“If you’re afraid of butter, just use cream.”
- the incomparable Julia Child
This diary is more accurately called What’s for Dessert because I have no entrée recipes in it. If I were going to write about dinner, I would be writing about tomatoes, which have been covered in previous What’s for Dinner postings.
This is my favorite time of year to bake fruit desserts. The temperature outside is moderating and therefore the idea of turning the oven on is not complete insanity. The recipes are usually simple and unfussy. There is so much wonderful fruit available at this time of year. The peaches and the berries (black, blue, and rasp) are still hanging on. The apples are starting to come in.
Warning: this diary contains NO PIE.
I realize this may trigger autoban, but if you want pie, you’ll have to look elsewhere. I have irrational fear of piecrust, and the yum/work ratio isn’t quite big enough for me to try to conquer that particular fear.
If you aren’t stampeding away in disappointment over the lack of pie, follow me after the jump for some kibitzing and some recipes….
I like my home-baked desserts to be, well, homey. This is one area where home bakers have an advantage over restaurant pastry chefs, whose fancy plated creations may be technically adept, but rarely make me want to lick the plate.
All sweet things benefit from a pinch of salt. Points off for any chef/ author whose dessert recipes don’t have salt.
My newest favorite baking book is Rustic Fruit Desserts, by Cory Schreiber and Julie Richardson. I like the book because it has the right combination of precision for serious bakers (weights as well as measures are given for ingredients) and casualness (it’s not necessary to peel the peaches). Oh, and his recipes have salt.
There are also wonderful food blogs on the intertubes, wonderful places to visit when you want a break from health care policy debate. Some of my favorites at the moment are: Wednesday Chef, Smitten Kitchen, Lottie & Doof, and Delicious:Days.
And now, finally, some recipes:
This recipe comes from Baking With Julia, which was written by Dorie Greenspan. However, this recipe comes from Flo Braker. I make this regularly. It's so simple and you get lots of toothsome crust:
Berry Galette
FYI: The dough for this recipe must be made ahead and chilled for at least two hours before you assemble this. The dough recipe makes enough for two galettes. The dough can be kept in the refrigerator for a day or two, or frozen (wrapped airtight) for a month. Or you could just double the amount of fruit and make two galettes ;)
Dough:
3 tbs. sour cream (or yogurt or buttermilk)
1/3 cup ice water
1 cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup yellow cornmeal
1 tsp. sugar
½ tsp. salt
7 tbs. cold unsalted butter, cut into six to eight pieces
To make the dough by hand, stir the sour cream and 1/3 cup ice water together in a small bowl and set aside. Put the flour, cornmeal, sugar, and salt in a large bowl and stir with a fork to mix. Drop the butter pieces into the bowl, tossing them once or twice just to coat them with flour. With a pastry blender, work the butter into the flour, aiming for pieces of butter that range in size from bread crumbs to small peas. The smaller pieces will make the dough tender; the larger ones will make it flaky.
Sprinkle the cold sour cream mixture over the dough, one tablespoon at a time, tossing with a fork to evenly distribute it. After you’ve added all of the sour cream, the dough should be moist enough to stick together when pressed; if it’s not, add additional cold water, one teaspoon at a time. (Temptation will be to add too much water; this is not a wet dough.) With your hands, gather the curds of dough together. (You’ll have a soft, malleable dough, the kind you might want to overwork, so pat, don’t knead.)
Turn the dough out of the bowl and divide it in half. Press each piece of dough into a disk, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for at least two hours.
To make the dough in a food processor, stir the sour cream and 1/3 cup ice water together in a small bowl; set aside. Put the flour, cornmeal, sugar, and salt in the work bowl of a processor fitted with the metal blade; pulse to combine. Drop the butter pieces into the bowl and pulse eight to ten times, or until the mixture is speckled with pieces of butter that vary in size from bread crumbs to peas. With the machine running, add the sour cream mixture and process just until the dough forms soft, moist curds. This will not take long; err on the side of underdoing it in the food processor and finishing by hand.
Chilling the Dough – Remove the dough from the processor, divide it in half, and press each half into a disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least two hours before using.
Filling:
1 1/2 cups mixed berries, use fresh – frozen is too runny (raspberries, blueberries, black raspberries)–you can also substitute cut-up fruit like peaches
1 Tbsp sugar plus 1 teaspoon (turbinado sugar if you have it)
1 Tbsp honey (optional, but lovely)
1 pinch salt (optional, but you know how I feel about salt)
1 Tbsp cold butter
Preheat oven to 350°F. Remove the dough from the refrigerator (half of the previous recipe). On a sheet of parchment paper, roll the dough on a lightly floured surface into a disk about 11 inches in diameter and between 1/8 to 1/4 inch in thickness. (Keep lifting the dough up and sprinkle a little flour underneath as you roll it out.) Pile the berries in the middle, leaving a two to three inch border. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of sugar, the honey and salt (if using). Cut the butter into small bits and sprinkle it over the berries. Fold the edges of the dough up and over the edge of the berries (the dough will pleat as you fold it up and the berries will be visible in the middle). Brush water on the edges of the dough and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of turbinado sugar. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until the edges are golden and crisp. Serve warm the day it is made with vanilla ice cream.
The next one I include because I can’t resist the name:
Blueberry Boy Bait
(I found it on Smitten Kitchen, which got it from Cook’s Country Magazine)
2 cups plus 1 teaspoon all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon table salt
16 tablespoons unsalted butter (2 sticks), softened
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup whole milk (can also use buttermilk)
1/2 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen (if frozen, do not defrost first as it tends to muddle in the batter)
Topping:
1/2 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen (do not defrost)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
For the cake: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 13 by 9-inch baking pan.
Whisk two cups flour, baking powder, and salt together in medium bowl. With electric mixer, beat butter and sugars on medium-high speed until fluffy, about two minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until just incorporated and scraping down bowl. Reduce speed to medium and beat in one-third of flour mixture until incorporated; beat in half of milk. Beat in half of remaining flour mixture, then remaining milk, and finally remaining flour mixture. Toss blueberries with remaining one teaspoon flour. Using rubber spatula, gently fold in blueberries. Spread batter into prepared pan.
For the topping: Scatter blueberries over top of batter. Stir sugar and cinnamon together in small bowl and sprinkle over batter. Bake until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool in pan 20 minutes, then turn out and place on serving platter (topping side up). Serve warm or at room temperature. (Cake can be stored in airtight container at room temperature up to 3 days.)
Finally, as we transition into fall, an apple recipe:
Apple-Blackberry Cake (I saw this on Lottie & Doof, which got it from Martha Stewart Living)
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 ounces unsalted butter, melted, plus more for pan, plus 1 ounce cut into pieces
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons packed light-brown sugar
1/2 cup whole milk
2 large eggs
3 gala apples, peeled, cored, and cut into 8 wedges
1 cup blackberries
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Preheat oven to 375° F. Butter a 9-inch springform pan, and dust with granulated sugar. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Whisk together melted butter, 3/4 cup brown sugar, the milk, and eggs in another bowl. Whisk into flour mixture.
Spread batter evenly into prepared pan. Arrange apple wedges over batter, and sprinkle with blackberries. Gently press fruit into batter. Combine remaining 2 tablespoons brown sugar and the cinnamon and sprinkle over fruit. Dot with remaining 2 tablespoons of butter. Bake until top is dark gold, apples are tender and a cake tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Let cool.
Bon appetit!