Medlar Gingerbread with Caramel Glaze

I baked this cake on Sunday, and when it was done I opened the oven, bent down to remove it, inhaled deeply, and was immediately thrust back in time to my childhood in Ohio, and biting into fresh gingerbread smothered in apple butter at Christmas in Frostville.

 Frostville is one of those living museums, a historic town preserved in valley park, and at Christmastime one can come down and tromp over the snow covered fields from preserved house to preserved cabin and learn about Christmas traditions throughout American history. One house is always baking gingerbread, and it has long been my favorite. 

It's a small house, the gingerbread bakes in a wood burning oven in the kitchen, but the smell permeates from the back porch straight through into the teeny tiny bedroom. It's warm and rich, dark, cinnamon-ginger-y, with a heavy taste of molasses. However, snacks are not served in the historic houses, so while you tour the house, your mouth watering, you dream of the barn, where the snacks are waiting. 

There is hot apple cider, frosted sugar cookies in the shapes of candy canes and gingerbread men, and of course, there is gingerbread and apple butter. Biting into that thick layer of sweet apple butter atop spicy, complex gingerbread was emblematic of the entire holiday season to me as a child.

The gingerbread I present to you today is my attempt to match that experience.

This gingerbread is luxurious. The fresh ginger and molasses are the strongest flavors, but the medlar (or apple, up to you), is not lost in the cake at all, I found my medlar flavor came in bits and bursts of creamy applesauce taste.

What is a Medlar? You may be wondering. A medlar is a delightful fruit. It's quite an old fruit, everyone from the ancient Romans to the medieval Brits have enjoyed the medlar. Shakespeare wrote about the medlar in several of his plays, but what he had to say about it was a bit, uhm, naughty. Apparently Shakespeare thought medlars looked a bit like a ladies... well, bits. As a lady, however, I'm not sure I see the likeness. And I've very recently looked at a lot of medlars.

Anyway, literary references and innuendos aside, I assure you the medlar is a wonderful fruit. I've had two opportunities to bring some home, both times from Maggie Nesciur of Flying Fox's fruit stand at New Amsterdam, the best darn market in town. 

Medlars are a small fruit, brown and hard when harvested, but you must blet them before eating them. Bletting is a process of over-ripening the fruit. It's very easy, simply arrange them, upsidedown, on a cookie sheet and set it somewhere fairly cool until they're all very soft on all sides, which took mine 1 week the first time I had medlars, but over 2 weeks this time. Then you can cook with them. Or just peel and devour them because they taste like cinnamon-creamy-applesauce-pie-heaven.

I know I said this was my month of Thanksgiving, and I know gingerbread probably seems a bit more Christmas than Thanksgiving, but I assure you this is a lovely dish for Autumn as well, especially with the caramel sauce drizzled over top. Also, Christmas is coming, guys. It's coming.

If tracking down medlars and waiting for them to blet doesn't sound like a great time to you, applesauce will make a fabulous substitution, which I why I'm providing my go-to slow cooker maple applesauce recipe which makes a vat of dark golden brown, maple swirled apple goodness, it's at the bottom of the page.

Medlar Gingerbread with Caramel Glaze 

This recipe will make 1 large bundt cake or two smaller cakes. I made 1 small bundt and 1 small rectangular cake.

1 C butter
2 Cup Flour

1 C Brown Sugar

1/3 C Molasses

About 24 bletted medlars (or 1 C applesauce)

4 tsp grated fresh ginger

3 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp all spice

3 eggs

1/2 C water

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Caramel Glaze:

1 packed cup brown sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream
4 tablespoons butter
Pinch salt

Medlar Preparation: 

Medlar flesh is like a paste consistency, or super thick apple butter. I used about two pounds of Medlars. Make sure yours are thoroughly bletted (allowed to overripen). Medlars are best when very soft, the inside should the consistency of applesauce, and will also smell like lovely cinnamon applesauce. To blet the medlars place them top down on a cookie sheet and sit them near a cool window until very soft. This took my medlars about two-three weeks.

Once bletted, peel your medlars (this is pretty darn easy, the skin is soft and thin), and separate the flesh from the skin and seeds. This is tougher. Most of the medlar is seed, but the flesh grows around and between them. I found it easiest to completely peel the medlar, then run my thumb between each seed and extract the flesh. Put all the flesh into a measuring cup to keep track of how much you have. I also tried to remove as much flesh from the skins and seeds as possible.

I peeled and defleshed about 20 medlars for this recipe (all my ripe ones), and got about 3/4 cup of medlar fruit. Supplement with applesauce if needed to bring the measurement up to 1 Cup.

Medlar Gingerbread:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. 

Grate your fresh ginger. You can do this with a ginger grater, or my personal favorite, a microplane (I bought mine about a year ago, and I'm in love with it, and the short work it makes of hard vegetables and cheeses).

Cream together the butter and sugar in a large bowl with a stand mixer, fork, or a hand mixer. Add the medlar flesh or applesauce, and  molasses, mix again. Add the eggs and spices, mix again until well combined. Add water, and beat until well incorporated. 

In a separate bowl combine flour, salt, and baking soda. Mix well with a fork until thoroughly blended. 

Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet while mixing on low speed. Scrape the sides of the bowl and mix again until all ingredients are incorporated. Try not to over mix. 

Pour into a well greased bundt pan and bake 45-55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Let mostly cool before pouring on glaze.

Caramel Glaze

 Add the cream, butter, and brown sugar to a saucepan and mix over low heat, whisking until the butter melts and the brown sugar breaks up into the milk, then turn heat to medium and cook 6-8 minutes, whisking continuously, until it's thickened up to a nice glaze consistency. Set aside to cool. 

Slowcooker Maple Apple Sauce

8-10 apples of varying types

1/3 C maple syrup

1/4 water

If you prefer your apples peeled, you may peel them. I don't peel mine, and find that once blitzed, the skins are undetectable in the sauce, however I never peel my apples in any recipe, so if you prefer a peeled apple in baked goods, feel free. 

Chop apples into 1x1 inch pieces and toss them in your crock pot along with the water and syrup. Set your slow cooker to low and cook for 6-7 hours. 

Remove any excess liquid (leave a bit though, just don't allow the apples to be swimming in it) then, if you prefer a chunky apple sauce, mash it up with a large spoon. If you prefer it smoother, pour the mixture into a blender/food processor and blitz until smooth. I did mine in my food processor for about 1 minute, and it came out mostly smooth. 

Eat it hot, or pop it in your fridge. It should last up to a week in there.

Pumpkin Apple Soup

I cooked up a lovely batch of this soup last weekend, but only thought to photograph it after trying it and discovering just how delicious it was. Despite my few photos, I had to share it with you. It's lovely, the pumpkin and apple are an easy coupling of autumn flavors, and with the caramelized onion in there, it is basically a trifecta of my favorite seasonal tastes. 

It's officially cold in New York, and between the chilling wind, the brown leaves on the ground (where did they come from? I don't see any trees.), and the short days, it's clear Winter is not far off. This time of year just makes me want to bake apples, roast winter gourds and sweet potatoes, slow cook huge pots of beef stew, and eat a lot of gravy. This soup addresses many of my autumn flavor needs, is thick and hearty, and has a lovely rich orange hue. It's a celebration of the late autumn harvest, and would make a great first course on Thanksgiving.

Pumpkin Apple Soup

16 oz Pumpkin Puree (homemade or canned)

2 Carrots

2 Granny Smith Apples

1 Yellow Onion

3 Cups Chicken Stock

1 Cup Hard Apple Cider

1/2 Cup Whole Milk or Half'n'half

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp allspice

Olive Oil for frying

Chop the carrots, onion, and apples. Add about 2 tsp olive oil to the bottom of a large soup pot and add the chopped onion. Cook over medium-low heat for 5 minutes, until onion has softened and turned transparent. 

Add the carrots and apples, mix, and cook another 5 minutes. Sprinkle allspice and cinnamon over apples/onions/carrots, mix well, cook another 1-2 minutes. 

Add the apple cider in splashes, while mixing the pot, to deglaze the pan. Mix thoroughly, then add the chicken stock. 

Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook for 30-40 minutes, until carrots and apples are soft. Add the pumpkin puree and milk (or be bad like me and use half'n'half), mix well. Remove from heat and puree, either in batches using a blender or food processor, or with an immersion blender, until smooth. 

Return soup to pot, and heat over low for another 5 minutes, mixing occasionally, then serve.


Homemade Pumpkin Puree (optional)

1 Sugar Pumpkin

Apple Cider

Cut pumpkin in half, scoop out seeds, cut into quarters and bake, flesh up, on a cookie sheet in a 350 degree oven for 35-45 minutes, until flesh is soft when poked with a fork. 

Peel off the skins and puree the pumpkin in a food processor or blender until smooth. If you want to thin it out a bit add a splash of apple cider. 

Rustic Maple-Caramel Pie

This week, for my second installment in my month of Thanksgiving cooking, I present to you this rustic maple-caramel custard pie. This may be the most Autumnal pie I have ever tasted. It is, quite frankly, a masterpiece. 

The maple custard is based off Nancy Baggett's recipe, but I dressed it up with a caramel layer and a few dashes of spice. The caramel bubbles up the sides of the crust and then sets firmer in the fridge. The crust is buttery and flaky, and the custard- oh, the custard. If you like traditional custard pies you will love this maple laced version. 

The custard is thick and silky, with a light brown dulce-de-leche color. Prior to decorating, the bare pie resembled a giant harvest moon against the inky darkness of my slate board. The taste is creamy, lightly spiced custard doused in deep, complex, dark amber maple. The syrup is definitely the main flavor, but it doesn't overwhelm the creamy custard. 

The caramel intensifies the maple flavor, and plays off it, adding a that nutty-lightly-burnt-caramel taste to the already complex pie. It nestles against the flaky crust and oozes out the sides of a cut piece in a lovely fashion.

As we were trying our first slices, I was remarking upon how much I love traditional custard pie, and S said he wasn't sure he'd ever had it. 

"Does it taste like flan?" He asked, "Because this kind of taste's like flan, but with maple." 

I was surprised, as I thought plain custard pie was a very common type of pie, but S seemed completely unfamiliar with it. I would make him one, but now I don't know if I could ever resist the urge to add maple again. The deep, sweet complexity of the maple was a fantastic alternative to sugar. 

I have always been a fan of true maple syrup. When I was young in Ohio my mother would take me to an annual sugaring in a nearby park, and we would watch the big, bathtub-sized vats of syrup boiling away, and the men stirring them with long wood sticks would let me take a turn at stirring the syrup, there would be syrup to sample, and hot syrup poured onto snow to make delicious maple candy. 

My family also skiied at a resort that tapped their trees in western New York, and when I was young they had a sugar shack on premises, and on sugaring days there was always a sweet smell in the air on the chairlift near the Sugar Shack.  I used to sit on the lift, swinging my tiny skiis back and forth, imagining hiking off the trail and up to one of those tapped maple trees and dipping my finger into the bucket hanging from it to sample the fresh sap.

For this pie, I decided to try my hand at decorative leaves. I figured that such a thing as maple leaf cookie cutters probably existed, but I certainly did not have the patience to order them, then put this pie off until they arrived in a week. So I found a clipart maple leaf, printed it out, then used a knife to cut around it on the dough. 

Truthfully, I was more than a little surprised at how well it worked. I am not a skilled drawer, and unless it's holding a camera, I do not have particularly steady hands, but it turns out dough is pretty darn forgiving. I even freehanded my little teardrop shaped leaves. 

As adorable as this pie turned out, it tasted even better. It would make a fantastic addition to a Thanksgiving dessert spread, from its autumnal coloring and decorations, to the deep, complex maple-caramel flavor, this is a vey seasonal pie.

Pie Crust

Martha Stewart's Basic Pie Dough

2 1/2 C Flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

16 tbsp (1 Cup) Cold Butter, cut into cubes

1/4-1/2 C ice water

Maple Custard Layer

3/4 C Half'n'nhalf

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp all spice

1 Tbsp Cornstarch

1 C heavy Cream

3/4 C Maple Syrup, dark amber

4 Large eggs

Pinch of salt

2 tsp vanilla or almond extract

Caramel Layer

1 1/4 C packed brown sugar

1/3 C half'n'half

3 Tbsp Butter

pinch of salt

1 tsp vanilla or almond extract

Crust:

If making maple leaf decorations for the top of pie, make the whole recipe. If you don't want decorations and some extra dough to make pie crust cookies, then 1/2 the recipe for the crust.

Combine dry ingredients in food processor, pulse a few times to mix. Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles bread crumbs. Add 1/4 C ice water and pulse to incorporate. Squeeze some dough together, if it clumps well then it's ready, if too dry add another 1/4 C cold water and pulse again. 

Dump food processor contents onto a large piece of parchment paper or plastic wrap, divide in half, and form dough into two disks. Wrap in plastic wrap or parchment paper and refrigerate at least 1 hour. 

After dough is chilled, preheat oven to 400 degrees, roll out dough and place in a greased pie pan, forming to the shape of the pan, then trimming edges.  Line dough filled pan in aluminum foil or parchment paper and fill the pie pan with dry beans or rice to weigh down the crust while par-baking. 

Bake crust for 25 minutes, remove from oven, carefully remove foil and dry beans, place back in oven and bake 5-8 minutes longer.

Caramel Layer:

Make caramel layer while the dough chills. Mix brown sugar, butter, half'n'nhalf, and salt together in small saucepan over medum-low heat. Cook until well combined and then reduce heat to low and cook until thickened 6-8 Minutes. Add vanilla or almond extract and cook another 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

Custard: 

After crust is baked, set oven to 325 degrees. In a non-reactive saucepan whisk the half'n'half and cornstarch together until no lumps remain, then whisk in the heavy cream, cinnamon, and allspice.

Place over medium heat and bring to a gradual boil, whisking all the while, until it thickens slightly. About 2-4 minutes. 

Warm caramel at this time in a bowl or saucepan in a warm water bath if it has thickened and cannot pour.

Remove from heat and cool five minutes. While cooling, in a separate, heat safe bowl, whisk together the eggs, maple syrup, salt, and vanilla until well incorporated. Very, very slowly, whisking all the while, pour the thickened cream into the egg/maple mixture. Do this in a slow stream to avoid cooking the eggs with the hot milk. Whisk well once all combined. 

Assemble Pie: 

Pour caramel into the bottom of the pie pan, then pour custard through a fine sieve into the pie crust. 

Bake at 325 Degrees for 15 minutes, then reduce temperature to 300 degrees fahrenheit and bake for another 30-35 minutes, until all but the center of the pie is set. The center can remain a bit jiggly when you take it out of the oven. 

Cool on a wire rack until room temperature, then refrigerate 2-3 hours, until chilled. 

Decorations (optional):

While the pie bakes, if you want, roll out remaining pie dough, and using a cookie cutter, like this one, or by using a knife to trace the template provided (follow link, right click, select original size, then print), cut maple leaf shapes into the rolled out dough. feel free to freehand some other types of leaves too, if you want. 

After pie is out of oven, heat to 350 degrees fahrenheit and place maple leaves on a greased cookie sheet and bake 10-15 minutes.

Once pie has chilled at least one hour, arrange leaves on top of pie in whatever manner you like. They'll stick to the custard as it sets.

I like to remove the pie from the fridge about 20 minutes before serving.

Pumpkin Apple Cheddar Biscuits

It has been five years since I was with my family for Thanksgiving. It's hard, logistically and monetarily, to make it home twice in two months, so I've always prioritized Christmas (the king of all holidays), and consequently I've had some interesting Thanksgivings.

There was the year in Olympia my best friend and I roasted a Turducken with our classmates, only we put a cornish game hen inside the chicken, inside the duck, inside the turkey. So we called it Feastsgiving, the Four Fowled Feast, and it was amazing. There was the year I went to Montreal with S and his family to see his brother, and used my broken high school French to buy the pies for dessert at a tiny little bakery. We created a full Thanksgiving feast and ate it with his brothers Canadian roommates. There was also one year where I sat alone in a dorm room with my broken leg in a cast while my then-boyfriend hung out on his friend's family's private island in the Puget Sound. That was the first, and indisputably worst, year. 

This year, again I will not be going to Cleveland, but my mother will be coming here! It will just be S, my mother, and me for Thanksgiving, so we're going to roast the smallest turkey we can find, and I suspect I will have quell my desire to make atleast ten side dishes, lest we end up with a fridge so full of leftovers we cannot close it. Consequently, I have declared the month of November Thanksgiving Month. 

All month I shall be making, and posting, Thanksgiving themed sides, appetizers, desserts, and baked goods. I shall make a complete, delicious, vast Thanksgiving feast, one dish at a time, and share it all with you. Beginning, deliciously, with these biscuits.

These biscuits, made with grated cheddar, pumpkin puree, and Kerrygold Dubliner cheese, are heavenly. The consistency is on par with a regular drop biscuit, though a bit moister due to the apple. S thought the extra moistness was their crowning glory, but I thought it was the subtle hint of nutmeg mixing with the cheese. 

The pumpkin, of course, tastes of earthy, semisweet autumn flavors, augmented by the sweet and tart apple, while the cheese melts luxuriously in little pockets, creamy and delightful. These are great with dinner, and would be a phenomenal substitute for the usual Pillsbury dinner rolls in a Thanksgiving spread!

Pumpkin Apple Cheddar Biscuits

You can use canned or homemade pumpkin puree in this recipe. I have provided the recipe for my homemade pumpkin puree below, which is what I used.  

2  cups flour

2 tbsp honey

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 C - butter chilled and chopped into small cubes

1 small apple - grated

3/4 C Dubliner cheese or sharp cheddar

1/2 C buttermilk

3/4 C Pumpkin Puree (canned or homemade)

1/4 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp nutmeg

small dash salt

preheat oven to 375 degrees fahrenheit. 

In a large bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and ginger. Mix well with fork to combine.

Cut in butter with two forks, your hands,  or pastry cutter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

In large measuring cup, combine buttermilk, honey, and pumpkin puree. Mix until well combined.  

Stir in pumpkin puree mixture until flour is just moistened. Gently stir in grated apple and cheese. 

Use a large table spoon to scoop out the biscuits and drop them onto a greased pan. 

Bake for 13-17 minutes. 

These are delicious served warm with butter, jam, or I imagine they would be amazing with apple or pumpkin butter!

Homemade Pumpkin Puree: 

Cut one small pumpkin into halves, scoop out the seeds and stringy bits. Cut the halves in half, and bake in a 250 degree fahrenheit oven for 45 minutes, or until pumpkin flesh is soft when poked with fork. Remove from oven, allow to cool, and scoop the flesh out of the skin. Place in a food processor, and if you're like me and prefer it a bit thinner, add about 1/4C of apple cider. Process until smooth.

Spicy Sausage Beer Cheese Soup

Growing up in Cleveland I loved beer cheese soup.  Rich broth laden with cheddar and spiked with just enough beer, the thick blended vegetables rounding it all out, a soup worth dreaming about. It was not until I moved to the West Coast and couldn't find it on a single menu that I discovered Beer cheese Soup is a midwestern specialty. At the time I lived with my midwestern exboyfriend, who would whip up monstrous batches of the soup, which we would then eat together, on our own, because all of our friends were vegetarians or vegans.

When I moved to New York, I looked for Beer Cheese Soup. I searched menus.com and delivery.com, I looked on yelp, I checked specialty soup places, but there was none to be found. Oh well, I thought, I'll have to learn to make it then.

Well, it's taken me about two years to learn to make a satisfactory beer cheese soup. My first attempts were too brothy, or too beery, never enough cheese. Later they were too cheesy, and it didn't fully incorporate into the broth. And always, always, these early prototypes were lacking in something.

That something, it turns out, was spicy meat grease.  I learned to balance the broth and cheese levels, deduced that some gouda really amps up the cheese flavor, but still something was lacking. So I decided to try adding meat. Cooking anything in meat drippings generally improves it's flavor, after all. 

The addition of the sausage really takes this soup to a new place, and it's one I want to go to often. It's incredibly rich and velvety in texture, and the flavor is heavy on the cheese, but the vegetables, beer, and spicy sausage all definitely contribute to the taste. I used three different cheeses- a standard Darigold cheddar, a three year aged cheddar from Quebec, and a lightly smoked, soft wedge of gouda. The mildness of the Darigold cheddar helped to balance the sharp aged cheddar, and the gouda added a nutty bite and a bit of smoky flavor. This soup was delightful, and would be fantastic on any cold autumn evening.

Spicy Sausage Beer Cheese Soup

2 tbsp butter

1 onion - chopped

1 large carrot - chopped 

2 small golden potatoes - chopped

3-4 cloves garlic - chopped

2 tbsp C flour

4 C Chix stock

1 bottle lager 11 oz

2 C cheddar

2 C gouda

2 spicy sausages about 1/3 lb

Cut sausages into 1/2 inch thick slices.

Add butter to the bottom of a soup pot, heat over medium-low until melted, then add the sausage slices and cook until browned and heated through (I used smoked sausage. If using uncooked sausage, fry until sausage is fully cooked). Remove sausage from pot, leaving as much grease in pot as possible, and set the sausage aside.

Next, add the garlic and onions to the pot with the sausage grease, and cook until onions caramelize, about 8-10 minutes. 

Once onions are caramelized and delicious, sprinkle the flour over top and mix well, when all the onions and garlic are well coated in flour, add the beer to the pot in three splashes, mixing well after each added splash, to deglaze the pan. Mix well and cook over low heat until the roux thickens some, about 2-3 minutes. 

Add the chopped carrots and potato and mix well, then add the chicken stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a low boil and cook for about 30 minutes, until the potatoes and carrots are soft. 

While soup cooks, grate the cheese and set aside.

After the potatoes and carrots become soft, remove the soup from heat and either blend in batches (I blended just my solid bits, then mixed it back in with my broth so as to blend in one batch), or process with a immersion blender, or a food processor, until soup is smooth and thick. 

Return soup to pot, and heat over medium low until soup is hot again, then begin adding the  cheese. Stir in a random zig zag pattern while adding cheese, to avoid forming a cheese ball. Reserve some cheese to garnish with.

Serve in large bowls garnished with grated cheese and a small handful of spicy sausage slices. 

To reheat leftovers, heat over low on the stove and mix often to avoid cheese separation. 

Apple and Blue Cheese Stuffed Acorn Squash

Last fall I made a roast chicken stuffed with apples and acorn squash, and while I was researching the acorn squash stuffing I kept coming across recipes for stuffed acorn squashes. While it wasn't what I was looking for, the idea of stuffed acorn squash appealed to me. I filed the idea away at the back of my brain.

The squash stuffed chicken turned out great, but I never got around to making the stuffed squashes last year, so on Friday, when S and I had a day off in between event shoots I decided to try my hand at stuffed squash. And I am so, so, so glad I did. Stuffed acorn squash is amazing!

The squash, apples, onions, and cranberries all compliment each other's lovely autumnal flavors, and the blue cheese rounds it out with a bit of creaminess and a bit of that blue cheese funk. I used Moody Blue by Wisconsin Based cheese maker Roth Kase, who also make my go-to blue cheese, Buttermilk Blue. The Moody Blue is lightly smoked, which added a lovely taste of woodsmoke to this dish, reminiscent of a campfire being smelled in the distance. It was great, but any blue cheese will certainly work for this recipe.

This is definitely an easy dinner. The hardest part is cutting the Acorn Squash in half, as they are a pretty firm gourd. I would recommend a large, sharp knife. 

S and I each ate half a squash as our entree on Friday night, and though I expected it to be tasty, I was amazed at just how delicious these were. 

These would be perfect at a fall themed dinner party, maybe even a Samhain gathering if you're so inclined, and of course they would be wonderful on Thanksgiving as well. However, they were also very delicious on a regular Friday night.

Apple and Blue Cheese Stuffed Acorn Squash

Serves two. Could easily be doubled for four.

1 acorn squash cut in half

1 green apple

1 small yellow onion

2 tbsp butter

2 tsp brown sugar

1/4 C dried cranberries

1/2 C crumbled blue cheese - Moody Blue

Dash of black pepper

Preheat oven to 350 Degrees Fahrenheit.

Cut sqash in half lengthwise so you have two bowl shaped pieces. Scoop out the seeds and stringy flesh. Place facedown in a baking dish and add enough water to cover the bottom of the pan. Bake for 40 minutes.

While squash is baking chop the apple and the onion into small, about 1/4 inch, pieces. Melt the butter in a frying pan and add the apples and onions and a bit of black pepper. Cook until onion is transparent and caramelized, about ten minutes on medium-low heat. 

Once the onions are caramelized, add the cranberries and brown sugar, and mix in, remove from heat.

Crumble the blue cheese and set aside.

When Squash is finished baking, remove from baking dish, discard water, and place squashes bowl side up  on the baking dish. Add a bit of blue cheese to each squash, then some apple and onion filling, then more blue cheese, then more filling, until each half squash is full. Top with more blue cheese. Place back in oven for 12-15 Minutes, until cheese is nice and melty.
Serve immediately and enjoy!

Dulce De Leche Dark Chocolate Pie

Sometimes I have an idea for a dish that is so grand, so beautiful, and so huge and unhealthy that I while I am possessed by the idea, consumed by it, absolutely dying to make the dish- I have to wait a while because it is too rich, too heavy, too unhealthy, and simply too large to make for just S and myself.

This pie is one of those dishes.

I had the idea to make it about two weeks ago. I was making dulce de leche just because I had the desire to make it and spread it all over fresh baked bread (a delicious use for any you may have leftover), when I started thinking about the rich, thick chocolate custard used in my Chocolate Caramel Custard with Candied Bacon, and how delicious it would taste with dulce de leche. Perhaps cooked a bit longer to further solidify the custard, and then poured into a pie crust? A dulce de leche and chocolate pie. Genius. 

I went to Whole Foods pretty much the same day I had the idea and bought a block of Callebaut unsweetened baking chocolate- my very favorite chocolate to cook with. It's a bit more work intensive than chips or easily broken bars, but so, so worth it. 

But I held off on actually making the pie. I was concerned we would have an incident like the time I made Pineapple Upside Down cake for this blog and then S and I ate pretty much all of it in one sitting then spent the night lying on the couch moaning in pain due to the amount of butter we had just ingested.

I had waited over a week and still not been presented with an opportunity to make and share this pie, so I took matters into my own hands and threw a dinner party.

I made the pie in the morning and slipped it into the fridge to cool, deciding to make my whipped cream after dinner, right before serving the pie. Then I baked a few loaves of bread, roasted a chicken and some beets, made a beans and bacon dish, and a kale salad. Our guests arrived, the wine and pumpkin beer began flowing, and by the time I made the whipped cream, topped the pie and took my final photos I was a bit tipsy.

The pie was a huge hit, and not just because we'd all had a few glasses of Bordeaux. The chocolate custard is thick and rich, it definitely holds together and stands on its own, the dulce de leche is a bit softer, but it doesn't get crushed by the chocolate, and lends a creamy, nutty sweetness to the not-too-sweet custard.

Chocolate Crust

8 oz net weight- about 2 cups bunny grahams chocolate

2 tbsp brown sugar

5 tbsp melted butter

Dulce De Leche 

1 Can (14oz) Sweetened Condensed Milk

Spray Oil (I use coconut), or a bit of vegetable oil 

Chocolate Custard

3/4 C milk

1/3 C  Sugar

3 egg yolks

9 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate- chopped

pinch of salt

6 tbsp butter

1/2 tsp of cinnamon

Whipped Cream

1 C Heavy Cream

2 Tbsp Powdered Sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla or almond extract

Dulce de Leche

Preheat the oven to 425 Degree Fahrenheit

Open the can of sweetened condensed milk and pour into a shallow pan and cover with foil. Place this pan inside of a larger pan, and fill the large pan with water until the water level is about 1/2 way up the pan with the sweetened condensed milk in it.

Cook for 1- 2 Hours, until the sweetened condensed milk turns a lovely golden brown and thickens. Remove from oven, take the pan full of dulce de leche out of the larger pan and whisk the dulce de leche well, until it's pretty smooth. Set aside to cool. 

You can make the dulce de leche up to a few days in advance, just store it in your refrigerator. Before adding to the pie crust, allow the dulce de leche to come to room temperature. 

Chocolate Crust

Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit

Place graham crackers into food processor along with brown sugar, and pulse until all cookies are crushed. Add melted butter and pulse again until well combined. 

Butter a pie pan and pour in the graham mixture, press it to the bottom and sides of the pie pan until it forms a crust. 

Bake 10-12 minutes, until crumb mixture sets into a solid crust. 

Allow to cool before filling.

Once crust has cooled spoon in the room temperature dulce de leche, I spoon in big globs of it and place them in various places in the crust, so it starts out pretty spread out, making covering the whole crust easier. 

Take a spatula and spray it with a bit of oil, or wipe a bit on with a paper towel, and use it to spread out the dulce. If it starts to stick, flip the spatula over and use the other side. Put the pie in the refrigerator.  

Chocolate Custard

Place egg yolks in a bowl and whisk them well.

Combine milk and sugar in a double boiler and cook over low heat until milk is steaming and all the sugar has dissolved. 

Slowly add the milk mixture to the egg yolk bowl while continuously whisking. Once you've added about 1/3 the hot milk to the egg yolks replace the double boiler over low heat and add the egg/milk mixture slowly into the remaining milk in the double boiler, still whisking continuously. 

Cook over low heat, continuing to mix, until the egg/milk/sugar mixture has thickened some, about 2 minutes. 

Add the chocolate to the egg/milk/sugar mixture in the double boiler and stir well, until chocolate melts, continue cooking over low heat and stirring until the chocolate custard thickens well, about 5-7 minutes. 

Remove the custard from heat and stir in the butter, stir well, allow to cool (I stir while waiting to speedup the cooling) for about 3-4 minutes.Take your pie crust with the dulce in it out of the refrigerator, and give it the chocolate more good mix, then pour it into the pie crust, forming a layer on top of the dulce de leche. All of the my chocolate custard fit, but if you have any extra I recommend filling little custard cups with it and chilling them separately for a lovely extra dessert. Place pie in the refrigerator until it is time to serve it.

Whipped Cream

Immediately before serving add cream, powdered sugar, and extra to a the bowl of a stand mixer and beat on high, or use an electric hand mixer. Beat until medium peaks from, about 2-3 minutes. 

Spoon over the top of the pie and smooth out, perhaps create a lovely meringue shape. Whatever you like. I shaved a bit of extra chocolate over mine. 

Enjoy!