We had just polished off a Texas Sheet Cake (well, the boys did), when someone asked me if I had ever made a Swedish Visiting Cake.  I had not…so let’s, shall we?  I just love spur of the moment baking (but not as much as the boys do).

In my head this is the creation of a Swedish grandmother with her long hair braided and coiled into a bun, but I believe credit goes to Dorie Greenspan.   No matter who created this cake – it’s certainly one that belongs in the files of almond lovers!

So…what’s in this cake?  Sugar, lemon zest, eggs, vanilla and almond extracts, salt, flour, butter, and almonds (I have slivered almonds so that’s what I used, sliced might be prettier). 

You can wrap the naked lemon in plastic wrap and juice it later (or slice it for lemon water).  If you don’t think you’ll use it soon enough, freeze lemon juice cubes.  ANYHOW…

Lemon and sugar…smells HEAVENLY.

I added the eggs and the extracts and wondered if these different flavors would play nicely.  All the ingredients get mixed in the same bowl (always nice) and make a thick batter.

I smoothed the batter into a cast iron skillet (a 9” cake pan would work, too), and topped it with almonds and a sprinkling of sugar.  All I had to do next was wait patiently for 30 minutes while it baked.

It cooled for what seemed like an eternal 5 minutes in the pan before I loosened the edges with a knife.

The result?  Well, the crispy edges remind me of macaroons, and the tender interior has hints of lemon – all those flavors DO play nicely.  It feels farmhouse rustic serving it right from the pan.

Put this on your meal plan, brew a pot of tea, and invite someone to visit.

vara väl!

We went to an apple orchard over the weekend and my guys started to make noise about apple pie.  The orchard  had only Ida Red apples, available, but I like to use a variety in the interest of texture and flavor.  Luckily there are lots of places to buy local apples!

Today I used cortland (2 of them), granny smith, golden delicious, johnamac, and empire.  Why?  Because they were the ones that looked best…because I can’t make up my mind…because they are all so gorgeous.   There are 7,500 varieties of apple worldwide. The United States grows 2,500 (but only 100 are grown commercially).    Why would I make a pie out of just 1 kind?

The recipe I started with was Apple Crumb Pie.  I have been having a conversation with Terry of CartSmart Bags about pie crust.  She renders her own lard to make pie crusts.  Since I don't, I’m going to attribute my pie crust failure to that.  I picked up a package Pillsbury pie crust (on sale!) and didn’t give it a second thought.  Although the recipe calls for a crumb topping, I decided to go with a double crust since the package had 2 crusts and I’m really going to work on my pastry skills.

The hardest part of making an apple pie is peeling and cutting the apples, and that’s because it’s boring.  That’s what hulu is for.  I used my apple sectioning tool (until it broke), and cut each section into 4 slices.  Since the granny smith and golden delicious were larger apples, I cut those slices in half crosswise.

Here is my gorgeous pie. ready for the top crust.  Those apples are going to condense – so you need to start with a lot.  Those are baking raisins in there.  You could use regular raisins and plump them with hot water, but, baking raisins were on sale.

There are many ways to finish the top of a pie.  Some bakers like milk, some like egg white…I like spray canola oil and sugar.  My crust doesn’t get soggy, and I don’t waste most of an egg.  

The pie goes in oven and the timer is set for 30 minutes, check for browning, 15 more minutes, check for browning and bubbling, 15 more minutes, it’s golden, and the juices that spilled onto the cookie sheet are dark – so I call it good, and let it sit in the oven for an hour because another project is taking up the counter space.  Then I set it on the windowsill to cool completely.  This is critical to the thickening process.  Threaten people if you must, but never cut into a hot pie.

And there you have pie.  The combination of apples means that there are some chunks of apple suspended in apples that have softened almost to the point of sauce.  The different flavors of the apples play nicely together and are prominent – the cinnamon and nutmeg take on supporting roles (and you know what I’m talking about if you’ve ever had canned pie filling).

Sometimes I plan dinner around dessert.  Sometimes I let my son have pie for breakfast.

We went blueberry picking and came home with 10 pounds of plump, sweet berries.  After the initial gorge, the natives started rumbling about blueberry pie.  My family knows that baking is not my specialty.  I always assume the “your results may vary” disclaimer when I attempt to bake. 

I have had great success in the past with Country Blueberry Pie.  It uses 2 pounds of berries.  If I’m going through all the effort, I’m going to have a big pie.

I made the filling according to the recipe, and filled the crust.  I know you are wondering about the pie crust. Let's just skip right over that, shall we?  Because I'd have to say something like "sorry, it's a Meal Mixer trade secret" and you'd say "What?  How can a blog about cooking not share a recipe?" And then I'd mumble something about Pillsbury and there'd be this awkward silence... 

ANYHOW…  Here’s a shot of my pie, ready to go in the oven.  You can see how plentiful the filling is, and admire the rustic look of the lattice work.  When I roll out pie crust, I do it with powdered sugar and not flour.  Flour is not tasty.  I opted not to brush this with egg white, since the recipe does not call for egg and I was not feeling inclined to deal with unused yolk.

Now…I know that not every pie will come out the same.  I know that berries, being a natural product, vary in sweetness and juiciness.  I know that there are other thickeners besides cornstarch, but I don’t bake enough to go in search of arrowroot, and I’ve never had any luck with tapioca.  

My pie came out of the oven very, very jiggly.  I was unhappy.   THIS is why I don't like to make pies.  It's just so arbitrary.  But there are steps to be taken… Step 1 is to email your friends and whine.  Someone is bound to tell you that your pie is SUPPOSED to be a bit runny.  Step 2 is to google failed pies and read all the things you could have done instead.  You can do all sorts of things, just don’t touch the pie.  The last step...the very last step, is to cut into the pie.  You have to  let it cool and solidify.  I mean cool enough that you could set it on a stick of butter and walk away for 20 minutes and come back to unmelted butter cool.  All of the pectin and starch need time to do their thing, and that takes time. 

When I cut the pie for dessert, it did  not keep its shape.  It wasn’t tragic, but, it wasn’t perfect.  Apparently the taste was spot on though because the men folk were quiet.

The next morning, was a different story..the pie had set.  Isn’t it lovely?  Maybe I just need to have a little more patience.

The moral of the story?  Pies take time, a lot of time.  They may take extra thickener, and a little more talent/patience than I have.  If I can make a pie, you can make a pie.  Add Country Blueberry Pie to your meal plan this week, or as soon as blueberries go on sale!