More fun with croissant dough - berry flan buns and bourbon glazed pecan spirals

I typically have croissant dough in my freezer just waiting to be formed into something delicious. As it turns out, I had a couple of batches that needed to be used for fear that they would soon be over-the-hill soooooo . . . . .

I baked one batch as standard croissants destined for the ever popular twice baked croissant aux amandes.

Freshly baked all butter croissant

Twice baked croissant aux amandes

I divided the other batch in half with two goals in mind - flan buns and pecan spirals. First up - Kouign-amann style berry flan buns. Many of you know about this caramel-y, layered Breton specialty that continues to be very popular in the US. There are specific recipes for K-a dough that differ somewhat from croissant dough, buuuuuuut - you can use croissant dough too! As a matter of fact, it was Chef Xavier Cotte at Le Cordon Bleu Paris who demo’ed Kouign-amann to our class using croissant dough all those years ago. What a treat that was.

Did you realize that Kouign-amann was the subject of the very first post I wrote for this blog back in the fall of 2014! Wow, how time flies.

While I use muffin tins, individual cake pans and ring molds to bake the various twists, spirals and twirls that I make with croissant dough, I love making these in buttered and sugared ring molds. I find they brown much better in the open rings. These are 80 mm (3 inches) in diameter and 2.54 cm (1 inch) high, taller than the usual open tart rings I use for tart making. They’re perfect for this use as well as for other pastries like the aforementioned spirals, twists or twirls.

For a half batch of dough I go for a yield of 9 pastries, rolling the dough out (on a sugared rather than floured surface) to a 12” x 12” square, then cutting nine 4” x 4” pieces. Do your best to keep the corners square, although a little curve never hurt a thing. As you roll, flip the dough from front to back, sprinkling more sugar on as you go. Don’t be shy.

Now simply fold the corners of each piece up, kind of pleating the sides, and set the dough into the buttered/sugared rings. Easy-peasy!

Cover lightly with plastic wrap and give them a 45-60 minute rise - you should see more definition of layers and a general pouffy-ness. Meanwhile heat the oven to 375ºF.

You can bake these au naturel, but here I piped a blob of pastry cream into the center (hence the “flan” label), added some blueberries/raspberries and topped with another blob of cream and a sprinkle of raw sugar. I usually have berries in the freezer and add them frozen to avoid the mushiness and wateriness that happens if they’re thawed first (don’t do it!). It’s also helpful that frozen raspberries are easy to break up into smaller pieces for placement in a smallish space.

Sheesh! I forgot to grab a pic after assembly so shot a quick one after going into the oven. Kind of a cool perspective.

Bake about 20-25 minutes until the pastry is golden and the cream set. Once out of the oven I leave them on the sheet pan but gently lift off the rings - they come off much more easily when still warm, before the caramel-y sugar cools.

They’re deelish still slightly warm, but you can also finish cooling them on a wire rack and enjoy the same day.

You can freeze them too. If you do, plan for a treat with morning coffee by heating your oven to 325ºF, take them right out of the freezer, place on a parchment lined sheet pan and thaw/warm for about 15 minutes. If they’re still a bit cool inside, give them another 5 minutes or so. You be the judge.

Next up - crackly glazed pecan spirals.

I’ve previously posted a version similar to this using laminated brioche dough, but here I’m using a slightly different filling and opted for a bourbon butter glaze like the one I used on pound cake a while back. I won’t spend a lot of time on this but just want to share it with you.

For a half batch of croissant dough I’m going for 8 or 9 pastries - just depends on how things roll out.

For the filling blend 28 g/ 2 tablespoons soft unsalted butter with 70 g brown sugar (light or dark, either way). Add a generous teaspoon of spices if you wish - cinnamon or a mixture of your favorites like coriander, cardamom, cinnamon and ginger.

Roll the dough to about a 10”x10” square, spread the filling over it, top it with finely chopped pecans (eyeball it) or your own favorite nut, then roll it up into a log. Cut ~3 cm slices and place them in the center of buttered and sugared rings. You might notice below that I have wrapped two shallower rings together with foil. Since my flan buns were occupying my higher rings, I created my own!

Cover lightly with plastic wrap and let rise about an hour. I hope you can appreciate in the image below the increase in fullness of the dough compared to above.

Bake at 375ºF for about 20-25 minutes until golden brown, which gives you time to make your glaze.

Here you go: heat 2 tablespoons bourbon with 28 g / 2 tablespoons unsalted butter to melt, then stir in 50 g / 1/4 cup granulated sugar, stirring to dissolve. Once the sugar is dissolved bring to a boil for one minute. Remove from the heat and blend the mixture with 50 g / 1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar and 2 tablespoons of crème fraiche.

Once out of the oven, remove the rings (sooner than later is always best).

Brush the glaze generously over the spirals. Now pop the tray back in the oven for about 2-3 minutes. The heat makes the glaze crackle and bubble up, although you can certainly omit this step if you prefer a smooth glazed look.

Smooth or crackled, they’re tasty either way.

Have fun creating your own treats using croissant dough. You can do it!

Black and blue almond butter buckle

Many years ago (14!) when I was in the middle of my year of pastry school, I discovered a recipe in Bon Appétit for an almond-plum buckle, named for the finely ground almonds that are part of the batter as well as the plum slices pressed on top before baking. I made it a couple of times back then, once with plums/blueberries/strawberries and once with cherries/blueberries. They were a big hit for the folks who were the fortunate recipients, including Steve and myself of course.

I’ve since made it periodically over the years but it’s been awhile for sure. Every now and then it comes back into my memory banks, and I must bake it again, particularly when we’re still in the throes of summer fruits season yet moving into autumn as well.

A buckle is basically a single layer cake in which the batter is topped with fruit and often a streusel topping and then baked. The fruit sinks somewhat and the batter rises around it thus referring to the buckling of the cake under the fruit.

There’s a lot written about this group of baked fruit desserts including crisps, slumps (or grunts), buckles, brown bettys and cobblers, but I’m not here today to describe how they compare in their preparation. I simply wish to share my own tweaked recipe based on the 14 year old one from BA. (Yay! I found it online so I could link you to it.)

As always, I did some basic cake recipe comparisons and made my changes based on a couple of other tasty cakes I’ve made over recent months. There’s a lot of similarity from recipe to recipe, often involving 2 sticks butter, 1 cup sugar, 2-4 eggs, vanilla, 2 cups flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, perhaps a spice of choice or some citrus zest, some dairy like sour cream/yogurt/crème fraiche/whole milk/buttermilk, maybe some fruit involved and you’re good to go.

Here’s my recipe outlined below as well as this downloadable PDF.

Ingredients:
70 g/3/4 cup almond flour
195 g/1.5 cup all purpose flour (option to sub in whole wheat pastry flour for about a fourth of the all purpose)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
OPT 1/2-1 teaspoon cinnamon or spice mix of choice
100 g/7 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
70 g/1/3 cup almond butter
175 g/1 cup minus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup crème fraiche, room temperature
1.5 cups total of mixed blueberries and blackberries (this is mainly an eyeball it decision - you want fruit sprinkled just so over the cake so that there are spots for the cake to rise up around the fruit).

The steps:
1. Heat the oven to 350ºF. Butter a 9” springform pan and place a round of parchment in the bottom.
2. In a medium bowl whisk together almond flour, all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices if using.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle cream the butter and almond butter to blend.
4. Add granulated sugar and cream on medium high until light and fluffy, 3-4 minutes.
5. Add 2 eggs, one at a time, blending well after each. Blend in 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and 1/4 teaspoon almond extract.
6. Blend in flour mixture alternating with the crème fraiche just until combined.
7. Spread batter in prepared pan, smoothing the top with an offset spatula. Sprinkle fruit evenly over the top. Sprinkle with raw sugar if desired.
8. Bake about 50 minutes until a tester in center comes out clean. Cool 20 minutes, remove from pan and finish cooling.

Ready for the oven!

The primary differences from the BA recipe are using blanched almond flour instead of finely grinding natural almonds; a reduction of butter from 227 g/8 ounces to a total of 170 g/6 ounces of unsalted butter (100 g) and almond butter (70 g) combined plus the addition of 1/2 cup crème fraiche; reduction of sugar by 2 tablespoons (~30 g). That’s pretty much it in a nutshell.

I used frozen berries for this one - if you do that, be sure to allow for 5-10 minutes more baking time to allow the center to be fully baked (nothing worse than a gooey center) and be careful not to overload the cake with fruit. I sprinkled both vanilla sugar and raw sugar on top before baking, but cinnamon sugar is an option too.

If you’d prefer a streusel topping, the easiest approach is equal weights flour, sugar, cold cubed butter sanded together to coarse crumbs to top the fruit. For this size cake 60 g of each is plenty. Remember - you can double, triple or quadruple the amounts and have a good freezer unbaked streusel stash on hand to top your favorite crisp, financier/tea cake or baked fruit tart.

The buckle served as a dessert for a Labor Day cookout at cousin Jen’s, topped with whipped cream and a few fresh berries.

Simple and delicious is always good.

Stay well, remain calm and keep baking. It helps.

The flowering crab I photographed last spring + some wild grapes

Maple glazed blueberry drop scones

I originally included this blueberry drop scone review in my recent “Puttering in the kitchen in August” post but, after consideration and Steve’s helpful encouragement, I’ve broken it out into it’s own post. Enjoy my discoveries on these tasty treats!

I’ve now made these scones THREE times since discovering Dorie Greenspan’s NYT article on Joanne Chang’s recipe. Print it out for your own to-do list!

The term drop scones refers to scooping and dropping the balls of dough on the sheet pan as opposed to forming a dough round or rectangle and cutting more uniform triangle shapes for baking as seen below. Both work depending on your vision.

Upon first taste test I found them delightful - just a hint of crispy to the outside and more cake like, tender and moist on the inside than my usual scones. The more I ate them, the more they grew on me.

I’m usually not big on cute-sy combo names like cruffins or cronuts, but for these the word “scuffins” definitely comes to mind - a term someone somewhere coined some years back - a cross between a scone and muffin. Oh well, call them what you’d like - they’re good no matter the label. Try them out yourself and see what you think.

This recipe involves a slightly different mixing method than the one I’ve come to rely on over the years. Here’s what I discovered about the process (having the recipe on hand as you read through this is helpful). You need to plan ahead - the dough is wrapped and refrigerated for at least 1 and up to 24 hours to allow the flour to fully absorb the moisture before scooping and baking. While the recipe calls for 8 large scones, I made mine smaller using a generous 1/4 cup size scoop with a yield of 16-18 scones.

Chilled dough ready to scoop - check out those butter pieces!

First batch: I pretty much followed Joanne’s recipe, using Vermont Creamery’s crème fraiche but since I didn’t have any buttermilk in the house I made the faux version by adding lemon juice to whole milk. I added the first half of the butter into the dry ingredients using the mixer with the paddle to break up the butter pieces (as she suggests), but when it came time to add the second half of the butter, I gave the mixer a rest and used my by-hand method of flaking the butter into the mix by literally flattening the butter pieces with my fingertips and leaving visible pieces in the dough.

The liquid ingredients are all blended together along with fresh blueberries and then added to the flour/butter mixture. Here again I preferred doing this by hand using a spatula and bowl scraper to quickly and gently blend everything, picking up the dry ingredients until a cohesive dough ball forms. I typically don’t add fresh fruit to scones since the fruit can become mushy and macerated during mixing, but the fresh blueberries held up well with a gentle touch.

I refrigerated the dough for four hours and then baked them. Glaze them right out of the oven, cool a bit and enjoy warm or room temperature. Nice!

First batch

I continued the by-hand approach for the next two batches as well. It speaks to me. Remember our two hands are some of the best tools we have!

Second batch: no crème fraiche on hand so this time I used Siggi’s Icelandic “touch of honey” whole milk yogurt and actual buttermilk. Once I had the dough mixed and gave it a few hours of refrigeration, I scooped out the dough balls onto a parchment lined sheet pan and froze them. It was a couple of days before I baked them (directly from freezer to oven) and they didn’t bake as evenly as the first batch. I also found they browned more on the bottom and were less tender and delightful. Perhaps you can appreciate their “rough and tumble” look below.

Full disclosure - I messed up the baking powder amount and attempted a fix so accuracy is in question. Even though they rose OK they weren’t as fluffy as batch one. Yikes - not my usual M.O.

True confession time - a few weeks back I tried some roasted tomato, ricotta, herb scones and realized after I had them in the oven that I FORGOT to add the baking powder. Whoa! How many times have I made that base scone recipe?? Just goes to show you how distraction and lack of focus can sneak right in there these days.

Second batch

Third batch: I made my own crème fraiche - yay! Here’s the deal: heat a cup of heavy cream to about 95ºF (easy in a glass Pyrex measuring cup in the microwave), stir in a teaspoon of buttermilk, cover loosely and let sit at room temperature for 24 hours. Mine was thickening nicely by then and into the fridge it went. I used it for the scones on day 4 of it’s maturation - nice and tangy. I again used a squeeze of lemon juice in whole milk as my buttermilk. I reduced the whole wheat flour by 20 g and increased the all purpose by 20 g (I just felt like it).

BTW - For all three batches I used white whole wheat flour for the whole wheat portion. In the future I’ll try whole wheat pastry flour (if I can ever get my hands on some again!) for an even more tender result.

This time I kept the dough refrigerated for a full 24 hours before scooping and baking. The end result was much like the first batch. Mmmmm good.

What I learned: mix by hand, refrigerate the dough 4-24 hours then scoop the chilled dough and bake soon after. Use the right quantity of baking powder. Duh. Thumbs up on the crème fraiche and buttermilk combo. Maybe don’t freeze them unbaked but I’m not necessarily giving up on that approach. That second batch was the outlier due to a questionable baking powder amount and maybe even the oven temp when baking directly from the freezer.

I encourage you to give these a try. You’ll like them.

Autumn is coming . . .

Lemon ricotta blueberry tarts

It’s definitely blueberry season here in West Michigan - love it! We’ve been deep into it for the past few weeks and they’re still coming. Of course I simply had to create something with these luscious orbs so I turned to some of my favorite base recipes.

I love choosing my components and flavor profiles while giving myself plenty of time to make each part, assembling the final result when I’m ready to serve and enjoy. The freezer plays an important roll here folks and is one of the most useful tools in the baking and pastry armamentarium. Hip hip hooray for freezers!

I recently purchased a set of 80 mm square perforated tartlet forms that came with a 6-well silicone mold to create fillings that fit oh so nicely in or atop the tart shell. They’re made by my favorite Italian silicone flexi-mold maker Silikomart. What a cool way to create a composed tart - right up my alley. And let’s not forget - soooo many possibilities.

Of course I’ve been itching to try them out and what better way than creating a blueberry lemon flavor combo to help celebrate our summer’s berry bounty.

Perforated tart forms have been available for some years now, the idea being that the tart crust will brown ever so golden-ly since the dough is exposed to more oven heat via the numerous little holes.

For this project I started with a version of pâte sucrée based on a Claudia Fleming recipe from her book “The Last Course”. It’s very reminiscent of a honey graham cracker: cream 227 g (2 sticks/8 ounces) unsalted softened butter with 50 g granulated sugar and 50 g dark brown sugar until smooth; add 84 g (1/4 cup) honey and beat until well blended; in a separate bowl mix together 195 g (1.5 cups) all purpose flour, 125 g (1 cup) whole wheat pastry flour, 1 teaspoon salt, a pinch of cinnamon and some freshly grated nutmeg; add the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar/honey mixture in two additions and blend just until the dough comes together. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill at least an hour before rolling out.

NOTE: this makes more than needed for the six square tarts; the extra dough will be OK wrapped in the fridge for a couple of days (if you have another use for it soon) or in the freezer for several months. If frozen, thaw overnight in the fridge before using.

I lined my square tart forms, blind baked them and filled them with my favorite lemon tart filling á la Jacques Genin, pouring the still warm mixture into the baked shells (note: the baked shells don’t have to cool all the way before adding the lemon filling). Bake at 300ºF for about 10-15 minutes until the filling is set (look for just a hint of jiggle in the center). Let cool and store covered in the fridge for a day if you’re planning on serving them soon or freeze for several days or up to 1-2 weeks. If frozen, you can top with the ricotta custards right out of the freezer (more on that coming up!).

It’s all about the components - work on them step-by-step then put it all together for the pièce de resistance!

Now for the lemon ricotta filling (makes plenty for six 80 mm square tarts plus a number of additional flexi-mold shapes of your choice - I did a bunch of ingots which are just waiting in my freezer for the next creation!).

Blend 2 cups whole milk ricotta with 150 g (3/4 cup) granulated sugar, 1 tablespoon cornstarch, 1 teaspoon lemon zest (or lemon/lime zest combo), 1 teaspoon vanilla and 3 large eggs. In this case I also blended in 1/4 cup of leftover lemon tart filling to add a bit more tang.

Heat the oven to 325ºF. Fill your chosen flexi-molds and place the mold(s) on a sheet pan. Carefully pour hot water around the base of the molds so as to create a shallow water bath around the molds. Bake about 20 minutes until set.

Remove from the oven, gently lift the flexi-mold(s) and place on a wire grid to cool. Once cool, place the molds in the freezer to firm up, at least 4 hours or overnight.

When ready to assemble, pop the frozen ricotta custards out of the molds and place on top of the lemon filled tarts.

Once this step is complete, place the assembled tarts in the fridge for several hours to allow the ricotta custards to thaw. The custards will hold their shape in the fridge and be ready for the blueberry topping for serving. Yes!

For the blueberry topping: place 2 cups fresh blueberries, 50 g sugar, 2 tablespoons water and the zest of a lemon in a saucepan over medium heat until the berries pop (4-5 minutes). Cook another few minutes to jam-ify a bit, transfer to a clean bowl, stir in a splash of lemon juice and chill. When ready to garnish your tarts, stir in an additional 1 cup fresh blueberries and spoon the topping over the chilled lemon tarts. You’ll have plenty - the leftovers will keep in the fridge in a covered container for 2-3 days (hmmm . . how about on top of your favorite vanilla or berry or peach ice cream?). Sounds deelish.

Et voilà! You are ready to enjoy a delicious summer treat. The combo of the honeyed whole wheat crust, tart and tangy citrus filling, smooth ricotta custard and luscious berries is absolutely stunning!

And yes - Steve gave it a thumbs up!

Ooooo - next time how about chocolate pâte sucrée, dark chocolate ganache filling, topped with an orange hazelnut custard and garnished with crunchy hazelnut praline? Sounds like a great autumn/winter project to me!

Raspberry-currant cream berry tart

Planning a dessert for the recent Bastille Day celebration with the local GR chapter of L'Alliance Française, my thoughts turned to tarts (of course!). I had fresh raspberries, blueberries and even currants from the Fulton Farmer's Market, and it was definitely time to incorporate those goodies into a delicious tart.

I've previously written about Breton dough (one of my faves), the most recent post being in early July using a céréales version to support some fresh pastry cream and strawberries. Besides the flavor and delicious texture of Breton dough, on the more practical side, it calls for egg yolks which I always see as the perfect opportunity to accumulate egg whites for financier batter or meringues. Love it.

My Breton dough was already made and in the fridge, as was a batch of raspberry currant cream that I had used the previous day for some petite fresh berry tartlettes. The plan - layers.

First I rolled the dough out to 1/4" thickness, trimmed the edges as needed and pressed it into my lightly buttered 4"x11" rectangular tart form. (Side note: this is the one tart dough I use that I butter the tart ring or form - otherwise it sticks). I wanted to build up an edge that would bake up around the filling and fruit, so I cut narrow strips of additional dough and placed them around the periphery. Then I spread a thin layer of raspberry jam on the dough within the borders. 

Next up - a layer of raspberry currant cream. Now here is just one of the wonderful things about pastry cream - you can replace 75-80% of the whole milk in your favorite pastry cream recipe with fruit purée(s), proceed with the usual preparation and voilà - fruit cream! For this one I used equal weights of fresh raspberry and fresh red currant purées made with some of my farmers's market booty. So tart yet creamy and delicious.

I found it easiest to pipe thin stripes of the cream over the raspberry jam, so as not to mess it up by trying to gently spread it. Piping makes things so neat, doesn't it? 

Then comes a nice sprinkle of berries - in my case raspberries and blueberries. Another cool trick is if you freeze your raspberries a few hours ahead, you can easily break them up into halves or smaller pieces while still frozen to distribute them over the cream. You try that with fresh raspberries and you'll have a juicy mess! And you can pop the tart right into the oven - no need to wait for thawing, just go for it.

For the final touch I brushed the dough edges with a bit of cream, sprinkled on some raw sugar and added chopped pistachios over the whole kit-n-kaboodle, not only to provide a wonderful color contrast but also some added crunch for the tasting portion of the program.

This one baked at 325ºF (convection) for about 25 minutes. I always check things half way through, rotate my sheet pan to provide even browning (yes, even in a convection oven!). You want the crust to be nicely browned and the cream to be set.

Let it cool for 15-20 minutes, gently slide a knife or offset spatula around the edges to loosen the tart form and lift it right off.

Part of a dessert buffet for the Bastille Day L'Alliance gathering, I sliced it into strips and added a dollop of lightly sweetened whipped cream to each portion. Oh my, I love this dough sooooo much! Light, buttery and a wonderful complement to the tart, fruity cream and berries. And, to top it all off, I had some extra components to make another petite blueberry tart for Steve and myself to enjoy the next day. Scrumptious.

Michigan fruits galette

Here we are in the thick of summer, and the beautiful fruits of Michigan are in abundance (with more to come!)

The rustic galette is one of my favorite fruit offerings during these not-so-lazy days, for life has a way of taking us on a whirlwind whether we like it or not.

While we've been busy with some home remodeling, I continue teaching at Sur La Table and baking my shortbread cookies at Patricia's Chocolate in Grand Haven, a lovely Lake Michigan community that attracts many tourists during the summer.

Yet in spite of the busyness of our days there is something that gives me pause - the ever ongoing passing of the generations. Our Aunt Fran Van Halsema (wife to my mother's brother Gerard) died on July 14 - the same day as the birthday of my sister Mary and our maternal grandmother Nellie. In the past 15 months we have experienced the loss of now five aunts and uncles on both my mom's and dad's sides of the family tree.

Let's remember to make the most of our days and seek out those things that give us a sense of peace and accomplishment. It's important, oui?

Baking is one of those things. The feel of the dough, the aroma of a lovely tart as it comes to the end of the bake, the luscious fruit and browned, buttery crust as one takes a bite and the sense of a job well done. Yes.

A galette (crostata in Italian) is so easy to prepare. Simply use your favorite pâte brisée or pâte sucrée, roll it into a circle of about 10" (or choose what size you'd like - bigger, smaller, it's up to you) and place it on a parchment lined 1/2 sheet pan. Then, in the center of the dough, pile about 4.5 cups of fresh fruits (I used blueberries, sweet succulent yellow plums and sweet cherries) that have been tossed with sugar to taste and a bit of flour as thickener, along with some lemon zest and a grate or two of nutmeg. Give yourself a good 2" edge of dough and pleat it up around the of the fruit which should remain visible in the center.

Brush the dough edges with egg wash or a bit of cream, sprinkle with raw sugar and place in the freezer to firm up and stabilize the butter in the dough while you heat your oven to 425ºF.

Bake about 20-25 minutes (don't forget to watch what's going on in there!) until the crust is golden brown and the fruit is bubbly and juicy.

Let cool for a bit and serve still warm or cool all the way and eat later. It's best the day it's made but will reheat in the oven (no microwave please) pretty nicely the next day too.  And don't forget the vanilla ice cream. Yeah boy.

A wonderfully delicious and straight forward summer dessert. And it's even good for breakfast.

Now my kitchen awaits, eager for the next baking adventure and blog post. In the meantime, as my husband Steve so often says, "life is short - go to Paris". Well said Steve.

Cherry blueberry yogurt cake

Recently my mom and I took a drive to my childhood hometown of Fremont, Michigan to visit former neighbors and family friends, Gerry Frens and her daughter Mary.  Gerry will be 100 years young this fall, and she and my mom (who will turn 90 in August) love reminiscing about those days of yore.

Just a few years apart in age, Mary and I chat away about all manner of things while our mothers talk and talk.

We planned to share afternoon tea with them, so, of course I volunteered to bring something baked to accompany our beverage. Always looking to use up the odd lingering ingredient in the fridge, I decided on a cherry berry cake to which one of said ingredients, yogurt, would be added.

Some years ago I developed a collection of fresh fruit cake recipes that I used to bake at Gerrish's cafe in Winter Harbor ME during my first summer job out of pastry school. They're easy, versatile and allow one to mix and match ingredients and fruits depending on your whims.

Even though we're anticipating the arrival of local Michigan fresh fruits at the farmer's market, we are getting some beautiful Washington state cherries and some decent Georgia blueberries in our go-to Meijer grocery store.  So cherry blueberry just had to be the choice!

This is a pretty basic cake made by the usual method of whisking the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl, creaming the butter and sugar/citrus zest until fluffy, adding eggs one at a time along with vanilla. Then fold in the dry ingredients alternating with yogurt.

In this case, once the batter is smoothed into a buttered and parchment-papered 9" cake or springform pan, it's baked at 350ºF for 15 minutes. During that time the fruit topping is put together by tossing about 7 ounces fresh fruit with a tablespoon each of granulated sugar and all purpose flour.

The fruit then goes on top of the partially baked cake with the idea that the batter will have set enough to allow the fruit to stay pretty much on top. In my case I also sprinkled some pistachio crumble over the fruit.

Here you see it ready to go back in the oven.

Pop it back in and bake for another 25-30 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Here's what happened to mine! Sunken fruit. Oh man.

Not to worry. Once I unmolded it I could at least see some fruit around the edges.

And once sliced there was plenty of fruit in each piece. Yay!

Served with a dollop of Chantilly cream with a fresh cherry perched on top, this was lovely, moist and delicious. And the group liked it. Double yay!!

Here's the recipe, quick and dirty.

Heat the oven to 350ºF. Butter a 9" cake or springform pan and line the bottom with a round of parchment paper.

In a medium bowl whisk together 143 g all purpose flour, 30 g almond flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon baking soda, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon coriander.

In a mixer with the paddle attachment cream 85 g unsalted room temperature butter and 200 g granulated sugar into which the zest of one lemon has been rubbed (LOVE citrus zested sugar!!).

Add 2 large eggs, one at a time, until just blended. Blend in 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract.

With a rubber spatula fold in half the dry ingredients followed by 2/3 cup plain yogurt (choose your own fat content). Fold in the remaining dry ingredients.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile toss a total of about 7 ounces fresh fruit(s) of choice with 1 tablespoon sugar and 1 tablespoon flour. Fruit prep will depend on the fruit you choose. For example halve and thinly slice fruits like peaches or plums. Blueberries or raspberries can be left whole. I pitted and halved my cherries. You get the idea.

Place the fruit on top of the partially baked cake then bake for an additional 25-30 minutes until a toothpick or skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool for about 15 minutes then remove from the pan. Serve warm or at room temperature. I like a light dusting of powdered sugar to give it that je ne sais quoi.

The cake keeps well in a covered container for several days. It's great with whipped cream or even ice cream if you want to be a bit more decadent. Or eat it plain as an accompaniment to your morning coffee or tea. Not bad at all.

Here are just some of the ways you can make this recipe your own: substitute corn meal or a different nut flour for the almond flour; add different spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, ginger (you decide); sub in sour cream or crème fraiche for the yogurt; use brown sugar instead of granulated sugar; add orange or lime zest instead of lemon; and of course choose your favorite fruit.  

Summer's here and it's time!

Cherry-berry feuilleté and peach buttermilk ice cream

The summer annuals are showing off their colors here in Grand Rapids MI . . . .

lovely coleus in our little garden courtyard

and the summer peaches are out in full force!

Fresh Michigan peaches are one of my favorite fruits.  So of course I've been thinking of the many wonderful ways to use them.  This time I was inspired by a peach buttermilk ice cream recipe from "Food and Wine" magazine.

I followed the recipe for my usual ice cream base (2 cups heavy cream, 1 cup whole milk, 3/4 cup sugar, 5 large egg yolks, pinch of salt) replacing the cup of whole milk with buttermilk.  I blanched 1.5 pounds of peaches, then peeled, pitted, sliced and blender-ized them with a squeeze of lemon juice, folding the purée into the cooled base.

peach purée at the ready

ice cream base finishing its chill down

I usually chill my base in the fridge for a day or two, then process in my ice cream maker and transfer to a freezer container several hours before serving.

I also wanted to use some cherries and blueberries I had on hand to complement the peach ice cream in a dessert I was planning for a family meal.  And, to top it off, there was some reverse puff pastry in my freezer just waiting to be made into something oh-so-delicious.

The beauty of the feuilleté preparation is that I can roll, shape and bake them ahead of time and hold them either at room temperature if using the same day, or in the freezer for a number of days if planning a bit farther ahead.

When ready to fill them, I simply push down the center layers of puff to make room for the fruit mixture that will be mounded in the feuilleté.

I mixed 4 cups of fruit (cherry/blueberry combo) with a teaspoon of fresh lemon juice, 3-4 tablespoons granulated sugar (I like my fruit on the tart side) and 1 tablespoon cornstarch. I then cooked this concoction on med-low heat until bubbly and thickened.

Note:  this quantity of fruit filling was enough for 7-8 feuilletés about 3.5 inches square.

Then I scooped a mound of filling in the center of each feuilleté and baked at 350ºF for about 10-15 minutes.  Since the puff pastry is already baked and the filling already cooked, it's really just a matter of heating everything up.

Once cooled, I topped each one with previously baked matcha crumble (really more for color contrast than taste) and gave them a light powdered sugar dust.

the end result!

I know I've mentioned crumble before in this blog.  It's a great thing to have on hand and is so easy to make.  Make as much or as little as you'd like.  

Simply mix equal weights flour and sugar in a medium bowl, sand in the same weight of cool, diced butter to form coarse crumbs.  In this case I added some matcha powder with the flour and sugar (you don't need much).

Spread the crumbs out on a parchment lined sheet pan and bake at 325ºF, stirring and breaking up clumps every 5 minutes or so until lightly browned and crisp, 10-15 minutes total.  Let cool.

Store in a zip-top bag in the freezer and use at will!

For serving I simply placed a scoop of peach buttermilk ice cream atop each feuilleté (no muss, no fuss) and handed 'em out.

Mmmmmm!

While the ice cream was a bit more icy in texture than I had hoped (I suspect due to using low fat buttermilk rather than whole milk, plus the water content of the fruit purée), the contrast of the tangy peachy coolness with the tart cherry-berry filling and buttery, flakey puff was oh-so-good indeed.

Three cheers for summer fruits!  Hip hip hooray . . . .