F/1.4    1/60 sec.   ISO-320    50mm

I was supposed to be making Christmas cookies when I was actually reading this article called Tips for Magazine Quality Photography but it’s all good ‘cause it got me to try opening up my lens to 1.4 to try to get some bokeh going in the background. As you can see here it didn’t really happen. Blurry but no soft floating bubbles.

 

F/4.8      1/15sec    ISO-100     14mm 

 

F/1.4   1/80 sec. ISO-320   50mm

As the daylight was leaving I started to see it! I though about the Christmas lights Mathew Mead talked about for making beautiful bokeh but I haven’t dug those out yet. It’s not Christmas eve yet, I never get Christmas light out before Christmas eve unless my sister comes over and insists.

 

F/1.4    1/80 sec. ISO-320   50mm

This is the best I was able to do. But I’ll keep working on it. I think the best part about this is it makes a messy house look great…

 

Instead of Christmas lights I tried Ribbons draped off the lamp.

 

A flashlight with paper, uh, I mean a magazine page taped to the flashlight and holes cut out.

 

And yes, the very scissors that cut the holes in the magazine page.

 

The cherry and chocolate all in one bite…

 

  Chocolate and tart Cherry Cookies

inspired by Cookinglight.com

   1 cup organic whole wheat pastry flour
   1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
   1/2 teaspoon baking powder
   1/4 teaspoon baking soda
   1/4 teaspoon salt
   1 cup sugar
   1/3 cup butter, softened
   1 teaspoon vanilla extract
   1 egg
   2/3 cup dried tart cherries
   1/4 cup  semisweet chocolate chips
   

Preparation
  Place sugar and butter in a large bowl; mix until well blended. Add vanilla and egg; beat well. Add flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cocoa. Mix just until combined. Fold in cherries and chocolate chips.
   Preheat oven to 350°.
    Drop by spoonfuls 2 inches apart onto baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 12 minutes or just until set. Remove from oven; cool on pans 5 minutes. Remove from pans; cool completely on wire racks.

 

 

These cute little pies are from Desert for breakfast, home of outstanding photography that’ll either make you give away your camera and never take another photo again or it’ll inspire you to see light in a whole new way and instill an undying desire and passion to learn how to take photos of light half as nice as she does.  someday, in the distant future…

 

 

 

 

I made the pie crust up in advance. Look at the pieces of butter and cheese in there!

 

I used a metal bowl for my circles. Re-roll the scraps, there’s enough butter in this dough, it’ll be fine.

 

It was warm, so I put the dough circles on a cookie sheet separated with plastic wrap and tucked in in the fridge while I prepared the apples.

 

Slice up  the apples

 

and mix with cinnamon, cloves, brown sugar and lemon juice.

 

Get out the dough circles and hold one up to the light and admire the pretty patters the butter and cheese are making. Then quickly get to work.

 

Spoon on some apple filling

 

fold in half and pinch together.

 

Sometimes they’re sneaky and pop open when you’re not looking so Use a fork to crimp the edges shut.

 

 

 

Brush with beaten egg. 

 

Sprinkle with sugar 

 

and cut little vents before baking.

 

Take them out when they’re golden. Let cool before serving.

 

mmm, too much of a good thing,

is a good thing.

 

 

Apple Cheddar Hand Pies

Totally inspired by Deserts for breakfast

    2 1/2 cups whole wheat organic pastry flour
    a pinch of salt
    1/4 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
    2 sticks unsalted butter, cold or just out of the freezer is even better
    1/3 cup ice water
    6 or 8 apples
    3 Tbsp lemon juice
    1/4 cup brown sugar
    4 tsp  cinnamon
    1/8 tsp ground cloves
    1 egg beaten for brushing
     sugar for sprinkling o top

1. Combine the flour and salt in a bowl.
2.  grate the cheese. Using a pastry cutter, cut in the cheese and frozen butter pieces into the flour until the size of small peas.
3. Gradually add the water one tablespoon at a time until the dough barely holds together when pressed. Do not add any more water than necessary!
4. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill for at least 1 hour or make ahead.
5. Meanwhile, prepare the filling. Peel, and chop the apples into small pieces. Mix the apples with the lemon juice, sugar, cinnamon, and cloves.
6. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

7. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and roll it out to about 1/8" thick. Cut out 5 inch circles. I used a couple different bowls as my cutters. Chill the dough circles in the refrigerator or freezer briefly if the dough has softened.

Fill each circle with apples and fold in half. Press the edges together tightly, crimping with a fork. Cut small slits on the top of each pie.

8. Before baking, brush the tops of the pies with beaten egg. Sprinkle with sugar.
9. Bake at 450 degrees F for five minutes, then reduce heat to 350 degrees and continue baking for 15 more minutes, until the crust is golden.
Let cool  before serving.

 

I’ve never made these before So I thought it would be good to practice for some pre-Thanksgiving guests. And if they came out ok I might make them again.

 

 

It’s not an easy job being a guest here around the holidays. It’s a lot like work, I mean eating butter.

 

For the crust mix the flour and baking powder together.

 

Then get out 2 sticks of unsalted butter. Or, like I did, used what I had.

 

Cut the chilled or even partially frozen butter into pieces.

 

toss them in quickly before they get soft.

 

Cut the butter in

 

and stop when it’s got little pieces about so. Ya know peas. Why do they always say peas? Who would put peas in their pie crust? Ok, never mind.

 

Add ice water by the spoonful. Only as much as you need.

 

Once it starts coming together that’s good there’s so much butter in there it’ll be fine.

 

Take it out onto a floured surface and shape into a ball. 

 

 

And the tear in half and make two disks. Wrap and stick in the freezer for 20 minutes or in the fridge for 2 or more hours,

 

For the apples mix cinnamon and brown sugar in a bowl.

 

Cut apples in half

 

core it and peal it.

 

Roll, rub, pack the cinnamon sugar on the apple halves.

 

 

With the remaining cinnamon sugar add 3 tablespoons of butter and mix together.

 

cut one disk of pie dough in pieces.

 

roll out kinda thin but not as thin as I did.

 

Take an apple half and spoon some of the butter cinnamon sugar mixture into the core area.

 

Place on the rolled out dough 

 

pleat/make folds/bunch it up

 

and tie it with string. Wait, I almost forgot, the recipe said tie it with string to make peasant purses.

 

get the oven preheating and grab an egg for brushing. Oh and dig out the brush too. It’s always in the bottom of the drawer.

 

 

brush on the egg and bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

 

Let cool a little and serve.

 

Apple Dumplings in Peasant purses

Adapted From Williams -Sonoma

For the dough:
    1 tsp. fine sea salt
    1/3 cup ice-cold water
    2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
    1/4 tsp. baking powder
    2 sticks unsalted butter, chilled and cut into cubes

In a bowl, mix together the flour and baking powder until combined. Add the chilled butter pieces cut in until the butter is about the size of small peas. Add ice water by the spoonful so as not to add anymore than you need. Divide the dough into two balls and flatten into disks. Wrap  with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to overnight or pop in the freezer for 20 minutes or so.

 

For the apples:

• 3 Empire apples.
• 1/4 cup plus 1 Tbs. firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 3 Tbs.  unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 egg, lightly beaten

cut apples in half peel and core. In a bowl, mix together the brown sugar, cinnamon. Roll, rub, pack the cinnamon sugar on the apple halves. Combine the remaining sugar mix with the butter and set aside.

Remove 1 dough disk from the refrigerator and let stand for 5 minutes. Divide the disk into 6  pieces. on a floured surface, roll out a piece of dough 1/8 inch thick and about 6 inches square. fill the core with some of the reserved butter-sugar mixture Place an apple half, cut side down, in the center of the dough square. pleat/make folds/bunch it up around the apple to create a beggar’s purse and gently tie the corners together with string. Repeat the process with the remaining dough and apple halves.

Transfer the wrapped apples to a baking sheet and brush the dough with the beaten egg . Bake until the dough is golden brown and cooked through, about 25 minutes. Remove the apple dumplings from the oven and let cool slightly.