Peach and Blueberry Freeform Tart

This week I meditated on how some food combinations seem inevitable. Sure, chocolate and peanut butter, strawberries and cream, steak and potatoes, the usual suspects.

But then there're the ones we don't really think about. They're convenient and they just seem right.
Nectarines and Raspberries
Peaches and Blueberries
Apricots and Blackberries.
(these are basically the combos suggested by Cook's Illustrated, who wrote this recipe...so I don't take full credit, but I do agree wholeheartedly that they are good and somewhat inevitable combinations).

Maybe it's just the slight seasonal shifts in what the two-week peak season is for each fruit. Any subset of pitted fruit and berry is delicious, but somehow peaches feel like they go with blueberries.

And throw it all in a homemade flaky pie crust, no crimping skills required, and straight into the oven. It's like, I can do crimping, and I can do making homemade pie crust dough, but doing both at once is pretty overwhelming. Let's side with taste and throw caution to the wind today.

The other nice thing is that they're a bit smaller than most pies. The whole thing is basically gone by the time you're done with dinner and breakfast the next day. It has no time to go soggy. If you're three people, maybe you can eke out another dinner dessert from it, but I dare you to let it last that long!



Choose whatever combination of summer fruit your heart desires...just adjust the sugar as you like. You can add a vanilla bean, or lemon zest, or other fanciness. Or not - I didn't miss a thing in this simple version.

Peach and Blueberry Free Form Tart
Yield: 1 tart (6 good slices)

Ingredients:
For the dough:

• 1½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour (7½ oz)
• ½ teaspoon table salt
• 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold, cut into cubes
• 3 - 6 tablespoons cold water (I put an ice cube in mine)

For the filling:

• Fruit for about 3 cups of filling - I used 3 medium peaches sliced into ½-inch wedges and a few handfuls of blueberries
• 3-5 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar for sprinkling the crust

Method:

1. Note: this dough uses a food processor, but my favorite trusty method of grating frozen butter into the flour and salt and then working in the liquid by hand would probably also work well! Just jump to step 3 in that case.
2. Combine flour and salt in a food processor and pulse a few times to combine. Sprinkle butter cubes over and pulse until most of the flour is the texture of bread crumbs and some pieces of butter are the size of peas. Add the water a tablespoon or two at a time, pulsing to combine, until you can squeeze a bit and it sticks together (dough will still be sandy/dry in places. That's okay!).
3. Dump out the dough onto a countertop and gather into a rectangle taller than it is wide, about the width of your two hands. Farthest from you, press 1/6th of the dough away from you, then repeat with the next 1/6th until all the dough has been pressed into the counter (this creates butter flakes!). Gather back up into a pile and smear the dough against the counter once again. Now, when you gather it up it should form a pretty cohesive dough. Form into a 4-inch disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for one hour.
4. With 30 minutes to go on the dough, slice up your fruit but don't sugar it yet. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F and put a rack in the lower-middle position. 
5. When the hour is up, take the dough out and roll on a lightly floured piece of parchment paper. Just fix the cracks on the edges as they appear and keep rolling until you have a circle approximately 12 inches across. Put this, parchment and all, on a baking sheet and place the whole assembly back in the refrigerator for another 15 minutes. 
6. With 5 minutes left on the dough, sprinkle sugar on fruit to taste, then pull out the dough and mound the fruit in the center. You should aim to have a 2½-inch border all around the fruit. Fold the edges in over the fruit, leaving a bit of dough space for the fruit to slide into as it cooks (about ½ inch). Fold over but don't pinch the dough or press it down.
7. Working quickly, brush the dough with water and sprinkle the remaining 1 tablespoon of sugar evenly over the crust. 
8. Bake for 45-55 minutes, or until crust is golden and fruit juices are bubbling. Cool 10 minutes on baking sheet, then slide off onto a rack to finish cooling. Dig in in half an hour for warm tart or an hour for room temperature. 

Enjoy! Recipe from Cook's Illustrated.

Caramelized Peach and Lavender Scones

This weekend I visited friends and had basically every sunny summery experience that tends to be curiously absent in foggy San Francisco (what's up, Karl?). My friend Caroline kindly lent me her air mattress to crash on, and when we woke up we mozyed over to whole foods and the farmer's market to get ingredients for breakfast.

I think you can tell a lot about a person by the type of eggs they buy. I'm a $3 egg kind of person, but all due respect to those who are $9 egg people. (again, hello SF). You can also tell a lot about a person by the way they like their eggs cooked...mostly I think I just really like runny yolks. But for some, it is strangely accurate.

Anyhow, we ate scrambled eggs with cheese while waiting for the peaches to roast for these scones. I'm not going to say the scones are quick to make, but they are fairly simple, and the complex, flowery, and fruity flavors are well worth the wait. Also, by the time they come out of the oven, you can count elevensies as brunch, breakfast, and lunch.

(P.S. Whole foods sells lavender in a little package for about $3...a price I was happy to pay over the $8 we were quoted at the farmer's market! Again, you can tell a lot about a person by their grocery shopping strategies and habits)

The recipe starts with three peaches, sliced and coated in olive oil and brown sugar. Good things are starting.

Then, butter is rubbed into the dry ingredients. It's my favorite part...get your hands in there! Then come the peaches, soft and caramelized, and buttermilk (or milk curdled with lemon juice, in our case). A gentle stir and slight bit of kneading, and then the dough is ready to form straight on the baking sheet.
This could be the same baking sheet as you used to cook the peaches.
Got that? One baking sheet, one bowl!

The scones are done pretty quickly, in 15 or so minutes, and then a glaze is made with a few leftover caramelized peach slices. These scones rocked my world! They're rich and almost cake-like, not too dry and crumbly, and full of summery peach flavor and sophisticated lavender. It's a treat...treatyoself!

Caramelized Peach and Lavender Scones
Yield: 8 big or 12-16 smaller scones

Ingredients:

• 3 peaches, sliced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon culinary lavender
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cups (1 1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes, or grate frozen butter on a box grater for easy handling!
• 2/3 cup buttermilk (or milk with a scant tablespoon of lemon juice)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• milk or cream, for brushing and glazing
• sugar (coarse if you have it), for sprinkling
• 1 to 2 cups powdered sugar

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Toss peaches with olive oil and brown sugar, then spread in a *rimmed* baking sheet or other baking pan with sides. Roast for 35 minutes, stirring halfway through. 
2. Mix together all dry ingredients in a large bowl. Rub the butter into the dry ingredients with your fingertips (or your usual method) until chunks are about the size of peas. Toss in three quarters of the peach slices and stir to combine.
3. Add buttermilk and vanilla extract, then stir until a soft dough forms. Near the end, reach in the bowl and knead a few times to help incorporate all the dry ingredients. Turn out onto a baking sheet, and either form into two smaller disks or one larger disk. Cut each disk into 6 or 8 slices and separate the scones from each other by pulling the wedges away from the center of the circle.
4. Bake for 12-16 minutes (depending on size), in that same 400 degree oven, until golden brown around the edges. 
5. To make the glaze, mash up the remaining peach slices with a tablespoon or so of milk. Slowly add powdered sugar until the consistency is to your liking, then smother the scones in glaze and chow down!

Recipe from How Sweet It Is.

Blueberry Scones

Oh, how simple. 

Just blueberries in a basic scone base, supported by our good friends maple syrup, nutmeg, and vanilla. Cushioned in buttery, flaky dough, they burst and ooze purple juice in a hot oven.

I made these scones this morning, and we ate them an hour later. While I'm not as practiced at scone methodology and measurement as I am with cookies (I've got the formula down pat!), they're still pretty easy, and I'm gradually getting into it. 

To summarize, though, here's how scones go:

mix together dry ingredients

"cut in" cold butter, cubed (cut the stick in half lengthwise both ways, like you're julienning it, then cut cubes crosswise)

mix together wet ingredients

add to dry ingredients and hope that catastrophic happens while you try to mix as little as possible to avoid errant gluten developement but get everything evenly mixed

pat into a round of dough on a floured surface

cut with rounds, squares, a knife, whatever floats your summery sailboat

bake for 15-20 minutes, ish

Okay, that gluten part is perhaps a bit more dramatic then it really is...'cause I swear these are easy! In fact, I made pie crust for handpies with a friend a few weeks back, and was totally surprised at how easy it is to work in butter by hand, and mix a dough without "overmixing" – that feared, never-forgiven sin of pie crust and other buttery doughs. 

I've discovered you can knead the dough a bit by folding it and pressing down on itself is a really good way to simultaneously make lovely flakes of butter, keep the dough delicate and lightly mixed, and work in the last bits of flour which invariably hang out at the bottom of the bowl.

So, after that complicated diatribe on my fear of overmixing...the point is that yes, you can make scones by hand, in a mixing bowl, without a pastry cutter or food processor, and they will be tender and flakey and delicious! Rubbing butter between your fingertips is possibly the most therapeutic of kitchen activities (unless you're angry, in which case you might want to go with spatchcocking a chicken or kneading pizza dough by hand).

Without further ado...

Blueberry Scones

Yield: 15, 2 inch round scones

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

3/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

1 large egg, lightly beaten

2 tablespoons maple syrup

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3/4 cup buttermilk (or 2 teaspons of lemon juice with enough milk to make 3/4 cup)

1 cup fresh blueberries

buttermilk or milk for brushing the tops of the scones before baking

granulated or sanding sugar for sprinkling on top before baking

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a baking mat and set aside.

2. In a mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, pinch of nutmeg, and salt.  Cut in butter (rubbing it into the mixture with your fingertips) until mixture resembles a coarse meal.  Some butter pieces will be the size of peas and some will be the size of oat flakes. In another bowl, combine egg, maple syrup, vanilla extract, and milk and beat lightly with a fork.  Add to flour mixture all at once, stirring enough to make a soft, shaggy mass of dough.  Fold in the blueberries.

3. Turn out onto a floured board and knead, folding and pressing, until the mixture comes together (some blueberries may burst, that's okay. If they make the dough wet, just add a bit more flour and keep folding them into the interior of the dough).  Roll or pat out into a 1-inch thickness.  Cut into 2-inch rounds using a round cutter or cut into 2×2-inch squares.  Reshape and roll dough to create more scones with excess scraps. 

4. Place on an ungreased baking sheet.  Brush lightly with buttermilk or milk and sprinkle with sugar.   Bake for 15-18 minutes or until golden brown on top.  Eat and enjoy!

Note: I tried freezing a few unbaked scones, but haven't baked them yet. I'll let you know how they turned out when I do!

Recipe courtesy of Joy the Baker (http://joythebaker.com/2013/03/maple-blueberry-scones/)

Plum Crisp

Crisp is really wonderful.

I'm on vacation with my family, and we're staying in a condo. First day here, I was ready to bake.

When you're traveling, baking from scratch is more difficult. Cookies have rather a lot of ingredients, considering baking soda, baking powder, two kinds of sugar, eggs, vanilla...the list goes on and on.

Crisp is fast, forgiving, easy to make, flexible to the seasons, and amazing with ice cream. Plums were on sale and good. I threw in a nectarine before I discovered they were pretty unripe.

Enter "forgiving." It was still good, even the less-ripe nectarine. Toss it with sugar, add lemon juice. Top with brown sugary buttery oat crumbly crisp, and everything is forgiven.

But, it's a double edged really good chef's knife. Because when the fruit is good, like the plums, the fruit is the star of the show, and elevates the crisp. It is a transcendental experience with melty vanilla ice cream (gold star if you get the kind with a caramel swirl...Dad).

Almost a member of the clean plate club!

So, here's a "recipe"

Plum (or anything) Crisp

Ingredients:

• Fruit, cut into pieces
• Granulated sugar
• Juice and zest of 1/2 lemon
• Oats
• Salt
• Flour
• Brown Sugar
• 1 stick butter, cold and cut into pieces or frozen and grated on a box grater

Method:

1. Mix fruit with a few big spoonfuls of granulated sugar and the lemon juice and zest. Let rest for a while (half an hour is good).
2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a casserole dish (I used a 9x13 pan). Drain off the liquid that has accumulated from the fruit/sugar, and reduce in a large bowl/measuring cup/mug in the microwave until it starts to thicken (let it go for a minute at a time and watch it to make sure it doesn't boil over).
3. Put the fruit in the casserole dish and drizzle the reduced juice over it. Mix about a cup of flour and about a cup of brown sugar, add in several spoonfuls of oats (the amount you like), then cut in the butter until the mixture starts to hold together a bit when you squeeze it.
4. Spread crumble topping over fruit, press into cracks and corners, then poke it with your fingertips to create some texture. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until topping is golden.

Slightly adapted from Food52

Strawberry-Rhubarb Crisp

Welcome to the auto-blog post generator. Generating first paragraph...

"This dish is perfect for a light lunch with a sliced chicken breast, or even breakfast with a fried egg on top! And, if you can manage to wait to slice these until they've cooled, you can cut them with cookie cutters and decorate with royal frosting for a superbowl party! Sure to please any guest, these are also vegan (so healthy) since they are made with coconut oil and quinoa."

None of this is true of the recipe I made today.

It's messy; there's no way you could cookie-cutter it for a theme party. And although fried eggs are pretty, I think greek yogurt makes for a delicious breakfast combination.

There's no quinoa to rinse (that's seriously the biggest thing that keeps me from making quinoa...and I know they make a pre-washed version, but we have a big costco bag of the regular stuff. First world problems, for real). The only specialty ingredients are rhubarb and strawberries. And it's a strawberry-rhubarb recipe.

You can totally use this as a general crisp recipe, though, changing up the spices and fruits as you see fit. This article has a nice explanation of which fruits are high in pectin (the jelly-like stuff that makes fruit in fruit pies. cobblers, crisps, etc. thicken up). If your fruits have more pectin, you won't need as much flour or tapioca starch to thicken; if they have less, like strawberry/rhubarb, you'll need more.

Before and after!

And crisp is special...people can really only get it if someone makes it for them. It's not exactly something keebler sells on the grocery store shelf.

This crisp is:
gooey
tart
flavorful
perfect for dessert or breakfast
sweet but not too sweet
...and the crumb topping is perfectly buttery, chewy in parts where it soaked up the fruit juice and crisp on top.

In short, delicious.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Crisp
Yield: about 8 servings

Ingredients:
For the topping:

• 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
• 1/3 cup sliced almonds
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• Generous pinch of salt
• 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

For the filling:

• 5 cups 1/2-inch-thick slices fresh rhubarb (from about 2 pounds)
• 1 pint quartered/halved (depending on size) strawberries
• 3/4 cup sugar
• juice from one orange
• 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
• zest from one orange
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• scant 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Method:

1. For topping: Mix first 6 ingredients in medium bowl. Add butter; rub in with fingertips until moist clumps form.
2. Preheat oven to 375°F. Combine all filling ingredients in large (and I mean LARGE) bowl; stir to blend. Let stand until juices form, about 15 minutes.
3. Pour rhubarb mixture into large baking (casserole) dish; sprinkle topping evenly over mixture. 
4. Bake until topping is golden brown and crisp and filling is bubbling thickly around edges, about 45 minutes. Serve warm with whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, greek yogurt, or simply straight up.

Recipe adapted from Epicurious (which I'm rediscovering as an excellent source!)

Maple Oatmeal Cran-Blue-Raisin-Berry Cookies

Last night, some friends and I were discussing razzleberry. What kind of flavor is that? Usually it's just blue dye and some fruity artificial flavors.

But we decided it probably comes from raspberry and apple. And then we started thinking about cran-apple, and what would happen if you shortened that in the same way...

Crappleberry. That's what would happen. So Ocean Spray just sticks with cran-apple...it's probably a safer bet, advertising-wise.

These cookies are not crapple-icious. They look innocent and full of berries, until WHAM

Golden raisins reveal themselves among the camouflage of golden dough, ninja-like, full of stealth. Sweet, wrinkly stealth.

This is what they look like after they've been smooshed together traveling on a plane, bus, and train. Still taste amazing though!

The only downside of this recipe is that the maple flavor has a bit too much stealth. It's kind of invisible. If you want a stronger flavor, I'd suggest maple extract, or swapping out some brown sugar for maple sugar.

The extra liquid from the sticky sap contributes moisture, keeping the cookies soft, but I wonder what would happen if you replaced it with molasses, or honey. You'd probably want to decrease the amount a bit, since those are stronger/sweeter than maple syrup, respectively. But it could make a delicious change! (It also makes the dough a bit sticky, so refrigerating before scooping helps the cookies keep their shape).

Or maybe you want to play with the additions. Joy made hers with white chocolate and cranberry! I think it'd be wonderful with some toasted, slivered almonds too!

This is one of those drop cookies which takes well to almost any add-in. Pretzels. Chocolate. Dried fruit. Nuts. Sprinkles. Heath bits. Chopped up peanut butter cups. I just threw in many handfuls of small dried fruits, but you could go crazy with variations! 

P.S. Yes, that's toilet paper, AKA college kleenex

Maple Oatmeal Cran-Blue-Raisin-Berry Cookies

Yield: about 3 1/2 dozen

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup maple syrup

1 3/4 cups rolled oats

Handfuls and handfuls of bite-sized add-ins: I recommend about 2 cups worth if you want them really choc full! This version has about 1/2 cup dried blueberries, 3/4 cup golden raisins, and 1 cup dried cranberries, approximately.

Method:

1. Place racks in the center and upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, silpats, foil and baking spray, etc. and set aside. 
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and ground cinnamon. 
3. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment (or with a hand mixer), combine butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar. Beat on medium-low speed until thoroughly combined and slightly fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Stop the mixer and scrape down the bowl.  
4. Add eggs, one at a time, beating for 1 minute between each addition. Add vanilla extract and maple syrup and beat to combine. Add the flour mixture and beat just until incorporated. Add in add-ins and stir in by hand or let the mixer handle it.
5. (optional) Refrigerate dough for about an hour--it really helps since, with the syrup, the dough is pretty sticky.
6. Spoon batter onto prepared pans by the heaping tablespoonful. Leave about 2 inches of space between cookies.  Bake cookies for 10 to 12 minutes, or until golden around the edges. 
7. Cool cookies on the sheet for 5 minutes. Remove from the pan and allow to finish cooling on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container for up to four days. 

Adapted from Joy the Baker!

Banana Bread

I call this is the kind of banana bread you make when you have an extreme number of bananas to eat, all speckledy and starches converted to sugars and whatnot. All of these bananas give amazing banana flavor to the bread, too.

There's a crumble topping too! Butter and brown sugar and a bit of flour and lots of aromatic cinnamon. My favorite bits are the pockets of banana bits that didn't get fully mashed up! So delicious.

You could of course add chocolate chips, or walnuts, or pecans, or all three! With or without the crumble topping, it's amazing. The huge amount of bananas (4 per loaf) keep the bread moist and lend a ton of flavor.

I also discovered that a smear of peanut butter, drizzle of honey, and sprinkle of cinnamon totally elevate it to something even more extraordinary, if possible. Desserty, filling, sweet, nutty, and smooth.

And if you don't have 4 overly ripe bananas at once, just peel and freeze as many as you do have. Then, thaw them in the microwave for a minute or two before mashing.

They also make excellent one-ingredient ice cream!

But back to the bread...here's the recipe! File it away for when the freezer starts screaming for ethanol-induced ripe-banana mercy.

Banana Bread
Yield: 1 loaf

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 bananas, mashed
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup canola oil

• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon butter

Method: 

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Butter and flour a loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and oil. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth top.
3. In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons of flour and the cinnamon. Cut in the butter or mash it in with your fingers until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.
4. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until a tester inserted into center of loaf comes out clean.

Adapted from Leftovers for Lunch.

Three Berry Pie

It was (is...) summer. And although, out of all the dessert categories, pie and ice cream are my least favorite (as in, I don't crave them hardly ever), I had a craving to make a pie.

Let's be clear here. Although I did eat lots of pie, and loved it...

I had a craving to craft pie dough by hand, roll it out, buy enormous quantities of berries at costco, and bake a pie.

Before, and

...after!

What a great experience! Granted, I definitely "screwed up" the crust by overmixing it or adding too much water or something. I'm still not sure what I did wrong. I'm no experienced pie baker. But it was beautiful and tasty.
In fact, the crust was sort of shortbread-y in a delectable way! It was also thick, stood up to the filling, and the bottom didn't get soggy.

Celebrate the wins in life. You are a champion.

The filling was out. of. this. world.

Blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries playing off each other in a simple filling, which by the way stayed together to make lovely slices on the second day, after what was left was refrigerated.

Enjoy, guys! Use whatever berries that are sort of like the ones I did, in whatever combo you have, just make sure you have 5 1/2 - 6 cups of berries.

Common Scents: Eat some of this with lightly sweetened (with honey) greek yogurt for breakfast. Carbs from the crust, fruit in the pie, and protein from the yogurt. Complete breakfast? Check.

Three Berry Pie
Yield: 1 pie

Make crust 1 hour ahead and refrigerate:


Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
1/2 cup cold vegetable shortening, cut into pieces
1/2 cup cold water

Method:

1. Combine the flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Toss well, by hand, to mix. Scatter the butter over the dry ingredients and toss to mix. 
2. Using a pastry blender, 2 knives, or your fingertips (or toss this whole shooting match into a food processor), cut or rub the butter into the flour until it is broken into pieces the size of small peas. Add the shortening and continue to cut until all of the fat is cut into small pieces. 
3. Sprinkle half of the water over the mixture. Toss well with a fork to dampen the mixture. Add the remaining water, l 1/2 to 2 tablespoons at a time, and continue to toss and mix, pulling the mixture up from the bottom of the bowl on the upstroke and gently pressing down on the downstroke. 
4. Form into two disks, one slightly larger (this will be the bottom crust) than the other. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate until firm enough to roll, about 1 hour.

Then, assemble the pie:

Ingredients:
1 recipe pie dough (see above)
5 1/2 to 6 cups berries (blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, and cranberries all work well, wash if fresh and thaw partially if frozen. Drain if canned)
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
pinch salt
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

Heavy cream (or half and half or milk if you don't have cream)
sugar

Method:

1. On a sheet of lightly floured waxed paper or a silpat, roll the larger portion of the pastry into a 12-inch circle with a floured rolling pin. Invert the pastry over a 9-inch standard pie pan, center, and peel off the paper or silpat. Gently tuck the pastry into the pan, without stretching it, and let the overhang drape over the edge. Place in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, combine the berries in a large bowl. Mix the sugar and cornstarch together in a small bowl, then stir the mixture into the fruit. Stir in the nutmeg, salt, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Set aside for 10 minutes. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
3. Roll the other half of the pastry into a 10-inch circle on a sheet of lightly floured waxed paper. Turn the filling into the chilled pie shell, smoothing the fruit with a spoon. Moisten the outer edge of the pie shell with water with a pastry brush. Invert the top pastry over the filling, center, and peel off the paper. Press the top and bottom pastries together along the dampened edge. Trim the edge to an even 1/2 inch all around, then sculpt the overhang into a pretty ripple, folding under as you go to make a thick ridge. Poke or cut several steam vents in the top of the pie with a fork, paring knife, or cookie cutter. Brush the top of the pie generously with heavy cream and sprinkle with sugar.
4. Place the pie on the center oven rack and bake for 30 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 375°F and rotate the pie 180 degrees, so that the part that faced the back of the oven now faces forward. Just in case, slide a large aluminum foil—lined baking sheet onto the rack below to catch any spills. Continue to bake until the juices, most likely visible at the steam vents, bubble thickly, 25-30 minutes. If the top pastry starts to get too brown, cover with loosely tented aluminum foil during the last 10 minutes.
5. Transfer pie to a wire rack and let cool for at least 1 hour before serving with vanilla ice cream.

From Pie (thanks, library!).

Apple Upside Down Cake

Happy Father's Day!

I have a pretty fantastic dad...here's to him! *clink*

This cake was his choice, and once again, ATK came through with an excellent execution.

It's surprisingly sweet.
The cake is really moist from the caramel apple syrup soaking through what used to be the bottom. (P.S. Lick it off the wax paper for me, will you?)
One layer.
...which means you can have a bigger piece, right?

Apples are always in season. (Could you use peaches or nectarines or something? Probably, and it would probably be awesome!)
Cornmeal adds just a bit of coarse, humble texture to the cake.

Gah...it's wonderful. I've been eyeing Deb's snack cakes (not this kind of snack cake) for a while now. They're so summery and not fussy, something that deserves to be eaten en famille.

Happy Father's Day! Make a lovely cake for Dad, or bake together!

Apple Upside Down Cake
Yield: one 9" round cake (or see other pan options below in #1)


Ingredients:

for the topping...
2 pounds Granny Smith or Golden Delicious apples, peeled and cored (that was 4 apples for me)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
2/3 cup packed (4 2/3 ounces) brown sugar
2 teaspoons lemon juice

for the cake...
1 cup (5 ounces) all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon cornmeal (optional)
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (5¼ ounces) granulated sugar
¼ cup packed (1 3/4 ounces) light brown sugar
2 large eggs
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
½ cup (4 ounces) sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract


Method:

1. Grease and flour a 9" cake pan (sides at least 2" high, or your cake will overflow), or a 10" skillet or 8" square pan. Adjust oven rack to lowest position and preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Halve apples from stem to blossom end. Cut 2 apples into  ¼-inch-thick slices; set aside. Cut remaining 2 apples into ½-inch-thick slices. Melt butter in 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1/2-inch-thick apple slices and cook, stirring 2 or 3 times, until apples begin to caramelize, 4 to 6 minutes (do not fully cook apples). Add 1/4-inch-thick apple slices, brown sugar, and lemon juice and continue cooking, stirring carefully (the pan will be quite full), until sugar dissolves and apples are coated, about 1 minute longer. Transfer apple mixture to prepared cake pan and lightly press into even layer.
3. Whisk flour, cornmeal, if using, baking powder, and salt together in medium bowl. Whisk granulated sugar, brown sugar, and eggs together in large bowl until thick and thoroughly combined (do this by hand for the full homey effect, it's really not too strenuous!), about 45 seconds. Slowly whisk in butter until combined. Add sour cream and vanilla and whisk until combined. Add flour mixture and whisk until just combined. Pour batter into pan and spread evenly over fruit. Bake cake until golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes.
4. Let cake cool in pan on wire rack for 20 minutes. Run paring knife around sides of cake to loosen. Place wire rack over pan and, holding rack tightly, invert cake pan and wire rack together. Lift off pan. Place wire rack with cake over baking sheet or large plate lined with wax paper to catch any drips. If any fruit sticks to pan bottom, remove and position it on top of cake. Let cake cool completely, about 20 minutes, then transfer to serving platter and serve.

Recipe from The Cook's Illustrated Cookbook, which happens to be my dad's book. So thematic.

A note about garnishes: powdered sugar and whipped cream

I like to use this tea ball or some similar tea-straining sieve to dust things with powdered sugar...it makes a smaller mess and is lots of fun! But for this cake, since the top is sort of wet from the apples, it doesn't make a lot of difference. The sugar dissolves quickly and disappears.

We used Reddi-wip, but bonus points if you whip your own. Or just eat it plain, no one will ask you where the whipped cream is (unless they're my dad).

Peanut Butter Banana Granola and Strawberry Sauce Greek Yogurt Parfait

Whew. Now that you've spent a full minute comprehending the title alone...

This is amazing.
Wholesome.
Delicious.
Fancy.
and fast to make.

Aren't those happy adjectives?

So, today's a double post. The strawberry sauce is great over ice cream, by itself on a spoon (or on greek yogurt...think homemade fruit-on-the-bottom yogurt!).

The granola is fantastic in trail mix, as a cold or hot cereal, soaked overnight for muesli, with honey on top of granola, and sneaked (snook?) in handfuls from the container.

I wonder if that's how snookie got her nickname...

The layers are so pretty! Granola, yogurt, sauce, granola, yogurt, sauce, granola. Pick your ratios!

Common scents: make things that have multiple uses and store for a while. and make large quantities of them.

We happened to have a 4 pound box of strawberries begging to be used in ways other than cut up on cereal. Actually, we had 3 or 4 such boxes for a graduation breakfast (HOORAH I'm a high school graduate now!), but we ate a bunch, froze some, and gave some away.

This recipe, though, can hardly be considered precise. It doesn't matter if you have pounds and pounds of strawberries or just a pint or two. You can make it sweeter or not-as-sweet (I went the not-as-sweet route...it's been an eat-weekend), and flavor it as you like!

Morning mise en place

The granola is another great use for copious amounts of fruit: in this case, bananas. I've found that banana chunks that have been frozen are
a) usually riper and sweeter since we only freeze the really speckly bananas at my house
and b) easier to mash into a smooth puree once you defrost them in the microwave.

Oh hey sudoku! Sorry, but you're not as interesting as my parfait. It has layers.

It's a classy breakfast. You don't have to do the layers on a rushed weekday morning. No-muss, no fuss.

Strawberry Sauce (for homemade fruit-on-the-bottom for yogurt)


Ingredients:

Strawberries
Sugar (or honey or other sweetener)
Pinch salt
Lemon juice/zest or vanilla extract (or other flavorings...orange would also be lovely!)

Method:

1. Hull and quarter strawberries. Place in an appropriately sized saucepan over medium-high heat.
2. Add sweetener (a bit to start, you can add more later to taste), salt, and lemon juice/zest, if using.
3. Cook until the strawberries are your preferred doneness and the sauce is thickened, mashing with a potato masher or pureeing in a blender if you like (I mashed by hand). Check the seasonings as you go--have lots of spoons ready!--and add sweetener to taste. My sauce took 20-30 minutes.
4. Add vanilla (if using) at the end of cooking so it doesn't evaporate off.
5. Let cool and store in the fridge (a mason jar works great!)

Common Scents Baking "original" (yeah, I threw some stuff in a pot on the stove...)

Peanut Butter Banana Granola

Ingredients:

3 cups rolled oats, oat bran, and wheat germ (I used 2 1/2 cups oats and 1/4 cup of each of the other two)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
Scant 1/4 cup honey
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup mashed banana (2-3 medium)
1/4 cup peanut butter

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees and line a baking sheet (one that has edges will keep the granola contained better) with parchment paper
2. Whisk together dry ingredients in a large bowl.
3. Microwave to melt the honey, oil, and peanut butter, add bananas and mash/mix to combine.
4. Stir together wet and dry until combined, then pour on to baking sheet and press down (this makes clumpy granola--yum!)
5. Bake for 40 minutes, stirring every 10 or 15 minutes so the edges don't burn more than the middle. Keep baking until your desired crunch level!

Note: The big chunks are great for snacking and trail mix, and the littler chunks are good for stirring into yogurt!

Adapted from my Pumpkin Granola recipe (my first ever post!), which was adapted from Serious Eats.

Lemon Poppyseed Cranberry Icebox Cookies

These are cookies for a tea party.

They're buttery, evenly sized, and have polka dots of cranberry scattered throughout.

So I had a tea party, with iced tea because, well, it's been hot in Chicago.

Did you know you can use wet-erase markers on glasses (and probably on glazed ceramic tea cups/saucers, too, but don't quote me on it) to tell whose is whose? It slides right off in the dishwasher or just under the tap. That's common scents!

With the cookies, we served grapes and cheese and crackers. It was no-fuss entertaining.

Grapes are awesome because they're easy to find most of the year, people like them, they're bite sized so no one stains anything, and all you have to do is wash them and put them in a bowl. More common scents right thurr.

And cheese and crackers add body to the spread.

I should add that the dough for the cookies needs to chill, so it's a make-ahead affair. I kept mine in the fridge for a couple of days and it baked up wonderfully. Slicing cold cookie logs is such fun...you get to see the pretty insides!

It's simple. After all, it's having friends over to chat that counts, not tablescaping and flimsy paper umbrellas and napkin rings that you hand origami-ed.

Lemon Poppyseed Cranberry Icebox Cookies
Yield: about 45 cookies, plus the weird looking ends (they make great snacking!)

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
Pinch of salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup powdered sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 teaspoons lemon zest (zest from 1 whole lemon)
1 cup dried cranberries
2 tablespoon poppy seeds


Method:

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour and salt. Set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together the butter and sugar on medium speed until soft and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add egg, yolk, and vanilla, and beat until well blended, another 2 minutes. Stop the mixer to scrape down the bowl as necessary.
3. Add the flour mixture, lemon zest, cranberries, and poppy seeds, all at once, to the egg mixture and beat on low speed until just incorporated. 
4. Divide the dough in half and place each half on a sheet of waxed paper. Press each half into a log 1 inch in diameter. Roll into plastic wrap and store in the fridge to chill for at least 3 hours, although overnight is best.
5. When ready to bake, place racks in the middle and upper third of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F (or 325 degrees F convection). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
6. Remove the dough from the refrigerator, unwrap, and use a knife to slice dough into 1/3-inch-thick rounds. Place on baking sheet about 1 inch apart.
7. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until barely browned around the edges, rotating halfway through baking. Remove from the oven and cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Cookies will last in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.

Adapted from Joy the Baker Cookbook.

P.S. I half wanted to make a lemon glaze with powdered sugar and lemon juice and drizzle it over...if that mood strikes you, let me know how it goes! Or, sub in different fruits, different zests (Joy used orange), different seeds. It's up to you!

P.P.S. Joy's recipe came from smitten kitchen, who got it from Dorie Greenspan.