Apple Cobbler with Cheddar Cheese Biscuits

Naked braeburns, awaiting sugary alchemy

Holy smokes, am I ever excited that cheese exists and that it goes into baked goods. Apologies to my meat- and dairy-disavowing friends and all, first with the constant butter, then with the bacon, and now (again) with the cheddar—I am just totally not cutting you pals a break. It's hard though! When tangy, sharp, crispy genius in the form of cheddar-apple baked goods exists in great creative abundance, who am I to turn my back?

Shifting of tectonic biscuit plates?

I have to be completely honest here and tell you that though I love all cheese in baked goods, this recipe left me wanting. We just had bacon-feta-scallion scones that were over the moon, and there was an amazing apple pie with cheddar cheese crust a little while ago, but for this cobbler, I wanted the cheese and apple flavors to be more integrated than they were. Joey adored this though, and the empty pan sitting in my sink is testament to its goodness, but I'm in search of something blatantly cheesier. Now if only I could figure out a good way to make brie pie...

I'll trade you a brie pie...

Apple Cobbler with Cheddar Cheese Biscuits

Adapted from Rustic Fruit Desserts

I found the biscuits to be a little too doughy, so unless you're a diehard bread fan, you might want to reduce the size of the biscuits a bit and cook the extra dough on a baking sheet. Or instead of making nine large biscuits, you could make a bunch of smaller ones.

Filling

8 large apples, peeled, cored, cut into 1/4-inch slices

1 cup packed brown sugar, light or dark, your preference

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Juice of one lemon

1/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Biscuits

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon sugar + 1 more tablespoon for tops of biscuits

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt (you might find this in need of more salt)

2 cups (4 ounces) extra-sharp cheddar cheese

1 1/3 cups cold buttermilk

1.  Position a rack in the lower third of the oven, and preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.  Gently toss apples, sugar, cornstarch, salt, cinnamon, and lemon juice in a bowl, then spread in a buttered, square, three-quart baking dish.  Dapple the apples (bah!) with the pats of butter, cover with foil, and place on the lower oven rack to let apples begin cooking while you make biscuits.

2.  To make the biscuits, mix all the dry ingredients (just one TBSP. sugar) in a bowl, add cheddar, and stir gently.  Make a well in the center, and slowly add buttermilk.  Fold in with a rubber spatula until dough is completely mixed and you have a doughy, but shaggy ball.  If need be, add more buttermilk, one tablespoon at a time until the dough is pliable, but not too sticky.

3.  Take apples out of oven and remove foil.  Using 1/4-cup proportions, add rounds of dough to tops of apples, distributing evenly.  You should have 9 biscuits.  Sprinkle the remaining tablespoon of sugar atop the biscuits and return to the oven (foil removed).  Bake for about 40 minutes, until apples are soft and biscuits are golden.

Bacon-Feta-Scallion Scones

Basic creamy scones (with vanilla bean sugar), from which this savory recipe was created

Happy new year!  I'm all shiny and new from my ten-day vacation in California that consisted almost entirely of tacos, burritos, avocados, Fat Tire, fresh-squeezed orange juice, Yahtzee, the beach, and of course my family.  After a long post-high school life of thinking I'd never move back to San Diego, ten days and too much sunshine has nearly unwound this of my most certain certainties.  If only we hadn't actually picked the oranges that made the orange juice, or if the cactus out back hadn't skyrocketed to 25 unholy, California feet tall, well then maybe I'd feel more like taking DC's bitter-cold hand than like falling blessedly back into my mother's avocado-stained kitchen where produce means something and tacos happen.

Bacon-feta-scallion scones!

My sister spent much of her time in San Diego clad in a green onesie making terrariums and with tacos in her mouth.  My mom mercilessly teased my aunt's dog, added immodest pats of butter to each of her already buttery scones (on three mornings total), and squealed at my dad during Chinese checkers.  From our kitchen window, my dad used his 22 to shoot squirrels that he had attracted to his vantage point with peanut butter and pomegranates, and later he also squealed at my mom during Chinese checkers.  With family like this, breakfast is all the more important because it's the best reason (besides orange juice) to get everyone to sit together for two hours and read the sports pages while we wait for it to be time to eat burritos.

Bacon-Feta-Scallion Scones

Recipe influenced by Karen DeMasco's The Craft of Baking

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon + 1/2 teaspoon baking powder*

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup feta, or other creamy cheese
6 tablespoons chilled, unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces 
4 slices of bacon (or less or more), chopped and cooked to your preference

3 scallions (or more), chopped small
1 cup heavy cream

1.  Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

2.  Sift flour, baking power, sugar, and salt into a medium bowl.  Mix in feta or other cheese.  Quickly cut in butter with a pastry blender or two knives until mixture resembles coarse meal with some large buttery lumps in it.  Add the bacon and scallions, but don't mix just yet.  Gently stir in heavy cream with a rubber spatula or fork until mixture begins to form a dough, about 30 seconds.

3.  Transfer mixture to a floured surface and knead for about ten seconds until the dry flour bits and everything comes together as a (sticky) dough ball.  Form scones by pressing dough into a very lightly floured 8" x 8" square pan.  Cut into eight wedges (cut square in half diagonally, then each half into four equal, if slightly misshapen, triangles).  Scoop triangles out of pan and place onto baking sheet.  You could also use a round cake pan and cut the wedges like slices of cake or pie.

4.  Bake scone wedges for 20 minutes, or until tops are golden brown.  Cool for ten minutes.

*Sorry pals, just realized this said 1 teaspoon instead of 1/2.  This portion has been updated.

Triple Ginger Cookies

Baking isn’t exactly my personal recourse for existential destitution, and neither should blogging be, but, well, if ever there was a platform for public self-expression, then maybe this would be it. That said, my friend Jason is coming to visit me in March, and he asked me the other day what my favorite things to do in DC are and how many days do I think are good for getting a feel for the city. I totally drew a blank. Partial words and blurry things flickered through my head, but I, after living here for more than a year, was completely dumbfounded. “Quick, quick! Better find something I love about this place! Joey, what the hell do I love about DC?”

And now, in a really artistic and seamless segue, I will link in to my recipe for the best ginger cookies ever — it uses three different kinds of ginger — and at the end of it all, I’ll affirm how much I like DC and I’ll figure out how to make Jason like DC too. See? Seamless and artistic. Abby says that maybe part of why we’re still here is because DC is so alienating and weird, and she’s probably right that in a lot of ways, the sense of belonging is part of what propelled us from California in the first place. So maybe these moments of panic are just DC’s way of reminding me to eke out my happiness in a way that is challenging and satisfying — like through cookies.  Recipe after the jump!

Lemon Meringue Pie

Round one

During my trip to North Carolina last week, someone in the family casually mentioned that “everyone has a go-to recipe.” My anxious, anal-retentive brain immediately searched the archives to discover what my go-to recipe might be, but I came up blank until I realized I was staring the answer right in its lemony face.

Billowy, marshmallowy toppping

Lemon meringue pie is the first pie that I ever baked from scratch since it has always been the most-demanded pie at all of our family functions—this pie is probably more often at my parents’ dinner table than I am. This Thanksgiving, my mom shuffled (grudgingly) down the stairs at 7:00 a.m. to double check “one last thing” for me as I prepared the meringue, and she couldn’t help but protest that she was mad not to be getting a lemon meringue pie in San Diego that day. And now, everyone might be a little screwed since my sister didn’t get one in Pittsburgh, and the pie was the easy favorite at my new other family’s Thanksgiving, but they might not get one next year. The good news for me (and soon to be you) though, is that having this pie recipe up my sleeve means I have a portable tradition—no matter where I am for what holiday, this pie always represents good food and good family.


Recipe and a photo after the jump!

Apple Pie with Cheddar Crust

Hello, domed top!

Sometimes I’m unsure of whether I dislike DC or whether I love it, or maybe it’s my routine that bums me out, or being far away from my family (and Mexican food) that gets me down, but no matter what, autumn has provoked significant moments of emotional flux for me. Talks of moving to Pittsburgh to make my future grow some chest hair (or wings, or whatever) coupled with the oft mind-melting experiences of a working lady who misses art and, well, a sister can get to feelin’ pretty low.

And not to insist that edible fruit is the panacea I have suggested it is before, but, BUT! apple-picking did help my blues. Granted, it reenergized my persistent desire start a business and dig my heels into some dirt, but it also helped me focus on this zen thing I have been trying. This thing where I try to concentrate only on the present moment, such as that during which I eat a proper pie. Truly, this cheddar-encrusted apple pie will kick the self-sorry blahs right out of you, at least for the few minutes it takes you to eat a slice. Nothing says “focus on the present” quite like a farm-to-belly baked good.

Apple Pie with Cheddar Crust
Cobbled together from an assortment of many recipes available online

Crust
2½ cups all-purpose, unbleached flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 pound extra-sharp cheddar, preferably white, shredded (comes out to about 2½ cups)
1 stick very cold butter, cut into small cubes
1/4 cup very cold, non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening, cut into small pieces (we used Spectrum brand)
6 to 8 tablespoons ice water
1 tablespoon milk, for brushing top crust

Fillin'
7 medium-sized apples (we used a combination of braeburn and suncrisp), peeled and cored, cut into quarter-inch slices
2/3 cup sugar
3 tablespoon flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 tablespoon fresh-squeezed lemon juice
1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1. Make le crust by adding all the dry ingredients together and cutting the fat in with your fingers or a set of knives or a pastry blender. Keep doing that until it's coarse with clumps, add the cold water one or two tablespoons at a time until the dough comes together, press it into flat discs, refrigerate for an hour.

2. Preheat the oven the 450, heat up a cookie sheet lined with foil in there while you're preparing the pie. Put the apple slices in a bowl (keep them from getting yellow beforehand by soaking in ice water), and add all of those ingredients, save for the butter. Mix. Roll out yer bottom pie crust (you might want to use a deep-dish tin if you have one), put it in there, add the apples and make a big dome, slice up the remaining tablespoon of butter and put that on top, roll out the top crust and lay it over, tuck the edges, crimp 'em, cut steam vents in the top, brush some milk on, throw it in the oven on the cookie sheet.

3. Cook for 20 minutes, then reduce heat to 375 and cook for another 40. Check on the crust. If it's starting to burn a little or getting too brown, cover the whole pie top in aluminum foil. Ideally, let it cool for two to three hours, but this is hard if not impossible. Good with ice cream, coffee, and a set of curable blues. Joey helps.