There is something so seasonal about sipping maple scotch on cold nights, and it always reminds me of
my dad’s bar, which is one of my favorite places to go. I plan to have some maple scotch in stock all winter. Here’s how I made it…
In a non-reactive sauce pan, bring the following to a boil:
- 1 cup pure (bottled, filtered) water
- 1/3 cup maple sugar (you can buy some at Savory Spice Shop)
- 1/4-1/3 cup evaporated cane juice (use a little less if you want it less sweet)
- 2/3 cup pure maple syrup
- 6 or 7 whole allspice berries (which you can definitely find at SSS)
- 1/4 tsp caraway seeds (you know where I got mine…)
I boiled the allspice berries and caraway seeds in a reusable herb sack to keep them all together.
Boil this mixture until the sugar dissolves. Then let it cool completely before combining a 750ml bottle of scotch with the maple mixture. I used Ballantine’s and poured it into two different Ball jars, adding 2 cinnamon sticks to the smaller jar just to experiment. In the larger jar, I kept the seed sack to allow the flavors to blend.
This will be ready to drink in a couple weeks, but the longer it sits, the better. You also might want to remove the cinnamon sticks after a couple weeks to avoid making it too cinnaminy.
Enjoy!
I was inspired by my friend Jennifer from
The Adventuresome Kitchen to make her Sweet Potato Risotto with Mushrooms and Kale. All I can say is this is one of my new favorite recipes. I followed her
instructions exactly except I had no mushrooms, and I used white sweet potatoes rather than the garnet or “orange” variety.
Come to think of it, I have mushrooms, sweet potatoes, and kale in the house right now… might make this tonight.
My
dad likes to save things, collect things, and let alcohol age. This Thanksgiving 2010 he opened a beer from 2005. But, it wasn’t just any old beer…
It was a
Unibroue Édition 2005 from Chambly, Quebec.
According to the Unibroue website, the 2005 vintage ale is 10% ABV, complex, and no longer available. Looks like we drank one of the last bottles around.
Good thing my dad has a few more of Unibroue’s Special beers from other years because I have a feeling we’ll be opening another one next Thanksgiving.
My family’s Thanksgiving table would not be complete without marshmallow topped sweet potatoes. I am not a fan or marshmallows myself… not any more. I loved them as a kid, but they are mysteriously white, puffy, sugar and calories. But, the majority of my family wins and they top my sweet potatoes each year. These are Whole Foods 365 brand marshmallows, sold in small batches, without a scary ingredient list. So, that’s what I went with to top…
Local New Jersey sweet potatoes. That’s right. Thanksgiving in New Jersey meant locally grown sweet potatoes (found at
Whole Foods Millburn, the BEST Whole Foods I’ve seen), blended with local upstate NY apple cider. Yum.
It’s easy. Boil your yams (I had approximately 3 pounds), peel them when cool to touch, and put them in your stand mixer. Start with the paddle attachment on low and slowly increase the speed to 4 or so. Then, remove the paddle attachment, but don’t scrape it because it should be covered with thin hair-like fibers that are not pleasant in the mouth.
Switch to the whisk attachment, add 1 cup or so of apple cider, and slowly increase the speed until it is on high. Whip them a little, and transfer them to a baking dish. Bake for 30 minutes or so. Top with marshmallows at the end and bake another few minutes until golden brown.
Enjoy!
I love making homemade apple pie for my family each Thanksgiving. It is very easy to do, so I sometimes think I should do it more often. But, let’s be honest. There is a lot of fat in pie crust! I tend to stay away from pies even though I love them so…
But, before we talk apple pie, first things first: Pie crust. I like to make it and then freeze it for a few hours before thawing it until it is pliable and ready to be rolled. I plan my pie crust around all of my pies, so I make enough crust to bake one apple and two pumpkin pies. That is reflected in this recipe:
- 3 and 1/4 cups all purpose flour
- 3.5 sticks chilled, unsalted butter, cut into smaller pieces
- 1/4 cup evaporated cane juice
- a pinch of sea salt
- 1/3 cup iced water (ice cubes removed) mixed with 1/3 cup cold vodka
In your stand mixer, put the flour, butter, sugar, and salt. Mix on low speed until it gets crumbly and starts to integrate into a pea-shaped clump consistency. Slowly start to add the water/vodka mix, stirring as you add the moisture. Stop adding the liquid when it starts to look like dough. You might have extra liquid left over, and that’s OK. I usually drink the rest! On the day before Thanksgiving, by the time I’m making pies, I can go for a good drink.
When the crust will stay together when handled and form a nice ball, divide it into 3 or 4 smaller balls. Wrap them in wax or parchment paper, and freeze them for a few hours. Let them sit at room temperature for 15-20 minutes before rolling them into thin circles. I like to roll my crust between to sheets or wax or parchment paper. If it gets too warm and mushy, put it back in the freezer for a few minutes to chill it before putting it a pie pan.
For my apple pie filling: I bought some local, upstate New York Macintosh apples (remember folks, I was making this pie in New Jersey, so New York apples were local to me). I would estimate that 12 or so apples were peeled and sliced. I got my mom and grandmother in on the peeling and slicing while I was doing other Thanksgiving tasks, so my memory is a little fuzzy on the number of apples. When they were all sliced into bite-sized chunks, I tossed them in 1/2-3/4 cup evaporated cane juice, a drizzle of maple syrup, and 2 TB of cinnamon. Then, you roast the apples at 450 for 20 minutes or so until they start to soften and juice.
Let this cool. In the meantime, crust has been made, frozen, thawed, rolled, placed in a pie pan, and possible re-placed in the freezer. Make sure the pie crust is cool and the apples are not hot before adding the apples to the pie pan.
I am no expert pie baker. I unfortunately missed the pies and desserts classes at The Culinary School of the Rockies this fall. Maybe next year. But, I did try my best at a woven top and it worked. I wove the strips of pie crust on a piece of parchment paper and then transferred them all at once to the pie. Then I crimped the edges, brushed the top with beaten egg, sprinkled it with Spiced Vanilla Bean Sugar from no where else but Savory Spice Shop, and started to bake it at 450 for 20 minutes.
After 20-30 minutes, lower the oven to 350, remove the pie, and tent the edges with foil to prevent them from burning. Then continue to bake until the top crust is nicely golden brown and you hear and see the apples boiling inside.
Let it cool enough so it won’t burn your mouth, and then enjoy. I like to serve it with homemade maple whipped cream.
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