The United Berries of Cobbler

I had fun making this two berry cobbler look like a flag, but there really is no need to separate the berries in this dish. The juices all run together anyway and the flavors meld beautifully. And, speaking of juices, this is a very juicy cobbler. If you like yours a bit thicker, feel free to increase the thickener a bit. But as it is the berry juices have a lovely velvety mouthfeel even though they run all over the plate.

This recipe comes in two parts. The first is the biscuit, which I swapped out with my favorite scone recipe instead. Scones topped cobbler? Yes please. The added bonus here is that I mixed in a few more blueberries into the scone batter for a beautiful look as well as added flavor. Anyway, make the scone batter up until the point that you are going to roll it out, and then set aside while you prep the berries.

Take clean and de-stemmed berries and place them into your baking dish so that it mostly fills it up. Then, take the berries back out of the pan, and stir in a couple of tablespoons of sugar, a pinch of salt, and about 2 teaspoons of the thickener of your choice (I used cornstarch). You’ll need to use your judgement on the amounts here, since your pan and berry size may vary. I used about 1 1/2 pints of smallish strawberries and about a pint of blueberries with those quantities. If you like, splash in some vanilla.

Place the berries in the baking dish, and then sprinkle with another tablespoon of sugar and the zest of 1 lemon. Then, drop on the scone batter. You can form them into small scones if you want and place them, or simply drop rough dollops, about 1/4 cup each.

Brush with melted butter, and bake for about 30 minutes at 375F until the scones are lightly brown and the fruit is fiercely bubbling. Let cool slightly before serving.

Happy Independence Day folks!

Not that doughnuts aren’t worth celebrating on their own right, but as it turns out, there’s a little more to this holiday than that. The first US National Doughnut Day was celebrated in 1938, by the Salvation Army, as a way to honor the women who served doughnuts to soldiers and to raise money to help those in dire circumstances at home during the Great Depression. According to Wikipedia (and, of course if it is on a wiki, it must be true… right, right?):

“About 250 Salvation Army volunteers went to France. Because of the difficulties of providing freshly baked goods from huts established in abandoned buildings near to the front lines, two Salvation Army volunteers (Ensign Margaret Sheldon and Adjutant Helen Purvian) came up with the idea of providing doughnuts. These are reported to have been an “instant hit”, and “soon many soldiers were visiting Salvation Army huts”. Margaret Sheldon wrote of one busy day “Today I made 22 pies, 300 doughnuts, 700 cups of coffee.”

Well, that seems worth celebrating. How about some Fresh Cherry Cake Drop Doughnuts?

To make your own, simply follow a basic cake doughnut recipe (like the Basic Cake doughnut recipe in Doughnuts), and mix about 10 pitted and chopped fresh cherries into the dry flour mixture before adding the butter, the proceed as normal with the rest of the recipe. For the light pink glaze, I simply squeezed some juice from a handful of cherries and used it in place of the liquid in the standard glaze recipe. A teensy pinch of salt will help bring out the cherry flavor in the glaze.

]]> http://www.laraferroni.com/2011/06/03/fresh-cherry-cake-doughnuts/feed/ 22 http://www.laraferroni.com/2011/05/20/baked-strawberry-doughnut-holes/ http://www.laraferroni.com/2011/05/20/baked-strawberry-doughnut-holes/#comments Fri, 20 May 2011 18:09:20 +0000 L http://www.laraferroni.com/2011/05/20/baked-strawberry-doughnut-holes/ Almost Strawberry Baked Doughnut Holes. On a Stick.

Developing recipes is full of almosts. You get an idea in your head, and you give it a try, and it almost works. Maybe not quite what you were imagining, but close. Or, sometimes not even all that close. You try again, and again, and with a little luck and patience and effort, you can get there.

When I was writing Doughnuts and developing my baked cake doughnut recipe, there was one little thing that I never quite got. The baked doughnuts bake up in a doughnut pan, that is doughnut shaped. No holes. Now, if you were a kid growing up with Dunkin Donuts Munchkins, you know that the holes are the very best part. I tried mini muffin pans. They were almost right. The taste was fine, but they weren’t round.

Last week, while looking for popsicle molds*, I stumbled across these little silicone half spheres. Genius! The perfect baked doughnut hole pan! The tops would puff up to a nice round, and the bottoms would be round too. I one-clicked away.

Today, I gave my brilliant find a shot, with strawberry baked doughnut batter. And they worked. Almost. See, the thing about cake doughnuts is you want them to be just the right amount of dense. Too light and fluffy, and you just have a cupcake. So, they puffed, but not to the perfect sphere I had imagines. No, really, they didn’t puff up much at all. I got lovely little half spheres. Perhaps a little tweak to the recipe will get a better puff, but they were really delicious as they were. Just not quite the right shape, once again.

But then I had another thought. I have a tray full of perfect little 1/2 spheres. Why not fill them and make them a whole! So, a little strawberry “kreme” later, and a little fun with sticks (because everything is more fun On a Stick! Cheers for Matt and his beautiful book!), and I have almost baked doughnut holes once again.

To make the strawberry baked doughnuts, just follow the standard baked doughnut recipe but toss in chopped strawberries into the flour/butter mixture before you add the wet ingredients. Use about 1 strawberry for every 3 doughnut holes.

Strawberry Doughnut Kreme

There is no cream in Kreme… leave out the strawberry and you have a pretty good approximation of Oreo “stuff” with this recipe…

You can make your own Strawberry syrup (strawberries, sugar, heat, time), but I used Schuh Farm’s Strawberry Syrup which is mighty fine.

1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons butter or softened coconut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 to 5 teaspoons Strawberry syrup, to desired thickness

Mix the powdered sugar, butter and vanilla until smooth. Drizzle in the strawberry syrup, a little at a time, until you get the flavor/consistency and color you want.

*If anyone knows where to find aluminum kulfi molds online, let me know! They are perfect for an upcoming shoot, but I haven’t been able to find any online anywhere that would ship to the US.

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You get the texture of a tea cake and the flavor of a doughnut. Drizzle with doughnut glaze and slather on some rhubarb orange compote. The perfect weekend treat.

Mostly, at this time of year, the box includes some sort of salad greens and braising greens. Local apples that tend to store well. Onions are always a big part of the box. And then, there are the California fruits: oranges, a mango and kiwi. The oranges are always nice to have; the mango, just one, is perfect for a smoothie each week; and then there are the kiwis. Each week, 4 kiwis. This has been going on now for quite some time, and I’m telling you, I’m getting a bit behind on my kiwi usage. I do like kiwi fruit, but seriously, other than the occasional juicing or chopping for a salad, what are you supposed to do with them?*

Enter kiwi jelly. I’m not saying this is going to be the new lime curd. When you cook a kiwi, the bright green fades to a more olive tone; the delicate berry flavor gets a little crushed. But kiwi jelly is still a nice way to go if the kiwi fruit has started to take over your kitchen. Toss in some chopped rhubarb from the garden (especially if you have the kind that stubbornly comes up green even though it is supposed to be the bright red kind!) for some tang and to help thicken the jelly. Some juice from a lemon and a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar to brighten the flavor. A pinch of salt and a few cardamom pods add just a little something special. And, suddenly you have a lovely little jelly that goes terrifically with hard cheeses, nuts and crackers. It is reminiscent of pepper jelly, without the heat.

For the shoot, I made a regular square cake, but in the back of my brain, I got stuck on this idea of baking up the cakes as little pints with a whipped cream “head.”

To do this, I had to find jars that would resemble pint glasses that could also be baked. This wasn’t exactly the easiest thing to do, but I finally decided on the Weck #760s and #900s. The problem was that the Weck site doesn’t say whether they are oven safe. I mailed Autumn Martin, queen of baking in jars, but she hadn’t baked in them either. But, she encouraged me to give it a go. The worst that could happen would be a bit of shattered glass and gooey chocolate all over my oven! Now, that’s the baking spirit. Of course, I gave it a go.

As it turns out, they seemed to bake fine. No exploding glass, or even any cracks. I caution you to use your best judgment with your own jars if you choose to give it a try, of course. And, bake them on a baking sheet with a rim, just in case.

To make your own, make the batter as directed (I made a 1/2 batch for 6 jars), and fill each jar half way. Bake at 325F until they are set, about 15 minutes. Be careful not to overbake or the cake will be dry. Baking times will vary based on the size of your jars. Let the baked cakes cool on a rack while you make the caramel sauce. Allow the caramel to cool slightly before topping each cake, and then dollop on whipped cream. You can serve them immediately, still a bit warm or let them cool and the flavors meld.

For more St. Patrick’s Day recipes (or really any day recipes), I also recommend the other recipes from my recent shoots:

Irish Soda Bread neatly flavored with caraway and raisins. This bread comes together in a jiffy, and tastes great, even as it ages. It’s strangely addictive. I made another batch, after I devoured the first loaf, later the same week. And another batch will soon be in the making.

Corned Beef and Cabbage with Root Veggies. I thought I hated turnips until I had them roasted in corned beef jus. How silly of me.

Can’t get enough chocolate and Guinness combinations? This Chocolate Guinness Pudding I shot for Epicurious is terrific, and maybe even better churned up with a bit more cream into a heavenly semi freddo.

I’d love to go back some year and really experience it, minus near delirium. But, this year, I’m more than satisfied with this big ole plate of beignets and chocolate chicory coffee fudge sauce.

There are many different beignet recipes, some using yeast, but I prefer making them from the same pate a choux batter as the French Crullers in my book. They are much quicker to make than any yeasted dough and insanely light. Once you get the feel for how the egg gets incorporated, they are also very, very easy. Plus, if you don’t want to fry, they bake beautifully.

Of course, baked they are more akin to profiteroles than beignets, but I say to-may-to/to-mah-to. If you glaze them immediately, the “crust” you get from baking will be minimize. If you are using the recipe in the book, just pipe little rounds of about a heaping tablespoon, pushing down any little peaks with a moist finger. Since they are small, you’ll want to bake them for less time.

If you don’t have the book (why not!), this zeppole recipe is quite similar. For the sauce, I tweaked the Chocolate Fudge Sauce in this gorgeous Chocolate book.

Hope you have a wonderfully indulgent Mardi Gras!

The good news is that while these apples may not be the best to eat straight from the bowl, they do have their uses. One of those big bins of apples at the university market is full of apples marked “cider apples.” One of these days, I would love to get a real cider press… but in the meantime, my juicer does a fine job. Hot or cold, add in a bit of cinnamon and lemon juice (just a tiny bit), and it’s like you are drinking pie.

Or, for just about any apple this time of year (ideally one that was locally grown and stored), roasting is a great solution. Just cut a few in half, dot on some butter, sugar, a sprinkle of sea salt and a bit of your favorite spice. Maybe a squeeze of lemon juice. Then, roast at 350. Maybe, if you are inclined, drizzle on some warmed maple syrup or a dollop of whipped cream to finish.

The flesh softens and the juices caramelize, and suddenly, those storage apples seem like a pretty good idea.

What do you do with your storage apples?

I have to hand it to Kim Boyce, who’s Good to the Grain simply inspires me more and more. I was in the process of indexing the book on Gobbledybook (remember that? Yes, I’m still, very slowly, entering cookbooks), and bookmarking just about every other recipe to make, when I came across the Honey Hazelnut Cookies. They looked like the perfect little biscuits… just the thing for a cup of tea. And then, I thought, what if… what if I added some cocoa powder. Wouldn’t that be something?

Then I thought, what if, instead of the little tea biscuits, what if I used a basic chocolate chip cookie type dough instead. The biscuits (which I still want to make) are a drier cookie. I wanted more of a soft, moist dough. Chocolate chip cookie dough, especially the whole wheat version in the same book, could be just the ticket. Kim’s dough is 100% whole wheat, but given I was adding ground hazelnuts, I decided to go with a combination of whole wheat, graham and all-purpose flours. I’m sure you could do any sorts of flour combinations, depending on how your tastes run. I love the little extra richness the graham and whole wheat flours give.

Under-baked, just slightly, the way I like my chocolate chip cookies, they are crisped just around the edges and soft and just little gooey inside.

This version simply cooks the rice (arborio, but any short grain will do) in some water and milk (1/2 cup rice, 1 1/2 cup water, 1 cup milk), with a pinch of salt and cinnamon until most of the liquid is gone and the rice is tender. Top with browned butter (yum!), brown sugar and some slightly caramelized (again in brown butter and a bit of sugar and salt) apple slices. My bowlful was just barely sweet, with most of the flavor coming from the browned butter and rice.