Apple & Pear Crisp

While we've mostly been drinking green smoothies for breakfast, sometimes it's nice to change it up a little.  To that end, I threw together a quick apple & pear crisp the other day because we had some pears that were about to go bad, and by keeping the sugar to a minimum, rationalize that it's totally breakfast food with the addition of some yogurt.

This recipe is another that's highly adaptable, so you can use whatever fruit you have on hand, just varying the sugar and liquid amounts depending.  You can also vary the spices, subbing anything you like for the cinnamon and ginger, or omitting one of them all together.  The only real key I've discovered is to make sure your topping is wet enough and that the butter is really worked in, otherwise the flour never really cooks and stays too blond on the top.  To that end, I never really actually measure when I throw together a crisp, so below is my best estimate.

Apple & Pear Crisp, adapted from Laura Creager's recipe

2 pears, peeled and diced
2 apples, washed and diced
2 Tbsp. flour (white or whole wheat)
2 Tbsp. sugar
1-2 tsp. each of cinnamon & ginger
zest and juice from one lemon

Topping:
3/4 cups flour (white or whole wheat)
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup oatmeal
1/2 tsp. salt
4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, diced
water, if needed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  In a baking dish, combine fruit, flour, sugar, spices, and lemon zest and juice.  Mix together with your hands until evenly combined.

In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, oatmeal, and salt and give a quick stir to mix.  Add in the butter and work together with your hands until the butter is well-integrated and no pieces are larger than the size of a pea.  Now grab some of the topping in your hand and squeeze it, if it holds together in a clump, it's ready.  If it is still super crumbly and falls apart once you release pressure, add a tablespoon or so of water, and work it into the topping mix.  Keep testing and adding water if needed until mixture holds together.  Scatter evenly over the fruit.

Back 35-45 minutes until the top is brown and the fruit is bubbly.  Serve the next morning with yogurt for breakfast.

Pink Lemonade Cake

It was the lovely Aggie's birthday on Monday, so my sister and I made her a cake.  Aggie's mom used to always make her a lemon cake for her birthday while she was growing up, and she loves all things pink, so we decided on a pink lemonade cake and used the recipe from Better Homes and Gardens.



It was a big success, and such a pretty cake.  The cake itself wasn't quite as lemony as we wanted, so we went ahead and added a jam layer along with some of the buttercream frosting between cake layers to punch up the flavor.



It is hefty and dense though.  When Megan was at the store buying all the marshmallow fluff for the frosting, the store clerk asked if she was trying to give her friend diabetes for her birthday.  Which maybe brings us to the point, that while the idea and visual from BHG was brilliant, we maybe should have evaluated the source and adapted a Dorie Greenspan lemon cake recipe instead.  The BHG recipe only relies on lemonade concentrate thawed and lemon extract for the lemon flavor, while I think adding lemon zest to the batter would give it that almost punch you in the mouth flavor and tartness I prefer in lemon baked goods.



All together though, I would call it a success, and an appropriate way to celebrate Aggie's birthday.

Peach Birthday Pie

My sister and I baked three peach pies with the help of our lovely friend Kristi for my dad's birthday celebration last week.  While we made a huge mess of the kitchen in the process and the pie crusts kind of slumped off the edges of the pie pans in the oven, they were pretty tasty.  They got rave reviews at the dinner itself, so much so that my dad's friend Bobby at two more pieces straight from pie plate to hand to mouth while we were cleaning up, and Megan's co-workers went after the leftover third pie the next day.



We used this recipe for simple peach pie (times three), although we followed Smitten Kitchen's instructions to blanch and peel the peaches first.  And Megan made Dorie Greenspan's double pie crust recipe, which can be found here, (times three).  This pie crust is delicious, people.  Like so good Megan said she would eat it in cookie form.  It did kind of slump on us, but I don't think anyone minded.

Instagram picture by Megan.

Lemongrass panna cotta with plum compote

I was invited to lovely dinner party this week where Suzie made her family's tomato soup, which incidentally was the most delicious thing ever.  I was asked to bring dessert, and decided I wanted to make lemongrass panna cotta, because I had lemongrass leftover from my FuBonn run.   I also had a bunch of plums from my produce box that needed to be used before they went bad and before the big move (to my sister's house).  Which is how I ended up with this apparently random flavor pairing, but which I thought sounded lovely.  It was Megan's idea to add ginger snaps (which I bought) to pull it all together, which was genius.

I adapted from a number of recipes, but there were a couple that were the most helpful.  This Kaffir-Lemongrass Panna Cotta recipe from Tasting Menu was the most helpful for technique.  I wasn't able to find sheet gelatin though, so I polled a bunch of other recipes to determine how much powdered gelatin to use.  And the plum compote was roughly inspired by the Rosewater Plum Compote recipe from 101 Cookbooks, although I reduced the sugar because I wanted it to be a little tart.


Lemongrass Panna Cotta with Plum Compote and Ginger Snaps
Serves 8

Panna Cotta:
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
zest of one lemon and one lime
2 stalks lemongrass, bruised and sliced thinly
3 cups cream, 1/2 cup held very cold
1 Tbsp. powdered gelatin (one envelope)

Compote:
1 1/2 pounds plums
zest and juice of one lemon
1 tsp. powdered ginger
1/4 cup sugar

Put 1/2 cup of cream in the bowl you intend to whip it in, and place it in the fridge along with the whisk you intend to use.  Gather eight 6-oz ramekins or serving dishes.

Put the milk, sugar, lemon and lime zest, and lemongrass in a small sauce pan and heat over medium-low heat until just below boiling, stirring to dissolve the sugar.  Remove from heat and steep for half an hour.

Strain the milk through a fine-mesh sieve to remove the solids, and return to sauce pan to rewarm the milk over medium-low heat.  Add the gelatin to the warm milk, and stir until completely dissolved.  Transfer milk to a bowl and allow to cool to room temperature for about an hour.

Meanwhile, make the compote.  Pit and chop the plums into roughly 1/2 inch pieces, and put in a wide, heavy-bottomed pot along with the sugar, lemon zest and juice, and powdered ginger.  Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat.  You want it to cook at a lazy boil for 20-25 minutes, so adjust heat as necessary.  Stir every so often and scrape the bottom to make sure the fruit doesn't burn.  The compote is ready once it has kind of all slumped together, but before the fruit is totally broken down.  Remove from the heat, spoon into jars, and store in the fridge until ready to use.  It will keep for about a week in the fridge.

When the milk/gelatin mixture is cool, begin whipping the 1/2 cup of cold cream.  Whip the cream gently, avoiding beating too much air into the cream.  You just want the cream to thicken until it kind of holds together, but before it will hold peaks.

Add the 2 1/2 cups of unwhipped cream to the milk/gelatin mixture with a whisk.  Add the thickened cream and fold in with a spatula until evenly combined.

Pour or spoon the panna cotta into the ramekins or serving dishes, and chill in the fridge overnight.

To serve, run a knife around the edge of the ramekin, invert a dessert plate on top of the ramekin, and then flip the whole thing over so the ramekin is upside down.  The panna cotta should slide out, but if it sticks, gently lift one side of the ramekin and use a knife to loosen the edge of the panna cotta from the ramekin or release the vacuum.  Spoon a couple of tablespoons of plum compote over the panna cotta and add ginger snaps.

Picture via Margaret's Instagram.

Apricot Tart

I made this tart over a month ago now for a girls dinner, and it was a huge hit - because it is delicious.  I wanted to make sure and get it up on the blog before all the apricots are gone, although maybe I'll just be making it next spring/summer.



The recipe is originally from the Zuni Cafe Cookbook, but I found it through Orangette.  As is always the case though, I tweaked it a little.  I didn't have quite enough apricots so I added one plum to the middle, which made it quite pretty.  My other tweak was a little more daring though.  I think I actually just lucked out on the crust, because I didn't have any all-purpose flour and so used whole wheat, which upon some subsequent internet research doesn't look like it always works out.  I think the general problem with substituting whole wheat for all-purpose flour is the crust drying out, so I was just really careful about that, and made sure I didn't overcook the crust.  That being said, maybe just use all-purpose flour unless you're in the mood for an adventure and your crust maybe  flopping.



Apricot Tart, from Orangette and The Zuni Cafe Cookbook:

Crust:
4 Tbsp. ice water, plus more as needed
3.4 tsp. apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (or whole wheat, apparently)
1 Tbsp. sugar
3/4 tsp. salt
9 Tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes

Filling:
About 1 lb. apricots
1/3 cup sugar (or to your sweetness preferences)
3 pinches of salt

In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine 4 Tbsp. ice water and the cider vinegar.

In the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour, sugar, and salt.  Pulse to blend.  Add the butter, and pulse until there are no pieces of butter larger than pea-sized.  With the motor running, slowly add the water/vinegar mixture, processing just until clumps form.  The dough is sufficiently processed if it holds together after you squeeze a handful of dough.  If it seems a bit dry (or you're using whole wheat flour), add more ice water by the teaspoon, pulsing to incorporate.  (I added 2-3 more teaspoons to keep the whole wheat flour crust from drying out.)

Turn the dough out onto a clean countertop, and push it all together into a rough ball shape, and then flatten into a disk about 1 1/2 inches thick.  If the edges crack, just keep pinching them together.  Wrap the dough in plastic wrap, continuing to form it into the disk shape, and using the plastic wrap to work out any remaining cracks around the edges.  Refrigerate the wrapped dough for at least two hours.  (It can be kept in the fridge for up to 4 days or frozen for up to 1 month.  Thaw it in the fridge overnight before using.)

Once sufficiently chilled (or thawed), preheat the over to 375 F.  On a floured surface, roll out the dough  into a circle wide enough to fit a 9-inch (removable bottom) tart pan.  Transfer the dough to the pan in your preferred method (wound around your rolling pin or gently folded into quarters).  Ease the dough down into the corners of the pan and up the sides.  Trim the excess so the dough hangs about 1/2 inch beyond the pan and then fold the overhang back into the pan to reinforce the sides.  Put the dough into the freezer while you ready the fruit.

Quarter the apricots and remove the pits.  Toss in a bowl with the sugar and salt.  Remove the dough from the freezer and place the apricots (and/or plums) into the shell, cut side up and in whatever pretty pattern you like.  Scrape any remaining juices and sugar from your bowl over the top of the fruit.

Bake the tart until the crust is browned and the fruit is softened, about 45 minutes.  (NOTE: whole wheat flour burns more readily than all purpose, so if you're using whole wheat start checking at about 25 minutes.)

Serve with your dairy product of choice, ice cream or yogurt (particularly good for breakfast).