Pie day!

This is very unseasonal of me. The grocer's had a sale of two bags for one (doesn't that sound more enticing than 50% off? Implies somehow that we are getting one over on the man!), so I bought two bags of granny smith apples. Then I had to do something with them as the kids are perversely not eating apples this week. Normally I love making pies: today not so much, but forced myself to get up and bake and despite my seething I got into it after a bit and it all turned out quite nicely. The key to making pie dough is Don't Overwork It! It makes it all tough and nasty. Making a ring of pastry around the edge of the piepan helps keep it from burning (burning's a bit of a theme with my oven). If you use butter it's more likely to burn a bit. This was made on a big cookie tray as it goes further and is easier somehow to cut up for lunches. Still have too many apples!

Pie dough: makes enough for one huge sheet pie or a regular pie and little jam pies after.Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2 1/2 cups flour
4 tablespoons sugar
1 cup butter
4 tablespoons very cold water


Mix flour and sugar. Cut butter into chunks and pinch in with your fingers. Stop as soon as the butter is fully incorporated. Add in a touch of water and blend. Add a touch more if needed. You want it to just stick, if it's too wet it's a nightmare to roll out, ditto if it's too dry. I roll it out on a sheet of clingfilm and then dust with flour, then put cling film on top. For this pie roll out a huge rectangle, for a regular pie roll out rounds, and place on cookie sheet.

Apple filling

Combine about 7 thinly sliced (sliced, not chunks) Granny Smith apples with about 1/2 cup white sugar or a combination of white, brown and honey in a bowl. Add 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and a pinch of nutmeg and stir to combine. Put the apple mixture on the dough and roll out the top sheet of dough. Place that on top and trim. Poke a few holes with a fork (not sure if this is strictly necessary as apples might like a bit of steam, but puts you in the pie-making tradition). After about 30 minutes watch it carefully as some ovens (ahem) like to burn people's pies. Cool a few minutes before letting kids attack pie. We like ours with a thin piece of cheddar. If you make a regular sized pie use the leftover dough to make little round jam pies (they bake much more quickly and need longer to cool: boiling jam is not your tongue's friend!).

Best weekday breakfast for cold days

It's been a heck of a year and my appetite has returned in leaps and bounds. I tell myself that this breakfast might keep me going till lunch and keep me away from (in the winter) chocolate cookies at 10:00 am or (in the summer) Starbucks chocolate banana smoothies. Mixed results on that front as willpower has as least as much to do with it as a full tummy, but this is a gorgeous breakfast, and once I've made a batch it lasts at least a couple of weeks (eating it 6 mornings a week). This is a flexible recipe: feel free to change up the nuts and dried fruit, but the oatmeal + oil + sweetener ratio should stay the same

West Coast Granola with compote

3 cups uncooked oatmeal
1/2 cup oat bran (OR 1/2 cup flax meal OR 1/2 cup hemp seed OR both)
1 cup pecans (or walnuts or whatever nut you like)
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup water
2/3 cup maple syrup or agave syrup or brown rice syrup or honey or a combination
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 heaping teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
1 cup dried apples (or blueberries, cherries, cranberries etc)
1/2 cup dried barberries (available in Middle Eastern stores)

Mix together everything but the fruit and bake for 20 to 30 minutes (till it's pretty dry) at 250 degrees. Stir every 10 minutes or so to ensure even cooking and avoid burning. Remove and stir in fruit, store in an airtight container.

Fruit Compote
1 bag frozen berries (about 3 cups?): generally I use rhubarb, a little raspberry added in is nice too
a bit of of water
honey to taste (in the case of rhubarb you will need maybe 3 tablespoons).
Boil till the fruit is softened.

I tend to add about a couple of tablespoons of fruit compote as well as some nice plain yogurt (goat yogurt is very luxurious). The compote lasts a couple of weeks in a jar in the fridge, if I can it properly then of course it lasts longer. Mine does not tend to last at all as I eat it up!

Keeping us warm on a snowy day food

Oh my, look what it's doing out there. Snow! Real, Canadian-like snow. I was going to drive somewhere, but I guess I'm not so it must instead be time to do some cold-weather cooking. A nice sun-shiney cake and a bin full of homemade granola should do the trick.

This is adapted from Ottolenghi's Orange Polenta Cake but as I don't much like polenta in cakes I've reworked it and it is now Orange Blossom Cake. It is gorgeously damp and looks like the sun and tastes like Portugal (if Portugal were a cake).

for the batter:
just shy of 1 cup butter
just shy of 1 cup sugar
3 eggs, just beaten
zest of two oranges
2 teaspoons orange blossom water
2 1/2 cups ground almonds
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder

for the caramel topping
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp water
2 level tablespoons butter
2 oranges, very thinly sliced

Glaze
bit of marmalade

Lightly butter a cake tin and line with parchment paper (really you want to do this otherwise you will create a very sad mess due to the caramelising). Heat the oven to 325 degrees.

Grate the two oranges and set the zest aside. Slice a smidge off the bottom and top of the oranges so that there is no white showing. With a small and delicate knife carefully cut away the remaining white bits of the oranges. Now slice them very thinly indeed (not so thin they'll fall apart but not so thick they will feel chunky when you bite into them: thinnISH). Make sure there are no pits because when the cake is upended you will the oranges.

Now make the caramel. Put the sugar in a nice, heavy saucepan and add the water. Stir gently to incorporate the water and slowly bring to the boil. Be very careful with it as a) it rather likes to burn and b) it rather likes to burn you. When it gets to a lovely golden caramel colour remove it from the heat. Standing well back carefully add the butter. Stir and then pour all over the bottom of the pan and tilt to coat. Lay the oranges in the caramel.

The cake is very quick and easy. Cream the butter and sugar then add in our eggs. Now introduce the orange zest and orange blossom water. Finally add in the flour, ground almonds and baking powder. Mix till combined but don't overmix. Pour over the oranges taking care not to dislodge them. Bake for about 40 minutes, tenting if necessary.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 5 minutes. While the cake is still warm (otherwise the caramel sticks like glue) turn the cake out and let cool. Remove the paper, natch.

Glaze the cake with a mixture of 4 tablespoons warmed up marmalade and hot water (boil up in a saucepan).