A Date in Time

On Saturday, we had some friends over for dinner. Nothing too fancy; some onion dip with plain ruffle chips and a curried vegetable pot pie with garlic sautéed Swiss chard. The crust of the pot pie was just a simple pie crust (using the previously discussed pie crust recipe, albeit with some minor “modifications”). The single recipe gave me a little leftover crust that I was initially unsure of how to use up.

It hit me while I was going to sleep.

A few months ago I made up a batch of date turnovers following a recipe that Karen (a returning character in my culinary life...) had given to me. It basically consists of a oat based crust wrapped around a date filling, similar to what you'd find in a date square. I was being adventurous that day and decided to also make a batch of filling with figs (a la fig newton) in addition to the dates. This left me with about twice the amount of filling that I needed.

I recalled my stored leftover filling and decided to make a quick date pastry. I rolled out the leftover pie crust, spread a layer of the leftover date filling over half and folded the pastry over. I sealed the edges and brushed the pastry with an egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon of water) and sprinkled with sugar. I baked for about 35 minutes; the pastry was nice and brown (I didn't have to worry about the filling cooking as it was already cooked).

It turned out great; very delicious. So, I figured that I'd share the recipe for this easy filling. It's very versatile. It can be used as described, in the turnovers, in squares, in tarts (using the pie crust recipe), in a pie, warmed over ice cream or with a side of spoon. You don't have to limit yourself to dates either. I've already made it with figs (very good), but you could also make it with raisins or probably any other types of dried fruit. With a little bit of experimentation, it could probably also be adapted to apples, pears and other firm fruit (I would guess an extended cooking time, and maybe some rum could make it to the party). I'd love to hear about any experimentation!

Here's the ingredient list:

2 cups cut up “dates"
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup water
2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla

Combine in a pot and cook until the fruit starts to break down and the mixture is thickened. Insta awesome!

I'd love to give the recipe for the oat crust for the turnovers, but if memory serves, it was quite difficult to work with. I wouldn't feel comfortable passing on a recipe that I wasn't totally comfortable with. Sorry.

Those attentive among you might have noticed that I mentioned some “modifications” that I made to the pie crust recipe. I have to say that I'm more than a little apprehensive about discussing them, but in the name of science, I guess I'll continue.

The first modification that I made was that I used 3 parts lard to 1 part butter instead of all lard. I was worried that the butter would make the crust less flaky; if any of the fat melts during the crust making stage (lard is less likely to melt at room temperature), it will turn the crust tough and stodgy. I was hoping however that the small amount used would avoid this catastrophe and boost the browning power of the crust and add a hint of buttery flavour. Since I used an egg wash, I couldn't gauge the browning effect (the wash promotes browning) but the crust was no less flaky and a hint of butter was welcomed.

If you remember my epic “The Pie that Loved Me”, I was confused by the seeming lack of gluten formation in Karen's crust. With the goal of reducing what was seemingly infinitesimal even further, I used a mixture of equal parts vodka and water instead of all water in the crust. This might seem a little odd but it has a firm scientific basis. Gluten is formed in the presence of water and agitation. Gluten (and hence water) is necessary is crust as without the gluten, the crust would be so flaky, it wouldn't support even the lightest filling. However, excessive gluten makes a crust tough. Water also helps the crust roll out smooth.

The addition of water is always distressing as one wants more water to make the crust workable but less to make it flaky. Vodka (being approximately 40% ethanol) has sufficient water to form the needed gluten. Ethanol wets like water, making a workable crust. However, the kicker is that gluten can't form in ethanol! For those of you worried, after baking, they'll be no boozy notes. (As an added hint, vodka could be replaced by, say, apple brandy in crust for apple pie.....yum).

The vodka trick worked great. The crust was perfectly flaky. The ethanol had probably made up for the loss of flakiness from the butter, which I'm sure melted a bit. Also, the crust was super workable, but I must admit, no more easy to handle than Karen's.

Well, that's it. All of my ground breaking discoveries (not really, but it sounds more dramatic) for the week committed to “virtual” paper. If Long Shot's ever gets their new menu out (I was told the end to August) then I can complete my masterpiece on Deep River's finest establishments.

Till next week...Don't eat...well...you know.