I'm willing to take the heat of summer... only because it means that sweet and juicy berries are finally in season!
This time of year I even love grocery shopping a little bit more. The blast of cold air that hits me as I walk through the sliding doors is definitely a welcome relief on a hot day. Still, it doesn't quite compare to being greeted by... a beautiful assortment of colorful berries, particularly strawberries!
Spotting a sale sign right by those berries really makes my day-ay! Lately it seems strawberries are on sale everywhere and I love it! Just call me Strawberry Shortcake. (Who had a Strawberry Shortcake doll that actually smelled like strawberries and isn't afraid to admit it?! Me! I did!)
No, this isn't a post about strawberry shortcakes (but I think I'm craving one, now that I mention it :). This is a post about PIE. This one's a little different from the last pie recipe I posted, though. This gluten-free pie crust is completely nut-free! Though I loooove almond meal, I decided it was time to make a basic go-to pie crust recipe, no nuts allowed! But I've been talking about strawberries in this post. Don't worry, haven't forgotten about them. This is a gluten-free strawberry pie recipe, after all :).
So what are you going to do with all those deliciously plumb red berries you bought this weekend? No, you're not sticking 'em in the freezer! You'll be making this strawberry pie! The crust doesn't even taste gluten-free. I promise! It tastes like a cross between a cookie and... an actual pie crust (because it is! ;). Ok, so I know that isn't a true lattice top on my pie... but it still tastes good and that's what counts the most, right ;)?!
They're ripe and sweet, so good on their own and even better in a gluten-free blueberry peach pie... especially if they're Texas peaches paired with Texas blueberries! The slight tartness of the peaches cooked in orange juice is a tasty match for the intense flavor of the blueberries that we picked a few weekends ago.
The "secret" to making a tasty peach blueberry pie? Cook the peaches for just a little bit but leave the blueberries alone; they will cook up nicely while the pie bakes and they'll still be juicy and plump afterward. No mushy blueberries here :)!
As far as the pie crust goes, it tastes like a cookie. I'm a sucker for sweet stuff, so I like making my crusts sweeter than traditional pie crusts. I also added one of my favorite baking ingredients... buttamilk! Love that stuff.
These pies may be mini, but they're flavor is big liiiike Teeexxxaaaas. :D
Nope, haven't lost my mind, if that's what you're thinking after reading the title. But if you lived with me, you might think otherwise :).
Take a look at the baked hand pies, notice the small nibble in one of them? I have a habit of biting sweets and putting them back in the dessert container/cookie jar/bag. There's a bag of chocolates in our fridge right now and I bit into half of them (I'm soooo bad!). I don't just leave them that way, most of the time, I finish them later. I simply like to take small nibbles throughout the day (unless another little mouse finishes the dessert before I do :). Don't worry, I only do this at home! I think I'm going to have to break that habit soon...especially before I have kids haha.
So veggie desserts? Where are the veggies? Those hand pies pictured were filled with an apple cinnamon concoction (crust adapted from Carol Fenster's pie crust recipe), but the unphotographed ones were stuffed with a spiced sweet potato mixture. Good way to sneak in the veggies...or roots...or starches. Whatever they are, they're healthy...very much so. Tons of nutrients.
Even though he's the little mouse who sometimes finishes off whatever I leave half nibbled in the kitchen, my husband prefers lighter desserts. So I made him a Baked Butternut Squash Fruit Salad that reminds me of a warm summer day; it consists of the star ingredient, baked butternut along with pineapple juice, pineapples, coconut flakes, roughly chopped pecans, honey, and cinnamon. I like to serve it with a dollop of homemade vanilla-cinnamon whipped cream. Not too complicated to make, so I didn't write down the instructions or exact measurements. Add as much or as little as you like of each ingredient, then throw it all in the oven for 15 minutes at 350.
With these desserts, you don't have to feel bad about digging into the sweets before meal time; that last treat could even be a very light meal or snack in itself!
Last weekend we went apple picking. It was SO MUCH FUN! The weather was perfect; the sun was shining, the air was crisp and sooo clean. The apple farm was packed with families and kiddos, but we still managed to collect enough plump and juicy apples to last us about two weeks. Did I mention how gorgeous it was? I felt like I was walking through a life-sized postcard all day!
Now how about that pie. I recently met a gluten-free blogger who asked me if I'd ever made a gluten-free pie. Though I have made a gluten-free pie, I hadn't made one completely from scratch (as far as the crust goes), so I promised to post a 100% from-scratch pie recipe. I have to say, this pie was delicious; I have a feeling it has to do with using freshly picked Mass. apples (last time I made a blueberry pie with the berries we picked, it made a huge difference in the pie's taste). They are delicious and crunchy; there's nothing worse than a mushy apple. I used Macintosh apples and sprinkled them with the juice of half a lemon to add a bit more tartness, it counteracted the sweetness of the pie quite nicely. I think this recipe's a keeper, tell me what you think!
All this talk about the Fall is making me crave Thanksgiving food! I mentioned before that I wanted to make a stuffing, so this weekend I made a gluten-free apple stuffing (using the apples we picked, of course, we have so many!). It was tasty but for some reason it came out tasting like...tamales! Tamales? Yep. I think it's the funky cornmeal I used... Anyhow, next time I plan on using better cornmeal and I also plan on only roughly chopping the veggies. It's hard to tell (because my food processor works so well and I'm still trying to figure out how to use it) but there are quite a bit of veggies in the stuffing.
I'll leave (no pun intended :P) you all with these photos of the verrrrry Falllish Massachusetts countryside. I almost forgot to mention, some of the photos are from Walden Pond (think Thoreau, if that doesn't ring a bell). GORGEOUS! Can I build a cabin here, too? I won't write about ant piles, I promise. Oh wait, it isn't winter yet...I'll probably change my mind when it's 7 degrees outside ;)...or maybe not! Have any of you ever danced in the snow before? I'm a weirdo from California who was fried by the sweltering Texas sun, so that's what I'll be doing during the first snowfall ;).
Happy 4th of July! Hope you are enjoying the day off with friends and/or family. So far, I've spent the day baking/cooking/grocery shopping...and celebrating the fact that Jose sold our car! Woohoo! This evening we'll hopefully be attending a free orchestra concert with fireworks in the park :D, read about it here. That doesn't start until a few hours from now. In the meantime, I think I'll just relax at home with the hubby, enjoy the day off, and watch the cool/nerdy 4th of July specials on the History Channel. But before I do that, I'll leave you with a few yummy recipes.
The mini strawberry pie is a fun dessert for two, we plan on taking it to tonight's fireworks show :)! As for the turnover -- well, I had a bit of pie dough left over that I didn't want to waste, and I also bought some cherries yesterday. So I made a dark chocolate cherry turnover for Jose.
(I was originally hoping to make a cherry cake, using fresh homemade cherry jam and other good stuff...but then the dough turned into cement-colored gooeyness and, in the end, the 'cake' couldn't be rescued. I tried, really, I even went so far as the bake it, but the outside burned and the inside didn't cook. Such is the life of a Sophie-baked Frankenstein cake.) Thankfully, the dough for the pie/turnover came out really yummy...not healthy, though. I still haven't figured out how to make butter-less pastry dough -- any ideas?
Hope the rest of your day is delicious and fun...and free of kitchen adventures gone wrong ;).
Congratulations! You've made it through the middle of the week! Celebrate! Bake yourself a chocolatey treat, you deserve it!
Funny, but Wednesday is my favorite day of the week. Why? Because I can look back at Monday and Tuesday and say to myself, "Hey, I've made it this far. I can do two more days. No problem! Just hand over the goods, the sweet treats, and I'm ready to go!". I'm not as grateful for Thursday, though; it doesn't give me the same sense of accomplishment. It's right smack dab in the middle of Wednesday and Friday.
Thursday is like the day before Thanksgiving, the kitchen smells like heaven but I'm stuck in foodie purgatory - where tasting is done with the nose and eyes, but never with the mouth. Know what I mean?! TORTURE!
So let's celebrate Wednesday with these chocolatey desserts! Guess what? I've even included a 'light' recipe in this tiny collection of rich desserts! The Mondo Chocolate Muffins are quite huge; they're packed with chocolatey goodness...and applesauce, not butter! But, if you're having one of those days where Wednesday feels more like Thursday, then you'll definitely need some powerful ammo to get you through the rest of the week. The Chocolate Fudge or a French Silk Pie should do the trick!
(Ok...so the French Silk Pie isn't that traditional; I converted the chocolate filling into a curd-like substance because I wanted to expose the eggs to some heat. I feel so uncomfortable serving folks raw eggs! EEK. I used the fudge recipe for a work-project; I basically followed it to the T - just divided it in half and threw in a few extra spices. As for the muffins, they're a Flour Arrangements original recipe.)
I promised that I'd post recipes for a yummy cake and pie...so here they are :). The first recipe is for a Lowfat Warm Summer Cake. I was in the mood for a fresh and summery cake last weekend, so I opened up the refrigerator to see if anything in there would cry out to me, in fear of going to waste and getting thrown in the trash. I noticed that we still had quite a bit of orange juice left over, and it was already a week old, so I thought I should definitely include it in the cake. I've learned that a great way to make a cake moist and rich without using butter is by adding some kind of flavorful juice. We also had a huge lemon that was lonely sitting next to a bunch of bananas and a handful of kiwis, so I had to add him to the recipe as well. The only fatty ingredient in this light cake is the one egg I used. There isn't even a teaspoon of oil in this cake! Now, if only I could have that kind of success with every baked good! It seems it's easier to make some desserts healthier than others. (You'll notice, after eating one piece of the cake, my husband and I decided it wasn't enough, so we just picked up a fork and helped ourselves to a little more :)
I'd like to note that the pecans on the cake are Texan grown, we picked them ourselves!
The pie recipe I've posted is also packed with fruit, it contains blackberries and peaches. This is a recipe I found on Key Ingredient. The recipe calls for fresh ginger, but I didn't have any, so I added ginger powder instead :). Thankfully, it still tasted yummy, but I think the juicy peaches and ripe blackberries had something to do with that :). I was really pleased with this pie recipe. This is another dessert that's perfect for summer; the ginger really adds flavor, making this a pie that's far from plain. Plus, peaches are on sale right now! It's hard to say no to a dessert that's tasty, affordable to bake, and easy to make. (Just throw the peaches in there with the blackberries. They're such pretty fruits, they don't need to be organized in a fancy way!)
TGIF! Now that I've posted this recipe, it's time to relax, at least for the night. Since we only have a few more months left here in Austin, Jose and I plan on visiting a few cool foodie spots around town before we leave. Of course I'll take pictures and feature them on the blog :). This weekend we're going to a very Austiny spot that resembles an old candy store/soda shop, I can't wait! Hopefully the next time I post, I won't come back with cavity #2; I can barely handle the one sweet tooth I already have :)!
P.S. I'd like to say thanks to all of your for leaving so many kind comments on my first Daring Bakers cake :). There were tons of beautiful entries this month! Can't wait to see what they have in store for us next!
If you're looking for a gluten-free pie crust recipe, click here :).
Now, I know in the last entry I mentioned that my next post would include a lentil soup recipe...and last time you checked, blueberries don't go in lentil soup ;), but I also promised my friend JJ that I'd bake her a gluten-free pie! It just so happens that I was able to gather all the ingredients yesterday, so I was finally able to bake that pie earlier this evening. I was a little worried that I'd end up with a disaster instead of a pie because, not only have I never used gluten-free flour before, but I've also only baked one other pie, period...yep, just one. Well, thanks to the Gluten-Free Pantry's Perfect Pie Crust Mix, this second pie was a success!
It might seem a little strange that I used a mix, instead of preparing my own gluten-free flour blend, but it wasn't because I didn't want to...believe me, I did my homework, even the research, and compared a few gluten-free pie crust recipes with a smile on my face; it was nice to actually come across a somewhat decent selection after scouring the web top to bottom for them. Here's the catch, the recipes called for things like sorghum flour, AND potato starch, AND tapioca flour, among other really neat sounding ingredients that I've never seen on the shelves in the baking aisle of my puny, everyday grocery store. So I went to Whole Foods, and even Central Market (a really cool gourmet-type market you should check out if you're ever in TX) and was happy to discover that they carried these fun ingredients...but if I wanted to make a yummy tasting gluten-free flour blend, I'd need to purchase a wide variety of flours and interesting thickening agents. So to save some money, and we all need to do that these days, I opted for the Gluten-Free Pantry's mix! I liked that it didn't have any nasty fillers or gross, fake ingredients!
All in all, I was happy with the results. I was a bit weirded out by the fact that Ms. Hillson (the professional chef who came up with this mix) expected this pie mix to make 2 double-crust 8" pies, considering how difficult it was to get the dough to roll out in one piece. This might seem a bit strange, and keep in mind I've never used gluten free flour, but I chose to use the whole mix for my 1 double-crust blueberry pie. I did use a 9" pie pan, and I later realized that I probably could've gotten away with using less dough for the top layer, since it was a bit thick. The pie was mighty delicious, I really didn't miss the all-purpose flour I normally use, at least when I took the first bite. But I did have some minor issues when I was trying to cut the perfect slice of pie for my picture...my poor little pie now looks like it's been attacked by some very hungry mice; I had to cut 4 slices before I could get one that actually kept its shape. But part of what makes this gluten-free flour so different is that it doesn't have the very ingredient that makes dough elastic. Gluten provides elasticity and "togetherness" in dough, so that's why this dough is crumblier/more powdery in texture than you might expect if you're new to gluten-free baking. Crumbliness aside, this pie mix worked great, and it yields a very flavorful pie that anyone could love!
Here's what I used to flavor the blueberries: 1 16 oz bag of frozen blueberries 1/2 TBSP cinnamon 1/2 cup white sugar 4 TBSP butter 3 TBSP rice flour
I defrosted the blueberries by soaking them in some warm water, I did end up having a bit of water leftover in the bowl after straining them (about 1/4 cup) but I just used that to make a kind of sauce for the blueberries - adding the cinnamon, sugar, and rice flour for flavor and texture. My husband said the pie wasn't too sweet, it didn't have an artificial blueberry taste. If you have a pretty big sweet tooth, I suggest adding 1 cup of sugar instead of 1/2. (Oh and here's another tip: instead of using flour to roll-out the dough, just use plastic wrap. In this case, it actually worked better because it helped the crumbly dough stay together when I placed it in the pie pan. I picked this tip up from the show I mention below - Throwdown :)
Also, as far as the mix goes, I didn't add the 10 oz of butter and shortening. Instead, I added 8 oz of butter, 8 oz of vegan shortening (it's not hydrogenated, so, in my opinion, it's easier on the gut for those who have issues with hydrogenated oils, like me!) and 1 TBSP canola oil (Jose asked me to try to give the recipe a minor healthy make-over). I even added a bit more sugar and a few sprinkles of cinnamon in the dough for flavor, I think next time I might add some grated lemon peel...this mix is nice because you can be creative with it!
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! I'll post again before it's over. I'm going to a really cool edible book festival tomorrow - it should be fun! Jose and I will also be taking our first trip to Flip Happy Crepes, where we'll get to try the delicious crepes that went up against and defeated Bobby Flay's at his Throwdown not too long ago!
