Category Archives: dessert

a taste of summer in what should be winter

Posted in dessert, fruit, gluten free, pie by

Growing up peaches were always my favorite fruit.  I never thought about this before but it could partially be attributed to the fact that I was born in late summer and that is the peak season for peaches.  And with late summer and my birthday and peaches comes peach pie, which just happens to be one of my favorite kinds of pie.

I realize it’s not late summer right now, even though it feels that way in the upper Midwest.  It’s been at or near 80 degrees for the past week.  It’s nuts!  But it’s the good kind of nuts since normally we’re up to our eyeballs in snow this time of year and riddled with cabin fever.  No complaints about the unseasonably warm temps from this girl, no sir.

While there are “fresh” peaches at the grocery store right now, flown in from who-knows-where, I happen to be lucky enough to have a mother that buys them locally by the bushelful in August and then freezes them in perfectly-proportioned-for-pie-filling freezer bags.  And she shares these frozen fruit bags with me.  Score!

So in belated honor of Pi Day I thawed out some of those beautiful peaches and baked myself a gluten-free pie.  It tasted glorious, like late summer.

Peach Pie

Gluten-Free Dough (slightly adapted from recipe found in “Blackbird Bakery Gluten-Free” by Karen Morgan)

  • ¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons tapioca flour
  • ¾ cup cornstarch
  • ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons glutinous rice flour (Bob’s Red Mill Sweet White Rice Flour works just fine), plus more for dusting
  • ¼ cup sorghum flour
  • 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 ½ teaspoons guar gum
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) cold unsalted cultured butter, diced
  • 3 eggs

In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine all the dry ingredients and mix on low speed to blend.  Add the butter and beat until the mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs.  Add the eggs and mix on high speed until the dough turns in on itself.  Turn out the dough onto a work surface that has been dusted with rice flour and knead for 3 turns.  Divide in half and form each half into a disk.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to 2 days.

Remove both disks from the refrigerator 15 minutes before rolling out.  Dust the work surface again with rice flour and roll out one disk to a 14-inch round.  Gingerly transfer the rolled dough to a 12-inch deep-dish pie pan, fitting the dough into the pan and being cautious not to tear the dough, as it is delicate.  (If you do tear the dough, just join the tear together and brush the tear with water; smooth with your finger until the damage is no longer visible.)

Roll out the second disk of dough to a 14-inch round, adding additional rice flour, if needed.  Set aside.

Peach Filling (adapted slightly from “Betty Crocker’s Cookbook”)

  • ½ cup sugar
  • 4 tablespoons of cornstarch
  • ¼ cup ground cinnamon
  • 6 cups sliced peaches (6 to 8 medium)
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Mix sugar, cornstarch, and cinnamon together.  Add peaches and toss.  Sprinkle with lemon juice.

Add pie filling to pie pan fitted with bottom crust.  Place reserved top crust over the top of the filling.  Crimp edges of pie crusts together until sealed.  Slice vents in top of pie crust.  Brush with milk and sprinkle with coarse sugar.

Place in pre-heated oven and bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until crust is golden brown.  Wrap edges of crust with aluminum foil if they brown too quickly.

Let pie cool for 2 hours before eating.

cherry cobbler

Man am I glad I bought a big ol’ tub of frozen cherries at the farmer’s market at the end of the summer last year. That was some major forward-thinking on my part. There’s just something about baking with cherries that screams summer even if it’s only the beginning of February.

Speaking of February: I heard on the news this morning that the local groundhog didn’t see his shadow so it’s supposed to be an early spring. Fingers crossed on that one…

Anyhow I decided to thaw out some of those beautiful Door County cherries to make a cobbler. Cobblers are SO easy. Even people who say they can’t bake can totally make cobblers. Trust me on this one.

I wanted to break out this awesome vintage baking dish that my Aunt Sarah gave to me for Christmas only I didn’t take into account that it was smaller than what the recipe called for so the cobbler was more like a full-on crust. No matter. It tasted wonderful just the same!

While I have made cobblers in the past, this recipe was very light and made me feel like it was almost good for me. And I guess if it made me happy thinking of summer in February then it was!

Cherry Cobbler (adapted from “How to Cook Everything” by Mark Bittman)

  • 4 to 6 cups cherries or other fruit, washed and well dried
  • ¾ cup sugar
  • 8 tablespoons (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into bits, plus some for greasing pan
  • ½ cup all-purpose flour
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • Pinch salt
  • 1 egg
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Toss the fruit with half the sugar, and spread it in a lightly butter 8-inch square or 9-inch round baking pan.

Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and remaining sugar in the container of a food processor and pulse once or twice. Add the butter and process for 10 seconds, until the mixture is well blended. By hand, beat in the egg and vanilla.

Drop the mixture onto the fruit by tablespoonfuls; do not spread it out. Bake until golden-yellow and just starting to brown, 35 to 45 minutes. Serve immediately.

like clouds from heaven

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Last week when I made marshmallow brownies I got lots of comments from people saying how easy it is to make marshmallows at home so I decided to try it, and boy were they right!  Why hadn’t I tried this sooner?

I’m very glad I read about smitten kitchen’s early experiments making marshmallows and so followed her advice about how sticky the process is and how one should not try to get every last drop of batter out of the bowl at the risk of knitting their fingers and spatula to the bowl, cause otherwise I totally would have done that.  I don’t like to waste food.  It pained me afterwards to have some batter still stuck in the bowl that I had to rinse out with hot water and watch go down the drain but let me tell you, this stuff is stick-y.  No joke.

The batter was light and fluffy and smelled and tasted like marshmallow cream (of course I had to have a sample before the batter set, just to make sure it tasted okay, and it sure did.)

A few hours later I turned the marshmallow block out onto my cutting board and used an oiled pizza slicer to cut up the marshmallows into lovely little blocks.  I strongly recomment putting some confectioner’s sugar down on the cutting board prior to this step.  It was incredibly sticky and cleaning up my cutting board countertop was not the easiest.

Now, I will admit that my marshmallows are not as pretty as City Bakery’s and not quite as tasty but they are pretty darn close.  And since Wisconsin is not so close to 18th St and 5th Ave in NYC, I’ll take it.

Marshmallows (recipe found at www.smittenkitchen.com, adapted from recipe from Gourmet magazine, December 1998)

  • About 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
  • 3 1/2 envelopes (2 tablespoons plus 2 1/2 teaspoons) unflavored gelatin
  • 1 cup cold water, divided
  • 2 cups granulated sugar (cane sugar worked just fine)
  • 1/2 cup light corn syrup
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 large egg whites or reconstituted powdered egg whites
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla (alternately: 1/2 of a scraped vanilla bean, 2 teaspoons almond or mint extract or maybe even some food coloring for tinting)

Oil bottom and sides of a 13- by 9- by 2-inch rectangular metal baking pan and dust bottom and sides with some confectioners’ sugar.

In bowl of a standing electric mixer or in a large bowl sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup cold cold water, and let stand to soften.

In a 3-quart heavy saucepan cook granulated sugar, corn syrup, second 1/2 cup of cold water, and salt over low heat, stirring with a wooden spoon, until sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to moderate and boil mixture, without stirring, until a candy or digital thermometer registers 240°F, about 12 minutes. Remove pan from heat and pour sugar mixture over gelatin mixture, stirring until gelatin is dissolved.

With standing or a hand-held electric mixer beat mixture on high speed until white, thick, and nearly tripled in volume, about six minutes if using standing mixer or about 10 minutes if using hand-held mixer. (Some reviewers felt this took even longer with a hand mixer, but still eventually whipped up nicely.)

In separate medium bowl with cleaned beaters beat egg whites (or reconstituted powdered whites) until they just hold stiff peaks. Beat whites and vanilla (or your choice of flavoring) into sugar mixture until just combined. Pour mixture into baking pan and don’t fret if you don’t get it all out (learning from my mess of a first round). Sift 1/4 cup confectioners sugar evenly over top. Chill marshmallow, uncovered, until firm, at least three hours, and up to one day.

Run a thin knife around edges of pan and invert pan onto a large cutting board. Lifting up one corner of inverted pan, with fingers loosen marshmallow and ease onto cutting board. With a large knife trim edges of marshmallow and cut marshmallow into roughly one-inch cubes. (An oiled pizza cutter works well here too.) Sift remaining confectioners’ sugar back into your now-empty baking pan, and roll the marshmallows through it, on all six sides, before shaking off the excess and packing them away.

Do ahead: Marshmallows keep in an airtight container at cool room temperature 1 week.

christmas cookies

Posted in cookie, dessert by

Today is another bonus post as I am sharing three (three!) recipes of sweet treats.  Unfortunately I was not so great with the photography of said sweet treats while making them… You will see that I got some beginning images of two of the cookies and nothing at all of the buckeyes.  So even though you will not have much of a visual feast with this here post I guarantee you that the recipes herein are winners.  Guarantee!

One of my favorite traditions of the season is exchanging plates of various Christmas cookies and candies with neighbors, friends, coworkers, etc.  The variety of cookies is key because there’s bound to be something you’ll like on the plate and conversely something that the recipients of your plates will like.  For example, those little peanut butter cookies with the Hershey’s Kiss in the middle that seem to be so popular this time of year– I love those things!

So this year I made jam thumbprint cookies for people who don’t like super sweet things, caramelita bars for people who like rich treats, and buckeyes for everybody.  Because who doesn’t like buckeyes?  They’re crowd-pleasers.  Peanut butter and chocolate is the finest food pairing that ever existed, for shizz.

The buckeyes went first, then the caramelita bars, and finally the jam thumbprints.  Add one or all to your Christmas cookie plates this year!

Jam Thumbprint Cookies (from recipes for “Basic Vanilla Dough” and “Thumbprints and Ball Cookies” at www.marthastewart.com)

  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 sticks unsalted butter
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • Jar of fruit jam of your choice (I used raspberry and blackberry)

Whisk together flour and salt in a large bowl. Beat butter and granulated sugar with a mixer on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture, and beat until combined.

Roll dough into 1-inch balls.  Arrange on parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing each 1 inch apart.

Press well into the center of each ball using your finger.  Refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes.  Bake at 350 for 7 minutes.  Remove from oven, and press well again with handle end of a wooden spoon.  Bake until firm, 7 to 9 minutes more.

Let cool completely.  Spoon filling into thumbprints.

Crunchy Buckeyes

  • 1 stick of butter
  • 2 cup crunchy peanut butter
  • 3 cups crispy rice cereal
  • 2 cups confectioners sugar
  • 8 oz semi-sweet chocolate (chips or baking bars—both work)

Mix butter and peanut butter in a large bowl.  Add crispy rice cereal and blend, then add confectioners sugar and blend.  Form dough into balls and place on foil-lined baking sheet.  Place sheets in freezer to harden for about 30 minutes.

Melt chocolate in a double boiler or in heat-proof bowl placed over saucepan with boiling water, stirring until smooth.  Dip peanut butter balls in melted chocolate with fork until only an “eye” of peanut butter is visible (i.e. ¾ of the ball should be completely covered in chocolate.)  Set on foil-lined baking sheet to cool and set.

Oatmeal Caramelita Bars

CRUST:

  • 2 cups flour
  • 2 cups oatmeal
  • 1 ½ cups brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 ¼ cup butter, softened

FILLING:

  • 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • ½ cup chopped nuts, optional
  • 12 oz jar of caramel ice cream topping
  • 3 tablespoons flour

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease 13”x 9” pan with butter.  In large bowl combine all crust ingredients.  (I recommend using a pastry knife or a fork to do so.  I used my stand mixer and it pulverized the oatmeal to flour consistency.)  Press half of crumb mixture, about 3 cups, into prepared pan.  Reserve remaining crumb mixture for topping.  Bake for 10 minutes.

Sprinkle warm base with chocolate chips and nuts if using.  Combine caramel topping and flour.  Pour evenly over chocolate chips and nuts.  Sprinkle with reserved crumbs.  Return to oven and bake 18 to 22 minutes or until golden brown.  Cool completely.  Cut into bars.  (Note: refrigerate prior to cutting to make it easier on yourself.)

sweet & tart

I was inspired by my adoptive state of Wisconsin to experiment with cranberries. Wisconsin is the largest producer of cranberries in the US…did you know that? I didn’t either until I moved here. One of these days I’m going to get myself up north to see the harvesting of the cranberry bogs. I bet it’s neat.

Every year on Thanksgiving I make a cranberry chutney that inevitably gets forgotten about in the fridge until we are nearly finished with our meal. What a shame. I thought it might be nice to make cranberries into more of a featured part of the meal and what could be more featured than dessert? No one forgets about dessert.

A few years back I tore a recipe out of a magazine for a cranberry-apple crisp and decided to test it out here for you. When the apples and cranberries were cooking down on my stove it smelled like the holidays. I wish the internet had smell-o-vision so I could share the scent with you– it was heavenly.

The topping for this crisp couldn’t have been simpler– it consists of oatmeal, flour, butter, brown sugar, and a pinch of salt.

I took this into work for a co-worker’s birthday and it was a big hit. I think it was a nice contrast to all of the overly sweet desserts that others had brought in. There is definitely a tartness to this crisp but it works. It’s even better warm with a little vanilla ice cream which I also tried. This could be the perfect ending to your Thanksgiving meal!

Cranberry-Apple Crisp with Oatmeal Streusel Topping (found at www.epicurious.com)

Yield: Makes 12 servings

  • 1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
  • 1 cup old-fashioned oats
  • 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces
  • 2 12-ounce packages cranberries
  • 1 1/4 pounds Golden Delicious or Fuji apples (about 3 medium), peeled, cored, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 2 tablespoons apple juice or cider
  • Vanilla ice cream

Combine brown sugar, oats, flour, and salt in large bowl; toss to blend. Add butter and rub in with fingertips until mixture comes together in moist clumps. Cover; chill while preparing filling. (Topping can be prepared 1 day ahead; keep chilled.)

Preheat oven to 375°F. Generously butter 13x9x2-inch glass baking dish. Combine cranberries, apples, sugar, and apple juice in heavy large pot. Bring to boil over medium heat, stirring often. Boil until cranberries are tender and juices thicken slightly, about 5 minutes. Transfer filling to prepared dish. Sprinkle topping over.

Bake crisp until filling bubbles thickly and topping is crisp and deep golden brown, about 40 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes. Serve with ice cream.