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Archive for ‘fruity’

January 13th, 2012

blackberry muffins with lemon zest

I’ve been having bakers withdrawl since hubs has been fasting from sweets… who else am I going to pawn all my goodies off to if not the hubs? Usually he has his fair share and takes the leftovers to work, but he has been gone so the oven has been cold and my pans and mixing bowls have been quite sedentary.  Until last night.

Often I peruse food websites late at night because I’m a glutton for punishment. I love drooling over beautiful pics of food at midnight, wishing the cheese stick or cookie I am nibbling on would taste half as good.  Sometimes I jump up and turn on the oven and othertimes I just continue to dream. While perusing this week I came across this recipe on Williams Sonoma for blackberry muffins and I just knew I had to try it! For one, it’s not an overtly sweet recipe and for 2, we have (had) frozen blackberries in the freezer!

sugar pecan crumble topping

Ingredients

  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 3 Tbsp all purpose flour
  • zest of 1/2 lemon
  • 2 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
  • 1/3 cup pecans, finely chopped

Cooking Directions

  1. in a small bowl, stir together the sugar, flour and lemon zest. Stir in the melted butter until the mixture is crumbly. Add the pecans and stir to combine. Set aside.

blackberry muffins

Yield: 12 muffins

Ingredients

  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • zest from 1/2 lemon
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 5 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 2 cups fresh blackberries (or 2-1/2 cups frozen unsweetened blackberries)

Cooking Directions

  1. Preheat an oven to 375°F. Grease 12 standard muffin cups with butter or butter-flavored nonstick cooking spray.
  2. in a bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, lemon zest and salt. Make a well in the center and add the egg, melted butter and buttermilk. Stir just until evenly moistened. The batter will be slightly lumpy. Sprinkle with the blackberries and gently fold in with a large rubber spatula just until evenly distributed, no more than a few strokes. Take care not to break up the fruit. Do not overmix.
  3. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling each to a bit above the rim of the cup. Top each muffin with the topping, dividing it evenly (the sugar will melt and produce a glaze effect).
  4. Bake until the muffins are golden, dry and springy to the touch, and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes. Unmold the muffins. Serve warm or at room temperature, with butter.

I should probably take a cue that baking at night (and on a time limit – I was having a Skype date with the bestie) is probably not a practice I should take up regularly.

Apparently I have a hard time reading directions while under duress (I might be stretching it to say that being a few minutes late to my Skype date qualifies as conditions of duress…).  The directions specifically state to add the sugary pecan topping to the muffins before baking them, not after.

Oops.

No wonder I couldn’t get the topping to “melt” and form a glaze.

I was also annoyed at the mess it was making when the sugar failed to adhere to the muffin tops, so much so that I nuked it a few times in an effort to make it more syrupy…

I guess the bright side is that since most of it fell off, they were a tad healthier without the extra sugar!

I gave two to our maintenance man, two to our mail man, I ate two, and I sent the rest with hubs to work this morning. And it’s a good thing because another day in this house and I would have finished them off!

Categorybreads, breakfast, fruity, recipe | Comment5 Comments »

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August 26th, 2011

strawberries & creme frozen bars

I first spied these frozen treats in Martha’s FOOD magazine for the summer. Then I saw them over at ValSoCal’s blog and since everything Val dishes up makes me drool, I knew it was a sign I had to make these!  They remind me of virgin strawberry daiquiri’s…yum.

Ingredients

  • 2 pounds strawberries, hulled, halved if large (6 cups)
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • Coarse salt
  • 7 large egg whites
  • 2/3 cup cold heavy cream
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (I use a homemade version that includes scrapings of Tahitian vanilla beans and pure clear rum)

Directions

  1. In a blender, combine strawberries, 3/4 cup sugar, and pinch of salt and puree until smooth. Pour into a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Transfer to freezer and scrape with a fork every 30 minutes until mixture is thick and slushy, 2 hours. Smooth top with a rubber spatula.

The bars are very simple in terms of ingredients and even though they contain vanilla extract, it’s safe to say they are gluten-free (just for you Jules!).  The hardest thing in my opinion is the process of freezing/scraping the puree so it makes a sort-of granita mixture.  This takes about two hours.

Don’t let the 2-hour process scare you away.  Once it’s done you can be proud of yourself for (1) sucessfully making granita and (2) sculpting your arms.

When you’re an avid workout-avoider like myself, you gotta take what you can get wherever you can get it!

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat egg whites on high until foamy. With mixer on medium, gradually add 3/4 cup sugar. Increase speed to high and beat until stiff, glossy peaks form, 3 minutes. In another medium bowl, beat cream and vanilla on high until stiff peaks form, 1 to 2 minutes. With rubber spatula, gently fold whipped cream into egg-white mixture. Pour over strawberry mixture and smooth top with rubber spatula.

Freeze until firm, about 4 hours (covered, up to 3 days), before cutting into 12 squares. Don’t worry about them melting, they will be gone before you can say, “Dessert’s ready!“

Categoryfood, fruity, gluten free, recipe, sweet | Comment9 Comments »

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August 13th, 2011

raspberry & apricot jam straws

I saw this recipe on Pinterest (via a Facebook post)…which is practically a virtual cookbook, and decided to make the jam straws with both raspberry jam and apricot jam. The only thing is…not all recipes are created equal, this is something I’ve learned from dear Pinterest and so has my friend Brooke.

I have to be honest – this didn’t go as nicely as the recipe might have suggested.
The instructions seemed simple enough:

  • Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line two cookie sheets with parchment and set aside.
  •  Allow puff pastry to thaw as directed on the package.  Dust work surface with flour and lightly dust rolling pin with flour. Roll out puff pastry until about 2″ larger on each side.  Cut crosswise into two rectangles.
  •  Heat 1/4 cup of jam in microwave for15-20 seconds, just enough to loosen the consistency.
  •  With a pastry brush, coat one piece of puff pastry with half the jam.  Cover jam-coated piece with the remaining plain piece of puff pastry and gently roll together with rolling pin – not too hard, or your jam will squish out.
  •  Slice into long strips and twist, then place on parchment lined pan.   Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown.  Let cool before removing from the pan.  Sprinkle generously with powdered sugar.
  •  Repeat process with second sheet of puff pastry.

I’m not saying the recipe was bad – just that my personal experience wasn’t one to remember.

I’m pretty sure it involved grunts, under-my-breath mutters, a sink filled with shreds of wax paper, and possibly even a tear or two rolling down my cheek.

The first problem was the jam:  my raspberry jam wasn’t quite as red, maybe because it’s sugar-free jam, or maybe because the universe was playing a cruel joke on me.  Next up: trying to roll the the top sheet of pastry dough firmly enough so it would stick, but not so firmly that I was making jam squeeze out the sides. FAIL. Then came the cutting and twisting…there’s not much to say except that I’m clearly not adept at twisting pastry dough into pretty spiral twists.

I could have gotten past all that – I’m sure with time and more patience I could master the first half of the recipe. However, the part that drove me to madness was the end result. After nicely bubbling and baking they were ready to be taken off the lines baking sheets. All the gooey-goodness of the jam bubbled onto the parchment paper and the straws were “glued” to it.  I had to pry each one off the sheet and use a microscopic eye to get all the little shreds of paper stuck to them.

The result? A sink full of flaked puff pastry and parchment paper shreds and a bunch of jam straws that looked like they had been through a weed eater. 

Luckily I salvaged enough to take a cute picture to show you (and a few extra to enjoy with classmates).

Oh well, you live and you learn. I DO think I’ll make these again, next time I’m going to try them without the liner, and just arrange them directly on the baking sheet.

Categorybreads, experiences with food, food, fruity, recipe, sweet | Comment4 Comments »

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July 26th, 2011

mini raspberry cheesecakes

Hubs and I are taking Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University this summer and so far it has been wonderful! Not only because we are learning financial habits and principles that are helping make us good stewards of our money, but also because it gives me an opportunity to make treats for the class every week! This past week I made them these adorable (and amazing tasting) mini raspberry cheesecakes.  They are the perfect size portion and since they are each in their own wrapper, it makes serving them a no-brainer.

I found the recipe online on a site I have never been to before called Annie’s Eats; the recipe is a slight adaptation of Martha’s and can actually be found in her cookbook, Cupcakes (hubs bought that for me back when we were still dating). The photos and the combination of sweet cheesecake with tart raspberries convinced me I couldn’t go wrong with this recipe. I was right.

Makes 32 cupcakes

Ingredients:
For the crust:
1½ cups graham cracker crumbs
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
3 tbsp. sugar

For the topping:
6 oz. fresh raspberries
2 tbsp. sugar

For the filling:
2 lbs. cream cheese, at room temperature
1½ cups sugar
Pinch of salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
4 large eggs, at room temperature

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 325˚ F.  Line cupcake pans with paper liners.  In a small bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs, melted butter and sugar.  Stir together with a fork until well blended and all the dry ingredients are moistened.  Press 1 tablespoon of the mixture into the bottom of each cupcake liner.  (At the recommendation of Annie, I used a small drinking glass – note: it was actually the glass hubs & I used to drink our communion juice at our wedding) to help press the crumbs down.) Bake until just set, 5 minutes.  Transfer to a cooling rack.

Make the raspberry puree by combining the raspberries and sugar in a blender or food processor.  Process until smooth, then pour through a fine mesh sieve to remove the seeds.

Start making the cheesecake filling by beating the cream cheese on medium-high speed in the bowl of an electric mixer until fluffy.  Blend in the sugar until smooth.  Mix in the salt and vanilla.  Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

To assemble, spoon 3 tablespoons of the cheesecake batter over the crust in each cupcake liner.  Dot a ½ teaspoon of the raspberry puree in a few dots over the cheesecake filling.  Use a toothpick or a wooden skewer to lightly swirl and create a marbled effect.

Bake until the filling is set, about 22 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through baking.  (They will look puffed initially but will return to normal quickly.)  Transfer to a wire cooling rack and let cool to room temperature.  Transfer to the refrigerator and let chill for at least 4 hours before serving.


These little treats were amazing and they sure went fast! They are rich in ingredients, but I think since they are so small, it makes eating them not feel so bad. Plus, when you have something that perfect on your taste buds, it’s practically impossible to feel bad about anything!

Even if you are lactose-intolerant like myself.

Note: I also made these a second time with strawberries instead of raspberries – they didn’t swirl as nicely, but they were equally delicious.

Would you make these?

 

 

Categoryfood, fruity, recipe, sweet | Comment9 Comments »

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