Raspberry Truffle Tart

 Raspberry Truffle Tart

I found this great recipe on allrecipes that uses fresh berries, and since I live in berry country and it’s getting to be that time of year again I thought I would share.

Raspberry Truffle Tart

First you’ll need an pie crust when it’s ready you bake your crust for 7 minutes in a preheated 375 degree oven.  I use this recipe here

While it’s baking you whip up an egg white (save the yolk you’ll need it later)and finely chop up some almonds.

After your crust has baked for 7 minutes you take it our and gently brush it with the egg white and sprinkle it with the chopped almonds.  Return it to the oven until it is nice and brown and fully cooked.

While it’s cooling you mix up your filling which is 6 oz of Bakers Semi-Sweet chocolate (chopped) and 1/4 cup of butter melted in a saucepan.

    

Once it’s melted you remove it from the heat and mix in two egg yolks.  But it back on the burner and cook it on low until it thickens about 3 minutes.

Then pour it into your prepare pie shell and line it with your fruit.

 

Then you heat up some raspberry jam and drizzle it over the top of all the fruit.  I just used my raspberry freezer jam that I made this year

Then you heat up 1 oz of semi-sweet bakers chocolate with 1 tsp of oil and drizzle that all over the top of the fruit.

 

Top it with sliced (or chopped) almonds and ENJOY!

Just perfect for berry season!!

Banana Bread

This is my favorite banana bread recipe ever!  It comes from my great grandmother.  I love the cinnamon mixed with bananas it is so good.  It’s not super healthy but it is super yummy!

The recipe

3 eggs

1 1/2 cups of sugar

3/4 cups of oil

1 TBS vanilla

4-5 ripe bananas

3 cups of flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. of baking powder

1 tsp. of baking soda

3 TBS of cinnamon

Mix all the ingredients in order and bake at 350 until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.  It make two large and 1 small loaves.

 

In the words for my five year old son “Yumminess is served!”

Pizza Dough

 

Pizza Dough For 2 Pizzas

2 cups of HOT water

1/4 cup of sugar

5 1/2 cups of flour ( I like a combo of white and wheat flour)

2 TBS yeast

1/2 TBS salt

2 TBS oil

1 can of green chilies

1 big scoop of minced garlic

1/4 cup of grated parmesan cheese

1 TBS of Italian Seasoning.

Add all of the ingredients in your mixer and mix for 5 minutes.   The dough should clean the sides of your mixer pretty well, if it doesn’t add a little bit more flour.

Divide the dough in two and roll it out on your pizza pan.  Top with your favorite toppings and bake at 425 degrees for about 20-25 minutes.

ENJOY!!

Flaky Pie Crust

This is my favorite pie crust recipe.  It always turns out yummy and flaky AND it make a pretty crust too. 

The Recipe

1 cup of flour

1/3 + 1 TBS of shortening

1/2 tsp. of salt

2 TBS ice water

 

How to make a beautiful and flaky pie crust

In a medium bowl mix together your first three ingredients until you have small crumbs like this.  You can use a pasty knife/fork or a dinner fork or you can use your fingers.  If you use your fingers try to use the tips of them so you don’t heat up the dough too much. 

Once you have your desired crumbs you add 2 TBS of ice water and then form it into a pie dough disc. 

I don’t have one of those cool pie sheet things that you roll your dough out on.  BUT what I do have is a clean dish towel.  And it works AWESOME! Sprinkle some flour all over the dish towel and place your dough disc in the middle then sprinkle a little flour on your dough disc too.  Then roll your rolling pin through the flour and start to roll the dough out from the center.

Once it’s your desired size and thickness place your pie plate upside down in the middle of the dough.

Place your had underneath the dish towel until you get to the middle of the dough, then place your other hand on the back of the pie plate and flip the whole thing over.

Trim the excess dough leaving about 1/2 inch extra around the edges you can trim it with, your fingers, a knife or I like to use my kitchen sheers.

Take the edge dough and fold in under all the way around the pie.

When the edges are all finished it’s time to make them pretty.  There are a lot of different ways to do this, here are two.

The first one is the way I like to do my pie crust edges.  You pick up the edge of the dough in-between your pointer and middle finger then you push the dough with your thumb forming a scalloped edge. Repeat all the way around the pie.

The next way is to use your thumb and pointer finger to hold the dough and then use your other pointer finger to push the dough in-between them forming a scalloped edge. Repeat around the pie crust.

All finished! 

For a Double Crust

When you place your bottom crust in the pie tin trim your edges but don’t fold them under. 

When you place the top crust on trim the edges of your top crust and then fold the top crust and the bottom crust together then do your scallops around the edges of the pie.

Add slits in the top for ventilation and add any decorations that you might want.

For a lattice  Crust

Finish your bottom crust.  For the top of your pie roll out another dough disc and use a pizza cutter to make strips of pie crust.

Then lay the pie crust strips on top of the pie forming a lattice.  They’re lots of different ways to do it.  I do it the easy way, where you  lay one piece of crust at the top then you put one on the side, then one on the top, then one on the side repeat until your finished.  I learned this one from Martha.

All done!