Mini Peach Tarts

Here's another recipe perfect for the seasonal produce right now. Peaches are just reaching their juicy peak. It was pretty tough to decide what to make. I love peach cobbler and peach pie. But, I decided to take the fast and simple route with this one and it worked out great. I mean, you really can't go wrong with puff pastry!

Mini Peach Tarts
Makes: 4 servings

1 sheet puff pastry, thawed
2 medium peaches
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp flour
1 tbsp orange juice

• Leaving the skins on, slice the peaches into 1/8" thick slices. You want them to be very thin so that they'll actually cook in the short cooking time required for puff pastry.
• Toss the peaches with the sugar and flour. Set aside.
• Roll out the puff pastry and cut it into 4 even squares using either a sharp knife or a pizza cutter.
• Place the puff pastry on a lightly greased baking sheet. With a fork, poke holes around the edges, about 1/2" in from the sides.

• Top the squares with the peach mixture. You can either place the peaches on there carefully in a pattern or just heap them on there for a more "rustic" look. It's up to you.
• Bake at 400° F for 20 minutes.
• Allow to cool for about 5 minutes before serving.

 

And because I try to be transparent with my readers, here are the two ugly ones that normally wouldn't make it into the blog haha!

Chocolate Strawberry Trifle

I served this chocolate strawberry trifle with Easter dinner (we had our dinner on Saturday night). I love trifles because they're so versatile and so delicious. My favorite trifle involves chocolate cake and chocolate pudding. Yum... Anyhow, this strawberry trifle was also yummy and it makes great use of the strawberries that are coming into season!

Chocolate Strawberry Trifle

Makes: 10 servings

1 boxed vanilla cake, prepared

16 oz (large) tub of cool whip

6 oz (1/2 bag) mini chocolate chips

16 oz (pint) strawberries

• First, prepare the cake according to the directions on the package. It's easier to bake it in a 13" x 9" cake pan, but you can also make two round cakes instead. Allow the cake to cool completely.
• While the cake is cooling, cut up the strawberries. You can either slice them or quarter them.
• Once the cake is cool, cut it up into 1" cubes.
• In a large bowl, toss in some cake cubes, then strawberries, then cool whip, then chocolate chips. Repeat two more times until you have three layers total.
• You can garnish the top with a strawberry, a maraschino cherry, or a sprig of mint.

Plum Crumble with Cardamom Cream

It's springtime! And you know what that means: time for asparagus, avocados, fennel, spinach, strawberries, rhubarb, plums... oh yes! I love spring fruits and vegetables. This will be the first of many posts taking advantage of the seasonal produce.

This plum crumble is a perfect balance of sweet but slightly tart and a little bit of crunch. You can make this an adults only treat by adding two tablespoons of rum to the filling ;-)

Plum Crumble with Cardamom Cream
Makes: 4 servings

Filling:
5 -6 medium plums
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp flour
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp orange juice
zest of 1 lemon
zest of 1 orange

Topping:
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1/4 tsp salt

Cream:
1 cup heavy cream (or whipping cream)
1 tbsp powdered sugar
1/2 tsp cardamom

• Rinse the plums. Leaving the skin on, cut them in half, remove the pit, then cut them into a 1/2" dice.
• Toss the plums with the sugar, flour, lemon juice, orange juice, lemon zest, and orange zest.
• Transfer to either a large glass baking dish or four individual sized ramekins. If you choose to use ramekins, you can place them all on a baking sheet. This makes it easier to remove them from the oven when they're hot.
• Make the topping. In a stand mixer or with an electric hand mixer on medium, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
• Add the egg and vanilla and stir until combined.
• Add the flour, almonds, and salt. Mix until just combined. The texture will be dry and crumbly, almost like the texture of bread crumbs.
• With your hands, sprinkle the topping evenly over the plum filling.
• Bake at 350° F for 25 - 30 minutes until golden brown and bubbling.
• Allow to cool for at least 5 minutes before serving.
• Make the cardamom cream. This comes out best if you chill the bowl and beaters in the freezer for about 30 minutes first. In an ice cold bowl, whip the heavy cream on high speed until stiff peaks form, about 2 - 3 minutes. Add the powdered sugar and cardamom, mix until combined.
• Serve the cardamom cream on the warm plum crumble.

If you're egg free, either due to allergy or other dietary restriction, you can leave out the egg with out any real impact to the recipe. It just helps the topping stay together a bit better.

If you're wondering why this recipe, like many fruit recipes, calls for lemon juice and orange juice, it's because the acid helps to bring out the flavor. Think of it like salt; it makes food taste more like itself.

And for my final note, if you don't have cardamom, cinnamon will work well too. Though I really do recommend cardamom. It's absolutely delicious and you can find it at any grocery store. It is a little bit pricey (around $10 - $15) but if you need an excuse to buy it, check out my recipe for Cardamom Chocolate Lava Cakes. If that doesn't convince you, I don't know what will!

Blueberry Cheese Blintzes

In case you missed it, here's my first post about cheese blintzes which gives a little bit of background. Matt was begging me to make cheese blintzes again so I finally decided to oblige him. This time, I happened to have some dried blueberries hanging around so I decided to make blueberry cheese blintzes. The results were delicious!

Blueberry Cheese Blintzes
Makes: 8 cheese blintzes

Crepes:
2 cups milk
6 tbsp butter, plus more for cooking
3 eggs
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
pinch of salt
1 cup flour

Filling:
8 oz cream cheese (1 brick), softened
2 tbsp sugar
1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp dried blueberries

Topping:
1 egg plus 1 egg white
1/4 cup brown sugar

  

• To make the crepes, whisk together the eggs, sugar, and salt until the eggs are pale and fluffy, about two minutes. Set aside.
• Combine the milk and butter in a small sauce pan. Place over medium heat and stir constantly until the butter in melted.
• In a slow steady stream, gently pour the hot milk mixture into the eggs while whisking constantly.
• Add the cup of flour to the egg and milk mixture. Gently whisk until just combined.
• Preheat a skillet over medium-medium high heat.
• Once the pan is very hot, add a small amount of butter to the pan, then ladle in about 1/2 cup of batter. Swirl the batter around in the pan so that it spreads to all edges.
• Cook for about one minute per side until dark brown.

• Once all of the crepes are cooked, make the filling. Whip together the cream cheese and sugar in a stand mixture or in a bowl with a hand mixer on medium until light and fluffy.
• Add the egg yolk and vanilla (save the egg white for later). Mix until well combined.
• With a spatula, fold in the dried blueberries.

• Place two tablespoons of filling in each crepe, about the size of a golf ball. Spread the filling along the middle of the crepe, then fold it in half. Then fold the ends in and continue rolling up the crepe; just like you would with a burrito.
• Now whip together the egg white and another egg.
• Once all of the crepes are assembled, hold the crepe with the seam side toward you. Dip the crepe in the egg, then the brown sugar.
• Lay the crepes, seam side down (sugared side up) in a lightly greased 13" x 9" glass baking dish.
• Bake at 375° F for 25 minutes.
• Allow to cool for at least 5 minutes before serving. These are actually best served room temperature... If you can wait that long!

Tips & Tricks: Cutting Pineapple

If you've never worked with fresh pineapple before, you may be looking at it thinking, "where do I even start..." It may look a little bit daunting, but I promise that it's easier than you think.

First, I want to talk about how to pick a pineapple. I've read some weird things out there like smelling the leaves to see if they smell like pineapple. The best way that I've found to check for ripeness is the color. You want to see some yellow towards the bottom and maybe a little yellow in the centers of each little section. If the whole entire thing is yellow, it's probably over-ripe. If the whole thing is green, it is under-ripe. So you'll want to consider if you're using the pineapple today or later. If the answer is 'today,' then get the one that is partly yellow. If the answer is 'in a few days,' get the one that's green and wait for it to start turning yellow around the bottom.

Ok, now how do you cut this beast?! First, cut off the top and bottom.

Now, stand the pineapple upright and cut off the rough skin in strips. Once it is all off, go around once more and cut off and brown pits you may have missed. Then, turn it upside down and cut off any more skin you may have missed.

Lay the pineapple on its side and cut it in half width-wise. This step just makes the pieces smaller and therefore easier to work with. 

Place the two halves on their flat side. Cut them in half length-wise, then cut them in half again so that you have quarters. 

Now place a quarter on one of it's inner sides. With your knife at an angle, cut out the core. Repeat with the remaining pineapple pieces. 

From here, you can cut each quarter in half length-wise, then cut into chunks. Or you can cut the quarters into thin slices. You could even leave the quarters intact and place them on the grill. Yum!

Baked Pineapple

I found a wonderful recipe for Gratineed Pineapple via Pinterest. I could immediately tell the recipe was going to be amazing. Pineapple, coconut, sweetened condensed milk, and ginger snaps. Yum! The presentation looks beautiful too, however I can tell just from looking at it that it would be a pain to eat. So I chopped up my pineapple instead. My brother-in-law and nephew were over here the night that I made this. Between those two and my little family of three, we ate the entire pan in one night. It's that good!!

Baked Pineapple
Makes: 6 servings

1 whole pineapple
12 oz can sweetened condensed milk
3/4 cup crushed ginger snaps
1 cup coconut flakes

• Chop the pineapple into bite sized pieces. See my Tips & Tricks for instructions.
• Place the pineapple pieces into a lightly greased 13" x 9" glass baking dish.
• Top the pineapple with the ginger snaps and coconut. I ground the gingersnaps into a fine powder in the food processor. But if you prefer bigger chunks, you could place them in a plastic bag and smash them with a rolling pin, meat tenderizer, or other heavy instrument.
• Pour the can of sweetened condensed milk over the entire pan of pineapple.
• Bake at 350° F for 25 - 30 minutes.

Note: this recipe calls for fresh pineapple and I really recommend using fresh. If you use the canned variety, the flavor will be somewhat sour and the texture won't be quite right.

Gâteau aux Fraises

I made strawberry shortcake last night. However, I decided to get a little adventurous and make a sponge cake instead of my usual drop biscuits. It turned out delicious! Although, I probably should have cut the cake recipe in half because now I have a ton of left-over sponge cake that I have no idea what I'm going to do with. What a terrible problem to have haha!

This was great as just regular old strawberry shortcake. But you could also cut the cake up into little pieces and then layer it with the strawberries and cool whip to make a trifle. If you want to make this an 'adults only' dessert, you could replace the orange juice with Grand Marnier or Triple Sec. Yum!

Gâteau aux Fraises
Makes: 6 servings

Cake:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
6 eggs, separated
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup plus 6 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt

Strawberries:
1 pint strawberries
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp orange juice

Cool whip or whipped cream

Make the cake:

• Spray a metal 13" x 9" baking sheet with a thin layer of cooking spray. Add flour to the pan and tap it around so that the flour coats all edges of the pan. Tap the pan while upside down to get rid of any excess flour. Set the pan aside.
• Sift together the flour and cornstarch. Set aside.
• Separate the egg yolks from the whites. Set the whites aside.
• In a stand mixer fitted with a whip attachment or with a hand mixer, beat the egg yolks, vanilla, and 3/4 cup sugar on high for about 3 minutes. Once the mixture is pale and fluffy, transfer it to a different mixing bowl and set aside. This is what it should look like:

• Wash the whip attachment and bowl thoroughly. This next step will not work if there is even a single speck of egg yolk left on your instruments.
• Whip together the egg yolks and salt on medium until soft peaks form. This will take about 3 minutes. First the egg whites will become frothy; then you'll slowly start the see the bubbles become extremely tiny and the egg whites will become more and more opaque. You'll also start to see lines in the egg whites trailing behind the whip. These are all signs that you're getting close to a soft peak. You'll know you have soft peaks when you dip the whip attachment into the egg whites, turn it upside down, and the mixture stays on the whip but still falls over and is not stiff, like so:

• Continue beating the egg whites and slowly add the remaining 6 tablespoons of sugar, one tablespoon at a time. You don't want to add it too quickly or you'll overwhelm the egg whites and lose all of that air you just whipped into them. Once all of the sugar is added, continue beating for about one more minute until the egg whites are glossy and stiff peaks form. You'll know you have stiff peaks when you dip the whip attachment into the egg whites, turn it upside down, and the mixture stands straight up, like so:

• Scrape the egg whites out of the mixing bowl and add them to the egg yolks that were set aside earlier. Very delicately fold the two mixtures together. If you're unfamiliar with this technique, this is what it should look like:

• Notice how I gently scrape the spatula through the middle, then around then edges. Just keep doing that over and over until the two mixtures are combined. You don't want to vigorously stir because this will destroy all of those air bubbles you worked so hard to create. The air bubbles are what are going to keep the cake light and fluffy.
• Note: Eggs can actually act as a leavening agent. In this recipe, you'll notice there's no baking powder or baking soda. That's because the eggs provide plenty of volume on their own. You'll see this in a lot of brownie recipes and other cake recipes. If you notice that your recipe is missing baking powder or baking soda, it's probably not an error; the recipe will most likely call for quite a few eggs.
• Next, add the flour and cornstarch mixture to the egg mixture in 3 additions. Fold this into the eggs just like you folded the two egg mixtures together; making sure to be very gentle.
• Pour the cake batter into the greased and floured 13"x 9" baking pan. Smooth the batter with your spatula.
• Bake at 350° F for 20 - 25 minutes until a tooth pick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Cake recipe adapted from Martha Stewart's Vanilla Sponge Cake

Make the strawberries:

• While the cake is baking, make the strawberry topping.
• Rinse the strawberries, cut off the leafy tops, then thinly slice them. Place the sliced strawberries in a glass bowl.
• Add the sugar, lemon juice, and orange juice. Stir then set aside.
• Note: these are referred to as 'macerated strawberries.' Maceration refers to the technique where you soften fruit with sugar and some kind of acid. In this case, the acid comes from the lemon juice and orange juice, but balsamic vinegar also tastes great on strawberries.

Assemble the Gâteau aux Fraises:

• Cut a 2" x 2" piece of sponge cake and place in the bottom of a bowl.
• Add the strawberry topping.
• Top with cool whip or whipped cream.

Nutella & Banana Crepes

Mmmm... Is there anything better than Nutella? I love dipping pretzels and fruit in it and I love spreading it on toast or even a plain shortbread cookie. So far, I haven't been able to get a recipe to work out that actually has Nutella in it (such as cookies for example) but maybe that's just me.

One of the best flavor combinations - in my humble opinion - is Nutella and bananas. These are two very sweet flavors but somehow they go really well together. I actually made these crepes for dinner (I like to live dangerously) but they're also great for breakfast or even dessert!

Nutella & Banana Crepes
Makes: 8 crepes

2 Cups milk
6 Tbsp butter + 2 tbsp for cooking
3 eggs
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
1 pinch salt
1 cup flour
3 bananas
Nutella

• Combine the milk and butter in a sauce pan. Heat until the butter is melted but the milk is not boiling.
• In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar until they are light and fluffy.
• Very slowly pour a gentle small stream of the hot milk into the egg mixture, whisking the entire time. (This process is called "tempering." You're slowly bringing up the temperature of the eggs versus just dumping the hot milk right into the eggs which would give you a bowl full of scrambled eggs and milk. Not fun.)
• Add the flour and salt to the egg and milk mixture. Whisk until smooth.
• Heat a saute pan over medium-medium high until very hot.
• Add a small pat of butter to the pan then ladle the crepe batter into the center of the pan. Lift the pan from the heat and swirl it around so that the batter spreads to all edges of the pan.
• Cook for about 30 seconds to one minute until brown. Then flip and cook another 30 seconds until the other side is also brown.
• Repeat with the remaining batter.

 

• Once the crepes are cooked. Spread some Nutella on half of the crepe.
• Then distribute the bananas on one quarter of the crepe (as pictured to the left).
• Fold the crepe in half, then in half again so that you have a triangle shape.
• Repeat with the remaining crepes.
• Top with whipped cream or cool whip if desired.

By the way, just how much is a pinch of salt? It's generally accepted that a pinch is about 1/8 tsp. It's literally so small it's not even worth measuring. You can easily eye-ball a pinch because it will fit into the palm of your hand when you shape your hand into a cup. Like so: 

Classic Cheesecake

Who doesn't love cheesecake?! I think this is one of those desserts that you can pretty much count on everyone liking. And the best part about cheesecake is that it's basically a blank canvas - albeit a delicious canvas! You can swirl in any number of flavors -  fruit, chocolate, caramel; add little goodies to the crust - nuts, chocolate chunks, oreo crumbs; and/or top it with delicious toppings - chocolate ganache, macerated berries, berry sauces, caramel sauce... mmmmm......

There's honestly nothing special about my cheesecake recipe. It's pretty much as basic as you can get. The only thing you might find different about it is the amount of sugar. My cheesecake has about half the amount of sugar you would typically find in a cheesecake recipe. The reason is because I like the delicate balance between sweet and savory. I don't want to just be overwhelmed by sweet. Plus it will help add balance if you add a bunch of sweet additions like chocolate or caramel.

Classic Cheesecake
Crust:
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (about 1 sleeve of graham crackers)
2 tbsp sugar
6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

Filling:
4 bricks of cream cheese (1 brick is 8 oz), softened
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

• Preheat oven to 325° F.
• Combine the graham crackers and the sugar.
• Brush a 9" spring-form pan with some of the melted butter.
• Mix the remaining butter into the graham cracker mixture.
• Dump the graham cracker mixture into the spring-from pan and press it down with your fingers making sure that the crust reaches all of the edges but does not go up the sides.
• Bake for 15 - 18 minutes until golden brown.
• Allow crust to cool completely.


• In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or with a hand mixer, cream together the cream cheese and sugar.
• Add the eggs and vanilla. Mix until fully combined.
• Pour the filling into the cooled crust.
• Place the spring form pan into a deep roasting pan. Transfer the roasting pan to the oven, then fill with boiling water so that the spring form pan is surrounded by water. Just be sure not to get any on the cheesecake!
• This technique is called a water bath. It allows the cheesecake to cook more evenly and minimizes the risk of the dreaded crack in the middle of the cheesecake.
• Bake at 325° F for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
• Do not open the oven door! Turn off the oven and leave the cheesecake in for another hour (for a total cooking time of 2 hours and 15 minutes). This will allow the cheesecake to finish cooking gently in the residual heat. This also protects from getting a crack in your cheesecake.
• Remove the cheesecake and allow to cool for 1 hour at room temperature. Then refrigerate for at least 8 hours before serving.

Remember how I said you can customize this recipe? Well, I made mini cheesecakes! Instead of a graham cracker crust, I placed a whole oreo at the bottom of each cupcake liner and then filled them with the batter.

Some of my favorite variations of cheesecake:

• Turtle - Add chopped pecans to the graham cracker crust; top the cooled cheesecake with drizzles of chocolate and caramel.
• White Chocolate Macadamia - Add chopped macadamia nuts to the graham cracker crust; pour white chocolate ganache over top of the cooled cheesecake, allow to chill for at least 1 more hour.
• White Chocolate Raspberry - Add 4 oz of melted white chocolate to the cheesecake batter; pour over graham cracker crust, then swirl in raspberry jam before baking.
• Coconut Lime - Add flaked coconut to the graham cracker crust; replace vanilla with 2 tbsp lime juice and add the zest of 1 lime to the cheesecake batter.
• Brownie Batter - Make fudge brownie mix, reserve 2/3 cup, pour the rest of the brownie batter into bottom of spring-form pan, bake for the normal recommended time, remove from oven then allow to cool; pour half of the cheesecake filling over the cooled brownie crust, mix the reserved brownie batter with the remaining half of the cheesecake filling, swirl together with the plain cheesecake filling, bake as normal.

Cinnamon Applesauce

Although this is technically filed under baby food, you'll probably be sneaking some for yourself too! This is another of Lola's favorites. The best part is that it's made in the crock-pot. But there are three different ways to make it, so if you don't have a crock-pot don't worry (but you should probably run out and get one - they're awesome!).

Applesauce
3-4 Granny Smith apples
3-4 Golden Delicious apples
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
2 Tbsp butter
1/4 Cup water

• Peel and core the apples, then dice into 1/2" pieces.
• Toss the apples into the crock-pot, along with the brown sugar, cinnamon, butter, and water.
• Cook on low for 2 hours until the apples are very soft and fall apart when you stir it with a spoon.
• You can also bake this, covered, at 325° F for 2 hours or simmer on the stovetop, covered, over low also for 2 hours.
• Once cooked, allow the apples to cool.
• If you want your applesauce to be smooth, you can transfer to a food processor and puree it. I like mine chunky so I mash it with a potato masher.

On a side note, when Lola was younger, I would omit the brown sugar and butter. It was still plenty sweet.

Also, because this is homemade it doesn't have a very long shelf life. I like to freeze portion sizes for Lola.

Buttermilk Drop Biscuits

We had strawberry shortcake for dessert last night.  I love making this with my mom's buttermilk drop biscuits.  It reminds me of my childhood... and it's delicious!  The biscuits are great by themselves as well or even with some extra little goodies added to them.

Buttermilk Drop Biscuits

2 C Flour

4 Tsp Baking powder

½ Tsp Baking soda

¾ Tsp Salt

4 Tbsp Melted butter

1 C Buttermilk

• Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt.  Mix in the melted butter and butter milk until just combined. You definitely don't want to over-stir this kind of recipe.
• Drop the biscuits in large spoonfuls onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. You can also drop them into a round cake pan, then cut them after they come out of the oven.
• Bake at 375° F for 15 minutes.

Variations:

Cheddar Biscuits: add ¾ cup of shredded cheddar cheese, ½ teaspoon of garlic powder, and one teaspoon of parsley to the dry ingredients before adding the wet. Only add 3 tbsp of melted butter to the biscuit dough. Reserve the last tablespoon to brush on top of biscuits after they come out of the oven.

Strawberry Shortcake: Slice one pint of strawberries and toss with one tablespoon of lemon juice, one tablespoon of orange juice, and two tablespoons of sugar.  Place a biscuit in a bowl; top with strawberries and whipped cream.

Cheesy Olive Biscuits: take ¼ cup black olives and ¼ cup kalamata olives and finely chop.  Add to the biscuit dough along with ¾ cup shredded cheddar cheese.

Note: Ok, so I think it's been well established at this point that I'm a cheater.  And I've gotta fess up.  I actually use powdered buttermilk in this recipe.  For me, it's so much easier because the shelf life is around 2 years so I can have it hanging around whenever I need it.  I just add 4 tablespoons of the powder directly to the other dry ingredients.  Then I add one cup of water (instead of the cup of buttermilk, just to be clear).