dessert

Summer’s Berry Bounty

~ lisaandfrancescook ~ Leave a comment

blackberries

I eat berries all year long, but I go a little crazy during the peak summer berry months. And other than a great apple pie, I love nothing more than a berry pie. But sometimes I want to try something a little different so I have been making crisps, crumbles and a Blackberry Buckle. I admit it – the name just tickles me.

I found a recipe at Food52, a fun food blog with recipes and one-of-a-kind items for purchase. The author of this cornbread buckle is Janeofmanytrade, a pastry chef out of Williamsburg, VA. The recipe intrigued me because I had never thought of adding cardamom and rose water to my berries. Now I am the kind of person who actually keeps things like pomegranate molasses, rose water and orange blossom water on hand. However, I am also the kind of person whose pantry gets disorganized from time to time. Okay, if I’m being really honest, it only gets ORGANIZED from time to time. For the life of me I couldn’t find the rose water so I substituted orange blossom water instead. The result was wonderful! And it was easy to make. The first night I served it with some vanilla ice cream, but after that – once the flavors became even more pronounced, I didn’t want anything (even great vanilla ice cream) to get between me and my blackberries – all purple and dimpling the cake.

Here’s how I made it.     Blackberry Buckle

Blackberry Buckle

Makes one 10 x 10 inch pan and easily serves 9-12 people

For Cake

4 cups of blackberries

1/2 cup of sugar

zest of one lemon

1 teaspoon rose water (I used orange blossom water)

1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

6 ounces of unsalted butter, softened

1.5 cups sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 large eggs

1.5 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cups yellow cornmeal

2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup buttermilk (if you don’t have buttermilk you can add a teaspoon of white vinegar or lemon juice to any kind of milk and let it sit for about 10 minutes. You could also add some plain Greek yogurt to regular milk)

Oatmeal crumb topping

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/3 cup dark brown sugar

1 rounded 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

4 tablespoons COLD unsalted butter, cut into cubes

With your fingers, work the ingredients for the crumb topping until the butter is pea-sized and well coated with everything else.

Directions

  1. Combine the first 5 ingredients in a bowl, tossing the berries gently.
  2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and lavishly butter and lightly flour your pan. Use a pan that has a good weight to it. Cream the butter, sugar,vanilla and salt until creamy. I used a heavy duty standing mixer, but this could be done by hand.
  3. Add eggs one at a time and scrape the bowl as you go. Sift the flour, cornmeal (as best you can) and the baking powder over the batter and gently fold it in. Slowly add the buttermilk and mix through until no streaks show.
  4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and even out the top.
  5. Pour the berry mixture on top and spread it evenly over the batter.
  6. Sprinkle the oatmeal crumb mixture evenly over the top and bake until a toothpick comes out clean from the cake part. Depending on your oven, this can take between an hour and an hour and 15 minutes.
  7. You can turn this out of the pan after about 20 minutes flipping it over onto a plate, but I couldn’t see the point. I cut it in the pan and served it from there, still slightly warm from the oven. It was wonderful. This will last about 3 days if you can manage to not eat it. I dare you!

Impossible Pie

~ lisaandfrancescook ~ Leave a comment

I’m a huge fan of mystery novels, especially period pieces that are light on violence and gore and heavy on historical reference. While reading a mystery that takes place in 1920s Australia, one of the characters talked about making “Impossible Pie.” I had no idea what that was so I asked the source of all trivial knowledge – my husband – if he had ever come across it. He then turned to Google and we found several recipes. It turns out that it derives its name because it is impossibly easy to make. Apparently it’s all chemistry. You don’t make a separate crust and then add a filling. You mix all of the simple ingredients together in a blender and pour them into a pie pan and bake. Because of the different density of the ingredients, they end up in such a way that a bottom crust is formed, with a custard in the middle and a coconut crust on top. Alchemy!

I admit that I am skeptical so I bought some whole milk (grass-fed of course!) and will try the recipe tonight. I’ll finish* this post after I see the results.

* Wellllllllllllllllll I’m going to damn this with faint praise – it was okay. It worked exactly as the recipe said it would, although I’m not really sure I would call the end result “pie.” The taste and texture was very much like a slightly solid coconut cream. Definitely not bad, especially when you consider the effort that went into it which was basically none. I would definitely caution that if you make it, use the best milk, eggs, vanilla and coconut you can find. Here’s what the final product looked like.

Impossible Pie

The strawberries were from my trip to the farmer’s market today. They come from Michigan and were nothing like what you get in the store – even Whole Foods! They were small and tender and juicy and red all of the way through. More on my trip to the market and the dinner I made tomorrow.

Classic Blueberry Pie

~ lisaandfrancescook ~ 1 Comment

I LOVE blueberry pie, but the store-bought kind always seems either too sweet, gummy or both. And I rarely have had a store-bought crust that I like and because I am often cooking for my niece and her family who keep Kosher, I need to keep the crust vegan. The Crisco pie crust recipe always turns out well. The only change I make is that I use a tad less salt and I add one tablespoon of granulated sugar (which I keep in a large glass jar with whole vanilla beans) to the Single Crust Pie recipe and two tablespoons to the double crust recipe.

My blueberry pie started with the Joy of Baking’s blueberry pie and I made just a few changes. My grandfather used to say that my grandmother was always “improving” the recipes and I guess it is a family tradition. So here is my version, pictured on the front page of our post alongside Frances’ beautiful classic lattice pie crust.

Blueberry Pie Recipe Blueberry Pie with Star Crust

One double crust recipe for pie, unbaked. This makes one 9″ pie.

Blueberry Filling:

6 cups fresh blueberries

1/2 cup granulated white sugar

3 Tablespoons cornstarch

3 Tablespoons lemon juice

1 Tablespoon lemon zest

“Egg” Wash: Since my great nephew is terribly allergic to eggs and because his family keeps Kosher, I don’t actually use a classic egg wash. I use 3 Tablespoons of vanilla soy (or plain soy) mixed with a couple of drops of all-vegetable food coloring. I brush it over the pastry and sprinkle with sanding sugar (large crystal) over the top to make it glisten when baked. It gives a beautiful result and everyone can safely enjoy the pie.

Make the Blueberry Filling:

  1. In a small bowl, mix together the sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice and zest.
  2. Place the blueberries in a large bowl and remove any stems or squished berries. Add the sugar mixture to the blueberries and gently toss to combine. Pour the mixture into the prepared pie shell.
  3. In a small bowls whisk together the soy milk and food coloring. Lightly brush the rim of the pastry shell with the “egg” wash.
  4. Starting at the outside edge of the pie, place the cut-out pastry stars (or other shape) in a circular pattern on top of the blueberries, making sure the tips of the stars are touching.
  5. Once the top of the pie is completely covered with the pastry stars, brush the entire surface with the “egg” wash.
  6. Place the assembled pie back in the fridge to chill for about 30 minutes. This also allows the dough to rest and will result in less shrinkage during baking.
  7. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F and place the oven rack in the lower third of the oven.
  8. Remove the chilled pie from the fridge and place on a large baking pan with sides to catch any spills. Bake the pie for 20 minutes at 400 degrees F and then reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F. Continue to bake the pie for 35-45 minutes or until the crust is golden and the juices are bubbling and thickened. If the edges of the pie are browning too quickly during baking, cover with an aluminum foil ring. (Invest in a pie ring. They are inexpensive and sooooooooo much easier to use than fussing with aluminum foil.
  9. Place the baked pie on a wire rack to cool for several hours. Serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream or for the purists – just as is! Store any left-overs (REALLY? Left-overs?) at room temperature lightly covered with wax paper or under a pie dome.

I have made the pie reasonably successfully without refrigerating the dough and pie in between the steps, but it definitely is better when I do take the time to let the dough chill and rest. This is wonderful on its own or with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

And here is my great nephew enjoying the fruits of my labor!

Yoni eating blueberry pie

 

Blueberry Pie with Lattice Crust

~ lisaandfrancescook ~ 3 Comments

This weekend while walking around in the thickly humid NY air, and with July 4 around the corner, I decided it was time to make a blueberry pie.  Over the years, I’ve discovered that Blueberry pies come in many shapes and sizes, all delicious enough to shovel onto plates and into stomachs.  Above, Lisa does a twist on the classic blueberry pie, topping it with festive stars, made from cookie cutters.

Below is a lattice, classic version of the pie that I made this weekend, determined to make a lattice pie at least once in my life, using the same pie crust recipe as the one above.  Because who doesn’t love warm, gooey blueberries?

 

Ingredients

Serves 8 (or 4 very hungry people)

Pie Crust:

Lisa’s Pie Crust Recipe

Filling Ingredients:
  • 2 pints blueberries
  • Zest of one lemon
  • Juice from two lemons
  • 2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 2 tbsp granulated white sugar