrigerate to chill. Starting with cold ingredients will yield the flakiest crust. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender or fork. Add the water, 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing with a fork until the mixture forms a dough. If the dough is too dry and crumbly, add an additional tablespoon of ice water until it comes together. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour. Cut the dough into 4 equal portions. Use a rolling pin and a small amount of flour to roll out each piece into a circle roughly 82 Against the Grain / December 2020 - January 2021

Maple-glazed Root Vegetables Makes 4 servings 1 cup peeled and large-diced parsnips ½ cup large-diced turnip ½ cup peeled and large-diced carrot 1 cup peeled and large-diced golden beets 3 tablespoons maple syrup 1 tablespoon melted butter ½ teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place the parsnips, turnip, carrot and golden beets in an 8 x 8-inch glass or ceramic baking dish. Drizzle the syrup and butter over the vegetables. Sprinkle the rosemary and a pinch of salt over the vegetables as well. Stir to incorporate. Bake until all the vegetables are tender, about 40 minutes.

Lisa’s Picks — Coffee to Cocktails … Mailed to Your Home I’ve learned many things in the past few months but the pile of boxes in my garage evidences my newly discovered pleasure continued on page 83

<http://www.against-the-grain.com>


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.