Peach and Mixed Berry Crisp

Peach and Mixed Berry Crisp

On Wednesday August 10, 2011 there will be a post written by yours truly on Cookie Madness! I couldn’t be any more excited about the opportunity to do a guest post for Anna while she’s on vacation. The inspiration for the post is the Ginsberg’s Alaskan cruise.

When Anna and I chatted we talked about ice cream desserts but as I did my research and thought about Alaska I kept coming back to berries. One of the recipes I was really excited about is this crisp recipe I found on Epicurious. Apparently it is on the menu at a place in Anchorage called Marx Bros. Cafe. A google search for Marx Bros. Cafe told me that if I ever get to Anchorage I will make time for a meal there.

The peach berry crisp is excellent. It didn’t make the cut for my Cookie Madness post because it was the slightest bit runny and I didn’t think the photos were very appealing. That said, it’s a very tasty dessert and one I would make again. I loved the flavors of all the fruits and the topping was nice and crisp.

My husband enjoyed this with vanilla ice cream. I ate mine straight up.

Peach and Mixed Berry Crisp (adapted by Sue at Basically Baked)

Topping

3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup (packed) light brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons unsalted butter

Fruit layer

2 large peaches, peeled, pitted, chopped (about 2 1/2 cups)
1 1/3 cups blueberries (about 6 ounces)
1 1/3 cups raspberries (about 6 ounces)
1 1/3 cups blackberries (about 5.6 ounces)
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8×8 inch baking dish.

In a small bowl whisk together the dry ingredients for the topping, then add the butter and rub all of the ingredients together with the back of a spoon until the crumbs are very fine. You can also do this with your fingers but I prefer to use a spoon. Set the mixture aside.

Put all of the fruit in a separate bowl and toss it with the sugar and flour.

Place the mixture in the prepared baking dish and bake for 40 minutes stirring every ten minutes until the juices are bubbling. Bake another five minutes.

Remove from the oven. Increase the oven temperature to 400 degrees.

Top with the reserved topping mixture and bake for another 20 minutes, until the topping is golden.

Remove from the oven and cool slightly. Serve slightly warm.

Rhubarb Raspberry Jam

Rhubarb Raspberry Jam

Let me say this up front. While this jam is wonderful, please don’t make it the way I did. It was dangerous and there are much easier ways to make jam than this.

We have our very own prolific rhubarb and raspberry plants in our backyard. The raspberries are about to start ripening and we still have a few in our freezer from last year, so I decided to get busy and make some rhubarb raspberry jam. A personal favorite. I’ve done this before, but haven’t ever written down a recipe. I’m sure I used amounts of fruit based on what was available, and I’ve always used Sure Jell Light. The stuff in the pink box. The jam always turned out great, so why I wanted to tempt fate and try something different is beyond me.

It occurred to me that there are natural occurring pectins and that I don’t have to rely on a box to make jam. Apples and gooseberries both have a lot of pectin in them and they’re readily available to me. I decided it would be fun to add a little apple and use that as my pectin. Apparently I need to do more research on how to properly use natural pectin. For some reason I thought that the mixture needed to reach 220 degrees to become jam. I cooked it and cooked it some more and mine never reached 220. This went on for longer than I care to admit. The cook top was covered with splattered jam, as was the microwave above the stove, the coffee pot to the right of the stove, the knife block to the left of the stove, the  knives in the knife block, the floor in front of the stove, my shirt, and the counter tops on either side of the stove. It’s a wonder that my feet didn’t get burned because I didn’t foresee the splattering and was wearing sandals. Thank goodness I have good reflexes!

The up side of this saga is that the jam did set, and despite being cooked for an unreasonable amount of time, it tastes great.

Here is the recipe that you shouldn’t follow. I only offer it as a guideline for what not to do, and for my own personal reference in case I should ever temporarily lose my mind and want to try this again. Please get a box of Sure Jell or Sure Jell Light and follow the directions carefully. Or, refer to a reputable jam making source. Please note that I don’t process my jam. I put aside one jar to use right away and the rest gets put into freezer containers for future use.

Rhubarb Raspberry Jam

1 Granny Smith apple

Rhubarb

2 c. raspberries

5 1/2 c. sugar

Juice of 1 lemon

2/3 c. water

pinch of salt

Peel the apple and dice it finely. Add rhubarb to the apple to equal 3 lbs. Place the apple, rhubarb, raspberries and water in a large pan and cook it over medium heat until the rhubarb is tender. This takes about 15 minutes.

When the rhubarb is tender add the sugar, lemon juice and salt.

I cooked this over medium heat for a very long time trying to get it to 220, which didn’t happen. I would recommend cooking it until it passes the wrinkle test. Place a saucer in the freezer for a few minutes. Put a dollop of jam on the frozen saucer and return it to the freezer for a few minutes. Push on an edge and if it wrinkles up call it done.

Place in prepared freezer containers. Cool completely and freeze.

Here are a few links with better information about making your own jam.

http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=430

http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/can_07/jam_without_pectin.html

http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/makejam.htm

Raspberry Chiffon Pie

Raspberry Chiffon Pie

Last winter I purchased a copy of “The Best of America’s Test Kitchen, Best Recipes and Reviews 2008”. I think I bought it solely for the recipe for Raspberry Chiffon Pie, but then there is a gorgeous photo of a Lemon Layer Cake on the cover that was probably a draw as well. So, here we are six or more months later and I haven’t made a single recipe out of that magazine.

We still have raspberries in the freezer from our bumper crop last summer so when my husband asked me what I wanted for my recent birthday the Raspberry Chiffon Pie immediately came to mind. I was a bit hesitant to ask him to make it because he is more of a cook than a baker. The science of measuring ingredients is something that I think he finds tedious and he often wings it instead of measuring carefully. Sometimes you can get by with that, and sometimes you can’t, but I knew he really wanted to make something for me, and he was willing to go for it.

The results are fantastic. This is quite possibly the most wonderful raspberry pie I’ve ever had! It was really hot here the day he made it so I encouraged him to use a no bake ‘Nilla Wafer crust, and since there were only two of us to celebrate we opted for a can of Redi-Whip. We’ve been topping individual pieces as we eat our way through the pie. We could share with friends and neighbors, but we’ve been keeping it to ourselves. I know I’ll be making extra trips to the gym to work off this indulgence!

Click here for the full recipe on the Cook’s Country website.

And thank you to my husband for making this for me. It is a big treat!!

My new immersion blender

Raspberry Smoothie

For Christmas I received a wonderful new kitchen gadget. A Kitchen Aid immersion blender. I’ve used it twice already. The first time was to blend some butternut squash soup, and today I used it to make one of my favorite healthy snacks. Smoothies are so easy and you can pack a lot of nutrition into a glass. You can also vary them according to taste or what you have on hand. I usually put in some whey protein powder. It’s an easy way to up my protein intake without adding a lot of fat. I like to use pineapple juice as the sweetener. It adds a lot of sweetness, and some vitamins, but if I don’t have any I use orange juice, apple juice or whatever juice is available. I buy a big can of pineapple juice and then freeze it in ice cube trays. When I need it I just take out what I want and I don’t have to worry about the juice going bad before I use it up.

Making this with the immersion blender was so fast and easy, and so easy to clean up! Thanks to my daughter for this wonderful and much appreciated Christmas gift.

Today’s smoothie is raspberry pineapple.

Raspberry Pineapple Smoothie

3/4 c. frozen raspberries

3/4 c. plain soy milk

3 oz. pineapple juice

1 scoop whey protein powder

Place all of the ingredients in the cup of your immersion blender, or in a regular blender, and blend until completely mixed.