D.I.Y. Delicious: Recipes and Ideas for Simple Food From Scratch by Vanessa Barrington, Sara Remington Read Free Book Online Page B

galette
    3 tablespoons Yogurt
    cup cold water
    1 cup all-purpose flour
    ¼ cup cornmeal
    1 teaspoon sugar, plus about
    1 tablespoon for sprinkling on top
    ½ teaspoon salt
    7 tablespoons chilled butter (or a mixture of butter and lard divided fairly evenly), cut into small pieces, plus additional butter (melted) for brushing on top
    About ¾ cup Persimmon-Spice Butter
    3 large or 4 medium apples, peeled or unpeeled, sliced thinly
    In a small cup, stir together the yogurt and the cold water and place it in the freezer while you mix the other ingredients.
    In a large mixing bowl, with a whisk, combine the flour, cornmeal, the 1 teaspoon sugar, and the salt. Add the chilled butter and work it in quickly with a pastry blender, leaving some pieces of fat the size of small peas.
    Sprinkle the yogurt mixture over the flour mixture gradually, mixing it in with a fork. Be careful not to overmix. The dough should be crumbly, but stick together when pinched. You may not use all of the yogurt mixture.
    Gather the dough into a ball, wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours.
    Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
    On a lightly floured board, with a rolling pin, roll out the dough to a ¼-inch thickness. Fold the dough carefully into quarters, pick it up gently and transfer to a baking sheet. Unfold the dough so it sits centered on the baking sheet.
    Using a rubber spatula, gently spread the persimmon butter thinly and evenly over the dough, leaving a 1½- to 2-inch border along the edges.
    Lay the apple slices on top of the persimmon butter, working in a spiral from the inside out, covering the persimmon butter, but leaving the same 1½- to 2-inch border. Fold the edges of the dough inward to encase the fruit, and sprinkle the entire galette with the 1 tablespoon sugar.
    Bake on the center rack of the oven until the crust is brown and flaky and the apples soft and fragrant, 20 to 25 minutes. Halfway through, rotate the pan and brush the apples and the crust with the melted butter. Give the galette a final brush of butter when you remove it from the oven.
    Let cool slightly before cutting. Serve warm or at room temperature. Store any leftovers at room temperature, covered, for no more than 24 hours.
Food Processor Nut Butters
    It’s easy to make your own nut butters in an ordinary food processor, and they provide several advantages over store-bought nut butters. You control the smoothness to your liking; you can choose to make raw or roasted butters; and you’ll never again worry about sodium, trans fats, sugar, or other additives. I’ve found homemade nut butters to be half the price (or less) of commercial ones. Since no stabilizers or preservatives are used in homemade nut butters, I like to make small batches of just a cup or two. Keep your homemade nut butters in the refrigerator, as they are highly perishable. If you like your butters ultrasmooth, you need not add any oil to them at all, just salt to taste. Continuous grinding will bring out the oils in the nuts, making the butters perfectly spreadable at room temperature. If you like them chunky, stop while the butter still has texture and add one to two tablespoons of vegetable oil (peanut oil works nicely) to make the butter spreadable.
Raw Almond Butter
    Great on toast or a crisp fall apple, this butter also makes wonderful cookies. Try Almond Butter Sandwich Cookies with Spiced Pear Filling . You could also toast the nuts in a 350-degree-F oven for 10 minutes if you prefer a roasted almond butter. Let cool before grinding
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    TIME REQUIRED:
about 15 minutes active
    YIELD:
1 cup
    2 cups (about 10 ounces) unsalted, raw whole almonds
    1 to 2 teaspoons vegetable oil (optional)
    Salt (optional)
    Put the almonds in the bowl of a food processor and process until the butter is the desired consistency, stopping occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl, 5 to 8 minutes. Add the oil (if needed) and season with salt (if necessary). Watch the butter closely. Over time, it will progress from