Archive for the ‘Crisps and Other Fruit Desserts’ Category
Strawberry shortcakes are one of my favorite summertime desserts because I just can’t get enough fresh strawberries when they’re in season. I typically chop them up and add them to a shortcake whole, with just a little bit of whipped cream to dress them up. This time I did something a little bit different and added a tropical guava-spiked syrup to the filling. This made for a much more moist and flavorful strawberry shortcake dessert!
The shortcakes I used here are actually coconut scones. They’re light and buttery, with a generous amount of shredded coconut in the mix that gives them a tropical flair – and it also makes them much more interesting than the bland sponge cake that is so often used to make shortcakes. I added a little vanilla extract to the scone dough to highlight their sweetness. You could boost the coconut flavor by adding a little bit of coconut extract, too. The scones are actually delicious on their own, but the make a good base for these shortcakes because they are sturdy and are flavorful enough that they aren’t completely overwhelmed by either the strawberry syrup or the whipped cream topping.
The filling for these shortcakes starts with a very easy to make strawberry guava syrup (essentially the same syrup that I used to top these pancakes) that comes together in the microwave in just a few minutes. The strawberries in the syrup break down a bit during cooking, so I added back some freshly chopped strawberries to the mixture just before spooning it onto the shortcakes. Every serving is going to have great flavor, great texture and lots of berries. The syrup can be used warm or chilled if you want to prepare it in advance. The scones can also be prepared a day or two in advance and stored in an airtight container before assembly.
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When I make Snickerdoodles, or other snickerdoodle-inspired baked goods, I often have leftover cinnamon-sugar mix leftover that I don’t have much use for. Typically, I keep it in a small bowl or plastic bag on the counter and use it up by sprinkling it on a bowl of oatmeal or on top of other baked goods (and sometimes I just make another batch of snickerdoodles!) to use it up. I liked having the extra cinnamon sugar around so much that I eventually just made up a big batch to keep in my pantry for whatever use might come up – and that is how I ended up with this Cinnamon Sugar Apple Cobbler.
This cobbler is a good basic apple cobbler recipe. The filling is made with apples and brown sugar, with a little bit of cornstarch just to help thicken up the apples’ juices as they bake. The cobbler is a biscuit-like dough that is dropped in clumps on top of the apple filling, spreading just enough to give the dish a homey, “cobbled-together” look. The cinnamon sugar mixture goes into the cobbler mix and is used to top off the dessert before baking. The topping layer is fairly generous, resulting in a sweet and slightly crisp “crust” to the cobbler when it is ready to serve. The apples themselves are unspiced, but the brown sugar gives them a real richness.
I would recommend using a good baking apple for this recipe, choosing either a sweeter or more tart apple according to your own preferences. I happened to use pippin apples in this batch. Try to cut the apples all to the same size so that they bake evenly in the cobbler, but if you like your apples to be verging-on-applesauce tender, cut the slices in half before using them and they’ll cook down even more. This crisp is best when it comes out of the oven and is served with vanilla ice cream. It does reheat well if you don’t eat it all in one sitting, and a warmed up bowl of cobbler makes a great breakfast dish, too.
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Baking with plums is wonderful, not just because plums are so tasty, but because plums are a beautiful color and make for some of the most incredible looking desserts you’ll come across. The flesh of most plums is a reddish yellow color. Most of the coloring of the fruit comes from the skin, so I tend to leave it on when I bake with them. Leaving the skin on saves a lot of prep time, and the skin is tender and easy to both eat and slice through, so it isn’t unpleasant (as some other peels are) in a finished product – and it sure is lovely to see.
This time around, I used plums in a Plum Clafoutis. A clafoutis is a french dessert that is somewhere between a custard and a cake in consistency, easy to slice through but with an eggy flavor. It is a great backdrop for all kinds of fruit, from strawberries to pears. The batter comes together very quickly and is poured over fresh fruit, then baked. My plums were relatively small, so I halved them and arranged them cut-side-up in my baking dish, resulting in a colorful and dramatic look for the finished dish.
In the oven, the plums become meltingly tender and sweet. They really stand out against the lightly sweet, eggy backdrop of the clafoutis. I added a bit of almond extract to the batter, which complimented the plums very nicely. The color pops even more than the flavor, as the plums manage to replicate the colors of the most amazing sunset you’ll ever see. I like this when it is served at room temperature, but it is also good after being chilled in the refrigerator before serving.
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Most recipes tell you what a particular dish is – vanilla cake, chocolate chip cookies, etc – but some also give you a little more information by telling you about where that recipe is from. A New York-Style Cheesecake is a great example of this, and this dense and creamy type of cheesecake is instantly recognizable. Some recipes, however, are associated with different places and it is unclear why. This is one of those cakes. I’ve seen similar recipes described as Breton Apple Cakes and Dorset Apple Cakes with little explanation as to what gives them those names. I have to assume that people who live in Brittany and Dorset have a fondness for this type of cake – and I don’t blame them one bit because it is delicious.
The cake is so packed with fresh apples that it verges on being an apple cobbler. It is very moist and tender, with a great flavor of butter, vanilla and apples. It’s just about impossible to go wrong with that combination. The batter is easy to whip up and it is very thick, so you need to fold the apples into it and them spread it into your baking pan. The apples should be thinly sliced, as that ensures that they will cook to tenderness as the cake bakes. It also results in a very attractive finished cake. I used Fuji apples and would recommend a fairly sweet or sweet-tart apple (not tart apples, like Granny Smith) for this cake because the cake batter is not too sweet on its own and a lot of the sweetness and flavor comes from those apples.
No matter what you call it, this is an excellent apple dessert. The cake can be served warm if you’re ready to eat it right away, but will keep very well for a day or two if you cool it and put it in an airtight container. I’d recommend eating it just a bit warm with confectioners’ sugar or ice cream.
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Citrus is often used as a flavoring for desserts from scones to cakes, but pieces of orange and lemon don’t always make it into the finished product. Frankly, you wouldn’t want to have big pieces of orange or lemon floating around in all of your recipes, but they do deserve the chance to take more of a starring role once in a while. With ripe blood oranges on hand, I used them as one of the main ingredients in these Blueberry and Blood Orange Crisps.
The crisps are easy to make. They’re a mixture of blueberries and fresh blood orange segments – lightly sweetened – that is topped with a buttery oat crisp. I supremed the oranges, meaning that I sliced out each of the orange pieces and left the “skin” that holds them together behind (this is also frequently called segmenting). To do this, just cut the peel off of the orange and cut along the side of the membranes between orange segments with a sharp knife, removing the “meat” of the fuit. While you could simply chop the oranges, this leaves more tender pieces of fruit in the dessert. The finished crisps are have a wonderful bright berry flavor to them, and the blueberries and oranges are a good match. Blood oranges have a mellow orange flavor, so orange zest helps to bring it out. There is a great ratio of topping to filling (especially if you’re a fan of the topping!), too, and it is just crispy enough to add a good textural contrast to the sticky filling.
You could bake this in one big casserole dish, but I like the fact that you get a much better ratio of fruit to topping by putting these in individual ramekins. Don’t try to cram the crisps into too-small ramekins, as you won’t have as much room to pile on the topping if you do. You can use fresh or frozen berries for this recipe. If you opt for frozen, do not defrost them before adding them to the oranges. You can also use different kinds of berries, adding raspberries for a springtime dish and strawberries for a more summery variation. Similarly, if you don’t have blood oranges you can use small mandarins (even canned, drained) or any other orange. Choose a sweet one, or consider adding an extra tablespoon or two of sugar to the filling to make up for any tartness.
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