Lemon Icebox Pie

Crust
14 whole graham crackers
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and still warm

Filling
2 14-ounce cans condensed milk
1 1/4 cups strained lemon juice (from the 2 zested lemons below plus an additional 4–6 lemons)
Zest of 2 lemons
8 large egg yolks

Chantilly cream
2 cups heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar

To make the crust
Heat the oven to 325°F. Break the graham crackers into small pieces and place in the bowl of a food processor along with the sugar and salt. Pulse 8 times, until the cracker crumbs are semi-fine (they shouldn’t be powdery but not in large shards either) and the crackers and sugar are combined. Pour in the butter and pulse until the butter is blended in and the mixture isn’t crumbly and holds its shape when you squeeze it, about twelve 1-second pulses. Transfer the crust to a 9-inch springform pan and push and press the crumb mixture into the bottom and two-thirds of the way up the sides of the pan. Use the bottom of a measuring cup to press the crust into place. Set aside.

To make the filling
Whisk the condensed milk with the lemon juice and set aside. Whisk the zest with the egg yolks in a medium bowl until pale, 30 to 60 seconds, and then whisk in the lemon juice-condensed milk mixture.

Place the springform pan on a rimmed baking sheet, pour the mixture into the crust, and carefully transfer the baking sheet to the oven. Bake until the center jiggles slightly, like a soft-setting custard, about 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool for 1 hour on a cooling rack. Loosely cover the pan with plastic wrap (be careful not to let the plastic wrap touch the top of the pie) and freeze for at least 6 hours or overnight.

To make the chantilly cream
Pour the heavy cream into the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand mixer). Add the vanilla and sift in the confectioners’ sugar. Whip on low speed to combine and then increase the speed to medium-high and whip until medium-stiff peaks form, about 1 1/2 minutes.
Before serving, wrap a wet, warm kitchen towel around the edges of the springform pan to release the pie from the pan’s sides. Unclasp the pan and remove the pie. Fill a pitcher with hot water, dunk your knife in, wipe off the blade, and slice. Top with a dollop of chantilly cream and serve immediately, or keep in the freezer for up to 1 week.

Have you tried this recipe? Tell us how it turned out!

Posted on February 19, 2014

Purple Potato Pie

Purple potatoes are purple all the way through. This will be one very purple pie!

Filling
12 little purple potatoes (boiled and peeled)
3 cups organic powdered sugar
5 tablespoons lemon juice
3 eggs
1 small container organic cream cheese
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Crust
5 tablespoons organic butter, melted
1 cup Nash’s freshly ground wheat flour
Pinch salt
1 tablespoon organic peanut butter

In a bowl, mash the potatoes. Add sugar and stir. Put all filling ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.

Mix crust ingredients in a separate bowl. Stir lightly—crust should be crumbly. Press into a greased pie pan and pour filling on top. Bake at 350 degrees F until firm, about 50 minutes.

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Posted on February 19, 2014

Honey-Poached Garlic Sauce for Ice Cream

Garlic on ice cream? Give it a shot, it might surprise you!

If you will bear in mind the oft-repeated principle, “Don’t overdo,” you will be on the road to the acquisition of culinary wisdom. But be bold. Try combining flavors. Make tests to determine how much of a particular seasoning you find agreeable. And on those off-days when every dish seems stale, flat and unprofitable, reach for your garlic press and begin by adding a half drop of garlic juice. Garlic fanatics insist that garlic is even good in ice cream. But members of the American Garlic Society, of which I am one, are of the opinion that one should draw the line somewhere. If I can have garlic in hors d’oeuvres, soup, the main course and salad, I’m prepared to pass it up in ice cream.
— Nicholas Roosevelt, retired diplomat and author

1 cup good quality local honey
1 cup water, plus more if needed
10 plump garlic cloves, peeled
1 long piece lemon peel
6-inch sticks cinnamon

Method to the madness:

Combine all ingredients in a heavy saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer slowly until water has evaporated and garlic is tender and golden (caramelized), 40 to 50 minutes. If water boils away before garlic has caramelized, add more water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until garlic is golden and very soft.

Remove sauce from heat and let cool. Discard lemon peel and cinnamon. If you wish, mash garlic cloves before serving. Serve garlic sauce at room temperature. Ladle over good-quality vanilla or honey ice cream.

We thank Walt Wielbicki (Garlic Breath) for this recipe. If you love garlic too, check out his Lebanese Garlic Sauce and Death By Garlic (Revived by Kale).

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Posted on February 18, 2014

Fudgy Vegan Cupcakes with Pureed Roasted Beets

Sweet beets! We (the store and farm crews) got to taste test this recipe last week and it was super tasty.

Servings: 10 cupcakes (or 1 round or square cake pan)

2 medium beets
Orange juice or water
1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1 teaspoon white vinegar or apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup raw turbinado or granulated sugar
1/4 cup canola or melted coconut oil
2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup + 1 heaping tablespoon Nash’s soft white wheat flour or hard red wheat flour
Scant 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder  + more for topping
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch salt

Preheat oven to 375°F, remove the stem and most of the root from your beets, and scrub and wash them underwater until clean.

Wrap beets in foil, drizzle on a bit of canola oil, wrap tightly, and roast for one hour or until a knife inserted falls out without resistance. They should be tender. Set in the fridge (in a bowl to catch juice) to cool to room temperature.

Once cooled, either finely grate or puree beets in a blender (adding orange juice or water to encourage mixing). Measure out 1/2 cup and set aside.

Line a muffin pan with paper liners.

Whisk together the almond milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and set aside for a few minutes to curdle. Add the sugar, oil, vanilla extract, and 1/2 cup beets and beat until foamy.

Add the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt to a sifter and slowly sift it into the wet ingredients while mixing with a hand-held or standing mixer. Beat until no large lumps remain.

Pour batter into liners, filling 3/4 of the way full. Bake 22 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely. Do not try and unwrap them or they’ll stick to the wrapper.

Once cooled, dust with cocoa powder and store in an airtight container to keep fresh.

We thank Minimalist Baker for this recipe.

Have you tried this recipe? Tell us how it turned out!

Posted on January 13, 2014

Carrot Soufflé

Sweet Nash’s carrots — now in soufflé form!

1 pound carrots, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs
3 tablespoons Nash’s soft white flour
1 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup organic turbinado sugar

Preheat your oven to 350 F and lightly grease a 2-quart casserole dish. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and add the carrots. Cook until tender, 15-20 minutes. Drain and mash. Stir in butter, vanilla, and eggs. Mix well. Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar and stir it into the carrot mixture. Blend until smooth. Transfer into the casserole and bake for 45 minutes. Serve immediately.

We thank allrecipes.com for this recipe.

Have you tried this recipe? Tell us how it turned out!

Posted on January 2, 2014

Pumpkin Pie Filling

Pumpkin pie from scratch is surprisingly easy: just roast a pie pumpkin (or any sweet squash), scoop out the flesh, and mix it with coconut milk and spices. The coconut milk gives the pie filling a smooth, custard-like texture. So yummy!

9″ pie pan
Pie crust
2 cups pumpkin (1 can organic pumpkin pie filling or 2 cups fresh cooked pumpkin, roasted or steamed)
1 cup organic light coconut milk
3/4 cup sugar (brown, white, or mixed)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated
Pinch of clove

Preheat oven to 425 F. Mix all ingredients well in a large mixing bowl. Pour into uncooked pie crust. Place in oven and immediately turn down to 375 F. Bake approximately 50 minutes or until custard filling is nearly set. Remove from oven and let cool completely.

We thank Kate McDermott of The Art of the Pie for this recipe.

Have you tried this recipe? Tell us how it turned out!

Posted on December 3, 2013

Rye Honey Cake

What do you do with rye flour? Why, you make a delicious honey cake, of course!

1 cup Nash’s rye flour
1 cup Nash’s soft white wheat flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon orange zest
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon anise seeds, crushed (optional)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
2/3 cup honey
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup light vegetable oil
1/4 cup water

Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease an 8-inch-by-8-inch baking pan and set aside.

Stir together dry ingredients, and then add honey, eggs, oil, and water. Mix the batter until the ingredients are incorporated, but not over-mixed, about two minutes. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake 30 minutes, until the cake tests done 1/2 inch from the center.

Cool the cake for 10 minutes in the pan, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Have you tried this recipe? Tell us how it turned out!

Posted on November 26, 2013

Kate McDermott’s Cranberry Pie Filling

Cranberries aren’t just for Thanksgiving relish anymore — they make a tasty and vibrant pie filling for your post-turkey dessert spread.

Enough fresh cranberries to fill a pie pan to 1/2″ below the rim (about 2.5 – 3 cups)
1 cup sugar
2 gratings of fresh nutmeg
A few squeezes of fresh orange juice or a dash of Grand Marnier
1 tablespoon organic corn starch
Pinch salt
Bottom and top pie crusts

Pulse 3/4 of the cranberries in a food processor briefly to get a variety of sizes of pieces. Combine with the 1/4 whole berries. Mix with other ingredients. Place in an open pie crust and dot a little butter on top. Top with a whole crust or better yet, a lattice crust. See ArtofthePie.com for instructions on doing the lattice.

Have you tried this recipe? Tell us how it turned out!

Posted on November 21, 2013

Nash’s Carrot Cheesecake

Nash’s carrots are renowned throughout the realm for their sweetness — which makes them fantastic for desserts like this carrot cheesecake. Mmmmm…

You can use a traditional graham cracker crust or a cookie crust. The original recipe calls for a spring form pan but I have tripled the recipe and put it in industrial size jelly roll pan, or single recipe in a regular pie pan or square brownie pan.

Crust
3/4 cup finely crushed graham crackers
2 tablespoons chopped nuts (optional)
1 tablespoons Nash’s flour
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoon butter melted

Stir together in medium bowl and press into bottom of spring form pan or bottom and sides of pie pan.

Cream cheese mixture
2 8-ounce packages cream cheese
3/4 cup sugar
3 Nash’s eggs

Beat cream cheese and sugar together till fluffy, add 3 eggs and beat till smooth. Put one cup of this mixture in a bowl and set the rest aside.

Carrot mixture
2 cups pureed Nash’s carrots that have been roasted or steamed
1 Nash’s egg
1/4 cup Dungeness Creamery milk or cream
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ginger

To the 1 cup of cream cheese mixture, add carrots, 1 egg, milk, and spices. Mix together and pour into pie crust.

Pour the reserved cream cheese mixture over the top and run a knife through it swirling to create marbling.

For spring form pan: Place in a shallow baking pan and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes till center appears set when gently shaken. Chill 4 hours before serving….(that never works! Ha HA)

We thank our Nash’s Farm Store colleague Margie Diffner for this recipe.

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Posted on October 22, 2013

Wine-Poached Pears

Nourish, Sequim’s new garden-to-plate restaurant and gathering place, is featuring a series of meals created using items from Nash’s farm share boxes each week. This week’s boxes include pears grown right here in our orchard.

4-6 pears, peeled and cored
1 1/2 cups Harbinger Merlot
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons cinnamon
Cream to taste

Could this pear be destined to be poached in wine sauce someday?

Combine all ingredients except pears and bring to boil. Once the wine mixture is boiling, turn heat down to simmer and add pears. Simmer for two minutes until pears are tender to a fork test. Remove pears and let them cool. Gently boil wine sauce until half the volume remains. Pour sauce over pears and serve with cream.

Have you tried this recipe? Tell us how it turned out!

Posted on October 7, 2013