Baked Goods + Desserts + Drinks – Page 7 – Writing With My Mouth Full

Peach Cobbler

When I try to cook something and it comes out of the oven fragrant and then it actually tastes good, I always wish I baked more. I got my hands on some ripe and bruised peaches today. I knew they wouldn’t hold even if I just ate them with yogurt for breakfast, so I thought cooking them was the way to go. I’ve tried this recipe before and for some reason I added more flour and it came out bread-y. This time, I was vigilant about following the measurements and waiting for it to bake on its own. Spain…On The Road Again on CBS kept me company until I had to eat a piece of Cia dessert.

Ingredients:
8 ripe yellow peaches, peeled, pitted, and sliced into 1/2 inch thick wedges
1 cup sugar, divided 2/3 cup and 1/3 cup
1 tsp grated lemon peel
1 1/2 tbsps lemon juice
2 tsps vanilla
2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/4 tsps baking powder
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
3/4 cup (6 oz) butter, cut into 1/2 inch chunks
2/3 cup whipping cream

1. Preheat oven to 350º. In a large bowl, combine peaches, 2/3 cup sugar, lemon peel, lemon juice and vanilla. Let stand at least 15 minutes, stirring several times.
2. In another large bowl, combine flour with remaining 1/3 cup sugar, baking powder and nutmeg. Using your fingers, incorporate butter into flour mixture until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add cream and stir just until dough holds together.
3. In a greased shallow square baking dish, spread fruit at the bottom. Using your hands, crumble dough evenly over fruit.
4. Bake oven until fruit mixture bubbles in center and topping is golden brown, about 1 hour.

Rhubarb Panna Cotta with Strawberries

Remember the rhubarb sauce I made a couple of weeks ago? I’ve stir-fried it with fish and braised pork belly with it and I still have half a tub leftover. I searched through my recipe archives and thought, well, I can make panna cotta with it, yeah? It’s a simple sauce with a subtle flavor so it should work. It did and it made for a nice summer dessert completed with delicately sliced sweet strawberries.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup whole milk
1 1/2 tsps unflavored powdered gelatin
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup of rhubarb sauce
1/4 cup sugar
a pinch salt
strawberries for garnish, sliced

1. Place the milk in a heavy, small saucepan. Sprinkle the gelatin over and let stand for 5 minutes to soften the gelatin. Stir over medium heat just until the gelatin dissolves, but the milk does not boil, about 2 minutes.
2. Add the cream, rhubarb sauce, sugar, and salt. Stir over low heat, until the sugar dissolves, about 3 more minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool slightly.
3. Pour the cream mixture into 2 martini glasses, dividing equally. Cover with Saran wrap and refrigerate. Chill until set, at least 6 hours and up to 2 days.
4. When ready to serve, top with strawberries.

Savory Kale Pudding

Continuing my current love affair with kale, I followed another recipe Stacie of chowbaby.com recommended. I’m a bigger fan of savory rather than sweet and this pudding was just right up my alley. The bakery uptown didn’t have brioche in stock when I stopped by, so I picked up a loaf of challah instead. Before tearing them into smaller pieces, I just tried to remove as many of the poppy seeds as I could. I also topped it with grated Gruyere cheese when I realized I still had some leftover in the fridge.

The pudding cooked while I leisurely read The Sunday Times. It was such a low-maintenance pudding with a large yield. And even with the milk and cream, it tasted pretty healthy.

Ingredients:
1 bunch kale, leaves torn from stalks, washed thoroughly
half a loaf of challah bread, torn into smaller pieces
2 medium leeks, thoroughly washed, chopped
a sliver of Gruyere cheese, grated
3 cups whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
4 eggs
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 sprigs of thyme
salt, pepper, oil

1. Preheat oven to 450º. Toss kale leaves with a little olive oil. Spread out on baking sheets and roast for about 10 minutes. The kale will wilt and become slightly crispy. Transfer the kale to a bowl and set aside. Lower the oven temp to 400º.
2. In the meantime, sauté the garlic and leeks in butter until leeks are soft but not browned. Remove from heat and set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs, milk and cream together with the thyme and the bread with some salt and pepper. Fold in the kale and the leek mixture.
4. Pour the pudding mixture into a rectangular baking dish. Place the baking dish into a larger roasting pan filled halfway with water. Put the pans carefully into the oven. Cover the baking dish loosely with foil. Bake for 20 minutes.
5. Carefully take the pans out of the oven. Continue baking the pudding for another 20 minutes without the pan filled with water. Check to see if the pudding is cooked by inserting a toothpick in the middle. If the toothpick comes out clean, your pudding is done. Remove from oven, let cool slightly and serve.

Potato Gratin

What to do with potatoes before leaving for vacation? I always feel bad when there’s still a lot of produce in the kitchen before I go away. I hate wasting food and I wanted to use the herbs I also had sitting on the counter. I was too busy packing, so I wanted to cook something that would take little prep time and attention. This potato gratin is, of course, incomplete without a medium-rare steak and French onion soup, but let’s just say I did this to practice for a bistro meal come winter.

Ingredients:
2 large potatoes, peeled and sliced paper-thin
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano, grated
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 sprigs fresh thyme
some fresh chives, chopped, plus more for garnish
salt, pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 375Âº. In a large bowl combine all the ingredients, tossing to coat. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Put the potato mixture into a deep baking dish and arrange by flattening out with a spatula. Bake for 40 minutes, until the potatoes are tender and the gratin is bubbly. Set aside for 10 minutes before serving. Garnish with remaining chives.

Related post/s:
How about a nice steak with that?

Lemon Sorbet with Blackberry Simple Syrup

From Montauk, we paid $10 to get the car onto a ferry to Shelter Island. From there, we paid another $10 to exit through North Fork and avoid the Hamptons traffic. We stopped by one of the farms on the side of the road to pick our own blackberries for $5 a pint.

If you can get your hands on some fresh blackberries before summer ends, this is a great and easy recipe to end that perfect meal you’ve just whipped up for your friends. Cameron made it for us when we came over her apartment for dinner one night. The Dr. loves tarty desserts, so she easily won him over.

Ingredients:
1 pint blackberries, washed
white sugar
1 star anise
lemon sorbet
mint leaves

1. In a small pot, make simple syrup. Simmer some water with white sugar and star anise. I use about three cups of water with two cups of sugar, but feel free to make it sweeter if you like. Add blackberries and continue to simmer. Stir slowly and ocassionally to avoid burning. Remove the pot from the heat when blackberries are just a tad soft and bruised. Set aside to cool a bit.
2. To serve, scoop sorbet in a small bowl. Spoon over the warm simple syrup and a couple of the cooked blackberries. Garnish with mint leaves.