June 30, 2009
· Filed under Baked Goods, Dessert, Summer
Posted by Lisa
Fruit has recently been consuming much of my time. Picking, cleaning, freezing, making jam, drying, using some in smoothies and baked goods, all in a race to use up the fruit before it rots. Strawberry season is behind us and cherry season is in our midst. I’ve been drying the larger ones, and using the smaller ones for cherry preserves, cherry clafouti and now cherry cobbler. I will also save the pits for ice cream.
I found this cherry cobbler recipe on 101 Cookbooks and made some minor modifications and doubled the recipe. It turned out really lovely. It had lots off cobbler, which is actually my favorite part.
Cherry Cobbler
from 101 Cookbooks
2 1/2 cups sweet cherries, pitted
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 cup fine-grain natural cane sugar
1 1/4 whole wheat pastry flour (I used unbleached all-purpose)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup fine-grain natural cane sugar (or brown sugar)
1/4+ teaspoon salt
1/4-1/2 cup toasted nuts (optional) (I didn’t use nuts)
1 egg
1/2 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled a bit
Preheat oven to 425F degrees, racks in the top third. Butter a 9 – 10-inch round tart pan (or equivalent); a 13″ x 9″ worked well for a double batch.
In a small bowl gently toss the cherries with the cornstarch and sugar. Set aside.
To make the cobbler topping, combine the flour, baking powder, and sugar, salt, and nuts in a large bowl. In another separate, smaller bowl whisk together the egg and the buttermilk, whisk in the butter. Fold the buttermilk mixture into the flour mixture until it’s barely combined.
Pour the fruit into the prepared pan. Now top the cherries with the buttermilk dough by dropping dollops into the pan a scant tablespoon each – not too big or they won’t cook throughout.
Bake for 15 -20 minutes or until the top is golden and cooked through.
June 29, 2009
· Filed under Baked Goods, Dessert, Summer · Tagged cherries
Posted by Lisa
Clafouti
It’s cherry season! And we are lucky to have friends who let us come and pick from their cherry trees (and apples later in the season). Yesterday we picked between 30 and 40 pounds. Many of those will be dehydrated and frozen, but some of them are of a variety that are dark, but not as sweet as Bings and much smaller too, which makes pitting them somewhat of a challenge. I decided to make a cherry clafouti with the first of those smaller ones and I may make some cherry preserves and cherry syrup today.
A clafouti is a dessert, which is halfway between a cake and a custard. The batter has about the same am0unt of flour as eggs and milk, so it’s not cakey, however since it has such a large ratio of flour it’s not really custard-y either. Traditionally the cherry pits are left in, to impart a subtle almond flavor and prevent the cherries from getting to watery. Another bonus is that the pits slow you down and force you to savor your piece of clafouti.
I got the recipe from Garlic Breath. I’ve also seen a couple of recipes that lean more toward the custard spectrum and I’d like to try one of those later this week.
Clafouti
from Riana at Garlic Breath
3/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1/4 cup sugar or honey or natural sweetener of your choice
3/4 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Place all ingredients into a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Let batter rest while you prepare fruit.
1 pound fresh sweet cherries— leave the pits in
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
Butter a 9″ x 13″ baking dish and pour the cherries into your dish in a single layer. Pour the batter over the cherries and bake at 400°F for about 55 minutes.
June 17, 2009
· Filed under Baked Goods, Spring, Summer · Tagged strawberries
Posted by Lisa
Fresh Strawberry Shortcake
June is strawberry season. My children and I anticipate the arrival of strawberries with great excitement. We always go and pick a lot to freeze for snacking and baking throughout the year. Strawberry shortcake is mandatory along with strawberry smoothies. Fresh strawberries need minimal preparation to be the star in a dessert. I slice several cups of strawberries then stir in a couple tablespoons of sugar and about half a teaspoon of pure vanilla extract. Let it sit and macerate for a couple hours, if possible. Split the shortcakes in half (recipe below) and spoon the strawberry mixture in between the two halves and top with fresh whipped cream. Whipped cream is ridiculously easy to make and there isn’t really any excuse for substituting canned whipped cream or (horrors) Cool Whip. Place a 1/2 pint or full pint (depending on how much you need) of heavy whipping cream into a chilled mixing bowl, add one or two tablespoons of sugar and 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract. Turn your mixer on low and slowly bring it up to the fastest setting, to avoid splashing cream everywhere. Whip it to soft peaks. You will know it is ready when you can lift your whisk out and the peaks retain their shape. If you over-whip it you run the risk of making butter, so stop at soft peaks.
Shortcakes
*4 cups all-purpose flour (about 8 ounces), plus more for dusting
* 2 tablespoons baking powder
* 2 tablespoons sugar
* 14 tablespoons cold butter, sliced
* 1 1/2 cups milk
To make the biscuits: Preheat to 450 degrees F.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and sugar. Cut butter into the flour until it is in even pieces about the size of a pea. Gently stir the milk into the flour mixture to make a loose dough.
Lightly dust a clean work surface with flour and turn the dough out onto it. Pat the dough into a 1/2-inch thick rectangle. Fold the dough in thirds like a business letter. (For a flakier biscuit repeat the folding a second time.) Roll the dough into a rectangle about 3/4-inch thick. Use a 2- to 3-inch round cutter to make biscuits, and transfer them to the prepared baking sheet. Press together the scraps of dough and cut more biscuits, repeating until all dough is used.3
Bake until lightly browned, about 15 minutes.
May 19, 2009
· Filed under Baked Goods, Spring · Tagged rhubarb
Posted by Lisa
I will shamefully admit that I’d never baked or cooked with rhubarb before this week. My husband was a proclaimed rhubarb hater. I was sure that he had just eaten it in a dish that was prepared incorrectly. I looked around at some of my favorite food blogs for ideas on preparation and I figured that the easiest way to introduce it would be in bread form. The first attempt was tasty but un-photogenic Cinnamon-Topped Rhubarb Muffins. The second attempt was a Rhubarb Bread recipe from Allrecipes.com, by way of a local food blog, Portland Foodie. The bread was gobbled up by everyone in our family and my husband is now on good terms with rhubarb.
Rhubarb Bread
Rhubarb Bread
from Allrecipes.com
* 1 cup milk
* 1 tablespoon lemon juice
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
* 2/3 cup vegetable oil
* 1 egg
* 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 1/2 cups chopped rhubarb
* 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
* 1/4 cup brown sugar
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1 tablespoon butter, melted
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Lightly grease two 9×5 inch loaf pans. In a small bowl, stir together milk, lemon juice and vanilla; let stand for 10 minutes.
In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups brown sugar, oil and egg. Combine the flour, salt and baking soda, stir into sugar mixture alternately with the milk mixture just until combined. Fold in rhubarb and nuts. Pour batter into prepared loaf pans.
In a small bowl, combine 1/4 cup brown sugar, cinnamon and butter. Sprinkle this mixture over the unbaked loaves.
Bake in preheated oven for 40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a loaf comes out clean.
February 18, 2009
· Filed under Autumn, Baked Goods, Dessert, Winter · Tagged apples, blueberries, crisps
Posted by Lisa
Our local raw milk, chicken and egg farm had stacks of the magazine, Edible Portland, out so my husband snagged one and brought it home for me. It had some great information in it like how to make bacon at home and a recipe for Apple-Blueberry Crisp, using preserved berries among other things. I happen to have at least five pounds of blueberries in my freezer from our u-pick expeditions in July and August, so this was a great opportunity to use some preserved food with some in season apples.
Apple-Blueberry Crisp
Apple-Blueberry Crisp
adapted from Edible Portland
- 2 pounds apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1/4″ thick slices
- 1 pint frozen blueberries
- 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt, if you are using unsalted butter
- 3/4 cup all-purpose or whole wheat flour
- 1/4 pound (1 stick) butter
Butter a 3-quart dish and add the apples and blueberries.
In a food processor or bowl with pastry blender, combine sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt, flour and butter until they form pea-sized crumbs. Sprinkle the mixture over the fruit and cover with foil.
Bake in a 350-degree oven for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for an additional 30-40 minutes, until the apples are tender and the crust is golden brown. Serve warm or at room temperature.
*This recipe was very good as I have it above, but when I try it again, I am going to decrease the sugar to 1/2 cup and maybe add 1/4-1/2 cup of rolled oats. The crisp part was a bit too sweet for our tastes.
February 4, 2009
· Filed under Autumn, Baked Goods, Winter · Tagged muffins, squash
Posted by Lisa
Leftover Squash Muffins
When I made enchiladas on Monday night, I had some plain cooked acorn squash leftover. Tuesday morning I decided I should make some muffins with that squash, so I modified this recipe as follows.
Leftover Squash Muffins
- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup rolled oats
- 1 c. sucanat or rapadura sugar
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 cup milk
- 1 – 1/2 cups mashed cooked winter squash
- 1/2 cup oil
- 2 eggs
Preheat oven to 350. Mix dry ingredients in large bowl. Mix wet ingredients in medium sized bowl. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir just until combined. Spoon into muffin tins, about 2/3 of the way full. Bake for 20-25 minutes.
