South Dakota - Kuchen

50 weeks, 50 states, 50 desserts

The seventh state is South Carolina, having ratified the Constitution on May 23, 1788.
However, since I didn't play too close to the details when I was looking for recipes, I got my South states mixed up and ended up making South Dakota instead of South Carolina.   So....

The fortieth state is South Dakota, having ratified the Constitution on November 2, 1899.
South Dakota does have a state dessert, Kuchen.

Kuchen celebrates the rich cultural heritage and traditional food of the State's German ancestors. Kuchen is derived from an Old German word for "cake". The word originated in the 1800's, and it describes various types of coffee cakes made from a sweet dough and a wide variety of fillings.

The recipe that I used for Kuchen came out much more "new-world" than how I thought Wikipedia presented Kuchen. My Kuchen end-product was almost like a fruit pizza, if you are familiar with that.   I was expecting some old school, thick, pastry, crusty thing. Wasn't even close, but it ended up very tasty! There are three parts to this Kuchen, bottom crust layer, middle filling, and topped with apples and sugar. On to the recipe, The Official State Recipe for Apple Kuchen from South Dakota.

Ingredients:
For the crust:
2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cold and cut into pieces

For the filling:
1 pound cream cheese, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg, at room temperature

For the topping:
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 Granny Smith apples, peeled, if desired, cored, and thinly sliced

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
Lightly grease and flour a 9x13-inch pan.
Place the flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl or food processor fitted with a steel blade and mix to combine.

Using the Ninja to mix things up is the easiest possible way to go about it.

Add the vanilla and butter, a little at a time.

You want your mixture to be a little crumbly, not smooth, so that it can be pressed together. You aren't looking for a smooth batter, but something that looks like it can be pressed together, kind of like a pie crust consistency.

Press into the baking pan and bake in oven until slightly golden but not brown, about 12 to 15 minutes.

See, it needs to have a little bit of texture to it.

Let crust cool.
Because I am always in a hurry, I didn't let it cool completely. It only cooled the amount of time it took me to finish the next steps.

Lower the oven temperature to 400 degrees.
Or turn it off... it will probably still be at 400 when you are ready to put the crust back in. Just don't forget to turn the oven back on if you turn it off.

To make the filling:
Mix the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla in mixer (preferably with a paddle) and beat until creamy.
Add the egg, mix to combine, and pour over the cooled crust.

To make the topping:
Place the sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl and mix to combine.
If you haven't already, peeled, if desired, core and thinly sliced 3 Granny Smith apples.

If you wait until now to slice the apples it will give your crust extra time to cool. I never peeled the apples. If you do, it will make cutting into the Kuchen easier.

Place the apples on top of the filling in two or three columns.

If you want to get fancy, you can make designs with your apples and how they are laid out.

Sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar and transfer to the oven.
Getting close now!

Bake until firm and a rich brown, about 20 minutes.

Cut into 20 to 24 pieces


Enjoy!

Massachusetts - Boston Cream Pie

50 weeks, 50 states, 50 desserts

The sixth state is Massachusetts, having ratified the Constitution on February 6, 1788.  Massachusetts does have a state dessert, and it's the only dessert I can think of when I think of Massachusetts, Boston Cream Pie.   This "pie" is actually two layers of cake with a cream filling layer between and topped with a chocolate frosting/glaze.  Boston Cream Pie is/was made famous from Boston's Parker House hotel.  

Massachusetts - Boston Cream Pie
State #6
February 6, 1788
Seeing how my grandfather is from this area, I went to the family cookbook for a recipe.  Unfortunately, there wasn't one to be found there.

The Boston Cream Pie has three parts. 
1. The Cake. 
2.  The Filling. 
3.  The Frosting.

Ingredients
For the cake:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup shortening
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

For the cream:
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups milk
2 egg yolks, slightly beaten
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract


For the chocolate glaze: 4 1/2 tablespoons butter
3 squares (1 ounce each) unsweetened chocolate
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
About 2 tablespoons hot water

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
Grease and flour a round layer pan, 9 x 1 1/2 inches.
In a bowl combine all cake ingredients.  Combine well while scraping the bowl occasionally to get everything mixed well.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
This part was super easy, just mix everything up.  No pics of this because who really needs to see me mixing up ingredients?

Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 35 minutes.
Cool 10 minutes, then remove from the pan to cool completely on a wire rack.

Here is my cake part.
If you look at the bottom half portion (top part in picture), you can see that I didn't quite get it to come out of the pan cleanly and had to try to get a knife in there to loosen it up.

For the cream:
Mix sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a 2 quart saucepan.
In a glass measuring cup, mix milk and egg yolks.
Pour and stir the milk mixture gradually into the sugar mixture.
Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens and boils.

You can see that it is getting thicker by the way it is sticking to the sides of the pan... And it also feels thicker as you are stirring it up.

Boil and stir for one minute. Remove from the heat. Stir in vanilla and cool completely.

Once cooled it looks like this.  Pretty thick and color is between yellow and white.

To make the chocolate glaze:
Heat butter and chocolate in a 2 quart saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly until melted and smooth.

When you combine the butter and chocolate it is pretty runny.

Remove from heat and stir in sugar and vanilla.

Then, when you stir in the sugar and vanilla it becomes pretty stiff and hard to stir.

Stir in water, one teaspoon at a time, until smooth and of spreading consistency.

I honestly had my doubts about this step.  I thought there was no way it would work.  But it does!  Stir in each teaspoon of water completely before going to the next one. 

The glaze should be just slightly runny but still solid.

To assemble the cake: 
Split the cake in half horizontally and place the bottom half on a cake stand orplate.
Spread cream evenly on top to within 1/2 inch of the sides.
Place the top of the cake on top of the cream.


Spread the top of the cake with chocolate glaze, letting it run slightly over the sides.

Once I got to leting it run off the edges it didn't run as smoothly as I thought it would.  But if you let it sit it should eventually migrate down.  Then you can put it in the refrigerator to finish making it solid.

Enjoy!