Chicken Pot Pie Recipe

I used to make Chicken Pot Pie quite often when Paul and I were living in England, but once Paul started cooking more, I stopped. Well that all changed yesterday, when I spent hours in the kitchen making dough and filling for Chicken Pot Pie...and let me just tell you, I was very pleased with myself ;)

After 

INGREDIENTS:

FOR THE PIE CRUST:

·         2 1/2 cups flour

·         1 tbsp sugar

·         1 teaspoon salt

·         1 cup cold unsalted butter -  cut into cubes

·         1/2 cup cold whole milk

·         1 egg, beaten, for the egg wash

FOR THE FILLING:

·         1/4 cup unsalted butter

·         1/3 cup diced onion

·         1 1/2-2 medium carrots sliced (about 3/4-1 cup)

·         1 bunch of broccolini (about 1 cup) 

·         1 Russet potato chopped

·         1 sweet potato or yam chopped

·         2 cloves garlic minced

·         1/3 cup flour

·         1 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme

·         1 tbsp minced fresh Italian parsley

·         2 teaspoons salt

·         1 teaspoon black pepper

·         1 and 3/4 cups chicken broth

·         1/2 cup heavy cream

·         2-3 chicken breasts shredded

·         1 1/2 teaspoons garlic salt 

·         ½ teaspoon white pepper 

1.    First, make the pie crust. Combine flour, sugar, and salt in an electric mixer. Add the cubed butter and pulse. Continue pulsing until all of the butter is incorporated into the flour mixture, resembling sand or pea size pieces. Place the flour mixture in the freezer for 15 minutes to chill the butter.

2.    While your butter is in the freezer, boil your chicken and potatoes in water for 10 minutes. Your potatoes & chicken shouldn't be completely cooked since they will be cooked further in the oven. Once they are done, strain and let your chicken cool before shredding. Shred your chicken and set aside with the potatoes. 

3.    Remove your flour mixture from freezer and add your milk. Pulse until it comes together. If the mixture is too dry, add water, a tbsp at a time. Divide the dough in two and flatten into disks. Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge while you make the filling (at least one hour).

4.    To make the filling, heat the butter over medium-high heat in a large skillet or Dutch oven. Add the onions, carrots, broccolini, and garlic and cook until tender, stirring occasionally. Whisk in the flour, salt, garlic salt, black pepper, white pepper, thyme, parsley, chicken broth, and heavy cream. Whisk until there are no flour lumps and then simmer over medium-low heat for 10 minutes or until sauce has thickened. Stir in the shredded chicken and potatoes. Remove from heat and set aside while you roll out the pie dough.

5.    Preheat oven to 400°F.

6.    Remove the pie dough from the refrigerator. On a lightly floured surface, use a rolling pin to roll out the dough into a circle large enough to fit inside your pan or ceramic dish. Tip: your dough should be about 1/4 inch thick. Transfer dough to your pie pan. Pat with your fingers, making sure it is smooth. Trim the extra overhang of dough with a knife and discard. Fill pie with filling. Roll out the second disk of dough and carefully cover the pie (or make any design your heart desires, like circles). Make sure to use your egg wash to seal the bottom pie crust to the top and around the edges. Trim the extra overhang off the sides if there are any. Seal the edges by crimping with a fork or your fingers, if necessary. With a sharp knife, slice a few small slits in the center of the top crust. Using a pastry brush, brush the crust and edges with the rest of your egg wash.

7.    Bake for 45 minutes, or until crust is golden brown. Cool for 20-30 minutes and then cut into slices and serve. Note: save for leftovers or cool completely and freeze for up to 1 month.

Enjoy!

-Halee

Blueberry + Peach Cobbler Bars

I have been itching to bake ever since we moved into our apartment here in San Francisco. I tried baking a couple of weeks ago and it was a total fail. Cookies turned out too hard and muffins too dry. But, with anything, there's always room for improvement. 

I had a bag of peaches and some blueberries that were just sitting in the fridge, so I decided that I needed to use them and what better way than to bake something. At first it was going to be a pie, then muffins, and then I thought "bars". I found a great recipe from Smitten Kitchen for blueberry crumb bars, and I decided to just throw in some peaches and call them "blueberry & peach cobbler bars", which has a nice ring to it. 

Here's what you'll need:

CRUMBS

• 1 cup (200 grams) granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 cups (390 grams) all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Zest of one lemon
• 1 cup (8 ounces or 225 grams) cold unsalted butter, cut into chunks
• 1 large egg

FRUIT

• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
• 4 teaspoons cornstarch
• 4 cups fresh blueberries
• 3-4 peaches chopped

 1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 9×13 inch pan.

2. In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup sugar, 3 cups flour, baking powder, salt, and lemon zest. Use a fork or pastry cutter to blend in the butter and egg. Dough will be crumbly and slightly come together. Pat half of dough into the prepared pan.

3. In another bowl, stir together the sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice. Gently mix in the blueberries and chopped peaches. Sprinkle the blueberry mixture evenly over the crust. Crumble remaining dough over the berry layer evenly.

4. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour (give or take 10 minutes depending on your oven and how brown you want it on top), or until top is slightly brown. Cool completely before cutting into squares. Save in fridge for up to a week or freeze for up to 2 months to eat at a later date.

These are perfect for a morning or mid-day snack, especially when you're on the go. Stick them in the fridge and grab one before you head out the door. 

Enjoy!

-Halee

Homemade Pasta Recipe

About 4 years ago, when I first moved to the UK to be with Paul, I started baking. That's where it all began. I told myself that in the future I wanted to have my own bakery, plant my own garden, and make my own pasta from scratch. I did try it a few times after learning how when I attended Betty's Cookery School, but since being back in the states I haven't. 

Fast forward 4 years and I can't stop making it, and we eat pasta A LOT. We almost always have carbonara and spaghetti & meatballs for dinner every week, and I always try to make the pasta for the carbonara. 

To be honest, its quite simple-only 2 ingredients (3 if you need to add some water), and you most likely have these ingredients in your cupboard. 

Ingredients (3 servings)

-2 cups of all purpose flour

-3 eggs (I use organic eggs so that I get that yellow tint in the pasta)

-Water if needed 

-Semolina flour (for dusting)

What equipment you'll need (to make things easier)

-Rolling pin (you could get away with not having this if you have a pasta machine)

-Pasta machine (this is crucial for me; it really makes things easier, less time consuming and overall consistent.

-Bench scraper (you could use a knife instead)

-Food processor (again, your can do this by hand but it will take much longer)

Again, this is 3 servings. If you want just 2 servings, only use 2 eggs and 1 1/3 cup of flour. 

Gather your ingredients. You can use a food processor (like I am doing) to make things easier and quicker, or you can opt to do it the traditional way (on the table). 

Add your flour and eggs together in your food processor. 

Pulse to combine. If you mixture looks like the picture, you may need to add 1 teaspoon of cold water (one at a time), until it comes together (I ended up adding 3 or 4). 

It should end up looking like this. 

Take your dough out of the processor and knead it for about 3-5 minutes (you don't want to do this too long; remember the processor did some of the work.) If you are doing it by hand without the processor, you'd ideally knead for about 10 minutes until there's so much elasticity built up that you won't be able to continue. Next, let it rest for 20-30 minutes in cling film on the table (we need the gluten to now relax, since we just worked it when kneading). 

Make sure your work surface is lightly floured. If you have a bench scraper, use that to cut your dough into 4 (almost) equal sections. 

Take one of your four sections and, using your rolling pin, roll out your dough. Make sure your pasta machine is set on its lowest/widest setting (0 for me). Guide it through multiple times, folding in half like a book or even in thirds if it's too long. I usually fold and guide through at least 8-10 times on the the first go through setting 0. The first couple of times I tried making pasta I didn't do this and the pasta didn't turn out. From my research, putting the dough through several times allows the gluten to stretch and makes for a tastier pasta. After your several times on setting 0 (the widest setting), move on to setting 1, or the next on your machine. You don't necessarily need to run it through as many times as you would on your lowest setting, but I still run it through a few times. I also let it rest a minute or 2 before running through the next setting, so that the gluten can relax. 

Eventually you will have a long sheet of pasta (pictured), which is setting 5. You can make it as thick or thin as you want it. I personally like thicker pasta so I stopped here. I have gone to setting 6 for thinner fettuccine. Also, make sure you aren't letting your pasta get sticky. Constantly have flour handy if needed.  

Next, guide your sheet of pasta through your fettuccine or spaghetti setting, or cut your pasta yourself with a knife! My pasta machine already has those 2 pasta settings so it makes it easy, but I've cut my own pasta before when making tagliatelle and it's definitely fun! 

Repeat these steps another 3 times with the rest of your dough sections. You'll end up with a mound of pasta that you can't wait to stuff your face with. *heart eyes*

SO MUCH PASTA.

Boil pasta for a few minutes (yes, only a few minutes!) and create your favorite dish. We made carbonara and it was divine. Simply divine. Now, it's your turn! 

Thanks for reading guys! Shoot me message if you have any questions. Until next time.

-Halee