Dale's Spinach and Feta Fried Pies!

 

My friend Dale is a wonder. Though we've only hung out on two separate weekend adventures (the first being this West Virginia birthday party), I knew we'd hit it off before we ever met, as I had heard a lot about her and her various creative talents from my friend Lora. Dale's an artist and baker, cook and maker who anthologizes it all in inspiring ways on her blog here.  She's also hilarious and super fun (I could talk about our leopard print onesie girl gang dance party, but I'll leave that for another time).

Back in January, I went down to Knoxville, Tennessee where Dale lives were her beau Shawn. On Saturday morning, Dale treated us to some of her incredible, and I mean INCREDIBLE fried pies--this breakfast version included bacon, cheddar, apples, and walnuts. Wow. Good thing I started eating meat again. 

When I got back home, I asked Dale if she would be interested in doing a post for the pie blog. She happily obliged....

I've been making a lot of fried pies recently.  I won't tell you officially why, but I'll give you a hint. It's been fun coming up with sweet and savory variations on the traditional fried pie.  A few I've made recently: sweet potato marshmallow, mushroom rosemary, caramelized banana, cheesy walnut apple bacon, brie & dried cherry and most recently, spinach and feta.  I've been keeping my pie making close to the vest, at least on this blog, but when my friend Emily asked me to do a post for this blog, I knew it was time to come out of the pie-frying closet. 

I've always loved spanakopita, the Greek pastry made with spinach, feta, egg and phyllo dough, and thought a similar filling would be lovely in a buttery pie crust.  SURPRISE!  I was right.  Below is the recipe for these tasty pastries.

Spinach and Feta Fried Pies
 
For Crust:

• 1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 8 Tbs. (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
• 3 Tbs. very cold water

To make the dough by hand, in a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar and salt. Using a pastry cutter or 2 knives, cut the butter into the flour mixture until the texture resembles coarse cornmeal, with butter pieces no larger than small peas. Add the water and mix with a fork just until the dough pulls together.

To make the dough in a stand mixer, fit the mixer with the flat beater, and stir together the flour, sugar and salt in the mixer bowl. Add the butter and toss with a fork to coat with the flour mixture. Mix on medium-low speed until the texture resembles coarse cornmeal, with the butter pieces no larger than small peas. Add the water and mix on low speed just until the dough pulls together.

Transfer the dough to a work surface, pat into a ball and flatten into a disk. Lightly flour the work surface, then in sections, roll out until it's 1/8 inch thick or less and use a 3 or 4 inch circle biscuit cutter to create dough circles.

For Spinach Feta Filling:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 small onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• about 4 cups fresh spinach, rinsed and chopped
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese

Heat 3 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Saute onion and garlic until soft and lightly browned. Stir in spinach and continue to saute until spinach is limp, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

In a medium bowl, mix together eggs and feta. Stir in spinach mixture. 

To Assemble and Fry Pies:
Spoon about 1 tablespoon of filling into center of dough circles. Fold and crimp closed with a fork.  
Heat a deep fryer or a deep pot halfway filled with oil to 350 degrees F. Carefully add the pies to the oil, 1 at a time, and fry until golden brown, turning the pies as necessary for even browning, about 5 to 8 minutes.

Big thanks to Dale for sharing her recipe for spinach and feta fried pies with us--I will definitely be whipping these up sometime very soon. For more of Dale's recipes, check out the Domesticity page on her blog, and keep up with all of her creative projects here.

The Moon Pie

The moon pie. If you're from or have spent time in the South, you are probably familiar with that pillow of marshmallow, sandwiched between two graham cookies, all coated in chocolate (that's the classic version, anyhow). Story goes that the moon pie came to be when Earl Jones, the dessert's founder, asked a Kentucky coal miner what snack he'd like to eat. The miner replied with something similar to a s'more--graham cracker and marshmallow dipped in chocolate. When Jones asked how big it should be, his interviewee looked up at the night sky, and circled the full moon with his hands.

a "workingman's lunch"-- R.C. Cola and a moon pie (or three)

This weekend I was in Tenneessee, the official home of the moon pie, as Jones started making them at his Chattanooga bakery in 1917. Though I was in Nashville, I had no trouble gathering proclamations of moon pie love and a few anecdotes. I befriended someone whose father was part of the eating of the biggest moon pie EVER, and one of the members of the blues group The Holmes Brothers, a Chattanooga native, told me stories of after school moon pie snacks he ate on the railroad bridge while watching the train go by.

good, but could it be better?

While I was there, I enjoyed my own "workingman's lunch"-- R.C. Cola and a moon pie--of which Big Bill Lister wrote a song in the 1950s. I enjoyed it, but thought that the packaged version left a little something to be desired--the chocolate is a bit waxy, the cookies not as flavorful as the could be (I know this might be blasphemous to some, but I don't have the childhood food nostalgia associated with the treat). I decided to try to make my own.

moon pie making-- a messy pursuit

I scoped a few recipes on the internet, and it seems there are two schools of thought regarding homemade moon pies-- those who make graham crackers, and those who make "graham" cookies. The packaged moon pie is admittedly more cookie than cracker, though the cookie has a slight bite and has that graham flour taste. For my first attempt, I decided to go with cracker over cookie, as it seemed a little more authentic, but the jury is still out. I combined a few different recipes, and here's what I came up with...

tricky, messy, tasty

Homemade Moon Pies (first attempt)


For graham cracker cookie:
Ingredients
3 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 cups graham flour
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1/4 cup milk


Directions
1. Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl until thoroughly combined. Using a mixer (hand or stand), beat butter until fluffy. Add sugar and vanilla to butter mixture and beat until combined. Add dry ingredients and beat until mixture is crumbly. Add molasses, then milk until the dough comes together (it will be stiff). Chill dough for approximately one hour. 

2. Preheat oven to 350 F. Roll out dough on a lightly floured pastry board or counter top. Cut circles out with a cookie cuter to give you the size moon pie you'd like. Bake about 15 minutes--or until soft by done. Let cool completely.

For the marshmallow filling:
Ingredients
2 egg whites
Pinch cream of tartar
Pinch of sea salt
2/3 cup light corn syrup
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar


Directions
1. Using a mixer with the whisk attachment, beat the the egg whites with the cream of tartar and salt until firm peaks form. (Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, boil the corn syrup over high heat without stirring until it registers 230-235°F on a candy thermometer)* Slowly drizzle the (hot) corn syrup into the egg whites and beat at high speed until glossy, about 2 minutes. Reduce the speed to medium-low, beat in the vanilla and powdered sugar.
*This step did not work for me, as the corn syrup kept congealing, like candy. We ended up using room temperature corn syrup.


To assemble the cookies:
Directions
On cookie sheets that fit in your freezer, line up half of the cookies. Spoon marshmallow filling on half of the cookies. Top each cookie (my marshmallow filling was a bit runny, so this was a little difficult). Place cookie sheets in freezer.

For chocolate coating:
Ingredients
24 ounces (one large bag) semisweet chocolate
1/2 cup vegetable oil


Directions
1. Meanwhile, using a double boiler or in the microwave on 50% power and in 30 second increments, melt the chocolate and vegetable oil together until completely smooth. Remove cookies from the freezer and spoon melted chocolate over each cookie so that it runs down the sides and covers most of the cookie. 

2. Return cookies to the freezer. Once chocolate has hardened, flip over and spoon melted chocolate over the other side to completely coat cookies. Store in refrigerator or freezer.

pie in the sky

I found this recipe, particularly the marshmallow filling, to be rather tricky. Plus the whole process requires some simultaneous steps, so I was lucky to have a few friends around to help (also to help me taste test!). I liked the cookies, though they were quite molasses-y, and I think they could be a bit softer. Next time I might try a "graham cookie" recipe and try to make the mallow filling with vegetarian gelatin.

All-in-all though, they were still quite tasty, as evidenced by these faces in the MPEZ (Moon Pie Enjoyment Zone).

We enjoyed them with warm beer (trying to finish a leftover keg!) on the porch in the rain. Check back in for my second moon pie making attempt and check out NPR and my Professor Bill Ferris' essay for further related reading.