Posts tagged ‘berries’
Recipe of the Week – Mixed Berry Tart
(From the Dessert Collection at emealsforyou.com)
Mixed Berry Tart
During a quick trip to New Jersey last week I got into a discussion about recipes and how Charlie Trotter, of Chicago fame, once said he never strives to make the same recipe exactly the same each time. The reasons for this is the ingredients might change, or if you cook like me, adverse to measuring, you may add more or less of something. The other topic that came up is “cooking like a French farmer’s wife”, this means using ingredients you have on hand. With this in mind we had a dinner party Sunday night, comfort food really: pot roast, roasted potatoes and carrots. For dessert I had some berries in the frig and decided to make a cake using them. Borrowing the basic recipe for a Cranberry Cake on the site at emealsforyou.com, I made the cake without the cranberries and used the berries. A quick dusting of finishing sugar and we had a spectacular, both visually and taste-wise, finish to a good, cold-weather meal with friends.
Mixed Berry Tart
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 8 |
| Category: | Dessert |
| Meal: | other (General) |
| 1.5 | cups | sugar, granulated |
| 1 | cup | walnuts, chopped, toasted |
| 2 | large | egg, lightly beaten |
| 1 | cup | flour, all-purpose |
| 0.75 | cup | butter, salted |
| 1 | cup | mixed berries |
| 4 | Tb | apricot jam |
| 1 | spritz | PAM |
| 1 | Tb | sugar, finishing |
Place nuts in a large bowl and pour 1/3 of the sugar over the top; mix. Mix the slightly beaten eggs, the remaining sugar, the flour and the melted butter together. Pour over the nuts and mix. Spray PAM in a 9-inch springform pan and add the mixture. Bake in a pre-heated 325 degree oven for 45 minutes or until lightly browned. Melt the jam in the microwave, pour over the berries. Arrange the berries on top of cooled cake. Sprinkle the finishing sugar over the top just prior to serving.
More like this at emealsforyou.com.
Recipe of the Week – Strawberry Pie
(From the Dessert Collection at emealsforyou.com)
Strawberry Pie
We are spoiled; strawberries are available all year-long in the local grocery. I love strawberries. One of my earliest memories is climbing into my aunt’s backyard growing up and eating the fresh strawberries in June. She would come out with a bowl of sugar and we would dip the fresh, ripe, red berries in the sugar bowl and our chins would be covered with juice. I must have been all of 3 at the time.
It’s hard to walk through the market and not pick up a quart of strawberries. This weekend there was a special on them so I picked up 3 quarts. My mind was set on making a strawberry pie. We were unable to find any gelatin so I tried with pectin; not a good idea. Good idea for jam not for pies. Not to be deterred I found the gelatin today and started over. Here is the result of my efforts. While the first one was tasty and really, really juicy the second hit right on the mark.
I guess practice makes perfect. Maybe you should get a little practice in; your family will love you for it!
Strawberry Pie
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 10 |
| Category: | Dessert |
| Meal: | other (General) |
| 1 | recipe | Pie Dough |
| 3 | qt | strawberries, sliced |
| 2 | cups | sugar, granulated |
| 1 | Tb | gelatin |
| 2 | Tb | lemon, juice of |
| 2 | oz | water |
| 1 | Tb | sugar, finishing |
Prepare a baked pie crust. Heat 2/3rds of the sliced strawberries; retaining remaining for decoration, in a pot on medium heat. Add sugar and cook until the strawberries cook down and the sugar forms a syrup, about 20 minutes. In a separate bowl mix the gelatin, lemon juice and water; add to the cooked berries. Allow to cool. Spoon into the pie crust and cut the remaining berries in half and place around the top of the pie. Sprinkle the finishing sugar over the top. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours before serving.
More great pies and desserts at emealsforyou.com.
Strawberries – Year-Round
From the Dessert Category at emealsforyou.com.
Strawberry Angel Food Cakes
Ever have one of those days? Well I am working on day 2 of one of those days. I originally thought about writing about Bourbon Slushes, but then I thought you would think I was taking the easy way out. Anyway, growing up we had strawberries at the most a couple of months out of the year, usually sometime between March and May. Now the strawberries, and I am talking pretty good strawberries are available all year round. I am not sure just where they are coming from, Chile or Florida or wherever, but those pretty little fruits are plentiful and sweet.
Here is a recipe for individual strawberry short cakes, at least we called it strawberry short cake, even though it wasn’t short or crunchy but soft as an angel’s pillow.
BTW – if you want that Bourbon Slush recipe send me an email; just click on the email chef jake on the top, right corner of the blog homepage.
Angel Food Cakes
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 12 |
| Category: | Dessert |
| Meal: | Other (General) |
| 1.75 | cup | sugar, white, divided |
| 0.25 | tsp | salt, table |
| 1 | cup | flour, cake |
| 12 | large | egg, whites |
| 0.33 | cup | water |
| 1 | tsp | vanilla |
| 1.5 | tsp | cream of tartar |
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a food processor spin sugar about 2 minutes until it is superfine. Sift half of the sugar with the salt and the cake flour, setting the remaining sugar aside.
In a large bowl, use a balloon whisk to thoroughly combine egg whites, water, vanilla, and cream of tartar. After 2 minutes, switch to a hand mixer. Slowly sift the reserved sugar, beating continuously at medium speed. Once you have achieved medium peaks, sift enough of the flour mixture in to dust the top of the foam. Using a spatula fold in gently. Continue until all of the flour mixture is incorporated.
Carefully spoon mixture into an ungreased muffin tin. Bake for 25 minutes, checking for doneness with a wooden skewer. (When inserted halfway between the inner and outer wall, the skewer should come out dry).
Cool at least an hour before removing from pan.
Fill with berries or fruit.
More of these at emealsforyou.com.
Recipe of the Week – Easy Berry Tart
(From the Dessert Collection at emealsforyou.com)
Easy Berry Tart
I was baking some tart shells to take on our next trip to New Jersey when my neighbor said she was having some family over for dinner yesterday. She doesn’t bake and I had the shells made already… so I decided to put a quick dessert together to send down to her.
This is a really easy dessert to put together. If you have the tart shell made, you can make them and freeze them for a later use, this tart takes about 10 minutes to to construct. Using a box of pudding and pie filling and two cups of milk; you create a dessert that looks great and taste even better. A nice way to salute the passing of the summer season.
Easy Berry Pie
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 8 |
| Category: | Dessert |
| Meal: | N/A |
| 1 | recipe | tart shell |
| 2 | Tb | raspberry jam |
| 1 | box | pie filling, vanilla |
| 0.75 | cup | strawberries, whole |
| 0.75 | cup | raspberries, fresh |
| 0.75 | cup | blueberries |
| 1 | Tb | sugar, white, optional |
Make and bake tart shell according to the recipe found under recipe/dessert/tart dough. Allow to cool. Spread raspberry jam evenly on the bottom of the tart shell. Make the vanilla pie filling according to instructions on the box. Pour filling into tart shell and spread evenly. Quarter strawberries and place with blueberries and raspberries in a bowl; add a little sugar if the berries aren’t quite ripe. Toss berries together and spread on top of tart. Refrigerate until served.
Recipe of the Week – Mixed Berry Pavlova
Mixed Berry Pavlova (meringues)
Deciding what to post on this blog is always an interesting proposition…do I post a really good meal or do I go for the easy sell and post a dessert. I try to keep it even but every once in a while I just lose it to the visual. Besides who doesn’t want to see a pretty dessert; especially if that dessert is both easy to make and really great to eat.
This recipe is fairly easy on the pocketbook and guaranteed to impress your “audience”. Come young, come old, there is something for everyone to love about the Pavlova. The crunchy outside, the chewy, sweet inside, the whipped cream and cover it all with juicy, delicious berries, is that even legal? Anyway back to this world, the one drawback is that you need to leave these in a very low oven for a lengthy period of time. The good news is you will now have a recipe that uses up all those egg whites you have leftover from all the egg yolk recipes.
Mixed Berry Pavlova
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 6 |
| Category: | Dessert |
| Meal: | other (General) |
| 4 | large | egg, whites |
| 0.125 | tsp | cream of tartar |
| 0.125 | tsp | salt, table |
| 1 | cup | sugar, white |
| 0.5 | tsp | vanilla |
| 1 | cup | cream, heavy |
| 1 | tsp | vanilla |
| 1 | Tb | sugar, white |
| 8 | oz | mixed berries, frozen |
| 1 | Tb | sugar, white |
For the Pavlova: Beat egg whites with cream of tartar, salt, sugar and vanilla until stiff and glossy. Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees; line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Spread egg white mixture in even, 4-inch circles on the parchment paper, about 3/4th inch thick. Cook in oven for 1 ½ hours then turn oven off and let Pavlova cool in the oven for about an hour. ( may be frozen at this point)
For the whipped cream: Place heavy cream, vanilla and sugar in a cold bowl and whip until firm peaks form.
For the berries: Mix the sugar into the berries, allow the berries to thaw.
To construct the Pavlova: Place a Pavlova in the center of a plate, spoon on whipped cream in the center, Gently spoon on the berries, allowing some of the juice to run unto the plate.
Recipe of the Week – Pinwheel Tart
Pinwheel Tart
(from the Dessert Collection at emealsforyou.com)
At first glance you have to say “wow, what a great looking dessert”. I like this tart because it is very easy and quick to make. You can make this as a summer dessert but I like it for those wintry nights as a surprise, thanks to the frozen food manager of my local grocery store.
Stealing a line from Michael Chiarello’s NapaStyle show, let me rant for 60 seconds. You go to the market and they have those great looking peaches. Your mouth starts to water and you just have to buy some, even at $1.99 per pound. You get home and Viola! mushy, tasteless nothings. Okay thanks, I feel better getting that out. The point here is I buy frozen peaches all the time. You pretty much get good quality and at least they are consistent. Before you send me the comments about fresh is always better; I buy the real thing if they look great. That’s right I buy one, go out to my car, eat it and if I now have juice on my shirt I go back and buy more.
So gather your fruit, whatever you like. Make the tart shell, what you thought I said this was quick and easy? I make my own tart shells; 30 seconds in the food processor, 30 minutes in the frig and then roll it out and bake it. So if you like, buy the tart shell already prepared. Bake the tart shell according to the recipe.
Tart Dough
Roll dough out and place in 10″ tart pan. Use a fork to poke holes in bottom to vent . Place in refrigerator for 15 minutes prior to baking.Bake in preheated 375 oven for 12-15 minutes, until golden brown.
May be frozen at this point.
Pinwheel Tart
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 8 |
| Category: | Dessert |
| Meal: | New Baby (Share-a-Meal Plans) |
| 1 | recipe | Tart Dough |
| 3 | Tb | raspberry preserves |
| 1 | lb | peaches, sliced |
| 0.5 | pt | strawberries, whole |
| 0.33 | cup | blackberries, fresh |
| 3 | Tb | apricot jam |
Prepare tart shell according too recipe. Cool
Heat raspberry preserves in microwave for 1 minute until liquefied. Spread on tart shell bottom. Skin peaches, cut into 3/4 wedges, arrange along outside of tart shell in a full circle. Cut strawberries in half; arrange cut side down inside of the peaches. Finish center of tart with the blackberries. Heat apricot preserves in microwave for 1 minute, until liquefied. Brush gently on top of fruit.
Serve with powered sugar; whip cream or vanilla ice cream.
Note: You may use frozen fruit, thawed.
This tart is from the New Baby (Share a Meal Plan) meal; for more meal plans and recipes like this go to emealsforyou.com
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