- When you want to indulge in a slice of fruit pie, but don’t need to bake a whole one, you might try the Individual Whole Peach Pies from Yummy Mummy. The pies are very simple to make: essentially, a whole peach is simply wrapped in a layer of flaky pie dough and baked until golden and crispy. Once baked, the peach pie packages look stunning – although you won’t be able to see what kind of fruit is inside until you cut into one to reveal the center. You get all the flavors of a fresh fruit pie, but in serving size that is perfect for one.
- Blueberries are a great berry to bake with, not only because they have a beautiful color, but because their flavor intensifies and they are able to hold their texture (unlike some other types of berries) during baking. Nutmegs Seven‘s Blueberry and Elderflower Upside Down Cake starts out with a vanilla, elderflower and almond yogurt cake batter that is poured on top of a layer of fresh blueberries. Elderflower is an ingredient that we don’t see often here in the US, but it has a floral and sweet flavor that really highlights the berries and makes this cake taste like summertime. Elderflower cordial is available at some import grocers (and IKEA) if you have difficulty finding it in your neighborhood.
- The Mini Blueberry Tarts from Two Parts Sweet are a cute fruit dessert to bake up on a summer day. They start with a homemade pie dough that is pressed into muffin tins, which set up the tarts to come out in perfect single-serving portions. The dough is filled with a mixture of fresh berries, sugar and starch – such as flour, though other thickeners like cornstarch or tapioca could be used – and baked until the filling is intensely sweet and the crust is perfectly browned. Serve these with a tiny scoop of vanilla ice cream for an indulgent treat.
- Fruit leather, or even sweeter fruit rollups, was a favorite lunchbox treat for many of us as kids. It’s not the kind of treat that most adults eat, but when you start talking about Homemade Cherry Fruit Leather from Baked by Rachel even grown ups will want to get a piece. The leathers start with fresh cherries, which are boiled with water until they are almost falling-apart tender. They are then pureed and cooked a second time with sugar, before being spread onto a baking sheet to bake at a low temperature for a few hours and dry out. The process is easy, but takes a little patience because it is time consuming. The intensely flavored results are well worth it, and this process can be used with other fruits, as well!
- The The Tart Tart‘s Apricot Raspberry Galette makes great use of beautiful summertime raspberries and peaches to make a colorful, irresistible dessert. A galette is a kind of rustic tart, made by simply rolling out your dough and folding it up around a filling mixture, rather than working within the confines of a tart pan. The fruit intensifies and tenderizes as the tart bakes and you are left with a wonderful combination of fruit and crisp, flaky pie crust. This is another recipe that you can use with other types of fruit to take advantage of all of the flavors of summer.
two parts sweet
July 19, 2012Hi! We love your blog and blog bites! And, we were excited to see your notes about our little blueberry tarts! They’re to ally bite-sized…. and were nibbled up before we knew it. We’d love to know what others bake and create. Thanks! wendy & holly