Category Archives: fruit

blueberry morning

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Fact: I ate blueberry cobbler for breakfast this morning.  I had some left over from a cookout I hosted yesterday and the options were either the cobbler or yogurt and fruit and I eat yogurt and fruit for breakfast 297 days a year so the choice was clear.

I was kind of a picky eater when I was a kid and sometimes my mom would let me eat her home-made pies for breakfast.  She says she figured they had fruit in them and fruit was good for me, so why not.  I like this line of thinking and figure it applies to cobblers too.

I’ve been really into making pies lately but for this go-round decided to make a cobbler instead because they are slightly more low maintenance and I’m all about low maintenance.  No rolling out pie crust here.  In fact, cobblers encourage you to be sloppy and their recipes usually instruct you to “pile” “heaping” measuring cups full of dough on top of the fruit.  Awesome.

Looks like a pretty well-rounded breakfast, no?

Blueberry Cobbler (from www.epicurious.com)

  • 3 tablespoons cornstarch
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 6 cups picked over blueberries
  • 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 stick (1/2 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into bits

In a large bowl stir together the cornstarch, sifted, and the granulated sugar and add the blueberries and the lemon juice. Toss the mixture until it is combined well and transfer it to a buttered 10-inch (6-cup) deep-dish pie plate.

In a bowl combine well the flour, the brown sugar, forced through a sieve, the baking powder, the salt, and the cinnamon, add the butter, and blend the mixture until it resembles coarse meal. Add 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons boiling water and stir the mixture until it just forms a dough. Drop 1/4 cupfuls of the dough over the blueberry mixture and bake the cobbler on a baking sheet in the middle of a preheated 400°F. oven for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the topping is golden and cooked through. Serve the cobbler warm with ice cream.

strawberry pies forever

Posted in fruit, pie by

There’s going to be a moratorium on strawberries in my house soon.  Not because I don’t love them (I do) but because I have eaten a lot of them recently.  A LOT.   

Today it’ll be my grandma’s strawberry pie and every pie starts with a crust.

This pie is an easy one because the only baking required is for the crust.  Of course, you could buy one of those pre-made crusts but I’m a big fan of doing as much as possible from scratch and when it’s so easy, why not?

The rest of the pie is done on the stovetop.  You boil some sugar, cornstarch, corn syrup and pinch of salt until it’s thick and clear and then remove from heat and add a packet of strawberry Jell-o.  (I’m not gonna lie: the almost neon color of the Jell-o sort of freaked me out, but the part of me that felt nostalgic for all the Jell-o I ate in my youth overrode the freaked-out part.  You could use clear gelatin to avoid the color additive and I may try that next time.) 

Then you stir in strawberries and pour the mixture in the pre-baked pie crust.  Let it cool in the fridge for a few hours and eat.  Easy as you-know-what.

Strawberry Pie

  • ¾ sugar
  • 3 tablespoons cornstarch
  • 1 cup water
  • Dash of salt
  • 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
  • Small package of strawberry Jell-o
  • 1 quart (4 cups) hulled and cleaned strawberries

Boil sugar, cornstartch, salt, water, and light corn syrup in medium saucepan over medium-high heat until thick and clear.

Remove from heat and add the small package of strawberry Jell-o.  Cool.

Fold in strawberries and put mixture in baked piecrust.  Chill to set, approximately two hours.  Top with whipped cream if desired.

Basic Flour Pie Crust

  • 1 ½ cups flour, sifted
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ½ cup butter, chilled and cut into cubes
  • ¼ cup (approximately) cold water

Sift flour and salt into a mixing bowl.  Cut in butter with a pastry knife, two knives scissor-style, or food processor with dough blade.  When mixture resembles peas, add water slowly and blend with fork.  Shape dough into a ball and roll out to size slightly larger than pie plate.  Place dough in pie plate and pierce with fork. 

Bake 450 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes.

how about cupcakes???

Posted in cake, dessert, fruit by

I had kind of a rough day at work a few weeks ago– it happens.  My cube-mate/friend/very-talented-artist painted this lovely picture for me to cheer me up.  And it worked!  It still makes me smile when I look over at it in the glare of the fluorescent office lights.  You need stuff like that.  Not only does it make me happy, but it inspired me to recreate it in real life!

 Who doesn’t like cupcakes?  I don’t think there is anyone who doesn’t.  They’re cute, fun, pretty, taste great– what’s not to like?  I have made them in many iterations over the years but never strawberry-flavored, and since I picked a whole bunch of the lovely little berries last weekend I figured now is the time.

I did a bunch of research for a recipe before making them and wound up shooting from the hip with an adaptation of a strawberry cake recipe I found from Martha Stewart.  Her recipe was unfrosted and suggested baking the strawberries into the top of the cake but I wanted to mix them into the batter instead.

I decided that a cream cheese frosting might be nice on them, but then thought I’d shake it up a bit with mascarpone cheese instead of cream cheese.  I think it was a wise decision.

Voila!  You would have thought that my friend painted the picture after I made the above, right?  Nope.  Other way around.  Good thing I have a small flowered plate!

Strawberry Cupcakes (adapted from Strawberry Cake recipe found at www.marthastewart.com)

  • 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ¾ sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • ½ cup milk
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1 cup finely chopped cleaned strawberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Place muffin cups in 12-cup muffin tin.  Set aside.

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together into a medium bowl.

Put butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.  Mix on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Reduce speed to medium-low; mix in egg, milk, and vanilla.

Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in flour mixture.  Fold strawberries into batter with a spatula.  Spoon batter evenly into muffin cups.

Bake cupcakes for 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.  Cool on wire rack.  If desired, frost with strawberry mascarpone frosting (recipe below).

Strawberry Mascarpone Frosting

  • 2 tablespoons butter, softened
  • 4 oz mascarpone cheese, softened
  • 2 cups confectioner’s sugar, sifted
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ½ strawberries, cleaned and pureed in food processor or blender

In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment beat butter and mascarpone cheese until smooth.  Add confectioner’s sugar and vanilla, beat until light and fluffy.  Stir in pureed strawberries with a spatula.

strawberry shortcake, updated

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It’s officially strawberry season here in Wisconsin and I couldn’t be happier because a) I love strawberries, and b) this also means it’s officially summer.  ‘Bout time.

To celebrate the beginning of strawberry season I decided to try a recipe I had torn out of a magazine years ago and have always been curious about but had been hesitant to try.  The reason for the hesitation is because it involves cornmeal, basil, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil.  And this is supposed to be a dessert?  What??

 But I’m adventurous, so I thought what the heck.  Plus, I have a basil plant that is just begging to be trimmed back.  Done.

Look how pretty the snips of basil are in the cake batter.  And you can see the yellow cornmeal flecks.  Lovely.

While the cake is in the oven puree the star ingredient with a little sugar and balsamic vinegar.

Pretty!!

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I bit into the finished product but I knew it was going to be good because it smelled wonderful while it was baking.  It reminded me of a more grown-up version of the strawberry shortcake my mom used to make when I was a kid.  It was sweet, but not overly-sweet, and slightly savory which gave it a nice dimension.  The perfect early summer dessert.

Olive Oil-Basil Cornmeal Cake with Strawberry Sauce (from Country Home magazine)

  • 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
  • ½ cup yellow cornmeal
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 2 eggs, lightly beaten
  • ¾ cup granulated sugar
  • ½ cup milk
  • ½ cup olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons finely snipped fresh basil
  • 1 tablespoon coarse sugar

Grease and flour one 8×2-inch round cake pan; set aside.  In a medium bowl stir together flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt.  Set aside.

In a large bowl whisk together eggs, granulated sugar, milk, and olive oil.  Using a wooden spoon, stir in flour mixture and snipped basil until combined (do not overmix).  Pour batter into prepared cake pan, spreading evenly.  Sprinkle top with coarse sugar.

Bake in a 375 degree oven for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.  Cool cake in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes; remove from pan by inverting on a wire rack.  Invert again and cool thoroughly, sugar side up, on wire rack.

To serve, cut cake into wedges.  Serve with strawberry sauce (see recipe below).  Makes 8 to 10 servings.

Strawberry Sauce

  • 2 cups fresh strawberries, cleaned and hulled
  • 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

In a blender or food processor combine all ingredients.  Cover and blend or process until smooth.  If desired, stir in 1 tablespoon additional balsamic vinegar to taste.  Cover and chill for up to 24 hours.  Stir before serving.

My Aunt Sarah’s banana bread

Posted in bread, fruit by

In honor of Mother’s Day I thought I would bake a recipe of a favorite mother in my life– in this case, my Aunt Sarah’s banana bread.  In hindsight perhaps I should have made one of my own mother’s recipes but I had two ripe bananas in my freezer just begging to be baked into bread so that was the deciding factor.  I know my mom will understand.

I like to have bananas with breakfast but I sometimes buy too many and can’t eat them all before they go bad.  Fortunately they freeze very well so are easy to tuck away until you are ready to add them to smoothies or baked goods so they don’t have to go to waste.  I hate wasting food.

My aunt’s recipe calls for shortening but I only had about a tablespoon left thanks to a certain houseguest who has a habit of leaving small amounts of things behind after cooking and baking with them, but never fear– I always seem to have plenty of butter on hand so substituted that instead.  And it came out just fine.

The flowers on the table are in honor of you Mom…

An hour or so in a 250 degree oven and you get this:

The note my aunt included with the recipe when she emailed it to me years ago said that the best way to enjoy the bread is with butter while it is still warm.  My aunt is a very smart lady.

Happy Mother’s Day to all my favorite mother’s out there!

Aunt Sarah’s Banana Bread

  • ½ cup shortening or butter
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 very ripe bananas
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups flour

Pre-heat oven to 250 degrees.  Butter and lightly flour bread pan (I suggest using glass pans as the bread cooks more evenly in glass) and set aside.

Beat shortening and sugar with mixer and then add eggs and beat well.  Add mashed bananas and beat until combined.

To this mixture add baking powder, baking soda, salt, and flour.  Stir until well blended.

Put mixture into prepared bread pan and bake for about an hour or just until the top springs back.  (Note: I find that somewhere between an hour and ten minutes and an hour and twenty minutes is about right.  I have both under- and over-baked this bread before as there is a fine line between the two.  It’s best to keep an eye on the bread after an hour of baking and put back in oven for five-minute intervals as needed to finish baking.)

Let bread cool on rack for ten minutes.  Use knife to gently loosen sides of bread from pan and invert over cooling rack to finish cooling.  While the bread is still slightly warm put in plastic bag or wrap with foil or plastic wrap as the heat will help soften and sweeten the bread.