The Apple Crisp Experiment

The Apple Crisp Experiment

Recently i made a peach crumble for dessert. When i attempted this peach crumble i under estimated the difficulty and measuring involved in creating the perfect crispy crust. I guesstimated the measurements and ingredients. The crumble came out looking beautiful, but with a sad excuse for a crispy crust. The filling tasted amazing, the crust was more chewy instead of crunchy as i had left out flour in the topping and used melted butter instead of cold crumbled butter.

I decided my failure should be redeemed by an amazing Apple Crisp.

First i hand peeled 6 Macintosh Apples.

I then cut the apples into halves then quarters, creating apple slices.

I coated the apples in 1tbs of flour, 2 tbs of white sugar, and 1/4tsp of cinnnamon.

Next i measured out 4oz of slightly chilled butter that i had chopped into small pieces.

By previously cutting the butter into small pieces i saved myself time when i had to use the pastry cutter to mix the butter in with the dry ingredients.

I then combined 1cup of flour, 2 tbs of white sugar, 5 tbs of brown sugar, 1/2 cup of chopped pecans, and the 4oz of slightly chilled butter.  

I packed the dry mixture ontop of the apples in the glass dish.

The crisp baked for 1 hour and 15 minutes with the oven set at 350*F

~Here is the finished Apple Crisp.

The crisp tasted delicious with Vanilla Ice Cream, or a small amount of Creme Fraiche.
I will deinfetly be making this simple and tasty recipe again.

~By: Sage Bishop.

Rock Cakes Anyone?

For anyone who’s ever read Harry Potter, they will probably remember Hagrid’s famous rock cakes (the ones that will break your teeth). I decided to use the Unofficial Harry Potter cookbook that I own to try and make my own version of these biscuits. There were good directions in this recipe, it was made similarly to how you would make a biscuit. I got out all my materials and then mixed all the dry ingredients together. After that I added the butter and then the wet ingredients and finally some raisins. It formed a sticky dough which I just scooped in balls onto the cookie sheet.

            When Harry and Ron talk about the rock cakes in the books they mention how they can hardly eat them because they will break their teeth! Unfortunately for them they didn’t have my version of the cakes which were very good. I found the recipe very easy to follow and the product turned out light and fluffy just like they were supposed to. I had to work hard to keep my sisters away after they came out of the oven.

            For anyone who is interested in trying to make these rock cakes themselves I would highly recommend this recipe, or if you are a major Harry Potter fan like myself I recommend the whole cookbook!

            Happy cooking.

Getting Crafty with KD--Period 5

And the results from Period 5:

Teriyaki Kraft

with ham and cheese

Chicken Macaroni and Cheese Lasagne

Mac 'n Broc

Layered Mac and Cheese

casserole

layered casserole

stuffed in a chicken breast and baked

Getting Crafty with KD--Period 4

The assignment? Take a box of Macaroni and Cheese and make something exciting out of it. After all, this will be a staple for many students when they first move out on their own. Here are the results:


Manly Man-wiches of Manliness



casserole

Salad

 Pesto Macaroni

SS Kraft 

casserole

with olives and peppers

cold salad

with penne pasta

Yes we Canape

as a filling for turnovers

part of a pizza

pasta in minestrone and cheese sauce on vegetables

I'm documenting the making of an Economic Beef stew. Since we'll all be living on our own soon, I figured it would be a good recipe to have in our pockets.

The ingredients are:
One Package of stewing beef (approx 650-750g)
Beef base 45 ml's
Two medium sized carrots
Six or seven  mushrooms
Half of a medium onion
2-3 cloves of Garlic
Two or three medium russet potatoes
One Tsp. of Soy Sauce
Approx 1/2 cup of flour
1 Tbsp Oil

Ingredients, (Oil absent)

Procedure:
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit.

Prepare about a liter of stock:
     Pour the stock powder into a bowl, and pour in about half a cup of hot water,
     Whisk quickly to disolve, and then fill with 3 1/2 cups of cold water.
     Set aside.

Liter of Stock

Preparing the stew:
Heat a tablespoon of vegetable oil in a large oven-safe pot on medium temperature
Put half of an onion, diced, into the pot
Let it sautee until the onion is translucent
Add stewed beef uniform size

Approx Meat size

Add either garlic powder (1 Tbsp) or freshly minced or pressed garlic  (2-3 cloves)
Cook until the pieces of meat are all browned.
Add pinches of flour until most of the moisture is absorbed and it looks approximately like this:

Roux plus Beef

Add the prepared stock slowly, stirring gently
Turn heat up to 8 or 9, we want it to come to a boil and reduce
When sufficiently reduced, about like this:

Roux plus stock, after reduction

Add the tsp of soy sauce and stir until it's blended in.
Add the two chopped carrots, the 2-3 diced potatoes and the 6-7 quartered and stemmed mushrooms.
The vegetables look like this when prepared:

Chopped Carrots, potatoes and mushrooms

Turn temperature off and put into heated oven without lid, let cook for 2-3 hours, and when done it will look like this:  

Finished Stew

And that is the making of a delicious, economic beef stew, the total preparation time was: 1 hour prep, 3 hours cooking   serves: 6

The recipe is also scalable, so you can adjust to feed fewer or greater amounts of people. The stew keeps well in the fridge, and like any stew, is better the second day. Serve with chewy buns for the best effect.
The total cost was: 10$, or 1.70$ per serving. And that, is a delicious, economical beef stew.

The BEST Apple Pie

This Christmas for my family was amazing. The tables were stacked with plate fulls of different appetizers, main courses, and wait for it.. dessert!! I personally didnt make the desserts but my Aunt did. The best part about it was that they were all made from scratch! Though, she needed help finding a recipe for a new apple pie, and thats where i came in. I searched on google and opened the first bolded print. Luckly for me, it was exactly what i was looking for. The pie was superb. The crisp of the crust broke tenderly as you took a bite. Then, thats when it happened.. The most amazing, flavourous, soft, gooey, chunky filling ive ever tasted sweetly oozed between the cracks of crust in my mouth. As you can probably tell right now, this pie was no ordinary pie. It was full of love and warmth made from the actual hands of my talented Aunt. NOT some plastic store bought brick.





The next time you decide to bake a pie or know anyone who would like to try, look up this recipe and you will be satisfied!!!!!

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pats-Rose-Apple-Pie/Detail.aspx

Welcome!

Welcome to the Food Studies 12 Classroom Blog!!

We hope to bring to the world the great ideas, opinions, and thoughts of the Food Studies 12 class at Dr. Charles Best Secondary School in Coquitlam, BC.  So, what will you find here?  Each student in the class will be responsible for at least one post, so be prepared for a great variety of content, but know that it will all relate to food somehow. 

Please feel free to leave comments, but please keep it clean--this is a high school after all.....

Any questions, or thoughts (or a great suggestion for a post)?  Feel free to email me dnembhard<at>sd43<dot>bc<dot>ca -I'm the proud Home Ec teacher!