Berry Frozen Yogurt

Ingredients

• 8oz blueberries (or something like that)
  
• 6.5oz blackberries (or something like that)
  
• 3/4c whole milk yogurt
  
• 1/4c sugar
  
• 2tbsp lemon juice
  
• 1/2tsp vanilla extract
  

Start by adding the berries to a pan and simmering with the lemon juice until they're really soft and cooked down. Then add the sugar and vanilla and dissolve those. Let the mixture cool in the fridge. When cool, mix with the yogurt and prepare in ice-cream maker. Transfer to another container and place in the freezer for at least 1 hour.

Thoughts: The flavor was good, but not quite as strong as we had been expecting. Possibly we should have used more berries and cooked them down longer to get a stronger berry flavor. Similarly, the yogurt had relatively low fat content compared with most ice-creams, and it freezes REALLY solid. How do you fix it? I hear alcohol is the answer: a few tbsp of liquor prevents the frozen yogurt from freezing really well. This will require some testing. Perhaps if we selected the correct liquor, it could serve to strengthen the berry flavor. Kirsch or something? I don't know yet. This is a work in progress.

Disaster Index: 4/10

Update: I unfroze it, added a little dark rum, and refroze it in the ice cream maker. Got a little bit better, though I'm now thinking something a little more fruity might have been wise. Well, next time.

Fresh Lime Custard Berry Tart

This was a little complicated.

Ingredients

• Crust
  
  
  • 1 stick butter
    
  • 2tbsp neutral oil
    
  • 1.75c flour
    
  • 0.25c sugar
    
  • generous pinch of salt
    
  • 1 egg yolk
    
  • 2-3tbsp milk
    
• Filling
  
  
  • 1/3c sugar
    
  • 2tbsp corn starch
    
  • 1c milk
    
  • 2tbsp butter
    
  • zest of one lime
    
  • juice of half a lime
  • 3 egg yolks
  • berries - I used about 2/3 a pint of blueberries, 6oz of blackberries, and about 8 strawberries
    
• Glaze
  
  
  • Juice of two limes
    
  • 2tbsp jam - I used guava
    
  • Honey to taste
    
  • 2tsp corn starch
    

First the dough. Whisk together the dry ingredients. Then chop the butter up into small pieces and cut it into the flour. Next time I'm using the cuisinart like I usually do for making a pastry dough. Whatever. Then add the milk and combine, being careful not to overwork the dough or heat it too much with your hands. When it JUST sticks together (it will have the consistency of wet sand), wrap it in plastic wrap and form into a disk. Stick it in the fridge for 4 hours to chill.



When that's done, take it out and, on a well floured surface, roll it out. Fit it into a springform pan or tart pan, if you have one (I didn't). I lined my springform with a little waxed paper. Make sure the dough goes up the side a little bit. I had to actually press it into the pan with a well-floured drinking glass. It works. Anyway, put some more waxed paper or parchment paper in the middle and weight down with dry peas (classic) or the change from your change jar (my way), being careful that it doesn't actually touch the dough. Bake at 375 for 15 minutes, remove currency, and bake for another 15 minutes. This is called "blind baking". I'm just saying.



Now the filling. Set the crust aside to cool. In a bowl, combine the egg yolks, sugar, lime zest, and corn starch, whisking thoroughly. In a sauce pan, bring the milk to a simmer. When it's simmering, take it off the heat and (TEMPERING FIRST), whisk into the egg/sugar mixture. Tempering means you add just a LITTLE, stir it together, add a little more, whisk thoroughly, and then add the rest. This is so it doesn't scramble the eggs.



Now return the mixture to the sauce pan and set over low heat, whisking constantly. In about a minute, the mixture will seize up (it's really sudden) probably because of the corn starch. Ok. Take it off the heat and stir a little more, then add the butter and stir until it's melted. Now pour it into the cooled crust. Dot with the berries. Actually mine had ridiculous piles of berries. Anyway, try to arrange them radially. It looks nicer. People will appreciate that.



FINALLY, the glaze. Juice those limes you used - mine were the driest limes I've ever used, so I needed two of them, but you could conceivably use one. Mix in the jam and whisk thoroughly. Then add honey until the sweetness is well balanced. Add the corn starch and whisk together, then pour it into a sauce pan and cook over low heat until it thickens. Take it off the heat and spoon it liberally over the tart. Cover the tart and fridge it until completely cooled - at least four hours, though I just made mine like two days ahead of time, so that's possibly a better option.



Thoughts: difficult to make alone. Especially in the B-more heat and humidity. I've NEVER had that much difficulty with pastry dough. It was ridiculous. I think that if I had a tart pan, that would have simplified things a LITTLE, though also the pastry dough recipe is not my usual pastry dough recipe OR method, so next time I'll try my usual and see how that works out. There were confounding factors here, is what I guess I'm saying. Berries were super cheap at Giant Foods this week, so that is the origin of that. By the time I got to the glaze, I had no sauce pans left so I actually microwaved it for 30 seconds at time (stirring in between) until it thickened. It got a little weird - corn starch does that - but it thickened well and the whole thing was pretty amazing.



Disaster Index: 1/10

Orange Cake with Blackberries

Just got internet back, so we have a backlog of recipes going back to late January.

Note: This recipe doesn't make MUCH batter - about 2 servings worth. If you're making a big springform pan's worth, you'll need to multiply the recipe by about a factor of 3.

Ingredients

• Cakes:
  
  • 1/2c white flour
    
  • 1/2tsp baking soda
    
  • 1tsp baking powder
    
  • 2tsp sugar
    
  • 1/4tsp salt
    
  • 3tbsp butter, melted & cooled
    
  • 1tbsp milk
    
  • 1/2tsp vanilla
    
  • 1 egg
    
  • zest of 1 orange
    
  • ~10 to 15 blackberries
    
• Glaze:
  
  • ~1tbsp honey
    
  • juice of 1/2 an orange
    
  • ~2tbsp water with 1/2tsp corn starch
    
  • pinch of cinnamon
    

Preheat the oven to 350. Mix the flour, soda, and baking powder and set aside. In another (large) bowl, whip the egg with the sugar. Add the remaining wet ingredients and whisk well. Then add the dry to the wet. Take the blackberries and toss them with some spare flour. In two WELL GREASED small bundt pans, pour a little batter - just enough to coat the bottom. Add the blackberries in one layer (it doesn't take many) and then pour remaining batter to cover. Bake for 12 minutes, or until the top is just beginning to brown a little.

While that's baking, juice 1/2 the orange you zested for the cakes. In a saucepan, combine the orange juice and honey and a pinch of cinnamon. Cook until the mixture has a chance to simmer a little. If it doesn't look like enough juice, use the other 1/2 orange. Anyway, once it's cooked down a little, take it off the heat, add the corn starch and water mixture, stir, and then put it back on high heat until the glaze thickens.

When the cakes come out of the oven, let them cool for 5 minutes and then turn them out and glaze. Bonus if you dust them with powdered sugar. Serve!

Thoughts These were really good. The cake was a LITTLE dry, but you couldn't REALLY tell because of the blackberries and the glaze. I would definitely make this again. In the future I would consider using other berries. Blueberries or raspberries might be good. Claire says bake for less long in the future (we went a little longer than 12 minutes). Otherwise, perfect.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Fruit Cobbler

An interesting, lazy, twist on classic cobbler.

Ingredients

• 16 ounces of frozen berries, thawed (NOTE: WE DID NOT THAW FIRST)
• 2 tbsp powdered sugar (NOTE: WE USED GRANULATED)
• 2 cups pancake mix
• 1 cup whole milk
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 tbsp powdered sugar
  
• Butter for baking dish.
  

Preheat oven to 375.
Butter an 8 or 10 inch baking dish - either is fine.
Add the berries and 1.5 tbsp of the sugar to the dish and toss.
In a large bowl, combine the pancake mix, milk, and eggs until no lumps remain.
Pour the batter over the berries.
Bake until the crust is golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 30 minutes (NOTE: WE BAKED IT FOR MUCH LONGER).
Remove from oven.
Let cool for 5 minutes.
Sprinkle with the remaining 1/2 tbsp powdered sugar. Eat.

Thoughts: This was pretty easy to make, and it would have been easier if we had actually thawed the berries like they asked. But I was like "oh whatever, they'll melt in the oven." Yes. They certainly did. And they made the inside all soggy so we had to bake and rebake the thing like, 3 times. So we ended up cooking it for like, an hour total. It was ridiculous. But that was our own fault. As a consequence, the texture was probably not what it should have been. It looked like white cake with berries underneath. I don't know. I didn't really like it, but both Dan and Erin thought it was good. Once you get yourself a piece and sort of mix everything around, it's good I guess. Dan thought it was too acidic. But he doens't like things like raspberries and strawberries and blackberries for just that reason. So I don't know. You can substitute any sort of fruit filling in this cobbler.

Disaster Index:4.5/10 tolerable.

Simple Berry Cobbler

Ingredients

• Blueberries & Strawberries (see below)
  
• sugar to mix with the berries - about 2tsp per ramekin.
  
• Where X is the number of ramekins you are making:
  
  
  
  • 1/4x c flour
    
  • 1/2x tsp baking powder
    
  • 1/8x tsp baking soda
    
  • 1x tsp butter, melted
    
  • 1x tbsp milk
    
  • 1 pinch salt
    
  • 1x tsp sugar
    
  
  
• Optional cinnamon, vanilla extract in any part you really want
  

Cut up strawberries (if you're using them) and fill the ramekins with blueberries and strawberries, leaving about 1cm room on the top. Put them in a 400 degree oven for about 20-30 minutes, until they're bubbling (a little) and hot. In the mean time, combine the topping ingredients in a bowl. You can mix it with a spoon pretty easily. Add flour or milk at the end until it reaches a medium-dry but slightly greasy dough consistency. Pinch it into separate pieces and form into discs to top the ramekins. When the ramekins come out of the oven, put the dough discs on top and return to the oven for an additional 15-20 minutes. Let them sit a few minutes before serving with vanilla ice cream.

Thoughts: This recipe is simple enough that you can make it for desert without any premeditation and without much effort, but the results are delicious. I've tried putting cinnamon in with the berries themselves and with the topping, and I've put vanilla in the topping. Any way you want. You know, there's leeway with this recipe. My only suggestion is: don't put the ramekins in the oven alone - put them on a baking dish, because the berries WILL bubble over and you WILL be sad when you're cleaning burnt sugar syrup off the bottom of your oven. Still, really good.

Note: the first time I did this recipe, it turned out WONDERFULLY, but the second time it was a little iffy. The dough didn't rise and the berries didn't really congeal. Next time, consider adding a little corn starch with the berries and (added since I tried it most recently) some baking soda in the dough. Finally, let it cook a little longer the second time around.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Blueberry - Berry Cobbler

From the Best Light Recipe Cookbook.

Ingredients (filling, followed by topping)

• 6 cups berries (we used some fresh blueberries and some frozen berries)
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp fresh-squeezed lemon juice
• 1 tbsp cornstarch
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon


• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 tbsp cornmeal
• 1/4 cup sugar and 2 tsp sugar (for later)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup buttermilk
• 3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon

For the filling: Put oven rack in middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees.
Toss the fruit filling ingredients together in a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate.
Place pie plate on rimmed baking sheet and bake until fruit releases its liquid and is hot and bubbling around the edges. This should take about 20-30 minutes.
For the biscuit topping: Whisk the flour, cornmeal, 1/4 cup of the sugar, the baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl. Set aside.
In a separate bowl, whisk buttermilk, butter, and vanilla together - set aside.
In a third small bowl, mix the remaining 2 tsp sugar and the cinnamon together. Set aside.
When the filling is done cooking, stir the buttermilk mixture into the flour mixture with a rubber spatula until just combined and no dry pockets of flour remain.
Remove the fruit filling from the oven and stir. Pinch off pieces of the biscuit topping and arrange them on top of the filling. We actually had extra biscuit topping left over, so you don't have to worry about spacing them.
Sprinkle the top of the cobbler with the cinnamon-sugar mixture.
Return the cobbler to the oven and cook until the biscuit topping is golden brown and the filling is again hot and bubbling. This should take about 15-20 minutes.
Eat.

Thoughts: Delightful. We made this for a 4th of July party and people pretty much snarfed it down. This is a fantastic recipe. You could probably do this with blackberries too. Or whatever berries you want.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Blackberry Muffins

Ingredients

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 tsp milk
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 stick melted butter
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 11 oz. of fresh blackberries, cut in half

Position rack in center of oven and preheat oven to 400 F.
Grease muffin tins (12-18 of them, depending on how big you like your muffins).
Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.
In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, sour cream, milk, sugar, butter and vanilla.
Add the wet mixture tot he dry mixture and mix together until the dry ingredients have moistened. DO NOT OVER-MIX. Add the berries. Batter will not be smooth.
Divide batter evenly among muffin cups. Bake for around 16 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.
Remove muffins from oven and turn them out onto a tea towel or something.

Thoughts: I found this recipe on someone else's cooking blog. She advertises them as the best blackberry muffins ever, and they are. They are very delicious. They are not too sweet, either, which Dan appreciated. I could have used a little more sugar, but the muffins are healthier this way anyway. So I'm down.
These tend to dry out fairly quickly if you aren't careful, so after a few days you'll have to heat them up in the microwave for them to soften up. Maybe 10-15 seconds. They are good with both butter and honey, but also delicious plain. If they get too old and dry to eat plain, chop them into fourths and dip them in chocolate fondue. That's what we did.

Disaster Index: 1/10