Making the world a little sweeter one pastry tip at at time.
A new summertime favorite dessert of the family: chiffon pies. They are cool, light, and depending on the filling can be tame and sweet – or sweet and snappy. I have fond memories of going to strawberry and cream festivals as a kid. To this …read more
I’m celebrating National food holidays this summer and apple turnovers was last week. But if you think apple turnovers are things us Americans made up, Bernard Clayton Jr. has something else to say about them in his The Complete Book of Pastry, Sweet and Savory: …read more
Summertime is hot. It’s nice to cool it down with something cool and sweet like ice cream. How exactly National Strawberry Sundae Day is on July 7th is something I can’t find, but the fact that it’s on the first part of July is probably a factor. It’s a date in the middle of the summer. Me finding ice cream and sundae toppings using 7-Up as a major ingredient seems like devine intervention.
Here are some some ice cream and sundae topping recipes to celebrate this holiday on the 7th of July, by 7-Up soda. These recipes are from the 1963 little booklet from the Seven-Up Company, Quick Recipe Favorites…distinctively different with 7-Up. The fudge one is especially fudgy and would be great on anything, so don’t limit it to just ice cream.
Images credit Renee Shelton and The Seven-Up Company.
Book referenced:
Prickly pears are an incredible tasting and colorful fruit. We get ours fresh from local cactus around where we live but they can also be found in select markets. Unfortunately, most of the prickly pears are harvested before their time so the full, sweet flavor …read more
If there is one dessert to make with fresh, ripe cherries, it would be a clafoutis. Originating in France, clafoutis is a fruit dessert with an egg-y batter that is in between a custard and a pancake. Think of clafoutis aux cerises as a cherry flan with no crust or shell. Depending on where you are, the dessert will be spelled with an ‘s’ at the end or no ‘s’. After baking, it is generally dusted with powdered sugar and served warm or room temperature. The baked dessert puffs up as it bakes and deflates slightly after it cools and since it is served in the dish it is baked in, decorative or favorite bakeware is used. Oven safe cookware is also used: I used my stainless steel lined copper frying pan; you can use your favorite seasoned cast iron pans, too.
Recipes vary greatly for this dessert but typically contain eggs in either whole form or yolks, and some recipes call for whipping the egg whites into peaks then folding into the batter before baking. Milk, sugar (granulated or powdered), and a flavoring such as vanilla or lemon zest are also used.
Cherries are most frequently and traditionally used in clafoutis, in either fresh, sauteed, or reconstituted dried forms. Other fruits are also used such as fresh pears, peaches or plums, or dried fruits. Traditional recipes will call for whole cherries (not pitted) but for convenience for the guest, clafoutis is now more often then not prepared with pitted cherries.
Here is my recipe for clafoutis. Use the ripest, darkest cherries you can find for best flavor and color.
Clafoutis aux Cerises (Cherry Clafouti)
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Butter a baking pan well and reserve.
Whisk everything but the cherries in a large mixing bowl until smooth. Pour into the buttered baking dish and add the the cherries, distributing them evenly over the surface.
Bake for 20 to 30 minutes, or until the top is golden and the center tests done. Serve warm and dust with powdered sugar before serving.
Lemon Tart – Renee Shelton Fruit curd is a common condiment on the breakfast table and is delicious over toast or waffles for breakfast. Fruit curd is also used in prebaked tart and pie shells for an easy dessert. Typically, a fruit or citrus curd is …read more
Today is National Peach Cobbler Day. My go-to recipe for peach cobbler at home comes straight from the pages of Southern Living Magazine. I was a fan of the magazine long before my big move to the South, and have yet to try a recipe …read more
