Category: Food & Cooking

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Summer Fruit Sorbets

Pretty much all of you are enduring record heat this week. It makes getting outside a bit more difficult. However, there are some upsides to the current high temperatures.

Ice cream. In our case . . .  berry sorbet (recipe is linked below).

We are at the height of berry season, so of course this is a great time to enjoy the harvest. Typically we’d be canning jam and jelly, but that’s counterproductive in this heat wave. We are freezing fruit this summer to be used for projects in the fall, when heating the house isn’t a problem.

But there is no reason not to enjoy fresh berries now.  We have found a great way to ‘store’ some of that fresh berry goodness. Sorbet!

It is simple to make . . .  just fruit, a bit of sugar and a dash of lemon juice. We take our ice cream very serious in this house and have a high tech ‘churn,’ but any ice cream maker will work.

This batch was made with loganberries. We still have a bit of strawberry sorbet in the freezer. Paired with a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream, it brings back memories of old fashioned creamsicles.

All in all, it is even better than lemonade or iced coffee at chillin’.

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5 from 1 vote

Loganberry Sorbet

Fresh fruit in a ice cold package

Ingredients

  • 4 cups fresh (or frozen) berries 450 g
  • 1 cup water 250 g
  • ⅔ cup sugar 130 g
  • 2 tsp fresh squeezed lemon juice

Instructions

  • Puree the berries in a blender with water until smooth. Press the mixture through a strainer to remove the seeds. Stir in the lemon juice.
  • Chill mixture thoroughly, then freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

 

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Simple as Apple Pie

Joy through untracked powder
Start of winter

Gradually the days grow colder and our interest in the weather is focused on the next snowstorm.

We’ve finished up this year’s canning projects, and our plan to replenish a dwindling supply of Apple Butter and Crabapple Jelly is now complete.

If you spend time in a kitchen it’s likely you’ve put-up jam. If you tend a garden, you know the difference between hot-water bath and pressure canning.

While not essential, most pantries benefit from simple canning efforts. It is a great way to elevate your PB&J.

Elstar apples, honeyed & crisp

We’d put up a few pints of jam at the height of berry season, but the cool days of fall make it a much more pleasant task.

Farmer’s markets present good places to pick fresh for a dinner or two, but not for canning. Between the last sunny days of August and that first snow in October we swing through the Fruit Loop and pick out a mix of eating and cooking apples, as well as a handful of pears.

Apple Hand Pies

This week we finished up the last of the apples with a baking project. Apple pie scaled to Hand Pie . . . not turnovers but with laminated dough. Joanne Chang has a recipe for a flaky, buttery crust which we fill with apple, cinnamon and sugar. Perfect pie for a picnic box and very easy to make.

We’ll attach the recipes to the bottom of the post and encourage you to try the crust recipe on any pie.

Print Recipe

Master Single-Crust Pate Brisee

Author: Joanne Chang/Pastry Love

Ingredients

  • 1 cup AP flour [140 g]
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 1/8 sticks unsalted butter [130 g]
  • 1 large Egg yok (at room temperature)

Instructions

  • In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, paddle together the flour, sugar, and salt for 10 to 15 seconds. Cut the butter into about 12 pieces and add it to the flour mixture. Paddle slowly until the flour is no longer bright white and the mixture holds together when you clump it, and there are still lumps of butter the size of pecans throughout…30-45 seconds.
  • Whisk together the egg yolk and milk in a small bowl and add them all at once to the flour-butter mixture. Paddle very briefly, just until it barely comes together, about 30 seconds it will look really shaggy and more like a mess than a dough.
  • Dump the dough out into a clean work surface and gather it together into a tight mound. Using the heel of your hand, smear the dough starting at the top of the mound and sliding your hand down the sides of the mound along the work surface, until most of the butter chunks are smeared into the dough and the whole thing comes together. (The technique is called fraisage, and makes for a very flaky pie dough.)
  • Wrap the dough tightly with plastic wrap and press down to make a disk about 1 inch thick. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour before using.
  • The dough can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 4 days or in the freezer for up to 4 weeks. Wrap in another layer of plastic if storing for more than 1 day
Print Recipe

Fruit Hand Pies

Author: Joanne Chang / Pastry Love

Ingredients

  • 1 recipe Master Single - Crust Pate Brisee
  • 250 grams fresh or frozen fruit
  • 1 large egg for egg wash
  • 1 Tbsp sanding sugar

Blueberry filling [250 grams ]

  • 3 Tbsp superfine sugar
  • 1 Tbsp cornstarch
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • ¼ tsp grated lemon zest

Apple Filling [250 grams]

  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1-2 Tbsp flour
  • pinch Salt, Cinnamon, and Nutmeg

Instructions

for Blueberry filling

  • In a  saucepan, combine about ¾ of the blueberries, the superfine sugar, cornstarch, and salt, and stir together with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula. Turn the heat on medium high and stir occasionally, until the blueberries start to soften and let out juice. Bring the mixture just to a boil, then remove from heat. Add the remaining blueberries and the lemon zest and stir to combine. Set aside to cool to room temperature.

For Apple Filling

  • Peel, core and slice apples into small bite size pieces. Add brown sugar, flour and seasonings and stir. Allow to macerate (soften) for ½ hour.

Basic Hand Pie

  • Preheat oven to 325 degrees and place a rack in the center of the oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set it aside. Remove the pate brisee from the fridge about 15 minutes before using it to soften slightly.
  • Generously flick flour over the work surface. Portion out 6 individual pieces of the dough and roll each one out in a circle 1/8 inch thick. Dock the dough all over with a fork. Lay the circles on parchment paper. Whisk the egg for the egg wash in a small bowl. Use a pastry brush to brush the egg wash over the perimeter of one circle. Place 2 heaping tablespoons of the fruit filling in the middle of the circle. Carefully fold the circle over the filling to make a half-moon keeping the filling inside and press firmly around the edge of the circle to seal. Repeat to fill the remaining circles.
  • Freezing Hand Pies: At this point you can freeze the hand pies on a baking sheet until solid. Transfer them to an airtight container, and store in the freezer for up to 2 weeks. When you are ready to bake the pies, remove them from the freezer and bake as instructed, adding up to 5 minutes to the baking time.
  • Brush the tops of the hand pies with the remaining egg wash and sprinkle them evenly with the sanding sugar. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, rotating the baking sheet midway through the baking time, until the pies are evenly golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool.
  • Hand pies should be enjoyed the same day they are baked, but they can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature overnight. If you are serving them the next day, refresh them in a 300 degree oven for about 8 minutes.
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Apple Season

Apples destined for sorbet, chutney, turnovers, fritters, tarts, and pies


To most, this time of year is Fall … to us it is Apple Season.

For a few weeks, on the northern foothills of Mt. Hood, between the end of September and early November, you can find roadside stands offering tree-ripened fruit.

Mt Hood

Kiyokawa Family Orchards is in Parkdale, which is twenty minutes from Hood River, or two hours from Bend, depending where you start your journey. For us, the reason to travel to the highest reaches of the Hood River fruit orchards … is Kiyokawa.

Dolgo Crabapples, earmarked for jelly

You’d be hard-pressed to find a better variety of tree fruit in one spot. There is literally a maze of apples and pears. JQ does her research and builds a list. In years past these excursions ended with bags of un-identified fruit, so now, armed with a list, we are more focused.

Dolgo crabapples for jelly and McIntosh for apple butter
From left to right, Hanner’s Jumbo, one of the largest apples, Dolgo Crabapple, Pink Pearl

Apples and pears for picnic boxes are only part of the haul.

There will be a batch of apple butter and slices for gallettes and pies added to the freezer.

Crabapple jelly is on the list of new projects this fall.

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Picnic Snacks

Today’s picnic features Brown Butter Crispy Rice Treats and Oatmeal cookies
Snack contemplation

Is it really a picnic lunch if there’s no ‘cake’? While growing up, my family’s fishing trips featured Camping Cake, a date rich cake, topped with walnuts and chocolate chips, transported in an aluminum nine by thirteen pan. 

We’ll focus today’s post on the best part of any picnic, because … Every Picnic Needs to have Snacks (part of our ongoing Rules to Live By).

Lately, we’ve been working through cookie recipes for our picnic boxes … well, evening snacks too. Classic cookie recipe searches will bring up a surprisingly long and not so surprising unvaried list. But that is just the type of cookie that can survive a road trip in a tin box.

In the midst of this quest, JQ discovered an excellent book by Joanne Chang Flour: A Baker’s Collection of Spectacular Recipes. Chang’s book approaches everyday recipes with additions that make for extraordinary desserts.

For instance, the oatmeal cookie recipe in this book has a subtle hint of nutmeg, which really makes this basic staple addictive. What is not just classic but iconic? Rice Crispy Treats, right?

What elevates this recipe is two additions … browning the butter and adding vanilla bean.

Chang’s **Brown Butter Crispy Rice Treats** is a nice take on how you’d imagine the original tastes, but without getting too many pans dirty. We’ve shared the map to crispy goodness below.

Print Recipe

Brown Butter Crispy Rice Treats

Ingredients

  • 228 grams unsalted butter 2 sticks
  • ½ vanilla bean sliced lengthwise
  • 280 grams marshmallows 2 x 10oz bags
  • 240 grams crispy rice cereal 9 cups
  • pinch salt

Instructions

  • Butter a 9 x 13 baking pan.
  • In a large sauce pan, melt the butter over low heat. As the butter melts, slice the vanilla bean in half lengthwise and scrape the seeds directly into the butter.
  • Once the butter has melted, it will start to bubble and crackle. Watch carefully to see it slowly brown. As soon as the bubbling subsides, after about 5 minutes, the butter will be browned. Add the marshmallows and a pinch of salt and stir constantly over low heat until the marshmallows are completely melted and the vanilla seeds are evenly distributed.
  • Remove the pan from the heat, add the cereal, and mix well to combine. Turn the mixture into the prepared pan and pat into an even layer. allow to cool for about an hour, or to room temperature, then cut into even pieces.
  • Treats can be stored in an airtight container for up to 2 days
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In Season

Early morning sunlight shines through jars of jelly

Pandemic, supply chain issues, inflation; the last couple of years have been quite a ride. A lesson to take from this turmoil is that we need to stop depending on goods and materials shipped from great distances.

Eating regionally and locally-sourced food puts better quality ingredients on your table. The downside is the seasonal nature of growing food.

In America, we have become accustomed to having year-around access to a wide range of produce. These gas chamber ripened crops lack taste but fill grocery shelves. Until you’ve had a tree ripened stone fruit you might not know what a peach or nectarine should taste like.

Fresh apricots

There are seasons when produce is available and at its peak. We need to regain an appreciation for these swaths of time. For example, right now summer berry season is coming to a close and a plethora of stone fruits are coming off the trees.

Loganberries, a hybrid of the blackberry and the European raspberry.

You can hold onto a flat of raspberries for maybe a couple of weeks, if you’re careful. A peach or plum will be at its most flavorful for less time, though you can use the fridge to extend that juicy goodness.  Its easy to find recipes to preserve any of your favorites.

While there is a narrow window on fresh with any fruit, you can preserve seasonal delicacies. Ironically, at the hottest time of the year our kitchen often has a boiling pot of water and fruit pulp fighting the AC unit.

Apricot jam in a jar

For the last couple of weeks we’ve been putting up pints of fruit preserves. In our house that consists mostly of jam because it retains the whole fruit, but also that’s the simplest process.

A classic … mason jar logo with loganberry backdrop.

At the same time we are gobbling up bowls of fresh fruits, we are water bath processing pints of that goodness to enjoy through the winter months. The biscuit recipe below is the perfect foundation for your kitchen preserves.

Print Recipe

Freezer biscuits

A cream biscuit recipe to stock your freezer with ... quick cook biscuits
Servings: 24 biscuits

Ingredients

  • 6 cups AP flour
  • 2 Tbsp Sugar
  • 2 Tbsp Baking powder
  • 1 ½ tsp Salt
  • 4 1/2 cups Heavy cream

Instructions

  • Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder and salt toether.
  • Stir in cream with wooden spoon until dough forms, about 30 seconds. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured counter and gather into a ball. Knead dough until smooth, about 60 seconds, adding extra flour if dough is too sticky.
  • Roll to ¾ inch thickness and cut 2 ½ inch round biscuits. Lay out on parchment papered baking sheet with about ½ inch spacing.

To Store

  • Freeze for about 6 hours, then store in zip lock bags for up to a month or more.

to serve

  • Adjust an oven rack to the upper middle position and heat oven to 450°. Lay desired number of biscuits on a parchment lined baking sheet, about 2 inches apart. Bake until puffed and golden brown, 18 to 20 minutes.