• 1.5 cups melted clarified butter
• 1/2 cup oil
• 40 leaves phillo dough
• 4 cups finely ground nuts – your preference
• cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cardamom, etc to taste
• 1.5 cups evaporated cane juice (sugar)
• 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2 Tbsp brown rice syrup or honey

Mix butter and oil.  Cut dough to the shape of the baking pan by laying the pan on top of the stacked dough and cutting off excess.

Combine the finely ground nuts with spices.

Butter the inside of the baking dish.  Gently place one leaf of dough into the pan, fitting it carefully along the bottom of the pan (the dough is very fragile, so fold them to pick up and unfold them into the pan).  Brush with butter and oil mixture.  Continue placing sheets of phillo one at a time, buttering each one, up to 10 sheets.

Sprinkle 3 Tbsp of nut mixture on the tenth leaf.  Open 2 more sheets of dough on top of nuts, buttering each.  Repeat with the nut mixture and two more sheets until all are used up.  As soon as the last 2 sheets are used, brush with butter and oil.

With a very sharp knife, lightly score the top of the pastry lengthwise into four then draw the knife across diagonally to make diamond-shapes.  Bake at 325F for 90 minutes.

Combine the lemon, syrup and sugar in a saucepan.  Cook until the sugar dissolves.  Boil for 5 minutes, or until a drop forms a soft ball when dropped into cold water.  Remove from heat and stir water into syrup.  Cool.

When the pastry is baked, remove from oven and pour the syrup over it.  Cool to room temp and serve.

I received an email feed from Smitten Kitchen the other day with something utterly delectable… a photo of food that instantaneously caused your mouth to salivate in anticipation of taking a bite of something that is on the other side of the country. Cruelty, plain and simple.

What was this photograph? Bourbon Peach Hand Pies. Oh. Yes.

Here is my take on the hunger inducing recipe…

For the pastry:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
16 tablespoons (2 sticks, 8 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/3 cup sour cream
1/3 cup cream top vanilla yogurt – mixed
1/3 cup ice water

For the filling:
4 cups blackberries
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp. sugar

The rest of this recipe is basically taken from the Smitten Kitchen blog… and I hate stealing someone else’s words!

The 2 differences I made are as follows:

I was a little short on the sour cream, so I substituted some yogurt and cut back on the water. It still worked out to be very tasty!

I was short on peaches… but the blackberry thicket on the hill is full – FULL – of sweet, ripe berries. So, we used those instead. And since they were berries, I cooked them down a bit before putting together the pies.

Other than that, it’s pretty much the same deal. Oh, except for one little thing..

…the glaze

For the glaze:
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup milk

Whisk powdered sugar and tablespoons milk to blend. Make this up to 3 hours ahead.

Set up the cooling racks on top of some aluminum foil to catch the drips. Yes, there will be yummy drips.

When the pies come out of the oven, move them to the cooling racks and drizzle the glaze over them immediately. Cover them well.

Once they have had about 20 minutes to cool, you can enjoy them! Yes, you do need to wait a few minutes so you don’t burn your mouth!

Another great thing – if you just can’t wait – is to eat them with a scoop of ice cream… after all, it is pie!

Enjoy!

I made this for the group on our recent camping trip, and it was a HUGE hit!  It is basically my great-grandmother’s cobbler recipe, but modified for cooking in a dutch oven.  Because of the nature of a dutch oven, you don’t need to prepare the fruit to be like pie filling – saving a pretty large step when using berries!  The heat naturally breaks them down and makes them delicious!

This recipe assumes a few things:

a – you are going to have a campfire, or at least a fire with hot coals
b – you have a 12″ dutch oven

Outside of that, if you have the ingredients, you are all set!

6+ cups fresh blueberries (or fruit of your choice)
2 cups self-rising flour (bisquick works well)
1 cup evaporated cane sugar
2 eggs
1 stick butter, very soft – melted even

Begin heating your dutch oven by setting it near the fire (I just set it inside of the fire ring, but away from the flames).  If it’s not well seasoned, toss 1 Tbsp of butter in to melt in the bottom.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, sugar, eggs and butter.  Stir until moist.

Dump the fruit into the bottom of the seasoned dutch oven.  Using your fingers or 2 forks, spread out the batter on top of the berries.

Put on the lid, and cook at approx. 350F for about 30-40 minutes.  I use 7-8 coals underneath & 12 coals on the lid.

MAKE SURE you are rotating the oven every 10-15 minutes – the pot clockwise & the lid counter-clockwise.

It’s done when the crust is an even brown.  Scoop out into bowls and enjoy!  If you happen to have ice cream, that truly makes it!

This is a quick snack that your kids will love, and you probably have the ingredients on hand!

tortillas – 1 for each person
cinnamon & sugar mixture
honey or agave nectar
butter
vanilla ice cream

Place a pancake griddle over medium heat. Lightly butter the griddle, and lay your first tortilla on it. Butter the top side of the tortilla. When the butter has melted nicely and the tortilla is getting warm, flip the tortilla. Lightly butter the other side, and sprinkle with the cinnamon & sugar mixture and drizzle in the center with honey.

When the honey and sugar have warmed up and begun to mix, lay a couple of scoops of ice cream across one end, and
,starting at that end, quickly roll the tortilla up around them.

Have a bowl handy, and quickly move the tortilla into the bowl before the ice cream melts all over the griddle.

Do this for each person.

Serve and enjoy!