I blame my cobbler obsession on my parents (hi, Mom and Dad!) – maybe it’s genetic, or maybe I just love it so much because they made it all the time when I was a kid. Either way, I’ve carried on the tradition.

Whether it’s a problem or not, I’ve been making a lot of cobbler this summer – at least three times so far. Three times that I can specifically remember: strawberry, raspberry/blackberry, and this weekend’s cherry/blueberry. There are sure to be more to come. Peach season is just starting here, and peaches make amazing cobbler.

There’s a lot to love about cobbler, and many reasons why it’s my go-to dessert when I want to bake something with fruit. Almost any fruit works in a cobbler, with few changes to the recipe, making it an easy way to use up whatever’s on hand. Berries and stone-fruit are the classics. (If you’re using a solid, dense fruit, like peaches, you probably want to pre-cook them for a few minutes with the rest of the filling ingredients. For more delicate fruit, like berries, you can just toss them in.) It’s far less fussy than a pie, and keeps better if you have leftovers (though it’s best eaten warm from the oven). It bakes in about 20 minutes, faster than any cake. It’s dead easy to throw together, and uses ingredients you probably have on hand. Beyond that, it’s delicious: warm biscuits, gooey fruit, what’s not to love?

These are the fruits from today’s cobbler: blueberries and cherries, with the cherries halved and pitted (which made this one more labor-intensive than usual).  I stirred the fruits together with brown sugar, some flour, and for a special touch, one scraped vanilla bean. I thought vanilla would complement the cherries well, and I’ve been looking for excuses to break into my vanilla bean stash. I can now happily recommend adding vanilla bean to just about any cobbler or fruity pie. The flavor is remarkably richer than just using vanilla extract.

This recipe is the one my parents always use, adapted from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. It’s easy and reliable. You can improvise with the fruits and spices, using whatever you have on hand.

I have lots of enjoyable memories from my childhood, and plenty of them have to do with food.  It should come as no surprise that when fall finally fell, bringing the cold-weather coats and falling leaves, I thought of a warm kitchen, full of wonderful smells and tastes.  High on the list is a delight that my grandmother made during cold, wintery visits.  Amongst many other wonderful qualities, my grandmother was an excellent cook, and the foods that I perhaps associate most with her are her sticky buns.  The whole house filled with a wonderful aroma while they were baking, but the smell was nothing compared to the taste.  Buttery, with a warm cinnamon spice and a sticky glaze that would have left sugary fingerprints all over the house were the fingers not licked completely clean twice over: there is no cold weather, or slushy wintry mix, or frozen ears, that were not completely ignored when sticky buns were offered.  The recipe is titled “Caramel Buns”, but I never heard them called anything other than Sticky Buns.  The only problem with making these myself is that they could never really live up to the childhood memories – but they certainly came close.

Grandma’s Sticky Buns

¼ C butter, melted
1/3 C brown sugar
1 tsp light corn syrup
1/3 C pecans or walnuts
¾ C warm water
1 pkg dry yeast
2 ½ C Bisquick*
2 Tbs butter, softened
¼ C brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Add 1/3 C brown sugar and the corn syrup to the melted butter.  Bring to a rolling boil, and then spread in an 8” layer (round) pan.  Add the nuts.

Dissolve the yeast in the water.  Add Bisquick, and beat hard.  Knead about 20 minutes.  Roll into a rectangle 16”x9”.  Spread with a mixture of the softened butter, ¼ C brown sugar and cinnamon.  Roll from the wide side and seal.  Cut into 16 slices.  Put into the pan, and cover with a damp cloth.  Let rise 1 hour.  Bake 20-25 minutes at 400 degrees.  Invert the pan on a rack and remove.  Let cool, then tear apart the individual rolls when you’re ready to eat them.  Best served warm.

*We didn’t have Bisquick, so I asked Wikipedia.  A mixture of 2 ½ C flour, 3 ¾ tsp baking powder, 1 ¼ tsp salt and 2 ½ Tbs canola oil worked out just fine.

Think about Reese’s cups.  Now think about them with dark chocolate. Really good dark chocolate. And real, creamy peanut butter.

Now imagine that you could make them with things you probably have in your cabinets right now.

See?  Dangerous.

Fortunately for those of us who prefer not to overdose on sugar, they can be a pain to make in large quantities, mostly because they require working slowly.  But they’re still well worth the effort, and if you’re more concerned with taste than appearance, you can skimp on some of the detail without ill effects. With Halloween just around the corner, there’s really no reason not to make them right now.

For this batch, I decided to make my own peanut butter.  It was entirely unnecessary, but it was something I’d been meaning to try, so this seemed like the ideal opportunity.  In retrospect, I could have done better with the consistency if I’d used store-bought, but it was tasty nevertheless.  To make peanut butter: first, put some peanuts in the food processor.  Then, grind them up.  And grind them more. Maybe scrape down the sides, if it’s piling up. Then grind them some more.  Then, you’ll have peanut butter.  Stop while it’s still chunky, or keep going until it’s smooth – it’s up to you.  If it’s going slowly, you can do what I did, and add a bit of vegetable oil to speed things up.  That’s where I went wrong, in this case.  The oil made it smooth and spreadable… perfect for sandwiches, but too soft to hold its shape while I covered it in chocolate. If you have a choice of nut butters when you’re making these, pick one that’s on the firm side.

These are easy to make in cupcake wrappers, either full-size or mini ones.  I used mini this time, but the large ones are easier to fill.  They are also larger when you eat them (and you still can’t eat just one).  Consider yourself warned.

To start, melt your favorite kind of chocolate in a bowl in the microwave.  Go slowly – heat until it’s mostly melted, and stir until the last bits melt away.  That will help keep it at the proper temperature.

Formally, you’d want to temper the chocolate, which involves keeping it at a specific temperature as you work. Tempering is a bit annoying, I find, and the main benefit is that it gives the chocolate a nice, shiny, non-cloudy color when it cools. Otherwise, you’ll get a “bloom”: white fats rising to the surface.  It’s harmless, and if it discourages other people from eating your candy, that means more for you. But if you’re making these for a gift, or a party like I was, you should temper the chocolate.  If you’d rather not bother with thermometers, my rule of thumb is that if the chocolate is almost too thick to pour or drip off a spoon, it’s properly tempered.

Set out your wrappers on a plate or tray.  One at a time, drip chocolate into each wrapper and spread to form a layer across the bottom.  Let them cool – either on the counter for 10 minutes, or briefly in the fridge, until the chocolate is solid.

Using a small spoon (for my little wrappers, I used a half-teaspoon), scoop the peanut butter on top of the chocolate.  Don’t let it touch the edges of the wrapper.  This is where the big wrappers are easier to work with.  You will almost certainly use less peanut butter than you’d expect.

Finally, cover the peanut butter in more melted chocolate.  You may need to warm up your chocolate, just a little.  Tilt the wrappers so the chocolate makes its way all around the sides, and traps the peanut butter.  Then, just let them sit until the chocolate cools and turns solid.  (While you wait, you can “clean”  the chocolate-melting bowl: the best part of any candy-making project!)

I used half a pound of chocolate and perhaps a quarter pound of peanut butter to make 30 small cups.  You can use plain peanut butter, or mix in a spoonful of powdered sugar to make it just a bit sweet.  They will be gobbled up, until your friends start begging you to hide them.

Whipped cream is one of those things.  Contrary to popular belief, whipped cream doesn’t naturally come from a can. It comes from cream, which comes from a cow. And if you’ve never made whipped cream from scratch, you won’t believe how good it tastes.  It tastes like cream, while the kind from the can… doesn’t really taste like anything. On top of that, it’s among the easiest things in the world to make. Any kid old enough to use an electric mixer could make whipped cream from scratch.

So it seems strange to me that you almost never see real whipped cream.  Maybe you can find it at a really nice restaurant, or at the better sort of ice-cream shop, but 95% of the time, if you order something that comes with whipped cream, it’s the stuff from a can. And to that, I usually say “no, thanks” because it’s just not the same.

It’s also easy to make flavored whipped cream (though I usually don’t). By coincidence, I read this morning about a company that’s making boozy whipped cream – but with liqueur-flavored additives, not the real thing. If you make it yourself, you can flavor it however you want. Just add a splash of liqueur, or vanilla, or melted chocolate, or orange zest… the possibilities are endless. My only caution is not to add too much of anything, because the end product will be softer.

It’s so simple that it almost doesn’t merit a recipe. But here it is, anyhow.

Real Whipped Cream

1-2 cups of heavy cream (depending on desired amount)
sugar, to taste
other flavorings, to taste, as desired

Before you start, the cream should be nice and cold. If you put the bowl and beaters in the freezer for a few minutes, that will make things go faster.

Put the cream into a medium bowl. With an electric mixer, beat the cream on medium until it just begins to thicken.

Add a spoonful or two of sugar, and your flavorings. Blend it in, then taste, and add more if needed.

Then, just keep mixing, on high.  Stop when it’s as firm as you want it. It will take about 5 minutes, or less. Serve it on just about any dessert, and don’t forget to lick off the beaters!  It’s best eaten right away, but it’ll keep in the fridge for a few days.

Not really.  You can’t eat the picture, and I didn’t even eat these tonight, though I’m now feeling the urge to go make more.

But, I am in a good mood, because I did a little redesign.  Er… more like a facelift?  The changes are mostly in the backend, but I did make it prettier, and it feels like a major achievement.  Since I make websites for a living, by the hour, you’d think I could sit down and hammer out some improvements to my little blog, right?  But no, it’s not nearly that easy when it’s my own personal project, so this update has been a while in coming, and I’m proud to have gotten it done.  What do you think?

I think the only thing more exciting than a shiny new look for my website is a bowl full of fresh, juicy caramelized peaches.

I made these the other night, and they were so easy and delicious that I can’t stop thinking about them.  I’m tempted to go make more right now, even though it’s almost bedtime.  We ate them with vanilla ice cream.  They’d be wonderful poured over waffles.  Or mixed up with yogurt.  Or just eaten straight.  I’m sure you can come up with some other good things to do with them, too.

Here’s what you do: peel and slice up a few peaches.  (You’ll want at least one peach per person, possibly two or three.)  In a large frying pan, melt about a tablespoon of butter over low heat, add a good spoonfull of brown sugar, maybe a dash of cinnamon, cloves, or cardamom.  Mix it up and add the peaches.  Then, just saute them over medium heat until the peaches start to brown and the butter forms a thick, caramel sauce.  Stir occasionally, so they don’t burn – they should brown but stop short of blackening.

And that’s all there is to it.  Happy eating!

Well, who says I can’t eat popsicles as an adult?  I didn’t think of it until I read Kettle And Cup’s idea for tea popsicles, which I haven’t tried yet even though I keep meaning to.  But I love icy snacks, and I went out shortly thereafter and got a set of my own popsicle molds.

Even in just the 2 weeks I’ve had them, I’ve been having a ton of fun, and discovering all sorts of things that make good popsicles.  Since the molds I got are individual, you can refill each one as you empty it, which means potentially and ever-changing rotation of flavors.

So far, my favorites are actually the simplest: orange juice is the best, followed closely by chocolate milk.  But you can freeze just about anything, and I’m looking forward to trying some tea pops soon (but it’ll be so hard to decide on the flavors!)  There are also some great lists out there with ideas for what to freeze.

Do you have fond memories of homemade popsicles from your childhood?  Have you refused to give them up?  Tell me some of your favorites!

Pie is intimidating.

It’s very intimidating to me, and I’m pretty bold about trying things I might ruin, at least as far as cooking goes.  It should be in my blood, since my grandmother made the most perfect pies you can imagine – but it’s not, or at least it doesn’t come naturally.

I had to make pie this week, though, because I bought entirely too many strawberries at the farmer’s market.  I did it on purpose, because I heard whispering that strawberry season was almost over, and I knew that I just had to do it.  I had to make strawberry rhubarb pie.  So I got more than I could comfortably use for anything less than a pie, invited some friends over specifically to help eat pie, and I was committed.

If you’re feeling terribly concerned, I’ll give away the ending: Buttercup lives.  The pie is delicious.  But it’s not without its share of mishaps, and even with some rescuing it’s still not a pie like Grandma would make.

For the first step, I made the dough the night before.  This, I believe, is a recommended practice.  I dutifully followed the notes in my Joy of Cooking, being careful to add just enough water that the dough could be squeezed into a ball.  It made a rough, crumbly sort of ball, but it held together, so it fit how I read the recipe.  Like so many things in cooking, no amount of description will tell you how it should really look and feel – the only way to know is to see and feel the real thing.  I wasn’t sure if I had it quite right, but I was wary of making it too wet.  Best not to end up with a too-wet crust!

So this evening, after I made the filling (the easy part!), I let the dough warm up and tried to roll it.  It crumbled into big, dry pieces.  I let it warm a little more and tried again.  No improvement.  By that time, my friends had arrived, and two of us together started working some water into the dough to get it smooth enough that we could roll it.

End result: it was too wet anyway, and over-handled to boot.  Handling the dough melts the butter and helps develop gluten, just like kneading bread.  So the crust ended up more on the chewy side than the crumbly side.  Plus the venting holes I cut sealed themselves up, and none of the juice steamed out.

But… it was delicious.  I haven’t had a strawberry pie in way too long, and we devoured it.  It helped that they were really good strawberries, too!  It was good enough, it turns out, that I’m inspired to try again.  I’ve learned at least one lesson – the dough should be moister than I made it, before you chill it.  But I also learned that, while it’s a bit complex and takes some time, pie isn’t really that hard.  It’s hard to get it perfect, but not hard to make something really good.  After all, if you get it wrong, at worst you’re back where you started.  And if you get it right, you get pie.  Sounds like a good deal to me!

A gift box of homemade truffles and candied orange peels

Since the economy’s in a downturn, most of us have been subject to two contradictory forces while doing our holiday shopping.  One force says “spend money!  Jump-start the economy!  We need you!”  This is what I’ve been hearing from coupon-laden emails in my inbox, unsolicited flyers in my mailbox, and ads every time I walk out the door.  It’s a little overwhelming (the thought of setting foot in a mall this month sends chills down my spine), and the message of spend-for-spending’s-sake seems to take all the nice things about Christmas and toss them in the trash.  That really turns me off.  So the second force, the one that says “save your money, do something creative and homemade and meaningful,” is the one that swayed me this year.  Since my making-things skills tend towards food, Nathan and I made candy for our holiday gifts.

Candy-making sounds hard, but the things we made (with one exception) were surprisingly easy if a little time-intensive, and all of them (with the same one exception) came out just about right.  They were all delicious.  And the recipients’ exclamations of “you made it yourself?  Really???” were rewarding in themselves.

On the list this year were chocolate-covered candied orange peels, three kinds of chocolate truffles (plain coated in cocoa, walnut coated in walnut bits, and orange dipped in chocolate), and salted chocolate caramel.

The caramel was the ambitious one, and the one that turned out less than stellar.  It tastes fine, and we’ve been carrying it around in our travels to share with people, but it hardened so much that we had to break it into bite-sized pieces with a cleaver, and couldn’t wrap it for gifts.  It melts in your mouth, but you have to get it into your mouth first!  The culprit, I think, was cooking it to too high a temperature, but whether the thermometer was wrong, or we weren’t using it correctly, or there was a typo in the recipe, or there was some environmental problem like too little humidity, I’m not sure.  (My recipe was from the Joy of Cooking.)  It’s tasty enough to be worth another attempt someday.

Candied orange peels, dipped in chocolate and set to dry

The candied orange peels are sort of a tradition for me – I used to make them in college when my co-op had a surplus of oranges, and when I made them for Christmas last year, they were met with such enthusiasm that I had to make them again.  (When your partner’s grandfather says you’ve made one of his favorite candies, how can you not make it again?)  Since they’re so easy and delicious, I may have to make another batch when I get home, just for me and Nathan!  Dipping them in chocolate is an optional extra step – I like them just fine on their own, but I also love anything that’s covered in chocolate.  I tend to melt some chocolate, dip the candy until the chocolate’s gone, and leave the rest plain.  One thing about this process is that it leaves you with a lot of orange innards that are hard to juice, what with having no peel, so you’re going to be eating a lot of messy orange sections.  (If you’ve found a creative use for the leftover orange, please share!)

The truffles were something I hadn’t tried before, but I was pleased at how easy they were.  It’s basically a ganache, made from cream and melted chocolate.  Most of the time and effort comes from shaping them.  They’re easy to modify just by stirring in fillings, and coating them with whatever you please.  And they’re utterly delicious.  I mean, really rich and delicious, every bit as good as the chocolate you put into them.  This is chocolate at its best.

Chocolate truffles, with a bit of orange flavor

Speaking of chocolate, make sure you use good quality chocolate for these.  Your candy will taste as good as the chocolate you use.  I’ve read books saying that you need to use the fanciest brands like Merkens or Guittard, but I found that the pound-sized bars of Belgian chocolate from Trader Joe’s worked just fine, and were very affordable.  I also read a lot about proper melting and tempering of chocolate – the idea is that by gently melting and then cooling chocolate before you dip candy in it, it will harden with a nice shine, and possibly keep better.  But, I had trouble getting the method to work.  By the time I cooled the chocolate to the point I’d heard described, it was thick and difficult to work with.  There’s probably a knack to it, but if so, I’m missing it.  My dipped candies tasted just fine without it, though I’m sure they would have looked a bit nicer if I’d gotten the tempering right.

For presentation, I found some boxes about 1.5 inches tall at the Container Store, along with mini muffin wrappers that were just right for the truffles.  I put handfuls of the orange peels in full-sized muffin wrappers.

Did you give (or receive) any homemade gifts this holiday?  Comment and tell us about them!

Candied Orange Peels

• 3-4 oranges (preferably organic, since you’ll be eating the peels)
• 1 cup sugar, plus extra for coating
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 to 1/3 lb good quality chocolate, for dipping

1. Remove the orange peels in large pieces, with the white pith attached.  The easiest way to do this, I’ve found, is to score the skin down to the fruit, in quarters, then peel the skin slowly away form the fruit.  Then slice it into the desired size pieces – I find that slicing them crosswise works well.  Some recipes will tell you to scrape away the pith, because it’s the naturally bitter part of the orange, but I find that a little extra cooking removes the bitterness, and the pith takes on a nice jelly consistency.
2. Stir together equal parts sugar and water, and bring to a simmer in a heavy saucepan.  Add the orange peel pieces – if the sugar syrup doesn’t cover them by about an inch, make more, using roughly equal proportions of sugar and water.
3. Simmer the peel for about an hour, until the pith becomes translucent.  You can tell when it’s done simply by tasting a bit – it should taste sweet and chewy, and not at all bitter.
4. Line a cookie sheet with wax paper.  Scoop the orange peel out of the syrup with a slotted spoon, and spread them out across the wax paper.  Leave them there to dry for 12-24 hours, turning them occassionally so they dry evenly, until they are sticky but no longer wet.  You can save the syrup that remains in the pot – it will have a strong orange flavor, and goes well in hot chocolate or mixed drinks.
5. If desired, put the dried candy in a plastic bag with a few tablespoons of sugar, and toss to coat.  This makes them less sticky to store and eat.
6. If desired, coat the candy pieces in chocolate.  Break chocolate into small pieces and melt them over very low heat in a double boiler.  If you don’t have a double boiler, put about an inch of water in a heavy saucepan.  Find a bowl that sets tightly in the pot, and heat gently without letting the water boil hard; there should be no steam escaping, because the moisture will interfere with the chocolate solidifying again.  Alternately, you can melt the chocolate in a bowl in the oven on the lowest setting – be careful not to over-heat.  Dip the candy pieces one at a time in the chocolate, and set on a fresh piece of wax paper to dry.

Chocolate truffles – adapted from Joy of Cooking

• 1 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 12 oz good chocolate (I prefer dark chocolate)
• Your choice of flavorings and coatings (chocolate, cocoa, coconut, nuts, extracts, liquor, etc)

Note: these truffles are very receptive to fillings and flavorings, and you can coat them in whatever you like.  Add just a small amount (like 1/4 tsp) of flavorings like peppermint extract, or 1/2 cup of solid additions like nuts.  To add liquor, substitute it for 1/4 cup of the cream.  Make any additions before chilling the truffles.

1. Chop the chocolate into very small pieces.  We used the blender, but make sure your blender can handle it, and do just a little bit at a time.
2. Warm the cream over low heat, stirring frequently, until it is just beginning to steam.  Do not boil.
3. Pour the warm cream over the chocolate and stir gently until the chocolate melts and the mixture is well homogenized.  Stir in any additions (like peppermint extract or nuts) now.
4. Refrigerate for about 3 hours until the ganache mixture is solid.  Remove, and use a melon baller or (as I did) spoons and hands to shape it into balls.  Roll the truffles in your choice of coatings (I used cocoa on one kind, and finely-chopped toasted walnuts on another) or dip them in melted chocolate as described above.
5. Store truffles in the refrigerator in an airtight package.

Blueberry soup

I’d seen a few recipes for blueberry soups over the past week, and it seemed like too much of a coincidence not to try it.  It’s incredibly easy: simmer and blend the berries, chill, stir in yogurt.  It made a nice and refreshing dessert, and I can see it as a side dish for a meal, too.  It’s a little sweet, and full of flavor.  This will be a reason to buy even more blueberries than usual, just to make this soup and have it on hand.

It makes me wonder, though: blueberries are a pretty adaptable fruit.  I’ve had good luck cooking savory dishes with apples; why not blueberries?  I’d have to try it out before I recommend it, but I could imagine something with black beans, blueberries, sour cream, and a touch of cilantro, maybe in a strange New England burrito.  Or am I just being weird?

Seitan and chard with lemon dill cream sauce

It is what it sounds like.  And it was tasty.  This was inspired by a craving for something fish-like; I’m not a huge fan of swordfish, but I associate lemon and dill with fish in a pleasant way.  It works equally well with seitan, and the chard turned the sauce an amusing pink color.

The sauce consisted of:

• half a lemon’s juice
• half a tablespoon melted butter
• a generous helping of dill
• several spoonfuls of sour cream
• salt and pepper

Just stir everything up while sauteing the seitan and chard, then pour the sauce over and heat gently until it’s warmed through.

Iced coffee

I’m not a coffee drinker.  I’m a tea person, through and through.  But the thing that turns me off coffee is mostly the bitterness, and I’ve been hearing for a while that cold-brewed coffee is the way to go, if you want to get rid of that bitter taste.

So I tried it, and it’s true!  My cold-brewed iced coffee was smooth and pleasant, with very little bitterness.  I’m not about to be a convert, but I can imagine making it from time to time.  And the process is easy: put your coffee grounds and water (don’t ask me what proportions; I assume it’s similar to normal coffee) in a mason jar; put on the lid and leave it sit overnight; strain the liquid through a sieve and/or coffee filter, catching the liquid in a cup; chill and drink!

I found that it needed sugar, but that’s just the sort of person I am.

Blackberry pudding

Steamed pudding is a bit foreign to me – I’ve always thought of pudding as a creamy thing made from a box mix or (more recently) cornstarch and lots of milk.  But I saw this picture of steamed blueberry pudding and it was so gorgeous, and I was so hungry for berries, that I had to try it.

Rather than translate the recipe out of the metric system and hunt down unfamiliar ingredients, I went searching for something a little simpler.  I ended up with something similar to this, and it was very tasty.  I made two ramekins (little ceramic dishes) worth, which was just right for a half-batch.  Though, the blackberries from the farmer’s market were so huge, I thought there wouldn’t be room for the pudding!

My recipe looked like this:

• 1/2 T butter
• 1 egg
• 1/4 c sugar
• 1/2 c flour
• 2 t baking powder
• 1/2 t vanilla
• 1/4 t salt
• 2 T yogurt
• 1 T water

Stir together the butter, egg, sugar, and vanilla.  Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.  Butter a tall dish and put in a bunch of blackberries.  Sprinkle on a little sugar, then cover with the batter.  Cover them with foil, place in the oven at 350 in a dish full of water.  Mine were done in about 45 minutes; your mileage may vary.

We ate these last night with vanilla ice cream, and it was heavenly.  I had to take them out of the molds to add the ice cream, and they didn’t make it out in one piece, but you can imagine how pretty they were beforehand when I forgot to take pictures.

On top of all that, Nathan is making a sourdough starter!  From scratch!  Right now it’s just a bowl of flour and water, but I’ll give updates as it progresses.  I’m looking forward to loads of fresh bread.

Exhibit 1: Ice cream sandwich with fresh, homemade chocolate chip cookies (from the classic Toll House recipe) and organic vanilla ice cream (unfortunately not homemade)

Exhibit 2: Homemade creme fraiche with local strawberries