Pear Brandy & Apple Brandy

Fruited Brandies are wonderfully simple to make and cost far less than flavored brandies in the liquor store. Unless the funds are available to buy Calvados or other well-known brandies the cheaper varieties can be contaminated with corn alcohol, corn syrup or imitation flavor of unknown origin.



everything necessary to make fruited brandies at home



Crapabble brandy being my absolute favorite, even over peach brandy. The taste is quintessential apple pie packed into a thimble-size glass. Plus crabapples are often free for the picking. This year when the crabapples ripened I was too sick to take advantage of the tree’s bounty. Which means my cupboard is bare of fruited brandies, and winter is coming. This is unacceptable, untenable. So while I was brandy poaching a couple pears I started a pint jar of pear brandy, and another of apple brandy.

Making fruited brandies is one of my favorite uses for old, crystallized honey. I scoop it into the jars first, add the spice, fruits and then top with brandy. With swirling, over the infusion time, the honey dissolves. No waste, and no sticky dribbles down the jar sides.

Follow a vegan diet? Agave works in place of honey. I've used both in different batches with success.

For 2013, wish me good health, so I can return to making gallons of crabapple brandy, apple pie brandy, and plum spiced brandy as Yule Gifts.

Pear Brandy

Ingredients

1 medium sized, ripe pear, such as Bosc or Bartlett

2 cloves
2” cinnamon stick
Pinch of nutmeg
1 oz of honey
Brandy – inexpensive like Korbel

Directions
Stem, core and slice pear into sixths, leaving the peel on. Place in pint mason jar with other ingredients and cover with brandy.

Swirl 2-4xday for the first week, then daily for another week. Let rest in a cool, dark place for another two weeks minimum, two months preferably.

Strain and pour liquid back into the jar. Use in pies, tarts, or as an aperitif. I keep some of the fruit in my freezer to mince and use a dollop of to season those same pies and tarts.

Apple Brandy
Ingredients

1 small, tart apple, such as Granny Smith or Crabapple

1 sliver of lemon zest if using non-crabapples

4 cloves

2” cinnamon stick

¼ tsp mace

Pinch of nutmeg

2 oz of honey

Brandy – inexpensive like Korbel

Directions

Stem, core and slice apple into sixths, leaving the peel on. Place in pint mason jar with other ingredients and cover with brandy. When unable to use crabapples I add a strip of lemon zest to boost the tartness.

Swirl 2-4xday for the first week, then daily for another week. Let rest in a cool, dark place for another two weeks minimum, two months preferably.

Strain and pour liquid back into the jar. Use in pies, tarts, or as an aperitif.

Brandy Poached Pears

I’ve been craving brandy poached pears ever since Grace Burrowes latest heroine reminisced about eating brandy poached pears in childhood. Pears poached in red wine, orange juice and spices are robust; a winter staple, especially served with elk steak with more of the reduced sauce over vanilla ice cream for dessert. Brandy poached are entirely different…delicate and heady, a memory of late summer.



Soft Focus



This week the small, locally owned grocer’s had red Anjou pears on sale…a lovely bin of fat, fragrant pears. Add in a windy, snowy, cold autumn day and these are the results.

 

The only problem…I used the last of my brandy! Will have to run out tomorrow for another bottle so I can have a small snifter with my bowl of poached pears…or open a bottle of Fre non-alocholic bubbly and eat the pears swimming in bubbles…or in reality, Both!

Ingredients
2 big, fat, ripe pears
6oz / 180ml brandy
6 oz / 180ml water

3-4 tbsp honey

1 tsp vanilla
2” length of cinnamon stick (break a longer stick on the counter edge)
4 whole cloves
Nutmeg, freshly grated, 3-4 swipes aka not very much (optional)


Directions
Put the water, brandy, honey, vanilla, cinnamon stick, and cloves into a 1-1 ½ quart sauce pan on low-to-medium heat. I use my smallest burner, 5,000 btu.
While the sauce begins to heat, peel pears, core, quartering each half.
Place in sauce pan so all the slices are in the fluid. They don’t have to be completely covered.


Snifter o'Bliss



Cover pan with lid, or a saucer (darn it, sometimes those wee sauce pans don’t come with lids) and poach for 15 minutes. Halfway through, gently shift the pears so the uncovered part are moved down into the fluid.

 

At 15 minutes, check for tenderness. Pears go from just-right to pear sauce in a blink…I like mine tender yet still solid. Remove the pears with a slotted spoon to serving dish. Turn the heat up to high and reduce the liquids to syrup. Down to about ¼ the volume. Add the bit of fresh nutmeg.

Pour over pears and serve immediately. If storing, cool the syrup in the pan. Once cool, spoon over pears in storage container and place in the fridge. Otherwise the hot syrup will cook the pears a bit more.

Pumpkin Pancakes & Waffles

For me, pumpkin takes pancakes and waffles from being too sweet to just right. Don't get me wrong, I still have a sweet tooth, but after more than a decade of no corn syrup laden food products, my sweet tooth is more of a rich-intense flavors tooth.

Usually I make these waffles all through autumn and winter, freezing the bulk of the batch for quick, hot breakfasts or snacks. Most often I eat them plain. On very cold mornings I'll add a dollop of maple syrup to my plate, then have extra strong tea or coffee to balance out the flavors.

This makes about 16 or so 5" pancakes or individual waffles.

Ingredients
7.4 oz / 210 grams Gluten-Free all purpose flour or brown rice flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
4 tsp    pumpkin pie spice
4 large  eggs
8 oz      pumpkin puree
3.5 oz / 100 grams brown sugar (plain sugar works too)
2 oz      vegetable oil
1 tsp     vanilla
16 oz    plain soy milk soured with 2 tsp lemon juice

Directions

Whisk together the dry ingredients until blended. In a separate bowl whisk together the wet ingredients. Blend the two sets together until no lumps remain.

Pour 1/3 to 1/2 cup increments onto preheated griddle or into waffle iron. Cook until bubbles break in the center, then gently flip to cook the other side.

Freeze cooled extras between sheets of wax paper. To reheat, pop a pancake or waffle on a plate and microwave for about 45 seconds.

 

 

 

No pumkin pie spice on hand? Here is a quick way to blend your own:

 

2 tsp    cinnamon

1 tsp    ginger

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp cloves 1/8 tsp anise (optional)

Feeding the Witch while Baking

Inevitably while I'm baking I get hungry, peckish at the very least, for something savory. And it needs to be something I can graze on while working, substantial enough to keep me from eating the ingredients for whatever I'm playing with, and often feed a friend or three perched on the other side of the kitchen work table. Hummus and cucumber slices or baby carrots are a long-time standby. When David Lebovitz posted this recipe for a white bean dip I had to make it. Everything I've ever made from one of his recipes turns out exactly as described, tastes great, and often are quite simple. This recipe has that additional rare quality of not requiring a single substitution or tweak.

After soaking the beans over night and cooking them in my wee crockpot for the morning, my IV nurse and I each enjoyed a small bowl garnished with warm olive oil and a sprinkle of parsley. Add in a pot of gun powder tea for a delicious, light mid-afternoon meal.

Not in the mood for dill or mint? Use paprika and a hefty pinch of chili and cayenne instead.

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2012/09/white-bean-dip-recipe/

Banana Bread French Toast

This weekend treat yourself to an indulgent treat, French Toast made with banana bread or a sandwich made with banana bread, peanut butter, honey and sliced bananas. As a bonus the house will smell divine for hours beyond the bake time.

Banana Bread

Adapted from Fannie Farmer Baking Book by Marion Cunningham

Two 8x4 loaves

2 ½ c flour

1 tsp salt

2 tsp baking soda

1 c shortening

2 c sugar (brown will make this bread very dark, moist & even sweeter)

6 ripe bananas (over ripe even better)

4 eggs

1 c walnuts (optional – omit for Jenna!)

Preheat oven to 350

Put bananas, shortening, eggs, and sugar in food processor. Blend until smooth.

Add flour, salt, baking soda and walnuts. Blend until smooth.

Divide between two pans lined with parchment paper.

Bake for 70 minutes or more until toothpick comes out clean. Loaves will be a dark brown. Impatient?Use small loaf pans and make more loaves - shorter baking times, closer to instant gratification.

Cool in pan for 5 minutes then place parchment lined loaves on cooling rack.

Excellent to make banana bread French toast with or banana bread pudding. In Texas I saw sandwiches made with peanut butter & honey. Bacon slices optional.

French Toast

Dip slices in egg batter, cook on teflon grill, enjoy with or without maple syrup.

Banana bread pudding will happen closer to Yule.