Beef and kidney pies

I've been wanting to make these pies for some time, but it's hard to find enough grass-fed stew beef at once, and nearly impossible to get hold of kidneys.  So I've been stocking up on the beef (some of it even had freezer burn), and when I got hold of a kidney, it was time.

I wasn't sure what recipe to follow, and I was feeling lazy, so I sort of just threw things together from what I had (which included some fajita meat along with the chuck.  Probably a waste of good fajita meat.)  The onions had been in the freezer for some time, the result of a recipe for pumpkin soup that never got made (and which I now can't find). I can't remember how many onions it took, probably about 4, and they were caramelized for close to an hour.  They were VERY sweet.  I bought the Murphy's to make this, but found an open bottle of Guinness in the back of the refrigerator.  (Blasphemy!)

Watch the salt.  The broth will cook down and become concentrated, so you don't want to add too much salt to start.  I made a similar pie a few years ago (beef and ale), and I don't think they were quite salty enough. You also want to think about how salty your crust will be.  I prefer a salty filling and mild crust.

I thought a rich dough would go well, since the filling is fairly lean, so I looked for a cream cheese pastry.  The ratios vary widely -- I didn't want one that was TOO fatty, so I compared them and chose one that was sort of in the middle.  I used the quantities for a 2-crust, 9-inch pie.

Here's what I used:

2.5 lbs stew beef, grass fed, cubed
1 beef kidney, cut into large cubes
2 portobello mushrooms, cubed
8 ounces regular mushrooms, cubed
about 1 cup deeply caramelized onion
3-4 tablespoons flour
1 can Murphy's stout + less than half bottle Guinness
1/2 box beef stock
few dashes Worcestershire sauce
few sprigs marjoram
1 bay leaf
black pepper
salt

Pastry
2 cups (dip and sweep method) all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
4½ ounces cream cheese, cut into 4 pieces, cold
12 8 tablespoons salted butter, cut into 3/4-inch cubes and frozen
4 tablespoons lard, cut into 3/4-inch cubes and frozen
2 tablespoons ice water
1 tablespoon cider vinegar

Brown the beef in batches in olive oil over high heat; remove from pan, cut into bite-sized pieces, and set aside.  Cook kidney pieces until browned; set aside.  In the stew pan, cook mushrooms in olive oil until soft.  Add onions. then sprinkle with flour and stir to coat.  Add the reserved meat and remaining stew ingredients and bring to a boil.  (Use some stout or broth to deglaze kidney pan and add liquid to stew.)  Simmer over low heat, uncovered, until broth has reduced and stew is thick and barely runny, about 2 hours.  (This is really to your desired firmness.)  Cool.

Meanwhile, in a food processor mix flour and baking powder.  Add cream cheese and process until the cheese is the size of large peas.  Add butter and lard, and process until none of the butter is larger than a small pea.  Add water and cider and process to blend.  It will not stick together.  Pour into a plastic bag and knead until it comes together.  Form into two discs, one much larger than the other, wrap tightly and refrigerate at least one hour.

Roll out the smaller disc of dough 1/8 inch thick or thinner.  Cut out 6 pie lids, generously sized to fit the tops of your tins.  Set aside.  Add scraps to larger disc and divide into 6 pieces.  Roll each piece into a ball, then roll out to a circle at least 8 inches across.  (The diameter needs to be equal to the length of two heights of your tin, plus the width of the bottom, plus at least 1 inch [to create a 1/2-inch overlap with the lid].) Fit the rounds into large muffin tins, clipping out the excess and sealing seams by dampening the dough and pressing edges together.  Leave plenty of dough above tin.  Fill cases with meat stew just to the tops of the cases; do not over fill.  Place a lid on each, dampen edges, then fold the excess dough from the sides inwards to cover edges of lid.  Skewer a hole in the center of each pie to let steam escape.  Bake at 400F for 30-35 minutes, until golden brown on top.  Allow to cool for about 10 minutes in pan, then carefully remove each pie and serve, or cool fully on a wire rack.

Prior to filling the cases, I thought the stew might be too thick, so I loosened it with more broth. Then I added salt slowly, tasting it after each addition, until I was satisfied.  I felt it needed to be slightly saltier than a soup stew because it was being paired with the pastry. 

I had a lot of trouble finishing the pies so that they looked nice.  The key, I think, is to have plenty of overlap between the tops and the sides.  The more filling you want in your pies, the more overlap you'll need.  It's certainly easier to overlap the sides over the top, rather than the other way around (although the second way looks nicer.) 

Conclusion:  These turned out really well.  They were a bit too salty, but only slightly.  I also would have liked a little more gravy, which could have been accomplished by adding more broth (or cooking it down less.)  The pies were very rich, between the kidney and the pastry.  These are supposed to be an individual meal, but halfway through I felt I'd had enough and needed something lighter to balance the meal.  Next time I would try the pastry recipe with the least amount of fat.

Recipes: 
A good steak and kidney pie via BBC Good Food
Proper beef, ale, & mushroom pie via BBC Good Food
Gary's beef, onion, and & Guinness pies via MasterChef Australia
Flaky Cream Cheese Pie Crust via Epicurious 

Blue cheese and fig preserve biscuits

I made these for a holiday party at work. Pretty straight forward recipe, although I made two small changes. I thought walnuts would be a good addition and so added them as a topping, but because the biscuits are so small, the nuts had to be chopped smaller than desirable. (Unless you put one large piece on, which might look better.) I also sprinkled some kosher salt onto the jam after baking to elevate the sweet/salty thing going on. I added nutmeg, but I'm not sure it was detectable.

My changes are shown in italics. Here's what I used:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
4 ounces blue cheese, crumbled  (I used Trader Joe's crumbled blue cheese.)
ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
fig preserves (about 3 tablespoons)
chopped walnuts (optional)
kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place the flour, baking powder, butter, blue cheese, black pepper, and nutmeg in the bowl of a food processor. Process until the dough just comes together and starts to form a ball.  Dump the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead a few times to pull the dough together. Roll out to 1/8 inch thick with a floured rolling pin. Cut rounds out of the dough with a floured 1-inch cutter and transfer the rounds to an ungreased baking sheet.  Using the back of a round half-teaspoon measure or your knuckle, make an indention in the top of each dough round. Spoon about 1/4 teaspoon of fig preserves into each indention, using your finger to push the preserves as best as possible into the indentations.  Sprinkle walnuts on top of preserves, if using.  Bake the savories for 10 – 14 minutes (mine were perfect at 12), until the pastry is just turning light golden around the edges.  Sprinkle preserves with kosher salt.  Let cool on the baking sheet until firm enough to handle, then remove to a wire rack to cool.

These were very easy to make, but were a bit time consuming.  I hesitated in using the full 1/4 teaspoon of jam because I was afraid it would melt and run, but it didn't melt much at all.  (It also never got "bubbly" as the original recipe suggests.)  Furthermore, the cheese is a little bitter, so the sweetness is necessary.  Don't skim on the jam.  The added salt on top also helped cut the bitterness and was a good addition. 

Conclusion:  These were a hit, although I found them a bit dry (the kind that sucks the moisture out of your mouth) and I detected the cheese only as bitterness and not really as "cheese".  Perhaps a different brand or style would produce a different result. Apricot jam would also be a good choice.

Recipe:   Blue Cheese and Fig Savouries via The Runaway Spoon

December ABC challenge: stollen

I spent several years in Germany as a kid. While there, my mom picked up the practice of making stollen at Christmas, so I am very familiar with it and regularly make it myself. I have my own preferred, well-tweaked recipe, but gave this one a try.  I have a lot of questions about it.

The preparation seemed overly fussy, which has been a common issue with this recipe source. I'm not sure all the steps are necessary. I normally bloom my yeast but don't bother with a sponge. One or the other seems sufficient. But after that, I don't understand why there are all the resting sessions. I also question the benefits of using the "sweetener". Zesting citrus peel releases the oil, which is where the flavor is. The longer all that surface area is exposed, the more the essence will dissipate. Mixing the zest with a little sugar before adding it to the recipe will prevent clumps of it in the dough, but I think the zest should be used immediately in order to get maximum flavor. As for shaping the dough, they lost me completely.  The instructions weren't clear, but anyway I don't know why they like such a thin layer of bread on the bottom.  I don't think it looks good, and doesn't seem like a very stable slice.

Here's what I used:

180 g mixture of raisins, currants, and cranberries, measured after plumping soaked and dried
1/2 cup rum 
250 g all-purpose flour
135 g lukewarm milk
7 g instant yeast 
2 heaping tablespoons high-gluten flour
5.5 7 g salt
1 egg yolk
40 g (salted) butter, softened
15 g sweetener (orange and lemon zest sugar)
4 teaspoons sugar
zest of 1/3 of a lemon
zest of 1/3 of an orange
150 g almond paste combined with 1/2 a small egg or one egg yolk (recipe below)
melted butter for brushing
icing sugar for dusting

Almond paste

75 g blanched almonds flour
75 g fine sugar
zest of 1/3 of an unwaxed lemon
about 17 g/ml water

1 egg yolk

A few days before making the bread, soak the dried fruits in the rum until they have plumped. Drain and dry on paper towels before using. Also make the almond paste by mixing the first three ingredients to a smooth paste, adding enough water to make it smooth and firm. Keep tightly sealed and refrigerated.

When you are ready to make the bread, bring the almond paste to room temperature, then mix with the egg yolk.  The paste should be smooth and supple. 

In a bowl, combine half the AP flour, all the yeast, the egg yolk, and lukewarm milk. Mix well with a dough whisk, cover, and let stand for 30 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients (except for the dried fruit) and knead for 5 to 7 minutes with a standing mixer or about 10 to 14 minutes by hand. The dough should be smooth, supple and satiny, slightly sticky, and with good gluten development.  Add the prepared fruits and work them through the dough until evenly distributed. (If the fruit mixture is a bit wet, sprinkle on some flour before adding it to the dough.)  Form the dough into a ball, place in a greased bowl, cover, and let it rest for 20 minutes in a warm, draft-free environment.

Shape the dough into a loaf (similar to Italian bread), cover, and let it rest again for 20 minutes in a warm, draft-free environment. Flatten the loaf with a rolling pin into an oval shape, leaving the edges a little thicker. Make a flattened log out of the almond paste, almost the length of the bread, and place it in the middle. Fold the dough in half over the paste, leaving the top half to fall just short of evenly meeting the bottom half.  Place on a lightly greased baking sheet, cover, and allow to rise.  This should take at least 40 minutes to 1 hour. 

Preheat the oven to 375ºF.  Make sure the bread is fully risen before it goes into the oven. When you think it has risen enough, gently poke the dough. If the dent remains and you feel no resistance at all, the bread is ready to bake.   If the indentation disappears, the dough needs more time.  (For a light, fluffy loaf, let the dough rise as long as possible.)  Bake the stollen for 35 minutes until golden brown, covering lightly with foil if it's browning too quickly. While still warm but not hot, rub the loaf with butter, then sprinkle with powdered sugar.  If desired, rub on a second coat of butter, then sprinkle a second time with powdered sugar.  Allow loaf to cool completely before slicing.

While I've enjoyed the change up in recipes from American standards with this recipe source, I'm happy to see its backside.  It's been a frustrating journey.  On this challenge, I had a hard time getting this dough to come together as it should.  For example, why are they using AP flour if they want good gluten development?  I had no choice but to finally add some high gluten flour after kneading the dough in a mixer for about 20 minutes with no success.  I also think the author misrepresented the amount of fruit. There was far too much in the dough---it was essentially raisin bread---and I wasn't the only one in our challenge group who got this result. I measured 180 grams of fruit, and then soaked them, but I think you're supposed to soak the fruit, and THEN measure out 180 grams. The additional wet fruit made incorporating it very difficult: the dough tore, the fruit fell out, and I had to sprinkle flour over all the wet spots to try to get things to hold together. I also did not get a huge rise (to give "light and fluffy" bread). It's obvious from the photos on their web page that they had less fruit in their bread. I've adjusted the directions accordingly.

Conclusion:  In the end, the bread was good.  It wasn't light and fluffy, but that's fine with me; I don't think stollen should be.  I couldn't taste the citrus over all the fruit, and I would have liked to have had some spices in there.  I also think there was a little too much almond paste to bread, but I'd reduce that only a small amount.  (Perhaps with less fruit the balance would be okay.)  My own recipe has a lot more butter in it, and that creates a crust with an almost deep-fried crunchiness to it, which I missed on this one.  Nonetheless, it got rave reviews from the family.

Recipes:  Our Perfect Stollen and almond paste via Weekend Bakery.