Category: Desserts (Page 13 of 21)

Fruit-Filled Mini Galettes

August 23, 2015 / Jenny / 14 Comments

Blueberries, peaches, and plums are in season here right now, and they are such a summer treat. When fruit is this fresh, I like to keep it simple, allowing the flavors of the fruit to shine: a little bit of sugar to sweeten it, a little bit of flour to thicken it, and a delicious dough to wrap around the fruit like a hug. Fifteen minutes in the oven, and you have some miniature galettes, perfect for dessert. Or breakfast. We had them for breakfast yesterday morning, enjoying a sunny Saturday morning on the porch.

I am still enamored with making galettes, and the mini galettes are fun, because you can individualize them. I made some with just blueberry filling, and some with a peach-plum filling, using the fruit we had on hand. Four cups of any kind of fruit will work, and you can mix and match as you please. Making dough is therapeutic for me, and the dough for these galettes is a simple pie dough, cut into smaller squares. I love the fact that galettes are not expected to look perfect or fancy–the folds of dough can be uneven and the fruit can bubble over, and it tastes just fabulous.

Change is in the air, as summer has a tiny hint of fall, and our schedules are soon about to get a lot more regimented and full. We are squeezing in our summer wishes. This weekend we have been visiting with cousins and aunts and uncles we don’t get to see often, and that has been wonderful and poignant. As we watched all of our children running around together yesterday afternoon, climbing trees and playing ball, we remembered summers when we were children together, running around wild and free in that same yard, climbing some of the same trees (though they are much bigger now). Time passes and our worlds stretch, as we all grow and experience new things, find our different ways, and bring new people into the family. It is all good, but we are not able to see each other like we used to. It is bittersweet, just like the end of August.

However, these mini galettes are just sweet–nothing bitter about them. That is probably why I made them. There is comfort in making sweet things. I cannot control much of what happens, but in my little baking world, I can create sweetness for myself and others, and think about loved ones and memories. If you are looking for a way to use some summer fruit, these miniature galettes are a great way to do it. I hope you have a wonderful week!

Fruit-Filled Mini Galettes

Servings: 8 mini galettes
Time: about 35-40 minues
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Ingredients:

For the blueberry filling:

2 cups of fresh blueberries
1/4 cup of sugar
1 tablespoon of flour

For the peach-plum filling:

1 cup of fresh peaches, peeled and chopped
1 cup of fresh plums, peeled and chopped
1/4 cup of sugar
1 tablespoon of flour

For the crusts:

2 cups of all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2/3 cup of unsalted butter, at room temperature
6 to 7 tablespoons of cold water

For the egg wash:

One egg, beaten
1 tablespoon water

Directions:

Wash and prepare the fruit. In one small bowl, mix the blueberries, sugar and flour. In another small bowl, mix the peaches, plums, sugar and flour. Feel free to mix and match with different fruit if desired.

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour and the salt. Gradually cut in the butter with a fork or a pastry cutter, combining until the mixture has the consistency of small peas. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of the cold water over the dough, and gently toss with a fork. Repeat until the dough is moistened, but not slimy. If you add too much water, add a little flour. Work the water through until the dough is a nice, soft texture, but don’t over-mix. Divide the dough in half, forming two balls. On a lightly floured surface, flatten one of the balls of dough with your hand. Roll the dough from the center to the edges, forming a rough square of about 12 inches around. Gently cut the dough into four smaller squares. Roll each smaller square to about 6 inches by 6 inches. Place one-fourth of the blueberry mixture in the center of each of the four squares, leaving an inch or two of dough around the edges. Gently fold the edges around the fruit, pleating all the way around the edges. Repeat with the the rest of the squares. Then repeat the process with the second ball of dough, making four 6 inch squares and filling each square with one-fourth of the peach-plum mixture, and folding and pleating the edges. Place the galettes on the baking sheets.

In a small bowl, beat the egg and add the tablespoon of water. With a pastry brush, brush the edges of the crusts with the egg wash.

Bake in a 425-degree oven for about 15 minutes, or until the crusts are lightly golden and the fruit is bubbly. Enjoy!

Lavender Whipped Cream

July 8, 2015 / Jenny / 17 Comments

This luxurious whipped cream is infused with a subtle hint of lavender. It turns a serving of fresh fruit into a wonderfully indulgent treat. Lavender seems to be all the rage this summer, so I have been inspired to make something with it too. We have lots of lavender flourishing in our garden, and I like to pick the flowers and put them in vases to make the house smell good, but I had never used it in food until I made this whipped cream. I am so happy I tried this recipe, because I absolutely love it. Sometimes it feels so good to make something special and delicious, even if (or especially if) it is impractical and not completely necessary. I often get bogged down in the necessary duties of life, and need to be reminded to lighten up! Making this whipped cream did that–it was just for fun and pleasure. I felt like I was stepping back in time a bit to make this, back to when people took the time to soak the lavender flowers in whipping cream overnight, and then whipped the cream by hand until it fluffed up into delicate peaks of sweetness.

The lavender makes this a special whipped cream, and I was happy my making of this coincided with a visit from some special friends I don’t get to see very often. A very dear college friend (and former cross country teammate) and her sister visited our house yesterday. One of them lives in Spain and the other lives in Senegal, so it was such a treat to have them and one of their daughters at our table, taste-testing the whipped cream for me (they liked it a lot). I loved visiting with them, talking about old times, and hearing about the different cultures and food traditions in the countries they now call home.

I stumbled upon this recipe for lavender whipped cream in a wonderful cookbook, called Cranbrook Reflections: A Culinary Collection. I say stumbled upon because my kids and I happened to be at a library that was having a used book sale, and because I love collecting cookbooks, I gravitated to the cookbook section and found it. In any case, I will be making this whipped cream again, since we have a great supply of lavender and I want to try it with all the upcoming seasonal fruits.

It tasted delicious with watermelon chunks and blueberries, though the watermelon made it a little watery at the bottom of the jar. It also tasted wonderful with just blueberries, and as they are not as full of liquid, there was no water at the bottom. I can imagine it would also be great with raspberries, peaches, and of course strawberries. As long as you plan ahead a few hours to make time for the cream to absorb the flavor of the lavender flowers, this whipped cream is really easy and fun to make. I am sharing this post over at Angie’s Fiesta Friday site with a bunch of inspiring bloggers.

Lavender Whipped Cream

Servings: about 2 cups of whipped cream
Time: about 8 hours for soaking and about 10-15 minutes of hands-on time
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Ingredients:

1 cup of heavy cream
3 tablespoons of fresh lavender flowers, without the stems (or 1 tablespoon of dried lavender flowers)
1 tablespoon of sugar

Directions:

Pour the cup of heavy cream into a small bowl. Add the lavender flowers. Cover and refrigerate for at least 8 hours so the cream absorbs the flavor of the lavender flowers. Then pour through a wire mesh strainer (or if you don’t have one, you can also use a colander with small holes) to carefully remove the flowers from the cream. Beat the cream in a bowl until it is almost stiff, and then add the sugar gradually. Continue to beat until stiff peaks form. Be careful not to over-beat. The first couple of times I made whipped cream by hand, I pretty much made butter because I beat it too much. Keep an eye on the texture and stop when the peaks form. Garnish with fresh lavender flowers if you wish. Use this whipped cream to top any kind of fruit. Enjoy!

This recipe is adapted from Cranbrook Reflections: A Culinary Collection.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

July 3, 2015 / Jenny / 3 Comments

The combination of strawberries and rhubarb is one of my all-time favorites. The sweetness of the strawberries mellows the tartness of the rhubarb, yet there is still enough tartness in this crisp to make it bright and lively. I love this recipe because it is so simple, so easy, and it allows the fresh flavors of the fruits to really shine. There is just enough brown sugar to sweeten the fruit filling without overpowering it.

It is lovely here in northern Michigan, and I am thankful to have the chance to spend a few days here at my family’s place, where we can walk to the beach and the town, with a beautiful view of the water in almost every direction. After an extremely busy spring, it is so nice to have some time to recharge and slow down, soaking in the absolute beauty of this area. Just like at home, I like to use food that is in season, and right now strawberries and rhubarb are easy to come by up here at farmers markets and produce stands. WiFi is not so easy to come by here (and that is not always a bad thing), and we don’t have many cookbooks here, so I walked to the library in town to look for a recipe for a fruit crisp. As I was browsing through cookbooks, one recipe caught my eye because of its simplicity. It comes from Gwyneth Paltrow’s cookbook, “My Father’s Daughter.” It is a basic fruit crisp recipe that can be used with any type of seasonal fruit, and I like this recipe so much, I am going to use it for upcoming crisps with raspberries, blueberries, and peaches, as they come into season. I will share an adaptation of it below, using strawberries and rhubarb. I did make a couple of changes–I used all-purpose flour instead of spelt flour since that is what we had in the cupboard, and I added 2 tablespoons more of the brown sugar, since rhubarb is not as naturally sweet as other fruits. Still, this recipe uses less overall sugar than many of the ones I have tried, and I like it that way. You can adjust the sweetness to your own tastes.

Perhaps it is because the strawberries and rhubarb are late spring/early summer fruits, or perhaps it is because I am writing this post very near Lake Michigan, which always makes me feel inspired, but in any case, making this crisp reminded me that summer is still young and full of possibilities. The days are long and full of bright sunlight. I have been breathing in the clean, northern air, and it smells like pine trees and fresh water. It is only just recently that our schedule has slowed down enough that we can have more leisurely dinners. We have had time to eat outside, watching the boats go down the channel into Lake Michigan. Tomorrow we head for home, where it will still be summer, and we will still be able to eat dinner outside. The lakes close to my home are much smaller than Lake Michigan, but they are still beautiful. And as much as I don’t want to leave here, I love to be home. I hope you all have a lovely weekend, and savor it as much as possible.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

Servings: 4-6
Time: about 15 minutes of prep time and 45 minutes of baking time
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Ingredients for the fruit filling:

2 cups of strawberries, washed and sliced
2 cups of rhubarb, washed and diced
1 tablespoon of flour (I used all-purpose flour, but you can use spelt flour or another type of flour)
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons of brown sugar (adjust the amount of sugar to your own tastes)

Ingredients for the crisp topping:

1/4 cup flour (again, I used all-purpose flour, but you can use the type of flour you prefer)
1 cup rolled oats (the old-fashioned kind, not instant or quick-cooking)
a pinch of salt (optional)
4 tablespoons of unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Prepare the fruit and place it in a lightly greased 9 inch pie baking dish. Stir in the tablespoon of flour and the brown sugar and mix until combined.

In a medium bowl, stir together the 1/4 cup flour, the oats, and the salt. Cut the butter in with a fork or a pastry cutter and gently stir/mash until the mixture forms balls about the size of peas. Spread the mixture evenly over the fruit in the pie pan. Bake in your oven for about 45 minutes, or until the topping is golden and the fruit starts to bubble. Serve warm. It tastes great by itself or with vanilla ice cream. Enjoy!

This recipe is adapted from “My Father’s Daughter” by Gwyneth Paltrow