Party Food

How to Make Your Own Pie for the Fourth of July (Or Any Other Holiday)

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I’ve decided that I will be making two pies a year from now on, the Brandied Butternut Squash Pie from the peerless Melissa Clark that I made for Thanksgiving last year and this apple pie for July 4th. (I don’t think pies count as “massive.”) While I’ve made apple pies in the past, and I liked them okay, there were problems:

1. The apples always seemed to be partly raw.

2. The crust tended to be soggy on the bottom.

But in spite of these drawbacks I wanted to make an apple pie sometime during the July 4th weekend. This desire was mainly fired by a Sally’s Baking Addiction post in which she demonstrated how

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Make the Effort to Serve Real Food

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Image by Mladen Gegic from Pixabay

I have a number of posts in mind—a great new muffin recipe, some more anti-fad-diet rants—but for today here are some ideas for you to ponder as you head into the rest of the summer with all of its get-togethers. I’m sure there are cookouts and weddings yet to come, family visits and maybe even block parties. (Jim and I are pondering that last one.) There’s always the temptation to simply check off boxes for the menu. We have potato salad from Costco—check. We have fried chicken from King Soopers—check. We have a cake from King Soopers or Costco

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Reception Recipes–Mini Cupcakes and Savory Cookies

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silver platter mounded with cheddar cookies
Not a great shot; I’ll hope to replace it after this week’s reception.

What’m I making for this Friday, the last post-concert reception for the year? I’m so glad you asked! We have a very spring-y theme: “April Showers Bring May Flowers,” and I’m so excited about making adorable little cupcakes plus some savory cookies. The sweet items will be very small, made in my mini-cupcake tins (of which I have six). I’m not going to worry too much about the sugar content of anything, and I do plan to sample some. They are going to be so cute! And people love my Cheddar cookies. I will have a visual and textural contrast to those with some pepper-Parmesan biscotti, an item I’ve made before that went over well.

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No More Massive Desserts!

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Image by GLady from Pixabay

Just a quick post today as I go back to a principle I’ve been on the verge of forsaking, that making/serving a big, massive dessert is almost always a mistake. Much, much better to make small, individual portions that are easy to serve and that don’t overload people. I let myself get sucked into making that huge three-layer carrot cake for the Easter dinner, and, while I enjoyed the challenge, in the end I decided it just wasn’t worth it. People were very appreciative of my wonderful dinner and ate a lot, so then that massive (I know I keep using that word) cake was

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Easter Dinner Post-Mortem

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Image by timokefoto from Pixabay

I hope all of you had a blessed Easter Sunday, with time to reflect on the day’s spiritual significance and a chance to connect with friends and family. We had a great gathering at around 5:30, and there was one super-duper hit and some kind of misses. I’m writing this in the hope that you’ll try out the hit and be warned about the others. I was especially disappointed with the cake, as I don’t make desserts very often and had been looking forward to this one for weeks.

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Easter Dinner for Fifteen

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Image by photosforyou from Pixabay

Sunday is Easter, and we’re having about 15 people over for an early dinner around 5:00. I asked if I could do the meat, potatoes and dessert. And rolls, of course—that goes without saying. Yes, I’m making dessert, a very special carrot cake with a custard-based cream-cheese frosting from the great Stella Parks over at Serious Eats. Remember, sweets are treats. They are for special occasions, and I’m dying to make her cake for our company dinner. (Stella’s recipe for whole-wheat bread was kind of a disaster and I don’t know why, but I’m

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Wonderful, Unusual Brownies for a Party

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Alas. I have no pictures of these wonderful items, but I plan to make them again soon and will try to get myself together a little better then. I look forward to having one or two of them whenever I make them because they are so absolutely incredible. I’d put them in the same category as my pumpkin-chocolate timbales. And they’re so rich and so strongly flavored that you just can’t eat too many–not at once, anyway The best kind of treat if you’re trying to limit sugar.

A number of years ago I found a recipe in the King Arthur Flour catalog called “Chocolate Stout Cupcakes.” I thought they sounded so good, got some chocolate stout (which is a type of strong, dark beer), and made them a number of times. People seemed to like them, but I always thought that they were a little dry and lacking in flavor. Then last year the great, the peerless Sally McKinney at Sally’s Baking Addiction posted a recipe called “Guinness Brownies.” Guinness is also a strong, dark beer. Hmmm, I thought, I’ll bet that would work well with chocolate stout, which is probably about the same as the Guinness, but who can resist the idea of chocolate-flavored beer? (Although I have to say that I tasted the stout once and found it unbelievably bitter.)

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The Great Empanada Endeavor

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pan of great empanadaI first made this recipe from America’s Test Kitchen for a huge open house we had. My son and I had made up dozens of these the day before, and then all we had to do was to bake them as needed. I made somewhat of a miscalculation during the party, thinking that we didn’t need that last panful, and then people scarfed up all the ones I’d baked and it was really too late to put in the rest, as they have to bake about 30 minutes. So be sure to make plenty. I’m saying that this recipe will make a dozen empanadas, but that yield will depend on how many optional ingredients you include. If you’re adding all of the add-ins you’ll want to make extra dough.This looks like a complicated recipe with lots of ingredients, and that’s what it is. But you can make the filling and the dough ahead of time or make them completely ahead of time. And they’re so, so good! 

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Magnificent Homemade Savory Mini Quiches

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Once you master the rather finicky process of making the tart/mini quiche shells, you can make a wide array of little treats that will fit well into just about any party menu you can imagine, with either savory or sweet fillings. I’m giving my version of the crust recipe and then giving an all-purpose savory filling.

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All-Purpose Crust Recipe for Mini Quiches and Tarts

I've been using some version of this crust for about 15 years, and over the years I've tweaked and fiddled and adjusted the basic recipe until I have something that works very well. Be sure you read the instructions and notes, as I've learned many lessons over the years! 

Course Appetizer, Dessert
Keyword pastry shells, multiple fillings
Servings 24 mini shells
Author Debi Simons

Ingredients

  • 4 oz. cream cheese or 1/2 of an 8-oz. pkg., softened
  • 4 oz. butter or 1 stick, 8 tablespoons
  • 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

Instructions

  1. Mix ingredients together thoroughly. If you're making a multiple-recipe batch (which I highly recommend, as I don't think this recipe is worth making for just one batch) I'd advise using a stand mixer with the paddle. 

  2. Form the dough into a ball, wrap in plastic and refrigerate until firm. 

  3. Taking out about half of the dough from the fridge at a time, divide the dough into small balls, 1/2 ounce apiece (if you have a kitchen scale and want to use it) and press the dough into the wells of a 24-cup min-tart pan. It's not a bad idea, especially if you're going to be using a fruit-based filling, to use foil mini-muffin liners. Use of these liners will remove any possibility of sticking to the pan. Try to get a little rim of dough to stick up above the edge.

  4. I’m afraid there’s no alternative to just using your thumbs—even Martha Stewart does it that way. (I do have a pastry tamper, and for the last few batches I used that first and then went back around with my thumbs, but I’m not sure I saved any time that way. I may try to refine my technique a bit the next time.) 

  5. If you're making the shells ahead of time, you can put the pans with the shells in the freezer, let them get hard, and then pop the shells out and put them on a baking sheet.

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Savory Mini-Quiches

Servings 24
Author Debi Simons

Ingredients

Meat & cheese:

  • 1/2-2/3 cup chopped ham or bacon
  • 1/2-2/3 cup grated cheese of your choice

Savory Custard:

  • 1/4 cup milk or half & half
  • 1/8 tsp. salt
  • 1/8 tsp. pepper
  • a few gratings nutmeg

Instructions

  1. Make the shells are instructed in the pastry recipe. Prick bottoms of shells with a fork. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. The shells will puff up a bit, but that’s okay. You could drive yourself crazy with little squares of parchment in each one with a few pie weights . . . but I refuse to do that and the shells work fine. 

  2. Use a food processor to mix custard ingredients. (If you’re just making one batch you can use a mini-processor or the small bowl of your regular processor, or just whisk it in a bowl.) Put a small amount of cheese and ham in each muffin crust. 

  3. Put a tiny bit—probably a teaspoon—of the milk/egg mixture on top of each, trying not to let any of the mixture drip down the sides. You may need more custard; if so, just mix up another batch. Better to have too little than too much and have to figure out what to do with the extra. Bake for an additional 10 minutes, until cheese is melted and custard is set. Use an instant-read thermometer to test a quiche in the middle of the pan and the center of the quiche, making sure that temp is at least 160 degrees.

Recipe Notes

This recipe can be multiplied exponentially. I made 12x of this recipe for a wedding reception, filling up my six 24-cup mini-muffin pans twice, and I could have/should have made at least 96 more, filling up four of the pans for a third time. After pre-baking the shells for the first batch, I let them cool, popped them out using the point of a knife and lined them up on a large paper-towel-lined baking sheet, covered them with plastic wrap and froze them. When I was ready to bake them I used the muffin pans to bake all of them, baking six pans at a time, taking them out after they cooled briefly, then putting a new batch of shells back in the pans and doing them. In theory you could just bake the removed ones on the baking sheets, but I felt that the quiches would cook more evenly in the muffin pans. These were a huge hit; it’s just about impossible to make too many.

These can be served at room temp, although they shouldn’t be left out of the oven too long. They do have eggs, meat and cheese in them, after all. I did put layers of them in chafing dish pans, just so they were at least somewhat warm.

Lemony Little Cupcakes with Raspberry Jam and Lemon Buttercream

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This has been a favorite recipe of mine for many years. The sour cream gives the cupcakes a great texture and fits in well with the tang of the lemon flavoring. I especially love the combination of lemon and raspberry, so I have you make the cupcakes small enough for a raspberry jam and lemon buttercream topping. They shout spring!

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LEMON CREAM CUPCAKES

Makes 48 small cupcakes. These are very moist and delicious but not terribly lemony. Very good with a topping of a layer of raspberry jam and lemon buttercream.  The original recipe is from Taste of Home, but had a yield of only 30. By dividing up the batter to make 48 I've made the recipe yield smaller cupcakes that have room for the jam and a nice layer of buttercream.
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword lemon, raspberry, cupcakes
15 minutes
Servings 48 small cupcakes, so 8 grams of sugar per cupcake, plus an additional 6 grams from buttercream and jam, so 14 grams of sugar altogether
Author Debi Simons

Ingredients

  • 1  cup  butter  softened
  • 2  cups  sugar
  • 3  eggs
  • 1/8  tsp  lemon oil or 1 tsp. grated zest*
  • 1  teaspoon  vanilla extract
  • 3 1/2  cups  all-purpose flour
  • 1  teaspoon  baking soda
  • 1/2  teaspoon  baking powder
  • 1/2  teaspoon  salt
  • 2  cups  sour cream

Instructions

  1. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add lemon oil or zest and vanilla; mix well. Combine dry ingredients; add to creamed mixture alternately with sour cream (batter will be thick). Fill foil-lined muffin cups enough batter to fill about 1/3 of the muffin tin. (Yes, only 1/3. You want these to be small. And foil cupcake liners work much better than paper ones, as they are easier to peel off. A quick spritz of baking spray makes them even easier.) Bake at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes; remove to wire racks and cool completely.

  2. Spread a thin layer of raspberry jam over each cupcake and then spread or pipe lemon buttercream or frosting on top.

Recipe Notes

*I keep lemon oil on hand and always use it in place of zest. It is pressed from lemon peel, so it is the substance that gives lemon zest its flavor and is extremely strong. Be very careful not to overdo this ingredient, as you can ruin a whole batch that way. If you taste the batter and feel that it's not lemony enough, add additional oil literally drop by drop. Citrus oils last forever in the fridge.