Basic Flakey Pie Crust

Hadn't made a pie in a while; thought I'd give it a go. Figured it be a good opportunity to finally break out Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Pie and Pastry Bible. Today I just made the Basic Flakey Pie Crust. I'll get to the filling and baking later this week. Only so much time in the day. Right now I'm leaning towards the Open-Faced Double Strawberry Pie. Sounds good, no? And strawberry's are in season. Stay tuned for that. As seen below, the crust contains butter, pastry flour (I used cake flour, should have added some all-purpose), salt, baking powder, ice water, and a bit of apple cider vinegar.

Ravioli with Sun-Dried Tomato

Used up the leftover ricotta from the fig dessert to make a black-pepper ravioli with sun-dried tomato ricotta filling. Got to use my pasta rolling machine for the first time. Thanks, Mom and Dad! And thanks to Alicia for helping out and coming up with a creamy tomato sauce. Delish.

Chocolate Cupcakes

Made chocolate cupcakes from Cook's Illustrated magazine tonight. Was relaxing to do some nice, ordinary baking. I haven't tried them yet, but I've never had a Cook's Illustrated recipe go wrong. Oh, I did have to come up with a substitution for sour cream. I mixed cream cheese with a little heavy cream and a tiny bit of vinegar. Kinda similar, right? I added a little bit of homemade grenadine to the accompanying "simple vanilla buttercream" recipe, but it ended up having almost no effect on the frosting's color and flavor. They'll be coming with me to work tomorrow for a birthday and a going-away. Hope nobody reads this until then!

Glazed Ricotta Cheese with Figs and Port

Richard Leach's recipe for Glazed Ricotta Cheese with Figs and Port, from The Making of a Pastry Chef. Consists of a bottom layer of port wine reduction with figs and sugar and a custard layer of ricotta cheese, cream cheese, cream, sugar, and vanilla. Finished with a torched-sugar creme brulee-style crust. Much better the second time I made it, when I remembered to sweeten the port.