A Peek Inside Five Brand New Brooklyn Cookbooks
The cookbook: Roberta’s Cookbook by Carlo Mirarchi, Brandon Hoy, Chris Parachini and Katherine Wheelock
The recipe: Hen of the Woods
The difficulty level: The hardest part is finding hen of the woods (a.k.a. maitake) mushrooms. We got ours from the mushroom guy at our greenmarket. The recipe itself is incredibly easy.
The verdict: Simply caramelized in olive oil and then tossed with melted butter, sea salt, fresh herbs and a splash of sherry vinegar, these were the best mushrooms we’ve ever prepared at home. They were crisped along their frilly edges with concentrated earthy flavor – just like the ones we’ve loved at Roberta’s.
The next recipes we’ll try: The book shares very detailed instructions for making your own pizza dough, sauce and fresh mozzarella, but we’d probably use the dough as a vessel for the less traditional Baby Sinclair pizza, topped with cheddar, parmigiano, kale, garlic, chiles and our new favorite mushroom, the maitake.
Hen of the Woods: thyme, olive oil, salt
Serves 2
Some good olive oil
250 grams (about 9 ounces) hen of the woods mushrooms, trimmed and cleaned
Kosher salt
30 grams (2 tablespoons) salted butter
Sherry vinegar
2 sprigs thyme, leaves picked
Sea salt, preferably Maldon
Coat the bottom of a large sauté pan with olive oil and place it over almost high heat. When the oil is hot, add the mushrooms and a pinch of kosher salt. Let the mushrooms start to caramelize, 3 to 4 minutes, and then flip them individually. After another few minutes, add the butter, toss to coat, and remove the pan from the heat. Add a good splash of sherry vinegar, the thyme leaves, and big pinch of sea salt. Serve.
Reprinted from Roberta’s Cookbook. Copyright © 2013 by Carlo Mirarchi, Brandon Hoy, Chris Parachini and Katherine Wheelock. Published by Clarkson Potter.
The cookbook: The Four & Twenty Blackbirds Pie Book by Emily Elsen & Melissa Elsen
The recipe: Salted Caramel Apple Pie
The difficulty level: If you’re an ambitious baker, the Elsen sisters’ careful instructions will take your pies to the next level. That said, pie-making takes practice. First you’ve got to make an all-butter crust (the Elsens recommend doing it by hand, without the help of a food processor), get the hang of rolling it out and wait for the dough to chill in the fridge. Then you must follow step-by-step illustrations for weaving the chilled dough strips for the top crust into a lattice, and make sure you’ve got enough dough to crimp the bottom crust’s edges into a symmetrical and presentable border. You also have to make your own caramel, a harrowing job that can result in scrubbing scorched sugar out of your favorite pan – and that’s before you even begin peeling, coring and slicing the apples. In short, this one’s a challenge.
The verdict: Our top crust was impeccable – buttery and just-sweet-enough with a barely discernable tang from the cider vinegar. The bottom crust, which we rolled too thinly and had to stretch into place, stuck to the bottom of the pan a bit. And we let our apples sit in lemon juice too long, which made the filling a little tart. But all in all, the pie looked really impressive and was almost as delicious as the slices we’ve savored at the shop.
The next recipes we’ll try: Next time we want a double-crust, lattice-topped, caramel-infused, wildly labor-intensive pie we’ll visit Four & Twenty Blackbirds for a slice. But we definitely want to home-bake some simpler single-crust options, like the Bourbon Pear Crumble Pie and the Black Bottom Oatmeal Pie.
Salted Caramel Apple Pie
Makes one 9-inch pie and serves 8 to 10
All-Butter Crust for a 9-inch double-crust pie:
1¼ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1½ teaspoons granulated sugar
¼ pound (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch pieces
½ cup cold water
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
½ cup ice
Directions
Stir the flour, salt, and sugar together in a large bowl. Add the butter pieces and coat with the flour mixture using a bench scraper or spatula.
With a pastry blender, cut the butter into the flour mixture, working quickly until mostly pea-size pieces of butter remain (a few larger pieces are okay; be careful not to overblend). Combine the water, cider vinegar, and ice in a large measuring cup or bowl.
Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of the ice water mixture over the flour mixture, and mix and cut it in with a bench scraper or spatula until it is fully incorporated.
Add more of the ice water mixture, 1 to 2 tablespoons at a time, using the bench scraper or your hands (or both) to mix until the dough comes together in a ball, with some dry bits remaining.
Squeeze and pinch with your fingertips to bring all the dough together, sprinkling dry bits with more small drops of the ice water mixture, if necessary, to combine. Shape the dough into a flat disc, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, preferably overnight, to give the crust time to mellow.
Wrapped tightly, the dough can be refrigerated for 3 days or frozen for 1 month.
For the filling:
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
¼ cup water
¼ pound (1 stick) unsalted butter
½ cup heavy cream
2 lemons
6 to 7 baking apples (about 2½ pounds)
2 to 3 dashes Angostura bitters
1⁄3 cup raw sugar
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground allspice
Pinch freshly grated nutmeg
One grind fresh black pepper
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon flake sea salt, plus more for finishing
Egg wash (1 large egg whisked with 1 teaspoon water and a pinch of salt)
Demerara sugar, for finishing
Have ready and refrigerated one pastry-lined 9-inch pie pan and lattice strips to top. Whisk together 1 cup of the granulated sugar and the water in a medium saucepan, and cook over medium-low heat until the sugar is just dissolved. Add the butter and bring to a slow boil.
Continue cooking over medium heat until the mixture turns a deep golden brown, almost copper. Remove from the heat and immediately but slowly add the heavy cream—be careful, the mixture will bubble rapidly and steam. Whisk the final mixture together well and set aside to cool while you prepare the apple filling.
Juice the lemons into a large mixing bowl, removing any seeds. Prepare the apples using an apple-peeling machine, or core, peel, and thinly slice them with a sharp knife or on a mandoline. Dredge the apple slices in the lemon juice. Sprinkle lightly with the remaining 2 tablespoons granulated sugar. Set aside to soften slightly and release some of the juices, 20 to 30 minutes.
In a small bowl, sprinkle the Angostura bitters over the raw sugar. Add the cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, black pepper, kosher salt, and flour, and mix well. Add the prepared apples to the sugar-spice mixture, leaving behind any excess liquids. Gently turn the apples to evenly distribute the spice mix.
Tightly layer the apples in the prepared pie shell so that there are minimal gaps, mounding the apples slightly higher in the center. Pour a generous ½ cup to ¾ cup of the caramel sauce evenly over the apples (use the larger quantity of sauce if you’d like a sweeter pie). Sprinkle with ¼ teaspoon of the flake sea salt.
Assemble the lattice on top of the pie and crimp the edges as desired. Chill the pie in the refrigerator for 10 to 15 minutes to set the pastry. Meanwhile, position the oven racks in the bottom and center positions, place a rimmed baking sheet on the bottom rack, and preheat the oven to 400°F. Brush the pastry with the egg wash to coat, being careful not to drag the caramel onto the pastry (it will burn), and sprinkle with the desired amount of demerara sugar and flake sea salt. Place the pie on the rimmed baking sheet on the lowest rack of the oven. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the pastry is set and beginning to brown.
Lower the oven temperature to 375°F, move the pie to the center oven rack, and continue to bake until the pastry is a deep golden brown and the juices are bubbling, 30 to 35 minutes longer. Test the apples for doneness with a skewer or sharp knife; they should be tender and should offer just the slightest resistance. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack, 2 to 3 hours. Serve slightly warm or at room temperature. The pie will keep refrigerated for 3 days or at room temperature for 2 days.
Reprinted with permission from THE FOUR & TWENTY BLACKBIRDS PIE BOOK by Emily Elsen & Melissa Elsen, copyright © 2013. Published by Grand Central Life & Style, a division of Hachette Book Group.