Mum’s Open Ricotta Pie

Hey everyone, hope you’re all doing great. I feel rested after a week-long break up in the Lake District. We’ve been there before but this last trip has been the most enjoyable. I read two books (even though I packed five of them in my backpack – and I’m continuously wondering why my back problems have gotten worse during the past few months), explored Derwent Water and its surroundings, cried like a baby with joy when I saw all those adorable little lambs, soaked up the Sun (it was warmer than Malta for a few days), had coffee and afternoon tea and indulged in good pub lunches and ice cream. It was one of the most peaceful weeks in my life. I kept technology usage to a minimum; most of the time we didn’t have any mobile or Wi-Fi signal anyway, and frankly I wouldn’t have had it any other way. I did the basic stuff in the evenings at the cottage where we stayed in and that’s it. Bliss.

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Leftover Shortcrust Pastry and Chocolate Sauce

I have some time on my hands this afternoon and as usual I did a round of my edited photos in my never-ending list of computer files and folders. They seem to get bigger by the minute and sometimes it’s very hard to keep track of things. Having said that I need to check those currently on my phone, which also needs some serious decluttering. Does that word even exist?

Originally I didn’t plan to give you the recipe for the pastry, as I did write a post about it some years ago. I thought “it’s just what I do sometimes when I have some leftovers”, and I *always* end up with leftovers. However to save you a few seconds until you wait for your browser to look it up for you, I decided to include it here anyway. It’s been quite a while. And I would rather have you do this than throwing any extras away.

Double-Crusted Apple Pie

I think there is nothing more humble, homely and comforting than a pie. There’s also an honesty about it or so I feel. Perhaps it’s because I tend to make shortcrust with my hands, which get very messy, sometimes a little bit too much! There’s always a sense of accomplishment when it’s done, although that still isn’t reason enough for me to make it more often! Joking apart, if you tend to have warm hands like I do, making it manually isn’t the best thing either. There’s always the option of using a food processor, but that also means more things to clean up. So for me, that’s a no-no. Yes, I’m lazy that way.

Images: What I did with leftover molten chocolate

When making something with chocolate sauce or ganache I always end up with leftovers. Usually chocoholics like myself don’t complain about this you might say, and you would be right I guess. I don’t melt chocolate and cream often purely because of this reason. I have yet to encounter a recipe that doesn’t leave me with a container load of the stuff.

So it was no news that over Christmas I also had some leftover pastry dough from my mince pie recipe and plenty of that good dark choco. I was too tired to Google for ideas, so I just used a cookie cutter to form a few pastry discs and just dunked them in that lovely molten chocolate sauce. They turned out well. Originally I wanted to leave half of each biscuit uncovered, but there was too much chocolate and not enough pastry. So this is what I ended up with.

No regrets there!

Enjoy!

Rob x

Images: Pastry and/or Cookie Cutters

I took quite a number of photos over the Christmas period, not necessarily for use over here, but I cannot push them aside without publishing some of them. I’m a very private shy person, (I certainly don’t give that impression sometimes) so even though taking photos is one of my favourite thing to do, I prefer to do it when I’m alone. It’s like when I play piano. I don’t like when people are listening to me. I Just feel so uncomfortable. One exception is singing. I love to sing with others – it’s something that makes me very happy. Digressing as usual…

I really like how these pics turned out. The cookie/pastry cutters were given to J as a gift when he was still studying in Michigan more than twelve years ago I think. And time said swoooossshhhh! He really likes them but he still shares them with me. Isn’t he cute!

When we used them to make mince pies over the holidays the first thing I noticed was how beautiful the blue looked on the lid. There was a picture right there. I also love their distressed look, and every time they come out of their box we have to go on a sentimental journey. We can’t help it.

As we reminisce about the past it’s good to be hopeful about the future. I *am* hopeful about 2014.

Enjoy!

Rob x

(This is *not* a sponsored post.)