Peach Crisp

I've been working on a good basic crisp recipe.  This version turned out really good.  I like peaches to taste like peaches (no lemon) and the spices to be added to a crisp topping. I've  always loved a scoop of ice cream with warm fruit desserts.  But I'm trying to leave it off once in a while.  Notice that empty space in the bowl where the ice cream would be.  And notice that cold fresh glass of skim milk that took its place. It was delicious!  I wouldn't even want ice cream with this recipe.  That cold milk was just the refreshing drink that was perfect between bites of hot fruity peach crisp.  I baked it to the maximum time to get the topping crisp.  This is half of the usual amount of crisp because I'm trying to have fewer leftovers.  It made about 4 servings.

 Recipe:

PEACH CRISP

Preheat oven to 350 degrees,
Makes about 4 servings

Filling:

2 lb. fresh peaches, peeled and cut up
2 Tblsp. granulated sugar
1 Tblsp. all-purpose flour

Topping:

1/4 cup and 2 Tblsp. all-purpose flour
1/4 cup and 2 Tblsp. Old-fashioned oats
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. nutmeg (I use freshly-grated nutmeg)
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup chopped hazelnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 1-1/2 quart baking dish.
To make the filling:  peel peaches and cut them into wedges. Then cut the wedges in half.

Mix the peaches with the 2 tblsp. sugar and 1 tblsp. flour. Put them into the buttered baking dish.

To make the topping:  Mix together the flour, oats, brown sugar, salt and spices.  Mix in the butter with a pastry cutter, fork or your fingers until butter is evenly mixed in.  Chop the chopped hazelnuts until smaller. (I had a bag of prechopped hazelnuts but wanted them smaller.)

Mix the nuts into the dry ingredients.  Put the topping evenly over the fruit and slide into oven.

Bake 40 to 45 minutes until crust is browned and peaches are bubbling.

This is really delicious  and juicy when warm-and so easy to prepare. I love the bites of hazelnut in the topping.
 

Peach and Blackberry Galette

Peaches are still plentiful.   This week I tried peaches and blackberries in a rustic tart. My husband loved this combination of sweet peaches and the bit of tang from blackberries. The amount of sugar used in the fillings depends on the sweetness of the fruit.  Some recipes call for the addition of flour to the fruit. This does not contain any and I didn't feel it needed it. The short bake time helps keep the juices in the fruits. You don't have to overlap the dough quite as much as I did.  .

My very favorite way to eat this is hot with vanilla ice cream melting over every bite.

 I tried a slice at room temperature with vanilla glaze over it-- delicious with a hot sweet cup of tea!

Peach and Blackberry Galette

Filling

3 ripe peaches, peeled, pitted and sliced
1-1/2 cups fresh blackberries
3 Tablespoons granulated sugar (or more-depending on sweetness of fruit)
1 teaspoon cinnamon, optional

Crust

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 Tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, chilled
1/4 to 1/3 cup cold water

1 egg, beaten

Granulated sugar for sprinkling

To make the crust, combine the dry ingredients.  Cut in butter as for a pie crust until particles are in coarse crumbs no larger than small peas. Sprinkle the cold water over the mixture, stirring it in with a fork.  Add more water as needed until the dough holds together when pressed together.  Avoid overworking the dough. Lightly form into a thick disk.  Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator about an hour.

To make the filling, mix the dry ingredients together.  Mix them lightly with the prepared fruit and refrigerate until needed.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to about a 12 to 14-inch circle.  Scoop the fruit, without its juice, onto the center of the dough.   Spread the fruit to about 3 inches from the outer edge of the dough.  Fold the dough up over the outer edge of the fruit all around.  Add a couple spoonfuls of the fruit's juice over the fruit.  Brush the top of the dough with the beaten egg. Sprinkle lightly with sugar over the crust.  Bake 25 to 35 minutes until lightly browned. Test peach with fork to check for tenderness.  Serve warm with ice cream or drizzle with a vanilla glaze.

vanilla glaze:  1 cup powdered sugar, 1 Tblsp. half and half or light cream, 1/4 tsp. vanilla
                         Mix together until smooth. Drizzle over galette

Roasted Peaches

I've been away for a while.  Peach season seems like a good time to come back.  We live near an orchard so we can get fresh-from-the-tree peaches.  I can't resist bringing home more than we can eat fresh so I want to do something with them.  I'm not in the mood for cobbler or pie today.  I want something lighter.  I remember that I baked peaches many years ago with just some cornflakes, sugar and butter in the center.  I don't have the exact recipe I used but this is close enough.

Roasted Peaches

Three peaches
1/2 cup crushed cornflakes
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
butter

Preheat oven to 350 deg. Grease a baking dish. Gather your ingredients.

Lightly crush the cornflakes. I learned this trick from my mother-in-law for crushing crackers, nuts, or cornflakes. Put them in a baggie and use a rolling pin.

Mix together the cornflake crumbs, brown sugar and cinnamon. Put the peeled peach halves in the baking dish and scoop  about 3 tablespoons of the crumb mixture on each half. If the peaches are really sweet, you may use less.  Add more if they are tart.  Dot with butter.

Bake about 40 minutes until the peaches are softened and the top is lightly browned.

These peaches were firm, with a fresh bit of tang to them.  Delicious hot with vanilla ice cream!
I had some plum sauce I heated and drizzled on top.  (I had previously cooked some plums with sugar to make a sauce.)

Yummm!!! Just the fresh peach dessert I was looking for!!! Plum sauce good but totally unnecessary.  The fresh hot peach with crunchy sweet topping  and melting vanilla ice cream are all you need!

I also love these peaches as an ingredient in a bowl of hot oatmeal or as a healthy snack with cottage cheese.

My Favorite Zucchini Bread

I have made three versions of zucchini bread this summer.  So far this one gets my vote. I used "Mom's Zucchini Bread" at allrecipes.  I used the recipe exactly as it is.
I prepared my ingredients:

I got my soapy water ready. Forever burned into my brain is the voice of my high school home ec teacher,"keep your work area clean!" I wash my tools as I go--only takes a second and it's so nice at the end!

I don't sift ingredients that often anymore, but I did for this bread: 

Then I mixed the eggs, oil and vanilla:

 

I added dry ingredients to the wet mixture:

After mixing I used two 8-inch loaf pans:

In the oven they went at 325 degrees and out to knit and watch the clothes dry, I went:

After about an hour:

Like all the other recipes I've tried, this one was still sweeter than I need.  I'll try half as much sugar next time.  I liked the walnuts but missed the raisins.  Next time I'll soak a cup of raisins in boiling water about an hour, drain and use them in place of nuts.  The  3 tsp. of cinnamon was yummy and I loved the 3 tsp. vanilla. For now this will be my basic recipe that I play around with. It would be good with different fruits and I might try different flours, etc., but for flavor and texture this is really good!

Zucchini and Red Onion on Naan Bread

A friend gave me this recipe for using zucchini that is now stacked to the ceiling of our kitchen.  I don't know its origin,  but it is one of the most delicious zucchini dishes I've tried.

Preheat oven to 400 F.

young zucchini, thinly sliced

medium red onion, thinly sliced

Naan flatbread

1 tub Garden Vegetable cream cheese, softened (the original recipe calls for Garlic Herb Boursin Cheese, but I didn't  have that on hand that day--both are delicious)

3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian Parsley

salt

Saute the red onion in a little canola or olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and remove from pan.  Add a little more oil and saute the zucchini in that pan until lightly browned.  Salt lightly and remove from pan.

Spread Naan with cream cheese.  Sprinkle with some of the Parmesan.

Place cooked onion in a row at one end of the flatbread. Place zucchini next to it in another row. Add another row of onion and another zucchini and end with another row of onion.  Add chopped parsley over the top and the remaining Parmesan cheese over the top.

Place in oven and bake about 20 minutes.

The amounts don't have to be exact.  I used white Naan bread but the recipe called for whole wheat (healthier), which I didn't find in our market. Pita or other flatbread would also work. 

Cut into quarters and eat like pizza.









Fresh Red Currants

I've been away from my blog and your blogs for four months.  Sometimes I get so busy with teaching and life that some of the things I enjoy most get set aside temporarily.  Or some little thing happens and I just get on another plane for a while.  Four months ago, I turned 65.  Always ready for the next challenge, I went to my doctor and asked for a really good checkup.  I was told that I need to get my cholesterol down or consider medication.  That's not good news for someone who loves food, making bread, belonging to a cheese-making group, making ice cream (not just ice cream, but "gelato!"),  etc., etc.  I sulked for a while, protested, not ready to join the "high-cholesterol" crowd, not ready to give up my soulmate bond with Paula Deen and butter.  I set out to see what I could do for myself to get my numbers down--probably nothing since it runs in my family--but I got on it.  In the last four months I've lost 30 pounds, all my numbers are down some and I actually do feel 10 years younger--at least!  I have not stopped eating good food.  I'm eating good HEALTHY food in small amounts and often.  I'm exercising and staying active.  My blog emphasis will shift a little toward healthy recipes that I've tried and loved and seasonal foods.  I have given up butter and cheese (not forever, of course), but I haven't actually missed those since there are so many other good foods out there to eat.  I'm returning to blogging with a recipe that I tried today to use some of our beautiful jewel currants. And you'll notice that in this recipe are butter, eggs and cream-which of course I don't eat anymore.  This recipe can be found at delicious days.  I used it just as it's written. I mixed flour butter, confectioner's sugar, egg yolk and salt for the crust. After chilling the dough, I cut it into 5 equal pieces and rolled each one out before fitting it into a buttered 2-piece tart pan.

After baking and cooling the shells, I filled them with fresh currants

Then I mixed the eggs, brown sugar and cream and poured over the berries and back in the oven to bake again.

After the tarts were cooled, I sprinkled confectioner's sugar over the top and enjoyed my first Fresh Red Currant Tart!

The crust is really good.  If you like the fresh tangy flavor of red currants, this is a good recipe.

More Wild Mushrooms, Agaricus campestris

I found more today.  This time I'm adding some onion and thyme.

I start these by peeling off the caps and slicing them.  I add a little butter and olive oil to a pan and saute some chopped onion.  When it's translucent, I add the mushrooms along with some fresh thyme leaves.

When the liquid evaporates and the mushrooms are cooked, I finish them off with just about a tablespoon of cream to give a silky texture.  These mushrooms are not as firm as those from the store--they have thinner caps--but they have such a delicious woodsy mushroom flavor!  The first few times I had cultivated mushrooms I thought they were rubbery compared to these.

My absolute favorite way to eat these is just over boiled, fork-mashed, salted potatoes. And, today, I treated myself to some marinated herring in sour cream on the side.  (My husband said I just lost him there--he wants no part of the herring.)  My drink of choice for this meal is cold fresh buttermilk.

Field Mushrooms, Pieczarki

We've had several days of heavy rain and cool temperatures.  Today was a beautiful day with the definite feel of very early fall.  I walked behind the house to feel the fresh air and spotted a couple field mushrooms.  We usually find a couple in early fall but this time I kept finding more and more.  I didn't even have my apron on to gather them up in so I balanced as many as I could on one hand but had to give up and go for the basket--and a knife.

We always gathered these mushrooms when I was young and always heard the stories of the beautiful mushrooms that Mama and her sisters gathered in the woods in Poland.  They were of all colors and would look so pretty in a pan together she would tell me.  She didn't know the wild mushrooms here so these were the only ones we gathered.  The Polish name for these is pieczarki.  We had a black iron wood stove in our kitchen at that time and we liked to lay a couple mushrooms right on the stove itself and let them sizzle with a little salt sprinkled on top and ate them right off the stove.  Mostly, Mama fried them gently in butter and added a little flour, cooked a little more, and then poured in some light cream to make the best mushroom sauce.  The only seasonings she used were salt and pepper. 

Since they have soil and grass over their caps, we just peeled the thin skin off each one. 

I sliced them and prepared them just like my mother did.  These mushrooms are more delicate than the cultivated ones in the grocery store and have a little deeper flavor.  If they were from the store I might add onion or thyme, but I want these plain with just a little thickened cream and salt and pepper and I'm having them over plain bread, toasted.

  The only thing I wanted with this fall lunch was an icy cold glass of fresh, sweet apple cider from the farmer's market.  

Note:  There are white wild mushrooms that are quite poisonous--don't even taste a mushroom that you don't know for absolutely certain is edible. 

Plum Pierogi

Italian prune plums always remind me of my mother's plum pierogi.  I loved them and am craving that taste again.

I made the pierogi dough the same as in the earlier post.  I only made a half recipe since I didn't plan to make too many pierogi.  I cut the circles out with a cutter that was a little over 3" across.  I washed 16 plums, cut them open on one side only, removed the pit and replaced it with a sugar cube.  I then wrapped a round of dough around each plum and sealed it according to the directions in my pierogi post.  If you find the dough is a little dry and wants to tear, wet your fingers with water and smooth the whole surface of the round with the water while stretching it gently before putting the plum into it.  Also, wet the inside edge before you seal it to make a tighter seal.   Follow directions to cook the pierogi, about half of them at a time.  At home, we just ate them as they came out of the water, but I thought my husband might prefer some sort of topping.  The usual topping would be bread crumbs browned in butter with some cinnamon and sugar added.  I decided to try these with plum sauce instead since I had so many plums.

Plum Sauce

1-1/2 lbs. prune plums, pitted and chopped

1/4 cup sugar

A little water--2 or 3 tablespoons

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon butter

Simmer the first 4 ingredients until the plums become soft and the water cooks out a little.  Add the butter and simmer a couple more minutes to make a thickened sauce.

Serve the pierogi with the plum sauce.  Sprinkle with a little more cinnamon.

 

I like these warmed up a day later with some sauce--the flavors are better blended by then.   This is one of my nostalgia--from home--treats that I really make just for myself. 

Plum Cake with cardamom

This cake is good made with plums that have some sweetness to them--no ice cream needed:

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon cardamom

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 egg yolks (or 2 large eggs)

6 plums

1 Tablespoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Line a 9-1/2" springform pan with wax paper.  Preheat oven to 350 deg. F. 

Mix flour with baking powder, salt and cardamom.  Set aside.

Whip softened butter and 1 cup sugar in mixer until light and fluffy.  Mix in the vanilla.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each one.  Add the dry ingredients and mix.

Spread batter into pan.  Slice the plums into eight pieces and layer into the cake batter.  Mix the tablespoon sugar with cinnamon and sprinkle over plums.

Bake about one hour until cake is golden and cake tester or toothpick comes out clean. 

Yogurt Cheese Applied

I recently made some yogurt cheese.  I had to answer the question I knew would come:  "What are you going to do with that??"  I decided one answer would be sweet and one savory.

This is my peach (and plum) month so I came up with a peach/plum salad.  I love spices and honey and this late summer weather makes me think about cinnamon.

I peeled and sliced peaches, sliced plums and alternated them with small slices of my yogurt cheese.  The center mound of cheese has been whipped with a little honey and powdered cardamom.  The others are plain.  I drizzled my very favorite honey over it.  Acacia honey has a suggestion of plum blossoms in its flavor that I love.  Then I sprinkled cinnamon liberally  and grated nutmeg lightly over that.  I sprinkled some chopped salted pistachios around the edge.  The peaches were particularly juicy and fresh in this salad.  You don't really need the sweet drier plums, but I think they look pretty.

Now the savory: 

This time I mixed my yogurt cheese with chopped dill and chopped chives.  I added a few drops apple cider vinegar to moisten the mixture and add a little tang.  I added salt to taste.  I spread that on pita bread.  I peeled and sliced a cucumber.  I sprinkled a little salt over the slices and mixed it in with them and then layered them over the bread.  I added freshly-ground black pepper to the top.  A second layer of cucumbers wouldn't have hurt.  I'm making one of these for my lunch at work tomorrow.

Plums and Plum Crisp

I went to the farmer's market for more peaches and they had these baskets of mixed plums.  I never know which plums are my favorite so I jumped at the chance for an easy taste test.

Queen Rosa:  A little hard to split--the flesh wanted to cling to the seed a little.  The taste was mild and enhanced with a bit of honey.  Upon heating, it developed more flavor with a good tang.

Black Ember:  Easy to split.  Taste was actually too bland and a little dip in honey made it even more bland by contrast.  When I heated it, it became sour, and somewhat flat.

Satsuma:  These were very small.  When I split one the seed came out taking plum flesh with it all around. The taste was more plumlike and a little drier in texture.  Honey was good with it.  Heating it made it a little tangy--pretty good.

The next time I go I would buy a basket of Queen Rosa--they were my definite favorite for flavor.

I wanted to make a Plum Crisp, but I needed 4 cups of plums and I only had a little over 1/2 that so I added a couple peaches.

I added the topping

Baked

And ate

                                                   PLUM CRISP

Filling:

4 cups pitted plums, sliced (or a mix of plums and peaches)

1 Tablespoon flour

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

2 Tablespoons granulated sugar

Dough:

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup regular rolled oats

1/4 cup granulated white sugar

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

a pinch of salt

1/4 cup unsalted butter (melted)

Preheat oven to 350 deg. Mix the fruit with the 2 tablespoons white sugar, the 1 tablespoon flour, and the cinnamon. Pour into a buttered baking dish, about 6-1/2" x 10".  Mix the 1/2 cup flour, oats, both remaining sugars, cardamom and salt.  Lightly mix the melted butter through the dry mix until well-moistened.  Spread over the fruit. Put in oven and bake around 45 minutes or until topping is lightly browned and filling is bubbly.

Serve with ice cream, lightly sweetened cream or vanilla yogurt.