Romantic Rose Geranium - pie and lemonade!!! OOh la la!!

I have always loved and relished the thought of using flowers in baking and desserts in general...how romantic and exotic and now FINALLY I have made something, actually two things, with Rose Geranium...I love the smell, I was a little leary of the 'geranium' part which can be soapy if you over do it but Rose Geranium...doesn't it just sound divine!!

Rose Geranium Buttermilk Pie

Of course I had to use Kate's Real Buttermilk in my pie, what else is there??!!

THE RECIPE:

Piecrust...Pate Brisee by Martha
Pre-heat oven to 400F

1 1/4 cups/5ozs of white flour

2 tablespoons sugar

1 stick (4ozs) butter I always use salted, VERY cold

1/8 to 1/4 cup ice cold water

METHOD:
 
1. Sift the flour

2. Grate the butter into the flour.

3. Gently work butter into flour until it resembles coarse meal.

4. Add some of the water and test to see if it comes together, if not keep adding water until the dough will squush into a non-sticky ball.

5. Put into the fridge to rest for at least one hour.

6. Take the pastry out of the fridge, allow to warm a very little, roll out nice and thin, then line an 8" tart pie...preferably with a removable base. Put back in the fridge for about another 20 minutes til nice and cold...the colder the better...I have found the colder it is before baking the less the pie shell will shrink in cooking. 
 
7. Line the pie shell with parchment paper and fill with beans and blind bake for about 20 minutes, then remove the paper and beans and bake for about another 15 minutes so shell is somewhat cooked before you put the liquid filling in. Helps the shell stay crisper once the buttermilk filling has been added.


FOR THE FILLING:

2 medium sized pesticide free Rose Geranium leaves

1 cup/7ozs of sugar

1/8 cup/ 1 tablespoon of softened butter

3 large eggs

1 cup/4fluid ozs Kate's Buttermilk (if you can find it) goodly pinch of freshly grated nutmeg


1. Pulse sugar and rose geranium leaves in a blender or food processor 'til the leaves are minced fine.

2. Transfer to a bowl and cream in the softened butter.

3. Add the eggs one by one and blend well.

4. Add the buttermilk and the nutmeg.

5. Pour the delightful mixture into the mostly pre baked shell and cook at 350F for about 50 minutes or until the centre of the buttermilk custard is still only slightly wobbly...you don't want to cook it too long and the centre be really set as the pie will still be cooking even after you take it out of the oven.

Allow to cool, before eating.

The pie is a curious pale green, celery like colour and does honestly look more like a quiche...but it certainly doesn't taste that way!! It is really delicate, evanescent and curious but lovely!!

Then...I had to make Rose Geranium Lemonade...beware I like my lemonade TART!!

Unlike in the picture above...don't keep the rose geranium leaf in the lemonade as it will end up being too geraniumy...I just did this for the looks and the photograph...how very shallow of me!!

THE RECIPE:

Put 1 cup sugar (7ozs) and 1 cup water (4 fluid ozs) and juice of three lemons in a heavy bottomed pan and boil together for about 5 minutes to make simple syrup.

Add 2 1/2 (10 fl. ozs) cups cold water, the juice of three more lemons and three rose geranium leaves and 'muddle' for about 10 minutes...then remove the leaves beofre they become soapy..
Ta Dah!!!...the lemonade smells lovely and has a very delicate flavour you may not recognize or have tasted before.

Below is a picture of some of Autumns' early bounty here in Maine...Pee Gee Hydrangea blossoms, Chinese Lanterns from the roadside and Concord Grapes from our back yard!!!
The beautiful vase is from my friend David Jacobson...hand blown and so very elegant.
Happy nearly Fall!!!

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Lavender and Lovage

Buttermilk scones from nearly all Maine ingredients

First of all here is my, Lucie and Eleanor's 'homage' to one of the cutest logo's going....have you seen the picture of the real Kate on Kate's packaging, it is truly adorable....

After discovering Kate's real buttermilk...the actual milk leftover after the making of Kate's delicious homemade butter...and when they say homemade they really do mean HOMEMADE...(I just saw a video at the Boston Globe online of the butter being made in Dan Patry's garage...YES his garage click here to see for yourself) ... I started thinking about the things I could make for the blog that featured this delightful ingredient. As I haven't made scones yet they seemed like the perfect place to start, then I thought, you know I could put Maine made blueberry jam on the scones and Maine wildflower honey...and then I realized I could use Maine flour...the only things I didn't use that were made in Maine were the salt, the yoghourt I put on one of the scones and a tablespoon of sugar.
Here's the list of the ingredients:
Kate's butter and Kate's buttermilk, Old Orchard Beach, Maine
Colleen's Homemade (and this also is made in someone's home) blueberry jam, Route One, Searsport, Maine
Swan's wildflower honey, Albion, Maine
Fiddler's Green high gluten flour (also someone's home literally at the back of our fields) Belfast, Maine

The recipe, from 'Having Tea' Recipes and Table Settings by Tricia Foley, is really simple, quick and delish...here we go

INGREDIENTS:
1 3/4 cups flour (I used high gluten just because it was the most appropriate one I could get from Maine...it's like bread flour but you can use regular unbleached white, I have done this recipe with both and could see or taste no discernible difference)
1 tablespoon sugar, any kind you like
1 teaspoon of salt, that's if you don't use salted butter...I always use salted butter so leave out the salt if you do too
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
5 tablespoons/2 1/2 ozs cold butter cut into small pieces ...Kate's sea salted for me
Approx 3/4 cup Kate's buttermilk...depends on the flour and the weather how much of this you will use...I ended up using a good bit less than this but you never know.
1/2 cup raisins if you like them...I do very much, I wanted to use Maine dried blueberries but there weren't any at the Belfast Coop
THE PROCESS:
1. Preheat your oven to 450F
2. Combine dry ingredients together in a largish bowl and mix thoroughly, I also add a little grated nutmeg because I like nutmeg in practically everything I make...especially baked goods.
3. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients...I do this with my hands by 'rubbing' it in, you can use a pastry cutter, two knives if you know how to do that...or do it in a cuisinart...until it resembles fine crumbs...don't overwork and let the ingredients warm up as the butter will start to melt and the recipe will get messed up, and then we'll all have a bad day.
4. Add just enough buttermilk, bit by bit, to make a soft dough
5. Roll out the dough on a floured surface to about 1/2" thick and either just cut roughly into squares or use a round cutter to make little cute circles...I like the rough squares because that's how my Mum did it when I was growing up!!!
6. Bake the little darlings for about 10-12 minutes til nicely browned on the top.
7. Cool, spread with butter, jam, honey, CLOTTED CREAM if you can find it....there's nothing like clotted cream so I drained some maple yoghourt overnight, to stay with the Maine theme, and used that instead...NOT quite the same, I prefer butter and jam or honey on my scones.

Now here's the question we all want answered is it SCOnes as in bones or sconns as in bonbons...for me as a Northern girl it is the former...SCOnes as in bones...but you can say it whichever way you like!!!

Here are the finished scones...somehow they seem to develop their own midway horizontal line where you can gently pry them apart in preparation for the lashings of butter and jam or honey...now all you need is a good cuppa tea!!!

Lucie, who helped me do the baking...what am I saying she DID the baking, and I as usual drank the tea.....anyway, Lucie certainly liked the scones, she ate about 5!, she preferred hers with blueberry jam as she is not a big fan of honey...I went the honey route...Swan's wildflower honey is very floral and redolent...it's fantastic on scones and buttered toast...I bet Winnie the Pooh would like it!!